part of Ireland was very beautiful, the herbage was fresh
and green, and the land productive. The great drawback was the
crowds of beggars, who would surround us wherever we went, soliciting
alms, but they were generally good humored. I saw little of the
disposition to fight attributed to them. At a subsequent visit I
saw much more of Ireland and the Irish people, but on this, my
first visit, I left with a very kindly impression of the country
and the people. We have more people of Irish descent in the United
States than now live in Ireland, and they have done their full part
in our development, not only as laborers, but in all the walks and
professions of life. They are heartily welcomed in our midst. If
all the discontented people of Ireland would migrate to the United
States we would welcome them if they would leave their Irish vs.
English politics behind them. We have enough possible points of
controversy on this continent with Great Britain, without importing
from that country old controversies that have been the occasion of
wars and rumors of war for centuries.

We made but a short stay in Dublin and crossed the channel to
Caernarvon. Here we took the old tally-ho coach. Despite all that
is said about railroads and steamboats, I believe in the old-
fashioned stage coach, and especially in the one in which we crossed
the hills of Wales, in full view of Mount Snowdon. We remained
over Sunday in a village on the way, inquired for the church, and
were shown to a very pretty church building near by. When we
entered we found perhaps ten or fifteen persons, mostly women.
The pastor, with an assistant, soon entered, and services commenced.
The pastor read his part, and the assistant led, and practically
made, the responses. The singing was led by the assistant and
shared in by the few women present. The sermon was short and
lifeless and the entire service--though read from the Book of Common
Prayer, as fine a model of impressive English as exists--was
spiritless. When we left the church we met lines of well-dressed,
but plain, proper men, women and children in Sunday garb. I inquired
where these people came from, and was informed they were Methodists
on the way home from their meeting house. This settled the question
with me. The church I attended was the "established church,"
supported by taxes on all the people, and the Methodist meeting
was the church of the people, supported by their voluntary
cont