THE LAND QUESTION. 55 



it to appear were his informants are notoriously 

 among the very worst landlords in the country ; and 

 some of his aggrieved tenants are not peasants at all, 

 but half-sir holders of large farms ; men in all respects 

 perfectly able to take care of themselves, and much 

 more likely to wrong a landlord than any landlord is 

 likely to wrong them the very class who used to be 

 middlemen, the hardest and sharpest in the country. 



In truth, the grossest sinner in this matter of hear- 

 say is the Times' special correspondent. Time and 

 place and name are in most cases withheld, and 

 often the case is told so vaguely that it is impossible to 

 identify it, and it cannot be contradicted because no 

 one is sure what is referred to. Over and over again 

 grave charges begin with " I have been told," " I 

 have heard," " It is said." Sometimes he cannot 

 help seeing that the statement, as made to him, is 

 either untrue or exaggerated. But instead of there- 

 fore rejecting it, because he is not sure as to what is 

 true and what is false a mild qualification in part 

 is added, and a belief in the substance expressed, so 

 as to give a colour to the story more unjust and in- 

 jurious towards those charged than if it had been 

 asserted to be true. In that case the statement would 

 perhaps have been seen to carry its own confutation 

 on its face. 



Of no county from which he has yet written has 

 the Times' correspondent given so black a character 

 as of the county of Cork. Now I have lived there as 



