Connecticut western news., 1882-08-02
The Irish Agent.

Tue perlIs of an Irish agents life do not make it difficult to obtain the ser vices of persons in such capacities in fact. to many the peril appears to have something of fascination about it, and Lord Clanricade has been beset with applicants for the place of the murdered MT. Blake. On such an estate the agent is, in fact, 8 more important person than the landlord, who seldom comes into personal communication with the tenant. For instance, Sir William dc Batho, an officer in the Guards, has an estate of some G2, ,O00 year in Meath, and when with his regiment in Dublin, having never seen his property, resolved to pay it visit. But the agent dis suaded him, possibly for reasons simi- lar to those on which the famous Dr. Busby omitted to doff his cap to Charles H., when he visited Westmin- ster Echool-that the scholars would think there was greater man than even the Doctor. On the great estates the profits of the agent, taking house and grounds and salary, with rates of labor into account, would enable him to live in as good style ss 8 man with SIC, ,OOO to $15, ,000 year here. But there are not more than @ dozen agencies of this kind. Probably the best are those of the Dukes of Leinster, Abercorn, and Devonshire, Lords Lansdowne, Water. ford, Pembroke, (best of all, ) and Fitz- william, Sir Roger Palmer, and Mir. mith-Barry. MT. Vernon, Lord Pem- broke's agent, is one of the three chief Commissioners under the Land act. He was allowed to retain the agency with the judicial appointment because Lord Pembroke's estate is almost exclusively urban, being in or around Dublin. The late MT. Trench, who wrote Realities of Irish Life, " was agent for Lord Lans- downe, Lord Bath (who is an entire absentee and has no residence) and MT. B. P. Shirley and his sons, one of whom is now Lord Lansdowne's agent. acted as his deputies. Altogether they realized quite handsome income. MT. Trench undoubtedly accomplished some very difficult and dangerous work, but he was not what he might have been to the poor people under him-was pomp. ous and consequential in high degree in demeanor and excessively arbitrary, and at times harsh, in his administra, tion of power. Many country gentle. men of small estate eke out their in. comes by taking agencies. The greater agents have social standing among the "best people" in the county. Some properties have no resident agent, but an attorney comes from town to collect
 the rents. In England only grandees have agents. The fact of their being SC
 usual in Ireland arises partly from ab
 senteeism and partly from the troubl,
 of collecting payments on very smal
 farms, for there are twenty tenants o1
 an Irish estate where there would be bu
 one on an English. The agents ar, almost all Protestant, except where tn owner is Roman Catholic. Most o
 them are connected by local ties witt Ireland. Many are the sons of forme agents, are barristers or attorneys, an, a sprinkling are retired Army and Nav officers. These latter are especiall eager in the pursuit of such places. Nc
 few cases could be cited where tn agent has got not only the experienc but, in the end, all the money too, b taking cunning advantage of a rockies principal, lending him money, and ult naately having him completely in hi
 power.