vii ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MFN 333 



kinds, became modified, in consequence of the 

 power of keeping more cattle than the rest of the 

 sept, thus conferred on the chief. He became a 

 lender of cattle at a high rate of interest to his 

 more needy sept- fellows, who when they borrowed 

 became bound to do him service in other ways 

 and lost status by falling into the position of his 

 debtors. Hence the chief gradually acquired the 

 characteristics of what naturalists have called 

 " synthetic " and " prophetic " types, combining 

 the features of the modern gombeen-man with 

 those of the modern rack-renting landlord, who is 

 commonly supposed to be a purely imported 

 Norman or Saxon product, saturated with the 

 very spirit of industrialism namely, the deter- 

 mination to get the highest price for an article 

 which is to be had. As a fact, the condition of 

 the native Irish, under their own chiefs, was as 

 bad in Queen Elizabeth's time as it has ever been 

 since. Again, the status of the original com- 

 moners of the sept was steadily altered for the 

 worse by the privilege which the chief possessed, 

 and of which he freely availed himself, of settling 

 on the waste land of the commune such broken 

 vagabonds of other tribes as sought his patronage 

 and protection, and who became absolutely depen- 

 dent upon him. Thus, without war and without 

 any necessity for force or fraud (though doubtless 

 there was an adventitious abundance of both), the 

 communal system was bound to go to pieces, and 



