said my jarvey, with a
twinkle in his eye; and then under his breath, "They'll be thinking your
honour's came down to arrange it all. They think everybody that comes is
come about an arrangement."

"Oh, then, they all want it arranged!"

"No; not all, but many of them do. Some of them like it well enough
going about like gentlemen with nothing to do, only their hands in their
pockets."

We turned out of the highway here and passed some very pretty cottages.

"No, they're not for labourers, your honour," said my jarvey; "the
estate built them for mechanics. It's the tenants look after the
labourers, and little it is they do for them."

Then, pointing to a ridge of hills beyond us, he said: "It was
Kilbride's father, sir, evicted seventeen tenants on these hills--poor
labouring men, with their families, many years ago,--and now he's
evicted himself, and a Member of Parliament!"

Father Maher's house stands well off from the highway. He was not at
home, being "away at a service in the hills," but would be back before
two o'clock. I left my name for him, with a memorandum of my purpose in
calling, and we drove on to see the bailiff of the estate, Mr. Hind. On
the way we met Father Norris, a curate of the parish, in a smart trap
with a good horse, and had a brief colloquy with him. Mr. Hind we found
busy afield; a quiet, staunch sort of man. He spoke of the situation
very coolly and dispassionately. "The tenants in the main were a good
set of men--as they had reason to be, Lord Lansdowne having been not
only a fair landlord, but a liberal and enterprising promoter of local
improvements." I had been told in Dublin that Lord Lansdowne had offered
a subscription of L200 towards establishing creameries, and providing
high-class bulls for this estate. Similar offers had been cordially met
by Lord Lansdowne's tenants in Kerry, and with excellent results. But
here they were rejected almost scornfully, though accompanied by offers
of abatement on the rents, which, in the case of Mr. Kilbride, for
example, amounted to 20 per cent.

"How did this happen, the tenants being good men as you say?" I asked of
Mr. Hind.

"Because they were unable to resist the pressure put on them by the two
chief tenants, Kilbride and Dunne, with the help of the League. Kilbride
and Dunne both lived very well." My information at Dublin was that Mr.
Kilbride had a fine house built by Lord Lansdowne, and a farm of seven
hundred acres, at a rent of