on the main line from Dublin to
Londonderry, but is little troubled by tourists. The place is quiet
and tidy enough, and like many other Irish country towns seems to live
on the surrounding country, which sends in a strong contingent on
market days. The people are also quiet, civil, and decent, and the
land in the neighbourhood seems fertile and well cultivated. Industry
is evident on every side. Everybody has something to do. A farmer
living just outside the town said he experienced the greatest
difficulty in getting extra hands for harvest time. In his opinion the
people were incomparably better off than in the days of his youth,
some thirty years ago. He said "The labouring classes are far better
housed, better clothed, and better fed, than in old times. They live
far better than the well-to-do farmers of a generation ago. And the
queerest thing about it is the fact that the better off they are, the
more discontented they seem; and during the last few months they are
becoming unbearable. They are giving themselves airs in advance. And
no wonder, when they see the British Parliament entirely occupied with
their affairs, to the exclusion of all English business. They may well
feel important. They boast that they have compelled this attention,
and that they shortly will have their own way in everything. Last
Sunday a drunken fellow was making a row near my house. I told him to
go away, and he said, 'Before long you'll have to go away and every
Blackface in the country. We'll be masters in another month.' He was
alluding to Mr. Gladstone's gagging motion, which the poor folks here
in their ignorance believe to mean that Home Rule will set in about
the beginning of August. They are acting accordingly, and they expect
to have the land which the Protestant farmers now hold--at once. It is
to be divided amongst them by ballot. We feel very anxious about here,
for we feel that we are only staying on sufferance, and we have no
confidence in the support of the present Government. We have expended
our labour and our substance on the land, and if we lose these we lose
all. You may say there is no fear of that, as such a piece of iniquity
would never be tolerated by the English people. But when I see them
tolerating so much, I think we have good reason to feel uneasy and
unsettled. For my part, I have no heart for hard work, when I feel
that somebody else may reap the reward. And with a Catholic Parliament
in Dublin we should very