Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel — John Locke — John Shaqi
Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel
John Locke · en
[Sidenote: HOW MY LORD BANTRY LIVES.]
And within a mile of that wretched spot, of that dying man and starving
children, My Lord Bantry has a most beautiful castle, luxurious
furniture, filled with pampered flunkies, his stable crowded with the
most wonderful horses, and his table groaning under the weight of the
luxuries of every clime.
[Illustration: FREE SPEECH IN IRELAND--INTERDICTING A LAND LEAGUE
MEETING.]
Surely, not for ten pence a week will he tear this woman from the side
of her dead husband, and throw her, with her helpless children, out into
the cold and wet street?
Yes, but he will, though!
For this family is but one of many thousands on the land which a bad
King stole from the people who owned it. Were this the only case he
might relent; but should he do it in this case he would have to do it
for others, and ten pence a week from thousands aggregates a very large
sum, and My Lord Bantry's expenses are very high, for it costs money to
run a castle, and there is his house in London, his house in Paris, and
his house in Rome, and his houses the Lord knows where; and then his
yacht is rather expensive, as his officers and men must be paid, to say
nothing of the larder and wines necessary to entertain his friends; and
then there is the terrible expense of entertaining his friends from
London during the shooting season, and occasional losses at play, and
all that.
Clearly, the Widow Flanagan must either pay her rent or be pitched out
into the street to make room for some other widow who can pay, for a
while at least, and when she can't pay there are others who can.
It is needless to add that there is in Bantry Bay a splendid English
gunboat armed as in time of war, with burnished guns, with bombs of all
sort of explosive power, rifled guns, which would knock poor Bantry into
a cocked hat in ten minutes, with fine looking marines, armed to the
teeth, which, with the military on shore, would make it very warm for
the widow Flanagan and her friends, should they presume to interfere
with My Lord's land agent, and the bailiffs and the soldiers behind
them. The widow has nothing to do but to bow her head and submit, and
pray that some relief may come to her from somewhere. But where is it to
come from? Not from My Lord, for, as I said, he has his private expenses
to meet; not from his agent, for he was selected for his especial
fondness for pitching women and children into the street; not from
England, for England looks upon every country it has anything to do with
as either to be plundered or traded with; not from the peasantry about
them, for they are in the same boat with the widow.
[Sidenote: A LITTLE PATHOS.]
What becomes of her finally, I don't know. I am altogether too
soft-hearted to stay any length of time where such things are to be seen
every hour.
[Illustration: IN A BOG VILLAGE.]