could not compel the new purchasers to reside upon them, or to abstain from putting them, after the manner of old Irish families, into the hands of middleThe agrarian outrages which have so long disgraced Westmeath, and the political terrorism recently exercised by priest-led mobs in Galway, exemplify the causes which swell the number of proprietors 'rarely or never resident in Ireland.' After the Galway election a Roman Catholic gentleman of ancient Irish lineage, whose life had been threatened, signified his intention of leaving the country, and who can blame him if he carries out his resolve? Yet his departure will close one hospitable mansion, and thereby render the neighbourhood less attractive to others, besides involving a direct loss of employment and custom. Those who aspire to guide popular opinion in Ireland will do well to reflect on such considerations as these. Of course it is possible that Ireland is destined to become a community of small proprietors, with no landed aristocracy and few capitalist manufacturers. In that case it will probably exhibit the nearest approach yet realized to what economists call 'the stationary state.' In any other case a resident gentry may be of the utmost service in the social regeneration of Ireland, and no Irishman deserves well of his country who seeks to make the position of a resident gentry less enviable."

CHAPTER VI.

VISIT TO MR. BIANCONI.

Mr. Bianconi's History -Seventy Years' Recollections-Bianconi's Cars-Irish Travelling.

NE of the most satisfactory pages in my Irish,

ONE

notebook is that which records a visit paid to Mr. Charles Bianconi, at Longfield in Tipperary. His name is familiar in connection with the public car service which he organized and long conducted, but it may not be known to many English readers that he is proprietor of a fine estate, one of the best of landlords, a capital farmer, and a much-respected magistrate. I had on several occasions corresponded with him, and was glad of the opportunity of seeing him in his own home and amongst his prosperous tenantry. He is now in his 87th year. He was born at Tregolo in northern Italy, Sept. 20, 1786, and came to Ireland in 1802. From an accident a few years ago he is lame, but otherwise in excellent health, with memory clear and intellect vigorous. In all that concerns the welfare of his adopted country

he takes the most lively interest. It was truly a treat to converse with a man who has such large knowledge and experience, and who has witnessed the progress of Ireland during the last seventy years of its eventful annals.

A brief narrative of the career and public life of Mr. Bianconi will be accepted not only as an interesting piece of biography, but as throwing light on the history and the condition of Ireland. He allowed me to read a manuscript memoir of the early incidents of his life, which he had drawn up at the request of Mr. Drummond, whose intimate friendship he enjoyed. Mr. Drummond was one of the best of Irish secretaries, an enlightened statesman, and a warm friend to Ireland. He knew how to appreciate a man like Mr. Bianconi, and often took advantage of the information and advice which he was able to give. I urged Mr. Bianconi to publish this autobiography, but he declines on the ground that it touches on too many personal matters, and refers to persons whose descendants or relations might take offence, and because

we are yet too little removed from the dark penal times." I must therefore confine my narrative to matters which are of public notoriety, and of which Mr. Bianconi has himself given account. In 1843 he read a short paper at the Cork meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, He read

a second paper at the Dublin meeting in 1857; and in 1861 a third paper at the Dublin meeting of the Social Science Association. While these papers chiefly related to his coach and car establishment, incidentally many points were introduced which illustrate the social condition of the country. They have been printed in the proceedings of the Associations, but the substance of them with some characteristic extracts may here attract the notice of new readers.

Let me first give a short notice of Mr. Bianconi's early life, as he narrated it to me, so far as needful to explain the commencement of the enterprise which made his name famous. He was born, as has been stated, in a village in north Italy, not far from the Lake Como. His father was a small proprietor. He had an uncle, an ecclesiastic, who directed his early education. At school he showed little brilliancy, was rather counted dull, but was well grown, and a bold, active boy. In those times the conscription was severe, and youths were in danger even when beginning their teens. His father and two neighbours, in

order to save their sons from service and death in the wars, determined to send them to England. A friend arranged this, and young Bianconi and three other youths were shipped for England. He had with him. an introduction to the elder Colnaghi the publisher.

But instead of the Thames the ship anchored in the Liffey, and the Italian boys began life in Dublin. Bianconi found employment in a little shop on one of the quays, the chief business of which was the sale of pictures, chiefly such as were suited for the poor devout people. After a time he was sent out on expeditions to the country, with about £2 worth of goods on sale. He liked this life better than that of the city, the vice and misery of which had shocked him, and had confirmed his own good resolutions and moral conduct. Surprise at the prevalence of dram drinking, and at seeing poor women smoking, he mentioned as one ofhis earliest Dublin recollections. Trudging along the roads at that time was at first rather humiliating, as the proposal on leaving his father was that he was to be a merchant in London, for sale of thermometers, barometers, and other instruments, for which Italians have always been famous; or failing that trade, to be under Colnaghi. The sale of small pictures was humbler traffic. Once he got into trouble, and was actually arrested for selling portraits of Bonaparte.

In 1806 he resided at Carrick-on-Suir, and afterwards went to Clonmel, where he took a shop, and married. Here his business prospered, and through the assistance of some of the leading townspeople he engaged in other profitable transactions. He was a bullion merchant, and contracted for the pay of the