286 THE FALLS OF BALLYSHANNON. 



— and don't be entertaining the vulgar idea 

 that feudalism is a state of bullying and 

 tyrannising ; that is the exception and the 

 misuse : had it been so generally, we should 

 never have heard of that clannish fidelity 

 which has become proverbial. Feudalism is 

 a state of protection on the one hand, and 

 attachment on the other. The whole coun- 

 try is divided into so many little allied states, 

 under the simplest form of government, such 

 as the unlettered serf can see and under- 

 stand, though his mind is not enlarged 

 enough to realise the government of a whole 

 country. By these he learns his lesson — he 

 finds out the nature of government ; and 

 thus, by slow degrees, he learns to govern 

 himself, and works out his own freedom, 

 century by century, by fitting his mind to 

 understand it and himself to use it ; and 

 thus, no one knows how, the feudal govern- 

 ment gradually merges into quarter-sessions 

 and parish - vestries, every man still inte- 

 rested in supporting the law, because every 

 man has a share in administering it. 



" Here in Ireland — thanks to Oliver 

 Cromwell and the glorious, pious, and im- 

 mortal William, — this feudal stage has been 



