“There lived a man once, who was foolish enough to entertain a senseless prejudice against cows, because they did not give milk all the year round.  This man was married, and of course, had a numerous family of children, and being very lazy and improvident, depended principally upon the kindliness of an excellent cow, whose milk was the chief means of his support and theirs.  At length in the due course of time, the poor cow, as every one must know, began to yield it in diminished quantities, and as it happened to be a severe year, and as the lazy man we speak of had made no provision for its occurrence, it is unnecessary to say that he and his family were put to the greatest straits for subsistence.  Finding, after much deliberation, that the poor animal, which they kicked and cudgelled to excess could not change the laws of nature, or afford them that which she did not possess, it was determined by her proprietor, that as she failed in supplying them with sufficient milk they should try the fleams, and have recourse to her blood, in order to eke out their support.  Accordingly she was bled, along with being milked; but if the quantity of milk she gave before was little, it now became less, so that in proportion as they drew upon the one the other diminished, as was but natural.  In this way they proceeded, milking and bleeding the poor animal at the same time, not only without any benefit to themselves, but with a certain prospect of her ultimate loss, when one day the cow, after having ruminated for some time on the treatment she was receiving, began to reflect that she could not be much worse, or rather that she must soon altogether sink under this system of double drainage.  ‘Well’ thought she, ’I feel how matters must close with me at last; I am indeed near the end of my tether; what have I now to fear when I know that I cannot be worse?  And if I am to die, as I must, is it not better to have satisfaction for my sufferings’?  Accordingly, me next morning when her owner went to get blood for their breakfast, it so happened that the cow thrust a horn into him, and he was found lying a corpse under her lifeless carcase—­the last drop of her blood having been expended under the final operation of the fleams.  My Lord, the moral of this is as obvious as it is fearful—­and fearfully have the circumstances of the country, and the principles of such men as you, caused it to be illustrated.  If landlords will press too severely upon the functions of human suffering and patience, it is not to be surprised, although it is to be deplored, that where no legal remedy exists against individual cruelty or rapacity, or that plausible selfishness, which is the worst species of oppression—­that the law, I say, which protects only the one party should be forgotten or despised by the other, and a fiercer code of vengeance substituted in its stead.

“With respect to Mr. M’Clutchy, surely your lordship must remember that by your own letter he was appointed under agent more than three years ago.