“That is Mr. Melton,” I replied. “That’s enough. The boys is waitin’ for to ketch him below at the crass-roads; and faix it’s little he’ll be thinkin’ av Parlimint if Teddy Delaney wanst gets a rowl out av him.” “Peter,” I said, “if there is any insult offered to Mr. Melton while on my land, I’ll take it as to myself, and I will not contest the county. I pledge my honor to this.” “Shure a little bit av a fight wudn’t be amiss.” “I won’t have it.” “The pond below is convaynient.” “Silence, sir!” “Tim Moriarty, the boy that dhruv him from the station, only wants the word for to land him in Brierly’s Pool”—a great slimy ditch about half a mile from the gate lodge. I’m afraid I swore at my retainer. “_Wirra, wirra!_ is there to be no _divarshin_ at all, at all?” he muttered to himself as I ordered him to let go the mare’s head. Miss Hawthorne suddenly appeared upon the steps. “_Bon voyage_,” she gaily cried. “Go where glory waits you.” “I am going to lick that cad into a cocked hat!” I fiercely shouted, dashing from her presence like a lightning-bolt. TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT MONTH. REGIONALISM _VERSUS_ POLITICAL UNITY IN ITALY.[1] Matters do not run smoothly in United Italy. There is a screw of considerable magnitude loose in the national machine. It jerks in its motion, pitches, staggers, and men who affect a knowledge of the mechanism of nations predict for Italy—unless the screw adverted to receive proper attention—a dead, disastrous standstill. There are fashions in politics nowadays, as there are in the styles of dress, just as capricious, just as irrational, equally expensive in their own sphere, but unconscionably malicious. It is the fashion, then, in the politics of Italy, to attribute to the Papacy the only obstacle to the full enjoyment of political unity and its consequent blessings. The deep-rooted antipathy of the Vatican to a _nationality_ in Italy, its traditional hatred of new institutions, and its equally prolonged and powerful influence over the people—who, after all, are the mainspring of action—all this is adduced by the liberal party in explanation of the palpable want of unity in Italy. The explanation may be satisfactory to conceited sciolists, especially if a hatred of the Papacy be one of the component parts of their moral constitution. Latterly, however, a veritable enemy to the political unity of Italy has begun to assert itself, in a manner so striking as to alarm even the most sanguine liberals. Not a spectre but a startling reality assists at the deliberations of the Italian legislature, and, insinuating itself with deadly effect into every department of governmental administration, produces jealousies, feuds, and schisms which threaten ultimately to dismember the nation. This danger is what is called _Regionalism_.