proceeding as taking land “over a man’s head,” as it is termed, is regarded here as not merely dishonourable, but as little better than robbery, and as such held in the greatest detestation.’  He added that the justice of this arrangement was obvious—­’because all the buildings, planting, and other improvements, being entirely at the tenant’s expense, he has a certain amount of capital sunk in the property, for which, if he parts with the place, he expects to be repaid by the sale of the tenant-right.  He knew no case in the county in which the tenant, or those from whom he purchased, had made no improvements.’

The first marquis occasionally visited the estate, and was proud of the troops of yeomanry and cavalry which had been raised from his tenantry.  The second marquis, who died in 1822, was only once in that part of Ireland.  The third marquis—­he of Prince Regent notoriety—­never set foot on the property; and the present, who has been reigning over 140 townlands for nearly thirty years, has never been among his subjects except during a solitary visit of three weeks in October, 1845, when, it is said, he came to qualify for his ribbon (K.G.) that he might be able to say to the prime minister that he was a resident landlord.  He has resided almost entirely in Paris, cultivating the friendship of Napoleon instead of the welfare of the people who pay him a revenue of 60,000 l. a year.  Bagatelle, his Paris residence, has, it is said, absorbed Irish rents in its ‘improvements’, till it has been made worth three quarters of a million sterling.  If the residence cost so much, fancy may try to conceive the amount of hard-earned money squandered on the luxuries and pleasures of which it is the temple—­the most Elysian spot in the Elysian fields.

The following curious narrative appeared in a Belfast newspaper, and was founded on a speech made by Dean Stannus at a public meeting.

The venerable Dean of Ross and his son, Mr. W.T.  Stannus, had been deputed to go to Paris to wait on Lord Hertfort, and urge him to assist in the expense of finishing the Antrim Junction Railway.  The dean is in his eighty-first year; fifty-one years of his life have been spent in the management of the Hertfort estate, and whatever difference of opinion may exist as to his arrangements with the tenantry, every one who knows anything of the affair must admit that there never existed a more faithful representative of a landowner.  On arriving in Paris he found the marquis ill, so much so that neither the dean nor his son could get an interview.  For three days the venerable gentleman danced attendance on his chief, and on Monday the fourth attempt was made, the dean sent up his name, and had a reply that ‘the marquis was too ill to see anyone.’  Next day, however, the marquis condescended to receive his agent, and the subject of the railway was introduced.  The dean told him that Lord Erne had given 200,000 l. towards the railway projects on his property—­that