blic sympathy, I may
cite the conduct of Mr. James C. MacDonnell, the sub-sheriff of this
county. I have the story from an intimate friend of that gentleman, on
whose veracity I can implicitly rely. I say this because I did not in
the first place pay much attention to the story, but have since been
enabled to verify it in every particular. Last spring Mr. MacDonnell,
in his capacity as sub-sheriff, was required by Miss Gardiner to serve
notices of ejectment against about a score of her tenants who had not
paid up. There was great excitement when it became known that twenty
families would be evicted from their holdings, and a breach of the
peace appeared very probable. In England the public voice would
possibly be in favour of executing the law at all hazards. Some of the
tenants owed two years' rent. The patience of the landlord was
exhausted. The tenants would neither pay nor take themselves off.
There was no option but to evict them; the sub-sheriff must do his
duty, backed by as large a body of constabulary as might be necessary.
Law and order must be enforced. This would be the view taken in any
other place but this, but in Ireland the matter appeared in a totally
different light. To begin with, the idea of blood being shed in order
that Miss Gardiner might get in her rents appeared utterly
preposterous. Secondly, the two past crops had completely failed in
Mayo. Thirdly, the bad crops of 1878 and 1879 in England had prevented
the Mayo men from earning the English harvest money on which they
entirely depend for their rent, and much more than their rent.
Finally, the sub-sheriff himself, who, despite his being at once a
proprietor, a middleman, and an officer of the law, has won popularity
by sheer weight of character, felt a natural reluctance to enforce his
authority. Compelled to execute the law, he determined to make a
personal appeal to the tenants before evicting them. Accordingly, he
adjured them to get together a little money to show that they really
meant to act well and honestly, and that he would then help them
himself. The matter ended in his advancing them about 140l. out of his
own pocket, on their notes of hand, and paying Miss Gardiner, who
observed that "he had done well for her tenants, but not so well for
her." To the credit of the tenants helped by Mr. MacDonnell it must be
added that all have met their notes save two or three, who among them
owe but 15l. This little story is entirely typical of th