DISTILLATION. 281 



of the ill-starred being who is united to him under such 

 circumstances for life is truly lamentable. 



The second and worst description of crime, of which 

 this remote district unhappily affords too many instances, 

 is murder. Many circumstances tend to encourage it. 

 The system of clanship, and the imperfect administra- 

 tion of the laws, are chief causes. A strange infatua- 

 tion prevents these people from surrendering a culprit ; 

 and to conceal or abet the escape of a criminal from 

 punishment is felt to be a sort of moral obligat on 

 not to be got over. Hence, the feudal system prevails 

 in Ballycroy of repaying injury by injury ! rather 

 than submit the offender to the ordinary course of 

 justice ; violences committed by one faction are fear- 

 fully returned by the other ; and in a country where 

 a dent spirits are easily procured, and where ancient 

 customs and the endless number of holy days enjoined 

 by the Church of Rome bring the parties into frequent 

 collision, it is not wonderful that disastrous consequences 

 ensue. Maddened by whisky, the nationa 1 pugnacity 

 bursts forth, old injuries are remembered, the worst 

 passions are called into action, and loss of life is too 

 commonly he result. 



That any competent moral remedy can be employed 

 to check these barbarisms is hopeless, while the present 

 destructive system of private distillation is encouraged 

 by the landlord and abetted by the revenue. The 

 landlord is the chief delinquent for, owing to abomin- 

 able jobbing, the monies taken from the public purse, 

 and intended to open a communication between this 

 wild country and the more inhabited districts, have been 

 scandalously malversated, and lavished upon useless 

 works, merely to reward favouritism, or benefit agents 



