Young Burke did certainly promise to secure me his vote; but I
have discovered Burke to be a most unprincipled profligate, corrupt and
dishonest. For, you may think it strange that, although he engaged to
procure me M'Mahon's vote, M'Mahon himself, whom I believe, assured me
that he never even asked him for it, until after he had overheard, in
the head inn, a conversation concerning himself that filled him with
bitter resentment against you and your agent."
"I remember it," replied Chevydale, "and; yet my agents told me that
Burke did everything in his power to prevent M'Mahon from voting for
you."
"That," replied the other, "was to preserve his own character from the
charge of inconsistency; for, I again assure you that he had promised us
M'Mahon's vote, and that he urged him privately to vote against you. But
d--n the scoundrel, he is not worth the conversation we had about him.
Father Magowan, in consequence of whose note to me I wrote to ask you
here, states in the communication I had from him, that the parties will
be here about twelve o'clock--Burke himself, he thinks, and M'Mahon
along with the rest. The priest wishes to have these Hogans driven out
of the parish--a wish in which I most cordially join him. I hope we
shall soon rid the country of him and his villanous associates. Talking
of the country, what is to be done?"
"Simply," replied Chevydale, "that we, the landed proprietors of
Ireland, should awake out of our slumbers, and forgetting those vile
causes of division and subdivision that have hitherto not only disunited
us, but set us together by the ears, we should take counsel among
ourselves, and after due and serious deliberation, come to the
determination that it is our duty to prevent Irish interests from being
made subservient to English interests, and from being legislated for
upon English principles.
Pages:
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480