This great evil the landlords could conjure up, but they have not been
able to lay it since. Like Frankenstein in the novel, it pursues them to
the present moment, and must be satisfied or appeased in some way, or
it will unquestionably destroy them. From the abolition of the franchise
until now, an incessant struggle of opposing interests has been going on
in the country. The "forties" and their attendants must be fed; but the
soul on which they live in its present state is not capable of at the
same time supporting them and affording his claims to the landlord; for
the food must go to England to pay the rents and the poor "forties" must
starve. They are now in the way of the landlord--they are now in the way
of the farmer--they are in fact in way of each other, and unless some
wholesome and human principle, either of domestic employment or colonial
emigration, or perhaps both, shall be adopted, they will continue to
embarrass the country, and to drive out of it, always in connection with
other causes, the very class of persons that constitute its remaining
strength.
At the present period of our narrative the neighborhood of Ballymacan
was in an unsettled and distressful state. The small farmers, and such
as held from six to sixteen acres, at a rent which they could at any
period with difficulty pay, were barely able to support themselves and
their families upon the produce of their holdings, so that the claims
of the landlord were out of the question.
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