l accrue before it takes the shape
of law. Now, with all the talk of Griffith's valuation, there has
been, except in a few cases, no hint of paying that sum "without
prejudice" into court or into any bank whatsoever; and the cash held
by both farmers and peasants runs, in the opinion of many well
qualified to judge, sore risk of diminution before any comprehensive
measure can pass through Parliament. Even the well-to-do farmers will
be called upon to expend their balance in hand in many ways which they
will find difficult to resist. Not only the provision merchants, but
the drapers and milliners of Limerick, Ennis, and Galway, will hold
out allurements to those in possession of ready money. To put the
case briefly, there is great danger that, without any intentional
dishonesty on their part, the cultivators, great and small, of Western
and South-Western Ireland will hardly be in as good a position for the
discharge of their liabilities six months or a year hence as they are
at present. The three "F's" will hardly wipe off existing debt, and
the result of a division of the population into two sharply defined
classes of debtors and creditors is viewed by many thoughtful people
with considerable apprehension.

XII.

THE RETAINER.

CORK, _December 4th._

In describing the character of the Western and Southern Irishman
nothing would be more unfair than to leave out of the estimate his
curious faithfulness to some persons, and the tenderness with which he
cherishes the traditions of the past. In no country in the world is
the superstition concerning the "good old times" more fervently
believed in than in Western and Southern Ireland. And in the opinion
of the mass of the people the good old times extended down to a recent
date. One is asked to believe that before the period of the potato
famine Ireland was the abode of plenty if not of peace, and that
landlords and tenants blundered on together on the most amicable
terms. It is hardly necessary to state that the golden age of Ireland,
like the golden age of every other country, never had any real
existence. It is like the good old-fashioned servant who from the time
of Terence to our own has always lived in the imaginary past, but
never in the real present. The belief in a recent golden age is,
however, so prevalent in Ireland that I have thought it worth while to
investigate the grounds on which it is based and the means by which it
has been kept fresh and gree