, and his followers followed.
No doubt it was all that most of them could do. Result,--tumult,
disturbance, confusion worse confounded. Home Rule means that the
country will be deluged with blood, that civilisation will receive a
shock which will send back the island for a century. The causes of
Ireland's poverty are laziness and lack of enterprise, the latter
accentuated by everlasting disturbance. Before the Nationalists we had
the Fenians, the Whiteboys, the Ribbon-men, the United Irishmen, the
Defenders, the goodness-knows-what, running back in continuous line up
to the dawn of history. No wonder we are poor. Cannot Gladstonians
read the records? If they did so, and if they were acquainted with the
character of the Irish when in their native land, they would agree
with my cook, herself a Kelt of Kelts, who says that Irishmen are
leather, good leather, but fit only for the sole, and not for the
uppers.

"I used to regard Mr. Gladstone as an honest man. Now I think
otherwise. As for the ruck that follow him--well, if they were
intelligent when honest, or honest when intelligent, nobody could
understand their deviation from the path of reason and rectitude. But
the rogues will of course do anything they think will suit them best,
no matter what befalls their country; and as for the rest, why of
course no reasonable man would blame people for not thinking, when
Providence has not provided them with the requisite machinery."

Ballyshannon, August 5th.

No. 58.--THE TRUTH ABOUT BUNDORAN.

There is no railway between Donegal and Ballyshannon, fifteen miles
away. The largest town in the county is not connected with the
principal port. But you can steam from Ballyshannon to Bundoran, the
favourite watering-place of Donegal, quaint and romantic, with a deep
bay and grassy cliffs. The bathing-grounds have a smooth floor of
limestone, and the Atlantic rolls in majestically, sending aloft
columns of white spray as its waters strike the outlying islands of
rock, each with a green crown of vegetation. The bare-headed and
bare-legged natives walk side by side with the fashionably-dressed
citizens of Dublin, Belfast, and Londonderry. The poorest folks are
tolerably clean, and, unlike the Southerners, occasionally wash their
feet. The town is small, but there is plenty of good accommodation for
holiday makers. Bundoran is Catholic and intolerant. Although
depending on their Protestant countrymen for nine-tenths of their