whole canine suite: the friend lived at a distance of thirty miles. 

 On arriving, he found the family in the utmost confusion, the 

 house and most of the offices having been burned to the ground the 

 day before. Necessity compelled him to deposit himself and suite 

 in a small room, with an earthen floor well covered with straw, and 

 a door opening into the court-yard. The door having neither lock 

 nor latch, he secured it by placing against it a table and chair. 

 Mr. Kirwan and the six dogs were soon asleep ; but during the 

 night he was awoken by a violent pushing against the door, and 

 the downfal of the whole barricade. An uproar immediately en- 

 sued ; a dreadful conflict was commenced ; howls, growls, barking, 

 and grunting made a horrible commixture of discordant sounds, 

 which gradually died away, and all was tranquillity. In the 

 morning a curious scene presented itself: his bed was soaked with 

 blood ; his face was stiff' with dried gore ; and on the floor lay 

 dead — six large hogs. The solution of the mystery was this. Mr. 

 Kirvvan's dormitory was also that of the hogs, who had been un- 

 justly deprived of it; they, determined to recover their rights, burst 

 in the door ; the dogs defended their master, killed the hogs, and, 

 exulting in their victory, saluted him with caresses, which smeared 

 him with the blood of the vanquished foe, and left him to appear 

 before the family in a singular plight. 



The foregoing anecdote has been narrated by Lady Morgan in 

 her " Book of the Boudoir," but diflerently. I have reason to be- 

 lieve that my version is correct. 



The humane feelings and exceeding sensibility of Mr. Kirwan's 

 mind would have suffered severely on account of the cruelty so 

 often inflicted by mankind on the lower animals, but for a pecu- 

 liar opinion in which he indulged, and which occasionally afforded 

 him great comfort, or at least saved him from much pain. This 

 opinion was elicited from him in a conversation with Lady Morgan 

 on the occasion of the death of a horse turned out to die on a piece 

 of waste ground, under atrocious circumstances. He said, " * That 

 the idea of sufferings imposed without a cause on the part of the 

 sufferer, and which were to have no retribution, no recompense, 

 was too painful an idea to indulge in, and too derogatory to the 

 wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Being to be credible ; that 



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