example to the
world! A country where the wage-earner hurried, with eager footsteps,
to place the honestly earned tolls at the feet of generous and trusting
landlords!

Then, on the other hand, he pointed to that small portion of the
British Isles, where to pay rent was a crime: where landlords were but
targets for insult and vituperation--yes, and indeed for BULLETS from
the hidden assassin whenever they were indiscreet enough to visit a
country where laws existed but that they might be broken, and crime
stalked fearlessly through the land. Such a condition was a reproach to
the English government.

"Why," he asked the astonished gathering of dignitaries, "why should
such a condition exist when three hundred and sixty-five men sat in the
House of Commons, sent there by electors to administer the just and
wise laws of a just and wise country? Why?"

As he paused and glared around the table for the reply that was not
forthcoming, the undying phrase sprang new-born from his lips:

"Oh," he cried; "oh! that for one brief hour Providence would immerse
that island of discontent beneath the waters of the Atlantic and
destroy a people who seemed bent on destroying themselves and on
disintegrating the majesty and dignity and honour of our great Empire!"

Feeling that no words of his could follow so marvellous a climax, he
sat down, amid a silence that seemed to him to be fraught with
eloquence, so impressive and significant was--to him--its full meaning.
Some speeches are cheered vulgarly. It was the outward sign of coarse
approval. Others are enjoyed and sympathised with inwardly, and the
outward tribute to which was silence--and that was the tribute of that
particular Guildhall gathering on that great night.

It seemed to Wilberforce Kingsnorth, hardened after-dinner speaker
though he was, that never had a body of men such as he confronted and
who met his gaze by dropping their eyes modestly to their glasses, been
so genuinely thrilled by so original, so comprehensive and so dramatic
a conclusion to a powerful appeal.

Kingsnorth felt, as he sat down, that it was indeed a red-letter night
for him--and for England.

The Times, in reviewing the speeches the following morning,
significantly commented that:

"Mr. Kingsnorth had solved, in a moment of entreaty, to a hitherto
indifferent Providence, the entire Irish difficulty."

When Nathaniel Kingsnorth found himself the fortunate possessor of this
tract of land peop