"WILBERFOKCE AND 3JOIIGAN O'SULLIVAST. 



201 



" Och, it's myself, sure, that's I 

 ready ;it any time to write what 

 any mimber says about our praties. 

 Are you ready to begin?' 



" Quite ready," answered Mor- 

 gan. 



" Now, then," said Jack, with an 

 energy which strangely contrasted 

 with the previous languor of his 

 manner, " now, then, Morgan, my 

 boy." 



Morgan, affecting to read from 

 his note -book, commenced thus: 

 " The honourable mimber said, that 

 if" 



" Och, be aisy a little bit," inter- 

 rupted Jack ; " who was the hon- 

 ourable mimber T 



Morgan, hesitating for a moment 

 " Was it his name you asked 1 

 Sure it was Mr. Wilbcrforce." 



" Mr. Wilberfovce ! Och, very 

 well then." 



Morgan resumed. " Mr. Wilber- 

 force said, that it always appeared 

 to him beyond all question that the 

 great cause why the Irish labourers 

 were, as a body, so much stronger, 

 and capable of enduring so much 

 greater fatigue than the English, 

 was the surpassing virtues of their 

 potato. And he " 



"Morgan, my dear fellow," 

 shouted Jack, at the mention of 

 the Irish potato, his countenance 

 lighting up with ecstasy as he 

 spoke, " Morgan, my dear fellow, 

 this is so important that we must 

 give it in the first person." 



" Do you think so ?" said Mor- 

 gan. 



"Throth, and I do," answered 

 Jack. 



" Very well," said the other. 



Morgan then resumed : " And I 

 have no doubt, continued Mr. Wil- 

 berforce, that had it been my lot 

 to be born and reared in ' 



"Did the mimber say reared?" 

 interrupted Jack exultingly, evi- 

 dently associating the word with 

 the growth of potatoes in his "own 

 blessed country." 



" He said 'reared,' " observed the 

 other, who then resumed : " Had it , 

 been my lot to be born and reared 

 in Ireland, where my food would 

 have principally consisted of the 

 potato that most nutritious and 

 salubrious root, instead of being 

 the poor, infirm, shrivelled, and 

 stunted creature you, sir, and hon- 

 ourable gentlemen, now behold me, 

 I would have been a tall, stout r 

 athletic man, and able to carry an. 

 enormous weight." 



Here Jack Finnarty observed, 

 looking his friend eagerly in the 

 face, " Faith, Morgan, and that's 

 what I call thrue eloquence ! Go 

 on." 



" I hold that root to be invalu- 

 able ; and the man who first culti- 

 vated it in Ireland I regard as a 

 benefactor of the first magnitude 

 to his species. And my decided 

 opinion is, that never, till we grow 

 potatoes in England, in sufficient 

 quantities to feed all our labourers, 

 will those labourers be so able- 

 bodied a class as the Irish. (Hear, 

 hear ! from both sides of the 

 house.") 



" Well, by St. Patrick, but that 

 bates everything," observed Jack, 

 on finishing his notes. "That's 

 rare philosophy. And the other 

 mimbers cried 'Hear, hear,' did 

 they T 



" The other members cried 'Hear,, 

 hear,' " answered Morgan. 



In a quarter of an hour after- 

 wards the house rose. Morgan 

 went away direct to the office of 

 the paper for which he was em- 

 ployed ; while Jack, in perfect 

 ecstasies at the eulogium which 

 had been pronounced on the virtue 

 of the potatoes of "ould Ireland," 

 ran in breathless haste to a public- 

 house, where the reporters who- 

 should have been on duty for the- 

 other morning papers were as- 

 sembled. He real over his notes 

 to them, which they copied verbatim; 

 and not being at the time iu the- 



