CHAP. XX. The Regrets of the Poor on the Lofs of their Counsellor and Friend. "To lament a dear Friend is natural and civil, and he is the deader of the two, the verier Carcafs, that does not fo." DONNE, Sermon lxxx. p. 822. Folio. IF F the Yeomen and the Tenantry, and those better to do in Life, made their Remarks upon the Demise of THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES, we may rest assured that the Regrets of the Poor upon the Lofs of their Counsellor and Friend were no feigned ones. "The Minister," they faid, "had done well in pointing out to them how diligent a Reader he was of his BIBLE, and how he always practised what he read, because he had a living and enduring Faith in the SAVIOUR! He had always," they added, "lived amongst his own People, and was a Bleffing to them, and to their Children, as he went in and as he went out, and in him they had a living Exemplification of the "Truth as it is in Jefus," that "Charity is the End of the Command * Ephes. iv. 21. ment.' ""* They should miss him, that they should, fadly,- as much for his kind Words as for his kind Acts! He never spoke to them in the furly domineering Tone of the new Lord's Bailiff, when he sent to ascertain their Wants; and "the Bailey," they added, “had no Business amongst them at all, for the Parish (some fifty Acres excepted) was all their OULD MASTER'S, though the Factory-lords had got a Footing into that odd Corner;—they wished it had been washed down by THE INUNDATION†, that they did!" We must allow for the plain downright Speech of poor People in all this, and we may recollect even how SPENSER in his "VIEW OF THE STATE OF IRELAND" (a Treatise full of Instruction to this Day) says, “I have heard it wished alfo, even of fome whose great Wisdomes in Opinion should seem to judge more foundly of fo weighty a Confideration, that all that Land were a Sea-poole."‡ Educated People who think strongly will sometimes fo express themselves, notwithstanding the white Plaister of Conventualifm! § But as regards THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES, the Poor were evidently right. He had been their Friend from his Youth up, and was their Friend to his dying Day. Not a Man to be imposed upon A great local Flood which occurred early in the present Century. It is alluded to in SOUTHEYS Common-Place Book, vol. iv. p. 394. Works, vol. viii. p. 300. Ed. Todd. "Pictæ tectoria Linguæ."-PERS. Sat. V. 25. was he, and they knew it; and oftentimes he did what, at first Sight, they did not understand, and might think hard; but their Confidence was not ftirred, and eventually it was fure to turn out for their Advantage. There were two Questions in the QUERIST of BERKELEY*, which would greatly have interested him, and upon which he acted intuitively. 1. "Whether Money circulated on the Landlord's own Lands, and amongst his own Tenants, did not return to his own Pocket?" 2. Whether any SQUIRE that made his Domain fwarm with bufy Hands, like a Beehive or an Anthill, would not ferve his own Interest, as well as that of his Country?" Quite fure he was that the Money he had expended amongst his own People, and on his own Eftate, had benefited them both, in a moral and in an agricultural View. Much of their Improvement they owed to him. And speaking of BERKELEY-whom SOUTHEY in his Life of WESLEY† calls "one of the beft, wifeft, and greatest Men whom Ireland with all its Fertility of Genius has produced,”—it may be added that he would have heartily concurred in this other Obfervation in the fame Treatife, "What a Folly it is to build fine Houses, or establish lucrative Pofts, and large Incomes, under the notion of providing for the Poor!" For, much as he approved of the good Parts of "THE NEW POOR LAW," as *Vol. iii. p. 189. 374. † Vol. ii. p. 260. No. 410, 411, et infra, p. 186, No. it was then called, he thought it was expenfive in its Details, and that it contained many very harfh Points, which wife and merciful Men would have to foften down in the Administration of its Claufes. It is fcarcely neceffary to add that what he forefaw has long ago come to pass, and that, exceptis excipiendis, it is much improved. Cautious as THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES was, and wife and just as a Magiftrate, these his Opinions neceffarily oozed out, and the Poor knew him as their Friend! O how wife, in this Senfe, are the Words of the Italian ! "Dal non fapere governare i Popoli nafcon tanti Mali,- Morte, Deftruttioni, Incendij, Ruine, che fi puo dir la più mortal Pefte, che fi trovi fopra la Terra!"* Whereas, led by the Bands of Love, as this good old Man led them, all was Peace and Quietness. "A Man from whose Example As from a Compafs we may fteer our Fortunes, It has all along been fhown how great the Influence of the OLD HALL was upon the whole Neighbourhood. Most of all did it show itself in that quiet and orderly Contentment which reigned amongst the People generally, as well as amongst the old Retainers of the Household. And one great * Il Cortegiano, p. 293. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, The Pilgrim. Cause of this THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES knew was that unbroken Friendship of Years Love, it might rather be called —which fubfifted between him and the Old Vicar. The SQUIRE allowed of no Bickerings, neither did the Parfon. They had no Disputes and no Disagreements, and the Poor readily came to the Conclusion that they fhould only differve their own Interests by entertaining any. The Confequence was that the petty Jealoufies of the Cottage, which at first were fmothered over, went out at last for want of Fuel. The Poor had their Faults, of course; but, compared with other Districts, they were a favoured Homestead, and each might have said to his Fellow, in the beautiful Words of David, "The Lot has fallen to me in a fair Ground; I have a goodly Heritage!"* How well wrote he who said, "It is the Mind, that maketh Good or Ill, To make others happy was the great Happiness of THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES' Life; and because the Poor have not the Means and Appliances |