whether, in the lowest
depths of hell itself, anything so damnably black and satanic could
originate--I allude to the plan which you conceived and got executed by
your heartless, cowardly son, aided by that old woman who stands therein
your presence, for ruining the stainless reputation of Mr. M'Loughlin's
only daughter."

"I can prove that," said Poll, "and here I am ready and willing to do
so."

"In this, however, thank God, you have failed," he continued, "yes, in
this, and every other act of your villainy you have been detected, and
shall be exposed and punished before the proper tribunal. It is you,
sir, and such scourges of the poor and industrious classes as you, who
goad the unhappy, the destitute, and despairing people into crimes that
are disgraceful to the country; it is you, and such as you, who force
them, maddened by your cruelty and oppression, to fall back upon
revenge, when they cannot find redress or justice in the laws of the
land. Unhappily the whole kingdom is studded too thickly with such men,
and until property in this unfortunate country is placed upon an equal
footing between landlord and tenant--until the rights and privileges of
him who farms and cultivates the soil, are as well protected and secured
by law as are those of the other party, so long will there be bloodshed
and crime. The murderer is justly abhorred, apprehended, and punished as
he ought in the sight of God and man to be: but is there no law to reach
unprincipled wretches like you, whose grinding rapacity, dishonesty, and
inhumanity, furnish him with the motives and incentives to the crime
he commits? As for you, gentlemen, and honest men as you are," he
proceeded, addressing M'Loughlin and Harman. "you remain, of course,
in your farms; you shall have reasonable and fair leases, and, what is
more, your credit shall be re-established on as firm a footing as ever.
You shall be enabled to resume your business on an ample scale, and that
as sure as I am master of two hundred thousand pounds. And now, O'Drive,
a word with you:--I have fully discovered your treachery to both
M'Clutchy and M'Slime; you were a willing agent in carrying out their
hard and heartless excesses. You were, in truth, a thorough bailiff,
without conscience, feeling, or remorse. In no instance have you ever
been known to plead for, or take the part of a poor man; so far from
that, I find that you have invited and solicited their confidence,
only--in case they