FENIANISM AND IRISH DISAFFECTION. 77 



blarneying talk in high places has of late been a 

 curse to Ireland. 



P.S. Much of the above account of Fenianism 

 applies, mutatis mutandis, to the agitation of the Land 

 League. The Land Leaguers have taken a social 

 end to aim at, which would profit every man of one 

 class if it could succeed to ever so small an extent. It 

 is natural and innocent that every tenant should prefer 

 to pay less rent than more. The desire to do this, and 

 so to benefit himself at the cost of his landlord, is the 

 whole strength of the agitation. Add to this the 

 belief that Messrs. Glads tone and Bright and a majority 

 of the present Government are hostile to the landlords 

 and glad of a reason for injuring them, and still more, 

 and before all else, that though life and property are 

 unsafe in a large part of Ireland, no effective step is 

 taken to enforce law and order. It is this last fact 

 that gives its strength to the agitation and causes 

 it to differ from all other agitations that have gone 

 before it. November 1880. 





