Excerpt from Jack Hinton: The Guardsman Some disparaging remarks on Ireland and Irishmen in the London press, not very unfrequent at the time, nor altogether obsolete even now, had provoked me at the moment and the sudden thought occurred of a reprisal by showing the many instances in which the Englishman would almost of necessity mistake and misjudge my countrymen, and that out of these blunders and misapprehensions, situations might arise that, if welded into a story, might be made to be amusing. I knew that there was not a class nor a condition in Ireland which had not marked differences from the correlative rank in England; and that not only the Irish squire, the Irish priest, and the Irish peasant, were unlike anything in the larger island, but that the Dublin professional man, the official, and the shopkeeper had traits and distinctions essen tially their own. I had frequently heard Opinions pronounced on Irish habits which I could easily trace to that quizzing habit of my countrymen, who never can deny themselves the enjoyment of playing on the credulity of the traveller - all the more eagerly when they see his note-book taken out to record their shortcomings and absurdities. These thoughts suggested Jack Hinton, and led me to turn from my intention to follow the French arms, or rather to postpone the plan to another opportunity, for it had got too strong hold on me to be utterly abandoned. I have already acknowledged, in a former notice to this story, that I strayed from the path I had determined on, and With very little reference to my original intention, suffered my hero to take his chance among the natives. Indeed, I soon found him too intensely engaged in the cares of self preservation to have much time or taste for criticism on his neighbours. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.