a conditional lease from the
Government, the four cardinal conditions being--that he should not
subdivide; that he should not sublet; that he should not take in a
partner; that he should cultivate some portion of the land according
to a prescribed system. I saw the fine Irish "oi" of my friend gleam
with triumph. "A second Daniel," he almost shouted; "a second Daniel
come from England. But are you aware, my friend, that you have evolved
from your own unaided consciousness one of 'Lord Leitrim's
leases'--the leases, which cost him his life? Bating the fines which
he injudiciously levied you have exactly the programme for enforcing
which he was shot, as you would probably be if you attempted anything
of the kind. It is not at the signing of the leases that any
difficulty would arise, but in carrying their letter and spirit into
effect."

In view of the conflicting opinions held by able residents in the
western and south-western counties, I thought it well to inspect a few
estates, great and small, and to record such visible and otherwise
well ascertained facts as might bear on the questions now at issue. My
first visit in Kerry was to Clashatlea on the hill-side, opposite the
station of Gortatlea on the railway line to Tralee. This townland is
the property of Mr. Arthur Blennerhasset, of Ballyseedy, and it has
fallen into an awful condition through no fault of its present
proprietor.

Years ago the land was let for electioneering purposes, akin to the
creation of faggot votes, and a vast number of small holders became
fixed upon land from which it is impossible to evict them. The
approach to the small holdings lies along a cross road now in the
course of construction from the lower road to the mountain road into
Tralee. The cross road is in its present wet and unfinished condition
a sore trial to man and beast; but it has a history nevertheless.
Years ago it was a matter of complaint by the cottiers of Clashatlea
that to obtain turf they were obliged to make a great detour involving
the climbing of a severe hill. An attempt was made to lay a road on
the lines now in progress; but it never grew into more than "the name
of a road." So the little peasant cultivators whose land abutted on
the abortive road gradually absorbed it into their possessions, each
peasant taking his section in turn; a system exactly like that
followed in bygone days by English landholders, and now attempted by
the riparian proprietors of the Thame