The same remark applies to a great extent to ad-
ministrative bodies of other kinds, corporations, town
commissioners, and boards of guardians formed in the
Plantation counties of Ulster, and, with large qualifi-
cations, it applies in some degree to considerable
parts of the southern provinces, so far as regards
these orders of bodies. Unquestionably, however,
in some of the Irish counties, especially in the poor
region of the West, and in other Catholic and
Celtic tracts, the spirit of the Land and National
Leagues has entered the sphere of local affairs, and
some corporations, town commissioners, and boards
of guardians have made themselves remarkable of late
years for exhibitions of a disloyal character, for oppo-
sition to parts of the law, and above all, for demands
for Home Rule, including all that these demands
involve. This has been notably manifest in the
boards of guardians. The elected guardians, as a
rule farmers, have repeatedly used most extravagant



372 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS OF A LIFE

language ; in some unions they have practically driven
the ex-officio guardians away, and they have in many
denounced the Irish landlords. It should be added
that, as I have already said, the middle class in Ireland
is very small and weak, and the deficiency of this
element must tell with bad effects in any reform of
local government and administration on popular lines.
