392 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM OF. 



to starvation wages, but when change of fash- 

 ion or trade depression throws them out of 

 work, they are less able to turn to other em- 

 ployments than they would be if they had 

 learned their trade in all its branches. 



Tithe Agitation in Wales. The land troubles in 

 Wales chiefly took the form of resistance to 

 the tithe rent-charge, of which the Established 

 Church and the English universities are the 

 beneficiaries. The great majority of the Welsh 

 are Nonconformists, and in many parts of the 

 country the churches are empty, and the Es- 

 tablishment is a heavy and a useless burden 

 for the people, who, as was the case in Ireland, 

 have to support in addition their separate re- 

 ligious institutions. The present agitation is 

 for a commutation of the tithes in view of the 

 fall in the prices of agricultural produce, with 

 the ultimate aim of the disestablishment of 

 the Church of England in Wales and complete 

 relief from the tribute exacted of the Welsh 

 for a religion the English have vainly sought to 

 impose on them, most of the ministers of which 

 are strangers to the people and their language. 

 A Welsh Land League was formed, and the 

 farmers banded together to compel the Church 

 Commissioners to resort to legal compulsion 

 to collect the tithes. The latter attached cat- 

 tle and movables in distraint proceedings, but 

 wherever the law officers appeared they were 

 confronted by crowds of farmers with stout 

 sticks, and in the few cases in which property 

 was seized there were disturbances, as at Mei- 

 fod, Whitland, and Brynterifife. 



Gold-Mining in Wales. Gold has recently been 

 discovered in certain parts of Wales, associated 

 with silver, in ledges that are as rich as are 

 found in California and Australia. The claim 

 of the Crown to all precious metals found is a 

 serious hindrance to mining in the United King- 

 dom. Alluvial gold was discovered in the south 

 of Ireland during the political disturbances in 

 the latter part of the last century, and many 

 hundreds of men and women flocked to the 

 locality and washed out gold-dust and nuggets 

 deposited in the stream beds; but the military 

 drove them away, and the Government as- 

 serted its right to the gold, and for some time 

 guarded the field, which has not been worked 

 to this day. One of the Welsh mines was 

 opened in 1887 at great expense, and when a 

 large amount of gold had been extracted and 

 the value of the mine was confirmed, the Gov- 

 ernment interposed, demanding a royalty of 

 one thirtieth of the product from the land- 

 holder, who had already leased the mining 

 rights for thirty years for one fortieth royalty. 

 The lessee found that he had no redress when 

 his employes stole the gold, because, if the 

 Crown did not assert its right to the property, 

 it belonged to nobody. 



The Crofters. The Lewis island in the Heb- 

 rides was the scene of a deer raid, forcible 

 seizures of lands, and collisions with the mili- 

 tary and police toward the end of 1887. The 

 land belongs to Lady Matheson. One halt' of 



the surface has been leased to strangers as 

 a deer-forest, and one half of the remainder 

 converted into sheep-farms. There is conse- 

 quently much overcrowding, and the crofters 

 and cottars have to pay twenty and thirty 

 shillings rent an acre for land that is so poor 

 that no one would take it at any price if it 

 were in England. The herring-fishery enabled 

 them to pay the rent till this failed, leav- 

 ing them destitute. Commissioners appointed 

 to inquire into the condition of the people 

 found them suffering already for lack of food, 

 and threatened with starvation. The popula- 

 tion of the island was 25,487 in 1881. Sen- 

 tences were passed at Edinburgh, on February 

 3, upon sixteen prisoners concerned in disturb- 

 ances, who were condemned to from nine to 

 fifteen months' imprisonment. The Crofters 

 Commission, empowered by act of Parliament 

 to revise rents in the Highlands, reduced rents 

 on the island of Sahday nearly 49 per cent, and 

 canceled 81 per cent, of the arrears. On other 

 estates the reductions were from 80 to 60 per 

 cent., and arrears were wiped out to the ex- 

 tent of from 40 to 80 per cent. On the estate 

 of the Duke of Argyll, who participated in the 

 newspaper controversy over the crofter ques- 

 tion, the rents were largely reduced. 



The Plan of Campaign. The Plan of Campaign 

 in Ireland was organized in 188G, and was sus- 

 tained and encouraged by the members of the 

 National League chiefly on the Luggacurren, 

 Mitchelstown, Ponsonby, O'Grady, Brooke, 

 and Leader estates. In each case the tenants, 

 after presenting their demands regarding a re- 

 duction of rent, the amount of back-rent they 

 are willing to pay, and other conditions, if 

 they meet with a refusal, place the sum that 

 they consider due in a common purse, which 

 is committed to the custody of a trustee, usu- 

 ally either a politician or a priest. The trus- 

 tee notifies his willingness to settle with the 

 landlord on the terms that have been concerted, 

 expressing the determination otherwise to use 

 the fund in defending the tenants against evic- 

 tions or vexatious legal proceedings, and in 

 supporting the evicted. The landlords formed 

 a corporation or league for the purpose of com- 

 bating the Plan of Campaign, by advancing 

 money to embarrassed landlords and working 

 vacant farms from which the tenants had 

 been evicted. They also organized a subsidiary 

 emergency committee, which undertook to fur- 

 nish tenants or caretakers for evicted farms, 

 and sheriffs' deputies to enforce writs of eject- 

 ment. In some cases new tenants were im- 

 ported from the Protestant districts. 



The tenants on Lord Lansdowne's property 

 at Luggacurren demanded a reduction of 20 

 per cent. The holders of 34 of the best farms, 

 together with 20 sub-tenants, were evicted, and 

 were maintained by the league in wooden huts, 

 while their land was worked for the landlord 

 by the Land Corporation. No tenants could 

 be found willing to take the vacant farms, and 

 a large force of emergency men and police was 



