home,-from the best o' customers, too;-but what's a man at all, if he doesn't give up gains for his counthry? And so, Sir, I called at one house an' another, up an' down, an' was welcome in all places, because I 'm no sich workman as them that 's nothin' but needle-carriers : a man gets a name in his callin' when he earns money by id!

"Well! While I was on my thravels, I done my endayvour. I swore in as many as I could get to undherstand the nath'r o' the thing, an' that's a good number. And I larn sence, they're swearin' in others; an' them others more again;-an' so on: but it isn't so asy to break the crath'rs o' the way they have o' goin' out in the night, an' doin' harm without doin' good; an' they wouldn't listen to us, nor care about us at all, only for fear o' what 's to come on 'em."

"Is the system of the Union observed at the initiation of your friends, Mr. Rooney ?"

"Not mooch, Sir, I'm sorry to say. They're too well watched for it, an', morebetoken, 'ud as lieve folly the fashion they're used to in their Defendher line. I'll tell you the way it 's brought about among 'em. Myself, supposin', comes acrass a friend, as we think, an' we be

gin by talkin' over the times, an' the slaughther of all Catholics that 's surely to be; an' may be, I ax him, or he axes me, didn't he or didn't I hear o' the plan for havin' the people ready to stand out against the murdhering Orangemen. Maybe he'll say 'Yes,' may be 'No:' then I'll make id plain-a matther asily done: there's nothin' else for id; an' furthermore, I'll show him the way we'll scourge them bloody dogs out iv our land, at the same time that we hender them from killin' us; an' he b'lieves every word I say,-no praise to him for the same; an' I whips out my book, an' makes a man of him, an' gives him the sign; an' he talks to a friend about id, an' makes a man of him too; an' they go and get pikes made, an' hide 'em till the time comes."

"Peter Rooney has given a very good account of the state of the country in these parts," remarked one of the farmers, who had not before addressed the meeting.

"I'll go bail I have," said Peter, smoothing his wig.

"And his words," resumed the speaker, "will hold good for nearly the whole of the county. This half year back, I was goin' about, from one fair to another, almost thro'

the whole of the County Wexford, an' I made it part o' my business to ask afther the progress the cause had lately made in different baronies, an' hamlets, an' villages; an', as Peter says, that I learned."

"There's a little more to be said," observed another farmer: "when a knowledgable person is in a public-house, he minds, by the talk that 's going on, what folks are round him, an' he lays down the plan o' the Committee in Dublin, an' the strangers an' himself 'ill be sworn brethers before they part."

"No regular meetings, I perceive ?” inquired the agent.

"I don't know of a single one, the same that was pointed out to us when I was sworn in Stephen's-Green, in all the County Wexford,except in the town of Wexford itself, may be,where there's district committees an' parochial committees; but this you may depend on, Sir, the people are ready enough, an' no wondher they should."

"Well, gentlemen! more method and system would be requisite to produce the organization necessary for full success; yet, as you are so closely observed, and as matters now hasten to a crisis, I can only advise that, by all means

available, you go on swearing in as many as you can; let us, at least, have the physical power of the country in a state of preparation. One part of the statements made I wish to observe upon. It is a mistake that every Protestant is an Orangeman, or an enemy to Roman Catholics. On the contrary, the originators of our confederacy were to a man Protestants; its present heads are chiefly Protestants; its principal agents, too—for instance, I am a Protestant, myself. And, indeed, what means our title United Irishmen,' if it does not describe a combination of every sect for our country's good? You are almost exclusively Catholics here in the South; merely, because you form the bulk of the population."

،

"A word or two from me," said the person who had begun the attack on Peter Rooney; "There's no use in thrying to persuade ourselves, or the poor people round us, that the Protestants of Wexford are our friends. Aren't all the Orangemen Protestants? And haven't all the Protestants, here, firelocks in their hands, swearing our downfal? Let me whisper this too, in your ear, Sir;-the Wexford boys would never turn out against ould King George, if they didn't see that ould King

George was going to let them be slathered with them same Orange firelocks."

"That 's gospel truth," remarked another; "the people o' this county are industhrous, an' 'ud rather mind their work, if they thought they'd be let to mind it."

"An' there's one thing," said Peter Rooney. "When it comes to pass that the Waxford boys oncet stands up for Ireland an' Liberty; they that will conquer over 'em won't have childer's play."

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Right, Padhre," he was answered; stouter cock of your inches, doesn't sthrut upon Wexford ground this moment!"

"But we have a dhry meeting of it," observed another; "we must do good to Shawn-aGow's-house, as well as to the counthry."

He rang a hand-bell. Kitty tripped in, and as she passed the ex-Quaker, whispered, "Why, then, you done well, Sir, to take off the patch; it was a pity to have such a shiner undher a cloud."

Ere he could answer she had tripped out again, to attend to her orders; but when she came back with the liquor, he whispered, in turn, "Sly Kitty! you must have the ribbon