LIFE IN IRELAND 15 



has often assisted by his presence to fill the play-house, 

 whilst the grabs were emptying his own. 



He had a large family, and his lady, to do her justice, 

 was an excellent wife and a mother, but she had no 

 controul over her burly-brained husband ; he ran the 

 rig in Ireland in his old way. If he had a grain of 

 sense in his pericranium it were easier to bring murphys 

 from KNOCK-lofty with a blind garran, than to bring it 

 down to his tongue's end ; he was often on the verge 

 of bankruptcy, but, to give the Devil his due, he was 

 saved much oftener than he deserved. 



At the period when our hero was introduced to him, 

 he was, in doating old age, sueing for a divorce from 

 his wife, on the plea of having married under age. 'By 

 Jasus ! ' said Brian, after having heard the tale, ' if he 

 lives to be divorced, he'll be a dead man at the time, 

 for he don't look now to have wind sufficient to keep 

 his mill going till the arrival of the next packet.' 



Sickened and disgusted with this specimen oi High 

 Life going doivn stairs^ Brian one evening bade adieu 

 to his Lordship, determined to take the Dublin road 

 next morning. The High Street in Belfast is as very 

 a low-looking one as any gentleman would wish to see. 

 Here Brian had an opportunity of witnessing a scratch, 

 or rather a downright ' fling down,' betwixt two mobs 

 of nearly a hundred people. There was 



Up with the Orange and down with the Green, 

 Lather the dirty boys decent and clean. 



The battle lasted with great energy upwards of an hour, 

 and the officers of justice did all that they could to make 

 them continue the fun, but in vain ; the combatants 



