delinquencies of various kinds--theft
among the number--were discovered against him; and after many, but
ineffectual efforts, to reclaim him, he was turned off, and advised, as
he wished to escape worse, to leave the county. He took the counsel, and
did so; nor for many a year after was he seen or heard of. A report ran
that he passed fourteen years in transportation; but however that might
be, when he next appeared in Kerry, it was in the train of a civil
engineer, come to make surveys of the county. His cleverness and skill
in this occupation recommended him to the notice of Hemsworth, who soon
after appointed him as bailiff, and, subsequently, sub-agent on the
estate; and in this capacity he had now served about fifteen years, to
the perfect satisfaction, and with the full confidence of his chief. Of
his "antecedents," Sir Marmaduke knew nothing; he was only aware of
the implicit trust Hemsworth had in him, and his own brief experience
perfectly concurred in the justice of the opinion. He certainly found
him intelligent, and thoroughly well-informed on all connected with the
property. When questioned, his answers were prompt, direct, and to the
purpose; and to one of Sir Marmaduke's business habits, this quality
possessed merit of the highest order. If he had a fault with him, it was
one he could readily pardon--a leniency towards the people--a desire
to palliate their errors and extenuate their failings--and always
to promise well for the future, even when the present looked least
auspicious. His hearty concurrence with all the old baronet's plans for
improvement were also highly in his favour; and already Wylie was looked
on as "a very acute fellow, and with really wonderful shrewdness for his
station;" as if any of that acuteness or that shrewdness, so estimated,
could have its growth in a more prolific soil, than in the heart and
mind of one bred and reared among the people; who knew their habits,
their tone of thinking, their manners, and their motives--not through
any false medium of speculation and theory, but practically, innately,
instinctively--who had not studied the peasantry like an algebraic
formula, or a problem iu Euclid, but read them, as they sat beside their
turf fires, in the smoke of their mud hovels, cowering from the cold
of winter, and gathering around the scanty meal of potatoes--the only
tribute they had not rendered to the landlord.

"Roger Sweeny," said Sir Marmaduke--"Roger Sweeny complain