If the Irish people are the origin just now of
most of our political woes, not so much in consequence of their personal failings as of their unfortunate taste in Parliamentary repre- sentatives, they at least repay us by the singular humour alike of their complaints and their proposed remedies. At a recent meeting of the shareholders of the Waterford and Limerick Railway, there were many furious speakers, one of whom stated that he disapproved of the directors altogether, on the ground that they were always unanimous, which he held to be a most dangerous disposition, though he promised to cure that particular evil if they would only elect him a director. Evidently he held that, even if they were right, unanimity was a mischief, and that even a minority of one who should be in the wrong would remove the mischief. But the same gentle- man brought a more serious complaint against the Company. "You get into the train very early," he said, "and you are delayed at every station, and in the end you never arrive any- where at all." That must be the line that metaphysicians so often avail themselves of. Another Irishman, who on a visit to Dublin had been greatly struck by the sight of some trunks beautifully decorated with ornamental nails, when a friend said to him, " Ah ! sure, you should buy one, Pat !" replied, "What for, man ?" "Why, to put your clothes in, of course." "An' is it go naked myself ?" said Pat. Paddy's Clothes- philosophy does not take into account the contingency of more than one suit, and regards a trunk with some jealousy, indeed merely as a competitor with himself for the possession of the clothes he has on.
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