524 ANNUAL REGISTER, isu. 



cum tenens" upon the GrandJury. 

 They should reside upon their 

 estates, arid come forward with 

 every possible improvement for the 

 country. 



I do not propose that you should 

 expect any immediate amendment 

 or public benefit from the plans 

 suggested for the edncation of the 

 poor. It is in vain to flatter your- 

 selves that you can improve their 

 minds if you neglect their bodies. 

 Where have you ever heard of a 

 people desirous of education, who 

 had not clothes to cover them, or 

 bread to eat ? I have never known 

 that any people, under such cir- 

 cumstances, had any appetite for 

 moral instruction. 



So much, Gentlemen, for land- 

 lords, permanent and occasional 

 absentees. You should begin the 

 necessary reformation. You now 

 enjoy comforts and tranquillity 

 after seasons of storms, and fever, 

 and disturbance. The compara- 

 tive blessings of this contrast 

 should make you anxious to keep 

 your county tranquil. If your 

 farms fall out of lease, set them 

 not up to be let by public auction ; 

 encourage your tenantry to build 

 comfortable dwellings for them- 

 selves, give them a property in 

 their farms, and an interest in the 

 peace of the county. These are 

 the remedies for the discontents 

 of the people, they will be found 

 much better than the cord and the 

 gibbet. 



There may be other causes of 

 discontent in other counties. 

 Those I have mentioned may not 

 apply to your county. If they did 

 apply, I would not shrink from 

 exposing them ; I would not now, 

 when advanced in life, and unin- 

 fluenced by any hopes or fears, 



for, whilst I was young, I was 

 equally careless of the smiles and 

 frowns of men in power. 



Gentlemen, I had an opportu- 

 nity of urging some of these 

 topics upon the attention of a dis- 

 tinguished personage, I mean 

 Lord Redesdale, who filled the 

 high office of Lord Chancellor 

 here some years ago. I was then 

 at the Bar. His Lordship did me 

 the honour of a visit, after I had 

 returned from circuit, at a time 

 when many alarms, of one kind 

 or another, floated in this country. 

 He was pleased to require my 

 opinion of the state of the coun- 

 try ; I averred, that I thought 

 it was as tranquil as ever it had 

 been ; but I did ask his permission 

 to suggest certain measures, which, 

 in my opinion, worrld go very far 

 towards allaying the discontents of 

 the people. One of those mea- 

 sures was, a reform of the Ma- 

 gistracy in Ireiarrd ; another was, a 

 commutation of tithes, if it could 

 be satisfactoi-ily effected ; a third 

 was, the suppression of the home 

 consumption of whisky, and the 

 institution of a wholesome malt 

 liquor in its stead. I requested 

 his Lordship to recollect, that 

 Hogarth's print of" Gin Alley" is 

 an unerring witness to testify what 

 the English people would now be, 

 if they had nothing but a perni- 

 cious spirituous liquor to drink. A 

 man who drinks to excess of a 

 maltliquor, becomesonlystupified, 

 and he sleeps it off"; but he whose 

 intoxication arises from those spiri- 

 tuousliquours (which,we know, are 

 too often adulterated by the most 

 poisonous ingredients), adds only 

 fever to his strength. Thus the un- 

 fortunate peasant in Ireland ismad- 

 dened, instead of being invigo- 



