398 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



to obtain that assistance, abstained from repudiating 

 or condemning the action of that party. 



There remain three specific charges against Mr. 

 Parnell, namely : 



(a) " That at the time of the Kilmainham negotia- 

 tions Mr. Parnell knew that Sheridan and Boyton 

 had been organizing outrage, and therefore wished 

 to use them to put down outrage." 



We find that this charge has not been proved. 



(b) " That Mr. Parnell was intimate with the lead- 

 ing Invincibles, that he probably learned from them 

 what they were about when he was released on parole 

 in April,' 1882, and that he recognized the Phoenix 

 Park murders as their handiwork." 



We find that there is no foundation for this charge. 

 We have already stated that the Invincibles were not 

 a branch of the Land League. 



(c) " That Mr. Paruell, on the 23d of January, 1883, 

 by an opportune remittance, enabled F. Byrne to es- 

 cape from justice to France." 



We find that Mr. Parnell did not make any remit- 

 tance to enable. F. Byrne to escape from justice. 



The two special charges against Mr. Davitt, viz., 

 (a) " That he was a member of the Fenian organiza- 

 tion, and convicted as such, and that he assisted in 

 the formation of the Land League with money which 

 had been contributed for the purpose of outrage and 

 crime." (b) " That he was in close and intimate as- 

 sociation with the party of violence in America, and 

 was mainly instrumental in bringing about the alli- 

 ance between that party and the Parnellite and Home 

 Kule party in America^" are based on passages in the 

 "Times" leading articles of the 7th and 14th of 

 March, 1887. " The new movement was appropri- 

 ately started by Fenians out of Fenian funds; its 

 'father' is Michael Davitt, a convicted Fenian." 

 "That Mr. Parnell's 'constitutional organization' 

 was planned by Fenian brains, founded on a Jb enian 

 loan, and reared by Fenian hands." 



We have shown in the course of the report that 

 Mr. Davitt was a member of the Fenian organization, 

 and convicted as such, and that he received money 

 from a fund which had been contributed for the pur- 

 pose of outrage and crime, viz. : the Skirmishing 

 fund. It was not, however, for the formation of the 

 Land League itself, but for the promotion of the agi- 

 tation which led up to it. We have also shown that 

 Mr. Davitt returned the money out of his own re- 

 sources. 



With regard to the further allegation that he was in 

 close and intimate association with the party of vio- 

 lence in America, and mainly instrumental m bring- 

 ing about the alliance between that party and the 

 Parnellite and Home Eule party in America, we find 

 that he was in such close and intimate association for 

 the purpose of bringing- about, and that he was 

 mainly instrumental m bringing about the alliance 

 referred to. 



A suit for damages brought by Mr. Parnell 

 against the proprietors of the " Times " after 

 the confession, flight, and suicide of the forger 

 Richard Pigott, who sold the false Parnell 

 letters to the " Times," was compromised for 

 5,000, one twentieth of the sum claimed, the 

 plaintiff being reimbursed for all the costs 

 actually incurred in bringing the action The 

 costs incurred by the Irish members in defend- 

 ing themselves before the Parnell Commission 

 were about 40,000, and the burden of Lord 

 Randolph Churchill's attack on the Government 

 was that, instead of proceeding by the constitu- 

 tional method of a trial by jury, with the right 

 of challenge, against incriminated persons, who 

 were at the same time political opponents, the 

 Executive had constituted a special court, un- 

 known to thu Constitution, in which the judges 

 united the functions of judge and jury, nomi- 



nated the members of the tribunal, and inflicted 

 on their political opponents a heavy penalty in 

 the shape of a large pecuniary tine. 



The Trouble in Tipperary. At the in- 

 stance of Mr. Parnell the " plan of campaign " 

 was limited to the 10 or 12 estates on which it 

 was originally started. The Government, refus- 

 ing to yield to the pressure brought upon it to 

 allow these estates to share in the act of 1887 

 and thus bring the conflict to an end, placed all 

 its resources at the disposal of the landlords for 

 the purpose of relentlessly pursuing the tenants. 

 In all Ireland some 2,000 evicted families were 

 living in the spring of 1890 in huts provided by 

 the League near their former homesteads, sup- 

 ported by public subscriptions, confident of 

 being reinstated in their possessions after the 

 next general election, if not sooner. On the 

 Clanricarde estate a settlement was almost 

 reached in the summer, Lord Clanricarde, who 

 had originally refused to make any abatement 

 in his exorbitant rents, finally having agreed to 

 a reduction of 20 per cent., which the tenants 

 were willing to accept, on condition that the 140 

 evicted farmers should be restored to their hold- 

 ings on the same terms, and 20 or 30 more who 

 were threatened with eviction should be left un- 

 disturbed. Instead of complying, the landlord 

 sent to Ulster for Protestant tenants, offering 

 them the land at lower rents than the evicted 

 men had paid with a free gift of the tenant- 

 right, the homes, buildings, and other improve- 

 ments created by the labor and capital of the 

 latter and their ancestors. The plan of coloniz- 

 ing Protestant tenants on vacant farms had al- 

 ready been attempted on the Coolgreany and 

 Massereene estates, causing great exasperation. 

 Evictions on the Ponsonby estate, near Youghal, 

 County Cork, which were begun in June, 1889, 

 were resumed in April, 1890, and followed up 

 till all the remaining tenants were cleared from 

 the estate, which consists of 10,000 acres of good 

 land, the greater part of it growing nothing but 

 weeds and thistles, while the 200 evicted families 

 lived in idleness in shanties on neighboring 

 lands. The business of the town of Youghal 

 was ruined. The tenants had offered to submit 

 their demands to arbitration, which had been 

 successfully carried out by Sir Charles Russell 

 in the dispute on the Vandeleur estate. Being 

 refused, they had entered into negotations to 

 buy the estate, and the bargain was nearly con- 

 summated on terms that the embarrassed pro- 

 prietor considered very hard, when Arthur Hugh 

 Smith-Barry, owner of half the town of Tipper- 

 ary and much valuable land in its neighborhood, 

 intervened to save his fellow-landlord by organ- 

 izing a syndicate to farm his land, which placed 

 upon it 1,400 head of cattle and 600 sheep, and 

 obtained a profit exceeding the rent. The " plan 

 of campaign " was declared on the estate of Mr. 

 Smith-Barry, whose tenants had no grievance of 

 their own, and Mr. William O'Brien and Mr. 

 John Dillon, with their lieutenants, concentrated 

 their efforts upon Tipperary, while the Castle 

 Government developed extraordinary energy in 

 frustrating the " plan " in that town, where only 

 rigorous boycotting could prevent ruined trades- 

 men and farmers from resuming the occupations 

 that once made them prosperous. The organiz- 

 ers of the " plan " were successful, and, one 



