[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 circumstances 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
classes 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 Encumbered 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 competition in open court. He
got with his purchase what was supposed to be the best title then
known, commonly called "A Parliamentary title." 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 illustrative lectures, the misery
and hardships 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 passed 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 _viâ_
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.