ind of property directly or
indirectly connected with land.

Perhaps the agents whose calling is menaced with extinction preserve
the most equable mind under the present arduous circumstances. They
are to the manner born. They are accustomed to receive threatening
letters frequently, and to be shot at now and then. Individually,
therefore, they bear up very well, but it is far otherwise with their
families, who look forward to St. Stephen's Day and its threatened
meetings with undisguised apprehension. The men leave home in the
morning bristling with double-barrelled carbines and revolving
pistols, and, confiding either in themselves, their police escort, or
both, keep, in the language of the country, a "good heart"; but it is
far otherwise with their wives and daughters. As the "master" and the
"boys" prepare to depart, and guns are being put on the car, together
with the rugs and macintoshes, the matron's cheek grows pale, and her
lips quiver as she bids farewell to the beloved ones, whom she may
never see "safe home" again. This is no picture drawn by the
imagination, with which flattering critics are pleased to credit me.

Such a scene as I describe was witnessed by me a few days ago, and I
regret to hear that the brave lady, who bore up well for several weeks
against ever-present anxiety, has broken down at last, and lies on a
bed of sickness. In this struggle against a covert mutiny, women, as
in open warfare, are the chief sufferers. There are many of the men
who ask for nothing better than to be let loose on some visible mortal
representatives of their intangible foe. But the general feeling is
despondent. The unfortunate landowners, house proprietors, and many of
the merchants, complain bitterly that they are delivered into the
hands of a "convict," whose ticket of leave enables him to paralyse
the industry of the country.

To a person unconnected with the landed interest of Ireland it is at
first a little difficult to understand the almost insane terror of
nearly all persons endowed with property. To the stranger the country
is absolutely safe, and unless in the company of landlords or land
agents he may go safely unarmed in any part of Ireland I have visited;
but resident proprietors, and the representatives of absentees, are in
very different case, and the farmers and labourers who have not yet
joined the Land League are in a still worse position. So skilfully has
this organisation been carried out that h