GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



397 



ment elected by the miners of Yorkshire, who, 

 with those of the midland counties, favored the 

 legal eight hours' day, while those of Northum- 

 berland and the representatives of the old and 

 wealthy unions opposed it. By its resolutions 

 and instructions the congress pledged itself to 

 forward the international labor movement and 

 the federation of labor in all countries by every 

 means in its power, completely reversing the 

 former attitude on this question. The resolu- 

 tion that no Government or public contract 

 should be given to a firm paying less than the 

 union rate of wages was adopted as a matter of 

 course. The more novel proposition that em- 

 ployers should be prohibited under penalty of 

 imprisonment from contracting for the hire of 

 labor outside the United Kingdom under pen- 

 alty of imprisonment was approved with the same 

 unanimity. Mr. Tom Mann's resolution that 

 power be granted to municipal and county coun- 

 cils to establish workshops where persons thrown 

 out of employment through no fault of their own 

 shall be given employment at trade-union rates 

 of wages was likewise adopted. The congress 

 demanded in another resolution the repeal of all 

 laws which make picketing illegal. 



The Tithe War in Wales. The resistance 

 to the tithe in north Wales, which originated in 

 the necessity of a reduction owing to agricult- 

 ural depression, as to the amount of which the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who own the tithes, 

 and the Welsh farmers could not agree, soon 

 passed into a politico-religious movement by 

 which the Radicals hoped to overthrow the Es- 

 tablished Church in Wales. The Nonconform- 

 ists who have their Calvinistic Methodist, Con- 

 gregational, and Baptist societies to support, 

 were taught to see the injustice of being com- 

 pelled to paying to keep up, not merely the al- 

 most empty churches in Wales, but Anglican 

 institutions in England. The Anti-Tithe League 

 was formed, and people began to refuse to pay 

 tithes altogether, on the plea that they had con- 

 scientious scruples. The Rev. Thomas Gee, a 

 Methodist minister, who edits the " Baner," and 

 several of the Independent ministers proclaimed 

 the doctrines, and when they had been generally 

 accepted by the people, George Osborne Morgan, 

 ex-Judge Advocate-General, and other members 

 of Parliament espoused the cause. 



The attorney of the Ecclesiastical Commis- 

 sioners, with a party of emergency men, accom- 

 panied by a superintendent of police and twelve 

 constables, visited Llannefydd, Denbighshire, on 

 Aug. 11, 1890, for the purpose of distraining for 

 tithe. A crowd gathered and swelled to such 

 proportions and acted so menacingly that the 

 distraining party was intimidated and left with- 

 out accomplishing its object. A fortnight later, 

 the Government having been induced to furnish 

 military aid, they returned with an escort of 

 hussars, and the tithes were collected in that 

 parish and in Llansannan, amid the groans and 

 hootings of the multitude. Resistance was of- 

 ered at only two farms. 



The Parnell Commission. The report of 

 the special commission, consisting of Sir James 

 Hannen, Justice Day, and Justice A. L. Smith, 

 appointed under the act of 1888 to inquire into 

 the charges and allegations made against Mr. 

 Parnell and his Irish colleagues, by the Attor- 



ney-General, in the action of " O'Donnell vs. 

 Walter," was presented to Parliament on Feb. 

 13, 1890. These charges were in substance the 

 statements contained in the series of articles on 

 " Parnellism and Crime " printed in the London 

 " Times." The following were the conclusions 

 reached by the three judges : 



I. We find that the respondent members of Parlia- 

 ment collectively were not members of a conspiracy 

 having for its object to establish the absolute inde- 

 pendence of Ireland ; but we find that some of them, 

 together with Mr. Davitt, established and joined in 

 the Land League organization with the intention by 

 its means to bring about the absolute independence of 

 Ireland as a separate nation. The names are those 

 of Mr. Davitt, Mr. M. Harris, Mr. Dillon, Mr. W. 

 O'Brien, Mr. W. Eedmond, Mr. J. O'Connor, Mr. 

 Joseph Condon, and Mr. J. 'J. O'Kelly. 



II.* We find that the respondents did enter into a 

 conspiracy by a system of coercion and intimidation 

 to promote an agrarian agitation against the payment 

 of agricultural rents, for the purpose of impoverish- 

 ing and expelling from the country the Irish land- 

 lords, who were styled the " English Garrison." 



III. We find that the charge that " when on cer- 

 tain occasions they thought it politic to denounce, and 

 did denounce, certain crimes in public they after- 

 ward led their supporters to believe such denuncia- 

 tion was not sincere " is not established. We en- 

 tirely acquit Mr. Parnell and the other respondents 

 of the charge of insincerity in their denunciation of 

 the Phoenix Park murders, and find that the fac-sim- 

 ile letter on which this charge was chiefly based as 

 against Mr. Parnell is a forgery. 



IV. We find that the respondents did disseminate 

 the "Irish World" and other newspapers tending 

 to incite to sedition and the commission of other 

 crime. 



V. We find that the respondents did not directly 

 incite persons to the commission of crime other than 

 intimidation ; but that they did incite to intimida- 

 tion, and that the consequence of that incitement was 

 that crime and outrage were committed by the per- 

 sons incited. We find that it has not been proved 

 that the respondents made payments for the purpose 

 of inciting persons to commit crime. 



VI. We find as to the allegation that the respond- 

 ents did nothing to prevent crime and expressed no 

 bona fide disapproval, that some of the respondents, 

 and, in particular, Mr. Davitt, did express bona fide 

 disapproval of crime and outrage ; but that the re- 

 spondents did not denounce the system of intimida- 

 tion which led to crime and outrage, but persisted in 

 it with knowledge of its effect. 



VII. We find' that the respondents did defend per- 

 sons charged with agrarian crime,, and supported 

 their families, but that it has not been proved that 

 they subscribed to testimonials for, or were intimately 

 associated with, notorious criminals, or that they made 

 payments to procure the escape of criminals from 

 justice. 



VIII. We find, as to the allegation that the re- 

 spondents made payments to compensate persons 

 who had been injured in the commission of crime, 

 that they did make such payments. 



IX. As to the allegation that the respondents in- 

 vited the assistance and co-operation of and accepted 

 subscriptions of money from known advocates of 

 crime and the use of dynamite, we find that the re- 

 spondents did invite the assistance and co-operation 

 of and accepted subscriptions of money from Patrick 

 Ford, a known advocate of crime and the use of dy- 

 namite, but that it has not been proved that the re- 

 spondents or any of them knew that the Clan-na- 

 Gael controlled the League or was collecting money 

 for the Parliamentary fund. It has been proved that 

 the respondents invited and obtained the assistance 

 and co-operation of the Physical Force Party in 

 America, including the Clan-na-Gael, and in order 



