’What cavalry, my lord?  Why, there was none.

‘Oh ho,’ says the judge.  ‘And where was the artillery?’

’Faith, my lord, there was as much artillery as there was cavalry, and that would not get in the way of a donkey race.’

Then Morris, with appropriate solemnity, proceeded to read out the newspaper account for the benefit of the audience.  The whole Court was convulsed with laughter, in which the prisoners in the dock heartily joined.

After the trial was over, a parish priest came to congratulate Morris, and said to him:—­

‘My lord, you have laughed Fenianism out of Limerick.’

[Illustration:  Mrs. Hussey]

CHAPTER VIII

MYSELF, SOME FACTS, AND MANY STORIES

In 1850 I became agent to the Colthurst property, which consisted of most of the parish of Ballyvourney, one estate alone containing about twenty-three thousand acres.  The rental was then over L4600.  There were only three slated houses on the property, hardly any out-buildings, only seven miles of road under contract, and about twenty acres planted.

By 1880 the landlord had expended L30,000 on improvements, there were over one hundred slated houses, about sixty miles of roads, and over four hundred acres planted.

Under the Land Act of 1881 the rent was reduced to L3600.

That was the encouragement officially given to the landlord for assisting in the improvement of his property.

From the time of Moses downwards, the policy of all Governments has been to give relief to the debtor.  By the Encumbered Estate Act, which was passed just after the famine, special relief was given to the creditor.

What the English view was may be taken from the Times—­

’In a few years more, a Celtic Irishman will be as rare in Connemara as is the Red Indian on the shores of Manhattan.’

That is to say, English capital was at last to flow into Ireland for the purchase of encumbered estates, but the anticipation of course was erroneous.

English capital was placed for preference in Turkish and in Egyptian bonds, to the great loss of all concerned.  As for Ireland, out of the first twenty millions realised by the new Court, over seventeen was Irish money; and at the outset there was an inevitable downward tendency of prices which involved heavy depreciation.

Credit was destroyed in Ireland, and every man who owed a shilling was utterly ruined.  Had the Government given loans at a reasonable rate of interest, which would have amply repaid them, all this could have been saved.  As it was, properties were sold like chairs and tables at a paltry auction, and in thousands of cases the judge expressed himself satisfied that the rent could have been considerably increased.

I knew one unfortunate shopkeeper who paid L6000 for a property under these circumstances; and in place of an increase of rent, the confiscators—­that is to say the commissioners imposed by Mr. Gladstone—­took a third of the rental off him.