onel Winter, of the Buffs, told me that he came across a
donkey-cart in charge of two men, who were waiting at a cross-road. A
coffin had been removed from the cart, and stood on its end hard by.
"I thought it was an empty coffin," said the Colonel, "but it wasn't.
The men were waiting, by appointment, for the mourners, and meanwhile
the old lady in the coffin was standing on her head. Wonderful country
is Ireland.

"An old woman died in the workhouse of typhus fever, or some other
contagious disorder. The corpse was placed in a parish coffin, and
was about to be buried, when a relative came forward and offered to
take charge of the funeral, declining to accept the workhouse coffin.
The authorities consented, on condition that the proposed coffin
should be large enough to enclose the first one, explaining that the
body was dangerously contagious. The relative, a stout farmer, duly
arrived at the workhouse with the new coffin, which was found to be
too small to include the first one, and the authorities thereupon
refused to have the coffins changed. So the mourner knocked down two
men, and, making his way into the dead-room, burst open the receptacle
containing his revered grandmother, whipped her out of the parochial
box, planked her into the family coffin, and triumphantly walked her
off on his shoulder. There was filial piety for you! They arrested
that man, locked him up, and, for aught I know, left the old lady to
bury herself, which must have been a great hardship. What Englishman
would have done as much for his grandmother? And yet they say that
Connaught men have no enterprise!"

A Protestant of Castlebar said:--"If the English people fail to
correctly estimate the supreme importance of the present crisis it is
all over with us, and, I think, with England. If the Unionist party
persevere they must ultimately win. The facts are all with them.
Enlightenment is spreading, and if time to spread the truth can be
gained Home Rule will be as dead as a door-nail. If, on the other
hand, the English people fail to see the true meaning of Home Rule,
which is revolution and disintegration, England, from the moment an
Irish Parliament is established, must be classed with those countries
from which power has dwindled away; her glory will have commenced to
wane, her enemies will rejoice, and she will present to the world the
aspect of a nation in its decadence. The Irish leaders and the Irish
people alike, who support Home Ru