in writing, accepted Mr. Head's offer, under which, by the payment of
£865, they would be rid of a legal liability for £6177. The League again
intervened with bribes and threats, and Father Quilter found himself
obliged to write to Colonel Turner a letter in which he said, "Only
seventeen of the seventy tenants have sent on their rents to Mr. Roe
(the agent). Though promising that they would accept the terms, they
have withdrawn at the last moment from fulfilment.... I shall never
again during my time in Glenbehy interfere between a landlord and his
tenants. I have poor slaves who will not keep their word. Now let Mr.
Roe or any other agent in future deal with Glenbeighans as he likes."
The farms lie at a distance even from this inn, and very far therefore
from Killorglin, and the agent, knowing that the tenants would be
encouraged by Griffin and by Mr. Harrington, M.P., and others, to come
back into their holdings as soon as the officers withdrew, ordered the
woodwork of several cottages to be burned in order to prevent this. This
burning of the cottages, which were the lawful property of the
mortgagee, made a great figure in the newspaper reports, and
"scandalised the civilised world." The present agent thinks it was
impolitic on that account, but he has no doubt it was a good thing
financially for the evicted tenants. "You will see the shells of the
cottages to-morrow," he said, "and you will judge for yourself what they
were worth." But the sympathy excited by the illustrations of the cruel
conflagration and the heartrending descriptions of the reporters,
resulted in a very handsome subscription for the benefit of the tenants
of Glenbehy. General Sir William Butler, whose name came so prominently
before the public in connection with his failure to appear and give
evidence in a recent _cause célèbre_, and whose brother is a Resident
Magistrate in Kerry, was one of the subscribers. The fund thus raised
has been since administered by two trustees, Father Quilter, P.P., and
Mr. Shee, a son of our brisk little landlady here, who maintain out of