cy men on them--a set of desperate men, a kind of _enfants
perdus_," he said, "to work and manage the land;" but he did not believe
the operation could be successfully carried out. Meanwhile he
confidently counted upon seeing "the present Tory Government give way,
and go out, when it would become necessary for the landlords to do
justice to the rack-rented people. Pray understand," said Father Keller,
"that I do not say all landlords stand at all where Mr. Ponsonby has
been put by his agent, for that is not the case; but the action of many
landlords in the county Cork in sustaining Mr. Ponsonby, whose estate is
and has been as badly rack-rented an estate as can be found, is, in my
judgment, most unwise, and threatening to the peace and happiness of
Ireland."[9]

I asked whether, in his opinion, it would be possible for the Ponsonby
tenants to live and prosper here on this estate, could they become
peasant proprietors of it under Lord Ashbourne's Act, provided they
increased in numbers, as in that event might be expected. This he
thought very doubtful so far as a few of the tenants are concerned.

"Would you seek a remedy, then," I asked, "in emigration?"

"No, not in emigration," he replied, "but in migration."

I begged him to explain the difference.

"What I mean," he said, "is, that the people should migrate, not out of
Ireland, but from those parts of Ireland which cannot support them into
parts of Ireland which can support them. There is room in Meath, for
example, for the people of many congested districts."

"You would, then, turn the great cattle farms of Meath," I said, "into
peasant holdings?"

"Certainly."

"But would not that involve the expropriation of many people now
established in Meath, and the disturbance or destruction of a great
cattle industry for which Ireland has especial advantages?"

To this Father Keller replied that he did not wish to see Ireland
exporting her cattle, any more than to see Ireland exporting her sons
and daughters. "I mean," he said, quite earnestly, "when they are forced
to export them to pay exorbitant rents, and thus deprive themselves of
their capital or of a fair share of the comforts of life. I should be
glad to see the Irish people sufficient to themselves by the domestic
exchange of their own industries and products." At the same time he
begged me to understand that he had no wish to see this development
attended by any estrangement or hostile feeling between I