ovements, he could not go and give up his holding. It's a
stand-and-deliver business with him--the landlord puts a pistol to his
head!"

"But is it not true," I said, "that under the new Land Bill the Land
Commissioner's Court has power to fix the rents judicially without
regard to landlord or tenant during fifteen years?"

"Yes, that is so," said Father M'Fadden. "Under Mr. Gladstone's Act of
81, and under the later Act of the present Government, the rents so
fixed from '81 to '86 inclusive are subject to revision for three years;
but the people have no confidence in the constitution of the Courts,
and, as a matter of fact, the improvements of the tenants are
confiscated under the Act of '81, and the reductions allowed under the
Act of '87 are incommensurate with the fall in prices by 100 per cent.
And there still remains the burden of arrears. I feel that I must stand
between my people and obligations which they are unable to meet. To that
end I take their money, and stand ready to use it to relieve them when
the occasion offers. That is my idea of my work under the 'Plan of
Campaign'; and, furthermore, I think that by doing it I have secured
money for the landlord which he couldn't possibly have got in any other
way."

This struck me as a very remarkable statement, nor can I see how it can
be interpreted otherwise than as an admission that if the people had
the money to pay their rents, they couldn't be trusted to use it for
that purpose, unless they put it into the control of the priest or of
some other trustee.

Reverting to what he had said of the necessity for some change in the
conditions of life and labour here, I asked if, in his opinion, the
people could live out of the land if they got the ownership of it.

In existing circumstances he thought they could not.

Was he in favour, then, of Mr. Davitt's plan of Land Nationalisation?

"Well, I have not considered the question of Nationalisation of the
land."

To my further question, What remedies he would himself propose for a
state of things in which it was impossible for the people to live out of
the land either as occupiers or as owners--emigration being barred,
Father M'Fadden, without looking at Lord Ernest, replied, "Oh, I think
abler men who draw up Parliamentary Acts and live in public life ought
to devise remedies, and that is a matter which would be best settled by
a Home Government."

The glove was well delivered, but Lord Ernest did not lif