atriotism. Mr. Strachan has recently bought some
land. The previous owner, Mr. Dominick Leonard, brother of Dr. Leonard
of Athenry, and of Judge Leonard of London, had raised money on the
property, and failed to pay interest or principal. An English
insurance company determined to realize, and the affair went into the
Land Court, Mr. Strachan buying part of the estate for L2,765. It was
easy enough to buy, and even to pay, but to get possession was quite
another thing. Precise information is difficult to get, for while some
decline to say a word, others are mutually contradictory, and a State
Commission would hardly sift truth from the confusing mass of details,
denials, assertions, and counter-assertions. This much is clear
enough. A tenant named Ruane was required to leave a house, with
ground, which he had held on the estate bought by Mr. Strachan. He had
paid no rent for a long time. Of course he refused to leave, and, a
decree having been obtained, he was duly evicted. But, as Lady de
Burgho said, evictions do no good. When the officers of the law went
home to tea, Mr. Ruane went home also, breaking the locks, forcing the
doors, reinstating himself and his furniture, planting his Lares and
Penates in their old situations, hanging up his caubeen on the
ancestral nail, and crossing his patriotic shin-bones on the familiar
hearth. Pulled up for trespass, he declared that if sent to prison
fifty times he would still return to the darling spot, and defied the
British army and navy--horse, foot, and artillery--ironclads, marines,
and 100-ton guns, to keep him out. For three acts of trespass he got
three weeks imprisonment. The moment he was released Mr. Ruane walked
back home, and took possession once again. There he is now, laughing
at the Empire on which the sun never sets. When a certain bishop read
"Paradise Lost" to a sporting lord, the impatient auditor's attention
was arrested by some bold speech of Satan, whereupon he exclaimed
"Dang me, if I don't back that chap. I like his pluck, and I hope
he'll win." Something like this might be said of Ruane.

And Ruane will stick to his land. A public meeting held on Sunday week
determined to support him, and to show forth its mind by planting the
ground for him. Mr. Strachan seems to have seen the futility of
looking to the law, on the security of which he invested his money.
Too late he finds that his savings are not safe, and he endeavours to
make friends with the mammon