1 52 Authority of Police vested in Military. 



his interdiction, but not in time to prevent the 

 assemblage of a great concourse of people from 

 the country ; attracted by the celebrity of the 

 performers, and the fame of their " lucky lot- 

 tery ;" both as spectators and adventurers. 



Want of respect for the law, and submission 

 to its administration, are among the many cul- 

 pable errors to which the Irish are addicted, 

 under an impression that the laws forge the 

 chains which the few impose on the many, in- 

 stead of considering them, as they really are, a 

 shield to the weak against the strong a fatal 

 delusion of the mind, arising, I much fear, from 

 a want of due administration of the judicial 

 powers ; for who can expect to find a pure 

 stream, which evidently flows through a channel 

 of corruption ? In England, the execution of 

 the law is committed to the hands of the people : 

 here, the authority of the police is vested in the 

 military; for so impotent is the civil power^ 

 that the warrants of the magistrates are executed 

 by the soldiers. This is so at variance with the 

 British constitution, and so repugnant to Eng- 

 lish feelings, as to leave little doubt of the in- 

 fluence which such proceedings must have in 

 extinguishing the regard and veneration of the 

 people; whose happiness Government would 

 \visely consult, by a more scrupulous attention 



