184 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



obtained his security by getting a deed on the 

 land, and it is when failing to pay the interest 

 that many thousands of poor Irish farmers 

 have let their holdings slip into the hands of 

 the money-lender. I asked a nationalist who 

 was driving me round the Congested Districts 

 of Roscommon how it was that Captain 

 Moonlight had never shot the gombeen-man 

 as he has the landlord or his agent. "It is 

 because," came the response, " the farmers 

 think the gombeen-man has done them a 

 favour, however much he may rob them, 

 whilst the landlord has never done anything 

 for them," which I think again illustrates 

 Harold Frederic's dictum that they are " the 

 most turbulent " and yet " the most docile 

 people." 



Though the gombeen-man as petty usurer 

 had had his wings clipped by Credit Banks, 

 Mr. George W. Russell struck a note of 

 warning in the Irish Review for June 1911 

 as to the probable rise over the border of a 

 race of small proprietors. " I know," says Mr. 

 Russell, "Socialism is the logical solution of 

 all difficulties, but there is no use talking 

 about it in Ireland. When the State decided 

 on turning tenants into proprietors it set up 



