e present state of
the country, he was quite aware.

But he takes this part of the contract very coolly, telling me that the
only real danger, he thinks, is incurred when he makes a journey of
which he has to send a notice by telegraph--a remark which recalled to
me the curious advice given me in Dublin to seal my letters, as a
protection against "the Nationalist clerks in the post-offices." The
park of Portumua Castle, which is very extensive, is patrolled by armed
policemen, and whenever Mr. Tener drives out he is followed by a police
car carrying two armed men.

"Against whom are all these precautions necessary?" I asked. "Against
the evicted tenants, or against the local agents of the League?"

"Not at all against the tenants," he replied, "as you can satisfy
yourself by talking with them. The trouble comes not from the tenants at
all, nor from the people here at Portumna, but from mischievous and
dangerous persons at Loughrea and Woodford. Woodford, mind you, not
being Lord Clanricarde's place at all, though all the country has been
roused about the cruel Clanricarde and his wicked Woodford evictions.
Woodford was simply the headquarters of the agitation against Lord
Clanricarde and my predecessor, Mr. Joyce, and it has got the name of
the 'cockpit of Ireland,' because it was there that Mr. Dillon, in
October 1886, opened the 'war against the landlords' with the 'Plan of
Campaign.' It is an odd circumstance, by the way, worth noting, that
when these apostles of Irish agitation went to Lord Clanricarde's
property nearer the city of Gralway, and tried to stir the people up,
they failed dismally, because the people there could understand no
English, and the Irish agitators could speak no Irish! Nobody has ever
had the face to pretend that the Clanricarde estates were 'rack-rented.'
There have been many personal attacks made upon Mr. Joyce and upon Lord
Clanricarde, and Mr. Joyce has brought that well-known action against
the Marquis for libel, and all this answers with the general public as
an argument to show that the tenants on the Clanricarde property must
have had great grievances, and must have been cruelly ground down and
unable to pay their way. I will introduce you, if you will allow me, to
the Catholic Bishop here, and to the resident Protestant clergyman, and
to the manager of the bank, and they can help you to form your own
judgment as to the state of the tenants. You will find that whatever
quarrels the