THE FALLS OF BALLYSHANNON. 291 



enough to govern himself, of course he 

 takes up with all this scum of agitators and 

 demagogues that make money or notoriety 

 by him." 



" Poor Ireland," said the Squire, " your 

 worst enemies and your worst oppressors 

 are your own children and your own friends. 

 You have been tyrannised over by aliens, no 

 doubt, and so has England, and so has every 

 country under the sun ; and, like them, you 

 would have flourished under it, and out- 

 grown it. It is your friends that are de- 

 stroying you, and from them there is no 

 deliverance. God does not grant two Straf- 

 fords to one country." * 



" Come, let us be off," said the Bally- 

 shannoner, " and see whether Cockburn has 



* Warburton, who is anything but an advocate of 

 despotism, or the defender of Charles and his ministers, 

 speaks thus of Strafford's administration of Ireland: — 



"It was a fine field for Wentworth's commanding 

 genius. He dealt with it as with a conquered country ; 

 and by the stern simplicity of martial law he at once 

 repressed the chronic insurrectionary spirit, and crushed 

 the system of petty legislation, which served only to 

 irritate the people, and disgust them with the English 

 laws. His imperious nature disdained the bondage of 

 precedent ; he turned his searching glance on the^scaZ 



