They Were So Very Sure That Everything
Was Just As It Should Be, And Nothing Short Of Treason Would Induce Any
One To Find Fault.
Still when the question was asked squarely, "Are
there no reasons for wishing for reform of the land laws?
" The answer
was, "We would not go quite so far as that?" There was a vague
acknowledgment that, generally speaking, some reform was needed, and yet
every particular thing was defended as all right on the whole, or not
very far wrong.
XXIII.
A MODEL LANDLORD - ERIN'S SONS IN OTHER LANDS.
I have, at last, heard of a model landlord; not that I have not heard
of good landlords before, as Mr. Humphreys and Mr. Stewart, of Ards, in
Donegal. I have seen also the effects of good landlordism. When passing
through the Galgorm estate I saw the beneficial changes wrought on that
place by Mr. Young; but I have heard of many hard landlords, seen much
misery as the result of the present land tenure, and I did feel glad to
hear men praising a landlord without measure. It was a pleasant change.
This landlord who has won such golden opinions is Lord Belmore, of
Castle Coole. "The Land League has gained no adherents on his estate,"
says one to me, "because he is such a just man. He is a man who will
decide for what he thinks right though he should decide to his own hurt.
Eviction has never occurred on his place; there is no rack rent, no
vexatious office rules."
As I have listened to story after story of tyranny on the Leitrim
estate, so here I listened to story after story of the strict justice
and mercy of Lord Belmore. His residence of Castle Coole is outside of
Enniskillen a little, and is counted very beautiful. Of course I went to
get a peep at it, because he is a lord whom all men praise. "His
tenants," said one, "not only do not blame him but they glory in him.
Why should they join the Land League? They get all it promises without
doing so." As we drove along I heard his justice, his sense of right,
his praise, in short, repeated in every way possible. I have noticed
about this lord that to mention his name to any one who knows him is
quite enough to set them off in praise of him. As he is not an immensely
wealthy peer, but has been obliged to part with some of his property, it
is the more glorious the enthusiastic good name he has won for himself.
We drove across a long stretch of gravel drive through scenery like
fairyland. A fair sheet of water lay below the house, bordered by trees
that seemed conscious of their owner's renown by the way they tossed
their heads upward and spread their branches downward, as saying, "Look
at us: everything here bears examination and demands admiration." Swans
ruffled their snowy plumage and sailed with stately bendings of their
white necks across the lake.
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