delight in having such
a daughter-in-law, and that she would go to her to welcome her as
such as soon as ever he should bid her do so. With this Herbert was
somewhat comforted, and immediately started on his search after Mr.
Somers.

I do not think that any person is to be found, as a rule, attached
to English estates whose position is analogous to that of an Irish
agent. And there is a wide misunderstanding in England as to these
Irish functionaries. I have attempted, some pages back, to describe
the national delinquencies of a middleman, or profit-renter. In
England we are apt to think that the agents on Irish properties are
to be charged with similar shortcomings. This I can assert to be a
great mistake; and I believe that, as a class, the agents on Irish
properties do their duty in a manner beneficial to the people.

That there are, or were, many agents who were also middlemen, or
profit-renters, and that in this second position they were a nuisance
to the country, is no doubt true. But they were no nuisance in their
working capacity as agents. That there are some bad agents there can
be no doubt, as there are also some bad shoemakers.

The duties towards an estate which an agent performs in Ireland
are, I believe, generally shared in England between three or four
different persons. The family lawyer performs part, the estate
steward performs part, and the landlord himself performs part;--as to
small estates, by far the greater part.

In Ireland, let the estate be ever so small--eight hundred a year we
will say--all the working of the property is managed by the agent. It
is he who knows the tenants, and the limits of their holdings; it is
he who arranges leases, and allows--or much more generally does not
allow--for improvements. He takes the rent, and gives the order for
the ejection of tenants if he cannot get it.

I am far from saying that it would not be well that much of this
should be done by the landlord himself;--that all of it should be so
done on a small property. But it is done by agents; and, as a rule
is, I think, done honestly.

Mr. Somers was agent to the Castle Richmond property, and as he took
to himself as such five per cent. on all rents paid, and as he was
agent also to sundry other small properties in the neighbourhood,
he succeeded in making a very snug income. He had also an excellent
house on the estate, and was altogether very much thought of; on the
whole, perhaps, more than was Si