improvements--which was just the sum expected to be realized by the
sales. All this land has passed into the hands of farmers who, from
agitators and No Renters have now become proprietors on their own
account, with a direct interest in maintaining law and order, and in
opposing violence and disorder all round. Other important sales have
been effected. A hundred and fifty tenants on the Drapers' estate in
county Derry have bought their farms from the London Company at a
total of L57,980. These, with others (197 in all), reached a sum total
of purchase-money of L63,305, as set forth in the _Dublin Gazette_, of
November 5th, 1889.

Lord Spencer, whose political _volte face_ is one of the wonders of
the hour, does not hesitate to say that this Act has not been a
success. Can he give counter figures to those quoted above? And Mr.
Michael Davitt does not approve of the sales in general and of those
on the Egmont estates in especial, "He hates the Ashbourne Act worse
than he hates the idea of an endowed Roman Catholic University, which
is saying a great deal. He hates it because it renders impossible his
visionary scheme of land nationalization, but more because it wrests
from his hands the weapons of Separatist rebellion. And what he openly
says, all the more cautious members of his party think. Every
purchaser under the Ashbourne Act is a soldier lost to the cause of
sedition. More than one of the ringleaders have indeed said this
formerly, but of late they have grown more reticent. The Parnellite,
it has been said, is essentially an Opportunist. Mr. Davitt is hardly
a Parnellite, but the real Parnellite items have discovered that their
seats in Parliament and their future hopes would be endangered, if
they openly fell foul of the Act under which so many Irish tenants are
becoming freeholders. They do not bless the Act, but they leave it
alone."

There is another misstatement that had better be frankly met. The
objectors to the Land Courts say that the applicants are so many and
the process is so slow, it is almost useless and worse than
heartbreaking to apply for relief. One thing, however, must be
remembered--during the interim of application and hearing, a tenant
cannot be disturbed in his holding, and if he refuses to pay his rent
the landlord cannot evict him. The following correspondence is
instructive:--

"Braintree, Nov. 14.

"Sir,--Will you be good enough to inform me whether the statement I
g