of law. This proof, I am sorry to say, is forthcoming. Let my readers
reflect for a moment on what might have been done for Lisburn and the
surrounding country if the Marquis of Hertfort had rebuilt his castle
and resided among his people. What an impulse to improvement of every
kind, what employment for tradesmen of every class, what business for
shops might have resulted from the local expenditure of 50,000 l. or
60,000 l. a year! What public buildings would have been erected--how
local institutions would have flourished! The proverb that 'absence
makes the heart grow fonder' does not apply to the relations of
landlord and tenant. But there is another proverb that applies
well--'Out of sight, out of mind.' Of this I shall now give two or
three illustrations. Some years ago, it was discovered that no
lease of the Catholic chapel at Lisburn could be found, and in the
recollection of the oldest member of the congregation no rent had been
paid. Kent, however, was now demanded, and the parish priest agreed
to pay a nominal amount, which places the congregation at the mercy
of the office. Ground was asked some time ago to build a Presbyterian
Church, but it was absolutely refused. A sum of money was subscribed
to build a literary institute, but, though a sort of promise was given
for ground to build it on, it was never granted, and the project fell
through. Lord Hertfort spends no portion of his vast income where it
is earned. His estate is like a farm to which the produce is never
returned in the shape of manure, but is all carted off and applied to
the enrichment of a farm elsewhere. One might suppose that where such
an exhausting process has been going on for so long a time an effort
would be made at some sort of compensation, especially at periods of
calamity. Yet, when the weavers on his estate were starving, owing to
the cotton famine during the American war, his lordship never replied
to the repeated applications made to him for help to save alive those
honest producers of his wealth. The noble example of Lord Derby and