s, once tried to "boycott" him because he was
the pound-master; but he showed fight, and they let him alone. He
pointed out to me from the top of the house, in the distance, the
residences of Colonel Hickie, and of the young Lord Avonmore, who lately
succeeded on the death of his brother in the recent Egyptian expedition.
The place is now shut up, and the owners live in France.

We visited too the Portumna Union before driving home. The buildings of
this Union are extensive for the place, and well built, and it seems to
be well-ordered and neatly kept--thanks, in no small degree, I suspect,
to the influence of the Sisters who have charge of the hospital, but
whose benign spirit shows itself not only in the flower-garden which
they have called into being, but in many details of the administration
beyond their special control.

The contrast was very striking between the atmosphere of this
unpretending refuge of the helpless and that of certain of the
"laicised" hospitals of France, which I not long ago visited, from which
the devoted nuns have been expelled to make way for hired nurses. I made
a remark to this effect to the clerk of the Union, Mr. Lavan, whom we
found in his office.

"Oh, yes," he said, "I have no doubt of that. We owe more than I can say
to the Sisters, but I don't know how long we should have them here if
the local guardians could have their way."

In explanation of this, he went on to tell me that these local
guardians, who are elected, are hostile to the whole administration,
because of its relations with the Local Government Board at Dublin,
which controls their generous tendency to expend the money of the
ratepayers. By way of expressing their feelings, therefore, they have
been trying to cut down, not only the salary of the clerk, but that of
the Catholic chaplain of the Union; and as there is a good deal of
irreligious feeling among the agitators here, it is his impression that
they would make things disagreeable for the Sisters also were they in
any way to get the management into their own hands. That there cannot be
much real distress in this neighbourhood appears from two facts. There
are now but 130 inmates of this Union, out of a population of 12,900,
and the outlay for out-of-door relief averages between eight and ten
pounds a week.

In the quiet, neat chapel two or three of the inmates were kneeling at
prayers; and others whom we saw in the kitchen and about the offices had
nothing of