“Farewell!” said he, “and may the blessing of God rest upon you!  We now lave you for ever!  We’re goin’ at last to beg our bread through the world wide, where none will know the happy days we passed widin your walls!  We must lave you; but glory be to the Almighty, we are goin’ wid a clear conscience; we took no revenge into our own hands, but left everything to God above us.  We are poor, but there is neither blood, nor murder, nor dishonesty upon our heads.  Don’t cry, Kathleen—­don’t cry, childher; there is still a good god above who can and may do something for us yet, glory be to his holy name!”

He then passed on with his family, which, including himself, made in all, eight paupers, being an additional burden upon the country, which might easily have been avoided.  His land was about two years waste, and when it was ultimately taken, the house was a ruin, and the money allowed by the landlord for building a new one, together with the loss of two years’ rent, would if humanely directed, have enabled Owen M’Carthy to remain a solvent tenant.

When an Irish peasant is reduced to pauperism, he seldom commences the melancholy task of soliciting alms in his native place.  The trial is always a severe one, and he is anxious to hide his shame and misery from the eyes of those who know him.  This is one reason why some system of poor laws should be introduced into the country.  Paupers of this description become a burden upon strangers, whilst those who are capable of entering with friendly sympathy into their misfortunes have no opportunity of assisting them.  Indeed this shame of seeking alms from those who have known the mendicant in better days, is a proof that the absence of poor laws takes away from the poorer classes one of the strongest incitements to industry; for instance, if every Pauper in Ireland were confined to his own parish, and compelled to beg from his acquaintances, the sense of shame alone would, by stirring them up to greater industry, reduce the number of mendicants one-half.  There is a strong spirit of family pride in Ireland, which would be sufficient to make many poor, of both sexes, exert themselves to the uttermost rather than cast a stain upon their name, or bring a blush to the face of their relations.  But now it is not so:  the mendicant sets out to beg, and in most instances commences his new mode of life in some distant part of the country, where his name and family are not known.

Indeed, it is astonishing how any man can, for a moment, hesitate to form his opinion upon the subject of poor laws.  The English and Scotch gentry know something about the middle and lower classes of their respective countries, and of course they have a fixed system of provision for the poor in each.  The ignorance of the Irish gentry, upon almost every subject connected with the real good of the people, is only in keeping with their ignorance of the people themselves.  It is to be feared, however, that their disinclination