AGRARIANISM IN IRELAND.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPBOTATOR.1
SIR,—Your very instructive article of June 14th thus concludes : —" It is in peasant-proprietors, and not in dragoons, that we must seek Conservative force in Ireland." This wise teaching finds an answering illustration in the following passage, which I translate from "Lea Droits de l'Homme," by Etigene Pelle- tan, published in 1858, and which you may think worthy of in- sertion in your columns :— "I was travelling in a Department of the South, after the Revolution of February. I met one day a mayor of a village, proprietor of a metairie. Sir,' said he to me, what do they mean down there at Paris by that word "communism ?" It is some sluggard's business, is it not ? So, at least, our curate says It is a system of partition,' replied I, invented once on a time by a dreamer r —` What did he dream ?'—' That the man who has a million should share it with the commune.'—His eye brightened. Not a bad dream, either,' said he.— ' But, further,' I resumed, 'that the man who has 100,000 francs should abandon the half to his neighbour r —` Well, he would still have enough, with the other half.'—' Then that the man who has 50,000 francs should come down to 25,000 francs, through spirit of fraternity !'—The face of the mayor assumed a thoughtful tinge. That may still do.'—' Lastly, that the man who possesses 25,000 francs,—'—' Twenty-five thousand francs,: he interrupted, springing up with a bound, That's the value of my farm; let him who would have a vine-stock belonging to it, come and seek it. He will see how I will receive him, at the end of my musket." (p. 243)
—I am, Sir, &c.,
Bonaly Tower, near Edinburgh. W. B. HODGSON.
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