ULSTER TENANT-RIGHT. 165 



fact to be observed is, that the average Irish peasant 

 has no desire for progress and civilisation. His view 

 is that he ought to be left all the rough advantages 

 of his uncivilised condition, and that besides con- 

 cessions ought to be made to him (at whose cost he 

 cares not), to make up to him, and more, for all the 

 disadvantages of that condition. The strongest ground 

 on which he asks for such concessions is his poverty, 

 and he and his M.P.'s urge the extreme poverty of 

 the poorest part of Connaught as a sufficient reason 

 why concessions should be extended over the three- 

 fourths of Ireland that are much farther advanced. 

 He has no thought that concession, not founded on 

 strict right, must be ruinous to the country, and in 

 the end even to himself. The present moment and 

 his personal gain are all he can think of, and by this 

 importunity of poverty, like the clamour of the sturdy 

 beggar, he does influence those who act on sentiment 

 rather than on facts. It is these very men who use 

 threats and commit outrages to keep up, as far as 

 possible, a Eeign of Terror. Nearly all the fine senti- 

 ments of patriotism and the rest, that are put forward, 

 are the merest shams, invented for the occasion, 

 having no foundation in fact. The strongest feeling 

 of patriotism is jealousy of England. The legislation 

 of 1870 proceeded on the view that most Irish tenants 

 are good and worthy men, and most Irish landlords 

 the reverse ; the truth being, that the proportion of 

 bad tenants in Ireland, indolent, drinking, and use- 



