CHAPTER X. 



Ireland. 



In the days when we were first quartered in Ireland, no 

 blight of legalised robbery had fallen upon it. The 

 landlords mostly lived in their demesnes, and spent their 

 money among their own people. There was fun and 

 merriment everywhere, and thorough loyalty and recipro- 

 city of feeling between the peasantry and the " ould 

 gintry." 



I was there when the first shadow of the Land 

 League appeared, rousing the demon of cupidity ; and 

 how was it met by the authorities ? The Government 

 was warned repeatedly by generals, police officers, and 

 magistrates that they must not allow the open-air meetings 

 to take place ; that banners, bands, and wild speeches 

 would so inflame the excitable population that no one 

 could foresee where the spirit they were raising might 

 lead them. It was all to no purpose. Gladstone desired 

 an Irish cry, and by coquetting with Home Eule wrecked 

 the great Liberal party, — a blessing in disguise, perhaps, 

 to the nation, for since the formation of the Unionist 

 party, the imperial instincts of Britain have once more 

 sprung into prominence, and a repetition of the shameful 

 episode that followed the disastrous " Majuba Hill " would 

 surely now be impossible. 



