per cent., for there is no pretence made of doing very small
bills at anything approaching ordinary rates. In fact, the peasant
cultivator, having acquired under the Land Acts now in force a species
of proprietory interest in the soil, has a sort of credit which,
backed by a friendly and innocent depositor, can be made an engine for
raising ready money in a small way. This help from the banks is so far
good that it has relieved the decent peasant from his ancient
bloodsucker, the _gombeen_ man. Admitting that with charges and fine
for renewal and so forth the loan ultimately costs Mike fifteen or
twenty per cent, he is vastly better off than he was under the old
system. He gets money to buy pigs to fatten for sale, or manure for
his bit of arable land, and if the rate appears high, it is wondrously
merciful as compared with that to which he was formerly accustomed.

But there is an awkward side even to the business which enables the
principal Irish banks to pay large dividends. So long as care is taken
that Mike and Thady do not overdo the accommodation bill system,
perhaps no very great harm is done in extending the advantage of
moderate credit to the humblest cultivator; but when competition is
sharp in a petty townlet between two rival banks, the tendency towards
a mischievous extension of credit is almost irresistible, and bank
managers are at last driven to look sharply after their clients on
market days, lest the ready money which is their due should be
deflected to other purposes. The provision man, who has supplied bacon
and other necessaries, is on the alert to secure something on account;
and if, as is most probable, he has been giving credit somewhat
recklessly, he is pinched for money, despite the high rate of profit
he has been charging to cover his risk. For some time past the game of
credit has been going on gaily; but since the commencement of the
present agitation both banks and _gombeen_ men have distinctly
narrowed their operations, and the landlord is now the almost
universal creditor. The harvest-money has either gone to pay advances
or to settle accounts with tradesfolk, so that an awkward future is in
preparation for all but the prosperous tenants, of whom there is no
lack in counties Clare and Limerick. Whatever the details of the
forthcoming Land Act may be when it has passed the ordeal of both
Houses of Parliament, the work of passing it will take time, and at
least another half-year's rent wil