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THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the collection of 
 
 James Collins, 
 
 Drumcondra, Ireland. 
 
 Purchased, 1918. 
 
 94-166 
 
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THE QUEEN a. PARNELL 
 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 ME. SEEGEANT HEEON, Q.C. 
 
 JANUARY 13th akd Utb, 1881. 
 
 [MR. SERGEANT HERON REPLIED FOR THEX^ROWN.] 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 PRINTED BY ALEX. THOM & CO., 87, 88, k 89, ABBEY-STREET, 
 
 THE queen's printing OFFICE. 
 
 1881. 
 
I-W-T>% 
 
 f 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 ^ MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 
 
 January 13th and 14th, 1881. 
 
 Mr. Sergeant Heeon replied for the Crown. He said May it please 
 your lordships, Gentlemen of the jury, it is now my duty to reply on 
 behalf of the Crown, and I bespeak your jjatient and earnest at- 
 tention while I respectfully call your attention to the issues you have 
 to try. And before I speak upon the case, I may congratulate my 
 friend, my esteemed friend, Mr. Macdonogh, that although at one time 
 we were afraid he might not be present at the trial we find him 
 continuing, I may say, to the end in renovated health and strength, and 
 displaying all his wonderful abilities. In him, we, the bar of Ireland, 
 cheerfully recognize 
 
 " Genius high and lore profound, 
 And wit that loves to play, not wound." 
 
 I congratulate ray learned and esteemed friend, I will not say my old 
 friend, upon his restoration to health to perfect health for in every 
 field the wan-ior still campaigns it not without glory. Gentlemen 
 of the jury, let me recall your attention, after the numerous and 
 able speeches you have "heard, to the issues you have to try. The 
 defendants, if I may use the familiar terms, are indicted for a conspiracy, 
 and the details of the conspiracy are spread over several counts in the 
 information. If I may run rapidly through them, it charges them with 
 this that they did conspire and solicit tenants in breach of their con- 
 tracts, not to pay rents; that they did conspire and solicit tenants to com- 
 bine to reduce their rents ; that they did threaten to exclude from social 
 intercourse, and did combine to deter tenants from paying their rents; 
 and that they did, by threats of violence, combine to detertenants from pay- 
 ing their rents. Gentlemen of the jury, the short way to express the state- 
 ment of the ofiences charged in the earlier counts of the indictment ia 
 this that they did combine to effect a strike against rents by unlawful 
 means. I tell you, under the correction of this Court, that a strike 
 against rents, and a combination for a strike against rents, is an illegal 
 conspiracy. And after recalling your attention to the evidence, I will 
 
 A 2 
 
4 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 say, if yoix believe the defendants and each of the defendants, convict 
 them acquit them if you can. Gentlemen of the jury, the origin 
 of this movement is plainly with three men, whose names have not dur- 
 ing the speeches on behalf of the defendants been so prominently brought 
 before you as they ought to have been Michael Davitt, the head of the 
 movement in Ireland, John Devoy in America, and Matthew Harris. 
 These men boast, and not unreasonably, to represent the Nationalists in 
 Ireland, and those who cori'espond with them from America. Two of 
 these men have given the most convincing proofs of their devotion to the 
 country and their zeal for its independence they have risked their lives 
 and spent the best years of their lives in a dungeon. No matter how 
 much you may differ from them in opinion, you cannot help regarding 
 with some degree of respect the man who risks his life for his 
 country's independence, and has suffered a felon's doom. Gentle- 
 men, the iinlawful means charged are several threats of violence, 
 threats of social excommunication, reduced finally to that system of 
 " Boycotting " which prevails in the north, south, east, and west. 
 Gentlemen, it was said in some of the speeches that in none of the rules 
 of the Land League, in nothing signed by the executive or by the sec- 
 retaries, was that system even indirectly shadowed forth. It was said 
 that this system originated in a s^jontaneous impulse through the 
 country, or in what has been described as the wild talk of pei*sons 
 for whom the leaders were not responsible. In the charter of the 
 Land League as it was called, in the original document printed by 
 Alley and Co., printers, 9 Ryder's-row, Dublin, and signed by A. J. 
 Kettle, Michael Davitt, and Thomas Brennan, hon. secretaries, I find 
 " No. 12 No man taking a farm from which another has been evicted 
 for nonpayment of unjust rent should be allowetl to become a member 
 of any branch of the Land League." "No. 13 Any member of a 
 branch association bidding for or occupying a farm from which a mem- 
 ber or non-member has been evicted, or, who shall rent land which a 
 member or non-member may have surrendered on grounds of excessive 
 rent, or upon a refusal of a fair reduction of a rack-rent, shall be ex- 
 pelled the branch for such action, and he should be looked upon and 
 shunned as a traitor to the interests of his fellow tenant-fai'mei*s 
 and an enemy to the welfare of his country." "No. 14 No 
 man assisting to serve processes of ejectment, or taking pai't in an 
 eviction, or purchasing stock or produce seized for nonpayment of 
 a rack-rent to be allowed the membership of any branch or associa- 
 tion. Any member of a bi-anch proved guilty of any of the foregoing 
 acts to be at once expelled, and denounced for his action." 
 Was that in the original formation of the Land League ? In the issuing 
 of these rales by thousands to the branches through the country this 
 policy of social excommunication was originally shadowed forth, and was 
 consistently and unsparingly persevered in. But this is said to be 
 constitutional agitation. But Devoy in New York John Devoy 
 who suffered for his country ; Michael Davitt, whose ability in this 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 5 
 
 organization must be recognized ; and Matthew Harris, sneered at con- 
 stitutional agitation. In a letter from New Yorkoftlie 18th June, 
 1880, this is what Mr. Devoy says : " While on this subject of ' oath 
 breaking,' permit me to set myself right with regai'd to a rumour that 
 has recently been circulated about me. Although of a personal nature, 
 it has also a political bearing, and, I believe, was started with a view to 
 create some disturbance in a certain rather numerous section of the Irish 
 National party. I find the following paragraph in several of the * Irish ' 
 papers recently come to hand : ' Mr. John Devoy, one of the authors of 
 the ' new departure ' in Irish politics, in which the alliance between the 
 Fenians and the Parnellites was proj^osed, will, it is stated, become a can- 
 didate for the Co. Tipperary, in room of Mr. P. J. Smyth.' This statement 
 is sheer nonsense, and I think I am justified in believing it had its origin 
 in malice. I would not enter the British Parliament if by any chance 
 elected. I would not under any circumstances take an oath of alle- 
 giance to the Queen (or King) of England, and I entirely disajjprove 
 of Nationalists of my ojiinions and connexions doing so." What 
 is that 1 There is an honest independence. There is the statement 
 of what the man thought and believes. There he is in America, organ- 
 izing and planning, looking with contempt on constitutional agitators 
 here, or those who believe they are such, as we are told they are in this 
 Covirt of Queen's Bench. He goes on " This twaddle about ' consti- 
 tutional agitation ' is an element of disturbance in Irish politics which 
 cannot be ignored, because it is associated with the names of a few men 
 of respectable character and standing in the National movement, but 
 who really stand almost alone in their opposition to ' agitation.' It is 
 an evidence of the difficulty of doing any real good for Ireland while 
 vituperation takes the place of argument, and while the best energies of 
 each little clique or party are devoted to foiling the schemes of some other 
 set of people and preventing anything from being done in the country 
 that is not acceptable to themselves. The woi-st of all this is that 
 the public mind is misled as to the real attitude of a large section of 
 the National party, and the mouthings of every driveller who has 
 learned a few phrases by rote are given a certain political significance." 
 Gentlemen, that letter of John Devoy's states the real character of this 
 agitation, so far as it is supported by the Nationalists of Ireland the 
 men who look fr>rward to the independence of their country, the men 
 who, to use their own words, ai-e watching the hour of England's weak- 
 ness and Ireland's opportunity. Whatever strength this land agitation 
 has is derived from their zealous and unfailing support. Mr. Devoy 
 proceeds, in conclusion, to say that the assertions that peasant pro- 
 prietorship, that fixity of tenure, that fi"ee sale that any of these mea- 
 sures would render the country happy and prosperous and contented 
 under English rule would be perfectly absurd. He then says : " He is 
 no friend of Ireland who, even for a fancied or tempoi-ary gain to the 
 national cause, would suppress liberty of speech or interfere with the 
 right of public meeting. Some gentlemen, of rather Consei-vative ten- 
 
6 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 dencies, advocate a tenant proprietaiy, on the ground that it would tend 
 to make the agricultural population Conservative. These gentlemen- 
 have just as good a right to believe that such a settlement of the land 
 question would make fat, contented subjects of Queen Victoria of the 
 Irish farmers, as I have to hope that, with inci-eased prosperity and in- 
 dependence, they would become moi-e sturdier and stifi-necked, and resent 
 more strenuously than now the assumption of England of the right to rule 
 Ireland. " Gentlemen, I said this movement was derived from three men 
 I name again John Devoy, in America ; Michael Davitt, here in Dublin ; 
 and his strenuous and able and active supi)Oi-ter, Matthew Ham's. It 
 will be my duty afterwards to refer to a few of the statements they 
 made at the great meetings they organized to accomplish what is stated 
 in that able letter of John Devoy. Gentlemen, I have stated one 
 object I will not say of this conspiracy- -one object is plainly shown 
 by these acts. There is another matter another important document 
 as regards the Phoenix Park meeting and it shows another chai-acter of 
 this movement. The gallant rebels of '98 were Chiistians. The United 
 Irishmen fought at Ballynahinch. The rebels rose in Wexford 
 they fought with then- priests at theii- head. No man can deny the 
 valour with which they fought, or the gallantry with which they 
 struggled against overwhelming odds. There is no more affecting 
 picture in Irish history than the wounded rebel at Oulart or New Hoss 
 dying of his wounds on the field of battle, and with his last breath 
 kissing the crucifix held to his lips by the wounded priest. It has been 
 reserved for modern Socialism to introduce into Western Europe, along 
 with every seditious movement, a most diabolical and obscene blasphemy. 
 And you saw how, for two long hours, in reference to the Phoenix Park 
 meeting, the leained and skilful leader beside me, and his able 
 lieutenants acting under his guidance, sought to exclude the infamous 
 document called Paudheen O'Rafferty's Commandments, which were 
 circulated hei-e to the honest ai-tizans of Dublin. It was said they were 
 never recognized by the leaders of the movement. At Abbey- 
 knockmoy, one of the traversers twice alluded to the document, 
 twice recommended the people to read it twice, in the presence of 
 four priests, as he said. Gentlemen, the whole of the Divine law is in 
 almost two lines " Fear God," and ** Keep His Commandments." The 
 whole fabric of Christian society would vanish from Western Eui'ope if 
 these blasphemies are allowed to defile the Word of God. One exti'act 
 from this document I shall read, because it is repeated over and over 
 again the sentiments expressed by it in some thirty or forty speeches 
 with marvellous unanimit}'-. After sayiug ia blasphemy of the Com- 
 mandments " I am the Landlord, thy Master, who paternally con- 
 descends to take charge of thy earnings in the shape of rent." No. 7 
 says " Thou shalt not violate the great moral law upon my estate, 
 which forbids the marriage of thy sons or daughters, particularly thy 
 daughter, until myself or my agent shall first satisfy oui*selves that such 
 a step is agreeable or beneficial to myself or my agent." You see what is 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 7 
 
 intended by the infamous slander repeated by Harris against Mr. 
 Blake, agent of Lord Clanricarde, and other agents in the West of Ire- 
 land, and in his denunciation of those gentlemen the Galway landlords'? 
 " No. 8 Thou shalt not steal an idle moment, neither shall thy chil- 
 dren, from the. blessed occupation of labour in my service, to indulge in 
 the worldly pleasures of reading books or newspajiers, or to listen to 
 immoral teachings against my sacred prerogative as thy lord and master." 
 And then in a commentary upon them, this Paudheen O'Rafferty says^ 
 " To crush the industrious and monopolise wealth, power, pleasure, and 
 honour in this life, the privileged, though idle and morally worthless 
 few, are allowed by passive millions to act as follows : To govern in 
 every land and make laws for every people but themselves to keep. 
 Armies are organized and officered to conquer and keep under the people 
 who work. Policemen are to watch, judges to try, and prisons to keej), 
 the toilers who have to support them. A society is empowered to look 
 upon work as menial and degrading, and upon idleness and fashion as 
 ennobling and grand. And finally, religion is expected to preach doc- 
 trines to the people which make slavery and poverty the chief ends of 
 life, and cowardice and submission to every wi-ong a passport to ever- 
 lasting happiness." What is that but an expansion of the Communist 
 and Nihilist cry, " Down with kings, priests, and judges." Gentlemen 
 of the jury, the first important meeting in the Phoenix Park went on. 
 But before I go into details of that meeting, and what became of it, 
 a third great pamphlet upon these passing events is, " Matthew 
 Harris upon the Political Situation." The following letter has 
 appeared in the Irishman: " Ballinasloe, June 19th, 1880. . 
 " No doubt it is well to remind Irishmen, even in these dark times, that 
 they have a higher, a holier work before them than the work of land 
 reform. To warn our countrymen that while raising their voices 
 against the rent tax, as America raised her voice against the tea tax, 
 they shoiJd join with that voice, as the Americans did, a demand for 
 National Independence." "From the first land- 
 ing of the English our struggle with them has been agrarian as well as 
 National. English kings and Irish kings, English barons and Iiish 
 chieftains, English churchmen and Irish Churchmen, fought, no doubt 
 for the glory of being supreme ; but they also fought for possession of the 
 land, just as the Anglicised landlord and the Irish peasant are fight- 
 ing for it to-day." Accordingly, gentlemen, a meeting took place 
 an organized meeting took place in the Phoenix Park on the 
 14th March, and was reported in the Xation of the 20th March. 
 Messrs. Davitt, Brennan, Biggar, and Ferguson were there ; Mr. Sexton 
 was also there. Mr. J. W. Walsh, of Balla, was there, and a resolution 
 was passed at that meeting, the whole of which I will not read again 
 " Whereas the institution of Irish landlordism has had its origin in the 
 subjugation of our country and the confiscation of its soil to adventurers 
 and enemies of the people who owned it ; and whereas this great 
 national wrong has impoverished our land by restricting its proper culti- 
 
8 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, fec. 
 
 vation, and pauperised our agricultural classes by imposing a tax upon 
 their industry in the form of unjust and exorbitant rents; and whereas 
 the agrarian crime which has disturbed the peace of our conntry is a con- 
 sequence of the said spoliation and a result of the system of land mono- 
 poly which followed therefrom : be it therefore resolved that the pros- 
 perity and contentment of Ireland imperatively demand the speedy and 
 final abolition of Irish landlordism." Mr. Davitt spoke at that meeting. He 
 said " The resolution was one which must commend itself to them. The 
 man who cultivated the soil was the man who should own it, and the 
 time has arrived when the tiller of the soil, as he struck his spade in 
 the earth, looked towards Heaven, and asked for whom the land was 
 made. He might be reminded that the British Government had given 
 it to the British garrison in Ireland ; but the law of God was higher than 
 any such enactment of man's, and the law of God intended that the 
 soil should be owned by the people of the country (hear, hear). With 
 these remarks against the accursed institution which now, for the fourth 
 time, had placed Ireland before the nations as a mendicant, he asked 
 them to endorae the motto upon the banner which was fluttering 
 opposite to him that the land of Ireland, being created by God 
 Almighty for the people of Ireland, to the people of Ireland, and not to 
 the idle, sensual landlords, the land of Ireland should belong." And in 
 moving a vote of thanks to the chair, Mr. Davitt said they had entered 
 the Phoenix Park without having had the trouble of pulling down thegates, 
 as they had intended to do if it were necessary. Mr. Kettle having i-eplied, 
 the meeting dispersed in an orderly manner. Gentlemen of the jury, that 
 meeting of the organization strack as it were the key-note of the alarm to 
 the country. It is said that we did not give enough of proof of meetings, 
 and one of the learned counsel said that one hundred provincial meetings 
 had been proved but that six times that number had been held. The proofs 
 of the vast organization are in my hand as regards the number of 
 meetings. Mr. Biggar attended ten ; Mr. Boyton attended twenty-two 
 in the country ; Mr. Brennan attended thirteen ; Mr. John Dillon 
 attended fifteen ; Mr. Patrick Egau attended only one ; Mr. Gordon at- 
 tended only twelve ; Mr. HaiTib attended eleven ; Mr. Nally attended 
 fifteen ; Mr. O'Sullivan attended foiirteen ; Mr. Parnell attended eleven ; 
 Mr. Sexton attended eight ; Mr. Sheridan fifteen, Mr. Sullivan attended 
 six, and Mr. Walsh thii-teen. That is according to the evidence ; ac- 
 cording to the statement there were six times that number held. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, what were the topics at those meetings 1 What 
 was the wild language used said to be " wild" I You will find it in 
 the rules of the Land League, and you will find a large portion of it in 
 " Paudeeu O'Rafierty's Commandments." What does Mr. Sheridan 
 say at Keadue 1 " If such another course as this be attempted 
 by any officer of the law, let your arrangements be : Away to 
 the chapel bells and church bells when the eviction is to take 
 place ; let there be horns in every parish ; let men and women 
 assemble there and keep the people in their homesteads." What does 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 9 
 
 Mr. Dillon bay " We must see that no man or woman is put out of 
 theii" fann ; that no evictions shall take place in Kildare." What does 
 Walsh say 1 " Whenever a tenant is evicted, you should go in a body to 
 the landlord, and say ' We will not j)ay you one penny rent until you 
 reinstate that man.' " WhatdoesMr. O'Sullivan say " You are assembled 
 here with a firm determination that no eviction shall take jilace on the 
 plains of Boyle again." What does Walsh say again " If the tenant is 
 evicted, the people should form in military procession and march to the 
 landlord's door, and tell him they would not pay one }>enny of rent until 
 he had been reinstated." What does Gordon say " I ask you to pro- 
 claim before the world, and before the eye of the Government, that you 
 will keep a firm grip on the harvest, and resist the land-robber. The 
 law says you are to protect yourselves from the night robber, and I fail 
 to see any difference between the night robber and the land robber." Mr. 
 Walsh says " Let no man give up possession, if there is stronger jjower 
 to put him out, he knows one way to get in." Mr. Goixlon says 
 " Don't think of leaving your cabins, except at the point of the bayonet" 
 Mr. Harris says, at Loughglynn "This I call iny home. I stand here 
 like a man to defend this home of mine, and these children of mine, and 
 woe be to the tyrant who dares come and disturb me." What does Mr. 
 Boy ton say at Miltown " If you enable us to cai-ry out these objects 
 we will leave the property of landlords so worthless that the landlords 
 will leave it to you." Mr. Brennan says " We must enter into a holy 
 conspiracy against them." Mr. O'Sullivan says " Stick to each other. 
 If you be ti-ue to each other landlordism must starve in this country." 
 Mr. O'Sullivan says *' You are assembled to bring that power to its 
 knees ; ay, and to strangle it there." Mr. Boji;on says " We ask you 
 to work within the law, but within the law we can point you out a way that 
 will bring these men to the earth, and when they are there crush the 
 life out of them for ever." That is the Ballingarry meeting " We pro- 
 pose to withdraw from these men the means whereby they live in luxury 
 and infamy." Mr. Dillon makes a similar speech at Clonmel. And during 
 the whole of this time Mr. Sullivan in the Nation, in a very skilful 
 manner is referring to the meetings which are taking place, and carefully 
 and quietly, and with great power assisting in the work which is going 
 on. In the Nation of the 24th July Mr. Sullivan publishes this. 
 " The proceedings in the Landed Estates Court show that the market 
 for landed property is still in a falling condition, few or no sales being 
 effected, and in some cases no purchasei-s at all putting in an appearance. 
 A notable event in that connection took place in Kerry on Saturday. 
 The interest in a farm neai- Killarney was put up for sale in the court- 
 house, when the tenant, against whom a decree for possesion for non- 
 payment of rent had been obtained, cautioned anyone against bidding, 
 as he had tendered the rent to the landlord. The result was that none 
 of the numerous fai-mers present offered a penny, and the sale was 
 adjourned, the tenant being made the object of public congratulations." 
 In that remarkable account of the demonstx-ation at Baratown in the 
 
10 THE QUEEN o. PARNELL,&c. 
 
 Nation of the 9th of October he says '' A meeting was held in Barn- 
 town on Sunday for the puipose of inaugurating a branch of the Land 
 League. There were between 5,000 and G,000 pereons present. The 
 Barntown, Bree, Johnstown, and the St. John's Independent Bands 
 attended. Opposite to the sjieakers; on a pole was the effiiiy of a man 
 with a pair of boot lasts hung ro\md his neck. This was intended to 
 represent a man who had jjurchased some land lately from which the 
 former tenant had been ejected. At the close of the meeting the effigy 
 was ' shot ' and then set lire to." Gentlemen of the jury, we know from 
 history, (the people well undei-stand, although they may not know the 
 origin of the burning of an effigy), that when the Inquisition in 
 Spain had power, and when sentence was passed tigainst a man out 
 of the country, the sentence by which his life was forfeited and his 
 lands contiscated, was not carried out until an image of the absent jierson 
 was burned in effigy ; and accordingly a burning in effigy has been ever 
 since, as it were, regarded as a sentence of death passed against the per- 
 son so treated in effigy. This was published on the 9th October by the 
 Nation with every demonstration at all events, certainly not of dis- 
 approval both as regai'ds the bmning in effigy and the social ex- 
 communication. Well, it was stated by counsel for Mr. Sullivan that 
 there was nothing against him as regards the practice of social ex- 
 communication. But in the Nation of the 16th October I find " The 
 work of socially excommunicating persons who take evicted tenants' 
 farms is being carried on with great thoroughness and success in various 
 parts of the country. Thus in Limerick a few days ago a farmer who 
 had sinned in the way referred to offered for sale in the market some 
 butter and oats, but both merchants and brokers refused to tiunsact 
 any business with him. The consequence was that he had to bring his 
 l)roduce home, and on leaving the market he was gi'oaned and hooted 
 by a large crowd of farmers. We believe it is the same farmer who 
 went to buy some bacon in Limerick, and when he told his name failed 
 to induce the bacon merchants to sell him anything whatever. In Clare, 
 agaui; a farmer has been made, for the same causes, such an outcast 
 among his neighbours they refusing to hold any intercourse with him 
 or sell him the necessaries of life, and even going so far as to keep him 
 out of the parish chajiel on Sundays that he has found his new posi- 
 tion intolerable, and surrendered to the landlord the banned farm on 
 which he cast liis eyes in an unhaj)py moment. Comment is needless." 
 Gentlemen, how did the constitutional agitation proceed 1 Again I say, 
 from their owoi lips only I ask you to condemn them, and if you believe 
 them to be honest men, exjjressing what they thought, convict them, and 
 acquit them if you can. Mr. Boyton says at Ne\\^own " For the first 
 time in history the people of Ireland are making an effort to stand on 
 the soil that God created and blessed a land consecrated by 
 the footsteps and the graves of thousands of saints (cheei-s). A 
 land that has shed its blood again and again in abortive attempts 
 to i-escue itself from the infamous touch of the vilest Govern 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.O. 11 
 
 inent that over cui-sed the earth." Mr. Gordon, at Shrule, says : 
 " O'Connell once said that the land of Ireland would be dearly bought 
 at one drop of blood, but I differ from him. It is better for you to lose 
 your blood as Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien did, and we are determined 
 to do the same." Mr. Nally, at Balla, says, "I say you must or- 
 ganize and establish a branch of the Land League. There has been 
 more good done since this day week, there has been a landlord shot 
 in Ballinrobe (cheers). You all can have rifies now, and any of you who 
 are not able to buy a rifle (cheers) or gun, have the pitchfork in your 
 hand." Mr. Sheridan, at Lackagh, says, " Fellow-countrymen, I feel 
 proud at seeing you assembled here to-day in your thousands, wc must 
 asssert our rights, and if we do not get them through our Members of 
 Parliament, I would ask you then to ring out your voices through the 
 muzzles of 'Minie' rifles as well as from those platforms." If 
 he meant the rifles to be directed against the landlords, it 
 it is murder ; otherwise it is high treason. You are asked to say that 
 this is kept up by an organization, holding meetings in different parts 
 of the countiy, by the varioiis speakers ; and you are asked to believe 
 those men, and to say that this is a constitutional agitation. Again, I 
 say, convict them if you believe them ; and acquit them if you can. 
 What does Mr. Brennan say Mr. Brennan, at Keadue : " Yes. We 
 did use seditious language against the power of landlordism, which has 
 so long crushed the people (groans) and, please God, we will 
 continue to use seditious language and be guilty of sedi- 
 tious acts against the system that degrades laboiir and en- 
 nobles idleness (hear, hear) untU that sedition against landlordism 
 shall ripen into revolution against landlordism, and the whole in- 
 fernal system go down before the might of Ireland's awakened manhood." 
 And Boyton, referring to one of the watchwords of the organization 
 " Spread the Light." " Hold the harvest. " Keep a grip of your 
 homesteads " in the south of Ireland, says : "So soon as 
 these meetings, instead of a disorganized, present a firm, deter- 
 mined, and enthusiastic crowd, so soon as we can march four deep 
 one mile of a column of earnest, honest, determined young men, 
 stepping along the road not drilling marching to those meetings, 
 we will begin then to show our teeth." Then, I say, 
 if you believe them, they meant something by that. 
 Gordon says : "I do not fall out with the man who says that the best 
 way to get shut of that cursed system in Ireland is at the point of the 
 bayonet. I tell you here to-day that if he be prepared to caiTy it out 
 at the point of the bayonet I am prejiared to follow him ." Boyton again 
 says at Cahir " And when you are able to achieve your social inde- 
 pendence, we may from the rank and file of 250,000 Land Leaguers 
 select an Irish national guard that with the weapon of freemen slung on 
 their arm, the rifle, that they may take the place of that organization, 
 that 100 years ago gave Ireland a glimpse of liberty." And Gordon 
 says, at Abbeyknockmoy " And until Ireland is proclaimed a nation I 
 
12 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 shall work by day and 1 shall write by night, ay, and I shall plot by 
 night until Ireland is a nation. Don't rest contented slaves by the fire- 
 side. Wherever you know there is a uewspai)er to be read, wlierever 
 you see that Paude(!u ()'llaff(!rty's commandments are read let ye go there 
 and listen to every word and go home. England is here only as a 
 robber. I don't come to meetings for the purpose of being on the plat- 
 iorm, but I come here to give a helping hand to pi'oclaim before God 
 on high that this land is ours, and if we cannot get it peaceably, to fight 
 at our own dooi's for it." And then there is loud cheering. Are the 
 leaders less outspoken. I mean the men who might be called great 
 leaders of the movement those in Parliament, like Parnell and Dillon 
 I do not iise the word Mr., I refer to them just the same as I refer to 
 O'Connell or any other great public man Parnell and Dillon : " The 
 people of Ireland are to-day engaged in a great struggle, a struggle for 
 the land of their country which was wrested from them seven centuries 
 ago by force of arms. We believe that we shall, in the course of a short 
 period, obtain that restitution of the land of this country ; better for them 
 to come forward now and to offer fair terms to the Irish tenants, for I 
 tell them that if they do not, we shall soon be in the position 
 of victors, and shall be able to dictate our own terms." 
 At Clerhaun, Nally says " When we get fellows amongst us like the 
 seven brothere we can smash them. But keep together, keep strong ; 
 dynamite and gun-cotton will scatter them to pieces." It is well to use 
 these exjjressions with a light heart ; but such a thing occurred as the 
 Clerkenwell explosion. And the other day in Manchester when the ex- 
 ])losion took place in the Barracks, I would like to know whether the re- 
 latives of the man muixlered by that explosion, whether they are of 
 opinion that Nally was serious or not in saj'ing that dynamite and g\in- 
 cottou would scatter them to pieces ? Brennan says, " Of ('Go'). Yes, 
 cheei-s for the men of '65, for were it not for the men of '65 and '67 we 
 would have no national opinion in Ireland to-day." This was after the 
 murder of Lord Mountraorres. " When these men were cast 
 into prison the predecessor of this high ecclesiastic came for- 
 ward with another manifesto." The high ecclesiastic he referred 
 to was Dr. M'Cabe " And without a particle of evidence charged these 
 pure-minded men, charged these pure-minded men with the darkest of 
 crimes (cries of ' he was a Government hack, and to hell with him).' " 
 This is the way that, under the guidance of the leader of this movement, 
 the name of the Cardinal and the name of the Archbishop, and the 
 names, as I will show you afterwards, of any priest who does not dare 
 to join this movement, are referred to by these persons going through 
 the countiy, and di-iving the minds of the excitable people to madness. 
 " Away with them," they say, " to hell with them." This is the teaching 
 for which the leaders of this movement are responsible. This is what we are 
 coming to. Now, is not the veil taken off altogether 1 Priests and people, 
 
 " Behold your guide, your star ; 
 You would be dupes, and victims, and you are." 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 13 
 
 Dillon says at Holy ford, county Tippei-ary " To-day, fifteen meetings, 
 each larger than this, are assembling in twelve Irish counties, and a 
 hundi'ed thousand Irishmen ai'e to-day assembled on the plains of Ire- 
 land to declare that landlordism must go down in Ii-eland if you are a 
 united and determined people (cheers). This is a cause which eveiy 
 Irishman can go into, whether he be Catholic or Protestant, whether he 
 be a Nationalist or not. It is a cause which the Ii'ish Nationalists 
 can go into, because its object is to break down and defeat the 
 English garrison which holds this countiy for England. Its 
 object is to clear the path for Irish Nationality, by eman- 
 cijiating all the people of Ireland fi"om the contx'ol of English 
 landlordism, and settling them in their own homes as free men." 
 Brennan says, at Ballinlough " I don't advise you to offer anj' open 
 resistance to the law, simply because I believe you woiild not be able to 
 defeat it. I believe thei*e is nothing wrong in guarding your own Jives 
 and your property ; and if I don't advise open resistance to acts of 
 tyranny, it is not because I see very much wrong in it, but because I 
 know it is not advisable. Swear befoi'e high heaven, that the land that 
 was created for your use that you are determined to fight for it." Gen- 
 tlemen of the jury, what attempt is made to answer these speeches made 
 to the public which I have partially opened to you ? Many sjieeches 
 able speeches were made on behalf of the defendants, dealing in gene- 
 ralities only. My learned and able fi-iend Mr. Cun-an made a speech 
 for Gordon, Hai'ris, and Nally, and stated that he would go through 
 some of the evidence, as, following his experienced leaders, he had been 
 instructed to do. He spoke in particular in reference to Mr. Nally. He 
 said he was counsel for Nally, and made one of the most singular state- 
 ments that I read from the rejjort, probably, that ever was made by counsel 
 in a court of justice. M)' learned and able friend who appeared on be- 
 half of Nally had one of the most extraordinaiy parts to play in appear- 
 ing on behalf of these three gentlemen Gordon, Walsh, and Nally who 
 made some of the strongest speeches, probably, that ever were given to an 
 advocate to defend, and my learned friend accepted the position, and 
 discharged his duty gallantly, and in a way worthy of the name which 
 he bears the name of the greatest orator we ever produced at the 
 Bar. And he says, when speaking about Nally : " But there is some- 
 " thing peculiar about the case of Nally here. It was all very well to 
 " treat it in a jocose manner in the cross-examination, and although I 
 " treated it in that way I did not feel that it was a subject for merriment. 
 " There is something peciiliar about the country, for so long, making 
 " speeches which were reported to the Government, and that there was 
 " no stop put to it. There is something peculiar about the fact that he 
 " is a man easily affected by drink, and yet that we find him from time to 
 "time supplied by the policemen with drink before he went to the meet- 
 ings. J\ist reflect upon these facts, gentlemen of the jury. They ask 
 " me that question, and I cannot but wonder whether such things could 
 " be. Stringer reported him, gave him drink, and took diink from him. 
 
 (( 
 
14 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fcc. 
 
 " Every man of them except one one man proved the rule by the 
 " exception, as he said himself; this man was the only man who did not 
 " do it every constable who came here to prove the speeches of Mr. 
 " Nally had either given drink to him or taken drink from him. 
 " And Nally was a man known to all to be easily excited by drink. 
 " If the Government believed that Nally was in earnest, why did they 
 " not stop him long since ? I asked one constable how soon after one 
 " terrible speech had been delivered by Nally how soon afterwards he 
 " had sent the report up to Dublin, and he said that he had sent it be- 
 " tween two and three days afterwards. The Government of the day 
 "a Conservative Government had these speeches, and so had the Go- 
 " vemment that succeeded it, and it has been using these speeches for the 
 " purpose of crushing this agitation they had these speeches reported to 
 " them witliin, at all events, a week after the meetings, and when the late 
 " Government arrested Messi-s. Breiman and Davitt,why did they not also 
 " an-est Nally 1 " Because, " counsel says, " Nally was nothing better than 
 " a drunken fool going about from meeting to meeting, speaking here and 
 " speaking there. Was that not the reason why Nally escaped so long? 
 " Was that not the i-eason why they did not believe or pay attention to 
 " what he said at these meetings ? Why they were aware that he was a 
 " drunken fellow, because the Attorney-General put this question to one 
 " of the witnesses," I believe it was I asked the question, for I examined 
 the witness 'Was Nally drunk at this meeting?' 'He was,' the 
 witness said. " After all, I think it was not fair that the Right Hon. the 
 " Attorney-Grenei-ivl, representing Her Majesty's Government, should 
 " charge my clients with being conspirators with Nally, to say that they 
 *' conspired with him to achieve their objects by the means of murder ; 
 *' because that was said over and over again. I say it was not fail* 
 " and I cannot throw dii-t in the teeth of the Government to press 
 " so infamous a charge. It was not tiiir to watch Nally going from 
 " meeting to meeting, letting him go on and, I say, directly encouraging 
 " him for the police did encourage him to encourage him in making 
 " the observations he made. The police gave him drink" that is not 
 coiTect " and then took doAvn his words and sent them to the 
 " Castle. It was not fair of them to allow that man to go on. And 
 " why did they do it ? Because if they did not they could not have 
 " dragged in Mr Parnell as a conspirator with him. And, I am sure 
 " that you, as Irishmen, will tell the Right Hon. the Attorney-General, 
 " representing Her Majesty's Government, that whatever Mr. Parnell 
 " may be, whatever his faults may be, he is no conspirator for murder. 
 " Mr. Nally was generally called upon to speak after the meeting was 
 " closed, and, except on one or two occasions, he never was at any 
 " meeting in which these desperate conspirators from DubUn appeared. 
 " For they have so disavowed it. They were working for a legitimate 
 " object to be attained by legitimate means. Nally 's object was 
 murder, if he believed in it, which he says he did not." There, 
 gentlemen, is a defence. There is a way to treat Nally, gentlemen 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 15 
 
 of the jury. Nally attended fifteen meetings, seven of the tmversei-s, 
 at all events, were present at the meetings which he attended. Nally 
 was never disavowed. No doubt, according to his counsel, he did mean 
 murder if he believed in it. What is the reference to the dynamite 1 
 What is the meaning of the gun cotton 1 What is the reference to the 
 landlord murder at Ballinrobe 1 What is the reference, by the other 
 traversers, to the murder of Lord Mountmorres ] Was this disavowed 1 
 Gentlemen of the jury, the meetings at which Nally was present I say 
 the trusted companion of the other defendants were as follows. 
 On the 3rd May, at Irishtown, Ln the county Mayo, Nally 
 attended a meetiag with Pamell, Boyton and Gordon. At 
 Glennamaddy he was there by himself on the 16th May. 
 He was at Ballyglass, in the Co. Mayo. On the 13th June he 
 was at Shnile, Co. G.lway, with Gordon. At that most i"emarkable 
 meeting at Bohola, in the Co. Mayo, on the 30th July, he was present 
 with Walsh. On that day week he was at Cong, in Mayo, with 
 Gordon. He was at the Land League meeting at Duneen on 
 the 18th July with Walsh. He was at Milltown, in the Co. 
 Galway, on the 25th July, with Brennan and Gordon. He was at 
 Erenchpark, in the Co. of Roscommon, on the 1st August, with Harris 
 and Walsh. He was at BaUintubber, Co. Roscommon, on the 8th 
 August, with O'Sullivan and Walsh ; and he was at Tuam, in the Co. 
 Galway, on the 15th August, with Brennan, and Walsh, and Gordon. 
 Taking up the dates you will see, from June almost until 15th August, 
 he was with these other traversers every Sunday attending meetings in 
 the West. The printed resolutions -from DubUn I presume but at all 
 events the printed resolutions at the meetings were given into his hands 
 to be moved. He hands the placards to the constables. I have a right 
 to say that he was intrusted with the printed resolutions and the 
 printed placards, and you are asked to say that he is not responsible 
 because his counsel says that he was a drunken fool, while in the same 
 breath he says that Nally meant murder if he believed in it ; and I 
 understand my learned friend to say that the condition of the country 
 would palliate murder 
 
 Mr. Curran. I did not, Sergeant Heron. 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. Oh, no. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. E withdraw it at once. 
 
 Mr. Cv/rra/n.I did not say it. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. As regards the condition of the country, I think 1 
 have a right to say in this court that no condition of the country pal- 
 liates murder. The commandment says, " Thou shalt do no murder" 
 and Nally meant murder if he believed in it. Well, I think it can 
 hardly be said that Mr. Harris is to be disowned. Gentlemen, at the 
 meeting in Galway, on the 24th October, Mr. Harris was there, and Mr, 
 Pamell was there. Now it has been said over and over again that 
 murder has been denounced from these platfoiTus, and that every one of 
 the traversers has disassociated himself from all connexion with these 
 
16 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 frightful crimes. On the 3rd October Mr. Pamell, at Galway, deli- 
 vered a most remarkable speech. The murder of Lord Mountmorres had 
 occurred on the 26th Sei)tember, and in all the meetings that were held 
 on the 3rd October you find no denunciation of the murder, except, 
 of coui'se, I may say, that wherever a priest sjoeaks of the murder, he 
 speaks of it with abhorrence, and, according to his sacred call- 
 ing, he enforces upon the people the law of God "Thou shalt 
 do no murder." Mr. Pamell spoke very smoothly, on the 
 24th of October, a remarkably short speech in Galway ; 
 " Mr. Chairman and people of the city and county of Galway, it gives 
 me great pleasure to stand in the county which was the second in Ire- 
 land to take up the great movement which was started last May twelve- 
 month by Michael Davitt, at Irishtown. You have nobly upheld that 
 cause from that day to this day, in the face of every difficulty and dis- 
 couragement, despite of the famine that threatened to carry you oflf in 
 thousands last winter ; and you will uphold that cause to-day in spite 
 of the thousands of police and military that that hypocritical Chief 
 Secretai'y and pretended Liberal Government have hurled into this coun- 
 try (groans). If famine was not able to subdue you last winter, neither 
 will the threat of taxation for additional police conquer you to-day 
 ('Never') Now, your chairman has deprecated assassination and vio- 
 lence as being unnecessary to win your cause, and very properly and 
 justly depi*ecated it (hear, hear), and at all the land meetings which 
 had been held up to the time when extra police were planted down in 
 the County of Mayo, I also took care to join in that condemna- 
 tion (hear, hear, ' Long may you live') ; but I utterly 
 refuse further to allow any cretlence to be attached to the 
 charges which have been made against us and our people by the English 
 press, by in future deprecating outrage and crime which do not and have 
 not existed; and if it were otherwise,! say that the conduct of the Govern- 
 ment, in violating the engagement upon which we gave them the votes 
 for the constabulary, after seven nights' debate, and in sending these 
 extra police into the famine-stricken counties of Galway, Mayo, and 
 Kerry, disentitles them to my advocacy in assisting them to uphold an 
 unjust and an infamous law (hear, hear). What is responsible 1 Who 
 are responsible for the murders of landlords which have from time to 
 time, at all times in our history, taken place in this country? It is 
 admitted by everybody that English made law is responsible (cheers), 
 and I say that the people who are primarily responsible for the murder 
 of Lord Mountmorres, if it was an agrarian crime, and of that I have 
 very great doubt, are the House of Lords, who, by rejecting the Com- 
 pensation for Disturbance Bill, took the arbitrament of this question 
 fx'om the courts of law and placed it in the hands of the people ; and 
 the man who is secondarily responsible is this pretended humanitarian 
 Chief Secretary of ours, buckshot Forster, who, when the 
 House of Lords kicked out his Bill, and smote him on 
 one cheek, turned to them the other cheek to smite also." Now, 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 17 
 
 in uttering this, Pamell tried to imitate O'Connell. O'Connell had a 
 marvellous skill in fixing upon a man a nickname that lasted for life. 
 In the course of a controversy, Mr. Disraeli happened to say in his 
 letter that he didn't repent of the course he had taken. Dan O'Connell 
 was down on him and in his next speech said that the honourable gentle- 
 man could not repent because he was the lineal descendant of the impeni- 
 tent thief on the cross. Well, so much for the imitation. But there is this 
 cry about the real criminals : Harris calls them " the real criminals," 
 " agrarian criminals " ; Pamell calls them the " responsible criminals " ; 
 others of the defendants the " real criminals." This phrase is derived 
 and really it shows how little originality there is in these statements 
 by some of the traversers this phrase had its origin in the celebrated 
 speech of Henry Grattan, which my learned friend, Mr. A. M. Sullivan, 
 remembered to-day, and which he partly adopted. Old Harry Gitittan 
 said in a splendid burst, "The rebel in the field must be put down ; but the 
 real criminal is the Minister in the Cabinet." That phrase of " real 
 criminal " was then taken up and used in the wild licence which is 
 allowed to defendant's counsel here in Ireland was used by Isaac Butt in 
 the case of the Queen versus Casey, when he said the real criminals were 
 the landlords and not Casey whom he was defending. And accordingly it 
 is repeated, and this doctrine of the real criminals, this doctrine of the 
 agrarian criminals, this doctrine is adopted by Mr. Pamell : Harris, 
 who had spoken of shooting the landlords like partridges, being present at 
 that meeting; Harris, who had denounced the Pollocks, the Blakes, 
 the Nolans, and all the old Galway families, who had made that infamous 
 speech about poisoning the dogs of the hunt, and of poisoning every 
 field in the country, and of driving the Persses from the land. For moi-e 
 than twenty years I, myself, have been a member of the Galway Club, I 
 can speak in their behalf. Personal experience has been appealed to, 
 and I can speak of them as good landlords, living on terms of amity 
 with their tenants, discharging every duty of social life. I know they 
 join in the amusements of the field, and why should they not join in that 
 Galway hunt, the " Blazers," as they are familiarly called, who are known 
 all over Europe as a type of good sport and hospitality. This 
 man, Harris, says, in the excuse that he made for advocating 
 mxirder, that he was unwilling to shed the blood even of the 
 lower animals, meaning that he would rather shoot a rat than 
 a landlord, and he makes this speech about poisoning the dogs of 
 the hunt, and Mr. Pamell makes his speech about the real criminals. 
 That means that the real criminals are not the persons who in the secret 
 lodge vote some one to death, not the assassin told ofi" under a threat of 
 death to do the murder, not the spy on the hill-top that lifts his hat as a 
 warning to the assassin lurking in the hedge below that his victim is ap- 
 proaching, not the murderer on the run, not those who hide him from 
 justice, but the landlord or agent foully murdered, left on the road 
 avoided by the people, or carried home bleeding on a door to his wife and 
 family. The real criminals forsooth are the persons who suffer and not the 
 
 B 
 
18 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 murileiers or those who hide them from the law. In every speech I find 
 this phrase " real ciiminal," " agrarian criminal," and to-day, in a 
 speech of great eloquence, the quotation was again given, Mr. Sullivan 
 again repeated the i)hrase that the leal criminal was theMinistei' in the 
 Cabinet and not these persons charged with these atrocious crimes. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, that is the result of this preaching of Communism 
 and murder. Again I say, priests and people, 
 
 " Behold your guide your star, 
 You would be dupes and victims, and you are." 
 
 Gentlemen, Mr. Hai-ris held up to social excommunication and public 
 execration the Galway landlords. What was his sj>eech at Kiltooni. He 
 says " We were called Communists, Socialists, Revolutionists, every 
 bad epithet in the English language was applied to us, and we found 
 the landloi'ds would not stir a hair's breadth to meet the arguments we 
 advanced ; and we found on the other hand, that with some noble excep- 
 tions, we could not get the clergy to come foi-ward on our platform and 
 support us. I, myself, went to the parish of Astra ; I could enumerate 
 very many others, Ochran, Clohan, Athlone. I came to Dr. Coffey, in 
 Athloixe, to hold a meeting to denounce Pidgeon and some other bad men 
 (cheers). But, my friends, we could not get the co-operation of the 
 landlords on the one hand, or the clergy on the other. Therefore, I say 
 to you, that when you hear agitators denounced, when we found reason 
 and argument was of no avail, and we found it necessary to appeal to 
 passions of the people to tell them how they were rack-rented by land- 
 lords, how they were extenninated by landlords, and tell them all the 
 evils that could rouse up the passions and manhood of the country 
 when we found reason could not avail, we turned to the manhood of the 
 country, and it is to the manhood of the country we appeal to-day." 
 Again he says " I remember, my fellow-parishioners, on the lands we 
 stand upon, old Sir Frederick French, who was a very good man in his 
 way, owned this property ; built cottages for the comfort of his tenants. 
 I do not say the cottages he built were suitable for the people ; he resided 
 in London ; and it takes a man to live among the people to know the 
 people. At all events, like a good-hearted man, he showed a desire to 
 improve the condition of the jieople. After Sir Frederick, there came 
 in Sii" Charles Danville (oh,), one of the most stupid, one of the greatest 
 tyrants that ever existed. The first thing he did was to 
 inquire where thei-e was a i)oor man who had a farm where the 
 rent might be i-aised ; after that he came forward and made the 
 people bring their cats and dogs to kill them." Lower down in his 
 speech he says : " The worst man is Sebastian Nolan ; the worst man, 
 the worst agent, and the greatest scoundrel in the West of Ireland. 
 Sebastian Nolan was fired at in the County Galway (a voice ' It was 
 time'). Of course the man who fired at him committed a very great 
 crime (a voice ' Oh !') But for fear that he had been fired at, I will 
 not say what another outrage he would even have committed a greater 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 19 
 
 crime." This man denounced the Burkes, the Pereses, in fact almost 
 every landlord in Galway, and he shows what he would do if he had 
 the power. Gentlemen of the jury, in reference to the last count in the 
 indictment, it was a topic mentioned by several of the counsel who 
 addressed you on behalf of the traversers, that that count was excluded 
 for the purpose of shutting out evidence as to the misery of the 
 country, as if the famine that took place years ago could 
 for a moment be doubted. That is matter of history. But one 
 class of evidence was not excluded, and could have been given, and 
 ought to have been given, in evidence, if there was one particle of 
 truth in the infamous slanders which have been uttered against the 
 gentry of the county Galway. I read those passages in which this man, 
 Miitthew Harris, denounced the Blakes, the Pereses, and other well- 
 known families in the West. You heard the terms in which he de- 
 nounced Ml". Sebastian Nolan. I repeat, I have the pleasure of knowing 
 many of them, and I defy any evidence to be adduced against them of 
 any acts of cruelty, tyranny, heartlessness, or oppression. Those passages 
 in which those dreadful denunciations were uttered were read in evi- 
 dence against the traversers. If true, could not evidence have been 
 given in siistainment of the charges 1 Could not evidence have been 
 given to show they were justified ? Could not Mr. Gordon, Mr. 
 Nally, Mr. Harris, or any one of the travereere against whom 
 those dreadful passages were read could they not have given 
 evidence to justify them 1 No, gentlemen, they shrunk from that inves- 
 tigation, and I now charge them as deliberate misstatements. It was 
 said there were 200 witnesses to prove these things. I repeat, in the 
 presence of my learned and able friend, the veteran leader for the defence, 
 and every time I think of the able manner in which he has conducted 
 this case, the more must I admire him. I repeat in his presence I do 
 not say I challenge contradiction and if, in the heat of argument, I 
 should utter one word offensive, I will apologise for it, but, I rejieat in 
 his presence, that if there was one particle of foundation for those gross 
 charges of tyranny, oppression and cruelty against the landlords of the 
 West of Ireland, they could have proved them, they could have justified 
 them, but, they shnmk from the proof, and why 1 because those charges 
 were pure inventions, without a particle of trvith to justify them. 
 I will now refer you, gentlemen, to the speech of Mr. Matthew 
 Harris, at Frenchpark, on Sunday, 1st August. Before doing 
 so let me observe that the only defence attempted as regards those 
 dreadful charges read in evidence was by my friend, Mr. Curran, and I 
 will take his own test. He says, if you believe they were in earnest, 
 convict them. But he does not say that Matthew Harris was not in 
 earnest. If he said that he was not in earnest, I do believe he would 
 dismiss him as his counsel on the spot. So much for honesty and 
 sincerity. He does not say it for Mr. Gordon, or Mr. Walsh, for 
 each of those gentlemen, if challenged as to whether they were 
 in earnest, would say they spoke the tnith. They spoke fearlessly 
 
 b2 
 
20 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 and would strike for Ireland if they had an opportunity. The 
 only man who had no excuse for not meaning what he said 
 was Mr. Nally, who meant murder if he was in earnest. Mr. 
 Matthew Harris, at that meeting in Frenchpark, says, " Well, 
 I am hajjpy to see that the people ai-e realizing these things. 
 They are feeling the necessity of combined action, and I hope the time 
 is not far distant when the i)eoi)le will be so united that when the bailiflf 
 or when the sheriff (groans, and cries of ' Down with them') or when 
 the landlord comes to dispossess the poor industrious peraon from his 
 holding, which according to all the laws of justice and humanity and 
 morality he has a better right to than the landlord that the people through- 
 out the country will all rise like one man, tliat signal fires will make their 
 appearance on the hill-top, and that every man in the vast area will come 
 together in thousands and tens of thousands and say to the landlord, 
 ' You can go no further. This man is our brother this man is our 
 neighbour this man has a better right to the earth than the extravagant 
 landlord, and we shall not allow this man to be disturbed we shall not 
 allow one hair of his head to be disturbed we shall not allow his farm 
 to be taken from him we shall not allow his children to be thrown out 
 on the world we shall not allow his aged father to be driven upon the 
 mercy of the waves (great cheering,, and cries of ' never ') by any tymnt 
 no matter who he is.' Well, my friends, it is only by union and organiza- 
 tion you can accomplish this. By this union and organization you can 
 accomplish all T say, and very much more than I have told you. Then, 
 I ask, must he not be a grossly selfish man who would stand aloof from 
 a great movement which promises this. It is those rotten men those 
 vile bad men help tKemselves and themselves alone (voices ' We 
 won't let them'). They sneer at the men like Mr. Kelly beyond, who has 
 done a great deal (cheers. Voices ' Such fellows that went to serve 
 the processes the other day,' * They had to go home quick,' ' We were 
 the boys that were able to do it,' ' Down with them/ great cheering.)" 
 That is the langxiage, gentlemen, of Mr. HaiTis, and indeed I must say 
 of these men of whom I am now speaking, that they have spoken 
 according to their lights. And looking at these matters from 
 an imperial point of view, and not from a national point 
 of view, a statesman possibly would prefer to meet the open, 
 manly, high treason utterances of these men, than to have rebellion 
 secret and veiled under the false mask of constitutional agitation. I 
 referred to the threat Mr. Harris used against the priests who would 
 not join them. That threat is constantly repeated, and even the Lord 
 Lieutenant and Ai'chbishop M'Cabe were mentioned at one of those 
 meetings to shouts of " Away with them." At every meeting where 
 there is not a priest present, at that meeting threats are used against the 
 priests. What does Mr. Gordon say at Shmile, on the 20th of June 1 
 " Mr. P. J. Gordon seconded the resolution, and in doing so said I am 
 proud of having the honour of addressing you here in Shrule to-day. I 
 had made up my mind to attend another meeting, but something 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 21 
 
 has occurred in this gallant county that is echoed by my feelings. 
 The Church teaches that he who is not with you is against you, 
 and I am sorry the priest of this parish is not here to-day. Let 
 it not be understood that I want to excite that gentleman ; 
 but 1 will not let it be understood that his name is in accordance 
 with his acts. He bears the name of Good, but he is damn little 
 good." That is the way the parish priest is spoken of? He continues : 
 " It is the people of the parish that has made him what he is, and it is 
 you, with your hard earnings, that has placed him in this position. I 
 am leaving it in your own hands to chastise those who are against the 
 people. I imderstand, my friends, that there is a party here who has 
 got up a system of reporting to the Government that the peaceable 
 people of Slirule and its surroundings were determined to cut one 
 another's throats. But I say we have no intention of cutting the 
 throats of our friends, but I don't care if half the throats of our enemies 
 were cut before moming." Gentlemen, if Mr. Gordon's counsel observed 
 that speech, and said he was drunk or that he did not mean it, I repeat, 
 he would dismiss him from his advocacy on the spot. In the same way, 
 at Kiltullagh, on the 22nd Aug\ist, Mr. John W. "Walsh says : " I am 
 exceedingly sorry, as a Catholic, that your parish priest has not come 
 here to grace this platform to-day, but instead of doing so he thought 
 fit to say that this meeting was got up by strangers. Well, I don't con 
 sider myself a stranger in Kiltullagh (no, no), nor do any of the gentlemen 
 whom I see around me. We are all Irishmen, and we should be brothers. 
 Perhaps Father Pelly does not like to displease some of the lords in the 
 neighbourhood, who hold the land under the title granted by Cromwell 
 (groans), or Elizabeth, or the broken Treaty of Limerick." He is appa- 
 rently under the impression Elizabeth succeeded Cromwell. " Father 
 Pelly may think he has a right to the land, but I tell him he has no right to 
 the land, that the land belongs to the people ; and how can it be found 
 that any minister of God, especially a Roman Catholic minister, or any 
 Roman Catholic, can be got to believe that those men holding under the 
 title of Cromwell, can have any right in the soil is more than I can 
 understand." Then he says " Oliver Cromwell betrayed your fathers' 
 cause because they were Catholics." At Clerhaun, on the 10th of 
 October, Mr. P. J. Gordon says, " Now, I ask you are you satisfied 
 with this system of land robbery 1 If you ai-e determined men, band 
 yourselves together. I will ask the fair daughters of this locality to 
 combine together, to be in the band equal to the men, and if there is a 
 cowardly man in the village let the brave women force him to the front. 
 . . . A man could make money and buy a property, and then 
 crush the people. I ask you to combine together and swear before God 
 on High that you are determined to stick to the land of your birth. 
 Why is it, at this time of poverty and distress, that you have not your 
 priest on this platform to-day as your chairman ? (Groans.) I don't 
 want you to groan him, but I want you to teach him a lesson. T am a 
 Catholic, devoted to the Church of Rome, and to-morrow, if my Church 
 
22 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 were in danger, I'd be one of the first to fight for her ; and when the 
 late PojHi wanted soldiei-s in tlie field, I can truly boast that I was the 
 first recruit in the county Galway. My ambition is to see my 
 people free to see them in the land of their birth ; and my 
 ambition is to see the priest with the people. And when the 
 priest wrongs the people I am the first man to denounce 
 him on the platform. Perhaps you do not know why he is not here to- 
 day. Perhai)s you are not aware that he is a landlord. At the late 
 election in Roscommon I had been invited to a meeting, and the priest, 
 a Patrick's Day, spoke from the altar of me, and he gave me my 
 Patiick's pot. I made up my mind to go to his pai-ish on Easter Sun- 
 day, and I gave him his Easter eggs. I told the i)eople to hold their 
 shillings in their pockets, and let him go live on his 9,000, and the 
 result was that all the collection he got was 16. I will ask you here 
 to-day to teach this new jiarish priest a lesson, and you will find the 
 next meeting you will get up he will invite himself as chairman. T 
 don't wish to speak against the priest ; but the more devoted you are 
 to the Chui-ch the better you will be. You know that he is a little land- 
 lord, and I hope he never will be bigger." The same Mr. P. J. Gordon, 
 who spoke in this manner on more than one occasion of the clergy, at- 
 tended a meeting at Abbeyknockmoy, county Galway, on the 3rd October. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, the ruins of the Abbey of Knockmoy are cele- 
 brated in Ireland. It was at one time a place of great wealth. There 
 the old monks for more than 400 yeai*s resided in the abbey, and owned 
 the lands about it, and their bones and the bones of Irish princes rest 
 in the old grave-yai'd attached to it. It was indeed a solemn place to 
 hold a meeting in, identified as it is with so many associations of home, 
 country, and religion. There was sufficient about it to excite reverence 
 in the mind of every man standing there. But what is the si)eech of 
 Mr. Gordon ? He says, " Allow me to tell you that at this meeting you 
 have traitors in yoiu- cause. You have men among you who have made 
 capital of your povei-ty. But while you have among you four pillare of 
 the Church of Rome, and you have also on this platform the representa- 
 tive of the real Suggai-th Aroon in Father Egglinton, and though last 
 not least. Rev. Father Butler. Now T have done with the priests. 
 They are a class in themselves." He goes on " But I want to speak 
 now about the landlords which surround this locality. I heard an amount 
 of praise given to some landlords, but unfortunately in Ireland a good 
 landlord is as scarce as a white blaokbii"d. I have known one landlord 
 since I was bom, in Tuam, and his name sinks deep into my heart. I 
 will not screen the name of that land robber, Robert Henry of Togher. 
 I have seen him yesterday in Tuam with a very smooth face upon him, 
 and they say the gi-eater the rogue the smoother he goes. He is one of 
 those land sharks. When I see before me the motto of that independent 
 nation, the stai-s and stripes, I hojje and trust that the day will yet arrive 
 whou the stars and stripes of Ireland will float on the hiU tops of Ireland 
 (cheers.)" Again he says : " On this day week I had the great honour of 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 23 
 
 attending a meeting at Clonbur. I had no idea of being thei-e until the 
 Rev. Father Conway, the poor man's friend. I received a telegram, because 
 he suspected that the letter did not reach me. Well, when I ai-rived at 
 Clonbur I had the pleasui-e of hearing that some gi-eat land robber was 
 murdered, or shot himself. The Government of England were murmur- 
 ing because Mountraorres was shot. I don't approve of murdering 
 anyone, but I say that the Government of England did not go into 
 mourning when the people were stai-ving." When Father Conway 
 ever mentioned that dreadful occurrence in his parish he spoke as became 
 a priest and Christian, and enforced the commandment of God, " Thou 
 shalt do no murder." But what does Mr. Goi'don say" that when he 
 arrived in Clonbur he had the pleasure of hearing some great land robber 
 was murdered or shot himself." Gentlemen, in this Mi-. Pamell and Mr. 
 Gordon are the same. You remember Mr. Parnell's speech at Galway, 
 when he said, "if the murder was agrarian, which T gi-eatly doubt?" When 
 Lord Norbury was murdered, the agrarian press said it was one of the 
 family who did it, and when Mrs. Kelly was murdered in the presence of 
 seventeen people, it was said it was not agrarian. Now, Mr. Gordon 
 tells the people that he had the pleasiire of hearing that some land-robber 
 was murdered, or shot himself. You will bear that in mind, gentlemen. 
 Gentlemen of the jury. Lord Moimtmorres bore a title. He was in 
 that sense one of the aristocracy. He was a veiy poor man, a 
 very humble man, excejit for his title and name. His pro- 
 perty was of the very smallest and humblest description, and, after all 
 the investigation which has taken place, and taking the circumstances 
 of the country into consideration, can there be any question that there 
 was no cause for Ms murder, except for the purpose of striking ten*or 
 into the aristocracy, of which he was sujiposed to be a member 1 He 
 was a man, too, whom it would seem it was easy to murder. What 
 does Mr. Gordon, further on in the same speech, say " Don't rest con- 
 tented slaves by the fireside. Wherever you know there is a newspaper 
 to be read, wherever you see that Paudeen O'Rafferty's Commandments 
 are read, let you go there and listen to every word, and go home, 
 and . . . that England is here only as a robber. I will ask you 
 for the future that you will pay no rack-rent ; you will hold within the 
 bounds of the Land League, and pay no i-ack-rent. I know there 
 are land-sharks in the village. I will tell you what you will do to them 
 treat them in the form of a mad dog ; and that is, when he appears in 
 the village, eveiy man in the village halloos him until he goes and 
 drowns himself. Do not have any intercourse with him. Do not speak 
 to him ; don't speak to his wife and children ; and if he go into the 
 chapel, let him go into a corner for himself. Let the people of this 
 parish respect their priest, and let them mark out that land shark 
 point him out to the priest ; let him die, as I said about Castlereagh. 
 He first betrayed his coimtry, and when England had no job for him 
 to do, he went and cut his throat." And a second time 
 he says "The priest has spoken of a minister who has no appointment 
 
24 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 from God or man. He stands up to preach over the remains of a dead 
 lord, or a dead dog, if you like. I have been on the spot where he was 
 shot. Why did not the Government mourn over the dead body of the 
 people ? I say it is better that one tyrant should fall than that many 
 should perish. I don't wish the murder of anyone, but that he would 
 live and repent. I would much rather that Lord Mountmorres should 
 live and repent. He is gone before his God. Let the Government 
 settle the land question, let them settle the tenants ; and as Paudeen 
 O'Rafferty says, ' He has worked from morning till evening often on 
 yellow stirabout, while he hands over to the landlord every penny he 
 can get.' If the Government wish to put a stop to crime let them settle 
 the land question. They have aided the landlords to rob you first and 
 starve you afterwards." After speaking those dreadful senti- 
 ments as to the murder he performs the sign of the cross, which 
 every Catholic reveres, by saying " I ask you here to-day, in 
 the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
 Holy Ghost, to combine as honest men untU we get shut 
 of landlordism." Gentlemen of the jury, I mentioned to you that in the 
 columns of the Nation, all along parallel with these things, are 
 leading articles and newspaper paragraphs referring to the land meetings 
 which I read as showing that all along the leaders of the organization 
 approved definitely of the movement. Gentlemen, a remarkable 
 meeting took place at Riversville, Co. Galway, on the 19th September. 
 Mr. M. M. O'SuUivan and Mr. Matthew Harris were there. Riversville 
 was the meeting held in reference to Murty Hynes and the terrorism 
 practised on him in order to insure his giving up a farm. Remember, 
 gentlemen, this system of a strike against rents includes a strike 
 against the small landlords. In the early part of the movement the 
 denunciations only appeared to be against the great landlords 
 against men with great estates, like the Marquess of Downshire in the 
 north ; the Duke of Leinster in the centre of Ireland ; the Duke of 
 Devonshire in the south ; Lord Clanricarde in the west, and the Duke 
 of Abercom in the north-west. But the business men and shrewd far- 
 mers who joined in the movement, and were inclined to join in it, from 
 a promise of the transfer of the jjroperty into their own hands, very 
 soon perceived that it would never do to abolish the great landlords of 
 Ireland. I have mentioned four or five names of great proprietors, the 
 management of whose estates is unimpeachable, who are admittedly 
 good landlords, and let their lands to their tenants at fair 
 rents. But in the panaceas for the relief of our country, in getting 
 rid of feudal landlordism, the Encumbered Estates Court and the 
 Landed Estates Couit were carrying out a system of selling out the old 
 landlords whose properties were incumbered and bringing in new blood 
 into the country by selling to men shopkeepers, and traders, and mer- 
 chants -who made fortunes, and were enabled to become proprietors in 
 their neighbourhoods of comparatively small estates. Gentlemen of the 
 jury, the law of competition settles prices, and by no possibility can 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 25 
 
 any Government settle either the price of tea, sugar, corn, or the price 
 or rent of land. We are all engaged to a certain extent in a struggle for 
 existence. The law of competition, as 1 have stated, is the law by 
 which ultimately the price of everything must be fixed, whether rent, or 
 the price of land, or any merchandise. Of course it is possible that by 
 some sudden and violent la'w the property of one proprietor might be 
 transferred to another, and the landlords could all be abolished 
 by an Act of Parliament, or without a valuation the property 
 could be transferred to the tenants. But the tenants themselves insist 
 in the clearest manner on free sale and fixity of tenure, by means of 
 which they would be able to screw the last farthing out of one another. 
 In the progress of the agitation fair rent and fixity of tenui*e were sug- 
 gested, but it would not be accepted, and, at all events, it was repudiated 
 by Mr. Dillon. Accordingly, gentlemen, in this odious tyranny which 
 the Land League seeks to enforce one of the articles of the programme 
 resolves itself into this, that no man in Ireland is fit to be a landlord, 
 or shall be allowed to be a landlord. Suppose, gentlemen, the landlords 
 were all annihilated and the land of Ireland transferred to the 600,000 
 tenants, by what system of skill or ingenuity could they be prevented 
 from letting the land to one another. The thing is absurd. Over and over 
 again that passage of Mr. John Stuart Mill has been quoted. I have 
 read and studied his works, and I know that passage of Mr. Mill. 
 He said the land of Ireland belonged to the people of the country, 
 and the landlords have only a right to the rent or compensation for the 
 saleable value. That is the observation of a statesman, knowing 
 the title to individual property must ^ be subject to the necessities of the 
 people of the State. A monopoly of land is a great monopoly in a 
 country, because land everywhere is practically limited. But the 
 second part of the projwsition is omitted by the agitators, and they put on 
 their banners and say, the land of every country belongs to the jieople, 
 omitting the strict economical definition wnich says, the landlords 
 have a right to the rent or compensation for the saleable value. 
 Its saleable value is fixed by the law of competition, which fixes the 
 price of everything, of tea and sugar as well as the rent of land. Is 
 the proposition this that there is no man in Ireland fit to be a landlord 
 except the fourteen defendants 1 And does not everyone know that if 
 the properties of the Duke of Abercom, the Marquess of Downshire, the 
 Duke of Leinster, and the Duke of Devonshire were divided between the 
 fourteen defendants, the rents would be doubled in two years. But we are 
 now going through this conspiracy which is a strike at rent and a strike at 
 property. Riversville was the place where Murty Hynes was denounced, 
 and had to come forward and submit to the Land League. Harris there 
 says : " If before these heartless exterminations took place, if before Lord 
 Dunsandle"-^another Galway landlord whose name, up to this I had not 
 ' mentioned, and whom Harris had denounced byname to the execration of a 
 people " If before these heartless exterminations took place if before 
 Lord Dunsandle had done the injury he has done, es|>ecially about the dis- 
 
26 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 trict of Kiltullagh if they had assembled together in their thousands, as 
 you have assembled here to-day, and if they had held up Lord Dunsandle 
 to public opprobrium ; if they had made this country too hot for Lord 
 Dunsandle in the sense of a country being too hot for a man who has 
 the hatred of a people against him ; if they had done that the extermi- 
 nations which have taken place upon Lord Dunsandle's property never 
 would have taken place. Therefore, my friends, I say you are here 
 to-day engaged in one of the noblest and most glorious works men can 
 be engaged in you are engaged in a great work of Christian charity 
 you are engaged in assisting your fellow man, not by giving him a half- 
 penny or a few potatoes in charity though that of itself is a good act 
 but by doing a work which will be beneficial not to one or two, but to 
 thoiisands of thousands, to millions I might say, for it will extend itself 
 throughout the whole country. You know as well as I know that the 
 man's friend or brother from whom this farm has been taken was in the 
 past one of the worst instiniments that Lord Dunsandle had. Now, I 
 am not anxious to speak in favour of this Bemiingham, who has been 
 evicted from this farm. I have stood upon many platforms, but T always 
 speak out my mind like an independent, honest man. It is not that 
 we want to support Bermingham, it is not that we care about Bei*ming- 
 ham, it is not that we want to interfere between Lord Dunsandle and the 
 slaves that he has had around him m. the past ; but we have come to 
 maintain the broad principle that no man should auction a crop, or take 
 land from which another has been evicted." And then he goes on in 
 dreadful language : " In the Presidency of Bengal, when what they call 
 a ' man-eater,' one of the fiercest of the tiger species, puts his appearance 
 in, the whole of the villagers around are in a state of alarm. The 
 tiger ! They do not know when he may devour some of them, and they 
 all come together and make great exertions to drive him from the 
 locality in which he is. So it should be with a bad landlord, his agent, 
 or bailift' ; when he comes into a district to oppress and grind them, to 
 put people out of their peaceable homes, you should all congregate to- 
 gether as people do in Bengal, and drive that worst of tigers from your 
 midst. I am sure to-day that, if the tenant-farmers of Ireland had their 
 choice, they would sooner have imported into the country so many lions 
 or tigers, or any other savage animals, than have the landlords they at 
 present have oppressing them. If you do not get up among yourselves 
 a spirit of resistance ; if you do not say that you have endured this 
 tyranny too long ; if you do not make these people understand that you 
 are not tools for cravens to play with ; if you do not show that you 
 have sufficient courage, sufficient sense, sufficient moderation, sufficient 
 judgment and reason, sufficient everything that is noble and right in 
 man ; if you do not remember that you are made after the likeness of 
 the Great Being who is over us all ; if you do not remember that, and 
 that the true nobility of man consists ia his resistance to everything 
 that is vile and tyrannical ; if you do not remember these things, and, 
 remembering them, combine to put down everything that oppresses 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 27 
 
 you ; if you do not do that, between the bad Government that is ruling 
 over us, and the landlords as they are, and the bailiffs as they are ; if 
 you do not consider these things, I fear that those who come after us 
 will say that those who came before them were wanting in the warm 
 blood and generous sentiments that are the characteristics of tnie Irish men. " 
 Gentlemen, this meeting was addressed by several other persons. We 
 see that the word " slave " is used, and the woi-d " traitors " is used. 
 Over and over again the words " people's cui"se " are used the " curse 
 of the people and their children's shame," and all these words. So 
 again, Mr. Harris, at the meeting at Riversville says : " Burton 
 Pei-sse, as Master of the Galway Foxhounds, I Vjlame. I tell Burton 
 Persse I tell the whole of the Persses in Galway that if they go on 
 oppressing the people, they will have to drop theii- hunting." Then at 
 the close of the meeting a letter about Murtj' Hj'nes is read. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, the Bohola meeting, held immediately after, had 
 a remarkable jjlacard at it, which was the same as the placard at a 
 subsequent meeting, with a promise to contain the names of the land- 
 grabbers of Connaught Remember that this violent language is used 
 in the wild county of Galway. This ciy of " Death to tyrants," and 
 " Death to traitors," is used before that wild and excitable population. 
 When I speak about the gentry of Galway, I may say I have a right 
 to speak about the people of Galway. I have known them well for 
 many years, and they have known me. I think I know the country 
 better than the London Irishmen who only come over here at the 
 time of a general election. 
 Adjoui-ned till next day. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH DAY FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1881. 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald and Mr. J ustice Barry took their seats on 
 the bench at a quarter past eleven o'clock. 
 
 Mr. Sergeant Heron resumed his reply for the Crown. He said 
 May it please your lordships, gentlemen of the jury Yestei'day I ven- 
 tured to criticise the origin and progress of the conspiracy. I referred 
 to the assistance it was getting from America and from cei-tain districts 
 in Ireland, and in particular I referred to the three names of Devoy, 
 Davitt, and Harris. I had occasion, of course, speaking here for the 
 Crown, to speak, I will say severely, about theii' conduct ; but I trust I 
 did not exceed my duty in so doing. And I am aware, from a pei-sonal 
 act of com-tesy to myself yesterday evening, to which I refer for a 
 moment, that such is the feeling entertained by others. I am not aware 
 who sent me the letter I received whether from la^ly or gentleman 
 but I thank whoever did send it for that act of coui-tesy to me on 
 behalf of this gentleman. He is not a traverser, he is not a defendant, and 
 therefore I refer to it here. Gentlemen of the jury, I adverted also to the 
 statements made concerning the gieat distress prevailing in Ireland. My 
 
28 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, kc. 
 
 learned friends referred to the loss of the potato crop 10,000,000 in 
 three years, under the avemge and the destitution in consequence of that. 
 One topic of distress, well known in Ireland, alluded to in Parlia- 
 ment, and one of the causes of the destitution in the West, which 1 
 know so well, has not, as far as I can make out certainly not in my 
 presence been referred to in any of the speeches of my learned friends 
 who addressed you for the traversers, and that, I may fairly presume, for 
 a reason that shall a)>i)ear at once. I refer to the agricultural distress 
 which prevailed in the east of England and prevented the usual wages 
 being paid to the harvestmen who go over there to reap the harvest. It 
 is well known from official calculation that 250,000 were thus lost 
 in 1879 to the agricultunil labourers of the west of Ireland who 
 go to reap the harvest in England, showing that our prosperity is in- 
 separably connected with England's prosperity, and that Ireland's distress 
 is inseparably united with the distress in England. Now I presume 
 that was done by design, because, from your elevated jwsition in that 
 box, you must have seen that my learned friends who appear for 
 the defence in this case have had the ablest assistance 
 I venture to say of some of the most learned literary men 
 of the day. We cannot avoid using our eyes and seeing from 
 a distance, the briefs so well and so tastefully got up by Mr. Dillon in 
 this case, and, of com-se, he obtained assistance as to their contents from 
 literary men and others, the result being the compilation of extracts, 
 which will make, I dare say, afterwards a valuable literary document. 
 No doubt it will. But whether briefed or not, that subject has not been 
 alluded to here. Gentlemen of the jury, I am referring to that matter 
 because one of the places I know so well the village of Ballyhaunis, in 
 the centre of Lord Dillon's property, is one of those places from which 
 there is an annual migration of harvestmen to the east of England, and 
 which has suffered ten-ilily in consequence of the want of employment 
 last season and the year before. I remember seeing it proved in one of 
 the returns that the poor men who thus go over to reap the English 
 harvest sent home, in post-office orders alone, to that village between 
 12,000 and 15,000 a fact redounding to their credit, a fact redound- 
 ing to their industry, their iutegi-ity, their thrift, and their love of 
 home, but also showing in the clearest manner that the prosperity of 
 Ireland is insepai-ably united with the prosperity of England. Now, 
 what was the doctrine preached to these men in Galway and Mayo, 
 suffering under the greatest pressure of distress ? In July, at Bohola 
 and at Milltown the meeting at Bohola being held on the 4th July, 
 and the meeting at Milltown on the 25th of July, dreadfully 
 inflammatory speeches were delivered and placards of even a worse de- 
 scription still were posted. Believe me, when the landlords are called 
 tyrants, when the tenants are called slaves and traitoi*s, when the path 
 is pointed out to freedom by emptying the Minie rifles into the bosoms 
 of those traitors to their cause believe me that, when at Galway, at 
 Ennis, at Bohola, and at Milltown, the leaders of the movement associate 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 29 
 
 themselves with either Mr. "Walsh or Mr. Nally in this wild language, 
 many a wild Galway boy, and many a wild Mayo boy, fired with the 
 passion and desire for revenge, rushes off to buy his Deringer, to buy his 
 revolver, and hopes afterwards to place on it a wreath of shamrock for 
 having rid the world of a tyrant, as Harmodius wreathed his sword 
 Avith myrtle. Watch the language in the speeches, and watch the 
 language in the placards see how they correspond. The placard runs 
 
 "traitors in the camp. 
 " Men of Connaught 
 
 " A year has now passed by since you pledged yourselves never to 
 take a farm from which another had been evicted, or which had been 
 surrendered because of inability to pay rent. 
 
 " Have you adhered to the spirit and letter of that pledge ? 
 
 "Have there been among you base, sordid traitors, who have betrayed 
 your interests by breaking that pledge 1 
 
 " Have the land-grabbers, land-sharks, and land-thieves been at their 
 old work in your midst 1 
 
 " If so, have you done your duty to your fellow-countrymen 1 
 
 " Have you ceased to buy or seU from the traitors ? 
 
 " Have you avoided them in the public place 1 
 " If not, attend to it. 
 
 " Banish the land-sharks from the society of honest men. 
 
 " Leave their corn uncut, their potatoes undug, and themselves to 
 wither under a people's curse. 
 
 " Their names, their human names, shall hang on high, 
 Exalted 'mid their less abhorred compeers, 
 To fester through the infamy of years " 
 
 " Down with land-grabbers, and God save the People." 
 That is the Bohola placard, and it is repeated at the Milltown meeting, 
 with this addition " The next issue of this will contain the names and 
 addresses of all the land-grabbers in Connaught who have taken farms 
 from which others have been evicted, or which have been surrendered 
 owing to inability to pay rent. Look out for land-sharks. Down with 
 Landlordism. God save Ireland," These placards are composed with 
 great literary skill. Mr. T. D. Sullivan, in his speech at Ennis, almost 
 repeats these placards, and we can easily see whence they oiiginated 
 from what they were written or copied. Remember the lines 
 
 " Oh, for a tongue to curse the slave, 
 
 Whose treason, like a deadly blight, 
 Comes o'er the counsels of the brave, 
 
 And blasts them in their hour of might. 
 ' 
 
 His country's curse, his children's shame 
 Outcast of virtue, peace, and fame." 
 
 Great literary skill is exhibited in these placards ay, and in the speeches 
 too. And the words which our national poet applied to the deserter 
 
30 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, (fee. 
 
 the traitorous deserter, who, on the eve of the battle to decide the fate of 
 his country's independence, sohl the pass on his brave comrades, betrayed 
 their lifeblood to the tyrant, and doomed hiscountry to perpetual slavery 
 those words are applied to the poor fellows trying to live, trying to pav 
 their debts, though anxious, no doubt, to add farm to farui and to get 
 on in the world. Gentlemen of the juiy, if this be not conspiracy, I 
 don't know what is. They, themseh'es, admit the conspiracy they, them- 
 selves, admit most of what is charged against them ; convict them if you 
 believe them, acquit them if you can. Gentlemen, I regard those meet- 
 ings at Bohola, and Milltown, and Rivei-sville as of peculiar importance, 
 and how is all this met ? I heard an eloquent speech from Mr. Sullivan 
 yesterday ; I shall criticise that address in no disrespectful spirit ; I have 
 known Mr. Sullivan a long time, and I can boast to say that I once 
 stood beside him as an advocate in the hour of his peril ; but one part 
 of that speech I remember and I complain of it is when he compared the 
 poor harvest labourer from the west of Ireland, going home in a railway 
 train with the wages of industry, and meeting with a railway accident 
 when he compared him to the dying gladiator, and repeating Byron's 
 lines, stopped short at 
 
 " Butchered to make a Roman holiday." 
 
 Omitting the last line, 
 
 "Arise ye Goths and glut your ire." 
 
 I venture to say that poor man got eveiy attention from the railway 
 officials and from the dispensaiy doctoi-s, and that he was well cared and 
 looked after. He was going home with the wages of industry, 
 he met with a railway accident and the idea of comparing him 
 to the dying gladiator is simply to falsify all history and literature. 
 I have as yet only commented on what Mr. CuiTan said, because he was 
 appointed to speak to the evidence. My friend, Mr. Dillon, spoke on 
 behalf of the traversers, and made a most excellent joke, advising the 
 shoemaker to stick to his last, and the Attorney-General to the last 
 count in the indictment a capital thing, and worthy of being remem- 
 bered, and he will never hear the last of it. My friend, Mr. M'Laughlin, 
 told a story about Brian Boroihme, and a steamboat and a tramcar, and 
 I could not well make out the meaning of it, except that he represented 
 Brian Boroihme taking his place in a tramcar to go to the battle 
 of Clontaif. The next time Mr. M'Laughlin tells that story I would 
 advise him to see my friend, Mr. Peter O'Brien, and take a lessen in the 
 pronunciation of the great hero's name. Gentlemen of the jury, Brian 
 Boroihme was a great man he was one of the few persons who under- 
 stood how to accomplish the unity of Ireland. He fought a batt' ^ called 
 a victory, but with doubtful success. It was at Clontarf. He accom- 
 plished nothing, he fell at Clontarf, and the miserable end of tin army 
 of the great Irishman, who appeal's to have gathered the poople of 
 Ireland together, was, that whilst going through the district now called 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 31 
 
 the Queen's county, some of the clans of Ossory fell upon them and 
 almost destroyed them, 
 
 " Forget not our wounded companions who stood, 
 In the day of the fight by our side ; 
 Though the grass of the valley ran red with their blood, 
 They stirred not, but conquered and died." 
 
 Mr. Adams made a capital speech. I have known Mr. Adams for 
 a long time (not so very long after all) and J am proud of my 
 circuit having so distinguished a junior on it. I was delighted to 
 hear portion of that speech. I could not hear the whole of it, but I read 
 it as reported in the Freeman! s Journal, which, I pi-esume, did justice to 
 him. I congratulate him upon his speech, and I recognise in him the 
 future leader of my brilliant cux;uit. Mr. Sullivan is one of those exiles 
 now who have usurped the place of the ancient exiles of Erin he has 
 left Ireland and lives in London, and as I expressed my wish for 
 Richard Adams, I, in the same way, express my sincere wish that Mr. 
 Sullivan in England, at the English Bar, and in the English Senate, as 
 he himself calls it, may reach the position which another distinguished 
 Irishman now has, as leader of the Common Law Bar of England. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, when I used the expression "London Irish" yes- 
 terday evening, it was not in any disrespect to my friends the London 
 Irish. They are proud of the name it is the name of one of the most 
 gallant regiments of volunteers " The London Irish." There they are 
 in London, prospering in London many of them on Gumey's staflf ; 
 several of whom appeared to such advantage on that table ; many of 
 them in the gallery of the House of Commons, showing what Irish wit 
 and learning and genius can do all over the world. These exiles from 
 their country revenge the wrongs of Ireland exactly in the same way as the 
 Scottish inn-keepers every year avenge the battle of Flodden Field. And, 
 no doubt, some of them have prepared the briefs for this trial, and have 
 prepared the evidence for counsel who spoke for some of the traversers. 
 It is my duty to advert to the first and greatest counsel who spoke for 
 them my learned and eloquent friend, Mr. Macdonogh. Up to the time 
 that Mr. Curran spoke not a single one of the traversers' counsel referred 
 to the evidence that I heard, and that was the meaning of Mr. Justice 
 Fitzgerald's pertinent question as to Mr. Peter O'Brien: - " Where's 
 Hamlet"? because up to that time the part of Hamlet had been most 
 carefully omitted. Where was Hamlet, but Hamlet did not reply, " You 
 may call spirits from the vasty deep," but where are they 1 where are 
 they] Hamlet O'Brien also spoke wide of the mai-k, except that in his jiei-o- 
 ration Mr. Peter O'Brien certainly said the best thing that has been said 
 in Ireland ever since Sir Boyle Roche spoke. But I was on the subject 
 of Mr. Macdonogh, my learned friend, and I have jotted down the stories 
 and topics in ancient and modern history, and the records of the home and 
 foreign policy of the British Government during many yeare, to which he 
 referred. He spoke on the first day of " the caves and recesses which the 
 mighty roll of the Atlantic causes along the North-west of Ireland. The 
 
32 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <kc. 
 
 caves and recesses the romantic region to which the recollections of his 
 early boyhood pointed in the North-west of Ireland." He then divided 
 his admirable speech, I might almost say, into three portions. In the 
 first portion of it he i-eferred to the life and opinions of Sir John Davies, 
 Dean Swift, Bishop Berkeley, Oliver Cromwell, the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, "William the Third, and Marcns Costelloe. In the second head of 
 his speech, he referred sometimes with censure, sometimes with praise 
 to Gambetta, the Due D'Aumale, the Irish tones, rogues, and rapparees 
 what splendid associations for the Conservative party, rogues and 
 rapparees the ancient Romans, the laws of Italy, Spain, Gaul, and 
 Germany, and he then referi-ed to the Zemindars, and the Ryots of 
 India peaceable peasants, not rioters at all. He referred to IVIajor Pur- 
 cell O'Gorman, and William Lane Joynt. In the third part of his 
 speech on the fii-st day, he began with a quotation from the illustrious 
 patriot Kossuth. He then referred to Bristol and the Sugar Plan- 
 tations, and the Sugar Trade ; then to Father Matthew, Cardinal 
 Manning, Sir Wilfrefl Lawson, Earl Shaftesbury, the Quakers, the 
 Haughtons, the National Debt, Mr. PlimsoU, and Con. Molloy. Now 
 was there ever such a speech since the world began. After that 
 last reference his strength slowly failed him, and he retired ; and the 
 following day he came into court like a giant refreshed with wine. On 
 the following day he referred to Westminster Hall, Brinsley Sheridan, 
 Edmund Burke, Warren Hastings, the report of the Riots in the Phoenix 
 Park, and the Riots in Hyde Park, to the Solid Saxon Men and the 
 Norman Conquerors, the Doges of Venice, James the Second and the 
 Great Seal, Stephen Langton, Magna Charta, and the Great Forests, 
 the Salmon Weirs, and the Salmon that is part of my learned friend's 
 speech a quotation from his celebmted speech in the Duke of Devon- 
 shire's cause about the fishing on the Blackwater the Barons of Eng- 
 land, and the Banners of the Church, and I find he referred to " the 
 winding shore that sweeps round the Norman Keep of Windsor Castle," 
 and says " There the Barons stood on that hot summer's day." He 
 says " There I saw with my own eyes atree the anchorite yew which, 
 on the very day the Magna Charta was signed, put forth its blossoms and 
 its buds to the sun. I saw it after 600 yeai-s still vigorous in its old age." 
 If my learned friend refeired to any book or dictionary about the yew 
 tree he would have discovered his error. Everybody knows that Magna 
 Charter was signed on the 15th June, and it was perfectly impossible, 
 according to the laws of forest culture, that the yew tree appeared to 
 give blossom on that day. 
 
 Mr. Curran. There is no evidence of that. 
 
 Mr. Sergeant Heron. My friend also said it was a proper thing 
 to refer to Magna Charta and also these matters. I have given, I think, 
 a very fair analysis of my learned friend's speech. He appears to have 
 most strangely resembled the old Roman lawyer, Posthumus, who was a 
 very eminent man in his time, and pleaded all the great causes. 
 Amongst othera there is a sketch by Martial of him, which appears to 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 33 
 
 me to be singularly appropriate to my learned friend's speech. It was 
 an action about the recovery of three sheep what we call trover for 
 three sheep. The Roman lawyer had been talking about Sylla and 
 Marius, and the great wars of Rome, not a word about the sheep. Tlio 
 complaint of the client is in one of Martial's epigrams, and is wondiu- 
 fuUy paraphrased by Mr. Hay, and put into an English dress, and 1 
 will take the liberty of reading it : 
 
 " Mv cause concerns nor battery nor treason, 
 I sue my neighbour for this only reason : 
 That late three sheep of mine to pound he drove, 
 This is the point the court would have you prove. 
 Concerning Magna Charta, you run on. 
 And all the perjuries of old King John; 
 Then of the Edwards, and Black Prince, you rant, 
 And talk of John o' Stiles and John o' Gaunt, 
 With voice and hands a mighty pother keep 
 Now pray, dear sir, one word about the sheep." (Laughter.) 
 
 Gentlemen of the jury, don't imagine I mean any disrespect to my 
 learned friend. I have known him long and well, and he has given mo 
 in legal warfare many a hard knock in his time. T admit myself impar 
 congressus Achilli. But I submit, gentlemen, that that is a fair comment 
 in this case. Has he said one word about the sheep in his speech 1 
 He has not referred to the lanfjuage bordering on treason and border- 
 ing on sedition. Has he said one single word about what hay been 
 proved in evidence ] Not one single word. Oh, I had forgotten. 
 Hamlet was called upon, and Hamlet O'Brien appeared, and then 
 made a speech. I am sorry he is not here. After making a speech, 
 the greater part of which was made in Cork, where he informed 
 the jury there, and the public of Ireland, and the world that his 
 was the only heart of a patriot that beat under a silk gown. Quite 
 forgetting that there are many hearts beating under both silk and 
 satin quite as good patriots as Mr. O'Brien. The scene has been de- 
 scribed to you after that trial in Cork and the acquittal, how his client 
 embraced him and shook hands with him. He told you in his perora- 
 tion that the Attorney-General had dug up a hatchet a rusty hatchet 
 and had brandished it in some manner in this indictment against his 
 clients, and he asked you, or he asked somebody, or the hand of freedom, 
 to em'ol your verdict in the annals of the human race and the archives of 
 humanity. That is what we call mixed metaphor. I will tell you what 
 that is derived from. I suppose it is something about a tomahawk and 
 the pipe of peace. It got mixed in his mind, gentlemen of the jury 
 the references of Mr. Macdonogh were patent, familiar ; but this was veiy 
 mixed. Where did Mr. O'Brien find that quotation 1 The National 
 Assembly in Paris they had a great deal of fun in Paris in those 
 days, but they had the guillotine and Bastille as well the National 
 Assembly was proceeding to celebrate the anniversary of the taking of 
 the Bastille, on the 14th of July. Shortly before that date a gentle- 
 
 C 
 
34 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 man appeared at the bar of the House with a number of pei-sons 
 with him. Some of them were Jressed as Poles, some as Russians, 
 some as Turks, some as Chinese, and there was one as an 
 American Indian with hardly anything on him, but a tomahawk. 
 That suggested the reference to the hatchet in my learned friend's speech. 
 The name of this gentleman was, originally, J. B. Clootz, but he called 
 himself Anacharsis Clootz, after the Greek philosopher, and proclaimed 
 himself the apostle of mankind, and the orator of the human race. And 
 he demanded that moment to be admitted as a member of the federa- 
 tion, as the apostle of mankind, and the orator of the human race. It 
 afterwards turned out that these persons were not real Chinese or Turks 
 at all, but only young fellows about Paris dressed in masquerade dresses 
 from the Opera House. He demanded to be admitted, and these were 
 troublesome times, and he was ultimately admitted to the National 
 Assembly by the national vote. The clerk attending, however, went to 
 him and asked to put down his name and record him as a member of the 
 National Assembly. "No," said Anacharsis Clootz, " let my admission 
 to the National Assembly be enrolled in the archives of the human race," 
 Where is Anacharsis O'Brien ? Is he there blushing ? He is from 
 Clare, and it is little for blushing they care down there. Now, 
 gentlemen of the juiy, I ask you, is this not the rhodomontade we have 
 been listening to? Your attention has been sought to be diverted 
 from the issues you have to try. What you have to try is did the 
 traverser combine and consjiire for a strike against rent 1 Did they 
 try to do this by unlawful means ? You have heai-d about people being 
 threatened with Boycotting, and with being Boycotted ; that this has 
 been going on for eighteen months in Ireland ; and when men boast of 
 their guilt, are they to be acquitted by the jury ? They boast of their 
 guilt. Are oaths gone out of the woi-ld ? No doubt they are if the 
 Ten Commandments of Paudeen O'Rafferty are the law, the new 
 law the Commandments set up before the people in this dis- 
 turbed country. The Attorney-General of course referred to these 
 Commandments. He most reverently alluded to the incident of 
 the Sermon on the Mount. It wo.ld do no harm to any man, 
 Christian or Atheist, to read the Divine Commandments and have 
 them by heart. But they had there produced in court the blas- 
 phemous, the infamous production which led the people on the 
 highway of sedition and murder. This is the work of Atheists the 
 outcome of Communism and Nihilism, but which has happily been 
 defeated in many portions of the country by the good sense and shrewd- 
 ness of the people who see that they are brought into a conspiracy in 
 which they ai'e deceived. Gentlemen of the jury, I must do my duty, 
 and I recall your attention to the evidence which of course on the 
 mot tVordre of my learned friend here, the leader, was, to a certain extent, 
 obliterated from the court. And as regards the combination, as regards 
 the doctrines, and as regards what are called O'RaflPerty's Command- 
 ments, I find the same expressions ininning through almost every one of 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 36 
 
 the speakere' addresses in this conspiracy, from the highest to the lowest, 
 Boyton,atNewtown,says, "There have been evictions inMayo,Galway,and 
 Tipperary, and the caretakers that are watching these evicted farms and 
 inhabitingthesehomesfceadsarethebats and the owls, and God helptheman 
 wlio dares to go near one of them (cheers). " Is that worse than the speech 
 of Nally, who compared the conduct of such men to the robber soldier 
 on Calvary ? Is that woi-se tlian what Walsh says, that " if such a maii 
 be found in your midst don't sell to him or buy from him. Look upon 
 him with scorn, as an unclean thing" 1 Is that worse than what O'Sul- 
 livan said " If there be an eviction, let no man take that farm. You 
 pledged yourselves not to take a farm from which anyone was evicted. 
 You pledged youi-selves never to buy any ai-ticle which the sheriffs may 
 offer for sale. If there be an auction let the sheriff hold the sale, but let 
 nothing be bought. Let no man take any farm of land, even if he get 
 it for nothing. If there is anybody mean enough to despise the 
 calls of his country, shun him as you would a tiger. He is a 
 moral tiger ; for he sucks the biood of you and your little 
 ones. You must hold up your hands and pledge yourselves 
 that you will never take any farm in the future." (Hands held up.) 
 "Walsh, at Dooleague, " Point out with scorn any man who will be guilty 
 of such an act. I will go further, and ask that yon will not speak to 
 him or that you will not sit at the same side of the church with him, in 
 fact, that you will look upon him as the enemy of the Irish race." J 
 ask you, knowing the people as well as you do I ask you how any 
 man preaching these sentiments, how any man animated by these senti- 
 ments, can ever venture to say the Lord's Pi-ayer, or venture to make 
 the sign of the Cross. Gordon says at Miltown " Lay your hand on 
 your breast and say if the land you have been working on were taken 
 from you to-morrow would you not harbour revenge in your bosom. I 
 say let there be no scoundrel amongst you to take the land. Look upon 
 him with scorn and contempt. Do not buy or sell with that man. Have 
 the curse of God upon any man who will take the land of his neighbour, 
 allow the gi-ass to grow, and let it wither. Let no man be allowed to cut 
 it. We will watch every man who wiU dare to take a scythe to cut it 
 (voices, ' we will cut the hands off him, we will cut the elbows off him')." 
 And then Walsh says "Should anyone be so unfortunate as to be 
 evicted from his holding, let the land be waste ; and should it be taken 
 by some bailiff or hanger-on, do not recognize him. Do not speak to 
 him, but treat him as an enemy of the Irish people (a voice * Give 
 him a ball')." Mr. Walsh, at Kiltullagh, on the 22nd August, again 
 says " 1 want a pledge from you that if anyone is mean enough to take 
 the land from which another is evicted, you will not recognize him in the 
 public market-place, or at church on Sunday; that you will not 
 buy from him or sell to him; and, in fact, that you will look 
 upon him as the enemy of his country, and that you will leave his com 
 uncut and himself to wither under the people's curse." A new feature 
 then comes in. Up to that time up to September the shopkeepers 
 
 C2 
 
36 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 and traders had not been thi'eatened. In September the shop- 
 keepers and traders who would sell goods to these pei-sons who 
 were politically excommunicated were denounced as traitors 
 and informers. Threats began to be used against them. 
 It is impossible to shut our eyes to what was going 
 on. 'Of course we saw what was called the manifesto of the 
 commercial travellers of England, who subscribed to the Laud League. 
 Mr. Walsh says " I ask you not to speak to him, or buy from him, or 
 sell to him, or recognize him in public markets or streets, or buy from 
 the shopkeeper where he deals. Don't interfere with him, but treat 
 him as an enemy of his country. You must not reap his corn or dig his 
 potatoes. Leave his corn uncut, his potatoes undug, and himself to 
 wither under a people's curse." That is taken from the banners. At 
 Bohola, at Miltown - " Leave their corn uncut, their potatoes undug, 
 and they themselves to wither under a people's curse." That was drawn 
 up, I say, by the same literary men men of literary ability, who knew 
 the passions of the Irish people. This was, I say, to incite the wild Irish 
 boys of Galway and the wild boys of Mayo, who believe themselves 
 heroes in buying their Deringers and revolvers, and wreathing 
 the shamrock on them, if one of them rids the world 
 of a tyrant. Mr. Brennan, at Clonmacnoise, says "Above all 
 and before all you must refuse to take a farm from which a man has 
 been evicted (cheers). Let that farm remain waste, let the grass rot 
 upon it ; let the crops rot upon it ; and if any man is found to take 
 it, or even work upon it, there are a thousand and one ways in which 
 you can punish him that you can punish him without transgressing 
 the law. I look on this as an educational movement, that is necessary 
 to teach the people their rights." Yes, forsooth, this is an educational 
 a constitutional agitation. I wonder when the learned counsel was 
 speaking, when my friend, Mr. Macdonogh, in eloquent and proper 
 language described the principles of constitutional agitation, I wonder 
 John Dillon did not rise in court and say, " I despise that doctrine ;" 
 I wonder Davitt did not rise and say, " that is not my doctrine." 
 Davitt and Devoy would not pollute their lips by taking the 
 oath of allegiance. " The man who takes a farm from which 
 another is evicted, he will not only be looked upon as a black 
 sheep, but will be looked upon as an abomination of abomina- 
 tions, and that no decent man will many with his family, and that 
 he will be looked upon as false to his country and his religion." 
 So said Mr. Bi-ennan, at Clonmacnoise, " False to his 
 friends and to everything that a good and honest man should support." 
 Is that worse than Nally, who at Cloneal, proposes a resolution " That 
 no man shall take a farm from which a tenant has been evicted for an 
 unjust or excessive rent, or in any other way violate the principles of 
 the Land League ; that we consider any man who takes a farm from 
 which another has been evicted or which has been surrendered for the 
 nonpayment of unjust rent, as an enemy of the people, and we look 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 37 
 
 upon him as worse than the robber soldier that pierced Christ on the 
 cross." Mr. O'Sullivan, at Riversville, says, " You know your rights, 
 and you know you have nothing to do but in cases like these to assemble 
 together to denounce the land grabber if he does not give up the land 
 (cries of ' Maim him, shoot him.') No, do not speak to him at all. If 
 he goes into chapel keep away from him, and make a I'ing round him 
 that everybody may see him. Do not buy or sell from him, and after a 
 little time he will be very g'ad to give up the farm and go back into 
 honest life again. I will not, in the words of the poet, pi'ay that earth may 
 refuse him a home and heaA'eu its God. I will not, for that would be 
 giving too much importance to him. I would rather let him be amongst 
 you a marked man, a man upon whom every man will look as if 
 ' TRAITOR ' was marked with a brand upon his forehead." That is 
 O'Sullivan at Riversville. That is Nally : that is Boyton Boyton of 
 course, the secretary, the organizer, attending more meetings than any 
 other he attends twenty -two. Mr. Pamell, the leader, is infinitely 
 worse. Mr. Curran says " Nally meant murder if in earnest, but do you 
 believe him ? " Mr. Pamell is in earnest. What does h^ say in Ennis 
 " Now what are you to do to a tenant who bids for a farm from which his 
 neighbour has been evicted (various shouts, among which, ' kill him' and 
 * shoot him') Now I think I heard somebody say shoot him, but I wish 
 to point out to you a very much better way, a more Christian and a more 
 charitable way which will give the lost sinner an opportunity of repent- 
 ing. "When a man takes a farm from which another has been evictsd 
 you must shun him on the roadside when you meet him, you mtist shun 
 him in the streets of the town, you must shun him at the shop-counter, 
 must shun him in the fair and in the market-place, and even in the house of 
 worship, by leaving him severely alone, by putting him into a moral 
 Coventry." That is the aristocratic policy " By isolating him from the 
 rest of his kind, as if he were the leper of old." Gentlemen of the jury, 
 according to the Old Testament, the sick lepers, of whom we read there, 
 were treated in that cruel manner. But under the Christian dispensation, 
 in the state of society in which we live, there is now no disease, 
 however hideous, for which there is not provided charity. And even 
 if there were now leprosy in Dublin and in London, the best and the 
 noblest in the land the noblest ladies in the land, amongst the Sisters 
 of Charity and Mercy, would attend and cai-e with sanctifying touch the 
 wounds and sores of the lejier. Mr. Pamell is beyond all charity he 
 has isolated himself from that charity as he would isolate the poor 
 farmer from the rest of his kind, " as if he were the lei)er of old." He 
 adds " Show him your detestation of the crime he has committed, and 
 you may depend upon it, if the population of a county in Ireland carry 
 out this doctrine, that there will be no man so full of avarice, so lost to 
 shame, as to dare the public opinion of all right-thinking men within the 
 county, and to ti-ansgress your unwritten code of laws." This is the 
 new gospel which the Attorney-General referred to when he made his 
 most reverent allusion to the "Sermon on the Mount." Then, copying 
 
38 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 again the words of the banners, and following the composition on the ban- 
 ner at Bohola, and Paudeen O'Rafterty's advice, Mr. Sullivan says 
 " Stand to each other like brothers, follow the advice that has 
 been given you here to-day, leave those farms to grow thistles 
 and rushes, and if anyone is base enough to go in on them, shun 
 him ('shoot him') ; let him be as an outcast amongst you, and his life wUI 
 be a life of shame and a life of misery, and the shame will attach 
 not only to himself, but to his children and his children's children." 
 Mr. Boyton at Athy, says " We will show you how we will settle the 
 laud question. Already a dozen of model farms exist in the county 
 Tipperary. They are model farms because they are standing there a 
 living witness that the landlord dare not till the land, and cannot get 
 a living man to strike a spade or plough in it, and he dare not, he is too 
 cowardly, to go there and till it himself. "What has brought about this con- 
 dition of things. Intelligent organization. Organization without which this 
 meeting and all such meetings will be worthless, and the excitement and 
 the enthusiasm of the time will pass away just as these men to-mori'ow 
 will take down these Hags and this platform, and it will all vanish, and 
 the land grabbers, and the land thieves who are here amongst you will 
 go back to their evil devilish woi-k, of propping up landlordism by 
 taking land. I have had a lesson or two since I came to Kildare, one 
 most particular and painful one. I saw a fann on which was 
 created a homestead from the earnings of the father of the present 
 occupiers. A day or two ago I saw that widow woman and 
 her children thrust out by the sheriff, and by the Duke of 
 Leinster's minnions and tools with forty bayonets of the police. 
 Twelve hours after that woman was evicted from her home- 
 stead I saw that man's cattle that had been looking for it when the 
 woman was in difficulties on it (gi-oans). I am here to-day in Athy, 
 within a few hours' journey of that farm, and standing on this platform 
 to-day 1 say that while I will counsel men to avoid crimes of violence, 
 in the words of James Redpath, that man must be socially excommuni- 
 cated. I want that man, when he meets his fellow man in the street, if 
 he be an honest Irishman, to look at him with scorn and contempt, for 
 the man to-day in the face of this great movement who will take his 
 neighbour's land or his fai-m, as you will be called upon to pledge your- 
 selves not to do dii-ectly, the man who does that betrays the cause of 
 Ireland, and he is a traitor to the cause of the j)eople, and the cause of the 
 people to-day in Ireland is the cause of God, of justice and of humanity 
 (cheers). I do not intend to make a speech. I want to tell you we have 
 rank weeds growing round us here on the fail" soil that was once blessed 
 by the footsteps of Sc. Bridget. We must root out these weeds. It 
 will not do to pull the tops off them. We must destroy the 
 land-grabbing in Kildare, and I tell you now, had T been 
 in possession of the facts, the whole facts of the evictions that have 
 taken place here two months ago, these evictions would never 
 have been earned out as they were (cheers). J these people 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 39 
 
 have been thrust out from their homesteads created by theii" own 
 industry, if there is wrong or injustice in their case, I shall par- 
 ticularly call upon every man here at this meeting to-day to hold up and 
 place a protest against the unjust evictions. I shall call upon him by his 
 soul to say that no wretch be found base enough to take that land or oc- 
 cupy it (cheers.) Standing here, I publicly proclaim the lands of the 
 Verschoyle estate from which these people were evicted, and I say that 
 the man who takes that I will hold a indignation meeting at his door if 
 he were the Lord Duke of Leinster himself. I will teach him a lesson 
 that has been taught his base, vile, miscreant class throughout Ireland. 
 It is not the landlord, mark yon, it is the men that the landlord that 
 thrust these people out that would have to step in and take their place. 
 In the portion of Tipperaiy I refer to has been organized there is no living 
 man would even dare to think of taking a farm from which his neighbour 
 has been thinist out, in fact, under no circumstances there to-day would a 
 man take a farm from which another had been evicted, justly or unjustly." 
 Well, then, I find that these expressions, originating on the banners, 
 adopted then by persons not in so high a position, are finally adopted 
 verbatim by Mr. Pamell, Mr. Dillon, and Mr. Biggar. Mr. Dillon, at 
 Templemore, says " By this united action if the landlord in reply to 
 your protest that you will not pay more than a fair i*ent, if he serves 
 notices of eviction, then report the case to the Land League, in Dublin, 
 and we will have it out with him, and if he evicts any man, looking at 
 this meeting here to-day, I believe that in this and the surrounding 
 estates, that if he evicts any man, so far from adding to the rental of his 
 estates, he will have an idle farm on his hands, he will have 
 on his hands what I have heard described as a ' model ' farm, 
 that i3 a fann which no living thing will go on, to show 
 what the power of the public opinion of the people is." 
 That is, according to Mr. DUlon's mind, that if a living man dare go on 
 it he is doomed to death. Mr. Biggar, at Castleisland, said " You can 
 take care that the land will be of no value to anybody else, you can take 
 care that the cattle shall not be cruelly treated, but that they can stray 
 oflF the land ; the fences will fall down, and there will be no benefit in 
 having that land. These are all means which you can take. Another 
 means was taken in Limerick the other day. A farmer had taken a 
 farm from which the occupier had been evicted. He took the ]>roduce 
 to Limerick market and could get no buyer. You can take care that 
 any of these shall be a marked man, and shall suffer instead of gain." 
 Mr. Healy, at Bantry, says " Well, the next man that is evicted you 
 will do something for him. And I would like you to think of the next 
 man that is evicted ; and when he is evicted we will go and hold a meet- 
 ing on his farm, and we will dare any man to take the farm." Mr. 
 Sheridan, at Carraroe, said " If any wretch be found in the community 
 base enough or low enough to take a farm which has been thrown up 
 from inability to pay rent ; if any wretch is low enough and 
 disregardful enough to take the farm I say if he go to fair 
 
40 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, (fee. 
 
 or market, hiss him, hoot him. If he has a shop let no man 
 go in and leave a shilling there. Do as they did in Tubbercurry tho 
 other day. The land-grabber, Farrel CauUy, has cattle to sell ; is there 
 a man in the place to bny them 1 The cattle were left unsold, and 
 Caullyhad to go into his rat-hole. Yon cannot, except constitutionally, 
 resist this. By your combined action, you will break down the cui-sed 
 and unholy head of landlordism in the west of Ireland." Mr. Brennan, 
 at Westport, says " You must refuse to take the farm of the evicted. 
 You must let that farm remain there idle as a testimony to the fidelity 
 of the people, But should there be such a wretch in the community 
 found to deal in stolen goods, to make money upon the misfortunes of his 
 countrymen, then you must visit him with the severest sentence of social 
 ostracism. You must not allow your children to speak to his children. 
 You must not deal with the baker who would sell him bread, or the 
 butcher who would sell him meat. You must refuse to enter a house 
 the threshold of which he would be allowed to cross. You must leave 
 him severely alone and let him wither under a people's curse." Gen- 
 tlemen, again, remember the lines of Moore : 
 
 " Oh ! for a tongue to curse the slave, 
 Whose treason like a deadly blight, 
 Comes o'er the counsels of the brave, 
 
 And blasts them in their hour of might. 
 His countrj''s curse, his children's shame. 
 Outcast of virtue, peace, and fame." 
 
 That meeting was at Westport. What do we find in the Nation of the 
 29th of May. There is a paragraph in the Nation headed " Evictions 
 in County Mayo." " A man named M'Donogh, living at Balla, county 
 Mayo, who had taken a farm lately in the occuj^ation of a widow, has 
 been summoned by the Branch National Land League to explain 
 the act, and to abandon all claims, forfeiting a year's rent. 
 Notices are posted up threatening the life of any one taking a farm." 
 That was published in the Nation of the 29th May. Mr. Dillon, at 
 Holyford, said " You must stand together and not allow one man or 
 two men to be crushed. You must all go in the same boat, and sink or 
 swim together, and if a landlord attempts to clear the whole of his 
 estate, let him, and we will build little cottages round about on the 
 borders of the estate (cheei-s). If you stick together, I do not believe 
 any man will be found brave enough to come in and take possession of 
 your farms. Now when any man is evicted ucjustly, and after the 
 Land League have declared that it is unjust to evict him, what are you 
 to do with the farn> ? Turn it into what we call a model farm, a farm 
 on which no living thing can go." Mr. Biggar, at Bailieborough, says 
 " When we talk aboiit the curse that falls upon a man who commits 
 murder, I think a similar curee falls upon a man who has the cupidity to 
 take the land from which another has been evicted." Mr. Brennan, at 
 Carrick-on-Shannon, says " You must refuse to take a farm from 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 41 
 
 which another has been evicted. A man that takes such a farm is in 
 finitely worse than the man who has caused the eviction ; and should 
 such a man be found in the country, then you should visit him with the 
 severest sentence of social ostracism ; the vengeance of the people should 
 fall heavy upon him. There are a thousand ways in which ycu can 
 punish him without violating the law. There is no law to comj)el you 
 to speak to him ; there is no law to compel you to sell him goods ; there 
 it no law to compel you to deal with the man who would sell him 
 goods. This is now the programme of the Land League." 
 Mr. Dillon, at Clonmel, said " If evictions are attempted, communi- 
 cate with the League in Dublin, and it will defend the farmer in the 
 Court, and if he is defeated there and evicted, we will put a ban on the 
 land. Call a meeting, and pledge the neighbourhood that no one shall 
 touch it or speak to any man (cheers). Then we not only prevent it 
 being touched, but prevent it being used. If it is put to any use some 
 man must be employed to take care of it ; let that man be outlawed, 
 and let no man speak to him or deal with him, and you will l>ring him 
 to reason very soon." Mr. Biggar, at the meeting in Bawnboy, county 
 Cavan, on the 30th October, said " The grass should have been left on 
 the land (hear, hear). Any tenant farmer or any labourer who assists to 
 take the grass from any land from which the occupying tenant has been 
 evicted, or in any case in which the landlord has acted unfairly towards 
 the land, is a curse to the country in which he lives, and entitled to the 
 reprobation of every one who knows him (a voice ' Down with him)'." 
 Mr. Sheridan, at the same meeting, said " If you see him at church or 
 chapel, fair, or market, pass him hate him. Let him be a thing of loath- 
 ing; a leper so uncleanasnot to befitto be touched or associated with by any 
 of his fellow-men. If he has cattle to sell, let no man bid for them ; or 
 cattle to buy, tell the unclean wretch to move away from you (laughter). 
 If he has potatoes to dig, or stubble to dig, or corn to cut, or anything 
 else, let him go out and do it himself (laughter). If he has a shop, and 
 oflfers goods for sale, let no man who has respect for God or country 
 leave a penny in the house (cheers and laughter). Let him eat his 
 stock-in-trade ; when that is done, let him go away. " Mr. Leamy, at a 
 meeting in Tipperary, on the 31st October, said : " It is in your jxtwer 
 to render evictions unprofitable. You may not be able to throw a man 
 on his hands, but you can leave his farm as desolate as a tenantless 
 grave, and if any man should be found base enough to take a farm 
 from which another is unjustly evicted, you know how to deal with him. 
 Do him no hui-t or hanu. Leave him alone leave him to his conscience 
 and his God. You need not buy with him nor sell with him you need 
 not give him a help or even a gi-eeting should you meet him on the I'oad- 
 side, at the market place, or even at the church door you need not say, 
 * God save you.' Do not visit him in his weddings or his wakes, in his 
 joys or in his sorrows let him feel that he stands alone. If now that 
 you are combining for this great, and, I trust, final struggle against 
 landloixiism, any dastard should desert from your ranks to take the 
 
42 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 landlords' side, let him feel that he stands alone a renegade against the 
 order he betrayed (cheei-s)." 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. What was the speech you read before 
 that? . 
 
 Sergeant Iltron. It was from Mr. Sheiidan's speech at Bawnboy, 
 on the 30th October, 1880. Mi-. Sheridan was introiluced as the rejjre- 
 sentative of the Land Leagne in Dublin. Gentlemen of the jury, at 
 many of those meetings the name of Mr. O'Connell was mentioned 
 the name of that great man. As T sairl yestfsrday, the gallant rebels of 
 "Wexford took to the hill sides with their priests, and fought and died 
 for their country. They never entered into a consjjiracy not to pay 
 their rents. Daniel O'CoDnell dreamed of restoring the independence 
 of his country. " Dreamed," say I. He toiled and worked for it all 
 his life. He founded that magnificent organization ,the Repeal 
 Association and he ho})edto see Ireland governed by the Queen, Lords, 
 and Commons of Ireland. An attempt was made to use that vast 
 organization, at the head of which were some of the first men in Ireland, 
 and some of Ireland's truest i)atriots an attempt was once made to use 
 it for a strike as against rents. Daniel O'Connell denounced it in his 
 place, and expelled Mr. O'Connor from the Repeal Association for 
 having ventured to propose a sti-ike against rents. That fact should 
 not be forgotten. It was said indeed, that the prosecution in this 
 Court killed O'Connell. We all know what drove him from 
 political power. We all know the party now that he has 
 passed away, to be mentioned as a matter of history. We all know how 
 the Young Ireland party rose against him, and Daniel O'Connell died in 
 Genoa, a broken-hearted beggar, execrated by the Young Ireland which 
 he had nursed and sustained. I mention his great name because it was 
 mentioned constantly here. O'Connell did say that the man who com- 
 mits a crime gives strength to the caiemy, and he did over and over 
 again insist on the excitable people of Ireland that they should commit 
 no crime, and above all " Thou shalt not kill thou shalt do no murder." 
 Every time I find his name mentioned in the reports of these speeches 
 it is mentioned with contempt, and every one says that ho does 
 not agi'ee with the doctrine of O'Connell. It is the old story about 
 the dead lion these people casting miserable aspersions on his 
 memory. Gentlemen of the jury, I said that in this matter, although 
 Mr. Parnell speaks, as I always see he does in smooth language Mr. 
 Biggar in vexy smooth language aiid Mr. Dillon in eloquent language, 
 these three take up and use what I call the treasonable bannei-s, and 
 weave them into their speeches, and insist on can-ying out this con- 
 spiracy, against whom] Against the tenantsof Ireland, to make themdothe 
 behests of the Land League, and adopt the new gospel of hate and murder 
 throughout the country. Mr. Biggar says, at Kinlough " Then, suppose 
 the matter has gone to another step worse, suppose the tenant is finally 
 evicted from his holding, then the local Land Association should have 
 its members spread through every townland in the whole country, and 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 43 
 
 they will take care that if anyone is vicious enough to take this land 
 from which a former tenant has been dispossessed, that such representa- 
 tions shall be made to anyone who has the viciousness to take this land, 
 and bring such repi'esentations to bear upon him that he will not take 
 this land that it will lie waste, and also will make such representation 
 that no man should work on the land on behalf of the landloixl such 
 representation to all the neighbours thiit they would not send cattle to 
 graze on it. They should take caie also that if the land is allowed to 
 grow in grass that no man should win the hay and move the hay from 
 the ground on which it grew." Then a man in the crowd says " A 
 big windy night might blow it away." Mr. Harris, at Loughglin, says 
 " Taboo such a man, ye must isolate such a man, ye must leave him that 
 he and his friends will come to their knees for to beg to beg to be 
 apologised for the crimes they have committed against the people and 
 against the country." Mr. Biggar, at Dungannon, makes another 
 speech ; the idea of such a sjieech being made in Dungannon. He 
 gays "As far as your influence extends, take care that no one else 
 takes the land from which your friends have been evicted. I need not 
 point out to you the means which should be used you all know them 
 there are fifty ways do not speak to him do not speak to his family 
 hoot him, and go the other side of the road (here there was a 
 tumult in the crowd) do not buy from him do not sell to 
 him put him entirely in what is called " Coventry ; " and 
 the result will be that it will become so unpojiular in the country for any 
 man to take land from which another has been evicted that the fact is, 
 the thing will become impossible, and it will cease to be practised. Then, 
 suppose the landlord attempts to cultivate this land himself well, I need 
 not tell you, there are many ways in which you can make it uncomfort- 
 able for him in regard to cultivation by himself. Let him plough the 
 land himself let him sow it himself then, after it is i^loughed and 
 sowed, let him himself gather in the crops, and take care that anyone who 
 works for him gets no countenance from any of you. In that way you will 
 make it impossible for this man to make out of the land." Gentlemen, 
 have they not over and over again, I repeat, boasted of their guilt, and 
 when a man still boasts of his guilt when a strike against rent is avowed 
 when the threat now is that the strike is to be against all rents on 
 certain events happening again, I say, out of theii* own mouths you 
 must judge them, convict them if you believe them, and 
 acquit them if you can. What were the means by which this 
 conspiracy was to be cai-ried out 1 In one word, by terror 
 by combination and by terror. Mr. Dillon, at Kildare, says : 
 <* If the people desii-e to put down landlordism, the only road 
 to this is to have an organization in the country, that every farmer 
 shall belong to a branch of the Land League that exists throughout the 
 country, and that all the young men shall be prepared to march to the 
 meetings, and in proper order too. And when we have that organiza- 
 tion perfected, let the word go out that no farm from which any man has 
 
44 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, (fee. 
 
 been evicted shall be touched or used until the rightful owner shall be 
 put back again (cheers.) In the county of Mayo, where the organization 
 is pretty strong, we have many a farm lying idle, from which no rent can 
 ba drawn, and there they shall lie ; and if the landlord shall put cattle on 
 them, the cattle won't i)rosper very much. You must teach the landlords 
 that if they evict tenants they will not be the richer, but the poorer ; and if 
 any man that comes and takes the farm from which a tenant is evicted, show 
 him in a hundred ways that it would be better for him not to have taken it 
 (cheers; a voice 'Give him the ))all '), without raising a finger to harm 
 him. All your meetings will be useless except they are followed by work 
 unless you work at home by organization in every townland. We ask of 
 you in eveiy townland two men who are not afraid of any man. Give 
 each of these a book with the names of every man in that townland. 
 They will go round to all these men and ask everyone of them to join the 
 Land League ; and in this way every man who refuses is known to turn 
 his back upon the peo])le. I believe that every nine out of ten will join 
 (cheers). When any man gets into difficulties the Land League helps 
 him, and if he is tui^ned out the League will assist him. These organizers 
 shall report to the branch of the Land League how many men they can 
 march to these meetings, and they shall be able to march to 
 these meetmgs like a regiment of soldiers. There will be more 
 effect in 200 >oung men marching to a meeting under the command of 
 their leaders than in twenty speeches. Let us then gather together the 
 leaguers of the country and march them to the meetings, and I am sure 
 it will stay the landlords before they put you out (cheers). This is the 
 work we lay out for the League this autumn, because it is in its infancy. 
 And I will tell you what the League will do if the landlords refuse to do 
 justice to the people. When we have enrolled 300,000 Irishmen as 
 members of the League, if the landlords insist on not doing justice to 
 the people, we will give out the word to strike out against rent entirely, 
 and pay no more until justice is done to them (cheers). With 300,000 
 people enrolled in the Land League no rent can be enforced in 
 this country, even by all the armies of England (cheers)." 
 O'SuUivan, at Dooneen, says, " Let there be a Carraroe in every village 
 if necessary, and a united branch of the Land League," then there was a 
 cry of " We wUl." " It has been got up to prevent people paying any 
 rent until the land question is settled. It is absolutely necessary that 
 you must act like one man in this business." Dillon, in Cork city, 
 says " Here is the card we circulated in thousands in Ireland, 
 and every farmer through the country has this card in his house. 
 Fii'St, to put an end to rack-renting and eviction. ' Is that assassination T 
 Second, to effect a change in the land system in Ireland as will put it 
 into the power of every Irish farmer to hold the land he tills on fair terms. 
 Well now the means we propose I sujjpose the landlords will say it is 
 by shooting the landlords, and the means are Organization amongst the 
 farmers for the purpose of self-defence, to purchase no cattle or goods 
 which may be seized for the non-payment of an impossible rent, and by 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 45 
 
 public meetings, to show the injustice of the present system ; a resolute 
 demand for the reduction of excessive rent. Fourth, temperate but firm, 
 resistance to oppression. These are the means which we propose to 
 adopt ; and I may point out that the means wJiioli have proved already 
 more effective to protect him against oppression than yeare of agitation 
 is, that of refusing to take a farm from which his neighbour has been 
 evicted, and refusing to purchase cattle. Now, I should like to explain- 
 that last passage, temperate, but firm, resistance, means that when an 
 estate is rack-rented, and when we advise the farmers on that estate to 
 tell their landlords they will not pay that rent, we do not mean that 
 we shall resist the police in their attempts to carry out the law. I do 
 not wish to expose our people. I do not consider they can successfully 
 carry it out, nor does it mean to shoot landlords, nor does it mean to 
 commit injury to property, but it means that we can get up, . . 
 that they will defy the landlords, and say ' This much you shall get, and 
 no more.' Then comes into play our other principles. If he evicts the 
 whole estate, the . . . support the farmers, and hold meeting after 
 meeting with the object of not taking the farms not to assassinate 
 any man, but to bring public opinion to bear upon him by not speaking 
 to his children and refusing to purchase or deal with him at fairs. These 
 are the rights of the farmers ; and we have tried in several localities, we 
 have succeeded so far to keep these famis empty. " Boyton, at Athy, says, 
 " I came here commissioned by Charles Stewart Parnell to establish the 
 Athy branch of the Land League, and I have done it. You must 
 organise every townland ; in each townland one or. two men 
 ought to go round with a list of the farmers of that townland, and 
 ask each man will he not join the Land League or will he desert the 
 people. Give evnry man a chance to stand by his people, and organise 
 in that way the farmers of every townland." Sexton, at Oulart, says 
 "Bind yourselves together with bands of steel, which will unite 
 every man of the farming class." Sullivan says " We will so organise 
 the Irish counties, as that they will want extra police in every county 
 in Ireland." Walsh, at Bantry, says " In conclusion let me ask you 
 to-day, each and every man of you, to enrol yourselves as members of 
 the Land League, and I would ask you still further to march to the 
 meetings with measured step and military precision, to go hand in-hand 
 in your masses 
 
 "dense, resolute, strong, 
 
 To war against treason, oppression, and wrong." 
 
 Parnell, at Longford, says " The Land League, the National 
 Land League of Ireland which I represent here to-day, has not 
 yet decided where along this line we shall halt. The extreme limit of 
 our demands when the time comes must be measured, as T have said 
 repeatedly in other places already, by the result of your exertions this 
 winter." Sheridan, at Carrick-on-Shannon, says " Now, let me see 
 that in future, at the next election of poor law guardians, no man shall 
 
46 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, dtc. 
 
 go in to I'epresent any division but a Laud Leaguer ; let me find at the 
 election of town councillors that no man will get a place there but a 
 Land Leaguer. Let me find that when a brewer or a distiller in Ireland 
 shall begin to vend his whiskey or his porter, you shall not drink it if they 
 are not Land Leaguers. Tf any man declares against the principles of 
 the Land Lnague, sliut his liouse up if he daises." Here is a conspiracy 
 against trade. Then he continues " If any fellow should go behind the 
 back of an evicted tenant, and attempt by any sort of means, direct 
 or indirect, to seek the possession of the evicted farm, let him 
 be jx)inted at at fair and market ; let him be hissed ; let 
 him be hooted ; do not strike him ; do not break the law. 
 You can point him out, too, as I saw done the other day at the 
 fair of Tobercurry. When ii land-grabljer sent in his cattle to be sold 
 there, the bellman went out and said, ' Mr. So-and-so has sent his cattle 
 to the fair ; is there any man to buy them from the land-grabber V 
 They were moved around from one part of the fair to the other, a crowd 
 of farmers followed them tlie land-gi-abber's cattle. They had to be 
 taken home, I believe, and turned out on grass, or I do not know what 
 else he might have done with them ; but when he wanted his horse shod 
 there was nobody to shoe him ; when he wanted his potatoes dug he 
 had to go out and to work his burly little carcase at the potatoes him- 
 self. When he wants some turf to boil his potatoes for dinner he has 
 to go and put the creel on his back ; nobody will sell to him ; no- 
 body will buy from him ; and by-and-by, when his stock-in-trade is 
 consumed he will be able to pack up his bundle and to get out. By this 
 sort of organization you will be able to break down this system which 
 an armed revolution might fail in prostrating. But above all things, 
 there is one thing I must tell you. You have to rely upon yourselves 
 as men. You have to organize the strength and manhood of your 
 country together, and while moving along in this constitutional agita- 
 tioUj you must make up your minds that, come weal or woe, that once 
 we are a united people, if we do not get our rights and our liberties 
 constitutionally, like earnest, stalwart men, conscious of the dignity of 
 tlieii" demands, conscious of a feeling that moves within their breast, 
 and conscious of their own rights of freedom and independence, that 
 you must at any cost have Ireland a free and independent country." 
 Grentlemen of the jury, is it any wonder that the learned and able counsel 
 for the defence Mr. Macdonogh, Mr. Samuel Walker, Mr. M'Laugh- 
 lin, and Mr. Peter O'Brien not one of them read a single line of those 
 speeches ; that task was left to the boldest in courage to my friend, Mr. 
 Curran. We, of coui-se, could see what was going on. Mr. Samuel Walker 
 is a sporting man, and he will understand the allusion. In the early 
 part of the trial, they were under Mr. Macdonogh's lead ; to use a 
 sporting allusion, they were rather like a lot of wild Irish red setters. 
 
 Mr. Curran. That is not the case, my lord. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Wild Irish red setters, spoiling every good point by 
 jealously racing and rushing over it, and steadily refusing to back. At all 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 47 
 
 events in the latter end they obeyed the word of order from the heroic old 
 chief and projjerly did so and steadily obeyed his order not to mark 
 or touch the evidence ; but Mr. Curran, as " forlorn hoj)e," gallantly went 
 at it with the courage of his name and race, and did it right well in- 
 deed ; but he is the only man, I repeat, who touched upon the evidence. 
 
 Mr. Dillon. I beg your pardon, Sergeant Heron. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Oh, I admit my friend did make that capital point 
 about the shoemaker, and the Attorney-General sticking to his 
 last. We will never hear the last of that. Of course he did ; 
 but, gentlemen of the jury, remember now that significant question 
 from the Bench, " Where is Hamlet 1 " Where is Hamlet ? where 
 is Hamlet? because the play was being performed with the part 
 of Hamlet left out. A very remarkable thing. I suppose it is only a 
 good story. I don't see how the play could be performed on the 
 stage, without the part. It is performed here. That speech of Sheridan's 
 I have read it for the Crown. Sujipose my learned and able 
 friend sitting behind me, with all the acuteness of vigorous youth 
 I have not used that expression old friend of Mr. Macdonogh, nothing 
 of the kind he is my young friend although not quite so young 
 as he was twenty years ago, but he is more vigorous than ever, 
 watching the case with the vigilance and acuteness of the most able Nisi 
 Prius lawyer in the United Kingdom. That speech of Sheridan. 
 What could he say about it ? Is not that boycotting? Is not that a 
 conspiracy against trade ? What is the meaning of this : " Let me 
 find that when a brewer or a distiller in Ireland shall begin to 
 vend his whiskey or his porter, you shall not drink it if they 
 are not Land Leaguers if any man declares against the prin- 
 ciples of the Land League, shut his house up, if he dares." " You 
 must, at any cost " that is, at any cost of rebellion or high treason 
 " have Ireland a free country." There, now, you see the reason why 
 these speeches were not read. How can counsel for the traversers read 
 speeches to show the guilt when they ai*e instructed to deny the guilt, 
 which cannot be denied? That would bear ten times as powerfully 
 against the defendants read by Mr. Macdonogh than by me ten times as 
 powerfully, because it is a confession 
 
 A Jurw'. Is that a constable's I'eport ? 
 
 Sergeant Heron. No, sir. That is the report of the Carrick- 
 on-Shannon meeting, reported by a gentleman belonging to Gumey's 
 stafi*. The repoi-ter was Mr. Harry you may remember him. I 
 may say now that really these gentlemen the London Irish reporters 
 many of them are Irish living over there have, to a certain 
 extent, as regards their accent, became often, as many Irishmen 
 do, more English than the English themselves. But the accu- 
 racy of that report could not be questioned ; or, I will say, 
 the accuracy of any of the reports, and I will tell you why, gentlemen 
 of the jury. You all saw that properly the defendants were represented 
 by three gentlemen who understood everything about i-eporting. No 
 
48 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, (fee. 
 
 people in the world, no counsel at the Bar, even in England or Ireland, 
 understand reporting better than Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. Sullivan, and 
 Mr. Adams. Of course they knew what Gurney's staff was the mar- 
 vellous accuracy with which these gentlemen in every quarter of the world 
 report what is going on many of them Irishmen the staff of English 
 reporters, they have been seen in all the battlefields of the world, at 
 the barricades of Paris, jotting down their notes, while the bullets were 
 flying about them. There is no danger here and the report is perfectly 
 accurate. With reference to the Constabularyreports, who challenged their 
 accuracy? though, of course, not so complete as that of Gurney's staff. 
 They were cross-examined by comparison with the Freeman's Journal, 
 and I must say that my learned friend, Mr. Adams, did ably cross- 
 examine them on the subject. He well understood how to do it, but 
 I fail to see the logic of proving the inaccuracy of the Constabulary 
 reports by alleging that they " cribbed " from the Freeman's Journal I 
 could not see the logic of it. Perhaps I was wrong to expect it. At 
 all events, they were examined, they were cross-examined, they told 
 frankly and freely what they saw. I must say the appearance of those 
 young men on the table appeared to be most creditable to them. They 
 are the son.s of Irish farmers, of Irish peasants, they appeared to me in 
 manner, demeanour, education, and courtesy to show an example, I 
 will say, to many people. And there they were some of that body of the 
 loyal Irish Constabulary, on whom and on the gallant Irish regiments 
 here now that society is reduced almost to its elements we depend 
 for our lives and projjcrty. Gentlemen, as regards the accuracy of the 
 Constabulary reports and the accuracy of the reports of Gurney's staff 
 they cannot be questioned. These gentlemen were cross-examined, 
 properly cross-examined, sifted thoroughly I don't object to a little 
 roughness being used towards a witness, it is a test of truth 
 under certain conditions, which I say has not been abused in this 
 trial. And Mr. M'Laughlin, Mr. Sullivan, and Mr. Adams, with all the 
 keenness and ingenuity that practice and skill gives them, they cross- 
 examined them. Have not the Constabulaiy borne the test 1 As 
 regards the accuracy of the reports of Gurney's staff, they are unques- 
 tioned. In no speech was the accuracy of these reports questioned, and 
 allow me to make this observation, the Freeman's Journal as ajjpeared 
 by the cross-examination of Mr. Adams the reporters of the Freeman's 
 Journal did properly omit any bits of strong language, any bits savouring 
 of murder or treason, becaiise a respectable journal thought it right not to 
 publish s\xch things But you remember Mr. Nolan's cross-examination 
 of one of Gurney's staff. He actually made him read out a bit I won't 
 now repeat the gentleman's name in which he recommended the land- 
 lords getting the point of the bayonet, and that gentleman is by no 
 means obliged to him for that. That bit was not read by the Attorney- 
 General. In the same way he caused another bit to be read a strong 
 observation, I don't wish to repeat it now ; and in reference to one 
 speech, cross-examined from the Freeman's Journal in reference 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 49 
 
 to a priest a most intimate friend of my own at the Tippe- 
 rary meeting. It turned out in regard to that speech not one word 
 of it was spoken at that meeting. And his lordship would have allowed 
 the evidence that the speech was made at the meeting. The reporter 
 of the Freeman's Journal could have been called as easily as possible, 
 he would have been allowed to look at the newspaper if his notes were lost, 
 as these prints were used in evidence by the shorthand writers on the 
 table, and as the Daily Express was used by the gentleman who proved a 
 a Land League meeting in Dublin for a purpose their lordshijis know. 
 Therefore not one single reporter of the Freeman s Journal has been 
 examined to contradict Gumey's staff, or that accurate and respectable 
 body of young men of the Koyal Irish Constabulaiy, who leained short- 
 hand as part of their education, and who have shown that quickness of 
 eye, and that quickness of hand, and cleverness about it which has made the 
 gallery of the House of Commons long since, or I may 
 say now that gallery (indicating Press galleiy), well known 
 and respected all over the world for genius and accuracy. 
 Gentlemen, so much as regards the Constabulary so much 
 as regards the combination and the threats of terror and of vio- 
 lence. It is not less a conspiracy or a strike against rent, because it 
 savours of high treason and of Communism this little ripple 
 in Ireland of the great wave of Communism in Western Europe, 
 which tried to bum Paris once, and may ultimately destroy 
 western civilization. This conspiracy in Ireland for a strike against 
 rent could not by any possibility succeed unless its teachings were 
 associated with Communism and infidelity. It is very remarkable 
 in the progress of the movement (about the month of September) the 
 way the attack begins about the men who bought land in the Landed 
 Estates Court. I always thought that with a natural desire for the 
 preservation of property, I always thought it was an honourable thing, 
 and to be encouraged, that the lands said to be locked up in the hands 
 of idle and improvident landlords the Irish landlords should be set 
 free, and that respectable traders and shopkeepers, or farmers, who had 
 saved money, should be allowed to spend their two or 
 three thousand pounds in the purchase of land, have a 
 home and farm, should become an independent class, not very small pro- 
 prietor, but an independent class of men living on their land, having 
 some tenants and living peaceably and quietly with those about them. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, I have heard a great deal of observations, during 
 the progress of this trial, upon the laws of other countries, and in those 
 speeches and in this Court you have been told over and over again 
 that landlordism has been abolished everywhere in Europe except in 
 England and Ireland, and that landlords do not exist. Gentlemen of the 
 jury, you are told in these speeches that the landlords were abolished in 
 
 France 
 
 Mr. Sullivan. My lord, no one stated that no landlords existed in 
 other countries quite the contrary ; no one stated it. 
 
60 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &o. 
 
 Mr. Curran. We said there were very few, save in England. 
 
 Mr. McLaughlin. No counsel in the case being found a lunatic by 
 inquisition, for there was no such statement made. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Here we are again (laughter). 
 
 Mr. McLaughlin. Of course I mean the present company excepted. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Gentlemen, you see the old insubordination of racing 
 over the iroint and spoiling it, and how each coimsel contradicts 
 the other. Walsh says, " I tell you the land of Ireland is yotirs. 
 If you stick to the Land League under the leadership of Charles 
 Stewart Parnell the land of Ireland will be in the hands of the 
 people. We were told that we were speaking Communism, Nihilism, 
 and a hundred other isms because we told the people that the land of 
 Ireland, like the land of every other country, was made for the [)eople 
 who cultivated it, the same right as you have to the air, the water, and 
 the sunshine." Would coiinsel for the defendants read that statement, 
 or what counsel for the defendants could justify it, or what counsel for 
 the defendants will say now that this has not a tinge of Communism and. 
 robbery ? Walsh, at Ballinlough, says " I have heard that a great 
 many landlords have bought their land in the Landed Estates Court. 
 They say they don't hold the land under the title ol Cromwell. I hold 
 their title is not good also. If a man sells a stolen horse, and another 
 man comes into the fair of Ballinlough and buys the horse, I say he is 
 not entitled to keep him. In the same way the land was yours." 
 These men speaking to these excitable people living on the land 
 tell them the title to this land (although he does not know whether 
 it is or not) is Cromwell's title, who cleared Ireland, who confiscated 
 Ireland. But that was in the year 1649, and the succeeding years. 
 They compare the respectable farmer or shopkeeper who dares to 
 buy in the Landed Estates Court, and holds the land that he has 
 purchased with the fruits of his honest industry, to the purchaser 
 of a stolen horse. He says "The lands is yours, and if a man buys a 
 horse, knowing the horse has been stolen, he is not entitled to keep it." 
 And in the same way, from the platform of the Land League, he says 
 " The land is yours." Is not this Communism that property is rob- 
 bery ? Brenuan, at Milltown, at that remarkable meeting, says : 
 ** These lands you have belongs to you. They belong to you who have 
 saved them with your sweat, and there is nothing morally wrong in say- 
 ing that you will protect those fruits with your strong right arms." 
 And, speaking at Keadue, he says : " You have as much right to 
 that land as you have to the free air of Heaven, and any 
 man who goes to take from you the fruits of that land is a robber 
 and plunderer." There are the new rights of the li-ish people; What 
 I call the New Gospel of hate. At the same meeting he says " The 
 land of Ireland is youi-s." And Walsh, at Killtullagh, says" God 
 made the land as he made the water. The land is youi-s, and no people 
 have the right to that land compared with your right. That land is 
 yours, and Lord this or Lord that has no right to that land, for God 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 51 
 
 Almighty gave the earth to the children of men." O'Sullivan says at 
 Clonakilty " What right has landlordism ] Come to its rights. Where 
 has it got that right which is the right of the people, wliich is tlie right of 
 the land. Is it not the people, the people whom God created to enjoy 
 the fruits of the earth, and who created the fruits of the earth for them, 
 and not for the idlers, the non-workers (cheers) ; it is the man who tills, 
 the man who labours from year's end to year's end, who is the rightful 
 owner, and it is only by the apathy and disunion, aye, and I must say 
 the ignorance of the people of their rights that has caused them to be 
 appropi-iated by landlord power in Ireland. We have, to a certain extent 
 at these meetings, and from the public Press, dispelled the ignorance." 
 Walsh, at Ballinageeragh, says " I hold that the land of Ii-eland belongs 
 to the people of Ireland. Almighty God made the land as he made the 
 air and water for the people. He never ordained that a few lazy and good 
 for nothing individuals should own the land. The only thing the people 
 of Ireland is willing to accept is that the tiller of the soil shall be the 
 owner of the soil." Brennan, at Clonmacnoise, says " This is not merely 
 a movement on behalf of tlie tenant-faiTners of Ireland against the land- 
 lords of Ireland, it is a movement of the workers of Ireland against the 
 class who have been robbing you (cheers), against a class who despise 
 labour in every foi-m. It is the uprising of the democracy of Ireland against 
 the privileged few who have been living on the px'otits of your labour 
 (cheers). It is the rebellion of men, who, for a long time, not knowing 
 their rights, have bowed under the weight of oppression, and who now, 
 knowing that God did not create them to be the willing slaves of any class, 
 who know that they came into the world with the same rights as 
 him who is called lord, take their stand upon these rights, 
 and hurl defiance into the teeth of their enemies (cheers)" the 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or the Archbishop of Dublin." And then that 
 defiance is given to the Lord Lieutenant and the Archbishop of Dublin, 
 Dr. M'Cabe. The cries of the ci-owd are " Away with them ; down with 
 them." " This meeting here to-day of the labourers, and farmers, and 
 the artizans lays the foundation of a fraternal brotherhood of labour 
 which alone can save man's right, and which guards man's rights from 
 the coercion of monopoly and the tyranny ol capital. This is not merely 
 a farmers' movement ; it is a movement of the workers of Ireland of 
 the workers of Ireland against the idlers. It is the duty of the whole 
 industrial classes to join in that combination." Boyton, at Carndonagh, 
 says " God created the land to be as free to render you the means to 
 sustain life as the air and as the water. From the land on which you 
 are born you are entitled to assistance to sustain life, and from that 
 land created for you, you are entitled to draw the means to feed, to 
 clothe, and to house your wives and families (hear, hear). The 
 man or the men, or the system that steps in between you and that right, 
 steps between God and his ordinances in your regard." Gentlemen of 
 the jury, I shall give you further passages, especially in Mr. Dillon's 
 sjjeeches, increasing, not in wildness, or determination, but in more 
 
 d2 
 
62 THE QTTEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 open expression, more open defiant expression of his power, especially 
 ns he felt his power when the meetings increased to fifteen meetings 
 every Sunday in October and November, and when he boasted every Sunday 
 that a hundred thousand at those meetings were pledging themselves 
 against landlordism in Ireland. Have not the speeches I have read to 
 you, have they not convinced you that this organization was a strike 
 against rent and a strike against landlordism, Biggar, Pamell, Dillon, 
 Boyton in these months I have mentioned said the same thing over and 
 over again. Some pereons, like Mr. Sexton, condescended to say the land- 
 lords ought to be bought out, but invariably the quotation from John 
 Stuart Mill, " that the land of Ireland belongs to the people ot Ireland," 
 is given so far, and the passage about the landlords is omitted "the land- 
 lords are entitled to the rent or compensation for its saleable value." 
 Mr. O'Sullivan, at Killorglin, says: "In Cork, on last Sunday, we 
 pledged the people never to buy the goods or produce of a farm from 
 which a tenant was evicted, or which had been sold for rent." Mr. 
 Biggar, at Dungannon, says : " First of all, if he brings an eviction, 
 or brings a claim for rent, defend the action in a court of law. If you 
 are beaten in the court of law, and he actually seizes the crops of the 
 man for an unreasonable amount of rent claimed, take care that none of 
 you yoiu'selves, and take care, as far as possible, that no one else bids for 
 any of the produce of that seizure." Are the landlords to be abolished'? 
 Do they not give the people, over and over again, the example of France 
 and the French Revolution ? And the murderous scenes of the French 
 Revolution are they not referred to with exulting enthusiasm ] That 
 was an example of a compulsory emigration of the landlords on the 
 vastest scale. The entire nobility of France almost the great majority 
 of the nobility and gentry of France were on the side of Royalty, and 
 were exiled by the Republicans, and their lands confiscated. If the 
 fourteen traversers had the power now, they would do that in Ireland. 
 I appeal to history. There was once a Parliament in Ireland in which 
 men like Boyton and Gordon and Dillon and many other of the tra- 
 versers got seats, and for a brief time had it all their own way the Par- 
 liament that James II. summoned to Dublin Castle. And in one short week 
 the tremendous Act of Attainder was passed, by which 1,800 persons were 
 attainted and their lands confiscated. Think you that the men who 
 mention the gentry of the county Galway and Mayo in terms of execra- 
 tion from public platforms and told these old tales about them which 
 they were challenged to prove in coui-t and did not think you that if they 
 had the power they would not now involve the landloi-ds of Ireland in a 
 vast act of attainder? Look at contemporaneous history. I have seen a 
 gallant nation fighting for its liberties. And when the Servians got rid 
 of the Turks, what was the fii-st law of their Parliament ? " No Ma- 
 hommedan shall hold land in Servian land." I think the defendants had 
 their opinion as to who were the Mahommedans of Ireland. I go now 
 further into then* attacks on landlordism. Harris says, at Knockcroghery, 
 " I tell you that we have a long distance to go yet before we can bring 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 63 
 
 the enemies of our country to our feet. We have borne it for a long 
 time, but we will bear it no longer." Mr. Brennan, at Cardenstown, says 
 " They cannot restore the two millions of your people they murdered in 
 1847 ; and this is the institution and these are the men that some land 
 reformers told us that we should make a fixity in the country. France, 
 when she was getting shut of her landlords, did not give them twenty 
 years' compensation. No, she gave them twenty feet of a rope." And 
 I am told that these speeches did not contain a statement that landlords 
 had been got rid of in France and other countries. Boyton says, at 
 Dunmanway " We have at the back of that more than great agitators 
 had before. We have moral force, and we are going to use it ; 
 and perhaps we have something in the shape of physical force, but we 
 don't want to use it. We may some day come down and see you and 
 talk about something else." That sentiment is i-eceived with the loudest 
 cheers. Mr. Sheridan, at Mount Irvine, says " Now, if a highway 
 robber comes up to rob you, and calls Upon you to deliver up your 
 money, you will certainly not surrender your purse if you can hold it. 
 You may sun-ender your purse, because it is of less value than your 
 life, but is not the power of tyranny of the landlord woi-se V Mr. 
 Boyton, at Monasterevan, says " Mark me, there is not to-day a grand 
 old park in all Ireland surrounded with walls and stately trees, there is 
 not one of them that the man that claims to own could produce a title 
 deed that is not stained with blood. " Gordon, at Shrule, talking about 
 landlords, says " I understand there is a party here who has got up a 
 system of reporting to the Government that the peaceable people of 
 Shrule and its surroundings were detennined to cut one another's 
 throats. But I say we have no intention of cutting the throats of our 
 friends, but I don't cai-e if half the throats of our enemies were cut 
 before morning." Not a word of that is disowned by Pamell, nor do 
 they say it is disowned by Dillon, nor do they say it is disowned by the 
 man who is called the shrewd northern merchant Biggar. He then 
 goes on " The landlords of this country have been the curse of it. 
 An onslaught has been made on the system which degrades 
 labour in Ireland (great groans, and cries of ' Down with 
 them; to hell with them')." Mr. Gordon, at Bohola, says 
 "We meet here to-day to denounce the landlords who have 
 plundered you of your land. They say the land belongs to 
 them. I deny that. And then he says where that placard was " I 
 don't want you to give a blow of a stone to the landlords, but you may 
 do it if you like." " If we swept them off the face of the earth we 
 would be giving them their due." What is the meaning of talking 
 about the horrors of the French Revolution ? No doiibt, in every de- 
 partment of fair France the people, I dare say, maddened by oppression 
 I use the expression of the French historian maddened by oppression, 
 rose upon their landlords. The landlords were driven from the country, 
 and in every nobleman's house, in every country house in France there 
 was I'aging rape and massacre. The landlords were hanged at the cross- 
 
54 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 road8, they were hanged at the lanterns of Paris. That meant execiition 
 the cry, " To the Lantern !" Tliere were ten thousand people massacred 
 in Paris at the September massacres. Are the horroi-s of the French 
 Revolution to be let loose in this country because of the failure of the 
 potato crop, and the harve&tnien, in consequence of the crop failing in 
 England, not being able for one year to get thcsir usual amount of honest 
 wages 1 Do not imagine that I am sneering at the distress and miseries 
 of my fellow-countrymen in the West. I know very well they have 
 had a hard time of it for yeai-s. For twenty years, in the wild " Joyce 
 country," in the wilds of Connemara every year for twenty years 
 there is a partial famine. I know it well about spring time, when 
 the potatoes are done, and when the poor cattle almost cease to give 
 milk there is great poverty and distress borne by those people, humbly 
 and patiently, hard-working, and deserving of every assistance from 
 every honourable man deserving of every assistance. But is it because 
 this distress exists that we are to have a social revolution, that Com- 
 munism is to be preached, and the landlords are to be extenuinated, 
 robbed of their lands, and murdered 1 What is the meaning of the 
 reference to France the abolition of landlordism in France ? That is 
 Gordon's speech. Mr. O'SuUivan, at Knocknagree, repeating, because 
 their unanimity is wonderful, says " Tlie French peasantry offered 
 their feudal landlords a fair compensation for the land. They did not 
 acce))t it, and then the peasantry of France gave them the compensation 
 they so richly deserved a rope's length at every road crossing 
 (cheers)." And if these men had power if they were the Executive of 
 an Irish Republic the Directory if they were, they have expressed 
 what they would do if they had power. And as they have expressed it 
 and boasted of it, I respectfully tell you that these meetings for these 
 purposes every one of these meetings, I tell you, in my humble judg- 
 ment, subject to the correction of the Court, was an unlawful 
 assembly, and every man organising those meetings was engaged 
 in a foul and treasonable conspii-acy. That was the speech of Mr. O'Sul- 
 livan at Knocknagi'ee. O'SuUivan makes the same speech over again at 
 Rivei-sville " In France the people set up and did not offer any com- 
 pensation to these men ; they would not have it ; but they hanged them, 
 and they did away with them in that way. (Cries of ' The I'ight way.' 
 ' The right way.') Then he brings in again the same speech about the 
 tiger. He says " We have no right to say whether it was right or wrong. 
 The French are the best judges of their own work. What we have to do is 
 to settle our own question. You should all do as people do in Bengal, 
 and drive that worst of tigers from your midst." Does Parnell disap- 
 prove of this ] Parnell, at Kilkenny, the President of the Land League, 
 and the leader of the movement, says " The proprietary right of the 
 Lvndlord is the right which he has obtained by force, fraud, and con- 
 quest." And then he is interrupted by prolonged cheeiing, and then 
 he .s'.iys significantly " I submit to every reasonable man that it is far 
 easier to remove the few than the many." Then there are loud cheers. I 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 55 
 
 have already read Gordon's speech at Abbeyknockmoy, where he says 
 " On arriving at Clonbur I had the pleasure of hearing that some 
 gi'eat land robber was murdered, or had shot himself." Mr. Dillon, in 
 Cork city, says " But what I want to direct the attention of the meet- 
 ing to is, that the landlords were anxious to know whether the Govern- 
 ment are prepared to perform their first duty, to protect life and pro- 
 perty. I wish to tell the landlords, that while we prevent every act of 
 outrage upon their class, that if they undertake as indicated in this 
 speech to repeat the deeds of past years, I think I shall say 
 we have at our disposal means which shall make them bitterly repent 
 the day." And at that meeting Mr. Lalor, in the presence of Mr. 
 DUlon, says " We are not bound to go watching every poor fellow in 
 the coiintry that is driven to desperation. We are not going to watch 
 and preach sermons to them." That is in reference to the archbishop. 
 " Let the men that drive the men to desperation, let them take care of 
 themselves (cheers). I must protest against the archbishop saddling us 
 with the responsibility of every assassination that takes place in this 
 country. What we have, and what the Land League has to try is to 
 show you another road besides shooting these men, because they are not 
 worth the shooting (cheers). Recollect who these poor wretches are 
 these landlords. They are foreignei-s." Then he makes the reference to 
 France. " Until the year 1793 they had the landlords there. Well, I 
 suppose a great many of you heard of the French Revolution. The 
 French people were a sensitive people, and they took a method of 
 getting rid of their landlords that unfortunately we cannot take. No, 
 my friends, we are not able at present to take the method they took. 
 I wish we were (cheers). I wish we were, and it is not here 1 would 
 be to-day (cheers)." Mr. Boyton, at that meeting says " To promote a 
 healthy sentiment in KUdare, where we have the Leinsters, the Bur- 
 rowes, the LaTouches, the Verschoyles, and all the other land thieves 
 of Ireland." Dillon, at Templemore, says " I wish hei*e to tell the 
 landlords of Ireland that if they take the law into their own hands 
 and declare war on the Irish people, that I believe that the Irish people 
 know how to defend themselves (' We will,' and cheers). And I believe 
 what is more, that the Irish people have got in their possession a great 
 many of those tools which the landlords considered were their exclusive 
 rights to possess (cheers). Furthermore, I tell the Irish landlords that 
 it is the right of every Irish tenant to have the same arms that an Irish 
 landlord has." Well, Mr. Biggar treats the matter more quietly and 
 facetiously. At Castleisland, he says "There is another question 
 which has been i-aised very much. The Land League are unfairly 
 charged with the shooting of landlords." Well, now, what does he 
 say " It is no part of the duty of the Land League to recommend the 
 shooting of landlords for a gi-eat variety of reasons. They never have 
 
 given any advice of the sort. Mr. Hussey" That is a great agent 
 
 in the south of Ireland an agent for very large properties in Cork, 
 Kerry, and other places. " Mr. Hussey may be a very bad man, and 
 
56 THE QUEEN o. PARNELL, (fee. 
 
 plenty of other men are as bad as Mr. Hussey ; but I can tell you what 
 the Land League can do. If anyone is charged with shooting, or 
 oflTering violence to the landlord, or his agent, it is the duty of the 
 Land League to see that that person who is charged with the offence 
 shall get a fair trial. What is the good of a man shooting a land- 
 lord T See the way he discusses it. He discusses it the way you 
 would discuss any ordinary spoi-ting case, "What is the good 
 of a man shooting a landlord 1" He mentions Mr. Hussey's 
 name. This is the system of demmciation and terror. Why did Biggar 
 mention Hussey's name, except for the purpose of denouncing him and 
 holding him up to popular execration ? Why 1 We know in Ireland 
 that if a man be a very bad man and be denounced and execrated and 
 fired at, sometimes he is only wounded, sometimes he is killed. But 
 the meaning of all this talk is that the jury that are to try the murderer, 
 are to find a verdict of " served the victim right." " First of all the Gov- 
 ernment offers an enormous reward : for a large sum of money some one 
 may commit perjury against one for whom a grudge may be felt, or 
 against whom there is no cause of suspicion but of the very vaguest 
 kind " Then he describes the magistrates and the police, and the 
 attempt of the Government to pack a jury and what is the advice he 
 gives ? Now really the deadliness of this is something perfectly appal- 
 ing. " Well, you the membei's of the local Land League can use your 
 exertions to get everything in favour of the person who is charged with 
 such a crime as shooting a landloi'd." That is Mr. Biggar at Castleisland 
 the great northern merchant, with his cool, shrewd, head ; who weighs 
 everything he says ; who is a member of Parliament ; and he knows per- 
 fectly well that all this abuse of the Government in offering a large reward 
 for the purj>ose of getting some one to perjure themselves, that 
 the talk about the police working up the thing suspiciously 
 against any one, and that the magistrates are all partizans 
 against the prisoner, is a general libel on the administration 
 of justice in this country. Knowing all these things are, I will not say 
 invented, because it is possible his cool northern head may have been 
 induced in some extraordinary manner to believe them, he then says 
 " Well, you the members of the local Land League can use your exer- 
 tions to get everything in favour of the person who is charged with 
 such a crime as shooting a landlord." Now it is said that the Land 
 League do not encourage murders, and profess to discourage murders ; 
 but the mere fact of a person being charged with the crime of shooting 
 a landlord is sufficient to entitle him by the niles of the society to the 
 Land League's protection, and the Land League's money ! Mr. Sexton 
 says "Either the landlords or the tenants have to go; and the tenants 
 shall not go." And Mr. Dillon, at Hollyford, in Tipperary, says 
 " The Irish land belongs to the Irish people- that it has been taken 
 from them by fraud and force and that the men of Ireland are to-day 
 determined to take back the land of their fathers. Yow are here to-day 
 to pledge yourselves that you will enter into that struggle, and not cease 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 57 
 
 from it until you win the victory." Harris, at Kiltoom, says " If all 
 the men on his estate and the adjoining estate join together, these 
 men you fear so much are the greatest cowards on the face of the 
 earth. When you see them driving good horses they are a dreadful 
 determined people. I tell you the gentry of every country are the 
 greatest cowards in the country, and we will shake these men if you 
 show you have courage and unanimity." At the Galway meeting, 
 which was a very violent one, and which Mr. Pamell was at, he spoke 
 about Lord Mountmorres, and Mr. O'Connor says, in the presence of 
 Pamell and Harris " Have not the landlords of the County of Galway 
 inflicted duty labour upon you, and are not they ever inflicting lashes 
 on the Irish tenants as sore as were ever inflicted by the South Carolina 
 planter upon the slaves under his control 1 Is it not time that in this 
 very county, during the famine years, landlords have murdered the 
 tenants of the County of Galway (hear, hear)." At that meeting, in 
 the presence of Pamell, he says " Is it better that one man should be 
 shot down than hundreds and hundreds I believe it amounted to 
 1,200 families that hundreds of those families sliould be driven from 
 the fiice of this fair island ; aud when I see this extermination, and 
 when I see the weakness of our people, and when T see tyranny 
 triumphing over right and justice, and when I see my fellow-coimtry- 
 men driven to the four winds of heaven, I say to myself, and I say it 
 here to-day, that if the tenant farmers of Ireland shoot down landlords 
 as partridges are shot in the month of September, that Mat Harris never 
 would say one word against them." That meeting was held on the 1 7th 
 of October. A sort of apology for that language is at a subsequent meet- 
 ing made by Mr. Harris a sort of sneering apology. I do not remember 
 the exact day on which he said it, but there is one apology at all events, 
 in which he said that indeed he didn't agree in the shooting of landlords, and 
 that he objected to shedding the blood of the lower animals. What he 
 meant by that I scarcely know. But this is the man who, by name, 
 denounced, in the most awful language that is used by a man against 
 his fellow-man denounced the country gentlemen in the West of Ire- 
 land. This is the man who says he would drive the Persses from the 
 county by the tenant-farmers poisoning every field in the county. He 
 ofiered no apologies for that language. But after those apologies about 
 murdering the landlords, he continued to denounce the country gentle- 
 men of the west denouncing Lord Dunsandle and every resident gentle- 
 men in the county denouncing them in the most terriffic language. 
 What is the object of this 1 Is it the object 'to drive every country 
 gentleman from Ireland, and leave the land to the peasantry and have 
 the rents collected by the law ? Then, indeed, Ii-eland would be rack- 
 rented. Is it, indeed, their object to get the land into their possession 1 
 Then, indeed, Ireland would be rack-rented. lliese men have pro- 
 claimed that no man in Ireland is fit to be a landlord. The farmers 
 and small shopkeepers who have purchased estates in the Landed 
 Estates Court the cry was now more raised against them than against the 
 
58 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 great landlords the Dowiishires and the Leinsters of Ireland. But now 
 it is the fashion to say in the late phase of the Land League, that they 
 give some fair play to the tenants, and it is only against their own class 
 the land-grabbers, as they are called that their agitation is directed. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, this agitation has been directed by them against 
 the tenants far more than against the landlords ; and there are now all 
 over Ireland, as Dillon himself puts it in the late Tipperary speeches 
 there are " model farms on which" as the awful expression puts it 
 " no living thing dare go." The Nation published that in the West of 
 Ireland a notice was put up threatening the life of any man who takes 
 the land. You remember that awful placard held \\\i at one of the 
 meetings ))ut uj) ostentatiously on the roadside " Let no man take 
 this land." What system of tyranny are we living under? Is this con- 
 spiracy ? Is it rebellion ? Is it high treason ? They are charged with 
 conspiracy a strike against rent, effected by threats of teiTor, by 
 coercion against the landlord and tenant that strike against rent which 
 Daniel O'Connell, whom in his grave these men execrate, proclaimed to 
 be illegal and a treasonable conspiracy, when he drove from the Association 
 the men who attempted it. For him I say, and to his memory I appeal 
 he is in his grave if he were now alive, leading the Irish people, as 
 for many a long year he did lead them in their path to emancipation 
 he would be the lii"st man to speak against this vile conspiracy not to 
 pay rent, not to jiay honest debts ; he would repeat that phrase Avhich is 
 so eloquently expressed in his own immortal language only a repetition 
 of the commandment " Thou shalt do no murder." 
 
 After the adjournment, 
 
 The Foreman of the Jury (Mr. Corcoran). Before beginning, my 
 lords, I wish to know if you will adjourn over to-morrow? 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. Our decision with reference to that would 
 be very much dependent upon two circumstances first, whether the 
 learned Sergeant will conclude to-day. I'll assume that he concludes his ad- 
 dress to-day, and then the remainder will be very much in your hands. 
 If you wish to adjourn over to-morrow I won't object. 
 
 The Foreman. Thank you, my lord. 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. I'll just tell you at the close of to-day. 
 
 Mr. Sergeant Heron (resuming) Gentlemen of the jury, I can assure 
 you that I shall conclude to-day. My task in some respects has been a 
 painful one to have to speak in severe terms of gentlemen 
 by birth and education, and men of great ability, as all the 
 fourteen defendants are ; men of great education, great information, and 
 who have had the assistance plainly, as is usual in great political 
 movements of other persons working for them, and giving them 
 every information that history and literatui-e could afford. And that 
 reminds me that in the interval allowed for rest, in the last few 
 minutes, I was looking over the speech of my learned and eloquent 
 friend, who is sitting beside me as watchful as ever, and I find I 
 omitted this morning one of his references when he compared Ireland 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 59 
 
 to the starved apothecaiy in Shakespeare. Gentlemen of the jury, there 
 are certainly some forms that I thought had long been eliminated from 
 Parliamentary and forensic elocution. And the starved apothecary has 
 never been mentioned in forensic oi-atory or in Parliamantary oratory 
 since Disraeli unhappily (I was present at the scene) said, with 
 reference to a course that he had taken, " that his poverty and not his 
 will consented," and immediately Baron Dowse hit him at once by 
 saying that in the whole coui-se of literature the only thing he could 
 find to compare himself to was the starved apothecary. Gentlemen of the 
 jury, there were many things which used to be refen-ed to by Curran and 
 Erskine, when, towards the close of the last century, trial by jury 
 became popular, and when learned and eminent counsel, amongst the 
 greatest orators that the English language pi-oduced, addressed juries 
 and senates. The Trojan Horse was then a famous illustration, but 
 that respectable old animal has long since been sent out to grass, 
 and has not been mentioned in the House of Commons since about 
 the year 1871, when an Irish Member of Parliament thought there 
 was some uncertain allusion to my friend the member for Limerick. 
 Many other things have vanished from our forensic efforts. Mr. Justice 
 Fitzgerald, years ago, abolished what is called the fashionable farthing. 
 It is never referred to now. The benefit of the doubt has also disap- 
 jwared from our efforts since, unfortunately, in the Munster Circuit, a 
 learned and eloquent counsel, addressing the jury, spoke to them about 
 the Day of Judgment, and asking them to give the prisoner the benefit 
 of the doubt, said " And, gentlemen, when you shall go before an Om- 
 nipotent and Omniscient Judge, I pray that you also may have the benefit 
 of his doubt." And, accordingly, I trust the comparison of Ireland witli 
 the starved apothecary %vill vanish with the Trojan Horse, and the 
 benefit of the doubt and the pound of flesh. 
 
 Mr. Macdonoyh, Pardon me, my learned friend ; Mr. Gladstone is 
 the person who ased the very language I have quoted. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. I know he did. 
 
 Mr. Macdonogh. And Lord John Russell before him. These are 
 the heads of yoiir party ; so speak of them with respect. 
 
 Sei-geant Heron. My learned friend, Mr. Macdonogh, borrowed the 
 illustration from Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone, and I sincerely hope 
 that no one will ever again compare Ireland with the starved apothecary. 
 It is ridiculous. That magnificent passage was recited by Mr. Gladstone 
 with all his powerful effect, and it had the effect it deser^-ed ; but it is per- 
 fectly idle to have these absurd compaiisons going on as if there were 
 not such places in Ireland as Dublin, as Cork, as Belfast, as Derry, and 
 the other flourishing sites of industry and prosperity in our country. 
 Perfectly idle. You have seen, you know the people, you know who 
 they are. I ask you where on earth there are to be found finer men 
 than the sons of the Irish peasantry who form our gallant Irish regiments, 
 that in every quarter of the world march to death with military glee I 
 ask you where on the fiice of the eai-th is to be found a finer body of 
 
60 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. ' 
 
 soldiers than the Royal Irish Constabulary. I have seen the Republican 
 G uard and the Imperial Guard of France. I have seen, more recently, 
 the Imperial Guai'ds of Austiia, Germany, and Russia, and I fearlessly 
 say that the 1 1,000 men of the Royal Irish Constabulary are as fine a 
 body of men as regards physique, appearance, and discipline, and all that 
 makes a soldier, as exists in the whole world. Talking of our country 
 in this way, parading our misfortunes before the world is absurd. I 
 speak of that county which I once had the honour of representing and 
 which on the plains of Meeanee, Napier immortalized as " magnificent 
 Tipperary." Traverse that county from Neuagh to BoiTisoleigh, from 
 Borrisoleigh to Templemore, from Templemore to Thurles, from 
 Thurles to Cashel and Canick-on-Suir, from Carrick-on-Suir to Clonmel, 
 from Clonmel to the town of Tipperary the old King's Well 
 and the Limerick Junction ; and I say that on the face of the earth 
 you will not find a more magnificent peasantry splendid men and beau- 
 tiful women. We have always to be talked of and paraded in this way 
 by the London-Irish, as I call them again, before the world men who 
 walk about Pall MaU in tight boots the men who live there as if 
 they were exiles, their own fate and futuie being indissolubly connected 
 with the prosperity of England living there, flourishing there, working 
 there, prosperous and business-like men, living and sharing in the pros- 
 perity of England. As Tennyson says 
 
 " Better fifty years of Europe 
 Than a cycle of Cathay.' 
 
 And my friend Mr. Sullivan says " Better five years of London than 
 fifty of Bantry." There he will prosper, while we, forsooth, are to be 
 rooted in the soil as Bishop Berkeley said the most foolish thing he 
 ever said " Circled with a wall of brass," to prevent further emigration 
 of our Irish people to every other country in the world, wherever the 
 English language is spoken wherever English or Irish genius can force 
 their way 
 
 Mr. Macdonogh. I declare you are so patriotic that you are con- 
 vincing even me. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. I know T am. My learned friend has a generous 
 heart, and I know his candour. Gentlemen of the jury, I have refen-ed 
 to the awful denunciation of landlordism contained in these terrible 
 passages, and the comparison of Ireland with France, and the hope ex- 
 pressed that the landlords of Ireland would meet with the same fate as 
 French landlordism, which was ended by the horrors of the first French 
 Revolution. But the Archbishop of Dublin, of course, dare not address 
 his pastoral to the Church, to the priests of his diocese, without referring 
 to the subject. This gave great offence. In his pastoral of October 
 his Grace was pleased to say " But whilst these prayers ascend to the throne 
 of the Mother, another terrible voice is heard challenging the attention 
 of the Eternal. Our unhappy country has, within a few months, drank 
 deeply of the blood ofher own children. That blood must call for ven- 
 geance to Him who declared that even the beast of the field should account 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.O. 61 
 
 for man's blood spilt by it. That blood will cry out not only against the 
 hands that made it flow, but against us all, if we fail in abhorrence of the 
 crime which sent a brother's soul, without a moment's notice, without a 
 moment's preparation, before the judgment seat of the terrible Judge. 
 The enemies of all concession to our people have not been slow to turn 
 these dark crimes into arguments against the cause of justice. But 
 whilst men are right in expressing their horror for these crimes, they 
 should not be precipitate in laying their guilt at the door of any indi- 
 vidual or of any cause. The tribunals of the country have pronounced 
 no sentence ; self-constituted judges should be slow in condemning. 
 But is it not to be deeply deplored that the shortcomings of those who 
 have presided at many public meetings held should give even the shadow 
 of an argument to those who are only too willing to connect the tenant 
 question with outrage and bloodshed 1 Unfortunately, at many of these 
 meetings, when the character of an erring landlord was being drawn by 
 the public speaker, cries that never, even in levity, should be heard 
 from Christian lips, have been uttered. And although we firmly believe 
 the managers of these meetings abhorred the crime of murder as much 
 as we do, yet no indignant protest came from those who were answer- 
 able for the proceedings against these wicked utterances. This wa.s not 
 the rule followed by the great man who liberated his country. Though 
 a passionate lover of liberty, he declared again and again that liberty 
 was not worth a drop of human blood if shed in crime. He taught his 
 followers that the man who committed a crime gave strength to the 
 enemies of his country ; and if in his most excited meetings a word 
 of violence was uttered, the thunders of his eloquence speedily 
 silenced the offender. We all know the results of his wise policy." 
 I leave that without note or comment. No possible words of mine could 
 add to their eloquence, the sentiments thus addressed, in the canonical dis- 
 charge of his duty, to the priests of his diocese, publicly read at the altars of 
 God on that Sunday. And when Dr. M'Cabe's name is mentioned by these 
 men the cry is made "Away with him away with him. Down with him 
 down with him." Nally, at Clerhaun, said, " Keep together, and keep 
 strong. Dynamite and gun-cotton will scatter them to pieces." Dillon, 
 at Fethard, says " And I say that if the English Government enter 
 upon a policy of coercion and attempt to use brute force against the 
 majority of the Irish people to-day, that that course will render the 
 connexion between the two countries an impossibility in the future, and 
 I say furthermore to the landlords of Ireland that the land law, if this 
 movement is suppressed, that its suppression by force and violence will 
 beget in the minds of the people so desperate and bitter a hatred to land- 
 lordism and to the men who live by it, that the house of 
 every landlord in Ireland will be built over a volcano, and he 
 cannot tell the hour when that volcano may burst and 
 sweep him and all that belong to him to a far worse fate than that 
 which the National Land League of Ireland dealt out to him. And I 
 will only say, in conclusion, that though I am not a man who am too 
 
62 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 much given to telling the people not to shed a drop of human blood, or 
 that all liberty is not worth a drop of human blood because I believe 
 it is worth a great deal of hximan blood, I believe I would like to say 
 in conclusion that I think that the interests of this movement, particu- 
 larly as regards the good name of the Irish race in foreign countries, 
 would be best served by thepeople maintaining a strictly defensive policy, 
 not injuring any man either in his person or in his property, but simply 
 Boycotting any man who turns traitor on the people : Boycott was 
 never a hair of his head was hurt, and no man i-aised his hand against 
 him and what has been the result 'i He has been obliged to fly the 
 country, and yet no man could be touched by the law or punished for 
 anything that was done to him. And furtheiinore, no crime was com- 
 mitted in connection with him. Let then the people pursue this policy 
 of defence, and there is no 'doubt in the world but that, as I said before, 
 they have the game in their own hands, and they can insist on having 
 fair and just terms conceded to them ; and furthermore, that if the land- 
 lords adopt a policy of bullying and repression, that it will be in the 
 power of the people to punish the landlords and bring them to reason." 
 And Boyton, at the same meeting, repeats that expression, which I won't 
 characterise by any adjective. Nally speaks about dynamite aud gun- 
 cotton, and we have heard of the Clerkenwell explosion, and we know 
 that within the last few days there was a dynamite explosion and murder 
 at Manchester. Gentlemen, the agitation which began sharply in the 
 months of May, June, and July, culminated apparently in the month of 
 October. The meetings became more numerous every Sunday, and the 
 principal persons conducting the agitation in these months were Mr. Boy- 
 ton, Mr. Biggar, Mr. Pamell, and Mr. Dillon. The language from day to 
 day increased in intensity. When the land agitation commenced in Ireland 
 there was some talk about the Ulster tenant right being extended to 
 the rest of the country. That now is characterised as a sham and an im- 
 posture, and it is said that the rents are higherin Ulster, where the tenant 
 right prevails, than in any other part of Ireland. Then came the cry for 
 what is called the " Three F's," but the committee of landlords, as they 
 were called, met in Dublin, and, as I understand, some months ago 
 adopted the " Three F's," as they are called 
 
 Mr. Sullivan. No, they did not. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. They are now denounced as the enemies of their 
 country. The " Three F's," at all events, by the leaders of the agitation 
 are now repudiated, and the idea of a fair rent is scoffed and scouted at 
 at every land meeting, fixity of tenure and free sale being of course ad- 
 mitted that is fixity of tenure transferring the fee simple from the land- 
 lords to the tenants. And how will the traversers compel the new 
 landlords not to let their land ] Free sale means that they will take 
 every opportunity of screwing the last shilling out of the man who buys 
 it ; and the " three F's," indeed, are a mockery, a delusion, and a snare. 
 I told you the agitation was going on in the months of August and Sep- 
 tember. On the 1st August, Mr. Michael Boyton, from the National 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 63 
 
 Land League, attended a remarkable meeting at Cloiieen, in the county 
 Tipperary. Cloneen was connected with a case, as you may have seen 
 in the newspapers the case of the Meaghers. That is a case in which 
 there was direct interference with property. Boyton attended at 
 Cloneen, and on the 1st August made this speech, in which he said : 
 "Therefore, I tell you again, we are beginning at the beginning. We are 
 beginning to try to educate the Irish people into the knowledge of their 
 power, for they have a power, if they would exercise it, that would 
 cranch this miserable system in twenty-four hours. To come 
 home to the direct object of this assemblage is this. There have 
 been rumours in the air that there are men wanting to take or 
 desirous of taking the land of Henry Meagher. It matters not who 
 or what they be, I tell these men here to-day, and I desire them 
 to mark it, the people of Ireland, at least so much of them as 
 we can command under this national organization, and so much of the 
 funds of their brothers in America as they can command, have through 
 their council sent you. Men of Tipperary, you in the gap, you are in 
 the gap. Upon how you hold that gap now depends on the future 
 the land question in this county. (A voice : ' It will never be lost*) 
 We have given you a bit of work to do. We are at your back with the 
 people of the Land League throughout Ireland. We are coming to see 
 with our help what you will do to fight for yourselves, for in holding 
 that land you are asserting a principle, you are deliberately showing the 
 landlord the power you have to crush his interests, the only thing that he 
 ever consults in Ireland. It was said of these landlords, and when all is 
 said and done they are only a handful, some five or six thousand, some 
 one in every thousand of the people ; and surely, granted that there are 
 500 men, and these all cowards, if we got only one to every landlord, 
 it ought to be enough to settle the land question, provided always, 
 as the lawyer says, that you mean business, and that you are united." 
 He was referring in that to the same theory maintained by my friend, 
 Mr. Curran, when he said Nally meant murder if he believed in it. " I 
 myself, would be the last one to interfere with the free expression of any 
 man's right, or his belief, or opinion on the settlement of the land 
 question ; biit for the present I wish once for all to tell you what we 
 have to-day in view. It is a peasant proprietary ; and, failing 
 that, we vow that the land of Ireland shall become just like that farm 
 must become, if you are faithful to yom- vow, a wilderness. If they do 
 not give us the land for the people, why then give the land to the game, 
 but they will never get it (cheers). I have talked more than I would 
 have done under other cii-cumstances. There are gentlemen here who 
 know the immediate circumstances of this place, that know the parties, 
 that there has been, as I have said before, rumours that they were 
 looking to spit in the people's faces. Let them take to-day a word of 
 warning, for I tell them that there is something round they do not think 
 about (cheers). You can tell them it is not in cheeiing or 
 in meetings that the firm determination of a resolute manhood 
 
64 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 is ever carried out. It is in exercising quiet and peaceful 
 methods ; but the moment the spark is struck, then they had 
 wished that they had thouglit before they had provoked it. Once 
 for all, a word of warning is never wasted (' never"). And 
 I tell these men, and I tell them most truly, it would be 
 better for them they had never been born than that they attempted by 
 foul means to defeat the resolution of the j>eople of Tipperary (cheers). 
 I could not add one word to what I have said. I say now that we are 
 going, your worthy junior member and myself, to organize the county 
 Tipperary, and that those who to-day wish us to strengthen their hands 
 in the settlement of the land question know what the meaning of an 
 organized Tipperary is (cheers). They will know it when we have 
 twenty, ay thirty thousand men to say, * We will hold the land.'" (A 
 voice, ** It will be.") Mr. Boyton " Go on, and if you want to fight it 
 out, it will take thousands of the police and regiments of soldiers to 
 serve a single process of ejectment in the county Tipperary (cheers) ; 
 and all that -without ever firing a shot, unless we are provoked and have 
 the means to do it, we must always have the means. But while we are 
 waiting for that, we want the men of Tippei*ary, the men let the old 
 women stand aside and come up resolutely, earnestly, fearlessly, and 
 manfully, and give their names to such young men as Mr. Cusack, and 
 men who will be appointed secretaries (cheers for Mr. Cusack). Give 
 him your name, and as you have received his name so warmly, I may 
 perhaps tell you that the secretary of the Sleevenamon Land League 
 that is the name they have given it it takes in all the branches that 
 will be established within the immediate vicinity that he is a young 
 man that has the confidence of the Irish National Land League." 
 Gentlemen of the jury, my learned friend, counsel for Mr. Sullivan, the 
 traverser, the proprietor of the Nation, told you that he never advocated 
 the Boycotting system. Now, I think it right to say of Mr. Sullivan that 
 reading, as it was my duty to do, the speeches which he made in this 
 affair, I would exonerate him from advocating the blasphemy contained in 
 Paudeen O'Rafferty's Commandments. As regards the rest of them, the ex- 
 pressions are repeated, adopted, and advocated ; but as I was challenged 
 by my learned friend, counsel for Mr. Sullivan, I must read his speech 
 at Ennis, where he deliberately advocated, in the presence of Parnell, 
 the Boycotting system as regards the taking of farms from which 
 tenants were evicted, for what he calls the non-payment of an unjust 
 rent. He says, " Now Mr. Parnell and Mr. Finigan have told you 
 here to-day that the key-note, the keystone of your power is this, that a 
 stop shall be put to the taking of farms from which families were evicted 
 for the non-payment of an unjust rent. Now let me tell you that no 
 matter how you meet or no matter how you pass resolutions, or no 
 matter how you cheer, if the practice goes on of outbidding one another 
 for these farms, or of taking these farms at all on which evictions have 
 taken place, all our labour is vain (bravo). Nothing that we can do 
 will save you, if you go taking the farms from which the landlords 
 
SPEECH OF MR SERGEANT HERON, Q.O. 65 
 
 have cleared out honest and industrious families, because they failed to 
 pay them unjust and extravagant rents. But, my friends, so sure as 
 that sun is shining on vis, so sure it is that if you stand to each other 
 like brothers, foUow the advice that has been given you here to-day," 
 that is by Mr. Parnell, to whose speech I shall refer " leave those 
 farms to grow thistles and rushes, and if any one is base enough to go in 
 on them, shun him (shoot him) ; let him be as an outcast amongst you, 
 and his life will be a life of shame and a life of misery, and the shame 
 will attach not only to himself, but to his children and hLs children's 
 children (cheers)." Gentlemen of the jury, this speech was made on 
 the 19th September. It is the same as the bannera and placards at 
 Bohola and Milltown. It is taken dii-ectl}', as I have already informed 
 you, by some man of genius and literature, and adopted almost 
 verbatim from the terrible denunciation in the " Fire Woi-shippers " ; 
 and it is adopted by Mr. Sullivan with an unanimity of sentiment 
 remarkable, but proving at the same time that he joined this illegal 
 conspiracy of social excommunication against a man taking a farm. 
 Mr. Biggar, on the 17tli Octobei", in TuUow, says "Now, if anyone 
 does as has been pointed out takes land from which a tenant has 
 been evicted for non-payment of an exorbitant rent, or in any case in 
 which he has not got full compensation from the landlord for his dis- 
 turbance and for all his improvements, I do think, Mr. Chairman, that 
 the attitude of all the neighbours of that man is to take care that he 
 shall not derive any profit from that land. Do not assist him as a 
 labourer, do not (interruption) deal with him, do not buy from him, do 
 not sell to him, and the result will be that that man will in a very 
 limited time be very well pleased to give the land to the party who had 
 been evicted from it. Then, suppose another case in which the land- 
 lord takes the land in his o\^ni hand. Well now, I gave a suggestion in 
 the county Kerry on this day week" (that refei-s to his speech at 
 Castleisland which I read), " and I do not know whether it is the best or 
 not, but I would say if the landlord puts this crop, this land into crop, 
 such as oats, turnips, or potatoes, if his cows stray into these oats, 
 do not take the trouble to have the cattle turned out (laughter). 
 Well, if he has any cro]) to cut, why, advise all the labourers in 
 the neighbourhood to take care not to take any employment from 
 him, try to get employment at some other place, and allow the crop to lie 
 waste, so that he will make nothing out of it. Then, suppose for instance, 
 his cattle stray in the road, well, allow them to continue to stray : do 
 not take the trouble to put them back. All these are little things not 
 infringing the law. At the same time they are mattere which would 
 effectually come within the cognizance of the members of the Land 
 
 League, and which they would The case is equally strong in case 
 
 the landlord has insisted upon such a rent that the tenant could not 
 afford to give it, and had to give up the land to the landlord. In 
 that case the landlord is an extortioner; he wishes to act unfairly 
 towards his unfortunate tenant ; he wishes to live on the life-blood of the 
 
 E 
 
66 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, <fec. 
 
 people of this countrj', and he does not desei've to have any produce from 
 that land. In that case just take the whole proceedings as you would 
 
 have done if the tenant had been evicted In county Mayo some 
 
 nuns asked for some of their land more than the tenant could afford 
 to give ; the nuns let it to the parish priest, and the neighbours in 
 the county Mayo pulled down the fences, and would not allow the 
 parish priest to occupy it." That is nice advice from a Member of Parlia- 
 ment. At Bawnboy, on the 30th October, Mr. Biggar says I am now 
 approaching the conclusion of my remarks, and I intend to give 
 a few of the expressions in speeches by Mr. Biggar, Mr. Boyton, 
 Mr. Parnell, and Mr. Dillon speeches showing the continuance 
 and violence of the agitation and how they went on and on, 
 until finally, as Mr. Dillon openly said, no rent ought to 
 be paid in Ireland. This is Mr. Biggar's sp6ech in Bawn- 
 boy on the 30th October " They say a class of men called land- 
 lords, who, of course, we know very well, in the majority of cases, have 
 got the land by fraud and violence ; we know the present landlords or 
 the predecessors in title have got the land by fraud and violence." Now 
 I say there is no man in the community knows better than Mr. Biggar 
 that that is not a fact " They say a class of men called landlords, who, 
 of course, we know very well, in the majority of cases, have got the land 
 by fraud and violence ; we know the pi'esent landlords or the predecessors 
 in title have got the land by fi-aud and violence, and that they have no 
 just rights, but they have what is called a vested interest." Vested in- 
 terest ! The contempt with which the speaker speaks of vested interests. 
 There is such a thing as a vested interest in butter and bacon, but none 
 in land. " And that they have no just rights ; but they have what is 
 called a vested interest ; that is, they and their predecessors have been 
 in the habit of levying a tribute from the occupier in a shape called rent ; 
 and it is not considered desirable." There is a great humour about this 
 man. It is not desirable, from the landlord's point of view, that this 
 revolution should take place. No ; if there was a revolution thoy would 
 be hanged on every cross-road in Ireland. From the landlord's point of 
 view it is not considered desii^able. He says, " It is not considered de- 
 sirable, from the landlord's point of view, that a revolution should take 
 place, or that the land should be taken from them without getting fair 
 and reasonable compensation in return for that which they 
 have been for some time past in possession of." That 
 is from the landlord's point of view that if they are turned out 
 they ought to get compensation. Of course, that is not Mr. Biggar's 
 view " The question aiises, on what basis are you going 
 to value the present interest of these landlords 1 Some people say that 
 you must compensate them on the basis of the rent which they have been 
 charging the tenant in time past. Now, in some cases that would not 
 be so very unfair a proposition, because we know in some cases the land- 
 lords are not extortionate. In many cases they ax'e not extortionate, 
 and they charge less than the Government valuation ; in those cases 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERQEANT HERON, Q.C. 67 
 
 we do not mean to say that the rent which they now charge would be an 
 unfair basis. But we know that, in a great many cases, the landlords 
 are charging not only the Government valuation, but a great deal be- 
 yond the Government valuation, and any sum of money claimed 
 in the shape of rent by the landlords beyond the Government 
 valuation, is bona fide clear and simple extortion and robbery, 
 (cheers.) We say the Government valuation is even too high a valua- 
 tion for this reason : because the valuators take not only into account 
 the natural value of the laud, but the improvements on the land, which 
 were the work of the occupying tenant. So tliat if the landlord gets 
 compensation on the basis of the Govermnent valuation^ he is getting 
 compensated on an extraordinary high rate and not in accordance with 
 fair play between man and man. "We are disposed to say" that is, the 
 Executive of the Land League " we are disposed to say that, in morals 
 and fair play, if the landlord has been chai-ging for a gi-eat many years 
 past more than the Government valuation, he should be asked to refund 
 a part of what he has extorted from the occupying tenant beyond what 
 was a reasonable and fail" rent, of that rent." You know that would be 
 ludicrous, except that it is taken as real by the unfortunate people who 
 axe paying their shillings to the Land League. " This is the morality 
 of the case ; and the piinciple- that would be accepted by the Land 
 League agitators for making the Government valuation the nominal 
 basis would be a better one for the landlords than they would get ; if 
 they are not wise enough to enter in the compromise with the repre- 
 sentatives of the people on such a basis as is proposed ; if these men are 
 foolish enough to press the fight to a greater extent than we propose, 
 the result will be, they will get a great deal less; because a man who does 
 not accept a fair offer as it does happen the bidder draws back, and he 
 gets less than he otherwise would have had (cheers.) In this country " 
 in this " county " it ought to be " certain members of the tenant- 
 farmer class are the worst enemies of themselves. They act on the per- 
 nicious system of playing into the hands of the landlords by giving ex- 
 tortionate rents" (a voice " Down with them.") Mr. Biggar " And 
 by taking land from which tenants have been evicted because they would 
 not or could not pay dishonest rents which the landlords tried to extort 
 from them." He then gives an individual case, accoi'ding to this 
 dreadful system of naming persons, and then he says, "What was 
 the result ] This landlord misled his neighbours as to his real character 
 and as to the facts of the case with regard to this controversy in county 
 Leitrim, and my friends of Cavan very injudiciously went and assisted 
 the landlord in remo\ing the hay from the land." (A voice, "We are 
 son-y for them.") Mr. Biggar : " Now, what should have occuri^ed with 
 regard to that land 1 The gi-ass should have been left on the land 
 (hear, hear). Any tenant-farmer or any laboui-er who assists to take 
 the grass from any land from which the occupying tenant has been 
 evicted, or in any case in which the landlord has acted unfairly t9 wards 
 the land, is a curse to the country in which he lives, and entitled to 
 
 k2 
 
68 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 the reprobation of every one who knows him." And then he tells a case 
 about Belturbet, and a case about Limerick, and says : " If instead of 
 being, as at present, in a disorganized state, which you are in county 
 Cavan, if you liad a branch of the Land League in the district to which 
 I have referred, as soon as our friends in county Leitrim had pointed 
 out the facts of the case, the League in Dublin would have allowed the 
 people in county Cavan to know the conduct of this landlord, and the 
 result wovild have been instead of having his hay can-ied into the 
 country by volunteers, it would have been rotting in county Leitiim, 
 and he would have derived no benefit therefrom (cheers)." Again, at 
 Kinlough a portion of the speech I have read, and I will not read that 
 portion again. After the crowd said, " a big windy night might blow 
 it away" that is, the hay Mr. Biggar says " Leave your own mat- 
 tei-s thoroughly within the cognizance of the Land League. Another 
 thing which should be done is this : suppose any landlord has been in- 
 sisting upon getting a larger rent than the Government valuation, a 
 combination should be entered into by the tenants on that particular 
 property, and they should all say, we will give you the Government 
 valuation in the shape of rent ; if you do not take that you will get 
 nothing at all. Now, my friends, these are all matters within your 
 power ; at the same time, unless you all combine and act together in 
 an organized manner as one man, the result must be that the landlords 
 will beat you. If you stick together, each one helping himself and 
 his neighbours, the result is that the many mast triumph over the 
 few." Now, gentlemen, there is the advice given by a man 
 who was spoken of almost by his counsel as the brains 
 carrier of the League a cool, shrewd, Northern merchant 
 a Member of Parliament, enjoying the confidence of the electors of his 
 county, with which, no doubt, he is connected by birth and property. I 
 do not say one word against his position as a member of Parliament ; 
 I am discharging my duty against his teachings as proved here. Well, 
 but it is said, individuals are not attacked, that it is only the system 
 that is attacked. But if landlordism is to be abolished without com- 
 pensation, what is to become of the landlords ? Boyton, at Parsons- 
 town, openly avows the attacking of individuals. He says in one 
 place " we do not attack landlords," in another place he says they 
 do attack landlords. At Parsonstown, on the 21st November, he 
 says : " We of the Land League do not attack any landlord as an 
 individual, but we attack the land grabber as an individual (cheers), 
 and we want to make the crime of land grabbing and the crime of 
 going behind a man's back to betray the cause that you have 
 publicly pledged yourselves to stand by we want to make that crime as 
 odious as was the crime of the man who was an informer or a betrayer in 
 the past history of Ireland (cheers). We wantyou to know that it is treason, 
 and treason against the people is the worst crime that can curse humanity. 
 I will not detain you longer than by complying with the duty which 
 principally brought me here to-day. (A voice, ' You are welcome.') I 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.O. 69 
 
 wish you to know that this is not merely a political agitation. I tell 
 you again that it is not an agitation ; and if it were merely an agita- 
 tion, and that this gi*eat crowd, this splendid demonstration, should fade 
 away to-morrow and leave no results, not leave a permanent working 
 organization of men determined to go on with the work. When the 
 banners are gone, when the music is gone, when the speeches ai'e gone, 
 ay, and when the leadei-s are gone to British prisons, we want you to 
 go on. (A voice, ' We will.') We have laid the track for you, and you 
 have not anything to do but to go on (cheera). Already, throughout 
 some nineteen or twenty counties out of thii*ty-two, God has gratified my 
 heart, and God has blessed my eyes with the sight of nearly G0,000 or 
 70,000 honest, manly, right hands lifted up in His presence. I have 
 seen throughout the well-organized and magnificent county of Tipperary 
 (cheera), I have seen already 100,000 hands lifted np to pledge them- 
 selves to be, what they always were, true Irishmen (cheers). I know 
 from what I have seen to-day in Birr, that this meeting, and the spirit 
 of enthusiasm, the manliness, the good order, and the determination 
 that is elsewhere visible, will not even be second to anything in Tip- 
 perary (cheers). I feel sure that when you give your pledge you will 
 go home and keep it (hear, hear). I now call upon any man who 
 cannot conscientiously give the pledge to remove himself on 
 the outside of this vast crowd ; and as there seems to be no move- 
 ment in that direction, I call upon you, men of the King's county, 
 and North Tipperary to pledge yourselves solemnly before God and your 
 clergy, and side by side with your fellow-countiymen, never to take the 
 land from which your neighbour has been evicted for non-payment of an 
 unjust rent. (Cries of * Never.') Never to purchase or bid for cattle or 
 crops seized for rent. (Cries of ' Never.') Never to purchase grass 
 lands that are the property of a landlord having evicted the tenant. 
 (Cries of * Never.') And I call upon you, that class of men whose in- 
 terest in this straggle is no less than that of the farmers and the labourers, 
 I call upon you, in giving this pledge, to pledge yourselves never to work 
 for that man or on that land (cheers.) Now, every man who can 
 conscientiously take that pledge, and keep it in the name of God, hold 
 up his right hand." And here the hands of the people were all held up. 
 At Clonmel he repeats the same pledge " Already in the land move- 
 ment we have had too much talk and too little work. It will be a 
 proud moment for me if the British Government puts me side by side 
 with John Dillon, to prosecute me for doing your work. Now, in pur- 
 suance of my duty as an organizer of the Irish National Land League, 
 I call on every man here to pledge himself before God and in the sight 
 of his fellow-countrymen never to take the farm from which his neigh- 
 bour is evicted for non-payment of unjust rent, never to purchase crops 
 or cattle seized for rent, and never to work on such land. Every 
 honest man who is prepared to take that pledge manfully and deter- 
 minedly to keep it, hold up his right hand." That meeting was held 
 in Clonmel, the centre of a thickly populated district. It was an 
 
70 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 enormous meeting, attended by the clergy, attended by the people ; and 
 on that demand frf)m the organizer of the Irish National Land League 
 every hand in that vast assembly was held up. After that meeting the 
 meetings were now going on every Sunday Mr. Boyton again attended 
 at Limerick. He says " Men of Limerick, I have come to gather up 
 the thread of what you have heard to-day, and to give you, men of 
 Tipperary and men of historic Limerick, in the presence of the president 
 of the Irish National Land League, the pledge that makes you each and 
 all Land Leaguers (a Voice, ' Good '). I call upon every honest Irishman 
 hei'e present, whether he be from Limerick, Clare, or Tipperary, to jjledge 
 himself before God, in the presence of his clergy, and side by side with 
 his fellow-countrymen throughout Ireland, never to take, hold, or bid 
 for the land from which his neighbour has been evicted for non-payment 
 of an unjust rent, never to work on that land, and never to 
 purchase cattle or crops seized for rent (cheers). Every one 
 who can manfully and honestly give that pledge, and in addition 
 pledge himself never to pay more than Griffith's valuation, hold up his 
 right hand." The pledge was taken with raised hands. That enormous 
 meeting was attended by the people from the great agricultural counties 
 of Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary. And again, eveiy man in that vast 
 assembly held up his right hand. But there was more after the Land 
 League pledge was given. He read and proposed a resolution, which he 
 says is a very impoi*tant one " Whereas the English Government has 
 hitherto refused to protect our interests from unscnipulous landlords, 
 we hereby, in public meeting assembled, resolve to protect oureelves by 
 the adoption of the following proposals : First Never to take a farm 
 from which a tenant has been unjustly evicted, to hold no communica- 
 tion either with the man who violates this nile or his family. Second 
 To withdraw our custom from any shopkeeper either in Limeiick or in 
 any other town or village in the county who either sells to or in any other 
 way accommodates such a person, and, finally, to refuse permission to all 
 rackrenting landlords and bad agents to shootor huntover our lands." The 
 remaining portion of the resolution is about supporting Mr. Pamell and 
 the Irish party in the House of Commons, and has no important bear- 
 ing on this matter. Gentlemen, we pass to the 14th November, at 
 Thurles. Remember we have got this open swearing, as it were, calling on 
 the people before God, in the presence of their clergy and swearing them, 
 I repeat, to do an illegal act to join in this combination against rent. 
 Do you see now, why my learned friend, Mr. Macdonogh, did not read 
 the evidence? At Thurles, on the 14th November, Boyton still, as I 
 say, swearing in the people, as organizer says " You are called upon, 
 every man present here to-day, to declare whether he will 
 be an Irishman, and to-day that means to be a good Land 
 Leaguer (cheers). The pledge of the Irish National Land League embodies 
 the principle of the League. It is that you have a right to com- 
 bine like men for self-preservation ; that you have a right to watch, 
 to mark down, and to excommunicate, socially and politically, the man 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 71 
 
 who in the face of this great movement will be base enough to betray 
 the cause of Ireland, for the man to-day who violates his Land League 
 pledge is a double-dyed traitor to God and to his country. With the per- 
 mission of your esteemed chairman I will first give you the Land 
 League pledge ; and I now in the name of the Land League of Tipperary, 
 I call on every honest Irishman present, in the sight of God, before his 
 priests, and side by side with his brother countrymen, I call on every 
 man to pledge himself solemnly never to look for, to take, to bid for. or 
 to occupy the land from which his neighbour has been unjusth' evicted 
 (cries of * never, never ' ) ; never, never to purchase crop.'? or cattle seized 
 for rent ; never to bid for gi'asslands put up at auction by a landloi'd ; 
 and I call upon the labourers and the workers, who are no less 
 identified in interest Avith this struggle than the farmers, never 
 work upon that land. (Cries, 'never.') All who are prepared to 
 take that pledge will do so by lifting his right hand." 
 And then the vast assemblage lifted up- their right hands. At Fethard 
 on the 5th December, he says : " I will now conclude by doing that 
 which I have done elsewhere throughout this county to fully 100,000 
 men. I do not believe there are men here present who have given us 
 the Land League pledge" it should be " there are men here present 
 who have given us the Land League pledge, ay, half-a-dozen times over, 
 but it is a good thing for the future of Ireland, and you cannot do it too 
 often. I now call on yon, the men who first started the Land League 
 in Tipperary, to pledge us to-day as you did then, never to take the land 
 from which your neighbour has been OAacted (Never) ; never to purchase 
 cattle or crops ; never to pay any landlord rent for, or to take from him 
 hay or grasslands under any circumstances." See how it goes on 
 " never to pay any landlord rent for, or to take from him hay or grass 
 lands under any circumstances, and never again to pay one farthing 
 more than Grifiith's valuation until the question is settled (loud cheei*s). 
 All who can follow that will give us his good right hand." And again 
 the hands were held up. I am told thei-e is to be no extermination of the 
 landlords. At Portumna, on the 1 2th December, Mr. Boyton again speaks. 
 He said they had first to put an end to rack-renting, and how ? Did 
 they expect it by looking beyond St. George's, and buUding their hopes 
 on that foreign and despotic Government ? Pending the settlement of 
 the land question, the people could assemble and strike whatever they 
 consider a fair rent, and the man who paid one farthing more should be 
 treated as an enemy to justice and an enemy to the Irish people. 
 This was the way he proi)Osed to put an end to rackrenting it would 
 be better for the landlords to have the people on the land " here is the 
 new element developing " or the people might leave the lands 
 lying waste for the crows to perch on. The people would see that those 
 evicted farms or holdings were allowed to remain waste, or they might 
 find it convenient to drive their cattle to gi-aze on the land." See how 
 the wildfire spreads. And next, they proposed to put an end to land- 
 lord oppression. How 1 The landlord had no interest in it, according 
 
72 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, Ac. 
 
 to the speeches of counsel in the Queen's Bench. How did Boyton propose 
 to put an end to landlord oppression ? By putting an end to landlords 
 as a class. He says " By simply putting an end to the landlords them- 
 selves, as a class, by putting an end to landlordism in the country 
 when they would exterminate off the face of this fair land the whole 
 race of agents, bailiffs, rent-warners, and all other tools of landlordism." 
 Did he mean it 1 Did he mean it 1 It was only Nally, who has allowed 
 a counsel to insinuate that he did not mean what he was saying. If any 
 counsel for Boyton dared in this Court to say the man did not honestly 
 mean what he said, Boyton would get up and dismiss that counsel. It is 
 plain he means it. It is plain he means what he says. What becomes 
 of the talk now that this is to be peacefully and quietly effected that 
 the Irish revolution is the only revolution in the world that is to be car- 
 ried out with rose water ? An oratorical allusion is made to the " Red 
 Sea," thi'ough which Ireland must go in its path to victory over land- 
 lordism. And next they propose to put an end to landlord oppres- 
 sion 
 
 Mr. Curran. No one ever suggested we should go through the Red 
 Sea. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Certainly not. 
 
 Mr. Curran. You say counsel stated it. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Oh, no. 
 
 Mr. Curran. On the contrary, counsel said this was to be a consti- 
 tutional agitation. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. I refer you to the Beaufort meeting. How was 
 Mr. Boyton to put an end to landlordism 1 " By simply putting 
 an end to the landlords themselves as a class." I wish my 
 learned friend, Mr. Macdonogh, would give his exquisite explanation 
 of that sentence "Putting an end to the landlords themselves." 
 How 1 Not only by putting an end to landlordism, but by exter- 
 minating the landlords off the face of this fair land. " They would 
 exterminate off the face of this fair land the whole race of agents, 
 bailiffs, rent-warners, and all other tools of landlordism." How is he 
 to exterminate them without murdering them 1 And then he wished 
 the people to bear in mind that when those meetings had ceased and 
 men went home quietly, going on with their daily avocations, that there 
 would be an organization working over the whole land. My learned 
 friend tried in vain to laugh at that opening sentence. Now, remember 
 it was my learned and ingenious friend, Mr. Curran, who spoke for 
 Nally. Not one of the other coimsel dared to say his client 
 did not mean what he said. Not one of them dared to say his 
 client would not do what they intended to do if the police 
 and the Irish regiments were out of the country, and if they got the 
 opportunity. Mr. Pamell in the same manner develops his views. 
 And this reminds me that the views of Irish history and of English 
 history, as they appear in the speeches of the Land Leaguers, appear to 
 be rather mixed. Mr. Burke, at Manorhamilton, on August 29th, 1880, 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 73 
 
 abused Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Eighth. He also referred to 
 James the Second, who, he said, was the murderer of the beautiful 
 Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. Mr. Paruell is said to be a young man 
 from Cambridge, and should have had a great education. At Beaufort 
 he says " I have spoken at greater length than I expected. We will 
 see that the people will not be swept from the countrj^ while there is 
 money to defend them in the courts of law. The National Land League 
 has plenty of money at its disposal for the purpose of dLftiiding the 
 tenantry of Ireland. Your fellow countrymen in Ameiica will send you 
 as much money as you want. Everywhere throughout the States I 
 found the greatest anxiety to help you. Do not, then, be afraid ; band 
 yourselves together ; organise yourselves (cheers) against the landlord 
 system, and, believe me, the day is dawning when we shall have taken 
 the first great step to strike down British misrule, and the noble dreams 
 of Grattan, Emmet, and Lord Otho Fitzgerald " your Democrat dearly 
 loves a lord "and of every Irish patriot, ought at all times to be 
 brought to a triumph and realization (cheei-s). I have much pleasure in 
 proposing this resolution : ' That in the opinion of this meeting the 
 eviction of occupiers of land for non-payment of a rent arbitrarily fixed 
 by the landlord is unjust, subversive of the interests of the country, and 
 calls for the emphatic condemnation of all lovers of justice.' " 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. Lord " Otho " Fitzgerald is it 1 
 Sergeant Heron. Yes, my lord. Lord Otho it is. But you 
 may remember, at the time, the matter was read with 
 emphasis. My* learned friend is as watchful as jiossible, and there was 
 no cross-examination on the subject. I am told if you refer to the 
 Freemaris Journal you will see the same Lord " Otho " Fitzgerald. 
 It may be a lapsus linguce, or carelessness about Irish history. But at 
 all events it is quite plain Pamell knew Lord Otho Fitzgerald, and 
 that he had never read or heard of the Shan Van Vocht. 
 
 Mr. P. O'Brien. Keaveneyis the name of the constable who reported 
 that meeting. 
 
 Mr. Justice Barry. Yes, I remember it perfectly. It was one of 
 the constables. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Of course, Mr. Parnell said it, just as Mr. Burke, 
 another of the orators, said that James the Second murdered his great 
 grandmother. I have not wearied your time in the wild talk about the 
 land systems of Europe, all of which is contained in the tremendous 
 brief my learned friend had before him, and which I hope will be pre- 
 served as a historical record ; nor the wild talk about landlordism in 
 France and other countries ; the extraordinary perversion of Mr. John 
 Stuart Mill ; the wild pervei*sion of history ; the extraordinary way all 
 the old grievances of Ireland have been raked up. Have other coun- 
 tries no grievances ? Stands Scotland where it did ? Has Scotland not 
 forgiven the memories of CuUoden ? Has not noble Hungary forgiven the 
 capitulation of VUajos, and the massacre of hvindreds of Hungarian officers 
 by Haynau. And is it possible Ireland is to linger in one long continuous 
 
74 . THE QUfiEN a. PARl^ELL, <fec. 
 
 preaching of the gospel of hate, because that on many a battle field long 
 ago, English and Irish fought against each other ; and now, on every 
 battle field since Waterloo they fought beside one another, and for the 
 cause of their king and country 1 Mr. Pamell says, at Ennis, on the 1 9th 
 September " It will be the measure of your determination not to pay 
 unjust rents (' good,* and cheers). It will be the measure of your de- 
 termination to keep a firm grip of your homesteads (cheers). It will be 
 the measure of your detenuiuation not to bid for farms fiom which . 
 others have been evicted (cheers), and to use the stx'ong force of 
 public opinion to deter any unjust men among you (and there are 
 many such) from bidding for such farms. If you refuse to pay unjust 
 rents, if you refuse to take farms from which others have been 
 evicted, the Land Question must be settled (cheers), and settled in a 
 way that will be satisfactory to you. It depends, therefore, en- 
 tirely upon yourselves, and not upon any Commissions or any 
 Governments. When you have made this question really ripe 
 for settlement, then, and not till then, will it be settled. It 
 is very nearly ripe already in many parts of Ireland. It is ripe in 
 Mayo, in Galway, in Roscommon, in SUgo, and in portions of the 
 county of Cork, but T regret to say that the tenant farmers of the 
 county of Clare have been backward in organization up to the present 
 time (shouts). You must, then, band yourselves together into Land 
 Leagues. Every little town and village must have its own branch, 
 you must know the circumstances of all the holdings and all the tenures 
 within the district over which the Land League has jurisdiction. You 
 must see that the principles of the Land League are inculcated, and 
 when you have done this in Clare, Clare will take her rank with the other 
 Irish counties, and you will find that you will be included in the next 
 Land Bill which will be brought forward by the Government (cheers). 
 Now, what are you to do to a tenant who bids for a farm from which 
 his neighbour has been evicted ? (Various shouts, among which ' Kill 
 him,* and 'Shoot him.')." That passage I read before. That is the 
 boycotting of a tenant who takes an evicted farm. " Now is the time 
 for them to settle, before the people learn the power of combination. 
 We have been accused of preaching Communistical doctrines when 
 we told the people not to pay an unjust rent, and the following-out 
 of that advice in a few of the Irish counties has shown the English 
 Government the necessity of a radical alteration in the Jand laws, but 
 how would they like it if some day or other we told the people not to 
 pay any rents until this question was settled 1 We have not told them 
 that yet, and I hope it may never be necessary for us to speak in that 
 way. I hope the question will be settled peaceably, faii'ly, and justly 
 to all pai-ties, but if it should not be settled, we cannot continue to 
 allow this millstone to hang round the neck of our country, throttling 
 its industries and preventing all progress, and it will be for the con- 
 sideration of wiser heads than mine (' There could not be ') whether if 
 the landlords continue obdurate and refuse all jiist concessions we shall 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 76 
 
 not be obliged " we the Executive " to tell the i>eople of Ireland to 
 strike against all rent until this question has been settled, and if the 
 50,000 tenant fanners of Ireland struck against the 10,000 landlords, I 
 should like to see where they would get ]>olice and soldiers enough to pre- 
 serve the peace (cheers.)" Does not Parnell there show that he is guilty 
 of that crime which Daniel O'Connell denounced in the Rejieal Associa- 
 tion 1 Does he not there say he will advise a strike against rent, and did 
 not Daniel O'Connell state the truth when he said thatthe man \s bo would 
 advise such a course would be the worst enemy of the Irish people, and 
 O'Connell from his grave calls PameU the worat enemy of the Irish 
 people? At Kilkenny the wild talk goes on. The resolution " speaks of 
 the proprietary right of the tenant as well as the proprietary right of the 
 landlord. Ithink it will be very difficult to establish such a practical system 
 of partnei-ship as will secure and recognize these two joint and different 
 proprietary rights in the land (cheers). The proprietary right of the 
 tenant is the right which he has earned by reclaiming the land from a 
 state of nature, and by making it productive for the benefit of all ; the 
 proprietary right of the landlord is the right which he has obtained by 
 force, fi-aud, and conquest (cheers), and it is, therefore, impossible that 
 you should be able in these days, with the history of the past in view, 
 to recognize such different and entirely opposed proprietaiy rights 
 (cheers)." Listen now to the smooth and delicate way in which 
 the abolition of landlordism is proposed, following out what 
 Boyton called the extermination of landlordism, by exterminating 
 the landlords themselves, their agents, bailiffs, and rent-wamers. 
 " Independently of these considerations, there are many othera which 
 I could allude to just now, but I do not wish to detain this vast meeting 
 at too gi'eat length (cheers, and ' Go on '). I believe that it is not possible 
 to obtain from the Legislature a system of partnership between the land- 
 lord and the tenant in the soil. One of them must go. Which shall 
 it be 1 (Pi'olonged cheei-s.) The landlords say the tenants must go." 
 Is not that a most unjust observation 1 " The landlords say the tenants 
 must go." The defendants' case is that the tenants are there, that 
 the lands are set up for competition, and that by the competition of 
 the tenants amongst themselves rents are unjustly raised. But it is 
 said here "The landlords say the tenants must go, and they have 
 sent many hundreds of thousands of the tnant farmers of Ireland 
 from this country into exile. They have sent them (a voice ' "We 
 know it well ; we will give them their turn now '), and they say 
 still that there is not room in Ireland for the tillers of the soil ; 
 but I submit to every reasonable man that it is far easier to remove the 
 few than the many (cheers), and that the evidence of the uncultivated 
 though fertile fields which we see in such vast tracts in every part of 
 Ireland with scarcely a single inhabitant, with nothing to show that they 
 were ever populated except the ruins that we see in every direction of 
 the once happy and peaceful homes which existed there, I say that this 
 is sufficient evidence for us to see the absolute necessity which exists for 
 
76 THE QITEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 getting our people on to the land so that they make it produce what 
 it is capable of producing (cheers), and if the ownership of the few 
 landlords, the ten thousand landlords, has depopulated these lands 
 and put them back almost into a state of original nature, is it not 
 high time that this ownership should cease, and should give place 
 to a system of land tenure of a natural of a kind which will allow 
 the land to be properly cultivated ? (Cheers.) I believe a system 
 of partnerehip in the soil to be impossible, and I warn you that 
 if you pursue it you will be pursuing an Ig7iis Jatnus, a method of 
 solving which you will never obtain from the present or any other 
 Government. If you strive to prop up the system of landlordism 
 by these means, what will the Government do in all probability 1 
 They will offer you, as the principal plank in the reformation of the 
 land system, some miserable amendment of the Land Act of 1870 ; and 
 recollect the radical difference which exists between the Land Act of 1870 
 and the Ulster custom as legalized by that Land Act, and the system of 
 partnership in the soil known as the planof fixity of tenure at valued rents." 
 Then he goes on, in reference to the question of fixity of tenure, and he 
 says " Let, then, your power be directed for the purpose of bringing 
 about a natural system of land tenure in Ireland. Do not waste your 
 resources in striving to prop up landlordism (' Never'), but ask for your 
 right, and your right is that the man who tUls the soil may own it 
 (cheers). This has been tested before in other countries, and in every 
 other country where the feudal laud tenure existed they have substi- 
 tuted ownership for it. Do not, then, tinker with this question, because if 
 you do you will be left pretty much as badly ofi" as you were before. The 
 Government wUl never agree to value rents between the landlord and the 
 tenant ; they will agree to make you the owners if you declare it immis- 
 takeably that it is your intention to become the owners, and if you organize 
 yourselves in this county of Kilkenny (' We will'), if you join the National 
 Land League (cheers), and send us information as to the rents of the 
 tenantry throughout this county, as soon as we get information we will 
 organize a strike against rent on the estate of every rack-renting landlord 
 in Kilkenny (cheers). As soon as you form yourselves into branches of 
 the Land League, and send us the rentals, and the Poor Law Valuation 
 of every tenant farmer in the county, we will select out of that number 
 for you those holdings which are obviously paying a rack-rent, and we 
 will come down and assist those tenants to strike against the payment 
 of further rent for some time (cheers). But we wish you to do this 
 in a methodical way. You must organize yourselves, you must collect 
 the information and send it to us, and then we will select a certain 
 number of landlords in this and every other county, and we will call 
 upon the tenantry on those estates to refuse to pay any more rents 
 until those rents are permanently reduced (cheers), and we will stand 
 by the tenantry in this struggle ; we will help you with all the resources 
 at our command, and there are millions of your countrymen and country- 
 women in America who will help you also (cheers) and (" We have to 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 77 
 
 thank you for it") who will send you money to keep up this struggle 
 as long as you bear yourselves like men (clieere)." Again, I say, do 
 they not confess and glory in their guilt 1 Does any counsel for Mr. 
 Pamell assert that these gentlemen do not mean what they say 1 Well, 
 gentlemen, at Galway, on the 24:th October, he made a remarkable 
 speech, when he says " That the people who are primarily responsible 
 for the murder of Lord Mountmorres, if it was an agrarian crime, and 
 of that I have very great doubt, are the House of Lords, who, by re- 
 jecting the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, took the arbiti-ument of 
 this question from the courts of law, and placed it in the hands of the 
 people ; and the man who is secondaiily resironsible is this pretended 
 humanitarian Chief Secretaiy of ours, buckshot Forster, who, when the 
 House of Lords kicked out his bill, and smote him on one cheek, turned 
 to them the other cheek to smite also. He foresaw then, and he pub- 
 licly stated in the House of Commons, that he anticipated an increase 
 of crime, outrage, and loss of life in Ireland, and yet in the face of that 
 he deliberately refused to keep Parliament together, and to force through 
 the House of Lords a measui-e which would prevent him from being 
 made the instrument of landlord tyi-anny and injustice." I have 
 already commented on that most remarkable speech. It is 
 always to be read in conjunction with the pastoral of the 
 Archbishop of Dublin to his clergy of the diocese, about the same 
 time. I have already read the si>eech of Mr. Parnell, at Kilkenny 
 on the 2nd October, Lord Mountmon-es was murdered on the 26th 
 September, and I find no reference to Lord Mountmorres's murder in 
 that speech. The conclusion is, " And then when we have found out 
 these bad landlords, and have reduced them to theii' knees, and when 
 we have settled the question without any Act of Parliament as far as the 
 bad landlords are concerned (cheers), we shall not find it any more 
 difficult to reckon with the good landlords, whom my friend, Mr. 
 Marum, is so anxious about (loud cheers)." The speech concludes with 
 a sneer about the good landlords of Ireland. Well, gentlemen, what is 
 called by counsel for the traversere, "wild talk" goes on at Tipperary 
 on the 31st October. He introduces the subject of the police and 
 military, and the attempt at enforcing the law by their aid. He says, 
 " Agitation and organization have been confined to one or two or three 
 particular counties or districts, and it has been possible for the Gk)vem- 
 ment to crush the agitation in detail, by crushing the counties in detail 
 (hear, hear), and I confess it is not a very good sign to see the Govern- 
 ment taking police from Tipperary and sending them into Mayo. (A 
 voice, ' We will make them send them back again.') The constabulary 
 are used, not for the purpose of preserving law and order, but for the 
 purpose of intimidating the people (hear, hear), and preventing them 
 from organizing. And because Mayo is the best organized county in 
 Ireland, the Government have sought to tyrannize over Mayo by 
 taxing them for additional police ; but if Tipperary and every other 
 county in Ireland organise themselves as well as Mayo, they will not 
 
78 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, fec. 
 
 be able to send 1,700 police into Mayo, they will not have them to send, 
 and they ^vill not be able to inflict an additional establishment upon 
 any county in Ireland. They have only 11,000 police in this country, 
 and that gives an average of aboiit 300 men to each county. Well, 
 you see, therefore, that if it requires 1,700 policemen to intimidate a 
 well organized county, it will be an utter impossibility to intimidate 
 all the counties in Ireland if they ai-e organized, because it would 
 require an increase of something like 55,000 or 60,000 policemen 
 instead of only 10,000. I have gone into this little aiithmetical calcu- 
 lation for you lest you might be afraid that if you organized yourselves 
 in Tipperary the Government would attack you with extra police. 
 Now this, as I have shown you, cannot be so, because when all Ireland 
 is organized, it will be utterly impossible for them to get enough police- 
 men in Ireland to intimidate the whole country. The two chief planks 
 in our platform ai"e, firstly, that the tenants shall not pay rack-rents, 
 and secondly that no man shall take a farm from which a tenant has been 
 evicted under such circumstances (cheers). Now, if you carry out these 
 two principles, it will be utterly impossible for any Government, no matter 
 how strong, to prevent the march of progress in Ireland ; you must win. 
 (Cheers.) It is a thing which must happen, and you must ultimately 
 succeed if you simply stick to these doctrines, refusal to pay unjust rents, 
 and i-efusal to take a holding from which your neighbour or anybody else 
 has been evicted. Don't allow yourselves to be diverted by a discussion 
 as to the best method of settling the land question. (Hear, hear.) Some 
 gentleman, no doubt with the best intentions, have sought to introduce 
 disunion amongst Irishmen by asking us to formulate our plan. Now 
 we intend to formulate our plan when the time is ripe for the settlement 
 of the land question. (Cheers.)" One of my learned friends on the 
 other side interrupted me when I said that statements had been made 
 at these meetings that the landlords had been got rid of in other countries 
 in Europe. I shall read Mr. Parnell's opinion on that subject 
 at the Limerick meeting held on the 1st November. He says 
 " Let us then adopt a sensible land platfonn (hear, hear). Let us 
 adopt a platform which will enable all classes in this country to 
 benefit by it, the labourer as well as the tenant farmer (hear, hear) ; 
 which will get rid of a system which has been tried and found 
 wanting in eveiy country in the world. They got rid of their landlords 
 in France ; they got rid of them in Prussia, and they got rid of them 
 in Belgium. Why should not we get rid of them in Ireland i (Cheers). 
 Are they worth the keeping V At the time of the Revolution in France 
 they got rid of many of them, but a great many came back again ; 
 and gentlemen, anyone who knows anji;liing about the country, knows 
 that although land is immensely sub-divided in France, and in the 
 departments, as they were called, an immense peasant proprietary was 
 kept up, yet everyone knows that landlordism existed largely 
 in France, and that immense i-ents were derived from the land 
 by noble families living happily on estates with a contented tenantry. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 79 
 
 Well, really, gentlemen, the astounding ignorance displayed is some- 
 thing perfectly appalling, that such things could be said. His statements 
 of course could not be contradicted by the poor people he was addressing 
 in Limerick. He says they got rid of them in Prussia? If he knows 
 anything about it, he is alluding to the land reforms introduced by the 
 statesmen Stein and Hardenberg, which were not to get rid of the 
 landlords, for in those splendid provinces along the Baltic they are 
 there still, a landed nobility. And anyone who takes the trouble to 
 look up the roll will find a great many Irish names amongst the 
 landed gentry and nobility of Pnissia. And also in the German jirovinces 
 belonging to Russia, Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland, along the Baltic, 
 they will find amongst the nobility and gentry such names as Lacy, 
 Bro^vn, Nugent, Reille. They live there amongst the German speaking 
 nobility of those splendid provinces, liWng amongst a contented and 
 happy tenantry. No doubt serfdom was got rid of by Stein and 
 Hardenberg. The Emperor Alexander II., since 1860, got rid of the 
 serfdom of Russia, and he by that act did more good almost than 
 any living man in Europe or America. The two mighty events of this 
 century are the emancipation of the slaves in America and the eman- 
 cipation of the serfs in Russia. Why, gentlemen, the statements 
 made at some of these meetings surpass everything in the way of 
 audacious ignorance. " They got rid of them in Belgium." Does Mr. 
 Parnell know anything of what he is talking about? Is he worth 
 refuting? After saying the landlords were got rid of in Prussia, 
 Belgium, and other countries, he then tells the ignorant mob of Limerick, 
 with all the excitement of a great city aroused, and the respectable 
 farmers of Clare, Limerick and Tipperary, who came in to 
 listen to him addressing them about the land appealing to their 
 greedy passion of gain and to all that was bad in the Irish 
 chai-acter, appealing to them not to pay their debts, and he says 
 " They got rid of their landlords in France ; they got rid of them in 
 Prussia, and they got rid of them in Belgium. Why should we not get 
 rid of them in Ireland ? Are they worth the keeping ? (Loud cries of 
 ' No.') " And he is cheered by the tenant farmers, to whose sordid 
 passions he has thus appealed, and by the mob of Limerick. Gentlemen, 
 he continues " Has not their maintenance in this country rendered 
 almost necessary, they tell us, the exile oi hundreds of thousands of our 
 people? (' Yes, it has.') But our people are not to-day powerless as 
 they were in 1848. An unexampled series of bad seasons, which in 1 848 
 was used by the landlord class to exterminate the tenanty, now finds the 
 tenantry banded together for the assertion and the pressing home of their 
 rights (cheers). Do not then let us waste these enormous forces in trying 
 to effect what is both an impossibility, and what, if obtained, would 
 only perpetuate confusion and disunion between classes in this 
 country. You have now an opportunity of getting rid of 
 the landlord system, not, as my friend, Mr. Synan, says, after 
 a generation or so, but very soon (cheei-s). I believe, that within two 
 
80 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 years you will see part of the work which was done by the famine un- 
 done. I believe that you will see within that period the i-esumption 
 by the State of the titles in the land, which it has granted, through 
 the Landed Estates Court, to land jobbers (cheers) ; and do not let 
 anybody for a moment suppose that these things are impossible, or are 
 for such a remote future. They ai'e very much nearer than many of 
 us suppose, but the nearness and completeness of this settlement must 
 depend entirely upon your own exertions, and what we ask you to do 
 for this winter is to push down the rents, lower the rents (hear, hear), 
 to combine amongst yourselves (A voice, * They have us processed'). 
 Why, if you are afx*aid of a process you had better go out of the country 
 altogether, to combine amongst yourselves, and to oifer the landlord a 
 juat rent, to bring tlie strong force of public oi)rnion to bear upon any 
 man who dares to take a farm, and in this way you have the power 
 of settling the land question this winter in Ireland (cheers), and when 
 you have done that, and not till then, the English Parliament will do 
 it for you, (Loud applause.)" He then gives the illustration 
 to which I referred, of France, and Prussia, and Belgium. He 
 does not give the illustration of Russia, where the serfs were 
 emancipated. Why, in every country where the serfs are eman- 
 cipated and free they extend their labour and industry to eveiy 
 quarter of this fair earth which God has given us. We are to 
 be rooted in the soil, and the phrase adscripti glebce bound to the soil 
 once the badge of serfdom, is, under the law of Mr. Parnell, to be 
 the badge of the Irish people. In the early portion of the movement 
 the three F's fixity of tenure, free sale, and fair rents were 
 sometimes referred to. At Waterford City, Mr. Parnell treats 
 that with the most thorough contempt. He says " I ask you 
 then, in the face of these difficulties, what is the use of expecting a really 
 satisfactory measure of land reform from the Parliament this session t 
 (cries of * No use.') No, you will be left at the end of the session as 
 you were left at the end of last session, to depend upon your own deter- 
 mination and organization for yourselves (cheers, and a voice : * We will 
 cling to the Land League'). This is one of the chief reasons why I have 
 always resisted what has been called the three F's. The three F's 
 necessitate valued rents. Whether the results of a re-valuation would 
 be fair to the tenant would depend entirely upon the basis of the re- 
 valuation, and the tribunal which had to carry it out. And I ask you 
 what is the use of expecting from Parliament, constituted as I have 
 just shown you it is constituted, any basis of re- valuation which 
 will not be enormously in favour of the landlord against the 
 tenant (' hear, hear'). Let us take our stand upon our just j-ights 
 (' hear, hear'). Don't let us ask for anything that is impracticable or 
 impossible. Don't let us ask for anything which has not been sanctioned 
 by the successful example of almost every other European country (hear, 
 hear). And taking our stand upon our just rights of ownership of the 
 land for the people of Ireland (cheei-s), let us leave to the enemy the 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 81 
 
 oflFer of compromise (hear, hear). Let the first offer of compromise come 
 from them, for they are the beleagured and isolated garrison, surrounded 
 by their enemies ; and I warn them that if they waste too much time, if 
 they delay too long to settle with the enemy when he is in the gate, 
 when he is still in the gate, the day will very soon come when they will 
 find that their power of proposing or obtaining any compromise has been 
 taken away from them (hear, hear), and they will bitterly lament that 
 they have thrown away their opportunities when the people of Ireland 
 were still willing to allow them to depart in peace, with such compen- 
 sation for their interests as might seem to be fair (cheers)." Gentlemen, 
 that is the last speech of Mr. Parnell's I will trouble you with. 
 In every speech of his he boasts of being the leader of this con- 
 spiracy ; convict him if you believe him, acquit him if you can. 
 Gentleman, Mr. Pamell and Mr. Biggai-, after using those strong ex- 
 pressions, tried to unsay or qualify what they said. Tliere is no 
 mistake at all about the utterances of Mr. Dillon. He spoke openly 
 and plainly. He and Mr. Pamell were together in America. Mr. 
 Parnell returned first. Mr. Dillon, I believe, does not begin to speak 
 until August. But on the 15th August, at Kildare, he spoke to a 
 great meeting. He says " Fii'st of all, the immediate object is to put 
 a stop to rack-rents ; every man in Kildare shall pay it no more. 
 Secondly, we must insist that no man or woman shall be put out 
 of his or her farm. No evictions shall be in Kildare. Third, no 
 arrears of rent shall be levied in Kildare." There is a ukase ! Did 
 the worst tyrant in Russia ever utter such a phrase as that, " No 
 arrears of rent shall be levied in KUdare." " The country is emerging 
 out of a grave crisis, and there is no use in a good season if you 
 will not be in a good position to take advantage for it. If 
 you pay rent and arrears of rent this year then the good 
 harvest will go to the landlords. Therefore this year there 
 shall be no arrears of rent paid." God had granted the 
 blessing of a good harvest, which came to disappoint these agitators. 
 That blessing of a good harvest was turned, as it were, into a curse by 
 insisting that in that good harvest which the blessing of God had sent, 
 the landlords, who were to be exterminated, should have no share. " If 
 the people desire to put down landlordism, the only road to this is to 
 have an organization in the country, that every farmer shall belong to a 
 branch of the Land League that exists throughout the country, that all 
 the young men shall be prepared to march to the meetings, and in 
 proi>er order too. And when we have that organization perfected, let 
 the word go out that no farm from which any man has been evicted shall 
 be touched or used until the rightful owner shall be put back again 
 (cheers)." No suggestion there about just or unjust rents with which 
 Mr. Biggar always cloaks that sentiment, " but let the word go out that 
 no farm from which any man has been evicted shall be touched or used 
 until the rightful owner shall be put back again." Then he tells what 
 ha* occurred in Mayo, and exults in the destruction of property 
 
 F 
 
82 THE QUEEN o. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 and laying waste the lands of that great county. Then he says 
 " The conclusion that we come to to-day is that we resolve to adopt the 
 principles of the Land League 'The land for the people.' I believe 
 that what the Irish people want is to have the land their own. If 
 any farmer prefers fixity of tenure, he can have it. But I claim that 
 the people of Ireland shall have the right to make the land their own. 
 Tlie rights of the people are to be won by the exertions of the people 
 themselves (cheers). We, your representatives, have good duties to per- 
 form in Parliament, and we camiot do those duties and get justice for 
 Ireland unless you fight it out yourselves. We can paralyse the hands 
 of the Govemmeut, we can prevent them passing coercive laws that 
 would throw you into prison for organizing yourselves. We can tell 
 you, the jieople, to drill yourselves and organize yourselves, and we can 
 take it out of the power of the police to arrest every man found out 
 after eight o'clock at night (cheers). We in Parliament can see that 
 Irishmen have a right to be out after eight o'clock or all night if they 
 like. We will see that they have a right to march to meetings and 
 obey the commands of their leaders if they chose to do so. We shall see 
 that every man in Ireland shall have a rifle if he likes (cheers). All 
 I will say is that if the manhood of Ireland is not enough, when you 
 have your rights, to win your freedom and put down landlordism, then 
 I shall be ashamed to call myself an Irishman (cheers). Let 
 the people of Kildare show during the coming autumn that 
 neither dukes nor marquesses, nor any other lords, can ter- 
 rorise you or intimidate the manhood of Ireland (great cheering)." 
 The reference there is to the Duke of Leinster and Marquis of Drogheda. 
 AtHoUyford, county Tipperary, on the 17th Oct., Mr. Dillon again says 
 '' I remember a short year ago, when this banner was first raised in my 
 native county, the county of Mayo, in the to^vn of Claremorris. That 
 was where the cause was first started. I spoke at that meeting. It 
 was not a very large one, and then we had every one nearly against us, 
 and we were weak in numbers, and our cause looked weak ; but now, 
 to-day, fifteen meetings, each larger than this, are assembling in twelve 
 Irish coimties, and a hundred thousand Irishmen are to-day assembled 
 on the plains of Ireland to declare that landlordism must go down in 
 Ireland if you are a united and determined people (cheers). This is a 
 cause which every Irishman can go into, whether he be Catholic or 
 Protestant, whether he be a Nationalist or not. It is a cause which the 
 Irish Nationalists can go into, because its object is to break down and 
 defeat the English garrison which holds this country for England. Its 
 object is to clear the path for Irish Nationality, by emancipating all 
 the people of Ireland from the control of English landlordism, 
 and settling them in their own homes as free men. It is a 
 cause which Catholic and Protestant can go into side by side, and 
 shoulder to shoulder, and although eflforts have been made to raise a cry 
 in the North in Ulster that the Orangemen of Ulster will oppose 
 this movement, I have been invited to speak in the north of Ulster on 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 83 
 
 next Tuesday, and I have been promised that thirty thousand Ulster 
 men will meet me on the field. I tell you that before three months are 
 out you will see the Protestant farmer of Ulster stand shoulder to 
 shoulder with the Catholic farmer of Tipperary, united in one league, 
 whose motto will be, " Ireland for the Irish people, and down with 
 landlordism (cheers)." And again he says, " If you organise as well as 
 they have done in Connaught, you can carry out this programme, the 
 Land Leaguers of Dublin will support you, but you must organise 
 strictly. Remember that to-day you are only commencing the fight. 
 Every townland must be canvassed carefully, and every fanner 
 asked to join ; and any man who breaks the rules of the Land League, 
 and takes a farm from which a neighbour has been evicted, or 
 who buys cattle or crops which have been seized for rent, or who 
 has any dealings with a man who has taken a farm from which a 
 neighbour has been evicted, that man you must not speak to, you must 
 not buy from him, nor sell to him, nor have any dealings with him 
 whatever, and before a month is out he will leave the country and 
 the farm vacant. Now, how are you to set about organising] In each 
 townland two men should agree to go round and ask every farmer 
 to give his name for the Land League. Let them go with books, and 
 let each farmer give his valuation and his rent ; let those be brought 
 all into a central committee, and submitted to them, and let them say 
 where the rents are excessive, and in that townland order the members 
 to pay no more than a certain sum for rent. When that order goes out 
 any man that does not obey it is a traitor to the people, and a friend of 
 the oppressors of the farmers, and do not you have any more dealings 
 with him, and he will soon leave the country. By that means I tell you 
 that you can reduce rents here in Tipperary, by your own unaided 
 action ; by that means you can put a stop to eviction, by that means 
 you can make yourselves independent of the landlords, and until you 
 have done that by your own action in Tipperary, I tell you that the English 
 Parliament will give you no justice." He spoke in Clonmel on the 24th 
 October. That was a great meeting. The Roman Catholic clergy 
 were present, as was proved. Mr. Arthur Moore was pre- 
 sent, and several other persons, in whose presence Mr. 
 Dillon had to be more careful than usual. But he says 
 " The great thing is you must multiply the branches of the League ; 
 start one in every parish. You must go on with this policy. If the 
 Government prosecutes, you must show if the Irish people are a nation 
 of cowards or a nation of men. The way to act if the Government 
 prosecutes is this : if they prosecute your president or the secretary, put 
 two other men in their places and go on with the work. By-and-by the 
 jails will be full, and they will find it not so easy a task to put the 
 whole of Ireland into jaU (cheers). In fact, it is my impression, if they 
 continue this policy, before long they will find the best thing to 
 do is to put the landlords into jail." This was received, of course, 
 with cheers, just in the way the celebmted Prime Minister went 
 
 F 2 
 
84 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, fec. 
 
 into the war with a light heart. This was on the 24th October, 
 Lord Mountmorres having been murdered on the 26th September. 
 " Now, there is no necessity whatever for any nervousness on the point of 
 crime. I am not aware the Iiish people have been guilty of crime to 
 any extent that j ustifies what has been said. I am aware that the Lon- 
 don press are manufactiiring deliberately in Dublin false crimes, which 
 they are sending over by the column to London to i-aise a cry against 
 our people (cheers.)" This, gentlemen, is a seiious attack on the re- 
 porters who send the Irish telegrams to London. " But there is nonecessity 
 whatever for any nervousness on the point of crime." Have they not 
 stained their cause by crime? Did he consider the murder of Lord 
 Mountmorres no crime themurder of an unfortunate noblemanno crime? 
 " But I say, I refuse to denovmce crime because I say the Ii-ish people 
 have not stained their cause by crime. The landlords need not get into a 
 state of excitement, and imagine we are going to bum or pull their 
 houses down as they have pulled the houses of the people down. (A 
 voice : ' No.') We do not propose to do any of those violent things, 
 because we ai*e the majority ; we have the power on our side, and we 
 are going to win. (A voice : ' We will do it.') We do not need there- 
 fore to do anything which will justify their outrageous language, but we 
 do need to show that the peo2)le this time ai'e determined, and they will 
 not be deluded either by Whig orators, or be told to trust to the Go- 
 vernment which has nothing to give to the people but coercion and pro- 
 secution, but wUl trust to their own eyes and their hands. They will show 
 the landlords and Government in spite of their teeth they will retain 
 the lands of Tippei-aiy, and will hold the lands of Tippeiury, and 
 when we have told them that lesson, for years to come you will find 
 that the landlords of Tipperaiy will go not to the Castle to 
 ask for coercion, but to Westminster, and say, * For God's 
 sake settle the land question.' Give them something, 
 abolish landlordism, and let them be rid of their tenants." 
 That is a quiet speech, and, as I said before, the clergy and some members 
 of Parliament were present a very quiet speech. Even in reference to 
 crime " he told them not to be nervous about it " he would not " denounce 
 crime " because no crime had been committed. However, in Tipperary 
 it was not necessary to speak with "bated breath and whispering 
 humbleness" at all. " It was not till lately that Tipperary knew what 
 landlordism was, and I am happy to say that it is not the first time that 
 Tipperary rose in rebellion against landlordism, (cheers.) Many of you 
 know that in the last century for three years this county was in open re- 
 bellion against landlordism, until they poured their troops into it and 
 smothered the resistance of the people in blood, when they killed poor 
 Father Sheehy at Clonmel. (Groans.) From that day to this the people 
 of Tipperary have been either in open or in smothered rebellion against 
 that institution, and to-day you have assembled, I suppose the largest 
 meeting that ever gathered in Tipperary, to declare that we are now going 
 to make a new departure, not to forget or to make terms with landlordism. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 85 
 
 but to raise the banner again, and enrol every man in Tippe- 
 rary, who is not a landlord or an agent, under the banner of 
 'Down with landlordism,' and the laud of Ireland ^vill be given 
 back to the tenants." Then, speaking of men being put in 
 prison, he says "For every man tliat is put in do you knock off 
 a certain per centage of the rent you are going to pay. With regai'd t<> 
 the rent, I think that the time has come in Tipjjeraiy now when we 
 ought, in the name of the National Land League, to proclaim all over 
 this county, that for this year the people shall pay no more rent than 
 Griffith's valuation that they shall pay Griffith's valuation, and no 
 moi-e (cheers). I think that is about the fairest thing that we can come 
 at. If the landlords do not like that, let them go over to London, and 
 go down and make a petition to the London Parliament to settle the 
 question. The people of Ireland have petitioned to that Parliament too 
 often. The people of Ireland will not petition to an English Parliament 
 again." Well, that advice, I believe, has been followed. 
 
 Mr. Gnrran. The Dean of Cashel was in the chair at that meeting. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. The Dean of Cashel I Yes, yes. 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. Did the Dean of Cashel remonstrate against 
 the use of that language 1 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Gentlemen of the jury, I refei-red to a very im- 
 portant meeting at Limerick. These meetings are held in what I will 
 call great centres of wealth and indvistry. Clonmel is a fine town. 
 Everyone familiar with business knows that Ireland is not such a 
 starving place all over as these pereons are perpetually assert- 
 ing. My learned and able friend, Mr. Macdonogh, refeiTed 
 to the Parliamentary returns in a general way about the 
 agricultural distress in the country. These things, as was 
 observed from the Bencli, are all perfectly well known, and 
 collected in that able collection of statistics, Thorn's Directory they are 
 perfectly well known to every one. But almost a few pages on in the 
 same returns about Ii-eland, if my learned friend looks, he will find by 
 the Probate returns that the value of property in Ireland inci*ea8ed from 
 90,000,000 from 1845-1850 to 250,000,000 in 1870. He vnW 
 find that these oppressed tenant farmers, out of thirty-two millions on 
 deposit receipts in the Banks and the Savings and Post Office banks in 
 Ireland, have twenty millions, and we in Ireland are paying income 
 tax on 35,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan. There's no such column in the statistics for the tenant 
 farmers of Ireland. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Does he say that the tenant farmera of Ireland have 
 nothing in the banks ? 
 
 Mr. Sullivan. I said nothing of the kind. I said there was no such 
 column for the farmers. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. Then I ask my learned friend to state 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald You have no right to put a question to 
 counsel, sergeant. 
 
86 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, &c. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. No, my lord, but the tenant farmers have twenty 
 millions of money in 
 
 M.Y. Macdonogh. I must take the liberty of interposing, and I am 
 sorry to have to do it. 
 
 Mr. Justice Fitzgerald. We have no evidence before us for that 
 statement, sergeant. 
 
 Mr. Macdonogh. He has no right, my lord, at the close of the case, 
 to state these figures, unless he does me the favour of permitting me to 
 reply to him. 
 
 Mr. Justice ' Fitzgerald. You have no right to address the court, 
 Mr. Macdonogh. 
 
 Mr. Macdonogh. Veiy well. 
 
 Sergeant Heron. My learned friends will not permit me to say we 
 are paying income tax on 35,000,000. This is the old system of com- 
 paring Ireland to the starved apothecary. It is exploded. However, I 
 may refer to Mr. Dillon in Tipperary Clonmel, a prosperous town ; and 
 Limerick, although not so prosperous as it ought to be, still a great 
 centre of wealth and industry. " Let me tell you that the National 
 Land League of Ireland does not propose only to prevent the landlords 
 raising the rents, but it proposes to teach the landlords of Ireland that 
 the day has gone by when they are to fix the rents of Ireland." There 
 is a new claim coming in the landlord is never to raise his rent. 
 " Let me tell you that the National Land League of Ireland does not 
 propose only to prevent the landlords raising the rents, but it proposes 
 to teach the landlords of Ireland that the day has gone by when they are 
 to fix the rents of Ireland (cheers), that until they come to a just settle- 
 ment of this question, the Land Leagues, the farmers of Ireland, shall 
 fix the x'ent at a fair value, and pay no more than what is fair. We pro- 
 pose to biing down the rents of Ireland to what will be a fail* value. We 
 propose to take back from the landlords what they robbed from the 
 people in the days of their power. We propose to settle the Irish land 
 question by showing (a voice, * American principles,') the Irish landlords 
 that we, the people of Ireland, have the power, without appealing to 
 Parliament at all, to dictate to them what rents we shall pay, and to pay 
 no more. Now I want to ask the people of Limerick are they going to 
 submit to tyranny while Tipperary, and Clare, and Keriy, and Cork, 
 have raised the banner of revolt against it ? (* No, no.') If you are not 
 going to submit, show j^ou are men, and let there be before Christmas, 
 before three weeks, a branch of the Land League in every parish of the 
 County of Limerick (cheei-s). Go over the rent-roll on every estate 
 in Limerick, and when the next gale day comes, have agreed 
 amongst yourselves what you are going to pay. In Tipperary they have 
 pledged themselves to pay no more than Griffith's valuation. 1 
 think you would do well to take the same pledge in Limerick. 
 (' We will.') When you have taken it, stand to it like men, and stand 
 to each other, and if any man goes back on his neighbour, then let him 
 be an outcast in Limerick (cheers). Now ia the time for every county 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 87 
 
 to organize and pull together in this cause. Do not allow the Govern- 
 ment to beat down Mayo or Galway while Limerick is quiet. They 
 will come to you afterwards when they have defeated Mayo. When 
 they attack them in the rear, show them that they will require as much 
 trouble to levy rackrents in Limerick as to levy them in Galway. Keep 
 the police if necessary, marching from one end of Limerick to the other, 
 as they have got to march from one end of Mayo to the other, and before a 
 year is out, you will bring things to such a pass that it will take, not 
 11,000, but 50,000 police to levy rackrents in Ireland. When you have 
 brought about such a condition of things that 50,000 police will not levy 
 rackrents, then the Irish land question will be settled, and the laud- 
 lords will come to reasonable terms without any more pressure. I will 
 only say, in conclusion, that if you do not play the part of men now, do 
 no not ever complain again of bad laws, because if you allow rackrents 
 to be levied in Limeiick this year, all I can say is to the landloi-ds of 
 Limerick : ' Rackreut the tenantry of Limerick to your heart's content.' " 
 In Killaloe Mr. DUlou addresses a gi-eat meeting, held on the Clare side, 
 of the fai-mei-s of Clare and of Tippei-ary. What does he say ? Here is 
 the speech. " Let the manhood of Ireland rise to-day, and resolve that 
 we will bring the Irish Landlords on their knees before that door. 
 (Cheers, ' Never to rise again.') Let us resolve that the tenantry of Ire- 
 land will never again ask for justice at the hands of English ministers 
 or of the English House of Commons, but that by their action in Ireland 
 they will drive the Irish landlords over to London to beg for protection 
 and for justice. (Cheers.) Let me tell you that you can do all this. It 
 only requires you to play the part of men, to follow the doctrines of the 
 Land League, and you wUl teach the Irish landlord that not he, but the 
 Land League, will settle the rents (cheei-s) ; and you will teach the Irish 
 landlord that he will not evict one man out of his home until the Land 
 League has given him leave. (Cheers.) The English Parliament has 
 been always the friend of the Irish landlords. Let them 
 go to their old friends now and ask (interruption.) I 
 say here to-day, in the name of the tenantry of Ireland, that it has 
 come now to that pass that we do not care about legislation." 
 So it has come to that pass, they don't care about legislation. Five 
 or six of my learned friends, one after another, spoke about constitu- 
 tional agitation. Constitutional agitation ! Mr. Dillon boldly says, 
 " Things have come to that pass that we do not care about legislation." 
 Does he mean what he said? "All we want is what was said fifty 
 years ago by a Tippei-ary priest, Father Davoran, when he wrote to 
 Daniel O'Connell, and said in the Tithe War, * The Irish farmers do 
 not want protection ; they do not want legislation in an English Parlia- 
 ment ; all they want is a fair field and no favour, and to leave them 
 face to face with the tyrant.'" This is constitutional agitation. That 
 is a quotation said to be by Father Davoran. Then Mr. Dillon goes 
 
 on : " All that the tenantry of Ireland want now is a fair field and no 
 
 favoui-, and to leave them face to face with the landlords, and we will give 
 
88 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, Ac. 
 
 a very good account of the landlords and of the racki-enters in Ireland. " 
 Now do you see the meaning of Archbishop M'Cabe's pastoral. " Let me 
 say, then, that the man who comes to you now, and tells you to trust 
 to any British minister, or tells you to trust to the present Government 
 because they have promised well, is an enemy, and do not take his 
 advice. Follow the Land League, which has shown its power by pro- 
 tecting the farmer of Ireland ; follow the Land League, which has 
 already forced, to my own 'knowledge, seven men in Ireland to resign 
 farms which they had taken over their neighbour' heads. In the town 
 of Midleton, in the county of Cork, there was a man evicted and his 
 neighbour took the farm. He had gone behind his back and bribed the 
 agent ; and I sent down there last week, at the request of the Land 
 League, to the town of Midleton, that 1 would hold a meeting there on 
 Tuesday next^ and request him to give up the farm ; and on Friday 
 last the Land League got a letter saying he begged to state he would 
 resign the farm. ......... 
 
 Well, then, the task that is before you is this : Pledge every man who 
 is here, and every man in the two counties that is Clare and TiiJi^erary 
 not to pay one farthing over Griffith's valuation (cheere) ; and if 
 
 any man let every parish in the two counties have its Land League, 
 
 let every man be enrolled in that Land League, and do not wait for 
 them to come in, but send young men round to ask every farmer 
 having a list of eveiy fanner to ask him will he come in or will he 
 not ? And then you will know who are the friends of the people, and 
 
 who are their enemies (interruption), and tlien let each parish 
 
 resolve for itself what they will pay. Let them hold a meeting of the 
 executive, let them consider the case, and let them resolve what they 
 will pay. Yow must alter the resolution according to circumstances. 
 If you have got to deal with a very bad rack-renter who has 
 raised his rents more than double the valuation, you ought not 
 to pay him a single farthing this year. If he is a more moderate 
 man, come down to the valuation ; but you must suit the resolu- 
 tion to the circumstances of each locality. When you have come to 
 that resolution, then the man who goes back on the organization who 
 goes behind backs and pays, while he stands pledged to his neighbours 
 to stand by them you must treat him as what he is ; that is to say, a 
 traitor to his people and to his countiy. You must make an outlaw 
 of hini, and let no honest man speak to him, or have anything to 
 say to him." At Thurles he spoke on the 14th November. "If we 
 are struck at and imprisoned, whom ought we to hold I'esponsible for 
 that impi-isonment ? We ought to hold responsible the landlords of 
 Ireland who have urged upon the Government this insane course of 
 coercion. And what will be our plain duty ? Our plain duty will be, 
 and our policy, to inflict a punishment upon the landlords of Ireland, 
 which will make them repent of their course. We shall issue orders, 
 the executive of the Land League will issue oi-dei-s to the people, 
 probably, if this course is determined upon, to strike some counter- 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 89 
 
 blow at the landlords, and I trust and hope that the people will be 
 prepared to obey (cheers). We will advise you to do nothing unwise ; 
 we will advise you to do nothing unpractical ; but we will advise you 
 to do something that will very quickly bring the landlords to reason, 
 and make them more anxious to let us out than to keep us in." 
 And he says, " I think that, when the country is thoroughly well 
 organized, it will be a very serious question for the liranches whether 
 they ought not to come to a resolution not to allow any nieiniicr of tlio 
 League to deal with any trader who will not join the League." At 
 Ballaghadereen, on the following Sunday, he says, " We have seen the 
 hand of the evictor stopped, and we have seen cases where processes of 
 eviction have been issued, we have seen the execiition of those processes, 
 those eviction decrees, delayed in fear of the Land League and of its fol- 
 lowers (cheers). And furthermore, we have not alone stopped the hands of 
 the evictor, but we have undone his work. Li seven or eight cases we have 
 taken away from the land grabber the prey which he took from the un- 
 fortunate victim of the evictor. (* Down with the land gi-abber.') 
 Seven farms have been handed back to the Land League at our request, 
 and it is but a short three weeks ago since in the county of Cork a man 
 who had taken a farm from which his neighbour had been evicted, at my 
 request gave it back into the hands of the Land League of that district." 
 . . . " Let the tenantry on each estate gather together, or let them 
 elect representatives where the estate is veiy large, and let them come 
 together and make an agreement of what they are able to afford 
 to pay this year, or what is fair for them to pay, and that will differ 
 according to the different circumstances of the case. When they 
 have made that agreement, let them pledge themselves to each other that 
 no man will go behind his neighbour and break away from the agi'eement. 
 Let them, then, go in as a body and offer to the landlord or to the agent 
 the rent on which they have agreed, and tell him that they require for 
 that sum a full and clear receipt for the year's rent (cheers). If he 
 refuses to give that full and clear receipt, take home the money 
 and pay nothing, and wait until he becomes more I'easonable. 
 Well, now, the man who goes back on his neighboura and who breaks 
 away from the engagement and pays his rent, all you have got to do is to 
 turn the cold shoulder to him, and have no communication with him. The 
 question then arises as to what the landlord will do, or the agent, when this 
 offer is made to him. He may serve you with notice of eviction, and if he 
 does you must then put down your foot and have it out with him. You must 
 hold the rent, and keep that for you own use. If he serves you with a notice 
 of eviction come into the Land League here, submit your case ; send up 
 the notices to Dublin ; we will take them up and defend them, and we will 
 back you up in this struggle (cheers.) But do not you see you see the 
 advantage of holding on by the rent, because if any man should be 
 evicted he would want some means to support him until he gets back 
 to his farm, because you must remember, and you must be prepared 
 to run some risk, and, if necessary even to submit to eviction. If 
 
90 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, Ac. 
 
 you are evicted, as sure as there is a sun above you to-day you will 
 be back again before the year is out. Mayo ha.s taught a lesson to 
 the rest of Ireland in the policy of the Land League, and the word ' Boy- 
 cott' has gone all over the country (cheers.) Now, what we propose 
 to do is, every evicted farm we will Boycott the farm, and it will re- 
 quire an English army, such as that which has come down to Lough 
 Mask, to hold any farm from which a Mayo man has been evicted. So 
 long as they keep the army on the fai-m, well, we will support the 
 tenant who has been evicted Somewhere in the neighbourhood, and as 
 soon as the army evacuates he can go back to his own home (cheers). 
 Now, I wish to say a word as regards the amount of rent that ought to 
 be paid. This is a question which we must leave to each branch to 
 decide for itself ; but if high rents have been charged for the past years, 
 where the people have been rack-rented for some years past, they ought 
 to pay nothing at all this year. Where the rents have been more 
 moderate, I think that, where they are able to afford it, they ought to pay 
 Griffith's valuation. We leave that to the executive of each branch to 
 decide according to the circumstances of the tenant. "Well, now, I 
 would ask you to compare the condition of the Irish farmer of to-day 
 with what it was two years ago, and, when you have made that com- 
 parison, let every man who does not like to be a slave take his stand by 
 the Land League, and determine to remain a member of it. What 
 were you two years ago 1 Is it not true that the agent and the bailiflf 
 exercised a terror over every farmer on an estate ? Is it not true 
 to-day that you are no more afraid of the agent or the bailiff than 
 I am (cheers). Is it not true to-day that the agent and the 
 bailiff are a great deal more afraid of you than you are of them 1" 
 That is perfectly true, and said with exultation by Mr. Dillon. Is it 
 not true to-day that the agent and the bailiff are a great deal more afraid 
 of you than you are of them. Many an agent, many a bailiff through- 
 out the counties of Ireland are, as is their boast, quivering in fear of the 
 Land League. " And I ask you what is it that has done all this for 
 you t "What is it that has made you freemen to-day instead of slaves. 
 What is it that has made, as I said, the agent and the bailiff 
 civil and very much obliged for whatever you will give them ? It is 
 the policy and the action of the National Land League. It has taught 
 you how to emancipate yourselves without having recourse to the tender 
 mercies of the English Parliament. You were told before that your 
 only hope was in the Parliament of London, but we told you that your 
 hope was in your own manhood. For thirty years you knelt at the 
 door of England's Parliament, and you got no redress ; for thirty years 
 you crouched, or you were afraid, before the agent's office or the bailiff of 
 the estate. But we told you to band yourselves together, and to stand on 
 your own rights and yourown manhood ; and where are you to-day. You 
 are in a position not to beg for reduction of rents, not to ask for favours 
 from landlords or agents ; you are in a position to determine what your 
 rights are, and when you have made up your minds, to stand on them, 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 1 
 
 and to insist on them. Then, if ever again the landlord or the agent 
 tramples upon the tenantry of Ireland, it will be tbeir own fault and 
 their own cowardice. You are free men to-day ; before you leave this 
 meeting, resolve that you never will be trampled on again, unless it be 
 over your dead bodies (loud cheers). But remember also that your free- 
 dom can only be kept by the strictest organization, by the courage, by 
 the determination, if the hour should come, that you will stand to your 
 rights as men (cheers). We confidently expect that this struggle will 
 go on to the end without bloodshed, without violence, and without danger ; 
 but shame on the Irishman who would be afraid, if the necessity arose, 
 and if the risk came, to take his stand by his own threshold, and defend 
 it at the cost of his life-blood. Let it go forth now that the Irish nation, 
 having once acertained their power and their rights, will never again 
 submit to be trampled on, unless their life-blood has been spilt at first on 
 their own threshold." That was at Ballaghadereen, in the 
 county of Mayo, a county with which Mr. Dillon is peculiarly 
 connected. In Fethard, after saying that the house of 
 every landlord in Ireland will be built over a volcano, and he cannot 
 tell the hour when that volcano may burst and sweep him, and all that 
 belong to him, to a far worse fate than that which the National Land 
 League dealt out to him he sayB, in conclusion " I would like to say 
 in conclusion that I think that the interest of this movement, particularly, 
 as regards the good name of the Irish race in foreign countries would be 
 best served by the people maintaining a strictly defensive policy " and 
 then, referring to Mr. Boycott, again he says, never a man could be 
 touched, for never a hair of his head was hurt. Mr. Boyton speaks at the 
 same meeting, at Fethard. Gentlemen, I am happy to say the last of the 
 speeches I shall refer to is the speech of Mr. Dillon, at Templederry. 
 Speaking there with all the influence that the position of member for the 
 county could give him, after an account of the great exertions he had 
 made in spreading the principles of the Land League, referring to Boy- 
 cotting and referring to Ulster,he finally makes this promise tothepeople 
 " But, as I said before, let the representatives upon each townland under 
 the League come together. Let them as honest men discuss their cir- 
 cumstances, and the condition of the country. Let them talk the matter 
 over^ Let them decide what they will do ; what they can fairly do ; 
 what it would be just to do. Let them then resolve and pledge them- 
 selves to stand together and the Land League will support them in the 
 course they determine upon. We leave it to the men who know the 
 soil best, to the men who have lived upon it, who have laboured on it, 
 and who have brought up to their families out of it ; they know what 
 the soil is honestly worth, and they know what they ought to pay ; let 
 them decide, and we will support them in their decision. But what 
 the Land League has proved is this, that the day has gone by in Ireland 
 when the landlord can settle the rent by his own free will and whim. 
 The day is gone by when the landlord class have all the power in settling 
 the rent. The day has come in when the people of Ireland are to settle 
 
92 THE QUEEN a. PARNELL, fee. 
 
 the rents. Tlie day is at hand when rent will cease in Ireland forever." 
 No doubt, if he were successfiU, rent would cease in Ireland for ever. 
 And that is the wild political scheme which is proposed to the people of 
 Ireland in or-der to succeed in this conspiracy. Gentlemen of the jury, 
 I am happy to say that my task is nearly concluded. I have tried in 
 addressing you to speak strictly to the evidence in the case. I have 
 tried to perform that duty. As regards the fourteen defendants, I have 
 endeavoxired to speak to you, to use a technical expression," within the four 
 comers of the record." And if I have sjiid as regards any person outside the 
 record not defendants, but associated in some respects with them if I 
 have said an unfair or unjust word to those persons, I now apologise. 
 I have had to do my duty which is at all times for the Crown in Ireland 
 a painful and a difficult duty, peculiarly so at the present time, when of 
 course there is some distress in our land, still distress which all regret, and 
 which the humane and the charitable do their best to relieve. But, 
 gentlemen of the jury, as regards this conspiracy I look on it as almost, 
 dJmost I will say, at an end as regards success. The attempt to succeed 
 must be put down. They have boasted that they have lowered the 
 rents of Ireland. They have boasted that they have succeeded in. stop- 
 ping evictions in Ireland and that they have prevented for ever that free 
 competition, that inexorable law which regulates the price of everj"^ single 
 thing belonging to the earth. They have boasted of these things, but, 
 as regards Parliamentary success or constitutional agitation, I think the 
 political rocket, having gone almost out of sight, the political rocket of 
 Pamell and his pai-ty has gone up as high as ever it will go, and the 
 laws of political gravitation are inexorable. As regards the legal 
 aspect of this case, the prosecution is conducted solely as it were against 
 the strike against rents and all the circumstances of the conspiracy in 
 that respect. But, of course, it cannot be disguised that in this 
 movement the able organizers have sought to engage many other 
 feelings have sought to engage the clergy of the country 
 belonging to one gi-eat denomination in it, and, as I proved to you 
 yesterday, at the meetings where they did not attend, used language of 
 them that we shall not now advert to. They have also sought to include 
 in that movement, and they appealed in that movement to the national 
 sentiment of the country, and at all the meetings where the clergy, no 
 doubt, in numbers attended, wherever any sjjoke of crime they 
 denounced it eveiy onf^ they appealed, I say, not only to the religious 
 element, but to the national element, which is so strong and dear to the 
 heart of the Irish people. And the national emblems were used 
 at the meetings, and the national feelings strongly appealed to. Let no 
 man sneer at nationality at the nationality implanted in the breasts 
 of the Irish people. They have sutfei-ed for it and they still have the 
 feeling of faith and fatherland, and the symbols of nationality are dear 
 to them as they are dear to every nation in the world. The majesty of 
 Harry the King the gi-eatest king England ever produced did not 
 disdain to weai' the leek at Agincourt or on St. David's day in memory 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 93 
 
 of our gallant cousins, the Welshmen, having in the previous century 
 aided to win the great victory, wearing the leek at Foictiers. Who 
 cannot sympathise with Bums 
 
 " The rough burr thistle spreading wide, 
 Amang the bearded bere : 
 I turned the weedin clips aside, 
 And spared the 8)-mbol dear." 
 
 And no country in Em-ope has a nobler national emblem than Ireland 
 the shamrock which St. Patrick consecrated to faith and fatherland upon 
 the Hill of Tara and the Rock of Cashel. This noble sentiment has been 
 appealed to, and no one can blame any persons enlisting in the cause 
 they advocate the strongest feelings which can unite a j^ople to their 
 faith and to their country. But, gentlemen of the jury, there is plainly 
 in Ireland what I would call a small Ireland of discontent. I use no 
 harsher words. There is great poverty in our country, happily from 
 year to year and season to season diminishing in intensity. But I will 
 also say there is a greater Ireland, to which the greater number of the Irish 
 race belong, and which is not identified with the small Ireland of discontent. 
 There is a greater Ireland which flourishes wherever the English language 
 is spoken, or English law prevails. Our prosperity is indissolubly connected 
 with the prosperity of England. Our industry is connected with the in- 
 dustry of England. We have had mentioned in this trial the poor harvest- 
 man, and his going to the East of England. Thousands of our countrymen 
 every year go to Eastern England, and cut the rich harvests which now 
 wave over the old fens and morasses once the haunts of outlaws. And our 
 countrymen bring home hundreds of thousands of pounds every year, the 
 wages of industiy, to many a happy Irish home. Our honest Irish workers 
 take their place as working men, the heart of the people, the marrow and 
 the nerve of human power. There is the greater Ireland, not the small 
 Ireland of discontent. In the great mining districts of England how 
 many a happy Irish home there is. In those wild districts where once 
 there was no light at night but the beacons from the crags calling to 
 civil war, there is now the roar of mighty furnaces, which, giving lustre 
 and brilliancy to the midnight of entire co\inties, guarantee food and 
 happiness to thousands, and light the path of the toiler to many a happy 
 Irish home. We used to speak of the hum of industry. Now on the 
 banks of the Clyde and the Mersey, the roar of the hammer and the 
 steam engine louder than the thunder of old battles, guarantees food and 
 happiness to millions food and happiness to many a happy Irish 
 home. And are we to be rooted to the soil, confined here, surrounded 
 by a political wall of brass, whilst the language of Edmund Burke, and 
 Robert Bums, and Shakespeare, and Milton is spoken in every clime, 
 in every place to which Irish and English genius, industry, and enterprise 
 can force their way 1 There is the greater Ireland, the true Ireland. 
 Our commerce traverses the great circles of the ocean. On the great 
 oceans of the world the Union Flag of our country and the Starry Flag of 
 
94 THE QUEEN o. PARNELL, 4c. 
 
 Libeitition the flag of America salute one another on every sea. 
 There is no nobler symbol of nationality than the American flag 
 
 " When freedom from her dazzling height 
 Unfurled her standard to the air, 
 She tore the azure robe of night, 
 And set the stars of glory there.' 
 
 Long may these two flags reign on every ocean the symbols of 
 liberty and peace. May they never be arrayed against each other by 
 sea or land, by flood or field, and cursed be the ti-aitor who would seek 
 to embroil in civil war our brethren in America and our brethren in 
 England. Gentlemen of tlie jury, in scenes such as these is the 
 true Ireland the greater Ireland. Turn to our colonies and de- 
 pendencies. Our colonies and our dependencies are vast conti- 
 nents. And from Canada to China Irish diplomacy and Irish 
 eloquence rule equally under the mighty Constellation of the North 
 or the splendour of the Southern Cross, Irish diplomacy and eloquence 
 rule in those splendid young nations, in which are thousands and millions 
 of happy Irish men and happy Irish women there is the greater Ireland, 
 Irish diplomacy and eloquence and just government guaranteeing peace 
 and prosperity to thousands of happy Irish homes. There is the tnie, the 
 greater Ireland. Are we to be rooted to the soil while the Queen's 
 Irish regiments march to death with military glee in every clime in 
 the world, and are we to be excluded from the greatness and glory of 
 our empire, while Sii' Garnet Wolseley and Sir Frederick Roberts 
 Irishmen, gallant Irishmen are rivalling the glory of Lord 
 Gough and the Duke of Wellington 1 And what Irish 
 heart does not thrill with rapture at their genius and glory, 
 except those included in the small Ireland of discontent 1 Gentlemen 
 of the jury, I have alluded to the national emblems being used, trying 
 to engage the national sentiment at these meetings, on the banners and 
 in the processions. And the national melodies were employed also for the 
 same pui-pose. But with the Queen's army, the national melodies of 
 Ireland, instead of being isolated in Innishowen and Connemara, have 
 become part of the history of the world, and have been the quicksteps 
 of the decisive battles of the world. As the morning sxm flashes 
 from the bayonets of the Irish soldiers of the Queen at the forts, 
 posts, and garrisons of our empire, it circles the world with one 
 beam of morning light. As the morning drum beats at the forts, the 
 posts, and the garrisons of our empire, the national music of England, 
 of Scotland, and of Ireland, follows the sun and keeps company 
 with the houi-s, and forms one continued strain of melody, recalling 
 the stirring memories of a thousand years of victory and of 
 liberty. From this career of glory and of independence are we to be 
 kept back and rooted in the soil ] Gentlemen of the jury, that shall 
 never be. We form a portion of a great and free empire, a mighty 
 state the work of a thousand years, of watchful senates, of 
 
SPEECH OF MR. SERGEANT HERON, Q.C. 6 
 
 sages, and of heroes. In the building up of that vast empire 
 Irishmen have held no undistinguished part, and are we to 
 abandon our share in our inheritance ] We are a united em- 
 pire ** United we stand ; divided we fall." Gentlemen, when 
 this trial commenced, in every church, in every cathedral in Europe, 
 save one, the voices, the holy voices of children were singing the 
 Christmas anthem, " Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, 
 good will to men." That anthem is as acceptable to the Almighty said 
 by the humble shepherd or herd on the mountain, as sung by the voices 
 of priests in the gilded cathedrals. May I be permitted to express a 
 hope that all will join in the anthem Glory to God in the highest 
 peace in Ireland, to all men good will (applause). 
 
J>vbi.in: Printed by Alex. Thom & Co., 87, , & 69, Abbey-nreet 
 The Queen's Printing Office.