several hundreds. Then they ran a Mr. Wylie, who had been a
Land Commissioner for this district. We thought that positively
indecent, and we wondered that any gentleman would put himself in such
a position. He had been round here reducing rents, and then he came
forward as a candidate. We accuse him of bad taste, nothing worse. He
only made one speech, though, and that was to thank the people for
placing him at the bottom of the poll. He confined himself to
canvassing. If he had once mounted the hustings we would have heckled
him about the Land Commission business. He knew that and never gave us
a chance. It was a cute stroke of policy to bring him forward. He was
a Presbyterian, and might be Land Commissioner again. At least the
people thought so. Then they tried a Professor Dougherty, of
Londonderry, another Home Rule Presbyterian; for there are a few,
though you could count them off on your fingers, and they are a
hundred times outnumbered by the Conservative Catholics. He belonged
to Magee College, and we trotted out the whole of his co-professors
against him. We never had a meeting without one or other of his
colleagues pitching into him--a great joke it was.

"Over the water Mr. E.T. Herdman tried to get in for East Donegal, a
very popular man who pays thirty or forty thousand pounds a year in
wages. The people promised to support him. The priests promised to
support him. They asked what would they do else, and what did he take
them for? They are so anxious about employment, these good men. All
they want is the good of the people. You saw how they ran after the
Lord Lieutenant saying: Only find us work! You see how they run after
the Countess of Aberdeen, who is encouraging industry (and about whom
there are some pickings). What did the people of East Donegal do,
under the guidance of their clergy? They returned Arthur O'Connor, who
never did anything for them, who never darkens their doors, and who is
utterly unknown to them. What can you say for them after that?"

The politician who was preferred to Mr. Herdman probably promised to
give the people "all they want," while the Unionist was only paying
them wages for working all the year round. And besides this, Mr.
O'Connor's speeches were probably more full-flavoured, more
soul-satisfying, than those of Mr. Herdman, who, being a practical man
of business, and having a sense of responsibility, would only talk
common-sense, and would promise no more than he could