eas nearly all the others were only valued at half a sovereign
apiece.

As a matter of fact, almost any one could have been shot at Castleisland
if a sovereign were offered, for they cared no more for human life than
for that of a rat. Parnell himself would have been shot by any one of a
couple of dozen fellows willing to earn a dishonest living if a
five-pound note had been locally put upon his head. A patriotic
philanthropist, destitute of the bowels of compassion and of every
dictate of humanity, might have saved a great deal of undeserved
suffering if he had made this donation towards his 'removal'--a pretty
euphemism of Land League coinage.

Most of that generation are dead, in gaol, or have emigrated. It would
take the deuce of a big sum to tempt any Castleislander to-day to commit
murder, except under provocation, and the same improvement is observable
all over Ireland. I believe a hundred pounds might be put on the head of
the least popular agent or landlord, and he might walk unscathed without
police protection.

All that has been set forth in this chapter might be regarded as a heavy
indictment of crime and disorder, but I cannot avoid adding one
confirmatory piece of evidence, as eloquent as it is accurate. This is
the fearful description of the state of Kerry which appears in Judge
O'Brien's charge to the Grand Jury at the Assizes, founded, of course,
on the report of outrages submitted to him. It is impossible to guess in
what stronger words his opinions would have been expressed if the total
number of outrages committed had been laid before him; but it is well
known that only a few of those committed were reported, as, if the
criminals were taken up and identified, the victims would be likely to
be shot in revenge, while the guilty persons, tried by a sympathising
jury, would obtain acquittal and popular advertisement.

The charge was as follows:--

'COLONEL CROSBIE AND GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY OF KERRY--I requested
your permission to defer any observations I was about to make to you, in
order that I might have an opportunity of examining certain returns
which had been made to me containing materials for forming a judgment
upon the state of things in this county of which I was put in possession
upon my arrival, and I was desirous of being afforded an opportunity of
examining these materials to try if I could discern whether, in the
considerable lapse of time that has happened since the last Assizes