Father Maher’s house stands well off from the highway.  He was not at home, being “away at a service in the hills,” but would be back before two o’clock.  I left my name for him, with a memorandum of my purpose in calling, and we drove on to see the bailiff of the estate, Mr. Hind.  On the way we met Father Norris, a curate of the parish, in a smart trap with a good horse, and had a brief colloquy with him.  Mr. Hind we found busy afield; a quiet, staunch sort of man.  He spoke of the situation very coolly and dispassionately.  “The tenants in the main were a good set of men—­as they had reason to be, Lord Lansdowne having been not only a fair landlord, but a liberal and enterprising promoter of local improvements.”  I had been told in Dublin that Lord Lansdowne had offered a subscription of L200 towards establishing creameries, and providing high-class bulls for this estate.  Similar offers had been cordially met by Lord Lansdowne’s tenants in Kerry, and with excellent results.  But here they were rejected almost scornfully, though accompanied by offers of abatement on the rents, which, in the case of Mr. Kilbride, for example, amounted to 20 per cent.

“How did this happen, the tenants being good men as you say?” I asked of Mr. Hind.

“Because they were unable to resist the pressure put on them by the two chief tenants, Kilbride and Dunne, with the help of the League.  Kilbride and Dunne both lived very well.”  My information at Dublin was that Mr. Kilbride had a fine house built by Lord Lansdowne, and a farm of seven hundred acres, at a rent of L760, 10s.  Mr. Dunne, who co-operated with him, held four town lands comprising 1304 acres, at a yearly rent of L1348, 15s.  Upon this property Lord Lansdowne had expended in drainage and works L1993, 11s. 9d., and in buildings L631, 15s. 4d., or in all very nearly two years’ rental.  On Mr. Kilbride’s holdings Lord Lansdowne had expended in drainage works L1931, 6s. 3d., and in buildings L1247, 19s. 5d., or in all more than four years’ rental.  Mr. Kilbride held his lands on life leases.  Mr. Dunne held his smallest holding of 84 acres on a yearly tenure; his two largest holdings, one on a lease for 31 years from 1874, and the other on a life lease, and his fourth holding of 172 acres on a life lease.

Where does the hardship appear in all this to Mr. Dunne or Mr. Kilbride?

On Mr. Kilbride’s holdings, for instance, Lord Lansdowne expended over L3000, for which he added to the rent L130 a year, or about 4 per cent., while he himself stood to pay 6-1/2 per cent, on the loans he made from the Board of Works for the expenditure.  In the same way it was with Mr. Dunne’s farms.  They were mostly in grass, and Lord Lansdowne laid out more than L2500 on them, borrowed at the same rate from the Board, for which he added to the rent only L66 a year, or about 2-1/2 per cent.  Mr. Kilbride was a Poor-Law Guardian, and Mr. Dunne a Justice of the Peace.  The leases in both of these cases,