“And is it justice?” he insisted. “You shall have the paper and read the speech.”
In Cork I called to see Mr. Mahony, the manufacturer referred to, who told me that there is no government regulation to hamper their manufactures in any way. It is doubtless a matter of convenience to ship from a great port like Liverpool, vessels not caring to stop and take on small quantities at Queenstown.[167]
As Collins, his wife, and I were riding on the cart, going to the market-town for butter, I asked whether he expected that there would be a time when there would be no rents to pay. He answered that he did not.
“I understood you to say the other evening that you did,” I continued.
“No,” he replied; “there has been a proposition for the government to take the lands, and the people to pay rent for thirty years——”
“And then the land be theirs?” I interrupted.
“Yes” he answered; “but they will never grant that. More moderate things they have refused. All we want is reduced rents, as the people can no longer pay high ones.”
On our return journey I had an admirable opportunity to talk with him as he walked by the wagon. I had called on a magistrate in the market-town, a Protestant gentleman, who had seemed very ignorant or uncommunicative. He had, however, suggested over-population as a reason for the condition of Irish affairs. This magistrate bore a military title. I handed to him the introduction given me at Cork by the “Riverend Lawrence O’Byrne.” Collins had suggested an officer of the market as suitable to introduce me. But I was in haste, and carried the letter. The magistrate said that he did not know the person. “No,” said Collins, on my return, “you were wrong in two things. You said you were from Philadelphia, and they are afraid of the Americans, or do not like them, and Father O’Byrne is not their kind of man.”
I told Collins that some papers in America had said that their magistrates should be elected, as with us in some States. He replied that they are appointed from the aristocracy, the land-holding class, and, of course, in cases of dispute between landlords and tenants, their sympathies are with their own class.