Irish gentlemen are but too much accustomed to speak to their inferiors, has been very much resented by our English strangers. The question which has been rudely and peremptorily put, they have occasionally disdained to answer, arguing, that he could be no gentleman who would speak in that manner. An Irish landlord, when he is neither canvassing for an election, nor has any particular point to carry, shews none of that courteous urbanity which is so commonly exercised towards the English poor. The ragged barefooted tenant who meets his landlord on horseback, and has a petition to offer, will run by his side, telling the tale, and directing his eye alternately to his Honour's countenance and to the ground, that he may avoid the sharp stones that lie in the road, while his Honour rides carelessly on, nor thinks of checking his horse to attend, for a few minutes, to his breathless petitioner. You may imagine how the lofty bearing of an English spirit revolts from such "proud contumely."

A ray of the new light has, however, fallen upon this part of the new system, and there is a marked difference in the manners of the rising generation. The young men who have been educated in England, imbibe something of English feeling; and

are inclined to cherish that spirit of independence in the tenantry which would be alike beneficial to both parties. If the peasants were raised to that rank in society which, with reference to the civilization of the upper classes, they ought to occupy, the respectability and the opulence of the landlords would naturally be increased. But I must beware of treading on a shaking bog-we can see the evils by which we are surrounded, but by what causes they have been brought upon us, or by what means they are to be remedied, is not so easily ascertained.

Farewell-my next letter shall give you the news which our English shepherd brings from the fair of Balle.

M.

LETTER XXXII.

JUNE.

THE news from the fair of Balle was neither very good nor very important; but the account of our poor shepherd's journey through the wild mountains of Joyce country was entertaining enough. If I attempt to give it you, however, it must be verbatim; preserving, if possible, even the peculiarities of the sharp-toned Somersetshire dialect, which added considerably to the humourous effect of such a representation of the miseries of human life.

Did you sleep at Cong? he was asked.

“I bid there, but I never slept; and let master send me where he will, I'll never stop another night at Cong."

Why, what was the matter?

"Oh! there was matter enough. It was of a Sunday; and first of all, when I got there, out comes from the mass-house five hundred, if there was one, of they big tall wild-looking men; and after 'em the priest, as drunk as he could walk.

Then they comes into the house where I bid, anda good many of 'em into the very room where I was eating my dinner; and that day it was a market day for hemp."

For flax, I suppose you mean.

"Aye, for flax. It bean't then all the same thing, be it? Well, then they began eating and drinking, and swearing and fighting, and the shillelahs they were flying about, and the folks crying, och murder and my hair stood as straight on my head as though it would lift my hat off. And then out they all goes; and as soon as they comes in again, by and bye, they begins to pipe and to fiddle; and there was dancing all night long. I got off quietly to my bed as soon as I could, and laid me down; but no sooner was I laid there, than in comes a great tall black-looking fellow, and laid his self down on the bed next to mine. I thought I'd rather he should be fifty miles off, when in comes another, and lays he down too. Not a wink did I sleep, but lay all night in fear of my life. The first thing in the morning in comes another man, and calls they two; and because they did'nt get up fast enough to please him, he gives 'em a thump with his shillelah, and then the others take to theirs too, and so they was all a fighting within

an inch of my head, and I lay a trembling and sweating all the while in my bed. At last I was glad enough to see 'em all three go off; and up I got, as quiet as ever I could, and put my feet out of bed;-but, mercy! such a place to put one's feet in: why, it was as full of potatoe stuff and dirt and filth as it could hold: so I drawed out a little stool to stand upon; and as soon as I had got on my things I crept to the window to see for the man that had took care of my horse; and I called to him, to beg he'd be so very kind as to clap on the bridle and saddle and let me be off that minute. So off I sat, right glad to get away from 'em; but I hadn't got far afore one of them same Joyce countrymen, a great big fellow, came a running after my horse. Not a stocking nor a shoe to his feet, nor a hat to his head; but he had something drawn up his legs that, I suppose, he called breeches, and a bit of a ragged thing round his waist; but,

he was naked as ever he was born.

for all the rest,

There he ran,

just at my horse's tail, jabbering to me as fast as he could jabber, but not a word could I make out on't, and so I told him; but still he kept on, just at my horse's tail, though I pricked his sides pretty sharp to get him on. Presently we comes to a poor looking little place that, I suppose, you calls a cottage;