League took place at a convention of tenant farmers held in Dublin. The scheme of organization provided that the objects of the League were to obtain a reduction of rack rents, and to bring about the establishment of a peasant proprietary. The plan of campaign embraced the following methods:-1. The promotion of organization among the tenant farmers. 2. The legal defence of those threatened with eviction for non-payment of unjust rents. 3. To facilitate the working of the " Bright. Clauses" of the Land Act of 1878, which in some degree provided for the purchase of farms by the actual cultivators. 4. Agitation for such further reform of the land laws as would make it possible for tenants to become owners of their holdings by the payment of fair sums annually for a certain term of years. Mr. Parnell was chosen president of the League, Thomas Brennan, secretary, and Patrick Egan, a Dublin baker, treasurer.

As the distress grew deeper in the country, the League grew stronger. The Catholic clergy presently came over to it, and their immense influence insured its success. They combined with the leaders to prevent deeds of violence, and their aid was all-important in carrying on the work of relieving distress, one of the most prominent features of the League programme. In December, Mr. Parnell made his memorable visit to the United States. It would be superfluous at this time, and writing in New York, to enter into any details as to his reception or his doings. I regard the visit, as on the whole, a triumph for him and for his party. He made, it must be admitted, more than one most regretable mistake; the American press was anything but favorably disposed towards him either at the beginning or the end of his stay; but the people of Irish race rallied around him with an enthusiasm seldom equalled, and all the great work that has been done in this country ever since, has been the result, direct or indirect, of his mission. The immediate result was the raising of enormous sums for the redemption of the famine-stricken people from starvation. At the period of his visit, two relief committees, besides that of the League, were at work in Ireland-one headed by the Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the Lord Lieutenant, the other headed by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and known as the Mansion House Committee. America responded to the cry

of distressed Ireland with bounteous liberality. The United States government gave the use of a war vessel, in which supplies were forwarded,-best among them, a store of seed potatoes to take the place of the diseased roots which were propagating the germs of famine year after year. The "New York Herald" headed a subscription list of its own with the splendid offering of $100,000. Its fund reached half a million of dollars, which was distributed by its own agents in Ireland. The Land League fund received from America three-quarters of a million that year alone, and ever since, large sums have been forwarded to Ireland from time to time, chiefly through the medium of the " Irish World" newspaper, and of the Rev. Father Walsh, of Waterbury, Conn., the national treasurer of the American branch of the Land League, throughout the existence of that body.

The results of all this magnificent alms-giving were not unworthy of the spirit that prompted it. So far as I have ever heard, no man or woman perished of sheer hunger in Ireland. To paint the privation and suffering of the winter of 1879-80 would be a task that I cannot undertake here. The imagination of the reader can hardly color the picture in too sombre tones. Sickness, want, and sorrow of every kind oppressed the land. The depression of that time will yet be felt for years to come. But at least, I believe, the final horror was spared, and no man died of famine.

While Parnell was yet in America, those notable allies, the Afghans, the Zulus, and the Obstructionists became too much for Mr. Disraeli and his Tory followers. The statesman of dazzling ideas threw himself upon the country, and the country rejected him. A general election was held in April, 1880, and the Conservatives suffered crushing defeat. Mr. Gladstone became prime-minister in May, with a majority of about a hundred votes in the House of Commons. The Home Rule party made a net gain of ten votes. This was the time when Mr. Healey, Mr. T. P. O'Connor, and others of Mr. Parnell's best-known followers, were elected to Parliament for the first time. In 1880, only a partial measure of relief, the Disturbance Bill, was proposed by the new ministry; even this was rejected by the House of Lords.

All through the autumn and winter, though the harvest was a fair one, the distress continued, and the agitation was maintained at its height. This was the era of the celebrated" Boycotting" system, called after its first victim, an Englishman named Boycott, who had leased the farm of an evicted tenant. The system consisted simply in the entire withdrawal of the people from social or business relations with the obnoxious person, generally a bailiff or constable, or someone who, like Boycott, had settled upon the land of an evicted tenant. No person would speak to one who tell under the ban, no person would buy from him, sell to him, or work for him.

At this time crimes of violence were at their lowest point among the peasantry. The English press, it is true, teemed with agrarian outrages; but under scrutiny nine out of ten of these were reduced to mere frivolities, or vanished into fiction altogether. In October, 1880, Messrs. Parnell, Dillon, Egan, Brennan, Boyton, and others, were arraigned in the Court of Queen's Bench, in Dublin, for publicly inciting tenants to refuse to pay rent. The jury that tried them disagreed, standing ten votes for acquittal to two for conviction.

When Parliament met in 1881, Mr. Gladstone's followers, smarting under this defeat, forced him to open the session by proposing a coercion bill. In doing so, he promised that as soon as it had become law, a scheme of land reform should be proposed. He held this promise out as a bribe to the Home Rulers, to allow the speedy passage of the measure of oppression. But the Irish members made no base surrender of their principles. They recognized that their first duty was to resist all aggression on the people's rights. Then were renewed the obstruction scenes of the days of the Mutiny Act. Parnell and his followers fought with all their might. The struggle was prolonged for a month. Every resource was exhausted. But of course, the government prevailed. Besides the coercion law for Ireland, one for the House of Commons was enacted. Worried beyond endurance by the tactics of the Parnellites, a short-sighted "Liberal" majority legalized a set of rules to muzzle free debate. Thus does England always temper justice to Ireland with oppression; thus

does she in anticipation destroy, for all purposes of conciliation, every reform that stern necessity forces her to grant.

Mr. Gladstone's Land Bill was introduced on April 7th, 1881, and became law on August 22d, after the Lords had done their worst to kill it, and, failing in that, to deprive it of all value. The chief feature of the bill, as it was finally carried, was the establishment of a system of land courts with power to adjudicate as to the fair rents of all property not held by lease. Something further was done besides towards facilitating the purchase of holdings by the tenants, the government engaging to lend certain fractions of the purchase money under certain circumstances.

The bill had several fatal defects,-worst among them, the lack of any relief for the tenants from the dreadful arrears of rent that had been accumulating, and of means for preventing evictions, until the land courts could consider at least some of the cases that were brought before them in tens of thousands. Still, take it all in all, the bill was a wonderful concession from a British Parliament, a wonderful victory for the Irish people. Its passage marks the climax of the Land League movement, and also, so far as now appears, of the career of Davitt, and no unworthy climax was it for either. It marks

a great step in the progress of Ireland; it teaches a great lesson, that with union, discretion, and determination, the people wield irresistible power.

But while doing justice to the energy and genius of Davitt, and the splendid leadership of Parnell, it would, in my opinion,be unjust to withhold a word of gratitude from the statesman who has for many years felt deep sympathy for Ireland, and who has done more to alleviate her sufferings, than any other of his race. It seems to me that those Irishmen who are in the habit of heaping abuse on Mr. Gladstone, forget that he is an Englishman, and that, after all, his first duty is to his own country. It is true he has the failing of dealing sometimes in half-measures; but I think the time will come when the motives that have actuated him throughout the turmoil of the Land League agitation, will be vindicated, and the people whom he has striven to benefit will look upon him as a true friend and sympathizer, according to his lights.

CHAPTER XCIII.

DECLINE OF THE LAND LEAGUE. "NO RENT.” DYNA MITE AND THE DAGGER. THE PHOENIX PARK TRAGEDY

AND ITS SEQUEL. HOPE AGAIN. THE CHAPTER STILL UNFINISHED.

N this chapter I shall be under the disadvantage of dealing with contemporaneous matters,-matters which are still the subjects of violent passions and excited opinions, not to say prejudices. Concerning things which are past and settled, even though they be separated from the present by only half a decade, we can have some toleration for views opposed to our own. It is human nature, however, to receive impatiently whatever conflicts with our ideas upon subjects of immediate interest.

Now, like every one else, I have very strong opinions touching the " No Rent" manifesto, the "Invincible" conspiracy, and the "Dynamite" system of politics. I believe the "No Rent" manifesto was an error, and, alike on grounds of conscience and expediency, I hold in aversion all schemes of assassination, or for the wholesale destruction of property.

It appears that a large portion of my fellow-countrymen and probable readers differ from me radically, some on one, some on all of these subjects. This is a matter of great regret to me, and I feel I should be doing less than my duty if I failed to make at least one appeal to the honor, to the sense of right, and to the practical judgment of my readers; if I should fail to warn them against acts and methods which, to take no higher view, must strengthen rather than weaken the position of England. But when I come to narrate the events of the last three years, I shall refrain from all criticism. I shall present the facts plainly as they occurred, and, content with putting my own conscientious opinions on record, 632