CHAPTER XXIII.

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

The situation grows more and more serious as the winter advances. In certain districts, thinly populated, but of considerable extent, the ordinary administration of the Government has temporarily ceased. Rents, county cess, and other local rates are not paid; and, as I was told to‐day by a priest holding office in a disaffected part of the country, even the incomes of the clergy are beginning to suffer. Whether a supplementary cry of ‘No dues’ would not, however, assist the restoration of order is a fair subject for speculation. The large number of Irishmen who, though they can well afford to do so, now refuse to pay rent, may persuade themselves that by devoting money contracted to be paid to the owners of their lands to the purchase of spurious whiskey, and to the maintenance of one or two exiles at Paris, they are doing more for Ireland than O’Connell and all the other departed patriots. They may be, as they believe, escaping from the bondage of centuries, but it cannot be denied that they are crawling to freedom through an exceedingly dirty sewer. No great Revolution has ever been accomplished hitherto upon the basis of petty theft.

Be that as it may, the Government must face the certain prospect of a large number of attempts being made to murder and injure well‐disposed persons during the next three months. The measures already adopted, if carried out by capable officials, ought to render altogether unnecessary the abolition of Trial by Jury, and the institution of some more stringent procedure. But if so, the additional police must be selected from men of mature age and full discretion; not likely in the p. 161 searches for arms to be guilty of any unnecessary intrusion, or outrage upon susceptible people—and Ireland is populated by susceptible, not to say irritable, people. The Inspector General, therefore, should be allowed to accept the services of that large class of reserve men over forty, the age limited in the recent circular, who have been settled in the midst of the people ever since their retirement from active duty. The recruits, moreover, must be quickly drafted into the disturbed parishes, and in sufficient numbers. I refer to these particulars because they are, at least in some district stations, imperfectly recognised as essential. For instance, I was told by a spruce young sub‐inspector the other day, that he thought it was useless to increase the police force, as ‘the roads by which they could operate would always be watched at night.’ The idea of patrolling those roads in sufficient force to impress ‘Captain Moonlight’ with the necessity of staying at home had evidently not occurred to this gentleman, and when it was suggested it was by him superciliously pooh‐poohed. Again, it will be of small service to law‐abiding citizens to organise, with great pains, an additional force of police ready to take the field when the winter and the winter outrages are past. Only a day or two ago I was told how a retired policeman had applied for leave to join the force in his district, and had been sent off with the excuse that the county Inspector was away for a few days, and that nothing could be done until his return.

Much has been made of some verdicts recently found by Juries at the Assizes, in order to argue that intimidation is on the decline. But this reasoning is somewhat fallacious. The case most relied upon is that of a band of ruffians, who in England could hardly have been preserved, in the strongest gaol, from being lynched. They were convicted of breaking into a woman’s house by night, firing into a bed full of children and wounding her little daughter. Apart from the unmanly brutality of their conduct, peculiarly odious to the average Irishman, there was this additional fact to account for the verdict of ‘Guilty’—namely, that the offence was in no sense whatever one against the Land League. And p. 162 against the verdict in this case may be set the case reported yesterday, where, after the clearest evidence of an agrarian crime committed as part of the ‘No Rent’ programme, the Jury have refused to convict. No one can blame a Juror for taking this course. It is no exaggeration to say that, in the great part of four counties at least, the payment of rent, or the return of an apparent assassin as ‘Guilty,’ subjects a Juryman to the danger of immediate murder. At Cork the Jurors have found a fair proportion of verdicts against the prisoners. But at the Cork Assizes the Juries are regularly packed by the Crown with Protestant shopkeepers, who are smarting under the loss of trade resulting from the operations of the League. Catholic after Catholic is ordered to ‘stand by.’ I have read the evidence in these cases, and believe the verdicts were right, and the punishments by no means too severe; but it is absurd and dangerous to rely upon verdicts thus obtained, in a populous city, where no retaliation is possible, as evidence of a change of feeling in the country.

Of course this state of things has brought, and is bringing, retribution. A few days ago I read a report in several newspapers that the Earl of Kenmare was about finally to discharge his labourers, and to leave the country. I saw Lord Kenmare yesterday evening, and in the course of conversation ascertained from him that this statement, though not strictly correct, had sufficient foundation to justify some reference to it. It appears that his Lordship is in the habit of spending weekly something like 400l. in wages to labourers upon his Kerry estate, a very small proportion of that expenditure being connected with the preservation of the demesne. Over 100,000l. has from first to last been laid out upon this property by the landlord. It is Lord Kenmare’s invariable practice to present slate and timber to any tenant desirous of erecting a cottage for himself, and generally a kindly superintendence would appear to be extended over the tenantry and their concerns. Lord Kenmare adverted in a tone of courtly regret to my somewhat depreciatory description of his village of Lisheen, and gave an explanation of its condition, which, in all justice, ought to be reproduced. The estate, which is of great size, p. 163 was leased in former days to middlemen, who, looking upon the tenants merely as rent‐producing animals, allowed them to fall mostly into the pitiable condition of life still observable at Lisheen. From this state of misery it is Lord Kenmare’s laudable ambition to rescue them, and, so far as his income will allow, he is devoting himself to the gradual but material amelioration of their lot. It was true, he said, that he had been compelled to give all his labourers warning that he must discharge them at the end of the month, and the reason was a prudential one. Out of over two thousand tenants, only a score or so have paid rent, and the consequence is that no fund has been provided for the payment of the labourers. Lord Kenmare, however, said that as soon as the present terrible state of things had come to an end, it was his intention to return immediately, and resume his duties as one of the few great landlords resident in Ireland.

At Tralee the other day, I was told by Michael, the old waiter at the principal hotel in the town, that he had paid for the outfit and passage to America of his son and his niece last winter, with the most happy results. The son was a carpenter in the employment of Lord Kenmare, earning 1l. 8s. a week. He obtained work the day after landing in America, and his earnings have since averaged 3l. 12s. a‐week. The niece, who was a dressmaker, is now making about 100l. a‐year, or more than three times the income of a Western farmer in this country. Stories of this sort, circulated from homestead to homestead, not only stimulate emigration, but make people discontented with their lot in Ireland.

The decisions of the Commissioners now sitting here have, as a rule, given satisfaction to both sides. There are, however, some judgments open to question. In a case of ‘Flahive v. Hussey,’ the landlord had bought the farm under the Encumbered Estates Act. He had not raised the rent above the amount paid in 1834, namely, 55l. The farm, which was pasture, had obviously increased in value, since the price of dairy produce is higher by about two‐thirds. Upon these facts the Commissioners have reduced the rent to 45l. In one of the conveyances by the Court I find the following passage in p. 164 the authorised particulars of sale:—‘The tenants are respectable and most comfortable; the rents are exceedingly moderate, and may be readily increased.’ Now, I am informed, that although not a shilling has been added to the rents, every one of these respectable and comfortable tenants has dragged the unlucky purchaser before the Commission. In a case of ‘Shanahan v. Denny,’ the tenant holds a hundred acres, principally pasture. He has not, during fourteen years, drained a single acre. He has borrowed nearly a thousand pounds from his friends; he has ten children, and is deeply involved. His rent, which was reduced from 75l. to 55l. when he took the farm, has been lowered by the Commissioners to 44l. In both these cases I made a private inspection of the holdings, and I can testify that Flahive’s consists in the main of good sweet pasture land, that much of Shanahan’s is equally good, and nearly all would be extremely valuable if scored with a few simple stone drains. Facts like these certainly invite comment.