LIFE IN IRELAND 219 



their wigs together, and managed to deprive two young 

 ladies, to whom the latter was guardian, of twenty 

 thou satid pounds. The scheme of abominable villainy 

 was detected, but too late for the sufferers to benefit 

 by the discovery. Sir John made off to a foreign land 

 with half the spoil; his co-partner was not so fortunate, 

 he was arrested for ten thousand pounds, and thrown 

 into this place, where he has remained seven years, and 

 is fixed in a determination to end his days here : he 

 has ample means of paying the money, but he is a 

 lawyer, and his conscience won't allow him to be 

 honest : once in his life he said a good thing — He was 

 seated in the pit viewing Young's Macbeth^ and when 

 the witches are addressed with 



' How now, ye secret, black, and midnight hags, 

 What is't ye do ? ' 

 Witches. — ' A deed without a name.' 



''Not worth a farthi)ig in laiv,'' said the barrister. 

 For this stroke only has he been recorded as a wit : he 

 lives in a room such as ours, drinks his three bottles of 

 port and three quarts of punch daily to his own cheek ; 

 he wouldn't say, Paddy will you taste, to his own 

 brother : and, in fact, he talks to any one, when he him- 

 self is eating or drinking, as if he thought they hadn't 

 got a mouth. 



That little man you see is a German tailor ; he has 

 made a fortune by teaching foreigners the Irish language, 

 of which he does not know one syllable : one of his 

 pupils, an Englishman, after being taught by him for 

 twelve months in Dublin^ was announced to be a com- 

 plete master of the real Gaelic tongue. The Gaelic is 



