Any person conversant with the Irish people must frequently have heard such dialogues as the following, during the application of a beggar for alms:—­

Mendicant.—­“We’re axin your charity for God’s sake!”

Poor Tenant.—­“Why thin for His sake you would get it, poor crathur, if we had it; but it’s not for you widin the four corners of the house.  It ‘ud be well for us if we had now all we gave away in charity durin’ the Whole year; we wouldn’t have to be buyin’ for ourselves at three prices.  Why don’t you go up to the Big House?  They’re rich and can afford it.”

Mendicant, with a shrug, which sets all his coats and bags in motion—­“Och! och!  The Big House, inagh!  Musha, do you want me an’ the childhre here, to be torn to pieces wid the dogs? or lashed wid a whip by one o’ the sarvints?  No, no, avourneen!” (with a hopeless shake of the head.) “That ’ud be a blue look-up, like a clear evenin’.”

Poor Tenant.—­“Then, indeed, we haven’t it to help you, now, poor man.  We’re buyin’ ourselves.”

Mendicant.—­“Thin, throth, that’s lucky, so it is!  I’ve as purty a grain o’ male here, as you’d wish to thicken wather wid, that I sthruv to get together, in hopes to be able to buy a quarther o’ tobaccy, along wid a pair o’ new bades an’ scapular for myself.  I’m suspicious that there’s about a stone ov it, altogether.  You can have it anunder the market price, for I’m frettin’ at not havin’ the scapular an me.  Sure the Lord will sind me an’ the childhre a bit an’ sup some way else—­glory to his name!—­beside a lock of praties in the corner o’ the bag here, that’ll do us for this day, any way.”

The bargain is immediately struck, and the poor tenant is glad to purchase, even from a beggar, his stone of meal, in consequence of getting it a few pence under market price.  Such scenes as this, which are of frequent occurrence in the country parts of Ireland, need no comment.

This, certainly, is not a state of things which should be permitted to exist.  Every man ought to be compelled to support the poor of his native parish according to his means.  It is an indelible disgrace to the legislature so long to have neglected the paupers of Ireland.  Is it to bo thought of with common patience that a person rolling in wealth shall feed upon his turtle, his venison, and his costly luxuries of every description, for which he will not scruple to pay the highest price—­that this heartless and selfish man, whether he reside at home or abroad, shall thus unconscionably pamper himself with viands purchased by the toil of the people, and yet not contribute to assist them, when poverty, sickness, or age, throws them upon the scanty support of casual charity?