And yet some one ventured to call Irish land agents ’popularity-hunting scoundrels.’

‘Popularity and getting in money were never on the same bush,’ as I told Lord Kenmare, and if I had stopped to think how I should make myself popular, I should have bothered my head about what I did not care twopence for, and provided an even more easy target for firing at at short range.

Drifting from a man who paid no heed to scoundrels, I am led to allude to the attitude of a profession, the members of which profited by their amenities—­I, of course, mean solicitors—­because some one put a question to me on the subject only the other day.

My answer is, that none of the solicitors were in the Land League, and they did not instigate outrages; but they drew comfortable fees for defending the perpetrators.

Swindlers and murderers never agree, for they practise distinct professions.

We were fighting a Land War, and though I have kept back land questions as much as I can, in order not to weary the reader with what never wearies me, I have one or two examples to give which cannot be omitted if I am to portray the true facts.

My firm was agent for an estate in Castleisland, the rent of which, in 1841, was L2300.  I exhibited the rental, showing only three quarters in arrear.  By 1886 it was cut down by the Commissioners to L 1800, and the landlord sold it for L30,000, for which the tenants used to pay four per cent, for forty-nine years, to cover principal and interest.

There was a tenant on that estate named Dennis Coffey.  He took a farm at L105 a year; the Commissioners reduced that rent to L80.  He purchased it for L1440—­eighteen years’ purchase, for which his son has L42 a year for forty-nine years.  The father had purchased a farm for fee-simple of equal value for L3000, which he left to two others of his sons.  So that one son, by paying half what he had covenanted to pay, and which he could pay, gets a farm equal in value to what his father paid L3000 in hard cash for.  The man who is paying rent has his farm well stocked; the others are paupers, and one died in the poorhouse.

That may belong to to-day, and not to the period of outrage with which I have been dealing; but it duly points the moral, and is the outcome of those times.

At the Boyle Board of Guardians in 1887, upon a discussion over the Kilronan threatened evictions, Mr. Stuart said:—­

’There was one of these men arrested by the police.  His rent was L4, 12s. 6d., and, when arrested, a deposit-receipt for L220 was found in his pocket.’

This case had been freely cited at home and in America as a typical instance of the ruthless tyranny of Irish landlords.

My friend and neighbour, Mr. Arthur Blennerhassett, addressed the following letter to Mr. W.E.  Gladstone, then Prime Minister:—­