ome
poor fishermen of County Clare who pursue their calling under cruel
disadvantages for want of the protection from the Atlantic rollers which
a small breakwater would afford. It is true that they were the worst
constituents he had--- went against him in 'The Split,'--but if I saw
how they lived, and so on. I knew all about the case. A breakwater to be
of any use would cost a very large sum, and the local authority, though
sympathetic, did not see their way to contribute their proportion, and
without a local contribution, I explained, the Department could not,
consistently with its principles, unless in most exceptional--Here he
breaks in: 'Oh! that red tape. You're as bad as the rest--exceptional,
indeed! Why, everything is exceptional in my constituency. I am a bit
that way myself. But, seriously, the condition of these poor people
would move even a Government official. Besides, you remember the night I
made thirteen speeches on the Naval Estimates--the Government wanted a
little matter of twenty millions--and you met me in the Lobby and told
me you wished to go to bed, and asked me what I really wanted, and--I
am always reasonable--I said I would pass the whole Naval Programme if I
got the Government to give them a boat-slip at Ballyduck.--"Done!" you
said, and we both went home.--I believe you knew that I had got
constituency matters mixed up, that Ballyduck was inland, and that it
was Ballycrow that I meant to say.--But you won't deny that you are
under a moral obligation.'

Well, I would go into the matter again very carefully--for I thought we
might help these fishermen in some other way--and write to him. He
leaves me; and, while outside the door he travels over the main points
with my Private Secretary, the lights and shades in the picture which
this strange personality has left on my mind throw me back behind the
practical things of to-day. In Parliament facing the Sassanach, in
Ireland facing their police, he has for years--the best years of his
life--displayed the same love of fighting for fighting's sake. In the
riots he has provoked, and they are not a few, he is ever regardless of
his own skin, and would be truly miserable if he inflicted any serious
bodily harm on a human being--even a landlord. It is impossible not to
like this very human anachronism, who, within the limitations imposed by
the convenience of a citizenship to which he unwillingly belongs, does
battle

For Faith, and Fame, and Hon