What an example to the world! A country where the wage-earner hurried, with eager footsteps, to place the honestly earned tolls at the feet of generous and trusting landlords! Then, on the other hand, he pointed to that small portion of the British Isles, where to pay rent was a crime: where landlords were but targets for insult and vituperation--yes, and indeed for BULLETS from the hidden assassin whenever they were indiscreet enough to visit a country where laws existed but that they might be broken, and crime stalked fearlessly through the land.

Such a condition was a reproach to the English government.
"Why," he asked the astonished gathering of dignitaries, "why should such a condition exist when three hundred and sixty-five men sat in the House of Commons, sent there by electors to administer the just and wise laws of a just and wise country?
Why ?" As he paused and glared around the table for the reply that was not forthcoming, the undying phrase sprang new-born from his lips: "Oh," he cried; "oh! that for one brief hour Providence would immerse that island of discontent beneath the waters of the Atlantic and destroy a people who seemed bent on destroying themselves and on disintegrating the majesty and dignity and honour of our great Empire!" Feeling that no words of his could follow so marvellous a climax, he sat down, amid a silence that seemed to him to be fraught with eloquence, so impressive and significant was--to him--its full meaning.
Some speeches are cheered vulgarly.

It was the outward sign of coarse approval.

Others are enjoyed and sympathised with inwardly, and the outward tribute to which was silence--and that was the tribute of that particular Guildhall gathering on that great night.
It seemed to Wilberforce Kingsnorth, hardened after-dinner speaker though he was, that never had a body of men such as he confronted and who met his gaze by dropping their eyes modestly to their glasses, been so genuinely thrilled by so original, so comprehensive and so dramatic a conclusion to a powerful appeal.
Kingsnorth felt, as he sat down, that it was indeed a red-letter night for him--and for England.
The Times, in reviewing the speeches the following morning, significantly commented that: "Mr.Kingsnorth had solved, in a moment of entreaty, to a hitherto indifferent Providence, the entire Irish difficulty." When Nathaniel Kingsnorth found himself the fortunate possessor of this tract of land peopled by so lawless a race, he determined to see for himself what the conditions really were, so for the first time since they owned a portion of it, a Kingsnorth set foot on Irish soil.
Accompanied by his two sisters he arrived quietly some few weeks before and addressed himself at once to the task of understanding the people and the circumstances in which they lived.
On this particular afternoon he was occupied with his agent, going systematically through the details of the management of the estate.
It was indeed a discouraging prospect.

Such a condition of pauperism seemed incredible in a village within a few hours of his own England.
Except for a few moderately thriving tradesmen, the whole population seemed to live from hand to mouth.