r
the crop, varying the proceedings with fairs and festive gatherings.
Such is his conception of life. The ding-dong regularity of factory
work does not suit him, so he clings to the land, which provides him
with a bare subsistence, and that is all he wants. No ambition to be
more luxurious than his father troubles him at all. Short spells of
work, and long spells of play, are ensured to the fortunate holder of
land. This is Paddy's conception of Paradise. Suppose the land held
were at first sufficient to maintain his family. The boys grow up,
and, according to custom, the paternal farm is divided, in the next
generation again subdivided, until at last the amount of land
remaining to each family is insufficient for its maintenance. Then the
district becomes congested. The poverty of the people is attributed to
the landlords, who are denounced as non-resident, notwithstanding the
demonstrations of an affectionate tenantry, who now and then shoot one
or two, _pour encourarger les autres_. If the people have food they
have little or no money. The agitator comes and promises No Rent, the
opening of gold mines and mighty factories, paying liberal wages,
under the fostering wing of an Irish Parliament. The people are
ignorant and credulous. They are, however, certain as to their own
poverty, and they desire a change. The Roman Catholics regard
themselves as the chosen people, the true sons of the soil, but they
see that most of the great landowners are Protestant, that the
Protestant farmers often hold uncommonly good land, and that if these
were once dispossessed the righteous might again flourish as green bay
trees. For while Papal Ireland is largely rock and bog, the heretical
portion is reclaimed and tilled, the bogs drained, the primeval
boulders rolled away, broken up, and made into fences. All this is
tempting. Irish land hunger is foreshadowed in the story of Naboth and
his vineyard.

And Irish land hunger is largely responsible for Irish rents. Friends
and neighbours--aye, even relatives near as brothers and sisters,
compete against each other, and eagerly force up the price. Every
Irish land agent will tell you of underhand intrigue in connection
with land. Not only do brothers secretly strive to obtain advantage
over each other by means of higher bidding, but bribery is tried. Mr.
Robert Hare, of the Dublin Board of Works, said:--"My father was an
agent, and on one occasion he was weighing the respective claims of