a problem
which really might not seem to challenge much doubt, and yet was it by
no means devoid of difficulty to those minds who had long based their
ideas of ruling that land on the principles of fomenting its dissensions
and separating its people. Davenport Dunn saw the hesitation of the
moment, and offered himself at once to solve the difficulty. The
transfer of property might be conducted in such a way as to favor the
views of a particular party in the state; the new proprietary might be
selected, and the aim of a government consulted in the establishment
of this new squirearchy. He thought so, at least, and, what is more, he
persuaded a chief secretary to believe him.

Nothing reads more simply than the sale of an encumbered estate: "In the
matter of Sir Roger O'Moore, Bart, Brian O'Moore, and Margaret Halliday,
owners, and Paul May-bey, petitioner, the Commissioners will, on Friday
next, at the hour of noon,"--and so on; and then come the descriptive
particulars of Carrickross, Dummaymagan, and Lantygoree, with
Griffith's valuation and the ordnance survey, concluding with a recital
of all the penalties, reservations, covenants, clauses, &c., with the
modest mention of twenty-odd pounds some shillings tithe-rent charge,
for a finish. To dispossess of this a man that never really owned it for
the last forty years, and invest it in another, who never saw it,
was the easy operation of the auctioneer's hammer; and with a chief
commissioner to ratify the sale, few things seemed easier than the
whole process. Still, there are certain aspects in the transaction which
suggest reflection. What were the ties, what the relations, between the
original owner and the tenantry who held under him? What kind of social
system had bound them,--what were the mutual services they rendered each
other? For the reverence and respect tendered on one side, and for the
thousand little charities and kindnesses bestowed on the other, what
was to be the compensation? How was that guidance and direction, more
or less inherent in those who are the heads of a neighborhood, to be
replaced? Was it quite certain that the incoming proprietor would care
to study the habits, the tastes, and the tempers of the peasantry on his
estate, learn their ways, or understand their difficulties? And, lastly,
what new political complexion would the country wear? Would it become
more Conservative or more Whig, more Democratic or more Saxon?

Davenport Dunn's opin