The Tithe-Proctor: The Works of William Carleton, Volume TwoCarleton, William
General
The Tithe-Proctor: The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Well,” continued his father, “that is civil; and I believe, as to the
danger, he is right. But, in the meantime, what is to be done? I fear
all the available sources of relief have been already exhausted, with
the exception of heaven alone--in which, my children, we must not permit
anything to shake our trust. I am feeble, but yet I must go forth and
try to secure some food for you, my poor famishing family: hold up,
then, my dear children, even for a little, for certain I am that God
will provide for us still.”
He was, accordingly, upon the point of going out, when John Purcel
entered; and as the object of his visit is already known to the reader,
we shall leave to his imagination the sense of the relief which it
afforded.
This now is not an overdrawn picture of particular cases--and they were
numerous--which occurred during the period of what was termed the Tithe
rebellion.
The circumstance of the message to M'Mahon's, however, was the cause
of a scene which we could not possiby omit, in a work treating of this
peculiar and most distressing crisis. As the boy Charles was on his way
to M'Mahon's--and this he mentioned to the family afterwards--he was
met, he said, by a gentleman dressed in rusty black, mounted upon a
strong, coarse horse; and who, after looking at him with a good deal of
surprise, said--“What is your name, my fine fellow?” and on hearing
it he asked him where he was going. The child, who had been trained to
nothing but truth; mentioned at once the object of his message; upon
which the gentleman in question, after having heard it, thrust his hands
into his smallclothes pocket, and then drew them out with an air of
impatience, exclaiming--“Bad luck to it for poverty--it's the curse
o' the counthry.” Now this worthy priest, for such he was, had not been
many weeks in the parish at the period of his meeting with the little
boy; and it so happened, that his residence was within about a quarter
of a mile of the glebe house. He was, besides, one of the few who had
given, upon more than one occasion, rather unequivocal manifestations of
violent opposition to the whole system of tithes. As a matter of course,
he was the last individual from whom anything like sympathy for those
who suffered in such a cause might be expected. Much of the same
character was M'Mahon, to whom the distressed parson had applied for the
humble loan of food. He assailed, in fact, the whole Establishment, and
took both an active and conspicuous part in the excitement which then
agitated the country. He joined the crowds, vociferated and shouted
among them at the top of his lungs, and took the liberty of laying down
the law on the subject, as he termed it: that is to say, of swearing
that one stick or stone of their dirty Establishment should not be
left upon another, but that the whole bobbery of it must be sent to
blazes--where it would all go yet, plaise God. Of course his neighbor,
the parson, was by no means cognizant of this violence on the part of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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