On the Kerry estate, since he succeeded (in 1871), Lord Kenmare has expended L67,115 on drainage, road-making, and building cottages.  The evictions have been about one in five hundred in every half year.  The abatements, allowances, and expenditure in 1878, ’79, ’80, and ’81, exclusive of what was spent on the house and demesne, were, L33,645, and I am under the mark when I say that, altogether, for these years of distress, Lord Kenmare spent more on his Kerry estates than he received out of it; yet for this, Land League meetings were held on his estate, and he was denounced in Parliament.  The week that the Land League compelled Lord Kenmare to discontinue his employment to labourers, the weekly labour bill was L460.

There is no need to trouble readers with any further correspondence on a topic on which no one could answer me except by abuse, which is no argument; nor will I inflict any of the letters in which Mr. Sexton was clearly proved in the wrong when he misrepresented the case of Pat Murphy of Rath.

As an example of the state of affairs, in Millstreet—­a mere village—­there were thirty cases of nocturnal raid in the month of August 1881, even while it was engaging the attention of Mr. T.O.  Plunkett, R.M., Mr. French, chief of the detective department, two sub-inspectors, thirty-five constabulary, and fifty men of the 80th Regiment.

In the Daily Telegraph, with reference to the murder of Gallivan, near Castleisland, this remark appeared in a leader:—­

’Horror-stricken humanity demands that an example be speedily made of the truculent and merciless ruffian who perpetrated this outrage.’

I quoted this in a letter the editor published, adding:—­

’A few weeks after that occasion an old man named Flynn was shot within two miles of the place, because he paid his rent.  His leg has since been amputated.’

Then I gave the following horrible case:—­

On Sunday night the Land League police went to the house of a man named Dan Dooling, who lived within a mile of Gallivan’s house, and within one mile of Castleisland, and because he paid his rent on getting a reduction of thirty per cent., he was taken out and shot in the thigh.  His wife, who was only three days after her confinement, pleaded for mercy on this account, but these lynch law authorities were deaf to the appeal for mercy, and she did not recover the shock of the entry of these ‘moonlight’ Thugs.  This man could have identified his assailants, but he did not dare.

A good fellow called M’Auliffe, whose arm was shot off, could have done the same.  The poor chap could be seen walking about with one arm, deprived of the means of earning his bread, and no doubt moralising over the state of the law, which would compensate him for the loss of his cow, if he had one, but gave him nothing for the loss of his arm.

On Friday, November 18, 1881, two tenants, named Cronin and one O’Keefe, holding land from Lord Kenmare, came into my office in Killarney.