Decidedly these marriages turn out better than the made-up marriages in France.  I will go further, and seriously affirm my belief that the marriages in Kerry show a greater average of happiness than any which can be mentioned.  To be sure there is the same dash after heiresses in Kerry that you see in Mayfair, and the young farmer who is really well-to-do is as much pursued as the heir to an earldom by matchmaking mothers in Belgravia.  But the subsequent results are much more harmonious in Kerry, and though the landlord’s advice is often asked to settle financial difficulties in carrying out the matrimonial bargains, less frequently is he called upon to settle differences between man and wife.

’Sure, he’s well enough meaning, your honour, with what brains the Blessed Virgin could spare for him,’ is the sort of remark a wife will make on behalf of her lazy husband.

Fidelity is the rule; so is reasonable give and take, though each, being human, likes to receive better than to give.  And one thing which impresses a stranger is the rarity of illegitimate children out of the towns.  This is, of course, partly due to the influence of the priests, but partly also to the innate purity of the Irish character, as well as by the standard of respectability:—­

‘Ah, he’s a strong man,’ you will hear said of So-and-So.

‘How do you prove that?’ says I.

’Why, has he not his farm, and his family with one son a priest, and one daughter in a convent, and he with a bull for his own cows?’

Could you want more to get him on the County Council if he has no conscience and a convivial taste in the matter of whisky?

There can be no doubt that the Irish take better care of their children than the parents of similar position in either England or Scotland.  Cases of cruelty, which so constantly disfigure the police courts in both the latter countries, are very rarely heard in the sister isle.

It is true that in many cases they cannot do much for their offspring, but what little they are able to do is done with a good will and ungrudgingly.

I remember a Saharan explorer telling me that in the desert he came across some tribe, stark naked, utterly poor, but all on apparently affectionate terms.  He was much impressed with the love shown by the children of all ages for their parents, and inquired what the latter did to inspire such enviable emotion.

‘We give them a handful of dates, when there are any.’

It was apparently their sole form of sustenance.

The Irishman is very good to his wife, although the courting is a matter of business, as I have shown.  Wife-beating and even more ignoble forms of marital cruelty are almost unknown.

This is surely a big national asset.

Furthermore, the Irish are a very moral people; and this in spite of the close proximity and confinement necessitated by the crowded condition of many cabins.