Then another tenant demanded 40 per cent.

My agent said he would give them time, and also take money on account, the effect of which would be to put me out of court, and prevent my getting an order of ejectment if I wanted to for the balance.
I thought this fair, and approved it, but I refused to make a 40 per cent.

all-round abatement, authorising my agent, however, to make what abatements he liked in special cases.

My words were, "I don't limit you on the amount of abatement you give, or as to the number of tenants you may choose so to treat." If this was not a fair free hand, what would be?
My agent afterwards told me he had no chance to make this known.

The fact is they meant to force the Plan on the tenants and me, and to prevent any settlement but a "victory for the League!" In my original notes of my conversation with Father Keller at Youghal, I found the name of one tenant whom he introduced to me, and who certainly told me that his holdings amounted to some L300 a year, and that they had been in his family for "two hundred years," set down as Doyle--I so printed it with the statements made.