body, an'
not likely to. Yes, the Protestant Church is iligant enough, but
there's very few Protestants hereabouts. It's the gentry an' most
respectable folks that's Protestants. Protestants gets on because they
kape their shops cleaner, an' has more taste, an' we'd sooner belave
thim an' thrust thim that they'd kape their word an' not chate ye,
than our own people. Yes, 'tis indeed quare, but it's thrue. The very
priests won't deny it. An' another thing they wouldn't deny. The
murtherin', sweatin' landlords that'll grind the very soul out of
ye--who are they? Tell me now. Just the small men that have got up out
of the muck. 'Tisn't the gintry at all. The gintry will wait a year,
three years, five years, seven years for rint. The man that bought his
farm or two wid borrowed money won't wait a day. 'Out ye go, an'
bloody end to ye,' says he. Ye don't hear of thim evictions. The man
that sint it to the paper would get bate--or worse.

"An' some of the little houldhers says, 'Pat,' says they, 'what'll we
do wid the money whin we've no taxes to pay?' 'Tis what they're tould,
the crathurs. God help them, but they're mighty ignorant."

Those who ridicule the assertions of Protestants and Catholic
Unionists with reference to the lack of liberty may explain away what
was told me by Mr. J.B. Barrington, brother of Sir Charles Barrington,
a name of might in Mid-Ireland. He said, "Someone in our neighbourhood
went about getting signatures to a petition against the Home Rule
Bill. Among others who signed it was Captain Croker's carpenter, who
since then has been waylaid and severely beaten. Another case
occurring in the same district was even harder. A poor fellow has
undergone a very severe thrashing with sticks for having signed the
bill when, as a matter of fact, he had refused to sign it! Wasn't that
hard lines? Both these men know their assailants, but they will not
tell. They think it better to bear those ills they have than fly to
others that they know not of. They are quite right, for, as it is,
they know the end of the matter. Punish the beaters, and the relations
of the convicted men would take up the cause, and if they could not
come on the principal, if he had removed, or was awkward to get at,
they would pass it on to his relations. So that a man's rebelling
against the village ruffians may involve his dearest friends in
trouble, may subject them to ill-usage or boycotting. A man might
fight it out if he only had him