PAST AND PRESENT. 307 



Bowes Daly, and many a far-famed name of minor note, 

 were then in all their glory, and they lived, it must be 

 acknowledged in very curious times. In those days, the 

 qualifications of a representative were determined by wager 

 of battle, and a rival for senatorial fame was probably 

 requested by the old member to provide his coffin, before 

 he addressed the county. Doctors rode on horseback over 

 the country in cauliflower wigs and cocked hats ; and if 

 they differed about a dose or decoction, referred the dispute 

 to mortal arbitrement. In these happy times, a client 

 would shoot his counsellor if he lost a cause the suitor 

 sought his mistress at pistol-point and there was but one 

 universal panacea for every known evil, one grand remedy 

 for all injuries and insults. 



It was then, indeed, a bustling world. Men fought often, 

 drank deep, and played high ; ran in debt, as a matter of 

 course ; scattered fairs and markets at their good pleasure ; 

 put tenants in the stocks ad libitum ; and cared no more for 

 the liberty of the subject than they did for the king's writ. 

 Yet where they merry times. Under all these desperate 

 oppressions, the tenants throve and the peasantry were 

 comfortable. Every village could point out its rich man 

 every cabin had food sufficient for its occupants. When 

 the rent was required it was ready ; and though a man was 

 sometimes in the guard-house, his cow was rarely in the 

 pound. Tempera mutantur ! Who dare now infringe upon 

 the liberty of the subject ? " Who put my man i' the 

 stocks ?" would be hallooed from Dingle to Cape Clear. 

 Doubtless, civil rights are now most scrupulously pro- 

 tected ; but I suspect that food is abridged in about the 

 same proportion that freedom is extended. 



There was one class of persons who, in these old-world 

 times, were conspicuously troublesome, who have since then 

 fortunately disappeared. These were a nominal description 

 of gentry, the proprietors of little properties called fodeeins, 

 who continued the names and barbarisms of their progeni- 

 tors. Without industry, without education, they arrogated 

 a certain place in society, and idly imitated the wealthier in 

 their vices. Poverty and distress were natural results, and 

 desperate means were used to keep up appearances. The 

 wretched serfs, whom they called their tenants, were ground 



