GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



367 



penal. In districts which may be proclaimed 

 by the Lord Lieutenant, trial by jury is abol- 

 ished in political and agrarian cases. Those 

 of greater magnitude are tried by a tribunal 

 composed of three judges of the Supreme 

 Bench selected by the Lord Lieutenant, whose 

 verdict must be unanimous, and from which 

 an appeal lies to the Court of Appeals for 

 criminal cases, called the Court of Criminal 

 Cases Reserved, composed of five judges, of 

 whom a majority decide. Cases of a lower 

 category, which embraces boycotting, intimi- 

 dation, etc., are triable by a court composed 

 of two stipendiary magistrates, which possesses 

 unlimited judicial powers and summary juris- 

 diction. The police are armed with the power 

 of search and arrest by day or night. The 

 Government struck out the paragraph author- 

 izing nocturnal domiciliary visits, but it was 

 restored in a significant division in which the 

 Whigs joined the Conservatives. The alien 

 act was revived; and, contrary to the wish 

 of the Government, the power to banish sus- 

 picious foreigners was extended to Great Brit- 

 ain. Intimidation (including boycotting), in- 

 citement to crime, secret conspiracies, and 

 illegal assemblies, were defined as criminal of- 

 fenses. A censorship of the press was estab- 

 lished, with the right to prohibit the impor- 

 tation of foreign publications. The Irishmen 

 opposed most strenuously the suspension of 

 jury trial and the intimidation clauses, and one 

 which punishes the districts in which crimes 

 of murder and maiming are committed without 

 detection, by levying compensation. Such 

 districts are, moreover, burdened with the cost 

 of maintaining an extra police force. It was 

 the struggle over these provisions which re- 

 sulted in the indignation against the Irish 

 members. The system of a special commis- 

 sion of judges who decide on questions of fact 

 as well as of law was modified by allowing the 

 alternative of a change of venue and trial be- 

 fore a special panel. The bill authorizes the 

 arrest and detention of witnesses, and allows 

 judicial inquiries to be prosecuted while the 

 suspected criminal is still at large, or after he 

 has fled the country. The minor offenses over 

 which summary jurisdiction is given to infe- 

 rior magistrates, sitting in couples and ap- 

 pointed from the Castle, are punishable with 

 six months' imprisonment, with or without hard 

 labor. Any person found outside of his home 

 between sunset and sunrise, or any stranger 

 found in a proclaimed district, can be arrested, 

 and if they fail to give satisfactory explana- 

 tions can be committed to prison for six 

 months. The prevention act remains in oper- 

 ation three years. 



The "information," on the strength of 

 which the Cabinet had ordered the release of 

 the imprisoned members, Parnell produced 

 after the Premier had refused to disclose it. 

 It was contained in a letter written by Parnell 

 to another Irish member, which was brought 

 to the notice of the Ministers. This letter, 



commonly alluded to as the "Treaty of Kil- 

 mainham," became the subject of scornful re- 

 proaches leveled against the Government. 

 Parnell declared that the settlement of the 

 arrears on the principle adopted in the bill 

 afterward passed, together with the extension 

 of the fair-rent clauses to lease-holders, the 

 amendment of the tenure clauses, and altera- 

 tions which would render the purchase clauses 

 effective, would be regarded as a practical 

 settlement of the land question, and would 

 enable the Irish representatives "to co-operate 

 cordially for the future with the Liberal party 

 in forwarding Liberal principles." The latter 

 clause of the declaration was omitted from 

 the copy read by Paruell, who, on the chal- 

 lenge of the ex-Secretary, called upon his cor- 

 respondent, Captain O'Shea, to read the entire 

 letter, which he did from a copy furnished by 

 Mr. Forster. The letter also expressed the 

 confidence of Parnell and his colleagues, that 

 if the arrears were wiped out the exertions 

 which they would "be able to make strenu- 

 ously and unremittingly would be effective in 

 stopping outrages and intimidations of all 

 kinds." 



The remedial legislation to which the Gov- 

 ernment had pledged themselves was linked 

 with the repressive measure. The arrears bill 

 was introduced almost at the same time with 

 the crimes bill, and promised the first place 

 after the latter had been disposed of. It fol- 

 lowed the lines of Redmond's bill, and relieved 

 tenants who were unable to pay off the whole 

 of the arrears of rent for the bad years. Start- 

 ing from the abortive clause relating to arrears 

 in the land act, but adopting the principle of 

 " gift and compulsion " instead of the principle 

 of "loan and voluntary arrangement," advo- 

 cated by the Irish Liberals and Moderate Home- 

 Rulers, the ministerial measure proposed to 

 give either landlord or tenant power to apply 

 to the Land Court, under certain conditions, 

 for carrying out a composition with the aid of 

 public funds. The conditions were, that the 

 tenant should have satisfied the landlord as to 

 the year's rent due for 1881, that he should 

 prove his inability to pay the arrears, and that 

 the holding should be under 30 rent, Griffith's 

 valuation, subject to which the state would 

 pay the landlord half the remaining arrears, 

 not in any case exceeding a year's rent, the 

 remainder to be wholly canceled. The Irish 

 Church surplus was appropriated for the state 

 contribution ; in case it proved insufficient the 

 excess was charged upon the Imperial Treasury. 

 Prominent Liberals joined with the Conserva- 

 tives in contending that farmers who possessed 

 a valuable property in their tenant-right ought 

 not to* be relieved of their debts by a free gift 

 from the state, and the extinguishment of the 

 landlord's claims by legislative fiat. A pro- 

 vision was inserted that the commissioners 

 "may, if they think it reasonable," take the 

 tenant-right into account in estimating inability 

 to pay. By an amendment tenants of hold- 



