Hickman, has made the same observation, and I felt it gratifying in the highest degree to hear this from a man who is truth itself, and whose only fault is—­if it be one—­that his heart is too kind, and rather easily imposed on by those who deal in fraud and cunning.  A man like him, who, if he cannot speak well of an absent friend, will be silent, is a jewel in this life which ought to be worn in the very core of the heart.

“With respect to the Ballyracket estate, of which I shall speak first, I cannot report so favorably as I could wish.  The task, in fact, is to me, personally, a very painful one; especially with reference to that well meaning and estimable gentleman, Mr. Hickman.  In the first place, my Lord, the tenantry are not at all in arrears, a circumstance which is by no means in favor of the landlord, especially an Irish one.  Every one knows that an Irish landlord has other demands upon his tenantry besides the payment of their rents.  Is there no stress, for instance, to be laid upon his political influence, which cannot be exerted unless through their agency?  Now a tenant not in arrears to his landlord is comparatively independent, but it is not with an independent tenantry that a landlord can work his wishes.  No, my Lord; the safe principle is to keep the tenant two or three gales behind, and if he fails in submission, or turns restiff, and becomes openly contumacious, then you have the means of rectifying the errors of his judgment in your own hands, and it can be done with the color of both law and justice, behind which any man may stand without the imputation of harsh motives, or an excessive love of subordination.  I am sorry that Mr. Hickman should differ with me on this point, for he is a man whose opinions are very valuable on many things, with the exception of his amiable and kind-hearted obstinacy.

“The next disadvantage to your interests, my Lord, is another error—­I am sorry to be forced to say it—­of Mr. Hickman.  That gentleman is an advocate for education and the spread of knowledge.  Now if an agent were as much devoted to the interests of the people as he is and ought to be to those of the landlord, this principle might pass; but as I take it, that the sole duty of an agent is to extend the interest of his employer exclusively, so am I opposed to any plan or practice by which the people may be taught to think too clearly.  For let me ask, my Lord, what class of persons, at the approach of an election, for instance, or during its continuance, are most available for our interests?  Who are driven without reluctance, without thought, or without reason, in blind and infatuated multitudes, to the hustings?  Certainly not those who have been educated, or taught to think and act for themselves; but the poor and the ignorant.  And, my Lord, is not the vote of an ignorant man as valid in law as one who is enlightened?  For these reasons, then, I do not approve of the new schools which Mr. Hickman has established; and I was pleased to hear that your lordship was sufficiently awake to your own interests, to decline granting them any support.  No, my Lord; an educated people will be a thinking people—­a thinking people will be an independent people—­but an independent people will not be a manageable people; and if that is not placing the subject in a satisfactory light, I know not what is.