196 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK II. 



nesses, who thought they had been " trapped/' as they 

 said, into an admission of the amount of their charities, in 

 order to serve as a guide for taxing them with the poor- 

 law ; and in consequence the next day scarcely any of the 

 farmers attended at the Inquiry. 



The facts collected from the rest of the Inquiry are of 

 the same nature as the above. The poor and the beggars 

 have a kindly feeling to one another, and, in the present 

 state of society in Ireland, begging is the easiest mode of 

 living, and often the only one possible. 



REMARKS. 



That life of and unsettled objectless adventure 

 which our laws term vagrancy, has only been known 

 in warm climates. We read, in the romances of the 

 Arabs and Spaniards, descriptions of the inexpress- 

 ible deligbt which men find in penetrating into 

 deserts, to enjoy a state of solitude and subsist at 

 hazard upon what they meet with. But countries 

 under a temperate and moist climate had hitherto 

 secured their inhabitants from such a wandering 

 life, and we see that there is no exaggeration in 

 the pictures of romance ; since, in spite of the se- 

 verity of the climate of Ireland, those who have 

 been driven solely by despair to adopt this noma- 

 dic life, have found in it so great a charm that 

 they can not abandon it. 



