The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-07-18 00:00:00

TOO MANY FOR THEM!

The following story is, to all who know Ireland,
singularly characteristic, and gives an idea of the diffi-
culties which Irish landlords have to encounter. It is
taken from Journals. Conrersations, dv., relating to
Ireland, by the late NUMMI W. Senior :
AVben I began to reclaim my mountaimfarm. said Mr.
Trench, an extensive proprietor and estate manager, ear-
ployml 100 men, at wages varying from ed. to is. a day, the,
average being lot., and the weekly expenditure £-25. After
this had gone on for about three month, my clerk wrote to
are in Tipperary, where I was staying on business, that the
men hail struck, and demanded that the nlill i l num payment
should be Is. 2.1. army, and that the wages of the better men
should be raised in promotion. We were in a critical
period if the work, and my clerk thought the matter
serious.
In iny answer I said to him, am ready to accede to the
men's demands, lam willing to give a ' 'MUM price of
Is. 2d., and a maximum price of 35. a day. Of Cont., at that
rate of wages, I vannrit continue my 'resent expenditure.
You will reduce it to Ll 2 100 a week. You will select the
best men, beginning by the highest wages. In this matter
you will follow out, not your own opinion, but flip instrue-
' lions, and you will read this letter to the men"
'lke men assembled next day to hear my answer. It was
read to them, and highly approved of. My clerk then
said—
•' N.ov, h,ys, I must choose my men ; 'ant lie began by
1 selecting a dozen of the lies!. Anil what wages must you
1 have I "lie asked.
I "rib," they said, "we'll take the top price—the Ss."
I"Very well," he answered; "its, a week for twelve men
makes .eit B.s. a week; there is only £4 is. lot of the £l2 le.,
arid at that rate I c.,n only have four more; then there will
remain los for one other. I can therefor, take seveuteenof
you ; the remaining eighty-three may go."
This did not suit the eighty-three. They began to talk
together in knots, to abuse the greediness of those who had
demanded 35., to threaten to break their treads—first, if they
took more than Is. 6d., then if they took more than their
minimum of Is. 2d. ; and, at last, finding that, even at that
, price, more limn hr If of them w,uld be thrown into( employ,
they broke up their condonation, and retunied to work at
i the old prices. " The master," they said, "is too many for

From that time I had no difficulty with these men ; and
though I have once or twice afterwards been assailed by
comikinatiom, they have never given me any trouble. They
are always unjust to some classes of the men, and may always
be disiolved by turning against them the influence of the
oppressed class.

This is a fair devription of an average well-to-do
peasant of the west :
The scenery grew grander and grander an we advanced,
until W 3 reached the base of Bung] y II ill, which closes the
glen with a serrated wall 3,000 beet high. As we were
returning, a wild-looking man, about sixty years old, came
bounding down the 11114 e. Ile nuplored Trench to come
anti look at his holding, and say whether it was not the
worst land in the glen. The priest, he said, had told hint
that if Mr. Deneh saw it, he would lower the rent to
the poor-law valuation. The rent was Li 151., the valua-
tion £7.
We walked with him to his land, a tract of fourteen or
fifteen acres between the hill and the river, on which his
nine cows were feeling. They seemed in good ease, and
his three-wiudowed cottage was, as he admitted, "a mighty
line house." But it was thatched. if the relit was reduced

he would slate it.
We asked about his family. His wife, he said, was dead
so that he bad no housekeeper. Ills grownup sons were
gone to America, and he lived with only hiv two gossoona
We asked if his sons in Ansel tea were doing well. Mighty
well, he answered aol they sea him a p wer of money.
The gaseous were brought to us, boys of about fourteen and
twelve, but they could speak no English. We reproached
him for not having sent theni to school. There ins good one
in the glen. lie made a lame excuse that he wanted them at
home. Ile returned to hiff great request of reduction of
rent, always supported by the authority of the priest.
" Why," saki Trench. " £7 171. does not seem too much for
a miAty fine house and for land that feeds nine cows What
will ale weight our.say? They will all be wanting reductions."
' Oh," he said, "the neighliours shall never know it. Your
honour most remember that, when brat you came to this
glen, right years age, you gave me a shilling ; and I have
reckoned on you as my triend ever since."
" Well." replied Trench, " if pm are over-rented, what w
dl
pen take to give up your holding C Will )ou take £20?"

° Will you take LW?"
" I an, afraid, then, that I can tin nothing for you "
Ile knelt down to teurge his entreaty, but was at last paci-
fied by half a crown.
tail Trench, " Ic a specimen of the inhabitants of
these niountain glens. Solitai y, penurious, half emplo3ed
uneducated, with no object except to hoard a little money,
with uo pleasures except eating, drinking, and sleeping :
raised above their cattle chiefly by being niscontented—)et
they cling to this hill-side w ith a tenacity which nothing but
the famine, or some bribe larger tins,. I think it riuht to otter,
could overcome. And if Iv. one to persuade theni to go to
America, or even to allow one to transplant them, as the
Duke of bnnnlneelannl did hi. mountain cotters, to the better
land ut ar the sea-cost, all the local newspapers would cry
for vengeance on me as an exterminator."

" A contemporary on Tuesday stated that Mr.
Longfellow declined to go to Oxford for the purpose of
receiving the degree conferred on him, because he was
' event helmed with the rough lint hearty greetings of the
Cambridgenndentraduatea.' We believe that Mr. Longfellow
era, not kept from oxford by any such consideration. He
misunderstood the time fixed for the ceremony, and when
he discovered his mistake it was too late to remedy it. Mr.
Longfellow, although little debiting what our contemporary
calla an 'ovation,' is cot imensible to the kindly feeling
which has everywhere been shown towards him, and the
sheers of some young men wry ILI not have frightened an mi-
ni defter of the rnlversity of Harvard. maguatoreed to this
'mu tictvar penalty—if it be a penalty—of popularity."—Pott
Mn I Gazette.
Mr. Martin Luther Cumming. son of Dr. Cumming,
received his order of discharge In the ii.mkruptey Court. m
London, on 1 nesday. His della, owisg chiefly to ,xfor I
tradesmen. amounted to 4863, suit there weie no :met, He
was opposed by Mr. :Seale, jeweller. for Li, the namant of
a ring and other jeweliery ,old by him to the bankrupt.
i Mr Cumming, in his examination, stated that at the tint he
I obtained the goods of Mr. Ne de he was in the receipt of
I allowance f £2OO a year from his lather Mr. Comm i=oloner
lioiretyil thought tha, to etstig off.'.'' hat been coin-
f.ren..te.l I le," •.t n • toe of Mi•herp.