ee that it is urged by a set
of thieves and traitors? Cannot they see that brains and property are
everywhere against it? And Gladstone's speeches show such ignorance of
the subject that no Irishman can read or listen with common patience.
To judge from his Irish orations I should say that he is not fit to be
Prime Minister to a Parliament of idiots. What do you think?"

I was sorry to dissent, but I said that to the best of my knowledge
and belief Mr. Gladstone was of all men best fitted for such a post.

Stranorlar (Co. Donegal), July 27th.

No. 54.--A SAMPLE OF IRISH "LOYALTY."

The country round here seems especially rich in minerals of all sorts.
Bog-ore, to be spoken of as bog ore, is abundant, and manganese is
known to exist in large quantities. Soapstone of excellent quality is
also plentiful, and the peasantry will tell you that on the passing of
the Home Rule Bill they will at once proceed to dig out the
inexhaustible stores of gold, silver, lead, iron, tin, and coal, with
which the district abounds. Ireland is a perfect El Dorado, and when
the brutal Saxon shall have taken his foot off her throat, when
Parlimint and the sojers allow the quarries to be worked, the mines to
be sunk, the diamonds under Belfast to be dug up, the country will
once more be prosperous, as in the owld ancient times, when the
O'Briens and O'Connells cut each other's throats in peace, and harried
their respective neighbourhoods without interference. Captain Ricky,
of Mount Hall, is exploiting the bog-ore, and sending it to England by
thousands of tons. The stuff is an oxide of iron and is used for
purifying gas. The queerest feature of the use of bog-ore is the fact
that when used up it is worth twenty-five per cent. more than before.
Delivered to the gas companies at thirty shillings a ton, it fetches
forty shillings when the gas-men have done with it. It seems to be
composed of peat which by a few millions of years of saturation in
water containing iron has become like iron-rust. The soapstone of
Killygordon is used instead of fire-clay, and is also made into French
chalk. Or rather it might be, but that the Captain declines to proceed
with its extraction pending the Home Rule scare. There is much alder
on the estate, which is watered by the river Finn. This is the right
wood for the manufacture of clogs for the people of Lancashire and
Yorkshire. Captain Ricky sends tons of these interesting articles to
the sister isle.