GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



405 



Duke of Argyll. For thirty years or longer 

 the process of dispossessing the poor crofters, 

 and replacing them with a more profitable 

 class of tenant farmers, has been carried out 

 on the estates, as in other crofter districts. 

 The crofters were encouraged to open resist- 

 ance to evictions after the passage of the 

 crofter act, which recognized their right in 

 the soil. When the police proved powerless to 

 protect and aid court officers in executing legal 

 writs, the Government in July sent a detach- 

 ment of marines to the island to preserve or- 

 der. The open disturbances began when a 

 former member of the local land league took 

 the lease of one of the consolidated farms. 

 The leaguers attacked his house, broke up his 

 furniture, drove off his cattle, and apportioned 

 out the farm among crofters. The Argyll- 

 shire authorities sent a posse of fifty men to 

 deal with the disturbers, but when they reached 

 the disputed land, the crofters told them 

 that they would pay rent for the farm, but 

 would resist ejectment to the last drop of their 

 blood. The police force then returned to the 

 mainland as soon as they could, the steamer 

 that brought them having already departed, in 

 order to escape injury from the angry island- 

 ers. As the whole population of the county 

 was in sympathy with the crofters, there was 

 no way of enforcing the legal rights of the 

 landlord without employing military force. 

 Accordingly, 200 marines, with 45 constables, 

 were sent to the isLand. The crofters removed 

 their cattle from the disputed farm, but de- 

 clared that they would return as soon the ma- 

 rines left the island. Five of the crofters 

 were arrested, and sentenced to six months' 

 imprisonment on October 20 for resisting the 

 sheriff when engaged in the work of eviction. 

 Four others were given a four-months' sen- 

 tence. In Skye the passage of the crofters 

 act was followed by extensive evictions on the 

 estates of Lord Macdonald, Lieut.-Col. Fraser, 

 and other landlords, and troop-ships were sent 

 to the island in October to support the officers 

 of the law with military action if resistance 

 should be offered. 



Labor Agitation in London. The royal address 

 of Parliament mentioned the continued preva- 

 lence of industrial distress. During the winter 

 of 1885-'86 there were an unexampled num- 

 ber of unemployed in the metropolis, and ad- 

 vocates of the workingmen, especially the 

 leaders of the Social -Democratic Federation, 

 demanded that something should be done by 

 the Government to relieve their suffering. 



On Feb. 8, 1886, a monster meeting of un- 

 employed was held at Trafalgar Square. An 

 open-air meeting had been called by the Lon- 

 don United Workmen's Committee, a political 

 organization connected with the Conservative 

 party. The Social-Democrats denounced this 

 hostile and rival organization, and summoned 

 the laborers of London to assemble and ex- 

 hibit their true sentiments at the same day and 

 place. The Chief Commissioner of Police, Sir 



Edmund Henderson, was warned by the United 

 Workmen that the Social-Democrats would 

 attempt to seize the platform, and detailed a 

 reserve force of 593 policemen to be in the 

 neighborhood within call, besides the 66 con- 

 stables on duty in the square. On the day 

 appointed an enormous concourse of people 

 gathered, and harangues were delivered from 

 different platforms by the speakers of both 

 parties. While the meeting was still proceed- 

 ing, a mob of roughs, instead of returning to 

 the East End, marched westward through Pall 

 Mall, St. James's Street, Piccadilly, Arlington 

 Street, and other . thoroughfares of the West 

 End. The crowd, numbering from 3,000 to 

 5,000, stopped in front of the Carlton Club, 

 and, after shouting and listening to a speech 

 from one of their number, stoned the windows. 

 In Piccadilly and St. James's Street they 

 broke many windows. They became more 

 destructive as they passed along, and, when 

 they reached Oxford Street, many shops, which 

 were largely deserted by the frightened in- 

 mates when the plate-glass windows were 

 crushed in, were plundered. A part of the 

 crowd remained in Hyde Park, and listened to 

 speeches. The rest, numbering about 1,000, 

 were finally stopped in Oxford Street and 

 dispersed by a small squad of police. The 

 people of London learned to their consterna- 

 tion that such riot and pillage could be carried 

 on for two hours in the aristocratic part of 

 the city without the police authorities in Scot- 

 land Yard even knowing of it. There were 

 no arrangements for employing the telegraph 

 in such emergencies, the single policemen who 

 saw the mob pass by continued at their posts, 

 and even a large body that had been set to 

 guard Lord Salisbury's house allowed the 

 rioters to pass by within sight, not venturing 

 to desert their special duty. In consequence 

 of these disclosures, Sir Edmund Henderson 

 was obliged to resign, and Sir Charles Warren 

 was appointed in his stead. 



After the experiences of February 8, the 

 shopkeepers of London closed their iron shut- 

 ters or boarded up their windows whenever 

 they apprehended a Socialist demonstration. 

 When the Lord Mayor's feast approached, the 

 Social-Democrats announced that the unem- 

 ployed workingmen, to emphasize their de- 

 mand for relief work, would take part in the 

 procession. They promised that if the police 

 could be kept out of the way they would them- 

 selves answer for the preservation of order. 

 When 'the police authorities forbade this dem- 

 onstration they finally accepted the decision, 

 but announced that they would hold a mass- 

 meeting of the workers, employed and unem- 

 ployed, at Trafalgar Square on the same day. 

 Sir Charles Warren refused to allow the meet- 

 ing, and on the day appointed stationed in and 

 around Trafalgar Square the largest force of 

 police ever gathered in one locality. But the 

 workingmen came in great numbers, and at the 

 last moment the Government concluded to al- 



