THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY. ii 



• 

 enjoys — whether rightly or wrongly, I will not 

 decide — the reputation of strict impartiality, i 

 As a set-off to this, the juries, who are chosen } 

 from the people, almost systematically delight ^ 

 in acquitting political or ostensibly political 

 prisoners whose guilt is unquestionable, whence 

 it comes the Government has often been obliged 

 to influence the composition of the juries. A 

 number of crimes, which, for any protracted 

 period, are as good as unknown in the civilized 

 states of western Europe, occur every year in 

 Ireland. These are agrarian crimes ranging 

 from threatening letters and intimidation, from 

 cattle-maiming and arson, to boycotting and 

 assassinations of downright bestial savagery. Of 

 such crimes there were, from 1844 to 1890, no 

 fewer than 35,534. In 1894 there were 276; in 

 1893, 261 ; and in 1902, 253.^ The danger of 

 an organized Irish revolution which is to take 

 place at a moment when England is involved in 

 political complications may, however, be esti- 

 mated as very slight. The Transvaal war 

 seemed at last to have furnished the opportunity 

 so long and so ardently desired by Irish patriots ; 

 but on that occasion the contrast between word 

 and deed amiong the intransigeant party in 

 Ireland and America was conspicuously great. 

 On the other hand, isolated outbreaks are not 

 impossible, though the last few years have passed 

 quietly. In every Irish town there is a certain 

 sediment of irreconcilable Nationalist revolution- 



'- Thorn's Official Directory. 



