demolished houses in the townland of Drumnatinny. Mr.
Spencer intends, on his return to England, to bring home to the minds
of the English people by a series of illustrative lectures, the misery
and hardships to which the Irish peasantry are subjected."]

[Footnote E: On this question of further legislation I will quote part
of a letter from a correspondent which shows the views of a singularly
able, impartial, and fair-minded Irishman. "The breaking of leases was
another risky thing to do, for it shook all faith in the sovereignty
of the law and the finality of its _dicta_. Till Mr. Gladstone made
himself the champion of the tenants and the oppressor of the
landlords, Parliament never dreamed of revising rents paid under
leases. Mr. Gladstone began by breaking these leases when held for a
certain term defined by him. But we cannot stop there now. If another
Land Bill is to be brought in by the present Government it must, to
really and finally settle matters, _break all leases_. If it stops
short of this the trouble will crop up again. If a man now with a
thirty-nine years' lease can go into the Land Court, the man with a
lease of a hundred years, or a hundred and fifty, or two hundred,
should not be shut out. This point cannot be put too strongly to this
Government. If the thing is to be done let it be done thoroughly, and
let every man who holds a lease--no matter for what term--go into the
Land Court, and also purchase under Lord Ashbourne's Act. Lord
Ashbourne's Act is the real cure if made to apply all round."]

[Footnote F: The Irish have always been cruel to animals. It is a
curious fact that most Roman Catholic peasants are. In the time of
Charles I. an Act was passed to prevent the Irish farmers from
ploughing by their oxens' tails. Even now they pluck their geese
alive.]

[Footnote G: The boycott against the Great Northern Railway line
between Carrickmacross and Dundalk is now in full swing. It was begun
at Friday's fair in the former town, intimation having been given to
all dealers in cattle and pigs that not an animal was to leave by the
Great Northern line. Not a hackney car was permitted to attend the
railway station, and commercial travellers had to leave their samples
at the station. Many of the cattle and pigs purchased at the fair were
driven by road to Kingscourt, where there is a station of the Midland
Great Western Company, a local National League branch having published
a resolution recommendi