ment will settle the matter
forth-with. That's why we support Home Rule. We know the opinions of
the men who now represent us, and we can trust them in this matter if
in no other. The land is the whole of it. If that were once put on an
unchangeable bottom I would rather be without Home Rule. Some say that
even if our rents are reduced by one-half, the increased taxes we must
pay would make us nearly as poor as ever, and that all this bother and
disturbance would not really save us a penny piece. And I think this
might be true. So that if something could be done by the English
Parliament I should prefer it to come that way. And so would we all, a
hundred times. For with the English Parliament we know where we are,
and what we're doing. I'm not one to believe that the land will be
handed over to us without payment. Plenty of them are ignorant enough
to believe even that. My view is just this: If the English Parliament
would settle the land question, I would prefer to do without an Irish
Parliament. That's what all the best farmers say, and nothing else.
No, I wouldn't invest money in Ireland. No, I wouldn't trust the bulk
of the present members for Ireland. Yes, I would prefer a more
respectable class of men who had a stake in the country. But we had to
take what we could catch, for people who have a stake in the country
are all against Home Rule. What could we do? We had no choice. We sent
Home Rulers because an Irish Parliament is pledged to meet our views
about the land. We know they will fulfil their pledges, not because
they have promised, nor because they wish to benefit us, but because
they wish to abolish landlordism and landlords from the country. The
landlord interest is English interest, and that they want to get rid
of. Their reasons for settling the land question are not the farmers'
reasons, but so long as it _is_ settled the farmer will reap the
benefit, and will not care _why_ it was settled. Give us compulsory
sale and compulsory purchase, at a fair price, and you will find the
farmers nearly all voting against Home Rule. No, the priests would not
be able to stir us once we were comfortably settled. Why, we'd all
become Conservatives at once. Sure anybody with half-an-eye could see
that in a pitch-dark night in a bog-hole."

My friend assured me that secret societies are unknown in Mayo, or at
any rate, in the Westport district. The young men of Clare, he
thought, were Fenians to a man. "They are queer,