IRELAND— ITS SOCIAL STATE. 151 



men iii a car and lodge them in it ?" My friend was 

 only too happy to go home on such conditions. In a 

 quarter of an hour the soldiers were at the back door 

 of our Bridewell, mounted. The prisoners were in a 

 car with two policemen, and all trotted off, whilst 

 their friends knew nothing of what was happening, 

 and there was not a soul to cheer them. A note to the 

 county jailor requested him to give them as much of 

 the treadmill as the law permitted. And a grim answer 

 came back, that he would take care they should re- 

 turn with a salutary dread of that establishment. 



So there was no more war or trouble with Fen- 

 ianism in that place. Some time after the men had 

 done their month, happening to meet the head con- 

 stable, I asked how his friends were going on. The 

 answer was, " Oh, sir, you might send them for a 

 message down the pump, if you wished. When they 

 meet me in the street, if they are the same side, they 

 cross over to the other, for fear I should say they 

 jostled me." 



6. Home Eule is even a more pitiful sham than 

 Fenianism. In O'Connell's agitation the leaders were 

 at least men of intellect and power of mind. Every- 

 body knows what the Leaders and the Led are now. 

 The one good they have done is to make this known 

 to aU. A firm grasp by the Government would put an 

 end to them. 



It is this artificial character of Irish agitations, and 

 that they are not caused by real present grievances, 



