present, gave so many hints with respect to a family of the name of Tobin, living within the distance of two miles of Tipsy Hall, that Mrs. Moynehan became quite alarmed.

"I do not want to make you uneasy, my dear, by what I say", concluded this sagacious friend, "but to make you cautious in time. I know how little relish Mr. Moynehan has for such society-indeed he's an angel of a man-where will you meet such another?-but men are men after all—the best men are frail, and the Tobins are enough to corrupt a monastery".

"Is it possible?" said Mrs. Moynehan, astonished; "I thought Mr. Tobin was a magistrate of the county. Does he not sit at the Quarter Sessions ?"

"He does—and a pretty magistrate he is; but I don't choose to say any more at present. I have said enough to put you on your guard, and that was my only reason for speaking at all. The Tobins are a very good family, no doubt, and have excellent connections, but it is a wild house!"

Mrs. Moynehan thanked her friend for those suggestions, which she promised to bear in mind. Soon after they set out for Tipsy Hall, their mode of conveyance being suited rather to their past than to their present fortunes. It consisted of a truckle or low cart with a block of timber for an axle-tree. On this were laid a feather bed and quilt, on which Mrs. Moynehan and her son Edmond, a child about six years of age, took their seat, while Neddy Shaughnessy, "the boy" who acted as charioteer to the group, sat with his legs dangling from a corner. Behind rode Mr. Moynehan on horseback, musing much upon their sudden change of fortune. Even already his helpmate could imagine that she, beheld a shade of solicitude darkening over his features, which, until this unhoped improvement had taken place in their circumstances, were as clear and unruffled as a noontide lake.

It was evening when they entered the small demesne of Tipsy Hall, Mr. Moynehan still looking more serious than he had ever done in his life before, and his soft-hearted companion crying as if some terrible misfortune had befallen them both. Her grief attracted the interest of Rick Lillis, who at first entertained some involuntary prejudice against his new master and mistress. In the course of the evening, while he was busy in arranging some furniture under her directions, she took an opportunity of making some inquiries about the Tobins.

"A family o' the name of Tobin, ma'am, please your honour?" echoed Lillis, when he had heard her question. "There is indeed then, an' there's none has betther rason to know it than the masther's family; an' if you plase, ma'am, plase your honour, Mrs. Moynehan, since you axed me the word, I'll tell you my mind o' them people, not out of any ill-will to them, but the way you'd put the masther upon his guard again 'em, in case they'd be borrowin' money or inveiglin' him any way to his hurt. Them Tobins, ma'am, arn't right people, with submission to you. They'd borry money, an' they wouldn't pay it, an' if they couldn't borry, there's rason for sayin that they'd go some other way about gettin' it besides what would be proper. You'd lend em a hundhert pounds, an' when you'd go to ax for your money, afther, in place o' gettin' it or thanks, instead of it may be 'tis to challenge you to fight 'em they would they're such jewellers, Lord save us! There isn't such jew❜lyery goin' on all over Ireland, ma'am, as what they goes on with; a very black, terrible family, ma'am".

In the course of the ensuing fortnight, nearly all the families within three miles round, who had any pretensions to gentility, had visited the new proprietors of Tipsy Hall. The Moynehans had never before received so much attention, or had to digest so large a quantity of civil flattery. The Tobins were almost the only family that might have

been expected, and yet did not make their appearance. Never, for a considerable time, was there so thorough a revolution effected in any establishment as in that of Tipsy Hall. During the ensuing two years, the mansion hardly knew itself; every thing was done in order; the traces of a sober and careful management were visible in all quarters. They did not here consider it a part of hospitality to make their guests drunk at their table, and it was remarked by Rick Lillis, that it was the first time since the foundationstone of the building had been laid, that two successive years had rolled over the roof of Tipsy Hall, without its being possible for any body to say with truth that he had seen a human being "tossicated" within its walls, or a tradesman leave the door with his bill unpaid.

Notwithstanding all that Mrs. Moynehan could do to prevent such an occurrence, her husband became acquainted with the Tobins, and relished their acquaintance. Their wit, their fun, their show of good-nature and of hospitality, could not fail to win some favour from one who really was what they affected to be. There are many persons whose very virtues, or at least dispositions for virtue, are often sources of strong temptation to themselves. Mr. Moynehan's frank and unsuspecting nature and social temperament were to him occasions of imminent danger. The Tobins talked so pleasantly, and so good-humouredly, and so goodnaturedly, that he found it impossible not to like their company. Of the justice of this opinion, Mrs. Moynehan could not form any correct idea, for as there were no females amongst the family at Castle Tobin, she had never set her foot within its precincts. Her opinion, at first so unfavourable, became something more tolerant, however, when, after several months had passed, she could not recollect that her husband had once returned home with any symptom of those excesses about him, which she had been taught to apprehend at Castle Tobin.

In another way, however, their acquaintance was not so

advantageous. On two or three occasions, old Mr. Tobin had found it necessary to trespass on his friend Moynehan's purse, to an amount already rather embarrassing; and with what the latter could not help thinking the best intentions in the world, these moneys had never been repaid. Mrs. Moynehan, however, as soon as she understood what had taken place, was determined to provide against a recurrence of the same misfortune. She entered upon the subject one morning at the breakfast table, and after a severe lecture on the injustice he was committing towards their child, as well as those who had better claims on his assistance, obliged him to "make a vow" that he never again would lend money to the Tobins without her concurrence. He did so, and all was peace for some time after.

All hitherto was well with Mr. Moynehan. He had a property, moderate, it is true, but to which his industry was daily adding something; a wife who knew Buchan's Domestic Medicine, in the country phrase, from cover to cover; and in whose eyes he was, without exception, the greatest man in Ireland; a promising boy, acknowledged on all hands to be the "living image" of himself, and a tenantry who looked up to him for assistance and protection, and were never disappointed. He rose at morning with the sun, dressed himself briskly, was not ashamed to go down on his knees to return thanks for the past, and petition for the future; nor did he think himself a whit the worse for never omitting this duty either at night or morning. He kept a hospitable board; a door "that opened with a latch"; a bed for the traveller; a warm fire-side and a wholesome dinner for the humble mendicant. When he had discharged his duties his conscience was at rest, and if any of his neighbours at such a time sought to make amends for their own delinquencies by lecturing him, he would listen in silence, contented with having done what other people only seemed to talk about.

This life of tranquillity and goodness, however, was doomed to meet with a singular reverse.

-grown wiser than of yore,

The fiend,

Who tempts by making rich, not making poor,

put it into the head of some official functionary of the state to appoint Mr. Moynehan a collector of assessed taxes in his district, and into Mr. Moynehan's to accept it. What the publicans were in the ancient Roman provinces, the tax-collectors were at a certain period in 66 our own green isle", that is to say, persons well paid for taking pains to make their own fortunes. A few years before, the proprietor of Tipsy Hall might have thought such a situation not worthy of his acceptance, but a considerable alteration had taken place in the affairs of that establishment. It was therefore with no little satisfaction that Mr. Moynehan received the appointment, wholly ignorant as he was of the innumerable risks by which it was attended. He had heretofore been honest, and he did not see why a man might not be an honest tax-gatherer as well as an honest farmer. Accordingly he set about the duties of his new office with alacrity.

An eminent statesman, some years since, when about to announce the intention of government to repeal the assessed taxes in Ireland, assigned as one of the motives which influenced ministers in coming to such a resolution

"that they were found to fall very heavy upon those country gentlemen who were kind enough to pay them". Mr. Moynehan found few of his neighbours so disposed. It was true, nothing could be more frank and hospitable than the manner in which they all received him when he came to their houses. They loaded him with attentions. The best bed in the house and the best wine in the cellar were at his service. They had company to meet him, and they had a thousand little things which he might want, and which they would find an opportunity to send him. But few articles liable to king's taxes could he find in their