ng, but soon became hopeless. The country
about Hollymount and Ballinrobe grew disturbed. Proprietors, agents,
and large farmers required "protection" from the constabulary, and
there was no longer anything to attract capital to the neighbourhood
in the face of a deterrent population. Hence one of the largest and
most popular farmers in Mayo has retired from the field with his
capital, and has left his landlord to farm the land himself.
Apparently Lord Lucan can do no better; for it would be difficult to
find a stranger of sufficient substance to rent and farm twenty-two
hundred acres of land, endowed with sufficient hardihood to bring his
money and his life hither under the existing condition of affairs.

The incident just narrated, moreover, appears to prove that one object
at least of the party of agitation has been achieved. To
politico-economists it will appear a Pyrrhic victory. Capital is
effectually scared from this part of Ireland, and those who have
invested money on mortgage and found themselves at last compelled to
"take the beast for the debt" are bitterly regretting their ill-judged
promptitude. A large farm between this and Achill, or near Ballina on
the north, or in the country extending from the spot where Lord
Mountmorres was shot, towards Ballinrobe, Hollymount, Claremorris, or
Castlebar, could hardly be let now at any price, even where the
neighbours have not actually taken possession, as at Knockdahurk.
Landlords have apparently the three proverbial courses open to them.
They cannot sell their land, it is true; but they can let it lie
waste, they can farm it themselves "if," as a trustworthy informant
said to me just now, "they dare," or they can let it directly, as of
old, to small tenants, who will come in at once and perhaps pay what
they consider a fair rent in good years. It is folly to expect them to
pay at all when crops are bad. And then there is the inevitable delay
and uncertainty at all times which has led to the system of
"middlemen" of which so much has been said and written. The middleman
is that handy person, to the landlord, who assures him of a certain
income from his property by buying certain rents at a deduction of 30
or 40 per cent., and collecting them as best he can. To the landlord
he is a most useful man of business, thanks to whom he can count upon
a certain amount of ready money. To the peasant he appears as a
fiendish oppressor.

Touching this word "peasant," a great de