A shrewd Galway man, now here, who seems to know the region well, and likes both the scenery and the people, tells me that the troubles which have now culminated in the arrest of Father M’Fadden have been aggravated by the vacillation of Captain Hill, and by the foibles of his agent, Colonel Dopping, who not long ago brought down Mr. Gladstone with his unloaded rifle.  That the tenants as a body have been, or now are, unable to pay their rent he does not believe.  On the contrary, he thinks them, as a body, rather well off.  Certainly I have seen and spoken with none of them about the roads to-day who were not hearty-looking men, and in very good case.  Colonel Dopping, according to my Galwegian, is not an Englishman, but a Longford Irishman of good family, who got his training in India as an official of the Woods and Forests in Bengal.  “He is not a bad-hearted man, nor unkind,” said my Galwegian, “but he is too much of a Bengal tiger in his manner.  He went into the cottages personally and lectured the people, and that they never will stand.  They don’t require or expect you to believe what they say—­in fact they have little respect for you if you do—­but they like to have the agent pretend that he believes them, and then go on and show that he don’t.  But he must never lose his temper about it.  Colonel Dopping, I have heard, argued with an old woman one day who was telling him more yarns than were ever spun into cloth in Gweedore, till she picked up her cup of tea and threw it in his face.  He flounced out of the cottage, and ordered the police to arrest her.  That did him more harm than if he had shot a dozen boys.”  “What with the temper of Colonel Dopping and the vacillation of Captain Hill, who is always of the mind of the last man that speaks to him, Father M’Fadden has had it all his own way.  Captain Hill’s claim was for L1800 of arrears, long arrears too, and L400 of costs.  How much the people paid in under the Plan of Campaign nobody knows but Father M’Fadden.  But he is a clever padre, and he played Captain Hill till he finally gave up the costs, and settled for L1450.”

“And this sum represents what?”

“It represents in round numbers about two years’ income from an estate in which Captain Hill’s father must have invested, first and last, more nearly L40,000 than L20,000 of money that never came out of it.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very good operation.  But isn’t the question, Whether the tenants have earned this sum, such as it is, out of the land let to them by Captain Hill?”

“No, not exactly, I think.  You must remember there are some twelve hundred families living here on land bought with Lord George’s money, and enjoying all the advantages which the place owes to his investment and his management, much more than to any labour or skill of theirs.  You must look at their rents as accommodation rents.  Suppose they earn the rent in Scotland, or England, or Tyrone, or wherever you like, the question is, What do they