WHAT WILL DO GOOD IN IRELAND. 215 



it was known that money could be had for relief, 

 wonderful exaggerations sprang up in all directions, 

 according to the universal principle here, "Why 

 should we not have our share of what is going, as 

 well as another ?" The poor can hardly be blamed 

 for this ; the ordinary poverty of every winter is 

 enough to make them glad of whatever they can get. 

 In Ireland there are very few men of any class who 

 can resist such a movement. Love of popularity, or, 

 more accurately, fear of unpopularity, makes nearly 

 all, Governments as well as others, as easy as pos- 

 sible about giving relief; and Mr. Forster's feelings 

 being moved by the distress in some parts, he ceased 

 to realise the difference between scheming and truth, 

 and took untruth to be true. So he proposed a 

 measure in the teeth of every sound principle of 

 estate -management, and which must have ruined 

 more tenants than it helped, and besides been a 

 grievous wrong to many landlords who know their 

 duty and have done it. To keep the tenants clear of 

 arrears, is the first principle of good estate-manage- 

 ment. The condition of any estate can be unfail- 

 ingly judged of, when it is known, what is the amount 

 of arrears upon it ? so, too, from the same facts, can 

 be known, what is the comfort the tenants live in ? 



I should myself have suffered great loss had the 

 Bill passed, though I have no arrears. I am in a 

 scheduled Union, in which, on February 1, there were 

 three more paupers than in 1879. I had my summer 



