sisters had received good portions it was no more than their due,
considering the respectability of their family. Was he, after his
people had held the land for fifty years, to have it "raised on him"
to nearly double Griffith's valuation? Was it just to increase the
rent because his father and mother were dead? All these questions
occurred to the tenant, beyond any matter of improvements and so
forth. The landlord's position is quite intelligible. The value of
farm produce had risen so greatly since the original rent was levied,
and the farmer had prospered so well of late years, that the holding
was demonstrably worth more rent than had been paid. On the other
hand, the tenant held that the farm had done well by his people,
because they had done well by it, and that to "raise the rent on him"
because his family had behaved honestly and industriously was a
monstrous exercise of arbitrary power. The upshot of the whole matter
was a refusal on the part of the whole tenantry to pay the last "gale"
or six months' rent. It is a noteworthy circumstance that none of the
tenants are in arrear.

There are other accusations than that of raising the rent brought
against Mr. Bence Jones. The police barrack at Ballinascarthy was once
a grogshop, given by the landlord to a dairymaid who had been long in
his service. No sooner had she a groggery "to her fortune" than her
hand was sought by a legion of admirers. It is not, I fancy, generally
known in England that in this romantic country the warmhearted,
impulsive peasants almost invariably contract _mariages de
convenance_.

It is said that a young man in the neighbouring city of Kerry was once
sorely vexed in his mind as to his matrimonial choice. The
"matchmaker" who arranges such matters had proposed two girls to him,
one of whom had one cow and the other two cows "to her fortune." Now,
the "Boy" liked the girl with one cow far better than her rival who
had two, but the magnitude of the sacrifice he wished to make sat
heavy on his soul. He consulted a patriarch renowned for his wisdom,
and laid great stress upon his love for the girl with one cow. The
oracle spake as follows: "Take the gyurl wid the two cows. There isn't
the difference of a cow, begorra, betune any two women in the
wor-r-ld." By similar reasoning a superannuated dairymaid with a
grogshop is a very different person to the "pretty girl milking her
cow"--sovereign lady of her presence, but of no groggery beside.
C