590 



IRELAND. 



Irish ignorant and poor, rather than intelligent and prosperous. Disabilities, political, civil, anc 

 ecclesiastical, have been imposed upon them, and it is only of late, that they have been in some 

 degree emancipated. The country has been divided, and sometimes by the policy of the gov- 

 ernment, into internal parties, which have committed the most ferocious murders and mas 

 sacres. These, however, have been the effecis of oppression, acting upon a temperament 

 naturally ardent, rather than the outbreak of a character, in itself ciuel and ferocious. 



The Irish, then, are ardent, brave, generous, and, to a great degree, faithful to their trusts. 

 Of this latter trait, many instances have occurred in the course of the various armed and other 

 political associations in which they have been engaged . They are cheerful, and no people will on 

 festivals so completely throw off all remembrance of care, to enjoy the passing hour. They 

 are, however, easily offended and prompt to resentment ; duels are not rare among the gentry, 

 or less dangerous appeals to force unfrequent among the lower class. The club, under the 

 name of a shillala^ is a general accompaniment at fairs, where it is sometimes put to other uses 

 than those of a staff. This facility with which the Irish fall into anger, was supposed, by some 

 writers, to have supplied the name of their country ; Ireland or Land of Ire. Selfishness, 

 however, hardly enters into their composition, and it is so much an Irishman's impulse to give, 

 that charity in him is scarcely a virtue. He has indeed little to bestow, but in times of plenty 

 or famine, and at all times, the beggar is held to have as good a title to whatever the cabin 

 contains, as the master himself. 



An Irishman has great quickness of apprehension, and it appears in nothing more than in 

 sudden retorts and repartees. It may almost be affirmed of him, that 



" He never said a foolish thing, 

 And never did a wise one." 



The very beggars have a natural eloquence and tact that is irresistible ; and when solicitation 

 fails, they employ no measured degree of sarcasm or imprecation. They have indeed great 

 incitement to importunity, for a penny is a provision for a day. Girls and boys will run by the 

 side of a stagecoach for half a dozen miles, in the hope of a few halfpence from the passengers. 

 In iScotland, it is rare to find an importunate beggar, or in Ireland one of any other description. 



To a stranger, the common Irish are obliging and civil, and in this respect are different 

 from the same class in England. Nothing can be more rude and insolent than the boys and 

 men of the lower class in the latter country. In Ireland you can hardly ask a favor within 

 the power of an individual, that is not cheerfully granted. An Irishman is loquacious and has 

 sometimes a strange confusion of speech, or a sort of transposition of ideas, known as a bull. 

 He speaks as he acts, upon the first impulse, and begins to express a thought the moment it 

 strikes him, and sometimes before he understands what it is. His mind is a mirror, and his 

 speech discloses all the figures, whether distinct or confused, that pass before it. He gener- 

 ally answers a question, not like a New England man, by asking another, but by repeating it. 

 When a traveler inquires for post horses, he will get this reply ; " Is it post horses you are 

 asking for } we have." The Irish are a people of great humor and wit, and Steele, Gold- 

 smith, Farquhar, Sheridan, Curran, Grattan, and Swift were natives of Ireland. 



The domestic affections are strong in the Irish, and there is not in the whole island, so 

 much desertion of parents by children, or of children by parents, as there is evidence of in 

 England, within the walls of one poor-house. Orphans are distributed among the cabins, 

 wliere there is little distinction made between them and the children of the family. There is 

 little reverence or affection in the lower class, towards the gentry, and the Irish peasant, unlike 

 the English, will seldom salute on the road, one of the higher orders ; where many of the 

 landlords are absentees, there can be little kindly feeling between them and the tenants ; and 

 the leases are often held by middle men, who underlet the lands to those who cultivate them. 

 Though many of the leases are sufficiently long for the advantage of the cultivators, there are 

 few who will make improvements. In the general estimation, a slight advantage to day over- 

 balances a greater one that may accrue to-morrow. Of course, under such discouragements, 

 the Irish are not greatly inclined to agricultural labor, and they take every advantage of the 

 holidays in which the Romish church is so liberal. A traveler asked one of the considerable 

 tenants why he made no improvements, and received the general answer, " Sure I've only 21 

 years' lase, and 9 years of it gone, and to make the ground better, would be raising the rint 

 on myself, and I wish to kape the bit of ground at the rint for the childer any how." Ireland 

 i the country of expedients ; the remedy for bad fences is to tie together the legs of quadru- 



