That a Land Act should be passed was a foregone conclusion as soon as
the result of the general election was known. There were many drafts and
plans which never saw the light, but it was at last resolved to adopt
the policy known as the "Three F's"--free sale, fixity of tenure and
fair rents. By the first tenants at will were empowered to sell their
occupation interests, the landlord retaining a right of pre-emption. By
the second the tenant was secured from eviction except for non-payment
of rent. By the third the tenant was given the right to have a "fair
rent" fixed by a newly formed Land Commission Court, the element of
competition being entirely excluded. There were several exceptions and
qualifying clauses, but most of them have been swept away by later acts.
The act of 1881 can scarcely be said to have worked well or smoothly,
but it is not easy to see how any sort of settlement could have been
reached without accepting the principle of having the rent fixed by a
third party. Drastic as the bill was, Parnell refused to be a party to
it, and on the second reading, which was carried by 352 to 176, he
walked out of the House with 35 of his followers. When the bill became
law in August he could not prevent the tenants from using it, but he did
what he could to discourage them in order to please his American
paymasters, who repudiated all parliamentary remedies. In September a
convention was held in Dublin, and Parnell reported its action to the
American Land League: "Resolutions were adopted for national
self-government, the unconditional liberation of the land for the
people, tenants not to use the rent-fixing clauses of the Land Act, but
follow old Land League lines, and rely on the old methods to reach
justice. The executive of the League is empowered to select test cases,
in order that tenants in surrounding districts may realize, by the
results of cases decided, the hollowness of the act" (Barry O'Brien,
_Life of C. S. Parnell_, i. 306). His organ _United Ireland_ declared
that the new courts must be cowed into giving satisfactory decisions.
The League, however, could not prevent the farmers from using the
fair-rent clauses. It was more successful in preventing free sale,
maintaining the doctrine that, rent or no rent, no evictions were to be
allowed. At the first sitting of the Land Commission in Dublin the
crier, perhaps by accident, declared "the court of the Land League to be
open." Speaking at Leeds on the 7th of October, Gladstone said "the
resources of civilization were not exhausted," adding that Parnell
"stood between the living and the dead, not like Aaron to stay the
plague, but to spread the plague." Two days later Parnell called the
prime minister a "masquerading knight-errant," ready to oppress the
unarmed, but submissive to the Boers as soon as he found "that they were
able to shoot straighter than his own soldiers." Four days after this
Parnell was arrested under the Coercion Act and lodged in Kilmainham
gaol. The Land League having retorted by ordering the tenants to pay no
rent, it was declared illegal, and suppressed by proclamation. Parnell
is said to have disapproved of the no-rent manifesto, as also Mr John
Dillon, who was in Kilmainham with him, but both of them signed it (ib.
i. 319). At Liverpool on the 27th of October Gladstone described Parnell
and his party as "marching through rapine to the disintegration and
dismemberment of the empire." In 1881, 4439 agrarian outrages were
reported; nothing attracted more attention in England than the cruel
mutilations of cattle, which became very frequent. The Ladies' Land
League tried to carry on the work of the suppressed organization and
there was even an attempt at a Children's League. Sex had no effect in
softening the prevalent style of oratory, but the government thought it
better to take no notice. The imprisonment of suspects under the
Coercion Act had not the expected result, and outrages were incessant,
the agitation being supported by constant supplies of money from
America. Gladstone resolved on a complete change of policy. It was
decided to check evictions by an Arrears Bill, and the three imprisoned
members of parliament--Messrs Parnell, Dillon and O'Kelly--were released
on the 2nd of May 1882, against the wishes of the Irish government. This
was known as the Kilmainham Treaty. Lord Cowper and Forster at once
resigned, and were succeeded by Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick
Cavendish, who entered Dublin on the 6th of May.
Phoenix Park murders.
That same evening Lord Frederick and the permanent under-secretary
Thomas Henry Burke were murdered in the Phoenix Park in broad daylight.
The weapons were amputating knives imported for the purpose. The
assassins drove rapidly away; no one, not even those who saw the deed
from a distance, knew what had been done. A Dublin tradesman named
Field, who had been a juror in a murder trial, was attacked by the same
gang and stabbed in many places. He escaped with life, though with
shattered health, and it was the identification of the man who drove his
assailants' car that afterwards led to the discovery of the whole
conspiracy. The clue was obtained by a private examination of suspected
persons under the powers given by the Crimes Act. To obtain convictions
the evidence of an informer was wanted, and the person selected was
James Carey, a member of the Dublin Corporation and a chief contriver of
the murders. He swore that they had been ordered immediately after the
appearance of an article in the _Freeman's Journal_ which declared that
a "clean sweep" should be made of Dublin Castle officials. The evidence
disclosed the fact that several abortive attempts had been previously
made to murder Forster. Out of twenty persons, subsequently arraigned,
five were hanged, and others sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
Carey embarked for South Africa in the following July, and was murdered
on board ship by Patrick O'Donnell, who was brought to England,
convicted, and hanged on the 17th of December 1883.
National League.
Dynamite.
Labourers Act.
Mr (afterwards Sir) G. O. Trevelyan had been appointed chief secretary
in May 1882, and in July the Crimes Prevention Act was passed for three
years on lines indicated by Lord Cowper. In the first six months of the
year 2597 agrarian outrages were reported, and in the last six months
836. They fell to 834 in 1883, and to 744 in 1884. The Arrears Bill also
became law. Money enough was advanced out of the surplus property of the
Irish Church to pay for tenants of holdings under L30 one year's rent
upon all arrears accruing before November 1880, giving them a clear
receipt to that date on condition of their paying another year
themselves; of the many reasons against the measure the most important
was that it was a concession to agrarian violence. But the same could be
and was said of the Land Act of 1881. That had been passed, and it was
probably impossible to make it work at all smoothly without checking
evictions by dealing with old arrears. The Irish National League was,
however, founded in October to take up the work of the defunct Land
League, and the country continued to be disturbed. The law was
paralysed, for no jury could be trusted to convict even on the clearest
evidence, and the National League branches assumed judicial functions.
Men were openly tried all over the country for disobeying the
revolutionary decrees, and private spite was often the cause of their
being accused. "Tenants," to quote the Cowper Commission again, "who
have paid even the judicial rents have been summoned to appear before
self-constituted tribunals, and if they failed to do so, or on appearing
failed to satisfy those tribunals, have been fined or boycotted." In
February 1883 Mr Trevelyan gave an account of his stewardship at Hawick,
and said that all law-abiding Irishmen, whether Conservative or Liberal,
were on one side, while on the other were those who "planned and
executed the Galway and Dublin murders, the boycotting and firing into
houses, the mutilation of cattle and intimidation of every sort." In
this year the campaign of outrage in Ireland was reinforced by one of
dynamite in Great Britain. The home secretary, Sir W. Harcourt, brought
in an Explosives Bill on the 9th of April, which was passed through all
its stages in one day and received the royal assent on the next. The
dynamiters were for the most part Irish-Americans, who for obvious
reasons generally spared Ireland, but one land-agent's house in Kerry
was shaken to its foundations in November 1884. At Belfast in the
preceding June Lord Spencer, who afterwards became a Home Ruler, had
announced that the secret conspirators would "not terrify the English
nation." On the 22nd of February 1883 Forster made his great attack on
Parnell in the House of Commons, accusing him of moral complicity with
Irish crime. A detailed answer was never attempted, and public attention
was soon drawn to the trial of the "Invincibles" who contrived the
Phoenix Park murders. On the 11th of December Parnell received a present
of L37,000 from his followers in Ireland. The tribute, as it was called,
was raised in spite of a papal prohibition. As a complement to the Land
Act and Arrears Act, boards of guardians were this year empowered to
build labourers' cottages with money borrowed on the security of the
rates and repayable out of them. Half an acre of land went with the
cottage, and by a later act this was unwisely extended to one acre. That
the labourers had been badly housed was evident, and there was little
chance of improvement by private capitalists, for cottage property is
not remunerative. But the working of the Labourers Acts was very costly,
cottages being often assigned to people who were not agricultural
labourers at all. In many districts the building was quite overdone, and
the rent obtainable being far less than enough to recoup the guardians,
the system operated as out-door relief for the able-bodied and as a rate
in aid of wages.
Ashbourne Act.
Home Rule Bill, 1886.
The Explosives Act, strong as it was, did not at once effect its object.
In February 1884 there was a plot to blow up four London railway
stations by means of clockwork infernal machines containing dynamite,
brought from America. Three Irish-Americans were convicted, of whom one,
John Daly, who was sentenced to penal servitude for life, lived to be
mayor of Limerick in 1899. In January 1885 Parnell visited Thurles,
where he gave a remarkable proof of his power by breaking down local
opposition to his candidate for Tipperary. In April the prince and
princess of Wales visited Ireland. At Dublin they were well received,
and at Belfast enthusiastically, but there were hostile demonstrations
at Mallow and Cork. In May it was intended to renew the Crimes
Prevention Act, but before that was done the government was beaten on a
financial question by 264 to 252, Parnell and 39 of his followers voting
with the Conservatives. The Crimes Prevention Act expired on the 12th of
July, and the want of it was at once felt. The number of agrarian
outrages reported in the first six months of the year was 373; in the
last six months they rose to 543, and the number of persons boycotted
was almost trebled. Lord Salisbury came into office, with Lord Carnarvon
as lord-lieutenant and Sir W. Hart Dyke as chief secretary. The
lord-lieutenant had an interview with Parnell, of which very conflicting
accounts were given, but the Irish leader issued a manifesto advising
his friends to vote against the Liberals as oppressors and coercionists,
who promised everything and did nothing. The constitutional Liberal
party in Ireland was in fact annihilated by the extension of the
franchise to agricultural labourers and very small farmers. The most
important Irish measure of the session was the Ashbourne Act, by which
L5,000,000 was allotted on the security of the land for the creation of
an occupying proprietary. Later the same sum was again granted, and
there was still a good deal unexpended when the larger measure of 1891
became law. In December 1885, when the general election was over, an
anonymous scheme of Home Rule appeared in some newspapers, and in spite
of disclaimers it was at once believed that Gladstone had made up his
mind to surrender. In October 1884, only fourteen months before, he had
told political friends that he had a sneaking regard for Parnell, and
that Home Rule might be a matter for serious consideration within ten
years (Sir A. West's _Recollections_, 1899, ii. 206). The shortening of
the time was perhaps accounted for by the fact that the new House of
Commons consisted of 331 Liberals, 249 Conservatives, 86 Home Rulers and
Independents, Parnell thus holding the balance of parties. In Ireland
there had been 66 elections contested, and out of 451,000 voters 93,000
were illiterates. Such were the constituencies to whom it was proposed
to hand Ireland over. On the 26th of January 1886 the government were
defeated by a combination of Liberal and Nationalists on an issue not
directly connected with Ireland, and their resignation immediately
followed. Gladstone became prime minister, with Lord Aberdeen as
lord-lieutenant and Mr John Morley as chief secretary. Lord Hartington
and Mr Goschen were not included in this administration. In February
Parnell again showed his power by forcing Captain O'Shea upon the
unwilling electors of Galway. He introduced a Land Bill to relieve
tenants from legal process if they paid half their rent, and foretold
disorder in consequence of its rejection. In April the Government of
Ireland Bill was brought in, Mr Chamberlain (q.v.), Mr Trevelyan and
others leaving the ministry. The bill attempted to safeguard British
interests, while leaving Ireland at the mercy of the native politicians.
Irish members were excluded from the imperial parliament. The local
legislature was to consist of two orders sitting and voting together,
but with the power of separating on the demand of either order present.
The 28 representative peers, with 75 other members having an income of
L200, or a capital of L4000, elected for ten years by L25 occupiers,
were to constitute the first order. The second was to have 204 members
returned for five years by the usual parliamentary electorate. The
status of the lord-lieutenant was unalterable by this legislature.
Holders of judicial offices and permanent civil servants had the option
of retiring with pensions, but the constabulary, whom the Home Rulers
had openly threatened to punish when their time came, were to come after
an interval under the power of the Irish Parliament. Parnell accepted
the bill, but without enthusiasm.
The Government of Ireland Bill gave no protection to landowners, but as
the crisis was mainly agrarian, it would have been hardly decent to make
no show of considering them. A Land Purchase Bill was accordingly
introduced on the 16th of April by the prime minister under "an
obligation of honour and policy," to use his own words. Fifty millions
sterling in three years was proposed as payment for what had been
officially undervalued at 113 millions. It was assumed that there would
be a rush to sell, the choice apparently lying between that and
confiscation, and priority was to be decided by lot. The Irish
landlords, however, showed no disposition to sell their country, and the
Purchase Bill was quickly dropped, though Gladstone had declared the two
measures to be inseparable. He reminded the landlords that the "sands
were running in the hour-glass," but this threat had no effect. The
Unionists of Ireland had been taken by surprise, and out of Ulster they
had no organization capable of opposing the National League and the
government combined. Individuals went to England and spoke wherever they
could get a hearing, but it was uphill work. In Ulster the Orange lodges
were always available, and the large Protestant population made itself
felt. Terrible riots took place at Belfast in June, July and August. In
October there was an inquiry by a royal commission with Mr Justice Day
at its head, and on the report being published in the following January
there were fresh riots. Foolish and criminal as these disturbances were,
they served to remind the English people that Ireland would not cease to
be troublesome under Home Rule. In parliament the Home Rule Bill soon
got into rough water; John Bright declared against it. The "dissentient
Liberals," as Gladstone always called them, were not converted by the
abandonment of the Purchase Bill, and on the 7th of June 93 of them
voted against the second reading, which was lost by 30 votes. A general
election followed in July, and 74 Liberal Unionists were returned,
forming with the Conservatives a Unionist party, which outnumbered
Gladstonians and Parnellites together by over a hundred. Gladstone
resigned, and Lord Salisbury became prime minister, with Lord
Londonderry as lord-lieutenant and Sir M. Hicks-Beach (afterwards Lord
St Aldwyn) as chief secretary.