The enormous power of an office which can deal with property amounting to more than half a million sterling, in such an arbitrary manner, necessarily generates a spirit of wanton and capricious despotism, except where the mind is very well regulated and the heart severely disciplined by Christian duty.  Of this I feel bound to give the following illustration, which I would not do if the fact had not been made public, and if I had not the best evidence that it is undeniable.  George Beattie, jun., a grocer’s assistant in Lisburn, possessed a beautiful greyhound which he left in charge of George Beattie, sen., his uncle, on departing for America.  This uncle possessed a farm on the Hertfort estate, the tenant-right of which he wanted to sell.  Having applied to Mr. Stannus for permission, the answer he received was that he would not be allowed to sell until the head of the greyhound was brought to the office.  The tenant remonstrated and offered to send the dog away off the estate to relatives, but to no effect.  He was obliged to kill the greyhound, and to send its head in a bag to Lord Hertfort’s office.  It was a great triumph for the agent.  What a pretty sensational story he had to tell the young ladies in the refined circles in which he moves.  How edifying the recital must have been to the peasantry around him!  How it must have exalted their ideas of the civilising influence of land agency.  ’It is quite a common thing,’ says a gentleman well acquainted with the estate, ’when a tenant becomes insolvent, that his tenant-right is sold and employed to pay those of his creditors who may be in favour.  I know a lady who made application to have a claim against a small farmer registered in the office, which was done, and she now possesses the security of the man’s tenant-right for her money.’

The case of the late Captain Bolton is the last illustration I shall give in connection with this estate.  Captain Bolton resided in Lisburn, and he was one of the most respected of its inhabitants.  He was the owner of four houses in that town, a property which he acquired in this way:—­The site of two of them was obtained by the late James Hogg, in lieu of freehold property surrendered.  On this ground, his son, Captain Bolton’s uncle, built the two houses entirely at his own expense.  Two other houses, immediately adjoining, came into the market, and he purchased the out-going tenant’s ‘good-will’ for a sum of about 40 l.  These houses were thatched, and in very bad condition.  He repaired them and slated them, and thus formed a nice uniform block of four workers’ houses.  Captain Bolton inherited these from his uncle and retained uninterrupted possession till 1852, when he voted for Johnston Smyth at the election of that date.  Immediately afterwards he received a notice to quit, an ejectment was brought in due time, the case was dismissed at the quarter sessions, an appeal was lodged, but it was again dismissed at the assizes.  Undaunted by these two defeats, the persistent agent