226 LIFE IN IRELAND 



He preaches frequently, and is a very excellent man ; 

 when I tell you that he is the author of Irish ' An- 

 tiquities Explored,' and the History of the Irish 

 Churches, you will do him the justice to say, that he 

 merits the applause of every Irishman who is an ad- 

 mirer of his country's literary glory. 



That Dandified Puppy, in a morning-gown and red 

 morocco slippers, with hickery face — 



With thumbs in smallclothes, where thumbs should not be, 

 With ambling gait, and with knee smiting knee, 



was once a Clerk in the Bank of Ireland : his case is 

 fresh in the recollection of thousands, he made sundry 

 extracts of Bank paper from the books, to the enormous 

 sum of twenty thousand pounds, before he was found 

 out. His trial was one that engrossed much of public 

 attention ; the high respectability of his family and 

 connections was one cause that set anxiety on the 

 tiptoe to avert his fate. After a laborious investigation, 

 which kept the bench and the bar employed busily for 

 three days, he was acquitted of the felony, and arrested 

 for one hundred thousand pounds, to which amount he 

 defrauded the Bank. He is pestering the law courts 

 every term with his case, but he will never be released 

 from where he is now : what he saved out of his 

 plunder is only guessed at ; he lives extravagantly, and 

 that little red-haired girl you see at the window is in 

 his keeping. — To give you some idea of his extrava- 

 gance ; when his house was searched on his arrest, in 

 his wardrobe were found thirty coats, forty-eight pair of 

 smallclothes and pantaloons, sixty skirts, niftety waist- 

 coats, and twelve dozen shirts, with everything besides 



