Mr. Bianconi is a Catholic, but liberal in his opinions, and he has proved a true benefactor to his adopted country. I have a pleasant recollection of his courteous hospitality, and trust I may be excused for this public record of what I saw and heard at Longfield. "It does not matter what a man is, native or foreigner, Catholic or Protestant, if he is a good fellow, and if he is just and kind to the people." This was the remark of one of Mr. Bianconi's neighbours in Tipperary, and what I had seen confirmed the truth of the statement. Yet he had difficulty in obtaining letters of naturalization. Sir Robert Peel, when Home Secretary, was unable to procure them for him, and it was not until he had been nearly thirty years resident in Ireland, that in 1831, this recognition of citizenship was granted, during the administration of Earl Grey, the application being supported by the Grand Jury of Tipperary.

What I have narrated is interesting as a piece of biography, the story of "a self-made man," but it is more valuable as throwing light on the national character. Mr. Bianconi speaks well of "the peaceable and high moral bearing of the Irish peasantry, which can only be known and duly appreciated by those who live among them, and who have long and constant intercourse with them." Apart from agrarian outrages, crime is really rare; and the agitation about

the land, he thinks, would not have arisen if proprietors had lived among the people, improving their estates, and granting leases to their tenants. His own experience has been that security of tenure gives incitement to industry and maintains good feeling. The landlords have chosen to keep their tenants in subjection, treating them as a servile class, partly for political reasons. He had purchased property where the farms were held by tenants-at-will, the population being poor and indolent, and rents in arrear. Granting leases at an advanced rent, the property improved in value, the rent was always paid, and the tenantry became a prosperous and contented class of yeomen farmers. If all landlords had been like Mr. Bianconi, there would have been no need of any Land Act, nor the wild agitation about "fixity" of tenure, by which the just relations of landlord and tenant are disturbed. It was gratifying to hear the testimony of such a man as to the progress of the country, and the expression of his firm faith in the future prosperity of Ireland.

CHAPTER VII.

IRISH POLITICS.

Imperial and National Parties - A New Political Pale Cardinal Cullen's Claims for Popish Nationality-Ruling Ireland by Irish Ideas.

I

RISH politics seem somewhat confused and complicated, but can be easily explained, so far as analysis of Irish representatives to Parliament is concerned.

The first obvious division is into members who are, in their principles and sympathies, British or Imperial, and those who are Irish or National. The great body of the landowners, magistrates, and members of grand juries throughout Ireland, whether Catholic or Protestant, are associated by education, by family connections, by social ties and political sympathies with English interests, and, however patriotic in personal feeling, they work for Ireland as part of the united empire. The majority of voters, taking the whole of Ireland, have the same British and loyal sympathies, and are opposed to agitations for Repeal or Home Rule, or other schemes for separate nation

ality. As in other parts of the kingdom, there is division into Liberal and Conservative, the Liberals prevailing in Catholic constituencies, the Conservatives in Protestant constituencies.*

The Irish or National party is at present much identified with the Roman Catholic power, but is not necessarily subject to it, and will remain so only while each can gain its ends by combination. As long as the Romish Church can hope to obtain concessions from the Government, it will disclaim sympathy with the Home Rule movement, which is the present cheval de bataille of the national party. If the Government refuses to submit to the dictation of the Romish bishops, the influence of the priests, who are under thorough control of the hierarchy, will be more openly given to the National party.

In the last Galway election this influence was used, and the election was gained by an ecclesiastical terrorism, which revealed the probable result of such power in other parts of Ireland. The power of the landlords, even when Catholic, is weak when in opposition to that of the priests. In other elections, how

* Mr. Robert H. Mair, the Editor of " Debrett," informs me that in the returns received this year from the Irish Members, only five have marked themselves in the schedules as "Home Rulers." These are Butt, Martin, Redmond, Ronayne, and Smyth. The other Home Rule or Nationalist members return themselves under the head of Liberal or of Conservative.

ever, independent National candidates have carried the day, in spite of the opposition both of landlords and priests.

It is a mistake in the Government to show so much deference, and almost servile subjection, to the will of the Romish Church, and to give so little attention to the opinions of the National party, many of whom are disinterested and patriotic, however visionary or mischievous we may consider them to be. The wiser policy would be to conciliate the National party, by considering their alleged grievances, and hearing their proposals, instead of driving them into secret conspiracies, and throwing them into combination with that ultramontane faction whose irreconcileable hatred to England is well known.

There is not a country

in Europe where the Catholic Church would be tolerated in the attitude assumed by the heads of the Romish Church in Ireland. Even in the most Catholic countries they are excluded from the control of education and patronage, and from the political influence which is wielded by Cardinal Cullen and his satellites.

In Anglo-Norman and early English times "the Pale" was a geographical as well as political expression. The condition and privileges of those "within the Pale" were widely different from the state of those "beyond the Pale." But when English life