radually been to consolidate and amalgamate land
agencies, for as the difficulty of getting rents increased, more
competent men of experience and judgment were needed by the landlords.
As a proof of the trust reposed in me, I may mention that at one time I
received the rents of one-fifth of the whole county of Kerry--and that
in the worst times.

Such a task is not one to be envied, however joyously a man may take up
the burden of his daily toil, and of course the agents as the outward
and visible signs of the distant or absentee landlords obtained the
greater share of the hatred felt for the latter.

In the worst period Lord Derby received threats that if he did not
reduce his rents, his agent would be murdered.

He coolly replied:--

'If you think you will intimidate me by shooting my agent you are
greatly mistaken.'

That is exactly the reply the agents desired the landlords to make, but
it did not conduce to making their own existences any the more secure or
enviable.

Of course in the due working out of the Wyndham Act, land agents will be
utterly ruined.

There are no openings for them because they are too old to commence
learning another profession, and they will not get employment under the
County Council because they belong to the landlord class and have
unflinchingly fought the battles of the landlords.

The agents are a class who have devoted their time and risked their
lives in order to get in the rents due to their employers, and there is
not the smallest chance--save in a few isolated and exceptional
cases--of their being kept on when the landlords will have only their
own demesne in their own hands and employ some underling, such as a
bailiff in England, to collect the stray rents of the few cottagers who
may still chance to be tenants.

Judge Ross stated that there was no more deserving or painstaking class
in Ireland than the land agents, and he considered it a great hardship
that under the Wyndham Act they obtain no compensation.

By agreement in most cases they receive three per cent. of the purchase
money, but that is a very poor sinking fund to provide for a middle-aged
gentleman, who has probably a family to support; and absolute bankruptcy
must be the result if there is, as on several large properties, an agent
with a couple of assistants.

When the Ashbourne Act was passed in 1885, it was never contemplated
that the purchases would be on a wholesale scale. As a matter of fact
only