had a
very cheery dinner, and a very clever lawyer, Mr. Shannon, gave us an
irresistible reproduction of a charge delivered by an Irish judge famous
for shooting over the heads of juries, who sent twelve worthy citizens
of Galway out of their minds by bidding them remember, in a case of
larceny, that they could not find the prisoner guilty unless they were
quite sure "as to the _animus furandi_ and the _asportavit_."

_Saturday, Feb. 25._--I had an interesting talk this morning at the
County Club with a gentleman from Limerick on the subject of
"boycotting." I told him what I had seen at Edenvale of the practice as
applied to a forlorn and helpless old woman, for the crime of standing
by her "boycotted" son. "You think this an extreme case," he said, "but
you are quite mistaken. It is a typical case certainly, but it gives you
only an inadequate idea of the scope given to this infernal machinery.
The 'boycott' is now used in Ireland as the Inquisition was used in
Spain,--to stifle freedom of thought and action. It is to-day the chief
reliance of the National League for keeping up its membership, and
squeezing subscriptions out of the people. If you want proof of this,"
he added, "ask any Nationalist you know whether members of the League in
the country allow farmers who are not members to associate with them in
any way. I can cite you a case at Ballingarry, in my county, where last
summer a resolution of the League was published and put on the Chapel
door, that members of the National League were thenceforth to have no
dealings or communication with any person not a member. This I saw with
my own eyes, and it was matter of public notoriety."

I lunched at the City Club with Mr. M'Carthy. Sir Daniel O'Sullivan,
formerly Mayor of Cork, whose views of Home Rule seem to differ widely
from those of his successor, now incarcerated here, was one of the
company. In the course of an animated but perfectly good-natured
discussion of the Land Law question between two other gentlemen present,
one of them, a strong Nationalist, smote his Unionist opponent very
neatly under the fifth rib. The latter contending that it was monstrous
to interfere by law with the principle of freedom of contract, the
Nationalist responded, "That cannot be; it must be right and legitimate
to do it, for the Imperial Parliament has done it four times within
seventeen years!"

I walked with Mr. M'Carthy to his apartments, where he showed me many
curious