378 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



ber 13 the dynamite war was renewed by an 

 explosion of a large quantity of dynamite, esti- 

 mated to be about fifty pounds, against one of 

 the piers of London Bridge. The stone-work 

 under the water was found to be cracked and 

 disturbed. The lamp-posts on the bridge were 

 twisted out of shape, the glass in warehouses 

 on both sides of the river was broken, and 

 several persons were knocked down, but none 

 seriously injured. In January, 1885, occurred 

 the most serious of the dynamite outrages. On 

 one of the days when visitors are admitted 

 to view the Houses of Parliament a package of 

 dynamite was exploded near the Speaker's 

 chair, and another in the lobby. The wood- 

 work of the beaches and gallery in the House 

 of Commons was blown into splinters, and the 

 stone carvings in the entrance-hall still more 

 seriously damaged. A policeman who at- 

 tempted to remove the infernal machine in 

 the chamber was seriously injured. Another 

 policeman was wounded, but none of the visit- 

 ors sustained injury. The dynamite was sup- 

 posed to have been brought into the building 

 by woman visitors. At the same hour there 

 was an explosion in the Tower of London, 

 which was crowded at the time with sight- 

 seers, of whom, however, none were seriously 

 harmed. The police were unable to trace any 

 of these crimes to their authors. 



The Condition of Ireland. The agricultural 

 condition of Ireland has deteriorated since the 

 passage of the land act in a marked degree. 

 The landlords have ceased to expend anything 

 for keeping up or improving their lands. Much 

 of the improvement in cultivation that took 

 place after 1849 has been lost. Arable land has 

 steadily relapsed into pasture, while the grass 

 has grown thin and become overspread with 

 rushes. Nine cold and damp years have low- 

 ered the quality of the grass and the fertility 

 of the soil. The position of the tenant farmers 

 has been much bettered by the land law, yet 

 they are too poor to purchase live-stock, nor 

 have they the ready money to employ a suffi- 

 ciency of labor at its price, which is double 

 that which formerly prevailed, and about the 

 same as iu England. The large emigration has 

 caused the rise in wages. The condition of 

 the people is better than it has been for gen- 

 erations. Beggars have disappeared, and, ex- 

 cept on the western seaboard, the people are 

 well fed and clad comfortably. The agricult- 

 ural statistics for 1884 show that the area under 

 crops was 4,872,969 acres, 1-3 per cent, less 

 than in 1883. The decrease in Leinster was 

 1-8, in Munster 0'4, in Ulster 1-7, in Connaught 

 0'9 per cent. The area under grass was 10,- 

 346,308 acres, an increase of 153,861 acres; 

 the extent of bog, marsh, and barren mountain 

 land 4,753,810 acres, a decrease of 89,726 

 acres; the area under tillage 2,910,239 acres, 

 a decrease of 94,678 acres. There was a de- 

 crease in the acreage of flax, potatoes, and 

 grain crops, as well as in all the cereal crops. 

 The farmers evinced no satisfaction in Mr. 



Trevelyan's land-purchase biH, which proposed 

 to advance them the money to acquire their 

 holdings at twenty years' purchase by paying 

 their former rent for that period, or their pres- 

 ent rent for thirty -three years, believing that 

 the landlords would in the end accept four or 

 five years' purchase. Although there was a 

 complete prostration of the market for the sale 

 of land, the price of tenant rights constantly 

 rose in the market. In agrarian crime there 

 was a mitigation and diminution, which was 

 greeted with unabated satisfaction in the ad- 

 dress at the opening of the autumn session. 



The Skye Crofters. The royal commission ap- 

 pointed to inquire into the condition of the 

 Skye crofters, reported in favor of legislation 

 for the relief of the peasantry of the west- 

 ern Highlands. Within a generation rents had 

 been largely raised, the pasturage of the peo- 

 ple had been taken away for sheep-walks and 

 deer-forests, so that they could no longer raise 

 sheep for clothing themselves, and their women 

 had to take the place of ponies, and notices to 

 quit had doubled. The friends of the islanders 

 organized an agitation among them, and on 

 their behalf throughout the country. When 

 the parliamentary session passed without af- 

 fording a prospect for redress, the crofters 

 determined to attempt the tactics that had 

 succeeded in Ireland. The local authorities 

 showed a zeal for repression, which betrayed a 

 desire to provoke a conflict. When the Croft- 

 ers' League forced three persons to attend a 

 meeting against their will and to give an ac- 

 count of their conduct, a re- enforcement of the 

 police was asked for, and six policemen were 

 sent to Skye. They were met upon landing by 

 a large body of peasants armed with sticks, and 

 compelled to re-embark. The Government 

 then sent a large force of police and two hun- 

 dred marines, while the crofters organized in 

 military fashion and patrolled the island to 

 prevent the landing of police or soldiers. The 

 friends of the crofters warned them of the 

 folly of such a conflict, so that a collision was 

 avoided. Mr. Macfarlane's resolution in favor 

 of giving effect to the recommendations of the 

 royal commissioners was adopted by the House 

 of Commons. 



A hundred years ago the Highlanders were 

 a prosperous and contented class. They had 

 free grazing on the hills, which were covered 

 with their black cattle, although the law about 

 1745 had transferred to their chiefs and lairds 

 all the communal rights of the clan. When 

 sheep-farming was introduced, the chiefs found 

 these proprietary rights a source of great 

 wealth, and they consequently drove their 

 clansmen off the best lands. Grouse-shooting 

 doubled the incomes of the landlords, and shut 

 the people out of a large part of the area that 

 was left to them. The conversion of the coun- 

 try into deer-forests, which has taken place 

 recently, has deprived them of the last of their 

 grazing-lands, and crowded them together on 

 their cramped family crofts, where, when the 





