ssing the advisability of joining in the Onward march to
Freedom. But although the tenant is settled on the land for ever, and,
so long as he owes less than a year's rent, cannot be molested, it must
not be supposed that the rent he agreed to is unchangeable. Suppose the
tenant to be paying a judicial rent, which is decided by three persons,
one of them a lawyer, the other two acting respectively in the
interests of landlord and tenant, having examined and valued the farm.
Assume that the tenant gets more than a year behindhand. The landlord
desires to evict. Even then the tenant, by applying for another "Fair
Rent," can stay eviction. But while the rent may be lowered, the
landlord can never raise it under any circumstances. The law is
decidely one-sided. Leases may be broken. All leaseholders whose leases
would expire within ninety-nine years after the passing of the Land Act
of 1887 may go to Court, have their contracts broken, and a judicial
rent fixed. No countervailing advantage is given to the landlords. When
a tenant's valuation does not exceed L50, the Court before which
proceedings are being taken for the recovery of any debt, whether for
beef, bread, groceries, clothes, or whiskey, is empowered to stay
eviction, can allow the debtor to pay by instalments, and can extend
the time for such payment without limit. To the average British mind
this will smack of over-legislation, and serious Irishmen make the same
complaint. And still, to quote Father Mahony, of Cork, "still the Irish
peasant mourns, still groans beneath the cruel English yoke." The fact
is, he is almost killed with kindness. He is weighed down by the
multitude of benefactions. He reminds you of the tame sparrow you once
suffocated by overfeeding. So much has been done for him that he
naturally expects more, and instead of being grateful he grumbles more
than ever. He regards Mr. Gladstone as having acted under compulsion,
and as being an opportunist. The peasantry of Ireland have no respect
for the Grand Old Man. "Shure, we bate the bills out iv him. Shure, he
never gave us anythin' till we kicked it out iv his skin. Divil thank
him for doin' what we ordhered him to do."

But perhaps the Tory Land Purchase Acts are most promising in, the
direction of finality. Lord Ashbourne's Act, as it was called (1885),
conferred on Irish tenants opportunities of purchasing their holdings
of quite an exceptional kind, and its scope and advantages were
enormousl