“There is not probably in Ireland a landlord so popular as I am this moment—­at least among my tenants on that property.  Restoring M’Evoy, however, is but a small part of what I have done.  Carson’s pranks were incredible.  He was a rack-renter of the first water.  A person named Brady had paid him twenty-five guineas as a douceur—­in other words, as a bribe—­for renewing a lease for him; yet, after having received the money, he kept the poor man dangling after him, and at length told him that he was offered a larger sum by another.  In some cases he kept back the receipts, and made the poor people pay twice, which was still more iniquitous.  Then, sir, he would not take bank notes in payment.  No; he was so wonderfully concientious, and so zealously punctual in fulfilling my wishes, as he told them on the subject, that nothing would pass in payment but gold.  This gold, sir, they were compelled to receive from himself, at a most oppressive premium; so that he actually fleeced them under my name, in every conceivable manner and form of villainy.  He is a usurer, too; and, I am told, worth forty or fifty thousand pounds:  but, thank heaven! he is no longer an agent of mine.”

“It gives me sincere pleasure, sir, that you have at length got correct habits of thinking upon your duties as an Irish landlord; for believe me, Colonel B., as a subject involving a great portion of national happiness or national misery, it is entitled to the deepest and most serious consideration, not only of the class to which you belong, but of the legislature.  Something should be done, sir, to improve the condition of the poorer classes.  A rich country and poor inhabitants is an anomaly; and whatever is done should be prompt and effectual.  If the Irish landlords looked directly into the state of their tenantry, and set themselves vigorously to the task of bettering their circumstances, they would, I am certain, establish the tranquillity and happiness of the country at large.  The great secret, Colonel, of the dissensions that prevail among us is the poverty of the people.  They are poor, and therefore the more easily wrought up to outrage; they are poor, and think that any change must be for the better; they are not only poor, but imaginative, and the fittest recipients for those vague speculations by which they are deluded.  Let their condition be improved, and the most fertile source of popular tumult and crime is closed.  Let them be taught how to labor:  let them not be bowed to the earth by rents so far above the real value of their lands.  The pernicious maxims which float among them must be refuted—­not by theory, but by practical lessons performed before their eyes for their own advantage.  Let them be taught how to discriminate between their real interests and their prejudices; and none can teach them all this so effectually as their landlords, if they could be roused from their apathy, and induced to undertake the task.  Who ever saw a poor nation without great crimes?”