Mr. O'Shaughnessy, Member for Limerick, and hitherto re- garded as
moderate, has openly joined the Land League, in a letter to Mr. Parnell, in which he declares that his "principles are based on goodwill to the landlords who will give their tenants a secure and inviolable tenure at fair rent; and com- pulsory expropriation at a fair price to the landlords who re- fuse to give such tenure, or insist on exorbitant rents." This is fixity of tenure, against which Mr. Parnell has strongly pro- tested, as an arrangement which would demoralise the farmers. The real difficulty in its way is the want of any guarantee that the rent, when fixed, would be paid. Suppose a second agita- tion were begun against that. The compensation for fixity, which is, if not the only possible compromise, at least the farthest limit to which Parliament will go, is that rent should be paid, like a dividend on Consols, on the day and to the full amount. But then where is the person who can levy it, and yet be beyond a bullet
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