If  the  other  two  defects  were  past  curing,  it  scarcely  admits
of  doubt  that  it  was  because  Mr.  Wyndham  and  the  Treasury
had  listened  to  the  clamour  of  the  Freeman  and  its  corre-
spondents, and  had  gladly  taken  their  advice  to  economize
both  as  to  the  proportions  of  the  bonus  and  the  discontinuance
of  the  decadal  reductions.  "  The  schoolboy  of  thirteen "
had  indeed  succeeded  to  a  large  extent  in  carrying  the  intelli-


XI  A  GROUP    VERSUS  A  COUNTRY  219

gence  of  both  parties  in  the  State,  in  spite  of  the  patriotic
derision  of  his  wise  countrymen  ;  but  the  wise  men  had  so
far  prevailed  that  the  Treasury  resolved  to  retain  in  its  coffers
the  additional  ^10,000,000  that  would  have  enabled  them
to  prescribe  the  price  of  the  land  of  Ireland  in  the  statute
without  any  genuine  voice  of  discontent  from  any  practical
farmer  or  landlord  in  the  island.  Even  this  deference  to
its  views  on  the  part  of  the  Treasury  did  not  prevent  the
Freeman  in  the  first  sentence  of  its  comment  on  the  new  Bill
from  betraying  its  disappointment  at  the  considerable  State
subsidy  still  remaining  by  the  remark  that  "  in  bridging  the
gulf"  between  landlord  and  tenant  the  Bill  considerably
increases  the  burdens  which  the  purchase  system  hitherto
existing  imposed.
