222 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



them ? He adds, This is just what has been done in 

 Ireland. 



The agitation now going on is meant to produce 

 its true work in England. The agitators believe that 

 people in England are really afraid of them that the 

 Government will yield more in proportion as they can 

 increase this fear. The Land Act raised the expecta- 

 tions and excited the imagination of ignorant men 

 here, that Parliament could be induced to take from 

 the landlords to give to the tenants ; and Mr. Glad- 

 stone's unwise talk which I have quoted above, and 

 which is cited at every land meeting, inflamed all 

 such ideas. In parts of Ireland, no doubt, the agi- 

 tation has produced a dreadful state of things, but 

 still we have seen disturbances of the same kind, even 

 greater, at intervals of a few years, again and again, 

 since the beginning of the century. We know what 

 such agitation is worth, or rather, what it is not worth, 

 and how it ought to be met and put down ; and that 

 it is sure to collapse at once, directly it is known that . 

 the authorities are in earnest, and mean to put it down. 

 During nearly a generation that Lord Chancellor 

 Blackburne practically ruled Ireland, when the diffi- 

 culty from over-population and far greater poverty 

 was much worse, if outrages became numerous from 

 agitation or any other cause, the law was simply 

 put in force. A special commission was issued, 

 a few convictions obtained, and, without blood- 

 thirstiness or undue severity, all were convinced 



