It is this promise which
finally brings down most of them. To enjoy the luxury of a litigation
without paying for it tempts them almost as strongly as the prospect of
getting the land without paying for it. You will find that the League
always insists, when things come to a settlement, that the landlord
shall pay the costs. If the landlord through poverty of spirit or of
purse succumbs to this demand, the League scores a victory. If the
landlord resists, it is a bad job for the League. The local lawyer is
discredited in the eyes of his clients, and if he is to get any fees he
must come down upon his clients for them. Naturally his clients resent
this. If Mr. Balfour keys up the landlords to stand out manfully against
paying for all the trouble and loss they are continually put to, he will
take the life of the League so far as Ireland is concerned. As things
now stand, it is almost the only thriving industry in Ireland!"

_Wednesday, Feb. 1._--This morning I called with Lord Ernest Hamilton
upon Sir Bernard Burke, the Ulster King-at-Arms, and the editor or
author of many other well-known publications, and especially of the
"Peerage," sometimes irreverently spoken of as the "British Bible."

Sir Bernard's offices are in the picturesque old "Bermingham" tower of
the castle. There we found him wearing his years and his lore as lightly
as a flower, and busy in an ancient chamber, converted by him into a
most cosy modern study. He received us with the most cordial courtesy,
and was good enough to conduct us personally through his domain.

Many of the State papers formerly kept here have been removed to the
Four Courts building. But Sir Bernard's tower is still filled with
documents of the greatest historical interest, all admirably docketed
and arranged on the system adopted at the Hotel Soubise, now the Palace
of the Archives in Paris.

These documents, like the tower itself, take us back to the early days
when Dublin was the stronghold of the Englishry in Ireland, and its
citizens went in constant peril of an attack from the wild and "mere
Irish" in the hills. The masonry of the tower is most interesting. The
circular stone floors made up of slabs held together without cement,
like the courses in the towers of Sillustani, by their exact adjustment,
are particularly noteworthy. High up in the tower Sir Bernard showed us
a most uncomfortable sort of cupboard fashioned in the huge wall of the
tower, and with a loophole f