of unrighteousness. He has offered Ruane
five acres of land and a house, and Ruane would have accepted with
thanks had he been allowed. But he went to a meeting in some outlying
village, and received his orders from the Land League. For, be it
observed, that the people of these parts speak of the Land League as
existing in full force. Ruane declined the handsome offer of the
kind-hearted Strachan. Ruane will hold the house and land from which
he has been evicted, _because_ he had been evicted, and that the
people may see that they have the mastery. Ruane would prefer the
proffered land, but private interests must give way to the public
weal. England must be smashed, treated with contumely; her laws, her
officers, her edicts treated with contempt, laughed at by every naked
gutter-snipe, rendered null and void. That this can be done with
perfect impunity is the teaching of priests, Fenians, Nationalists,
Federationists--call them what you will--all alike flagrantly disloyal
to the English Crown. Not worth while to differentiate them. As the
sailor said of crocodiles and alligators, "There's no difference at
all. They're all tarnation varmint together."

Mr. Strachan is boycotted, and goes about with a guard of three
policemen. What will happen from one day to another nobody can tell.
Since I last mentioned Mr. Blood, of Ennis, that most estimable
gentleman has been again fired on, this time at a range of 400 yards,
and when guarded by the four policemen who accompany him everywhere.
Three shots were fired, and the police found an empty rifle cartridge
at the firing point. A Protestant in Tuam said to me:--

"Home Rule would mean that every Protestant would have to fly the
country. Why should there not be a return to the persecutions of years
ago? When first I came to the place the Protestants were hooted as
they went to church, and I can remember seeing this very Strachan
going to worship on Sunday morning, his black go-to-meeting coat so
covered with the spittle of the mob that you would not know him. His
wife would come down with a Bible, and the children would run along
shouting 'Here comes mother Strachan, with the devil in her fist.'
Why, the young men got cows' horns and fixed them up with strings, so
that they could tie them on their foreheads. Then with these horns on
they would walk before and behind the Protestants as they went to
church or left it, to show that the devil was accompanying them. They
always fi