methods and things
at Gweedore, and he gave it to me with great freedom and fluency. He is
a typical Celt in appearance, a M'Fadden Roe, sanguine by temperament,
with an expression at once shrewd and enthusiastic, a most flexible
persuasive voice. All the trouble at Gweedore, he thought, came of the
agents. "Agents had been the curse both of Ireland and of the landlord.
The custom being to pay them by commissions on the sums collected, and
not a regular salary, the more they can screw either out of the soil, or
out of any other resources of the tenants, the better it is for them. At
Gweedore the people earn what they can, not out of the soil, but out of
their labour exported to Scotland, or England, or America. Only
yesterday," he continued, turning to his neat mahogany desk and taking
up a letter, "I received this with a remittance from America to pay the
rent of one of my people."

"This was in connection," I asked, "with the 'Plan of Campaign' and your
contest here?"

"Yes," he replied; "and a girl of my parish went over to Scotland
herself and got the money due there for another family, and brought it
back to me here. You see they make me a kind of savings-bank, and have
done so for a long time, long before the 'Plan of Campaign' was talked
about as it is now."

This was interesting, as I had heard it said by a Nationalist in Dublin
that the "Plan of Campaign" was originally suggested by Father M'Fadden.
He made no such claim himself, however, and I made no allusion to this
aspect of the matter. "I have been living here for fifteen years, and
they listen to me as to nobody else."

In these affairs with the agents, he had always told his people that
"whenever a settlement came to be made, cash alone in the hand of the
person representing them could make it properly." "Cash I must have," he
said, "and hold the cash ready for the moment. When I had worked out a
settlement with Captain Hill, I had a good part of the money in my hand
ready to pay down. L1450 was the sum total agreed upon, and after the
further collection, necessitated by the settlement, there was a deficit
of about L200. I wrote to Professor Stuart," he added, after a pause,
"that I wanted about L200 of the sum-total. But more has come in since
then. This remittance, from America yesterday, for example."

"Do they send such remittances without being asked for them?" I
inquired.

"Yes; they are now and again sending money, and some of them don't se