the relations existing between landlord and tenant. An
Englishman goes into Parliament for various motives; an Irishman for his
living. If he did not outshout his neighbour, if he were not implicitly
obedient to Mr. Parnell, if he did not arouse the worst passions of the
worst people in his constituency, he was promptly dismissed.

To do them justice, the Irish members gave such an exhibition of
blackguardism as has no parallel on earth, though it earned but the
mildest rebuke from their obsequious ally, Mr. Gladstone.

In 1869, for example, before this balloting away of all that was
creditable to Ireland, the relations between landlord and tenant were of
the most kindly nature. The leading landlords of Kerry generally
represented the county in Parliament with uniform decency and occasional
brilliance, while larger sums were borrowed and expended by the
landlords under the Land Improvement Act than were spent in the same way
in any other county. I can prove that the principal landowner in
Kerry--Lord Kenmare--expended a greater sum in ten years on his estates
than he received out of them, though I cannot say he ever found out for
himself that it was better to give than to receive.

For fifty years prior to what Mr. Gladstone was pleased to call his
'remedial legislation,' Kerry was unstained by agrarian crime; all
things went on smoothly, and a number of railways were constructed with
guaranteed capital, half of which was contributed by the landlords,
although they received no benefit from the increased prices of farm
produce caused by railway communication. The Board of Works returns show
that the money borrowed by Kerry landlords under the different Land
Improvement Acts amounted to almost half a million, and yet the
deductions made under the Land Act were greater in Kerry than in other
counties.

Here is an instance from my own experience.

I purchased from the Government in 1879 an estate, the rental of which
was L517, 2s. 4d.; it was considered so cheaply let that the majority of
the tenants offered twenty-seven years' purchase for their farms. I
borrowed from the Government and expended on drainage L1120, 14s. 11d.
Then the Commissioners under the Land Act reduced the rental to L495,
10s. 6d., and the Government which sold me the estate continued to
compel me to pay interest on the amount borrowed, although by its own
legislation I was deprived of any advantage resulting from the outlay.

The rental of Kerry