THE WEST, PAST AND PRESENT. 375 



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 moral arbitrament. 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 were 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. 

 Tempora mutantur ! Who dare now infringe upon 

 the Hberty 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 



