Whenever you speak to an American about the woes and wrongs of Ireland he at once says, "Why does the Irish farmer sign a lease which he knows he cannot live to?" "If he don't like the country and the laws, why don't he get out of it?" "Why is it, the country being under one government, that the English farmer and the North of Ireland farmer are prosperous, while the South of Ireland farmer is in a state of discontent?" The trouble with the man who asks these questions is, he doesn't know anything about the subject. He measures everybody's grain in his half-bushel. He supposes that under English government, as in America, there is one law which obtains everywhere, and under which all men are equal. I shall try to make it plain how a farmer in one part of Ireland may be prosperous, and in another poorer than the pigs he fattens. To understand this matter it is necessary to go back some hundreds of years. All grievances took root a long way back--the world has got too wise to commence or tolerate any new ones. Originally Ireland was an independent kingdom; in fact, five independent kingdoms. Under the kings were the clans. The Clan O'Connor, for instance, held a certain amount of land--not each man an owner in fee simple, but in common. That is to say, the ownership of the soil was in the clan as a community, each family of the clan holding its land forever, and that land was distributed among them as the best interests of the clan dictated. The chief of the clan was elected, and he was their general, their counsellor, their judge, their advisor, philosopher, guide and friend. He was the father of the clan. [Illustration: AT WORK IN THE BOG.] To support the dignity of his position, and to bear the expenses of the post of honor put upon him, a tribute was paid to him, based upon the land held--so much per acre. It was very light, for the chief farmed land, as did the clansmen; and there was, for the time, a fair degree of prosperity in the island--as much as could be expected for that day and generation. At least everybody had all they could eat, drink and wear. [Sidenote: CONQUERING AND DISTRIBUTING.] The English wanted Ireland, and England did with Ireland as it has done with every country it ever desired to possess. She simply measured bayonets, and, finding her bayonet the strongest, took possession. This work was begun by Henry II., but received a great impetus from Henry VIII., the brute who was so handy at decapitating his wives, and it was followed up vigorously by succeeding kings and queens. The country was conquered, the chieftains were expelled, the land was divided up among the favorites of the English kings, and the people found themselves tenants at will of a foreign proprietary, instead of being actually owners in fee simple of their own land.