s responsible for taxes, provided
it is proved that sufficient distress cannot be made of the lands.
These tenants were offered a clear receipt to May 1, 1886, if they
paid half a year's rent, which would scarcely have paid the cost of
proceedings, and the landlord would therefore have been put to
actual loss. These people, though well able to settle, are given to
understand that as soon as they do so their participation in the
eviction fund will cease, and thus it will be seen that a direct
premium is being paid to dishonesty.

"In one case a widow woman was summoned for being on the farm from
which she was at that time evicted. Finding out that one of her
children was ill, I applied to the magistrate at the hearing of the
case only to impose a nominal fine. In consequence she was fined
one penny, but sooner than pay this she went to gaol, though she
had several head of cattle and, prior to her eviction, a very nice
farm. The case of this woman fairly illustrates the combination
which has existed to avoid the fulfilment of obligations.

"The amount of fines paid for similar offences comes, in several
instances, to nearly what I require to effect a settlement. Some of
the tenants actually wrote to the late agent on this estate begging
him to evict them in order that they might come in for a share of
the money raised for the relief of distress, and this clearly shows
beyond dispute that the well-meaning subscribers to the fund will
be more or less responsible for any further evictions to which it
may be necessary to resort. I may mention that the parish priest is
one of the trustees for the money which is thus being used for the
purpose of preventing settlements and keeping the place in a
continual state of turmoil.

"Judge Currane, at the January sessions held at Killarney this
year, ruled in about fifty ejectment cases on this estate that
tenants owing one and a half to nine years' rent should pay half a
year's rent and costs within a week, a quarter of a year's rent by
June 1, and a quarter of a year's rent by October 1; arrears to be
cancelled. Some of these, owing to non-compliance with the Judge's
ruling, may have to be evicted, and their eviction will be what is
termed the unrooting of peasants' houses and the ejectment of
overburdened tenants for not paying impossible rent