r money, because in the seventeenth century
it pleased the stupid rulers of England, as the great Duke of Ormond
indignantly said, to "put so general a discountenance upon the
improvement of Ireland, as if it were resolved that to keep it low is to
keep it safe."

On going back to the little drawing-room after dinner we found Mrs.
Tener among her flowers, busy with some literary work. It is not a gay
life here, she admits, her nearest visiting acquaintance living some
seven or eight miles away--but she takes long walks with a couple of
stalwart dogs in her company, and has little fear of being molested.
"The tenants are in more danger," she thinks, "than the landlords or the
agents"--nor do I see any reason to doubt this, remembering the Connells
whom I saw at Edenvale, and the story of the "boycotted" Fitzmaurice
brutally murdered in the presence of his daughter at Lixnaw on the 31st
of January, as if by way of welcome to Lord Ripon and Mr. Morley on
their arrival at Dublin.

PORTUMNA, _Feb. 29th._--Early this morning two of the "evicted" tenants,
and an ex-bailiff of the property here, came by appointment to discuss
the situation with Mr. Tener. He asked me to attend the conference, and
upon learning that I was an American, they expressed their perfect
willingness that I should do so. The tenants were quiet, sturdy,
intelligent-looking men. I asked one of them if he objected to telling
me whether he thought the rent he had refused to pay excessive, or
whether he was simply unable to pay it.

"I had the money, sir, to pay the rent," he replied, "and I wanted to
pay the rent--only I wouldn't be let."

"Who wouldn't let you?" I asked.

"The people that were in with the League."

"Was your holding worth anything to you?" I asked.

"It was indeed. Two or three years ago I could have sold my right for a
matter of three hundred pounds."

"Yes!" interrupted the other tenant, "and a bit before that for six
hundred pounds."

"Is it not worth three hundred pounds to you now?"

"No," said Mr. Tener, "for he has lost it by refusing the settlement I
offered to make, and driving us into proceedings against him, and
allowing his six months' equity of redemption to lapse."

"And sure, if we had it, no one would be let to buy it now, sir," said
the tenant. "But it's we that hope Mr. Tener here will let us come back
on the holdings--that is, if we'd be protected coming back."

"Now, do you see," said Mr. Tener, "what it