The latter, at my request, he allowed me to keep, and I must reproduce it here.

It tells its own tale.
A peasant came to the authorities and complained that he was "tormented" to make a subscription to a "testimonial" for one Austen Mackay of Kilshanny, in the County Clare, producing at the same time a copy of the circular which had been sent about to the people.

It is a cheaply-printed leaflet, not unlike a penny ballad in appearance, and thus it runs:-- "_Testimonial to_ Mr.AUSTEN MACKAY, _Kilshanny_, _County Clare_.
"We, the Nationalists and friends of Mr.Austen Mackay, at a meeting held in March 1887, agreed and resolved on presenting the long-tried and trusted friend--the persecuted widow's son--with a testimonial worthy of the fearless hero who on several occasions had to hide his head in the caves and caverns of the mountains, with a price set on his body.

First, for firing at and wounding a spy in his neighbourhood, as was alleged in '65, for which he had to stand his trial at Clare Assizes.

Again, for firing at and wounding his mother's agent and under-strapper while in the act of evicting his widowed mother in the broad daylight of Heaven, thus saved his mother's home from being wrecked by the robber agent, the shock of which saved other hearths from being quenched; but the noble widow's son was chased to the mountains, where he had to seek shelter from a thousand bloodhounds.
"The same true widow's son nobly guarded his mother's homestead and that of others from the foul hands of the exterminators.