say to another Go out and starve '-starve as I shall, and all belonging to me. Starve and beg, and beg and starve, till my bones whiten through my skin, and I die as others in this country have died before me on the road. Oh, my God! if he had given me a piece of mountain, or a bit of bog, and time to bring it round, I'd have worked for it as I have done all my life, and that's saying enough. Does he call to mind that the tenant's duty is to pay, and the landlord's to protect? Does he say, as a Christian, that any man has a right to turn over scores of his fellow-creatures to starvation when they are willing to be his slaves for food and raiment for what more have any of us? We lay by nothing, and have nothing to lay by-yet we pay our rent: will any of you say God intended that?"

"Then why the dickons, Johnny Larkins, my jewel," exclaimed a tight concentrated fellow, walking up to the excited speaker, "why the dickons don't you let us serve them all out at once? Sorra a better sport we'd ax; and it's under yer roof ye'd be now, if ye had let us take just one good hearty fling at them."

"I never broke the law in my life, James," replied Larkins.

"Sorra a better yer off than them that did," answered James, stepping back with a very dissatisfied air. Two women were comforting the poor man's wife in the best way they could, and another was busied in adjusting a bed on a small car, upon which they intended to place the old woman so as to remove her comfortably. The

landlord's agents, during this sad procedure, appeared resolved not to desist until the roof was entirely away.111

"I wish, a lannan, ye'd be said and led by us," urged one of the neighbours to Mrs. Larkins, who was rocking herself as the wind rocks a tree that has been more than half uprooted. "What good can staying here do you, dear? Sure ye'll stop with us as long as ye like, before ye go into the close town; and yer breathing so bad—and ye so weak."

"If they had only let me die in it!" answered the wife and mother, whose weak trembling voice recalled her child's opinion so feelingly expressed a few minutes before that death was printed in her face'"it wouldn't have been longwhere's the children?"

"Sure ye sent them away, they were crying

So."

"And where's John?"

"Is the sight leaving yer eyes that ye can't see him forenent ye, dear?" answered the woman, at the same time looking anxiously into her face. "John, darlin'!" she exclaimed fervently; in a moment her husband was by her side.

"There's a change over her!" whispered the woman to the young man who had proffered to take the law into his own hands; "there's a change over her-run for the priest, if ye love yer own sowl!" Even the men who had been so busy with the roof, paused; and the silence was only disturbed by the prolonged whistle of a distant blackbird.

'John, my blessing-my pride-the only love I ever had-you'll forgive any hasty word I ever spoke-won't ye, my jewel?

"Ye never did," answered the poor fellow; "but what's over ye, darlin'? what ails you? what ails her, neighbours? Blessed Queen of heaven, what ails my wife?"

"Whisht, dear!" she said, and raising her hand to his face, she pressed his cheek still closer to her own; "I've been sickly a long time, John, and was going fast-better I should die before we got into the town. I must have died then, you know; your face is very thin, darlin', already. Oh may the holy saints lave ye as ye are, that I may know ye in heaven! but I would, any way; spake to me, my bird of blessings! kiss me, dear, and let me lay my head on yer bare breast. Neighbours, ye'll look to him, and the poor motherless children."

It's only a faintness, my jewel," said the husband; "it's nothing else-fetch her a drop of water." She drank eagerly, and then nestled her head on her husband's breast as a child would have done in its mother's bosom.

"Oh! I was sinful," murmured the man, to rebel while my angel was left me. I'll never say a word again, if the Lord spares her. Pray for her good friends." There was not (to use a homely phrase) a dry eye in the circle that formed round them; even the ministers of the law sympathised with the poor man's agony. Suddenly, the old woman, who had been forgotten in the new excitement, pushing the little

crowd to the right and left with her long lean arms, stood like a spectre in the midst; her white hair streaming from beneath her black hood over the wrinkles of her sharp face, thickened by a maniac smile. "I ask yer pardon," she said, curtesying as deeply as the infirmities of extreme age would permit " I ask yer pardon, but I don't rightly understand this; is it a wedding or a berring?"

"Look! look!" exclaimed Larkins; some one look in my Mary's face:-I feel as if her breath passed right into my heart!"

She was dead upon his bosom.

WESTMEATH

The inland county of Westmeath is bounded on the east by Meath; on the south by the King's County; on the west by Roscommon, from which it is separated by the river Shannon; on the north-west by the County of Longford; and on the north by the County of Cavan. It comprises, according to the Ordnance Survey, an area of 386,251 statute acres, of which 55,982 are unimproved mountain and bog, and 16,334 are under water-the lakes of Westmeath being very numerous and extensive, and famous for picturesque beauty. The population of the county was, in 1821, 125,819; and in 1831, 136,872; in 1841, it amounted to 141,300. It is divided into the baronies of Brawney, Clonlonan, Corkaree, Delvin, Demifore, Farbill, Fartullagh, Kilkenny West, Moyashel and Magheradernan, Moycashel, Moygoish, and Rathconrath. Part of Athlone is also in Westmeath. The principal towns are Mullingar, the assize town; Moate, Rathowen, Ballymore, Castletown-Delvin, and Ballynacargy.

The history of the county very closely resembles that of Meath; it was settled under the same circumstances; it is as full of ancient remains both of the Anglo-Normans and the earlier inhabitants; but it is far more abundant in