fixed prices--a reduction on taking a quantity. The men who hold these
beliefs and opinions are the sole governors of Irish action, the sole
creators of Irish opinion. For the lay agitators who from time to time
have dared to oppose the clerics have been mostly suppressed, and the
few still in existence will probably disappear before long. Colonel
Nolan must hold this opinion, for when canvassing in Headford, the
parish priest came up and cut his head open with a bludgeon. The
gallant militarian submitted to this, and would fain have passed the
affair in silence. How many Englishmen would have stood it? This
incident, properly considered, should enlighten Britons on the
dominant influences of Irish Parliamentary action.

On the way to Dundalk I met Major Studdert, of Corofin, County Clare.
He spoke of the disturbed state of the district, and thought the
present condition of things scandalous and intolerable. He mentioned
the case of Mr. J. Blood, who has been four times fired at for
dismissing a herdsman. He said:--"Mr. Blood is universally admitted to
be one of the most amiable and benevolent of men. His herdsman had a
son who would not work, and who was reckoned one of the greatest
blackguards in the county, which is saying a good deal in County
Clare. Mr. Blood told him to send away this son, or he himself must
leave his situation. He refused, and Mr. Blood discharged his
herdsman, but with an extraordinary liberality gave him one hundred
pounds as consolation money. Since then Mr. Blood is everywhere
protected by four policemen. One of the bullets aimed at him passed
between his back and the back of the chair he was sitting in."

"I have only one argument for the country folks who talk of Home Rule.
I challenge them to show me a single industrious man in the whole
country who is not well off. They can't do it. What Ireland wants is
not Home Rule but industry. When they are at work they do not go at it
like Englishmen. I go over to Cheshire every year for the hunting
season, and it is a treat to see the English grooms looking after the
horses. They pull off their coats and roll up their sleeves in a way
that would astonish Irishmen. It is worth all they get to see them at
work. They get twice as much as Irish grooms, and they are worth the
difference. The people around me, the working people, do not perform
five months' work in a year."

And these are the people who are surprised at their own poverty, and
who mo