And its Gonstquencts. 143 



tenant, the occupiers of the property have to thank the Grovem- 

 ment for the result — that result simply being that you cannot 

 take away a landlord's rights, and expect him to continue to act 

 as if those rights had been left imdisturbed. 



" In conclusion, I should like to take this opportunity of 

 informing the occupiers that I was much pleased with my visit to 

 the property, with all the improvements they had carried out, and 

 very agreeably impressed with those I saw and talked to ; and 

 that I only hope they may thrive as well under the rule of their 

 new landlord (viz., the Government) as they appear to have done 

 under the former lords of the soil. 



" I remain, yours very truly, 



"BoBERT H. Elliot." 

 "Clifton Park, Kelso, 



lO/A Oetoher, 1881." 



This letter was noticed in the Times through its 

 correspondent in Dublin, my agent was applied to for 

 copies for the guidance of proprietors, and their agents 

 in Ireland, and the letter was published in full by the 

 Scotsman as a warning to would-be land legislators, but 

 as their folly is founded on invincible ignorance it 

 appears to be beyond the reach of any remonstrance, or 

 any practical illustration of the harm that is sure to 

 ensue from their melancholy line of action. But the 

 English have always been celebrated for their want of 

 foresight, and their extraordinary power of shutting 

 their eyes to the most obvious facts, as any one may 

 perceive who reflects on the history of the Indian 

 Mutiny, the Boer War, and that faulty Indian Educa- 

 tional system which is the real foundation of the present 

 discontent among certain classes in our vast dependency. 

 By the aid of our inherent strength, and a great waste of 

 public money, we have indeed pulled ourselves out of 

 immense national difficulties, but no expenditure of 

 public money will ever be able to repair the material, 

 social, and political evils which must arise if our would- 

 be land legislators should be successful in the warfare 



