These remarks bring us to the case of the barony of Geashill, the
estate of Lord Digby, to which Mr. Trench became agent in 1857. Lord
Digby desired to obtain his services, but he did not communicate his
desire to Mr. Trench himself, though nothing would seem easier. It was
first conveyed by Lieut.-General Porter, the confidential friend of
Lord Digby, and next by Mr. Brewster, afterwards Lord Chancellor of
Ireland. When the police received a notice that the new landlord of
Geashill would certainly meet with a 'bloody death' if he persisted in
his threatened dealings with the tenants, there was no more time
for diplomatic delicacy in approaching Mr. Trench. The landlord's
extremity is Mr. Trench's opportunity. When leases are to be broken,
when independent rights are to be extinguished, or 'contracted away,'
when an overcrowded estate is to be thinned at the least possible
cost to the owner, when a rebellious tenantry are to be subdued, and
Ribbonmen are to be banished or hanged, Mr. Trench is the man to do
the work of improvement. He admits that he never had before him an
uglier job than this at Geashill, and he had the worst apprehensions
as to the danger of the enterprise.

It was nothing less than to break 120 leases, which had been granted
from time to time by the late Lord Digby during the sixty years that
he had enjoyed the property. The value of these leases was 30,600 l.,
for the terms unexpired after his death. Among those 120 leaseholders
were the descendants of English settlers, gentlemen farmers, one of
them a magistrate, and a number of substantial yeomen, the sort of men
the country so much wanted to form an independent middle class. But to
an 'improving landlord,' the existence of such a class on his estate
is intolerable. At all hazards they must be made tenants-at-will, and
brought completely under his control.