That was not my opinion, for I travelled on an open car by myself, with
a large quantity of money, and no other weapon than an umbrella.

It was a very different state of affairs in the distress caused by Mr.
Gladstone's legislation, for then I never travelled without a revolver,
and occasionally was accompanied by a Winchester rifle. I used to place
my revolver as regularly beside my fork on the dinner-table, either in
my own or in anybody else's house, as I spread my napkin on my knees.

And yet it is strangely difficult to see any other cause than Mr.
Gladstone's Acts for such ill-feeling.

As my sworn evidence, on which I was cross-examined in the Parnell
Commission, showed, I had only ten evictions in six years among two
thousand tenants.

I should like to ask, in what class of life is there not more than one
in twelve hundred that gets into financial troubles in a year?

In the insurance world such a ratio of claims to premiums would make a
perfect fortune to the companies.

The tenants were not associated with the Fenian movement at all, the
outbreak being solely confined to the townsfolk, which, in Ireland,
helped to make it a feeble affair. I did not know one _bona fide_ farmer
that was connected with the movement, and though the arms were mainly
smuggled in from America, mighty little hard cash came to the pockets of
any but the leaders.

Stephens was the original 'Number One,' and he was let out of Kilmainham