leave it to their agent. Every application for
relief is referred to the agent. The agent, however humane, cannot be
expected to have the same interest in the people as a landlord _ought_
to have. The agent is the instrument used to draw out the last farthing
from the poor; he is constantly in collision with them. They naturally
dislike him; and he, not unnaturally, dislikes them.

The burden, therefore, of giving that relief to the poor, which they
always require in times of sickness, and when they cannot get work,
falls almost exclusively upon the priests and the convents. Were it not
for the exertions made by the priests and nuns throughout Ireland for
the support of the poor, and to obtain work for them, and the immense
sums of money sent to Ireland by emigrants, for the support of aged
fathers and mothers, I believe the destitution would be something
appalling, and that landlords would find it even more difficult than at
present to get the high rents which they demand. Yet, some of these same
landlords, getting perhaps L20,000 or L40,000 a-year from their Irish
estates, will not give the slightest help to establish industrial
schools in connexion with convents, or to assist them when they are
established, though they are the means of helping their own tenants to
pay their rent. There are in Ireland about two hundred conventual
establishments. Nearly all of these convents have poor schools, where
the poor are taught, either at a most trifling expense, or altogether
without charge. The majority of these convents feed and clothe a
considerable number of poor children, and many of them have established
industrial schools, where a few girls at least can earn what will almost
support a whole family in comfort. I give the statistics of one convent
as a sample of others. I believe there are a few, but perhaps only a
very few other places, where the statistics would rise higher; but there
are many convents where the children are fed and clothed, and where work
is done on a smaller scale. If such institutions were encouraged by the
landlords, much more could be done. The convent to which I allude was
founded at the close of the year 1861. There was a national school in
the little town (in England it would be called a village), with an
attendance of about forty children. The numbers rose rapidly year by
year, after the arrival of the nuns, and at present the average daily
attendance is just 400. It would be very much higher, w