Such a state of society as this, and such restless activity alone, could give birth to the extraordinary character whose turbulent career I am about inditing; but ere I proceed, it would perhaps be well to allude to the circumstances and emergencies which, on the principles I have laid down, threw such an individual to the surface. Little more than allusion will be necessary; for in these days, when so much has been said and sung about Ireland--while Carleton in his soul-searching tales anatomises the very inmost heart of our countrymen, and Mrs Hall skims the surface of all that is good and beautiful amongst us--while attorneys make fortunes, and lawyers found families, who can be ignorant of the lamentable mismanagement of property which has beggared so many of our oldest families? The history of one will almost tell the fate of them all. Incumbrances accumulating for perhaps half-a-dozen generations, some probably long before discharged, but still allowed to remain on record as if unpaid, through mere neglect and carelessness, until the fact of their ever having been paid falls into oblivion, or becomes incapable of proof; others permitted to continue, in the hope that some lucky accident would some time or other, and somehow or other, transfer them by inheritance to the heir, or else enable him to liquidate them more conveniently than at the present. At last, in the changes of mortal affairs, they fall into the hands of strangers or persons who must have their own. A settlement is demanded--the inheritor finds himself fifty per cent worse than nothing--redemption is out of the question--he plunges into tenfold dissipation and extravagance, knowing that he wastes nothing which it is in his power to retain or retrieve. A short life and a merry one, is his maxim; to protract it, he litigates every claim right and left--seeks to baffle every process of the law--calls his tenantry to his assistance--while they, taking advantage of his distresses, and the confusion of all rights, assume an independent position, playing off the landlord and his adversaries against one another--now rebelling against his weak claims--now affording him protection against the advances of the law, throwing their weight into whatever scale promises the most fun and the most advantage--half-a-dozen bailiffs are maimed or murdered--half-a-dozen examples are made to the offended dignity of justice. Affairs come to their crisis at last in spite of all opposition. The attorneys get their costs--the creditors get the surplus--the unfortunate debtor gets the turn-out--and so ends an old song and an old family.