370 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



at large, started a Prisoners' Aid Society for 

 the purpose of alleviating the hardships of the 

 "suspects" in Kilmainham jail, which were 

 alleged to be severe, and that of keeping alive 

 the interest of the people in the silenced organi- 

 zation. 



Payments of rent were to a great extent, 

 but by no means universally, withheld. The 

 landlords, partly owing to this, partly to their 

 pecuniary embarrassments, and partly to a de- 

 sire to drive away their present tenants by 

 every means, and escape, if possible, the claims 

 which the Land Commissioners were enforcing, 

 obtained executions from the ordinary courts 

 by hundreds. An organization of landlords to 

 protect their interests was started about Janu- 

 ary, under the name of the " Property Defense 

 Association." The object was to meet the 

 strike against rent at every point by sending 

 agents to attend sheriffs' sales and provide 

 bailiffs to serve writs and carry out executions 

 where ordinary bailiffs could not be found to 

 do so ; to provide laborers where an employer 

 has been deserted by his help ; and to find 

 markets for his produce when the markets of 

 the neighborhood have been closed against 

 him. Property defense societies were now 

 formed in every county, for the purpose of de- 

 feating, by an organized effort, the effects of 

 the land act. Appeals were taken from all the 

 decisions, and every form of legal delay and 

 obstruction which was known to lawyers was 

 interposed. Meanwhile the customary pro- 

 ceedings by judgment and ejectment were un- 

 sparingly resorted to. The Court of Common 

 Pleas ruled that the existing law remained in 

 full force, and that no stay of proceedings 

 could be granted in actions for rent in order to 

 allow the debtor to have his rights established 

 in the Land Court first. 



In spite of the " No rent " manifesto of the 

 Parnellites, the applications to the Land Court 

 came in such numbers that the commission 

 and sub-commissions would be kept busy for 

 several years in disposing of all the cases en- 

 tered on the docket. The number of sub-com- 

 missions was Increased in consequence. The 

 first decisions of the commissioners and the 

 construction put upon the land act created 

 much dissatisfaction among the proprietors. A 

 very large proportion of the decisions of the 

 sub-commissions to the land commissioners, and 

 appeals from the latter on points of law, were 

 taken to the High Court of Appeals. A dictum 

 of sub-Commissioner Baldwin, to which the 

 landlords took great exception, was as follows : 



In determining the rent we have not set up any 

 standard of what the farming ought to be. We have 

 taken the estate, tenants, and all as we found them. 

 We have carefully considered the capabilities of the 

 land in the hands of the present tenants. To others 

 the land may be more valuable if those tenants were 

 removed. With any speculation as to that point we 

 have nothing to do. 



The extreme uneasiness among the landlords, 

 caused by the first decisions, abated when the 

 number of decisions multiplied. The reduc- 



tions were nevertheless so great that many 

 landlords proposed abatements of rent amount- 

 ing to from 15 to 25 per cent, but the tenants 

 preferred to apply to the courts to fix a judi- 

 cial rent. 



The Land Commission and the sub-commis- 

 sions proceeded industriously to work on the 

 mass of business laid before them, but very 

 little headway was gained. The expectation 

 that test cases would be brought in and volun- 

 tary settlements made in conformity with the 

 points settled in these was entirely disap- 

 pointed. Reductions in rent were generally 

 made by the commissioners commonly about 

 25 or 30 per cent. Before November some 

 70,000 cases were entered for trial. Of the 

 decisions rendered fully 60 per cent were ap- 

 pealed against. 



The man-of-war Doterel was blown up in 

 Magellan Strait, in May, by a boiler-explosion 

 which fired the powder-magazine, and nearly 

 all hands were lost. It was supposed by many, 

 until an investigation showed the contrary, 

 that it was the work of Irish incendiaries, and 

 the rumor was strengthened by dark hints 

 thrown out by a violent Fenian journal pub- 

 lished in America. 



Several crimes committed in different parts 

 of England gave rise to the belief that a widely 

 ramified conspiracy of Fenians, with its head- 

 quarters in New York, had been formed to 

 carry on a work of destruction in England. A 

 canister of gunpowder, with a lighted fuse, 

 was found close to the walls of the Mansion 

 House in London, March 16th. A plot was 

 laid to destroy the militia barracks at Chester 

 with explosives, and an explosion occurred 

 in the barracks at Edinburgh. An attempt 

 was made to blow up the police barracks in 

 Liverpool, May 16th, by a piece of piping filled 

 with powder, with a burning fuse attached. 

 On June 10th a tube filled with dynamite was 

 left on the steps of the Liverpool Town Hall. 

 The perpetrators, two Irishmen, were arrested. 

 One was a dock-laborer of Liverpool, and the 

 other a recent arrival from New York. In the 

 state of panic which these last outrages pro- 

 duced, the Land Leaguers were charged with 

 being morally responsible for the crimes, if not 

 accessories, and the press called for a vindic- 

 tive exercise of military power in Ireland. 

 The discovery of infernal machines on vessels 

 arriving from America created a fresh panic. 

 The Government was secretly informed of 

 such shipments, and, on searching steamers on 

 their arrival at Liverpool, six metallic boxes, 

 containing large charges of explosives and 

 clock-work machinery, were found in a barrel 

 of cement, and four more were found in a sec- 

 ond barrel and on another vessel. The Home 

 Secretary, Sir William Harcourt, made, in the 

 House of Commons, the following statement 

 with reference to this and the other affairs 

 above mentioned, connecting them with the 

 Irish Fenian press of America : 



Week by week for the last nine months, open 



