military rank, holding an important garrison appointment. Kind,
courteous, and affable, he had, nevertheless, some extraordinary
prejudices, which I took every opportunity to induce him to express.
He was a Scotchman, who insisted that his country and its people
were superior to every other region and race, and who did not
hesitate to disparage any attempt to assign even an equality with
the Scotch to the natives of any other kingdom. His greatest
explosions of indignation seemed specially reserved for a
comparison, if at all favourable, of the Irish with the Scotch.
Consequently, I boldly ascribed a manifest superiority to my
countrymen over his in intelligence, integrity, diligence, neatness,
promptitude of action, and all other estimable qualities which could
be evinced in either peaceful or martial avocations; so that I was
sure to produce a denial of all my statements, and a suggestion that
I should never repeat them without blushing. Still I persevered, and
enjoyed the excitement which my expressions elicited. A few days
before he left Dublin we had a conference, and, as usual, I boasted
of Burke, Grattan, Curran, Goldsmith, Moore, Sheridan, Wellington,
Gough, &c. He insisted that Scotland could produce equal or perhaps
superior characters, if she had the opportunity. I remarked that even
when Irishmen engaged in nefarious criminal pursuits, they evinced
superior dexterity, and that our thieves were peculiarly knowing and
adroit. "Your thieves!" he exclaimed, "I'll be d——d if we haven't
thieves in Edinburgh or Glasgow that your Dublin fellows couldn't
hold a candle to."
A POLICE BILL STIGMATISED.
In the session of Parliament of 1850, a bill was brought in by the
Government for the revision and consolidation of the acts regulating
the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It was printed, and a considerable
number of copies were circulated in Dublin. We regarded it as a
most desirable measure, for it would, if passed, have substituted, a
simplified code for an involved and complicated hotch-potch of seven
statutes containing about four hundred sections. The police