THE LAND QUESTION. 53 



CHAPTEE VI. 



THE " TIMES " IRISH SPECIAL COREESPONDENT ON 



THE LAND QUESTION. 



September 1869. 



Irish landlords have a clear injustice at the present 

 time of wMcli to complain — the extent to which mere 

 hearsay is being used as evidence against them. 



A number of men, M.P.'s, newspaper correspond- 

 ents, and others, have been travelling about Ireland 

 this autumn. They hear much and they see whatever 

 a short time allows, but the value of what they hear 

 or see mainly depends upon whose hands they chance 

 to fall mto. Not to insist on the fact that the moral 

 habits of the country are thoroughly untruthful, and 

 that the inquirers, being total strangers, have no 

 means of judging in what degree their informants can 

 be relied on, and who out of aU question are undeserv- 

 ing of credit, it is plain that the truth as to every 

 story of landlord's misdoings depends upon all the 

 facts being known. If the question, " When it 

 happened ? " is asked, it may turn out to have been 

 thirty years ago, under a state of things tliat has 



