GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM OF. 



397 



the trustees of the Plan. Among these were 

 Lord Dillon, Lord Westmcath, and Lord De 

 Freyne. The Marquis of Conyngham, Mr. 

 Murphy, the landlord of Gweedore, and others, 

 dismissed their agents and compromised with 

 their tenants. It was impossible to find ten- 

 ants for evicted farms, and toward the close 

 of the year 5,000 farms were vacant. 



The Death of John Maudevillc, Mr. Mande- 

 ville, an Irish member of Parliament, was 

 taken to Cork jail with William O'Brien in 

 1887, and transferred with him to Tullamore 

 jail. He struggled against being clothed in 

 prison dress, though less pertinaciously than 

 O'Brien, and resisted being placed in com- 

 panionship with criminals and the performance 

 of menial prison work. In consequence he 

 was subjected frequently during his confine- 

 ment to disciplinary punishment ; and as he was 

 a man of remarkable strength and vigor, the 

 officials were more severe and merciless with 

 him than with his fellow-prisoner. The pun- 

 ishment-cell, where his bed was a bare plank, 

 was so chill and damp that his throat became 

 sore, and continued so during the whole time 

 he was in prison. "When placed on punish- 

 ment-diet he was unable to swallow the dry 

 bread and cold water, and consequently suf- 

 fered from starvation to such a degree that he 

 bound a rope round his waist to ease his 

 pangs, and at times felt himself to be on the 

 verge of madness. A scrap of meat that a 

 warder once threw to him, as to a dog, gave 

 him more pleasure than anything that he had 

 ever eaten. He told the prison doctor that he 

 was ill, but the latter, Dr. James Ridley, over- 

 estimating the strength of his constitution, 

 judged that he could stand the punishment. 

 The surgeon had been reproved for his lenien- 

 cy to former prisoners, and feared that he 

 would lose his place if he released political 

 prisoners from punishment without strong 

 cause. Dr. Moorhead, the visiting justice, 

 who found Mandeville suffering from rheuma- 

 tism and exhausted from lack of nourishment, 

 wrote protests in the prison journal, and com- 

 plained to Dr. Ridley, but the latter certified 

 that he was healthy and fit for punishment. 

 Mandeville came out of prison on Dec. 24, 

 1887, pale, anaemic, emaciated, and tremulous. 

 He partially recovered his strength, then suf- 

 fered relapses, and on July 8, 1888, died of a 

 congestive chill. A coroner's inquest was 

 opened at Mitchelstown on the day of the 

 funeral, which was attended by 6,000 persons. 

 Dr. Ridley wrote a remorseful letter to the 

 governor of the jail, and on July 20, the day 

 on which he was summoned to give evidence 

 before the coroner's jury, committed suicide. 



Investigation of the Charges against the Parnel- 

 lites. The accusations against the Irish Land 

 League leaders, contained in a series of articles 

 entitled " Parnellism and Crime," published in 

 the London "Times" in April, 1887, were 

 met by a demand on the part of the Irish mem- 

 bers of Parliament for an inquiry by a select 



committee, to which the Government would 

 not consent. In July, 1888, the matter was 

 brought before the public again in a suit for 

 defamation of character, instituted against the 

 publishers of the "Times" by Frank Hugh 

 O'Donnell. In the trial Attorney-General Web- 

 ster, who acted as counsel for the defendants, 

 brought evidence to show that the plaintiff was 

 not a member of the League, and thus his action 

 failed, and instead of vindicating the reputation 

 of the chiefs of the Irish parliamentary party, 

 simply afforded counsel for the " Times " an 

 opportunity to reiterate the charges of com- 

 plicity in murder and outrage. Mr. Parnell, in 

 Parliament, repeated his request for an investi- 

 gation by a committee of the House of Com- 

 mons. The Government at length agreed to 

 an inquiry into the charges against members 

 of Parliament and other persons in the action 

 of O'Donnell vs. Walter and another by a 

 special commission. In accordance with the 

 proposition of W. H. Smith, the leader of the 

 House, a commission was constituted with 

 powers to examine witnesses under oath and to 

 compel full disclosure of all facts and docu- 

 ments, and grant certificates protecting from 

 all proceedings, except for perjury, witnesses 

 who may have criminated themselves by their 

 disclosures. Mr. Parnell would not positive- 

 ly accept the Government proposition, but 

 left it for the House of Commons to de- 

 cide. He wished to have the inquiry limited 

 to the forged letters and other specific libels 

 and to the actions of members of Parliament. 

 After an excited debate, the bill was passed 

 under application of the closure on August 3, 

 every amendment offered by the Parneliites 

 and Gladstonians having been rejected. Judges 

 Hannen, Smith, and Day were appointed by 

 the Government as members of the commis- 

 sion, which first met on September 17. Sir 

 Charles Russell and Henry Asquith appeared 

 for the Parneliites, and Mr. Graham and Attor- 

 ney-General Webster for the " Times." It 

 was decided that the commission had author- 

 ity to order the production of the originals of 

 the letters published in the " Times " and 

 other documents, but would decide what doc- 

 uments Sir Charles Russell's clients could ex- 

 pect ; also, that Mr. Dillon should be released 

 on bail in order to appear as a witness. In- 

 structions were given to the publishers of the 

 " Times " to formulate the definite charges that 

 they were prepared to prove as well as the al- 

 legations falling short of definite charges. The 

 commission then adjourned till October 22, 

 after issuing an order for an inspection of the 

 bank-books of the Land League. William Red- 

 mond was also released to appear before the 

 commission. 



Dynamite Plot. Thomas Callnn and Michael 

 Harkins, who arrived from the United States 

 in June, 1887, were convicted on February 3, 

 1888, of being in the unlawful possession of 

 dynamite and of a conspiracy to cause a dan- 

 gerous explosion, and were sentenced to fifteen 



