The Irish anti-rent agitators are not good men, but those
who regard them as dangerous demons should remember what they once thought about the Catholic priests of Ireland. For centuries they held them to be malignant incendiaries, only to be kept down by violence. Justice has been done to the Catholic faith, and to-day there is not a Protestant landlord in Ireland who does not see that the priests are a strong division of the trite conservative force of society. Though peasants themselves, and dependent on peasants for bread, they are everywhere protesting against communistic schemes, arguing that rent ought to be paid—it is true, they usually insert the qualification about a " fair " rent, essential to get a hearing—and sometimes denouncing the agitators with extraordinary plainness. But for their influence, the whole population might give themselves up to the most ruinous schemes of spoliation. The change of opinion about them among landlords is most striking, and may teach them to see that the enemies they most dread are often not so dangerous as they seem. Give the tenants justice—that is, protection against eviction while reasonable rent is paid—and the agitators will be as powerless as the Chartists have become. A yeoman, whether freeholder or copyholder, is the best ally a landlord can have.
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