THE IRISH LAND QUESTION. 45 



and uprightly, as he would in any other sort of 

 business, the tenants as a body are prospering and 

 contented. The great fault of the landlords has been 

 and is that they do not spend money in developing 

 their estates as they ought to do, and might do, to the 

 advantage of themselves and all classes in the country. 

 But there are some who do it, and example in success 

 is contagious. The younger ones are doing it more 

 than the older, and much the larger part of the 

 draining done is done by the owners. It is surely 

 self-evident that in a purely agricultural country the 

 development of the resources of the land is the one 

 source of increased prosperity to all classes. Any 

 honest and sound mode of forcing on that develop- 

 ment is justifiable, but quackery and partisanship can 

 do no good. Belying on a class more backward and 

 ignorant, and at this moment doing less than that 

 whose defects it is wanted to supply, is only leaning 

 on a broken reed. Improved public opinion is prob- 

 ably the greatest remedy. 



Ireland is the very land of enormous exaggerations 

 and want of common sense. The art of making 

 capital out of a little by-talk both tall and soft is 

 here understood to perfection, while the scheming, 

 both personal and political, is wholly without bounds 

 or conscience, the reverse of all that is independent 

 and manly. Only those living in it can realise the 

 extent of these evils. Yet all the time the great 

 majority of the people, of all ranks, both Koman 



