M ISC ELLA N I E S. 



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hare, by the aid of sucli a law, 

 fouiui means to recommend a trip 

 across the Athiiitic, to the persons 

 thus unreasonably attached to life ; 

 and thus achieved the downfall of 

 a beneficial lease, and a comfort- 

 able rise of their income in conse- 

 quence. Such things have occur- 

 red : I have known the fact. 



Gentlemen, I may be told, that 

 the state of the country requires its 

 re-enactment. It may be so : I 

 am not in possession of the secrets 

 of the Castle. A desperate state of 

 things calls for desperate remedies. 



Gentlemen, the other Act of Par- 

 liament is the Peace Preservation 

 Bill. It is a wholesome mode of 

 administering the old powers, al- 

 ready vested by law in the magis- 

 trates. Any seven magistrates 

 may recommend the application of 

 this remedy ; and either for the 

 county at large, or any particular 

 barony or district in the county.— 

 If their recommendation should be 

 acceded to by the Lord Lieutenant, 

 this Bill comes into immediate ope- 

 ration. Now, you are to meet — 

 a head magistrate is to be appoint- 

 ed, at a salary of 7001. a year ; he 

 is also to have a house and offices 

 — his clerk is to get a salary of 

 1501. a year — the constables are to 

 get 1001. a vear each ; any seven of 

 your magistrates may get all this 

 done. But listen to one thing 

 more — the disturbed district is to 

 pay the expense of the whole. 



Gentlemen, I have trespassed 

 long upon your attention ; but I 

 hope, from the tranquil state of 

 your county, that I have not un- 

 aptly chosen the present season for 

 making these observations. See 

 the necessity of some public dis- 

 cussion of those subjects, in order 

 to extinguish all sxaggfration and 



misrepresentation. I need not 

 travel far back for a curious in- 

 stance. I have seen to iny surprise, 

 in The Courier newspaper, a story 

 of myself, which has been copied 

 into The Pilot. It is so very short 

 that I shall read it : — " Such is the 

 disturbed state of Ireland, that one 

 of the Judges of Assize, upon 

 the Leinster circuit, Mr. Justice 

 Fletcher, in coming from Kilkenny 

 to Clonmel, was pelted by stones 

 in the town of Callan, and owed 

 his safety to the dragoons that es- 

 corted him." 



When I reached Waterford, I 

 was still more surprised to see one 

 newspaper lamenting that I had 

 been " shot at," but another pro- 

 tested that it was all a gross false- 

 hood. Now, what was the truth .' 

 As I passed through Callan, an es- 

 cort of a few dragoons attended 

 me. This escort, by-the-by, is one 

 of the mischiefs of those alarms, a 

 mischief which never occurs in 

 England. T^ere, the Gentlemen of 

 consideration in the county come 

 out to ineet the Judge, with led 

 horses and equipages, and with 

 every suitable mark of respect and 

 attention : not, indeed, paid to the 

 Judge individually, nor desired by 

 him, but an attention and respect 

 due to the law, which the Judge 

 comes to administer. But what 

 was the case in Kilkenny? The 

 High Sheriff not appearing at all, 

 perhaps as a duty beneath him, or 

 for some other reason; the Sub- 

 Sheriff unwilling enough to be 

 burdened with the trouble, and 

 anxious to get rid of us ; two or 

 three miserable Bailiffs, mounted 

 upon wretched little horses, bran- 

 dishing an enormous length of 

 halbert, resembling so many Cos- 

 sacks in every thing but utility, 



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