he Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, the Master of the Rolls--who said it was one of
the most important cases decided since the foundation of the Land
Court--and Lord Justice Deasy. I have been told on most excellent
authority that Lord Justice Christian declined to sit because, as he
told the Lord Chancellor, he felt so strongly in my favour that he could
not hear the case with an unbiassed mind.

There had been a demonstration at the previous decision, but it paled
before the great rejoicings over my success among all the tenantry over
whom I was agent. There were more than fifty bonfires blazing that night
in Kerry, so that the county looked as though it were signalling the
advent of another Armada, as in the fragment Macaulay left. The only
place where any opposition was exhibited was in Castleisland, whence the
Lombard family originally sprang; and there the lighted tar-barrels,
which had been placed on the ruins of the old castle, were extinguished,
to avoid unpleasant contact with a gang of rowdy roughs.

Messrs. Lombard and Murphy had stated that they were buying on behalf of
the tenants. So I served them with notice that if they undertook to sell
to every tenant his own holding they might have the property.

This they very wisely declined, and left me in the position that in 1879
I finally purchased a property on what was called an indefeasible
Parliamentary title, under the approval of Her Majesty's Judges, and in
1881 an Act of Parliament practically took one-third of it from me.

In 1881 I wrote a letter to Mr. Gladstone, asking him to take my
property and give me back my money.

To this he returned an evasive answer, declining my offer.

If the tenants had themselves bought the Harenc property at that time
they would by this time all be paupers, for they could only get
two-thirds of the money from Government, and would have had to borrow
the other third at a heavy rate of interest.

One man, Mr. Hewson, bought one of the farms for L13,500, and under Mr.
Gerald Balfour's Act of 1896 it was compulsorily sold to the tenants for
about L6000. I have the exact figures at Tralee, but these are
approximate enough for the purpose of demonstration.

Several of the other tenants took me into Court.

I had a piece of reclaimable ground on my own hands which I let for
eight shillings an acre. The adjoining tenant, with exactly the same
nature of land--which he swore on oath he had paid more than the
fee-simple in im