DAVITT’S LIFE 
 
 IN 
 
 }3Y 
 
 ONE WHO KNEW HIM. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 PRINTED BY W. J. ALLEY & CO., 
 9 RYDER'S ROW, CAPEL STREET. 
 
 1S81. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/davittslifeinsunOOdavi 
 
 I 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 - :o: - 
 
 DxVVITT’S LIFE: 
 
 IN SUNSHINE AND SHADE. 
 
 ■ ■ « -:o: -- 
 
 On Thursday, the 3rd of February, 1881, it is to be hoped, 
 for humanity’s sake, there were few hearts of men in which, 
 there were not some feelings of pain, or shame, or indignation, 
 when it was known to them that the Liberal English Government 
 had arrested Michael Davitt for violating the conditions of his 
 ticket-of-leave. The conceiver of a scheme of agitation whose 
 success has well-nigh peacefully revolutionized a nation, and 
 attracted the interested attention of two hemispheres to this 
 hitherto almost unnoticed land ; the rescuer of thousands of his 
 countrymen, first from the horrors of starvation, next from the 
 shackles of a slavery which morally and actually degraded 
 them ; the honest hero of millions of people at two sides of the 
 Atlantic; the undoubted wielder of a power which a monarch 
 might envy ; at the same time a solitary individual whose every 
 word and every step were open to the light of day, who sought 
 no secrecy, and obeyed the law—that such a man as this should 
 be seized by a powerful Government and cast manacled into a 
 dungeon, in the convict dress of shame, to herd with murderers, 
 garotters, and thieves, the hell-growth of a population’s depravity, 
 was an act which might well rouse the dark exasperation of his 
 friends and the indignation of all honest men. Michael Davitt 
 is all that we have said and more, and men of every party, so 
 they be just, must acknowledge it. He is a social and political 
 
4 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 re^rmer, with a high and noble purpose, and a grasp of mind' 
 and a strength of will that fits him for the carrying out of" 
 such a purpose. He is a patriot who loved his country 
 even unto dungeons and death. He is an enthusiast, with the 
 indomitable courage of an enthusiast, who recks of no danger, 
 but an enthusiast who never loses his head, always preserving 
 the even balance of his judgment, and his clear, cool faculties 
 in every emergency. He is a man made to be the leader in a ■ 
 mighty struggle, and in his position in the Irish Land Move¬ 
 ment, he was the right man in the right place. These things 
 none dare gainsay of him. If he was the foe of an aristocratic 
 oligarchy, he was an open foe that stood on an honourable 
 ground. He was an adversary worthy of any steel, and in the 
 battle-ground of honourable politics he was pre-eminently 
 worthy of being fought with his own weapons. It is not fitting- 
 here to enter into a political controversy, nor is it intended. But 
 one cannot approach the consideration of Michael Davitt in any 
 reg’ard, without noting this most essential and unavoidable 
 aspect; without marking well, as it shall be marked in history, 
 this strange, monstrous incongruity of such a man in a convict 
 prison as a criminal, while the ministers wdio have put him there, 
 vaunt of building up the glory of their administration out of 
 the state of things, which he—emphatically he, visibly to the- 
 whole world—with labour, and thought and struggle unceasing, 
 heroically brought about. 
 
 In this regard the iniquity of jaildom stands out the most- 
 obtrusively. But there is another aspect in wdiich it is none the 
 less shocking and repulsive Political admirers may marvel and 
 storm at it; but it is those who had the good fortune to know 
 Michael Davitt’s personal character who will feel the real pang. 
 With all his stern characteristics, it is not hj'perbole to say 
 that the founder of the Irish National Land League is as gentle 
 as a w^oman. With a heart naturally generous, as all great and 
 brave hearts are, he was softened and not hardened by his terrible 
 sufferuigs. Not ignorant of miseries himself, he learned to 
 succour the miserable. In his daily intercourse he w^as kindly 
 to every man, and his natural; courteous manners, and modest- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5 
 
 'winning mien gained him favour amongst all who encountered 
 him. To his friends, need it be said, in what relation this noble 
 nature stood in the period of his liberty. Leal” and “ true” are 
 ,good words; they are feeble of meaning here. But why proceed 
 in analytical generalities ? A single illustration is worth a 
 thousand descriptions ; and there is not wanting one illus¬ 
 tration, which of itself should be an index to Michael Davitt’s 
 whole character. In the year 1870, while he stood in 
 a British dock, tried by a British judge—the present Chief 
 -^Justice Cockburn—and when an informer whom he never saw in 
 his hfe until he appeared in the Court (Corydon, of unblessed 
 memory) swore away his liberty, there stood beside him in the 
 dock an innocent young fellow, Wilson by name, charged with 
 the same “ offence,” whose liberty was also sworn away. 
 AVilson had no connection with the Fenian movement whatso- 
 -ever. Nevertheless,* both w’ere convicted and sentenced— 
 Michael Davitt to fifteen years and AVilson to seven years’ penal 
 .servitude. It was at this supreme moment that the soul of 
 Davitt spoke out of him, and be his action cherished in Irish 
 memory as a glorious incentive to noble deeds for many a day. 
 “ My lord ! ” said he, in effect, “ AVilson is entirely innocent. I 
 alone am guilty of whatever offence there is. Let AVilson go, 
 and I will serve his seven years when I have served my own 
 fifteen.” But the law had to take its cruel course irrespective 
 of justice or noble actions. And this is the man, this is the 
 Michael Davitt whom the Press of an enlightened nation jibe at 
 for his convict’s dress and his ticket-of-leave; and at whose 
 -arrest and fresh prosecution the Senate of that nation, the 
 Legislative assembly of hundreds of British gentlemen,” 
 .shouted in a cowardly shout of savage and exultant joy. 
 Be this WTit down, and remembered to their lasting humiliation 
 and disgrace. 
 
 This rare man passed a life, unsullied from the earliest 
 record of it. Through his first scene of striving in the movement 
 to free his country by force. Through the frightful period of 
 his imprisonment, through the too-brief term of his liberty, and 
 • down to the very latest moment of it, till he was (bagged back 
 io the jail-hell again, his actions and his prmciples w^ere con- 
 
f 
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sisjently the same. He preached to -men the doctrine of God^s 
 justice and mercy; he preached devotion to fatherland; he 
 preached determination and fearlessness; and, above all, he 
 preached peace. It is a splendid and consoling thing to have on 
 record that the very day before he was seized by the detectives^ 
 his last words were an admonition to the people to be peaceable 
 and not to stain their souls with outrage or crime. It is also a 
 proud thing to think that his last written words were equally 
 characteristic of him. They were his indignant denial of the 
 statement that he was about to fly from danger on the Coercion 
 Bill being passed, and his brave announcement that he would 
 remain in Ireland and share the consequences of his acts. 
 
 How that he is again snatched from amongst them, his 
 countrymen and countrywomen will be loving—greedy of every 
 incident of his dark and glorious career. As a j)Oor tribute to 
 this feeling, the present little work has been compiled by one - 
 who knew Michael Davitt, and had the honour of being his 
 personal friend. Every fact is collected with care; a sketch is 
 given of his prison life, partly in his own words—words such as* 
 make the heart sick and the blood curdle in one’s veins; and 
 the short biography is complete down to the last that was seen 
 of him by eyes of friends, before he W’as spirited away from. 
 God’s light and freedom a second time. 
 
 Michael Davitt left a work for the Irish people to perform. 
 His cell to-day is brightened with the thought that they will 
 perform it, and that the hour is near at hand, when, given ta* 
 the sun and to his country again, the climax of glory for him in 
 this life shall have been reached, and his name enshrined forr 
 ever in the hagiology of Ireland’s martyrs. 
 
HIS BLAMELESS LIFE. 
 
 ■:o:’ 
 
 The best part of the life of this remarkable patriot has been 
 spent in faithfully and fearlessly serving Ireland, and the sun¬ 
 shine and the shades of that career must have been marked by 
 all who note the history of our times. For ten years Davitt’s 
 has been a prominent, though at times a hidden, figure in the 
 political annals of this country; and though, for seven long 
 and dreary years of the ten he was ground beneath the killing 
 discipline of a British prison, his memory was still fresh in the 
 minds of all who knew the man, or who had seen his noble con¬ 
 duct in the dock of the Old Bailey. It was in the year 1846 
 that Davitt was born at the picturesque village of Straid, a few 
 miles from Castlebar, in the County of Mayo. His father, who 
 was a small tenant-farmer, was cruelly evicted from his holding 
 in 1851. Young Davitt with his parents turned back upon the 
 country for which he has since suffered so much, and went to 
 reside in Lancashire. Here the family lived by honest industry 
 for a quarter of a century. When only nine years of age the 
 brave fellow sought employment in a cotton mill at Haslingden, 
 and it was here that he lost his right arm. When attending 
 some machinery one day the forearm got caught in a wheel, and 
 so serious were the injuries sustained that the surgeons resolved 
 upon amputating the arm right from the shoulder. Being thus 
 incapacitated from earning his livelihood with his hands, Davitt 
 turned his attention to his books, and at the Wesleyan school of 
 Haslingden he made fair progress. At sixteen years of age he 
 obtained a situation at a local post-ofiice as letter carrier; but 
 ever ambitious and desiring to better himself he became a com¬ 
 mercial traveller. He was next heard of in connection with a 
 charge, or rather a double charge of “ loitering at a London 
 railway station, with an unlawful intent,” and of conspiracy in 
 the Fenian movement. Davitt had been travelling for a firm 
 
8 
 
 ms BLAMELESS LIFE. 
 
 engaged in the manufacture of firearms, and, with John Wilson, 
 he was apprehended upon the 14th of May, 1870. Wilson, 
 Davitt still maintains, was perfectly innocent; but they were 
 both tried and convicted. The preliminary proceedings took 
 place upon the 3rd of June, before Mr. D’Eyncourt, the 
 magistrate, at Marylebone, when evidence was given connecting 
 Davitt with the despatch of firearms to Ireland. He was also 
 charged with the illegal possession of a parcel of fifty six- 
 chambered revolvers ; and, after being several times remanded, 
 he was at length committed to stand his trial at the Old Bailey 
 before Lord Chief Justice Cockburn. Tried upon the 20th of 
 July, he was convicted, as a matter of course, the nefarious 
 Corydon getting on the table, and sentenced to fifteen years’ 
 penal servitude. 
 
 Now Wilson’s conviction was to Davitt a source of the 
 greatest pain and trouble, for Davitt, even to this day, proclaims 
 that Wilson, who was a gunsmith of Newman-street, Birming¬ 
 ham, was as innocent of the charge laid against him as the 
 babe unborn. When Wilson was condemned to seven years’ 
 penal servitude, Davitt, in answer to one of the most splendid 
 impulses of his noble nature, as, after avowing Wilson’s inno¬ 
 cence, he sought the judge to add on his fellow-prisoner’s seven 
 years’ sentence to his own of fifteen, and send him to servitude 
 for twenty-two years ; but the judge declined to alter the terms 
 of his sentences, remarking, however, that nothing could be 
 more creditable to Davitt than his noble proposition. 
 
 Of the horrors of his piieon life I will speak in detail further 
 on. Here it will be sufficient to say that he lived through all the 
 hellish tortures of Millbank, Newgate, Dartmoor, and Ports¬ 
 mouth. The English jailers did their fiendish work like de¬ 
 mons, and on the 19th of December, 1877, Davitt, but the 
 shadow of his former self, was treated to a mock pardon. 
 “ British clemency ” came to his relief like a wolf in lamb’s 
 clothing. He was pardoned by the right hand of “ British 
 mercy,” and handed a ticket-of-leave with the left. The con¬ 
 ditions of the ticket made life out of doors almost as damnable 
 as it was in prison, but he left Dartmoor numbered and ticketed 
 like a garotter, a forger, or any other such villain of the class 
 that crowds the English jails. He reached Dublin soon after¬ 
 wards, upon a Sunday afternoon, in company with Sergeant 
 MacCarthy, and Messrs. O’Brien and Chambers, the other 
 pardoned” prisoners, and they were accorded a splendid 
 reception. They were almost torn asunder by the eager¬ 
 ness of the crowd, to shake their hands and bid them 
 
HIS BLAMELESS LIFE, 
 
 9 
 
 'welcome; the horses were taken from between the traces of 
 their carriages, and they were drawn in a grand triumphal 
 procession to the European Hotel, in Bolton Street, where the 
 crowd was so great that the honoured ones were obliged to enter 
 that establishment by the windows. What happened a few days 
 afterwards does not come within my province now, but I may 
 relate how deeply moved was Michael Davitt when in Morrisson's 
 Hotel he beheld poor McCarthy giving way to the burden of his 
 prison sufferings and breathing out his last. I recollect well the 
 evening of the “ legal murder ” as Davitt stood motionless and 
 immovable at the foot of the remains of his companion, looking 
 steadfastly with those coalblack piercing eyes of his upon 
 M/Carthy’s pale face, and I can now recall his very words, hissed 
 out between his teeth rather than spoken, when asked by some 
 one what had happened the ex-prisoner: “ He died,” said Davitt, 
 “from a British prison” ; and so thought a mixed jury of twelve 
 a few days afterwards. Poor McCarthy buried, Davitt took to 
 lecturing, and a series which he delivered in England and 
 Scotland, principally dealing with English prison life from a 
 political prisoner’s point of view, excited at the time a great deal 
 of attention. He was one of the witnesses examined on tli^e 
 Special Commission, which was opened in June, 1878, for the 
 purpose of inquiring into the working of the penal prisons, and 
 his evidence, which was most voluminous, was specially noted by 
 the Earl of Kimberley. Davitt during the time he was on the 
 table made some very excellent suggestions regarding the 
 classification of prisoners, and it was evident to all who heard him 
 examined that nothing had pained him more in prison than being 
 herded with reprieved murderers andnthieves. In July, 1879, he 
 set sail for America to see his mother and sister, who had been 
 there from the ^break-up of their Lancashire home, and on the 
 great, glorious and free Continent of the West he again lectured 
 with marvellous success. Beturning a few days before Christmas 
 of the same year, he for a short time contemplated engaging in 
 some commercial pursuit, but he resigned the ledger and counter 
 for the pen. He became the Irish representative of the Ihstou 
 Pilots and it was in this great paper that some of his earliest views 
 upon the Land Question were set out. He was the main organiser 
 of the Land League and one of its most devoted servants. No 
 journey was too far for Davitt if the ciy of distress came from a 
 sufiering tenant; no labour too great if he could alleviate the jjangs 
 of an eviction. Davitt was active in all quarters of tlie country, 
 and under his watchful care the League soon blossomed into one 
 of the most powerful institutions in the country. Scarce a 
 meeting was held tliat Davitt did not address, and if he was 
 absent from a platform in Sligo on a Sunday morning, papers 
 
10 
 
 HIS BLAMELESS LIFE. 
 
 would surely tell that he was engaged in the cause he loved so 
 well on that day in a neighbouring county. One of his speeches 
 —that delivered at Gurteen—brought him more trouble, as he 
 was arrested upon the 14th November, 1879, Superintendent 
 Mallon being in charge of the arresting party. The capture took 
 jdace at Davitt’s own house, in Amiens Street, in the morning, 
 and on the same night he was lodged in Sligo Jail, with Messrs. 
 Killen, B.L., and James Daly. They were to be tried in Dublin, 
 the two latter on a similar charge to that laid against Davitt, but 
 the prosecution was too absurd for the Government to*] attempt 
 beneath the gaze of a Dublin court audience, and so the matter 
 ended in smoke. 
 
 Davitt took another trip to America and collected an immense 
 sum of money for the Land League, his efforts in the Lecture Hall 
 being most successful. When he returned, the air was full of 
 rumours of prosecutions for speeches delivered in some of the 
 American cities, but no charge was made, and until the hour the 
 warrant for his apprehension was put in force he was an unceasing 
 and anxious member of the League. 
 
 V 
 
HIS PRISON TORTURES. 
 
 -;o:- 
 
 His trial, in ■which the vile John Joseph Corydou was the 
 convicting medium, lasted from July the 5th to July the 18th, 
 and on the evening of the latter day Davitt was condemned. 
 During the trial he was imiirisoned at Newgate, and upon the 
 29th of Jul}^ he was removed to Millbank, a convict prison close 
 to Westminster. Here he suffered great mental anguish ; and 
 in his records of prison life he speaks of the awful chimes of 
 “ Big Ben,” which seemed to him, as he lay in his dismal cell, 
 to mark the quarters as though they were indeed hours. Mill- 
 bank was a fearful den, full of loneliness—if the word may he 
 permitted—whilst the offscum of wicked, crime-loving London 
 suiTounded him upon all its dreary corridors. Here ten long 
 months were spent—ten months of utter gloom, of half starva¬ 
 tion, and of tortme, bodily as well as mental. The food was 
 somewhat better than he subsequenfly received at Dartmoor, and 
 consisted of—for breakfast, eight ounces of bread, three quarters 
 of a pint of cocoa; for dinner, four ounces of meat four days a 
 week, six ounces of bread, and a pound of potatoes. One day of" 
 the week he was allowed a pint of shins, of beef soup, and on 
 other days a pound of suet pudding. Upon Sundays the mid¬ 
 day meal was varied, and he had given him fourteen ounces of 
 bread, four ounces of cheese, and a pint of water, whilst the 
 supper consisted of a pint of “ skilly,” containing two ounces of 
 oatmeal. It was on the 25th of May, 1871, that one of the 
 warders of the prison practiced upon him a very cruel joke. He 
 came to the door of Davitt’s cell and told him that he was about 
 becoming the recipient of a free pardon. The news overjoyed 
 the convict, andhe counted the chimes of the same “Big Ben” with 
 much joy, that an hour previously had sounded so dismally in his 
 ears. He longed for evening, when once again he would throw 
 off the dress of shame, and would cross Westminster Bridge a free 
 
12 
 
 HIS PRISON TORTURES. 
 
 unfettered man; but this devil dressed in warder’s clothes had 
 only been to Davitt’s cell to play a cruel joke upon him; and 
 when he brought him along a corridor towards the exit gate of the 
 jail, and Davitt’s heart beat in joyous anticipation of his deliver¬ 
 ance, it was to hand him over to a couple of warders for transfer to 
 another prison. Dartmoor, a living, burning hell upon earth, 
 was the point of destination, and poor Davitt, chained hand and 
 foot, was railed from Paddington Station, upon the platform of 
 which he had been arrested, to the Devonshire town. Of this 
 British prison Davitt, and, indeed, all xirisoners, give a painful 
 account. In summer the stenches were sickening; whilst in 
 winter, fogs, rain, snow, or sleet were certain to play sad havoc 
 ux)on the constitutions of x3risoners who were in the least x^rone 
 to be dehcate. Davitt, writing of this pi’ison, says: — “ It is 
 <]uite a coiiimon occurrence at Dartmoor for men to he reported and 
 2mimhed for eatinff candles, hoot oil, and other repulsive articles; 
 and notirithstanding that a highly offensive smell is purposely given 
 to prison candks to prevent their being eaten instead of burned, men 
 are driven by a system of half starvation into an animal voracity, 
 and anything that a dog ivoidd eat is nowise repugnant to their 
 tastes. I have seen men eat old poultices found buried in 
 heaps of rubbish I teas assisting in carting away, and have seen 
 
 EITS OF CANDLE PULLED OUT OP THE PRISON CESSPOOL AND -EATEN 
 AFTER THE HUMAN SOIL WAS WIPED OFF THEM ! ! ! !” 
 
 And it was amongst men like these, and with such surround¬ 
 ings, that the best part of Michael Davitt’s life was filched away 
 by British Government. Here his occupation was breaking 
 
 PUTRID BONES, DRAVvHNG CART| LIKE A BEAST OF BURDEN, AND TURNING 
 THE HEA^W V/HEEL OF A LARGE CRANK. In JunC, 1872, he WaS 
 conveyed away in the dead of night to Portsmouth Prison, but 
 there the diet was too good, the x>lace too cheerful ^what a 
 mockery of the word) for a political prisoner, and very soon he 
 was back again to Dartmoor. At length the day of real sunshine 
 came, after over seven years of terrible sufierings, and upon the 
 19th of December, 1877, Davitt walked out of jail a free man, 
 at least a free man upon an accursed Ticket-of-Leave. All 
 through his jail experience he found his crime acted as an 
 incentive to the warders, governors, and other officers, to punish 
 him the more, and if any man on this side of the grave 
 sulfered great hardships with a meek humility, for a country 
 he loved so devotedly, that man most assuredly was Michael 
 Davitt. 
 
AKRESTED OX O’CONNELL BRIDGE. 
 
 ■:o:- 
 
 Upon Thursday, February 3rd, about two o’clock, Davitt 
 ouce agaiu found himself within the iron grasp of the British 
 law. The intention of his arrest was kept a profound secret by 
 the authorities in Scotland Yard, and neither Mr. Mallon, the 
 Chief of the Detective Department in Ireland, nor one of his staff, 
 was aware on Thursday morning that Davitt was ‘‘wanted.” 
 There crossed by the mail steamer that morning, Mr. William¬ 
 son, the Hamlet of all great dramas idayed out in Scotland Yard, 
 and Inspector Swansea, and they were armed with a warrant for 
 the principal of the Land League, signed by the Home Secretary 
 himself, who Tvas exercising a right which he has over all tickets- 
 of-leave, viz., the power of revoking them without assigning a 
 cause. It was the intention of the English detectives, after * 
 learning of Davitt’s whereabouts, to go out and get their prize 
 themselves; but Mr. Mallon adopted a course that must, in 
 some little measure, have been less distasteful to Davitt than if 
 he were “ picked up ”—this, I believe, is the pure technicality— 
 by the two Englishmen. Detective officer Sheridan was directed 
 by his Chief to go over to the Land League offices, in Sackville 
 Street, and tell Davitt that ho w^as wanted in the Lower Castle 
 Y^arcl. Sheridan, at an interval, was followed by half a dozen 
 “ G men,” as the occupants of Exchange Court arc called in the 
 newspapers, and he confronted Davitt in company with Messrs. 
 Hands and Bi'ennan, two of the traversers in the recent State 
 Trial, upon O’Connell Bridge. Davitt, on learning Sheridan’s 
 mission sent Messrs.Harris andBrennan back to the League offices 
 to transact some business, and bring him his great coat. “If,’ 
 said Davitt, “if it is this Ticket-of-Leave business they are 
 bringing against me, I am sure to have to travel ”—and the 
 brave advocate of the cause of the suffering tenantry of Ireland 
 never spoke truer words. Ho had to travel, and that very night 
 
14 
 
 ARRESTED ON o’cONNELL BRIDGE. 
 
 too. Sheridan suggested a cab, but Davitt preferred walking' 
 across, and he arranged with his custodians to proceed in front of 
 them. Williamson, at the Castle, read the warrant with a glib 
 tongue, which showed that he had read many a hundred such 
 documents, and then Davitt handed up his revolver, a magni¬ 
 ficent, six-shooter. He was next conducted to private 
 apartments in the Castle, where the Chief Commissioner of 
 Police “ looked over ” the captive, who sat between his English 
 guardians with a calm repose, and yet the same defiant look 
 was in his face that ever marked it. Outside newspaper circles 
 no one seemed to know of the arrest until the evening papers 
 came out with the sad tidings that for the third time in ten 
 years Michael Davitt was on a march to jail. Speculation ran 
 wild upon the mode and route of his departure. Some said he 
 would not be stirred until morning ; others, that a gunship 
 would take him from the bay, whilst others again argued that 
 the North Wall or Mail Boat would not steam out to-night 
 without the Martyr Convict. 
 
 The Kingstown route was the one adopted. The conveyance 
 of the prisoner to the mail-boat Connaught at Kingstown, would, 
 it was thought, be too risky by rail, so the services of a couple of 
 cabs were sought, and in the first of these sat Davitt and his 
 Saxon “ friends,” whose visiting cards are handcuffs, and whose 
 souls seldom outspan the prescribed corners of a body warrant. 
 In the second cab were some Gr men, and by the Blackrock 
 Koad the sad cortege wound its way to Kingstown. The party 
 found the jetty swarmed with police, and Superintendent Arm¬ 
 strong, in command, looked as though he seldom had upon hands 
 a task so important. It was about four o’clock when the party 
 went on board the mail-boat, and Davitt preferring the open air 
 to the stuffy cabin in the forepart of the ship, walked the decks 
 for a couple of hours securely guarded. At length he retired 
 below to one of the cabins set apart for first-class passengers, and 
 under an escort of half-a-dozen detectives, he was locked into this 
 room. When the mail-train came alongside, such old friends of 
 the prisoner’s as Messrs. Egan, Brennan, Harris and Dr. Kenny 
 alighted, and several newspaper reporters who w'ere thirsty for an 
 interview. A Freeman representative had been specially detailed 
 to cross to Holyhead with the captive, and his graphic account of 
 that memorable trip, I re-publish. The stewardess gave the anxious 
 visitors the “ tip ” as to Davitt’s whereabouts, and they flocked down 
 the narrow stair-case to the cabin, only to meet a point-blank refusal 
 their request to bid their friend farewell. At length, after a deal of 
 pressure had been brought to bear upon Williamson, the cabin 
 door was unlocked for Doctor Kenny and Messrs. Egan and 
 
ARRESTED ON o’cONNELL BRIDGE. 
 
 15 
 
 Brennan. The doctor found his patient in a poor state, and 
 suffering from a most exhausting cough, and the others had 
 only time to whisper some words of comfort and good cheer to 
 their dear comrade, when “ all for shore ” was shouted and 
 there was a regular stampede to the gangways. And then the 
 big ship whistled loudly into the still evenmg and moved slowly 
 from her moorings, and Michael Davitt, thrice a martyr of 
 British barbarity, was once again under weigh for a penal 
 home in a country that he would have sunken beneath a 
 thousand seas. 
 
 
ON BOARD 
 
 MAIL BOAT. 
 
 ;o:—• 
 
 The Freeman was the only paper that despatched a special 
 Correspondent with Davitt from Kingstown, and in the next day’s 
 paper (February 4th,) appeared the following graphic account of 
 the sea passage, wired from Holyhead :— 
 
 Mine has not been a cheerful mission, nor has its surroundings 
 tended in the least to diminish the gloom of the task. To see 
 Michael Davitt across St. George’s Channel in the clutches of eight 
 detective officers, was not a pleasant duty. But it devolved upon 
 me as a duty none the less. The night had been in keeping witii 
 its dull and dreary business, for it rained when it was not foggy, 
 and the heavens all the time lowered most dismally. You have 
 been told of all the details concerning Davitt’s arrest by other 
 pens than mine; of how he practically gave himself up, of his 
 secret conveyance by road to Kingstown, in a cab, escorted by 
 another cab-full of police officers, and of his safe keeping in a State 
 cabin of the mail-boat at Kingstown. I travelled down from 
 Westland Bow by the mail train, with such tried and true friends 
 and colleagues of the prisoner’s as Patrick Egan and IM^ssrs. 
 Brennan and Harris, whilst I espied Dr. Kenny, Davitt’s medical 
 attendant, amongst the little knot of sympathisers. Westland-row 
 was robbed of its busy stir of passengers for England. The train 
 was all but deserted. There were a few ladies who had booked 
 through for Paris, and they perhaps never heard of Davitt, but 
 there was also en route the Irish Attorney-General. It was, no 
 doubt, a trifle strange that two such extremes as Michael Davitt 
 and Hugh Law should have met even ujDon the broad decks of a 
 City of Dublin steampacket; but nevertheless it was so, and the 
 train which brings Davitt to a dungeon home in a penal prison for 
 many long years conveyed Hugh Law, her Majesty’s Attorney- 
 General for Ireland, to Downing Street, perhaps to pre-arrange 
 • more coercion and more buckshot for her impoverished people. 
 
ON BOARD MAIL BOAT. 
 
 17 
 
 « 
 
 At Westland-row no (5ne seemed to know more of the arrest of 
 the political prisoner than the news-boys who, too, have had their 
 days of persecution, but their hollowing out of the words “ Arrest 
 of Mr. Davitt; Evening Telegraph, last edition,” indicated 
 nothing to the casual observer more than the fact that Mr. Davitt 
 had once again been pounced upon by gentlemen in plain clothes 
 holding her Majesty’s warrant. No one in the mail train 
 apparently had time to learn the facts which startled the city at 
 mid-day, and there certainly was no indication about to convey 
 the idea that a great political figure was being stolen from the 
 scene whereon he had performed some of his most remarkable 
 acts. The crowd of sympathisers was far too small to create 
 even a suspicion that there was anything up, nor did the Ulster 
 coat of Mr. Attorney General go far towards inspiring with awe 
 those who proceeded to leave Westland-row by the mail train. 
 Neither time nor tide brook delay, and it is pretty much this 
 way with the Anglo-Saxon mail service. The train left sharp 
 to time, and ran through to the Carlisle Pier without check or 
 incident. At the pier a cordon of police stretched across the 
 mouth of the gangway to the boat, doubtless with an eye to an 
 infernal machine or a ton or two of dynamite. The Kingstown 
 superintendent was in full uniform, and Colonel Connolly, one of 
 the Commissioners of Police, was about and busy. Mr. Mallon 
 was on the quay displaying even more nervous anxiety than 
 usual, and the constables and others holding minor rank seemed 
 quite to appreciate the importance of the occasion. At first the 
 superintendent of Dublin Detectives was stern as the Bull stone 
 wall, and proclaimed that no one could see Mr. Davitt, but the 
 beseeching voices of Messrs. Brennan and Egan were to much 
 for this officer, who, under the genial glow of their eloquence 
 and entreaties, considerably thawed. Dr. Kenny demanded an 
 interview with Davitt. In his case there was no compliment 
 about the matter at all, for was he not the prisoner’s medical 
 adviser ? This even thawed Superintendent Williamson, the 
 chief actor in the arrest, and the doctor gained a few words, and 
 so did Mr. Egan and Mr. Brennan. But the mails were along¬ 
 side, and once the hawser was loosed from the stem and stern 
 of the ship, Davitt’s last ties, for years at least, with Ireland 
 seemed to me to be parted. The outlook was by no means a 
 cheerful one, as the Connaught, with Captain Kendal as her 
 commander, rounded the pier, the gong of which tolled dolefully 
 as we glided by. The horizon was as obscured with fog and 
 mist as Davitt’s future is with doubt. The fog had enveloped 
 the stars, and not a vestage of light caught the eye, save the 
 masthead beacon of the mail boat. The Howth light might 
 just as well have been at the bottom of a Lancashire colliery, * 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 ON BOAED MAIL BOAT. 
 
 for it was not to be seen, and then it came on to rain most 
 persistently. Meanwhile, let me sketch to you per pen and ink, 
 by the electric- current, Michael Davitt, the hero of a hundred 
 League meetings. He was stowed away in the forepart of the 
 ship in a sleeping saloon, escorted by eight detective officers, 
 and here perhaps I may set down the names of those who com¬ 
 posed this escort—Superintendent Williamson and Inspector 
 Swansea, both of Scotland Yard, London, who held the warrant; 
 and officers Eonan, Cooper, M‘CGrmack, Sheridan, Bowers, and 
 Simons, of the G Division of police in Dublin. Davitt lay in 
 his berth at leisure, if not, indeed, unconcernedly, with his 
 watchers close at hand. His mind was too full of the past and 
 future to x^ermit of his resting absolutely, though at one time he 
 just dozed, only to wake again to behold the terrible surroundings 
 of his position—guarded upon all sides. The saloon became 
 almost o];)pressive with the crowd of officers, and the least 
 troubled possibly about the situation was Michael Davitt. He 
 was cheerful, calm, collected, and suffered in a dread of inal d 
 mer, which, under the circumstances, would have added one more 
 feature of unpleasantness to a drama already brimful of ills. 
 There was not much wind, scarce a capful, but there was one of 
 those disagreeable swells on the water so fatal to those who are 
 billions. Inside locked doors, the watchmen of the prisoner 
 somewhat relaxed their anxiety, but still there was no question that 
 they felt Davitt a big charge, and a rich x)rize to bring back to a 
 British prison. Davitt certainly appeared the least concerned by 
 half. At times he chatted freely with such of the officers as he 
 had known before, and as the big gun boomed through the fog off 
 Holyhead, he even cracked a joke, remarking that he trusted if the 
 ship went down no crime would be laid ux)on his head. The 
 Superintendent in charge of the prisoner displayed on board a 
 delicate care for self that did him justice, and it was just when he 
 went aft to the saloon that I slipped in my card, askihg the 
 captive if I could fetch him some supper. The answer was to the 
 effect that he was afraid of becoming sick, or he should avail 
 himself of my offer, and when I urgently pressed some sandwiches 
 on the poor fellow he declined them, remarking that he did 
 not then feel in the least hungry. Once alongside the order was 
 given by Superintendent Williamson to prepare, and then the 
 XU’isoner, guarded upon one side by Swansea and on the other 
 by Eonan, walked on board and up the gangway. His demean¬ 
 our was not that of a man in so awful a position. He was 
 cheerful, almost gay; and appeared to be not the least affected 
 by the seriousness of his j)Osition. The jolatform on which he 
 landed was crowded by all the available police force of Holyhead, 
 and they formed an avenue from the gangway to the train, 
 
ON BOARD MAIL BOAT. 
 
 10 
 
 through which this procession to a living grave passed along. 
 In response to the guard, the Chief answered that all of the party 
 had first-class tickets, and then Davitt and five of his guardians 
 entered a compartment close to a sleeping saloon. Davit 
 travelling in a middle seat with his hack to the engine, whils 
 the others of his guard of honour occupied an adjacent carriage. 
 It was just now an opportunity presented itself to me to say 
 good-by, and thrusting in my hand I hade the prisoner farewell 
 in a cheerful tone. He said to me, “ Good-by to dear old Ire¬ 
 land for ever,” and when I remarked that he should not say for 
 ever,” he corrected himself, saying, “Well, for a long time, 
 anyhow; ” and then the iron horse snorted, whistled, and started 
 away, bearing on its course a captive whoso absence will be to¬ 
 day mourned all over Ireland. That the authorities feared 
 something in the shape of a rescue is convincingly evident in the 
 fact that extraordinary precautions were adopted. At Holyhead 
 some detectives augmented the local force upon the platform, to 
 which I have alluded ; but far and away the most extraordinary 
 step taken was the running of a pilot engine to London, which, 
 ten minutes before the scheduled time for the starting of the 
 mail, set off. This, I learn, is a more than unusual precaution, 
 being only adopted in the case of Her Majesty the Queen using 
 the line, and the utter uselessness of such a precautionary 
 measure goes without saying. I learn that at Willesden Junc¬ 
 tion the prisoner and his escort will take the train to Victoria to 
 avoid any demonstration at Euston, and that dmung the day he 
 will be charged at one of the London police courts, most 
 probably Bow-street. 
 
 
HIS LAST SPEECH. 
 
 
 
 IJpoN Sunday, tlie 30tli of January, Michael Davitt made his 
 last open-air speech at Borns, Co. Carlow, when he said:— 
 “If all the powers of the heavens to drench cannot deter the 
 thousands now surrounding this platform, from travelling miles 
 upon a day like this, in order to take part in a demonstration 
 against landlordism, there is not much fear of the impending 
 reign of coercion damping your spuits or thinning the ranks of 
 the Land League, in its mission to win free land and happy 
 homes for the people of Ireland. Not yet two years ago, land¬ 
 lord absolutism sat supreme in Borris, where now the sentiment 
 of the country rules instead. Your able and energetic represen¬ 
 tative, Mr. Edmund Dwyer Gray, has told you from the British 
 Parhament, where he has been manfully batthng with Parnell 
 in your interest—he has told you that he has at last become 
 ashamed of the name of Liberal, And well he may. ^ye see 
 now the party that boasted in the past that it could rule Ireland 
 according to Irish ideas, allying itself with the deadly enemies 
 of the people, in order to rob you of the little liberty you are 
 now struggling to maintain. We see the philanthropic Gladstone, 
 the humane and justice-loving John Bright, and the Chief 
 Slanderer of Ireland, Mr. Outrage Forster, falling back upon 
 police rule, prisons, and coercion, in order to sustain a system 
 which is a blasphemy on the providence of God, an outrage upon 
 reason, a crime against humanity, a scourge to Ireland. Never 
 has an English statesman shown such contempt for a people 
 and them religion, as has this unveiled prophet, when he declares 
 he will restore our country to ‘ a Christian and civilized exist¬ 
 ence,’ by the employment of brute force. That is, he will bring 
 it back to a blind worshii^ of Whig treachery, fidehty to land¬ 
 lord obstruction, and an unmuritiuring toleration of rack-rents, 
 confiscation, and eviction, by the persuasive logic of coercion 
 
HIS LxiST SPEECH. 
 
 2.1 
 
 and punishment. Do you think he will succeed? Will this 
 Chief Slanderer of Ireland, Mr. Outrage Forster, be able to fulfil 
 his boast of striking terror into what his uncouth savagery has 
 stigmatised as the ruffian, blackguard, and scoundrel people 
 of Ireland ? Will the prospect of a prison for a paltry year or 
 eighteen months deter the men of the Irish race from fulfilling 
 their duty to the country and themselves ? Will he make us 
 show our past history to be a dream, our bravery as waggering 
 boast, and our disregard of suffering in the cause of justice and 
 fatlierland, but a false and empty heroism after all ? If not, let 
 Outrage Forster see that apprehension of arrest and imprison¬ 
 ment has no terror for the Young Ireland of to-day. Let this 
 Chief Slanderer of our national character find courage and per¬ 
 severance where his bullying nature thinks it will discover 
 cowardice and apathy, and his Coercion Bill will prove to be the 
 last will and testament of Irish landlordism, while his boast to 
 strike terror into the ranks of the people, will dig for his fraudu¬ 
 lent party an eternal grave in Ireland. Look upon this 
 measure of coercion as a direct challenge to all that is courageous, 
 manly, and honourable in Irish nature, and you will see it in its 
 true light, and meet it with that determined resolution which 
 has never yet quailed before arbitrary power or tyranny in our 
 country. Do you believe that if the contest lay in another field 
 than that of peaceful agitation, or was to be decided by other 
 weapons than those of ideas, that you would strike your colours 
 at the approach of danger, or surrender your arms at the sight 
 of the foe ? Would you not rather face the enemy with the 
 pluck of your race, and sw^ar that 
 
 * Every turf beneath your feet 
 Should be a soldier’s sepffichre.’ 
 
 rather than allow victory to be snatched from your hands ? 
 Landlordism, weighed with the crimes of centuries, and clogged 
 with the spoils of robbery and injustice, has been dragged from 
 its lair by the Land League and exposed to the astonished gaze 
 of the civilized world. Its only support is brute force—its only 
 hope [of being recommended to mercy by the jury of public 
 opinion is by fathering upon its victims the crimes which are 
 born of its own infamous existence, and upon the Land League 
 the practices which have made the word ‘ landlordism ’ ui 
 Ireland synonymous with every infamy, every wi’ong, and every 
 crime that despotism could inflict upon a people. Against this 
 villanous land code, on the other hand, what have we not 
 battling upon our side—^justice invincible and eternal, the 
 intelligence of our country in revolt against the blasphemy that 
 
22 
 
 HIS LAST SPEECH. 
 
 God made the soil of Ireland for the sole profit and pleasure of 
 ten thousand enemies of the Irish people. We have the public 
 opinion of the civilized world sustaining us in this great moral 
 struggle, and far over the waves of the Atlantic we have a new 
 Ireland—the Ireland of our banished kindred—those who were 
 driven from Ireland by Irish landlordism, and now stretching 
 their generous hands across the ocean to help us to free Ireland 
 once and for ever from that code of infamous land laws that 
 drove them from Irelemd in the past. Wherever an Irish 
 colony is found in the United States or in Canada, branches of 
 the Land League are springing up, in such numbers and with 
 such forces, and are sending us such evidences of their vitality 
 and sympathy, that landlordism will find that it is not a small 
 island like this that it has to contend against, but the wliole 
 Irish race throughout the world. I have only, in conclusion, to 
 ask you to follow the admirable advice given by our reverend 
 chairman—not to allow yourselves to be forced into the commis¬ 
 sion of any crime or any offence which would bring a stain upon 
 the national character, or give an argument or a wea^ion to your 
 enemy to be used against you. Let Euroiie, let America, see 
 by your dignified, determined conduct that the charges which 
 are now paraded before the House of Commons have existed 
 mainly in the imagination of that very imaginative force, the 
 Irish Constabulary, and could find a place only in the policy of 
 Mr. Outrage Forster. Ho this, and above all stand united, 
 shoulder to shoulder, in the future, as you have been in the 
 past. Don’t be frightened from your land meetings, don’t be 
 intimidated by landlords who now fancy that they are going to 
 get back from the Government the absolute power they wielded 
 in the past. Don’t be tempted into breaking that cardinal rule 
 of the Irish Land League not to take a farm out of which 
 another has been evicted for non-payment of an unjust rent— 
 not to purchase any goods stolen by Irish landlordism 
 from impoverished tenant-farmers. If you do this, if you act 
 on this advice, you vill find in a very short time that the 
 English Government will give over manufacturing both outrages 
 and coercion bills, and instead of being on the point of 
 suppressing the Irish members in Parliament, they will have to 
 acknowledge the justice of their claim on behalf of the Irish 
 People—the justice of the claim of the Irish People to have 
 restored to Ireland the soil which God intended for its people, 
 and every blessing which He intended to be their privilege. 
 
LAST TIME AT A LEAGUE MEETING. 
 
 - :o: 
 
 T 
 
 On Wednesday, February 2nd, Mr. Davitt was present at 
 the Land League Meeting, when he said that when last Mr. 
 Ferguson had occupied the chair, he (Mr. Davitt) on behalf of 
 the executive, had to make an announcement that when the 
 Government measure on the Land Question was outlined a con¬ 
 vention of League Delegates should be held to make a' pro¬ 
 nouncement on the Bill. No further steps in the matter had 
 been taken. He had, hov/ever, proceeded to London the night 
 before last, and he had a consultation with Mr. Parnell and 
 other Members of the Executive of the League, and they and 
 the members here were of opinion that steps should be taken 
 for the holding of the convention forthwith. The reasons, he 
 thought, which prompt them to call this Convention now were 
 first, to show Mr. Forster and England, by an assemblage of the 
 League representatives in Dublin, that the local leaders of the 
 organisation are neither ruffians, blackguards, nor scoundrels; 
 and, second, to show Mr. Outrage Forster, the Chief Slanderer 
 of Ireland, that his Coercion Bill will not strike terror into the 
 ranks of the Land League. It would be the object of the Con¬ 
 vention to make a National pronouncement against Coercion as 
 well as against real and manufactured outrages, and to make 
 known once more the National demand of Ireland on the Land 
 Question. The question of the franchise for the Convention had 
 also been reconsidered, and it was thought that one delegate for 
 each hundred cards of membership issued from the central 
 office would make the number too large, as there were branches 
 vdth 1,500 and even 2,500 members. It was, therefore, con¬ 
 sidered desirable to have one delegate for each branch having 
 500 members and under. They thought it not desirable to fix 
 the date at present, but that the election should take 
 
24 
 
 LAST TIME AT A LEAGUE MEETING. 
 
 place at the next meetiiig of the branches; and when 
 the Coercion Bill passed, and the Land Bill was in¬ 
 troduced the date could be fixed and the delegates communi¬ 
 cated with by telegraph. The place of meeting, of course, 
 would be Dublin. Mr. Davitt then moved a resolution the 
 nature of which will appear from the following copy of a circular 
 to be issued to the other branches :— 
 
 “ Offices of the Land League, 
 
 “ 39 Upper Sackville Street, February 3rd, 1881. 
 
 “ To the Officers and members of-Branch of the Land League.—At 
 
 a meeting of the Land League held on yesterday a resolution was adopted 
 calling upon the Branches to proceed at once with the election of delegates 
 to represent them at the coming Convention. Each branch will, therefore, 
 on receipt of one of these circulars, proceed at its next regular meeting, if 
 due to be held within a week from this date, or a special meeting to be held 
 within one week from receipt of this notice, to elect delegates as follows— 
 Each Branch numbering five himdred members and under to elect one 
 delegate ; each branch numbering over five hundred members to elect two 
 delegates. Any officer, member of executive committee, or member of a 
 Branch is eligible for election. The election of delegates shall take place 
 in the same manner as the election of officers specified in Eule 3 of the 
 Eules of the League. Delegates’ cards of admission to the Convention will 
 be forwarded to each branch, upon which cards the credentials of delegates 
 must be written and signed by the executive of each Branch. The exact 
 date of Convention will be given by the executive council to each Branch by 
 letter or telegraphic message when exact date is determined upon. 
 
 “ The ExeoutR'E Council of the Land League.” 
 
 * 
 
 Mr. Sheridan seconded the motion. 
 
 Mr. Davitt heartily endorsed the resolution, and he also 
 endorsed what had been said by Mr. Egan about the renegades; 
 but he regretted that the first man to desert Mr. Parnell and the 
 L’ish people, was one who commands great influence on Enghsh 
 public opinion—Mr. Shaw. He had a conversation with Mr. 
 Shaw in the House of Commons, and he had asked him why he 
 did not postpone his separation from Mr. Parnell until after the 
 fight against coercion. He had chosen to do so; and in con¬ 
 sequence of that, he thought the matter deserved the very serious 
 attention of his constituents in Cork County. They deserted 
 their friends in mid battle, and before the enemy, and when 
 two nations are at war, for that conduct the sentence was 
 
LAST TIME AT A LEAGUE MEETING. 
 
 25 
 
 death. He (Mr. Davitt) said the sentence to be passed on these 
 renegade members should be political death; and then- consti¬ 
 tuents should prepare that sentence right away. 
 
 The resolution was adopted. 
 
 Mr. Davitt moved 
 
 “That the warmost thanks of the Irish National Land League are 
 hereby given to Joseph Cowen, Esq., M.P., and Henry Laboucheee, Esq, 
 M.P., for their constitutional efforts to prevent the old wretched tactics of 
 coercion, which have so embittered the relations between the English and 
 the Irish people; and at the same time we desire to express our gratitude 
 to those other high-minded English members who desire to reform bad laws 
 before coercing men by such an Algerine enactment, as that contemplated 
 by the so-called Liberal Government of England.” 
 
 He had the pleasure of being in the House of Commons while 
 Mr. Labouchere was speaking, and he believed it was his able 
 speech that first got Mr. Gladstone to pay any attention to these 
 reported outrages. He had also had the pleasure of speaking 
 to Mr. Cowen, and asking him to send over a copy of his speech 
 at Newscastle, that they might print it, and he was happy to 
 say that 20,000 copies of it would shortly be in circulation. 
 
 Dr. Kenny seconded the motion, and suggested the addition 
 of the name of Mr. Thomson, M.P. 
 
 The suggestion was adopted, and the resolution as amended 
 was passed. 
 
 On the motion of Mr. Egan, seconded by Mr. Davitt, a 
 resolution was passed, granting a sum of £25 towards a tes¬ 
 timonial about to be presented to the Kev. Mr. Patterson, who, 
 Mr. Egan said, had done good service to the Tenant Cause by 
 opposing the Leinster Lease. 
 
 Mr. Davitt said he wished to refer to a subject on which 
 several letters had been received. He did not believe that the 
 arrests would be anything like as numerous as was being pre¬ 
 dicted throughout the country. But he thought their duty was 
 clear in reference to the families who may have some of their 
 members arrested—that if a father, or a brother, or a son was 
 arrested, those dependent on them should not be forgotten. He 
 wished also to call attention to a fact that had come to his 
 knowledge—that the Eev. Mr. Lynch, a Catholic clergyman in 
 Springfield, Massachusetts, had bought an estate in the County 
 Cavan, which the tenants themselves were desirous of buying. 
 He mentioned it in the hope that the Piev. Mr. Lynch might bo 
 led to undo what he had done. 
 
2G 
 
 LAST TIME AT A LEAGUE MEETING. 
 
 Mr. Davitt said the following telegram had just been 
 received from Mr. T. P. O’Connor :— • 
 
 “ Mr. Gladstone has given notice of a resolution to confer despotic 
 powers on the Speaker, and has bought Tory support by limiting the new 
 foirni of ctesarism to the battle of the Irish members against coercion. The 
 Irish members are unmoved in their determination to continue their dogged 
 and relentless opposition to every step and every stage of the bill.” 
 
 The proceedings then terminated. 
 
 The story of the “ Trial ” in London is an easy told one. 
 Davitt got out of the train at Willesden Junction, and drove in a 
 covered carriage to Bow Street Police Station, off the Strand, 
 where Williamson, v/ho “had” the prisoner in 1870, identified 
 him as Michael Davitt who had been convicted in that year. 
 Poor Davitt was then ordered to return to prison to complete his 
 cruel sentence. 
 
IN JAIL IN i88i. 
 
 :o: 
 
 In tlie House of Commons on Monday, February 7tli, Davitt’s 
 treatment was made the subject of a “Question,” and all Ireland 
 will rejoice to see that rather humane treatment is to be given to 
 the illustrious prisoner :— 
 
 Mr. Bryce—I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home 
 Department, if he will cause inquiries to be made whether Mr. 
 Davitt, who has lately been arrested in Dublin, is now in a weak 
 state of health ; and whether, if so, he will give directions that 
 Mr. Davitt shall not be sent to any place, nor required to per¬ 
 form any work which may injuriously affect his health ? 
 
 Captain O’Shea—At the same time I may ask the right lion, 
 gentleman a question of which I have given him private notice, 
 v/hich is, whether he will inform the House what are the in¬ 
 structions of Her Majesty’s Government to the prison authorities 
 with respect to the treatment of Mr. Michael Davitt ? 
 
 The Home Secretary—Immediately that Mr. Davitt was 
 taken into custody, I ordered that a medical report should be 
 made on his condition, and it was made on the 4th February. 
 The medical report stated that he was suffering from bronchial 
 catarrh, to which he said he was subject. I have, therefore, 
 given instructions that he should be treated with all possible in¬ 
 dulgence, and that the greatest possible attention should be paid 
 to the care of his health. In reply to the other portion of the 
 hon. member’s question, I have to answer that he certainly will 
 not be sent to any place which would be injurious to his health, 
 and that subject was considered with reference to the place he 
 has nov/ been sent to. I have also to state that he will not be 
 required to do any work that would be injurious to his health. 
 
28 
 
 IN JAIL IN 1881. 
 
 
 and in his case there are circumstances which render him a 
 peculiarly unfit subject for prison work, and I have also directed 
 that particular attention should be given to his having proper 
 diet, proper rooms, and proper bedding, that he is to be kept 
 apart from the other convicts, and that he is to be treated as 
 persons under probation are treated. These are the general in¬ 
 structions given at present, and further instructions will be 
 given when a report has been received from the governor of the 
 nrison in which he is detained. 
 
 An hon. member asked if Davitt was in hospital, as stated in 
 some quarters ? 
 
 The Home Secretary—I have no reason to believe so; no 
 such information has reached me. 
 
 Mr. Finigan (who received much interruption on rising, and 
 was met with cries of “ Order, order ”)—Might I ask the Home 
 Secretary whether Mr. Davitt will be habited as an ordinary 
 convict or otherwise ? 
 
 The Home Secretary—With regard to the prison dress, I have 
 received information that it is considered necessary as a security 
 against escape, and therefore I do not feel justified in dispensing 
 with it. I have, directed however, that his hair shall not be 
 cut, and when he travels on a railway he shall travel in his own 
 clothes, and not in prison clothes. 
 
TICKET-OF-LEAVE. 
 
 ■■ ■ . . :o: - 
 
 As great interest at tliis moment centres in the case of Mr. Michael 
 Davitt, we append below a copy of his “ Ticket-of-Leave.” Mr. Da%dtt was 
 twice before Chief Justice Cockbum at the Central Criminal Court in 1870, 
 and was sentenced to 15 years’ penal servitude for treason-felony, his fellow 
 accused, Mr. Wilson, being sentenced to seven years. The gravamen of the 
 charge was having arms for Fenian purposes, and Mr. Davitt from the dock 
 asked that Wilson should be spared as his connection with the transaction 
 was only a commercial one, and that he "would be willing to suffer the whole 
 terms himself. Sir A. Cockburn said he was unable to accept this offer, but 
 he praised the generosity of spirit which induced Mr. Davitt to make it. 
 Mr. Davitt’s Ticket-of-Leave was signed by the Right Hon. R. A. Cross, 
 the Home Secretary; and Sir E. F. DuCane, Chairman of Convict Prisons 
 
 Order of Licence to a Convict 3j:ade under the Statutes 1G and 17 
 ViCT., c. 99, s. 9, AND 27 and 28 Vict., c. 47, s. 4. 
 
 Whitehall, 
 
 i^tlb day of ^ecemljer^ 
 
 HER MAJESTY is graciously pleased to grant to t/llicllCCeZ 
 %CtVltt, who was convicted of 5f7'CCVS0'}V= y'GZoy'iy at the GcyvtvClZ 
 
 Criminal Goibrt, liolden in tlio Gity of Jjondon on the 
 20tll/ day of IS'JOj and was then and there sentenced to b(> 
 
 kept in Penal Servitude for the term of fifteen years^ and is now con¬ 
 fined in ^Sfirtynoor Prison. 
 
30 
 
 TICKET- OF-LE AVE. 
 
 Her Royal Licence is to be at large from the day of liis liberation binder 
 this order, during the remaining portion of his said term of Penal Servitude, 
 
 unless the said J/ticlhael Q)avitt shall, before the expiration of the 
 said term, be convicted of some indictable offence within the United Kin a-- 
 dom, in which case such Licence will be immediately forfeited by law, or 
 unless it shall please her Majesty sooner to revoke or alter such Licence. 
 
 This Licence is given subject to the conditions endorsed upon the same, 
 upon the breach of any of which it shall be liable to be revoked, whether 
 such breach is followed by a conviction or not. 
 
 And her Majesty hereby orders that the said diiohcoel %aviU 
 be set at liberty within Thirty Days from the date of this Order. 
 
 Given under my hand and Seal, 
 
 Chairman of the Directors 
 of Convict Prisons. 
 
 This Licence will be Forfeited if the Holder does not observe the 
 
 FOLLOWING Conditions— 
 
 The Holder shall preserve his Licence, and produce it when called upon 
 to do so by a Magistrate or Police Officer. 
 
 He shall abstain from any violation of the Law. 
 
 He shall not habitually associate with notoriously bad characters, such 
 as reputed thieves and prostitutes. 
 
 He shall not lead an idle and dissolute life, without visible means of ob¬ 
 taining an honest livelihood. 
 
 If his licence is forfeited or revoked in consequence of a conviction for 
 any Offence, he will be liable to undergo a Term of Penal Servitude equal to 
 the portion of his term of fifteen years, which remained unexpired when his 
 licence was granted. 
 
TICKET-OF-LEAVE. 
 
 31 
 
 The attention of the Licence-holder is directed to the following provisions of 
 “The Prevention of Crimes’ Act, 187L” 
 
 If it appears from the facts proved before a court of summary jurisdic¬ 
 tion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the convict so 
 brought before it is getting his livelihood by dishonest means, such convict 
 shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence against the Prevention of Crimes’ 
 Act, and his licence shall be forfeited. 
 
 Every holder of a licence granted under the Penal Servitude Acts who is 
 at large in Great Britain or Ireland, shall notify the place of his residence 
 to the chief officer of police of the district in which his residence is situated, 
 and shall, whenever he changes such residence within the same police dis¬ 
 trict, notify such change to the chief officer of x^olice of that district, and 
 whenever he changes his residence from one police district to another, shall 
 notify such change of residence to the chief officer of police of the police 
 district which he is leaving, and to the chief officer of police of the police 
 district into which he goes to reside; moreover, every male holder of such a 
 Licence as aforesaid shall, once in each month, report himseK at such time 
 as may be prescribed by the chief officer of police of the district in which 
 such holder may be, either to such chief office himself or to such other person 
 as that Officer may direct, and such report may, according as such chief 
 officer directs, be required to be made personally or by letter. 
 
 If any holder of a licence, who is at large in Great Britain or Ireland, 
 remains in any place for forty-eight hours without notifying the place of 
 his residence to the chief officer of police of the district in which such place 
 is situated, or fails to comply with the requisitions of this section on tho 
 occasion of any change of residence, or with the requisitions of this section 
 as to reporting himself once in each month, he shall in every such case, 
 unless he proves to the satisfaction of the Court before whom he is tried that 
 he did his best to act in conformity with the law, be guilty of an offence 
 against the Prevention of Crimes’ Act, and upon conviction thereof his 
 licence may in the discretion of the Court be forfeited, or if the term of 
 Penal Servitude in respect of which his licence was granted has expired, at 
 the date of his conviction, it shall be lawful for the court to sentence him 
 to imprisonment, with or without Hard Labour, for a term not exceeding 
 one year, or if the said term of Penal Servitude has not expired, but the re¬ 
 mainder unexpired thereof is a lesser period than one year, then to sentence 
 him to imprisonment, with or without Hard Labour, to commence at tho 
 expiration of the said term of Penal Servitude, for such a term as, together 
 -with the remainder imexpired of his said term of Penal Servitude, will not 
 exceed one year. 
 
 Where any person is convicted on indictment of a crime, and a previous 
 conviction of a crime is proved against him, he shall, at any time within 
 seven years immediately after the expiration of the sentence passed on him 
 for the last of such crimes, be guilty of an offence against the Prevention 
 
32 
 
 TICKET-OF-LEAVE. 
 
 of Crimes’ Act, and be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, 
 for a term not exceeding one year, under the following circumstances or 
 any of them:— 
 
 Fiest. If, on his being charged by a constable with getting his livelihood 
 by dishonest means, and being brought before a court of summary 
 jurisdiction, it appears to such court that there are reasonable grotmds 
 for believing that the person so charged is getting his livelihood by 
 dishonest means; or, 
 
 Secondly. If, on being charged with any offence punishable on indict¬ 
 ment or summary conviction, and on being required by a court of sum¬ 
 mary jurisdiction to give his name and address he refuses to do so, or 
 gives a false name or a false address; or, 
 
 Thiedly. If he is formd in any place, whether public or private, under 
 such circumstances as to satisfy the court before whom he is brought, 
 that he was about to commit or to aid in the commission of any offence 
 punishable on indictment or summary conviction, or was waiting for 
 an opportunity to commit or aid in the commission of any offence 
 punishable on indictment or summary conviction; or, 
 
 PouETHLY. If he is found in or upon any dwellinghouse, or any building-, 
 yard or premises, being parcel of or attached to such dwellinghouse, 
 or in or upon any shop, warehouse, countinghouse, or other place of 
 business, or in any garden, orchard, pleasure-ground, or nursery- 
 ground, or in any building or erection in any garden, orchard, 
 pleasure-ground, or nursery-ground, without being able to account to 
 the satisfaction of the Court before whom he is brought for his being 
 found on such premises. 
 
 Dublin: Printed by W. J. Alley & Co., Ryder’s Row, Dublin.