depict the disturbances arising from the tithe impost with a fair and
impartial hand: and if any party shall feel hurt by observations which
the necessity of rendering full justice to a subject so difficult
have imposed upon me in the discharge of a public duty, I beg them
to consider that such observations proceeded from no wish to offend
existing prejudices, but are to be looked upon as arising inferentially
from those stern and uncompromising claims of truth and justice, which
equally disregard the prejudices of any and every party. After all, I am
of opinion that the spirit in which the work is written will be found,
whilst it correctly delineates the state and condition of the country
during the fearful tumults and massacres of the Tithe Rebellion, to have
left little, if anything, to be complained of in this respect.

In constructing narratives of this sort, it is to be understood that
certain allowances are always made for small anachronisms that cannot be
readily got over. The murder of the Bolands, for instance, occurred in
the year 1808, and the massacre of Carrickshock, as it has been called,
in 1832. It was consequently impossible for me to have availed myself of
the annexed "Narrative" and brought in the "Massacre" in the same story,
without bringing down the murder of the Bolands to a more recent date.

It may be objected that I have assumed, as the period of my story, one
which was calculated to bring into light and action the worst feelings
and the darkest criminals of my country. This, however, was not my
fault. If they had not existed, I could not have painted them; and so
long as my country is disgraced by great crimes, and her social state
disorganized by men whoso hardened vices bring shame upon civilization
itself, so long, I add, these crimes and such criminals shall never be
veiled over by me. I endeavor to paint Ireland, sometimes as she was,
but always as she is, in order that she may see many of those debasing