ired
shots into windows by way of adding zest to the family hearth. Poor
John Quinlan escaped five shots, all fired into his house. Mr. Bell,
of Pegsboro, beat this record with six. He was _believed_ to
sympathise with Mr. Smith-Barry! Men with white masks pervaded the
vicinity from the gentle gloaming till the witching morn, and woe to
the weak among their opponents, or even among the neutrals, whom they
might meet on their march!

The tenants were great losers. A commercial man from Dublin assured me
that the agitation cost him L2,000 in bad debts. The people were
inconvenienced, unsettled, permanently demoralised, their peaceful
relations rudely interrupted, themselves and their commercial
connections more or less discredited and injured, and the whole
prosperous community impoverished, by the machinations of O'Brien and
Bishop Croke of Thurles, a few miles away. The inferior clergy were of
course in their element. Father Humphreys and others were notorious
for the violence of their language. Gladstonians who think Home Rule
heralds the millennium, and who babble of brotherly love, should note
the neat speech of good Father Haynes, who said, "We would, if we
could, pelt them not only with dynamite, but with the lightnings of
heaven and the fires of hell, till every British bulldog, whelp, and
cur would be pulverised and made top-dressing for the soil." This is
the feeling of the priests, and the people are under the priestly
thumb. That this is so is proved by recent events in Dublin. None but
the Parnellites could make head against the Catholic Party. In the
recent conflict the Parnellites were squelched. Tim Healy kicked and
bit, but Bishop Walsh got him on the ropes, and Tim "went down to
avoid punishment." The priest holds Tim in the hollow of his hand. Tim
and his tribe must be docile, must answer to the whistle, must keep to
heel, or they will feel the lash. Should they rebel, their
constituencies, acting on priestly orders, will cast them out as
unclean, and their occupation, the means by which they live, will be
gone. Tim and his congeries hate the clerics, but they fear the
flagellum. They loathe their chains, but they must grin and bear them.
They have no choice between that and political extinction.

The opinion of Tipperary men on the question of religious toleration
is practically unanimous. Pass Home Rule and the Protestants must
perforce clear out. As it is, they are entirely excluded from any
elect