404 



IRELAND. 



only four per cent. Subscriptions opened by 

 the Duchess of Marlborough, at the Dublin 

 Mansion House and in London, were liberally 

 responded to, and the funds derived from these 

 sources, with the measures of relief offered by 

 the Government, were sufficient greatly to mit- 

 igate the distress before the close of January. 

 Mr. Parnell having asserted that the adminis- 

 tration of the Mansion House Fund was influ- 

 enced by a political bias, several archbishops 

 and bishops came forward to give the statement 

 an emphatic denial and condemnation. The 

 Duchess of Marlborough's fund amounted in 

 March, including the subscriptions forwarded 

 from London, to 80,000, while the Mansion 

 House Fund had, at the same time, received 

 100,000. The sum of 100,000, which had 

 been collected through the agency of the " New 

 York Herald," was also contributed from the 

 United States and placed in the hands of Arch- 

 bishop McCabe for distribution. The United 

 States frigate Constitution reached the country 

 on the 2d of April, bringing supplies of pro- 

 visions which had been contributed by citizens 

 of the United States. A sum was also raised 

 for the relief of the distress through the agency 

 of the Land League. Less extensive measures 

 of relief continued to be necessary through all 

 the growing season till the harvest afforded 

 new supplies of food. 



Political issues were not clearly defined dur- 

 ing the canvass for the Parliamentary elections, 

 and the question of Home Rule did not enter 

 as prominently into the discussions as it was 

 anticipated it would do. The Home Rule 

 League issued an address March 17th, which, 

 after asserting that the movement had been at- 

 tended with considerable success in drawing 

 the attention of England to the claims of the 

 Irish people, reviewed the letter which Lord 

 Beaconsfield had addressed to the Duke of 

 Marlborough. It described the words of the 

 Premier on the Irish question as a " cry " which 

 was an unscrupulous and audacious fabrication, 

 designed to snatch a further lease of place and 

 power by exciting English passions against Ire- 

 land. The insult upon Ireland implied in the 

 matter and tone of his statements, it said, must 

 be signally avenged ; and the authors of the 

 address counseled Irishmen to let every Tory 

 candidate feel the utmost force of their hostil- 

 ity, to strain every nerve to inflict defeat on 

 the followers of Lord Beaconsfield, and thus to 

 punish the worst enemy they ever had. The 

 Land League issued a manifesto, calling upon 

 the electors to withhold their votes from all 

 landlords ; for to vote for them would be to 

 vote for rack-rents, evictions, workhouses, and 

 extermination. Mr. Parnell arrived at Cork 

 from America March 21st. A dinner was given 

 to him in the evening, when Mr. Biggar said 

 in a speech: u They had seen what Hartmarm 

 had done in Russia, and if the constitutional 

 course they were pursuing in Parliament at 

 present failed in its object, he thought Ireland 

 might be able to produce another Hartmann, 



and probably with better results." In several 

 instances Mr. Parnell set up candidates of his 

 own selection in opposition to those who were 

 already in the field, and thereby excited the 

 hostility of members of his own party, which 

 was manifested by a violent outcry and attack 

 upon him at a meeting in Rexford before which 

 he was about to speak. A conference of forty- 

 four Home Rule members-elect was held at 

 Dublin, May 16th, when Mr. Parnell was elected 

 sessional leader of the party over Mr. Shaw, 

 and a resolution was passed favoring the in- 

 troduction into Parliament of a bill forbidding 

 ejectments from holdings in Ireland valued at 

 twenty pounds sterling or under, until a satis- 

 factory solution of the land question had been 

 arrived at. Mr. Shaw insisted that the appoint- 

 ment of Mr. Parnell as head of the party must 

 be accepted on his side upon the understanding 

 that it did not involve a sanction of the princi- 

 ples which he had advocated in America and 

 throughout Ireland during the last few months. 

 The excitement on account of agrarian outrages 

 rose to a great height after the murder of Lord 

 Mountmorres, who was shot dead on the 25th 

 of September near his home at Ebor Hall, Clon- 

 bur, County Galway, as he was returning from 

 a meeting of magistrates. He had not been 

 connected with any proceedings for eviction, 

 nor was he about to evict any tenant. He had, 

 however, been engaged in a dispute with one 

 of his tenants with regard to the character of 

 his holding, and had till a short time previously 

 had the protection of an escort of police. 



Much interest was excited in November by 

 the case of Captain Boycott, agent of the Earl 

 of Erne, under whom he also rented a farm at 

 Lough Mask, County Mayo. The Earl had, 

 unsolicited, made reductions in his rents with- 

 in the last two years, which brought them be- 

 low Griffith's valuation, and had, in addition, 

 provided his tenants with seed and artificial 

 manure to the extent of one fifth of the rental. 

 The tenants now demanded a further reduction 

 of twenty-five per cent, in their rents, and, 

 their request being refused, declined to pay 

 anything. Ejectment processes were taken out, 

 but the process-server was badly beaten, and it 

 was found possible only to serve three of the 

 papers. Captain Boycott was afterward sub- 

 jected to a continuous persecution. Laborers 

 declined to work for him, and his crops were 

 left ungathered. Shopkeepers would not sell 

 him goods, the people refused to speak to him, 

 car-owners did not dare to convey goods for 

 him, and his estate had to be protected by mili- 

 tary patrols, notwithstanding which outrages 

 were of frequent occurrence upon it. A move- 

 ment was organized among the opponents of 

 the Land League in the North to relieve Cap- 

 tain Boycott, by gathering his crops for him. 

 A party of fifty Orangemen went down, pro- 

 tected by detachments of soldiers stationed at 

 different points along the road, and accom- 

 plished their object of taking care of the crops 

 and setting the farm in order, successfully and 



