n candles, on which names are written, which being blessed and
burnt have powerful influence in the heavenly courts. It costs a
trifle to hallow the tallow, but no matter. A friend has seen a muddy
little well, which is fine for sore eyes. Offerings of old bottles and
little headless images were planted around, but the favourite gift was
a pin, stuck in the ground by way of fee. Jolly Mr. Whicker, of
Dublin, who represents three Birmingham houses, saw Father McFadden,
of Gweedore, waving his hat when in custody. A policeman insisted that
this should cease, when a man in the crowd said to Mr. Whicker:--

"Arrah, now, look at the holy man. He puts on his hat widout a wurrud,
whin he could strike the man dead wid jist sayin' a curse. 'Tis a good
saint he is, to go wid the police, whin if he sthretched out his hand
he could wither thim up, an' bur-rn thim like sthraws in the blazin'
turf!"

These people have votes, and to a man support the Nationalist party.
It is proposed to place Ireland under a Government governed by these
good folks, who are in turn governed by their sacred medicine-men.

A member of the firm of Cooke Brothers, a native of Cork, in business
in this city fifty years, said:--

"There can be no doubt that the bill means ruin for Ireland, and
therefore damage to England. The poor folks here believe the most
extravagant things, and follow the agitators like a flock of sheep.
They are undoubtedly wanting in energy. We have the richest land in
Ireland, wonderful pastures that turn out the most splendid cattle in
the world, big salmon rivers, a most fruitful country, a land flowing
with milk and honey. As the rents are judicially fixed there can be no
ground for complaint, but the people will not help themselves. Whether
it is in the climate I cannot say, but I must reluctantly admit--and
no one will gainsay my statement--that the people of the South, to put
it mildly, are not a striving sort.

"They want somebody else to do something for them. They get on a stick
and wait till it turns to a horse before they ride. No Act of
Parliament will help them, for they will not help themselves.

"Look at the magnificent country you saw from Dublin to this city.
Compare it with the black and desolate bogs of Ulster, and then ask
yourself this question--How is it that the Ulster people, with far
worse land, worse harbours, worse position, and having the same laws,
are prosperous and content to have no change? If the