such work. But the young earl was still
under sixteen, and the property was represented, as far as any
representation was made, by the countess.

But even in such a work as this, a work which so strongly brought out
what there was of good among the upper classes, there was food for
jealousy and ill will. The name of Owen Fitzgerald at this time did
not stand high in the locality of which we are speaking. Men had
presumed to talk both to him and of him, and he replied to their
censures by scorn. He would not change his mode of living for them,
or allow them to believe that their interference could in any way
operate upon his conduct. He had therefore affected a worse character
for morals than he had perhaps truly deserved, and had thus thrown
off from him all intimacy with many of the families among whom he
lived.

When, therefore, he had come forward as others had done, offering to
join his brother-magistrates and the clergyman of the district in
their efforts, they had, or he had thought that they had, looked
coldly on him. His property was half way between Kanturk and Mallow;
and when this occurred he turned his shoulder upon the former place,
and professed to act with those whose meetings were held at the
latter town. Thus he became altogether divided from that Castle
Richmond neighbourhood to which he was naturally attached by old
intimacies and family ties.

It was a hard time this for the poor countess. I have endeavoured to
explain that the position in which she had been left with regard to
money was not at any time a very easy one. She possessed high rank
and the name of a countess, but very little of that wealth which
usually constitutes the chief advantage of such rank and name. But
now such means as had been at her disposal were terribly crippled.
There was no poorer district than that immediately around her, and
none, therefore, in which the poor rates rose to a more fearful
proportion of the rent. The country was, and for that matter still
is, divided, for purposes of poor-law rating, into electoral
districts. In ordinary times a man, or at any rate a lady, may live
and die in his or her own house without much noticing the limits or
peculiarities of each district. In one the rate may be one and a
penny in the pound, in another only a shilling. But the difference
is not large enough to create inquiry. It is divided between the
landlord and the tenant, and neither perhaps thinks much about it.
But when