44 REVENUE FORAY. 



While the country is peculiarly adapted for field-sports, 

 the extensive lakes and numerous rivers offer every induce- 

 ment to the angler : the streams are plentifully stocked with 

 trout, and the rivers which communicate with the sea have a 

 good supply of salmon. Curious varieties* of the finny tribe 

 are to be found in the mountain loughs ; and in those noble 

 and expansive sheets of water, Lough Con, Lough Mask, and 

 Lough Corrib, the largest and finest specimens of fish are 

 easily obtained. 



We have just had a domiciliary visit from the revenue 

 police. Under cover of the night, they made a descent 

 upon our valleys from their station, some fifteen miles off. 

 Excepting causing dire alarm a general abduction of stills, 

 worms, and all the apparatus of the craft, and the conceal- 

 ment of malt, and the burying of kegs the consequences 

 of the foray have not been important. One fatal casualty 

 occurred : a distillery had finished its brewing, (i.e. distilled 

 the quantity brewed,) and principals and accessories were 

 indulging a little after their exertions. Unluckily, the 

 revenue stumbled upon the convivial meeting ; and although 

 the stuff was gone, the still, apparatus, and unextinguished 

 fire, were proofs positive that the king God bless him ! 

 had been wofully defrauded. Such of the party as could 

 strike a walk escaped without difficulty ; but two unhappy 

 gentlemen who were blind drunk, and fast asleep in all 

 security before the smouldering embers of the still-fire, were 

 captured and conveyed to my loving cousin, to undergo 

 the pains and penalties of their crime. He, as a matter of 

 course, committed them to gaol ; and the next going judge, 

 as another matter of course, will discharge them. Mean- 

 while they are taken from their families, and supported at 

 the expense of the county ; their utility is lost when it is 

 most requisite, and they are, during the term of incarcera- 

 tion, a useless burden upon the community. I cannot see 

 the moral and legal expediency of all this ; but the men who 

 framed the revenue laws were probably more clear-sighted 

 than I am. 



When I first observed a score of banditti in blue jackets 



* For example, the Gillaroo and Par. 



