.V. D'Esterre, who lives chiefly at Bournemouth in
England, but owns 2833 acres in County Clare at Rosmanagher, valued at
L1625 a year. More than a year ago one of Father Little's parishioners,
Mr. Frost, successfully resisted a large force of the constabulary bent
on executing a process of ejectment against him obtained by Mr.
D'Esterre.

Frost's holding was of 33 Irish, or, in round numbers, about 50 English,
acres, at a rental of L117, 10s., on which he had asked but had not
obtained an abatement. The Poor-Law valuation of the holding was L78,
and Frost estimated the value of his and his father's improvements,
including the homestead and the offices, or in other words his
tenant-right, at L400. The authorities sent a stronger body of
constables and ejected Frost. But as soon as they had left the place
Frost came back with his family, on the 28th Jan. 1887, and reoccupied
it. Of course proceedings were taken against him immediately, and a
small war was waged over the Frost farm until the 5th of September last,
when an expedition was sent against it, and it was finally captured, and
Frost evicted with his family. Upon this last occasion Father Little
(who gave me a very temperate but vigorous account of the whole affair)
distinguished himself by a most ingenious and original attempt to "hold
the fort." He chained himself to the main doorway, and stretching the
chains right and left secured them to two other doors. It was of this
refreshing touch of humour that I heard the other day at Abbeyleix as
happening not in Clare but in Kerry.

Since his eviction Frost has been living, Father Little tells me, in a
wooden hut put up for him on the lands of a kinsman of the same name,
who is also a tenant of Mr. D'Esterre, and who has since been served by
his landlord with a notice of ejectment for arrears, although he had
paid up six months' dues two months only before the service. Father
Little charged the landlord in this case with prevarication and other
evasive proceedings in the course of his negotiations with the tenants;
and Colonel Turner did not contest the statements made by him in support
of his contention that the Rosmanagher difficulty might have been
avoided had the tenants been more fairly and more considerately dealt
with. It is strong presumptive evidence against the landlord that a
kinsman, Mr. Robert D'Esterre, is one of the subscribers to a fund
raised by Father Little in aid of the evicted man Frost. On the