they will vote as their
priest tells them. Someone has said that the British Government might
subsidise the Church, and so buy her off. It could not be done. The
bishops want power. I do not agree with them, and I do not support or
admit their claim to direct their flocks in political matters."

The Marquess of Conyngham, whom I met at Strabane, said:--"The people
of Donegal are pleasant, kind, and civil. Taking them all round, they
are much more energetic than the Southerners, and we were making fair
progress until these Home Rule Bills were brought in. The country was
being opened up, and things were beginning to improve, when the bill
came and blighted everything. Now the people are growing idle and
discontented. They are all right when left alone. Everybody likes the
Donegal peasants, and they deserve to be liked. Only leave them alone;
that's what they want; and not Home Rule nor any other quackery."

Strange things continue to happen in Ireland. This does not refer to
the continuous cutting-off of cows' tails, the slitting of horses'
tongues, and other similar expressions of impatience for the good time
coming, but to some strange things that have happened in connection
with agricultural affairs. Sir Samuel Hayes decided to abandon a farm
which would not pay, although he had no rent to meet. He was his own
landlord, but he did not work the farm. That was done by a bailiff,
who, curiously enough, was the highest bidder for the land. He of all
men should have known that if the farm would not pay expenses when
there was no rent, it would not reward the man who had rent to pay.
This reasoning proved fallacious. The farm which without rent proved a
loss, in the same hands turned out when rent was charged a perfect
gold-mine. In another case, a bailiff on leaving his employ expended
on land the accumulated savings of his thrifty years, and--strange to
say--his savings amounted to about three times the sum of his wages
during his life's service. A man who, having a pound a week, can save
three pounds, would in England be regarded as a prodigy. In Ireland
such things happen every day. Particulars as to the cases
hereinbefore-mentioned can be obtained from anybody in Killygordon,
which is altogether a remarkable place--to say nothing of its name,
which for obvious reasons has the misfortune to be unpleasant to the
Grand Old Man. _Nomen, Omen?_

An octogenarian J.P. said:--"They talk of gold and silver mines, and
lead a