ed the group, and more were seen hastening to
the scene of excitement from every point of the compass.

"How far away is that?"

"Thirty miles, Sorr."

"What are they worth?"

"A shilling a dozen."

"That is, a penny a pound?"

"No, but a shilling for a dozen fish, and there's thirteen to the
dozen."

"And how heavy is the average fish?"

He picked up one by the jaws, and weighing him on his hand, said--

"That chap would be nigh-hand fourteen pounds. Some's more, some's
less."

It was even so. The agent of the Congested Districts Board, Mr.
Michael Walsh, of Dock Street, confirmed this startling statement.
Thirteen huge codlike fish for a shilling! More than a hundredweight
and a half of fish for twelve pence sterling! And, as Father Mahony
remarks, still the Irish peasant mourns, still groans beneath the
cruel English yoke, still turns his back on the teeming treasures of
the deep. The brutal Balfour supplied twenty-five boats to the poor
peasants of the western seaboard, and these, all working in
conjunction under direction, have proved both a boon and a blessing.
"Yesterday I sent sixty boxes of mackerel to Messrs. Smith, of
Birmingham, and to-day I think I shall send them a hundred," said Mr.
Walsh. "These Balfour boats have been a wonderful success. You'll hear
the very ignorant still cursing him, but not the better-informed, nor
the people he has benefited. I think him a great man, a very great
man, indeed. I am no politician. I only look at the effect he produced
and the blessing he was to the people. On Wednesday last the Duras
steamer brought in 400 boxes of fish, which had been caught in one
day. We thought that pretty good, but Thursday's consignment was
simply astonishing, 1,100 boxes coming in. We sent them all to
England. Mackerel have fetched grand prices this year. Early in the
season we sold them to Birmingham at tenpence apiece wholesale, with
carriage and other expenses on the top of that. Better price than the
pollock? Well, that fish is not very good just now. Sometimes it
fetches six shillings a dozen fish, nearly sixpence each. No, not much
for twelve or fourteen pounds of good fish. Half-a-crown a dozen is
more usual. There's no demand. Yes, they're cheap to-day. A dozen
pounds of fish for a penny would be reckoned 'a cheap loaf' in
Birmingham."

A shopkeeper near the harbour complained of the unbusiness-like ways
of the Galway townsmen:--"They have no notion of business manageme