there was a good price
for the barrel of wheat, and for pigs, and so I made a little store.
But as for any man to support himself out of a small farm, at the
high price of land, and the price of labour that is going, it is
impossible.

'What is the smallest farm upon which a man can support himself at the
present rate of rent, taking a man with five or six children?--That is
a hard question.

'Supposing a man to pay 35 s. an acre, and to have two acres, and to
be obliged to live out of the farm, do you think he could do it and
pay rent?--He could not; his land must be very good. Unless he lived
near a town, and had cheap land, it would be impossible. But a man
with five acres, at a moderate rent, he could support his family upon
it.

'What should you earn at weaving?--I only weave for my own family. I
weave my own shirt.

'Do your family ever spin any wool and weave it?--Yes.

'Do you live upon the Shirley estate?--Yes.

'How much bog do you require to keep your house in fuel?--Half a rood,
if it was good; but it is bad bog ground, red mossy turf, white and
light; it requires more than the black turf.

'What do you pay for half a rood of turf?--It is 13 s. 4 d. for a
rood--that is, 6 s. 8 d. for half a rood. There is 4 s. 6 d. paid for
bad bog.

'Do you pay anything for the ticket of leave to cut?--Yes, I do; I
have not a ticket unless I pay 6 d. for it.

'That is over and above the 4 s. 6 d.?--Yes.

'Did you ever pay more than 6 s. 8 d. for the bog in the late agent's
time?--He took the good bog off us; we were paying 6 s. 8 d. for it.
They left us to the bad bog, and we do not pay so high for that.

'Was the good bog dearer or cheaper than the bad bog at 4 s. 6
d.?--Half a rood of the good bog was worth half an acre or an acre of
the other. The bad bog smokes so we have often to leave the house: we
cannot stay in it unless there is a good draught in the chimney.'

The Rev. Thomas Smollan, P.P., has published a letter to the Earl of
Dunraven, a Catholic Peer, to whom Mr. Trench has dedicated his book.
In this letter the parish priest of Farney says:--

'In pages 63 and 64 Mr. Trench tells his readers that on the very
night the news of the late agent's sudden death, in the county
courthouse of Monaghan, reached Carrickmacross, "fires blazed on
almost every hill on the Shirley estate, and over a district of more
than 20,000 acres there was scarcely a mile without a bonfire blazing
in manifestation of j