THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY. 65 



can be accomplished by principles, but where 

 personal address means everything. The agent 

 belongs to the gentry class. Beneath him, as 

 his assistant, is the bailiff, whilst the home farm 

 is managed by the steward. 



It is not my intention to give a detailed 

 characterisation of the Irish landowner ; this 

 class is probably as much a mixture as in most 

 other human occupations. But, more perhaps 

 than other social groups, it has had to suffer for 

 the sins of its useless members. It has distin- 

 guished itself in sport and in war ; it has also 

 showed its ability in the administration of 

 England's colonies. It possesses, as far as the 

 forms of social life are concerned, animation, 

 grace, and natural talent to a high degree ; but 

 it has fulfilled its political and economic duties 

 in Ireland ill enough, and during the great 

 agrarian revolution which brought about its 

 fall, it produced neither a policy nor a leader. 



