■ 
 
SAXON'S REMEDY 
 
 FOR 
 
 ISH DISCONTENT. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/saxonsremedyforiOOunse 
 
SAXON'S REMEDY 
 
 FOR 
 
 IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 " Free speech and fearless." — Shakespeare. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. 
 1868. 
 
 [All rights of Translation and Reproduction are reserved.'] 
 
i 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 fJ^O my old university friends I dedicate this 
 sketch of Ireland's history, her people, her 
 laws, and the alteration in those laws that I con- 
 ceive is necessitated by the progress of events. 
 
 I beg to assure those amongst them who have 
 prospered in the various paths of life they have 
 selected, that even when I have been unable 
 personally to congratulate them on their success, 
 the knowledge of it has afforded me the sin- 
 cerest gratification, and I have recalled many 
 friendly contests held in our Debating Society, 
 and long chats after lectures. 
 
 Happily our Alma Mater has turned out few 
 who have not managed to secure Fortune's fa- 
 vours, even when the fickle goddess has, at 
 
 2195 
 
vi 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 first, appeared to frown; but I have sincerely 
 grieved over the death of some of my former 
 class-fellows, despite the length of time which 
 had elapsed since we last met. 
 
 I believe that all I now address, especially 
 those who are in Parliament, will give a dis- 
 passionate consideration to the facts I state and 
 the remedies I propose, and I am certain that 
 those who penetrate my incognito will know 
 that I write from earnest conviction, unin- 
 fluenced by private feelings or interests. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE 1 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 DUBLIN . 8 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 DISSERTATION ON OUTSIDE CAES — THE PHCENIX PAEK 
 
 AND DUELS — TOUBIST FASHION 23 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE NOETH AND NOBTH-WEST OF IEELAND AND THE 
 
 MIDLAND COUNTIES 37 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE EAST, SOUTH, AND SOUTH-WEST OF IEELAND — 
 
 EETUENING TO DUBLIN BY LIMEE1CK 60 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 SKETCH OF IEISH HISTOET FEOM THE EAELIEST PEEJOD 
 UNTIL THE PASSING OF THE ACT FOE CATHOLIC 
 EMANCIPATION IN 1829 103 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 irish history continued till the commencement 
 oe 1868 . . 123 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EENIANISM 144 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EEEECT OE THE EENIAN CONSPIRACY Q]S THE PROS- 
 
 PEEITT OE IRELAND 161 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OE THE EARMS IN IRELAND COTTIER 
 
 EARMERS NOT SO NUMEROUS AS EORMERLT 
 
 TENURE OE LAND— LEASES EOR LITES AND YEARS 
 
 REEUSALS TO RENEW IN LATE INSTANCES — ^TENANTS 
 
 AT WILL, ETC. ... . . . . . . ... . 169 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE LANDLORDS OE IRELAND THE MARQUIS OE MANY- 
 LANDS THE EARL OE ERIN — LORD SCREW, ETC. . 181 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RICH GENTLEMEN EARMERS POOR GENTLEMEN EARMERS 
 
 — SNUG EARMERS — SMALL EARMERS, ETC 206 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IRISH AGENTS 225 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL AND TRADING CLASSES 229 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AND PROTESTANT CLERGY- 
 MEN — NEGLECT OF DIOCESAN SCHOOLS — PROTES- 
 TANTS IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND OBJECTORS TO 
 THE PRESENT SYSTEM . . ■ . . . 238 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PARISH PRIESTS — THEIR INFLUENCE — HIGH CHA- 
 RACTER — FENIANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THEM — 
 
 AN OLD STORY — COMPARISON BETWEEN PROTESTANT 
 AND CATHOLIC CHURCH DIGNITARIES 256 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE LOWER ORDERS OF IRISH — ARTIZANS, SERVANTS, 
 
 LABOURERS, ETC 269 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE MAGISTRACY AND GRAND JURY AT ASSIZES AND 
 SESSIONS — THEIR APPOINTMENT — THE WAY COUNTY 
 CESS IS LEVIED — IRISH GRIEVANCES 283 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IRISH GRIEVANCES CONTINUED— UNFAIR TAXATION — 
 ABSENCE OF ROYALTY — NEGLECT OF PUBLIC WORKS 
 — RAILWAYS, ETC 307 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 REMEDY PROPOSED FOR SATISFYING DISCONTENT ON 
 THE LAND QUESTION — A COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE 
 EXTREME VIEWS OF LANDLORD AND TENANT — 
 NECESSITY FOR IMMEDIATE LEGISLATION ON THE 
 SUBJECT 331 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 REMEDIES FOR IRISH CHURCH AND EDUCATIONAL GRIEV- 
 ANCES — CONCLUDING REMARKS 370 
 
A 
 
 SAXON'S REMEDY 
 
 FOR 
 
 IEISH DISCONTENT, 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 "^^HAT is the English idea of Ireland and of 
 the Irish people? It is an idea formed 
 from novelists like Lever, who must idealize 
 and exaggerate, and from tourists who have 
 hurried through the country on a three weeks' 
 trip, and upon whom a rainy day or a bad dinner 
 makes far deeper impression than the state of 
 trade and agriculture, and the real character of 
 the people; yet how eagerly these ladies and 
 gentlemen rush into print, and are accepted as 
 authorities by the public. 
 
 ""Were you ever in Ireland at all?" said one 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 of the smartest of the Irish M.P.'s to a great 
 English engineer who was giving very strong 
 evidence about a contested railway extension. 
 " Never in my life," returned the engineer ; " and 
 I wish to state that I can form a much better 
 and more unbiassed opinion than if I had run 
 over for a week or so ; now, I am guided by 
 printed authorities, whereas if I had been on the 
 spot, some prejudiced person or another would 
 certainly have got hold of me and would have in- 
 fluenced my judgment/' "Whether the engineer 
 was right or wrong in his convenient opinion, 
 the fact remains, that the people of England 
 generally know little of Ireland, which they look 
 upon as a country of bogs and mountains, with a 
 large river and lake here and there, with four 
 towns, namely, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and Lime- 
 rick, where some trade is done, and with five 
 things tourists ought to see, — i.e., the Devil's 
 Glen, the Seven Churches, the Meeting of the 
 Waters, the Lakes of Killarney, and the Giant's 
 Causeway. When these things, popularly sup- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 3 
 
 posed to lie together all in a heap, have been 
 done, it is believed Ireland is exhausted, and the 
 adventurous tourist may sit down and write a 
 description of the island. As for the people, 
 those in the towns who do not beg, drive cars, 
 wear very large old great-coats, dilapidated hats 
 with a short pipe in the string-band, and when 
 not singing tell stories, of w r hich " Bedad " and 
 "Yer honor" form a considerable portion. In 
 the country, amongst the bogs and mountains 
 are the ruined mansions of the aristocracy, who 
 stalk abroad to sell up their wretched tenantry, 
 and when not shot by these oppressed people 
 — which, however, is their probable end — die 
 victims to profuse hospitality, and to exceeding 
 that sixteenth after-dinner tumbler of whisky 
 punch which is the happy medium between 
 necessary alcoholic defence against the exhala- 
 tion from the bogs and dangerous trifling with 
 the constitution. 
 
 Complicating the relations between these land- 
 lords and their miserable tenants, there is an 
 
 b 2 
 
4 a s axon's remedy 
 
 agent and middleman, but whether the agent 
 and the middleman is the same person, or whether 
 they are two different individuals, ho tourist ever 
 yet made out — and novelists and dramatists 
 leave the point obscure — but he is always 
 brought to' shame, and if not shot or hung, 
 it is the universal English opinion that he ought 
 to be; at any rate, he acts as a safety-buffer 
 between the landlord and tenant, and if the 
 former is ever allowed to die naturally of whisky 
 punch, it is because this rascal of an agent-mid- 
 dleman is immolated instead. 
 
 If, however, there is any doubt concerning the 
 exact status of the compound middleman-agent, 
 there is none about the peasantry. They are, in 
 fact, farmers of the bog and mountain land, of 
 which they hold about an acre each, and on 
 which they usually grow potatoes. Who does 
 not know their old dress-coats, their frieze over- 
 coats, their knee-breeches, their brogues, shil- 
 lelaghs, and general whisky-drinking and fight- 
 ing propensities ? Do not all Englishmen know 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 5 
 
 these poor Irish must be eternally giving 
 away anything they have scraped together, for- 
 getful of the rent, and then they must be sold 
 up— i.e., the farming stock, consisting of one pig, 
 must be, and they be, turned out of the cabin, and 
 potato land, and all the rest of it? Of course 
 the clergy play a conspicuous part. There is the 
 Church of England representative, with all the 
 emolument, and nothing to speak of in the way 
 of work and congregation ; and there is the won- 
 derful rollicking priest, kindly of heart, great in 
 influence, fertile in expedients for getting his 
 dues, and ready enough with a supple right hand 
 to give to the poor, to empty a tumbler, to steady 
 a raw four-year old at a stone wall, or, on occa- 
 sion, to flourish a shillelagh. 
 
 Now, my English friends, have I not sketched 
 correctly your ideas of Ireland and the Irish? 
 They were mine, I know, before I went to live 
 there, and knew the country and people. I 
 bought land there, farmed some and let more, 
 agreed with most of my tenants, fought hard 
 
6 a saxon's remedy 
 
 legal battles with others, travelled and explored 
 all over the island, talked with every one — Pro- 
 testant and Catholic ; Orangemen and Fenians. 
 I have discussed educational matters with high 
 Protestant and Catholic authorities. I was at 
 the great meeting at Tara, when, as a loyal Eng- 
 lishman, I could scarcely restrain myself, and I 
 have sat as a guest with Irish friends when the 
 abuse of Catholics was so rabid that I had to 
 defend them. I have been told by one party 
 that I should never possess influence with 
 gentlemen in Ireland, because I was too much in 
 favour of tenant-right, and I have been promised 
 a speedy use for six feet of ground by a man 
 who considered the right of trespass on his 
 neighbour's land one of his privileges. 
 
 When I have said this I hope it will be con- 
 ceded by my fellow-countrymen that I have tried 
 impartially to form a judgment on Ireland and 
 its people, as well as on what are the reasons 
 which make discontent and semi -rebellion 
 chronic. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 7 
 
 Having done this, I will state what would, in 
 my opinion, cure the evil. 
 
 To Englishmen generally, as one of them- 
 selves, I need hardly say that I have mixed 
 myself up with every local improvement, and 
 have been forward in strengthening the present 
 Government against Fenianism, an insidious evil 
 of the worst Yankee type, introduced into Ire- 
 land from spite, fostered by intriguers for the 
 purpose of raising money, and opposed alike to 
 religion, morality, and progress. 
 
 Now, as I write for the people, and not merely 
 for travellers and learned men, who know r every- 
 thing, come with me, good British public, and 
 let us survey the whole of Ireland. 
 
 The journey shall cost you far less than the 
 usual somewhat exorbitant charge, and in a few 
 minutes you shall know more of the aspect of 
 the country than the author of " Ireland at a 
 Glance," or "A Fortnight's Furlough in the 
 Land of Various Faiths and Factions," ever in- 
 stilled into you. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 DUBLIN. 
 
 J^OW, then, we have mounted the magic aerial 
 car, and overtaking the "Wild Irishman" 
 (as the mail train from London to Holyhead is 
 called) hover over the speedy Leinster, which, 
 with the Ulster, Munster, and Connaugld, forms 
 a little fleet of as fine steamers as the world can 
 produce. After admiring her graceful coquetting 
 with the waves, seldom altogether tranquil in 
 St. George's Channel, we glide onwards and 
 behold the "Bay of Dublin" before us. As I 
 am not an Irishman, and as I know the Bay of 
 Naples well, and suspect some of you also have 
 been there, I do not tell you the two bays 
 present as great a resemblance as "Pompey and 
 Csesar," but for all that it is a lovely sight you 
 see. ; 
 
REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 9 
 
 To the left hand are Kingstown, Dalkey, with 
 its island, KilHney, Bray, and a host of lesser 
 sea-side places inhabited by the wealthy mer- 
 chants and tradesmen who transact business in 
 Dublin ; there, too, on the rising ground beyond, 
 are the mansions of lords and archbishops, 
 bishops and judges ; above these tower the 
 Dublin and Wicklow mountains, with the sugar- 
 loaves in the foreground, all looking so green 
 and fertile half way up, they suggest thoughts 
 of rich butter-producing valleys to those of us 
 who have dairies. To the right are the islands 
 of Lambay and Ireland's Eye, and the Hill of 
 Howth, and all along the coast to Malahide are 
 more mansions and villas, and plenty of signs 
 of wealth and prosperity. Before us is the city 
 of Dublin, and as we pass docks full of ships, 
 packets preparing to start to all parts of the 
 world, and all the crowd and bustle of a great 
 commercial capital, I observe some of my com- 
 panions (men of the John WiHet class, into 
 whom the insertion of a new idea is equal to 
 
10 a saxon's remedy 
 
 the surgical operation mentioned by Sydney 
 Smith) look doubtfully at me, and are evidently 
 unable to comprehend that this is Ireland! 
 Upon this I point to great droves of fat cattle 
 and sheep, and troops of pigs, and remark that 
 they are all going to feed us in England ; that 
 the two former cost about 6^. per pound, and 
 the latter 4^., and that, as a fifth of the first 
 cost may be deducted for hide, fat, &c, it ought 
 to pay the butchers very well if they retailed 
 the best at l\d. per pound, and the inferior at 
 b\d. As I say this, however, there is such a 
 chorus of indignant exclamations from a number 
 of stout, wealthy-looking men, that, remembering 
 I ought to keep all my friends in good humour, 
 I hastily change the subject, and proceed to 
 describe Dublin. 
 
 Yes, that fine building to the right is the 
 Custom House, and this river, embanked on 
 each side for so great a distance, is the Liffey ; 
 these quays are a credit to any city, and this 
 bridge, so narrow and insufficient for the great 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 11 
 
 traffic which throngs it, is a disgrace — it is 
 Carlisle Bridge, not named after the kind- 
 hearted Lord-Lieutenant we lately lost, but after 
 one of his ancestors. "Whose fault is it that 
 there is not a better bridge ? "Well, it is hard 
 to say. In a similar difficulty about a bridge in 
 Kerry, Cromwell said he should hang half-a- 
 dozen of the chief men in the county if there 
 were not a good one in a month's time, and there 
 was a satisfactory bridge within that period, and 
 nobody was hung ! There were few men who 
 solved difficulties more easily than the Protector. 
 However, every one must own that the view 
 from Carlisle Bridge is superb — all that a 
 modern British city should be, with a touch of 
 the old Italian — as you look up the quays and 
 view the river, spanned by bridges of all kinds, 
 as far as we can see, and further. 
 
 High up that building to the right is the 
 Four Courts, where, if we had time, you should 
 hear Butt harangue, Armstrong cross-examine, 
 and Sullivan argue, owning that eloquence and 
 
12 a s axon's remedy 
 
 talent have not died out with Curran. Those 
 streets which are connected by Carlisle Bridge 
 are Sackville-street and Westmoreland-street, 
 both wide and handsome, and containing fine 
 buildings. In the former are the Nelson 
 Column, and the space reserved for the statue 
 of O'Connell. We go up Westmoreland-street 
 into College Green, and look with interest at 
 the Bank of Ireland, formerly the Irish Parlia- 
 ment House; there the Union was brought 
 about, and there patriotism had its price, and 
 Irishmen rejoiced they had a country to sell: 
 do not look at those miserable abortions some 
 wicked people say are Moore and Gfoldsmith, 
 and pity King William and his horse ! Why 
 did not the Fenians blow up these insults to 
 Ireland, as some of their progenitors did the 
 latter work of art, instead of annihilating in- 
 offensive women and children? Let us, how- 
 ever, enter the College gates, and, looking at 
 the Alma Mater of as much learning, wit, and 
 eloquence as any university in the world, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 13 
 
 congratulate her, that still in the race of life 
 her children have not degenerated. 
 
 Now we must pass the objectionable equestrian 
 statue, and go up Dame-street to the Castle. All 
 the great English insurance companies have offices 
 here, and it is worthy of remark that Dublin 
 seems gradually getting burned down and re- 
 built since they came over ; however, these un- 
 dertakings thrive on fire, and after a particularly 
 bad one you are sure to see several fresh com- 
 panies. The representative of one of these was 
 lately roused from his bed at four in the morn- 
 ing by an excited gentleman, who insisted on his 
 shop and stock being insured at once. " Come 
 again at ten o'clock," said the agent. " Sure, by 
 that time there will be nothing left to insure," 
 cried the applicant ; " everything was in a blaze 
 when I ran off ten minutes since. You must do 
 it at once or lose the job." 
 
 "We are now at the end of Dame-street, and 
 going up Cork-hill ; this is Parliament-street to 
 the right, and if you bear to the left and then 
 
14 a s axon's remedy 
 
 to the right you get into Thomas-street. There 
 is nothing remarkable in their appearance, but 
 hereabouts more treason has been written and 
 enacted than you are aware of. Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald was taken, after a desperate resistance, 
 in a house in Thomas-street in 1798 ; there also 
 a clever capture of armed Fenians was made about 
 two years since. In a little street leading from 
 Dame-street to the quays two poor policemen 
 were shot quite recently, by a man carrying a 
 bundle. It was a cold-blooded affair, and the 
 perpetrator has not been discovered. The sup- 
 pressed Fenian journal was published in Parlia- 
 ment -street. But we must leave Cork-hill with 
 only a glance at the Gruildhall of Dublin, and 
 enter the Castle yard. 
 
 Yes, that is Dublin Castle ! It is a polyglot 
 kind of place, but it has splendid rooms inside, 
 and often in the days of the kindly Carlisle and 
 the high-bred Eglinton — both too soon lost to 
 their country — I have seen them filled with all 
 that is bravest and handsomest in Ireland, as 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 15 
 
 well as a good assortment of Englishmen and 
 foreigners. More recently, in Lord Kimberley's 
 time, I remember a night when these halls were 
 crowded, but when the streets we drove through 
 were empty of every one save soldiers, for infor- 
 mation had been received that a Fenian rising 
 would take place ; and though most of the visi- 
 tors were careless and unbelieving, I fancy that, 
 but for the preparations made, there might have 
 been some rash attempt at rebellion. 
 
 Now the Marquis of Abercorn, whom all men 
 of all parties combine to praise, keeps up the 
 hospitalities of the Castle ; and in looking at 
 the portraits of Ireland's Viceroys which adorn 
 the long reception rooms, one can see no pre- 
 sence more noble, no countenance more indicative 
 of qualities likely to conciliate. With a hearty 
 wish that in his time all discontent may cease, 
 and Ireland and England become one nation in- 
 deed, we will make our way through some streets 
 where it will be well to shut eyes and noses, 
 and which remind you strongly of old St. Giles's, 
 
16 a saxon's remedy 
 
 and we arrive at St. Patrick's ancient cathedral, 
 newly done up and beautified — a splendid build- 
 ing, is it not ? and restored in good taste, all 
 through Gruinness brewing the best porter in the 
 world — whatever you Londoners may say — and 
 to his being able and willing to spend one year's 
 income (stated to be 100,000/.) thus worthily. 
 We must enter for a minute and glance at the 
 tombs of stout old Schomberg — who fell at the 
 Boyne, and whose descendants grasped the fruits 
 of his valour, and grudged the money for a suit- 
 able monument — and of Dean Swift, that epi- 
 tome of wit and sarcastic bitterness, who must 
 nevertheless have had a good heart, since all the 
 Irish tales one hears about him are favourable. 
 
 When Prince Albert died it was proposed to 
 clear away those vile, filthy streets leading from 
 St. Patrick's to Stephen's-green, and form one 
 broad avenue, in the Paris style, in honour and 
 remembrance of him. Let us hope the execution 
 of this excellent idea is only deferred. 
 
 This grand square is indeed Stephen's-green, in 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 17 
 
 every way worthy of the capital of an important 
 country. Many of the houses round it are clubs, or 
 public buildings of some kind. That is the Shel- 
 burne Hotel ; this is the winter residence of the 
 Archbishop of Dublin ; that archway leads to the 
 world-renowned u Dycer's the large garden in 
 the centre will soon be opened to the public : 
 many of the best streets run out of Stephen's - 
 green ; that at the left-hand corner is Grafton- 
 street, where the ladies of Dublin delight to shop 
 and block up the narrow way with their carriages; 
 two of the S* Monster Houses " which are such a 
 feature in Dublin, and in some of which you can 
 buy everything except eatables, are situated in 
 this street. Also leading out of the square is 
 Dawson-street, full of hotels, and Kildare-street, 
 where is erected, in modern splendour, the famous 
 Kildare-street Club, and which also contains the 
 buildings and grounds of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society; of these things, and Merrion-square 
 beyond, where lawyers and doctors congregate, 
 an Irishman may be proud, as he may also of the 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 great Exhibition building, though, where Ire- 
 land's only Duke (Leinster) and her wealthiest 
 M.P. (Guinness) are the leading directors, you 
 may think the undertaking should have been made 
 successful without proposing the realization of 
 the loss to the Government. 
 
 As for the theatres, they are not worth seeing 
 outside, though some of the greatest names on 
 the London stage, past and present, male and 
 female, are Irish, and have commenced their re- 
 putation in Dublin. The Rotundo, at the end of 
 Sackville-street, is the place where concerts and 
 all sorts of exhibitions are held. 
 
 When the Trinity College athletic sports take 
 place in the ample grounds of the College, you 
 may see young fellows compete who have no 
 superiors in strength and agility anywhere ; and 
 amongst the spectators are plenty of forms and 
 faces that would make the overrated " Misses 
 Gunning " seem dowdy could they walk out of 
 their frames and look their very best. 
 
 Now, except some lesser squares, streets, and 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 19 
 
 churches, you have had a fair view of Dublin, for 
 I am not going to drag you to the cemeteries 
 and zoological gardens, as, though well worth 
 seeing, and affording a fine opportunity for 
 moralizing ^over O'Connell's tomb, and the ex- 
 tinction of Irish elks and Irish greyhounds, I 
 must not make this a mere tourist's trip : I only 
 wish to make you know the capital of Ireland, 
 and afterwards the country, before we examine 
 the people and their requirements. You see that 
 Dublin is very like London on a smaller scale. 
 There are fine public buildings, good private re- 
 sidences, and shops not at all inferior to those of 
 London. There is considerable trade, and money 
 may be made there by care and economy, fore- 
 thought and enterprize. There is a Court which 
 it is undesirable to abolish, unless you replace it 
 by something more real. It is nonsense to com- 
 pare Scotland and Ireland ; and to legislate for 
 the one as for the other is absurd. Besides, the 
 Queen lives half the year in Scotland, and when 
 any of our royal family comes to Ireland, the 
 
 c 2 
 
20 a s axon's remedy 
 
 first aim. has apparently been to go in public as 
 little as possible, and their second, to get away 
 as speedily as may be. When has any royal 
 personage gone to Dublin Castle, and publicly 
 and openly met his or her subjects as the Em- 
 peror of Austria did the Hungarians ? And yet 
 those gallant fellows who shouted " Welcome" 
 had many of them relations to mourn, and 
 wounds, chains, captivity, and losses endured by 
 themselves to forgive ! Well, we shall see if one 
 of our princes will try the experiment of being 
 Lord-Lieutenant. 
 
 For the rest, though all praise must be 
 given to Dublin for having avoided the rush 
 into banks and companies which has made 
 many of our most esteemed London names very 
 much mixed up in what looks so like swindling, 
 that they must have dreamed of the Old Bailey 
 and Brixton, yet there have been a few little 
 things got up and tumbled down not altogether 
 unworthy of a London financier : in a general 
 way, however, Irish swindlers go to England, 
 
K)K, IRISH DISCONTENT. 21 
 
 and there some of them have distinguished them- 
 selves in a style professional company winders-up 
 appreciate. 
 
 When I have added that there is a Corpo- 
 ration whose members are more distinguished 
 for throwing dirt at each other than for 
 cleaning it out of the streets ; that pure water is 
 always being promised, litigated about, and taxed 
 for, but does not arrive ; and that the public 
 lamps look like farthing candles in a fog com- 
 pared with the brilliancy of Paris gas, you will see 
 that London and Dublin are " very much alike/' 
 
 In Dublin, however, the lower orders do not 
 often commit those savage assaults on each other, 
 and on the police, that you read of in London. 
 I think the police would hit again, and that the 
 magistrates punish more severely. As you have 
 read, perhaps, imprisonment in an Irish gaol is 
 not all liberty and good living ; and people do 
 not go in to put over an idle time. Nevertheless 
 the appearance of a culprit charged with having 
 gnawed the face of the prosecutor, and who 
 
22 REMEDY EOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 proved that his own ear had first been bitten off 
 by this aggrieved man, enabled a late police 
 magistrate to say a good thing. " I dismiss the 
 case/' said he. " You are a pair of dirty black- 
 guards, and the only man fit to settle the matter 
 is the King of the Cannibal Islands." 
 
 Now we will make a rapid survey of the rest 
 of the island. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 DISSERTATION OX OUTSIDE CAES THE PHCENIX AND DUELS 
 
 EEE I am assailed by a chorus of voices 
 
 to describe Dublin without saying one word of 
 the Phoenix Park. 
 
 A restless little French gentleman, whom I 
 have heard called " Louis/ 5 and who, I am told, 
 was once a sixth part of a king himself, plainly 
 intimates his belief that patriots are being shot 
 there, and that I dare not show the Phoenix ; a 
 tall thin lady, with a stiff back and a pair of 
 spectacles, " guesses " the Park is just kept 
 private against " Victoria " comes ; and a pale 
 young man, with round eyes, and a half open 
 mouth, looking able to swallow anything, de- 
 clares there has been nothing sensational yet — 
 
 TOURIST FASHION. 
 
 wondering at my impudence in pretending 
 
24 a saxon's remedy 
 
 nothing about duels, or murders, or anything 
 interesting. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, I am at your service. 
 Let us descend from our aerial and invisible car, 
 and take outside ones. You three leaders of the 
 malcontents, come with me. Ladies are not sup- 
 posed to ride on public outside cars in Dublin, 
 but tourists are privileged. 
 
 Powers of Brianconi, we are in luck ! Here 
 are Tim O'Toole and his little bay mare. Look 
 at Tim and the car and the mare, for in a few 
 years they may be numbered with the things 
 that were. 
 
 Every one knows a car is a long, narrow box 
 to hold luggage, with seats on each side and 
 foot-boards hanging over two low wheels. There 
 is a seat for the driver in front. As the legs of the 
 passengers hang outside, only use can take away 
 the belief in their imminent peril from other 
 vehicles ; and the cars, especially old hired ones, 
 swing about a good deal, so you must not sit 
 stiffly, but swing with the car. Nevertheless you 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 25 
 
 get off and on easily, and the car is a cheap and 
 convenient vehicle for the country when you are 
 used to it. The mare is a character, nearly 
 thoroughbred, and under fifteen hands, long and 
 low, better behind than before, with a lean neck 
 and a blood head ; the way she turns her eyes, 
 works her ears, and whisks her tail, proclaims 
 that w r ork alone keeps her temper down, and, 
 indeed, Tim got her after she had converted an 
 Albert phaeton into a "box of chips" at Sandy- 
 mount. She is well fed, though she looks 
 rough, and notwithstanding her hocks show the 
 marks of her exploits at Sandymount and else- 
 where, she could do sixty miles in quicker time 
 than many a two-hundred guinea purchase. Now, 
 look at Tim : middle-sized, squarely built, with 
 merry black eyes, and shaggy black hair streaked 
 with grey, for Tim is nearly sixty; he has a 
 general appearance of never being washed, nor 
 "undressed, nor combed, nor shaved, but he has 
 always been seen in the same old frieze coat, 
 muddy trousers, and shocking bad hat, and I 
 
26 a s axon's remedy 
 
 don t think the car was ever properly washed 
 and cleaned since Tim got it — nevertheless, 
 jump on. 
 
 " Tim, my fine fellow, drive us to the Phoenix ; 
 these are real quality, and wont pay you the 
 dirty sixpence for a city boundary drive." 
 
 " Eaix, yer honer, it's raal quality they look, 
 especially her ladyship, Grod bless her, and I 
 shan't have to hould a cloth before the mare's 
 eyes when I take the fare, as I have to do 
 when Father Flanagan rides from the Cattle- 
 market to Harcourt-street Station, and bestows 
 sixpence as the lawful fare. His riverence is 
 thirty stone if he's an ounce, and the distance is 
 three miles, and I tell him the mare would do 
 him a mischief if she saw what we got for the long 
 drive." 
 
 "Well done, Tim; the priest was a parson 
 when you told the tale before ; but I have seen 
 both religions represented in equally dirty 
 degrees of remuneration to your fraternity, who 
 could not live if you only got your legal fares." 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 27 
 
 " Faix, yer honer, it's difficult to tell religions, 
 as big bully Egan tould the Archbishop of 
 Dublin, when he nearly drowned the poor little 
 gintleman in the big swimming bath by flustering 
 over him as he jumped in ; and advised him to 
 have a mitre engraved on his shoulthers and a 
 cross on his chest that the bathers might know 
 and respect him." 
 
 "Now, Tim, to be impartial, you should tell 
 us a tale about Presbyterians/' 
 
 " Well, yer honer, I never knew much of them, 
 barrin' when I lived with one of the Batesons 
 in the north. The masther was a bitther Pro- 
 testant intirely, but a cousin of his, a Presby- 
 terian minister, beat Banagher. One day there 
 was a great Orange meeting, and lots of quality 
 met and dined, and drank toasts, and made 
 speeches, and had such like divarsions. After I 
 drove the masther home, he tould me to go and 
 see if his cousin, who was riding, was safe at his 
 house. Well, as I was just turning up a lane 
 which led there, I heard a kind of choking sound, 
 
28 a saxon's remedy 
 
 and there, in a pond by the road-side, almost 
 smothered in mud, was his riverence. Trouble 
 enough I had to get him out, and to bring him 
 to was another hard job, for he had swallowed 
 lashin's of mud and duck- weed. At last, c Who 
 are you that's saved me ?' says he. c I'm Tim 
 O'Toole, yer riverence,' says I. ' "What's yer 
 creed?' says he. ' I'm a Papist,' says I, c yer 
 riverence. 7 'Put me back in the pond, then,' 
 says he, ' for I wont be behoulden to you.' 
 And sure he never rested till he made the 
 masther put me out and hire a Protestant in- 
 stead." 
 
 Well done, Tim, a true tale, I dare say, and 
 told with not too much brogue, which, hailing 
 as you do from county Wicklow, would not be 
 natural ; but you must not whisk us round the 
 corners so, for, had not my arm been pretty 
 strong, this American lady would have come to 
 grief. As it is the spectacles are gone, and we 
 must stop and pick them up. What, my French 
 friend, would you rather walk than pursue your 
 
YOU IRISH DISCONTENT. 29 
 
 route in this " sacre" vehicle, where your legs 
 are menaced without ceasing? Courage, we are 
 entering the Phoenix. Tim will be doubly care- 
 ful of you as a Frenchman and a patriot, but say 
 not a word about Garibaldi. Tim is a jewel of a 
 driver, and except in returning from Punches- 
 town races never upsets any one ; in fact even 
 then I never heard of anything worse than a 
 couple of attorneys having something unpleasant 
 happen to them, and nobody reckons accidents 
 to attorneys in Ireland. It is popularly sup- 
 posed that there is some one, not exactly a 
 cherub, watches over them in this life and re- 
 moves their remains after the wake, leaving be- 
 hind only a strong smell of sulphur. 
 
 Now we are in the Phoenix, open, you see, to 
 all, and suitable for all purposes — for reviews, 
 races, cricket matches, for healthy exercise of all 
 kinds, including flirting and fighting. 
 
 There is the Royal Military Infirmary, which 
 reminds me to mention that in hospitals, and in 
 the doctors that attend their inmates, Dublin need 
 
30 a saxon's remedy 
 
 fear no criticism ; that obelisk in front is, of course, 
 the Wellington Testimonial. Waterloo is less 
 avenged here than on Constitution Hill ! There 
 are the Constabulary Barracks, and I may here 
 remark, that the drill is the same as in the army. 
 There is the Vice-Eegal Lodge ; summer recep- 
 tions are there held in morning costume ; further 
 on you see the house of the Chief Secretary. Lord 
 Mayo has found something else to do than hunt 
 since his tenure of office commenced, though 
 a former Chief Secretary, who was accused of 
 spending his time in that manner, declared that 
 he never found any one to do business with at 
 the office except an old woman ; and when he in- 
 quired what happened when letters came, was 
 told "there never were any." 
 
 " Stephens and Co." have changed all that ; and 
 Mr. Lendrick, who has replaced the " old woman" 
 as Private Secretary, has need of all his native 
 courtesy to satisfy his numerous correspondents, 
 some of whom may perchance put a small packet 
 of nitro-glycerine in their communications. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 31 
 
 Here we are at the Phoenix Pillar, erected by 
 Lord Chesterfield when Lord-Lieutenant, and a 
 good one he was, notwithstanding the " Letters;" 
 it is close to the " Fifteen Acres," and here we 
 will wander about a little, and wish that the 
 hawthorn were in bloom in the dells yonder. Is 
 it duels you want to hear about ? Why, if I 
 begin on that theme you wont get out of the 
 Phoenix under three volumes ! The whole place 
 has an odour of carte and tierce, hair triggers, 
 fighting Fitzgerald, Tiger Roche, and the Irish 
 Bar. One nobleman and his sons, when a law- 
 suit was going against them, called out all the 
 opposing counsel. Here Barrington hit another 
 legal gentleman in the region of the heart, who 
 tumbled over apparently dead, but was found to 
 be only " kilt" for the minute, the bullet having 
 glanced from the brace-buckle ; whereupon he 
 was comforted and assured that in a general way 
 rogues were not saved by the " gallows" (Anglice, 
 suspenders or braces). Some one else was saved 
 owing to having purchased gingerbread nuts, 
 
32 a saxon's remedy 
 
 which, with the " copper change/ 5 were in the 
 long-waisted waistcoat pocket. 
 
 These were the legal gentlemen who seem gene- 
 rally to have been preserved by the agency of that 
 friend who is supposed to welcome them warmly 
 below when quite past mischief here. There is one 
 instance recorded of a little attorney who was reluc- 
 tantly forced to fight a terrible duellist by a distant 
 relative zealous for the honour of the family, and 
 who, though old and unpractised, took to the 
 business and finished his opponent in the neatest 
 professional manner. But the numbers of poor 
 fellows whom a mistaken feeling of honour 
 brought within the deadly aim of licensed mur- 
 derers, who were avenging no insult and redress- 
 ing no wrong, but only gratifying their thirst for 
 notoriety, would fill many a gloomy page. Per- 
 haps every other Irish duel yields in interest to 
 the one between D'Esterre and O'Connell. 
 
 The Liberator's tongue was so excessively glib 
 when he found a sore place in the epidermis of 
 his opponent, that, after the fatal result of this 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 33 
 
 duel, he himself would speedily have been ' c eman- 
 cipated 5 ' from this world of woe by some better 
 shot than the luckless D'Esterre, had he not kept 
 his oath never to " go out again." One cannot 
 help thinking this resolve was rather fortunate 
 for our present leader in the House of Commons, 
 and that adroit master of fence, whose sarcasm 
 used to drive Sir K. Peel as " wild" as Mr. Toole 
 in the " Steeple Chase," must often feel small at 
 reflecting how he suffered himself to forget all 
 lessons of attack and parry when assailed by the 
 coarse joke of being descended from the Jew who 
 reviled our Saviour on the cross. 
 
 Earl Derby, when Chief Secretary, is thought 
 to have got rather the better of O'Connell, and I 
 wonder he did not put the present premier up 
 to telling the latter that he came direct from 
 Thersites, or the beggar in the " Odyssey," to 
 whom Ulysses gave such a drubbing. 
 
 You want to know exactly where O'Connell 
 stood, and where his opponent fell ; just in these 
 very places, and you see the grass is still bent 
 
34 a saxon's remedy 
 
 down and a trifle red where poor D'Esterre lay 
 dying. 
 
 Now, Tim O'Toole, while the good people are 
 gathering up the grass and breaking the haw- 
 thorn bushes, let me say a word to you : what is 
 it to you or me that some schoolboy has been 
 lying there and spilling the juice out of his rasp- 
 berry tart ? Don't I know the duel was fought 
 near Mount Jerome; but tourists must have 
 something tangible to look at and to take home 
 to their friends. Those bits of grass and twigs 
 are real relics to them, and they will induce plenty 
 of other tourists to come and gather similar re- 
 membrances. It's your unfortunate country I'm 
 thinking of, you thief of the world; and inas- 
 much as they show three places in Eome where 
 St. Sebastian was martyred, so we will have two 
 for D'Esterre, who was a kind of Protestant 
 martyr. 
 
 The grandest writer we have in London, Lord 
 Lytton, himself says, when a Saxon likes to lie 
 he can beat any Norman at it ; and though a 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 35 
 
 carman can go pretty far in humbugging tourists, 
 is it myself, who am a Saxon direct from King 
 Alfred, like Mr. Stansfeld, who is to play second 
 in anything to a fellow who does not know if he 
 is a Celt or a Dane, and only boasts of coming 
 from kings who ruled over a lot of Wicklow 
 mountains ? What the mischief were those kings 
 ever famous for, but for having a lame goose for St. 
 Kevin to cure, and for letting " Black Tom" get 
 their land owing to their having no title deeds to 
 show ? Sure, the lawyers would have made them 
 titles as easy as Judge Lynch would in his court. 
 
 Are not Mr. Seward and Barnum Saxons en- 
 tirely? and cannot they humbug equal to a 
 Frenchman? It was Seward who humbugged 
 and tall-talked the French out of Mexico ; and 
 Bismarck, another chap you may call a Saxon, 
 who kept them off the Ehine. It's no joke, I 
 tell you, to put the double on Louis Napoleon, 
 when he has the winning cards in his hand. 
 Well, these men did it ; and if I like to practise 
 humbug, and a trifle of deceit, and tall-talk 
 
 d 2 
 
36 REMEDY TOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 against I go to settle all disputed business with 
 the big- wigs over yonder, it's not you who 
 should call out, Tim O'Toole. Maybe I'll put in 
 a word for you, as the real descendant of King 
 O'Toole, when Mr. Bright gets the old property 
 from Earl Fitzwilliam for judicious distribution ; 
 so don't be like the bird your ancestor was so 
 fond of, but be careful of the grass and branches 
 the tourists are bringing ; and having now done 
 the Phoenix, take us back by the quays, as we shall 
 then see Kilmainham, and the Eoyal Barracks, 
 and Christchurch, and look into the Four Courts, 
 where the statues, particularly that of Sir 
 Michael O'Loghlin, are worth notice. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE NORTH AND NORTH-WEST OF IRELAND AND THE 
 MIDLAND COUNTIES. 
 
 J^UCKILY we have a beautiful clear day, 
 which, in imagination, we always have at 
 command; so we, being nobly independent of 
 the Dublin and Drogheda Eailway, as well as 
 of that which goes by Navan and Kells, enjoy 
 a splendid view of the coast and inland scenery 
 as we wend our way through the counties Dublin 
 and Meath. 
 
 We see to the right Howth and Malahide, 
 where in ancient Norman castles reside the Earl 
 of Howth and Lord Talbot ; the first celebrated 
 for the legend of " Grrana TJile," who, in Queen 
 Elizabeth's time, carried away the heir of the 
 house to the far west, on being told that she 
 
38 a saxon's remedy 
 
 must wait till dinner was over before slie could 
 have admittance. He was only released on con- 
 dition that the doors of the Castle should be 
 always kept open at meal times. 
 
 'No end of money has been laid out on the 
 Harbour of Howth, but it is of little use except 
 for small craft, as since the rise of Kingstown 
 the communication between England and Ireland 
 is no longer carried on from Howth. 
 
 Lord Talbot, as well as Lord Howth, deserves 
 every credit for living on his estate, and doing 
 his best to improve it. Many of us who have 
 been in Eome remember how Monsignore Talbot, 
 his brother, patronizes the " green," and in every 
 way keeps up the credit of old Ireland. 
 
 Then we come to Lusk, and see the first old 
 round tower standing by the church in which 
 Dean Swift is said to have preached, and turning 
 our eyes right and left, we behold land which 
 would take the shine out of Northamptonshire, 
 where people give 14/. each for bullocks, and 
 boast that an acre will fatten one, and where at 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 39 
 
 one time of the year they catch ling and her- 
 rings, and at another plant early potatoes for the 
 Dublin market, followed up by a crop of man- 
 gold transplanted into the potato drills. 
 
 It is a rich and fertile country we pass 
 through till we get to Drogheda, and remarkable 
 for many things : for Cromwell's butchery when 
 he invaded Ireland, and for Mr. TVTiitworth's 
 endeavours to establish a cotton factory in the 
 present day. 
 
 Not far from Drogheda, where the Boyne 
 winds its way to the sea, was fought the cele- 
 brated battle before which James and the French 
 retired, leaving the Irish cavalry on the one side, 
 and King William and the Protestants, refugees 
 from France included, on the other, to immorta- 
 lize themselves : the Stuarts, though no cowards, 
 always failed, like the latter Bourbons, at the 
 critical moment. Charles I. would not head a 
 last charge at Xaseby, James II. left the field 
 of the Boyne, and Charles Edward at Culloden 
 imitated his great-grandfather; as Louis XVI. 
 
40 a saxon's remedy 
 
 left the Swiss at the Tuileries, Louis-Philippe 
 and his sons disappeared in fiacres and " any 
 how" in 1848, and the last King of Naples 
 departed from his capital because Graribaldi and 
 a few friends were approaching. 
 
 I wish I could take you to Cavan for the sake 
 of fishing Lough Sheelin ; but we must hold to 
 the right and go by Dundalk, where you will see 
 some tolerable attempts at trade and commerce, 
 and proceed to Newry. 
 
 This town is what even a Lancashire man 
 would call a respectable place. Those who are 
 romantic should go by Eostrevor, eat oysters at 
 Carlingford, and journey round by the coast. 
 There is scenery equal to any in Scotland ; but 
 we, who are looking to the capabilities of the 
 country, must keep a wary eye on Armagh to 
 the left, and wish we were the Primate of all 
 Ireland. We must then go through Lurgan 
 and Lisburn, where I am told pocket handker- 
 chiefs are the staple manufacture, and reaching 
 Belfast feel as contented as Mr. Coningsby when 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 41 
 
 he arrived at Manchester, for now indeed we 
 are at Linenopolis! 
 
 I don't know why people are always delighted 
 when they get to Belfast : it seems to me a cross 
 between England and Scotland. At the hotel 
 they come and tell you prayers are commencing 
 when you are enjoying your wine after dinner, 
 and, finding you are English, appear greatly 
 horrified when you remark, " It is not Sunday." 
 
 Eemembering how they shot down the un- 
 fortunate Catholics who were driven into the 
 mud and could not fire again, and that a section 
 of them insulted Lord Dufferin last year, one 
 cannot think their profession of religion does 
 them much good, but for all that, we are now in 
 a thoroughly business-like, money-making place ; 
 and, much as I hate want of charity and 
 bigotry, if I had to pick a few thousand men to 
 meet any number of Fenians, it is between here 
 and Inniskillen I would recruit them : they 
 would fight like devils as long as there was 
 resistance, and bayonet every enemy after- 
 
42 a saxon's remedy 
 
 wards as unsparingly as their ancestors did at 
 Aughrim. 
 
 If yon wander from Belfast towards Antrim, 
 and fish, the rivers as far as Lough Neagh, the 
 inland sea of Ireland, you will catch plenty of 
 salmon and trout, and be continually popping 
 upon bleach works with noble mansions near, 
 showing the productiveness of the business and 
 the good taste of the capitalist. 
 
 "We are in the thick of the district where flax 
 is grown ; thank your lucky stars that it is not 
 autumn, when every little rivulet is surcharged 
 with the effluvia of the rotten stalk of the flax, 
 undergoing its necessary steeping preparatory to 
 making your shirts, 
 
 Now you are at Coleraine, close to the Giant's 
 Causeway, Fair Head, Dunluce Castle, &c. 
 There is Eattlin Island, where Eobert Bruce 
 took refuge before he re-conquered Scotland, 
 though I am sure I forget whether it was there 
 he saw the spider make the six extraordinary 
 unsuccessful jumps preparatory to the seventh 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 43 
 
 fortunate essay which determined the fortunes of 
 Mr. E. B. 
 
 Here, however, there is no doubt the Scotch 
 giant came over to try conclusions with Finn 
 McCoul, who, perceiving from the Scotch gen- 
 tleman's size, that he had no chance with him, 
 rolled himself up in the blankets, and was re- 
 presented by his faithful helpmate to be Finn 
 McCoul's baby, and the Scotch giant concluding 
 from rapid calculation that the father of so pro- 
 mising an infant must be a leviathan indeed, 
 beat a precipitate retreat, and died of fright 
 shortly afterwards. 
 
 "We must skirt Lough Foyle to Londonderry, 
 the Cockney's Paradise in one sense, for several 
 of the great London companies own property 
 near here, and well would it be for Ireland if 
 there were no worse landlords, for tenant-right, 
 in its most extensive form, prevails. 
 
 "We must look at the walls and the gates of 
 Londonderry, and those who are Protestants 
 amongst us stand an inch higher in our boots, 
 
44 a s axon's remedy 
 
 remembering the prowess of Parson Walker and 
 tlie bold "prentices" who, notwithstanding 
 traitors within and enemies without, held the 
 town through the open assaults of a large army 
 and the insidious attacks of famine, thereby 
 rendering the place immortal in the annals of 
 history. 
 
 Ah ! were we each of us only encumbered with 
 twenty years of age and the same number of 
 pounds in our pocket, what a splendid trip there 
 would be through Donegal, with its grand head- 
 lands and fjords only equalled in Norway, its 
 mountain passes and its lovely valleys, its sure- 
 footed ponies, and its wild inhabitants, different 
 from all the other people of the North ; how- 
 ever, we afe not tourists, but in search of the 
 prosperous and substantial, and we must pass by 
 Strabane and Omagh to Enniskillen. 
 
 In that beautiful town, situated in the midst 
 of lake communications, terminating with the 
 well known watering-place of Bundoran, and the 
 Bay of Donegal on the one hand, and with the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 45 
 
 railway leading direct to Dublin on the other, 
 who does not wonder that the energy which 
 made the Enniskilleners perform the heroic deeds 
 chronicled by Macaulay, and which has carried 
 them triumphantly through all the battle-fields 
 of Europe and the East where England has 
 taken a part, should nob also have made their 
 town the centre of trade and commerce. 
 
 Well, this is one of the mysteries of Ireland 
 which we cogitate upon as we proceed to Sligo. 
 
 Sligo, for its size, is a prosperous place, and 
 all who sail on Lough Gill will own that travel- 
 lers might do worse, even if they know Switzer- 
 land, than make a pilgrimage here. 
 
 As we follow the coast to Ballina, I think it a 
 favourable opportunity to mention one source of 
 wealth which Ireland possesses, and which is daily 
 increasing in value. It is pretty generally known 
 that salmon abound in all the Irish rivers ; I re- 
 member when in this district it was about a penny 
 a pound; now if you want to buy a fish you 
 give two-thirds of the price it is worth in London. 
 
46 A saxon's remedy 
 
 Lancashire men, who have bought different rivers, 
 are making as much per annum as they gave for 
 the privilege of fishing in perpetuity : even yet 
 there is money to be made, as by a little outlay 
 obstructions may be removed, and the fish enabled 
 to run miles farther up the rivers ; but besides, 
 turbot, soles, lobsters, &c, abound in the bays 
 and among the islands off Mayo and Gralway. 
 
 In these counties also are thousands of acres of 
 bog and mountain, which energy and capital 
 would soon convert into productive grazing land ; 
 here too, on the higher grounds, there should be 
 as good grouse shooting as in Scotland, and, 
 indeed, I have known bags made not inferior to 
 some of those obtained on second-class moors in 
 that country. 
 
 I well remember, one blazing day in August, 
 lying on the sofa in the little hotel at Newport, 
 too foot-sore, from long walks on the mountains, 
 to go on a shooting excursion, and take advan- 
 tage of a day's leave, obtained by the landlord 
 for the guests staying at his hotel. I was solaced 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 47 
 
 by the promise of plenty of game for tlie next 
 day, which in truth was wanted, as, except fish 
 and eggs, there was nothing eatable. It so fell 
 out that only two bag-men, who I hope and trust 
 were not English, accompanied the landlord's son 
 and the keepers; what the latter got I never 
 heard, probably two fourpenny-bits, but, with the 
 exception of a bottle of lemonade each, the com- 
 mercial "gents" did nothing for the good of the 
 house, and the quantity of fur and feathers they 
 put into their roomy old trap was something 
 miraculous ! Pat, the waiter, hid away a brace 
 of grouse and a hare for me, but they discovered 
 the omission, and obtained restitution. I hoped 
 and believed that the spirit of Grana Uile, whose 
 sense of hospitality was so outraged by finding 
 the doors of Howth Castle shut at meal-times, 
 would have tumbled a piece of Croagh Patrick 
 down upon them ; but as I never heard she did, 
 I have strolled into no end of commercial-rooms 
 since, in order to tell the tale and describe the 
 people. 
 
43 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 From Killala to Westport is where the French 
 were so successful in 1798. They marched about 
 the country as if it were their own; and only 
 surrendered when convinced of the utter useless- 
 ness of their Irish allies. It is worthy of remark 
 that in 1798, as in James II.'s time, the French 
 and Irish had nothing in common ; and, in fact, 
 the former treated the latter as savages, and were 
 unable to appreciate their military qualities. 
 When Humbert surrendered he made no stipu- 
 lation for the safety of his allies, who were 
 butchered without mercy by the yeomanry. 
 
 The drive from Westport to Gralway, both by 
 the coast and by the two celebrated lakes of 
 Mask and Corrib, has been done by an infinity of 
 tourists, and in this district a great number of 
 English have bought property. The Law Life 
 Insurance Company has got hold of the old 
 Martin property of Ballynahinch ; the D'Arcy 
 estate also has fallen into English hands. One 
 cannot help feeling sorry that these old chiefs, 
 with whom hospitality was a reality and not a 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 49 
 
 name, should have ceased to be, having too, in 
 some instances, met with rather hard treatment 
 from their English creditors; but the country 
 generally has been improved, and the miserable 
 wages of sixpence a day, which prevailed when I 
 first knew the district, have been more than 
 doubled. 
 
 They were roughish fellows, nevertheless, these 
 old chieftains, and I should think were very like 
 the ancient Danish jarls. They show you a 
 place near Clifden where Dick Martin, and 
 another great landed proprietor, accompanied by 
 some scores of their followers, fought a pretty 
 tough battle, not so very many years ago, about 
 a few acres of mountain land. 
 
 Old Dick was highly amused when the Lord- 
 Lieutenant was his guest, and commended his 
 claret, asking if it were true that there was a 
 good deal of smuggling in Connemara? Dick 
 assured him that no gentleman ever thought of 
 paying duty, but always imported direct. 
 
 There is one tale, however, I recommend to 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 my fair country-women. One of the real old 
 Mayo gentry, six feet four inches high., stout in 
 proportion, rugged as one of his own mountain 
 bulls, and proud as a Breton, had attained the 
 age of forty, and was still unmarried. He was a 
 constant visitor, however, at the house of three 
 ladies, not overburdened with money or blood, 
 but the youngest of whom was possessed of 
 beauty and skill in retort. Every one said it 
 would be a match, but years rolled away and the 
 decisive words were not spoken, though other 
 suitors were warned off by significant hints from 
 the formidable but undecided Mr. Blake. 
 
 One evening he called in returning from 
 the fair of Castlebar, and he found the ladies 
 were having a few friends and an impromptu 
 dance. 
 
 There were some officers, lately arrived from 
 India, whose regiment was at Castlebar, and a 
 certain Captain Graham had Mr. Blake's lady, 
 as she was generally styled, fast locked in that 
 half-embrace the schottische permits. The Cap- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 51 
 
 tain was an adept at " Moulding up," which Irish 
 and a good many other ladies consider a partner's 
 bounden duty. Blake's idea of waltzing was as 
 prejudiced as Byron's ; and he had an ugly scowl 
 on his brow, that would have frightened many 
 men, as the lady passed him with a slight nod ; 
 however, the Captain only pressed his partner the 
 closer. 
 
 " I am sure you will like the Captain for dear 
 Mabel's sake, and we rely on you to make it 
 pleasant for him while here/' said the eldest 
 sister. Mr. Blake was standing with his back 
 to the fire, and, drawing from his pocket a small 
 branding iron used for putting initials on the 
 homs of cattle by the purchaser, he gave the 
 turf a quiet poke, and left the lettered end in the 
 hot ashes. 
 
 " Your honer's lost her," whispered Pat Casey, 
 the old servant of the house, as he handed negus 
 round; "the Captain's less tadious than your 
 honer in love-making." 
 
 " Well, Blake, you're done," said Mr. Browne. 
 e 2 
 
52 a s axon's remedy 
 
 "Waited too long, my boy; and the Captain 
 there will carry off the finest girl in Mayo/' 
 
 " By Gr , then, he shall find my mark on 
 
 her !" cried Blake, and, as the waltzers passed, he 
 drew the brand from the fire and clapped the 
 red-hot letters on the shoulder of Miss Mabel- 
 just above the low dress. Of course there was a 
 deal of screaming and fuss ; but the lady re- 
 covered sufficiently to become Mrs. Blake, and I 
 hear never regretted the event which at last 
 compelled her lover to speak his mind. A friend 
 of mine told me some time since he had been 
 staying with the Blakes, and he could aver that 
 Mrs. Blake still wore high dresses on all 
 occasions. 
 
 Passing on, then, through this country of 
 lakes and rivers, bogs and mountains, not desti- 
 tute, however, of good grazing land, where plenty 
 of black cattle and sheep are reared, we leave 
 Cong, where ancient remains are occasionally 
 found, telling of former greatness (when some of 
 the inhabitants still traced their descent from 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 53 
 
 the Phoenicians, and when the hill-sides were 
 still covered with sturdy oaks), and we at length 
 reach Gal way. Gal way, with its magnificent bay, 
 once the seat of Spanish commerce, has lately 
 had its prosperity nipped by the failure of the 
 Galway and American Steam Packet Company. 
 From the first there was strong opposition to it 
 in influential quarters : the ships had terribly 
 bad luck, and there was more than a suspicion 
 that some of those parties who got up the Com- 
 pany did not care how soon it came to grief after 
 their purpose was answered. 
 
 That is the worst of companies in the present 
 day; even thoroughly good things, which pro- 
 moters sell at a premium, they will endeavour 
 to ruin and wind-up afterwards. 
 
 Now, were we merely tourists we would go 
 on to Ennis, Killarney and the south ; but as I 
 purpose taking you on two distinct journeys, in 
 order to let you understand what sort of a coun- 
 try Ireland is in all respects, we will turn our 
 back on Galway, after just looking at the Clad- 
 
54 a saxon's remedy 
 
 dagh (where the fishermen still insist on an ab- 
 surd monopoly), at the house where Lynch acted 
 the part both of judge and executioner, and at 
 the salmon, sporting in quantities near the 
 bridge which spans the river running from 
 Lough Corrib. 
 
 Proceeding through a fine flat country, where 
 many ruins at Athenry, and the substitution of 
 new landlords in many of the finest mansions in 
 the district (notably that of Lord Grough, the hero 
 of many Indian battles, for that of Lord Grort at 
 Lough Cooter), attest the changing hand of time, 
 we arrive through a sheep-feeding district at 
 Ballinasloe. 
 
 Here we must pause to look at the Fair Green, 
 where many of the best steeple-chasers, the safest 
 hunters, and the finest cattle and sheep Ireland 
 can produce, are annually brought together and 
 competed for by buyers from all parts of 
 Europe. 
 
 Any thinking man who saw the week's fair at 
 Ballinasloe, or even the accounts day by day in 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 55 
 
 the Dublin newspapers, must see the vast im- 
 portance, not only to the Irish producer, but to 
 the English consumer, of a proper understanding 
 between landlords and tenants. 
 
 Meditating on this we reach Athlone. I have 
 set myself a puzzle at Athlone — Why is it not a 
 larger and more prosperous place than it is? 
 Macaulay describes its position exactly, in his 
 magnificent account of the passage of the river 
 by William's general, Grinkel. St. Euth had to 
 retire to Aughrim ; there, not trusting Sarsfield 
 nor any of the Irish generals (who naturally 
 chafed at being commanded by a Frenchman), 
 his death, at a critical moment when no one 
 knew his plans or where the different corps of 
 his army were stationed, turned an undecided 
 battle into a rout. Macaulay then notices how 
 favourably Athlone is situated ; in the exact 
 centre of Ireland, and on the magnificent river 
 Shannon ! It now possesses another advantage 
 in being the centre of an extensive railway sys- 
 tem, and it ought to be the emporium of im- 
 
56 a saxon's remedy 
 
 mense trade and manufactures. It is a dirty 
 little town, chiefly noticeable for the fine lake 
 into which the Shannon spreads immediately 
 above the town, for some barracks, and for a 
 quantity of turf boats constantly plying back- 
 wards and forwards, together with a solitary 
 steamer. 
 
 Passing onwards to Mullingar, you cannot fail 
 to be struck with the miserable appearance of 
 the towns and villages ; indeed, between Galway 
 and Dublin, within twenty miles on either hand, 
 there is not one town of any importance what- 
 ever, except as the centre of an agricultural 
 population. The County Lunatic Asylum, the 
 Infirmary, Jail, Court-house, and a handsome 
 bridge or viaduct, built by either the county or 
 the railway company, give an appearance of 
 prosperity to some of the towns. Some of the 
 shopkeepers I am aware make a good deal of 
 money; but on the whole, it is a perplexing 
 question, what becomes of the profits on the 
 capital which the large farmers in Gralway, Eos- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 57 
 
 common, Westmeath, Meath, fee, must have 
 made the last few years. 
 
 About Mullingar, lake Belvidere and others 
 give beauty to the landscape, which, generally 
 speaking, is not interesting. In fact, on each 
 side what you see stretching away there is the 
 Bog of Allen. I will not enter into the vexed 
 question as to whether it could all be drained. 
 There are bogs and bogs ; some give very good 
 grazing, and it must not be forgotten that turf 
 is of great value as fuel in a country like Ireland, 
 where all the coal has to be imported, and a bog 
 is often an indispensable adjunct to property. 
 
 Just about here, and in King's County, a 
 great many agrarian outrages have been com- 
 mitted, some of which have their origin in 
 tenants being charged rent for bog they have 
 reclaimed as an addition to their holding, or for 
 their privileges of cutting turf being abolished. 
 I was warned off from buying some property 
 here myself, on account of there being unsettled 
 questions of this nature with the tenants, and 
 
58 a saxon's remedy 
 
 the agent and his clerk were shot at, and the 
 latter badly hurt soon afterwards. When you 
 see these things in the London papers, whose 
 correspondents in Dublin declare no one can 
 guess the reason of such outrages, it is of course 
 quite possible there is only a trivial cause at 
 work ; but equally probable is it that some man 
 has reclaimed two or three acres of bog on a half- 
 promise of being allowed to have it at a nominal 
 rent, and then he has been got rid of on slight 
 pretences, and the farm let at a considerably in- 
 creased rental. 
 
 Some people, like Louis Philippe, bear a 
 charmed life, for there is one gentleman, who, as 
 a jolly old baronet his neighbour informed me, 
 has been shot at "in season and out of season," 
 and the juries, he added, had twice convicted 
 people for missing him. 
 
 Now, however, we have cleared the bogs, and 
 are going through the splendid lands of Meath 
 and Kildare (where probably are grazing some 
 future winners of the Liverpool Steeplechase) to 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 59 
 
 Maynooth, destined, perchance, to rise higher in 
 the scale of colleges ; for at present the Irish 
 clergy who have been educated abroad take care 
 to inform you of that fact, which, coupled with 
 their anxiety to have an equal footing with the 
 Protestants at Trinity, or a college at Stephen's 
 Green, is a little significant. 
 
 Then we pass pretty Leixlip, and the salmon- 
 leap there, and now we are in the Phoenix Park 
 and Dublin again, having journeyed through the 
 prosperous northern part of the island, where the 
 Scotch element greatly prevails, through part of 
 the west, or Connaught — to which quarter the 
 Cromwellians drove the ancient inhabitants as an 
 alternative to the infernal regions, but which is 
 neither unfruitful nor unprosperous — and through 
 the great middle, grazing district of Ireland, 
 familiar to many English as the part where 
 several great fairs are held, and where numerous 
 agrarian outrages and murders have taken place. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE EAST, SOUTH, AND SOUTH-WEST OF IRELAND, AND BACK 
 TO DUBLIN BY LIMERICK. 
 
 cannot leave Dublin en route for Wicklow 
 and the east coast without saying a few 
 words about Mr. Dargan, whose name is asso- 
 ciated with many of the great public works of 
 Ireland, with the first Exhibition held there, and, 
 above all, with the Wicklow and Wexford Bail- 
 way, and with the conversion of Bray from a 
 little bathing-place into a miniature Brighton. 
 Of course since the wealth he was supposed to 
 possess and he himself have disappeared, the 
 world will be quite disposed to agree that his 
 policy was in many instances short-sighted, that 
 he sacrificed the traffic of the Wicklow and Wex- 
 ford line for the advantage of Bray only, and 
 that he was often careless of ultimate results if 
 
REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. Gl 
 
 the whim or pique of the moment could be gra- 
 tified : nevertheless, though neither a far-sighted 
 man, nor capable of forming a certain plan and 
 persistently acting up to it, his name should be 
 always held in esteem by the many people whose 
 fortunes he made, and by his countrymen gene- 
 rally as a representative man of the nineteenth 
 century, who w T as ever ready to give his time 
 and money for public improvement, and who cer- 
 tainly sold himself for neither lucre nor titles. 
 
 Tou no sooner leave Dublin than, as we have 
 already stated in describing the entrance into 
 that city, you perceive that almost every one of 
 wealth and fashion chooses that outlet for man- 
 sions and villas ; in fact, select which route you 
 will from Dublin to Bray — inland or by the 
 coast — there is a succession of fine situations and 
 magnificent sea and mountain views. A tale is 
 told that one of the large proprietors agreed with 
 the Dublin Corporation long ago for a lease of a 
 large tract of land for 99 years; but getting these 
 gentlemen and their legal adviser to dinner when 
 
62 a saxon's remedy 
 
 the lease was to be signed, he cleverly altered the 
 term to 999 years ! " Si non e vero, e ben trovato" 
 and his descendant is a princely middle-man 
 now. 
 
 Bray is one of the few towns in Ireland where 
 the lords of the soil think it worth their while 
 to improve • but it must be owned they have 
 followed Mr. Dargan's lead, and become aware 
 that if they encourage building and accommoda- 
 tion for visitors their property will be benefited 
 thereby. 
 
 To the right is Powerscourt, with its Dargle 
 and waterfall, which, by the way, George IV. did 
 not go to see, though the stream had been care- 
 fully dammed up in order to be set free and pro- 
 duce an effective cascade for his Majesty's delec- 
 tation. Beyond is Bray Head, over which 
 Brunei must have felt intense gratification in 
 carrying the railway, as it was more difficult and 
 dangerous and less likely to pay than making 
 it run inland by the Glen of the Downs ; any 
 one but a great engineer would have been clapt 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 63 
 
 in Bedlam for originating such an idea. If you 
 follow the line of railway lie made you will have 
 magnificent sea-views and perceive villages, and 
 gentlemen's houses nestling under the hills in- 
 land, but you will only pass through one little 
 watering-place (Greystones) till you arrive at 
 Wicklow; yet the directors have never had 
 courage to sacrifice the original outlay and re- 
 construct the line through the thickly-populated 
 and highly-farmed garden of Wicklow, which 
 leads to the county town. However, I know 
 directors in England who have sacrificed hun- 
 dreds of thousands sooner than acknowledge they 
 have made an absurd mistake. 
 
 For Wicklow nature has done everything, the 
 towns-people very little ; while the chief owners 
 of property in the neighbourhood appear unable 
 to see that their immense revenues might be 
 further increased, as those of the landholders 
 near Bray have been, by personal residence and 
 encouragement to building, to say nothing of im- 
 provement to a harbour which is often the only 
 
64 a saxon's kemedy 
 
 chance of refuge for vessels between Cork and 
 Kingstown. 
 
 I dare say the history of many county towns 
 in Ireland would disclose similar anomalies to 
 that of Wicklow ; but, being nearer Dublin, the 
 attention of the press has been lately brought to 
 bear upon this place, and we find that one gen- 
 tleman received twenty thousand pounds at the 
 Union in consideration of giving up being here- 
 ditary mayor ; that a noble lord has long held 
 some score acres of the most valuable part of the 
 Corporate property for about two shillings an 
 acre ; and that what was built for a school has 
 become an hotel, while the funds provided for 
 education have been diverted from their original 
 purpose for the last thirty years ! 
 
 A mile or two from "Wicklow we come upon 
 Eossana, immortalized in one way by Moore and 
 in another by "William Howitt ; here too stands 
 an oak where dozens of rebels, or suspected 
 rebels, were hung in '98. Crossing the Vartry 
 and the pretty village of Ashford, we reach the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 65 
 
 Devil's Grlen, by many considered the gem of 
 Irish scenery. It is a deep cleft in the rocks, 
 with overhanging woods, and a river brawling 
 beneath. The best scene in " Arrah-na-Pogue," 
 as originally acted, was laid here ; and in Ireland, 
 Emery and Mrs. Boucicault brought down the 
 house. In this glen, and the adjoining one of 
 Dunran, numbers of wretched fugitives were 
 burnt in 1798. Many a time I have talked with 
 people, then little more than children, who 
 remembered their fathers and mothers suffering 
 this fate ; and one old sergeant is yet alive who 
 took a leading part on the Royal side in many of 
 the numerous fights when Wicklow and Wexford 
 were in arms from Bray to Carnsore. For years 
 these two counties have been the favourite 
 locality for English and Scotch settlers, and are 
 as peaceable as any in the United Kingdom. 
 
 At the head of the Devil's Glen is the great 
 reservoir of over four hundred acres, in which the 
 waters of the Vartry are impounded for convey- 
 ance to Dublin; and about which, owing to a 
 
66 A SAXON 's REMEDY 
 
 want of timely settlement of claims for damage, 
 and departure from the original plans, there have 
 been, and probably will be, an infinitude of legal 
 battles fought. However, the addition of a fine 
 piece of water amidst the mountains will add 
 much to the beauty of the scene ; and if steps 
 are cut in the cascade in the Devil's Glen, so 
 that the salmon and white trout can ascend, it 
 will form a fine piscatorial preserve. 
 
 Sugar Loaf and the Glen of the Downs are to 
 our right, while Lough Dan is about two miles 
 in our front. There, if the wind is right, we may 
 have good fishing, and half an hour's brisk 
 walking would take us to Luggela, the most 
 romantically situated of all the Wicklow lakes ; 
 but if we turn to the left and pass through 
 Laragh, we soon reach the far-famed Vale of 
 Glendalough, with its lakes, round tower, and 
 seven churches. Thackeray made great fun of 
 these same lakes and churches, but he is the only 
 writer who has done so. His principal source of 
 merriment was the smallness of the buildings ; 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. G7 
 
 and his intellect, great as it was, could not 
 appreciate the interest which must attach to the 
 foundation of the Christian religion in a far-off 
 age and a barbarous country, where there were 
 no means of emulating the glories of the Pagan 
 temples in lands where Eoman wealth and civili- 
 zation had penetrated. He, like most tourists, 
 was partly amused, partly disgusted with the 
 humbugging legends told by the guides, found 
 the Bound Tower insignificant compared to the 
 Pyramids, and drove away again. Had he 
 climbed to the top of Lug-na-Quilla, and looked 
 down into Grlenmalure, where the English sus- 
 tained so terrible a defeat, or been caught by 
 darkness and storm on the mountain roads above 
 Kippure, he would have found that there are 
 elements of grandeur and magnificence in Wick- 
 low mountain scenery, as well as extensive and 
 smiling prospects. 
 
 Two things I beg you to notice in this district 
 of lake and mountain : firstly, that much of the 
 land has been reclaimed by men who have an in- 
 
 F2 
 
68 a s axon's remedy 
 
 terest in their holdings, who own scores of those 
 little sheep which make Wicklow mutton cele- 
 brated, and who in erect bearing, stalwart frames, 
 industry, and attention to the main chance, con- 
 trast favourably with tenants at will ; — secondly, 
 that at Grlendalough y and right along by the 
 Yale of Avoca to Arklow, lead, and copper, and 
 sulphur ore are being got in large quantities. 
 In fact, though gold discoveries first attracted 
 attention to the mineral wealth of this district, 
 search for it is almost discontinued, while for- 
 tunes are being made in the other products ; and 
 there are vast quantities of iron, which increased 
 facilities of transit to England would render well 
 worth getting. 
 
 I was desperately disappointed when I first 
 saw the Vale of Avoca, and the cottage where 
 Tom Moore lived ; but still it is a lovely ride 
 on a sunshiny day through the valley to Arklow, 
 with Castle Howard, Shelton Abbey, and other 
 gentlemen's seats scattered about. Perhaps the 
 cutting down of trees, the quarrying of sulphur 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 69 
 
 ore, and now the railway, have destroyed some of 
 the poetical beauties of the landscape, however 
 much they may have added to the material pros- 
 perity of the county. By the way, Sterne (who, 
 if I recollect right, was born near Grlendalough, 
 and nearly drowned there, and who used so 
 largely the old campaigning tales he heard from 
 the garrison at Wicklow,) appears to have cared 
 very little for scenery. 
 
 At Arklow, which stands at the end of the 
 Vale of Avoca, was fought a battle equal to that 
 of New Eoss in 1798. As at New Eoss, the rebels 
 were, in fact, victorious ; but not knowing how 
 to pursue their advantage, the superior discipline 
 of their opponents recovered the day. 
 
 Now if we were only amusing ourselves, we 
 should have completed our trip through the 
 beauties of Wicklow, and might retrace our steps 
 by the pretty coast road, here and there having 
 pointed out to us the scenes of terrible ship- 
 wrecks, for there is hardly an inlet or bank on 
 this Wicklow shore where some vessel has not 
 
70 a saxon's remedy 
 
 been lost, and in some instances hundreds of 
 lives have been sacrificed — often by careless 
 management, no doubt : but the seamen will tell 
 you it is from the want of a harbour of refuge ; 
 and they instance the Channel Islands as a proof 
 of what the English Government will do for 
 other portions of its dominions, and say that a 
 tithe of the money spent on Wicklow harbour 
 would have saved incalculable property and 
 human lives. 
 
 However, before us are Grorey and Newtown- 
 barry, and to the right the extensive property 
 wrested by Strafford from the Byrnes and 
 O'Tooles, and now enjoyed by Strafford's 
 descendant, Earl Fitzwilliam. A good many of 
 the Byrnes fought hard in '98, and on one or 
 two occasions were victorious — once in particular, 
 near the celebrated wood of Shillelagh — but now 
 they are county magistrates and snug farmers ; 
 and all through the fine agricultural district 
 right and left to Enniscorthy, New Boss, and 
 Wexford, the country is peculiarly well farmed 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 71 
 
 and prosperous. At these latter towns terrible 
 atrocities were committed by the rebels ; and 
 we must pause for a moment at Vinegar Hill, 
 above Enniscorthy, where they sustained their 
 last crushing defeat. The old town of Wexford, 
 memorable for early encounters of Strongbow 
 with the Irish, is left behind in the present day, 
 owing to the harbour filling up, and being 
 cornered as it were by all the railways, as the 
 large rivers hereabouts constitute many engineer- 
 ing difficulties. However, this is to be remedied ; 
 and in Waterford, where Henry II. landed, we 
 see a really fine town making some use of its 
 great advantages. 
 
 Clonmel is another good town, and w T e are 
 favourably struck with the greater evidences of 
 trade and commerce between this and the mid- 
 land district. There is, too, some splendid 
 pasture land ; but somehow the ground is not 
 as well tilled as that through which we have 
 lately passed, and there appears to be more 
 poverty. 
 
72 a s axon's remedy 
 
 Proceeding by Dungarvan, we reach beautiful 
 Lismore, where is situated the Duke of Devon- 
 shire's Irish property, and we revel in the rich 
 district of the Blackwater. We think of Sir 
 Walter Ealeigh as we pass by Youghal; and 
 now we are at the far-famed city of Cork. 
 
 Who that has been at Cork can expect a 
 description in a few lines ? One can simply say 
 that its situation is so excellent for trade and 
 manufactures, the climate is so salubrious, and 
 the district around so rich, that one can but 
 wonder the fair city has not even greater pros- 
 perity than she enjoys. However, in despite of 
 the Fenians having given some trouble, a great 
 future must be in store for Cork. 
 
 Well, we must tear ourselves away, and here 
 we are in a difficulty. To see the country from 
 a commercial point of view, we should take the 
 railway direct to Limerick, by Mallow and Kil- 
 malloch, where the Fenians committed a wanton 
 outrage, and the police behaved with great 
 courage ; but as one of the things Ireland wants 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 73 
 
 is that English and foreigners should examine her 
 for themselves, I will take yon by the romantic 
 Pass of Keiineneagh, by Inchigeela to Bantry. 
 In the bay here the French, under Hoche, were 
 to have landed ; and there is no doubt that the 
 storm which prevented a descent on the coast 
 was one of those pieces of good fortune which 
 secured the British dominions from every revo- 
 lutionary reprisal, in return for our attacks upon 
 France. There is much that is interesting about 
 Bantry, but we will make our way to Grlengariff, 
 a few miles further on, which is generally the 
 head quarters and the night's rest for the coaches 
 between Cork and Killarney. 
 
 Lever has done well to imagine his hero, 
 Davenport Dunn, founding a great building 
 speculation at Grlengariff, for there is no more 
 lovely place. One cannot help being annoyed 
 that he will make his heroine undertake an 
 equestrian trip where she has to jump walls 
 placed across paths ; over cliffs, where the least 
 mistake of her horse will consign her to destruc- 
 
74 a s axon's remedy 
 
 tion ; and all for no purpose, inasmuch, as the 
 roads are triumphs of engineering skill. 
 
 When I first traversed them five and twenty 
 years ago, in the mail-car from Killarney, as soon 
 as I saw Grlengariff I was determined to stop 
 there ; the driver was equally determined I should 
 go on to Bantry, where his master kept the 
 hotel. I went off to Lord Bantry's, saw the fine 
 old nobleman, who had so narrow an escape from 
 the "Whiteboys, and who had always luncheon on 
 the table for two or three hours ; was conducted 
 to an infinity of beautiful points of view, and 
 on coming to the high road three hours after, 
 found the mail still waiting for me! What 
 could I do but go on ? We met the postmaster 
 and many of the inhabitants several miles out 
 of the town, coming to see what had happened 
 to the mail-car; but the fact of an English 
 traveller being triumphantly rescued from Grlen- 
 gariff allurements furnished the driver with a 
 satisfactory excuse. At the present day, I am 
 happy to say, you may chance to meet pleasant 
 
FOE, IRISH DISCONTENT. 75 
 
 tourists of all nations at the picturesquely-situated 
 hotel at Grlengariff; in fact, there were more 
 guests than eatables when I was there last ; upon 
 which some of us, annoyed at getting no fish, 
 though the rivers and sea were teeming there- 
 with, set out to remedy the deficiency in the even- 
 ing, and brought home forty pounds' weight. 
 Next day at dinner again no fish ! An indig- 
 nant request was made to know what had be- 
 come of all we had brought home, and a cool ex- 
 planation from the waiter (who might have been 
 the father of the boy at Mugby J unction) was 
 given, that the cat had got them. 
 
 But the sun is up, and we mount our car to 
 make that wonderful journey to Killarney, which 
 even those who know the whole of Europe will 
 always look back upon with pleasure. We go 
 winding up and up, drinking in a wealth of sea 
 and lake, river, headland, frowning mountain and 
 green valley, such as can only be seen on this 
 south-western coast. "We are glad to perceive 
 comfortable farmhouses, sturdy agriculturists, 
 
76 a saxon's remedy 
 
 and healthy girls, who have been instructed in 
 lace-making, and are more persistent in doing 
 business than any male commercials, for the Mar- 
 quis of Lansdowne owns miles upon miles of 
 the country, and is a good landlord ; indeed he 
 ought to be, for his ancestor, Mr. Petty, got the 
 whole district for the trouble of surveying it ; 
 and they tell you that many of the tenants in 
 the olden time used to go down to Cork to work 
 or beg for the money to pay the rent, and were 
 searched by the agents to the property at a cer- 
 tain archway in the road entering the county 
 Kerry. It was decidedly pleasant being a sur- 
 veyor in those days ; but fancy being an agent 
 or a tenant ! But here comes a fresh instalment 
 of female bagmen {bulls are allowed here), and, if 
 we are in luck, we shall have a capital lunch at 
 Kenmare. After that the best thing to do is to 
 leave the car and follow the course of the Ken- 
 mare river to Sneam. Why on earth the Pettys, 
 good people, almost great men (at least the late 
 Marquis was), have not managed to utilize that 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 77 
 
 noble river I cannot imagine; however, the best 
 and largest proprietors in Ireland seem to think 
 they do quite enough if they let the land on reason- 
 able terms, subscribe to a school, come over occa- 
 sionally, and tell the people to be self-reliant. 
 There is plenty of land too about here which 
 would well repay draining and cultivation. "When 
 I was very young a great landed proprietor had 
 the good sense to take a fancy to me, and offered 
 me ten thousand acres for ever at a penny an 
 acre. I wish my friends would have let me go ; 
 for I know some gentlemen who took large tracts 
 at about double this price, and have had as in- 
 teresting and profitable an occupation as in 
 Australia — here, two days' journey from London ! 
 
 Beyond Sneam is Derrynane Abbey, indissolu- 
 bly connected with O'Connell ; here he enjoyed 
 himself in country sports, and gave a rough and 
 hearty welcome to all comers. What a wonder- 
 ful man he was ! in influence king of three parts 
 of Ireland, and wielding a united phalanx in the 
 House of Commons which no ministry could 
 
78 a saxon's remedy 
 
 despise, to him unquestionably Ireland owes 
 much ; but if he had avoided the Eepeal agita- 
 tion, and gone in for a settlement of the land 
 and Church questions, we should never have 
 heard of Fenianism. 
 
 I dare not stop at Waterville, where Mr. 
 Hartop has built a good hotel, for on that lake, 
 so close to the sea it is a wonder they do not join 
 when the floods from the hills are out, one of the 
 boatmen three times missed gaffing the biggest 
 fish I ever hooked, which finally bounded full 
 ten feet in the air and smashed my tackle. In 
 my imagination the fish has got bigger every 
 year since ; I kept it down to forty pounds for 
 some time, but now he is about a hundred, and 
 if I were to meet that boatman I believe I should 
 do him a mischief. 
 
 The day after my misadventure with the fish 
 was Sunday, and after lunch I announced my 
 immediate departure. There were no other 
 guests in the hotel at that time, and the waiter 
 looked annoyed. 
 
FOK, IRISH DISCONTENT. 79 
 
 "What's the matter ?" said I. 
 
 " Well, yer honner," said he, " there's an 
 arrangement with the clergyman miles away that 
 he should come and preach if there are any Pro- 
 testants here ; — thinking you were stopping, we 
 did not send word, and in two hours at furthest 
 he will be here." 
 
 Fancy having a clergyman all to one's self ! 
 However, I did not stop, but heard afterwards 
 that a family in the neighbourhood came on the 
 chance ; so there was a congregation after all. 
 
 Two years ago, in Switzerland, about seven 
 o'clock in the morning of Sunday, I was woke 
 up to know if I would like to take the sacrament. 
 Four old ladies had found out there was a clergy- 
 man in the hotel, and attacked him on the sub- 
 ject : he was considerably annoyed, but promised 
 to administer it at eight if six communicants 
 could be found. The poor man had come abroad 
 under strict injunctions to abstain from duty 
 owing to ill health, and the affair was arranged 
 by his reading prayers for us at ten. 
 
80 a s axon's remedy 
 
 Valentia, however, we must see, for it is 
 familiar to all from tlie hundred descriptions 
 written of it by the " special correspondents" of 
 the London papers who accompanied the expedi- 
 tion for laying the Atlantic Telegraph. Besides 
 this wonderful triumph of science, which so 
 many prophesied would never succeed, Valentia 
 is celebrated for its slate quarries, and for its 
 possessing the most beautiful little Kerry cows 
 in the world. Many of my citizen friends with 
 but an acre or two of land would find the Kerry 
 cow better than the Alderney; they are much 
 hardier, eat far less, breed with greater certainty, 
 and fatten more readily ; and though the milk is 
 somewhat less rich, it is very good and abundant. 
 
 Cahirciveen is a specimen of a dirty little 
 town ; but O'Connell was born there. 
 
 The coast road to Killarney by the shores of 
 Dingle Bay, passing Bosbeigh, is as romantic 
 as can be conceived. Woe to the vessel that 
 gets into this bay in a storm ! she is almost cer- 
 tain to be lost among the treacherous sand-banks. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 81 
 
 The inhabitants hereabouts are hard-working, 
 quiet people enough; but we are proceeding 
 along the road where the first Fenian outbreak 
 took place, and over these misty hills, seldom 
 traversed save by the fisherman or shepherd, the 
 poor deceived wretches tramped wearily from the 
 pursuing soldiers. 
 
 Agriculture can do but little on hills bathed 
 with perpetual mists from the Atlantic, and 
 sheep would succeed better if more surface-drains 
 were cut ; but the little Kerry cattle appear to 
 thrive. 
 
 And now we reach Killarney. Killarney ! 
 where princes and newspaper writers, politicians 
 and foreigners, come and stay a week, and think 
 they know all about Ireland ! Why, every man, 
 woman, child, and pony conforms himself, her- 
 self, and themselves so exactly to the English 
 taste, that except for the scenery and the brogue 
 you might as well be at Buxton. I don't like 
 the big hotels, and the crushing, and the being 
 besieged continually to go to this place and that 
 
 G 
 
82 a saxon's remedy 
 
 place ; I don't like, the moment I stir from the 
 hotel door, being persecuted by guides and pony- 
 proprietors ; and when I have engaged these gen- 
 tlemen, I don't like being attacked by horn- 
 blowers and pistol-firers, and men who open 
 gates and who expect to be exorbitantly paid for 
 the most trivial service enforced upon you ! I 
 detest these people and the milk and whisky- 
 sellers almost as much as the tribes of beggars 
 who ask for money without any shame. It is 
 utterly impossible to satisfy these harpies, and 
 the nuisance, which hardly exists in any other 
 part of Ireland, should be put a stop to. Never- 
 theless, we will brave the annoyances and enjoy 
 the lions as we may — we will go through the 
 Grap of Dunloe, wild and savage, hear all the 
 legends of St. Patrick and the last "sarpint," 
 and Kate Kearney, and the lady who has a 
 thousand goats, and enter the Upper Lake — 
 most beautiful of all — traverse the romantic pas- 
 sage to Tore Lake, let the boatmen talk their fill 
 of the O'Donoghue, hear the echo under the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 83 
 
 Eagle's Nest, and the bugle — well worth listen- 
 ing to if Spillane plays — land at Dinas, have 
 salmon cooked on arbutus twigs, give everybody 
 " lashins" of whisky, and enjoy all the exquisite 
 views of mountain and waterfall as we glide 
 quietly home (after calling at " sweet Innis- 
 fallen") to the excellent accommodation at the 
 Victoria. Let us see the large yew at Muckross, 
 and the remains of the old abbey, and Eoss 
 Island and its castle; and let us beard the 
 beggars on their hill and ascend Mangerton. 
 Gurran-tual is higher, but the ascent is more 
 difficult. Any one can ride up Mangerton ; and 
 if a young woman with one arm, who sits about 
 half-way up, and is such a good hand at bad 
 wishes that I have known her rile even easy- 
 tempered persons of her own sex, were put in 
 the Devil's Punch-bowl as a warning to the men- 
 dicants generally, the ascent would be pleasant 
 enough. At the top, if the day is fine and clear, 
 the prospect is grand and beautiful, the numerous 
 bays and inlets in the coast being seen with 
 
 g 2 
 
84 a saxon's remedy 
 
 great distinctness. Bound the cold gloomy lake 
 at the top, called the Devil's Punch-bowl, Charles 
 James Fox once swam ; and lower down, through 
 the wild land and woods, there are a good many- 
 deer. Except on some of the Wicklow hills, I 
 know of no other place in Ireland where they are 
 to be found, except in parks. 
 
 Eeturning we visit Tore Waterfall ; grand in- 
 deed after heavy rain, and where in days gone 
 by I have gathered the celebrated Killarney 
 fern. My first visit to Killarney ! Now, like a 
 romance, it rises before me ! except the " Vic- 
 toria/ 5 the only hotel one could stay at was a 
 comfortable little hostelry at Muckross, kept by a 
 Mr. Eoche, who had lately had a narrow escape 
 in the passage from the upper lake, when there 
 really was danger in shooting the rapid after a 
 heavy rain. Somehow the boat was upset ; a 
 young married couple, Eoche, who was steering, 
 and a boatman were saved, but three boatmen 
 were drowned. News came to Muckross that 
 all were lost : singularly enough, the wife of the 
 
FOR, IRISH DISCONTENT. 85 
 
 boatman who was saved died of the shock. The 
 families of those who were drowned bore their 
 loss more philosophically, and some of them 
 used to sell arbutus souvenirs of Killarney, and 
 it was the correct thing to have the surviving 
 boatman one of your crew. He took me down 
 this same rapid after a heavy rain, and I can 
 assure you the excitement was not lessened by 
 remembering his sad adventure. We were a 
 merry party that day ; there were three or four 
 gentlemen farmers, perfect giants in size, and 
 very good-natured and full of information and 
 amusing tales ; there was a priest of the real old 
 type, a gentleman, and possessed of some pro- 
 perty apart from his clerical office, and a Govern- 
 ment employe, since become one of our most 
 successful novelists. I have never seen any of 
 them since, but for nearly a week we were con- 
 stantly together. Old Spillane, one of the best 
 buglers who ever played, and quite one of 
 Nature's gentlemen, had been particularly re- 
 commended to me by a friend who had lately 
 
86 . a saxon's remedy 
 
 cured him of a dangerous illness, and many a 
 wild tale lie told us; among others, that of the 
 true history of the "Colleen Bawn," who was 
 brutally murdered by her paramour near Tarbert : 
 he said he saw young Squire Scanlan hung at 
 Limerick. I laughingly turned to the priest and 
 said, " Why, that is the same name as yours," 
 for he had given me his card. " It is, indeed," 
 he said, " for he was my own cousin, and I shook 
 hands with him at the gallows/' 
 
 I was desperately uncomfortable, and made all 
 sorts of apologies, but the embryo novelist, whom 
 I will call Austin, comforted me with the assur- 
 ance that it was quite common for Irish gentle- 
 men to talk of their fathers and uncles having 
 "suffered in '98." Mr. Scanlan subsequently 
 informed me that in a lengthy experience he 
 never saw such utter callousness and heartless- 
 ness as that displayed by his relative ; there was 
 really no motive for the girl's murder except 
 that she would not give into his own keeping a 
 few pounds she had brought with her when fly- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 87 
 
 ing with him ; and no one could regret that, in 
 spite of the exertions of his family, who were 
 influential, the law was allowed to take its course. 
 The last night of our stay we were all having 
 punch together when two strangers came in, and 
 to our great annoyance forced their society upon 
 us. One of them, who the Priest whispered me 
 was the son of a reputed informer forty years 
 before, and who had become a Protestant and 
 amassed a good deal of money, soon made him- 
 self disagreeable; and, perceiving that Austin 
 and I were Englishmen, talked most grossly 
 about Papists and Priests. Austin very properly 
 remarked on the bad taste of such language in a 
 public room. Who began first I never knew, 
 but chairs were upset and blows were struck — 
 the stranger's friend seized Austin by the collar 
 — I, of course, pulled him off — some of us upset 
 the table accidentally and knocked out the lights. 
 Mr. Scanlan and the farmers did not know who 
 to get hold of. In the midst of the confusion 
 Jerry, the waiter, and the Boots came in, and 
 
88 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 crying out that the young English gentleman 
 was being murdered, charged down upon the 
 peace-makers, pushed them right and left, and 
 clutching me anyhow dragged me out of the 
 melee. I hurriedly explained ; and lights being 
 brought in, we thought at first there was no 
 damage save to Austin's spectacles, but upon 
 further examination the author of the mischief 
 was discovered in a most pitiable plight ; and I 
 do not think any hero of a lady novelist, much 
 less one of Austin's, who are generally very quiet- 
 going gentlemen, could have done a bit of face- 
 painting more cleverly than the future author. 
 Every one rejoiced the right man had got beaten, 
 but before we parted Austin said, " Now, I have 
 to go away early to-morrow. That fellow is 
 sure to say I have run away on his account ; 
 therefore, as soon as you find he is up tell him 
 who I am, and that I am ready to give him any 
 satisfaction — if he will fight, I must." 
 
 Duels in those days were still occasionally 
 fought in Ireland, and I gave the disturber of 
 
YOU IRISH DISCONTENT. 89 
 
 our enjoyment the night before every chance of 
 getting his brains blown out in addition to his 
 two black eyes, if he so minded ; in fact, taking 
 the precaution of placing the entire household 
 on the stairs as witnesses that our side meant 
 fighting, I fear I was as little of a peace-maker 
 as Sir Lucius O'T rigger, but the cur had no 
 fight in him ; and I beg to assure Mr. Austin, if 
 he chances to see this, that everybody agreed 
 he acted like a " ra'al gintleman" in the trans- 
 action. 
 
 About six years since I was standing on the 
 little bridge at Killarney, on a lovely evening, at 
 the very time a most brutal murder was being 
 committed some fifty or sixty yards off. A man 
 and girl were seen walking towards the railway 
 just as the bell was ringing for the excursion 
 train to start : I heard the bell at the time, and 
 the body of the girl was found, the rope with 
 which she was strangled round her neck, in a 
 wood-yard close to the bridge. Had she been able 
 to give one scream, I, and no doubt others, must 
 
90 a saxon's remedy 
 
 have heard it, yet the villain risked all for the 
 cloak and other clothes she wore at the time, and 
 which were of some little value : probably he 
 left the town by train, and the police getting at 
 first on the wrong track, unfortunately never dis- 
 covered him. 
 
 Such are a few of my recollections of Killarney. 
 
 Now we will proceed to Tralee, which is rather 
 a stirring little business town, and is no doubt 
 benefited by the railway, for a good many bathers 
 go to the villas on the shore of the bay ; then, 
 through the pretty town of Listowel to Bally- 
 bunnion. Here are the world-famed caves, to 
 which you proceed in most unsafe-looking boats 
 made of canvas, but which ride out the rough 
 weather generally met with on this coast. No- 
 thing is grander than to see and hear the ocean in 
 its fury dashing through the narrow but deep 
 fissures in the rocks, and I fear I must draw 
 your attention chiefly to the wonderful beauties 
 of the coast scenery, for agriculture is not in a 
 satisfactory state. You see the people, in many 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 91 
 
 of these Western parts, planting their potatoes 
 in wet land, and leaving their hay in great cocks 
 to rot upon the ground. Of course you will be 
 told that you don't understand the climate, or 
 that the landlords are exacting and wont give 
 leases, or that the tenants are poor, lazy, and 
 fond of subdividing their land : probably there 
 is some truth in all this, but energetic resident 
 proprietors, who would show the people practical, 
 not fancy farming, and who would encourage 
 farmers with some capital, would surely effect an 
 alteration for the better. 
 
 Instead of pursuing these reflections, we will 
 proceed to Tarbert, go on board the steamer and 
 pass down the Shannon (here an arm of the sea 
 traversed by vessels from every clime) to Kilrush. 
 I must show you Kilkee, the most romantic 
 watering-place on this coast. Directly you quit 
 this little town you come upon piles of rocks, 
 many hundred feet high, jutting into the Atlantic. 
 Unfortunate indeed is the storm-driven vessel that 
 approaches Kilkee ! Melancholy was the fate of 
 
92 a saxon's remedy 
 
 the Intrinsic, for example. She was steered safely, 
 and almost by a miracle, into a huge gap in the 
 cliffs, where she was in deep water ; the people 
 on board could have been saved had the rocket 
 apparatus been used ; it was at hand, but through 
 some stupidity, was ineffective, and the unfortu- 
 nate vessel, after being long buffeted by the 
 waves, at length went to pieces, and every soul in 
 her perished, though hundreds were immediately 
 above them. The inlet is still called Intrinsic Bay. 
 
 On a shelving rock near is the Puffing Hole ; 
 the sea, in stormy weather, dashes under the 
 rock, and is ejected with great force from the 
 hole. A few years ago, a gallant officer and the 
 lady to whom he was engaged were looking at 
 this phenomenon, when one of those tremendous 
 waves which occasionally on this coast rise be- 
 yond all calculation, dashed unexpectedly up 
 the rock, and carried them back in the reflux : 
 thus hurrying them into eternity under the eyes 
 of the rest of their party, who stood a few yards 
 in their rear watching them. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 93 
 
 The whole of the coast of Clare is unsurpassed 
 in wild magnificence, and on many of the pro- 
 montories you marvel to see the remains of small 
 castles. Most inconvenient places they must have 
 been for any one to live in or get to, but pro- 
 bably the latter was the chief recommendation 
 to the people who built them ; and the number 
 of these strongholds, which only occasionally 
 rise to the dignity of baronial castles, shows in 
 what a state of anarchy and constant petty war- 
 fare Ireland must have been when every little 
 proprietor had his fortified place. 
 
 The drive from Kilkee by Miltown-Malbay to 
 Lahinch is through a poor country, but Lahinch 
 is well situated on Liscanor Bay, and the Hag's 
 Head and the Cliffs of Moher are greater attrac- 
 tion than any possessed by Miltown-Malbay it- 
 self. On all this coast mind where you bathe ; 
 the sands are exceedingly shifty and treacherous. 
 Young swimmers think they see the sand beneath 
 them, and feel no alarm, but the moment their 
 feet touch it, it proves to be unsubstantial ; then, 
 
94 a saxon's remedy 
 
 if they lose their presence of mind or are ex- 
 hausted, it is all over with them. I have known 
 one or two remarkably good swimmers lose their 
 lives in this manner. Take advice, therefore, as 
 to where you bathe. 
 
 A walk round the Hag's Head and the other 
 cliffs is most enjoyable, whether the ocean is 
 booming in its anger a thousand feet sheer down 
 below you, or lying at peace gently rippling 
 against the sides of the precipitous rocks. If the 
 latter, you may have a wonderful view sea- 
 ward of all the indented bays towards Kilkee, 
 and of the Isles of Arran at the mouth of Gralway 
 Bay; landward by Burran, birthplace of oysters 
 hardly inferior to " natives," to Lisdoon- Varna, 
 celebrated for its mineral springs. 
 
 One bumper we will quaff in memory of Mr. 
 O'Brien (King Corny as he was called), for 
 having made these cliffs accessible to every one, 
 with a protecting wall at their very edge ; yet 
 another to the present possessor, who does not 
 allow you to be obtruded upon by shilling 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 95 
 
 hunters and beggars, and then we will start for 
 Ennis. It is a pleasant drive, and you look with 
 satisfaction at the*flocks of immense sheep which 
 are grazing here and there. "Wonderful is lime- 
 stone land for increasing the size of animals ; and 
 they tell you, in this county, how strangers 
 marvel to see sheep fattening on the grass they 
 pick between rocks and boulders. 
 
 Ennis is a better county-town than many in 
 Ireland, and has near it the celebrated ruins of 
 Quin Abbey: I know of none better worth 
 seeing. 
 
 Pursuing our way to Limerick, we see plenty 
 of fine pasture land, and at last reach the city of 
 the "Violated Treaty/' 
 
 "We have the privilege, not often vouchsafed 
 to those who sojourn in the West, of seeing 
 Limerick on a beautiful day. You cannot have 
 the great Atlantic near you, as well as a broad 
 river like the Shannon, without constant mists 
 and rain ; and that which encourages the growth 
 of arbutus and other evergreens, and makes the 
 
96 a s axon's remedy 
 
 meadows give extraordinary crops of hay, fatten 
 cattle, and put flesh on the young horses sold at 
 Hartegan's Kepository, also fcauses disappoint- 
 ment to the tourist, who may find Limerick 
 looking wet and sodden. However, you see it 
 now gay and bustling. There is a capital hotel, 
 good shops, and considerable trade of various 
 kinds ; a large army clothing establishment, 
 distilleries, &c. Limerick lace is celebrated, and 
 the residences of the merchants are handsome 
 and in good taste. 
 
 If we had time we might trace some evidences 
 of the celebrated siege which Macaulay so well 
 describes, but we must hasten to Killaloe; 
 partly to see the magnificent Lough Derg, on 
 which it is situated, and taste the gillaroo trout, 
 only found there, but chiefly to see the Falls of 
 Doonass, near Castle Connell. There they are, 
 in a district teeming with sylvan beauties, 
 preventing any vessels plying between Limerick 
 and Killaloe. 
 
 Fortune never comes with both hands full; 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 97 
 
 and half the utility of the Shannon, which 
 otherwise would have been navigable for mode- 
 rate-sized ships a» long way inland, is destroyed 
 by these envious rapids occurring so near the 
 mouth. 
 
 Eight and left, as we pursue our way to 
 Cashel, you see the richest agricultural district 
 in Ireland, known as the " Grolden Vein," where 
 a hundred barrels of potatoes, of twenty stone 
 each, can be grown to the acre, and where the 
 great square grass fields remind you of the best 
 parts of Leicestershire. 
 
 If we ascend the Eock of Cashel, we shall 
 see all this country spread around us : Thurles, 
 Tipperary, various mountains with long Celtic 
 names, and half the county of Kilkenny. 
 
 You ask if the county of Tipperary has the 
 same bad pre-eminence for agrarian outrages it 
 used to possess. I answer, no! The sales in 
 the Encumbered Estates Court cleared out many 
 of the old proprietors, and introduced others, 
 some of them English and Scotch, who enlarged 
 
 H 
 
98 a saxon's remedy 
 
 farms (helping the small holders of land to 
 emigrate), gave leases, and improved generally. 
 
 I always fancy, however, that in four or five 
 of these midland counties the people are different 
 from the rest of Ireland. They are bigger and 
 gloomier, and less courteous, and are more like 
 Yorkshiremen, down on their luck, and with a 
 grievance. 
 
 Cashel is a miserable little place to return a 
 member to Parliament, but the association with 
 the grand old ruins of the Cathedral and Eound 
 Tower give the title to the best bishopric in 
 Ireland. Mr. Bernal Osborne lately informed 
 his constituents that in the diocese of Cashel 
 and Waterford there were about 13,000 Protest- 
 ants, and, I think, about 140 clergymen of the 
 Church of England paid to preach to them. I 
 have also been told that the religious consolation 
 of each Protestant costs 12/. a head; these good 
 people, therefore, and their spiritual directors, 
 ought not to look sulky. 
 
 To Kilkenny, another fine stretch of country 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 99 
 
 has to be traversed, picturesque, tolerably well 
 farmed, and productive; and you will find the 
 town itself most interesting — not quite so gay 
 perhaps as when Lady Morgan's father started a 
 theatre there, to which noblemen and gentlemen 
 put down their names for subscriptions most 
 liberally, but who, for the most part, never paid 
 the money — still retaining the Marquis of 
 Ormonde, living in a fine castle within the town, 
 and plenty of resident proprietors all about; 
 notably, Colonel Tighe, of Woodstock, whose 
 grounds, and little town of Innistiogue, are 
 celebrated in more novels than one. Then there 
 are the cathedral and some fine old churches, 
 good streets, and every evidence of prosperity. 
 Both coal and marble are got near here, but the 
 former is only used in the neighbourhood. 
 
 From this place to Kildare we pass through the 
 little towns of Carlow and Athy, and through a 
 well-farmed, tolerably fertile district, inhabited 
 by well-to-do people, many holding several hun- 
 dred acres, almost like England. 
 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Never mind Kildare; it is the Curragh and 
 camp we must look at, not the dirty little town. 
 On this grand expanse of turf is something to 
 suit all tastes ; plenty of officers and soldiers for 
 military men and ladies, descendants of Irish 
 Birdcatcher and Faugh-a-ballagh for sporting 
 men to criticise, and unfortunate " Wrens" for 
 philanthropists to reform, and the Pall Mall Ga- 
 zette and Mr. Latouche to fight about. With a 
 dry subsoil and a fine invigorating air, racing 
 always going on, the famous " Kildares" to hunt 
 with, and the gaieties of Dublin only an hour 
 off, the Curragh cannot be a bad place to be 
 quartered in. 
 
 - As we pass through what Macaulay describes, 
 somewhat erroneously, as a great sheep tract — for 
 that implies sandy land, whereas the country on 
 each side up to Dublin is peculiarly fertile, stud- 
 ded with gentlemen's seats, and often presenting 
 a park-like appearance — we cross one of those 
 canals now little used, but by which formerly 
 not only goods but passengers were conveyed ; 
 
EOR IRISH DISCONTENT* 101 
 
 and one wonders how such a mode of progression 
 could be tolerated. 
 
 In Dublin again ! and now the first part of my 
 task is done. You have seen what Ireland is in 
 its outward features, more at length than I at 
 first contemplated. Of the north I have said little, 
 because tenant-right, manufactures, and affinity 
 of race make it more like Scotland ; just as Wick- 
 low, Wexford, Carlow, and Kildare, as well as 
 County Dublin (though they do not enjoy the 
 blessing of tenant-right) are little behind average 
 English counties in agricultural matters and the 
 peaceable demeanour of their population. In 
 much of the middle, south, and west you see 
 there is enough bog and mountain to give foun- 
 dation to the general opinion entertained about 
 Ireland : there is much bad farming and many 
 shiftless ways ; but the country is a grand country, 
 far superior to Scotland in some things, and more 
 accessible to a Londoner, easier to be reached by 
 a Lancashire or Yorkshire man than Brighton or 
 Hastings, yet less visited by all than the coast of 
 
102 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 Normandy ; where capital may be embarked in 
 many ways with a certainty of good return — 
 where vast heaths and mountains may be rented 
 on easy terms, and the shooting, with a little care, 
 be made as good as in the best part of Scotland ; 
 and where the rivers and lakes teem with fish. 
 
 The great-grandson of the Conqueror at Hast- 
 ings commenced English rule in Ireland; it is a dis- 
 grace to us that after all these years the country 
 which by the advance of science is nearer to 
 London than Bristol was a few years since, should 
 be still talked of as the French speak of Algiers, 
 should be our reproach among foreigners, and 
 should be a dread and difficulty to us in England : 
 let us now see why this is so, and try to find a 
 remedy. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 SKETCH OF IRISH HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD UNTIL 
 THE PASSING OF THE ACT FOR CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION IN 
 
 HE early history of Ireland is of course in- 
 
 volved in obscurity, but any one who observes 
 the similarity of language between the Graelic, 
 Welsh, and Irish, will have little difficulty in 
 satisfying himself that the inhabitants of Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Ireland were of kindred races 
 at the time the Romans first invaded Britain. 
 There are evidences of tribes existing of an infe- 
 rior organization at a period anterior to this in- 
 vasion, and who had been driven to the lakes and 
 morasses, and there are indications that the Phoe- 
 nicians founded colonies in the west of Ireland ; 
 therefore, being so well known, it seems curious 
 that when Britain was thoroughly subdued, the 
 
 1829. 
 
104 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Roman generals did not think it worth, their 
 while to attempt the subjugation of the neigh- 
 bouring island. 
 
 Some historians contend that it was in con- 
 templation of such an event that the Fenian force 
 was organized. So much has been written about 
 Finn McCoul and Diarmid, manifestly incorrect, 
 that their existence has been doubted; but it 
 seems probable that a kind of standing-army was 
 formed by one of the chieftains, who was thereby 
 enabled to obtain greater power \ that these men 
 had lands set aside for them, which the non- 
 military inhabitants were obliged to till ; finally, 
 that taking different sides in a civil war, their 
 number was greatly reduced, and, like the Janis- 
 saries and Mamelukes, the Fenians disappeared 
 from history. Except that they are supposed to 
 have held their lands in common, there is no 
 significance attached to the word Fenian j they 
 were simply the soldiers of Finn, though the Irish 
 have sometimes erroneously been called Fingal- 
 lians, or the Fenian race. Some people even 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 105 
 
 contend that the Fenians had a Scandinavian 
 origin, and were, in fact, the first band of those 
 sea rovers who overran Ireland in the ninth and 
 tenth centuries. 
 
 However this may be, Ireland became Chris- 
 tianized at an early period, and had attained a 
 considerable amount of civilization when the 
 incursions of the Danes commenced. In their 
 usual reckless manner, they burnt and destroyed 
 wherever they went ; but finally subjugating a 
 great part of the island, they intermarried with 
 the people, and were the most formidable oppo- 
 nents of Strongbow's army in Henry II/s time. 
 
 Notwithstanding the division of land conse- 
 quent upon this invasion, and the numerous wars 
 and intrigues in which successive lords-deputies 
 engaged, many old Irish chieftains retained their 
 possessions till the time of Cromwell. During 
 all this time, from Henry II. till Cromwell, in 
 round numbers four hundred and fifty years, 
 good government never seems to have prevailed, 
 and the island was never tranquil : the great 
 
106 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 English, nobles were quite as difficult to manage 
 and quite as lawless as the Irish chieftains. In 
 Queen Elizabeth's time it was a doubtful point 
 if her authority would be established, as army 
 after army was defeated and the disgrace of 
 Essex was partly owing to his bad success in 
 Ireland. However, the climax of confusion en- 
 sued in Charles I.'s reign. The Irish as a 
 nation remained true to the Eoman Catholic 
 faith, and when they rose in revolt, a dreadful 
 massacre of Protestants took place. This mas- 
 sacre was the turning-point of Irish history ; it 
 was the cause of Cromwell's fearful reprisals, and 
 of the division of the inhabitants into two dis- 
 tinct bodies — first, the English or Protestant 
 party; secondly, the Irish or Eoman Catholic 
 party. The one, as I will proceed to explain, be- 
 came possessed of all the property, power, and 
 emoluments ; the other were the serfs, who, as 
 long as they were perfectly docile and obedient, 
 had a right to exist, and nothing more. 
 
 No history is more perplexing than that of 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 107 
 
 the Civil Wars in Ireland in the time of Charles I. 
 Many of the leaders were continually changing 
 sides ; and when the victorious Parliamentarians 
 of England turned their attention to Ireland, it 
 is recorded that they actually captured and 
 threw into the sea a body of soldiers who had 
 been actively fighting against the rebels. When 
 Cromwell took the matter in hand, he acted in 
 his usual straightforward manner. The principal 
 cities were taken ; where resistance was offered, 
 no quarter was given ; and the " Curse of Crom- 
 well " is to this day a favourite mode of wishing 
 evil fortune. His plan was simple and thorough 
 enough to please any one. 
 
 The native Irishry, as they were called, were 
 to be driven to Connaught, the other three parts 
 of Ireland were to be occupied by English and 
 Scotch settlers. 
 
 In the northern districts, the English com- 
 panies and Scotch settlers occupied the lands, to 
 the exclusion of the ancient inhabitants. The 
 superior energy of the people, the favour shown 
 
108 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 to Protestants, and the prevalence of a custom 
 that no tenant can be evicted except for non- 
 payment of rent, also that he may dispose of the 
 right to occupy his land should he wish to quit, 
 have made the province of Ulster quite different 
 from the rest of Ireland. 
 
 InLeinster andMunster many Eoman Catholics, 
 rebels, and partizans of Charles I., were killed, 
 dispossessed, sold as slaves to the plantations, or 
 driven into Connaught ; but many were quietly 
 allowed to remain by the English or native 
 Protestants who had acquired their land ; and 
 many took to the mountains, and becoming 
 Tories or Eapparees, plundered where formerly 
 they had received rents. 
 
 "When James II. attempted to re-establish the 
 Catholic faith, the times looked better for these 
 dispossessed gentlemen ; some of them resumed 
 their old inheritances when James himself came 
 to Ireland, aided by the French; and if Deny 
 had been taken, the Protestants would have 
 suffered the horrors of Drogheda ; but after the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 109 
 
 siege of that town was raised — after the " Boyne 
 and Aughrim" — and after the surrender of 
 Limerick by Sarsfield, Protestantism again be- 
 came completely in the ascendant. 
 
 Looking back to the Irish massacres, the con- 
 stant trouble given by that nation, and the 
 necessity for putting down once and for ever 
 Papal domination, one cannot wonder at the 
 wholesale transference of property from the van- 
 quished to the successful party, or at the severe 
 enactments levelled against Irish and Eoman 
 Catholics. Had the other party been victorious, 
 they would probably have been as bloodthirsty 
 and unrelenting. 
 
 In those days, almost every bit of real pro- 
 perty and every particle of power were taken 
 from the Irish, who were looked upon as an alien 
 and a conquered race. William's Dutch favourites 
 received whole counties of land ; and French 
 refugees, flying from the bigotry of Louis XIV., 
 recovered in Ireland and from Papists the equi- 
 valent of property they had lost in Prance for 
 
110 a s axon's remedy 
 
 having protested against Popery. Nevertheless, 
 William III. was blamed by the English Parlia- 
 ment for being too indulgent to Irish Catholics, 
 and the English Parliament was appealed to by 
 the Catholics themselves as being more honourable 
 in its conduct than the Parliament of Ireland. It 
 cannot, therefore, be doubted that the Protestants 
 of Ireland, many of whom had lately endured the 
 extremities of fire and sword, strained the penal 
 laws to the utmost against the conquered race. 
 In one respect, however, both Protestants and 
 Catholics alike were unjustly treated ; and the 
 celebrated "Drapier Letters" of Swift are a 
 lasting proof of the intolerant attempts of 
 England to crush all efforts to establish manu- 
 factures in Ireland. 
 
 The position of the new landlords required 
 that they should not altogether break with the 
 native population. A great tract of land is of 
 little use to a man unless there are labourers to 
 till it. Many of the sons or relations of the 
 former proprietors agreed to pay rent for liberty 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. Ill 
 
 to farm part of tlieir late possessions ; and leases 
 for ever, for lives, or for long terms of years, 
 were frequent during the eighteenth century. 
 
 Gradually, as the population increased, the 
 subdivision of land and the rents increased also ; 
 and as there was hardly any trade or manufac- 
 tures, as the gentry were for the most part reck- 
 less and improvident, the situation of the smaller 
 farmers and the peasantry became wretched in 
 the extreme. All this time the laws against 
 Papists continued not only severe, but absurd. 
 A Eoman Catholic was not allowed to possess a 
 horse of over five pounds' value, and instances are 
 told of Irish gentlemen being compelled to dis- 
 mount and give up their valuable hunters for 
 this sum. At length came the American decla- 
 ration of independence, followed by the French 
 Revolution. 
 
 The French and other foreign armies had hun- 
 dreds of Irishmen in their ranks ever since the 
 capitulation of Limerick. Many Irish, and de- 
 scendants of Irish, fought under Washington, 
 
112 A SAXON 'S REMEDY 
 
 and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, bearing the proudest 
 name in Ireland, and who had married the natu- 
 ral daughter of the late King Louis-Philippe's 
 father, was to head an insurrection and form 
 Ireland into a republic. 
 
 Looking back to those days when England had 
 so many enemies, it is singular that none of the 
 soldiers of fortune so abundant in Europe and 
 America, threw in their lot with their insurgent 
 countrymen; also that the genius of Napoleon 
 did not mark the weak spot in which British in- 
 fluence could be assailed. As it was, when Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald had been captured, none of 
 the leaders showed the slightest military talent ; 
 almost their only successes were in Leinster, 
 where they captured Wexford and Enniscorthy ; 
 at Arklow and New Eoss they omitted to push 
 advantages which should have led to decisive 
 victories ; at Vinegar Hill, when fairly brought 
 to bay and engaged with a real army, they broke 
 and fled after very little fighting ; and except at 
 Antrim, where Lord O'Neill was killed, the rebels 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 113 
 
 in every part of Ireland were never formidable in 
 the field. The French were unable to land at 
 Bantry, and the few who disembarked at Killala 
 came too late, and after displaying much valour 
 and moderation of conduct, were captured to a 
 man. 
 
 Then came the reprisals ; many shocking cruel- 
 ties had been perpetrated by the insurgents, but 
 nothing could exceed the barbarities with which 
 they were avenged. Lord Cornwallis had com- 
 manded in America and in India, but he was 
 disgusted with the evil spirit which possessed 
 his party. A clergyman at Arklow, who had 
 been obliged to fly for his life from the rebels, 
 has left his written opinion that the Eoyalist 
 yeomanry were the more bloodthirsty of the two. 
 Protestant gentlemen, Catholic priests, and Pres- 
 byterian parsons perished on the gibbet; sur- 
 geons who had been compelled to dress the 
 wounds of rebels, kind-hearted gentlemen who 
 had used their influence to save life, were shot 
 by martial law, on no other evidence than the 
 
 I 
 
114 a saxon's remedy 
 
 accusation of those they had benefited ; the sum- 
 mary executions without evidence of guilt, the 
 wanton destruction of life and property, are chro- 
 nicled not only in the pages of novelists, but in 
 the diaries of English officers ; and while they 
 are remembered with horror and indignation by 
 the descendants of the victims in Ireland and 
 America, it is to be hoped that it is also re- 
 collected that it was the Irish Eoyalists and 
 yeomanry who were eager for bloodshed and 
 rapine, and the English Government and soldiery 
 who repressed instead of encouraged excesses. 
 
 I am particular in dilating upon the events of 
 1798, because, after the re-distribution of lands 
 under Cromwell and "William III., it is the most 
 important point for the consideration of us as 
 Englishmen. The Protestant party always refer 
 to it as a proof that in the memory of living 
 men the Catholics have shown themselves san- 
 guinary rebels, not fit to be trusted with power. 
 It has kept alive among them that feeling of 
 mingled hatred, fear, and scorn with which the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 115 
 
 Irish were regarded by the English colonists of 
 two hundred years ago. On the other hand, '98 
 is still bitterly remembered by many Irishmen. 
 A man who can dimly remember his father and 
 mother being shot, and all the family property 
 destroyed, because his name happened to be the 
 same as that of a rebel leader, can hardly be ex- 
 pected to have friendly feelings towards the sons 
 of the Yeomanry captain who perpetrated the 
 outrage ; and it is hard to persuade the country 
 people that a gentleman who is crippled for life, 
 and who happens to be the immediate descendant 
 of an officer who cut off the head of a poor car- 
 man for not bringing up ammunition quickly 
 enough, is not expiating his ancestor's crime. 
 The sons of men who were flogged, had pitched 
 caps put on their heads, or were scored with a 
 hot iron, not because they had done anything 
 wrong, but to force them to give or invent evi- 
 dence, must have ugly thoughts in their minds 
 now and then, particularly if they are turned out 
 of their own little holdings ; and if they emigrate 
 
 i2 
 
116 a s axon's remedy 
 
 to America may tell tales of the condition of 
 Ireland calculated to rouse up dangerous feelings 
 in the breasts of their countrymen. 
 
 One effect of the Eebellion was to determine 
 the Government of England to bring about the 
 Union with Ireland. We have now learned that 
 the intentions of Pitt and Castlereagh were 
 exceedingly liberal and enlightened, and it must 
 have been evident to any one with a head on his 
 shoulders, that upwards of three millions of 
 dissatisfied Irishmen might become fatal arbiters 
 in the war we were waging with France. Castle- 
 reagh himself had spoken of the necessity for 
 reforming the Irish Parliament, and the " United 
 Irishmen" had stated that they only became 
 republicans when conviction was forced upon 
 them that reformation of the Constitution of 
 Ireland, under the English Government, was 
 impossible. 
 
 The most influential of the Eoman Catholics 
 were in favour of the Union. Dr. Troy, Catholic 
 Archbishop of Dublin, states that the generality 
 
TOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 117 
 
 of Catholics considered the measure their only 
 protection against the faction which seemed bent 
 on their destruction. He mentions an instance 
 of a priest having been murdered, the chapel 
 burnt, and no one daring to succeed him. As 
 Lord Castlereagh's plan comprehended payment, 
 on a moderate scale, of the clergy of all denomi- 
 nations, as well as admission of Eoman Catholics 
 to the Houses of Parliament, there is no doubt 
 the great measure, if carried out as intended, 
 would really have made England and Ireland one 
 country. The chief opposition came from the 
 owners of boroughs and the holders of places, 
 and poor Lord Cornwallis had terrible work to 
 be civil to these greedy gentlemen, who, he said, 
 he had much rather kick. 
 
 "When the measure was at length passed, all 
 the promises to the Catholics were broken ; and 
 it is lamentable to reflect that the bigoted scru- 
 ples of George III. (who a short time previously 
 had been for months deprived of his kingly 
 power, threatened, and even beaten, as was the 
 
118 a s axon's remedy 
 
 brutal practice of those days with lunatics), 
 should still have been able to work such fatal 
 mischief. 
 
 It has well been said, that if Mr. Pitt had 
 then boldly abolished all religious and com- 
 mercial distinctions, Ireland would long since 
 have lost all traces of a separate nationality : he 
 resigned office when Greorge III. refused him 
 the power of redeeming his pledges. 
 
 In 1803, Lord Eedesdale, the Irish Lord Chan- 
 cellor, wrote so offensively to Lord Fingal, rela- 
 tive to the Eoman Catholics, that the discussion 
 thereby provoked in the House hastened the fall 
 of the Addington Administration, and Pitt re- 
 turned to office in 1804 : it was then considered 
 that the promises he had made to the Catholics 
 would be fulfilled, but unfortunately he had 
 been weak enough to make certain engagements 
 to the king. The Prince of Wales professed 
 himself in favour of their, claims, and Pox 
 brought them before the House, but the motion 
 was rejected by an overwhelming majority. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 119 
 
 It is difficult to account for the bigotry that 
 prevailed in England during this period; Pitt 
 called the treatment of the Pope by Napoleon 
 almost sacrilege, we were supporting the Bour- 
 bons, allied to the House of Austria, professing — 
 nay, even feeling, the greatest hatred for Napo- 
 leon and the French, and of liberals and free- 
 thinkers generally, but in 1807 the feeling of 
 the whole nation was virulent against Catho- 
 licism. Of course this utter want of faith irri- 
 tated the Irish party beyond measure ; the genius 
 of O'Connell began to make itself felt ; a cry was 
 raised to repeal the Union. In 1812, with the 
 Prince of Wales as Eegent, it was considered 
 they had another chance, but the Prince broke 
 his word and threw the weight of his influence 
 in the opposite scale, and the motion of the 
 celebrated orator, Mr. Grattan, in their favour, was 
 rejected. It is said that O'Connell's assertion that 
 Lord Yarmouth could not have inoculated the 
 Prince with the theory or practice of excessive 
 piety was never forgotten nor forgiven. 
 
120 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 It was at this time Sir Kobert, then Mr. Peel, 
 became Irish Secretary, and was so different to 
 what he afterwards became, that he was called 
 " Orange Peel." 
 
 During this period agrarian outrages and 
 assassinations prevailed to a dreadful extent ; 
 even in those days of high prices the land was 
 let as high as it could bear ; when the rent was 
 paid, tithes for the maintenance of the Pro- 
 testant Church were levied ; when an election 
 took place the tenantry often had to vote for 
 their Protestant landlords or be turned out of 
 their farms. There was no Poor Law — thus to 
 be turned out was to starve; nevertheless the 
 farmers often voted contrary to their landlord's 
 dictation, and were evicted : but the landlord, his 
 agent, or the new tenant, ran imminent risk 
 from the secret societies. 
 
 After the Peace in 1815, rents still remained 
 high, though the price of produce fell ; wholesale 
 eviction was the order of the day, and White- 
 boys, Caravats, and Shanavests tried, sentenced, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 121 
 
 and executed those whom they considered their 
 persecutors. 
 
 Soon after Greorge IV.'s accession to the throne, 
 he visited Ireland, and those who advised him to 
 take such a step well calculated on the extra- 
 ordinary veneration the people have there for the 
 name of king and the visible presence of their 
 ruler. Everyone was exuberantly loyal, broken 
 promises were forgotten, and even O'Connell was 
 fervent in his devotion to the stout elderly gen- 
 tleman, who hardly dare show himself in the 
 streets of his own capital, so unpopular had 
 he become, owing to the unseemly display 
 connected with the funeral of Queen Caro- 
 line. 
 
 No measures favourable to Ireland followed 
 this visit; but the Marquis of Wellesley, who 
 again became Lord-Lieutenant, held an even 
 hand over Catholics and Protestants, and far- 
 sighted men perceived that the inconsistency 
 which had now prevailed for thirty years, of 
 allowing Catholics to vote for members of Parlia- 
 
122 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 ment, but not to sit there themselves, could no 
 longer be kept up. 
 
 In 1829 the Duke of Wellington and Sir 
 Kobert Peel perceived that the measure of relief 
 which had been so long promised to the Eoman 
 Catholics could not be delayed, and the Act 
 known as " Catholic Emancipation" was finally 
 carried; though the King, even at the last 
 moment, stated he was coerced into it, and his 
 brother, the Duke of Cumberland, was vehement 
 in his opposition. The Duke of Clarence, after- 
 wards "William IV., made a great impression by 
 his statement of the joy which would have been 
 felt by Nelson and other naval heroes had they 
 been alive to see the Irish Catholic sailors, who 
 had joined with Protestants in defending the 
 British flag, made equal with themselves in civil 
 and religious liberty. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IRISH HISTORY CONTINUED TILL THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1868. 
 
 fj^HE great measure of relief afforded to the 
 Catholics was unfortunately ascribed more to 
 the fear of O'Connell' s agitation than to the wish 
 to do justice on the part of the legislature. 
 O'Connell had been elected for Clare before the 
 Act passed, but on presenting himself to be 
 sworn, was required to take the oath that was in 
 force previously. Of course he had to resign and be 
 re-elected ; and to a man of his temperament this 
 course appeared humiliating. "When Sir Eobert 
 Peel resigned soon after, matters were not mended 
 under Earl Grrey. O'Connell would not give up 
 agitating; he continued to make dangerous 
 speeches, and to insist on the repeal of the Union. 
 His object was to have a parliament on Stephen's 
 
124 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Green, of which he should be the master 
 spirit. 
 
 Mr. Stanley, the Irish Secretary, now Earl 
 Derby, was not a man to be intimidated, and 
 O'Connell soon disliked him as much as he did 
 Peel. 
 
 Agrarian outrages still continued, and many 
 of the most eminent of the Eoman Catholic 
 divines acknowledged the necessity for the 
 Coercion Bill. The truth was, that the secret 
 societies went far beyond even the " wild justice 
 of revenge" O'Connell talked of; whole families 
 were murdered, not because they had violated 
 any of the unwritten laws respecting land, but 
 because one of them had resisted being plun- 
 dered of arms, or was suspected of having given 
 evidence about, perhaps, some petty matter. 
 
 No doubt the energies of O'Connell and the 
 melodies of Moore riveted the public attention to 
 the wrongs of Ireland ; but it will always be a 
 debated point if the constant promise of " Eepeal," 
 the virulent abuse of everyone who opposed him, 
 
FOB IRISH DISCONTENT. 125 
 
 and the blind obedience the former exacted from 
 the other Irish members, did not delay many 
 necessary measures. 
 
 The application of the new Corporation Act 
 to Ireland was certainly put off because the 
 English Members of the House of Commons 
 feared O'Connell would rule all municipal 
 elections. 
 
 However, the Eeform Bill of 1S32, and many 
 subsequent Whig measures, were carried partly 
 through the influence of O'Connell and his 
 " Tail." As session succeeded session more 
 useful enactments were passed ; Ireland obtained 
 a Poor Law, and the grant to Maynooth College 
 was much increased. It was at this time that 
 the House of Commons lost another grand op- 
 portunity of gratifying the Catholic party in 
 Ireland, by refusing to throw open Trinity 
 College to all denominations. Mr. Sheil, who, 
 with more polished eloquence than O'Connell, 
 had greater prudence and moderation, made a 
 magnificent speech in favour of equality in all 
 
126 a saxon's remedy 
 
 respects, "social, political, official, and ecclesias- 
 tical." "If," said he, "you apply your 18,000/. 
 a-year to the establishment of new professorships 
 and new fellowships in the Metropolitan and 
 National Institutions, Englishmen will get a 
 value in peace, in contentment, in pacificatory 
 results for their money." 
 
 In 1842 O'Connell renewed his agitation for 
 Eepeal in a most energetic manner, and in 1843 
 gathered together immense numbers of people, 
 whom he addressed in language so heart-stirring, 
 and so provocative to insurrection, that even he 
 could not have kept them in check (and he was 
 a man who always deprecated actual treason) if 
 his hearers had been excited by whisky. But 
 at that time Father Mathew, the celebrated 
 Apostle of Temperance, had almost as much 
 influence as O'Connell himself, and had com- 
 pletely changed the habits of the people. 
 
 It was at that period I first visited Ireland, 
 and spent some weeks in traversing in cars the 
 Midland, West, and Southern counties. No 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 127 
 
 drunkenness whatever was to be seen, though 
 whisky was ridiculously cheap; if you offered 
 your driver something to drink, he chose ginger- 
 beer; all outrages had entirely ceased; the 
 people were courteous and obliging, but evidently 
 watching and waiting for some great event. 
 Often in the south and west I was accompanied 
 in my rambles over the mountains by a dozen 
 or so of persons ; only one or two asked ques- 
 tions, for often few among them could speak or 
 understand English, but what I said was inter- 
 preted to the rest. " If O'Connell helped to get 
 the Eepeal of the Corn-Laws in England, would 
 the English repeal the Union ?" was one of the 
 questions constantly asked. "Had the French 
 gone to war with England, and did I think they 
 would land in Ireland?" was another; we had a 
 great deal of talk about the new workhouses, 
 which at that time hardly anyone would 
 enter. But we were always very good friends, 
 and I felt perfectly safe (as all strangers are 
 in Ireland), though I passed by the scenes of 
 
128 a saxon's remedy 
 
 many terrible deeds of murder and destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The meeting of Tara, where O'Connell went 
 nearer to treason than ever before, is as vividly 
 before my mind as if it were yesterday. The 
 Hill of Tara is where the ancient kings of 
 Ireland were crowned, and as the half-million of 
 people covered every yard of ground round the 
 elevated position from which O'Connell spoke, 
 attentive to every motion of his arm and every 
 inflection of his voice, in figure and attitude he 
 might have passed for a sovereign himself ; but 
 there was nothing of nobility in his face ; it was 
 terribly wrinkled, and he had an expression half 
 sly, half humorous, reminding one rather of a 
 merry old woman, as he wore an unmistakeable 
 wig, and had no hair on his face. Many of his 
 hearers had come scores of miles to hear him, 
 and looked fagged and hungry, so much so, 
 indeed, that though none begged, I bought 
 rough griddle cakes, which was the principal 
 food to be procured in the tents scattered about, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 129 
 
 and gave them to some of those who seemed 
 most weary: I saw some well-dressed persons 
 doing the same, but there was so little to eat, 
 that I am sure many must have suffered greatly ; 
 indeed, as we went home at night, the poor 
 wretches were lying about the roads thoroughly 
 exhausted, and it was all our driver could do to 
 avoid injuring them. 
 
 O'Connell made two speeches that day — one 
 to the people on the hill, the other at the ban- 
 quet which took place afterwards. Though very 
 young, still, as my family had always taken an 
 active part in politics, and O'Connell had been 
 recently staying with some of them, I was placed 
 very near him on both occasions, and heard every 
 word he said. I did not think much of his 
 speech on the hill, but it seemed to have an im- 
 mense effect on his auditory. He made a great 
 point of the pecuniary loss Ireland had sustained 
 by the Union, which he said his son John could 
 prove in defiance of any Saxon financier. He had 
 two or three pet expressions, which, when used, 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 created tremendous cheering that re-echoed for 
 miles. The cold dinner, which was only five 
 shillings, was not so well attended as might have 
 been expected considering the lowness of the 
 charge and the difficulty of getting refreshments 
 elsewhere — a convincing proof to me that those 
 who had joined the movement were more nume- 
 rous than influential. 
 
 There were some French and American sym- 
 pathizers — Ledru Rollin, I think, among the 
 former. Some of the guests had little tufts of 
 grass of a peculiar colour, which by a stretch of 
 imagination might be likened to blood, and it 
 was said this was in consequence of the slaughter 
 of rebels in this place in '98. 
 
 O'Connell spoke here more quietly than in the 
 morning, but he treated the dissolution of the 
 Union as certain to take place. " The difference," 
 he said, " between himself and the Ministry was, 
 that the Duke of Wellington mumbled it, while 
 he (O'Connell) spoke right out." In describing 
 the good conduct of the people, he said, " The 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 131 
 
 immense multitude had dispersed quietly to their 
 homes, but where would they be if the Saxon was 
 at the door ?" This expression, and the constant 
 tirade against both Tories and Whigs, in which 
 other speakers joined, were all that, in my inex- 
 perience, I thought dangerous ; but I believe 
 Government thought more of his taking upon 
 himself to appoint arbitrators to settle disputes 
 instead of the regular legal authorities, and in 
 other ways assuming a power above the law, than 
 of anything else, except, indeed, the calling to- 
 gether such enormous masses of people. 
 
 The Ministry were aware, too, that the " Young 
 Ireland" party was suggesting more violent mea- 
 sures than O'Connell approved, so that he must 
 either go forward or resign his power to more 
 reckless and inexperienced hands. Accordingly 
 a vice-regal proclamation prevented the monster 
 meeting at Clontarf in October, and O'Connell 
 was tried with his principal coadjutors in Janu- 
 ary following. 
 
 England was in a state of great agitation about 
 k 2 
 
132 a saxon's uemedy 
 
 the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the true policy 
 would have been to have won O'Connell by cer- 
 tain concessions, and to have used his influence 
 against the " Young Ireland " party. However, 
 he was brought to trial, and sentenced to im- 
 prisonment ; but the sentence was soon reversed 
 by the House of Lords. 
 
 The last days of O'Connell were embittered by 
 seeing that Mr. Smith O'Brien had obtained the 
 virtual leadership of the party he himself had so 
 long headed ; and after his death the travestie of 
 rebellion which terminated in the transportation 
 of Mr. O'Brien and his followers, showed how 
 weak was the mind which attempted to carry out 
 plans too difficult even for the powerful intellect 
 which for twenty years had directed four-fifths 
 of the Irish nation. 
 
 And now came the terrible disaster which, with 
 its consequences, completely changed everything 
 in Ireland. Free admission of corn was not 
 granted a minute too soon, for an extraordinary 
 blight fell upon the potatoes in Ireland. Many 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 133 
 
 people say that if Lord Greorge Bentinck's pro- 
 posal of granting loans for the construction of 
 railways there had been carried out, both present 
 and permanent advantages would have ensued 5 
 but though that motion was, perhaps unfortu- 
 nately, negatived, the English Government nobly 
 did their duty. Famine and fever had before 
 fallen upon the Irish, but the scarcity and dis- 
 ease on former occasions were mild inflictions in 
 comparison with the fearful sufferings of 1847. 
 Meal and money were sent over from England ; 
 roads and other public works were undertaken ; 
 many of the upper and middle classes did their 
 duty, and spent money and time, and risked 
 health and life in giving assistance, though some 
 selfishly ran away or shut themselves up in their 
 demesnes. 
 
 In spite of all, the numbers of those who died 
 of starvation in their cabins or in the fields far 
 exceeded any slaughter in Cromwell's time. 
 Dead bodies were carried to holes in the bogs in 
 cofiins with sliding bottoms, so that their con- 
 
134 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 tents could be left in tlie ground and tlie coffins 
 be used again. 
 
 Unfortunately, the prevalence of redtapeism and 
 the deficiency of administrative talent in English 
 government officials were painfully apparent ; 
 some of the starving got no relief, while people 
 comfortably off received liberal allowances. Fa- 
 milies lying ill of fever could not get to the 
 places where food was given away, and there was 
 often no one to find them out and bring succour. 
 
 At length the famine and pestilence passed 
 away. Then came other troubles. 
 
 The hitherto despised workhouses had been 
 filled to overflowing, and buildings had to be 
 hired as adjuncts. The poor-rates rose to a 
 ruinous extent, and landlords who could get no 
 rent had nevertheless to pay mortgages and their 
 proportion of the poor-rates. 
 
 Some landlords commenced clearing their 
 lands : they got rid of the tenants, assisting 
 them to emigrate when able and willing, but still 
 getting rid of them. In hundreds of cases land- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT^ 135 
 
 lords who had let large lots of land to middle- 
 men, recovered possession of what w r as let for 
 long terms of years, and even for ever. 
 
 Then it became apparent how difficult it was 
 to make a good legal title to many Irish estates. 
 The Encumbered Estates Act was passed, which 
 enabled the court in Dublin to give a new title 
 to real property in a cheap and binding form. 
 
 Mortgagees by hundreds foreclosed their mort- 
 gages, and the estates of some of the oldest and 
 most extensive landholders in Ireland were 
 brought to the hammer 
 
 The Act was an excellent rough-and-ready way 
 of surmounting a difficulty, and has worked 
 great benefit to the country ; but the ruin which 
 befel many respectable and hitherto wealthy 
 families was terrible. 
 
 Not merely the old proprietors were often re- 
 duced almost to poverty, but those who had 
 second mortgages or charges on estates lost every 
 sixpence. 
 
 There was great commercial distress in Eng- 
 
136 A SAXON *S REMEDY 
 
 land. The railway and revolutionary panic 
 there had not been got over. Few dare buy 
 property in Ireland, and many sales took place 
 before twenty years' purchase on the fair letting 
 value was attained. 
 
 Sir Bernard Burke has chronicled the reverses 
 that befel many of the Irish aristocracy, and it 
 is not long since I saw the common necessaries 
 of life refused to a gentleman who had been 
 high sheriff and deputy-lieutenant of three 
 counties, in all of which he had large possessions. 
 Only the other day I saw the eldest son of 
 another gentleman, formerly master of fox- 
 hounds in his native county, carrying the 
 luggage of steamboat passengers. 
 
 Still, as time wore on prices rose, for every 
 farmer and professional man who had saved 
 money invested in land. English and Scotch 
 buyers came in, and finally the operations of the 
 Encumbered Estates Court were most beneficial 
 to many proprietors whose estates were loaded 
 with debt. I paid a visit to one nobleman in 
 
TOE, IRISH DISCONTENT. 137 
 
 1853, where the precautions to guard against 
 bailiffs were equal to anything Maxwell de- 
 scribes, and where every dodge was resorted to 
 in order to effect an entrance, so that the garrison 
 was almost starved into a surrender; but in a 
 few weeks after two-thirds of the property fetched 
 so much more than was expected, that all the 
 debts were cleared off, and the old nobleman was 
 quite in comfortable circumstances. 
 
 Meantime emigration went on, for every pur- 
 chaser strove to get estates free from squatters, 
 or tenants holding small patches of land ; and if 
 he did buy a property so circumstanced, he gave 
 considerably less for it, and then spent no slight 
 percentage on the purchase-money in paying the 
 passage of any he could induce to go to America 
 or elsewhere. 
 
 Whenever the history of Ireland is written, 
 the famine of 1847 and the operations of the 
 Encumbered Estates Court will be mentioned as 
 turning points from which to date great changes 
 in the habits of the people, which led to a great 
 
138 a saxon's remedy 
 
 deal of prosperity and improvement in the middle 
 and lower classes. 
 
 At the same time the famine and its results 
 were unjustly charged to the apathy of the Eng- 
 lish Government ; and it has been so frequently 
 asserted by the seditious press of Ireland that 
 millions were starved to death and driven into 
 exile by Saxon calculation, that many thou- 
 sands in Ireland and America believe the as- 
 sertion. 
 
 The cities in America were filled with emi- 
 grants who, after seeing relations and friends die 
 around them, had their cabins unroofed and 
 levelled, and been forced to quit their country, 
 or, if more fortunate and gratified with a few 
 pounds, had yet the conviction that they must 
 seek their livelihood in another land. That these 
 emigrants rapidly saved money in America, and 
 sent for their relatives to join them, is a well- 
 known fact; and that small farmers, domestic 
 servants, and skilled labourers gave up comfort- 
 able situations and followed their friends, is also 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 139 
 
 a matter of notoriety. Nor can it be doubted 
 that the enforced exodus which succeeded the 
 famine was composed of people who carried with 
 them a bitter grudge against the English Go- 
 vernment and the Irish aristocracy, which has 
 since been turned to account on the other side 
 of the Atlantic. 
 
 From 1850 till 1863 Ireland made rapid 
 strides. That surplus population living on 
 potatoes and working for sixpence a day, which 
 was the despair of political economists, had dis- 
 appeared ; much of the land had passed into the 
 hands of energetic farmers or men of business, 
 who had drained, levelled immense banks and 
 ditches which took up so much valuable room, 
 and increased the rate of wages ; railways were 
 made to most of the principal towns, steamers 
 were put on to many Irish ports, and there was 
 a constant rise in the prices of meat, butter, 
 corn, &c, which encouraged the reclamation of 
 much waste land. The principal banks in Ire- 
 land were full of money, landed property con- 
 
140 a saxon's remedy 
 
 tinned to rise invalne; and the constant erection 
 of fine houses in the watering-places towards the 
 Wicklow coast, and the transformation of many 
 of the streets in Dublin, showed the general pros- 
 perity of the commercial classes. 
 
 Two or three things, however, were noticed 
 by observant men. Firstly, absenteeism did not 
 cease with the greater prosperity of Ireland, and 
 the Queen and Royal Family took no means to 
 make that island fashionable as a place of resort * 
 secondly, though the Eoman Catholic members 
 of the bar certainly got their full share of good 
 things, in the way of judgeships, &c, the lord- 
 lieutenants of counties were Tories of the old 
 class, who kept men of their own way of think- 
 ing in great preponderance on the bench, and in 
 various ways countenanced the idea that country 
 gentlemen must be Protestants and Conserva- 
 tives ; thirdly, that the Land Question and the 
 Church Question were as far from being settled 
 as ever, and that the little insignificant conces- 
 sions which were talked of in the House were 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 141 
 
 utterly nnsuited to the requirements of the 
 priesthood and the tenantry of Ireland. 
 
 At length came the American civil war. The 
 necessity the North had of obtaining the un- 
 qualified support of the Irish emigrants, the in- 
 dignation felt against us for permitting the 
 escape of the Alabama, and for manifesting a 
 good deal of interest in the Confederate cause, 
 were all elements in producing certain aspira- 
 tions amongst sanguine Irish refugees and un- 
 scrupulous agitators. 
 
 The result was the Fenian conspiracy, which, 
 as far as open insurrection has gone, is most 
 contemptible, but which has had a blighting 
 effect on the dawning prosperity of Ireland, has 
 rendered the state of affairs there a matter of 
 anxiety to every inhabitant of these islands, and 
 necessitates bold and decided, but liberal and 
 comprehensive, measures on the part of our 
 Legislature. 
 
 I have now finished my sketch of the History 
 of Ireland, and I beg you to note, my good 
 
142 a saxon's remedy 
 
 friends, that a great many Irishmen believe they 
 were wealthy and prosperous, and held countless 
 acres of land to " their own cheek," till Cromwell 
 and "William III. despoiled them, and bestowed 
 their possessions on certain Saxons who still 
 wrongfully hoM^tfe-^ame ; the destruction of 
 many abbeys and religfofcg %ouses, and the con- 
 version of Catholic cathedrals into Protestant 
 churches took place at the same time. Both 
 Protestants and Catholics are well aware that 
 during the eighteenth century your ancestors 
 stamped out with their broad Saxon feet all 
 Irish attempts at manufactures. Many Pro- 
 testants and Catholics consider also that by 
 bribery your fathers bought up their Lords and 
 Commons in the beginning of this century, 
 saddled the country with an undue proportion 
 of debt, and drew money out of it by taking the 
 landlords to the London Parliament House to 
 spend rents acquired in Ireland. Finally, that 
 you yourselves, perhaps by cold-blooded calcula- 
 tion, certainly by Saxon apathy, starved hundreds 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 143 
 
 of thousands in the famine year, and drove a yet 
 greater number into exile. You have allowed 
 unprincipled people to say and write these things 
 for years, and are only just now awaking to the 
 fact that the Irish may be at once more sus- 
 picious and more credulous than yourselves; 
 suspicious of their rulers, and credulous in be- 
 lieving lies about them. All these things you 
 must consider when the Irish question comes to 
 be dealt with. 
 
 I will now give a short sketch of the Fenian 
 Conspiracy, of which I knew something from 
 American sources five years since, but like many 
 cleverer men took little heed of. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 FENIANISM. 
 
 " T AM sorry for your country, sir/ 5 said an 
 American to me, as we strolled along the 
 Chiaja at Naples one beautiful moonlight night, 
 five years ago. Now at the hotel where I was 
 staying we had some very stiff arguments after 
 dinner in the smoking-room. There were half-a- 
 dozen Americans, four of whom were gentle- 
 manly young fellows, heartily sick of the war, 
 but the other two, though shrewd, long-headed 
 Yankees, and good-natured withal, bragged of 
 their country and its resources beyond bearing ; 
 then there was a Scotch colonel who had shot 
 the biggest tiger that was ever seen, and a 
 Glasgow man, who boasted of Scotland as if all 
 her sons had been equal to Sir William Wallace ; 
 
REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 145 
 
 also three or four Irishmen, one of whom had 
 won all the steeple-chases at Punchestown, and 
 all of whom had a good deal to say about " down- 
 trodden Erin," and the wonders of valour her 
 sons had performed, so that England, represented 
 by me, was only upheld from sinking into a 
 third-rate power by constant argument. Thus I 
 was hardly astonished when my American friend 
 kindly expressed his commiseration for poor 
 ' John Bull. 
 
 " Oh," said I, " I am as sorry as you can be 
 about the Alabama ; it is a great pity privateer- 
 ing was allowed at all. Eobbing and destroying 
 private property is a mean kind of warfare, but 
 I rather think, Mr. Bunkum, privateering would 
 have been put an end to altogether at the time 
 of the Bussian war, by the general consent of 
 all civilized nations, if some of the smart men 
 on your side of the Atlantic had not considered 
 that America had better retain the privilege." 
 
 u That is as it may be," said Mr. Bunkum ; 
 " but I can tell you this, sir, our people are keeping 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 an account of all the damage that is done by the 
 privateers that your Government allow the in- 
 surgent Southerns to get hold of, and every cent 
 you will have to pay." 
 
 "Well, my good friend/' said I, "I am quite 
 sure we shan't fight you, if we can avoid it; but 
 you know my opinion pretty well already, that, 
 if we were forced to fight, you would stand no 
 chance whatever with us, even if you had con- 
 quered the South, which it is by no means clear 
 you can do/ 5 
 
 "Well, sir/ 5 said Mr, Bunkum, "as to the 
 South, you'll see by-and-by ; and, as I suppose, 
 you wont deny the undoubted fact that our fleet 
 is more powerful than the English and French 
 navies put together " 
 
 Here I expressed my strong dissent as Mr- 
 Bunkum went on — 
 
 " But we shall have no occasion to go to war 
 with you ; there are in our service at this moment 
 five hundred thousand Irish soldiers, and there 
 are a hundred thousand in the Southern army ; 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 147 
 
 now as soon as the South is put down, if we give 
 these men leave to go to Canada and Ireland, 
 they will be joined by an equal number of men 
 in those two countries, and will form a grand 
 Hibernian republic, which w T ill overshadow the 
 British empire, and which w r e can annex to the 
 United States w T hen w r e think proper/ 5 
 
 " That's a pretty plan/' said I ; " but your Irish 
 friends have a dirty bit of water to cross, and a 
 few little difficulties in the way of storms, war- 
 steamers, and so forth.' 5 
 
 "Well, sir," said Mr. Bunkum, "I calculate 
 there may be a slight hitch there ; but your fleet 
 will be sent off to Canada, and the Fenian 
 organization can buy up a good many of our 
 vessels at the close of the war; besides, thou- 
 sands of them w r ould go over as passengers and 
 traders." 
 
 " Fenians," said I ; " we have heard something 
 of them. They are going to re-divide all the 
 land in Ireland, and put down both parsons and 
 priests ; a very nice plan for those who have got 
 
 l 2 
 
148 a saxon's remedy 
 
 nothing. I should not think there are many- 
 Fenians in Ireland/' 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir/' said he ; u there is 
 one in every village, who is what they call a 
 centre ; he is often a shopkeeper, who has been 
 in America; he communicates with the head- 
 centre, who manages a district, and they have all 
 laws and regulations, and correspond with their 
 friends in America ; every one subscribes, and 
 there is not a servant girl in the States that 
 does not put by part of her wages towards the 
 establishment of the great Fenian republic. It is 
 calculated that when they all rise together, Great 
 Britain will see the folly of attempting to keep 
 an island that has given her nothing but 
 trouble, and will just let Ireland go and govern 
 herself." 
 
 We had a good deal more conversation of the 
 same kind ; a great deal of what Mr. Bunkum 
 said at all times appeared half romance, and I 
 thought very little of his information. Probably 
 the Earl of Carlisle and Sir Bobert Peel had 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 149 
 
 as little idea of any serious conspiracy threaten- 
 ing tlie growing prosperity of Ireland, as of the 
 sea solving the problem of how to make Ireland 
 prosperous and contented by submerging the 
 island for a couple of hours, as has been recom- 
 mended. 
 
 Gradually, however, it was noticed that a great 
 many emigrants who had been some years in 
 America came back to their native country 5 
 some of these appeared well off, had small shops 
 or public-houses, and were very popular among 
 the lower orders : they told such Munchausen-like 
 tales of the power of America, the size of her 
 cities, and the estimation in which the Irish were 
 held there, that the wonder was that they should 
 have returned. 
 
 There is hardly a small farmer or domestic 
 servant in Ireland who has not relations in 
 America ; and I was much amused at being 
 asked by tenants and servants of my own such 
 questions as " Whether Albany was not bigger 
 than London, and New York bigger than London 
 
150 a s axon's remedy 
 
 and Paris put together." About three years ago 
 the old questions about the French being at 
 enmity with England were revived, and though 
 of course I told my interlocutors that the French 
 Emperor was much more likely to take his fleet 
 to America than to Ireland, my experience of the 
 Irish character enabled me to see that I was only 
 half credited. A little before this time the long 
 tenure of office by the Earl of Carlisle had ter- 
 minated. No man was more amiable, or took 
 more pains to make himself popular : he was 
 always ready to go anywhere and do anything, 
 but the authorities at home did not enable him 
 to foster improvements so much as he desired. 
 
 As taxation in Ireland, by the imposition of 
 income-tax and the extra duty on whisky, had 
 decidedly increased, it was expected more would 
 havfr been done in the way of assistance to har- 
 bours, &c. 
 
 However, no one ever blamed Lord Carlisle, 
 whose melancholy death created deep feelings of 
 sorrow in the country he so long governed. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 151 
 
 Lord Wodehouse — now Earl of Kimberley — 
 made a very different viceroy. Naturally keen 
 and clever, a residence among the Eussian 
 diplomatists had made him preternaturally sharp 
 and suspicions. When deputations went to him 
 to ask for assistance they had no right to expect 
 — not an uncommon thing in Ireland — they soon 
 found Lord Wodehouse knew more about the 
 matter than they did, and they were glad to retire 
 from the presence in an exceedingly crestfallen 
 condition, being exposed to the jokes of their 
 friends who perused the account of their discom- 
 fiture in the public prints. If, on the contrary, 
 Government assistance was craved for a necessary 
 work, Lord Wodehouse was so eloquent on the 
 desirability of those chiefly interested in it 
 raising the requisite funds, and was so confident 
 Parliament would not sanction public money 
 being used, that the deputation felt that they 
 were civilly put out of court, and might as well 
 have stayed at home. 
 
 At this time the Fenian conspiracy had ar- 
 
152 a s axon's remedy 
 
 rived at a certain stage when it required a keen, 
 resolute man, accustomed to intrigue and diplo- 
 macy, to deal with it. Lord Wodehouse had the 
 good sense to take precautionary measures which 
 many of us ridiculed but which the result has 
 fully justified. There is no doubt that in every 
 village, town, and district, Fenian societies were 
 formed. A certain number of clever Americans 
 and Irish- Americans had landed, and many more 
 would have come over. How far people of in- 
 fluence in America countenanced the movement 
 can only be guessed at ; but an opinion prevails 
 that, as soon as the matter became serious, Lord 
 Kimberley had full information. 
 
 One cannot suppose that men of high poli- 
 tical character in America, however irritated at 
 the policy of England, and however desirous to 
 conciliate the Irish party in America, would 
 conceal a conspiracy like the Fenian one, even 
 if our own diplomatists in America were incredu- 
 lous of its existence. 
 
 Had the plans of the Fenians not been 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 153 
 
 stopped in time the effects would have been 
 tremendous. If a few members in every village 
 of a county, headed by a determined man who 
 had seen some service, had marched to the 
 county town, seized the money in the banks and 
 all arms and ammunition, they would speedily 
 have been joined by some sympathizers, and by 
 the idle rabble which in every place all over the 
 world is ready for rapine and plunder. If the 
 leaders had been thoroughly reckless and the 
 police had been overpowered, they would have 
 been joined by the lower middle class, partly 
 from fear of losing what they had, partly from 
 hope of acquiring, as owners, the land of which 
 they were tenants ; and though of course these 
 disorderly levies would have had no chance 
 against the British army, the mischief done 
 would have been incalculable. Perhaps the 
 Fenian leaders trusted to some insurrectionary 
 movements in English towns to occupy the 
 military power, perhaps they relied on assis- 
 tance from America. 
 
154 
 
 A SAXOIS'S REMEDY 
 
 As everything which has even a remote bear- 
 ing on the troubled state of Ireland is worth 
 consideration, I may here remark that party 
 feeling in the North became much intensified 
 about the time Fenianism first created atten- 
 tion. Orangemen had always taken delight 
 in celebrating their victories of long ago by 
 parading with bands of music, and colours flying, 
 and, as a matter of course, the Eoman Catholics 
 assembled on St. Patrick's Day with green flags, 
 shamrocks, &c. The Executive had discouraged 
 these dangerous processions, and judges had 
 spoken sensibly to grand juries upon their folly 
 and evil tendency, but many of these latter were 
 bigoted Orangemen themselves, and considered 
 demonstrations on their side perfectly loyal and 
 proper, though they could easily perceive that 
 noisy gatherings of the Liberal, or Eadical party, 
 ought to be put down. A year before the Fenian 
 outbreak, however, the two parties came into col- 
 lision at Belfast ; this town was completely in 
 the hands of the rioters for days, bands of men 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 155 
 
 paraded the streets with firearms, and it was only 
 the arrival of a strong force of military which put 
 an end to the disturbances. The Catholic party 
 got decidedly the worst of the fighting, and a 
 considerable number were killed and wounded. 
 I myself heard labourers at a railway station 
 near Dublin, talk of the Catholics being " massa- 
 cred" in the North, and that it would be neces- 
 sary for those in other parts of Ireland to go 
 to their assistance. Similar- remarks were made 
 in many other parts of the island, and it is quite 
 possible that the ill-feeling which prevailed was 
 fomented by Fenian agents. 
 
 At length it became apparent that Govern- 
 ment was determined to act against the Fenians. 
 Their chief journal was seized, and the editor 
 and principal writers were tried. Stephens, who 
 was undoubtedly the mainspring of the con- 
 spiracy, was also apprehended, but made his 
 escape from prison in so remarkable a manner 
 that many persons believed he had made certain 
 revelations, and that his evasion had been con- 
 
156 a s axon's remedy 
 
 nived at. This seems hardly probable • but in 
 all Irish conspiracies the number of informers is 
 marvellous, and they are almost invariably the 
 men who have been most trusted, and who have 
 displayed considerable talent, which they pros- 
 titute to the vile purpose of betraying their ac- 
 complices. 
 
 Lord Wodehouse appeared to have accurate in- 
 formation ; many arrests were very cleverly made ; 
 and though he was ridiculed for filling the streets 
 with soldiers on a Drawing-room night, to which 
 I have before alluded, and for taking considerable 
 precautions at other times, there is no doubt his 
 course was judicious, and may very likely have 
 prevented serious mischief. From many towns 
 and villages people who had lately returned from 
 America, and at whose houses frequent meetings 
 were held, took an abrupt departure ; a good 
 many tailors' and linendrapers' assistants were 
 taken into custody, and handsome green- uni- 
 forms and colonel's and general's commissions 
 were found in their boxes ; while the suspension 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT, 157 
 
 of the Habeas Corpus Act shut up for a time 
 many dangerous characters and prevented the 
 arrival of more. 
 
 The advent of Lord Derby to power was not 
 unpopular in Ireland, and he most judiciously 
 appointed the Marquis of Abercorn and Lord 
 Naas Lord-Lieutenant and Chief Secretary, both 
 being Irish noblemen ; while a Eoman Catholic, 
 Mr. (now Judge) Morris, became Solicitor-Gene- 
 ral. It was also understood that there would be 
 far greater attention paid to material improve- 
 ments than under the late Whig Administration. 
 In particular, the Marquis of Abercorn received 
 the deputation, which expressed the almost un- 
 animous wish of the country that Government 
 should take the possession and management of 
 all the Irish railways on equitable terms, in a 
 most favourable manner. 
 
 However, every Irish question was, perhaps 
 unavoidably, postponed to the necessity of bring 
 ing in that extensive measure of reform which, 
 probably as much to the surprise of the Ministers 
 
158 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 themselves as to the extreme Radicals, has given 
 a vote to almost every adult in England. I 
 think it had a bad effect in Ireland that this 
 measure was carried after a great deal of tumul- 
 tuous assembling and marching in procession in 
 the streets and parks of London. 
 
 Meantime the Fenian raid in Canada was at- 
 tempted, but completely failed, and many pri- 
 soners were taken. The United States Govern- 
 ment was considered to have behaved well in the 
 matter, and at its intercession no capital punish- 
 ments were inflicted. The Fenian party in 
 America, however, still continued to meet 
 openly, and to utter threats against the English 
 Government. There was a necessity for doing 
 something which would justify the constant sub- 
 scriptions made amongst all classes of Irish emi- 
 grants. Sympathizers were enlisted from the 
 ranks of those Irish who resided in English 
 towns. 
 
 It is useless to go into matters which have oc- 
 curred so recently, as the curious plan to seize 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 159 
 
 Chester Castle, which might have succeeded if 
 the leaders had possessed energy at the right 
 moment ; or the outbreaks in Ireland near Dublin, 
 Kilmallock, and other places, where the insur- 
 gents were defeated in a ridiculously easy manner 
 by a few policemen. In every place neither the 
 priests nor the people appeared to favour the in- 
 surrectionary movement ; and the police, though 
 principally Catholics, acted with remarkable 
 fidelity and bravery ; when the prisoners were 
 tried the jurors did their duty, and never ac- 
 quitted one whose guilt was apparent; if Gro- 
 vernment erred it was on the side of leniency i 
 no one suffered capital punishment, and certain 
 Irish papers were allowed to express sentiments 
 which would have led to suppression of the 
 journals in any other country in the world. 
 
 The English nation has now been thoroughly 
 aroused by the attack on the police at Manchester, 
 the processions in many English and Irish towns 
 consequent on the execution of the Manchester 
 murderers ; and finally, by the terrible loss of life 
 
160 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT, 
 
 and property at Clerkenwell. It is apparent to 
 every one that tlie utter recklessness of conse- 
 quences manifested by the Fenian party in 
 America has been communicated to their con- 
 federates and dupes on this side of the Atlantic, 
 and that to prevent the danger spreading, strict 
 justice must be dealt to Ireland, at the same time 
 that sedition and conspiracy are put down. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 EFFECT OF THE FENIAN CONSPIRACY ON THE PROSPERITY 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 TT is most important to the owners of property 
 in Ireland, and to tlie English nation, to no- 
 tice the effect produced on the prosperity of the 
 country by disaffection and insurrection ; for 
 though the Irish, as a nation, have not joined 
 the Fenian movement, it has only been rendered 
 dangerous, or indeed possible, by elements of 
 dissatisfaction existing. Now in 1847, at the 
 commencement of the Famine, there were about 
 eight millions and a half of people in Ireland : 
 in 1851 there were only six millions five hundred 
 and seventy-four thousand ; about a million and 
 a half had emigrated, and the rest had been cut 
 off by the famine : until 1862 Ireland was more 
 prosperous, and was comparatively free from dis- 
 
 M 
 
162 a saxon's remedy 
 
 content. Thus only four hundred and eighty 
 thousand emigrated between 1854 and 1862. 
 About this time some high-handed evictions took 
 place ; a good deal was written in English papers 
 about non-interference with the rights of the 
 landlord, and about the desirability of Ireland 
 being converted into large grazing farms. About 
 this time, too, an Act was passed empowering 
 the tenant to make improvements, which were 
 to be allowed him at the end of his tenancy, but 
 a clause was smuggled in stating that the im« 
 provements must be sanctioned by the landlord ; 
 and I well remember the bitter comments that 
 were made upon this ridiculous trifling with the 
 hopes of tenants, by many wealthy Protestant 
 farmers, as well as by their humbler Catholic 
 brethren. This Act has remained a dead letter 
 ever since ; and the newspaper articles to which 
 I have referred obtained a wide publicity from 
 the comments of popular Irish journals. 
 
 It had been thought also that the increased 
 revenue accruing from Ireland, owing to the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 163 
 
 extension of the Income-tax to that island and 
 to the imposition of the fall duty upon whisky, 
 would occasion greater outlay on harbours and 
 other works of public utility. 
 
 The tide of emigration again set in, and during 
 the last five years nearly double the number of 
 people have quitted Ireland per annum who de- 
 parted during the previous eight years. Of 
 course I shall be told that it is the natural effect 
 of over-population ; and no doubt, in Ireland as 
 in England, if you could take the weakly, the 
 idle, the shiftless, the dissolute, and the aged, 
 and send them over as a present to the Ame- 
 ricans, it would be an excellent thing for the 
 rates and for the general prosperity of the 
 country, but unfortunately these are not the 
 people who go ; they still remain, doing odd 
 jobs here and there, receiving three and four 
 shillings a day in harvest-time, and begging and 
 loafing about the remainder of the year. The 
 emigrants are fine healthy young men and 
 women, sons and daughters of small farmers, 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 domestic servants, and the better class of la- 
 bourers — the bone and sinew of the country, in 
 short, that Ireland can ill spare, and who, if she 
 could do so, are badly wanted in England, where 
 the high price of labour of all kinds is militating 
 prejudicially in the race we are running against 
 foreign competition. 
 
 Still, though there was a sensible check in the 
 course of onward progress that the country was 
 making, it was only when it became evident that 
 Fenianism was an accomplished fact that the 
 effect was really disastrous. 
 
 English visitors who were just beginning to 
 explore Ireland rushed home in haste, and during 
 the last two seasons have not repeated their 
 visits, which was the more unfortunate because 
 those interested in Ireland's prosperity had been 
 forming companies and building hotels on the 
 English system, which were barely completed 
 when this panic took place. Gentlemen who 
 had residences in the country sought refuge in 
 the towns ; and even now in the counties of 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 165 
 
 Wicklow, Kildare, &c, many good houses are 
 untenanted for the first time these thirty years. 
 Many farmers cultivated their land with a view 
 only to immediate profit ; others got time, or 
 gave bills for their rent, remarking among them- 
 selves that " Maybe in three months' time there 
 might be another landlord ;? J indeed, it is com- 
 monly reported that many properties in Ireland 
 have been disposed of by the Fenians on exceed- 
 ingly reasonable terms. One thing was peculiarly 
 characteristic of the Irish peasantry. Every 
 man who has a cabin in Ireland makes a heap of 
 manure somehow — leaves, bog-mould, ashes, soap- 
 suds, &c, supplement animal productions in a 
 way which would excite Mr. Mechi's admiration; 
 his employer or some farmer or other will gene- 
 rally give him a bit of land on which to put this 
 manure and grow a few potatoes ; he will hardly 
 ever sell it, but when the Fenian craze began in 
 many parts of the country these heaps of manure 
 were offered for sale, the proprietors not feeling 
 sure they would be able to dig the potatoes in 
 
166 a s axon's remedy 
 
 case of civil war. In some districts those who had 
 any money in the banks went and got it out and 
 hid it. I know I was asked by many whether I 
 thought the banks wouldbe safe. Evenfarms which 
 were vacant were not easily Jet except at a re- 
 duced rent, and in the Landed Estates Court there 
 was a sensible reduction in the prices obtained. 
 
 There was at the same time a diminution of 
 confidence between man and man : farmers and 
 tradesmen did not like to speak ill of the Fenians, 
 lest some one in company should belong to the 
 Brotherhood and denounce the offender ; on the 
 other hand, not to condemn them was to run the 
 chance of being reported to the police as a sus- 
 picious character. Unless a man s loyalty was 
 well assured he was not allowed to possess arms 
 of any description ; and few Irishmen are without 
 a gun, often quite as likely to burst and injure 
 the owner as to kill the crows for whose destruc- 
 tion he asserts it is kept. However, there has 
 been a sensible increase of game throughout 
 Ireland since the confiscation of fire-arms. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 167 
 
 Thus the retrogression in the price of land, its 
 less careful cultivation, the check to trade and 
 commerce, the flight to England, the Continent, 
 and to the large towns of Ireland of that upper 
 middle-class whose paucity in the country has of 
 late years been a great disadvantage, and finally, 
 the uneasy feeling among all grades of society, 
 are evils which are only counterbalanced in a 
 slight degree by the abolition of party proces- 
 sions, and by the suppression of those virulent 
 journals which were eternally preaching dis- 
 content and circulating falsehoods. 
 
 The only consolatory reflection is, that to a 
 certain extent we know the difficulties of our 
 position. 
 
 Every Englishman sees that no one in Ireland 
 is thoroughly satisfied with the present condition 
 of the laws : even the most loyal subjects of the 
 Crown confess alterations must be made. Of 
 downright rebels there are few, for the Fenians 
 show no respect for religion and its priests ; but 
 of sympathizers with any movement which is 
 
168 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 aimed against the present laws there are many. 
 They may not like the conspiracy, but they 
 hope its existence may obtain concessions, as 
 former disturbances have done. 
 
 Now, as I say, every one in England perceiv- 
 ing these things clearly, should energetically set 
 to work to remedy the evil ; and if the final 
 settlement of all vexed questions between Saxons 
 and Celts, landlords and tenants, Protestants and 
 Catholics, is brought about by the Fenian dis- 
 turbances, we may after all have reason to con- 
 gratulate ourselves on the present unfavourable 
 condition of affairs. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE FARMS IN IRELAND COTTIER FARMERS NOT 
 
 SO NUMEROUS AS FORMERLY TENURE OF LAND LEASES FOR 
 
 LIVES AND YEARS — REFUSALS TO RENEW IN LATE INSTANCES 
 
 TENANTS AT WILL, ETC. 
 
 the sketch I gave of the general appearance 
 of Ireland, I said something of the erroneous 
 ideas which prevail as to the size of farms there. 
 Many Englishmen with whom I converse are 
 influenced by the belief that large farms are the 
 exception. Now, of course the terms large and 
 small convey different ideas to different people : a 
 man may have a range of two thousand acres of 
 mountain land in Connemara, and be a much 
 smaller farmer than one who has fifty acres of 
 rich dairy land in county Dublin : again, a Lin- 
 colnshire farmer would call two hundred acres of 
 first-rate land a small farm, whereas in Cheshire 
 it would be considered an important holding. 
 In Ireland there are many very large gra- 
 
170 a s axon's remedy 
 
 ziers, for after the famine a number of small 
 patches were turned into one large farm, and 
 there are plenty of gentlemen paying a thousand 
 a-year rent and upwards. I suppose some people 
 will controvert my opinion, but experience leads 
 me to assert that the class of farmers who live 
 upon thirty to a hundred acres of tolerable land, 
 held at a fair rent, pay as regularly, bring up 
 their families as respectably, and are as indus- 
 trious, sober, and prosperous men as can be found 
 anywhere. 
 
 I think a great deal of nonsense has been 
 written about the desire Irish farmers have of 
 dividing their land and keeping their children at 
 home. I have been in nearly every county in 
 Ireland ; wherever I go I talk with all conditions 
 of people, and, in nine cases out of ten, the people 
 talk freely with me, for I can go into subjects 
 which interest them : of course, in the neigh- 
 bourhoods where I have lived and possessed pro- 
 perty the history of my tenants and neighbours 
 is perfectly well known to me : well, in no single 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 171 
 
 instance have I heard of a man wishing to divide 
 his farm; in fact, as soon as the boys grow up, they 
 are on the look out for places of their own, or they 
 are apprenticed to some trade, or they emigrate. 
 I know some cases where all the sons have gone 
 away, and the husband of one of the daughters is, 
 by family arrangement, to succeed to the farm. 
 
 I am afraid of being too egotistical, or I could 
 name instances in my own knowledge where 
 young men have left their homes for England, 
 America, and Australia when really required to 
 assist their fathers in the management of the 
 land. Only the other day a magnificent-looking 
 young fellow, who might have been a guardsman, 
 recognised me in Liverpool, and reminded me 
 that his father was farming some thirty or forty 
 acres near Galway, and said there was not enough 
 for himself and his brother, and he, being the 
 best scholar, had obtained a situation in Liver- 
 pool. But it is with small holdings of under ten 
 acres that the political economist finds most diffi- 
 culty in dealing : the question remains, is there 
 
172 a saxon's remedy 
 
 an important number of people whose only means 
 of livelihood is a farm of a few acres, and who 
 may be termed peasant farmers ? This class 
 seems to be the dread of everyone ; it has been 
 the great aim of every speaker and writer who 
 has advanced arguments against any measure 
 giving an interest in his holding to the tenant, 
 to prove that small holders of land are so nume- 
 rous, so improvident, and so resolved to keep 
 their children about them, that all power must 
 necessarily be left in the hands of the landlord : 
 if the landlords had not all the power, the English 
 people are told that in a short time the popula- 
 tion of Ireland will multiply beyond measure, the 
 people will be obliged to live upon potatoes, each 
 son and son-in-law will get his plot of land, scorn- 
 ing the high wages of England and the chances 
 of emigration, till another famine and another 
 pestilence sweep them from the face of the earth. 
 
 Now I must put the persons who believe such 
 stuff as this into the same category as the Irish- 
 men who believed the Trench purposed landing 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 173 
 
 in Ireland three years ago. I will not deny there 
 may be districts such as a writer in the Times 
 mentioned on the 10th of January last: he said 
 he was agent for eight hundred acres of land held 
 in lots of ten acres each, at the rate of four pounds 
 a holding ; the tenants paid very badly, and sub- 
 let whenever they could. He did not tell us 
 where this land was ; but I gathered from subse- 
 quent remarks that he made as to the objection 
 these tenants had to pay rent for land reclaimed 
 by their own exertions, that he was relating an 
 exceptional state of things. 
 
 I might have written and said that I know a 
 district where the tenants hold half acres and 
 roods of land at the rate of six pounds an acre ; 
 I might have added, they grow potatoes, dig 
 them out early, and put in transplanted mangold, 
 and that the rent is punctually paid : but this 
 only relates to two or three hundred acres, and is 
 an entirely exceptional case. The people who 
 farm the land I am alluding to are sometimes 
 fishermen, sometimes agricultural labourers ; and 
 
174 a saxon's remedy 
 
 I altogether disbelieve in the existence of a large 
 class in Ireland whose sole means of livelihood is 
 derived from holdings of four or five pounds per 
 annum. 
 
 Statistics may show that there is a great num- 
 ber of very small farms there. But then near all 
 towns and villages, every one who can, gets a bit 
 of land; many landed proprietors and large 
 farmers give to the men in their employment an 
 acre or two of land in lieu of part of their wages ; 
 and I feel certain that these " town parks 5 ' and 
 (C grazings for a cow " are used to swell the num- 
 ber of holders of small farms in Ireland. I be- 
 lieve famine and emigration have as completely 
 done away with those stumbling-blocks to equi- 
 table registration, the Cottier-farmers of Ireland, 
 who only worked on their own bits of land, as 
 the police have done away with the Eapparees 
 and workers of illicit stills. Now, as to the 
 tenure of land in Ireland : in Ulster it is well 
 known that a system of tenant-right prevails \ 
 the great London companies are landlords of ex- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 175 
 
 tensive districts, and though, of course they are 
 not immaculate, they manage their affairs in a 
 very liberal spirit ; generally speaking, through- 
 out this province it is understood that if a man 
 pays his rent he need not fear ejectment, and if 
 he wish to leave he can sell the right of occupa- 
 tion to a successor. In the other three provinces 
 of Ireland the land is held in various ways ; a 
 good deal is owned by the Church, by colleges, 
 charitable institutions, &c, and though I believe 
 there is no strictly legal obligation to enable the 
 tenants to obtain new leases as old ones fall in, 
 yet practically they receive them on payment of 
 certain renewal fines, and their interest in such 
 farms is worth very considerable sums. Again, 
 many people hold their land on lease of lives re- 
 newable for ever; when a life drops, certain 
 renewal fines are payable — sometimes considera- 
 ble, sometimes only nominal — and as by an Act 
 passed some years ago, the tenants can convert 
 this lease of lives renewable for ever into fee-farm 
 grants, in fact, into freeholds, on reasonable terms, 
 
176 a saxon's remedy 
 
 these parties have no cause to complain. Again, 
 a common mode of letting land was, sixty years 
 ago and upwards, for three lives and a term of 
 years ; when one or two lives and a good many 
 years had run out negotiations ensued ; and for a 
 certain sum of money paid down and an increased 
 rental, the lease was renewed for new lives and a 
 term of years. Many noblemen held large tracts 
 of land by this tenure, as well as country gentle- 
 men and large farmers ; of course the holders of 
 these lands have dealt with them precisely as if 
 the fee simple were their own, — have leased them, 
 mortgaged them, settled incomes out of them as 
 marriage portions for their daughters, and have 
 considered the renewals on fair conditions as 
 something they were certain to effect. But 
 during the last few years the head landlords have 
 shown a strong disposition to refuse renewals and 
 to ignore any claim the possessor of the lease puts 
 forward ; instances are common of tenants who 
 have held for more than a hundred years large tracts 
 of land, being refused renewals on any terms, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 177 
 
 and if they have not been provident, or have had to 
 pay marriage portions to their sisters, under the 
 will of a father, who, calculating on their getting 
 a fresh term, charged the lands in this way, the 
 effect will be, they will be reduced from the rank 
 of country gentlemen to comparative poverty. I 
 know one instance where a gentleman died twenty 
 years ago, and considered he left sixty thousand 
 pounds, as his large tracts of land held in this 
 manner were at a moderate rental worth five 
 thousand a-year more than he paid ; but as the 
 head landlord will not renew, and both lives and 
 years are exhausted, except on one or two farms, 
 his sons, now old men, are in very reduced cir- 
 cumstances ; under their management the land 
 had been well farmed, and they offered to take it 
 at considerably more than the Poor Law r valu- 
 ation, but the slightly higher offer from another 
 party was accepted. 
 
 Of course there is a self-evident argument, that 
 it is better on many accounts that there should 
 be no intermediate holder between the owner and 
 
 N 
 
178 A SAXONS REMEDY 
 
 the cultivator of the soil ; but, as I said before, 
 I am speaking of instances where individuals 
 did not take land to split into small portions in 
 order to re-let at a profit, but where a consi- 
 derable sum was paid in ready money when the 
 lease was granted years ago, or where uncul- 
 tivated land has been reclaimed by great expen- 
 diture of capital through a long course of years ; 
 at any rate it is no consolation to men who see 
 only a very old life between the position and 
 affluence they now enjoy, and comparative insig- 
 nificance, to be told it is for the public good that 
 they should lose what they possess, and the head 
 landlord should profit by all the outlay they and 
 their fathers had made. Several agents of large 
 properties have told me lately that the determi- 
 nation of their principals to proceed on what is 
 called the English system, and refuse renewals of 
 leases, has made the tenants plough up old 
 pasture land, let their houses and buildings go 
 out of repair, sell hay and straw, and otherwise 
 depart from the principles of good farming ; and 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 179 
 
 no doubt there is an unpleasant feeling and dis- 
 content on both sides in consequence. 
 
 Of the land held on ordinary leases I need not 
 say much, except to remark, that whereas in 
 England and Scotland a lease for twenty-one 
 years is tolerably satisfactory to a farmer, an 
 Irishman considers it no time at all, and is never 
 properly satisfied with it, thereby stamping with 
 probability the tale of the Countess of Desmond, 
 who when considerably over a hundred, grumbled 
 at a renewal of the lease of some crown lands for 
 twenty-one years, observing that " they might 
 as well have given it her for life," Some years 
 after this hearty old lady, ascending an apple- 
 tree to get some fruit, met with an accident, 
 which perhaps prevented her rivalling Old Parr 
 in longevity. But the tenure no Irishman can 
 tolerate is a yearly tenancy, and it cannot be 
 denied that now more than ever, when a proper 
 succession of crops and a high state of cultiva- 
 tion with ample manuring is necessary to the 
 successful prosecution of agriculture as a business, 
 
 N 2 
 
180 REMEDY EOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 it is utterly unfair that a man should be stopped 
 in the midst of his career and forced to leave his 
 home and business at the end of six months after 
 his landlord has from caprice resolved to get rid 
 of him. But it is now high time that I described 
 the landlords of Ireland. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 THE LANDLORDS OF IRELAND — THE MARQUIS OF MANYLANDS — 
 THE EARL OF ERIN LORD SCREW. 
 
 A GOOD deal has lately been written about 
 English-Irish proprietors in Ireland — men 
 whose interest is much more bound up in their 
 English property than in their possessions in the 
 sister island, from which they are generally 
 absentees. Mr. Bright has advocated the pur- 
 chase of the Irish estates of these proprietors by 
 Government, and their re-sale in moderate-sized 
 farms to the present tenantry. There is much 
 to be said for and against this plan; one 
 large proprietor, the Duke of Devonshire, did 
 lately dispose of some of his farms to the occu- 
 piers, and Lord Oranmore offered to sell his pro- 
 perty at twenty years' purchase. I presume the 
 
182 a saxon's remedy 
 
 rents must have been raised since 1852, as I 
 happen to know twenty years' purchase on the 
 then rental was refused ; and I think the portion 
 that was sold realized more, for the lands were 
 let on very moderate terms. 
 
 A correspondent of the Times lately stated 
 that on the large estates held by English 
 noblemen leases were refused, and no tenant who 
 desired to leave was allowed to name his suc- 
 cessor, which was what the Irish understood by 
 tenant-right. The letter was a very good one, 
 but far too sweeping, for on several large estates 
 that I am acquainted with — and I may instance 
 the Marquis of Lansdowne's and Lord Ports- 
 mouth's — the right of the tenant to name a suc- 
 cessor of suitable means is recognised ; and the 
 interest in farms is frequently advertised to be 
 sold, by kind permission of different proprietors. 
 But the correspondent to whom I have referred 
 is perfectly correct in saying that many large 
 landholders usually residing in England, have 
 lately resolutely opposed their tenants dealing in 
 
POR IRISH DISCONTENT. 183 
 
 any kind of way with the land they occupy ; 
 they have refused to renew leases when they have 
 fallen in, and have almost gone out of their way 
 to readjust the boundaries of farms, objecting to 
 continue the widows of old tenants unless they 
 had sons, and exerting every means in their 
 power to make the tenants understand that they 
 had no right, even by custom, to be otherwise 
 than entirely dependent upon their landlords. 
 
 The Marquis of Manyland's estate is managed 
 in this way. He himself is a good kind of man, 
 of average abilities and character ; he has thirty 
 or forty thousand a year in England, and about 
 the same in Ireland ; in the latter country he has 
 a residence a good way from any town ; he keeps 
 up a farm, excellently managed, and round about 
 him for many miles are other large farms, where 
 reside gentlemen whose ancestors lived there 
 when the land was principally bog, woodland, and 
 furze-brake. Now, though the land is not very 
 good, it is well cultivated in large square fields ; 
 and the holders are certainly not overdone with 
 
184 a saxon's remedy 
 
 rent, for in the olden time, when the firstMarquis 
 got possession of this estate from the old Irish 
 chieftain who had taken the unlucky side in the 
 Civil Wars, he had found it necessary to collect 
 around him certain hard-headed, ready-handed 
 north countrymen, who fought as well as they 
 farmed; and they got the lands for little or 
 nothing. Of course the old leases have long 
 been out, but the descendants of the original 
 occupiers have nothing to grumble at, except that 
 they have no security that the present arrange- 
 ment will be permanent. The Marquis comes 
 over for a month or two now and then, and the 
 papers chronicle the assembling at dinner of 
 various esquires and justices of the peace — all the 
 Marquis's tenants — at Manylands Castle. As the 
 Marquis's property extends for a score miles or 
 so, embracing many small towns and villages, you 
 see of course great varieties of soil and cultiva- 
 tion, but on the whole the estate is well farmed, 
 the residences are good, the farm-buildings ex- 
 cellent, and the tenantry prosperous ; never- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 185 
 
 theless, contented they are not, and Protestant 
 gentlemen-farmers are as little satisfied as are 
 Catholics. To explain this I must tell you how 
 the estate is managed. The Marquis's agent is 
 Mr. Devereux, the scion of a house as noble as 
 that of the Marquis ; he is the beau-ideal of 
 what foreigners would consider an English gen- 
 tleman — tall, handsome in person, with quiet 
 easy manners, incapable of giving willing offence 
 to any one, but perfectly determined to have his 
 own way. He is not a bit stuck-up, and in early 
 life was put into a bank ; family influence and 
 his appearance and manner got him into the 
 English and Indian Assurance Company as 
 managing director, with a salary and perquisites 
 much greater than he enjoys under the Marquis ; 
 but under his management the dividends de- 
 creased, and in two or three years he had to 
 resign. Mr. Howard St. Paul, once Mr. Israel 
 Moses, a marine store- dealer, succeeded him, and 
 the company prospered again. One of the 
 company's head officials explained the failure 
 
186 a saxon's remedy 
 
 of Mr. Devereux by saying he was too fond 
 of the " candle-end and cheese-paring business y* 
 and I take it that the same reluctance to 
 sanction outlay, and the same poking into 
 small matters, very useful in certain situations, 
 are not judicious in all. However, there are two 
 or three under-agents : Mr. Campbell, a Scotch- 
 man, is nearly as powerful as Mr. Devereux ; and 
 Mr. Vickers and Mr. J ohnson, both of them are 
 quite gentlemen-like men, holding good farms 
 and receiving fair salaries. They often act in 
 business not quite agreeable to the higher au- 
 thorities ; but the man who earns his money the 
 best is Mr. Sternman. Sternman is a big, burly 
 Northumbrian ; and I do not think he has an 
 idea in his mind unconnected with the Many- 
 lands Estate. Such a thing as not paying rent at 
 the proper time, or acting in opposition to any of 
 the rules of the estate, he regards as capital 
 offences ; and he has thrown the furniture of a 
 house into the street, and driven out a widow 
 and her children without the least appearance of 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 187 
 
 compunction. As for pulling down cabins which 
 have been wrongfully erected by tenants for the 
 houseing of labourers, he perfectly revels in it. 
 In all this he is strictly doing his duty, for the 
 widow and children are being maintained by beg- 
 ging, and ought to be in the Union ; and the 
 cabins, if allowed to stand in one place, would 
 soon be erected in others, and become an intoler- 
 able nuisance. Mr. Sternman never really loses 
 his temper except when he hears of any subscrip- 
 tion being required from the Marquis, or when 
 the least reflection is cast upon any proceedings 
 of that nobleman ; and subscriptions are solicited 
 for every imaginable thing, reasonable and un- 
 reasonable. The Marquis refers every petition 
 to Mr. Devereux, and a very civil refusal is 
 almost invariably the result ; but even if a quali- 
 fied assent is obtained, Mr. Sternman will save 
 the money if possible. For example, the in- 
 habitants of a distant village on the Manylands 
 property were sorely stricken with fever and 
 want ; parson and priest, tradesman and farmer, 
 
1SS a saxon's remedy 
 
 gave according to their means, and implored help 
 from the Marquis. Mr. Devereux wrote that all 
 who wished to labour should at once be set to 
 work, and Mr. Sternman arrived to carry out his 
 instructions. The snow lay thick on the ground, 
 " and/' said Mr. Sternman, " I can't waste my 
 lord's money in shovelling snow ; we must wait for 
 the thaw." When the thaw came, Mr. Sternman 
 would only have labourers who could do a day's 
 work according to the well-fed, healthy English 
 fashion; and as fever and want had left none of 
 these out of regular employment, all expense to the 
 noble Marquis was saved. But twenty pounds 
 given to the ministers of religion to buy clothing 
 and food would have been cheaply bestowed, if 
 blessings in this world are of any value. 
 
 There are two or three people besides those 
 under Mr. Sternman of whose existence and 
 influence perhaps even Mr. Devereux is un- 
 aware. Mick Casey, Tom Carroll, and Will Mul- 
 lins, at different portions of the estate, do odd 
 jobs in the woods, fences, and roads, carry mes- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 1S9 
 
 sages, letters, &c, where the post does not pene- 
 trate, and get many odd shillings for informa- 
 tion given to under- agents of tenants selling straw 
 or turnips, taking in grazing cattle, or otherwise 
 infringing the rules which they have agreed to 
 maintain. They also levy black mail for con- 
 cealing any of these delinquencies. 
 
 Now, practical English friends of mine, who 
 have patiently followed me through descriptions 
 often, I fear, tedious, I know what you will say : 
 you will exclaim, "This Manylands estate is 
 managed as it ought to be ; the proprietor, the 
 agent, and his subordinates are what we should 
 expect are best suited to manage an Irish pro- 
 perty. Mr. Sternman we should be delighted to 
 get to manage our own affairs, as it is easier to 
 correct too great care of our interests than laxity 
 in the distribution of our money ; and though 
 we do not approve of the spy system, yet, for the 
 interest of the tenants themselves, it is necessary 
 that information should be given if the proper 
 rules of husbandry are infringed, and promises 
 
190 a s axon's remedy 
 
 deliberately made are as deliberately broken." I 
 answer — " That is the view taken by people sit- 
 ing in their easy chairs, who do not know Ire- 
 land, and are reasoning on certain theories." 
 Every man, woman, and child on the Manylands 
 estate knows that a century or two since the 
 Marquis's ancestor got the property without pay- 
 ment ; certain of the tenantry trace their descent 
 to the original possessor ; others know that their 
 forefathers left England or Scotland to colonize 
 this then wild district ; their fathers and grand- 
 fathers fought hard in many bloody skirmishes 
 long ago ; they are identified with the family in 
 election contests before and since the Union ; and 
 they have built houses, and improved their lands 
 with their own money and by their own exertions. 
 Many of them are quite as proud of their descent 
 as any member of the House of Peers ; and when 
 a batch of them gets notice to quit because a 
 re-division of land is about to be made, or from 
 any other cause which perhaps is not disclosed 
 till a journey of many miles has been taken, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 191 
 
 though they see their eviction was not intended, 
 they look upon it as a personal affront, and feel 
 that the hold they thought they possessed on 
 the land which has so long been in their families, 
 is merely dependent upon the caprice of the pre- 
 sent lord of the soil, or, maybe, even of his agent. 
 All sorts of innovations have been made. A few 
 years ago the tenants farmed as they liked ; 
 leases that fell out were renewed ; now no re- 
 newals take place. If hay is five pounds a ton, 
 and turnips twenty-five shillings, and they part 
 with ever so small a quantity, somebody carries 
 the tale to head-quarters. If they oblige a friend 
 in the town by taking in a horse or two to graze, 
 an exaggerated account goes to the Castle, and 
 they are informed that as they have more grazing 
 land than they can stock, some of it had better 
 be given up. True, their land is not let to them 
 at rack-rent ; bat who has made it worth what it 
 is? Not the Marquis of Manylands, but they 
 and their fathers, who built the comfortable 
 dwelling-houses, the range of farm-buildings, and 
 
192 
 
 a saxon's kemedy 
 
 drained and improved in every way. How do 
 tliey know the rent will not be raised ? and, in 
 fact, if anything happens to them, do they not 
 see, by what is occurring around them, that their 
 sons, if they have any, will have more to pay, and if 
 they have none, will it not be a great chance if their 
 nearest male relation gets the farm at all ? So the 
 Marquis of Manyland's tenants, though far from 
 being rebellious, and though not daring to make 
 open complaints, are by no means satisfied, and are 
 looking forward to early legislation in their favour. 
 
 In justice to this class of landlord, it ought to 
 be added that there is no selling up of tenants 
 for non-payment of rent ; they are evicted, and a 
 slight increase of rent to their successors pays for 
 the loss sustained. 
 
 The Earl of Erin is totally different from the 
 millionaire Marquis I have described ; his ances- 
 tors were great people when those of the Marquis 
 were harrying cattle from their Scotch neigh- 
 bours over the Border, and occasionally suffering 
 Jedburgh justice therefor. But whereas the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 193 
 
 estates of Manylands have kept increasing, those 
 of Erin have diminished : the grandfather of the 
 present possessor lessened the rent-roll consider- 
 ably, and his son was a noted man in the days of 
 the Eegency, when hard drinking and gaming, 
 recklessness, and devilry of all kinds, were the 
 distinguishing characteristics of Irish noblemen. 
 He was a noted member of the Hell-fire Club, 
 backed Buck "Whaley when he jumped over the 
 mail coach, and used to relate how, when a mere 
 boy, he lost money to Egalite Orleans. He sold 
 everything he could sell, and finding it better 
 business to let his land at a low rent for a long 
 term of years on condition of getting a fine than 
 to raise what he wanted from the Jews, he leased 
 away most of the broad lands of Erin to the 
 few country gentlemen who were of a saving 
 turn — and, in fact, to any one who had money to 
 give him. "When the present Earl came of age 
 he was persuaded by his father to join in selling 
 some of the family property, and he saw a good 
 deal of London life, but declining to go on with 
 
 o 
 
194 a saxon's remedy 
 
 the disentailing process, lie became on bad terms 
 with his father, and, as Lord Cong, had hard 
 work to keep his head above water. Though a 
 very sharp fellow, no drinker, a capital judge of 
 a horse, and one of the best riders of the day, he 
 suffered the invariable pigeoning every young 
 man of family or fortune seems doomed to un- 
 dergo, and which in his day even Lord Greorge 
 Bentinck could not escape. Unlike that Napo- 
 leon of bettors, the pillaging endured by the 
 Irishman did not induce him to register a vow 
 that the time should come when he would not 
 leave a betting man with a coat to his back — as 
 the descendant of William the Third's Dutch 
 favourite is reported to have sworn — but it in- 
 duced him to give up any kind of plunging, and 
 he became notorious for bringing off little cer- 
 tainties. Fifty pounds was his measure for 
 everything — he never risked more in any way ; 
 and though, of course, he liked to win a larger 
 sum, he was quite satisfied if he gained that 
 amount. He never even gave more for a horse, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 195 
 
 and it was wonderful what bargains he often got, 
 and what coups he accomplished with his modest 
 investments. 
 
 At length the old Earl — who possessed one of 
 those extraordinary constitutions the reckless old 
 debauchees of the Regent's time seem to have 
 been gifted with — took his departure for another 
 sphere, and the subject of our present sketch 
 reigned in his stead. For some time it was very 
 doubtful if he could save any of the family 
 estate, and the famine and Encumbered Estates 
 Court were very nearly engulfing him for the sins 
 of his fathers, as they submerged many another. 
 
 However, he had married and gained some 
 fortune with his wife ; he had great tact, 
 energy, and economy; and he weathered the 
 storm. When things began to mend, the holders 
 of the leases given by his father came to see 
 about renewals ; only ten or twenty years were 
 left in many instances, and the lives were run out 
 or were very old. Now, the Earl of Erin would 
 be more than a man if he had amiable feelings 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 a s axon's remedy 
 
 towards these gentlemen. Here they were, 
 holding land worth from thirty shillings to three 
 pounds an acre — for the Erin estate is very 
 fertile — at less than half that price; and here 
 was he, with only a few thousands a year, instead 
 of possessing a handsome income — for double the 
 present rent on twenty or thirty thousand acres 
 would quadruple his annual receipts, inasmuch 
 as there would be no mortgages, annuities, &c, 
 to come off the increased rental. 
 
 The leaseholders reminded his lordship that 
 their outlay had vastly added to the value of the 
 land, but his lordship did not see the force of the 
 argument ; they had doubtless paid money to his 
 father, but it had done him no good. Their 
 fathers had made the best bargain they could, 
 and he, the Earl, meant to do the same with 
 them. Time rolled on and leases fell in ; if the 
 tenants in possession will give as much as any 
 one else they can have a twenty-one years 5 lease. 
 But the Earl is something more than a hard 
 bargainer : he gets the value of the land to the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 197 
 
 last sixpence, and has been so accustomed to 
 dodges and deceptions of every kind that he 
 sometimes even overreaches himself. He does 
 so to some extent with the tenants whose leases 
 are unexpired ; many of them would give the full 
 worth of their holdings at a fair valuation, but 
 the Earl rejects every opinion save his own; in 
 consequence the tenants have it out of the land, 
 and let buildings, which have cost thousands, fall 
 into rapid decay. 
 
 The Earl of Erin is a sample of a class of what 
 may be termed old Irish proprietors, who have 
 suffered heavily through the misconduct of others, 
 and are suspicious and disinclined to oblige 
 tenants who, they think, are in too favourable a 
 position. This class of landlords cares nothing 
 about farming on scientific principles, and very 
 little about improvements ; those who compose 
 it put no restrictive clauses in leases, and so that 
 a tenant pays a high rent he may sell anything 
 he pleases, and farm in any way he likes. As for 
 helping in draining or improvement, they would 
 
3 98 a s axon's remedy 
 
 never dream of assisting a tenant to do that ; 
 and though they have some respect for a good 
 large stone-bnilt barn, any proposal that they 
 should supply timber and slates would be very 
 decidedly rejected. 
 
 Englishmen would imagine that Lord Erin 
 would be more unpopular than the Marquis of 
 Manylands, but the contrary is the case. Lord 
 Erin is a Catholic, a good-natured fellow, ready 
 to shake hands with anybody, and chat about 
 anything : his tenantry may take a long day for 
 the rent, or give bills, and the agent is sure to 
 be a gentleman who only cares for one thing — 
 namely, that more than a year's rent is not left 
 unpaid. If the tenant cannot come to book, of 
 coarse he must give way to some one else ; but 
 as any arrangement is winked at which secures 
 the amount owing to the landlord, the defaulter 
 can generally find some one to stand in his shoes 
 and give him fifty pounds to try his luck with 
 elsewhere. At the same time, one can see that 
 the interference of the Legislature might be of 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 199 
 
 advantage to the true interests of landlords like 
 the Earl of Erin, his tenants who are holding the 
 fag-ends of leases, and the cause of good hus- 
 bandry generally. 
 
 Lord Screw owes his title to clever bargaining 
 at the time of the Union : his grandfather hap- 
 pened to have a pocket borough at that period, 
 and being universally known as a dead hand at 
 securing the uttermost farthing for anything he 
 had to sell, a good many patriots of that day 
 arranged for their votes through him. For his 
 own share he received thirty thousand pounds 
 and an Irish peerage, and did pretty well for 
 those who had entrusted their interests to him. 
 He then did all he could for his numerous rela- 
 tions ; and as they were all great " Church and 
 King" people, and, moreover, possessed an apti- 
 tude for business, very uncommon in Ireland, 
 they rapidly rose in the world, and were the pro- 
 genitors of a numerous race of landlords, speci- 
 mens of which may be found in almost every 
 county. 
 
200 a saxon's remedy 
 
 When the Encumbered Estates Court first 
 commenced operations the Screws were enabled 
 to be large purchasers, for they were exceedingly 
 saving, and estates were sold cheap. They had 
 also other advantages: the Screws, though cer- 
 tainly not an old or illustrious family, looked 
 down with contempt upon trade ; they were and 
 are nothing in the world of letters, and have 
 never made a figure in the learned professions 
 of law or physic; but in many a snug living 
 you will find a Screw, and wherever there is a 
 good sinecure at the disposal of Government, the 
 family interest is brought to bear in order to 
 obtain it for one of themselves. But it is as 
 agents they shine conspicuously. I shall else- 
 where describe agents generally, so shall only 
 remark here that though, of course, a good deal 
 depends upon the landlords, yet the Screws' 
 popularity among them is attributable as much 
 to their skill in getting the utmost value from 
 the tenants as for the correctness of their ac- 
 counts. Thus the Screws possessed great facili- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 201 
 
 ties for knowing what was cheap, and many of 
 them who were tenants or small proprietors 
 before 1848 are now grand jurymen and even 
 deputy-lieutenants. 
 
 Lord Screw and all the family are Churchmen 
 of the Irish-Protestant type — that is, they have 
 a strong touch of the Puritan in their dislike of 
 amusements and gaieties of all kinds ; they look 
 upon Roman Catholics, and especially upon 
 priests, in a w r ay few Englishmen can un- 
 derstand : I am neither exaggerating nor ro- 
 mancing when I say that they look upon every 
 Catholic as a rebel at heart, and upon every 
 priest as a fomentor of disloyalty and a secret 
 indulger in numerous vices. I have heard these 
 sentiments proclaimed over and over again, and 
 when I first went to Ireland I was told I should 
 soon find all this out for myself. 
 
 It follows as a matter of course that Lord Screw 
 has no feeling whatever for his tenantry, or at least 
 for such of them as are Catholics ; with all men he 
 is a close, hard bargainer, but when those beneath 
 
202 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Mm are not of his way of thinking in religious 
 matters, he views them as the Egyptians did 
 the Israelites and the Spartans did the Helots: 
 to him they are aliens in race, aliens in reli- 
 gion — he keeps them on the land as a means of 
 producing money, grudging them anything more 
 than a mere existence, and if it seems to him 
 that it would be more profitable to turn small 
 farms into large ones, he will clear the tenantry 
 off his estate with no more compunction than is 
 felt by an Australian settler in slaughtering 
 kangaroos ; nay, sometimes contrary to his own 
 interest he will unroof a whole village because 
 he has a dispute with the priest about the parish 
 school. 
 
 As I said before, do not think I exaggerate — 
 this has been done. In another instance some 
 scores of poor creatures were evicted because, not 
 knowing English well, some of them had mis- 
 taken the directions of their landlord as to the 
 place of meeting, not to pay rent, but to offer 
 him respect. 
 
FOE IRISH DISCONTENT. 203 
 
 Xext to the Fenians I consider the Screws the 
 most dangerous people in Ireland, because they 
 are utterly impracticable, and as they hate so 
 they are hated. Throughout Ireland you never 
 hear of landlords like the Marquis and the Earl 
 being injured or insulted, and if there were a 
 general rising to-morrow I think their lives 
 would be safe ; but one of the incentives to rise 
 would be to avenge themselves on tyrants like 
 the Screws, who had dealt out wrongs and injus- 
 tice during a series of years. 
 
 Of the other types of Irish landlords I shall 
 not say much : some societies, some English and 
 Scotch gentlemen, have purchased land, and Irish 
 merchants and solicitors have also taken advan- 
 tage of the division of estates into moderate- 
 sized farms ; numbers of Irish farmers have 
 fortunately been enabled to become their own 
 landlords, and when such has been the case, as 
 far as my experience goes, I should say that the 
 style of husbandry has been improved, and the 
 new proprietor has become, what is still greatly 
 
204 a saxon's remedy 
 
 wanted in Ireland, a member of an independent 
 middle-class. Something lias been lately said 
 about the new Irish proprietors of the trading 
 class making very extortionate landlords. I fear 
 small proprietors who do not farm their own 
 land as a rule let their land as high as possible ; 
 Protestants and Catholics, poor gentlemen and 
 small tradesmen, act just the same in getting all 
 they can for what they have to let : you cannot 
 make a law to compel any man to take two pounds 
 an acre for what a tenant is willing to give two 
 pounds ten shillings. Two or three years ago 
 an embarrassed Catholic gentleman sold his 
 estate with the secret understanding that every 
 tenant should be cleared off before possession 
 was given ; he assured his tenants they would all 
 be allowed to remain, and then when the crops 
 were in served them all with notice to quit. For- 
 tunately his agent refused to be a party to this in- 
 justice, and the tenants obtained heavy damages. 
 Not long since, on board the Leinster, a poor gen- 
 tleman and I discoursed upon tenant-right : he 
 ♦ 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 205 
 
 told me that his father had lately half-promised 
 for him to renew a lease when it fell in. The 
 tenant had built a very fine house and offices on 
 the property ; he remarked — " If I give the lease 
 I shall value this house and offices in charging 
 the increased rent." Now, this is certainly 
 " reaping where you did now sow/ 5 and I must 
 again impress upon my English friends that 
 none of the landlords, except in some few in- 
 stances, improve property themselves. What 
 building, fencing, draining, limeing, and manur- 
 ing, &c, is done by the tenant he expects to have 
 some permanent advantage in ; he claims it as a 
 right that the extra value of the land shall 
 belong to him, and that his landlord shall not 
 raise his rent because his industry and capital 
 have made it worth more. 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 RICH GENTLEMEN FARMERS — POOR GENTLEMEN FARMERS SNUG 
 
 FARMERS SMALL FARMERS, ETC. 
 
 ^HE rich gentlemen farmers of Ireland are 
 seldom tenants in the English, sense of the 
 term. I hope it will not be forgotten that few 
 properties in Ireland are entirely free from head- 
 rent, payable to somebody. Every now and 
 then these head-rents are to be disposed of, and 
 it occasionally happens that some sharp-witted 
 tenant on an estate gets hold of the fee simple, 
 which may perhaps be worth only a thousand 
 pounds, although the income may be three 
 thousand a year, and he thus becomes his land- 
 lord's head landlord, and has the right of hunt- 
 ing, shooting, &c, over the estate. I will explain 
 my meaning by a recent case : — A gentleman I 
 
REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 207 
 
 will call Fitzgerald liad landed property pro- 
 ducing three thousand a year ; it was held in 
 fee-farm grant — that is, for ever — subject to the 
 payment of 120/. a year to a gentleman I will 
 call O'Brien, who had the right of sporting in all 
 shapes, and royalties over minerals, &c. All the 
 O'Brien property was for sale. One of Mr. 
 Fitzgerald's tenants had a lease which would 
 terminate in a few years, and landlord and tenant 
 were on bad terms. Mr. Fitzgerald offered 
 twenty-five years' purchase, and said he would 
 give no more for the 120/. per annum chargeable 
 on his estate. The tenant with whom he was 
 disputing went to the agent who had the con- 
 duct of the sale, made his bargain at thirty 
 years' purchase, and can, without telling an 
 untruth, call himself the owner of the Fitz- 
 gerald estate, and can shoot over it, fish in the 
 river, &c. 
 
 These things are terribly puzzling to English 
 people ; but it is well to bear the fact in mind 
 that many of the landlords are in truth only 
 
208 
 
 a s axon's remedy 
 
 tenants for ever at very low rents. Now, many of 
 these gentlemen are very extensive farmers, graz- 
 ing being what they principally affect ; and, as 
 a general rule, they cannot be turned out of their 
 holdings, which they have for ever at a few 
 shillings an acre. They have introduced short- 
 horn cattle, Leicesters and Cotswold sheep, and 
 the best Yorkshire breed of pigs, so that there is 
 very little difference between English and Irish 
 grazing farms. Still, there are large farmers of 
 this class who graze extensively, and export tons 
 of butter, who are anxiously looking for the 
 question of tenant-right to be settled, as they 
 hold at will or on leases which will soon termi- 
 nate. As a body, this class of gentlemen farmers 
 is very rich, for they spend nothing in comparison 
 with their income ; I have one in my mind's eye 
 now, a corpulent little gentleman, highly con- 
 nected, and who had had a good education. He 
 was putting by thousands a year, but lived in a 
 manner no second-class English tradesman would 
 consent to do : he had a fine house, of which 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 209 
 
 the doors, windows, &c, had not been painted 
 for years. You could hardly tell the original 
 colour of the paper on the walls ; and the roof 
 was in such bad condition that the rain frequently 
 came through. Two or three dirty drabs of women 
 servants were running about, and at them, the 
 lady of the house, and the children, the master 
 swore continually. He had several handsome 
 old carriages, in which the numerous hens used 
 to lay, but which were occasionally cleaned and 
 brought out in order to honour the funerals of 
 neighbouring country gentlemen; his favourite 
 vehicle, however, was a jaunting-car, in which he 
 drove an ungroomed horse at almost railwajr 
 speed — for all his nags had the gift of going — 
 and he occasionally got long prices for them. 
 
 During his drives to the neighbouring town he 
 would often ask half a dozen gentlemen to dinner, 
 and regale them on part of a sheep killed only 
 an hour before, and a lump of hung beef, washed 
 down by the best Clicquot and some of Euther- 
 ford's old Madeira. His farming was on a par 
 
 p 
 
210 a saxon's remedy 
 
 with liis housekeeping ; the fences grew wild and 
 encroached on the land, which was never half 
 stocked, and his sheep were always straggling 
 over the country and introducing the scab — from 
 which his flocks were seldom entirely free — 
 among his neighbours'. But when he died, he 
 left a hundred thousand pounds in personal pro- 
 perty. A few years' time, however, has made a 
 great difference; many of these gentlemen are 
 as careful in the management of their lands, and 
 in selecting good crosses for their cattle and sheep, 
 as is the same class in England ; but unfortu- 
 nately they do not travel much, know little or 
 nothing of polite literature, have very strong 
 -prejudices, and, caring little for social pleasures, do 
 not impress strangers and foreigners so agreeably 
 as the " fine old Irish gentleman" of fifty years 
 ago, whose manners are represented to have been a 
 combination of the best French and English types. 
 
 If you buy land in Ireland — and you may do 
 worse things with your money — may the Lord 
 protect you from having poor gentlemen as 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 211 
 
 tenants, Catholic or Protestant. I had a poor 
 Catholic gentleman tenant, as jovial, pleasant a 
 fellow as ever began bragging in mixed company 
 of the money he had in his pocket, and ended by 
 throwing the notes into the fire to show how 
 little he cared for the filthy lucre. In this in- 
 stance they were recovered only half consumed, 
 but they never did me any good ; and after some 
 years of underlettings, broken promises, and re- 
 turned bills, protracted litigation finally rid me 
 of my unprofitable tenant. The Protestant 
 gentleman who had some land of mine used to 
 sell all the hay and straw, never dreamt of grow- 
 ing green crops or stall-feeding, and after actually 
 reaping five corn crops in succession from some 
 of the land, threw up his lease, which I was glad 
 to take off his hands, though of course it cost me 
 dear to put the run-out land into anything like 
 good condition again. 
 
 I did not rush into print and proclaim that all 
 Irishmen would underlet or exhaust their farms, 
 but I am sure the vagaries of poor gentlemen 
 p 2 
 
212 a saxon's remedy 
 
 must be guarded against by stringent covenants 
 in their leases. 
 
 To have an Irish peerage is a great misfor- 
 tune ; the possessor has generally no seat in the 
 House of Lords, and cannot be elected to the 
 House of Commons for any Irish borough or 
 county; he is often ludicrously poor in com- 
 parison with his assumption of dignity, and if 
 any of his remote connexions go into any kind 
 of trade a slur is considered to be cast on the 
 family escutcheon. When a man has only three 
 or four hundred a year, and possesses five or six 
 sons, it is impossible he can put them all in pro- 
 fessions, pinch and screw how he may ; and you, 
 my English friends, have no idea how highly 
 connected Irish families — Lord Ballytestrin's 
 nephews and Lord Cape Clear's cousins — can 
 pinch and screw to get commissions, &c, for 
 their sons. Those who are not thus provided 
 for strive to obtain farms ; in this they are gene- 
 rally successful ; they always go in for a lease, 
 and always fight against the covenants about 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 213 
 
 sub-letting, selling hay and straw, &c, which are 
 absolutely necessary for a landlord's protection : 
 most of them infinitely prefer making a hundred 
 a year profit by sub-letting to farming themselves, 
 and if they can retain a cottage and a few acres 
 of grass land for a cow and a couple of horses, 
 they will make twenty or thirty pounds yearly 
 by horse-dealing, and thus get along somehow. 
 
 Others make an arrangement with the dairy- 
 man, receiving so much per cow; but the vast 
 majority of these poor gentlemen run the land 
 out, fall into arrears with their rent, and are at 
 last absorbed into Australia or New Zealand. 
 Of their more fortunate brethren whom we meet 
 in England as officers, clergymen, and doctors, 
 and who generally get on, and always marry 
 girls with money, it is superfluous to speak. I 
 shall not soon forget the elongated countenance 
 of an English friend of mine whose daughter 
 had become engaged to a gallant officer related 
 to no end of Irish aristocracy, when he returned 
 from Ireland after visiting the family mansion 
 
214 a s axon's remedy 
 
 of the bridegroom elect. He described it to me 
 as having no upstairs apartments, and being 
 very like a long pigstye ; however, the lady had 
 money enough for both, and a grand house has 
 been erected. Of course occasional instances 
 occur where a poor gentleman accepts his posi- 
 tion, and farms his land steadily and well ; when 
 that is the case, he usually gets on and becomes 
 a useful member of society, but, as a rule, much 
 of the bad farming in Ireland is attributable to 
 the class I have endeavoured to describe. 
 
 I now come to the "snug" farmers: men 
 holding from sixty to three hundred acres Irish, 
 five Irish making eight statute acres. Now, it 
 appears to me that all the writers on both sides of 
 the question, never consider these people at all ; 
 yet they are the farmers of Ireland par excellence. 
 Legislation may take in the cottier class, to 
 which I will allude presently ; but surely it is 
 tenant-farmers who require to possess a certain 
 amount of capital that we ought principally to 
 study. Now these men are, in intelligence and 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 215 
 
 knowledge of their business, much the same as 
 English farmers were twenty years ago ; they 
 are not so neat about their farmyards, not so 
 regular in times of feeding their animals, and in 
 providing shelter for them as they ought ; they 
 will not spend enough money in artificial manure, 
 nor in linseed-cake, nor in agricultural imple- 
 ments, nor will they even in labourers 5 wages ; but 
 I noticed all this in many parts of England twenty 
 years since, and there is great improvement in 
 Ireland of late years. There is a reason why these 
 things are not done, namely, that they are afraid 
 of their rents being raised. I do not think the 
 land in Ireland is let at too high a rate, and I 
 altogether disagree with the extraordinary theory 
 that land let on long leases deteriorates in con- 
 dition; in fact, I know many farms where 
 tenants did no good till the landlords offered to 
 give long leases, when farmers with capital came 
 forward, put the land in proper condition, and 
 made plenty of money. People who are not 
 farmers are not aware that it takes a great deal 
 
216 a saxon's remedy 
 
 of money to put exhausted land into good con- 
 dition; but ten or twelve years of ample ma- 
 nuring, feeding sheep with cake and grain, deep 
 ploughing, and thorough cleansing from weeds, 
 will more than double the value of land ; in fact, 
 after completely improving land, I have myself 
 sold for double what I gave. Of course you 
 cannot expect men to keep land in this condition 
 when they are liable to be turned out in six 
 months. You must also recollect that, albeit 
 on the east coast of Ireland the climate though 
 warmer is not moister than many parts of Eng- 
 land, yet in the middle, south, and west it is 
 far more so ; and though grass and green crops 
 grow luxuriantly, weeds can hardly be kept 
 down, and corn is much more difficult to save ; 
 even when apparently dry, it is dangerous to put 
 hay and corn in large stacks. I did not believe 
 this till experience convinced me of the fact, and 
 this accounts for some — though of course not 
 all — of the delay in housing crops and the 
 growth of thistles, &c, which shock English 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 217 
 
 agriculturists. There is a tale of an old farmer 
 who was blind, going with his son to take a 
 farm : in the middle of one of the fields he 
 wished to get off his horse, and told his son to 
 tie the animal to a thistle ; the young man said 
 there were none big enough to hold him, upon 
 which the father said they would ride back again 
 for the land must be poor. Those who know the 
 difficulty of eradicating thistles and the size to 
 which they grow on deep, rich soil, will under- 
 stand the blind man's objection. 
 
 It is also, in many parts of Ireland, impossible 
 to get weeding done at the same price as in Eng- 
 land ; there are no gangs of children trained to 
 work of that kind, and in harvest-time the wages 
 of adults approximates to the cost in England. 
 Nevertheless, making all these allowances, the 
 11 snug farmers " have a great deal to learn, and 
 will not get enough labour at the proper time, 
 nor be sufficiently in advance of their work ; 
 those who are dairymen also, are too careless 
 about housing their cows and making their 
 
218 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 butter : still they are the class which require 
 peculiar consideration; I believe I know them 
 thoroughly, and I can speak highly of their 
 integrity, promptitude in paying their rent, and 
 excellence of behaviour in every relation of life : 
 as a body, indeed, they carry courtesy almost to 
 the verge of servility. Men in the same position 
 of life in England and with the same education 
 would not stand with their hats off when address- 
 ing a gentleman very little superior in education 
 and with less property. I ought perhaps to men- 
 tion that some of those I am acquainted with in 
 the class of snug farmers, are gentlemen of good 
 education and fair standing in society, but who 
 have not succeeded in, or had a distaste for, the 
 professions or trades to which they were brought 
 up, and, like sensible men, have devoted their ener- 
 gies to farming. These gentlemen have bought 
 steam threshing-machines, and other less expen- 
 sive adjuncts to scientific husbandry ; they have 
 been commended and their farms shown as " model 
 ones/' but leases have been persistently refused. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 219 
 
 I can assure you that these men, generally Pro- 
 testants, always ultra loyal, are as anxious for 
 legislation in their favour as any Catholic in 
 Ireland. One piece of advice, however, I must 
 give them, namely, to be more business-like in 
 keeping their banking accounts straight ; many of 
 them, as well as gentlemen of property, keep no 
 banking accounts at all, but go to their salesmaster 
 or cornfactor when they either want money or 
 have any in hand ; this of course throws them 
 into the power of these men of business — very 
 good fellows in their way, and often very wealthy, 
 but who would be angels if they did not occa- 
 sionally take advantage of their position. In 
 cases I have known, a farmer once indebted 
 rather increases than diminishes his liability, and 
 it is the same with banks : I have known gentle- 
 men with several thousands a year let bills come 
 back, allow balances to stand against them, and 
 huckster in such a way about interests and com- 
 mission as to altogether forfeit their position as 
 men of probity and business. There are several 
 
220 a saxon's remedy 
 
 very good and safe banks in Ireland, but those 
 established would be much more liberal in making 
 advances, and would open many more branches, if 
 the agricultural interests generally would not 
 grudge them their fair profits, and would make 
 up their minds punctually to meet their mone- 
 tary engagements. 
 
 I have already stated that I do not believe in 
 the existence of a large class in Ireland living 
 entirely by the produce of very small farms. I 
 have also said that professional men and trades- 
 men in towns are all anxious to obtain what are 
 called town parks, and many of them pay com- 
 paratively high rents for two or three acres of 
 land ; they generally farm highly, and are very 
 desirable tenants. There are also many labour- 
 ing men who manage to get a little land, which 
 is a great assistance in providing milk and pota- 
 toes for their families ; the only inconvenience 
 connected with this is, that the labourer occa- 
 sionally stays away from his master's crops at a 
 busy season because his own require attention. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 221 
 
 In the west and the south there are districts 
 where men have a few acres of reclaimed land, 
 and considerable grazing over bog and mountain : 
 they often do well, but grumble at their rent, 
 which is usually very moderate, on the principle 
 that if they appear satisfied it would probably be 
 raised. I see no reason why an industrious 
 family should not do well on five or six acres of 
 land, but I am quite willing to admit that my 
 own experience shows that in a bad season it is 
 very difficult to get the rent. I should like to 
 see the experiment tried of cultivating the waste 
 lands of Ireland, in farms of a moderate extent ; 
 I believe the capital would easily be found, but I 
 am assured the owners would not give long 
 leases on reasonable terms. I think convict 
 labour might be profitably employed in this way. 
 The commons of Lusk, about eleven miles from 
 Dublin, have been thus recently reclaimed ; I 
 believe they are now to be sold, and I have no 
 doubt they will fetch forty to fifty pounds per 
 acre. Great men both in England and Ireland 
 
222 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 have a perfect antipathy to poor men acquiring a 
 hit of land. I remember, when I was a boy, my 
 father giving a piece of waste land to a poor man, 
 who, in course of time, made it quite a fertile 
 spot ; other gentlemen in the neighbourhood had 
 done the same with bits of ground adjoining 
 their property. Many years rolled away, and 
 boys were middle-aged men when I revisited my 
 old neighbourhood; I found the lord of the manor 
 had got an Enclosure Act passed, and had swooped 
 down upon those who had reclaimed these little 
 plots : some had been ruined by law costs, the 
 rest^alarmed, agreed to pay rent for their little 
 holdings. I interceded for one poor old fellow, 
 whose cottage, which had cost fifty pounds, had 
 been ruthlessly pulled down ; but I was told he 
 had been impertinent, and no leniency could be 
 shown. He died soon after, reduced to the 
 workhouse entirely owing to his misfortunes : he 
 preceded to the other world by only a short space 
 of time the lord of the manor, who, as one of 
 England's richest noblemen, had enjoyed all the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 223 
 
 desiderata of this life, but I have often wondered 
 if in the next he found himself disagreeably near 
 to King Ahab, and whether, in comparing expe- 
 riences with that monarch, he had to admit pride, 
 wilfulness, and covetousness had been to him as 
 another J ezebel in prompting him to injustice. 
 
 Note. — Since writing the above, a letter in the Times of 
 February 7th, signed "D.," states that there are three hun- 
 dred thousand farms in Ireland valued to the Poor Rate under 
 ten pounds per annum. At first I noticed several statements 
 so very improbable that I was inclined to pay no more atten- 
 tion to this letter than to the numerous epistles continually 
 appearing in English papers giving a most prejudiced and 
 one-sided view of the landlord and tenant question ; or de- 
 scribing a state of things perfectly exceptional in their charac- 
 ter. For example, D. says that u occupiers of land of fifty 
 pounds value per annum employ no labour. " Now, as I 
 know some land let at three-halfpence an acre and some other 
 at eight pounds, one is obliged to guess at the number of acres 
 fifty pound valuation represents. Forty to sixty acres of 
 fair good land would be represented by a fifty pound valua- 
 tion ; now D. cannot mean that a farm of this size could be 
 worked by one pair of hands, unless it were entirely kept for 
 grazing. A little further on he says, with singular inconsis- 
 tency, that men farming fifty acres of land would probably be 
 able to buy land without the assistance from the State that Mr. 
 Bright recommends. These statements seem absurd enough, 
 
224 
 
 a s axon's remedy 
 
 but, strange to say, may be perfectly true in certain districts 
 in Ireland. I believe D. writes from Donegal, where some 
 curious customs prevail — right of free pasturage among 
 others, opposition to which in several instances has occasioned 
 some terrible crimes ; thus men paying but little rent may in 
 reality be considerable farmers, and black cattle, ponies, and 
 sheep can be looked after at little expense of labour. I 
 have no doubt farmers of this class in Donegal might be 
 able to find a thousand pounds, or even two, if necessary. 
 I consider, therefore, it is advisable to notice D.'s state- 
 ment, that there are in Ireland three hundred thousand 
 tenants holding farms under ten pounds per annum Poor 
 Law valuation. Of course, D.'s object is to prove that there 
 are so many small farms that it would be bad policy to 
 give tenants who are wretchedly poor a right to their hold- 
 ings, and that it would be far better to encourage them 
 to emigrate. I say, if there are still districts where pauper 
 tenants struggle to support existence on two or three acres 
 of land, the sooner emigration or good wages elsewhere 
 thins the number, the better ; but as I know small tenants 
 of my own hold land from other landlords, while I myself, 
 and plenty of richer men, are, for matters of convenience, 
 tenants of pieces of land of under ten pounds per annum 
 valuation, and as in an estate of which I am one of the 
 trustees, there are dozens of these little holdings held by 
 tradesmen, &c, which is universally the case near every 
 small town ; and as a mountain run of ten pounds per 
 annum valuation will in many places give an active man a 
 good livelihood, I think D.'s three hundred thousand little 
 farms (nearly a third of which he says are in three counties), 
 are easily acccounted for in the way I describe. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 IRISH AGENTS. 
 
 account of the agriculture of Ireland would 
 
 be complete without a chapter devoted to 
 the agents, through whom almost all rentals are 
 received. I suppose fifty years since they must 
 have been a set of unmitigated scoundrels, for 
 there is no novel or play with which I am 
 acquainted where the agent is not an oppressor 
 and a cheat. Miss Edgeworth describes several ; 
 Carleton portrays others ; and poor Power, 
 Barney Williams, and Boucicault, in every real 
 Irish play, bring the agent to condign and de- 
 served punishment. Now, though, like Sir 
 "Walter Scott, I occasionally imagine I must 
 have been alive a century or so ago, I am still 
 not quite the age to which the Countess of 
 
226 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Desmond attained — to say nothing of Old Parr — 
 and thus cannot confirm or contradict Miss 
 Edgeworth's descriptions ; yet in the present 
 day agents are no more like what novelists and 
 dramatists represent them, than Earl Eussell re- 
 sembles the small individual who some time back 
 called at a little public-house, and announcing 
 he had a message from Her Majesty, hired a 
 horse and gig, and pronouncing an eulogium on 
 the liquor, took down an assortment for con- 
 sumption at Windsor Castle. 
 
 I have already endeavoured to describe the 
 agent of the Marquis of Manylands, Mr. 
 Devereux, and I have said something of the 
 Screw family, who find that calling congenial to 
 their dispositions ; they, and the agents of all 
 men of property in Ireland I have ever met, are 
 gentlemen in manners and position ; they are 
 generally grand jurors and justices of the peace ; 
 in many instances, too, they hold large farms, 
 and take pains to improve the breed of cattle 
 and sheep ; occasionally, however, they make a 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 2.27 
 
 business of agencies, take as many as they can 
 get, and come down for two days every year to 
 collect rents, never looking at the land, nor in- 
 vestigating the requirements of tenants, nor 
 seeing if they are doing justice to their land. I 
 consider this a serious evil to both landlords and 
 tenants. It is bad enough when the landlord is 
 an absentee, but when the agent also lives in 
 England, or a hundred miles from the property 
 he is supposed to superintend, the bad effect is 
 doubled. 
 
 The Dublin papers generally contain ad- 
 vertisements from persons offering to be agents, 
 and to advance money, &c. If a person does 
 nothing but actually receive the rents, being an 
 agent is a profitable affair, for 5 per cent, is 
 charged ; and if the agent is a solicitor, which is 
 often the case, there is something to be made 
 out of leases and other business connected with 
 the estate, and with the tenantry, who have 
 occasionally little matters of their own to settle. 
 However, from what I have seen of agents I 
 Q 2 
 
228 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 should say they are disposed to assist the tenantry 
 in obtaining leases ; and though of course it is 
 their interest, being paid by a percentage, to 
 increase rents, yet they always advocate a liberal 
 policy. Their fault, as a body, is a desire to get 
 their money too easily, and not to sufficiently 
 investigate the state of the farms whose rents 
 they collect. But Parliament might do worse 
 than take the opinion of half a dozen large 
 agents as to what would be most expedient to 
 enact for the settlement of the great landlord and 
 tenant question. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL AND TRADING CLASSES. 
 
 ~j~ OUGHT to say a few words about solicitors 
 and physicians, &c. As to the Bar, it 
 is certainly not inferior to that of any other 
 country; and as many of our own judges 
 and leading counsel are Irishmen, I need say 
 nothing about them — and, indeed, not much 
 concerning solicitors. Of course, in large towns 
 there are a good many of the latter doing a fair 
 business ; but in the country, solicitors have now 
 a hard time of it. In England, we consider a 
 solicitor a gentleman, and he very often is one 
 in manner, attainments, &c. Now in Ireland he 
 is not a whit inferior to his English brother in 
 education and conduct, but for some reason or 
 other he does not stand so high, even in his own 
 
230 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 estimation ; and I have been surprised to see in 
 legal proceedings a party to an action described 
 as having been an attorney. Considering an 
 attorney prepared the affidavit, and that the 
 plaintiff's former profession was only mentioned 
 to create prejudice, this was a very significant 
 fact. I am very glad to see that a solicitor in 
 Dublin has recently been knighted, and that 
 efforts are being made to raise the social status 
 of solicitors. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that in Ireland the 
 term lawyer means a barrister, in England a 
 solicitor. When I first went to Ireland, if I 
 said, "I met a gentleman, Mr. So-and-so," I 
 used to be corrected by some one present saying, 
 " Oh ! he's an attorney y and on more than one 
 occasion, country gentlemen have remonstrated 
 with me for being intimate with solicitors of 
 high character, fair property, and an education 
 decidedly superior to my Mentor's. Pleasant 
 people whom I have met have avoided disclosing 
 their profession till the last moment, and when 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 231 
 
 at parting they have owned they were " poor 
 devils of solicitors/' have evidently expected I 
 should be very much shocked. The general 
 character of these gentlemen in Ireland is dis- 
 tinguished by a honhomie very different to their 
 English brethren. Those in country places are 
 generally farmers, and hardly ever belong to the 
 class of country gentlemen. Of course, they had 
 rather people went to law than settled their dif- 
 ferences, but they are always willing to save 
 people useless expense which does not go into 
 their pockets ; and they are almost always great 
 friends of the farmers, and in favour of any 
 alteration in the laws for their benefit. 
 
 The medical profession consists of physicians — 
 who are usually surgeons — and apothecaries, 
 who are also chemists and druggists. A great 
 number of the younger sons of good families 
 become physicians, and have often a hardish 
 time of it ; and in every town and district there 
 is a dispensary doctor, who receives about a 
 hundred a year, for which he has to visit every 
 
232 a saxon's remedy 
 
 one who is ill in a circuit of five or six miles 
 who cannot afford to pay. He has not to find 
 medicine, &c, but as one or two horses and a 
 man must be kept, the salary is too small. It 
 is considered infra dig., too, for him to charge 
 less than a pound ; consequently, many of those 
 who could afford to pay five shillings a visit get 
 a friendly guardian to give them a ticket com- 
 pelling the attendance of the dispensary doctor, 
 and thus get cured gratuitously. Many re- 
 spectable persons also call in the apothecaries, 
 thus the position of a country physician of talent 
 and attainments is often a most painful one. I 
 have frequently advised them to announce that 
 they will charge less, and prevent the business 
 going to the apothecaries, imitating their English 
 brethren; but esprit de corps prevents this. And 
 some who have endeavoured to prove that the 
 patients they were ordered to attend gratuitously 
 were persons perfectly well able to pay, have 
 made implacable enemies of the guardians, a por- 
 tion of whom are men of influence, who expect 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 233 
 
 their servants and tenantry to be cured without 
 remuneration. The dispensary doctors have, I 
 believe, no power to order necessaries even in 
 cases of extreme destitution ; and the plan of 
 dispensary attendance, which in theory is ex- 
 cellent, requires great emendation in practice. 
 
 Every one admits that Ireland suffers from 
 want of manufactures ; and I have taken great 
 pains to ascertain why cotton-mills have not been 
 more generally established. There is abundance 
 of water-power, and no employment for the 
 women and children except field-work. The 
 raw material is now as low as before the American 
 war ; and on the eastern coast, nearest Lanca- 
 shire, the experiment is well worth trying. I 
 am sorry to say most of the Irish wool is ex- 
 ported, and I fear the manufacture of woollen 
 goods has not increased. The linen trade is 
 principally confined to Ulster ; and I would far 
 rather see the other three provinces of Ireland 
 cultivate some distinct branch of manufacture, 
 than, as it were, go into opposition in this one. 
 
234 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 There is a great deal of mineral wealth, in 
 Ireland which has not been utilized as it ought 
 to have been, considering some of the mining 
 companies are very prosperous. The most pro- 
 fitable trades in Ireland are brewing and dis- 
 tilling; and I believe the high duty on 
 whisky is acting prejudicially just now, as I 
 hear even the most eminent distillers are giving 
 up using malt, and are extracting the spirit from 
 u raw corn," as it is called. However, in porter 
 the people have a cheap wholesome beverage 
 which is not intoxicating ; though we have the 
 authority of numerous celebrated men in favour 
 of a moderate quantity of whisky being beneficial 
 in a moist climate. 
 
 There has lately been a steam- ship building- 
 yard established at Dublin, and if the shipwrights 
 at East London continue to stand out for eight 
 shillings a day, there is every probability of a 
 considerable trade being transferred to the Lifiey, 
 as well as to the Clyde. 
 
 Many of the principal merchants and manufac- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 235 
 
 turers are Quakers, and many of them bear Scotch 
 names. 
 
 Irishmen do not like trade ; and though a 
 portion of them have a certain mechanical genius, 
 they are at once too careless and too timid in 
 financial operations to be successful in manufac- 
 turing on a large scale. Thus it is not merely 
 capital which is required to introduce manufac- 
 tures into Ireland, but the people who own it as 
 well. Mr. Dargan was no exception to my 
 dictum with respect to the Irishmen of the old 
 race being unfit to conduct large trading opera- 
 tions, for it is pretty evident his affairs were 
 always in a muddle. 
 
 Shopkeeping has been completely altered since 
 I first visited the island ; in those days, when you 
 entered a shop the proprietor, though not uncivil, 
 appeared to consider he was doing you a service 
 by supplying your wants, and was quite as ready 
 to talk about the state of the country, the 
 appearance of the crops, &c, as to do business : 
 now the establishment of large shops, or rather 
 
236 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 marts, where you can buy everything, from fur- 
 niture to hair-pins, has placed the large towns on 
 an equality with those of any other country. A 
 great number of these marts are in the hands of 
 members of the Society of Friends, or of Scotch- 
 men, and I believe many of them have realized 
 fortunes. In country towns some of the shop- 
 keepers do a large and profitable business, and, 
 as a class, are well off. They nearly all have 
 farms as well ; and the majority of them being 
 Catholics and men of much better education than 
 country shopkeepers in England, taking consider- 
 able interest in politics, and having much influ- 
 ence with their customers, they possess a much 
 greater weight in political matters than many 
 people imagine. They have made money the 
 last few years, and I notice they are taking great 
 pains to have their children well educated. 
 
 Perhaps it has been observed that some of the 
 Fenians were of the shopkeeping class, but these 
 were foolish young men, for retail tradesmen 
 generally are certainly not conspirators ; but 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 237 
 
 tliey are nearly all, Protestants and Catholics, in 
 favour of extensive tenant-right ; and those who 
 are not Catholics, being Quakers, Presbyterians, 
 and Methodists, would also be glad to see altera- 
 tions in the disposition of the revenues of the 
 Established Church and in educational matters. 
 
CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AND PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN 
 
 NEGLECT OF DIOCESAN SCHOOLS — PROTESTANTS IN ENGLAND 
 AND IRELAND OBJECTORS TO THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 
 
 J^TJT for the intolerance of some members of 
 the Church of England, the sympathy ex- 
 pressed by many Protestants for Garibaldi, and 
 the conviction of every one that alterations were 
 required, I doubt if the higher classes of the 
 Bomish Church would have attempted anything 
 against their Protestant brethren. Old-fashioned 
 parish priests and old-fashioned clergymen got 
 on pretty well together ; neither cared to prose- 
 lytize, and there being few of the poorer class 
 among the clergyman's congregation, he often 
 employed Catholic servants and labourers. 
 
 After the Act was passed making the tithes 
 payable by the landlord, the farmers had little 
 
REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 239 
 
 cause for personal animosity against the clergy- 
 man; and, as far as my experience goes, he was 
 generally spoken of and treated with respect. 
 The lower orders certainly dislike Presbyterians 
 and Methodists, but members of the Church of 
 England and Quakers they do not consider their 
 enemies, or designate by the terms " swaddlers" 
 and "supers," I do not think there is any one, 
 from Cardinal Cullen downwards, who would 
 grudge any Church clergyman good fair pay for 
 the duties he has to perform ; and I am quite 
 certain they would award the curates far more 
 than they get at present. 
 
 Of late years, however, some efforts have been 
 made, particularly in the west, to persuade 
 Eoman Catholics to change their religion ; a 
 good deal of money has been subscribed for this 
 object, and many ladies have been active in dis- 
 tributing tracts, &c. Now, besides the natural 
 dislike every minister of every religion has to 
 lose any of his flock, a parish priest is deprived 
 of part of his income if his congregation is re- 
 
240 a saxon's remedy 
 
 duced, and much indignation has been excited in 
 different parts of Ireland by the efforts to which 
 I have alluded. Priests of energetic disposition, 
 some of them converts from Protestantism, have 
 endeavoured also to gain proselytes ; and I have 
 known instances where wine and food, warm 
 clothing and kindness, judiciously administered, 
 have certainly not made the aspect of the Catho- 
 lic fold less inviting. I do not know which has 
 got the best of it in point of numbers, but I am 
 very certain my Protestant clerical friends had 
 better have been quiet as far as the revenues of 
 the Church are concerned. Our lively acquain- 
 tance Punch has had something to do with the 
 movement by his pictures, displayed in every 
 newsvendor's windows, portraying the Pope in 
 all kinds of ridiculous positions. 
 
 Many persons ask me why the Protestant 
 journals were always abusing the Holy Father — 
 and, to say the truth, it does not seem judicious 
 or fair to exhibit to the eyes of a devout Catholic 
 people the object of their greatest earthly reve- 
 
>0R IRISH DISCONTENT. 241 
 
 rence in a ridiculous point of view, though I do 
 not know how it could be prevented, — and I ex- 
 plain that Punch makes fun of everybody and 
 everything. 
 
 Keen intellects, half Irish half Italian, per- 
 ceived that the Irish Church was a weak point in 
 Protestantism, and they attacked it accordingly. 
 Anything very wealthy soon attracts the spoilers 
 — Presbyterians and other Dissenters would be 
 glad to share in the distribution of good things ; 
 curates see the anomaly of their position : land- 
 lords would be delighted to escape paying the 
 heavy tithe-rent charges with which they are 
 saddled, if they did not think that a solution of 
 the land question would follow any successful 
 attack on Church property, — and no doubt we 
 are on the eve of radical changes. As for a 
 number of Irish noblemen and gentlemen meet- 
 ing at the Eotundo and talking about the 
 impossibility of any alteration, when the clearest 
 intellects in England and the popular 
 voice go the other way, no one values that a 
 
 R 
 
242 a saxon's remedy 
 
 "thraneen," as the Irish say — Anglice, "jack- 
 straw/' 
 
 Many of my friends — many of those I love and 
 respect — are clergymen of the Irish Church, dis- 
 charging their duties in a quiet, easy, gentle- 
 manly way, and giving little offence to any one ; 
 but if their mission were to convert, though 
 backed for centuries by all the power of the State, 
 and gifted with no inconsiderable portion of its 
 emoluments, they have signally failed ; they 
 have had ample opportunities of making Ireland 
 Protestant, and yet they have hardly held their 
 ground. The only excuse for their being main- 
 tained in the position they have so long held, is 
 that they represent a religion by law esta- 
 blished, and that there was good reason to 
 suppose Protestantism could be made the general 
 belief of the Irish. At the present time, when 
 the law is administered by Roman Catholic 
 judges, when Castle advisers and Lord Mayors 
 are Catholics also, and when a Catholic cardinal 
 and archbishop takes precedence, at a banquet 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 213 
 
 given to a Conservative Lord-Lieutenant, of a 
 Protestant archbishop, it i^ idle to talk of Pro- 
 testant ascendancy in Ireland. 
 
 The Protestant Church as by law established 
 in Ireland, has preferred the loaves and fishes and 
 a quiet life to hard work in the cause of either 
 Eeligion or Education. Bishops and archbishops 
 have died worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, 
 energetic curates have grown grey-headed on a 
 hundred pounds a year ; diocesan schools expressly 
 established for the education of young men in 
 the Protestant faith have been systematically 
 neglected, and bequests for educational or charita- 
 ble purposes have lapsed or been diverted from 
 the donor's intentions through the carelessness 
 of the clerical trustees. The following particu- 
 lars have lately been going the round of the 
 Dublin papers : — On the death of the diocesan 
 schoolmaster at Wicklow, who received a hundred 
 a year from the diocese and about forty pounds a 
 year from Government land set aside for the 
 purpose, no other master was appointed to suc- 
 r 2 
 
244 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 ceed him. Some years after, the Endowed Schools 
 Commission took the evidence of the clergyman 
 of the parish and of gentlemen in the neigh- 
 bourhood relative to this school ; the clergyman 
 stated that in consequence of the non- appointment 
 of a master, respectable tradesmen and farmers, 
 and even gentlemen, were unable to obtain educa- 
 tion for their children except by sending them 
 many miles away. He said that thirty or forty 
 boys would attend the diocesan school from the 
 immediate neighbourhood ; that he himself had 
 been educated at one and was aware of their 
 great utility, &c. ; in fact, this clergyman, the 
 treasurer to the grand jury of the county, and 
 other gentlemen, demonstrated the great need for 
 the school, and the then Lord-Lieutenant, on the 
 Eeport of the Commission, at once appointed a 
 schoolmaster. Archbishop Whately, however, 
 refused to concur in the appointment ; and the 
 matter ended for the time in the master receiving 
 a living in lieu of the school. Since the appoint- 
 ment of Archbishop Trench the matter has been 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 245 
 
 vigorously revived, every Protestant in the town 
 and neighbourhood signing a petition to the 
 archbishop requesting him to re-establish the 
 school; but his Grace has decidedly declined. 
 The fact, therefore, remains, that forty pounds 
 per annum derivable from the Government lands 
 have been paid into the hands of Government 
 instead of being devoted to the people of Wick- 
 low, and that one hundred pounds per annum, 
 which was assessed as the contribution from the 
 archbishop and the clergy of the immensely 
 wealthy diocese of Dublin, has fructified, let us 
 hope, for thirty years in their pockets, instead of 
 instructing the Protestant youth of this same 
 diocese, clergymen's sons included. 
 
 A short time since, in one of the towns in New 
 Zealand, a curious meeting took place : a young 
 fellow who had just driven some cattle to an inn 
 yard recognised in the ostler the nephew, and in 
 the waiter the son, of a well known baronet and 
 M.P. The marker at the billiard-table, he was 
 told, was another old friend. Now all these young 
 
246 a saxon's remedy 
 
 men were from a locality where a diocesan school 
 ought to have been, but was not, and they had 
 been without a chance of the early training and 
 discipline so necessary to high-spirited youth. 
 
 The English press has lately drawn attention 
 to the fact that neither Protestants nor Catholics 
 are contented with the working of the National 
 Schools. Thus the state of education of all 
 classes is not in a satisfactory condition, which is 
 the more to be regretted as there is a greater 
 desire to learn, among the lower orders at any 
 rate, and the children not being engaged in 
 manfactures are at liberty to attend schools. 
 Not long since I had letters from both the clergy- 
 man and priest of a certain parish, each asking 
 me to subscribe to schools independent of the 
 National School, and each declaring that it was 
 impossible children of his persuasion could attend 
 that provided by Government consistently with 
 their religious tenets. 
 
 Neither by the spread of education, which we 
 Protestants imagine ought to open the eyes of 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 247 
 
 the Papists to the errors of their Church, nor by 
 showing in their own persons a holy disregard of 
 the treasures of this world in comparison with 
 the safety of their own flock and inviting stray 
 sheep from other folds, have clergymen of the 
 Established Church justified their being main- 
 tained in an exceptional position. As I have 
 before hinted, some of its members who have at- 
 tempted proselytizing in a feeble way, have been 
 met by counter endeavours to convert Pro- 
 testants ; and as far as respectability goes, to 
 judge from the announcements in the papers, the 
 Catholics have the best of it. Once admit that 
 you cannot make Ireland Protestant, and it is 
 impossible to avoid the conclusion that the 
 Church of England ought not to absorb the 
 enormous revenues it does. The most telling 
 speeches on this subject have been made by 
 Protestants ; in one diocese it is stated that 
 there are one hundred and forty clergymen 
 preaching to thirteen thousand Protestants. 
 They are paid at the rate of twelve pounds for 
 
248 a saxon's remedy 
 
 each member of their flock. I happen to have 
 seen the Government inquiry into a Church of 
 England school in this diocese, for which a large 
 sum of money was left ; each boy cost about 
 thirty-five pounds per annum, and they had clean 
 linen for day and night use only once a week ! 
 The Quaker school near, where it was admitted 
 the boys had every necessary comfort, cost some 
 pounds less. The principal trustee of the Church 
 school remarked with great naivete that the 
 Quakers managed a vast deal better than they 
 did, and he wished they had their assistance. 
 
 Many of my Irish Protestant friends, if they 
 reckon the congregations of the churches they 
 attend, will find ten pounds a head about the 
 scale of pay their pastor receives for the congre- 
 gation he sees around him. About two-thirds of 
 the parishes in Ireland only average a hundred 
 members of the Church of England, so that from 
 thirty to seventy will be about the number of 
 those actually in church at the same time, while 
 of these a certain proportion are poor persons, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 249 
 
 amongst whom is divided the money collected 
 from the congregation during each service for 
 this purpose. Instances of incumbents having 
 ten pounds each for every man, woman, and child 
 within the limits of his living, who have been 
 baptized according to the rites of the Established 
 Church, are not uncommon. Then there are two 
 archbishops, as many as we have in England, 
 and an array of bishops, deans, &c, out of all 
 proportion to the population of Ireland, much 
 more to the few hundred thousand belonging to 
 the Established Church. English Protestants 
 of different religious and political opinions have 
 emphatically raised their voices against this state 
 of things continuing, and many of the bitterest 
 haters of Eomanism in Ireland by no means ap- 
 prove of the Established Church and its minis- 
 ters there. I have spoken of intolerance in con - 
 nexion with certain members of this Church ; 
 but I am bound to say that the congregations 
 are often far more intolerant than the clergymen 
 themselves ; and it is because there is a suspicion 
 
250 
 
 a s axon's remedy 
 
 that some leaning towards Puseyism has been 
 lately manifested in certain quarters that Irish 
 Protestants are in many cases dissatisfied. 
 A loud speaking preacher who declaims about 
 the Scarlet Woman, and prophecies from signs 
 of the times her speedy downfall from her 
 ancient throne, and who demolishes all the 
 doctrines of the Eomish Church from which 
 we dissent, is a far more popular man with his 
 congregation than the individual who preaches 
 charity and good will towards all men, particu- 
 larly if the latter happens to allow painted 
 memorial windows, or departs in any way from 
 old Puritan customs. Then your Irish Protes- 
 tant, besides being puritanical, considers himself 
 as good as any one, and far better and greater 
 than any Koinan Catholic. A feeling yet re- 
 mains that the Protestants should hold together, 
 as I hear white men of every grade hold toge- 
 ther when amongst uncivilized races, which, in 
 times not far distant, was doubtless necessary 
 and natural. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 251 
 
 Latterly the clergy have mixed too exclusively, 
 I think, with the gentry and the wealthy, and 
 have occasionally treated with scant courtesy 
 their poorer co-religionists. Now, I do not say 
 it is unnatural that the wealthy clergy should 
 consider that the time has come to make more 
 distinction of classes, and should join the higher 
 one in snubbing the pretensions of Protestant 
 bakers and saddlers, and in making small farmers 
 wait a few minutes on hall-door mats when they 
 come to confer on spiritual matters — I only say 
 they are foolish to do it ; and in some cases a 
 very stringent inquiry into the dealings with 
 trust-funds has followed a reverend gentleman's 
 wife or daughters having looked another way 
 when Mrs. Grocer expected a warm greeting, to 
 say nothing of Mr. Grocer himself having had 
 to wait twelve hours before he could see his 
 reverence himself, when laid up with illness and 
 anxious for religious consolation. Mr. Grocer 
 determines to inquire into the disposition of the 
 "Hartley" Fund, and the "Speedwell" Fund; 
 
252 a s axon's remedy 
 
 and his cousins, and Mrs. Grocer s brothers, and 
 Miss Grocer's sweetheart, with his relations, all 
 back him up. There are some feeble efforts to 
 withhold particulars ; but it then comes out that 
 the interest from the bequest left for the purpose 
 of providing for six old men has been taken for 
 the choir ever since the last batch of old men 
 died out; and the other fund, for apprenticing 
 six poor boys, was swallowed up in new-pewing 
 the church. There is a feeling of animosity- 
 roused ; many of the congregation believe, gene- 
 rally erroneously, that their pastor has in some 
 way personally benefited ; so the Methodists and 
 Presbyterians receive a few new members, while 
 those who remain staunch yet carp at everything 
 done by one whom heretofore they had looked 
 upon with the greatest respect. 
 
 The position of the curates too, which all 
 lovers of the Established Church everywhere 
 must regard as a great defect in her system, is 
 felt more in Ireland than in England, owing to 
 the spirit of equality to which I have alluded. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 253 
 
 The curate is as much a gentleman as his rector, 
 and he is usually more energetic in good works, 
 always ready to forward local improvements, has 
 Bible Classes, and promotes Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Associations. His religious superiors are 
 continually remembering they are on an equality 
 with the county people ; the curate only recol- 
 lects that he is the spiritual equal of the poorest. 
 Most of the parish work is allotted to him, and 
 when living after living is given to friends of the 
 powers that be, and a curate such as I have 
 described is left for ten or fifteen years on a 
 hundred pounds per annum, those who consider 
 him one of themselves murmur in a way which 
 should alarm the holders of sinecure benefices. 
 I have even heard curates themselves, and old 
 clergymen with large families, who possess 
 livings little better than curacies, say some hard 
 things about the thousands archbishops and 
 bishops receive, and about the drones of the 
 hives getting all the honey, which those digni- 
 taries referred to would have considered dan- 
 
254 a s axon's remedy 
 
 gerous, revolutionary, and equal to heresy. Thus 
 I am not sure whether the reputed friends of the 
 Irish Established Church are all to be depended 
 upon when the fight begins. 
 
 A number of Protestant gentlemen have lately 
 met in Dublin and raised the cry of "No sur- 
 render/' Cambronne said the same at Waterloo, 
 and he has been depicted uttering these words ; 
 but Cambronne, though a very brave fellow, gave 
 up his sword a few minutes after ; and a good 
 many of these Irish gentlemen who are paying 
 heavy tithe-rent charges for tenants who do not 
 attend church would be equally ready to listen 
 to reason if they knew what was to be the 
 ultimate destination of the revenues of the 
 
 Chu-oh. 
 
 As soon as it is decided that part of the Church 
 property is to be diverted from its present chan- 
 nel (and I look upon this as an accomplished 
 fact), landlords will consider they may as well 
 have part of the spoil as Papists and Presby- 
 terians; and we know that in the time of 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 255 
 
 King Henry VIII. noblemen of all religions were 
 quite ready to accept abbey-lands. However, 
 I will discuss in another chapter how divers 
 people consider this matter had better be 
 settled. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PARISH PRIESTS THEIR INFLUENCE HIGH CHARACTER — FE- 
 
 NIANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THEM AN OLD STORY— COMPARI- 
 SON BETWEEN PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC CHURCH DIGNI- 
 TARIES. 
 
 A LL one's ideas of a priest, derived from old 
 
 novels and from Exeter Hall, vanish when 
 one comes to know the robust-looking, good- 
 humoured ecclesiastics who preside over the spi- 
 ritual concerns of the Roman Catholic Irish. 
 They stand forth as different from priests of all 
 other nations that I have met, as if the article had 
 no connexion with any other religion than Irish 
 Catholicism ; and I have never been able to un- 
 derstand how those who have been educated in 
 Italy reconcile to themselves the difference in the 
 internal as well as the outward appearance of the 
 churches. 
 
REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 257 
 
 In Italy, for example, so much honour to saints, 
 with such profusion of ornament and votive offer- 
 ings for miraculous preservations and cures, and 
 in Ireland such comparative simplicity of orna- 
 mentation, and such restriction of worship to 
 almost what we Protestants hold in reverence, 
 though with the Virgin as Intercessor. 
 
 Speaking as a Protestant, I should say someEng- 
 lish Puseyites I have known, are more Eomanists 
 than the generality of Irish priests ; and I am 
 sure they know more about many of the saints and 
 hold their memories in higher estimation than 
 sundry good Catholics of my acquaintance, who I 
 puzzled considerably after a careful study of 
 Mrs. Jamieson. 
 
 The model Irish priest is a tall, stout, powerful 
 man, with a loud voice, an imposing air, and a 
 keen, shrewd expression of countenance. To such 
 Protestant gentlemen as have good sense enough 
 to treat him as the minister of any religion ought 
 to be treated, he is particularly courteous and 
 ready to afford the valuable stores of his local 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 and general information. Nor, during a long 
 and varied experience of parish priests and their 
 curates, have I ever had my own Protestantism 
 assailed in any way, my prejudices offended, or 
 my purse trespassed upon. 
 
 With their own parishioners they are tolerably 
 despotic. Knowing each turn of the peculiar 
 mind of each member of their congregation by 
 the agency of the confessional, they can sway 
 them as they please. In every trouble of life 
 they are at hand; and the darkest night, the 
 wildest road, and the deadliest pestilence, will 
 not hinder a priest from seeking a parishioner 
 who desires his aid. 
 
 The priest has absolutely to fast till the mid- 
 day service is completed ; he keeps strict absti- 
 nence in Lent, and though I have made searching 
 inquiry, and he is surrounded by people who hate 
 and suspect him and would be delighted to en- 
 trap him, I never heard of one parish priest in 
 Ireland breaking the vow of chastity. Mr. Trol- 
 lope, in his "Macdermots of Ballycloran," has 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 259 
 
 given an excellent description of one, not inferior 
 to his life-like portraiture of English divines in 
 later works. 
 
 As a rule, Englishmen of sense and education 
 get on very well with the Catholic clergy ; but 
 such companionship is always resented by the 
 Protestant Irish, who say we are not up to them, 
 and warn us of all sorts of unexplained pitfalls. 
 During thirteen years I have found them on my 
 side in divers difficulties with tenants, &c, and 
 any little civility or good service on my part has 
 been returned fourfold ; so if my old friends have 
 been digging a pitfall for me all these years it 
 must be a deep one by this time. 
 
 It is very singular that no Government has 
 
 ever made such men their friends, and bound 
 
 them steadfastlv to their cause. All Govern- 
 1/ 
 
 ments in Ireland, however, have failed to conci- 
 liate and make part of themselves these keepers 
 of the consciences and readers of the inmost 
 thoughts of the Irish people. Thus their interest 
 has always been with the agitators, and their 
 
 Q 9 
 
260 a saxon's remedy 
 
 feelings strongly enlisted in favour of tlie poor 
 man against the rich and strong. 
 
 At the present moment there is a good oppor- 
 tunity for binding the Irish priesthood to any 
 reasonable plan that would terminate ill feelings 
 and ceaseless discontent. The old-fashioned priests 
 are menaced in two ways : a fresh, a younger, and 
 more Jesuitical class has arisen. They are liked 
 by the poorer class of Irish, for some of them 
 have private fortunes, and they give away much ; 
 they try to level distinctions of classes, and re- 
 quire absolute obedience from rich and poor alike. 
 More than once they have opposed the candi- 
 dates supported by the old style of priests, and in 
 many ways have impressed people with the idea 
 that they are cleverer, more devoted to religion, 
 and more resolute to get all that the poorer classes 
 want — or think that they want — than the old- 
 fashioned sort. Farmers, you must recollect, 
 want leases, low rents, and low wages, while 
 labourers want increased pay; thus the two 
 interests are by no means identical. Now, the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 261 
 
 new style of priest is emphatically the friend 
 of the labourer, while an idea is abroad that 
 the old priests hold more to farmers and 
 tradesmen. 
 
 Amongst the lower orders I hear many remarks 
 about the incomes of parish priests, and Protes- 
 tant newspapers, in which this subject is dis- 
 cussed, are eagerly read. According to their 
 statement, the incomes of priests vary from three 
 hundred to six hundred pounds per annum; I 
 do not think any one knows, but I hope it is so, 
 for no men deserve it better, or are more ready 
 to give to the poor and sick ; nevertheless, I 
 have been grieved and astonished to hear bitter 
 remarks made about such an income being re- 
 ceived by Catholic clergy, and their horses and 
 covered cars commented upon in no friendly 
 spirit. 
 
 How it is expected that old and often ailing 
 men are to reach their sick parishioners in tem- 
 pestuous weather, except in covered conveyances, 
 I do not know ; but the remarks show me that 
 
262 a s axon's remedy 
 
 the Fenians have been at work undermining the 
 hitherto good understanding between the parish 
 priest and his flock. I conscientiously believe 
 that the best advisers of all grades of Catholics 
 are my old friends the parish priests, and I feel 
 convinced that they, as well as I, wish to see the 
 hard-working labourer better paid, and his in- 
 dustrious employer so secured that his landlord 
 cannot confiscate the results of his money and 
 energy. I warn them, however, to persevere in 
 denouncing Fenianism, which is their enemy as 
 well as that of England, and I counsel them to 
 hold open any door of entrance to that Grovern- 
 ment which shall honestly endeavour to bring to 
 Irishmen of all religions equality, peace, and con- 
 tentment, without a chance of domination even 
 to their own Church. 
 
 At the same time I would say a few words to 
 the heads of my own Church.. An Englishman, 
 the author of " A Walking Tour Bound Ireland," 
 says, " Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than 
 the state of the Protestant religion, especially in 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 263 
 
 the country districts. I am myself a Protestant, 
 and the son of a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, and all my present and future hopes 
 and fears are mixed up with this faith, yet I 
 declare that I would sooner see the Eoman 
 Catholic faith prevail in Ireland in the same 
 active manner as I witnessed it in Brittany and 
 Normandy, than the present dead-alive Protes- 
 tantism." With much of this I cordially agree. 
 Some of my immediate progenitors were clergy- 
 men illustrious for learning and piety, and I my- 
 self would run any risk, and face any danger, 
 rather than have my religious opinions interfered 
 with, and to prevent Eoman Catholic ascendency, 
 but it is, in my opinion, useless to expect whole- 
 sale conversion, and a believing, Grod-fearing 
 Catholic is better than a lukewarm, doubting 
 Protestant. 
 
 The Highlanders, the Manxmen, and the Irish 
 are kindred races, but the two former have 
 uniformly accepted the Protestant faith, though 
 they are not of the Established Church. The 
 
264 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Welsh retain their Celtic language, but tliey are 
 Methodists in feeling; and those who attend 
 church are often induced to remain within the 
 pale by a wise indulgence of their views of 
 general Psalmody of a peculiar nature. A 
 foreigner once told me that he heard only rich, 
 clever people belonged to the Established Church. 
 This is a doubtful compliment to a religion which 
 takes its name from a Carpenter's Son, and whose 
 first apostles and preachers were fishermen and 
 tent- makers ! I am afraid it is true, though, for, 
 not many years since, I remember a poor, dying 
 sinner sent to five different clergymen in the city 
 of London, and none of them came to him. I 
 could tell of poor Protestants sadly neglected, 
 spiritually and corporeally, in Ireland, when 
 Catholic aid was afforded. It is the old story we 
 read, as children, about "Keeper and Jowler," 
 the two great mastiffs. Keeper was retained by 
 the master of the estate, and was pampered and 
 fed on dainties ; Jowler was given to the shep- 
 herd. One day the owner of Keeper was walking 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 265 
 
 in the forest when he was attacked by two 
 robbers. He defended himself, and called loudly 
 to Keeper for help : the cowardly animal slunk 
 away, and his master would have been over- 
 powered had not a large dog rushed upon the 
 marauders, pulled one down instantly, and en- 
 abled the gentleman to despatch the other. The 
 shepherd, coming upon the scene, was ordered 
 to destroy the cowardly Keeper, and requested 
 to give up the valiant Jowler (for he was the 
 strange dog) to guard his former owner. 
 Months passed away; Jowler lived luxuriously, 
 grew fat and lazy, and, on an unlucky day, when 
 his adventurous proprietor attacked some wolves, 
 who were devouring a sheep, he executed a rapid 
 retreat. The wolves were pressing hard on their 
 human enemy, when a powerful, but decidedly 
 lean and hungry-looking, dog came to the rescue, 
 and the wolves were speedily killed. Of course 
 the dog was Keeper, wisely spared by the shep- 
 herd, and I think he read his master a strong 
 lecture on the folly of allowing dogs, who were 
 
266 a saxon's remedy 
 
 expected to be brave and active, to have too much 
 ease and good living. 
 
 This little tale may be well applied to the 
 spiritual guardians of Irish flocks; but there is 
 another fault, besides taking things too easily, 
 which may be laid to the charge of influential 
 ecclesiastics in Ireland. They will not judge for 
 themselves, but take the opinion of some inferior, 
 who almost invariably advises setting the wishes 
 of congregations at defiance. 
 
 I happened to have the great advantage of 
 friendly intercourse with one of the highest 
 Church dignitaries in Ireland. He was courteous, 
 witty, and learned, of no violent opinions, and, 
 I believe, most anxious to do his duty and con- 
 ciliate, but he has become very unpopular from 
 doing things with too high a hand, and from 
 falling into the old groove of going with the 
 clergy in opposition to the wishes of the Pro- 
 testant body, and rather cramping the means of 
 educating the people than making the existing 
 facilities available. 
 
YOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 267 
 
 Of course there is time to draw back, and a 
 thoroughly great man would do so, therefore, as 
 this highly-placed dignitary has lately withdrawn 
 an appointment he had made, on the threat of 
 the entire congregation to leave the church if the 
 incumbent entered it, he may prove himself 
 entitled to what I consider the greatest of all 
 praise, namely, that of being able to retire grace- 
 fully from a false position, and remember that he 
 is placed over the interests of Protestants for the 
 benefit of the entire Church, and not merely to 
 gratify the prejudices of certain clergymen. 
 
 I have written in vain, if I have not made you 
 feel that Irish Protestants are by no means the 
 kind of flock you can calculate upon shearing and 
 driving about just as the shepherd pleases. 
 
 Now, Cardinal Cullen, who I have also the 
 advantage of knowing, is admired and respected 
 by all the Catholics of Ireland I ever met. It is 
 impossible so energetic, clever, and impulsive a 
 man can fail to hit hard sometimes, and he must 
 occasionally leave a sting behind, but the intense 
 
268 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 admiration of his eloquence and vigour, felt by 
 his inferiors, makes his mortal errors soon for- 
 gotten, and whenever it is said " Cardinal Cullen 
 has been giving it them," the papers containing 
 his addresses are quickly bought up, in a very 
 different way from any Protestant purchases of 
 " Charges to Clergy/' &c. 
 
CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 THE LOWER ORDERS OF IRISH — ARTIZANS, SERVANTS, 
 LABOURERS, ETC. 
 
 T HAVE purposely left these good people to 
 the last, and put them immediately after my 
 description of priests, because I wish to show 
 how the peculiarities of other classes affect them, 
 especially that of the Sacerdotal. 
 
 Books in which the lowers orders of the Irish 
 are described, dwell so persistently on the 
 humorous and pathetic parts of their characters, 
 that the portraiture is of little value to the 
 political economist, the legislator, or to the 
 manufacturer debating about an investment in a 
 country possessing vast unemployed water-power 
 and cheap labour. 
 
 If you want to see an Irishman and woman in 
 
270 a saxon's remedy 
 
 an amusing and interesting light only, two hours 
 spent with Mr. and Mrs. Boucicault in the 
 " Colleen Bawn" will give you a far better idea 
 of them than reading any number of pages of 
 any work in existence. 
 
 Unfortunately, in describing the lower orders 
 of every country in the world, we are compelled to 
 say a few words about the " roughs/' scoundrels 
 who hardly ever work, and who are ready at all 
 times for disturbance and plunder. In all sea- 
 port towns these fellows abound, not only be- 
 cause honest sailors are easily plundered, but 
 that many vessels make up their crews with men 
 who are not professional seamen, who are of 
 every nation under heaven, and who are often 
 consummate scoundrels. 
 
 Last year, when at Cherbourg, I saw the crew 
 of a large American vessel, hardly one of whom 
 was honest and frank-looking as a sailor should 
 be, but who were yellow- skinned, lantern-jawed, 
 half-caste looking desperadoes, who might have 
 sat for a picture of a pirate crew. We have 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 271 
 
 often these kind of men in our own merchant 
 service ; and the disturbances in Cork and other 
 places are quite as much prompted by the dislike 
 of lawless ruffians to the police, which is unfor- 
 tunately common also in London, as by any poli- 
 tical hostility to the Government. A way must be 
 found to deal with these "roughs/' both in 
 Ireland and England, and to make magistrates 
 understand that a brutal assault must be punished 
 far more severely than a petty theft. 
 
 Turning from these disagreeable people, I 
 may remark that every one who visits Ireland is 
 struck with the courtesy of the lower orders. It 
 has been observed, that the peasantry have the 
 manners of ladies and gentlemen, while those 
 who own the land have got nothing besides. 
 Of course, this is too sweeping a conclusion, and 
 there is an unmistakeable difference between the 
 inhabitants of Munster, Connaught, and Leinster. 
 Everywhere they will take any trouble for a 
 stranger, appear to agree with all he says, and 
 to take an interest in his proceedings ; but in 
 
272 a saxon's remedt 
 
 Munster they are more suspicious and reticent, 
 and more apt to brood over their wrongs; in 
 Connaught they often understand English im- 
 perfectly, and not wishing to admit this they 
 occasionally give you wrong information invo- 
 luntarily ; while in Leinster, where no Irish is 
 spoken except the use of an expressive word here 
 and there, you see the best types of the class I 
 am describing, and may freely enter into con- 
 versation with any man, however poor, resting 
 assured that he will never presume upon your 
 affability. Those who think as much of " blood " 
 as Major Yelverton, or Mr. Toole in " Doing for 
 the Best/ 5 may like to know they will frequently 
 be conversing with men whose pedigrees are as 
 illustrious as any in the House of Lords. 
 
 Mtzgeralds, Courtenays, O'Briens, Mallins, 
 O'Byrnes, have all condescended to plough my 
 fields and groom my horses, and some of them 
 remained with me more than ten years. They 
 have many valuable qualities, are never insolent, 
 and, if treated with consideration, always seem 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 273 
 
 to take a personal interest in your health and 
 fortune. As a rule too they are sober ; but on 
 the other hand, it cannot be denied they do 
 many provoking things. Of course they do 
 much less work than an English labourer, for it 
 is impossible that men who are underpaid can 
 be physically capable of doing hard work ; and 
 though farmers are grumbling at the rise in 
 wages, it is better for both the employers and 
 employed that two shillings a day should be the 
 average, when a cottage and bit of ground is 
 not given. 
 
 A large farmer will always find his account in 
 giving a cottage and rood of land to each of his 
 regular labourers ; by this means he will get the 
 best men, anxious not to lose their situations, 
 and secure children for weeding, &c. The mise- 
 rable, unwholesome cabins where many gentle- 
 men of property put their work-people are 
 evidences of recklessness and impolicy. Irish 
 labourers are also fond of "scamping" work, as 
 it is called. They will repair a fence with a few 
 
 T 
 
274 a s axon's remedy 
 
 thorns or brambles, although, the said fence is 
 close to a road, and some old woman or boy is 
 sure to carry them off for firing within the week ; 
 and they will leave cart-wheels ungreased, har- 
 ness unmended, or repaired so badly that it 
 breaks again immediately, and all kinds of tools 
 and implements exposed to rain and sun. If 
 they borrow anything from a neighbour, it is 
 never taken back to him ; and if your neighbour 
 borrows anything of you, you had better give it 
 to him at once and buy another. These things 
 are not peculiar to Irishmen, as I, who have had 
 to do with collieries and iron works in England, 
 very well know that a miner will " shove up his 
 Davy" to see if there is foul air about, for a pint 
 of ale, risking his own life and those of a hun- 
 dred others ; and a moulder will fill up a crack 
 in a defective girder, though he knows that even 
 if it should escape the tests usually applied, it 
 may cause incalculable mischief by breaking when 
 used as a support.. 
 
 Irish labourers differ essentially from English, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 275 
 
 in disliking to work over hours, and in dreading 
 long exposure to wet. You can hardly induce 
 them, even in harvest-time, to remain after six 
 o'clock, or to pull up thistles and weeds from 
 corn after a heavy rain. The reason for this is, 
 that they have no change of clothes to replace 
 their wet ones, and in illness they have little to 
 expect from the consideration of their employers, 
 while out-door relief is not much practised ; 
 neither are there sick-clubs. That I maintained 
 an old man in sickness, and paid for his funeral 
 after death, was considered an extraordinary in- 
 stance of generosity by the poor man, and of 
 folly by the rich (though any English gentleman 
 would do the same) ; and I am afraid a red 
 ticket, which ensures the immediate attendance 
 of a dispensary doctor, and a few broken victuals, 
 are all that would have been considered neces- 
 sary. The poor diet of the lower orders of Irish 
 renders them peculiarly liable to fever, and their 
 dread of catching it is beyond anything we can 
 imagine. If we English, male and female,, 
 
 t 2 
 
276 a saxon's remedy 
 
 have one good quality, it is pluck. I have 
 known plenty of men and women frivolous, mer- 
 cenary, and selfish, who have robbed their nearest 
 relations, and outraged every domestic tie, yet 
 who have braved fever and pestilence in assisting 
 even strangers stricken with illness. Now, in 
 Ireland only hired nurses will come near if any 
 kind of fever is about, and people of all classes 
 go to bed, and look as if their last hour was 
 come, if suffering from slight ailments, when 
 many of us would be going about our business 
 as usual. I have no doubt people actually die, 
 like Mrs. Dombey, from not " making an 
 effort," and (though Dickens does not mention 
 the fact) she was probably a Hibernian. 
 
 The Irish of the poorer classes invariably con- 
 clude that any person will die who is taken ill. 
 And I will give one or two ludicrous instances. 
 I purchased some property many years ago at a 
 distance from where I resided, about the title of 
 which there was considerable difficulty. One of 
 the tenants came over to see me ; and as I had 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 277 
 
 an inflamed eye I received him in a darkened 
 room and lying on the sofa. Long afterwards I 
 found he told the rest of the tenants they need 
 not bother to visit me as I should never live to 
 take possession. One evening a groom I had 
 came crying to me in the greatest distress to say 
 his father had been killed by a young horse, and 
 might he go to him. Of course, I allowed him 
 to do so ; and on his return was sorry to learn 
 that the old man, who was a respectable farmer, 
 though not actually dead, could not live through 
 the night. The affectionate son w r as still in 
 great grief, and I believe the women servants 
 sat up half the night consoling him. The next 
 day there was a large auction a few miles off to 
 which I went, and the first persons I saw were 
 two sons of the injured man who assisted him in 
 his farm. Eather astonished at the sight, I asked 
 after their afflicted parent and received a very 
 gloomy account, which, to my unutterable 
 amazement, wound up with, "But sure, your 
 honer, bad as he was, nothing would keep him 
 
278 a s axon's remedy 
 
 from the auction." A few minutes after I saw 
 the old fellow sitting up in his cart, and bidding 
 away as boldly as any one there. The fact is, 
 he had got an ugly blow on the stomach which 
 pretty well knocked the wind out of him for the 
 time, but he lived many a long year. 
 
 Money is often subscribed to bury people who 
 are as well as ever a few days afterwards. 
 
 Another reason the Irish dislike working 
 overtime is, that any unoccupied men might be 
 jealous, and think they were kept out of employ- 
 ment. It is not many years since there were 
 three men wishing to be engaged wherever one 
 was required; and though work is much more 
 plentiful no doubt, the old feeling still exists. 
 For this reason, too, there is always difficulty in 
 obtaining boys and girls to single turnips and 
 perform similar easy farming operations. How- 
 ever, the children have a better chance of educa- 
 tion owing to this fact. Estimating the good 
 and bad qualities of Irish labourers, I am of 
 opinion that if you have a good steward or 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 279 
 
 bailiff, and do not utterly neglect some super- 
 vision yourself, you may by firmness towards, 
 and consideration for them, do as well as with 
 English and Scotch. I cannot say quite as 
 much for artizans : the best go to England, the 
 second-best go to Dublin and the large towns ; 
 and the consequence is that in country places 
 you have a set of fellows more like what we call 
 " handy men" in England than skilled workmen. 
 They are the authors of the rattling windows 
 which you can hardly raise, and which, when 
 opened, come down with a run, nearly decapitat- 
 ing you in the process ; of the doors whose locks 
 will neither open nor shut properly, and of the 
 chimneys that are constantly smoking : they are 
 perfectly good-humoured when blown up, and 
 generally make matters worse if allowed to at- 
 tempt reparation. An Irish domestic is as well 
 known in England as in the sister island. In 
 many respects they are more like foreign ser- 
 vants, and their utility depends even more on 
 their master's and mistress's supervision than 
 
280 a saxon's remedy 
 
 English ones. During the last two or three 
 years the numerous saints' days and holy days 
 prescribed by the Koman Catholic Church have 
 been more scrupulously kept. This, I think, is 
 a great pity, as farming operations are often re- 
 tarded as well as domestic inconvenience being 
 experienced and the wages of day-labourers 
 seriously affected. 
 
 In concluding the estimate of the lower classes 
 in Ireland, we should never forget that owing to 
 the immense sea-board there are a great number 
 of fishermen and sailors (a bold, hardy race who 
 have always an infinity of children that take to 
 the sea as naturally as ducks to a pond), while 
 the English navy has difficulty in obtaining men, 
 and the mercantile marine is wofully deteriorated. 
 A very little expense and trouble would procure 
 hundreds of boys for the navy, and some of our 
 vessels of war would be better employed cruising 
 on the Irish coasts, occasionally running into 
 the different ports and giving the people an idea 
 of the power of England than in sailing about 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 2 SI 
 
 the Mediterranean. Nor must it be forgotten 
 that Ireland is our great recruiting ground for 
 the army ; and though want of regularity and 
 method are important faults in the Irish cha- 
 racter, the police have recently shown themselves 
 to be possessed of extraordinary intelligence, 
 fidelity, and courage, while their discipline is as 
 perfect as that of any body of troops in the 
 world. 
 
 Now, it must be evident to all that many of 
 the soldiers and sailors, a great majority of the 
 police, the domestic servants, and the labourers, 
 being Eoman Catholic, and being by nature at 
 once suspicious and credulous, enthusiastic and 
 desponding, in some things recklessly indifferent 
 about life, in others deficient in sustained effort 
 in time of danger, careful in their religious 
 duties, and confessing regularly to their priests, 
 these last hold the key to much of the future 
 prosperity of Ireland, and to our good under- 
 standing with all classes of the community. 
 Thus, though I hope and believe we shall never 
 
282 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 truckle to any body of men on this or the other 
 side of the Atlantic, I do maintain that, in com- 
 mon sense and justice, we must consult the 
 wishes of the Roman Catholic Priesthood in 
 Ireland as to the education of their flocks, and 
 as to the method in which they desire to be re- 
 munerated for their professional services; and 
 their opinion ought to have some weight in 
 any measures we may adopt for the settlement 
 of the Land Question. 
 
CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 THE MAGISTRACY AND GRAND JURY AT ASSIZES AND SESSIONS : 
 
 THEIR APPOINTMENT THE WAY COUNTY CESS IS LEVIED 
 
 IPJSH GRIEVANCES. 
 
 HAVE described at length the land and the 
 Church grievances, and I think there will be 
 little difference of opinion that some considerable 
 alteration must be made in both cases. I now 
 come to minor matters, which are less talked 
 about, but which are still deeply felt. 
 
 The magistracy in Ireland is managed in this 
 wise : there is, in the first place, a gentleman 
 termed the assistant-barrister; there is one for 
 each county, and he is Conservative or Liberal, 
 according as the appointments fall vacant; he 
 receives from 600/. to 1200/. per annum, and is 
 often a man of mark in his profession, but occa- 
 
284 a saxon's remedy 
 
 sionally is some incompetent old gentleman who 
 possesses a little political influence. This gentle- 
 man presides at Quarter Sessions, where all crimi- 
 nal cases, except capital offences, can be disposed 
 of, as well as civil bills for 40/. and under, bank- 
 ruptcy cases, ejectments, &c. ; in criminal cases 
 the resident magistrate and the county magis- 
 trates sit with him, and in civil cases there is no 
 jury : the resident magistrate is not a lawyer i 
 as long as he resided in the middle of the county, 
 he was, if an active, intelligent man, who read 
 up law and devoted himself to his office, of great 
 use indeed. I have known one or two of these 
 gentlemen more au fait at criminal law and the 
 ordinary routine of little civil cases, under 2/. 
 value, which come before magistrates, than some 
 assistant-barristers. They are supposed to be in 
 immediate communication with the Government, 
 they control the police, and in cases of riot the 
 military are under their direction. Their pay is, 
 I believe, from 500/. to 700/. a year. We then 
 come to the ordinary county magistrates, who 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 285 
 
 are really appointed by tire lord-lieutenant of the 
 county, though nominally the Chancellor ap- 
 points on his recommendation. 
 
 Now, after a close study of the subject, I am 
 utterly unable to say why many of these appoint- 
 ments take place. In Ireland, as in England, the 
 sons of territorial magnates are considered fit to 
 decide knotty points of criminal law as soon as 
 they attain their majority, which every thinking 
 man must admit is a disgrace to our sense of 
 justice. 
 
 In Ireland the agents of great men are also 
 appointed, and generally make active and useful 
 magistrates ; but it would require a lifetime to 
 go through the different counties of Ireland and 
 ascertain how half the occupants of the bench 
 have been placed there : it is not on account of 
 their wealth, for I have seen a bench of magis- 
 trates at Petty Sessions, who altogether were 
 not worth a 1000/. a year, nor on account of 
 their abilities, for I have known another dis- 
 charge a ticket-of-leave man who was caught 
 
286 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 with a sack of potatoes close to a farmer's root- 
 house which had been broken into, because the 
 aforesaid farmer would not swear they were his, 
 though he did to their being of the same descrip- 
 tion, and though the prisoner could not account 
 for his possession of them, or for his presence on 
 the farmer's premises : it cannot be for their high 
 character, for having been fined at police-courts 
 for assaults, being frequently in a state of deli- 
 rium tremens, and other well known peccadilloes, 
 form no insuperable barrier to the bench. Being 
 in trade, though objectionable, is not an absolute 
 disqualification, for I remember one resolute 
 individual who supplied some necessary articles 
 retail, refusing to rent a house and demesne in a 
 certain county, unless he was made a county 
 magistrate; and, as the rent was high, and the 
 place had been long untenanted, he carried his 
 point, and was enabled to write J. P. after his 
 name. One thing, however, is important; as 
 the lord lieutenant of the county is almost certain 
 to be a Protestant, a Catholic must be very 
 
TOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 287 
 
 influential, indeed, to be placed upon the bench, 
 and any Protestant who thinks for himself, and 
 shows independence of spirit, is pretty certain 
 never to arrive there. 
 
 At the sessions, in criminal cases, the position 
 of the assistant-barrister is often disagreeable. 
 We will say that a man is found guilty, properly 
 enough, of a petty theft, though there is almost a 
 doubt if he really meant to steal the article, he took 
 it so openly. The police know nothing against 
 his character, the assistant-barrister, taking a 
 merciful view of the case, would sentence him to 
 a couple of months' imprisonment with hard 
 labour, but then one of the magistrates finds he 
 bears the same name as a man his keeper suspects 
 of poaching, and therefore he says, now they 
 have got the scoundrel, they had better give him 
 enough. The majority of the unprofessional 
 are pretty sure to follow their leader, and the 
 question being put to the vote, the man gets 
 twelve months. I once knew a man get two 
 years, when the grand jury had only returned 
 
288 a saxon's remedy 
 
 a true bill by the merest chance, and when the 
 petit jury had at first given a verdict tantamount 
 to an acquittal, owing to the prosecutor stating 
 he did not think the prisoner took the property 
 except for a lark. In this case the man was a 
 reckless drunken fellow, and unmistakeably a 
 poacher. 
 
 The grand jury at sessions ought to number 
 twenty-four ; they comprise large farmers, mer- 
 chants or superior tradesmen, half-pay officers, 
 retired professional men, and country gentlemen, 
 who, from one cause or another, are not placed 
 on the assize grand jury; in some counties 
 many of the magistrates will sit as sessions grand 
 jurors, and then take their places on the bench. 
 I derive this information from one of the oldest 
 resident magistrates in Ireland, otherwise I should 
 not chronicle so extraordinary a proceeding, 
 having never myself seen it done. The jury thus 
 constituted would be exceedingly valuable if they 
 had anything to do, but inasmuch as robbery is 
 rare in Ireland, and four- and- twenty gentlemen 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 289 
 
 of standing and intelligence in each sessions dis- 
 trict are very difficult to obtain, the result is that 
 men of this description are summoned from their 
 homes from ten to fifteen miles away, to return 
 true bills against a few fellows who have been 
 caught purloining trivial articles or committing 
 common assaults. Occasionally a serious offence 
 has to be investigated, where the evidence must 
 be minutely scrutinized ; but as these cases are 
 often remitted to the assizes (or the judges might 
 have nothing to do), the sessions grand juries 
 could be profitably dispensed with. 
 
 I would also lessen the powers of the unpaid 
 magistracy, and alter the manner of their ap- 
 pointment. In no country except our own w T ould 
 a man be constituted a judge because he had pro- 
 perty in a county, or possessed some influence 
 with the lord lieutenant of that county. 
 
 Earl Eussell will remember a case in England 
 where a nobleman resigned his post sooner than 
 appoint magistrates who were distasteful to him, 
 and I have known in Ireland the private recom- 
 
 v 
 
290 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 mendation of the Chancellor and the petitions of 
 almost every respectable man in a district set 
 aside because the lord lieutenant of the county, 
 unable to question the fitness of the parties pro- 
 posed, resented what he considered an attempt at 
 dictation, and evaded the appointments. 
 
 I think the assistant-barrister ought to have a 
 larger salary, and not be allowed to practise his 
 profession as he does at present ; in that case the 
 number of judges might be reduced, and half of 
 them might be selected from assistant-barristers. 
 It would cost the country no more, as an assis- 
 tant-barrister could easily take two counties if 
 he had double pay and no other avocation. Of 
 course I would do away with county magistrates 
 assisting him at quarter-sessions, and let their 
 labours be confined to the petty sessions ; and, 
 though I would make a certain property qualifi- 
 cation necessary in the case of county magistrates, 
 they ought to be able to pass a suitable examina- 
 tion in such legal matters as are likely to come 
 before them. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 291 
 
 With regard to stipendiary or resident magis- 
 trates, whose activity and intelligence have often 
 been exceedingly useful in Ireland, I speak with 
 considerable diffidence. If the duties of the 
 assistant-barrister were enlarged as I have sug- 
 gested, and he were compelled to reside in the 
 midst of the district where those duties lay, much 
 of the necessity for retaining a gentleman who is 
 neither a police-officer nor a lawyer would be 
 done away with. Some time since it was under- 
 stood that Government intended to give these 
 appointments to the county inspectors of police, 
 but I am afraid they have not done so ; on the 
 contrary, I fear that some of the higher offices in 
 the police force itself have been given to military 
 men, which is a very unfair proceeding towards 
 gentlemen who have uniformly deserved so well 
 of their country as the officers of the Irish con- 
 stabulary. I see no reason the county inspector 
 should not discharge all the duties of the resident 
 magistrate, except actually trying prisoners, when 
 he might be thought to favour the police. In con- 
 
 u 2 
 
292 a saxon's remedy 
 
 sequence of the other alterations I have suggested, 
 I consider the presence of a stipendiary magis- 
 trate on the bench unnecessary, and his salary 
 divided among the county inspectors and his 
 lieutenants would be a welcome addition to the 
 small pay these gentlemen receive. 
 
 I am sure these alterations would give great 
 satisfaction to the bar, to the police, and to the 
 public generally. " Animals of inferior dignity," 
 vide Earl Bussell's pamphlet, would alone be 
 discontented at not being allowed to play fan- 
 tastic tricks with justice. I have forgotten to 
 mention that the clerk of the peace, whose 
 duties connected with sessions are very impor- 
 tant, is sometimes not a solicitor. I need hardly 
 say that no one else is fit to hold the post. 
 
 The petit jurymen at sessions are frequently 
 sorely tempted to acquit prisoners accused of 
 trivial offences, knowing the punishments are 
 often out of all proportion to the crimes : duty 
 and inclination have thus a hard contest. As 
 chairman of a public body I was obliged to pro- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 293 
 
 secute some fishermen. I only cared for a verdict 
 in order to prevent pilfering valuable property. 
 The evidence was quite conclusive of the fact, and 
 the law was explained by the assistant -barrister ; 
 the jury retired, but though it was very late in 
 the evening, they did not return ; time passed 
 on ; and at length a solitary juryman entered 
 the box. As no one else arrived, he was asked 
 why he had come there, and replied, very 
 naively, it was because he could not stand the 
 smoking. On the officer of the court proceeding 
 to the jury room, the eleven recusants could 
 barely be distinguished through the tobacco 
 smoke. Of course they received a strong blowing 
 up, particularly when they said they had not 
 agreed on their verdict. However, some one 
 managed to let them know that the prisoners 
 w^ould not be punished, and the verdict of 
 " Gruilty" was soon recorded. 
 
 An Irishman of almost any rank will dare 
 anything for a few w r hiffs of a short pipe ; and 
 barristers have told me of instances where one 
 
294 a s axon's remedy 
 
 juryman after another has slipped down in the 
 box while a long trial has been going on, and 
 taken a pull at the " dudheen." 
 
 The grand jury at assizes, in Ireland, consists 
 of the same class as in England, with the addi- 
 tion of the agents and representatives of county 
 magnates. Of course large tenant-farmers and 
 agents, who are generally men of considerable 
 intelligence and business knowledge, as well as 
 of high character, are quite as capable of judging 
 the value of evidence as any one, however highly 
 placed by fortune ; and, as far as justice is con- 
 cerned, it is very well that the Marquis of Many- 
 lands and the Earl of Erin should get their 
 agents and one or two of their tenants put on 
 the grand jury. 
 
 Sir Joseph Littlego, who was unable at school 
 to proceed beyond " Musa," and never could re- 
 member whether Julius Caesar or "William the 
 Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings, and Mr. 
 Juniper, who has periodical fits of queerness, 
 during which he rolls about his lawn in a state 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 295 
 
 of nature under the idea that he is invisible, are 
 fortunately preserved from serious errors in ex- 
 amining the evidence for the prosecution and 
 deciding about true bills by Messrs. Brown, 
 Jones, and Eobinson, who have not a rood of 
 land they can call their own ; while Mr. Lawless, 
 who is always in hot water for assaulting some 
 one, and who has forced his agent, Mr. Lick- 
 platter, and his cousin, Mr. Hardcase (who are 
 his usual colleagues on the bench in the wild 
 district where he resides), to resort to all sorts of 
 contrivances in order to slur over some of the 
 decisions he has pronounced, is obliged to re- 
 strain his constant habit of doubting the oaths of 
 the police in the presence of Captain O'Donnell, 
 formerly in the Queen's Bays, now agent to a 
 noble earl, and who will stand no nonsense from 
 any one. But the vocations of the grand jury 
 are not confined to deciding if the evidence 
 against Brian O'Lynn — who was observed taking 
 a pair of trousers from a stall by the owner, and 
 was forthwith chased and seen to throw away 
 
296 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 the property by a policeman — is sufficient to 
 warrant the judge and petit jury taking him in 
 hand, they have also virtually the power of 
 taxing the county to an immense extent. I will 
 describe how this comes about. 
 
 There are, as far as I am aware, no turnpikes 
 in Ireland, and all the roads, bridges, &c, are 
 made and repaired by the occupiers of real pro- 
 perty, who also pay certain proportions of the 
 expense of police, prisons, infirmaries, &c. The 
 tax levied for all this is called "county cess," 
 and, as I see every one who mentions the subject 
 finds fault with the present system, and considers 
 the way in which it is levied is anything but a 
 " sentimental grievance," I must explain it to 
 you. To do this I will imagine you one of my 
 countrymen of average ability and education, a 
 little uncertain perhaps about the articles "a" 
 and "an" in cases where that puzzling letter 
 "h" begins the next word, but able to give 
 lessons in history, geography, and farming to 
 many Irish magistrates, and with a keen sense 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 297 
 
 of justice and a belief in " bones" and in folding 
 sheep on turnips. You have taken a farm of 
 three hundred acres in Dairyshire, at thirty 
 shillings an acre, and hold from year to year, as 
 leases are not given on the estate. It is known 
 that you have a thousand pounds in the bank, 
 and have judiciously stocked your farm, and 
 you receive a paper and find that you are 
 one of the associated cess-payers for your 
 barony. Previously to this you have been 
 called upon for a rate of one shilling in the 
 pound, poor rate, on your farm, valued at four 
 hundred pounds per annum, or fifty pounds less 
 than the rent, and when you pay the twenty 
 pounds the collector explains that you have a 
 docket to hand to the landlord, who must allow 
 you ten pounds, being half what you paid. This 
 you think a very fair thing, and so it is. You have 
 also during the year paid one shilling and six- 
 pence in the pound for county cess, but perceive 
 that, unlike the poor rate, you have no right to 
 deduct any of this amount from the rent payable 
 
298 a s axon's remedy 
 
 to the landlord. When you receive the intima- 
 tion that the grand jury has appointed you one 
 of the associated cess-payers to meet and signify 
 to them at the next assizes what roads, bridges, 
 &c, require to be made or repaired, you receive a 
 list of all that is intended to be laid before you, 
 and your landlord's sub-agent, Mr. D'Arcy, calls 
 upon you to draw your attention to the new road 
 which you suggested to him would be a great 
 improvement to your farm and several others on 
 the Dairyshire estate : you and Mr. M'Connell, 
 a Scotch tenant, said you would each give five- 
 and-twenty pounds towards the making of such 
 a road • you perceive that it is proposed that the 
 convenience to the Dairyshire tenants shall be 
 made at the expense of the barony, and Mr. 
 D'Arcy explains that the appended statement 
 that Lord Alderney contributes fifty pounds 
 means that Mr. M'Connell and you would con- 
 tribute that sum. Notwithstanding your keen 
 sense of justice, you are not violently shocked at 
 finding that a road which is only advantageous 
 
FOR, IRISH DISCONTENT. * 299 
 
 to half-a-dozen persons is to be paid for, as 
 regards five-sixths of the expense, by people who 
 will receive no benefit therefrom. Mr. D'Arcy 
 thinks the road will be passed, as he has spoken 
 to several of the magistrates and cess-payers, and 
 points out that you will have to support the 
 making of a bridge which is advantageous to the 
 Marquis of Manyland's property, and a heavy 
 amount for improving a mountain road on the 
 estate of Mr. Lawless, in return for their good 
 offices. 
 
 The appointed day arrives, and, in company with 
 Mr. M'Connell, you enter the Sessions House at 
 Butterville. Six or eight magistrates are present, 
 and the proper complement of cess-payers. 
 
 Having been drawn by lot, you are chosen, 
 while Mr. M'Connell's name is not among the 
 selected number. All this is done fairly enough. 
 The county surveyor, who receives four to six 
 hundred a year, and has divers assistants at fair 
 salaries, goes through the list of projected im- 
 provements, and the sums which are proposed to 
 
300 a saxon's remedy 
 
 be allowed for each repair or new piece of work. 
 As far as repairing goes, there is not much to be 
 said; the county surveyor often comments on 
 the tenders being too high, and the magistrates 
 and cess-payers can many of them give you 
 valuable information on the subject; but you 
 soon become certain of what you have before 
 suspected ; namely, that four or five expensive 
 jobs are to be perpetrated for the private ad- 
 vantage of the same number of people. 
 
 Of the half-dozen magistrates, three are well- 
 known to be representatives of your own land- 
 lord, the Marquis of Manylands, and the Earl of 
 Erin; Mr. Lawless is another, and these four 
 gentlemen have each a separate improvement to 
 carry, so it is tacitly understood that they will 
 support each other. 
 
 The chairman, a gentleman of high character 
 and standing, interferes very little, except occa- 
 sionally in order to lessen expenses, and old 
 Mr. Hunks, the sixth magistrate, a gentleman 
 of large property and awful temper, gets that 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 301 
 
 in which, he is personally interested passed, and 
 then opposes everything till the plain-spoken 
 Mr. Lawless calls out, so as to be heard through 
 the crowded room (for the sitting is in public), 
 " Confound you, Hunks, we are going to make 
 a bridge for you, which is of no earthly use to 
 anybody except yourself, and now you wont let 
 any of us have what we want." This elicits a 
 loud laugh, and Mr. Hunks, quitting his seat, 
 pushes to the door with scant ceremony, and is 
 driven home. 
 
 All the cess-payers, like yourself, are interested 
 in one or another of the new roads, &c, except 
 one gentleman who farms his own land, but who 
 of course is out- voted at every division, and your 
 own pet project, as well as the others, is recom- 
 mended for the consideration of the grand jury. 
 Your duties for the day are over, but very 
 likely, partly as a compliment to yourself, as an 
 Englishman lately settled in the county, you 
 will be chosen to represent the barony at the 
 county town, when all the general expenses, such 
 
302 a s axon's remedy 
 
 as police, gaol, lunatic asylum, &c, are gone into. 
 If you are, you will probably find only one or 
 two of the most intelligent magistrates able to 
 afford you any information about the large sums 
 voted away, or at all inclined to doubt their 
 general accuracy, and it is by no means impos- 
 sible, that the cess-payers appointed from the 
 other baronies will leave you and one or two 
 magistrates to arrange the whole affair. Nearly 
 all the large sums are perfectly correct, and must 
 be passed, but repairs of gaols, sessions-houses, 
 &c, require more investigating than they gene- 
 rally receive. 
 
 At the assizes, before the meeting of the 
 grand jury for scrutinizing the charges against the 
 prisoners, they finally settle about making the 
 improvements sanctioned by the associated cess- 
 payers. Now among county gentlemen in Ire- 
 land there are many high-minded, intelligent 
 men, quite as fit to regulate county business as 
 any Englishman, and it must not be thought 
 because I have sketched some prominently-bad 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 303 
 
 types that there are no good ones ; but there are 
 comparatively very few country gentlemen in Irish 
 counties, and they would have no chance of suc- 
 cessfully opposing projects favoured by the great 
 landlords. Therefore your road will be made, 
 and the barony saddled with several hundred 
 pounds for the benefit of yourself, three other 
 farmers, and Lord Alderney. 
 
 Now let us see how this tax, the county cess, 
 unjustly presses upon the tenants of Ireland, 
 particularly the tenants at will. The grand 
 jury, which is composed of landlords and their 
 representatives, appoints the associated cess- 
 payers. When they meet they can be easily 
 out- voted by the magistrates present. A friend 
 of mine, a large landholder, told me that on one 
 occasion when it was proposed to make a road 
 through his land, which the cess-payers gene- 
 rally opposed, one of the leviathan proprietors of 
 Ireland procured the attendance of seventeen 
 magistrates and carried his point. If by any 
 chance a job of several thousand pounds is re- 
 
304 a saxon's remedy 
 
 jected one year, it is pretty sure to be carried the 
 next. Thus the associated cess-payers are prac- 
 tically of no use in checking unnecessary ex- 
 pense, besides which they are often appointed to 
 carry special measures in which they have a 
 direct interest. 
 
 It must be evident to every one that it is 
 gross injustice to make tenants pay for all the 
 outlay on roads, &c, landlords choose to sanc- 
 tion, and the case is particularly hard where any 
 public work, necessary or unnecessary, of a per- 
 manent character is undertaken. A tenant at 
 will pays extra county cess for several years for, 
 we will suppose, a necessary bridge, costing four 
 thousand pounds. At the end of that time he 
 dies, or quits his farm, owing to the landlord 
 raising the rent, or from any other cause, and of 
 course the amount he has paid towards the 
 bridge is utterly thrown away as far as he is con- 
 cerned, although the farm may have increased 
 in value by the bridge having opened up mar- 
 kets, and lessened the distance from which lime, 
 fuel, &c, has to be procured. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 305 
 
 The remedy I would propose for this state of 
 things is that the associated cess-payers should 
 be elected in the same way as poor-law guardians ; 
 and that the final decision upon the new works 
 and repairs should be vested in six cess-payers, 
 chosen out of each barony, and the same num- 
 ber of the grand jury. 
 
 As I hope tenancy without lease will be done 
 away with in Ireland, I will only say that, if 
 this is not the case, I think landlords not giving 
 leases should pay two-thirds of the county cess, 
 and half if leases were given. In any arrange- 
 ment of this nature I hope the same loop-hole 
 will not be left as in the Act about the poor rate. 
 It was intended that the landlord could not, even 
 by covenant, make his tenant pay more than half 
 the poor rate ; but he is now gradually shifting 
 his responsibility, and in many instances the 
 tenant has to pay the whole. 
 
 Note. — Since writing this chapter, I see one of the judges 
 on circuit has remarked on the absence of men of property and 
 
 X 
 
306 REMEDY EOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 standing on the grand jury, and noticed that a solicitor 
 practising at the sessions, and the governor of the gaol were 
 acting thereon. Of course they " represented " some of the 
 absent grandees. 
 
 The agent of one of the richest men in Ireland tells me he 
 has seen eight out of fourteen of the grand jury (who were ac- 
 tually doing the business) solicitors and agents, and ten out 
 of the fourteen possessing less than three hundred pounds 
 per annum each, apart from their professions. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 IRISH GRIEVANCES CONTINUED UNFAIR TAXATION — ABSENCE 
 
 OF ROYALTY NEGLECT OF PUBLIC WORKS, RAILWAYS, ETC. 
 
 Jj^VEBY session of Parliament is marked 
 by some discussion on taxation in Ireland, 
 and I have no doubt most of my English 
 friends consider the Irish have no right to 
 complain, but are, if anything, too leniently 
 treated. 
 
 First of all, as regards local taxation, except 
 in the larger towns, where of course there are 
 the usual rates to pay for lighting, paving, frc, 
 there are only the poor-rate and county cess, and 
 as I have before remarked, the landlord pays 
 half the poor-rate. I have paid as little as 
 fivepence in the pound per annum, and as much 
 
 x 2 
 
30S a saxon's remedy 
 
 as one shilling and sixpence. The dietary in 
 workhouses and prisons is on a much lower 
 scale than in England ; but as meat cannot be 
 generally afforded by the poorer classes, I do not 
 think there is much dissatisfaction on this head. 
 The Irish have a still greater dislike than the 
 English to go into workhouses; and though 
 outdoor relief might occasionally be given more 
 liberally than it is, where illness is the cause of 
 distress, any general system of that description 
 would afford dangerous encouragement to beggars 
 and idle persons. In Queen's taxes there is 
 some advantage given to residents in Ireland. 
 
 There is no inhabited house duty, and no tax 
 on horses, carriages, and servants. Thus, if you 
 look upon Ireland as part of England, she has 
 nothing of which to complain as regards taxa- 
 tion ; but as at present she is more like a colony 
 in many respects, her representatives have some 
 ground for contrasting her position with that of 
 Canada, the Channel Islands, &c. 
 
 However, it is in connexion with the recent 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 309 
 
 addition of the income-tax, and the increased 
 duty on whisky to the previous imposts, that 
 she has the most claim to consideration from the 
 Government. 
 
 Whisky was the national drink of the Irish 
 people, and they bore the addition of more than 
 one-third to the price of their customary bever- 
 age much more good-humouredly than English 
 workmen would have done ; in fact, I do not 
 think Mr. Disraeli dare propose to the House 
 any measure whose immediate effect would be to 
 raise the pot of porter from threepence halfpenny 
 to fivepence halfpenny. 
 
 Nevertheless, as my wish is to draw Ireland 
 and England closer together, I am not ad- 
 vocating any alteration in taxation. If, however, 
 the same is paid, the same advantages ought 
 to accrue. 
 
 Many persons are writing down the Lord 
 Lieutenancy and advocating a Eoyal Residence 
 being established in Ireland. This is very deli- 
 cate ground on which to tread. If you can en- 
 
310 
 
 A SAXON 's REMEDY 
 
 sure the regular periodical residence of the sove- 
 reign in Dublin, and an annual progress through 
 a portion of the island, sometimes in one direc- 
 tion, sometimes in another, then do away with 
 the vice-royalty by all means ; but when her 
 present Majesty is unable to preside over the 
 Court at St. James's, and shuns gaiety and ap- 
 pearances in public, what chance is there of her 
 enduring long presentations in Dublin Castle, 
 and enthusiastic gatherings, wearisome corpora- 
 tion addresses, &c, year after year? 
 
 It is fervently to be hoped that her Majesty 
 will ere long give the Irish an opportunity of 
 testifying their loyalty, which every one who 
 knows the country will guarantee shall be as 
 exuberant as that manifested in Scotland ; but 
 there is also no doubt that the Irish would not 
 be satisfied with anything less than a right 
 royal visit. Unlike the Scotch, they would be 
 offended if her Majesty went about without any 
 state, though of course if the visit were an 
 annual one the novelty would wear off, the innate 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 311 
 
 good manners, and I may say gentlemanly feel- 
 ing of the Irish peasantry, would come into play, 
 and her desire for privacy would be understood 
 and respected. 
 
 Every one hopes that if her Majesty is unable 
 to reside a portion of each year in Ireland, some 
 member of the Eoyal Family may do so. Even 
 within an hour's ride pf Dublin there is scenery 
 as fine as any in the kingdom, where vast tracts 
 of mountain might be secured where the deer 
 still wander, and where a little more care in pre- 
 serving would ensure as good shooting as any in 
 Scotland. The air there is free from the hu- 
 midity her Majesty disliked at Killarney, and 
 the sea is within easy reach for yachting. 
 
 "When a royal residence becomes an accom- 
 plished fact, and when loyal Irishmen can each 
 year attend the levees of their sovereign in 
 Dublin Castle, it is time to talk about doing 
 away with the Lord Lieutenant. A great deal 
 of nonsense has been written in the public journals 
 about tradesmen going to the levees, and their 
 
312 a saxon's remedy 
 
 wives and daughters to the drawing-rooms. The 
 last time I was at a drawing-room there was a 
 great assemblage of the oldest nobility and gentry 
 in Ireland, and some of the handsomest officers 
 in both services ; but by far the grandest looking 
 individual (who every one thought must be an 
 English duke except for the absence of stars and 
 garters) turned out to be a tradesman ; he was 
 just the kind of man Henry VIII. and Queen 
 Bess would have pronounced " marvellous 
 proper and George IV. would have said, 
 ought to have ten thousand a year. 
 
 Every one has heard the old story of the tailor 
 who was asked for his name by the Master of 
 the Ceremonies (before they were written on 
 cards, I suppose), and who replied in an under- 
 tone, " Don't you know me, sir ? I made jouy 
 breeches," and who was thereupon announced as 
 " Major Bridges." 
 
 Notwithstanding this, I believe few persons 
 attend the levees and drawing-rooms who are in 
 retail trade, as we understand the term, and I 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 313 
 
 have been assured that neither they nor attor- 
 neys are eligible, except as Members of the 
 Corporation, or representing some public body. 
 But after all, is it not an absurdity to try and 
 confine the expression of goodwill towards the 
 Eepresentative of Government to the " Upper 
 ten thousand !" Of course the balls given by 
 his Excellency are more select, though hospitality 
 is generally unsparingly exercised by the Lords 
 Lieutenant. The expenditure in the city of 
 Dublin consequent on the receptions, and the 
 numerous entertainments given by the nobility 
 and gentry, the Lord Mayor, &c, could ill be 
 spared by the citizens, and owing to the decrease 
 of hospitality and friendly visiting noticeable 
 throughout the island, the gatherings at Dublin 
 form almost the only opportunity of social inter- 
 course and communication between residents in 
 different parts of the country. 
 
 Many years since I read a very clever novel 
 called " My Uncle the Curate/' which portrayed 
 in admirable manner the worst points of the 
 
314 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Irish character, particularly their habit of looking 
 to the Government on every emergency, and 
 blaming it if anything went wrong. I believe 
 there has been a great deal of public money ex- 
 pended in Ireland: millions were jobbed away 
 during the famine, but of late years the contrary 
 system has been pursued, in fact, the English 
 Grovernment has acted in much the same manner 
 as the Marquis of Manylands, and has rejected 
 almost every application for assistance, reason- 
 able and unreasonable. I have already alluded 
 to the widening of Carlisle Bridge, which 
 is absolutely necessary, and which would cost 
 a very moderate amount; and it is worthy of 
 remark, that there is little assistance given to 
 anything in the way of arts or sciences ; there 
 is no a National Grallery" for paintings, sculp- 
 ture, &c, and no Museum worthy of the name. 
 I am not going to advocate the State purchasing 
 and keeping up the Dublin Exhibition building 
 at an exorbitant expense, but I think it might 
 be taken at a fair valuation, and a Museum, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 315 
 
 National Gallery of Pictures, &c, formed there. 
 I shall discuss educational matters by-and-by, 
 but as a great deal has been lately said about 
 public money lent to harbours and not repaid, I 
 must mention that the amount is altogether 
 insignificant when compared with the hundreds 
 of thousands of pounds which have been laid out 
 on the harbours of the Channel Islands. Except 
 on Alderney, and a small bay beyond Mont 
 Orgueil Castle in Jersey, I do not in the least 
 grudge the outlay, but what shall we say about 
 Daunt's Eock, left for so many years after its 
 danger had become evident ? There is not one 
 safe harbour between Kingstown and Cork, 
 where vessels can run in bad weather, though 
 this is part of the great highway between Liver- 
 pool and America, Canada, &c. 
 
 During the last ten years hundreds of lives, 
 and hundreds of thousands of pounds have been 
 lost between Wicklow Head and Carnsore Point, 
 yet an outlay of fifty thousand pounds would 
 have prevented much of this ; and many naval 
 
316 a saxon's remedy 
 
 authorities have strongly advocated the establish- 
 ment of a harbour of refuge. Unless some enormous 
 works are to be undertaken, it is difficult to stir up 
 Government engineers, whereas what is wanted on 
 the east coast particularly is a moderate outlay, 
 protection for the fishing, trading steamers, and 
 coasting vessels. I fully believe that the ports 
 thus improved would repay the expenditure as 
 required by the Loan Commissioners, besides 
 saving an infinity of valuable lives and property. 
 Four poor fellows were lost from one port the 
 other day, and sixteen persons are at once thrown 
 helpless on private charity or the parish. I have 
 known two hundred bodies come ashore after a 
 terrible night of storm. I say, therefore, watch 
 the public money as carefully as the late Joseph 
 Hume ; see that it is only advanced where it will 
 be fairly and advantageously employed in pro- 
 moting trade and affording facilities for saving 
 life and property ; but do not grudge it, and do 
 not put difficulties in the way of obtaining it. 
 Encourage the realization of the undeveloped 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 317 
 
 fishery abounding on the Irish coast ; give con- 
 fidence to capital embarked in this trade by pro- 
 viding harbours (on good security be it under- 
 stood) where vessels can find shelter during sud- 
 den storms. 
 
 Speaking of the east coast, I can testify that 
 the juvenile population take to the oar and sail 
 more readily than to the spade and plough, and 
 that if fishing were encouraged, and a few Queen's 
 ships paid occasional visits to the coasts, any 
 surplus population would soon be profitably 
 employed in providing food from a source 
 not yet fully explored, or in supplying a want 
 that our naval authorities tell us becomes 
 more severely felt every year. I dwell more 
 especially on this, because I have had some 
 experience in the matter, and have found the 
 different boards and officials quite ready to 
 burst the bonds of " red tape" which hereto- 
 fore confined them, and anxious to promote 
 expenditure in the direction of permanent im- 
 provement when they find private jobbery is not 
 
318 a saxon's remedy 
 
 at the bottom of every so-called philanthropic 
 endeavour to promote the welfare of Ireland. 
 
 We now come to railways, which are in no 
 respect an Irish grievance, and with regard to 
 which the British Government can only enter- 
 tain consideration from motives of State policy, 
 and on the understanding that the finances of 
 the United Kingdom shall suffer no loss by the 
 assumption of their responsibility. 
 
 It is right to explain why the idea should ever 
 have been entertained. By this time we are all 
 convinced that the proper policy of Government 
 as regards railways would have been to make 
 certain direct lines north, south, east and west, 
 as national lines, and then authorize certain other 
 lines to run into these main highways. 
 
 If we had done this, millions of money would 
 have been saved from lawyers, surveyors, engi- 
 neers, &c, and the public generally would have 
 been gainers in a variety of ways. We did not 
 do this even in England, and in Ireland some of 
 the railways were carried in undesirable places 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 319 
 
 where there was little traffic because a celebrated 
 engineer delighted in overcoming difficulties, and 
 had the usual professional contempt for pecu- 
 niary considerations, when these affected share- 
 holders only. Nevertheless, the main lines in 
 Ireland have not been more disastrous to their 
 proprietors than railways generally in England. 
 They are, however, all on a small scale, and rail- 
 way enterprise is now at a standstill. 
 
 There are at present only about the same 
 number of miles open in the whole of Ireland as 
 one English company possesses, yet there are 
 sixty boards of direction, and six hundred direc- 
 tors ! Of course there are sixty secretaries, sixty 
 firms of solicitors, and other officers in propor- 
 tion. I need not add that there are quarrels 
 between the various boards, and that every board 
 makes the public suffer, while every railway 
 time-table is so managed that the traveller shall 
 exactly miss the train which should correspond 
 with another railway, and, in fine, that if the Czar 
 of Russia, the Emperor Theodore, or the King of 
 
320 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Dahomey, played such tricks with their subjects 
 as the six hundred railway tyrants do with the 
 unhappy people who groan under their rule, they 
 would fall victims to the " maladie du pays/' as 
 the Emperor Paul did in 1801. 
 
 In some districts they used to charge double 
 as much for the conveyance of cattle and sheep 
 on the day preceding the weekly market in 
 Dublin as on other days, and as much for one 
 beast as for a truck full, for one horse as for 
 three, and they displayed wonderful ingenuity 
 in wording advertisements for trips at cheap 
 fares, so that they would read as if applying to 
 all trains indiscriminately, or only to one par- 
 ticular train as interpreted by them, and the 
 English oaths which were sworn on these occa- 
 sions, if booked against the directors who caused 
 them by the Recording Angel immortalized by 
 Sterne, will be a heavy addition to the otherwise 
 ponderously loaded scale of their demerits. Of 
 course you will understand I am only speaking 
 of the directors as " Boards/' for individually I 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 321 
 
 have good reason to know that both directors 
 and secretaries are courteous and obliging, and, 
 as I think I have before remarked, there has 
 been far less jobbery in shares and in the forma- 
 tion of branch lines to serve private interests and 
 give employment to contractors, than we have 
 experienced on this side the Channel. However, 
 six hundred directors, with large families and 
 many friends, are sure to create a great deal of 
 loss to shareholders in free passes alone, and it is 
 the custom in some parts of Ireland to give all 
 kinds of county officials the means of unpaid 
 locomotion; any excuse is sufficient to secure a 
 free pass for two or three days, and I have 
 known the privilege accorded to a gentleman for 
 three months, when a couple of weeks would 
 have been the proper period. At the same time, 
 on some parts of a line, goods will be carried at 
 rates that any experienced man is aware cannot 
 pay, while on others the charges are so high as 
 to amount to a prohibition ; generally speaking, 
 the rates both for passengers and goods are 
 
 Y 
 
322 a saxon's remedy 
 
 higher than in England, while the speed is much 
 slower. 
 
 The late Mr. Dargan had a curious theory on 
 the subject of fares in Ireland, namely, that no 
 Irishman would spend money in railway travel- 
 ling unless he was obliged, and that therefore 
 the true policy was to charge him a good price 
 when he did travel. Several English and Scotch 
 traffic managers employed on Irish railways cor- 
 roborate Mr. Dargan' s opinion, saying that their 
 countrymen have not only less dislike to part 
 with coin of the realm, but actually enjoy the 
 outing, while an Irishman takes no pleasure in 
 travelling for travelling's sake. These opinions 
 are entitled to every weight, and they are in 
 some measure forced upon our consideration 
 when we see how few people travel by first class 
 in Ireland, and that many of those who would 
 go second class in England habitually use the 
 third; however, the second class carriages in 
 Ireland are generally very comfortable, and in 
 some respects, particularly in summer, are plea- 
 santer for gentlemen than first class. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 323 
 
 At the numerous Kail way Reform meetings 
 held in Ireland at which I have been present, 
 very strong arguments have been adduced by 
 the principal merchants and captalists to show 
 the advantages which would accrue if Govern- 
 ment would buy up the railways. Of course the 
 first difficulty will be the price to be given; 
 some of the lines pay no dividend, others have 
 been recently affected by the same causes which 
 have reduced the value of such securities all over 
 Europe ; whatever British statesman has to 
 settle the question will have a thankless office. 
 Eive-and-twenty years purchase on the mean 
 dividend of the last three years has been talked 
 of as the proper amount to give on dividend- 
 paying lines. I fear holders in English and 
 Scotch railway stock would be dissatisfied if 
 Irish railways were bought up at so high a 
 figure ; if twenty-two years purchase were given, 
 or ten per cent, more than the market value of 
 the stock, three months before the property was 
 taken, Irish shareholders ought to be well 
 
 y 2 
 
324 a saxon's remedy 
 
 satisfied, for I think most proprietors of English 
 lines would be glad to have the option of accept- 
 ing such terms. There would be some difficulty 
 in settling the price of lines unfinished for 
 want of funds, and of others which pay no 
 dividend at all, and the whole matter would 
 have to be managed by high-minded, patriotic 
 gentlemen, not liable to be biassed by exagge- 
 rated estimates of value, incapable of being 
 swayed by private interests, and yet not too 
 anxious to drive a hard bargain. These kind of 
 gentlemen are not to be got hold of quite so 
 easily as loud-voiced agitators. If the Govern- 
 ment of the United Kingdom see fit to favour 
 Ireland in this manner, for it cannot be regarded 
 as an act of justice, I think great benefits will 
 follow in many ways. 
 
 There are numerous districts in Ireland where 
 railways can be made for four thousand pounds 
 a mile, and where the owners of the land will 
 gladly give the ground for the line to pass over. 
 If a two-feet gauge only is used (which acts 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 325 
 
 satisfactorily in the Vale of Ffestiniog, though 
 the gradients are very steep), half that sum 
 would suffice, and many kinds of mineral and 
 agricultural produce would be brought to the 
 large towns of Ireland, and even to England, 
 whose use is now confined to their immediate 
 neighbourhood, or are not utilized at all. 
 
 I wonder during the present inquiry into the 
 prices charged by retail tradesmen, the enormous 
 profit which must be made on fish in London 
 has not attracted attention. Cod fish I could 
 buy in Ireland for three shillings each, are 
 twenty-five shillings at the West-end; salmon, 
 oysters, lobsters, and turbot are twice as dear ; 
 if more speedy communication were established 
 with the western shores, I believe an almost un- 
 limited supply might be obtained, as there is at 
 present no sufficient inducement in the way of 
 markets to tempt the proper prosecution of the 
 fishery. 
 
 It is almost impossible to exaggerate the ad- 
 vantages conferred upon a district by opening it 
 
326 a saxon's remedy 
 
 up for the import of what it requires, and the 
 export of what it produces. The extension of 
 the railway system to those parts of Ireland 
 where small cultivators are still to be found, will 
 induce many of these men to take work as navi- 
 gators, and show them how much more profit- 
 able it is to receive pay for labour done, than to 
 starve on a patch of land, and experience shows 
 us that when people have become accustomed to 
 good wages and generous diet, they will not re- 
 turn to a state of privation. At the risk of being 
 tedious, I again assure you that the Irish 
 peasant is not the fond fool letter writers to the 
 Times wish to make him out. If he can get 
 beef and porter instead of potatoes and butter- 
 milk, he will leave his " ancestral acres 99 and the 
 dunghill at the door, and even the pig, and be 
 " tethered by the teeth" to the fleshpots of the 
 Saxon. 
 
 The railways once taken, the difficulty will be 
 what to do with them. If they are let to a con- 
 tractor to work at certain reduced and uniform 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 327 
 
 rates, the fear is that, although he might give 
 security, the permanent way, the engines and 
 carriages, would all deteriorate, and the service 
 be worse performed than it is at present. After 
 the failure of Peto and Company, the public 
 has no faith in the stability of any contractor. 
 If the Government take the management of the 
 railways into their own hands, will the work be 
 efficiently performed, or will the expenses in- 
 crease so that no profit will accrue, and the 
 claims for damage, owing to accidents and the 
 non-delivery of goods, &c, be augmented ? In 
 this case, as it is admitted on all hands that 
 the finances of the country must sustain no loss, 
 Ireland would have to make good the deficiency, 
 which she would say was occasioned by bad 
 management. I can only see two ways out of 
 tie dilemma ; firstly, a company must be formed 
 to work the existing lines, and make certain 
 nsw ones, Government fixing the rates and 
 guaranteeing four per cent. I believe the stock 
 would be taken (and perhaps even three and 
 
a saxon's kemedy 
 
 a half per cent, would do) by many of those who 
 are holders of Irish railway shares, and that the 
 very best men might be obtained as directors ; 
 the saving in directors', secretaries', and other 
 officials' salaries would be very considerable, and 
 it is the opinion of men, for whose judgment I 
 have every respect, that though there might be 
 a slight loss during the first year or two, the 
 result of unity of management, reduced fares, 
 and increased facilities of communication by 
 making cheap branch lines, would soon produce 
 more than the four per cent. ; of course there 
 would be a strict Government audit and survey 
 of the engines, rails, &c. 
 
 The other plan would be to have a special 
 Government Irish Eailway Board, which should 
 secure the services of a first-rate manager, and 
 retain some of the present staff of Irish Eailwatr 
 officials, many of whom are well up to their 
 work, and who possess business ideas far in ad- 
 vance of their present directors. Great speed i$ 
 not so much insisted upon in Ireland as in 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 329 
 
 England, and it would be indeed disgraceful, if 
 among our public men we could not find some 
 capable of managing a net-work of lines less 
 difficult to superintend than the London and 
 North Western system. 
 
 In quitting this important subject, I must ex- 
 press a hope that the unwillingness of a few 
 directors to lose a little power and influence, 
 and the unreasonable value some shareholders 
 put upon their property, will not mislead Parlia- 
 ment as to the wishes of nine-tenths of the people 
 of Ireland. 
 
 THE RAILWAY AT PORTMADOC. 
 
 One of the Directors sent me the following particulars of 
 this curious and interesting line. " The gauge is one foot 
 eleven inches ; the average incline 1 in 90 ; the steepest 
 gradient 1 in 66 ; the sharpest curve not quite two chains 
 radius. The real capital expended is three times the amount 
 of the parliamentary, as the dividends were, by consent, used 
 to increase the works, so though on the latter the profit is 
 26 per cent., the real profit is about 9 per cent." My friend 
 recommends about two feet three inches gauge, and thinks 
 
330 
 
 REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 3000Z. per mile on ordinary mountain and valley lines would 
 suffice. 
 
 I feel certain Mr. Spooner, the engineer to this paying and 
 romantic little railway, would give any contemplating im- 
 prover of Irish mountain districts the same cordial and 
 frank information he accorded to me. 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 REMEDY PROPOSED FOR SATISFYING DISCONTENT ON THE LAND 
 
 QUESTION A COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE EXTREME VIEWS OF 
 
 LANDLORD AND TENANT NECESSITY FOR IMMEDIATE LEGIS- 
 LATION ON THE SUBJECT. 
 
 [ NOW come to the most difficult portion of 
 my task, namely, suggesting a plan for set- 
 tling the land question in Ireland, which shall 
 terminate the existing discontent of tenants, and 
 at the same time shall not interfere with the 
 rights of property. 
 
 Among the numerous writers on this subject 
 few have devised any remedy, but have simply 
 drawn exaggerated pictures of the wanton cruelty 
 and oppression of landlords, and of the honesty 
 and industry of tenants, or of the long-suffering 
 and kind-heartedness of the former class, and 
 the improvidence and idleness of the latter, and 
 
332 a saxon's remedy 
 
 they have suggested nothing likely to put an 
 end to a state of things which every one admits 
 ought not to exist. 
 
 It is, however, easy to perceive that those who 
 lay most of the blame on the tenants are anxious 
 to have no legislation upon the subject, and, in- 
 deed, some of them declare that Ireland wants 
 nothing except to be let alone ; others suggest a 
 royal residence, and a division of the county cess 
 between landlord and tenant. Two chief secre- 
 taries of Ireland have lately brought forward 
 bills for the benefit of tenants. The principal 
 feature in Mr. Fortescue's bill was that tenants 
 might make improvements under certain con- 
 ditions, even against the landlord's wish, and 
 receive payment therefor on quitting the farm ; 
 in Lord Mavo's bill, the landlord must be a con- 
 senting party. 
 
 Mr. Bright' s proposition is that Government 
 should purchase the estates of the great ab- 
 sentee proprietors, and allow the tenants to 
 repurchase, and gradually pay for their farms. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 333 
 
 The far-going tenant-right party in Ireland 
 advocate the bold measure of fixity of tenure at 
 the present rents being granted. Now, I really 
 think the time has gone by for discussing 
 either of the two first measures. One, analogous 
 to Lord Mayo's, has been tried, and has proved 
 quite inoperative ; and supposing a tenant-at-will 
 attempted to make an improvement, or what he 
 considered such, against the wishes of his land- 
 lord, of course he would at once get notice 
 to quit. 
 
 Mr. Bright's plan is worthy of more considera- 
 tion ; many farmers have saved money, and could 
 pay a portion of the purchase-money down, 
 and if it could be insured that a large 
 body of independent proprietors, farming their 
 own land, could be created in Ireland, it would 
 be an excellent thing for the country, and a 
 great safeguard against agitation and disorder; 
 but one can perceive many objections. In the 
 first place, there would be great difficulty in in- 
 ducing the Houses of Parliament to sanction the 
 
334 a saxon's remedy 
 
 purchase of the estates ; in the second, the land- 
 owners might refuse to sell, except at an exorbitant 
 price; in the third place, many of these great 
 proprietors are excellent landlords, and their 
 tenants are happy and contented in the possession 
 of tenant-right, and I do not think that they 
 would be better off by being, as it were, com- 
 pelled to buy the fee-simple of the land at twenty- 
 eight years' purchase on the present rental, which 
 it is undoubtedly worth in some instances I could 
 mention. Even on estates like the Marquis of 
 Manylands', where tenant-right is not acknow- 
 ledged, probably Mr. Bright's measure would 
 not be considered a boon, for, as I observed in 
 describing the management of this property, 
 the farmers do not pay the extreme value of the 
 land, as improved by them, or within perhaps 
 twenty per cent, of it, so that if they had to pay 
 interest on the purchase money, which would of 
 course be reckoned at the extreme value, and had 
 to redeem part of that purchase money every 
 year, they might have hard work to meet their 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 335 
 
 engagements. Lastly, there would be the awk- 
 ward necessity of dealing only with solvent 
 people who possessed large farms, and could give 
 such security as would put default out of the 
 question — in which case great dissatisfaction 
 would arise — or Government would have among 
 their debtors needy, lazy, and improvident per- 
 sons, who of course exist in Ireland as well as in 
 England, who would neglect to pay the in- 
 stalments on interest and purchase money as 
 they had agreed to do, and who would have to 
 be ejected, thus putting the Government in a 
 most unpleasant and unthankful position. 
 
 Taking all these things into consideration, I 
 am reluctantly compelled to admit that this pro- 
 posal of Mr. Bright's must be so long delayed, 
 and would require so much modification before 
 it could be passed, that its efficiency in the 
 present state of affairs in Ireland is more than 
 doubtful. I would, however, seriously recom- 
 mend it to the attention of landlords, and beg 
 them where they have tenants farming largely, 
 
336 A SAXON'S REMEDr 
 
 to give them an opportunity of buying the land 
 they hold by gradual payments, and thus found 
 a new race of country gentlemen, resident on 
 their own property, and examples, in their own 
 persons, of freedom from the territorial prejudice 
 on the part of the landlord, and of successful 
 industry on the part of the tenant. 
 
 We now come to the Eadical proposition of 
 fixity of tenure, that is to say, that on a certain 
 morning every tenant shall arise and walk over 
 his land with the knowledge that, as long as he 
 pays the rent, he and his sons after him cannot 
 be turned out on any pretext whatever. Of 
 course it would be easy to qualify this measure if 
 it were passed with the addition that the tenant 
 should not subdivide the land, transfer, or under- 
 let without written permission from the land- 
 lord, or (in the case of underletting) without the 
 purchaser of the tenant's interest giving reason- 
 able security for the payment of rent. 
 
 Now, I should be very sorry to see this 
 measure passed ; it is against all my received 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 337 
 
 ideas of the rights of property, and it would be 
 a gross injustice in many individual cases — no- 
 tably in such as I have sketched in describing 
 the Earl of Erin's property ; but I have no doubt 
 whatever that something of the kind will be 
 done unless a comprehensive measure for settling 
 the land question speedily becomes law. Ireland, 
 as I have repeatedly observed, is not like Eng- 
 land; even Tories of the old-fashioned stamp, 
 like Alison, have been struck with the fact, that 
 the great landowners hold by gifts from the 
 Crown, and from confiscations ; and that these 
 circumstances are well known and commented 
 upon by all, particularly by the descendants of 
 the original possessors. That the lands were 
 given on the understanding that the recipients 
 would live on their property, colonize it with 
 English, and spread the Protestant religion, is a 
 well-established fact. They have entirely neg- 
 lected all these requirements, and they have 
 failed even to tranquillize the country where 
 they have received so splendid an inheritance. 
 
 z 
 
338 A SAXON V REMEDY 
 
 They have neither lived on their land, nor satis- 
 fied their tenants who have cultivated and im- 
 proved it. In practice, many rich companies and 
 some liberal landlords have adopted the principle 
 of fixity of tenure. The party is hourly in- 
 creasing which proclaims that it is time the lords 
 of the soil should be contented with their present 
 large incomes, and should not covet to have their 
 immense possessions continually increased by the 
 industry and the thrift of the occupiers of the 
 land. 
 
 Let no one say the Legislature would never 
 sanction such a measure. Look at the his- 
 tory of the last forty years ! Catholic eman- 
 cipation was carried in spite of the prejudices, 
 the convictions, and even the consciences of the 
 most influential persons in the realm, carried, 
 too, by those who had persistently opposed it for 
 many years. The first Eeform Bill was passed 
 in spite of a majority against it in the House of 
 Lords ; in some respects it was confiscation, for 
 little boroughs were disfranchised for which 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 339 
 
 large sums had been given, because they pos- 
 sessed the privilege of returning members to 
 Parliament ; then came the agitation about the 
 Corn-Laws. I remember well, when very young 
 and enthusiastic, canvassing for a supporter of 
 Earl Bussell's eight-shillings' duty after a 
 market dinner. About a hundred farmers were 
 assembled, intelligent, well-to-do men, who all 
 admitted the Corn-Laws must be altered, but 
 they unanimously declared that if the duty were 
 less than sixteen shillings per quarter on every 
 kind of grain they must give up their farms, and 
 the land would go out of cultivation. One really 
 hardly likes to recal the abuse that was bestowed 
 upon Messrs. Cobden and Bright, and the Anti- 
 Corn-Law League, not only by the agricultural 
 journals, but by those more influential and ad- 
 vanced. I first went to hear those gentlemen 
 (Corn-Law agitators, as they were called) under 
 mental protest as it were, and with the feeling 
 that I was encouraging something anti-constitu- 
 tional and revolutionary. Yet, what occurred? 
 
 z 2 
 
340 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Earl Russell's proposition for an eight-shilling 
 duty was rejected by Sir Eobert Peel and the 
 Conservatives, in walked these farmer's friends, 
 who forthwith clothed themselves with the entire 
 panoply of the much-abused Anti-Corn-Law 
 League, and passed a measure beyond what the 
 Whigs had dreamed of. The agriculturalists in 
 Lincolnshire swore many bucolic oaths at the 
 party which had left them in the lurch, and Earl 
 Derby and Mr. Disraeli, after Lord Greorge 
 Bentinck's death, appeared to be the only up- 
 holders of Conservatism. 
 
 Earl Russell has again tried his hand at a 
 Reform Bill, and again it has been pronounced 
 too levelling; again, too, the bulwarks of the 
 Constitution have been strengthened by the ac- 
 cession of the Conservative party, and again 
 these gentlemen have found, that the demands 
 for Radical measures have been so amplified, that 
 they have gone beyond Earl Russell and even 
 Mr. Bright, and carried a measure which none 
 but Chartists would have imagined possible a 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 341 
 
 few years since. There was a time when a 
 moderate duty on corn would have satisfied 
 everyone, when a franchise for lodgers paying 
 four shillings a week, and householders eight 
 pounds a year, would have set the question of 
 Eeform at rest for the next twenty years, and I 
 believe the measure I am about to suggest will 
 content the majority of Irish tenants, and prevent 
 further agitation, if it be speedily enacted ; but I 
 beg that party in Ireland who adopt the extreme 
 views of what they call the rights of property, 
 and who insist that they shall be entitled to 
 increase their rents at pleasure, if from adven- 
 titious causes, or the exertions of the occupiers 
 of the land, its value shall be enhanced, to take 
 warning from the past. The first Eeform Bill 
 was thrown out again and again, but it was 
 carried at last; nearly all the eloquence and 
 power of Lords, Commons, and journalists were 
 arrayed against Messrs. Cobden and Bright, but 
 these Manchester manufacturers pushed their 
 way onwards through ridicule and vituperation. 
 
342 
 
 a s axon's remedy 
 
 and gained their point. Finally, the two sur- 
 viving pillars of Conservatism, Earl Derby and 
 Mr. Disraeli, with their own pet upholder of 
 Constitutionalism, the Earl of Mayo, have let 
 in a flood of Democracy which may overwhelm 
 their pretensions in 1869. 
 
 The plan I am about to propose is founded on 
 a well-known axiom that landlords of enlightened 
 minds are fond of propounding — namely, that 
 they and their tenants are in partnership ; they 
 finding the land and the tenants the capital and 
 the personal management. This statement is 
 always received with great applause ; but in 
 Ireland the partnership is very different from 
 that which exists between landlords and tenants 
 in Italy and some other countries. As far as I 
 have been able to understand the matter, the 
 landlord in Italy, besides providing the land, 
 pays for the grain that is to be sown or for part 
 of it, and the produce is equally divided; and I 
 should judge that the agent who arranges each 
 party's share makes rather a good thing of it. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 343 
 
 In talking with the agents I could not make out 
 that the tenant, if industrious, was ever com- 
 pelled to dissolve partnership. Now, in Ireland 
 he has no voice in the matter. It is perfectly 
 idle to say that a good tenant in either Ireland 
 or England is never ejected by his landlord. 
 Even in England I know a gentleman who had 
 made a property, purchased by his landlord for 
 a thousand pounds, worth four hundred per an- 
 num (which sum he regularly paid), whose rent 
 was increased so much that he was obliged to 
 leave the place where many thousand pounds of 
 his money had been invested, and some scores of 
 families (his workpeople) were reduced to pe- 
 nury. "When he was fairly got rid of, the factories 
 were let for another purpose at a lower rent. 
 With many rich men gratifying private pique 
 weighs far more than, what is to them, small 
 pecuniary gains. In Ireland, quite recently, a 
 friend of mine inherited a handsome domain and 
 mansion, built and beautified by his father, but 
 the lease of which had nearly expired. He had 
 
344 a saxon's remedy 
 
 a freehold property adjacent, and was, of course, 
 anxious to renew the lease. The terms on which 
 alone the lease would be renewed were so out- 
 rageously unfair and impossible to be complied 
 with that his family and friends persuaded him 
 not to renew. Some Irishmen are peculiarly 
 constituted ; and though this gentleman was 
 perfectly easy in his circumstances, and fortunate 
 in possessing an affectionate wife and children, 
 a bold rider and a good shot, he could not endure 
 to leave the place where he was born and where 
 he had seen his family growing up around him. 
 He was seized with a species of nervous disorder 
 and died within a week of quitting the house so 
 endeared to him by old recollections. In both 
 the instances I have quoted unreasoning dislike 
 and love of power occasioned the death of the 
 object against whom they were displayed, and in 
 the latter instance the house vacated has never 
 been relet. Providence has cast me, and I trust 
 most of you, my fellow countrymen, of less sen- 
 sitive metal, but there are some Englishmen and 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 345 
 
 many Irishmen who become so attached to their 
 boyhood's home, and are so keenly alive to being 
 unjustly deprived of it, that they cannot survive 
 the shock of removal and the bitter sense of in- 
 jury they have sustained. Where the peasant 
 takes the life of the man he regards as the doer 
 of the grievous wrong, the gentleman yields up 
 his own. If you ask me why these extraordinary 
 dislikes are entertained towards particular tenants 
 I can tell you no more than I can why Legree 
 flogged his best negro, Uncle Tom, to death — 
 why carters often have an aversion to and ill use 
 some especial horse in a team — why there are 
 often one or two boys at school who, without 
 being more idle or tiresome than the rest, are 
 continually singled out for tasks and punish- 
 ments by their masters — why also the boys did 
 not like Dr. Fell ! If a Lancashire man had a 
 factory to let I do not think he would induce 
 any one to take it, fill it with machinery, and 
 establish a trade, unless his tenant had a lease 
 or otherwise felt quite secure of undisturbed 
 
346 a s axon's remedy 
 
 possession. Of course such, things may occur, 
 but in a case where I am the landlord and the 
 lease is nearly out, the tenant goes on with the 
 apparent conviction that his business trans- 
 actions are not likely to be interrupted. Were 
 he in Ireland he would be in a state of nervous 
 disquietude. 
 
 Well, then, my proposition is, that the land- 
 lord and tenant shall in reality be partners on 
 fair terms ; that every tenant shall be entitled to 
 a lease of thirty- one years from the present time, 
 at the present rent, if it is not less than twenty 
 per cent., or a fifth beyond Griffith's valuation : 
 when it is below that sum, which is the general 
 poor-law valuation, the landlord shall have the 
 power of raising it to that extent ; if it is higher, 
 of course the existing rate will not be interfered 
 with. In every instance, the tenant should have 
 the right of demanding a lease if his holding 
 was not under ten pounds poor-law valuation. 
 This lease should have the usual covenants to 
 prevent under-letting, assignment of interest ex- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 347 
 
 cept to a responsible party, to uphold existing 
 buildings in a good state of repair, and to farm 
 the land according to the rules of good husban- 
 dry. There should be a proviso, that at the 
 termination of the lease the tenant, or his repre- 
 sentative, should be entitled to a new lease of 
 thirty-one years, on paying an additional rent of 
 half the increased value of the land ; thus if it 
 had increased in value, by good cultivation or 
 any other cause, from thirty shillings per acre to 
 two pounds, the tenant would be entitled to have 
 a lease at thirty-five shillings. I do not appre- 
 hend there would be any difficulty in the land- 
 lord and tenant arriving at the increased value 
 of the farm; if there were, it could be easily re- 
 valued by the Poor-Law Board ; and supposing 
 it had been let at twenty per cent, over the pre - 
 vious valuation, it would be re-let at half the 
 increased valuation. To make my meaning 
 plain, the present poor-law valuation is twenty 
 shillings an acre, it would be let to a tenant at 
 one-fifth more, or twenty-four shillings an acre ; 
 
348 a saxon's remedy 
 
 in thirty-one years the poor-law valuation would 
 be thirty shillings an acre (supposing such in- 
 crease to have taken place), of which the land- 
 lord would be entitled to charge five shillings ; 
 therefore the rent would then be twenty-nine 
 shillings an acre. At the end of each thirty-one 
 years, the tenant would be entitled to renewal 
 on the same terms : and thus the landlord and 
 tenant would really be co-partners, dividing any 
 increased value. 
 
 This would dispose of all tenantcies at will. 
 In cases where leases for lives or years already 
 exist, the tenant should have the option of con- 
 verting his lease into one for thirty-one years. 
 Of course it would be necessary to reckon the 
 years already existing in his favour, and to value 
 the probable duration of the lives. Any insu- 
 rance office could regulate such matters as these ; 
 but if it were thought more desirable to let the 
 present years and lives run out, I would give 
 the tenant the option of taking a thirty-one 
 years' lease at the end of his present term, at 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 349 
 
 half the increased value of his holding, from the 
 rent now paid. Thus, if a tenant held a lease 
 for lives, only one of which was in being, at ten 
 shillings an acre, and the farm had become 
 worth two pounds per acre when the life dropped, 
 he would obtain a renewal at one pound five 
 shillings per acre, dividing the increased rental 
 of thirty shillings per acre with the landlord. 
 The principle on which I proceed is, that every 
 tenant shall be entitled to fixity of tenure as 
 long as he pays his rent, cultivates his farm pro- 
 perly, does not subdivide his holding beyond 
 any present arrangement permitted by his land- 
 lord, and gives the latter half the increased 
 value of the farm every thirty- one years. I see 
 no difficulties in this arrangement which may 
 not be easily surmounted. 
 
 Of course, looking to the future we may hope 
 that some land now farmed might become more 
 valuable for building purposes, &c. In such 
 cases, I would give the landlord the right to sell, 
 dividing with the tenant everything over twenty 
 
350 a s axon's remedy 
 
 years 5 purchase of the rent of the land. Thus, 
 supposing four acres of a farm let at two pounds 
 an acre became worth a hundred pounds an acre, 
 the landlord should have the right to sell upon 
 paying the tenant thirty pounds per acre; he 
 would himself retain, firstly, forty pounds per 
 acre, twenty years' purchase of the rental of forty 
 shillings an acre, and then thirty pounds per 
 acre half the extra value. In every case, I would 
 make it incumbent upon the landlord to give six 
 months' notice to the tenant of his intention to 
 sell at the stated price, so that the latter might 
 purchase if he pleased, and that in any case he 
 might have time to arrange about his crop. 
 Necessarily the rent upon that portion would 
 thenceforth be deducted. Now this plan of part- 
 nership between the landlord and tenant I have 
 talked over with some agents of very large pro- 
 perties in both England and Ireland, and they tell 
 me that in renewing leases they practically adopt 
 this idea. In some dealings I had with a great 
 London company, they appeared to act on this 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 351 
 
 principle ; and where I am landlord on my own 
 account, or as trustee for others, I shall be quite 
 satisfied to grant new leases at half the increased 
 value of the property. Nevertheless, I am not 
 such a believer in my own infallibility as not to 
 be aware that some objections might be advanced 
 against it. 
 
 Lord Clanricarde, and other noblemen, may 
 say that their tenantry are so delighted with the 
 present system, and have such confidence in their 
 landlords that they would rather be without 
 leases. In that case, these confiding individuals 
 can remain as they are; my proposal will not 
 compel them to take leases. 
 
 Some tenants will say that they ought to have 
 all the advantage of their own improvement ; to 
 these I reply that they get the half of any 
 adventitious increase in the value of their land 
 from extended railway communication, esta- 
 blishment of mines or manufactures in the 
 neighbourhood, &c, and that, in contemplating 
 a partnership, both parties must sacrifice some 
 
352 
 
 a saxon's remedy 
 
 selfish views. Other tenants may say they 
 ought to farm as they please, and not be bound 
 by particular rules of husbandry ; to these men 
 I would say, My plan is twofold. I wish to 
 protect you against your landlords, and I wish 
 to protect the landlords against you. The land- 
 lord cannot turn you out, and you shall have no 
 power to lessen the value of his property. It is 
 necessary for the welfare of yourself and your 
 family that you should not take three corn crops 
 running out of the land, nor sell your hay and 
 straw, nor plough up fine old meadow land just as 
 you please. By arrangement, some of these things 
 may be done ; but there are idle, improvident, 
 reckless fellows among you, just as there are 
 exacting, overbearing, and unreasoning landlords. 
 My plan is to make both parties act fairly and 
 honourably. If all landlords were just and con- 
 siderate, and all tenants improving and industri- 
 ous, this book need not have been written : but it 
 is from the lords of the soil, not the cultivators, 
 that my plan will meet most opposition. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 353 
 
 Of course, the first thing will be that it interferes 
 with the rights of property. Now, I deny that 
 altogether. Nearly all the land in Ireland was 
 given to the ancestors of those who at present 
 hold it on the implied conditions of their keeping 
 the island tranquil, and making it Protestant. 
 They have certainly not done the latter, and even, 
 at the present moment, that act which is the 
 safeguard of liberty (the Act of Habeas Corpus) 
 is suspended. But I will go much further than 
 that, and say that, with a few exceptions, the 
 Irish landlords, as a class, have laid out less 
 money in useful improvements, have been less 
 patriotic in giving their time and risking their 
 money in increasing the prosperity of com- 
 munities with which they are intimately con- 
 nected, than any public-spirited Englishman can 
 conceive. 
 
 My lips are sealed about matters in which I 
 have acted in a public capacity, and the great 
 man of my native county almost emulated Daniel 
 Dancer, and, I believe, expired in the act of 
 
 A A 
 
354 a s axon's remedy 
 
 counting his money ; but in Ireland I have been 
 perfectly aghast at the short-sighted illiberality 
 displayed by wealthy landowners in dealing with 
 works of public utility. I wish some of those 
 members of the House of Lords who speak about 
 the agricultural machinery and improved breeds 
 of cattle and sheep they have introduced among 
 their tenantry, would tell us what harbours they 
 have rendered more secure, what watering-places 
 they have established, what towns they have 
 benefited by introducing gas-works or water- 
 works, by building convenient cottages for the 
 labouring classes, or by fostering manufactures. 
 I wish they would tell us where the towns are 
 in which they have built market-houses, or 
 schools, or done anything calling for the expen- 
 diture of time and money. 
 
 Surely noblemen who derive the immense 
 incomes many Irish proprietors enjoy from 
 estates their ancestors received in the hope they 
 would regenerate the country, should be able to 
 point out something they~have done more worthy 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 355 
 
 the gifts they have inherited, than a few threshing 
 machines and sundry bulls and rams. Let us, 
 by all means, have a list of what Irish proprie- 
 tors have achieved. I believe it will take a 
 very short time reciting, and will compare 
 unfavourably with what two Irishmen who 
 began life as poor boys managed to effect. 
 
 Perhaps the landlord party will try to get rid 
 of my proposition, or any similar one, by saying 
 they will consent to an act that shall give the 
 tenant compensation for permanent improve- 
 ments, by which, of course, they mean drainage, 
 farm-buildings, &c. Now, a measure of this kind 
 would only be a palliative. Of course it would 
 be accepted; but agitation would re-commence, 
 for Irish tenants would not be satisfied. Allow- 
 ances for improvements, mean allowances when 
 the tenant is ejected ; and every Englishman who 
 reads this, may rest assured that the great body 
 of Irish tenantry, Protestant and Catholic, will 
 not rest contented as long as they are liable to 
 be put out of their holdings for any cause 
 a a 2 
 
356 a saxon's kemedy 
 
 except the non-payment of rent, and neglect of 
 the usual covenants necessary for the mainte- 
 nance of the property in good condition. I have 
 not the pleasure of knowing any of the tenants 
 who Lord Clanricarde says are quite satisfied as 
 they are, but I have heard influential Protestants, 
 holding large farms under a good landlord, 
 remark what I have just stated, and no man is 
 better able than his lordship to estimate the 
 value of a declaration of contentment made by 
 an Irish tenant to his landlord. 
 
 Let there be no mistake about this matter. 
 The Irish tenantry, as a body, big and little, 
 Protestant and Catholic, will never rest con- 
 tented as long as caprice or avarice can break up 
 their homes, and rob them of the interest they 
 conceive they possess in their holdings. As I 
 hope this book may be generally read, and freely 
 criticized by many who are not agriculturists, I 
 will state why a measure which only deals with 
 permanent improvements such as drainage and 
 buildings, is altogether unjust to the tenant. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 357 
 
 In Ireland, when a lease is likely to fall in 
 and a new one is not agreed upon, or when a 
 tenant is improvident, the land is run out — 
 that is, the pasture land is mown, and the arable 
 land is cropped till nothing more can be got out 
 of it. Supposing you were entering on a farm of 
 this description, as I did on one I purchased 
 twelve years ago, you must either buy manure, 
 or hay, corn, linseed-cake, &c, to feed cattle and 
 sheep in order to make it : for two or three years, 
 according to the nature of the land and your own 
 knowledge of farming, you would actually sus- 
 tain a loss ; as your land came round you would 
 have to consider whether it would pay you better 
 to be a grazier, laying all your farm gradually 
 down in grass, or whether you would farm on the 
 four-course system, growing cereals, green crops, 
 clover, &c. If you did the latter, there would 
 always be a considerable portion of your land 
 which had been manured the previous year, or 
 the year before that, and if you were a judicious 
 manager and cultivated your land as you ought, 
 
358 a saxon's remedy 
 
 your farm would be worth from ten shillings to 
 a pound an acre more than when you got it; 
 and without reckoning good- will at all, the un- 
 exhausted manure in the land should be worth 
 several pounds an acre. Now, under the head 
 of permanent improvements you would not be 
 entitled to sixpence if you were ejected. In 
 some counties in England you would be liberally 
 paid, but at present in Ireland nothing is 
 allowed, which I think accounts for a great deal 
 of bad husbandry. But supposing you turned 
 the greater portion of your farm into grass, and 
 after feeding sheep and young cattle found your 
 land so improved that it would fatten good-sized 
 beasts, you would have spent many years in 
 arriving at such a pitch of perfection, and ex- 
 pended a great deal of money in top-dressing, 
 &c ; you would at least have doubled the value 
 of your farm, as I have in several instances 
 doubled the value of land I have purchased. 
 Well, when you had done this, if you were 
 ejected, you would not be entitled to anything, 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 359 
 
 under any law past or projected; your landlord 
 would take the farm which you had received in 
 an exhausted state, and which you had rendered 
 fertile and profitable, and would either keep it 
 in his own hands, or let it for perhaps two 
 pounds an acre more than you paid or than any 
 one would give when you took it, and you would 
 have to go elsewhere. Can any one wonder that 
 Irish tenants will not be satisfied with an Act 
 which would allow injustice of this kind to be 
 perpetrated ! But I think it can be shown that 
 the landlords will be the greatest gainers by the 
 plan I propose. "Where land is held by lease 
 for years or lives and no renewal is arranged, it 
 is systematically run out and exhausted ; and 
 when it comes into the landlord's hands there is 
 a great prejudice excited against any one who 
 takes it to the exclusion of the former possessor. 
 As by good management you may double the 
 letting value of land, so you may " salt it for the 
 landlord" (as the saying is) to such an extent 
 that its letting value is reduced one-half, and, if 
 
360 a saxon's remedy 
 
 yon prefer going off to America withont paying 
 the last year's rent, to hanging abont the old 
 place and warning any would-be tenant that he 
 had better not take it as you have been ill- 
 treated, every one will assist you to the best of 
 his or her ability in your evasion. Again, 
 though the written law is strongly in favour of 
 the landlord, that which is unwritten is all for 
 the tenant. His advocate waxes eloquent and 
 bold in the court of law, the landlord's seems 
 dull and dispirited, while the judge or assistant- 
 barrister will strain every point in the tenant's 
 favour and criticize with preternaturally sharp 
 eyes the arguments brought forward by the 
 landlord. 
 
 No men in the world do their duty more 
 nobly than the Irish judges ; but the feeling in 
 these cases is with the tenant. As for the juries, 
 their bias is so unmistakeable that any solicitor 
 you consult in reference to a dispute with a 
 tenant will tell you to avoid law if possible. 
 The late Master of the Eolls once quoted an in- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 361 
 
 stance of a tenant illegally dispossessed obtain- 
 ing damages larger tlian the fee-simple value of 
 the farm from which he had been ejected. In a 
 recent case, where the tenant swore she had a 
 promise of a lease, no one who heard the eloquent 
 words of the Chief Justice commenting on the 
 fact of the landlord not being in court to deny 
 this assertion, could fail to perceive that the poor 
 and oppressed have powerful advocates on the 
 bench. Even the police seem less sharp when 
 an act of injustice is revenged ; and I remember 
 the friends of a landlord (who was wounded 
 nearly to death some years since), amongst 
 whom was a county inspector, when I after- 
 wards talked with them of the occurrence, 
 seemed very little surprised, and not much 
 shocked at the outrage ; and dwelt more on the 
 harshness of the injured man than on the 
 heinousness of the crime of which he was the 
 victim. Like the Corsicans, the Irish sometimes 
 call murder justifiable vengeance. 
 
 I have known a man sell the interest in his 
 
362 a saxon's remedy 
 
 farm and then refuse to leave it, the landlord and 
 purchaser received by the tenant with loaded 
 pistols before him, and completion of the bargain 
 refused till more money was given. Many 
 other most reprehensible acts of tenants are con- 
 stantly occurring. It is these kind of things 
 which will be stopped by the plan I have 
 proposed, for then an end will be put to the 
 sympathy that seems, somehow, to be felt for all 
 tenants, properly evicted, as well as unjustly 
 evicted. Those who do not pay their rent and 
 farm badly get some of the pity which should 
 only be given to the really oppressed tenant. 
 
 Prevent the possibility of eviction, except for 
 misconduct in these essential points, and judges, 
 juries, lawyers, and the population generally will 
 abolish that unwritten law which is still so power- 
 ful in Ireland. When you have settled the land 
 question you will have Ireland tranquil, and then 
 we shall see an immediate rise in the value of 
 land, and I believe a great increase of prosperity. 
 
 Any one who denied that Ireland had made a 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 363 
 
 great advance in many essential particulars 
 during the last twenty years would be wilfully 
 blind to undeniable facts and figures ; but it 
 would be equally absurd to deny that, since the 
 Fenian conspiracy has been developed, the value 
 of land and house property has deteriorated, and 
 there has been an increased dislike to embark 
 largely in manufactures or other industrial occu- 
 pations. When every one is waiting, and watch- 
 ing, and expecting, the steady hard-work of life 
 is unfavourably affected. 
 
 Of course the Church question will have to be 
 settled; but if you gave the Eoman Catholic 
 priests everything they required to-morrow, they 
 would tell you that there would be no cordial 
 feeling between England and Ireland until the 
 land question w r as finally disposed of, and that 
 the only way in which it could be so arranged 
 would be by the punctual and industrious tenant 
 having fixity of tenure in some shape. I wall 
 go even further, and say that if the most influ- 
 ential of the Irish priesthood had to determine 
 
364 a saxon's remedy 
 
 which of the questions should be first disposed 
 of, they would immediately request that the secu- 
 lar matter under consideration should receive the 
 earlier attention of the legislature. They would 
 also tell you (and I believe every agent to large 
 estates in Ireland would do the same) that the 
 moment security of tenure was accorded to re- 
 spectable tenants, the rent would be as safe as 
 money in the funds, and that the man who held 
 his land on these terms would be a rigid up- 
 holder of the cause of law and order. I speak 
 within compass when I say that in a very short 
 time land would be worth a fifth more in the 
 market than it is at present, and those country- 
 houses now unlet and going to ruin, of which 
 thousands are scattered throughout Ireland, would 
 be again filled, if not by country gentlemen, at 
 any rate by wealthy men who had prospered in 
 trade or agriculture. 
 
 I should, perhaps, in concluding this subject, 
 remark, that the tenant-right which exists in 
 Ulster is in a very unsatisfactory state in the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 3G5 
 
 eyes of both landlords and tenants. It appears 
 to vary in different districts, and even on different 
 properties; so that I presume this division of 
 Ireland might be fairly included with the other 
 three. 
 
 Thus, for the whole of the island, and for all 
 its inhabitants, for the sake of the landlords as 
 well as for the tenants, an Act, comprehensive 
 and conclusive, about which neither party can 
 hereafter agitate, should at once be passed. Let 
 the Legislature do their duty, in accordance with 
 the requirements of the age, as when they enacted 
 the immediate and total repeal of the obnoxious 
 corn laws, and when they passed what is tanta- 
 mount to universal suffrage in 1867. The ob- 
 structive class might go through the old formula 
 of so cramping their leader, now Mr. Disraeli, as 
 to compel him to propose a trumpery measure 
 which would be indignantly rejected, and Mr. 
 Gladstone, replacing him, might next session in- 
 troduce a bill somewhat similar to that which I 
 now advocate. This might also be rejected, and 
 
366 a s axon's remedy 
 
 then it would come to pass that Mr. Disraeli 
 would have to tell his supporters that the time 
 had gone by for half-measures, that a party was 
 growing up even in England which was tho- 
 roughly sick and weary of the eternal Irish 
 squabble, and which would rather hand over the 
 settlement of Irish matters to a Parliament held 
 in Stephen's Green than prolong the endless dis- 
 cussion. This game might be played by the men 
 who will never realize the fact that to-day is not 
 as the time of their grandfathers, but that in 
 1869 members will be returned to the House of 
 Commons pledged to support measures connected 
 with Ireland far in advance of what I propose. 
 Ireland is the question of the day ; candidates on 
 the hustings in England as well as in Ireland 
 will have to bid against each other, where the 
 votes of those whose sympathies are with the 
 tenant have to be secured. Can any one doubt 
 what the result will be ? 
 
 To you, my English friends, who may not have 
 invested money in Ireland, nor devoted yourselves 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 367 
 
 to the study of the people, their character, and 
 their causes for discontent, as I have done, I say 
 emphatically the question is as important as it is 
 to those who have property in the island. 
 
 When there is chronic discontent in Ireland, 
 reckless adventurers, to whom agitation is a trade, 
 do not confine their baneful efforts to that country, 
 but project schemes of murder and violence 
 amongst you, and find ready dupes in a few of 
 the immense Irish population which exists in 
 every large town in England ; who believe also 
 that they are serving their country when, at any 
 sacrifice of life, they aid the escape of desperadoes 
 from justice. 
 
 Ireland, prosperous and contented, means that 
 very few soldiers are required to keep order there, 
 and that, in case of war with any foreign Power, 
 every man may be safely trusted to arm against the 
 common foe, even as we should all be ready to 
 volunteer in England. 
 
 Ireland, moody and discontented, means that 
 we not only are without hundreds of thousands 
 
368 a s axon's remedy 
 
 of ardent friends and fellow-countrymen, but have 
 an uncertain neighbour whose motives require 
 watching, and who would be a source of weakness 
 in our hour of need. Insist, then, at once on a 
 generous policy. Take the matter into your own 
 hands and terminate the long reign of confisca- 
 tion, misrule, and coercion by an Act like what 
 I propose, which will entitle the man who, by 
 the sweat of his brow, makes the land he holds 
 more productive, and his home more comfortable, 
 to continue in their enjoyment as long as he pays 
 for their occupation. 
 
 Note. — I wrote to a large landed proprietor in the North, to 
 ask his views on certain subjects, which views I was aware 
 would be perfectly different from mine. I give them shortly 
 as the evidence of what a very sensible well-informed Pro- 
 testant land owner thinks ought tp be done. The instance 
 he gives of a small portion of his property being improved, 
 shows the necessity of passing such an Act as I have sug- 
 gested. It also shows that Irish tenants will improve and 
 reclaim land, and my correspondent would, I feel certain, 
 accept my proposal as a fair one. 
 
 " I am seised of a townland in I ; the arable part was 
 
 let to tenants about sixty years ago for 160Z. per annum. 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 
 
 369 
 
 This arable land was scattered through a large bog ; this 
 
 bog is now nearly all reclaimed. When Mr. dies this 
 
 townland will readily let for 350Z. to 450Z. per annum. 
 Now are these men to remain at the present rent, or at what 
 rent? Are these rents to be ascertained from lands ad- 
 joining, or are said lands to be let according to my rents ? 
 What is wanted for Ireland is a larger number of resident 
 gentry. Whenever a man resided out of Ireland, his name 
 should be struck from the roll of Magistrates, and from all 
 Boards, Poor-law, Hospital, Railway, &c, and his place 
 should be filled by another : thus new men would be sure of 
 obtaining legitimate influence. 
 
 " In one way England owes Ireland many millions. It is 
 in the value of men reared till manhood in Ireland, who then 
 take their profitable labour to England, and who often find 
 their way back to their native island when old and infirm, 
 so that we in Ireland rear them before, and keep them when 
 past, work. I wish some of these millions were profitably 
 employed in Ireland." 
 
 B B 
 
CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 KEMEDIES FOR IRISH CHURCH AND EDUCATIONAL GRIEVANCES — • 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 ""yj^E now arrive at the questions I have left to 
 the last, because they are to my mind the 
 most difficult to solve. 
 
 Gladly would I follow the lead of grumblers 
 and agitators, and while demonstrating the effects 
 of the present system (as I have done in a 
 previous chapter), warn you of the danger and 
 injustice of leaving things as they are, and 
 without saying how best to effect a change, dilate 
 on the necessity of giving to Ireland educational 
 advantages acceptable to all, and perfect equality 
 in religious endowments. 
 
 Unfortunately, I can never let a question rest 
 until I have thoroughly exhausted the arguments 
 on both sides and made up my mind upon it ; 
 
REMEDY FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 371 
 
 and as, in the question of landlords and tenants, 
 I have satisfied myself that, disguise the matter 
 as they may, and bring forward instances of bad 
 farming as often as they please, still it is the 
 determination of the landlords to reserve to 
 themselves the right of profiting by the exer- 
 tions of their tenants, that makes them averse to 
 give the said tenants an interest in their farms ; 
 so I have made up my mind that it is in reality 
 the landlord, and not the tenant, who pays the 
 tithe rent-charge. 
 
 Surely the practical way in which to look at 
 all debated questions is from their actual and 
 not from their theoretical points of view. I 
 know, as a seller of sheep, that they have fallen 
 from a third to a quarter in price ; but though 
 political economists assure me I must get a pro- 
 portionate decrease in the price of saddles of 
 mutton, my butcher's bill does not show it. I 
 know for three hundred fleeces of wool I should 
 receive little more than half the sum I did two 
 years since, but my tailor's bill has not decreased. 
 b B 2 
 
372 a s axon's remedy 
 
 / In like manner, if the tithe rent-charge were 
 abolished to-morrow, the tenants would not 
 benefit in any way. There may be landlords who 
 would immediately allow their tenants their exact 
 proportion, but in a general way this would not 
 be thought of or expected, and would be of no 
 practical use to the tenant. 
 
 If a gentleman worth three thousand pounds 
 per annum pays eighty to a hundred pounds a 
 year tithe rent-charge, what would that be divided 
 amongst the tenants ? 
 
 When I purchased property I reckoned the 
 tithe-rent as a charge upon the land like any 
 other ; and if you, my friends, were buying land 
 you would give eight hundred or a thousand 
 pounds less if a charge of forty pounds per annum 
 existed on the estate. 
 
 If you had to sell land you would find exactly 
 the same estimate formed of this tithe-rent, and 
 may therefore conclude that the landlord pays 
 the clergy. Thus I do not think the Catholic 
 tenants are badly used, though I can see that 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 373 
 
 landlords of that persuasion are ; and it seems to 
 me that a charge of two and a half to five per 
 cent, upon Protestant landlords, whose tenants 
 are all or nearly all Eoman Catholics, is a very 
 heavy tax, and one of which they have a right 
 to complain. 
 
 As I pay at this rate and none of my tenants 
 attend the church, where one of the best and 
 most liberal clergymen in Ireland preaches, I 
 have a right to speak upon the subject ; and I 
 hereby give warning, that if the voluntary prin- 
 ciple is admitted, and those who please may pay, 
 it must not be expected that landlords will con- 
 tribute as now by law compelled, and fifty 
 pounds ought to be divided by five in estimating 
 the future incomes of Protestant clergy from this 
 source. 
 
 In some parishes one-third of the incumbent's 
 stipend is paid by one gentleman, and though he 
 were as high a Tory as poor Colonel Sibthorpe, 
 and as thorough-going a Churchman as an Ox- 
 ford Don, I feel certain that any one thus cir- 
 
374 a s axon's remedy 
 
 cumstanced would argue with, himself about his 
 family duties till he had reduced his contribution 
 to very small dimensions. 
 
 Being an interested party, I have thought it 
 right to state these matters plainly. Equally 
 without disguise I maintain that the proper plan 
 to follow (if it would be agreeable to Irishmen 
 generally) is for the Government to receive all 
 the income now payable for religious and educa- 
 tional purposes,, and allot a certain sum for each 
 district, according to population, paying the clergy 
 of each denomination according to the amount 
 of the regular congregation, and allowing certain 
 fees for marriages, &c. ; in fact, in many respects 
 following the continental system. All the money 
 granted for educational purposes, or which has 
 been left by persons anxious to promote this 
 object, should be devoted to schools. The 
 masters should be elected for proficiency, and 
 provided that their character is good, their creed 
 should not be considered. 
 
 Protestant boys should receive religious in- 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 375 
 
 struction from their clergymen, Eoman Catholic 
 pupils from their priests. 
 
 The most enlightened men in England and 
 Ireland approve of this mode of settling the 
 question, and as it is the just and proper one, 
 which would not admit of any charge of favour- 
 ing one religion at the expense of another, or of 
 increasing the line of demarcation between 
 Catholics and Protestants, I shall be very glad 
 to see it carried out. 
 
 It is fair to state, however, that a large num- 
 ber of the Catholic party in Ireland advocate 
 the reservation of a certain fair but not extrava- 
 gant portion of the ecclesiastical revenues of 
 Ireland towards the payment of the Protestant 
 clergy. After that they say, that as their mi- 
 nisters of religion will not accept any Government 
 pay, but will rely, as at present, upon their con- 
 gregations, all the residue of the immense 
 revenues of the Protestant Church and all the 
 money now devoted to National Schools should 
 be divided numerically between the religious de- 
 
376 . a saxon's remedy 
 
 nominations of Ireland for educational purposes. 
 Also, that under certain inspectorship there 
 should be separate Catholic and Protestant col- 
 leges, and middle and lower class schools. 
 
 This, I know, is the wish of a very powerful 
 body, and it is between the two plans that I have 
 sketched, the Legislature will have to choose. 
 
 I altogether reject the idea of taking the pro- 
 perty of the Church to lessen the poor-rates. If 
 it is decided not to pay Protestant clergymen at 
 all, I should consider an injustice was committed, 
 though the present system of excessive remunera- 
 tion is ridiculous, and cannot continue. I shall 
 also regret if Eoman Catholic clergymen refuse to 
 receive the payment to which they are entitled, 
 and, as I said before, the reception of remunera- 
 tion from the State is, in my opinion, the proper 
 way of ending the matter. 
 
 It is, I consider, of vital importance to make 
 the Irish Eoman Catholic clergy part of the 
 English Government system, and if their flocks 
 are contented by a satisfactory adjustment of the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 377 
 
 land question, I cannot see how the priesthood 
 would he placed in a false position by accept- 
 ing their just dues from the sovereign who rules 
 so many millions q{ people professing different 
 religions. 
 
 It is because I feel convinced that until the 
 the land question is settled, the Catholic clergy 
 will not accept any stipend, lest by so doing they 
 incur the charge of deserting the cause of their 
 brethren, bought by the gold of the Saxon, that 
 I am so desirous an equitable arrangement should 
 be made on this most important matter. 
 
 At present the whole of the Catholic clergy, 
 from Cardinal Cullen downwards, are heart and 
 soul with the occupiers and cultivators of land, 
 and though certainly not disloyal, they are apt 
 to regard the acts of the English Govern- 
 ment with very critical eyes, and to blame our 
 institutions for many things not properly charge- 
 able upon them, The object of all legislation 
 should be to make the clergy part of the social 
 system, and (while giving every man the full 
 
378 a saxon's remedy 
 
 right to his religious opinions, and extending 
 to all equal privileges and advantages) to exer- 
 cise the control of the State impartially, and 
 allow no dominant creed to overawe the rest. 
 Thus the Irish Catholic clergy should, if possible, 
 be induced to forget former ill-feeling, to forgive 
 the unjust persecution of olden times, and unite 
 with the moderate party in Ireland and England 
 in bridging over the few miles of sea between 
 the two islands, and making the two people as 
 one, smoothing the passage of capitalists and 
 manufacturers to the " land of saints," and direct- 
 ing the steps of such of their flock as cannot live 
 in comfort in their own land to the shores of the 
 " Saxon," if there is an opening for them, or to 
 the colonies belonging to" the "United King- 
 doms of Great Britain and Ireland," where will- 
 ing hands and hearts are even more sure to make 
 their way than in the dear and highly-taxed 
 dominions of the American Eepublic. The 
 Catholic clergy have much to forgive, for even 
 now hardly any Irish Protestant writes of them 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 379 
 
 with more than toleration, and they have also 
 something to unlearn ; but I have great confi- 
 dence in their good sense and true patriotism when 
 convinced of our hearty desire to do our duty 
 and act for the benefit of every class and every 
 religion. 
 
 Thus I hope we may settle the matter on 
 the basis of paying each clergyman, priest, and 
 minister in Ireland the stipend he who fulfils 
 his duty richly deserves, and that we shall not 
 continue to see highly-paid Church dignitaries 
 doing nothing, curates, temporary or perpetual, 
 in that miserable position immortalized by Mr. 
 Trollope at Hogglestock, and parish priests who, 
 being unsalaried by Government, can be stigma- 
 tized as " fee-loving," " encouragers of pauper 
 marriages," " poor men's pence takers/' with even 
 that foundation of fact upon which such scan- 
 dalous charges could be built. 
 
 There would be much less difficulty in dealing 
 with educational matters, if this question of re- 
 ceiving money from the State were ended, as I 
 
380 a s axon's remedy 
 
 still hope it will be, by the heads of the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 There is an immense amount of property left 
 for educational purposes lying unused in Ireland. 
 In the county where I have chiefly resided I 
 know of considerable accumulations of funds, 
 and though I have taken much trouble, and 
 written innumerable letters, nothing is done. It 
 seems impossible to get at the board or minister 
 who has power to move. Occasionally you find 
 the chief delinquent has something to do with 
 the decision on his own case, but generally you 
 find the whole affair fully reported upon in some 
 Blue Book or other, and that the matter went to 
 sleep when the abuse was chronicled. The com- 
 missions appointed never have any power, and 
 the various boards tell me they have none. I 
 have sometimes wished we had a thoroughly 
 enlightened despot in Ireland for about three 
 years. I need not say I can indicate the exact 
 individual who combines judicious firmness with 
 merciful consideration, perfect freedom from pre- 
 
FQR IRISH DISCONTENT. 381 
 
 judice, and total disregard of both the efforts 
 of factious agitators (whose ravings would be 
 speedily silenced), and of the exploded, narrow- 
 minded ideas of the opponents of advanced civi- 
 lization, &c. However, as this preparation for a 
 millenium in " Green Erin" is not likely to 
 take place, I hope the corporate bodies through- 
 out Ireland, as well as the Boards of Education, 
 will be at once communicated w T ith, and some 
 very decided measures taken with all those who 
 hold funds in their hands, or who have misap- 
 propriated them. Very large sums are accumu- 
 lated, and even the English Government has 
 carelessly allowed considerable amounts of money 
 which the forethought of former viceroys des- 
 tined for the education of the Irish people, to be 
 diverted from their legitimate direction. Educa- 
 tion is a term which may be variously applied. 
 In Ireland the study of agriculture is as well 
 worthy of a professorship as in the Augustine 
 age, and though w r e may despair of discovering a 
 Virgil to instruct, yet we may institute colleges 
 
382 a saxon's remedy 
 
 on the millions of acres there, which are now 
 unprofitable, but which instances I have quoted 
 in this work show may be, without loss, trans- 
 ferred to tenants who will grow corn, and feed 
 cattle and sheep, where at present only turf is 
 cut, and where only the plover and widgeon find 
 a resting-place. 
 
 How to farm profitably, not according to 
 theory but practice, to inculcate deep ploughing, 
 to secure large but not exhausting crops, to 
 show the advantage of plentiful manuring, of 
 stock fed judiciously and fattened early, how to 
 select and feed cows that will give the maximum 
 of butter, and how to preserve that butter fresh 
 and fit for the English consumer, these are ques- 
 tions more valuable for the youth of Ireland to 
 solve, than abstruse considerations as to the 
 flowers the bees sucked which produced the 
 poisonous honey that played so important a part 
 in the history of the Ten Thousand. 
 
 With whatever faults the Irish are legitimately 
 charged, disinclination to learn is certainly not 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 383 
 
 amongst them. I am always alarmed at enter- 
 ing into conversation with a policeman, who 
 usually rejects such subjects as shooting or 
 fishing, and very respectfully puzzles me with 
 questions about a Greek chorus, squaring the 
 circle, the Ides of March, perpetual motion, or 
 something painfully learned, and I get rid of 
 him by saying there is a wandering pig or 
 donkey on the road half a mile off. Lord Bar- 
 rington's waiter, who quoted Latin proverbs 
 when the dirty table-cloth was objected to, is 
 nothing to a model serjeant of the constabulary, 
 who is a cross between the Admirable Crichton 
 and Guy Livingstone, and far more worthy to 
 be a hero of romance than either. Without 
 badinage, an Irishman is a more promising sub- 
 ject to educate than an Englishman, and if that 
 education is made practical and suitable to the 
 wants of the country, I honestly believe an 
 immense deal of good may be done in the next 
 ten years. 
 
 How much blame is due to those who profess 
 
384 
 
 A saxon's remedy 
 
 to believe that education means conversion to 
 Protestantism, and who have nevertheless neg- 
 lected that important point, and allowed the 
 money left by will for such purposes to go to 
 waste, or be otherwise mis-appropriated, I will 
 not attempt to decide ! 
 
 I have now completed my task. I have some- 
 where read that no man is modest after forty ; 
 now I will not attempt to be modest, but though 
 I have written the foregoing chapters in a few 
 weeks, and am aware that they are destitute of 
 literary ability, to which indeed they do not 
 pretend, I claim one great merit for them, 
 namely, that they truly and impartially repre- 
 sent the actual facts of the great Irish question. 
 It is hardly possible for any man who has ordi- 
 nary intelligence, and has lived so long as I have 
 in Ireland, to be more disinterested. The mea- 
 sures I have advocated might remotely interest 
 my descendants, but they could not add sixpence 
 to my income, and perhaps from an over scrupu- 
 lousness, I have not pressed the claims of the 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 385 
 
 landlords to favour, respecting the tithe rent- 
 charge, because any allowance in that respect 
 would benefit me. Several landowners have 
 made me very handsome offers, and I never had 
 a dispute in my life with an Irish landed pro- 
 prietor. My opinion and my testimony are 
 valuable, because my prejudices are directly con- 
 trary to the convictions I have been forced 
 deliberately to entertain. I go with the tenants 
 and with the Eoman Catholics because my con- 
 science tells me they have right on their side, 
 and because I see, as any unprejudiced English- 
 man must see if he has lived in Ireland, and 
 sought out the truth as I have done, that the 
 people and the priests have been wrongfully 
 used. Far greater and far more eloquent men 
 than myself have discussed Irish questions, but 
 splendid advocates like Mr. Butt and Mr. Bright 
 are practically unacquainted with the effect pro- 
 duced by the years of misrule amongst the Irish 
 tenantry, popular as both these gentlemen are 
 in Ireland ; and Lord Dufferin can only see the 
 
 c c 
 
386 a s axon's remedy 
 
 faults in the Church management, and ignores 
 the defects of Irish landlords ; clever and well- 
 meaning as he is, he cannot see why a landlord 
 should not exercise the right of doing precisely 
 as he likes with his own. 
 
 As a gentleman farming five thousand statute 
 acres said about leases the other day : " It is a 
 question if we are to be slaves or not, if I am 
 worth 30,000/. or a fourth of that sum, for if I 
 were turned out at six months' notice, the 
 manure I have in the land is worth 4000/. ; that 
 would be sacrificed, my stock must be sold at a 
 less price, and my implements, farming utensils, 
 &c, would realize very little, while my con- 
 nexion in trade must be lost ; for where can I 
 get such farms as my grandfather and father 
 have procured and improved for so many long 
 years ? True, my three landlords are not likely 
 to get rid of me, but if they are not, what is the 
 objection to make me secure of remaining?" 
 
 I claim therefore to be the first unprejudiced, 
 well-informed "Saxon" who has studied the 
 
TOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 3S7 
 
 Irish questions, and given the pros and cons 
 without humbug, and to have laid bare many 
 things studiously concealed, or not previously 
 known. 
 
 Though I may have made some errors in sta- 
 tistics or dates, I beg those who may think my 
 work worthy of notice, not to doubt my facts 
 and descriptions. I have had to trust to memory 
 only, which serves me well in describing events, 
 but is not first rate in numerals. I beg also 
 those gentlemen who may deem the volume 
 worth criticizing, to aid me, at any rate, in 
 
 settling the great landlord and tenant question. 
 « 
 
 Millions of their fellow subjects are anxiously 
 waiting, and it must be speedily arranged. A 
 plain and thorough, not fanciful and elaborate, 
 legislature is required. 
 
 Let them remember that Ireland is not Eng- 
 land, but an island held as a conquered country 
 for generations, where all attempts at trade were 
 crushed at their first development, lest they 
 should affect the reign of England's commerce. 
 
388 a saxon's remedy 
 
 Let them remember also that every one, 
 whether Catholic or Protestant, landlord or 
 tenant, is sore and discontented about some- 
 thing, and that we must legislate now out of 
 the regular course of law, even as we did when 
 the Encumbered Estates Act was passed. 
 
 New and strong remedies are termed " quacke- 
 ries" by some people, but they are "inspira- 
 tions of genius" when they cure. Though, as I 
 say, Ireland is not England, pray do not err the 
 other way, and quote Devon Commissions and 
 old-world facts against me. Do not ignore the 
 famine, emigration, railways, and the march of 
 intellect, and tell the thousands who take their 
 belief from your dictation, that if an Irishman 
 has ten acres of land and ten children he will 
 divide his farm amongst them ; and do not quote 
 some report of ninety years ago, as a very in- 
 telligent reviewer did this month of March, 
 1868, to prove the assertion. 
 
 Pray remember the Abyssinians reject beads 
 and brass buttons and prefer dollars, and that 
 
FOR IRISH DISCONTENT. 389 
 
 money and money's worth are appreciated even 
 amongst those outer barbarians the Minister 
 and Connaught peasantry, who are every day 
 leaving the chance of starvation and a bit of 
 land for plenty elsewhere, and who, as railways, 
 education, and civilization are introduced, will 
 become more desirous to be independent and 
 well fed. 
 
 Lastly, I beg them to assist me in encouraging 
 the present Government in their crusade both 
 against the Fenian conspiracy and the intempe- 
 rate exhibition of Orange bigotry in the north, 
 and in causing every inhabitant of these islands 
 to understand that matters will be henceforward 
 so managed that the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland shall have no ill-fitting joint 
 in its armour through which any insidious foe 
 can smite. 
 
 THE END. 
 
London: 
 
 bath l, edwaeds and co., printers, chandos stbeet, 
 covkkt garden. 
 
DOES NOT CP' 
 
MAR 20 1997 
 
 DOES NOT CIRCULATE 
 
OOES NOT CIRCULATE