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Government speak under great reserve of these matters; but I must say frankly that there have been some cases in which individual landlords have shown a disposition to make wholesale evictions for non-payment of rent, where that non-payment was clearly due to the failure of crops. There was one case which became public in the newspapers, and which I have, therefore, the less delicacy in mentioning. I do not know even the name of the landlord, but I rather think he was a purchaser in the Encumbered Estates Court. . . . On the whole townland [Curraroe, in the county of Galway] there were eighty-nine tenants with families numbering in the whole five hundred and fifteen souls. The rent was £137 7s. od., or about thirty shillings each. They were of the smallest class of occupiers. There were 1,334 acres in the townland, of which 110 were arable, under crop. The whole stock of the farms consisted of only four horses, 110 cattle, 62 sheep, and 14 pigs. The total valuation of the stock and crop-everythingwas £1,423, or about £2 15s. od. for every soul in the townland. One-twelfth of the acreage was arable. I think that was a case clearly in which the tenantry were so reduced, as you may see from the valuation of their stock and crop, that it was impossible they could pay their rent after the three years of the worst harvests we have had for a long period. In this case notices of eviction were served, I rather think, in the time of the late Government, but were enforced, or attempted to be enforced, by, I believe, only twenty men. There was a general resistance to the service of those ejectments; and since we came into office the Irish Government had to reinforce the police in the place to the extent of 200 men. You had in that case at the mercy of the landowner a whole population of upwards of 500 souls, who, under the existing law, would have been evicted without one shilling of compensation, without one shilling to carry them to America, because they were evicted for non-payment of rent. What is the significance of

these facts?"

George Douglas Campbell, eighth Duke of Argyll, 1823-1900. On June 14, 1880, he had actually sent in his resignation to Gladstone on account of his disapproval of certain provisions of the Bill, but had withdrawn it later on, when various amendments had been introduced.

APPENDIX LXXV

(See Chapter XV, p. 379)

As Sir Charles Russell said before the Parnell Commission"The defendants [the leaders of the Land League movement] taught the Irish people the necessity for combining themselves together resolutely to fight for their lives in this extremity; and it was a fight for their lives. I am not going to suggest that there were not men who took part in this struggle who may not have been unworthy of sympathy. I am not going to suggest that in such a struggle as this there were not men who, under the cloak of a great movement, sought their own selfish benefit and advantage. I am not going to suggest that as incidental to this there have not been misfortune, disturbance and crime. But I do suggest, I do affirm most boldly, that in its main character, in its essential objects, in its essential means, this was a movement and a combination which was not only justifiable before God and man, but necessary in the condition of things which existed.

"My lords, if further justification is needed for this movement, if any one still remains who has followed this case with any lingering doubt in his mind that there was a great social evil to be grappled with in the interests,

the common interests of humanity and of justice, if any one asks what is the justification beyond these facts, I refer them to the Statute-book of the realm, and in the Statute-book of the realm since the year 1879 is traced clearly, indelibly, unmistakably the justification for the position and the agitation of the Irish leaders and the Irish people. For, as surely as I have the honour this moment of addressing your lordships, the measure and fulness of the Land Act of 1881, of the Arrears Act of 1882, of the Purchase Act of 1885, of the further Acts of 1886 and 1887, mainly owe their existence upon the Statute-book of the realm to-day, constituting a new Charter for the Irish tenant, to the action of the men who at the instance of the Times are held up to public obloquy and public odium as criminals and accomplices in criminality before the law.

"My lords, I might even refer your lordships to the statements of more than one distinguished legislator, a man who has held high office, who in the House of Commons declared that the action of the Land League had made it possible for the Governments of 1881 and 1882 to pass their remedial measures of those years. I refer to Mr. Chamberlain. I think there are others who have spoken in the same sense. And what does that mean? My lords, it points to a grievous vice in our political system. It does not mean, I have never thought it, I have never said it; it did not mean that honest men who have their attention called to the wretched state of Ireland, and who form the representation of Scotland, England, and Wales, are not honestly anxious according to their view to do their duty; but it means that there is a vis inertia prevailing in the Legislature in relation to Irish questions, partly caused by the pressure of, as it is thought, more important concerns, partly from want of information, partly from class interests, partly from prejudice, until it is literally true to say that, go over the legislation of the last hundred years and trace the story of its remedial legislation, and you will find that there is hardly one, if there be one, of the measures of that character which are to be found in the Statute-book which has come as a freewill offering of the Legislature, and which has not come as the result of agitation, sometimes constitutional, sometimes unconstitutional, but always after pressure."

This was the grand quandary of the Irish tenant. He must not quarrel with his diet because he was left to starve. He was expected to grow rich under confiscation and grateful under neglect, and to smile upon fortune when he was thrust out of doors. This was a new postulate invented for the use of the rulers of Ireland. The world was to believe that Ireland was differently made to any other country in the world; that its people had only to be given sufficient cause for desperation to render them loyal and contented subjects.

APPENDIX LXXVI

(See Chapter XV, p. 380)

THE origin of the word "boycott" is explained by James Redpath, in Talks About Ireland

"The word was invented by Father John O'Malley about three days after the decree of social excommunication was issued against Boycott. Up to that time it had been called sometimes moral and sometimes social excommunication when ostracism was applied to a land-grabber. I was dining with Father John, at the presbytery of The Neale, and he asked me why I was not eating.

"I said, 'I am bothered about a word.' "What is it?' asked Father John.

"Well,' I said, 'when the people ostracise a grabber we call it social excommunication, but we ought to have an entirely different word to signify ostracism applied to a landlord or agent like Boycott. Ostracism won't dothe peasantry would not know the meaning of the word-and I can't think of any other.

666

No,' said Father John, 'ostracism wouldn't do.' He looked down, tapped his big forehead, and said"How would it do to call it "Boycott him"?'

"I was delighted, and said: 'Tell your people to call it "Boycotting," and when the reporters come down from Dublin and London they will hear the word. I am going to Dublin, and I will ask the young orators of the League to give it that name. I will use it in my correspondence with the American press, and between us we will make it as famous as the word "lynching" is in the United States.'

The contrivances employed on both sides in the boycotting campaign are well illustrated by an incident related in Michael Davitt's Fall of Feudalism in Ireland

"Mr. Bence Jones, an English landlord, had an estate near Clonakilty, in County Cork, which he managed himself on strictly commercial principles. He also farmed about one thousand acres of his own land. His tenants were of the small-holding class, and like others who had suffered in the bad seasons of 1878-79, they asked for a reduction in the gale falling due at the end of 1880. This Mr. Jones firmly refused to give. The local branch took instant action. The tenants were induced and pledged to stand out for 'Griffith's Valuation'-i. e. a rent reduced to the Government or rating valuation of the farm. The landlord was boycotted and his labourers were drawn off. Police came to protect him, and he had the continued service of a Scotch steward and of one or two English servants. This help, along with that of the members of his own family, enabled him to make a much better stand against his assailants than that of Captain Boycott. He had, however, to get rid of some valuable stock-about one hundred head of cattle as these could not be looked after by his diminished labour service, and it was planned by him that they should be entrained at Bandon for Cork, and shipped thence to Bristol to be sold. A previous effort to sell a few loads of oats at Bandon fair had failed, the Bandon branch having boycotted the grain by ordering men to stand round the carts in the market and to inform would-be purchasers that the Land League prohibited the buying of Jones's goods. The cattle for Bristol were driven into Bandon by night, and, by aid of the police, they were put on the rails and sent off to Cork before the Bandon League, which had been caught napping, were aware of their arrival in the town. The local branch, on hearing of this mishap, wired to the League in Dublin information of what had occurred, and messages were immediately sent thence to Cork to have the cattle' watched' on their arrival. This was done. The shipping companies were at once waited upon, and so much was the displeasure of the League feared at the time that no ships leaving Cork for Bristol could be got to carry Jones's COWS. The jobbers who were shipping their ordinary cattle were induced to inform the agents of the companies that they would withdraw their custom if boycotted animals were carried on the boats patronized by them. The Jones cattle were, therefore, rejected. They were then driven to the station of the Great Southern and Western Railway, to be carried by rail to Dublin. A large force of police had to guard them until the freight-train started. Police were specially stationed at every stopping-place on the line until Dublin was reached, when the services of another body of police were called for. At the North Wall the League agents repeated the Cork tactics, and jobbers gave notice to the Glasgow Company's agents that they must choose between the regular custom of old dealers and this single consignment from a boycotted landlord. The company accepted the situation and declined to

carry the cattle. Next the Liverpool boats were tried, and a threat to resort to legal proceedings and to claim damages for a refusal as public carriers to take cattle on board obtained a passage for the animals to Liverpool. Here an agent of the League from Dublin awaited their arrival. The Irish salesmen in Liverpool had been interviewed in the meantime, and they helped to boycott the cattle in the city market. Finally the animals were driven outside the city to the hospitality of some friendly paddocks, and were ultimately disposed of by private negotiations.”"1

APPENDIX LXXVII

(See Chapter XV, p. 383)

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL had said at Preston on December 21, 1880

"People sometimes talk too lightly of coercion; it means that hundreds of Irishmen who, if law had been maintained unaltered and had been firmly enforced, would now have been leading peaceful, industrious, and honest lives, will soon be torn off to prison without trial; that others will have to fly the country into hopeless exile; that others, driven to desperation through such cruel alternatives, will perhaps shed their blood and sacrifice their lives in vain resistance to the forces of the Crown; that many Irish homes, which would have been happy if evil courses had been firmly checked at the outset, will soon be bereaved of their most promising ornaments and support, disgraced by a felon's cell and by a convict's garb; and if you look back over the brief period which has been necessary to bring about such terrible results, the mind recoils in horror from the ghastly spectacle of murdered landlords, tenant farmers tortured, mutilated dumb animals, which everywhere disfigure

1 The disapproval that was displayed in the English press at the Irish system of boycotting would have carried more weight if there had not been the recollection that the same policy had been advocated by Blackwood's Magazine, in July 1832, just before the introduction of the Great Reform Bill

"Finally, let the Conservative party universally and firmly act upon the principle of withdrawing their business from tradesmen whom they employ who do not support the Conservative candidate. In the manufacturing cities, which depend on the export sale, this measure may not have a very powerful effect, but in the metropolis, in the other great towns, and the small borough, it would have an incalculable effect. If universally and steadily acted upon it would be decisive of the fate of England. At least four-fifths, probably nine-tenths, of the purchase of articles of commerce come from the Conservative ranks; if this were confined to men of Conservative principles there is an end of the revolutionary progress. There is nothing unjust in this; the shopkeeper claims for himself the power of judging who should be his representative in Parliament. Granted, but he cannot refuse the same liberty of choice to his customer as to whom he is to employ as his butcher, his baker, or his clothier. There might be some reluctance in taking this step in ordinary times, when no vital part of the State is at stake, when mere family ambition divides counties, and the great interests of the State are equally secure in the hands of the one or the other party. But the case is widely different when, as at this time, the question is not between rival families in counties or adverse parties in politics, but between contending principles in society; between the preservation of property and the march of revolution; between future felicity and unutterable anguish for ourselves and our children. It may be a painful thing to part from an old tradesman because he is of revolutionary principles; but it is much more painful to see the ruin of our country, and that is the other alternative.

"Come what may, we have discharged our duty to the friends of England by showing the simple and certain means by which the progress of the revolution may be stayed; if they are neglected and ruin follows, the consequences be on them and on their children."

the green and fertile pastures of Ireland. It is to me, and many others who, like myself, have had the good fortune to live amongst the people of that country, to discover their high qualities and their many virtues, and to know that, under a firm and statesmanlike Government, immense prosperity must have been their lot, as it is their due-it is, I say, appalling to reflect that all this promise has for a time been blotted out, all progress arrested, and all industry thrown back by one reckless and wanton act on the part of a Government who, at the outset of their career, and in the heyday of their youth and of their strength, knew no higher object and had no nobler aim than to obtain at any cost a momentary and apparent advantage over their opponents." (Life of Lord Randolph Churchill, by Winston L. S. Churchill.)

APPENDIX LXXVIII

(See Chapter XV, p. 384)

VARIOUS COERCION ACTS, ARMS ACTS, AND OTHER ACTS

FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE PUBLIC PEACE
PASSED FOR IRELAND DURING THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.

(Exclusive of Acts passed in respect of party processions.)

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41 Geo. III., c. 104

1802-3 43 Geo. III., c. 116 1802-3 43 Geo. III., c. 117 1803-4 44 Geo. III., c. 8 1803-4 44 Geo. III., c. 9 1803-4 44 Geo. III., c. 90 1805 45 Geo. III., c. 4

1807

1810

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...

...

1806-7 47 Geo. III., Sess. 1, c. 8...
47 Geo. III., Sess. 2, c. 54
50 Geo. III., c. 109
1812 52 Geo. III., c. 91
1812-13 53 Geo. III., c. 78
1813-14 54 Geo. III., c. 33
1813-14 54 Geo. III., c. 180
1813-14 54 Geo. III., c. 181
1814-15 55 Geo. III., c. 88
1817 57 Geo. III., c. 50
I Geo. IV., c. 47...
3 Geo. IV., c. 4
4 Geo. IV., c. 14...
4 Geo. IV., c. 58

1820

1821

1823

...

1823

1824

5 Geo. IV., c. 105

1829

10 Geo. IV., c. I

...

Suppression of Rebellion.
Suppression of Rebellion.
Habeas Corpus Suspension.
Suppression of Rebellion.
Habeas Corpus Suspension.
Suppression of Rebellion.
Peace Preservation.

Habeas Corpus Suspension.
Arms and Gunpowder.
Possession of Arms.
Arms.

Peace Preservation.
Arms.

Peace Preservation.

Unlawful Combinations.

Assaults.

Assaults.

Peace Preservation.

Arms.

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1830 II Geo. IV., c. 44

1831

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1 and 2 Will. IV., c. 47

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1831-2 2 and 3 Will. IV., c. 70
3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 4
5 and 6 Will. IV., c. 48
6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 39
1837-8 1 and 2 Vict., c. 71...

1833

1835 1836

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