ther nineteen after being evicted would also squat down on his patch.
Unless caretakers at a cost of about three times the rent were put in
under excessive police protection, all the nineteen farms would promptly
become derelict.

It would have been far better if the Government had given a free grant
of one quarter of the purchase money, had compelled the tenant to
himself find another quarter, and had lent the remaining half for a
comparatively short term, say twenty-five years.

Then the tenant would have had genuine interest in the redemption of his
own property.

But, asks the English tourist impressed by the apparent beggarliness of
all he sees, how could the tenant procure a quarter of the money?

Naturally it would be alleged by the agitators that he could not. All
the same you may confidently contradict any such denial as that.

It is clear that almost any tenant could get the money, if you bear in
mind that though rents are so reduced, the most unimproving tenant can
get from ten to twenty years' purchase for the good-will of his farm.

Of course, just now the old order is changing considerably in Ireland,
but the loss of their old landlords is not appreciated by the better
class of tenants, though the good have of course to suffer for the
bad--a thing even better known in my country than elsewhere. I heard an
interesting confirmation of this from a lady of my acquaintance, who
having asked a respectable woman what had become of her son, received
the reply:--

'Ah, for sure, he has got a situation with a farmer.'

'Well, that's a good start in life, is it not?' asked my friend, to
which the woman retorted in melancholy accents:--

'That may be, but my family have always been rared (_i.e._ reared) on
the gentry until now,' thereby expressing a feeling very prevalent in
Ireland to-day.

The Home Rulers allege that these high prices which are paid for the
good-will of land are attributable to two causes:--

_(a)_ Excess of competition for land.
_(b)_ Irish returning from America.

Both these reasons are absurd.

When the population of Ireland was nearly eight millions, these prices
could not be obtainable, nor anything like them, while to-day the
population is only four millions. Unless the returning emigrants thought
they were obtaining good value for their money, they would hardly
abandon a country--the United States--where they can get land for
nothing.

The enormous increase in the Irish