WHAT WILL DO GOOD IN IRELAND. 217 



selves in the end. I know one (and believe that 

 both) had joined the Land League. 



Not to press for the payment of rent and to let 

 arrears accumulate is just the common old way of 

 dealing in this country, by which to go in debt is 

 considered to be of no consequence, so long as you 

 are not forced to pay it. It is hoped Providence may 

 provide some good years, that may make it easy to 

 pay the arrears or reduce them; and, if not, it is 

 hoped they, may not be pressed for. In either case 

 they are a dead log round the tenant's neck, which 

 depresses all his energies, because in a good year the 

 surplus is not his own, and does him no good, and in 

 the bad years he is more likely to be ruined, and lose 

 everything. 



Here is another fact. Just before September 29, 

 a neighbour brought a young Liberal English M.P. to 

 see our doings. He had come over to inform himself 

 on the Irish question. Inter alia, I asked if he would 

 like to see a distressed tenant under ejectment for non- 

 payment of rent. Nothing he would like so much. 

 So I sent him to a widow, a poor woman, with beau- 

 tiful land, and faults enough to ruin five tenants. 

 She owed a year's rent, and was to be ejected in ten 

 days. I did not go with him, that he might ask and 

 see all he liked. His many questions had the effect 

 of convincing the widow he must be the sheriff's 

 officer, or some one who wished to take her land, or 

 had to do with her ejectment. So when he went away, 



