"Sir,--People in England, whatever political party they belong to,
should glance at what is now going on in the town of Tipperary before
finally making up their minds to hand over Ireland body and soul to
the National League. No country town in Ireland--I think I may add or
in England either--was more prosperous three months ago than
Tipperary. The centre of a rich and prosperous part of the country,
surrounded by splendid land, it had an enormous trade in butter and
all agricultural produce, and a large monthly pig and cattle fair was
held there. It possessed (I use the past tense advisedly) a number of
excellent shops, doing a splendid business, and to the eyes of those
who could look back a few years it was making rapid progress in
prosperity every year.
"All is changed now. Many of the shops are closed and deserted, others
will follow their example shortly; the butter market has been removed
from the town, the cattle fairs have fallen to half their former size.
One sees shopkeepers, but a short time back doing capital business,
walking about idle in the streets, with their shops closed; armed
policemen at every corner are necessary to prevent a savage rabble
from committing outrages, and many people avoid going near the town at
all. All this is the result of William O'Brien's speech in Tipperary
and the subsequent action of the National League. The town and whole
neighbourhood were perfectly quiet till one day Mr. O'Brien descends
on it like an evil spirit, and tells the shopkeepers and surrounding
farmers that they are to dictate to their landlords how to act in a
case not affecting them at all. For fear, however, of not sufficiently
arousing them for the cause of others, he suggests that, in addition
to dictating to the landlord what his conduct shall be elsewhere, all
his tenants, farmers and shopkeepers alike, shall demand a reduction
of 25 per cent, on their own rents. As to the farmers' reduction I
will say nothing; if they wished it, they could go into the Land
Court, and if rented too high could get a reduction, retrospectively
from the day their application was lodged. The reduction, however,
that the shopkeepers were advised--nay, ordered--to ask for must have
surprised them more than their landlord. Many of them, at their
existing rents, had piled up considerable fortunes in a few years;
others had enlarged their premises, doubled their business, and
thriven in every way; nevertheless, they had to obey. The landlord
naturally refused to be dictated to by his tenants in matters not
affecting them; he also refused to reduce the rents of men who in a
few years had made fortunes, and some of whom were commonly reputed to
be worth thousands. Legal proceedings were then commenced, and the
tenants' interests were put up to auction. Some of the most thriving
shopkeepers declined to let their tenancies, out of which they had
done so well, be sold; others, in fear of personal violence and
outrage, not unusual results of disobeying the League, did allow them
to be knocked down for nominal sums to the landlord's representative.
Let lovers of liberty and fair-play watch what followed. All the
shopkeepers who bought in their interests were rigorously boycotted;
men who had had a large weekly turnover now saw their shops absolutely
deserted. Plate-glass windows that would not have shamed Regent
Street, were smashed to atoms by hired ruffians of the League, and
the shopkeepers themselves and their families had to be protected
from the mob by armed police, placed round their houses night and day.
All this because they desired to keep their flourishing businesses,
instead of sacrificing them in a quarrel not their own.
"Let us follow still further what happened. The shopkeepers, finding
their trade quite gone, for it was almost worth a person's life to go
into their shops, watched as they were by paid spies, had to
capitulate to the League. An abject apology and a promise to let
themselves be evicted next time were the price they had to pay to be
allowed in a free country to carry on their trade. Ruin faced them
both ways. After having the ban of boycotting taken off them, with
eviction not far distant, most of them held clearance sales, at
tremendous sacrifices, so as to be prepared for moving. One man is
reputed to have got rid of seven thousand pounds' worth of goods under
these circumstances. Of the other division, who allowed their places
to be sold, most of them are now evicted. Dozens of shop assistants,
needlewomen, and others connected with the trade of a thriving town,
are thrown out of employment, and a peaceful neighbourhood has been
changed into a scene of bloodshed and violence.
"I appeal to the English people not to encourage or support a vile
system of intimidation and violence, a system which not only pursues
and ruins its enemies, but refuses to allow peaceably-inclined people
to remain neutral. A case like this should not be one of Party
politics, but should be looked upon as the cause of all who wish to
pursue their lawful vocations peaceably against those who wish to
tyrannise by terror over the community at large.
"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
"FOEDI FOEDERIS ADVERSARIUS."
"December 12."
My private letters strengthen and confirm every word of this account;
and the following letter is again a proof of personal tyranny and
political malevolence not reassuring as qualities in the governing
power:--
"TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'TIMES.'
"Sir,--I have received a letter from my friend Mr. Edward Phillips, of
Thurlesbeg House, Cashel, and the round, unvarnished tale that he
delivers throws more light upon Ireland than any amount of the windy
rhetoric which is so plentifully displayed on Parnellite and
Gladstonian platforms. Mr. Phillips writes as follows:--
"'I hold 270 acres from Mr. Smith-Barry at a rent of £340 under lease
and tenant-right, which, with my improvements, I valued at £1,000. The
Land League have decided, thinking to hurt Mr. Smith-Barry, that all
tenants must prepare to give up their farms by allowing themselves to
be evicted. They are clearing off everything, and because I refuse to
do this, and forfeit my £1,000, I am boycotted in the most determined
manner. I am refused the commonest necessaries of life, even medicine,
and have to get all from a distance. Blacksmiths, &c., refuse to
work, and labourers have notice to leave, but have not yet done so.
"'Heretofore people were boycotted for taking farms; I am boycotted
for not giving up mine, which I have held for 25 years. A neighbour of
mine, an Englishman, is undergoing the same treatment, and we alone.
We are the only Protestant tenants on the Cashel estate. The remainder
of the tenants, about 30, are clearing everything off their land, and
say they will allow themselves to be evicted.'
"I think this requires no comment. Public opinion is the best
protection against tyranny, and your readers can judge how far the
above narrative is consistent with the opinions expressed by Mr.
Parnell and others as to the liberty and toleration which will be
accorded to the loyal minority when the Land-National League becomes
the undisputed Government of Ireland.
"Your obedient servant,
"R. BAGWELL."
"Clonmell, December 27th."