be found a correct account of the
transaction, I have no hesitation in saying, that you, Colonel B------,
as a gentleman of honor and humanity, will investigate the conduct of
your agent, and see justice done to an honest man, who must have been
oppressed in your name, and under color of your authority."

"If my agent has dared to be unjust to a worthy tenant," said the
Colonel, "in order to provide for his bastard, by my sacred honor, he
shall cease to be an agent of mine! I admit, certainly, that from some
circumstances which transpired a few years ago, I have reason to suspect
his integrity. That, to be sure, was only so far as he and I were
concerned; but, on the other hand, during one or two visits I made to
the estate which he manages, I heard the tenants thank and praise him
with much gratitude, and all that sort of thing. There was 'Thank your
honor!'--'Long may you reign over us, sir!'--and, 'Oh, Colonel, you've
a mighty good man to your agent!' and so forth. I do not think, Mr.
O'Brien, that he has acted so harshly, or that he would dare to do it.
Upon my honor, I heard those warm expressions of gratitude from the lips
of the tenants themselves."

"If you knew the people in general, Colonel, as well as I do," replied
the curate, "you would admit, that such expressions are often either
cuttingly ironical, or the result of fear. You will always find, sir,
that the independent portion of the people have least of this forced
dissimulation among them. A dishonest and inhuman agent has in his own
hands the irresponsible power of harassing and oppressing the tenantry
under him. The class most hateful to the people are those low wretches
who spring up from nothing into wealth, accumulated by dishonesty
and rapacity. They are proud, overbearing, and jealous, even to
vindictiveness, of the least want of respect. It is to such upstarts
that the poorer classes are externally most civil; but it is also such
persons whom they most hate and abhor. They flatter them to their faces,
'tis true even to nausea; but they seldom spare them in their absence.
Of this very class, I believe, is your agent, Yellow Sam; so that any
favorable expressions you may have heard from your tenantry towards him,
were most probably the result of dissimulation and fear. Besides, sir,
here is a testimonial from M'Evoy's parish priest, in which his father
is spoken of as an honest, moral, and industrious man."

"If what you say, Mr. O'Brien, be co