of Home Rule as the most absurd and useless measure
ever brought forward with the object of benefiting his countrymen.
"What will ye do wid it when ye've got it?" he said; "sure it can
never do ye any good at all. How will it put a penny in yer pockets,
an' what would ye get by it that ye can't get widout it?" Two farmers
thought they would get the land for a much lower rent. They said that
although the landowner, Mr. French, was an excellent, kind, and
liberal man, and that no fault at all could be found with his brother,
the agent, yet still the land was far too dear, and that a large
portion of it was worth nothing at all. "I pay eight and sixpence an
acre for land that grows nothing but furze, that a few sheep can
nibble round, an', begorra, 'tis not worth half-a-crown. Most iv it is
worth just nothin' at all, an' yet I have to scrape together eight
and sixpence an acre," said he. "'Tis not possible to get a livin' out
iv it."

"Thin why don't ye lave it?" said the man from Missouri.

"Why thin, how could I lave the bit o' ground me father had? Av ye
offered me a hundhred acres o' land for nothin' elsewhere, I vow to
God I would rather stay on the bit o' rock that grows heath and gorse,
if I could only get a crust out iv it, far sooner," said the grumbler.

"An' d'ye think Home Rule will enable ye to do betther? Ye'll believe
anythin' in Monivea. Ye are the same as iver ye wor. It's no use
raisonin' wid yez at all. Sure, the counthry won't be able to do
widout loans, an' who'll lind ye money wid an Irish Parlimint?"

"Why would we want money whin there's gowld to be had for the diggin',
av we got lave to dig it?" said the man of Monivea.

The villagers believe that England prevents their mining for coal,
gold, silver, copper; that the British Government tyrannically puts
down all enterprise; that Home Rule will open mines, build railways,
factories, institute great public works; that their friends will flock
back from America; that all the money now spent out of the country
will be disbursed in Ireland for Irish manufactures; that the land
must and will become their own for nothing, or next to nothing; and in
short, that simultaneously with the first sitting of an Irish
Parliament an era of unprecedented prosperity will immediately set in.
The two farmers confirmed what I have been told of the reluctance of
the landlords to part with an acre of the land, and said that men had
returned from America with money t