568 Son. George C. Brodrick [May 6, 



one or two, with very humble pretension to breed, yet frequently 

 yielding a large supply of milk. He was born upon the land which 

 he cultivates, if not in the cabin which he inhabits. Sometimes the 

 little farm lies compactly round its steading ; more often it is scattered 

 about in irregular patches, or stretches in a long narrow strip from a 

 hillside down towards a stream or marshy bottom. It is tilled by the 

 farmer himself, with the aid of his son or nephews, and occasionally 

 of an obliging neighbour, but in most cases, without recourse to hired 

 labour. Perhaps his ancestors, in far-off times, were entered on the 

 sept-roll as possessors of this very plot, which has been tenanted ever 

 since by his family, though repeated confiscations may have effaced 

 the memory of its superior lords before the last century, and its last 

 purchaser may have acquired it under a sale in the Encumbered 

 Estates Court. Perhaps it was painfully won from the adjoining 

 waste by his father or himself, either in the capacity of a mere 

 squatter, or under a verbal arrangement with the agent that no rent 

 should be exacted for a certain number of years. However this may 

 be, and whether its present occupant inherited i-t or reclaimed it by 

 his own industry, all that has made it a liome for him was created by 

 himself or his kindred, nor is it possible for him to regard it as the 

 sole property of a stranger. Every piece of stonework ujDon it, 

 from the rude homestead to the meanest shed or byre, was erected by 

 himself or his forefathers, every fence or enclosure was made by them, 

 every field cleared and roughly drained by them, nor is there any 

 visible sign of proprietorship other than his own, unless it be the 

 occasional presence of an agent who is chiefly known to him as a 

 collector of rent. His rent is not high, it is true, being little above 

 the Government valuation, and far less than some insolvent and reck- 

 less neighbour would undertake to pay if the farm were put up for 

 competition. His landlord, too, is a kind-hearted man, in his way, 

 never raising a tenant's rent twice in one lifetime, and willing to 

 make abatements in hard seasons, but seldom resident, and cut oflf 

 from his sympathy by the iron barriers of race and religion. The 

 genial influence of a good English squire, who devotes himself to 

 county business, takes an interest in the parish school, directs his 

 own improvements, and visits his labourers' cottages, is something of 

 which he cannot even conceive. No one ever threatened him with 

 eviction, or informed him directly that in such a case he must not 

 look for compensation. The idea of eviction and its consequences, 

 however, is always present to his mind. He remembers that, after 

 the great famine, scores of little cabins disappeared from the moun- 

 tain-side opposite, and that nothing was ever heard again of their 

 former inmates. It has been reported to him that in the next 

 county vast grazing-farms have been formed out of holdings like 

 his own, and that the experiment has been financially successful. He 

 read only the other day a paragraph in the newspapers advertising 

 for sale just such an estate as his landlord's, and describing it as 

 greatly under-rented and suitable for pasture. He is aware, indeed, 



