“One of the injustices of which the Catholics used to tell me, was the unfair way in which the Catholics were treated in Clonmel. Amongst others, they relate a practice then in existence. The Protestant shopkeepers, upon a certain day, used to go about the town levying a tax upon their Catholic neighbours who attempted to open shops within the town walls of Clonmel. They used to wring from each individual from two to four guineas, which they called intrusion money. My informants especially praised an old Mrs. Ryan, now dead, who boldly refused to comply with their demands. The tax-makers, therefore, seized her goods. She afterwards recovered them at law, and her spirited conduct led to the abolition of this toll. We Catholics had at one time to pay a tax upon all bought merchandise, while our more favoured Protestant and Dissenting fellow-townsmen were saved not only from a needless expenditure, but from the galling contact with such a class as the toll-gatherers. In the house, 112, Main Street, was the news-room, which I joined. I was greatly struck by the loud and consequential talk constantly going on between a Mr. Jephson and a Sir Richard Jones, and two more of their set, whereas I and my fellow-Papists were not allowed to speak above a whisper. This I resolved not to submit to; for I could see no reason why, when I had paid my money in a public place, I should not share all equal rights. Others followed my example; and as we all, Protestants and Papists, indulged in equally noisy declamation, a stranger entering our news-room would have been puzzled to say which party were the privileged administrators of the penal code.” Irish like, Mr. Bianconi managed now and then to have his joke. One day, when he was sending home in a large wooden case a very superior looking-glass, an old lady asked what was in the box thus carefully conveyed. “The Repeal of the Union,” was Bianconi’s reply. The old woman’s delight and astonishment knew no bounds. She knelt down on her knees in the middle of the road, to thank God for having preserved her so long, that at last, in her old days, she should have seen the Repeal of the Union. As another illustration, we quote the story of the opposition car:—