s. Which of the Irish Nationalist party would start factories,
and what would they make? Can anybody tell me that?"

I submitted that Mr. William O'Brien, the member for Cork, might open
a concern for the making of breeches, or that Mr. Timothy Healy, the
member for Louth, who was reared in a tripe shop, might embark his
untold gold in the cowheel and trotter business, or might even prove a
keen competitor with Walsall in the manufacture of horsewhips, a
product of industry of which he has had an altogether exceptional
experience. "Is not this true?" I enquired.

My friend admitted the fact, but declined to believe in the factory.

Dugort (Achil Island), June 22nd.

No. 39.--IRISH UNFITNESS FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT.

There stands a city neither large nor small, Its air and situation
sweet and pretty. It matters very little if at all. Whether its
denizens are dull or witty. Whether the ladies there are short or
tall, Brunettes or blondes--only there stands a city. Perhaps 'tis
also requisite to minute, That there's a castle and a cobbler in it.
It is not big enough to boast a barber. These indispensable adjuncts
of civilisation exist in Connaught, but only at rare intervals.
Roughly speaking, there is a space of about a hundred miles between
them. From Athlone to Dugort, a hundred and thirty miles, there is
only one, both towns inclusive. Castlereagh is a deadly-lively place
for business, but keenly awake to politics. The distressful science
absorbs the faculties of the people, who care for little else. Like
all the Keltic Irish, they are great talkers, and, surely, if talking
were working the Irish would be the richest nation in the world.
"Words, words, words," and no deeds. The Castlereagh folks are growing
despondent. The Irish Parliament that was to remit taxation, present
every able-bodied man with a farm, do away with landlords and police,
and reduce the necessity for work to a minimum, seems to them further
off than ever. They complain that once again the people of Ireland
have been betrayed. Mr. Gladstone has done it all. To be sure they
never trusted him, but they thought him an instrument in the hands of
Fate and the Irish Parliamentary party. Spite of all he is supposed to
have done for the Irish, Mr. Gladstone is not popular in Ireland, and,
as I pointed out months ago, they from the first declined to believe
in his sincerity. They rightly regarded his action anent Home Rule as
the result of compulsi