de,
things are different. Disturbed parts of the County Clare are
dangerous to strangers, and, what is more to the point, somewhat
difficult of access. The country is not criss-crossed with railways as
in England, and vehicles for long journeys are rather hard to get.
However, I have chartered a car for a three-day trip into what may be
called the interior, have fired several hundred cartridges from a
Winchester repeating rifle, and written letters to my dearest friends.
I start to-morrow, and if I do not succeed in bottoming the recent
outrages--which are hushed up as much as possible, and of which the
local newspaper-men, both Nationalist and Conservative, together with
Head-Constable MacBrinn, declare they cannot get at the precise
particulars--if I cannot get to the root of the matter, I shall in my
next letter have the honour of stating the reason why.

Limerick, April 22nd.

No. 13.--THE CURSE OF COUNTY CLARE.

Once again the difference between Ireland and England is forcibly
exemplified. It was certain that several moonlighting expeditions had
recently been perpetrated in the neighbourhood of Limerick, which is
only divided by the Shannon from the County Clare. You walk over a
bridge in the centre of the city and you change your county, but
nobody in Limerick seems to know anything about the matter. The local
papers hush up the outrages when they hear of them, which is seldom or
never. The people who know anything will not, dare not tell, and even
the police have the utmost difficulty in establishing the bare facts
of any given case. English publicity is entirely unknown. Local
correspondents do not always exist in country towns, and the distances
are so great, in comparison with the facilities for travel, that
newspaper-men seldom or never visit the scene of the occurrence. And
besides the awkward and remote position of the country hamlets and
mountain farms, there are other excellent reasons for journalistic
reticence. The people do not wish to read such news, the editors do
not wish to print these discreditable records, and the police,
although eminently and invariably civil and obliging, are debarred by
their official position from disclosing what they know. The very
victims themselves are often silent, refusing to give details, and
almost always declining to give evidence. That the sufferers usually
know and could easily identify the cowardly ruffians who so cruelly
maltreat them is a well-ascert