Mankind always desires to be singular, and in every nation
are to be found those whose special pride it is not to have done this or that thing to which their fellows are supposed to be specially addicted. For example, one can imagine a German pluming himself on never having drunk a glass of beer, or a Frenchman on never having held an official position or used papier timbre. In Ireland there is to be found a man whose proud boast it is that he can with truth say, "I never shot a landlord in my life." The claimant to a distinction so remark- able is Luke M'Hale, a harvester, who, according to a recent issue of the Morning Post, was lately arrested near Dublin. He was drunk and armed with a hay-fork, and under his shirt were found a gun, two pounds of shot, and a number of caps. He explained that he bought these lethal weapons in Liverpool for 14s., and when asked with what object replied, "To shoot anything that would cross my farm." When " landlords " was suggested by the Magistrate as the possible objective, he indignantly made use of the expression quoted above. Truly, as Sydney Smith observed, they never say or do anything in Ireland that is like what is said or done anywhere else.
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