338 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



ants' improvements from 15s. in 1850, when 

 he came into the estate, to 35*. or more per 

 acre in 1880, and who had said, when implored 

 not to turn out his tenants as beggars on the 

 world, that bethought no more of pitching one 

 of them out than of shooting a bird by the 

 roadside. The tenants asked a general reduc- 

 tion of 25 per cent, on the judicial rents that 

 were fixed in 1882, and adopted the plan of 

 campaign. An English gentleman who visited 

 the estate to examine into the facts, was so 

 affected by the condition of the peasants that 

 he subscribed a third of 900 that was con- 

 tributed to discharge the rent of the poorer 

 tenants. This was offered in satisfaction of 

 claims amounting to 1,500, but was refused. 

 Negotiations were continued for two or three 

 months without leading to a settlement, and 

 finally troops and police were sent into the dis- 

 trict to see that the writs of eviction were car- 

 ried out. 



Michael Davitt had been among the people, 

 encouraging them to resistance. The thirty- 

 six families barricaded their houses, and re- 

 ceived the bailiffs with stones and with show- 

 ers of hot water ; but by means of crowbars 

 and other instruments the houses were entered, 

 and the inmates ejected. Mrs. Walsh, an old 

 woman of eighty, was struck by a constable, 

 other persons were roughly handled, and when 

 the police were returning they charged into a 

 crowd that hooted and groaned at them. 



The Marquis of Lansdowne, Governor-Gener- 

 al of Canada, is one of the Whig noblemen who 

 joined the Conservatives on the Unionist issue, 

 and who, in their theoretical adherence to the 

 principle of absolute property in land, have 

 been the only direct and thoroughgoing antago- 

 nists of the Irish land reformers. As an Irish 

 landlord he, following the example of his father, 

 has enjoyed an exceptional reputation, having, 

 like a few other English and Scotch land-own- 

 ers, made expensive improvements on his Irish 

 estates and treated his tenants with the same 

 consideration that is customary in England. 

 When the Irish leaders unfolded their new 

 plan, against which only the wealthy and pow- 

 erful could effectually contend, he was prompt- 

 ed to take up the challenge in defense of his 

 opinions and of his class. On his property in 

 Kerry he granted a reduction of 20 per cent, 

 on judicial rents, but, when his tenants at Lug- 

 gacurran in Queen's County asked for the same, 

 he refused on the ground that they were better 

 off than the Kerry tenants and had better land, 

 and that they had refused to improve their 

 breed of cattle and to make silos and build a 

 creamery when he offered to assist them, while 

 the others had accepted his offers. They ar- 

 gued that they were affected by the decline in 

 the price of produce, which bore the same pro- 

 portion to judicial rents in both districts, and 

 explained their refusal to make the desired im- 

 provements by saying that they understood the 

 conditions of farming, and that the new meth- 

 ods would have entailed losses. The principal 



tenants adopted the plan of campaign, and 

 when ejectment decrees were issued in Janu- 

 ary cleared their farms of stock and produce, 

 saying that the land did not yield enough to 

 pay the rent, and that they might better go 

 sooner than later, for their expenses would ex- 

 haust their capital in two or three years. One 

 of the largest holders was J. W. Dunne, a jus- 

 tice of the peace, who was deprived of his 

 commission on adopting the plan of campaign; 

 another was Denis Kilbride, a poor-law guard- 

 ian. Both had erected expensive buildings on 

 their farms. The landlord's improvements on 

 the estate were in part buildings, but mainly 

 consisted of drainage- works, which the tenants 

 declared were unprofitable. For the outlay 

 the tenants were charged about 4 per cent, in 

 increased rents. William O'Brien, in a speech 

 to the tenants, threatened to carry the war 

 against Lord Lansdowne into Canada, saying, 

 " We will meet him at his palace-gates, and 

 will make the air ring with his fame as an 

 evictor and an exterminator. We will track 

 him night and day the wide world over, and 

 from one end of the Dominion of Canada to 

 the other. I promise him, on the part of the 

 Irish in Canada, that wherever he goes he will 

 find Irish hearts and Irish throats that will 

 hoot him and boycott him and hunt him with 

 execrations out of that great and free land." 

 Townsend Trench, the agent, offered an abate- 

 ment of 15 per cent., but the tenants asserted 

 that the land commissioners were fixing rents 

 on other properties in the neighborhood at 40 

 and sometimes 60 percent, below the valuation 

 fixed for them in 1883. The agent in a con- 

 ference with representatives of the tenants 

 agreed or was on the point of agreeing to their 

 demands. After consultation with the Irish 

 Secretary, however, he broke off the negotia- 

 tions, and was therefore charged by O'Brien 

 with breach of faith. 



The evictions began on March 22 with Kil- 

 bride, who farmed 768 acres. He had felled 

 trees to obstruct the road leading to his house. 

 Mr. O'Brien, Father Maher, the assistant par- 

 ish priest, and a large crowd of hooting peas- 

 ants watched the sheriff's deputies break down 

 the door and carry out the eviction, which was 

 not accomplished till an entrance was effected 

 through the roof into an upper room which 

 Mr. Kilbride and three companions had barri- 

 caded with beams and iron gates. After the 

 ten laborers on this farm had been evicted, the 

 sheriff and his assistants, with the police guard, 

 went on the 24th to John W. Dunne's farm, 

 which was 1,281 acres in extent, and for which 

 he paid 1,367 rent, while Griffith's valuation 

 was 942. He also had felled trees across the 

 carriage-road, but gave up the fine house that 

 he had built as soon as the sheriff forced in the 

 door. In the two days following, all his labor- 

 ers and sub-tenants were evicted. The friends 

 of Lord Lansdowne's poorer tenants proposed 

 to build for them a row of cottages on the 

 holding of Father Kehoe, their priest, and 



