160 A YEAR OF liberty; OR, 



comfort, interest, or honour it is his wish to promote, and determi- 

 nation to defend ; but he seldom presumes ; your kindness he fully 

 appreciates, but never repays with impertinent familiarity. Call on 

 him night or day, he is ready. There is no moodiness, no cold 

 civility in his duty, but a kindly, cheerful spirit, ready to obey and 

 still more prompt to anticipate your requirements. 



The door opened and the original of the sketch entered. 



" Well, so you are come back from the fishery? " 



" Yes, your honour ; I gave your card and note to Mr. Little, and 

 here's his answer." Opening the envelope I found a printed form, 

 with blanks for name and date, granting peimission for the entire 

 season, and authorising the angler to retain a fish per day. Gene- 

 rosity like this should be displayed at full length. 



" Fishery Office, , Ballina, July 1, 1865. Leave is hereby 



granted by the trustees to W. P., Esq., to angle in the rivers Moy 

 and Bunree, for salmon and trout, from the present date to the end 

 of the season, it being expressly understood that all fry caught will 

 be carefully returned to the river, and that all salmon taken, with 

 the exception of one each day, will be sent to the fishery as soon 

 after being caught as possible. On behalf of the trustees, to the 

 water-keepers and others who protect the above." 



Comparisons will occasionally force themselves into notice ; and it 

 was absolutely impossible not to contrast the liberal policy, which 

 placed the most prolific river in Ireland at the disposal of every 

 sportsman, with the niggard spirit prevalent in our own dear 

 churlish island, where, after strong interest made with some game- 

 preserving squire, a sulky permission is at length obtained for a 

 single day's fishing in his despicable trout stream or weedy pond, 

 where the unhappy suppliant is tolerably certain to catch the 

 rheumatism, though by no means sure of a fin. " Interdictis 

 imminet ager aquis," says some author whose name I have forgotten ; 

 but, pleasant remembrances of the free waters of this hospitable 

 land, preserve me ever from the mental malady of longing after such 

 forbidden streams ! 



The Moy is, in my opinion, the best open water in the three 



