"
"The scoundrel! We shall sift him to some purpose, however."
"If you take my advice, sir, you will send him about his business; for
if it be once known that you listen to malicious petitions, my authority
over such villains as Cullen is lost."
"Well, I set him aside for the present. Here's a long list of others,
all of whom have been oppressed, forsooth. Is there a man called M'Evoy
on my estate?--Dominick M'Evoy, I think."
"M'Evoy! Why that rascal, sir, has not been your tenant for ten years?
His petition, Colonel, is a key to the nature of their grievances in
general."
"I believe you, Carson--most implicitly do I believe that. Well, about
that rascal?"
"Why, it is so long since, that upon my honor, I cannot exactly remember
the circumstances of his misconduct. He ran away."
"Who is in his farm now, Carson?"
"A very decent man, sir. One Jackson, an exceedingly worthy, honest,
industrious fellow. I take some credit to myself for bringing Jackson on
your estate."
"Is Jackson married? Has he a family?"
"Married! Let me see! Why--yes--I believe he is. Oh, by the by, now
I think of it, he is married, and to a very respectable woman, too.
Certainly, I remember--she usually accompanies him when he pays his
rents."
"Then your system must be a good one, Carson; you weed out the idle and
profligate, to replace them by the honest and industrious."
"Precisely so, sir; that is my system."
"Yet there are agents who invert your system in some cases; who drive
out the honest and industrious, and encourage the idle and profligate;
who connive at them, Carson, and fill the estates they manage with their
own dependents, or relatives, as the case may be.
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