"
"Ireland, Colonel, abounds with instances of similar virtue, brought
out, probably, into fuller life and vigor by the sad changes and
depressions which are weighing down the people. In her glens, on her
bleak mountain sides, and in her remotest plains, such examples of pure
affection, uncommon energy, and humble heroism, are to be seen; but,
unfortunately, few persons of rank or observation mingle with the Irish
people, and their many admirable qualities pass away without being
recorded in the literature of their country. They are certainly a
strange people, Colonel, almost an anomaly in the history of the human
race. They are the only people who can rush out from the very virtues
of private life to the perpetration of crimes at which we shudder. There
is, to be sure, an outcry about their oppression; but that is wrong.
Their indigence and ignorance are rather the result of neglect;--of
neglect, sir, from the government of the country--from the earl to
the squireen. They have been taught little that is suitable to their
stations and duties in life, either as tenants who cultivate our lands,
or as members of moral or Christian society."
"Well, well: I believe what you say is too true. But touching the
records of virtue in human life, pray who would record it when nothing
goes down now-a-days but what is either monstrous or fashionable?"
"Very true, Colonel; yet in my humble opinion, a virtuous Irish peasant
is far from being so low a character as a profligate man of rank.
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