Part 3 (2/2)
[Footnote A: Lord Hartington's statistics--and Lord Hartington is a man whose word not his bitterest enemies have dared to question or to doubt--are these:
1880 (No coercion) 2,585 agrarian crimes.
1881 (Partial and weak coercion) 4,439 ” ”
1883 (Vigorous coercion) 834 ” ”
1888 (Vigorous coercion) 660 ” ”
[Footnote B: Mr. Hurlbert, a Roman Catholic, an American, and a personal friend of Mr. Davitt--all which circ.u.mstances give a special weight to his testimony, now borne after frequent and lengthened and recent visits to Ireland, and after close converse with men of all cla.s.ses and of all political and religious views, says in his _Ireland under Coercion_: ”An Irish gentleman from St. Louis brought over a considerable sum of money for the relief of distress in the north-west of Ireland, but was induced to entrust it to the League, on the express ground that, the more people were made to feel the pinch of the existing order of things, the better it would be for the revolutionary movement.”--_The Irish Question_, I., 193. By Dr.
Bryce.]
[Footnote C: Some time after the Great Famine, the Government brought in an Act called the Enc.u.mbered Estates Act. A judge was appointed to act as auctioneer. The income of the estate was set out in schedule form, and a man purchased that income by compet.i.tion in open court. He got with his purchase what was supposed to be the best t.i.tle then known, commonly called ”A Parliamentary t.i.tle.” If he wanted to sell again, that was enough. Many years after the bargain was made by the court, Mr. Gladstone dropped in and upset it. A friend of mind purchased a guaranteed rental of 600 a year, subject to 300 annuity, as well as other charges, head rent, &c., &c. Now the Government may have been said to have pledged its honour to him, speaking by the mouth of a judge in open court, that it was selling him 600 a year.
Surely it was a distinct breach of faith to swoop down on the purchaser, years after, and reduce the 600 to 500 without reducing the charges also in due proportion, or giving back one-sixth of the purchase money. Mr. Gladstone and his party say the land was rented too high. Does that (if true) get over the dishonesty of selling for 600 a year what was really worth only 500? Such a transaction as that between man and man would be actionable as a fraud. But this excuse is not true, for when any tenant wants to sell his tenant-right he gets a large price for it, far larger than the normal proportion to his rent.
When a nation sanctions such absolute dishonesty as this on the part of its Prime Minister, it is not surprising that the shrewd Irish peasant profits by the lesson and improves the example.]
[Footnote D: The following in reference to the Olphert estate evictions under the Plan of Campaign is from the _Freeman's Journal_.
Will Mr. Spencer when exhibiting his photos, state the facts about this case--which reason and common-sense show to be altogether in the landlord's favour?
”Mr. Spencer, Trowbridge, England, arrived in Falcarragh to-day, visited the scenes of the late evictions, and took photographs of several of the demolished houses in the townland of Drumnatinny. Mr.
Spencer intends, on his return to England, to bring home to the minds of the English people by a series of ill.u.s.trative lectures, the misery and hards.h.i.+ps to which the Irish peasantry are subjected.”]
[Footnote E: On this question of further legislation I will quote part of a letter from a correspondent which shows the views of a singularly able, impartial, and fair-minded Irishman. ”The breaking of leases was another risky thing to do, for it shook all faith in the sovereignty of the law and the finality of its _dicta_. Till Mr. Gladstone made himself the champion of the tenants and the oppressor of the landlords, Parliament never dreamed of revising rents paid under leases. Mr. Gladstone began by breaking these leases when held for a certain term defined by him. But we cannot stop there now. If another Land Bill is to be brought in by the present Government it must, to really and finally settle matters, _break all leases_. If it stops short of this the trouble will crop up again. If a man now with a thirty-nine years' lease can go into the Land Court, the man with a lease of a hundred years, or a hundred and fifty, or two hundred, should not be shut out. This point cannot be put too strongly to this Government. If the thing is to be done let it be done thoroughly, and let every man who holds a lease--no matter for what term--go into the Land Court, and also purchase under Lord Ashbourne's Act. Lord Ashbourne's Act is the real cure if made to apply all round.”]
[Footnote F: The Irish have always been cruel to animals. It is a curious fact that most Roman Catholic peasants are. In the time of Charles I. an Act was pa.s.sed to prevent the Irish farmers from ploughing by their oxens' tails. Even now they pluck their geese alive.]
[Footnote G: The boycott against the Great Northern Railway line between Carrickmacross and Dundalk is now in full swing. It was begun at Friday's fair in the former town, intimation having been given to all dealers in cattle and pigs that not an animal was to leave by the Great Northern line. Not a hackney car was permitted to attend the railway station, and commercial travellers had to leave their samples at the station. Many of the cattle and pigs purchased at the fair were driven by road to Kingscourt, where there is a station of the Midland Great Western Company, a local National League branch having published a resolution recommending all goods to be sent and received _via_ Kingscourt. It has also been resolved to do no business with commercial travellers from Belfast, or other parts of the North of Ireland, whose goods had been carried over the Great Northern system.
Travellers from Scotland, England, and Dublin are only to be dealt with under guarantees that they do not use the Great Northern line.
BOYCOTTING IN COUNTY WATERFORD.
THE LEAGUE'S BLACK LIST.
There has been issued by the National League in the county Waterford a ”list of objectionable persons, with whom it is expected that no true man will have any dealings whatever”--cattle dealers, b.u.t.ter merchants, grain and hay merchants, brokers, and farmers being specially enjoined to refrain from any dealings with them, the farmers being told that they ”must carefully avoid” the sale of milk or stock to agents of objectionable persons, and evicted tenants that they ”must deem it their strict and imperative duty to follow to the markets all stock and produce reared upon their farms.”
Look, too, at the abuse poured out on all the Government leaders and officials. In the _Freeman's Journal_, of December 5th, is one of the most disgraceful attacks on Mr. Balfour ever made by journalism. It reads like a filthy outpour of a Yahoo rather than the utterance of a sane and responsible man. Are these the minds to govern a great and honest country?]
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