m?/j 
 
 f.V- ;t\ 
 
 £5* HI 
 
THE CRIME AGAINST IRELAND 
 
 BY 
 
 J ELLEN FOSTER 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY 
 
 + 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 D LOTHROP COMPANY 
 
 FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 
 
Copyright, 1888 
 
 BY 
 
 D. Lothrop Company. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book, I take it, is one of the latest illustra- 
 tions of the Irish power of conversion or assimilation. 
 Mrs. Foster went to Ireland with no bias in favor of 
 the people or their national cause ; and she came away 
 not only a convert, but a missionary, and one of the 
 most eloquent and impressive of those who tell abroad 
 the tale of afflicted Erin. 
 
 Were it not for this converting power there would 
 be no worldly hope for the weak who were oppressed. 
 The earth would belong to the strong and the raven- 
 ous. For instance, the chains that were bound on 
 Ireland by Cromwell in 1642 would still hold on the 
 chafed limbs. Cromwell gave the land of Ireland to 
 English soldiers — every acre of it except the prov- 
 ince of Connaught. But where is the Cromwellian 
 now in Ireland ? He has disappeared like a stone 
 thrown into a lake, or rather like a fierce storm of hail 
 driving violently into the breast of a lake, and melting 
 at once into its kindly flood. 
 
 This same power is going on outside Ireland ; and 
 Mrs. Foster's book is one of its restless reachers 
 and tentacles. In a certain way, England and Ireland 
 represent essentially different human forces : one the 
 force of impact, of organization, of pressure, of indi- 
 vidualized greed — in a word, of concentration. The 
 other, the very opposite — as steam is to water — the 
 
 ~ 1629 
 
P7-eface. 
 
 power of diffusion, expansion, neglecting organization 
 to win opinion, preferring to make all men of one 
 mind to making a few men of one body. 
 
 By this means, Ireland, having failed to shake off 
 the English grip with a weapon, is succeeding with a 
 word. Instead of a hopeless, but heroic pike against 
 a long-range rifle, Ireland has learned to depend on a 
 weapon that carries farther than a cannon — patient 
 explanation. Instead of striking her enemy in the 
 face, as of old, and getting strangled in the dark, 
 Ireland arraigns the oppressor before mankind, and 
 asks the world for a verdict. The passionate one 
 binds her heart into submission, and reasons instead 
 of rebelling. The hottest-blooded race in Europe, not 
 afraid of fighting, God knows, becomes a national ex- 
 emplar of the supreme force of self-restraint, accept- 
 ance, submission, and dependence in the changeless 
 instincts of human nature that must hate wrong when 
 it is made clear and work for justice when it asserts its 
 claim. 
 
 John Bovle O'Reilly. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 To the student of American institutions, the condi- 
 tions growing out of our diverse populations present 
 great perplexities. 
 
 Foreign-born citizens, and those but one generation 
 removed, form an important factor in our educational, 
 industrial and political life. 
 
 How our civilization shall assimilate that which is 
 good and discard that which is bad, is the question 
 before the publicist. 
 
 Spending about two months in Ireland in the year 
 1887, I hoped from contact with the people to bring 
 back something of value to the solution of America's 
 problem. 
 
 To my interest in the people as related to us was soon 
 added an intense sympathy with their historic strug- 
 gle for national existence, and their present wretched 
 condition. 
 
 This struggle is the latest phase of the universal de- 
 mand for liberty. In my investigation of the causes 
 which have led to Ireland's present unrest, in addition 
 to a personal study of the situation on the spot, a large 
 number of works written by both Irish and English his- 
 torians were available, but I felt the need of a summary 
 which would present with as little detail as comprehen- 
 siveness and clearness would allow, the strategic points 
 in Ireland's history as affected by English rule. Such 
 
Introduction. 
 
 a work I have attempted in the present volume. The 
 substance of the work was prepared on Irish soil, and 
 took the form of letters to the Boston Journal. In its 
 preparation I have consulted a large number of authori- 
 ties, and have been favored with extended personal 
 interviews with Irish and English statesmep, and with 
 opportunities of listening to debates on pending issues 
 in the English House of Commons. 
 
 J. Ellen Foster. 
 
 Clinton, Iowa, Jan. i, 1888. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE INDICTMENT 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DUBLIN CASTLE RULE 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EVICTIONS 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LANDLORDISM 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 POLITICAL DESPOTISM 60 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL DESPOTISM 73 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COERCION 89 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE IRISH LAND QUESTION Ill 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE UNION 123 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOME RULE I35 
 
AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Allison. Life of Castlereagh. 
 
 Barrington, LL. D., R. C, Sir Jonah. " Rise and Fall of the 
 Irish Nation." * 
 
 Coote. History of the Union. 
 
 Cairnes. Political Essays. • 
 
 Clancy, John J. Six Months " Unionist's " Rule. 
 
 Duffy, Sir C. G. Young Ireland. 
 
 Froude. History of England. 
 
 Froude. The English in Ireland. 
 
 Grattan. Life and Times of Henry Grattan. 
 
 Green. History of the English People. 
 
 Lecky. The History of England in the Eighteenth Century. 
 
 Lecky. Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland. 
 
 McCarthy, Justin. History of our own Times. 
 
 Mill, J. S. The Land Question. 
 
 O'Brien, W. Smith. Causes of Discontent. 
 
 MacNeill, J. G. Swift. How the Union was Carried. 
 
 And Speeches, Pamphlets and Documents, by Gladstone, 
 
 Parnell, Dillon, Harrington, Webb, Redmond, Dawson, Mosely, 
 
 Fox, Roseberry, Crilly, Leadam and others. 
 
THE CRIME AGAINST IRELAND 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE INDICTMENT. 
 
 ALL the world waits with interest the 
 solution of the Irish Question. Ire- 
 land's long struggle for constitutional liberty 
 illumines with heroism or disfigures with 
 shame the page of history. Imperial West- 
 minster and gloomy Dublin Castle are both 
 judge and executioner to-day. The former is 
 resplendent with trappings of royalty and the 
 insignia of conscious power, the latter is sul- 
 len and dark, and from it the people's heart 
 finds no expression. Its bare walls rise amid 
 the noise of traffic in Dublin streets, where 
 the multitudes pass in decent mien to honest 
 toil, or crowd in rags to beg for bread, or sit 
 in squalor and dumb misery. In sculptured 
 granite the forms of Grattan, O'Brien and 
 
 7 
 
8 The Indictment. 
 
 O'Connell still give grim menace to tyranny, 
 and promise morning to Ireland's long night 
 of despair. But while under the shadow of 
 Ireland's wrongs and indignant at England's 
 stupid indifference or criminal complicity 
 with those wrongs, we remember the other 
 oppressions of history. Which among the 
 great nations of the earth may say, " We 
 have not sinned " ? Russian Absolutism, 
 Turkish Inhumanity, German Imperialism, 
 French Communism, Spanish Inquisitions 
 and (dear America, thou, too, must hang thy 
 head in shame) African Slavery in the United 
 States — these institutions, whether they be 
 to their peoples the framework of the law, 
 the spirit of the national life, or foul excres- 
 cences upon the body politic, all cry out for 
 redress in the supreme court of universal 
 history, and shall find no full discharge till 
 time is no more. 
 
 Foremost among these criminal nations 
 to-day stands proud England, world-wide in 
 estate, mighty in resources of material wealth, 
 glorious in literature and arts, unparalleled 
 in achievements, invincible in arms. Eng- 
 land must bow her proud head when this 
 
The Indictment. 9 
 
 poor little Ireland — too near for successful 
 resistance, too far for entire assimilation — 
 points in dumb pantomime, or shrieks in 
 wild refrain of race subjugation, of religious 
 oppression, of agrarian outrage and of politi- 
 cal despotism. 
 
 Has England been so occupied in assert- 
 ing her military supremacy in the corners of 
 the earth that she fears not this paralysis 
 near her heart ? 
 
 While developing her wealth in the Indias 
 and the islands of the sea has she forgotten 
 a part of her united kingdom across a nar- 
 row channel steadily depopulated by famine, 
 pestilence, and forced emigration, even in 
 sight of her great bounty ? Has she carried 
 Bibles to the heathen and herself forgotten 
 the Golden Rule toward her own? Have her 
 scientists discoursed of the origin of species, 
 the orbits of worlds and the distance of suns 
 in arrogant indifference to' the Irish peasan- 
 try close within her shadow, who in igno- 
 rance and misery have toiled in ditching and 
 draining, in sowing and reaping, while they 
 brooded over that anomalous system of 
 Anglo-Irish agrarian economics under which 
 
io The Indictment. 
 
 a poor season and failing crops brought 
 starvation and eviction to the tenant, while 
 sun and rain and bountiful harvest enriched 
 him not, but made possible his continuance 
 on the soil, and compelled his payment of 
 increased tribute (rack rent) to a foreign 
 landlord ? Has she out of the vitality of a 
 national life nurtured by religious toleration 
 and the spirit of democracy among the peo- 
 ple, thrown off one after another the fetters 
 of barbarism and adorned herself with the 
 robes of Christian civilization, while within 
 the breath of her perfumes, the odor of her 
 incense and the sound of her hallelujahs has 
 lain — all full of sores — this Lazarus at the 
 gate ? 
 
 Have not all the nations of the earth has- 
 tened to her jubilee ? Have they not from 
 sincere hearts joined her grand Te Deum 
 and Gloria Patria as the procession of half 
 a hundred years has passed in grand review? 
 All voices render unstinted praise to that 
 personal nobility of character in woman, wife, 
 mother, Queen, which has set the name Vic- 
 toria in the mosaic of this century's achieve- 
 ments. But amid all this glad acclaim I hear 
 
The Indictment. 1 1 
 
 Isaiah's voice: " Is not this the fast that I 
 have chosen, to loose the bonds of wicked- 
 ness, to undo the heavy burdens and to let 
 the oppressed go free, and that ye break 
 every yoke." 
 
 Did the old prophet see Christian Eng- 
 land bound to this body of death ? I am 
 appalled as I read the page of history and 
 with my own eyes and by personal contact 
 study the distressing condition of the pres- 
 ent. The truth compels this terrible arraign- 
 ment. Would to God it were otherwise ! 
 
 What is the truth ? What does the page 
 of history tell? What are present conditions ? 
 And what of the future ? 
 
 Ireland contains thirty-two thousand square 
 miles. Its shores are circled with mountain- 
 ous ridges, save where deep sea indentations 
 receive the water of its many rivers. Its soil 
 is productive, and the climate is genial ; the 
 gulf stream bears early the moist verdure of 
 the tropics, and stays long the icy hand 
 of winter. The heart of the island is level 
 or gently undulating, and ditching and drain- 
 
12 The Indictment, 
 
 ■ 
 
 ing have rescued many bogs. There is now 
 little timber, much having been recklessly- 
 wasted, and no re-forestry attempted. With 
 increase of grazing lands there has been little 
 increase in number or quality of cattle, sheep 
 and hogs. Its mineral resources, if any there 
 be, are undeveloped ; its great fishing oppor- 
 tunities almost wholly neglected ; its manu- 
 factories, except only whiskey, porter, linen 
 and a few woollen mills, are extinct. Asri- 
 cultural products are of the simplest vari- 
 eties ; of rotation of crops little is known. 
 Wheat, barley, oats and the " everlasting 
 potato ' are grown on the same field year 
 after year. Potato planting, growing, digging 
 and eating being the simplest co-operative 
 plan between nature and the tiller of the 
 soil, is always approved by the average Irish- 
 y man, and is by far the most popular combi- 
 nation known in this country. 
 
 Why is Ireland thus now a mendicant 
 among the nations ? She is not orphaned of 
 Heaven ; she is green Erin to her sons : she 
 is still a beautiful island of the sea to every 
 passer-by. 
 
 The solution of this sad problem is found 
 
The Indictment. 13 
 
 in the dual system of agrarian outrage and 
 military and political despotism forced for 
 centuries upon her, combined with the always 
 operative forces, for good or ill, of race pro- 
 clivities and ecclesiastical dominance. Ire- 
 land's individual history, through association 
 of ideas, is in the minds of uninterested stu- 
 dents overshadowed by her political union 
 with England. We are wont to consider 
 English history as including that of Ireland. 
 Not so. One thousand years had made a 
 record not inglorious, before England's at- 
 tempted conquest, and Ireland's continued 
 rebellion began. The Roman Conquest, that 
 first great mile-stone in England's proud 
 race, marks no time for Ireland. The Roman 
 eagle was never planted on her soil. Her 
 people never felt the imprint of that civiliza- 
 tion. When England, deserted by Rome, 
 asked aid of Saxon warriors against the hos- 
 tile Picts and Scots, Ireland,, under its native 
 elective monarchy, the noble kings of the 
 House of Tara, sought no foreign alliance, 
 but by its own valor repelled all invaders, 
 maintained its Celtic race dominance and its 
 national character. England, meanwhile, in 
 
14 The Indictment. 
 
 exchange for military aid and defence, be- 
 came Anglo-Saxon in race and government. 
 
 During the Saxon period, Ireland and 
 England alike were overrun by Northern 
 marauders. These, sometimes successful in 
 England, never conquered Ireland or deposed 
 her kings. The Danes held a few ports, but 
 not the interior. 
 
 Neither was Ireland included in the Nor- 
 man conquest. England had acknowledged 
 Norman supremacy a hundred years when, 
 in 1 1 70, Henry 11 began the subjugation of 
 Ireland. And let it be known and remem- 
 bered in the light of current events that this 
 first invasion of Ireland by England was done 
 under the seal and by the authority of Rome. 
 I quote the words of history : " There was a 
 theory of Christian sovereignty encouraged 
 by Rome and expressed in a bull of Adrian 
 iv, that Ireland and all other islands on 
 which the light of the Gospel of Christ had 
 dawned . . . did of right belong and apper- 
 tain to St. Peter and the Holy Roman 
 Church." 
 
 Henry 11 had sought and obtained from 
 Pope Adrian iv in 1 1 55, permission " to 
 
The Indictment. 15 
 
 enter the land of Ireland in order to subdue 
 the people." The first conquest of Ireland 
 was undisputed, but incomplete. Henry set 
 up in Ireland the feudal system introduced 
 into England by William the Conqueror. 
 The land which before was held by tribal 
 tenure he divided among the English colo- 
 nists whom he settled in Ireland to maintain 
 English supremacy there. The tribal pos- 
 sessors of the soil were victims of military 
 disinheritance of which the so-called consti- 
 tutional legal processes of the present day 
 are the branded offspring. From that day to 
 this Ireland's griefs have been chiefly caused 
 by England's stupid forgetfulness or willful 
 violation of God's command, " Thou shalt 
 not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." 
 England also attempted to transplant her 
 judicial system; she established courts, she 
 proclaimed legal processes. To these her 
 English colonists might flee for protection, 
 but from them her Irish subjects were de- 
 barred and could gain no redress, though 
 they sought it long and bitterly. The tribal 
 system of laws was sufficient under conditions 
 of land ownership and tribal rule, but land 
 
1 6 The Indictment. 
 
 tenures broken, foreign possessors in actual 
 or — worse yet — constructive possession, 
 that former system was wholly inadequate. 
 Here again do we see England's oppression 
 of Ireland ; claiming to " do equity " she 
 establishes a judicial system which in its 
 very nature makes solemn mockery of even- 
 handed justice. 
 
 Assuming to administer government in 
 Ireland according to the people's will, a Par- 
 liament was in due time established, with 
 show of representative powers ; but the utter- 
 ances of this Parliament were in the main 
 adulations of suppliant slaves, or the mutter- 
 ino;s of automatic hirelings. Of these two 
 systems — judicial and political — the " Cas- 
 tle Rule " of to-day is the lineal descendant. 
 Through the centuries of England's domi- 
 nance in Ireland she has maintained the same 
 general features: Inequality in political rep- 
 resentation, injustice in judicial administra- 
 tion, outrage in land tenure, and coercion 
 everywhere and always. To this has been 
 added the cruel sting of fickleness, of uncer- 
 tainty in policy. Sometimes by temporary 
 and partial grants of constitutional liberty 
 
The Indictment. 17 
 
 she has sought to develop strength among 
 the people, with social order and material 
 progress in the state ; but soon, disappointed 
 at lack of immediate and intelligent appre- 
 ciation and commensurate acceptance of the 
 reciprocal obligations of established govern- 
 ment, she has impatiently thrown away even 
 the semblance of that responsible power 
 which alone can command permanent re- 
 spect in civilized society. She did not in 
 herself possess power enough to long con- 
 tinue that high moral tension, that suborna- 
 tion of brute force necessary to the highest 
 form of just government ; and, with strange 
 inconsistency, she has at times wearied of 
 the cost of sustained military occupancy. 
 She has assumed to rule, but has allowed 
 meanwhile an ignorant, superstitious and 
 starving people to consume itself in intestine 
 broils, in agrarian warfare, in religious exter- 
 minations and race feuds. The smoke of 
 these contests smelling to heaven has settled 
 on England's proud escutcheon and soiled 
 her illumined record among the nations of 
 the earth. 
 
 The England of to-day stands before 
 
1 8 The Indictment. 
 
 these accumulations of the years. Its Tory 
 Government, represented by Lord Salisbury, 
 Prime Minister, Mr. Balfour, Chief Secretary 
 for Ireland, and Lord Londonderry, Lord 
 Lieutenant for Ireland, will be judged by 
 the brain and heart of the English people, 
 aroused as it never has been before, in behalf 
 of Ireland's wrongs ; according as they deal 
 with her, will they receive sentence. 
 
 This question takes precedence of all 
 others in popular thought ; it absorbs all 
 others in the nation's heart. This genera- 
 tion is not responsible for the sins of its 
 ancestors, but this generation must reap 
 what others have sown. The operation of 
 this law is as inevitable concerning nations 
 as with individuals ; its results are inexor- 
 able in ethics as they are universal in nature. 
 

 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DUBLIN CASTLE RULE. 
 
 ENGLAND boasts that her people en- 
 joy the highest form of constitutional 
 liberty. She points to hoary precedents of 
 asserted and sustained popular sovereignty ; 
 to her Magna Charta and Bills of Rights, 
 which guarantee free speech, free press and 
 the right of trial by jury. The government 
 of Ireland by Castle Rule brands this boast 
 as a pitiful sham. British subjects in Ire- 
 land, impoverished by eviction acts, emas- 
 culated by arms acts, driven by coercion 
 acts, manacled by crimes bills, buried by 
 habeas corpus suspension, menaced by con- 
 stabulary enlargement, mocked by peace 
 preservation acts, seek in vain for " ancient 
 bulwarks ' of English liberty. William 
 O'Brien, M. P.,* (who has but just now com- 
 pleted his sentence as a political prisoner) 
 with a desperation born of patriotism, defied 
 
 * The arrest and trial of Wm. O'Brien illustrates the practical working of 
 Dublin Castle authority, and is for that reason referred to. 
 
 19 
 
20 Dublin Castle Rule. 
 
 the hordes of petty tyrants, and declared, by 
 press and speech, the constitutional rights of 
 tillers of the soil. 
 
 This horde of tyrants, hid in legal and 
 judicial barracks of temporary power, silence 
 his free speech, threaten his free press, and 
 he, charged with high crime, is denied trial 
 by a jury of his peers. 
 
 O, Liberty ! what crimes are committed 
 in thy name. 
 
 By what authority were proceedings com- 
 menced against Mr. O'Brien? By authority 
 of Dublin Castle, exercised through a dis- 
 trict inspector having immediate control of 
 armed constabulary. What is Dublin Cas- 
 tle ? It is the seat of the local government 
 of Ireland. This government is vested in a 
 privy council, made up of appointees and 
 certain privileged classes. Its executive 
 officers are a Chief Secretary and a Lord 
 Lieutenant. The present incumbents are 
 Mr. Arthur Balfour and Lord Londonderry. 
 This English gentleman (Mr. Balfour) was 
 appointed more especially to carry out the 
 provisions of the Crimes Bill, he being known 
 to be in sympathy with the policy of coercion. 
 
Dublin Castle Rule. 21 
 
 They are assisted by fifteen ex-chief sec- 
 retaries (English), fifteen noblemen, from 
 dukes to lords (the most hated men in Ire- 
 land), two past and one present commander 
 of the thirty thousand British soldiers in Ire- 
 land. The Prince of Wales and the Lord 
 Chancellor, with judges and law officers of 
 the Crown, complete this strangely consti 
 tuted " Government for Ireland." The privy 
 council, however, never really meets for 
 serious business; a few members assemble 
 in a back room in the Castle to register 
 and endorse the decrees of the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant who is himself the mouth-piece of 
 Mr. Balfour. 
 
 The above-named legal gentlemen are sup- 
 posed to advise when, and under what forms 
 of law, to order ordinary or summary pro- 
 ceedings against obnoxious individuals or 
 associations. They may even sit as judges 
 (the present law officials cannot, but most 
 of the judges are ex-Law officers — one of 
 them the ex- Attorney General of the present 
 Government) on first trial or final appeal in 
 the very cases instituted by themselves. It 
 will be seen that not a man of this " Gov- 
 
22 Dublin Castle Rule. 
 
 ernment " is a representative of the people 
 or responsible to them. This is a modern 
 Star Chamber. Its deliberations are with 
 closed doors and its members are sworn to 
 secrecy. By its authority William O'Brien 
 was arrested. 
 
 Before whom was he cited to appear on 
 preliminary examination ? 
 
 Before resident magistrates of the town 
 where, as member of Parliament, he had 
 addressed his constituents on local interests. 
 These magistrates are not the people's ser- 
 vants, elected by them and responsible to 
 them, but elected by Dublin Castle, and 
 accountable to that power alone for the 
 manner in which they conduct examinations 
 of its political opponents. Their appoint- 
 ment and salary are both largely dependent 
 on the uncontrolled good pleasure of the 
 Lord Lieutenant, and for tenure of office 
 and promotion he is absolutely dependent on 
 the Government. 
 
 On what testimony was Mr. O'Brien's 
 arrest ordered ? 
 
 On the testimony of certain Castle offi- 
 cials. 
 
Dublin Castle Rule. 23 
 
 By whom was he ordered to jail to await 
 trial ? 
 
 By a Dublin Castle magistrate sitting at 
 Cork. 
 
 Before whom will he be tried ? 
 
 Not by a jury of his peers selected from 
 the county where his alleged offence was 
 committed, but by two magistrates appointed 
 by Dublin Castle and making returns to it. 
 
 It is in their power, under forms of law, to 
 deprive him of his liberty and to commit 
 him to hard labor for a term of six months, 
 if they and their superiors at Dublin Castle 
 shall deem it expedient so to do. 
 
 If the sentence shall be for a term of more 
 than one month, he has the right to appeal to 
 the Court at Quarter Sessions. This tribu- 
 nal is instituted by the same Castle power, 
 and differs from the former only in number 
 of magistrates sitting. In no event can this 
 British subject be tried by a jury of his 
 peers. Shocking as is this illustration of 
 Castle Rule, it portrays but one feature of 
 the galling despotism under which Ireland 
 groans. Every department of public admin- 
 istration feels the blight. 
 
24 Dublin Castle Rule, 
 
 As set forth in a speech of Mr. Chamber- 
 lain, M. P., just before he became a so-called 
 Unionist: "It is a system which is founded 
 on the bayonets of thirty thousand soldiers 
 encamped permanently as in a hostile coun- 
 try. It is a system as completely centralized 
 and bureaucratic as that with which Russia 
 governs Poland, or as that which was com- 
 mon in Venice under Austrian rule. An 
 Irishman at this moment cannot move a step, 
 he cannot lift a finger in any parochial, 
 municipal or educational work, without 
 being confronted, interfered with, or con- 
 trolled by, an English official appointed by a 
 foreign Government, and without a shadow 7 
 or shade of representative authority. I say 
 the time has come to reform altogether the 
 absurd and irritating anachronism which is 
 known as Dublin Castle ; to sweep away 
 altogether these alien boards of foreign 
 officials, and to substitute for them a gen- 
 uine Irish administration for purely Irish 
 business." 
 
 The essential feature of a representative 
 government is that the people shall be gov- 
 erned by laws made and administered by 
 
Dublin Castle Rule. 25 
 
 representatives elected by them and respon- 
 sible to them. Majorities settle who these 
 representatives shall be. The Parliament 
 of Great Britain, through its working arm 
 — the House of Commons — thus governs 
 England and Scotland. The " Govern- 
 ment " is composed of ministers selected by 
 the Crown, but approved by the people and 
 responsible to them. The present Chief 
 Secretary for Ireland was thus chosen, but 
 not from the people of Ireland, and not 
 responsible to them. This Chief Secretary, 
 the Lord Lieutenant who is also appointed 
 by the Government, live in Dublin ; these 
 two are practically governors of Ireland ; 
 the under officials who manipulate details 
 of administration are largely a permanent 
 body, their tenures of office being contin- 
 ually strengthened by the indolent indif- 
 ference of irresponsible governors. Three 
 bodies known as the " Big Boards ' cover 
 the larger part of Ireland's domestic affairs; 
 the Local Government Board, the Board 
 of Works, the Board of National Education. 
 Every member of every one of these boards 
 is nominated by the Lord Lieutenant and 
 
26 Dublin Castle Rule. 
 
 wholly irresponsible to the Irish people or 
 their representatives in Parliament. 
 
 The first board has supervision of the 
 poor funds, the public health, the pollution 
 of rivers, the diseases of cattle, and other 
 purely local matters. It even exercises con- 
 trol in the constitution of new town boards, 
 as to the number of members of these 
 boards, and may refuse to approve details of 
 local expenditure, and by sealed orders dis- 
 miss and dissolve boards according to its 
 own pleasure. 
 
 The Board of Works exercises srreat 
 powers and extensive operations. It is 
 wholly under control of the Lord Lieutenant, 
 its three members being nominated by him. 
 It directs construction of public works and 
 the management of harbors and public 
 parks. Minor local boards having nomi- 
 nally some little power are really subservi- 
 ent to it, because it controls the expenditure 
 of money, and may withhold at its own 
 option. The proceedings of this Board of 
 Works have repeatedly been censured in 
 the House of Commons by large majorities 
 of the Irish members, but with no avail. 
 
Dublin Castle Rule. 27 
 
 English and Scotch members find it easier 
 to uphold Dublin Castle than to become 
 individually informed of local Irish affairs. 
 So also with the Board of National Edu- 
 cation. No department of the nation's life 
 lies so near its heart as the education of its 
 children. None could with more safety be 
 entrusted with the people themselves. This 
 board of twenty members, prescribing school 
 regulations, selecting or making schoolbooks, 
 en£ao-iri£ and controlling teachers, is nomi- 
 nated by this ubiquitous Lord Lieutenant. 
 One very noticeable feature of the anti- 
 national character of this so-called National 
 Board is the absence of materials in the 
 text books out of which to grow a national 
 spirit. The prevailing tone and conduct of 
 these schools does not nurture patriotism. 
 The heroic in Ireland's history, being set in 
 the frame of English despotism, must not 
 forsooth be tausfht the children. But, not- 
 withstanding all these prejudicial limitations, 
 the national school is Ireland's greatest boon 
 and is working out her redemption. Eng- 
 land comprehends too slowly for her peace, 
 that which all tyrants must sooner or later 
 
28 Dublin Castle Rule. 
 
 learn, that the alphabet and the multiplica- 
 tion table are universal emancipators. 
 
 Not only are Ireland's materialities ad- 
 ministered by the Castle, but its public 
 charities, asylums for lunatics, prison boards 
 and boards of charities and bequests. So 
 also the first circles of organized govern- 
 ment, the county, the township and the 
 municipal corporations are under Castle 
 scrutiny. 
 
 Grand juries of the counties and resi- 
 dent magistrates are directly appointed by 
 the Lord Lieutenant, and are generally 
 of the landed, titled class, or their family 
 dependents. 
 
 To pay the salaries of these officials the 
 tenant is taxed. Before inquisitions thus 
 created and sustained he may be cited if 
 charged with little or great offences ; from 
 petty larceny and malicious mischief to 
 felonies and high treason. 
 
 These judicial functions are exercised 
 under statutes enacted by Parliament for the 
 United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land; but for a century these statutes have 
 been so warped or distorted by exceptional 
 
Dublin Castle Rule. 29 
 
 legislation for Ireland, known as Crimes and 
 Coercion Acts, that but little semblance of 
 original justice remains. Municipalities like 
 Dublin and Cork wear trappings and the 
 suits of power, which are but fictitious tin- 
 sel ; for here and everywhere the Castle is 
 in many matters ultimate authority. 
 
 This is in bare outline the autonomy of 
 the Castle system ; to follow its ramifications 
 would require a microscopical study of the 
 entire life of the people. 
 
 This despotism can only be sustained by 
 force. This ever-present force is an armed 
 constabulary of twelve thousand men sus- 
 tained by thirty thousand troops of Her 
 Majesty's regular army. 
 
 The people of Ireland, by act of Parlia- 
 ment, are disarmed ; their miserable huts are 
 continually searched lest an ambitious youth 
 should by any means have secreted the 
 hereditary fowling-piece or the modern fire- 
 arms. In the midst of the huts, in the vil- 
 lage or on the mountain side, is seen the 
 substantial Government police barrack, where 
 well clothed, well fed, fully armed men drill 
 in the use of defensive and offensive weapons. 
 
30 Dublin Castle Rule. 
 
 So, also, amid the plain attire of the few 
 well-to-do and the many ragged of the na- 
 tive population is conspicuous the bright 
 red coat of the regular British soldier or the 
 national attire of the Scotch fusileer. One 
 cannot walk the streets an hour without 
 these visible signs of England's conquest 
 and Ireland's subjection. 
 
 This is not a mere tale of to-day. It has 
 been continued through many generations, 
 and is a principal factor in Ireland's present 
 degradation. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EVICTIONS. 
 
 SINCE the tenth century Ireland has 
 been the seat of wars of conquest and 
 the scene of intestine strife, unparalleled 
 in the history of warfare, in intensity and 
 atrocity if not in territorial area. Weapons 
 of warfare have changed with the centuries. 
 A contemporary writer says of this people, 
 " They are soldiers from birth." 
 
 The conflict is as irrepressible to-day as 
 at any period in the past ; the weapons now 
 used are fit for the occasion and invented by 
 its necessities; there are preparations for an 
 immediate charge all along the line ; there 
 are provisions for an unlimited siege. 
 
 In their present resistance to the measures 
 of tyranny the tenants carry a flag bearing 
 the simple words " Plan of Campaign." The 
 landlords through summary proceedings pe- 
 culiar to the Irish system, aided by provisions 
 of the penal code framed for their special 
 
 3 1 
 
32 . Evictions. 
 
 benefit, and sustained by Crown officials, 
 armed constabulary and even Her Majesty's 
 troops, begin the assault. A war between 
 these two contending factions is waged be- 
 fore the gaze of the world ; if to-day a jury 
 were impaneled from the Christian nations, 
 a verdict would be given for Ireland and 
 against her dual oppressors — landlordism 
 and political despotism. Peaceable, law- 
 abiding people in England and America 
 watch the struggle with sympathy for the 
 tenant in his deliberate and systematic re- 
 sistance to the execution of law. Gentle and 
 refined women cheer the resistants and do 
 honor to the man — John Dillon — whose 
 brain formulated the plan, and to the great 
 orator, William O'Brien, whose impassioned 
 words inspire the combatants to " stand firm," 
 and to " make no surrender." Statesmen, rep- 
 resenting the clearest brain and the stoutest 
 moral sense of two hemispheres, are proud 
 to receive as brother-patriots a host of others, 
 captains of fifties and captains of hundreds, 
 who lead the people of Ireland in this their 
 desperate struggle. The names of Davitt, 
 of O'Neil, of Harrington, of Condon, of 
 
Evictions. 33 
 
 Clancy, of Healy, of the brothers Mander- 
 ville, will swell the record of heroes who 
 loved their country and thought it all honor 
 to suffer for her sake. These, all under 
 Parnell, commander-in-chief, form a well-dis- 
 ciplined army, hardened by long exposure, 
 drilled in many combats and inspired by real 
 patriotism. 
 
 What is the cause of the war ? " What 
 do they kill each other for ? ' There are in 
 Ireland hundreds of farm tenants who can- 
 not pay their rent ; some of them have been 
 in arrears for years. The landlord desires 
 to receive that which is, in law, his due. 
 The tenants are utterly unable to pay. The 
 landlord serves upon these delinquents cer- 
 tain legal notices and orders them through 
 forms of law to leave their premises. The 
 tenants refuse to go. The landlord says 
 they shall, and brings to his aid armed police- 
 men and even the regular troops. Herein is 
 the resistance. Here comes the tug of war. 
 Let us watch one of the many engagements 
 of this campaign. 
 
 Within a stone and turf fence lie seventy 
 acres of tolerable farm land, except fourteen 
 
34 Evictions. 
 
 of it, which is low and in wet seasons under 
 water. It is tilled in small patches of corn, 
 barley, oats and potatoes. It was stony, but 
 now pretty well cleared ; it is enriched by 
 sand and seaweed washed up in storms and 
 gathered in inclement seasons from the 
 strand. A few sheep and cows add their 
 treasure of daily food and winter covering. 
 The dwelling-house is of stone and mortar; 
 the out-houses of similar construction and 
 appearance. For centuries this tenant and 
 his ancestors have tilled this very spot of 
 earth. They have drained the bogs, picked 
 the stone, built the dwelling, the out-houses, 
 the fences ; have put upon it every trace of 
 cultivation which it bears. The present 
 tenant, during his forty years' occupancy as 
 head of a family, has expended eleven hun- 
 dred pounds in improvements. On this 
 " holding ' the rent has been several times 
 raised, and that in proportion as through the 
 tenant's labor and expenditure the property 
 has increased in value. Now the tenant pays 
 an annual rental of eighty-four pounds. In 
 good years, and when produce commanded 
 good prices, the landlord's claim was met, 
 
Evictions, 35 
 
 but since 1879 have come bad years, falling 
 prices, and the amount of rental has not 
 been realized off the farm ; one half year's 
 rent is due and unpaid. There also hangs 
 over this holding a "hanging gale," that term 
 being applied to an arrears of one half year's 
 rent which accrued many years ago, beyond 
 the lifetime of the present tenant. This 
 arrears might have been paid in good years, 
 but was refused by the landlord, the last 
 refusal being some sixteen years ago. This 
 is a common form of oppression ; the land- 
 lord can evict without notice when a year's 
 rent is due. Thus the " hanging gale " and 
 the half year's present indebtedness make 
 the required "pound of flesh." This one 
 year's rental is all that is unpaid on this 
 seventy acres, and for this the tenant is 
 served with the ejectment writ. 
 
 In the legends which this family tells, as 
 by glowing peat fires on the hearth they sit 
 of winter nights, you will find that their dis- 
 tant ancestor was a proud chief amid his 
 clan ; that the acres all about were his and 
 theirs ; that cornfields waved ; that cattle 
 grazed upon the mountain side and in the 
 
36 Evictions, 
 
 glens, until, on an evil day there came proud 
 strangers in the dress of men-of-war. They 
 will tell you that, though the men fought 
 hard and long, they were at last overcome 
 and lost their land ; many died of sword and 
 famine and pestilence, but of the few who 
 survived their ancestor was one ; he and 
 his, through changing fortunes under many 
 kings retained these few acres, and from 
 them gathered sustenance enough to live 
 and rear the generations that have been 
 worn out on this soil ; but now, alas ! poor 
 crops, falling prices and lessened remittances 
 from America have all conspired, and he 
 cannot pay his required tribute to the titled 
 owner, who never expended one dollar on 
 the land, but received it as an inheritance 
 of conquest and confiscation. 
 
 Even-handed justice declares this tenant 
 has a claim upon the acres which he has 
 tilled; the resistance which he makes to 
 this eviction writ is based upon this sense 
 of justice. 
 
 Under the Plan of Campaign systematic 
 resistance was planned; windows, sashes and 
 frames are taken out ; against these openings 
 
Evictions. 3 7 
 
 iron gates, taken from lanes on the farm, 
 are placed on the inside and braced by logs 
 as big as a man's body ; these window props 
 and those against the doors are secured by 
 iron spikes driven in the earth floor ; grind- 
 stones, anvils, pieces of farm implements are 
 useful; blackthorn branches and limbs of 
 trees, weapons in themselves, serve as impro- 
 vised barricades. Every door and window 
 having been secured with sufficient strength 
 to resist anv lesser charge than from mounted 
 cannon, the inside space is filled with dense 
 masses of brush and briers, which is woven 
 through and bound about with wires. 
 
 In houses containing separate apartments 
 each is similarly arranged, and one or two 
 men sleep in the house at night, when a 
 "charge ' is anticipated. They are supplied 
 with rations of food and weapons of war, 
 sticks, pitchforks, " blackthorns," hot water, 
 hives of bees, red pepper and sulphur for 
 smoking out chimneys if approach is at- 
 tempted from that quarter. Sometimes the 
 women occupants are left inside as the most 
 vigorous defenders. 
 
 This is a barricaded house under the Plan 
 
38 Evictions. 
 
 of Campaign. Its defences and appliances 
 are varied according to the ingenuity and 
 the resources of the tenant and those who 
 aid him. Perhaps the words " Plan of Cam- 
 paign " are conspicuously painted on the 
 outside as a signal of defiance ; outrage and 
 conscious right make men very bold. This 
 house is approached by the authorities with 
 an ejectment writ. The sheriff and perhaps 
 two deputies first demand admission ; no 
 answer received ; then begins the forceful as- 
 sault; he orders up his "emergency men," 
 eight or ten supporters popularly known as 
 the "crowbar brigade." They carry picks, 
 axes, crowbars, and use them with what effect 
 they can. They are protected by constables 
 with batons and swords, and sometimes armed 
 companies of the regular troops. The con- 
 tending parties are not alone in these battles ; 
 the people gather from miles around ; the 
 news spreads like wildfire ; for the battle of 
 one tenant is the cause of all. It not un- 
 frequently happens that insulting language 
 is used by constables and bystanders, and 
 assault and injury and sometimes killing 
 ensues. Dublin Castle, not long ago, sent 
 
Evictions. 39 
 
 official instructions in the " don't hesitate to 
 shoot " message which has become a notori- 
 ous phrase in street parlance. 
 
 The presence of sick or aged in the house 
 dt) not deter these evictors. It is in evidence 
 that death has occurred on the roadside 
 before tottering age could find a shelter. 
 One tenant sorrowfully tells how he gath- 
 ered his family under the roof of a kindly 
 neighbor, but was obliged the very next 
 day to go to the town for a coffin for his 
 dead mother. 
 
 A clergyman states that he administered 
 the rites of the Church to a poor woman so 
 near death she could not be moved ; the 
 roof was taken from the house over her 
 head while she was in the unconscious state 
 preceding death, and when she passed away 
 there was only a winnowing sheet between 
 her and the blue vault above. Houses are 
 unroofed to prevent the return of the home- 
 less wanderers. Sometimes they are burned 
 to make assurance doubly sure. 
 
 See the mournful procession at the road- 
 side, on the highway, mad with rage, frenzied 
 with grief, or dumb with despair. Old men, 
 
40 Evictions. 
 
 little children, women with babes in arms 
 or great with child, are there : the tenant, 
 his family, the laborers and their families, 
 perhaps a dozen, perhaps two dozen souls. 
 These must find shelter among a population 
 but little better off than themselves, or go to 
 the poor house, or die by the roadside or in 
 the sheltering ditch. The tale is so dreadful 
 Christian credulity can scarce receive it, but 
 " seeing is believing." And this has been 
 going on for years. During the last five 
 years the Inspector General of Constabulary 
 estimates over fifty-seven thousand persons 
 to have been thus dispossessed. Within 
 the fifty years of Victoria's reign not less 
 than four millions have been by these "forms 
 of law " turned from their homes. 
 
 What is the final result? Which side 
 wins ? Usually the landlord, aided by the 
 Government ; the statistics given show it ; 
 unroofed houses, burned-down houses, un- 
 tenanted farms everywhere testify, and the 
 depopulation of the country confirms it. In 
 former years there was little substantial re- 
 sistance; entreaties, tears, frenzied appeals, 
 hastily improvised defences were no barrier 
 
Evictions. 4 1 
 
 to the evicting force. Hundreds were some- 
 times driven out in a single day. Mr. Glad- 
 stone in 1870 said, " We have made ejectments 
 cheap and easy, and notices to quit have 
 descended upon the people like snowflakes." 
 But the combat has changed ; the success 
 of the landlord is now difficult, dangerous 
 and expensive. Mr. William O'Brien, in 
 the Mitchelstown speech for which he was 
 imprisoned, urged the people, through de- 
 liberate, systematic resistance by the Plan 
 of Campaign, to "make evictions as slow 
 and as expensive to the Government as 
 possible." 
 
 Evictions fall now and then ; they are 
 still hard as hailstones, but they are not 
 "cheap and easy"; they are not "thick as 
 snowflakes." There are hundreds of houses 
 in Ireland so barricaded that it would take 
 months of continued siege with thousands 
 of armed men in the midst of a hostile 
 country to accomplish the undertaking. 
 
 The people are, with few exceptions, in 
 direct antagonism to the police and their 
 attempt at enforcement. Much annoyance 
 is attempted. Taverns will not lodge them ; 
 
42 Evictions, . 
 
 car drivers will not carry them ; they are 
 avoided in the streets as if infected with 
 disease. They are jeered at by the pestifer- 
 ous " small boy ' and sneered at by the 
 saucy girl ; old women utter imprecations 
 when they pass ; and in one instance a 
 whole congregation left the church when a 
 few entered to attend mass. The clergy, 
 mostly Catholics, are in sympathy and con- 
 stant co-operation with the resistance. They 
 are at evictions directing the orderly proceed- 
 ings of these emergency gatherings. They 
 have in some instances been imprisoned for 
 refusing to testify of Plan of Campaign pro- 
 ceedings of which they had knowledge 
 through their professional relations. One 
 highly esteemed and greatly honored priest, 
 Canon Keller of Youghall, was thus im- 
 prisoned. 
 
 Evictions are a well-known procedure 
 under all systems of law; they are not pecu- 
 liar to Irish administration ; but the system 
 of land tenures, landlordism and immemorial 
 usage is peculiar. Under systems of injus- 
 tice which philanthropy and religion have 
 been blind to, and economy and statesman- 
 
Evictions. 43 
 
 ship were deaf to, the tenant has been ground 
 between the millstone of the landlord's avarice 
 and his own necessities. The accumulations 
 of the years have left before him a mass of 
 tyrannies and murderous conditions through 
 which he must fight his way or die. He 
 chooses to fight. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LANDLORDISM. 
 
 THE American student of the Irish 
 agrarian question will fail to com- 
 prehend the situation from a legislative, 
 political or humanitarian aspect until he 
 becomes acquainted with Ireland's historical 
 grievances and her unwritten law which 
 custom has established from "time out of 
 mind." 
 
 The conflict waged for centuries can be 
 traced to three fundamental wrongs ; con- 
 quest and confiscation, race and creed ani- 
 mosities, landlord absenteeism. These are 
 the questions which the American philan- 
 thropist must study ; this is the problem 
 which the English statesman must solve. 
 
 England's conquests of Ireland began 
 under Henry n about the year 1170. He 
 set up the system of land tenure which had 
 been introduced into England by the Nor- 
 
 44 
 
Landlordism, 45 
 
 mans a hundred years before. The nom- 
 inal title to the land was taken from the 
 Irish and parcelled out to Englishmen. 
 Such of the original possessors as were not 
 slain in battle hid in the forests and hills, 
 and returned under their unconquered chiefs 
 to contend for the soil lately their own, and 
 to settle again upon estates vacated by Eng- 
 lish colonists who became wearied with the 
 continual defence of their newly acquired 
 lands. In many cases the English lords 
 made common cause with the native popu- 
 lation and were in their turn proscribed as 
 traitors who had become " Hibernis ipsis 
 Hiberniosis." For centuries a nominal su- 
 premacy was maintained, varied often, and 
 in different sections of the island, by raids 
 and rebellions, as succeeding kings at- 
 tempted with more or less severity to main- 
 tain England's authority. No apology was 
 made for this wholesale confiscation ; the 
 right of might was sufficient warrant. 
 
 Yet at the beginning of the Tudor line 
 the disgraceful incompetence of the Dublin 
 government and the utter neglect of the 
 authorities in London had resulted in a 
 
46 Landlordism. 
 
 state of things in which the nominal " pale ' 
 of English sovereignty was limited to the 
 immediate neighborhood of Dublin, while 
 some of the great towns of the South were 
 left actually to engage in private war. 
 
 Elizabeth in her reign, and Cromwell in 
 his protectorate, entered afresh on wars of 
 conquest and confiscation ; the later, known 
 as the Cromwellian Settlement, exceeded all 
 its predecessors in the amount and extent of 
 the desolation which followed. Five sixths 
 of the people perished or emigrated. Those 
 who remained fought with exasperation, 
 when they had strength to fight, or by 
 secret organization sought revenge by assas- 
 sination and fire. The landlords of the 
 present day, whose names have become 
 familiar through tales of recent evictions 
 and present state of siege, hold their titles 
 by a chain welded through centuries on 
 these anvils of conquest and confiscation. 
 The Ponsonby estate at Youghall, Cork 
 County, illustrates this. The section of 
 country now included in the counties of 
 Waterford and Cork was part of a grant 
 given by Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh: 
 
Landlordism. 47 
 
 the house where he lived, the yew-trees 
 under which he smoked Indian tobacco 
 (much to the terror of his servant) are still 
 to be seen and are often visited by the tour- 
 ist. From this proud knight of the Virgin 
 Queen the land passed to the great Earl 
 of Cork, and from him to the ancestors of 
 the present owner, Charles William Talbot 
 Ponsonby. 
 
 It is recorded that England's first con- 
 quest of Ireland was at the instigation of 
 Pope Adrian iv, who, in pursuance of the 
 theory of Christian sovereignty encouraged 
 by Rome, claimed that " all lands upon 
 which the Gospel of Christ had dawned did 
 of right belong to the holy Roman Church." 
 Henry 11, not adverse to conquest for its 
 own sake, availed himself of this added 
 authority, and waged his wars in the name 
 of the faith. 
 
 When, however, England at the Refor- 
 mation became Protestant, Ireland still 
 adhered to Rome, and the struggle to main- 
 tain English dominance was aided by the 
 mockery of religious propaganda. The 
 slaughter of Catholics by the sword, or 
 
48 Landlordism, 
 
 by inhumanities too revolting to narrate, 
 marked the early stages of this prosecution ; 
 later, when humanity sickened with the 
 sight of these rivers of human gore, more 
 indirect and refined processes of extermina- 
 tion were applied. Hallam says of these: 
 " To have exterminated the Catholics by the 
 sword, or expelled them like the Moriscos of 
 Spain, would have been little more repug- 
 nant to justice and humanity, but incompar- 
 ably more politic/' Numberless disabilities, 
 educational and industrial, were laid upon 
 Catholics. Queen Anne banished from Ire- 
 land all Catholic teachers and sentenced 
 them to death in case of return. Because 
 wealthy persons evaded this law by sending 
 their children to the schools of the Conti- 
 nent this was forbidden under pain of for- 
 feiture of lands to the Crown. A priest, on 
 pain of death, could not marry a Catholic to 
 a Protestant. A Protestant woman who 
 should marry a Catholic forfeited her estate 
 to the next Protestant heir-at-law. Catho- 
 lics were excluded from the liberal profes- 
 sions, except that of medicine. They could 
 not until the year 1782, acquire landed prop- 
 
Landlordism. 49 
 
 erty. They were disfranchised until 1793. 
 They were ineligible to Parliament until the 
 year 1829. It would be impossible to set 
 forth the magnitude of this oppression or to 
 detail its pettiness. It was met in old times 
 by persecution of the same spirit, though 
 not to the same extent, by Catholic out- 
 rages on Protestants, but these are now 
 unknown ; in fact the Catholic municipal 
 towns are constantly electing Protestants to 
 the mayoralty and town council, although 
 the converse is rarely true. 
 
 The Government has been behind Protest- 
 antism ; retaliation, revenge and bigotry have 
 been the only intrenchments from which 
 Catholicism could wage its battles. 
 
 These ever-present animosities have con- 
 tinually hardened the heart of the Protestant 
 landlord and embittered the feelings of the 
 Catholic tenant. Definite and general at- 
 tempts to exterminate the Irish race or to 
 drive them from the larger and better por- 
 tions of the country and to substitute an 
 English and Scotch peasantry, with English 
 laws, English customs and English tenures, 
 were adopted as a settled policy in the reign 
 
5<D Landlordism. 
 
 of Elizabeth. Up to that time an actual pos- 
 session of the land had satisfied the hungry- 
 invader; he was willing it should be tilled 
 by those of the native Irish whose broken 
 spirit and abject condition made them more 
 or less submissive to the conquerors. But 
 English colonists living in detached sections 
 of the country soon found themselves unable 
 to maintain possession under the continual 
 menace of the wandering Irish, who hid in 
 the mountains and still rallied to the call of 
 their chiefs. The only alternative was to 
 exterminate by famine, fire and sword these 
 dangerous people. 
 
 The story of this process of extermination 
 is simply horrible. 
 
 While Shakespeare and Spenser were mak- 
 ing memorable the literature of the Eliza- 
 bethan era, England's soldiers were filling 
 Ireland with "carcasses and ashes." 
 
 In 1576 one Malby, the President of Con- 
 naught, made the following official report: — 
 
 " At Christmas I marched into their ter- 
 ritory [Shan Burke's] and, finding courteous 
 dealing with them had like to have cut 
 my throat, I thought good to take another 
 
Landlordism. 5 1 
 
 course, and so, with determination to con- 
 sume them with fire and sword, sparing 
 neither old nor young, I entered their mount- 
 ains. I burnt all their corn and houses, and 
 committed to the sword all that could be 
 found, when were slain at that time above 
 sixty of their best men, and among them 
 the best leaders they had. This was Shan 
 Burke's country. Then I burnt Ulick Burke's 
 country. In like manner I assaulted a cas- 
 tle, when the garrison surrendered. I put 
 them to the misericordia of my soldiers. 
 They were all slain. Thence I went on, 
 sparing none which came in my way, which 
 cruelty did so amaze their followers that they 
 could not tell where to bestow themselves. 
 It was all done in rain and frost and storm, 
 journeys in such weather bringing them the 
 sooner to submission. Thev are humble 
 enough now, and will yield to any terms we 
 like to offer them." 
 
 Is it strange that the descendants of 
 these men, thus persecuted, who have passed 
 the story down from father to son, should 
 hate the name of England ; is it any wonder 
 that the peasant who through fire and sword 
 
5 2 Landlordism. 
 
 and famine has kept the holding of his 
 fathers, should to the very death resist the 
 writ of eviction and the armed force that 
 executes it ? 
 
 A quarter of a century later the Lord 
 Deputy writes : " I have often said and writ- 
 ten it is famine that must consume the Irish, 
 as our swords and other endeavors worked 
 not that speedy effect which is expected. 
 Hunger would be a better, because a speedier, 
 weapon to employ against them than the 
 sword. I burned all along the lough within 
 four miles of Dungannon and killed one hun- 
 dred people, sparing none, of what quality, 
 age or sex soever, besides many burned to 
 death. We killed man, woman and child, 
 horse, beast and whatever we could find." 
 While the echo of these terrible words still 
 lingers, hear the cold irony, the heartless 
 comment of the English aristocrat who says, 
 " These Irish are a discontented, disorderly 
 people ; they are never satisfied ! " But to 
 his haughty highness there comes the thun- 
 dering answer of the English democracy: 
 11 By our help he shall be satisfied ; he shall 
 possess the soil he has tilled ; he shall build 
 
Landlordism. 53 
 
 a state and govern it himself. Christian 
 civilization answers, it ought so to be." 
 
 More potential in producing hostile rela- 
 tions and distressing conditions than origin 
 of title or race and creed animosities is land- 
 lord absenteeism, which has always been an 
 agent of evil in Ireland. Underneath all 
 differences of race or creed or accidents of 
 birth there exists the common human tie 
 which, without active volition on the part of 
 either landlord or tenant, would have bound 
 their common interests. 
 
 As dew-drops on the cup of the lily and 
 the leaf of the wayside weed mingle when 
 drawn by the sun to the hanging cloud and 
 return to the earth in blessing, so these 
 human lives if brought within certain radii 
 of influence would have generated through 
 the operation of involuntary laws certain cen- 
 tripetal and centrifugal forces which would 
 have held the solar social system in har- 
 monious operation. But the landlord was 
 beyond the bounds of the system. Humani- 
 tarian laws had no chance to do their amelio- 
 rating work. 
 
 He does not care for Ireland. He values 
 
54 Landlordism. 
 
 property there merely as it enables present 
 tenants to pay present rents. He does not 
 live there, nor spend his money there. When 
 the Irish tenant in summer is toiling at 
 ploughing and sowing, mowing and reaping, 
 or ditching and draining, the landlord is in 
 the mountains of Switzerland or at a Conti- 
 nental watering place. 
 
 When the tenant in winter — his little 
 crop gathered, his few potatoes dug — is 
 driven by snow and ice under his thatched 
 roof and within his little hut, and when he 
 and his family, and perhaps the faithful 
 donkey, his beast of burden, make common 
 cause in seeking warmth from the glowing 
 peat upon the hearth, the landlord is in 
 Paris or in London spending the money 
 gathered by his resident agent from these 
 poor people. Even the few resident land- 
 lords do not make common cause with the 
 people. They live in castles, within wooded 
 domains, surrounded by high walls. These 
 homes are furnished with great luxury, but 
 not as Irish growth. The carpets, the furni- 
 ture, the pictures, the books, the wardrobe, 
 the tailor, the dressmaker, the bootmaker, 
 
Landlordism. 55 
 
 the milliner — these are French or English, 
 almost never Irish. Even family servants 
 are often brought from beyond the channels. 
 
 The money actually taken out of the 
 country by this absenteeism is enormous. 
 It is estimated to be at present about six 
 million pounds per annum. Think what 
 this would do in internal improvements, in 
 industrial or mercantile investment ! The 
 number of absentees at the present time is 
 estimated to be nearly eight thousand. 
 
 If the individual energy of these men 
 owninof more than one half of the arable 
 
 o 
 
 land of Ireland were applied in public enter- 
 prises, what an impetus would be given its 
 material prosperity. If the personal moral 
 influence of these gentlemen of education 
 and leisure were felt in educational and phil- 
 anthropic culture, how much more elevated 
 might the social tone become. 
 
 Absenteeism has always ■ been Ireland's 
 curse. The early kings desired to prevent it 
 by compulsory legislation. Residence was 
 required for certain periods in each year, and 
 increased taxes were required of absentees. 
 These coercive measures were of little effect 
 
5 6 Landlordism. 
 
 beyond that of collecting a few pounds rev- 
 enue, and the whole attempted remedy was 
 a legislative farce. 
 
 It is significant that rack-renting and 
 evictions have, with a few exceptions, been 
 most common and distressing on the estates 
 of absentees. 
 
 Mr. Froude, who is not by any means an 
 Irish partisan, says of this unnatural system 
 under which Ireland has long groaned: — 
 
 " The absentee landlords of Ireland had 
 neither community of interest with the peo- 
 ple nor sympathy of race. They had no 
 fear of provoking their resentment, for they 
 lived beyond their reach. They had no de- 
 sire for their welfare, for as individuals they 
 were ignorant of their existence. They re- 
 garded their Irish estates as the sources of 
 their income; their only desire was to extract 
 the most out of them which the soil could 
 be made to yield ; and they cared no more 
 for the souls and the bodies of those who 
 were in fact committed to their charge than 
 the owners of a West Indian plantation for 
 the herds of slaves whose backs were blister- 
 ing in the cane fields." 
 
Landlordism. 57 
 
 Out of these confiscations, animosities and 
 absenteeisms, has grown up by custom and 
 English law a landlord and tenant code, 
 wholly differing in spirit, indeed, a complete 
 inversion of that which prevails elsewhere. 
 Improvements, such as dwelling houses, farm 
 buildings, fences, draining and the like, are in 
 England and America built by the land- 
 lord; there is also an implied covenant 
 that these betterments shall be kept in 
 needed repair at his expense ; shall be 
 replaced by him if burned or otherwise 
 destroyed. 
 
 In Ireland the tenant makes all improve- 
 ments ; the landlord does nothing. The 
 tenant builds at his own cost, and keeps 
 in repair the dwelling, the outhouses, the 
 fences, etc. 
 
 This has been the custom since the 
 times of confiscation, when the lands were 
 given to Englishmen who, rather than live 
 in Ireland and care for the booty given by a 
 conquering invader, left the estates in pos- 
 session of native Irish peasants, being satis- 
 fied to obtain what income they could from 
 that which cost them nothing. 
 
58 La7tdlordism. 
 
 As the tenant, impelled by the necessities 
 of existence, improved the farm from time 
 to time, the rent was raised proportionately. 
 It is admitted by all intelligent judges that 
 landlords in Ireland receive greater rent for 
 farms improved by tenants than English and 
 Scotch landlords receive for farms improved 
 by themselves. 
 
 The landlords of Ireland have received 
 more actual rent money for the last ten years 
 than the value of the amount of produce 
 raised off the land. The children and other 
 relatives in America have sent large sums 
 to the old folks at home to pay the landlord's 
 claim, and the father and sons of the family 
 have worked in the mines or other indus- 
 tries of England and Wales and earned the 
 money to pay for the poor shelter of the little 
 holding. 
 
 Not only does the Irish landlord receive 
 unconscionable rents, but is aided by special 
 legislation in collecting it ; he may evict his 
 tenant for non-payment by a summary pro- 
 ceeding peculiar to the Irish system. He is 
 further aided by a penal code with provisions 
 framed for his special benefit ; he may with- 
 
L a ndlordism. 5 9 
 
 out the intervention of any court call to his 
 assistance officers of the Crown, armed con- 
 stabulary, and even Her Majesty's regular 
 troops. Such is Irish landlordism ; base 
 and wicked in inception, oppressive and 
 merciless in continuance, murderous in 
 results. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 POLITICAL DESPOTISM. 
 
 POLITICAL despotism is the great con- 
 spirator in the crime against Ireland. 
 It stands indicted with landlordism, oppres- 
 sive taxation, industrial death, religious per- 
 secution, chronic insurrection, and is itself 
 the assassin of constitutional liberty. 
 
 England's early supremacy in Ireland was 
 sustained by force. She employed the sword, 
 fire, famine and common butchery. She 
 drove the native Irish into the most sterile 
 parts of the country, and kept them there 
 on pain of death. " To Hell or Con naught ' 
 was the shibboleth of that barbaric age. 
 
 The beautiful Shannon, in its circling 
 course to the sea, became a dead-line to the 
 fugitives. When the thirst for conquest had 
 been assuaged by surfeit of slaughter, and 
 the people of England had secured for them- 
 selves more clearly defined constitutional 
 
 60 
 
Political Despotism, 61 
 
 powers, the form of despotism in Ireland 
 changed. There was not less despotism ; 
 its modes were more refined, though not 
 less oppressive. The philanthropic endeav- 
 ors of friends of Ireland in the British Par- 
 liament did from time to time attempt 
 remedial legislation of tenant wrongs ; but 
 despotism personified in landed aristocracy 
 usually strangled these attempts. Very few 
 of the many bills introduced ever become 
 laws. Between the tenant and needed relief 
 appeared the ever-present intervener. The 
 land bills recently enacted, presumably in 
 the interest of the tenant, contain provisions 
 somewhat equitable ; but it is not every one 
 who can comply with their conditions and 
 is able to bear the expense of the land 
 court ; thus the larger number of those most 
 needing relief are unable to secure the ad- 
 vantages of the bills. A commission was 
 instituted to sit as a court and to fix a "judi- 
 cial rent." 
 
 This commission was appointed by Dublin 
 Castle, and is said to have been largely made 
 up of its political partisans, the landlord 
 class or their dependents. It soon appeared 
 
62 Political Despotism. 
 
 that the administration of the law was in 
 the interest of the landlord, not of the 
 tenant. The commission made its reduc- 
 tions on the basis of the clearly proved esti- 
 mate that the land had not produced even 
 in £ood times the value of the old rents. 
 These rents had been met mainly by moneys 
 received from Irish emigrants in America. 
 Lord Dufferin states that sum to have been 
 upward of thirteen million pounds between 
 the years 1848 and 1864. 
 
 During recent years remittances directly 
 to tenants for the payment of rent have 
 largely decreased. A more intelligent and 
 effective means of aiding; the Irish cause than 
 supporting English landlords by the payment 
 of exorbitant rents has been devised. 
 
 An illustration of this, and of the devotion 
 of Irish children to the old folks at home, 
 recently came to our knowledge. A lad left 
 County Cork for Boston ten years ago. He 
 worked at his trade — harness-making — and 
 regularly sent to his father for rent money 
 twenty pounds a year. On a recent visit 
 to the place of his birth he found the old 
 man in the same wretched hut, in poverty 
 
Political Despotism. 63 
 
 and rags. Every shilling of the two hun- 
 dred pounds he had sent had gone into the 
 landlord's coffers. With an oath, registered 
 in the just court of heaven, he said: " Father, 
 I'll take care of you, but the landlords of 
 Ireland shall never have another dollar of 
 my hard earnings." There was one more 
 eviction, and then the old man went with 
 his sturdy son to America. This failure of 
 supplies from America, and the universal 
 decrease in agricultural values, combined at 
 the same time to render tenants even more 
 unable to pay the reduced rent than they 
 had been to satisfy the former more exorbi- 
 tant demand of the landlord. Of many a 
 tenant might it be said, "the last state of that 
 man was worse than the first." The land 
 bill of the year 1887 has as yet (January, 
 1S88) made no record; from it the tenant 
 hopes little, because the commission, already 
 appointed, originated from and is responsible 
 to Dublin Castle. Evictions are still the 
 order of the day, and the tenant's "holding" 
 is as precarious as ever. There is a signifi- 
 cance almost pathetic in the term denoting 
 a tenant's occupancy. 
 
64 Political Despotism. 
 
 It is not his "farm," his "estate," his 
 "place," his "ranch," it is his "holding." 
 He does not take root as does the tree or 
 garden shrub ; he " holds " like an ivy to the 
 wall, a lichen to the rock ; he clings as do 
 these prolific natives of his Emerald Isle. 
 
 An Irishman's love of hearth and home 
 and country is the strongest passion of his 
 nature ; the landlord has traded upon it. 
 
 It is told of one of these, a poor old fel- 
 low, who had reared a large family upon a 
 little patch, and was reduced to turnips and 
 salt as their onlv food, that when urcred to 
 send his oldest sons to America, "with the 
 prospect of soon following himself when 
 better times came to them, he answered 
 with spirit, " No ; I'll never go ; isn't this 
 my home; wasn't I born here and my fathers 
 before me ? Ill eat turnips while I have 
 them, and then I'll live on the flower of 
 the furze ; but 111 never leave : I'll die here 
 as my fathers did." This man had only 
 a " holding," for which he paid an annual 
 rental of over a pound an acre ; he and his 
 fathers had wrested from the soil and gath- 
 ered by labor in other places this tribute to 
 
Political Despotism. 65 
 
 the landlord's greed; but they had no deed 
 or lease, only a " holding." 
 
 A German publicist, endeavoring to find 
 a word in his own tongue to express the 
 peculiar disabilities of the Irish tenant-at- 
 will on his holding, said, " Why not call him 
 4 the hunt-off-able ? ' (Wegjagdbau.) This 
 tenant in America miq*ht claim the rights 
 of a squatter sovereign; in Ireland he is 
 the victim of squatter serfdom. The inten- 
 tion of Parliament in the recent land bills 
 was doubtless good, though weakened by 
 the administration of Dublin Castle, and 
 further compromised by contemporaneous 
 coercion acts. While the tenant is beins: 
 invited to Dublin Castle Land Court from 
 Dublin Castle issues proclamation after proc- 
 lamation assailing the right of free speech 
 and public meeting, and summons after 
 summons of arrest of Irish patriots. It 
 denies to these the constitutional riefht of 
 trial by jury, and by summary proceedings 
 consigns them to the felon's cell. 
 
 While with one hand it offers the olive 
 branch of a doubtful land bill, with the right 
 hand of its power it arms fourteen thousand 
 
66 Political Despotism. 
 
 constabulary to assist the landlord in evict- 
 ions for non-payment of arrears impossible 
 to meet. As they " remember Mitchels- 
 town " (according to Mr. Gladstone's appeal) 
 their dimmed eyes can scarcely see the olive 
 branch. The presence of an armed con- 
 stabulary is a constant reminder that they 
 are subjects of a foreign Government, in 
 spirit if not in fact ; this becomes the more 
 exasperating when they find out that they 
 are taxed an enormous sum to support this 
 constabulary, whose chief service is to en- 
 force the claims of absent English land- 
 lords. 
 
 In a certain area of less than ten miles 
 square, in a quiet section of the country con- 
 taining less than ten thousand people, this 
 expense to the rate payers of Great Britain 
 and Ireland is over sixty thousand pounds 
 per year. England should remember that 
 one of the grievances which caused her the 
 loss of the American colonies was that she 
 quartered soldiers upon the people in time of 
 peace. Is it likely that her subjects a cent- 
 ury later will bear without aggressive pro- 
 test this quarterage upon their rent rolls ? 
 
Political Despotism. 67 
 
 The political despotism of the present will 
 do well to steer clear of these landmarks of 
 history. 
 
 Two centuries aor> Ireland's wool and 
 linen manufactories formed no inconsider- 
 able part of her resources. These, with 
 exports of cattle and sheep, threatened ma- 
 terially to compete with like industries in the 
 English market. Here again political des- 
 potism becomes an intervener in the inter- 
 est of English capitalists and against Irish 
 subjects. By definite and sweeping acts of 
 Parliament in restraint of Irish trade and 
 commerce the growing industries of Ireland 
 were destroyed. 
 
 Not only did despotism make itself felt in 
 materialities, it sought to lay an embargo on 
 the consciences of men. Civil and political 
 disabilities were laid upon Catholics, and 
 religious persecution even unto death was 
 authorized under forms of law. Not till the 
 time of the present generation has there 
 been the same toleration of religious opin- 
 ion in Ireland as in England. That Ireland 
 has been for many years in a state of 
 chronic insurrection cannot be denied. The 
 
68 Political Despotism. 
 
 massacres of 1641 and of 1798 stain the 
 page of history; the record of young Ire- 
 land, of Phcenix Clubs, of Fenian raids, of 
 Land Leagues are inseparably interwoven 
 in the history of the country. The careful 
 student can not, however, fail to discover 
 that these movements were the results of 
 pre-existing conditions ; they were not the 
 cause of those conditions. Whenever the 
 work of secret organizations matured in 
 breaches of the peace there had been im- 
 mediate or proximate assaults, real or sup- 
 posed, from a despotic government. 
 
 The British Government has seemed blind 
 to the political truth, that free discussion 
 and untrammeled organization for redress of 
 grievances are the necessary safety valves 
 of public order. By repressive and despotic 
 class legislation it has become particeps 
 criminis in numerous social outbreaks, until 
 now by the grim irony of retributive justice 
 England finds the path of her own progress 
 impeded by a mass of rubbish, accumulated 
 from the injustice of centuries, and is obliged 
 to set herself to a careful consideration of 
 the equities in Ireland's cause. 
 
Political Despotism. 69 
 
 Her House of Commons sat for months 
 in controversy over the details of coercion 
 measures to the utter suspension of Imperial 
 legislation. England, Scotland and Wales in 
 the name of their neglected interests protest; 
 protesting for themselves and for their own 
 interests, they have come to study the whole 
 question from the broad plane of philan- 
 thropic statesmanship. The realization comes 
 with force to many of their clearest thinkers, 
 that the present Tory Government by its 
 coercive policy in Ireland is establishing a 
 precedent of violence to constitutional rights, 
 as threatening to English liberty in the future 
 as it is outrageous and insulting to Irish 
 Nationalism by its recent exercise in the 
 trial and conviction of William O'Brien. 
 It would be impossible to believe Christian 
 England knowingly guilty of Irish outrages 
 in legislation and administration, except by 
 considering the nation as consisting of two 
 independent and sometimes antagonistic ele- 
 ments — the English people and the English 
 Government. 
 
 The English people are true to the com- 
 mon instincts of humanity; they love jus- 
 
jo Political Despotism. 
 
 tice, they mean to do equity ; but they them- 
 selves have not been long self-governed, and 
 have been absorbed in reform measures per- 
 taining to their own economic grievances. 
 The extension of the franchise to its present 
 limits is very recent, and is still much incum- 
 bered. The spirit of aristocracy is the same 
 everywhere ; it has been bridled in England ; 
 it has taken the bit in its teeth in Ireland. 
 The masses of the people who now rise 
 under the majestic name — English Democ- 
 racy — have only lately had power to mate- 
 rially influence governmental policy; they 
 have known little of that policy in the sister 
 country, from which they were separated by 
 stormy channels, and by difference of race 
 and creed. The English Government, as 
 distinguished from the English people, has 
 been obliged to sustain its policy of conquest 
 by further acts of confiscation and coercion, 
 or to retire from the possession of the island, 
 or to give to the people some such form of 
 independent local government as is outlined 
 in Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule measure. 
 The Tory Government, on its own account 
 and for its own peace, would doubtless set 
 
Political Despotism. 71 
 
 the island adrift ; but the integrity of the 
 Empire would not allow that ; it hesitates to 
 give a local government with greater powers 
 than England, Scotland and Wales possess 
 or ask ; it talks in grandiloquent phrase about 
 the " integrity of the Empire ' being endan- 
 gered by Ireland's demands, and fills the air 
 with vaporous fears of intestine strifes and 
 disgraceful misrule if England's protection (?) 
 in minutest detail should be removed. 
 
 What course, then, does the Government 
 pursue ? Just what all falling despotisms in 
 government compel : It assumes the names 
 and forms of constitutional government ; its 
 " Irish members " sit in the House of Com- 
 mons, but are powerless to secure legislation 
 in the interest of their own constituents ; it 
 claims to administer justice according to 
 English law, but its courts in Ireland exer- 
 cise judicial functions under special acts of 
 Parliament against which Englishmen w r ould 
 have rebelled. Meanwhile, the people of 
 England, in the exercise of new powers and 
 bv attrition with democracies elsewhere, de- 
 mand more for themselves and are keener 
 to see the rightfulness of Ireland's claim and 
 
72 Political Despotism. 
 
 to recognize her cause as kindred to their 
 own. English Liberals and Irish Parnelites, 
 under the great statesman Gladstone, will 
 ultimately secure not only Home Rule for 
 Ireland, but a triumphant democracy wher- 
 ever the British flag floats. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL DESPOTISM. 
 
 WHAT shall we eat, what shall we 
 drink and wherewithal shall we be 
 clothed ? is a universal question ; the char- 
 acter of the answer given is the test of the 
 civilization of any age or country. Ireland's 
 desolation appears in the answer which she 
 gives. Potatoes, whiskey, rags ; these are 
 the ensign of her woe. An intelligent co- 
 operation with Providence, in soil, climate 
 and natural resource, guarantees the neces- 
 sary provision for human needs. The igno- 
 rant or spiritless co-operation by the Irish 
 people, the forcible repression or prohibi- 
 tion of co-operation by the British Govern- 
 ment, these causes, singly or in unison, 
 have thwarted the benign designs of the 
 " Heavenly Father, who knoweth that his 
 children have need of these things." 
 
 That we may the better understand Eng- 
 land's industrial and commercial legislation 
 
 73 
 
74 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 concerning Ireland, and know the causes 
 which directly or indirectly operated to 
 almost wholly extinguish the industries of 
 Ireland, we will divide the last four hundred 
 years into four periods, these being marked 
 by distinctive legislative policies. Credulity 
 will be taxed in receiving the attested facts 
 of history, and philanthropy will be pained 
 at their illustration of "man's inhumanity 
 to man " underneath this cloak of so-called 
 commercial legislation. 
 
 First Period — Industrial Growth. From 
 Poyning's Law, 1495, to Amended Naviga- 
 tion Act, 1663. 
 
 Second Period — Industrial Decay and 
 Death. From 1663 to the Independent 
 Irish Parliament, known as Grattan's Parlia- 
 ment, 1782. 
 
 Third Period — Industrial Resurrection. 
 From 1782 to the Union, 1800. 
 
 Fourth Period — Industrial Decline. From 
 1800 to the present time. 
 
 First period — 1495 to 1663. During this 
 period English and Irish industries grew 
 side by side, both stimulated by natural 
 resources and growing demands/ and both 
 
Industrial Despotism, 75 
 
 equally protected from the free imports of 
 other nations. Her chief industries were 
 woollen (fustian, flannels, broadcloths), linen, 
 silk, hemp, sugar, hides and leather, soap, 
 candles and salt. Cattle, sheep and horses 
 were largely exported. In this even-handed 
 industrial race Ireland well held her own, 
 and threatened to seriously compete with 
 the wealth and commercial enterprise of 
 England. 
 
 Second Period — 1663 to 1782. In the 
 amended Navigation Act of 1663 Ireland 
 was left out. Lord North said of it : " The 
 first commercial restriction was laid on Ire- 
 land not directly, but by a side wind and by 
 deductive interpretation." The prohibitions 
 of this act were not, however, left to " deduc- 
 tive interpretation." The act prohibited all 
 exports from Ireland to the colonies, and 
 the importation of Irish cattle into England. 
 Subsequently an act declared such importa- 
 tion to be "a publick and common nuisance." 
 In 1670 all importation to Ireland from the 
 English plantations of sugar, tobacco, cot- 
 ton-wool, indigo, ginger, fustic or other native 
 dyeing wood was prohibited. 
 
J 6 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 The energy driven back from trade sought 
 exercise in cultivation of manufactures. For- 
 bidden to export live cattle into England, 
 they were killed and sent over as salted 
 meats. An Act of Parliament soon pro- 
 hibited this. The hides of the animals be- 
 ing still free, these were exported until — 
 still suspicious and watchful — British dealers 
 complained, and these were headed back to 
 the hills where they were grown. Irish in- 
 genuity, still contending for an outlet, worked 
 up the hides into leather and thus bade fair 
 to outwit the cupidity of English trade. 
 Alas ! Parliament relentlessly prohibited the 
 exportation of leather ! This procession of 
 prohibitions, sounding the trumpet of Eng- 
 lish commercial despotism, loses even the 
 pomp of power and assumes the fretful snarl 
 of conscious decrepitude when we learn that 
 candles were also under the ban of this riv- 
 alry, and not an Irish "tallow glim " could 
 find its way across the channel. The woollen 
 and linen industries, because of their natu- 
 ral pre-emption and early establishment, 
 were soon the objects of jealous assault, first 
 in the form of disabilities and later in actual 
 
Industrial Despotism. jj 
 
 prohibitions. It was unblushingly declared 
 that this legislation was demanded because 
 England's woollen manufactures suffered. 
 There seems to have been no sense of 
 moral obligation in the trade conscience of 
 that era, and by an act of William in the 
 woollen industry of Ireland was extinguished, 
 and twenty thousand manufacturers left the 
 island. 
 
 In this high-handed extinction of Ireland's 
 natural and most productive manufacture, 
 there was promised, in mitigation of damage, 
 an advantage to the linen industry. Scotch 
 Protestants were invited to Ireland under 
 the specious plea that they should be 
 afforded every possible assistance, and that 
 Irish linen should be protected in the exclu- 
 sive supply of the British market. Lord 
 North says of this compact, " it was no 
 sooner made than it was violated by Eng- 
 land, for, instead of prohibiting foreign 
 linens, duties were laid and collected, so far 
 from amounting to a prohibition on the im- 
 port of the Dutch, German and east country 
 linen manufactures that those manufact- 
 ures have been able, after having the duties 
 
j8 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 imposed on them by the British Parliament, 
 fo undersell Ireland in Great Britain and 
 the West Indies." Thus it was that Ire- 
 land's industries were pursued with relent- 
 less pertinacity, until the most searching 
 scrutiny fails to discover a single one which 
 was not fettered or prohibited by British 
 Parliamentary acts, and this hostile legisla- 
 tion not only affected her relations with 
 England, but with the commerce of the 
 world. The flag of Ireland might wave in 
 holiday splendor over the castles of her con- 
 quered princes, but was declared a commer- 
 cial alien on the high seas. 
 
 The reader of Irish history during this 
 period will learn that Ireland had then her 
 own Parliament, and he may inquire why, 
 then, did she hang as a suitor on English 
 legislation ; why did she not herself protect 
 her own industries ? why did she not go 
 farther and meet England's aggressions with 
 retaliatory measures ? Simply because she 
 could not. Her legislature, though a Par- 
 liament in name, had little representative 
 character or executive power. 
 
 It was composed largely of Protestant 
 
Industrial Despotism. 79 
 
 landlords. Political disabilities imposed by 
 England, excluded the masses from repre- 
 sentation, and even if it had been otherwise 
 and the undivided voice of Parliament had 
 sought industrial protection through Par- 
 liamentary acts, these acts would have been 
 vetoed by the British Parliament or the 
 Privy Council. " Poyning's Act," by which 
 the Irish Parliament exercised its mock 
 functions, expressly declared that no act 
 should be adopted without the approval of 
 the King of England or his Privy Council. 
 In the year 1771 the heads of a bill were 
 introduced " to prevent corn from being 
 made into whiskey and to put some re- 
 straint on the vice of drunkenness," which 
 was increasing. The Lord Lieutenant of the 
 day said " the whiskey shops were ruining 
 the peasantry and the workmen. There 
 was an earnest and general desire to limit 
 them." "The Whiskey bill," says Mr. 
 Froude, " was rejected because the Treasury 
 (British) could not spare a few thousand 
 pounds which were levied upon drunkenness." 
 Thus poor Ireland, drunk to the hearth of 
 the British revenue, garroted by Poyning's 
 
80 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 Act, robbed by Birmingham and Manchester, 
 was in as deplorable a condition as the 
 "certain man" who journeyed from Jerusa- 
 lem to Jericho. Thank God ! the Good 
 Samaritan from Hawarden Castle is passing 
 by. 
 
 Third Period — 1782 to 1800. An Inde- 
 pendent Parliament had long been the desire 
 of Irish patriots. Henry Grattan was, more 
 than any other, the champion of this new 
 creation ; it bears his name. Ireland at 
 once opened her own ports to such of her 
 manufactures as still survived. She felt 
 through her whole commercial being the in- 
 spiration of a new life ; but she did not at 
 once turn upon England with retaliatory 
 legislation. She waited to receive proffers 
 of reciprocal intercourse. England was slow' 
 and surly, and at last yielded grudgingly some 
 slight compromises. Then it was that Ire- 
 land, finally aroused, commenced legitimate 
 retaliation. The marvelous growth of her 
 manufactures and trade justified the dream 
 of her patriots and the fear of her enemies. 
 Secretary Foster said in 1785, three years 
 after the liberation of Irish industries, " Brit- 
 
Industrial Despotism. 81 
 
 ain imports annually two million five hundred 
 thousand pounds of our products, all, or 
 nearly all, duty free, and we import a million 
 of hers, and raise a revenue on almost every 
 article of it." In 1 799, according to Mr. Pitt, 
 " the imports from Great Britain were about 
 the same, but the exports from Ireland to 
 Britain had swelled to nearly six millions." 
 Lord Clare, who was not very friendly to 
 the Irish people, said, " There is not a 
 nation on the face of the habitable globe 
 which had advanced in cultivation, in manu- 
 factures, with the same rapidity in the same 
 period — legislative independence — as Ire- 
 land." 
 
 Is it any wonder that the people of this 
 country sit in the midst of their wrecked 
 industries, behold their dilapidated factories, 
 their silent mills, and bless the name of 
 Gladstone and Home Rule, even as they 
 revere the memory of Grattan and the days 
 of legislative independence ? 
 
 Fourth Period — 1800 to the present. The 
 Legislative union of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land was effected in the year 1800. Lecky 
 says of it : " It is a simple and unexagger- 
 
82 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 ated statement of the fact that in the entire 
 history of representative government there 
 is no instance of corruption having been 
 applied on so large a scale and with such 
 audacious effrontery." 
 
 Mr. John Foster, the Speaker of the Irish 
 House of Commons, in opposing the articles 
 of union which set forth the commercial 
 relations of the two countries, said: " They 
 lower all protecting duties and expose the 
 infant manufactures of Ireland (which the 
 Irish Parliament had begun to protect) to 
 the overwhelming competition of the great 
 capital and long-established skill and ability 
 of England. No less than seventy articles 
 of our manufacture would be thus injured, 
 and our cotton manufactures in particular, in 
 which we had begun to make most promising 
 advances, would be nearly ruined." This 
 prophecy was fulfilled. Excepting only the 
 linen trade of the North and a few scattered 
 woollen mills, there are no industries in Ire- 
 land. / 
 
 The policy long ago announced by Lord 
 Stafford has found ample operation under 
 the Union. " I am of opinion," said that 
 
Industrial Despotism. 83 
 
 lord, writing from Ireland to Charles 1 in 
 1634, "that all wisdom advises to keep this 
 kingdom as much subordinate and depend- 
 ent upon England as is possible, and hold- 
 ing them from the manufacture of wool, and 
 then enforcing them to fetch their clothing 
 from thence, and to take their salt from the 
 king (being that which preserves and gives 
 value to all their native staple commodities), 
 how can they depart from us without naked- 
 ness and beggary?" 
 
 From the mass of England's tyrannies 
 toward Ireland it is somewhat difficult to 
 distinguish those which are purely economic, 
 those which relate to racial and religious 
 intolerance, and such as are overt and aggres- 
 sive acts of political despotism. The pall of 
 oppression is woven of many threads ; the 
 chain of bondage is welded of many links. 
 Neither of these could alone have crushed 
 this country ; each was a, bulwark of the 
 other. Religious persecution could not have 
 existed if through equal religious toleration 
 those of the Catholic faith had been allowed 
 to sit in the British Parliament. Neither 
 could England have enforced trade and com- 
 
84 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 mercial servitude among the Irish people if 
 they had at that time been under Home Rule. 
 These conditions of political despotism and 
 religious persecution so educated English 
 thought and debauched the English con- 
 science that it was no shock to her sense of 
 justice to rob Ireland of her trade and com- 
 merce. It was easy to make of the political 
 serf and the excommunicated heretic a beg- 
 gar also. This England did. " He that 
 breaketh one commandment is guilty of 
 them all." 
 
 That these economic relations may be 
 clearly understood, let us draw an illustra- 
 tion from current American economic life. 
 
 The energetic industrial life of the new 
 South finds illustration in Georgia cotton 
 manufactories and Alabama iron works. 
 These already assume proportions which 
 prophesy they will soon be entered in the 
 competitive race with Massachusetts and 
 Pennsylvania. Every well wisher of his 
 country rejoices that, by this enlarged source 
 of supplies, material advantage must come 
 to the American consumer. The heart of 
 the patriot is cheered in the contemplation 
 
Industrial Despotism. 85 
 
 and present realization of the fact that trade 
 and commerce, in their manifold ramifica- 
 tions, shall more closely unite the North and 
 South in social and religious life, and educa- 
 ional and philanthropic endeavor. 
 
 But suppose the government at Washing- 
 ton had the disposition and the power, at 
 this time, to exclude Georgia and Alabama 
 from the benefits of such reciprocal com- 
 mercial relations with foreign powers as 
 are secured by treaties ; suppose these two 
 States, by the very promise of their success, 
 were marked as targets of industrial assault, 
 and that they, without the power to pro- 
 tect by duties their own manufactures, were 
 obliged to compete with the protected and 
 bounded industries of Massachusetts and 
 Pennsylvania ; and suppose the Congress of 
 the United States — adding insult to injury 
 — should prohibit any exportation of cotton 
 or iron from those States ! The pen wearies, 
 the tongue tires in giving expression to such 
 an hypothesis ! And yet such a course of 
 injustice, robbery and industrial slaughter 
 would be but the type of what England has 
 done with Ireland. 
 
86 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 Let it be remembered when studying the 
 hypothetical and the historical results of 
 "free trade" and "protection" that English 
 industries were planted, nurtured and well 
 established under a protective tariff, and 
 even bounties, before the adoption of the 
 present free trade policy. 
 
 Is there any sequence, or is it mere coin- 
 cidence, that England's free trade policy was 
 not adopted until Irish industries were de- 
 stroyed and Irish nationality was well-nigh 
 crushed; and Ireland's population of from 
 five to eight millions, afforded an enforced, 
 but ready, continual and convenient market 
 for the manufactures of Manchester, Birm- 
 ingham and Leeds ? The cities of Belfast, 
 Dublin and Cork were no longer shipping 
 places for Irish exports, but were ports of 
 entry and storehouses of English goods for 
 Irish consumers. Is it inquired how could 
 poverty-stricken Ireland afford any consid- 
 erable market for manufactures of any 
 kind ? Let it be remembered that Ireland, 
 though in herself poor, has received for 
 years a steady income of millions of dollars 
 every year from America. A high English 
 
Industrial Despotism. 8j 
 
 authority estimates that up to a recent date 
 this sum was equal to ten million dollars per 
 annum. Much of this vast sum has been 
 contributed by Irish servant-girls in the 
 kitchens and nurseries of New York, Boston 
 and Philadelphia, and by factory and mill 
 operatives among the protected industries 
 of New England and Pennsylvania. These 
 Irish-Americans, often living in comparative 
 comfort themselves, have been able through 
 the Irish tenant and the Irish consumer thus 
 to feed the greed of those twin despotisms, 
 landlord absenteeism and commercial piracy. 
 
 Landlordism is doomed. A wholesale land 
 purchase bill is one of Mr. Gladstone's be- 
 neficent measures for Ireland. Before many 
 years these little tenant holdings shall have 
 passed in fee simple to the actual tillers of 
 the soil. 
 
 There is every promise that when Ireland 
 shall have regained her local government 
 she will again seek to nurture her industries, 
 give employment to her people, and thus 
 relieve the unnatural demand upon agricult- 
 ure, which is one cause of the present agra- 
 rian troubles. Relieved from the political 
 
88 Industrial Despotism. 
 
 oppression of Dublin Castle Rule and the 
 eighty-seven coercion acts of this century, 
 her police barracks can easily be changed 
 into warehouses, her whiskey shops to bak- 
 eries and her poorhouses to cattle sheds. 
 
 Then shall Ireland's answer to the univer- 
 sal question be more worthy the civilization 
 of the on-coming twentieth century. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COERCION. 
 
 THE earliest records of all peoples touch 
 disputes concerning land. First, (i) 
 The individual wresting from his fellow a 
 coveted hill or valley, then the tribe dispos- 
 sessing by force their neighboring tribe ; 
 finally, on a larger and more extended scale, 
 opposing nations came into conflict. 
 
 As a rule, the direct and principal object 
 of all invasions, is to get possession of the 
 land of the conquered country ; this was true 
 of the Jews, Vandals, Goths and Huns, and 
 later of the Saxons, Danes and Normans. 
 
 By the natural laws of assimilation the 
 conquered and the conqueror speedily fuse, 
 and adopt similar laws, language and dress ; 
 Ireland was no exception to the operation of 
 this law, and the original invaders readily 
 assimilated to the Irish, and adopted their 
 customs, manners and dress. This was too 
 
 89 
 
90 Coercion. 
 
 much for proud England, for did not all his- 
 tory teach that the weaker and conquered 
 people speedily fused and adopted the cus- 
 toms and laws of their conquerors. The 
 English people had fused with the Normans 
 and had seen some of their cherished insti- 
 tutions swallowed up by the feudal system 
 of the invaders ; should the process be re- 
 versed by the low Irish peasant? No; not 
 if England could prevent it. 
 
 Now begins the long and dreary series of 
 Irish Coercion Acts. The first were aimed 
 at the English colonists in Ireland, who were 
 degenerating into " mere Irish ' and would 
 soon be absorbed by the " Irish enemy." 
 This would be disastrous to English author- 
 ity; hence the Kilkenny Statute, by which it 
 was made hisfh treason for the colonists to 
 marry, bring up, foster, or stand sponsor to, 
 any of the Irish, while any Englishman using 
 an Irish name, wearing an Irish dress, speak- 
 ing the Irish language, following the Irish 
 custom of growing a moustache, or of riding 
 without a saddle, had all of his possessions 
 sold in atonement, or if a poor man, was con- 
 demned to imprisonment for life. 
 
Coercion, 9 1 
 
 The folly of such petty and unjust acts of 
 coercion is only equalled by its wickedness. 
 The losfic of events soon demonstrated that 
 these impositions of unusual restraint on 
 the liberty of innocent customs and habits 
 were a complete failure, and many of the 
 colonists became " More Irish than the Irish 
 themselves." 
 
 The obvious injustice, and the failure of 
 these first coercive measures taught Eng- 
 land no lesson. Failing to prevent the grow- 
 ing moustache, the bare-back riding, and the 
 operation of God's universal law of love, 
 marriage and offspring, she found herself in 
 danger of losing by absorption what little 
 power Ireland already possessed, and, with 
 hardness of heart, determined to try other 
 coercive measures. Poyning's law was di- 
 rected against Irish Nationality and pro- 
 vided that henceforth no Parliament should 
 be held in Ireland " until the Chief-Governor 
 had certified to the Kino- under the Great 
 Seal, as well the causes and considerations, 
 as the Acts they desired to pass, and till the 
 same should be approved by the King and 
 Council." Thus were the Irish compelled to 
 
92 Coercion, 
 
 nullify their authority, and their Parliament 
 became a farce. 
 
 These laws did not increase the love be- 
 tween the two peoples, nor were they calcu- 
 lated to make either natives or settlers 
 law-abiding people. This exceptional inter- 
 ference by England in purely Irish affairs 
 was conspicuously unjust and contrary to 
 her uniform ' conduct with her other colo- 
 nies, and the result proved that while Eng- 
 land by coercion could manacle the Irish 
 Parliament, she could not thereby compel 
 loyal obedience to laws practically enacted 
 at Westminster. 
 
 It is often claimed that religious dif- 
 ferences are the chief causes of trouble 
 between England and Ireland, but these 
 instances of coercion occurred long before 
 the Reformation, and when both islands pro- 
 fessed the same creed, but so great was the 
 mutual hatred in Ireland that Englishmen 
 and Irishmen each built and worshiped in 
 their own churches as exclusively as though 
 some great difference of faith kept them 
 apart. 
 
 In the progress of time the Reformation 
 
Coercion. 93 
 
 swept over England, and she became Pro- 
 testant. Of course the Irish people must 
 be Protestant too. This was a sacred duty, 
 and must be accepted as of right. They 
 were to change their faith at the word of 
 command. No attempt was made to con- 
 vert them; the Bible was not even translated 
 into Irish. The English Church service was 
 to be read in English or Latin, by these 
 merciless enemies, to a people who under- 
 stood neither. 
 
 The result of this experiment failed. 
 The Irish people were not to be converted 
 in that way. Thus a new cause for coer- 
 cive measures arose, and England was 
 not slow to use it in vindicating the su- 
 premacy of her religion. All former oppres- 
 sion faded into insignificance before the 
 stern " Penal Code ' which was framed es- 
 pecially to coerce Papists into Protestants. 
 The English Parliament at Westminster, 
 and the more English Parliament in Ireland 
 concurred in stripping the Catholics (com- 
 prising five sixths of the Irish people) of 
 every vestige of civil, political and religious 
 freedom. 
 
94 Coercion. 
 
 The English historian Froude (who can- 
 not be suspected of partiality to the Irish) 
 has said: "The English government had 
 added largely to their difficulty by attempt- 
 ing: to force the Reformation on Ireland 
 while its political and social condition was 
 still unsettled. The Irish were not to be 
 blamed if they looked to the Pope, to Spain, 
 to France, to any friend in earth or heaven 
 to deliver them from a power that dis- 
 charged no single duty that rulers owe to 
 subjects." 
 
 What was effected by these coercive laws? 
 Priests were driven from their flocks, bishops 
 and prelates put to death, church property 
 was confiscated, and open mass gagged. 
 The Reformation had come with crushing 
 ferocity, and the " supremacy of England's 
 ecclesiastical laws was vindicated." 
 
 But what of the Irish spirit and the 
 Catholic faith ? Were these crushed ? No 
 indeed. The very brutalities of which the 
 coercionists of that period were guilty, did 
 but serve to intensify their faith in and love 
 for Romanism. 
 
 The tangible Romish Church in Ireland 
 
Coercion. 95 
 
 was for the time suppressed, but England 
 forgot that the intangible, the ideal, the 
 sentimental are just as real, and must be 
 considered ; that faith and love are facts as 
 actual as powder and shot. The Irish clung 
 to their faith, the English to their guns, and 
 the fact that Romanism is stronger in Irer 
 land to-day than in any other nation on the 
 face of the globe outside of the distinc- 
 tively papal countries of Europe and South 
 America, ought to teach the English govern- 
 ment that the Armstrong gun will not crush 
 out Irish nationalism, but will intensify it. 
 
 Thus centuries of coercive measures failed 
 to destroy Irish character, Irish customs or 
 Irish faith. 
 
 But proud England would not be baffled, 
 and what she failed to do by force, she now 
 seeks to do by fraud and stratagem. 
 
 It is at least a change to turn our atten- 
 tion from coercion to seduction. England 
 now commenced to draw Ireland into the 
 " union ' by the influences of promises of 
 titles, of political preferment, and a " judi- 
 cious expenditure ' of over ten millions of 
 dollars among the members of the Irish 
 
96 Coercion. 
 
 Parliament, all Protestants, and accomplished 
 the tangible fact of " union." The articles 
 were agreed to by the two Parliaments, and 
 the rewards were duly bestowed on the vio- 
 lent abductors of the Irish Parliament. 
 
 The Irish people are informed that they 
 are united with England, and dragged re- 
 luctant and protesting to the bridal cham- 
 ber. Was the sentiment of the Irish people 
 changed? No; except to make them detest 
 England all the more. 
 
 How absurd to apply the name of 
 " union," which means concord, to a con- 
 dition which is the result of seduction, 
 abduction and coercion. What concord has 
 existed between the two peoples during the 
 eighty-seven years that have elapsed since 
 the consummation of this unnatural crime ? 
 
 In twenty-two of the first thirty years 
 of the so-called " union " the Habeas Cor- 
 pus Act was suspended and eighteen Coer- 
 cive Acts, or acts of a similar nature, passed. 
 This fraudulent union has brought Ireland 
 in eighty-seven years, eighty-seven coercion 
 acts. The last and the most severe of all is 
 aimed to crush the Irish National League 
 
Coercion. 97 
 
 which the Irish people believe is " their sal- 
 vation," and which alone stands between 
 them and the most cruel oppression. And 
 this is done with the deliberate and avowed 
 object of destroying the political organiza- 
 tion of the Irish people. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth day of September, 
 in the year of our Lord 1887, a decision is 
 made according to the law and the testi- 
 mony which presents to the world in ugly 
 hieroglyphics, England's version of consti- 
 tutional liberty in Ireland under the last 
 Coercion Act. 
 
 The arrest, under the Crimes Bill, of 
 William O'Brien,* for an alleged violation 
 of the right of free speech, the denial to 
 him of trial by a jury, his conviction and 
 sentence to three months' imprisonment by 
 two stipendiary magistrates of Dublin Castle, 
 this is an heroic page in the history of Ire- 
 land's march for constitutional liberty. 
 
 The circumstances of the case were that, 
 on the ninth and eleventh of August, 1887, 
 
 * My apology for giving so full an account of the trial of William O'Brien 
 lies in the hope that it will serve to illustrate the methods used by England in 
 enforcing coercion laws. I was present and witnessed the trial. The accompa- 
 nying details are taken almost verbatim from an account written at the time. 
 
98 Coercion. 
 
 William O'Brien, a member of the British Par- 
 liament, addressed his constituents at Mitch- 
 elstown, County of Cork, Ireland, on general 
 political issues. Among other things he 
 advised tenants concerning the manner in 
 which they should meet the processes of 
 eviction then pending. He set forth the 
 Plan of Campaign as the wisest course by 
 which to maintain their holdings until the 
 new act of Parliament, giving the tenants 
 greater reduction in rent than many of them 
 had dared to ask and which was soon to go 
 into operation, would give redress. In the 
 meanwhile they were advised to " defend 
 their homes by all honest means, and to 
 make evictions as slow and as expensive 
 to the Government as possible." 
 
 His advice was followed, and not another 
 eviction was successfully carried out. The 
 five hundred tenants on the Mitchelstown 
 estate can now go into the Land Court and 
 claim the provisions of the new law. 
 
 The Crimes Bill, under which Mr. O'Brien 
 was arrested, provides for the arrest and trial 
 by summary proceeding before two resident 
 magistrates and without jury " of any per- 
 
Coercion. 99 
 
 son who shall incite any other person to 
 resist a minister of the law in the execution 
 of his duty." The trial was conducted in 
 the court house, and seemed more like a 
 military than a civil proceeding. The pris- 
 oner entered town in an open carriage, pre- 
 ceded by Scotch fusileers, surrounded by 
 armed constabulary and mounted hussars. A 
 procession of open carriages bringing brother 
 members of Parliament — Irish and English 
 — and other friends and representatives of 
 Irish nationalism followed the prisoner. At 
 the court house ladies presented flowers and 
 displayed the ribbon of green. 
 
 The military and constabulary were va- 
 riously disposed in the court room, about 
 the entrance, in the square opposite and 
 across the common highway on either side 
 the main entrance to the town. Neighing 
 horses, nodding plumes, glittering steel, bril- 
 liant red coats, armed men drawn up before 
 the entrance to a court house, and all for 
 what? Why is all this display, this show 
 of war? Has Russia marched on Bulgaria, 
 have Bismarck and Von Moltke broken the 
 Triple Alliance, has Napoleon's ghost arisen 
 
ioo Coercion. 
 
 and has Wellington called to arms? O no! 
 This is only William O'Brien — the man 
 who could not be hired to run away — and 
 the unarmed peasants who have come to 
 do him honor. The court consisted of two 
 resident magistrates appointed by Dublin 
 Castle. They represented in physique and 
 general bearing typical English gentlemen. 
 
 William O'Brien, the prisoner at the bar, 
 was the centre of interest — a tall, spare 
 man, with laro-e features, a stron^lv marked 
 intellectual development, piercing eyes even 
 through the glasses which he always wears, 
 quick, almost nervous in movement and in- 
 tense in nature and convictions. He looked 
 a little worn from confinement and his jour- 
 ney hither; he neither smiled nor frowned 
 at the testimony of witness, the sparring of 
 counsel or the rulings of the court. Con- 
 fronted with representatives of the Crown, 
 really partisans of a Tory Government which 
 he had defied, surrounded by military and 
 armed constabulary, from whom his accus- 
 ers are taken, as one after another testified 
 against him he was as calm and self-poised 
 as if in his editorial chair at Dublin. The 
 
Coercion. i o i 
 
 room was densely packed and all were friends 
 save the officers of the Crown and their serv- 
 ants. His counsel, Mr. T. Harrington M. P., 
 and Mr. Mandeville of Mitchelstown, were 
 personal friends and brother-patriots as well. 
 They conducted a vigorous and powerful 
 defence. 
 
 Next in interest, but not second in the 
 affections of the people, is John Dillon, who 
 sits close by intently watching the proceed- 
 ings. Now and then slowly rising with sim- 
 ple dignity, his calm eyes quietly assure the 
 eager throng that, however this case may 
 go, the battle brings final victory to Ireland. 
 There emanates from this strong, quiet man, 
 who seldom smiles, an irresistible moral 
 power; it compels the respectful considera- 
 tion of his enemies, it inspires confidence 
 and cements devotion among his followers. 
 This is true in a limited sense of a dozen or 
 more lesser leaders whom the people trust 
 and obey. 
 
 These leaders have been more effective as 
 a self-constituted police among these surging 
 multitudes than the Castle constabulary or 
 Her Majesty's Hussars. The organizer and 
 
102 Coercion. 
 
 commander of this voluntary local police is 
 John Mandeville, brother to Mr. O'Brien's 
 counsellor, himself under arrest for the same 
 so-called incendiarism. From his prison cell 
 he districted the town and stationed his 
 men; in citizens' clothes and without arms, 
 they have kept the peace, notwithstanding 
 the people were annoyed with the show and 
 interference of military authority, and aggra- 
 vated at the spectacle of their heroic de- 
 fender in Parliament and at home, on trial 
 for the strong, helpful words he had uttered 
 to and for them. What a spectacle ! A 
 member of Parliament on trial as a disturber 
 of the peace, an inciter to incendiarism, his 
 co-defendant in jail awaiting trial for a 
 similar offence ; these two alleged crim- 
 inals holding in check thousands of men 
 impassioned by poverty and sense of out- 
 rage, but who for this repressive moral power 
 miodit have thrown themselves across this 
 last dead line of England's nineteenth cent- 
 ury coercion policy ! 
 
 The heroic and the pathetic are strangely 
 blended in this passing history. A few brave 
 men, with love of God, of country and of 
 
Coercion. 103 
 
 human rights, makctheir protest against the 
 hoary legal intrenchments of landed aris- 
 tocracies. With self-abnegation they labor 
 without ceasing, they endure all things, they 
 risk all things. This is heroism. The un- 
 questioning loyalty of poor, ignorant men, 
 the tender, almost worshipful devotion of 
 women and little children, the benediction 
 of the aged, these are pathetic. Very touch- 
 ing are some manifestations of these people. 
 Among the multitudes who crowded about 
 the door as O'Brien entered the court was a 
 decrepit old woman, who gazed reverently as 
 the adored hero passed. With hands clasped 
 in attitude of prayer she said : " Indeed I'm 
 praying His holy name, and the blessed Mary 
 and Joseph and all the rest of thim, that 
 there'll no harm come to any one to-day. 
 Sure and might not we be patient ; did not 
 Himself suffer more than any of us, and 
 His blessed mother looking, at Him all the 
 time ? " 
 
 While the crowd cheered and threw their 
 caps in air at sight of their heroes, along its 
 fringe were many tearful women who feebly 
 swayed with weight of anguished years, 
 
1 04 Coercion. 
 
 which left in them no pOwer to utter sound. 
 As dies the last tone of a muffled bell, when 
 the funeral train has passed, so they looked 
 silent on. When Ireland's coming day shall 
 have arisen from this red morn these mourn- 
 ers will be resting underneath the verdant 
 sod, but their children and their children's 
 children shall be free. 
 
 Mr. T. Harrington, the leading counsel 
 for Mr. O'Brien, is a typical Irishman, im- 
 petuous to ferocity, humorous to hilarity, at 
 times incisive and cold as steel, and a^ain 
 hot as burning lava. He follows the witness 
 on cross-examination with the seeming reck- 
 lessness of a trained acrobat or the merciless 
 grip of a professional pugilist. The case for 
 the Crown rested on the testimony of three 
 policemen, who took the stand, armed and 
 in full uniform. It is the custom for the 
 Government on its own behalf to detail a 
 reporter for popular Irish gatherings, that an 
 official account of the meetings and the very 
 words of the speakers may be known to 
 the Castle. Much annoyance and doubtless 
 some intimidation has been occasioned by 
 this custom. During the progress of the 
 
Coercion. 1 05 
 
 case on behalf of the Crown, and after the 
 introduction of several witnesses, whose tes- 
 timony failed to sustain the charge, the 
 Crown rested without calling Constable 
 O'Sullivan, who was the official reporter of 
 the meeting at which O'Brien spoke. Then 
 occurred a dramatic scene, the like of which 
 is seldom witnessed in a court room. Mr. 
 Harrington sprang to his feet and exclaimed, 
 " Is it possible, Your Worships, that the Crown 
 will close this case without calling Head 
 Constable O'Sullivan, who was that day in 
 charge of the peace of the town, and who 
 certainly should be able to give material tes- 
 timony?" To this the Crown counsel coolly 
 replied: "The case for the Crown has 
 closed," repeating the answer several times 
 in response to Mr. Harrington's exclama- 
 tions of surprise. " Very well, then," said 
 Harrington, " I ask Your Worship for a 
 summons for Head Constable O'Sullivan." 
 After some words as to the cowardice of the 
 Crown in not producing its own officer as a 
 witness, and the taunting retort that if this 
 witness were called by the defence they must 
 be bound by his testimony, Mr. Harrington 
 
1 06 Coercion. 
 
 said : " Very well, then, I take him as my 
 witness, hostile though he certainly will be." 
 After the confusion attending this seeming 
 recklessness had subsided, O'Sullivan ap- 
 peared and was sworn. 
 
 Following preliminary questions as to his 
 being in charge of the force on that day, 
 his presence at the meeting, his taking notes 
 of Mr. O'Brien's speech, Counsel Harring- 
 ton asked him to produce the notes. He 
 answered he would not unless directed by 
 his superior officer. The Court was evidently 
 inclined to shield the witness, and seemed 
 confused as to a conflict of authority between 
 himself and the Royal Constabulary, to which 
 the witness was subordinate. After some 
 consultation the officer in command, with 
 sword dangling from his belt, stepped to the 
 witness, and, after conference, permitted him 
 to produce the notes. They were fuller and 
 more carefully prepared than those of pre- 
 vious witnesses ; they were far less objection- 
 able in tenor and actual signification ; indeed, 
 a case against Mr. O'Brien could not have 
 been sustained by that report of his speech. 
 It was then quite evident why the Crown had 
 
Coercion. 107 
 
 not produced this witness. Faces before 
 listless became intense, and interest deepened 
 to indignation when, on examination by coun- 
 sel, it was discovered that the resistance ad- 
 vocated by Mr. O'Brien was qualified bf the 
 noble adjective " honest." This word was 
 omitted from the notes of former witnesses 
 of the Crown, and when it was further dis- 
 covered that upon the margin of the paper 
 on which the notes were written was penciled 
 in another hand, " not to be used," and that this 
 official report had been carried by the witness 
 to Dublin Castle ; that a conference with the 
 Crown counsel and the Divisional Inspector 
 of Royal Constabulary — Capt. Plunkett by 
 name — had there been held ; that one of the 
 here presiding judges on that very day, and 
 from that very place, had issued the summons 
 for the arrest of Mr. O'Brien ; when one after 
 another these circumstances of a manifest 
 conspiracy by civil and military officers of 
 the Crown to jeopardize the liberty of a citi- 
 zen by suppressing exculpatory testimony in 
 its possession; when with cumulative force 
 this all appeared, it is not strange that a 
 powerful impression was evident in that 
 
108 Coercion. 
 
 crowded court room. Counsel for the Crown 
 was dumb, the witness crimsoned, the impli- 
 cated judge attempted a personal defence. 
 Counsel Harrington, rising to his utmost 
 height, seized the unpretending paper, and, 
 with terrible force, denounced the whole pro- 
 ceedings as a mockery of justice and a dis- 
 grace to the Empire. Gathering up his papers 
 and brief, he said: " I will not further disgrace 
 myself by practicing before this court." Mean- 
 while, the most unmoved of all the throng 
 were the prisoner at the bar and his friend, 
 John Dillon. In the midst of the excite- 
 ment the Court adjourned. The Court, at 
 the opening of the next day's sessions, com- 
 mented on the unfortunate occurrence of the 
 preceding day, and severely reprimanded Mr. 
 Harrington — he, however, was absent — and 
 stated that the dignity of the Court must be 
 sustained. To this Mr. O'Brien (now acting 
 without counsel) replied. He fully justified 
 Mr. Harrington's general conduct of the case 
 and his course in the circumstances under 
 criticism ; he expressed high appreciation of 
 the distinguished ability and legal acumen 
 displayed in wresting from a prejudiced court 
 
Coercion. 1 09 
 
 and an intriguing counsel evidence of a 
 Dublin Castle plot to suppress official testi- 
 mony, and thus endanger his liberty and per- 
 haps his life. While he thus justified his 
 devoted friend, he found himself deprived of 
 his valuable service, and must conduct his 
 further defence alone. In impassioned ma- 
 jesty, and self-conscious integrity, his illu- 
 mined face bore no trace of despair. 
 
 " Ulysses stood alone, but stood collected 
 in himself and whole." Mr. O'Brien closed 
 in his own defence. He cleclared the con- 
 struction of the Court unconstitutional, the 
 judges biased by subordination to political 
 and military authority, the Crown counsel 
 manifestly guilty of prejudicing his cause by 
 a suppression of official testimony, and he 
 denounced the ostentatious display of con- 
 stabulary and military force as an insult to 
 the Irish people, whose representative he was. 
 He claimed that the Crown had utterly failed 
 to establish a case against him, but disclaimed 
 any desire to deny or apologize for or weaken 
 any advice he had given or any words he 
 had spoken. He rejoiced that his advice had 
 been so generally followed, and that so many 
 
no Coercion. 
 
 poor tenants, by it, had been saved from utter 
 ruin. He reviewed the deplorable condition 
 of the people, their sense of outrage at the 
 course pursued by the land agents, and boldly 
 declared that, far from being a disturber of 
 the peace and an inciter to lawlessness, he 
 was a conservator of the peace and a friend 
 of good government. He appealed from this 
 court to the Irish people, to the English 
 Democracy, and to the civilized world. While 
 listening to his wonderful plea, one forgot that 
 he was the prisoner at the bar, and thought 
 of him as a chief amid his clan, a hero of 
 heroes, a seer among statesmen, a Christian 
 patriot ready to live and labor or suffer and 
 die for his country. Of what consequence 
 to him then was the three months' sentence 
 that the Mitchelstown Court imposed upon 
 him? 'Tis but a speck of time; a comma 
 in the record of his life's work. In the long 
 perspective of history he shall stand among 
 heroes. In the heap of manacles, and whips, 
 and chains, and tortuous engines of earth's 
 tyrannies shall be seen the bands he broke, 
 the fetters he unloosed. Multitudes of Ire- 
 land's poor shall call him blessed. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE IRISH LAND QUESTION. 
 
 N tracing England's dealings with Ire- 
 
 land in the matters of government, 
 religion and commerce, we have pointed 
 out how these were affected by the land 
 question. It is the one question which has 
 been in dispute during the whole period 
 since the conquest, and which still lies at 
 the root of Ireland's difficulties. 
 
 Seven hundred years of strife and tumult, 
 of injustice and violence, have passed away, 
 and still the conflict goes on. 
 
 That we may the better comprehend the 
 agrarian wrongs which the people now suf- 
 fer, and the nature and scope of the recent 
 land acts passed, it is well to examine the 
 causes of this perpetual conflict. 
 
 As already shown, conquest, confiscation 
 and coercion were the means used by the 
 English to acquire possession of lands in 
 Ireland. 
 
 in 
 
H2 The Irish Land Question. 
 
 If the proportion of the English colonists 
 in Ireland had approached in number that 
 of the native Irish population, and if they 
 had maintained actual possession of these 
 stolen lands, a complete organization of 
 society on the English system of Land 
 Tenure might have been the result, and the 
 strife might have ended. But such was not 
 the case ; the best land was taken bv force 
 and parcelled out to colonists, or allotted 
 to noblemen who lived in England, the 
 native Irish being driven on to the poorer 
 lands. The real estate of the English colo- 
 nist was held under the Feudal System. 
 
 By the thirteenth century the custom of 
 Primogeniture had become absolute in Eng- 
 land. By this law the eldest son had the ex- 
 clusive right to succeed to his father's estates. 
 The Irish had quite another system of Land 
 Tenure ; the land was divided between dif- 
 ferent clans and families on an equitable 
 basis, and when a member of a sept or clan 
 died, the chief divided the lands afresh 
 among the remaining members, the heirs 
 of the deceased receiving, share and share, 
 alike. This was the Common Law of the 
 
The Irish Laud Question. 1 1 3 
 
 country ; the immemorial usage handed 
 down through long generations. 
 
 It is evident that this conflict in tenure 
 might open the door to countless disputes; 
 and this was the fact. 
 
 This point is one which it is necessary 
 to dwell upon, because it will help to ex- 
 plain many of the anomalies of the Land 
 question. 
 
 During the two centuries that followed 
 the invasion of Ireland by Henry 11 the 
 Tribal System of Tenure prevailed over 
 the greater part of the Island. Many of the 
 English barons had left their estates and 
 returned to England ; indeed, many had 
 never taken actual and visible possession 
 of their Irish lands ; these estates were re- 
 possessed by the Irish people, and again 
 came under tribal law r s and customs, while 
 the members of septs and clans again be- 
 came co-proprietors, and retained possession 
 for many generations. 
 
 Thus we see engrafted on the same land 
 and at the same time the two systems of 
 tenures ; the paper title in the absent Eng- 
 lishman from the Crown, representing the 
 
H4 The Irish Land Question. 
 
 Feudal System, and the tribal title, with 
 actual possession, granted by the chief rep- 
 resenting the Tribal System. 
 
 In the progress of time these lands be- 
 came more valuable and the English owners 
 or their heirs at law began to look them up 
 and claim their rights ; this brought on a 
 conflict between the invaded and the in- 
 vaders ; a conflict of two systems. Thus 
 was inaugurated a struggle between two 
 peoples which has never ceased, and never 
 will, until it is possible for the Irishman to 
 become the owner of the soil of his country 
 on an equitable basis. 
 
 We have briefly summarized the land 
 tenures of Ireland, from Henry n to Charles 
 ii — nearly five centuries ; and this was the 
 time it took to destroy the Tribal System, 
 thou oh as a matter of fact it was not 
 entirely replaced by the English System ; 
 for while the English landlord reaped the 
 benefits of the Feudal System of tenure, he 
 used the old Sept System when it could be 
 applied to the prejudice of the tenant. The 
 landlord as chief of the sept, had forcibly 
 taken all its land ; and the Irish tenants, the 
 
The Irish Land Question. 1 1 5 
 
 members of the sept, paid rent to this chief, 
 and made all improvements at their own 
 expense. 
 
 This dual system of land tenure is a fruit- 
 ful cause of Ireland's griefs, and will pre- 
 pare the mind of the reader to appreciate 
 the difficulties which beset the English Par- 
 liament in attempting now after centuries of 
 these oppressive systems, to adjust the re- 
 lations of landlord and tenant. 
 
 In 1870 the First Land Act became law 
 and the English people doubtless believed 
 that at last Ireland's wrong had been righted. 
 
 The debates in Parliament at that time 
 show that the pleas of the more advanced 
 Irish party were not listened to; they per- 
 sistently claimed that the act did not go to 
 the root of the disease, and that in some 
 respects it would aggravate the evil. 
 
 The act sought to create fixity of tenure 
 for the tenant, so long as he should pay his 
 rent, and to insure him compensation for the 
 improvements which he had made. It was 
 an imperfect measure, and the views of the 
 Irish members were soon shown to be correct. 
 The landlords had retained " their power to 
 
1 1 6 The Irish Land Question. 
 
 arbitrarily increase their rents, irrespective 
 of the value of the holdings of their estates." 
 The act only provided for compensation for 
 improvements in case of arbitrary eviction ; 
 when a tenant was evicted for non-payment 
 of rent he lost his right. If for any cause 
 a landlord desired to evict a tenant, and retain 
 the improvements without compensation, it 
 was an easy matter to make the rent suffi- 
 ciently high to accomplish the object. In 
 some instances rents were raised as high as 
 five hundred per cent. 
 
 In the three years before this Land Act 
 was passed there were served four thousand 
 two hundred and fifty-three notices to quit ; 
 in the three years after, five thousand six 
 hundred and forty-one, and in seven years 
 after they had doubled. This first act failed 
 " to diffuse the blessings of peace, order and 
 industry, over a smiling land" as was prophe- 
 sied. Why did it fail ? Because English- 
 men would not take the advice of the Irish 
 leaders, but persisted in looking at questions 
 purely Irish through English spectacles. 
 
 Between 1S71 and 1880 no less than 
 twenty-eight measures to amend or extend 
 
The Irish Land Question, 1 1 7 
 
 the provisions of this Land Act of 1870 were 
 introduced into Parliament, but not one of 
 them was carried. 
 
 The Irish people, despairing of obtaining 
 justice from agitation in the English Parlia- 
 ment, were again forced into the adoption 
 of means which were contrary to law and 
 order, and terrible outrages were committed, 
 which were deplored by none more than by 
 the Irish leaders themselves. These out- 
 rages caused new coercive acts to be passed, 
 and poor Ireland was again in an alarmingly 
 disturbed state. The landlords organized, 
 and fearing the Growing sentiment in En^- 
 land in favor of a new land bill, that would 
 compel compensation in all instances of 
 eviction, they made the most of their time 
 and opportunity, and writs of evictions came 
 thick and fast upon the poor tenants. 
 
 What marvel then that, during this period 
 of ten years, Irishmen should organize for 
 self-protection ? The Home Rule League 
 and the Land League were organized for the 
 purpose of uniting all creeds and opinions 
 in favor of Home Rule and Land Reform 
 for Ireland. These carried on a marvelous 
 
118 The Irish Land Question. 
 
 and world-wide agitation, and by united 
 efforts in 1SS0 succeeded in increasing the 
 number of their representatives in the Eng- 
 lish Parliament to sixty members. 
 
 The thought of the English people was 
 again turned to Ireland. Beaconsfield an- 
 nounced his intention of appealing to the 
 people, and officially denounced the Home 
 Rule party. The Liberal Party, which was 
 known to be in favor of remedial legislation 
 for Ireland came into power at the general 
 election of 1880, with Gladstone as their 
 leader. The first act of the new Govern- 
 ment was to appoint a Royal Commission to 
 inquire into the working of the Land Act 
 of 1870. It is interesting to read the report 
 of that commission, and its recommenda- 
 tions, and to note how fully this report sus- 
 tained the prophecy of the Irish leaders. It 
 was to the effect that while the Land Bill 
 had failed to produce any reform in the sys- 
 tem of land tenure in Ireland, it had not 
 checked unreasonable increase in rents, nor 
 had it lessened evictions. 
 
 In 1 88 1 Mr. Gladstone made an earnest 
 and bold attempt to deal with the land ques- 
 
The Irish Land Question, 119 
 
 tion. A measure introduced by him was 
 intended to secure fair rents, fair sale, and 
 fixity of tenure. A principal feature was the 
 creation of a Land Court, by which all dis- 
 putes between landlord and tenant might be 
 decided. A tenant going before this court 
 could have his holding appraised, and the 
 judicial rent thus fixed controlled for fifteen 
 vears; during this time no rise in rent was 
 to be possible, and no eviction, save for non- 
 payment of rent, could take place. In case 
 the tenant wished to sell the good-will of his 
 holding, he could do so. This bill after 
 being sent back by the House of Lords three 
 times was finally agreed to, and passed on 
 the twenty-second day of August, 1881. 
 
 What a strange fatuity ! The chosen rep- 
 resentatives of Ireland who took part in the 
 debates on this bill have suffered imprison- 
 ment for agitating the very views which it 
 formulated. 
 
 It will be noticed that this bill, creating a 
 new land tenure, gave to the Irish tenant 
 great privileges, and created what is prac- 
 tically known as a joint-ownership in the soil. 
 It was an infringement of the rights of 
 
120 The Irish Land Question. 
 
 property, and presents one of the anomalies 
 of this Irish Land Question. It deprived 
 the landlord of fixing the value of his own 
 property, and practically declared that part 
 of the value of the land is the just posses- 
 sion of the tenant. 
 
 Again England's statesmen congratulated 
 the country that the perplexing land ques- 
 tion in Ireland was forever settled. But the 
 events which had produced so great a change 
 in public opinion in England, as to render 
 it possible that such a bill could become law, 
 had produced a corresponding advance in 
 Irish demands, and the land bill which ten 
 years before would have satisfied them, now 
 received only their cold approval, and was 
 accepted as merely a half-measure. And 
 such it proved to be. Thousands rushed to 
 the court to have a fair rent fixed ; within 
 the first two years over seventy-five thousand 
 were fixed by the land court, sixty-six thou- 
 sand by agreement between the landlord and 
 the tenant, and over ten thousand by the 
 county court; an average of all of these 
 shows that the rents were reduced twenty 
 per cent. 
 
The Irish Land Question, 1 2 1 
 
 Surely no stronger case for the justice of 
 the tenant's claim could be made out, for 
 according to the scale of fair rent as fixed 
 by the court he had for years been paying 
 twenty per cent too much to the landlord. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone with the best intentions 
 towards the Irish people, tried to settle 
 the Land Question by this bill. He made 
 a mighty effort to uproot this upas-tree of 
 centuries' growth. He would have measur- 
 ably succeeded but for the unusual de- 
 pression of more than twenty per cent in 
 agricultural products, since these fair rents 
 were fixed, and but for the further fact that 
 many of the tenants by reason of being un- 
 able to pay back rents, could not take the 
 benefits of the act, while others had no 
 money to expend in ordinary court expenses. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the landlords were 
 still masters of the situation, and no one saw 
 this sooner than did Mr. Gladstone himself. 
 Again he addressed himself to the question 
 of the remedy. To his mind the time had 
 come to do full and complete justice to Ire- 
 land, according to the Irish idea, and to this 
 end he introduced in 1885 the Home Rule 
 
122 The Irish Land Question, 
 
 and Land Purchase bills. These gave to 
 Ireland an independent parliament with full 
 power of dealing with all local matters includ- 
 ing land ; they reserved imperial guarantees 
 for imperial matters, — such as the army, 
 navy and finance, — and used the imperial 
 credit as a means of transforming the tenure 
 of land and of buying out landlords who 
 were unwilling to remain under the new 
 order of things. 
 
 This scheme, generous, wise and states- 
 manlike, is worthy of the great man who con- 
 ceived it. With unmovable allegiance to 
 justice, and with sublime faith in the future, 
 he chose, when it was rejected, to retire 
 from the office of Prime Minister of the 
 British Empire, and to abide the verdict of 
 the people. 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE UNION. 
 
 HE agitation for Home Rule for Ire- 
 land compels a recurrence to what 
 some term ancient history, but as the Bishop 
 of Westchester has well said, " The roots of 
 the present lie deep in the past." 
 
 If the Irish people had voluntarily entered 
 into the union with Great Britain, and if 
 the conditions of the union had been ful- 
 filled by both parties to the act — an act 
 involving such vast interests, and affecting 
 so many vested rights — it should have 
 been regarded as sacred and binding until 
 dissolved by mutual consent; but if, on 
 the other hand, the Irish Parliament with the 
 show of local government ,was wrested from 
 the Irish people by fraud and violence and 
 they were betrayed into the union, it matters 
 a great deal, and mere lapse of time cannot 
 bar the right to full restitution. 
 
 123 
 
124 The Union. 
 
 Previous to 1782 legislation in the Irish 
 Parliament was controlled by the English 
 Privy Council, through the provisions of the 
 celebrated statute known as the Poyning's 
 Law. In 1782 this statute was modified and 
 the Irish Parliament was in theory independ- 
 ent, though practically it was largely con- 
 trolled by English influence, as Catholics 
 were still ineligible. 
 
 From 1782 to 1800 during the period of 
 Parliamentary independence there was great 
 increase in prosperity admitted by the fore- 
 most advocates " of the union," as shown in 
 a previous chapter. 
 
 This brings us down to the time of the 
 unholy Union and leads us to inquire into 
 the methods used to accomplish it. 
 
 The debates on the Act of Union in the 
 British Parliament show conclusively that 
 Birmingham and Manchester feared the 
 growing industries of Ireland as being dis- 
 advantageous to them ; indeed the con- 
 trivers of the union before 1799 avowed to 
 each other " that the great object of their 
 work was a stoppage of the growing pros- 
 perity of Ireland " ; they probably did not 
 
The Union. 125 
 
 dream of so complete an attainment of that 
 end as has been achieved. 
 
 While touching upon the real motive of 
 the English Government, we ought not to 
 omit the evident intention, as it has finally 
 resulted, of making the Irish people share 
 in the English national debt ; not on a pro 
 rata basis by putting in the comparatively 
 small Irish national debt (though this was at 
 first proposed), but by making the otherwise 
 oppressed and impoverished nation bear as 
 much of the debt of both countries as could 
 possibly be wrung from it. 
 
 In 1880 the Irish national debt was only 
 twenty-one millions, whereas the English 
 national debt was four hundred and forty- 
 six millions, and the union was advocated 
 on the ground that by this means Ireland 
 would be subject to British taxes. 
 
 Mr. Posthlewait in writing about the de- 
 sirability of the union said, " By the union 
 Ireland would soon be enabled to pay a mil- 
 lion a year toward the taxes of Great Britain 
 beside the full support of their own establish- 
 ment." Then comes this remarkable pas- 
 sage (which displays the desire of the shark 
 
126 The Union, 
 
 to unite with its prey) : " As England does 
 already possess no inconsiderable share of 
 the lands of Ireland, so the union would 
 prove an effectual method to vest the rest 
 in her; for as the riches of Ireland would 
 chiefly return to England, she containing the 
 seat of the empire, the few Irish landlords 
 left would be little better than tenants to her 
 for allowing them the privilege of making 
 the best of their estates." 
 
 The fear of a French invasion was also a 
 reason for the establishment of the union. 
 " Had Napoleon taken his fleet to Ireland 
 instead of to Egypt, the power of England 
 might have been annihilated, and in after 
 years Napoleon saw how fatal had been his 
 error ; but Pitt and the other English states- 
 men saw the danger at the time, and know- 
 ing the widespread disaffection in Ireland, 
 they perceived as Napoleon did not, that, 
 invaded by a French fleet the Ireland of 1798 
 might have become a French province to 
 the inevitable ruin of the British empire." 
 
 This deep-seated fear (felt though not 
 acknowledged) having taken possession of 
 England's rulers it became an incentive for 
 
The Union. 127 
 
 the most powerful efforts that could be put 
 forth for national preservation, and a survey 
 of the field developed all that diplomacy 
 could devise, all that stratagem combined 
 with military power, could accomplish, aided 
 by bribery and intimidation. 
 
 With the general view of making the Act 
 of Union more likely to pass, even though it 
 might not be popular, the Act of Catholic 
 Emancipation was discussed and virtually 
 promised. This act had already become 
 popular with the Irish people — Protestants 
 as well as Catholics. Lord Fitzwilliam was 
 appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 He was known to be favorable to such an 
 act, and numerous petitions for its enact- 
 ment were sent to him on his arrival in the 
 country. 
 
 In February, 1795, Grattan brought in a 
 bill which Sir William Pitt, then Prime 
 Minister, approved ; but the king announc- 
 ing his opposition, Pitt was obliged to reverse 
 his policy or resign his office ; he preferred 
 the former course ; the Lord Lieutenant 
 was recalled, his appointments reversed, and 
 Grattan's bill was supported by a minority 
 
128 The Union. 
 
 of only forty-eight. The cup of concession, 
 held thus temptingly to the lips of Ireland, 
 was dashed away by royal caprice ; the 
 people were exasperated, and the rebellion of 
 1 798 soon made its dreadful record. Seventy 
 thousand persons perished in this intermit- 
 tent civil war if that may be called a civil war 
 which is represented on one side by a power- 
 ful and rapacious army and on the other by 
 a people enfeebled by poverty, weighed down 
 by superstition, and only sustained by a sense 
 of inalienable right, a love of home and fire- 
 side, the renown of their ancestry treasured 
 in legendary ballad and historical record, 
 and in such race inter-lineaments as assured 
 them of their rightful heritage. 
 
 In order to veil a portion of the heinous- 
 ness of this act, it was thought necessary to 
 make it appear to be a measure popular 
 with the people. Lord Cornwallis there- 
 fore travelled through a portion of the 
 country obtaining signatures to a petition 
 for the union ; these he secured by persua- 
 sion, intimidation, dissimulation, and under 
 or while martial law was in operation. He 
 succeeded in obtaining about three thou- 
 
The Union. 129 
 
 sand names, while the patriot party obtained 
 about seven hundred and ' seven thousand 
 signatures against the act. " Twenty-seven 
 counties," says Mr. Sheridan, " declared 
 against the union, and with these there 
 would have been included, if martial law 
 had not been proclaimed and prevented 
 the intended meetings, the counties of An- 
 trim and Slisfo. If the measure was thus to 
 be carried I have no hesitation in saying 
 that it was an act of tyranny and oppression, 
 and must become the fatal source of new 
 discontents and future rebellions." 
 
 An ugly feature of this conspiracy of 
 diplomacy and power was the subornation 
 of the Independent Parliament of Ireland, 
 known as Grattan's Parliament. At a time 
 when the country had become comparatively 
 prosperous through equitable laws adminis- 
 tered by it in the interest of that country, 
 this Parliament was virtually annulled by 
 the suborning of a large majority of its 
 members by British bribes and a terrorizing 
 diplomacy. 
 
 The purchase of representative boroughs 
 and the unseating of members not favorable 
 
130 The Union. 
 
 to the union are well-authenticated facts 
 which " he who runs may read." This latter 
 move was effected by a technical perversion 
 of the " Place Bill " and by substituting mem- 
 bers to vote for the union, though against 
 their every sense of right, and the proffer of 
 English peerages. 
 
 Thus what all other means could not do 
 w r as effected by bribery and political corrup- 
 tion. " Twenty-two Irish peerages," it is 
 stated, " were created, five peers received 
 English peerages, and twenty peers received 
 higher titles." 
 
 When defending himself in the state 
 trials before a jury composed exclusively of 
 Unionists, Mr. O'Connell affirmed without 
 fear of contradiction : " You know that there 
 were one million two hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand pounds actually spent in the 
 purchase of rotten boroughs. You know 
 that there were three million pounds besides 
 expended in actual payment of the persons 
 who voted for the union." 
 
 Mr. Lecky says : " The ministers, by 
 money and dignities, had bought almost 
 all the great nomination borough owners, 
 
The Union. 131 
 
 as well as a large proportion of the members, 
 and this made their success certain." 
 
 Each seat was valued at seven thousand 
 five hundred pounds, and the whole sum 
 awarded amounted to one million two hun- 
 dred and sixty thousand pounds. 
 
 The proposition was at first defeated in 
 the Irish Parliament by a vote of one hun- 
 dred and nine to one hundred and four. 
 Public enthusiasm ran high and the illumi- 
 nation of Dublin attested the feeling of the 
 people; *» 
 
 Two days after the defeat of the measure 
 in the Irish House of Commons Lord Corn- 
 wall is wrote a secret and confidential letter 
 to the Duke of Cortland, in which he says : 
 
 " The late experiment has shown the im- 
 possibility of carrying the measure, which is 
 contrary to the private interests of those 
 who are to decide it, and which is not sup- 
 ported by the country at large." 
 
 The measure was carried, however, on 
 June 7, 1800, and received the royal assent 
 on August 2nd of the same year ; " the pro- 
 longed struggle between the Patriot party 
 and the British cabinet' was for the time 
 
132 The Union. 
 
 concluded and " an independent kingdom 
 began to be governed by alien officials in 
 whose selection she had no voice ; her Na- 
 tional Parliament filled with nominees of 
 these officials, and of the House of Lords." 
 
 The Act of Union became operative in 
 1 80 1, and was in that year sustained by a 
 standing army of one hundred and twenty- 
 nine thousand two hundred and fifty-eight 
 men; an increase from less than eight thou- 
 sand, used to crush the rebellion of 1798, 
 which was intended to express the popular 
 will against the union. 
 
 This was an earjy fruit of the " peace 
 and good will " promised to result from the 
 union. 
 
 It is a well-acknowledged principle in the 
 courts of the civilized world, that a contract 
 which has been brought about by misrepre- 
 sentation or fraud is not only voidable, but 
 void ab initio, and that it is the duty of 
 courts of equity to not only declare such 
 contracts void, but, if possible, to place the 
 parties in the same position as they were 
 before the contract was entered into. When 
 England returns to Ireland her " Home 
 
The Union. 133 
 
 Rule," and makes such disposition of the 
 Land Question as is just and equitable, she 
 will then have but complied with the origi- 
 nal rules of justice that are compelled be- 
 tween man and man. 
 
 If, however, the means used to carry the 
 union had been lawful and right, and if 
 the action of the Irish Parliament had been 
 unbiased by fraud or intimidation, the ques- 
 tion may still be asked, Where did that Par- 
 liament get its authority to annul the Irish 
 constitution and to deliver the government 
 to England? 
 
 The people of Ireland, as far as they had 
 a voice, sent their delegates to Dublin to 
 make laws under the constitution of Ireland 
 and for that commonwealth, but instead of 
 doing what they were elected to do, they 
 arrogated to themselves the power to trans- 
 fer their authority to the Parliament at 
 Westminster. Lord Chancellor Plunkett de- 
 nied the competency of the Irish Parliament 
 to do this act in the most express terms. " I 
 warn you," he said, " do not lay your hands 
 on the constitution ; I tell you that if, circum- 
 stanced as you are, you pass this act, it will 
 
134 The Union. 
 
 be a mere nullity, and no man in Ireland 
 will be bound to obey it ; you have not been 
 elected for that purpose ; you were elected 
 to make laws, and appointed to exercise 
 the functions of legislators, not to transfer 
 them ; you are appointed "to act under the 
 constitution, not to destroy it." 
 
 This was sound doctrine, founded on the 
 immutable laws of right and reason, but it 
 did not prevail, and Ireland's constitution and 
 government were taken by force. 
 
 Froucle says: "If there be one lesson 
 which history clearly teaches, it is this: that 
 free nations cannot govern subject provinces. 
 If they are unable or unwilling to admit 
 their dependencies to share their own con- 
 stitution, the constitution itself will fall in 
 pieces from mere incompetence for its duties." 
 
 May it not be that the spirit of Anglican 
 Liberty long outraged b>y England in her 
 treatment of Ireland, is now an avenging 
 anofel fio-htins: Ireland's cause ; and that the 
 forces thus working out her salvation, are 
 the silent forces protecting the Englishman 
 in his constitutional rights ? 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOME RULE. 
 
 GREAT epochs in the progress of con- 
 stitutional liberty have been marked 
 by popular agitation, by sanguinary strife, 
 legislative controversy and judicial decisions. 
 The Irish cause now attracting the attention 
 of the world is marked by these distinguish- 
 ing features. It is kin to Israel's revolt 
 from Egyptian task-makers ; its leaders are 
 brother patriots of those of Sparta, Greece, 
 Poland, Hungary, Switzerland. Its princi- 
 ples are justified by the Magna Charta and 
 the Bill of Rights ; by the American Declar- 
 ation of Independence and the Emancipation 
 Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Why should it be thought a thing incred- 
 ible that a people with clearly marked race 
 and creed distinctions, with an individual 
 history and a national spirit, and dwelling in 
 a country separated from all others by tem- 
 
 13s 
 
136 Home Rule, 
 
 pestuous seas, should desire self-government ? 
 When it is remembered that Ireland is such 
 a country and that for hundreds of years she 
 was unconquered, while her neighbor Eng- 
 land yielded to successive invasions, is it 
 surprising that she now protests against a 
 government of injustice and coercion ? Is it 
 strange that after seeing for centuries such 
 power of oppression wielded by a foreign 
 government the Irish people should believe 
 in a home government ? 
 
 Their claim for Home Rule for Ireland is 
 justified: — 
 
 Because the ri^ht of self-government in- 
 heres in individuals and in states. 
 
 Because it is a crime against the spirit of 
 liberty to govern a state by mere force of 
 numbers and military power, when that state 
 has demanded self-government. 
 
 Because the crime is increased when this 
 coercive government is imposed upon a 
 once free people, with race peculiarities and 
 national aspirations. 
 
 Because insult is added to injury when 
 such usurpation and coercion are continued 
 under the mockery of constitutional forms. 
 
Home Rule. 137 
 
 Various notions obtain among the Irish 
 themselves, as to wherein Home Rule would 
 affect their present condition. The hillside 
 tenant on the sterile holding where his 
 fathers lived and died, remembers the 
 legends of his childhood, of the wild life of 
 his clan, unfettered by Parliamentary decree 
 or landlord's claim ; his dream of Home 
 Rule may be of a life as untrammeled by 
 governmental interference. Others under 
 the sting of oppressive landlordism, and 
 knowing England as the power which sent 
 the armed constable and mounted hussar 
 to enforce the landlord's cruel eviction pro- 
 cess, hate England, and believe that a 
 complete separation from her would bring 
 Ireland's national millennium. 
 
 But by far the larger and more influential 
 part of the people are intelligent students of 
 political systems ; they know the forms of 
 Home Rule under which Canada, Australia 
 and other English colonies maintain har- 
 monious relations with the mother country. 
 They have close connections with the Irish 
 in America and an intimate knowledge of 
 our republican institutions ; their leaders in 
 
138 Home Rule. 
 
 the House of Commons are the peers of 
 English and American statesmen ; they de- 
 sire local government and an Irish Parlia- 
 ment for purely local and Irish affairs, with 
 relations to the Imperial Parliament similar 
 in outline to such as exist between our 
 States and the Government at Washington. 
 They know that the details of these rela- 
 tion will be settled by the power which con- 
 fers on them local government. They also 
 know that some adjustment of the land 
 question must precede or accompany their 
 desired Home Rule. Mr. Gladstone's meas- 
 ure recognized this necessity, and presented 
 a plan for land purchase. 
 
 Knowing the dual nature of the remedy 
 which must be administered to Ireland's 
 diseased body, we remember that during the 
 present century the Imperial Parliament has 
 been again and again informed by its own 
 committees and commissioners, that the 
 land trouble was a comprehensive cause of 
 continued distress. Not until recent years, 
 however, has it attempted to remedy the 
 cause of this distress, but it has by direct 
 legislation augmented the power of the land- 
 
Home Rule. 139 
 
 lord and rejected measures offered to allevi- 
 ate the condition of the tenant. 
 
 If Ireland were governed by a Dublin 
 Parliament actually representing the Irish 
 people, such unequal legislation would be 
 unknown. Home Rule would not build 
 better houses for the tenant; it would not 
 mend his fences, reclaim his waste lands "or 
 teach him better methods of farming; it 
 would not revoice silent mills, restore dis- 
 mantled factories, reanimate prostrate in- 
 dustries, but with the conscious dignity of 
 self government would come to the people 
 as a whole a responsible activity and the 
 material and social blessings which follow in 
 its train. 
 
 Neither can the claim be sustained that 
 the Irish are a vicious people, full of sedi- 
 tion and crime, and thus incapable of self- 
 governtnent. It is reported through author- 
 itative channels that there is less crime in 
 Ireland than in England. The outrages so 
 loudly heralded are features of the agrarian 
 strife which rages and has raged for centuries. 
 This war cannot cease until the free untram- 
 meled cultivation of the soil, and the enjoy- 
 
140 Home Rule. 
 
 ment of the results of that labor, are guar- 
 anteed to the toiler and actual occupant. 
 It is a matter of surprise that so much 
 oppression has been so patiently endured. 
 The power to bear thus exhibited is an es- 
 sential element in national independence. 
 An official report given in 1849 by one Cap- 
 tain Kennedy is filled with shocking details 
 of forcible ejectments, some of which had 
 not even the apology of technical legality. 
 The report states, " These ruthless acts of 
 barbarity are submitted to with an unre- 
 sisting patience hardly credible/' To this 
 Sir Robert Peel remarks, " Such tragical 
 instances I do not believe were ever pre- 
 sented, either in point of fact or as conjured 
 up even in the imagination of any human 
 being." 
 
 Is not intemperance a fruitful source of 
 poverty and ignorance ? Certainly. Ireland 
 is no exception to the rule; drink debases 
 there as it does in England and the United 
 States, although not to any greater extent. 
 The name of Father Mathew is still revered, 
 and his memory yet wields a mighty influ- 
 ence for good. There exists a growing 
 
Home Rule. 141 
 
 temperance sentiment, and the League of 
 the Cross is an effective total abstinence 
 
 society. 
 
 Many of the Irish leaders are temperance 
 men, and will be willing and anxious to 
 embody the sentiment of the people in tem- 
 perance legislation. As stated before, the 
 Irish Parliament years ago desired restrict- 
 ive legislation, but England refused to listen 
 to the plea, claiming that she must have the 
 revenue ! 
 
 It is urged by opponents of the Irish 
 cause that Home Rule would be " Rome 
 Rule," and attention is called to the fact that 
 Papacy to-day exerts more complete sway in 
 Ireland than in any country on the earth. 
 
 Great apprehension is expressed lest the 
 existing overwhelming Catholic majority in 
 social intercourse, in educational work, in 
 business and trade would grow unbearably 
 arrogant and insufferably intolerant if its 
 present power were supplemented by politi- 
 cal ascendency. It is even honestly feared 
 that this ascendency might assume the form 
 of religious persecution, and the future 
 equal the past in secret, if not in open out- 
 
142 Home Rule. 
 
 rage. The history of Ireland proves too 
 much to justify this apprehension. The 
 most appalling outrages of the past have 
 been between opposing faiths, but not 
 chiefly because of these faiths. Hereditary 
 family or tribal feuds, conflicting systems of 
 laws, agrarian controversies, and contested 
 military supremacy, have entailed these in- 
 humanities. 
 
 Banners bearing emblems of political faith 
 have been waved, shibboleths of creeds have 
 been uttered, but the real cause has been 
 found in conditions quite foreign to religion 
 or creed. 
 
 It was not Puritanism and psalm-singing 
 as opposed to the mass and the confessional 
 that brought gory ascendency to the Crom- 
 wellian conquest, neither was inquisitorial 
 malignity the great conspirator in the mas- 
 sacres of 1 64 1 or the rebellion of 1798. 
 
 Let it not be forgotten that England was 
 a Catholic country during the earlier cent- 
 uries of her conquests in Ireland, and that 
 the fruitage of present hatred ripened on 
 trees planted when these nations were of 
 common faith. The parties to the present 
 
Home Rule. 14 
 
 •A 
 
 controversies are of both faiths ; Gladstone 
 is a champion of English Protestantism as 
 represented by the established church, Par- 
 nell is a Protestant Dissenter, Dillon and 
 William O'Brien are Catholics, the magis- 
 trates before whom O'Brien was tried were 
 also Catholics, as are some of the most 
 obnoxious landlords. Ireland's long contro- 
 versy has been a revolt against England's 
 policy of conquest, rather than a revolt 
 aginst Protestantism, and Ireland has wel- 
 comed the supremacy of Rome as a shield 
 to her civil liberties as well as a dictator of 
 her faith. 
 
 At a great meeting in Dublin in the 
 summer of 1887, the presiding officer was 
 the Very Reverend Dr. Walch, archbishop 
 of Dublin, supported on either side by three 
 Protestant members of the House of Com- 
 mons, who clearly stated their religious faith 
 and boldly declared their willingness to 
 "close up' when the ranks of Ireland's 
 defenders should be thinned by the political, 
 judicial or sanguinary slaughter of their 
 Catholic confreres. No sentiment finds 
 more enthusiastic response than declarations 
 
144 Home Rule. 
 
 of common interests 1 among those of oppos- 
 ing religious faiths. Is not the love for 
 liberty which finds utterance in the demand 
 for self-government a .universal sentiment? 
 Does it not rise to the dignity of a human 
 instinct, always operative, except under in- 
 dividual and national demoralization con- 
 sequent upon servitude ? Will English 
 Protestantism concede that Irish Catholi- 
 cism is more potent for evil than this uni- 
 versal love of liberty is potent for good ? 
 In shame and sorrow do all Protestants 
 remember that the required payments of 
 church tithes from Catholics to the English 
 Protestant Church, and the political disabili- 
 ties imposed by the English Church and the 
 property disabilities imposed by the Eng- 
 lish Government upon Irish Catholics are 
 the ghosts of the past that will not down, 
 and before which trembles the Britain of 
 to-day. 
 
 The iniquities of the fathers are visited 
 upon the children unto the third and fourth 
 generation, and conscience makes a mighty 
 nation a coward. But bigotry and revenge 
 which may survive tyranny and war, cannot 
 
Home Rule, 145 
 
 long exist under the toleration and peace of 
 political and civil liberty. 
 
 To take a retrospective view of the politi- 
 cal relations existing between England and 
 Ireland, covering a period of several cent- 
 uries, to note the conflicting interests there 
 delineated, and to condense these experiences 
 and conflicts into the short space of a few 
 pages, and therefrom render an indictment 
 against any of the later English Parliaments 
 as represented by the Government party 
 then in power, would seem to be an unjust 
 conclusion of the matter. 
 
 But when we see by a careful reading of 
 such historical data as have been preserved 
 from destruction, that the Government party 
 in the British Parliament for centuries has 
 almost invariably proceeded in one direction 
 they have seemed to consider the Irish as 
 a distinct race, and not naturally entitled to 
 equal political rights with their own sub- 
 jects, but that they were natural serfs, igno- 
 rant, belligerent and contumacious, having 
 no rights that Englismen were bound to 
 
146 Home Rule, 
 
 respect, we see how far the habit of power, 
 the greed of wealth, and a worldly vanity 
 upheld by an assumption of religious su- 
 premacy, have been efficient in destroying 
 the first simple and pure ideas of righteous- 
 ness, moral, social and political. 
 
 This high and holy principle has been 
 sacrificed times without number. 
 
 From such a view we are led to conclude 
 that the indictment against the whole En^- 
 lish Government is correct, when this indict- 
 ment declares that there is scarce one 
 redeeming quality in the policy that has 
 been maintained by that Government during 
 these long years, but rather that there is but 
 little parallel in history, either among bar- 
 baric or half-civilized tribes of men, to such 
 rapacious cruelty, such unjust assignment of 
 political rights, as is here presented. 
 
 Such, indeed, seems to be the case, and 
 what the leading Christian nation of the 
 world should have done was not to vie 
 with semi-barbaric tribes in all the riot and 
 glut of power after a conquest, but with this 
 power still remaining in their hands, seek to 
 govern by such politic measures as would 
 
Home Rule. 147 
 
 have assured the conquered people that 
 their real prosperity, order and just law, were 
 the purpose of the dominating power they 
 should have shown ; and then the Act of 
 " Union ' would have taken possession of 
 the hearts of the Irish people, and the Brit- 
 ish Empire stand before the world, what she 
 claims herself to be, the rightful exponent of 
 the bravest and best among nations. 
 
 Would that it were so, and then we would 
 not be compelled to search long and unsuc- 
 cessfully for some redeeming quality, some 
 justifying relation of things to excuse these 
 acts of aggressive power. 
 
 While we of America condemn England's 
 tarcly justice and her actual criminality to- 
 wards Ireland, let us remember that we are 
 of the same stock ; her ancestors are ours ; 
 her history until within a little more than 
 a hundred years is our history. We of this 
 young nation have a clear field, an open 
 arena. We have escaped the duty of solv- 
 ing questions which the accretions of time 
 and the complications of dense populations 
 
148 Home Rule. 
 
 have left in the path of English progress ; 
 more severe tests than any yet endured 
 are before this young republic. Shall the 
 smouldering fires of municipal misrule, of 
 the alcoholic liquor traffic, of anarchy, con- 
 sume our institutions, or shall our struggle 
 with them purify our national character ? 
 
 What are the evils, and what the reme- 
 dies ? Upon a conscientious solution is the 
 welfare of our nation dependent. Many of 
 these evils are the direct outcome of real 
 and fancied evils in our system of land 
 tenure, which we have seen to be the fruit- 
 ful cause of Ireland's distress. The careless 
 thinker may scoff, but it is easier to sneer 
 at the theories of Henry George than to pa- 
 tiently study conditions which, even in a land 
 so favored as is ours, already cause distress 
 and suffering. In the immediate past, our 
 ready answer to all suggestions of agrarian 
 discontent has been to point to our immense 
 West. But what was once known as the 
 Great American Desert, now knocks for 
 admission as a State, while pleasant farms 
 and thriving villages fill the territory beyond, 
 once unknown save to the Indian and trap- 
 
Home Rule. 149 
 
 per. Remembering that the best land is 
 always taken first, and that as the quantity 
 of land remaining decreases, so does the 
 quality of the land depreciate, and that 
 much of what was once our country's patri- 
 mony is now held by speculative syndicates, 
 many of them composed of foreign aristo- 
 crats, we cannot settle the question by drafts 
 upon resources which no longer exist. Our 
 unemployed can no longer be calmly referred 
 to Western land as the panacea for all their 
 complaints. We have had our Haymarket 
 Square. Let us beware lest that sudden 
 outburst become a flowing lava stream of 
 menace. To England, with her crowded 
 population and small area, these problems 
 have come in all their intensity. Similar 
 questions confront us, although the con- 
 ditions under which they must be solved 
 are much more favorable. 
 
 At our first constitutional centennial we 
 do well to set up our monuments of prog- 
 ress, but we do better to observe the ruins 
 of history. Observing these failures in 
 governmental policy, these inhumanities of 
 aggressive power, these disasters of national 
 arrogance, may we avoid a like calamity. 
 
There is nothing more refreshing to pick up in 
 odd minutes than a bright collection out of the 
 jX)etry of all time of the brightest on almost no 
 matter what subject, even the weather. 
 
 Through the Year with the Poets, edited by Oscar Fay 
 Adams. A volume a month of about 140 pages each, with 
 ample indices. 16mo, cloth, 75 cents each; parti-colored cloth, 
 $1.00. 
 
 And dainty book-making has much to do with 
 the pleasure of scrappy reading. 
 
 New Every Morning, a year-book for girls, by 
 Annie H. Ryder, is a helpful thought or two, out of 
 current writers mainly, for every day in the year; 
 not religious, but chosen for serious aptitude to 
 the state of things in the world we live in. 196 
 pages. Square lGmo, cloth. $1.00 
 
 Notable Prayers of Christian ITisiory. By Ilez- 
 ekiah Butterworth. So far as we k.iow, there is 
 no other book in which are gathered the notable 
 prayers of devout men of all times with their 
 biographical and historical connections. 30f pages. 
 16mo, cloth, 1.00. 
 
 Let not the bookseller venture a word on sc ab- 
 struse a subject as Browning. 
 
 Christmas Eve and Easter Day, and Other Poems. By 
 Robert Browning. Introduction by W. J. Rolfe. The Theory 
 of Robert Browning concerning Personal Immortality by 
 Ileloise Edwina Hersey. With notes. 175 pag :s. 16mo, cloth, 
 75 cents. 
 
 For Browning Classes and Clubs. The text is 
 -in very generous type. 
 
 Faith and Action is an F. D. Maurice Anthology. 
 Preface by Phillips Brooks. The subjects are: 
 Life, Men, Reforms, Books, Art, Duty, Aspira- 
 tion, Faith. 269 pages. 12mo, cloth, $1-00. 
 
Quito a new sort of history. School days over, 
 four girl friends return to their homes and life 
 begins. As often happens, life is not as they 
 picture it. What it was for the four and how 
 they met it you shall read in the quiet book. 
 
 After School Days. By Christina Goodwin. 196 pages. 
 12mo, cloth, $1.00. 
 
 It is a comforting fact a thousand times that 
 nobody knows, to be sure of it, what is good for 
 him or her. Disappointments are often shorn of 
 their bitterness by the remembrance of it. Often 
 what we look forward to, hope for, strive for, 
 make ourselves anxious about, turns out to be of 
 no particular value; and what we fear and strive 
 against turns out good fortune. Rarely is this 
 practical wisdom made so sure as in this whole- 
 some history out of the stuff that dreams are 
 made of. 
 
 A practical help for a girl to surround herself 
 with pleasant things without much shopping. The 
 book is mainly filled with ways to exercise taste 
 on waste or picked-up things for use with an eye 
 to decoration as well. 
 
 For a Girl's Room. By Some Friends of the Girls. 236 
 pages. 12mo, cloth, $1.00. 
 
 A friendly sort of a book to fill odd minutes, 
 whether at home or out, for herself or another. 
 By no means on " fancy-work" — not all work — 
 Chapter XXI is How to Tame Birds and XXV is 
 What to Do in Emergencies. 
 
How to Cook Well is promising title. The an- 
 thor, J. Rosalie Benton. We light on tins sen- 
 tence on breakfast: "Yet in how many families 
 is it the custom to send the master of the house 
 to his daily round of business with an unsatisfied 
 feeling after partaking of a hurried meal alto- 
 gether unpalatable ! " That is still more promis- 
 ing. There are 400 pages of performance. 12mo, 
 cloth, $1.50. 
 
 One of the ways to get some notions of things 
 Into young folks' heads without any work on their 
 part is to tell them stories and weave in the 
 knowledge. 
 
 Another way is to make a book of such stories. 
 The book has the advantage of the story-teller. 
 It can be full of pictures ; and one can be more 
 careful in making a book than in talking. If his 
 memory slips a little, he can stop and hunt up the 
 facts. 
 
 Story Book of Science. By Lydia Hoyt Farmer. Illus- 
 trated. 330 pages. 12mo, cloth, $1.50. 
 
 There are twenty different stories and seventy 
 five pictures. A surprising number of bits of 
 knowledge are woven and pictured in ; and the 
 book is as light and easy as if it were nonsense. 
 
 There's so much to know nowadays. Children 
 have to begin before they know it. 
 
 Waifs and their Authors is a collection, by A. 
 A. Hopkins, of poetry worthy of preservation, 
 mainly out of newspapers and by living writers 
 not yet ranked as Poets — with notes, personal, 
 biographical, critical, genial always, under twenty- 
 one names. 317 pages. 
 
The family Flights, by Edward Everett Hale 
 and Susan Hale, are a series of book journeys 
 through the several countries with eyes and ears 
 wide open, old eyes and young eyes, and ears. The 
 books are full of pictures, and fuller of knowl- 
 edge not only of what is going on but what has 
 gone on ever since book-making began, and fuller 
 >et of brightness and interest. You see the old as 
 old ; but you see it ; you see where it was and the 
 marks it left. You see the new with eyes made 
 sharper by knowledge of what has gone on in the 
 world. 
 
 In other words these books amount to some- 
 thing like going through these places with a trav- 
 eling-companion who knows all about them and 
 their histories. 
 
 They are written and pictured for boys and 
 girls : but there is nothing to hinder the old folks 
 going along. Will you go? 
 
 Family Flight through Franco, Germany, Norway and 
 Switzerland. 405 pages. 
 
 Family Flight over Egypt and Syria. 38S pages. 
 
 Family Flight through Spain. 360 pages. 
 
 Family Flight around Home (which means about Boston/ 
 366 pages. 
 
 Family Flight, through Mexico. 300 pages. 
 
 Each 8vo, boards, $1.75 ; cloth, $2.25. 
 
 One of the most effective means of exciting 
 and satisfying zeal for knowledge of the world we 
 have in books. 
 
 A good book for young folks is Ned Mel- 
 bourne's Mission, not too good to have a spice of 
 life and adventure, but with that indirect influence 
 for good thinking and good doing that is more 
 potent than a sermon to young people. 
 
 Ned Melbourne's Mission. 12mo, cloth, $1.50. 
 

Date Due 
 
 -M-^r 
 
 um 
 
 °^' H ?qq\ 
 
㤠OSTON COLLEGE 
 
 3 9031 01211347 
 
 8 
 
 Boston College 
 The Library 
 
 Chestnut Hill 67, Mass. 
 
 Books may be kept for two weeks unless a short- 
 er time is specified. 
 
 Two cents a day is charged for each 2-week book 
 kept overtime; 25 cents a day for each overnight 
 book. 
 
 If you cannot find what you want, inquire at 
 the delivery desk for assisstance. 
 
 /t5\