68 PACKENHAM. 



Revcrfe the medal : they are ill cloathed, 

 and make a wretched appearance, and what 

 is worfe, are much oppfeffed by many who 

 make them pay too dear for keeping a cow, 

 horfe, &c. They have a practice alio of 

 keeping accounts with the labourers, contriv- 

 ing by that means, to let. the poor wretches 

 have very little cafh for their year's work. 

 This is a great oppreffion, farmers and gen- 

 tlemen keeping accounts with the poor is a 

 cruel abufe: fo many days work for a cabbin 

 — fo many for a potatoe garden — fo many for 

 keeping a horfe — and fo many for a cow, are 

 clear accounts whieh a poor man can under- 

 ftand well, but farther it ought never to go ; 

 and when he has worked out what he has of 

 this fort, the reft of his work ought punctu- 

 ally to be paid him every Saturday nighu An- 

 other circumftance mentioned was the excef- 

 five practice they have in general of pilfer- 

 ing. They fteal every thing they can lay their 

 hands on— and I fhould remark, that this is 

 an account which has been very generally 

 ^iven mc: all forts of iron hinges, chains, 

 locks, keys, &c— gates will be cut in pieces, 

 and conveyed away in many places as faft as 

 built; trees as big as a man's body, and that 

 would require ten men to move, gone in a 

 night. Lord Longford has had the new 

 wheels of a car ftolen as foon as made. Good 

 ftones out of a wall will be taken for a fire- 

 hearth, &c. though a breach is made to get at 

 them. In fhort, every thing, and even fuch 

 as are apparently of no ufe to them — nor is it 

 cafy to catch them, for they never carry their 



ftolen 



