316 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



do. When you push them, they have a willingness to 

 oblige which the English have not ; they would die under 

 anything before they would be beat ; they would go at 

 hard work till they drop, before a man should excel them. 

 They show as much ingenuity and skill as the same class 

 of the English ; they require more looking after ; they 

 talk more at work ; they don't require more instructing 

 than the English ; they only require more looking after 

 to keep them to the collar." 



This shows what may be done with the Irish of the 

 humbler class by looking after them and treating them 

 with kindness : " By treating them kindly they will do 

 anything for you." Such is the evidence, not of an ardent 

 Irishman, who might be carried away by the impulse of 

 strong national feelings, but of a cool, honest, English 

 tradesman, \vho " could not bear the thoughts of an Irish- 

 man" before he had experience of what the nature of an 

 Irishman was. 



But it is not in England only that we see the happy 

 effects that may be produced upon the Irish of the labour- 

 ing class by attention to them ; there are in Ireland land- 

 lords who think of their tenants, and whose estates appear 

 as green spots in a desert. 



We must here observe that absentee landlords may in 

 some degree compensate for their non-residence by put- 

 ting in their place and stead active agents, who will feel 

 that it is their duty not merely to compel the tenant to 

 pay his rent, but to take care that he may be enabled to 

 make it. 



There are such agents in Ireland; and where there are, the 

 tenants are comfortable, and the landlord's rent is secure. 



The employment of agricultural stewards too is now 



