ROCK'S INTERVIEW WITH THE DEPRIVED of the wholesome air which I used to breathe on my native hills, I begin to feel the disadvantage of residing amidst the dense atmosphere of the British metropolis. My appetite is not quite so good as it used to be; for, instead of devouring a good dish of sturabout for breakfast in the morning, I can scarcely finish a penny roll and two cups of tea. My spirits, too, sometimes sink like quicksil. ver in a barometer on a cold night; and, in the hope of keeping them up to their proper tone, I frequently make short excursions to the dif. ferent villages near London; and, on Tuesday last, paid a visit to Windsor. After viewing the town and the Castle, I walked to the Great Park; and, on entering one of the gates, a cottage, with as many chimneys as there are spires in London, met my eyes. It appeared uncommonly handsome, and, naturally enough, I approached it for the purpose of having a nearer view. I was not disappointed; for scarcely ever have I looked upon a prettier building. It was thatched with reeds, and a veranda extended along the front, covered with It is, indeed, a pretty place,' said the old gentleman: perhaps you would like to see the interior?' Very much, sir,' I replied, "if I could obtain permission.' That is granted,' he rejoined; I hold a situation of some little au. thority here, and, if you please to walk in, I shall be very glad to show you every thing worth seeing in the cottage.' the arts-and, finally, introduced me into an apartment, where stood a table covered with viands and numerous delicacies, to nine-tenths of which I am certainly unable to Here he left give even a name. me; and, in a few minutes after, the old gentleman entered, unaccompanied. At his request I took an ice; after which the following conversation took place between us: Gentleman. You are an Irish gentleman, I believe, sir ?' Rock. I am an Irishman, sir.' Gentleman. That's the same thing. Have you been long out of the country?' Rock. About twelve months.' Gentleman. All tranquil then?' Rock. Rather so; but not quite as peaceable as the people have continued since.' Gentleman. Can you assign a cause for that?' Rock. Many, sir. The counWith this invitation I unhesitat-try is more prosperous. The tithe ingly complied; and, as the old bill has done some good; and the gentleman appeared feeble, he beg- late Catholic Association more.' ged his attendant to be my conductor while he waited below stairs for our return. My young guide was very kind-pointed out many proofs of his Majesty's taste and love of Gentleman. The Catholic AsWas it not a set of sociation! masked republicans?' Rock. Republicans! No, sir, revolution never entered into their contemplation. They had no idea of such a thing; for the most influential members of that body constantly disclaimed such intentions, and have frequently represented Ireland as incapable of sustaining independence. Besides, they would themselves be losers by any such change.' Gentleman. That may appear probable to an observer, but the heart of man is a labyrinth through which the keeper can only find his way. The Catholic leaders might or might not have an intention to drive things to an extremity; but, when they should lead the people to the precipice, who could say but that some Emmet or Tone would force them over?' Rock. Political leaders can do harm only where the people are predisposed for mischief. This is not the case in Ireland. They hate the system which keeps them from their rights; and, if these be much longer withheld, it is impossible to say what may occur but one thing is certain, they will never prove disloyal to their King, whatever they do to his ministers; for, on the earth, there is not a monarch more beloved than George the Fourth is by his Irish subjects.' Gentleman. I am glad to hear you say so, for his Majesty, I can assure you, loves the Irish people. Never can the reception he experienced on his late visit to them be effaced from his heart. Ireland is engraven there, and can be erased only by the hand which consigns him to the tomb. Were Catholic emancipation dependent on the will of his Majesty, Ireland should soon receive that boon; but, as the monarch of Britain, he is obliged to be ruled by the wise principles of a glorious constitution.' Rock. Such had been the generally received opinion in Ireland until lately; but the flattering hope which it held out has experienced a severe shock by the specch of the Duke of York.' Gentleman. Poh! what is the Duke of York to the King ? Rock. His royal brother.' Gentleman.Ay; but when did their political sentiments agree?' Rock. Not often, I believe.' Gentleman. The King, sir, is unchanged in sentiment; he still thinks that the crown is held in trust for the good of the people, and that equal laws can only produce equal happiness.' Rock. That is a political maxim which admits of no dispute. Were she once blessed with equal laws-or rather, were she once freed from political distinctions-she would become not only the happiest portion of the British empire, but the bulwark of the nation. At present she constitutes its weakness.' Gentleman. But are the people really so miserable as they have been represented?' Rock. As much as poverty predominates in the world, still most men are miserable through discontent, and not from pecuniary wants. Ireland is by no means a miserable country, but it is a most unhappy one; and the cause is to be found in the political disabilities under which the people labour.' Gentleman. And do you think emancipation would be productive of great advantage?' Rock. To the empire at large undoubtedly, and consequently to individuals in particular. It would neither raise the price of produce, nor lessen the amount of rent; but then it would leave the path to exertion open, while the road to ambition might be travelled on both by the Catholic and the Protestant. Until this is the case, never expect tranquillity in Ireland.' Gentleman. I believe you are right, sir; and it may prove satisfactory to you to know that, in the honest sentiments you have uttered, his Majesty participates. He loves your country, and will endeavour to make it happy.' Rock. Such has always been my opinion.' Gentleman. You are an honest fellow. Will you accept this little gold snuff-box from your King?" The King. Why, friend, who are you?' Rock. Captain Rock, please your Majesty, the celebrated Irish Chieftain!' The King. Ha! ha! ha! you are too honest a looking fellow for a bandit chief.' Rock. I speak truth, please your Majesty; and am sorry to find that, like many of my ancestors, I have been misrepresented at the English court. I have been an enemy to oppression, but seldom disloyal to my King.' The King. Very good, Captain; but I must now retire.' So saying he left me, and I returned to London, with the snuff. box in my pocket. The accompanying engraving is a correct view of the entrance from a small Lodge. capable of tillage, independently of bog or mountain land, let only on determinable leases, in the centre of which is the flourishing town of Lisburne, and on this estate live many of the most thriving and opulent persons in the kingdom. A finer property can hardly be imagined, and under judicious manage. ment it might be turned to very good account. The Marquis lets farms by the English acre for twenty-one years and one life, and at what I consider a very moderate rent. This is one of the estates worth upwards of 100,000l. per annum. The Marquis of Donegal lets his land for sixty-one years and a half, but renews at the end of a few years for a fine, which prevents his ever having much power over this immense property. The estate of Lord Templeton, in this county, is only leasehold, held under the Marquis of Donegal. The whole town of Belfast, every brick of it, belongs to this nobleman, who, however, receives only a small part of the total amount of the rental. 'Lord O'Neil is the owner also of an immense estate, and he leases his land for 21 years and a life. 'There are here a great many estates of two or three thousand pounds per annum, held by lease under the above titles, some for ever, belonging to Lord Antrim, and others determinable, held under different noblemen, whose names it is needless to mention.' ARMAGH. parts, so that few persons, the gen. 'CARLOW. The largest landed estates in this county belong to Mr. Cavannah of Borris, Mr. Brewen, Mr. Latouche, whose property of 7000l. per annum, purchased from the Bagenals, and a seat in parliament, cost 110,000l. twenty-eight years ago; Mr. Burton, Mr. Rochford, and a few others, possess from five to seven thousand per annum, and there are a great many who have from 500l. to 20007. In this county there is a very little of that minute division so injurious to other parts of Ireland. It has neither a temporal nor a spiritual peer resident within it; and, though destitute of manufactures, it is tenanted by more wealthy people than almost any other county in the island. Of late, leases have been granted for twenty-one years and three lives. It is worthy of remark, that the fee has been more transferred here than in any other part of the country. Thirty years ago, the Bagenal property, which is now very small, was equal to 32,000 acres; and the estate of the Whaleys, once very considerable, has been all sold.' • CAVAN. 6 CLARE 'Belonged formerly to the family of O'Brien, who possessed the office of custos rotulorum from the reign of Queen Eliza. beth till the death of the late Marquis of Thomond; but at present this immense estate is divided into four, one of which, inherited by Lord Egremont, came to his family by the female line. A great part of the property is leased in perpetuity; but enough is still left, as the leases fall out, to raise the income one thousand pounds per annum. The Marquis of Thomond, Sir Edward O'Brien, Bart. and Mr. O'Brien, of Brotherwick, in Northamptonshire, are proprietors in this county: Lord Conyngham also has here a large estate. Lord Egremont's land is let for thirty-one years, and the tenant pays the receiver's fees. His lordship is called "a bad landlord," because he does not enter into the vile system of making freeholders; but a lease of thirty-one years is a sufficient encouragement to any tenant; and I must commend the principles of this high-spirited nobleman, who spurns the mean idea of driving his tenants to a county poll, in the same manner as black cattle are driven to a fair. His lordship, however, lets his land by advertisement, which, where the tenants are good, I think a very bad method. The great landed property in this county is that of Earl Farnham, consisting of 26,000 acres. The Sir Edward O'Brien lets his leases are for three lives or thirty- land for twenty-one years and one 'Lord Charlemont, Lord Gos- one years. Mr. Sanderson possesses life: Lord Conyngham lets for Gos-one ford, Mr. Brownlow, Lord Cale- the fee of 30,000 acres, but perpe- three lives. In this county there don, Mr. Cope, Lady Olivia Spar- tuity leases have been granted upon is considerable absentee property: row, and Count de Salis, have es- the whole. Another large property but there are some residents, betates in this county of from six to is that of Mr. Coote, of Bellamont sides the proprietors already menten thousand pounds per annum, Forest, whose leases run for twenty- tioned, who have estates of from let on leases for twenty-one years one years, or one life. The other four to five thousand per annum. and one life. estates sink to a very small amount, There is not here much of that mi and belong chiefly to absentees.nute division of property observed This is one of the districts of Ire- in some of the other parts of Ireland where the linen manufacture land.' has contributed to render the tenures remarkably small, as is the case in the neighbouring county of Armagh, where twenty acres are considered a large farm.' A large portion of this county belongs to church and college establishments, and to corporations, which have not the power of granting a freehold lease of lives. There are also a great many minor estates, but the tenures by which they are held divide them into the minutest (To be continued.) EPITAPH. HERE lies my wife, here let her lie, CAPTAIN ROCK TO MR. SHEIL. MY DEAR SIR-Mr. Bric, in his late speech at Cork, in defence of his friend O'Connell, told his applauding auditors that twelve hours' sea-sickness in a steam-vessel would bring them to the happy plains of England; where the effect of manufactures, commerce, and capital, is universal happiness, prosperity, and content. Lawyers, they say, are bad legislators; I am sure they are the very worst of economists, and therefore it would not be right, perhaps, to find fault with Mr. Bric for being ignorant of that, about which his profession seem, at least in Ireland, to know nothing. But then errors of this nature have been productive of mischief, and must still produce more if allowed to go forth unrefuted. happiness; and the reason is ob- are allowed to have no recreation have no amusement-and, what is still, if posible, more cruel, they are learning a business at which, when grown up, with health destroyed and prospects blasted, they will be unable to find any employ. Convey yourself, in idea, into this nursery of the rising generationview these future mothers of Britons, and say if England is likely to continue the dictator of the world? say if that system is good which subjects infancy to prema. ture toil-to a life of unmitigated misery? The heart sickens at the sight; and if you are, as I believe you to be, a man of humanity, you will beseech Heaven to leave your countrymen even the penal laws and their potatoes if emancipation is to be followed by an influx of I will yield to no man in love of British capital, the consequence of country; and I believe I have which would be lace-manufactories proved, in the hour of danger, that and infant labour. But the prayer even life I would willingly risk to is uncalled for. Ireland is still procure an amelioration of the young; she can never, and I thank hardships which oppress the Irish my God for it, become a nation of peasantry. I know and lament the an instance or two, to show how mechanics. She will be free-she grievances under which they labour.the extremest misery in England is I know that there is too much in made to provide for the luxurious dividual suffering in my native enjoyment of a British capitalist. land; and, knowing this, I shall never cease to expose the system which perpetuates such misery. Ireland is an unhappy-a most un-nufactory. happy country: but it is to British justice, and not to British capital, that the people must look for a moral regeneration-for a redress of six centuries of wrongs. I have often been surprised that men pretending to information would not accustom themselves to think, and cast their eyes over the bounds which circumscribe the range of common observation. You have read history as a poetyou have ransacked Hume, and Hook, and Gibbon, for similes and examples, and not, I fear, for facts. I too have studied the chroniclers of the past, and from them I have learned, that as wealth accumulates men decay;' that, in proportion as kingdoms have increased in splendour, they have decreased in I shall state There lives at Bermondsey, a few miles from London, a Mr. Banks, who is the proprietor of a lace-maHe is reckoned a wealthy man, and of course, in this country, a respectable one. He lives in a fine house, fares sumptuously every day,' has livery servants to attend upon him, and lolls in a coach when he visits town. All this he is enabled to do by the profits of his manufactory. And who think you are the operatives from whose toil this wealth is extracted? Why sixty-five little girls, many of whom are under nine years of age! These poor unhappy children labour twelve hours every day; they This is an undoubted fact, well-known to all who have watched the money market. When the Bauk contracts her discount, prices decline; but, when she increases her issues, prices increase also. It follows, therefore, that the more money there is in circulation, the dearer must be all the necessaries of life. will enjoy equal laws-and all things else that is needful will fol low. That these unhappy children felt the misery of their situation we have a melancholy proof. In the hope of obtaining some short respite from toil, two of them conspired to set their master's premises on fire. For this they were tried during the Lent assizes, and it must be unnecessary to say that they were acquitted. For many years back,' said one of the counsel concerned, the state of negro slavery had engaged the attention and excited the sympathy of the British public. But what was negro slavery to this? He had spent some time in the West Indies, and had seen the condition of the ne groes, but he declared to God he had never heard of such slavery as this case disclosed in his native land. Their state was perfect paradise compared with the dismal situation of these hapless infants.' "There is nothing unusual,' says the Morning Chronicle,' 'in this way of disposing of children ;' and a few days since another disclosure respecting manufacturing Bastiles took place before a magistrate at Colchester. I give the report from the "Essex Herald," which the "Examiner" heads 'HORRORS OF ENGLISH MANU FACTORIES. TOWN-CLERK'S OFFICE, COL-| CHESTER.-A complaint was exhibited by Mr. Moss against Mary | Anne Brown, single woman, aged twenty-two years, for having absented herself from the service of Messrs. Moss and Smith, of Hatfield Peveral, silk-throwsters. It appeared that, on the 18th of February, Brown contracted to serve them for two years, and to work from six in the morning till seven in the evening, being allowed half an hour for breakfast, and half an hour for dinner, at 3s. 6d. per week the first year, and 4s. per week the second, providing herself with board, lodging, washing, and wearing apparel; that she had served them until about a month ago, when she left, and has not since returned. The girl stated in her defence, that she had paid 1s. per week out of her wages for lodging and washing, leaving 2s. 6d. per week only for board and clothes; that she could get little else than dry bread to eat ; that she had to stand twelve hours to her work; and that her living was not adequate to the fatigue she had to undergo. Mr. Moss stated that upwards of fifty girls had absconded from the manufactory lately; that several of them were Colchester girls; and that there were many in the manufactory who did very well on the wages they received, though not more than Brown's.-Mr. Abell, the magistrate, said, that he considered it very extraordinary, that a person of the age of twenty-two years should make a contract of such a nature, for so long a period, knowing, as she must have done, the price of provisions: it was evident that she had made a breach in her engagement, therefore he must put the provisions of the Act in force; but, under the circumstances, he should order her to be imprisoned in the Borough Gaol, and kept to hard labour for the period of seven days only. Mr. Moss told Brown that she would have to return to his service at the expiration of her imprisonment; she said that if she did, she would not stop, and would as lieve be in gaol during the remainder of her period of service. It was recommended, in the event of her returning to the manufac tory, that she should apply to the magistrates in the neighbourhood for relief, if her wages were inadequate for her maintenance.' On this case the Morning Chronicle' made some very just remarks, which elicited a letter from the manufacturers, justifying themselves by saying, 3s. 6d. a week was as much or more than fell to the lot of every labourer in this country. They also stated that in point of comfort, it was much better for comfort, it was much better for such persons as Mary Anne Brown to remain in gaol on the prison allowance, than to seek employment in a manufactory!!!! No doubt you, sir, have read these accounts before; but the Irish people have not, for their newspapers think such facts unworthy of insertion. The consequence of which is, the nation indulge in false hopes; and, like many of the fabled petitioners of Jupiter, are asking for that which, if possessed, would prove a curse instead of a blessing. It is a very erroneous idea that poverty is the necessary result of political disabilities. Nothing can be more unfounded than such an opinion. The present state of Europe demonstates its absurdity; and, even were it true, it would be bad policy to lessen the people in the eyes of foreigners, by telling the world that they are idle and miserable. They are easily enough excited; and, he who points to their penal fetters, and reminds them of their political degradation, effectually stimulates them to the 6 KNOW all men, by these presents, that Robert Southey, LL.D., is the son of a Bristol tradesman; but, having more brains than his sire, he wisely betook himself to school, and soon after assumed the professions of a poet and a republican, without any legal claim to either. His first production was a radical epic, entitled Joan of Arc,' followed by Wat Tyler,' a kind of drama, which inculcates universal equality. In these poems he is peculiarly happy in his abuse of kings and bishops; and so desirous was he of a state of perfectibility, that he once proposed founding a colony, on Utopian principles, in the wilds of America. Knowing the difficulty which Romulus encountered in procuring helpmates for his Roman banditti, Mr.Southey resolved to go out provided; and, accordingly, took a wife to his bo som. Matrimony soon effected what ridicule could not. Our hero, when his blood cooled, instead of proceeding to the Ohio, sat himself contentedly down on one of the lakes of Cumberland, not far from Keswick, where he has continued in the enjoyment of good prospects; for, since then, he has altered his note,' praised kings and princes, became Poet Laureate, earns his annual hundred and pipe of wine by writing unreadable odes, and abusing popery in the Quarterly Review.' The youthful republican has become an advocate for kingly power; and the hater of episcopacy wrote a Book of the Church,' and a Vision of Judgment,' in which he sees King George the Third honoured in the seat of |