called upon to-day, illustrates most vividly the advance made in the
art of "Boycotting" since its invention. Early attempts in any
artistic direction are apt to be crude, and when "Boycotting" was
first practised at Lough Mask it put on the guise of a general strike
of the country side against an individual, but its effect was purely
local. Since that time great progress has been made in shaping and
finishing what one of my informants defined as "a strictly
constitutional weapon." At this moment the arm of the skilful
"Boycotter" is long. It can stop the sale of the original victim's
potatoes in a northern town; it can keep Mr. Stacpoole from getting
rid of his horses in Limerick; and can actually prevent Mr. Bence
Jones from sending his cattle from Cork to England. The latter
gentleman is isolated on his estate at Lisselan, a place near
Ballinascarthy, between Bandon and Clonakilty, in this county, but his
isolation has not yet gone, in some respects, to the same brutal
length as that of Mr. Boycott. He is still permitted to receive and to
despatch his letters; and car-drivers have, perhaps by some oversight
of the "Boycotters," not yet been warned to avoid his house as if it
were a lazaretto, and to refuse to carry his visitors within miles of
his door. Perhaps he is considered by the mysterious persons who alone
exercise authority in Ireland just now as only a "tyrant" of the
second or third degree, and not as a first-class malefactor.
But, however this may be, I found none of the difficulty in reaching
Lisselan which accompanied my second visit to Lough Mask House. When I
started from Bandon this morning, that thriving town was wrapped in
slumber, although the sun was shining brightly out of a deep blue sky,
just flecked at the horizon with pearly-hued clouds. The ground was
hard and crisp, and the hoofs of the horses rang out merrily as I sped
in the direction of Clonakilty, through an undulating country mainly
devoted to pasture, some of which was rough and sedgy. As I approached
Ballinascarthy the quality of the land was visibly better.
Lisselan House lies in the midst of a charming pastoral scene. Beyond
the clean-cut lawn flows the silvery flood of the Arrigadeen, its
opposite bank is clothed with the bright green tops of white turnips
in the midst of which is penned a flock of sheep (Shropshire Downs),
and in the distance are green meadows and browsing kine. All would be
soft, peaceful, and Arcadian, were it not for the helmets of the 3rd
Dragoon Guards glittering in the sun as the patrol turns the corner of
the wood, and the tall, dark figures of the Royal Irish Constabulary
guarding the gate and doorstep. At present the house, the farm, and
the neighbouring village are occupied by the police, and it has been
thought necessary to increase the strength of the garrison in order to
assure the safety of the servants who, to their infinite credit in
such times as these, remain true to their master.
It is not pretended for an instant that either Mr. W. Bence Jones or
his son, who are as gigantic of stature as they are resolute of mind,
need fear personal attack. They are known to be armed to the teeth,
and the chances are that the weak-minded labourers who have deserted
them are far more afraid of "the masters" than they are of them. The
household of Lisselan consists for the time being of the Messrs. Bence
Jones, father and son. Miss Bence Jones, their English house servants,
two labourers--whereof one is English and the other Irish--Mr. Law,
the Scotch bailiff, and an Irish housemaid, who has remained faithful,
and helps Miss Bence Jones to milk the cows and to attend to the
dairy. The road is slippery on the high ground hard by, and it is
debated at Lisselan House whether the farrier of the Dragoon Guards
shall not be asked to "sharpen" the shoes of the animals employed
there, for no local workman will touch them.
As I pass by the dairy, one of those in which collectively Mr. Bence
Jones makes 1,000l. worth of butter yearly, I see the trim housemaid,
dressed in cotton print, milking a cow, and am presently aware of "the
master's" son and daughter, who have been up since the dawn feeding
and penning cattle and sheep, and milking the cows. Since Monday the
strike among the Irish employed on the house and the farm has, with
the exceptions already mentioned, been rigidly maintained. The men,
about forty in number, were "noticed" on Friday; on Saturday they
announced their intention of working no more for Mr. Bence Jones, and
on Monday deserted the place as if it were plague-stricken.
On Monday morning Mr. Law stood aghast at the sight of a farm of a
thousand acres with nobody to work it; but he soon recovered himself,
and with the help of his own work, that of a couple of labourers left,
and the co-operation of the master's son and daughter, matters went on
despite the strike. Mr. Law is, of course, as a good Scotch bailiff
should be, greatly distressed at the state of his cow-houses,
feeding-stalls, and stockyard, now ankle-deep in "muck"; but the fine
shorthorned bull seems none the worse, and the pigs have taken kindly
to the new and disorderly condition of affairs. But things are not
brought to a deadlock yet. Of the animals "Boycotted" in Dublin the
sheep have since been shipped, and it is thought here that at the
moment of writing the cattle will be on their way to Sir Thomas Dyke
Acland, to whom they are consigned.
Byron wrote that "nought so much the spirit calms as rum and true
religion;" but this dictum is hardly confirmed in the case of Mr.
Bence Jones's assailants, who number among them a minister of
religion, as well as the irrepressible grogshop-keeper. I am informed
that last Sunday the mutinous labourers--or, perhaps, it would be more
correct to say the labourers who have been coerced by threats into
mutiny--were addressed in the vestry by Father Mulcahy, and that
either he or some other person assured them that they would receive
their wages as if they were still employed. However this may be, the
unfortunate families, about thirty in number, who have struck at the
bidding of the anti-landlord party, are making a sorry bargain; for
many of the men are getting on in years, and will have to seek work
and house-room elsewhere when they are turned out of their cottages to
make room for the strange hands who are coming to do the work they
refuse to do. The neat little dwellings of stone and slate that I
observed to-day on the Lisselan estate are not let to the labourers,
but are, with as much potato land as they can manure, thrown in with
their wages, 11s. per week. They must now make way for people who will
work, and are not afraid of "Rory of the Hills." Offers of help pour
in upon Mr. Bence Jones, and the first detachment of labourers is
expected forthwith. One friend offers a phalanx of English navvies;
but temperate counsels prevail, and it is thought better to get the
really small number of men required brought in quietly. With police
everywhere at Lisselan and Ballinascarthy, and cavalry patrols always
at hand, it is hardly likely that violence will be attempted towards
the newcomers or the present slender garrison.
There are, as in all such cases, conflicting reports as to the cause
of the quarrel, if such it can be designated, between landlord and
labourer at Lisselan. In his forthcoming book, _A Life's Work in
Ireland, by a Landlord who tried to do his duty_, Mr. Bence Jones will
doubtless describe with characteristic accuracy the objects he had in
view, and the means he took to accomplish them. He has also already
made known his difficulties and disappointments through the medium of
the Press. He has undoubtedly, had abundant opportunity of weighing
the possibilities of Irish country life during the long period of his
residence in Ireland. It is also clear to any unprejudiced person that
he has striven, not only to do his duty by the land, but by the
tenants occupying one part of it and the labourers employed on the
other. In round numbers he owns about 4,000 acres, of which he farms
1,000 himself. Besides 1,000l. worth of butter annually made, he sells
1,000l. worth more of cattle, and 1,000l. worth of sheep and wool,
besides oats and various other produce.
While this one-thousand-acre farm was let to tenants, it yielded its
proprietor an average rental of 17s. an acre. No person acquainted
with farming would for an instant assume that a small tenant could
make nearly as much out of his land as the farmer of a thousand acres;
but allowing for all this, 14s. 3d. per acre appeared a very low rate
to the landlord of the farm of fifty-eight acres occupied for the last
half-century by the Walsh family. I gather that the grandfather of D.
Walsh held the farm from the grandfather of the present landlord; that
the original occupant was succeeded by his son; that on the son's
death his widow retained undisturbed possession until her son was old
enough to assume the management, and that then the landlord required
20s. per acre from him. To the landlord it seemed that the Walsh
family had had a good bargain. He was informed, with what degree of
accuracy I cannot at this moment ascertain, that the widow had given
her four daughters respectively 140l., 130l., 130l., and the stock of
a farm, probably of equal value "to their fortune," and that she had
also helped one of her sons to make a start in the world on an
independent farm. From these circumstances he concluded that he was
entitled to more rent than he had been receiving, and demanded 20s.
from her son for a lease of thirty-one years.
To the tenant the case assumed a widely-different aspect. His
grandfather, his father and his mother, had successively occupied the
fifty-eight acre farm for fifty years. Two generations had been bred,
if not born, on the holding at Ballinascarthy, just beyond the bridge.
They had been decent people. They had paid their rent, and if his
sisters had received good portions it was no more than their due,
considering the respectability of their family. Was he, after his
people had held the land for fifty years, to have it "raised on him"
to nearly double Griffith's valuation? Was it just to increase the
rent because his father and mother were dead? All these questions
occurred to the tenant, beyond any matter of improvements and so
forth. The landlord's position is quite intelligible. The value of
farm produce had risen so greatly since the original rent was levied,
and the farmer had prospered so well of late years, that the holding
was demonstrably worth more rent than had been paid. On the other
hand, the tenant held that the farm had done well by his people,
because they had done well by it, and that to "raise the rent on him"
because his family had behaved honestly and industriously was a
monstrous exercise of arbitrary power. The upshot of the whole matter
was a refusal on the part of the whole tenantry to pay the last "gale"
or six months' rent. It is a noteworthy circumstance that none of the
tenants are in arrear.
There are other accusations than that of raising the rent brought
against Mr. Bence Jones. The police barrack at Ballinascarthy was once
a grogshop, given by the landlord to a dairymaid who had been long in
his service. No sooner had she a groggery "to her fortune" than her
hand was sought by a legion of admirers. It is not, I fancy, generally
known in England that in this romantic country the warmhearted,
impulsive peasants almost invariably contract _mariages de
convenance_.
It is said that a young man in the neighbouring city of Kerry was once
sorely vexed in his mind as to his matrimonial choice. The
"matchmaker" who arranges such matters had proposed two girls to him,
one of whom had one cow and the other two cows "to her fortune." Now,
the "Boy" liked the girl with one cow far better than her rival who
had two, but the magnitude of the sacrifice he wished to make sat
heavy on his soul. He consulted a patriarch renowned for his wisdom,
and laid great stress upon his love for the girl with one cow. The
oracle spake as follows: "Take the gyurl wid the two cows. There isn't
the difference of a cow, begorra, betune any two women in the
wor-r-ld." By similar reasoning a superannuated dairymaid with a
grogshop is a very different person to the "pretty girl milking her
cow"--sovereign lady of her presence, but of no groggery beside.
Consequently the woman got married and died, and her husband having
proved objectionable was evicted and the grogshop extinguished. This
was another grievance against Mr. Bence Jones, who is known to oppose
the indiscriminate licensing which takes place in many parts of
Ireland. I believe that in the neighbouring townlet of Clonakilty
there are no less than forty-two whisky shops, a proportion to make
Lord Aberdare's hair to stand on end. Furthermore it seems that after
bearing with Mr. Bence Jones for nearly forty years the people have
dubbed him "tyrant" and "domineering Saxon," epithets certain to be
applied to any Englishman who tries to do his own work in his own way
in Ireland. Any insistance on anything being done in the master's way
instead of the man's is "tyranny." Any curt command is "domineering."
Irish peasants are accustomed to easier and pleasanter ways, and like
to be coaxed and petted. It is only just to admit that under this
treatment they display the utmost goodwill and pliancy. They will do
anything to serve those who take them rightly, but they hate
discipline. To the Saxon again it seems hard that he should be called
upon to waste time in coaxing a mere hewer of wood and drawer of
water, who, moreover, hews wood very badly, and draws water with
exasperating deliberation. But a peremptory tone will not answer in
southern and western Ireland.
It may be urged that it has taken the people a long time to discover
that Mr. Bence Jones was a tyrant. One thing is certain--they are
likely soon to be rid of him. By living carefully he has been enabled
to spend a large proportion of his income in improving his estate. He
now announces his intention of throwing all his farm into pasture and
leaving a country which has become uninhabitable.
It is curious, to say the least, that as he was correcting the proofs
of the volume which embodies his experience, he was called upon to
rise and welcome the resident magistrate and the officer commanding
the patrol, considered necessary for the preservation of himself, his
family, and the few dependants who yet remain steadfast.
CORK, _December 20th._
It is impossible to exaggerate the panic prevailing among the landed
proprietors of Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Limerick, and Clare. Within the
triangle, which may be roughly described as inclosed by Galway town,
Waterford, and Valentia Island, a reign of terror paralyses all those
classes of the population owning any kind of property directly or
indirectly connected with land.
Perhaps the agents whose calling is menaced with extinction preserve
the most equable mind under the present arduous circumstances. They
are to the manner born. They are accustomed to receive threatening
letters frequently, and to be shot at now and then. Individually,
therefore, they bear up very well, but it is far otherwise with their
families, who look forward to St. Stephen's Day and its threatened
meetings with undisguised apprehension. The men leave home in the
morning bristling with double-barrelled carbines and revolving
pistols, and, confiding either in themselves, their police escort, or
both, keep, in the language of the country, a "good heart"; but it is
far otherwise with their wives and daughters. As the "master" and the
"boys" prepare to depart, and guns are being put on the car, together
with the rugs and macintoshes, the matron's cheek grows pale, and her
lips quiver as she bids farewell to the beloved ones, whom she may
never see "safe home" again. This is no picture drawn by the
imagination, with which flattering critics are pleased to credit me.
Such a scene as I describe was witnessed by me a few days ago, and I
regret to hear that the brave lady, who bore up well for several weeks
against ever-present anxiety, has broken down at last, and lies on a
bed of sickness. In this struggle against a covert mutiny, women, as
in open warfare, are the chief sufferers. There are many of the men
who ask for nothing better than to be let loose on some visible mortal
representatives of their intangible foe. But the general feeling is
despondent. The unfortunate landowners, house proprietors, and many of
the merchants, complain bitterly that they are delivered into the
hands of a "convict," whose ticket of leave enables him to paralyse
the industry of the country.
To a person unconnected with the landed interest of Ireland it is at
first a little difficult to understand the almost insane terror of
nearly all persons endowed with property. To the stranger the country
is absolutely safe, and unless in the company of landlords or land
agents he may go safely unarmed in any part of Ireland I have visited;
but resident proprietors, and the representatives of absentees, are in
very different case, and the farmers and labourers who have not yet
joined the Land League are in a still worse position. So skilfully has
this organisation been carried out that hardly a creature dare do his
duty or speak his mind except the judges. In Court to-day the man
O'Halloran, whose being sent up for trial at the Assizes here
occasioned the riot at Tulla a few days since, was tried for appending
a threatening notice to a chapel door. It will be recollected that the
prisoner was brought before the magistrates at Tulla rather than at
Ennis, in order to avoid a tumult, but that on its being known that he
was committed for trial an uproar occurred, which ended in the
bayoneting of three of the rioters by the police. The man was tried
here to-day, and he will be tried again to-morrow before another
jury.
I may not express an opinion on the evidence of the police; it will
suffice that the jury of to-day did not agree, and that this absence
of result provoked some severe remarks from the bench. Great blame is
thrown upon Lord O'Hagan's Act for frequent miscarriage of justice in
this country, but the truth is that the outside pressure is too strong
for any but a "packed" jury of independent, that is to say
non-resident, persons to withstand.
That terrorism has prevailed not only over landlords who are flying
from the country, and agents who are at least putting their families
in the few places in which some semblance of order prevails--that is,
within the shadow of a police barrack or under the wing of a
garrison--but over merchants, as was proved the other day in the case
of Mr. Bence Jones's cattle. I hear of a similar occurrence to-day.
Mr. Richard Stacpoole, of Eden Vale, county Clare, wrote a few days
since to a firm in Limerick for twelve tons of oilcake, not an
insignificant order from a responsible person as times go. The answer
was that the firm in question had not a pound of oilcake in store, but
that the order could be transferred to a firm in Cork, who would
direct the cake to some other person than Mr. Stacpoole, "to be left
till called for" at the Ennis Railway Station, and that if the
purchaser would send somebody else's carts for it late at night or
very early in the morning, he would probably get it home safely. It
may be imagined that Mr. Stacpoole declined to receive oilcake as if
it were "potheen" or other contraband, and at once closed his account
with the firm in question.
This instance is quoted out of many to show that the art of
"Boycotting" is advancing from the proportions of a mere local strike
to those of an almost national combination against any person who has
incurred the resentment of the popular party. It is noteworthy that
strict adherence to the "constitutional weapon" is mainly confined to
the cases of those whom it is unsafe to attack by more violent means.
His enemies dare not make an onslaught on Mr. Stacpoole himself, for
reasons well known and thoroughly appreciated; so they clip the ears
of wretched hinds who are neither strong nor courageous enough to
resist their violence, which is just now only employed against the
defenceless; but such outrages are apparently quite sufficient to make
the power of the _Jacquerie_ absolute.
I am weary of hearing from panic-stricken interviewers that the "real
Government of Ireland is that of the Land League;" but the facts
adduced can hardly be passed over in silence. For the present,
creditors have only two courses to pursue--to accept Griffith's
valuation where they can get it, or to do nothing, await the action of
Parliament, and go without money for their Christmas bills. "Weak
holders," as they are called in the commercial world, must take what
they can get, and stronger capitalists may wait for better times; for
it is impossible to put the existing laws for the recovery of debt
into effect. Evictions are out of the question. Neither Dublin writs
nor "civil bills" can be served, except in a large town or its
immediate neighbourhood, and seizure of goods for a common debt in
country places is quite out of the question. The principal
process-server in the town of Tipperary has retired from service, and
addressed himself to "J.J." for several days past. That matters are
going from bad to worse is proved by the calibre of the persons who
are amply capable of paying their rent, but are afraid to do so. More
than this, those who have paid before they received notices are
threatened with pains and penalties if they do not join, publicly
approve of, and subscribe to the popular combination.
Startling cases have just occurred in Tipperary. A farmer paying a
very large rent even by English measure is leaving the country because
he is threatened by vengeance if he do not immediately take back a
labourer whom he dismissed for misconduct. Another large farmer is
informed that all his labourers will be compelled to leave his
employment unless he instantly joins the League. His farm includes a
large percentage of tillage, and he must either undergo heavy
pecuniary loss or submit, as he probably will do. A smaller tenant,
who had been discovered to have paid on account a trifle more than
Griffith's valuation, has been compelled to ask his landlord to give
him the little balance back and a receipt in full. The request was
acceded to, for the poor man declared that his life was not safe; that
nobody would speak to him, and that nobody would work for him until he
had righted himself with "the only Government which can carry its
decrees into effect."
The 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade has just arrived from Gibraltar, under
the command of Colonel Carr Glyn, and will remain, together with the
26th Regiment, under Colonel Carr, and three troops of the 3rd Dragoon
Guards, in Cork. The 37th Regiment leaves to make room for the Rifle
Brigade; three companies go to Waterford, and the remainder to
Kilkenny.
XVI.
A CRUISE IN A GROWLER.
CORK, _December 21._
Just before starting towards the scene of the last case of Boycotting
I had returned from a tour in Kerry, undertaken mainly with the object
of collecting facts and ideas concerning the fiercely-debated question
of peasant propriety. There are other great estates in Kerry besides
that of Lord Kenmare, which is twenty-six miles long, and covers
91,080 acres. There are Lord Lansdowne's still greater estate of
94,983 acres, and the large property held by Trinity College, both of
which have given rise to considerable controversy of late.