have Scots or
English. Discharge a man and the most singular things occur. In a late
instance I had seven written requests from all sorts of quarters to
take the man back, although before discharge he had been duly warned.
The entire neighbourhood called on me--the man's father, wife, mother,
the priest, a Protestant lady, three whiskey-sellers, two
Presbyterians, the Church of Ireland parson, God knows who. This
lasted a fortnight, and then threatening letters set in; coffins,
skulls, and marrow-bones were chalked all over the place, with my
initials. Indeed you may say they are a wonderful people."

Mr. E.T. Herdman, J.P., of Sion Mills, Co. Tyrone, should know
something of the Irish people. The model village above-named belongs
to him. Travellers to Londonderry via the Great Northern will remember
how the great Herdman flax-spinning mills, with their clean,
prosperous, almost palatial appearance, relieve the melancholy aspect
of the peaty landscape about the Rivers Mourne and Derg. Mr. Herdman
pays in wages some L30,000 a year, a sum of which the magnitude
assumes colossal proportions in view of the surrounding landscape. The
people of the district speak highly of the Herdman family, who are
their greatest benefactors, but they failed to return Mr. E.T.
Herdman, who contested East Donegal in 1892. The people were willing
enough, but the priests stepped in and sent a Nationalist. Said Mr.
Herdman, "Home Rule would be fatal to England. The Irish people have
more affinity with the Americans or the French than with the English,
and the moment international difficulties arise Ireland would have to
be reconquered by force of arms. And complications would arise, and in
my estimation would arise very early." A landowner I met at Beragh,
County Tyrone, held somewhat original opinions. He said, "I refused to
identify myself with any Unionist movement. If we're going to be
robbed, let us be robbed; if our land is going to be confiscated, let
it be confiscated. The British Government is going to give us
something, if not much, by way of compensation; and my opinion is,
that if the Grand Old Man lives five years longer he'll propose to
give the Irish tenants the fee-simple of the lands without a penny to
pay. That's my view, begad. I'm a sportsman, not a politician, and my
wife says I'm a fool, and very likely she knows best. But, begad, I
say let us have prairie value to-day, for to-morrow the G.O.M. will
give us nothing at al