here is too much of this contradiction in
Ireland; a long series of oppressions, aided by many very ill-judged
laws, have brought landlords into a habit of exerting a very lofty
superiority, and their vassals into that of an almost unlimited
submission: speaking a language that is despised, professing a religion
that is abhorred and being disarmed, the poor find themselves in many
cases slaves even in the bosom of written liberty. Landlords that have
resided much abroad are usually humane in their ideas, but the habit of
tyranny naturally contracts the mind, so that even in this polished age
there are instances of a severe carriage towards the poor, which is quite
unknown in England.

A landlord in Ireland can scarcely invent an order which a servant,
labourer, or cottar dares to refuse to execute. Nothing satisfies him
but an unlimited submission. Disrespect, or anything tending towards
sauciness, he may punish with his cane or his horsewhip with the most
perfect security; a poor man would have his bones broke if he offered to
lift his hands in his own defence. Knocking-down is spoken of in the
country in a manner that makes an Englishman stare. Landlords of
consequence have assured me that many of their cottars would think
themselves honoured by having their wives and daughters sent for to the
bed of their master; a mark of slavery that proves the oppression under
which such people must live. Nay, I have heard anecdotes of the lives of
people being made free with without any apprehension of the justice of a
jury. But let it not be imagined that this is common; formerly it
happened every day, but law gains ground. It must strike the most
careless traveller to see whole strings of cars whipped into a ditch by a
gentleman's footman to make way for his carriage; if they are overturned
or broken in pieces, no matter, it is taken in patience; were they to
complain they would perhaps be horsewhipped. The execution of the laws
lies very much in the hands of justices of the peace, many of whom are
drawn from the most illiberal class in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges
a complaint against a gentleman, or any animal that chooses to call
itself a gentleman, and the justice issues out a summons for his
appearance, it is a fixed affront, and he will infallibly be called out.
Where manners are in conspiracy against law, to whom are the oppressed
people to have recourse? It is a fact, that a poor man having a contest
with