known as Boycotting. The landlord who oppressed his tenants, the man who took a farm from which another tenant had been evicted, and all who had intercourse with the like, were to be made social outcasts. A little later Parnell preached the same doctrine. His sister, Fanny Parnell, sent a ringing song from America. A few verses will suffice to show its import: "Keep the law, oh, keep it well-keep it as your rulers do! Be not righteous overmuch-when they break it so can you! Help them on, and help them aye, help them as true brethren should, All that's right and good for them, sure for you is right and good, boys. "Hold the rent and hold the crops, boys. Pass the word from town to town, Pull away the props, boys, So you'll pull coercion down." Mr. Forster, a well intentioned man, was entering on the ordeal of every Chief Secretary for Ireland. He felt that things were getting out of hand. An indictment of most of the prominent members of the League was prepared. The charge was that of conspiracy, under which any member could be found guilty of any utterance if any man definitely proved to be associated with the League. Meanwhile, the policy advocated by Redpath and Parnell was being carried out. The first victim was one Captain Boycott, agent for Lord Erne, who lived at Lough Mask House in County Mayo. He had dismissed his labourers owing to a dispute over wages. No others appeared to take their places. The Captain waxed angry. Thereafter he would grant no abatements of rent. Processes were duly obtained-there was no one to serve them. The blacksmith was too busy to shoe the Captain's horses. The herds found the climate unhealthy. The baker ran out of flour. The postman was liable to overlook Lough Mask House, unless his missives for the Captain were unmistakably bills. The Captain's crops were ripening with no one to reap them. But relief was coming. Fifty northern Orangemen escorted by two thousand soldiers arrived in Mayo to assist Captain Boycott. There was not a car in Claremorris fit for the job of transporting any of them. There was not a horse that had not a loose shoe, spavins, rickets or housemaid's knee. The labourers and their escort had to walk from Claremorris-fifteen miles-and it rained. Somehow and sometime they reached Lough Mask House. The formidable force encamped on the Captain's lawn. They had not made provision for their subsistence; if they were doing the Captain's work they presumed that they were to be fed at the Captain's expense. They ate his turkeys, geese, piglings, goslings, ducklings and all other of the most succulent part of his possessions. It was estimated that -apart from the Captain's losses-it cost the country ten pounds for every pound's worth of crop reaped on his land. At last they departed. An interested spectator of the scene was Father John O'Malley of the Neale. There was another, an old woman. She wished, as woman will, to see the passage of troops. Father John advanced on her with menace; "Did I not warn you to let the British Army alone? How dare you come here to intimidate Her Majesty's troops?" Mr. Forster was on the whole about as unfortunate as any other Chief Secretary for Ireland. He meant well, so do they all. Mr. Forster on the second reading of O'Connor Power's Bill gave some interesting figures. In the West Riding of Galway alone he had employed the following forces for protecting process-servers and carrying out evictions 4,049 soldiers-all, in a single district, paid by the Irish people for their own extermination. The Land League went ahead. Huts were erected for evicted tenants. Relief works were started. We cannot well say how many emigrated, and how many died on their way to a foreign shore; the dead do not talk. We know that there was a big toll of lives.1 A debate took place in 1880 on the conduct of the Royal Irish Constabulary at evictions. Mr. Forster was their champion. He admitted that ball cartridges should not be supplied to police in close contact with excited people-hence they should get buckshot. Even if loaded with only snipe-shot, a shotgun is more treacherous 1 John Mitchel in talking of the evicting horror, gives a terse and terrible summary of the happenings upon one estate as the result of one eviction crop : "At an eviction in 1854, on a property under the management of Marcus Keane, James O'Gorman, one of the tenants evicted, died on the roadside. His wife and children were sent to the workhouse, where they died shortly afterwards. "John Corbet, a tenant on another townland, was evicted by the same agent. He died on the roadside. His wife had died previous to the eviction; his ten children were sent into the workhouse and there died. "Michael McMahon, evicted at the same time, was dragged out of bed, to the roadside, where he died of want the next day. His wife died of want previous to the eviction, and his children, eight in number, died in a few years in the workhouse." when discharged on a crowd than a rifle. His name in Ireland, first shouted across the floor of the House, has ever since been "Buckshot Forster." Forster proceeded in the traditional way to pacify Ireland. All the leaders and organisers were arrested. The whole Irish nation was constituted by statute an illegal assembly. A conspiracy act was framed under which every individual in the League could be held accountable for the action or speech of any one. The state trial opened in Dublin in December, 1880. There were three judges and a formidable array of counsel; seven for the Crown, nine for the traversers, exclusive of solicitors. One of the most interesting interludes was the production by Mr. Tom Brennan, the League's secretary, of some hundred evicted tenants from the Castlebar workhouse, who, however, were not heard, because of a change in tactics of the prosecution. They were seen, however, and were quite sufficient evidence of the necessity of the Land League organisation. Meanwhile Parnell and his colleagues crossed to London for the opening of the session of Parliament, letting the court do what it pleased. The jury disagreed after a trial of thirty days. There was a touch of farce about the whole proceeding. The Crown case broke down. Davitt's ticket-ofleave was immediately cancelled. He was sent back to prison. He had, however, laid his lines well. He had established the "Ladies' Land League." He had relied on the women of Ireland to carry on, even if all the leaders were in prison. 2 The following verses from a poem of Miss Fanny Parnell show the spirit of the women: "Now, are you men, or are you kine, ye tillers of the soil? "The serpent's curse upon you lies-ye writhe within the dust, Ye fill your mouths with beggars' swill, ye grovel for a crust; "Oh, by the God who made us all the seignior and the serf-- "The hour has struck, Fate holds the dice, we stand with bated breath; Now who shall have your harvests fair-'tis Life that plays with Death; Miss Anna Parnell was president of the Ladies' Land League. When Miss Parnell and her associates took up work they did it in no half-hearted fashion. They were all that Davitt expected of them—and more. They were not very restrained or very scrupulous. There was no reason why they should. Davitt had been sent back to penal servitude on the 3rd February, 1881. Next day Parnell and all his followers were suspended, and forcibly ejected out of the London House of Commons. Gladstone introduced a measure which made, practically, an end of obstruction. But home in Ireland Parnell was a much more dangerous force than he had been in Westminster. Land League Courts were held before which offenders were arraigned. Boycotting went on effectually. How effectually is shown by the case of Jones of Clonakilty. He tried to sell grain at Bandon. The League picketted his produce. He tried to send cattle to England-no ship at a southern port would carry them. He sent them by rail to Dublin: the mariners would not sail with them; they were ultimately got to Liverpool in Liverpool boats: no Irish salesman would offer them for sale. At the end, a private sale of them, at a loss, was all Jones could effect. Arrests were frequent. This fact intensified the agitation. A grabber was shot occasionally-showing Mr. Forster that two parties could operate outside the common law. The landlords welcomed coercion, and under its shield process-serving for rent went forward with a bound. Then, as now, forty years later, the idea was to rush matters, and have all the trouble over in a couple of months. Then, as now, an extension of time for the subjugation of the Irish was necessary. A bad conflict between civilians and police, guarding a process-server, occurred at Monasteraden, County Sligo, in April. The police fired on a crowd of people who blocked the way to the houses of those on whom the notices were to be served. Two men were slain. Sergeant Armstrong, who gave the order to fire, was immediately steeped in gore and died. His men escaped a like fate by flight. Then, at last, it began to dawn on the English Liberal Government that there must be something wrong in Ireland. There are two things that always go hand in hand in Ireland, coercion and benevolent legislation. Coercion is strong, harsh, ineffective. Now who shall have our Motherland? 'tis Right that plays with Might; "But God is on the peasant's side, the God that loves the poor; All English Governments-Liberal and Tory alike—come to us with a whip in one hand and a "concession" in the other. Gladstone had to face facts and bring in a Land Bill for Ireland. It was considered at a convention of the Land League in Dublin in April, 1881. Parnell was for its acceptance with such amendments as might be possible; John Dillon and Secretary Brennan were opposed. The majority supported Parnell. Dillon was arrested on the 30th April and lodged in Kilmainham jail. Brennan was arrested soon after. It was hoped that this would create an atmosphere for the new Land Bill. It did. There were men forthcoming to fill all vacancies that Gladstone and Forster might create. And then there were the women. Coercion bore its usual fruits: arrests, evictions, outrages. The people defied a law that defied the people. The Irish have never been willing slaves. The Gladstone Land Act of 1881 was the usual compromise. The tenants were allowed for their improvements-if they could prove them in court of law. It was well known that the landlords made no improvements. If a man bought a farm he had to pay for it as it stood, drains, fences and all. If a man inherited a farm he had to prove what improvements were made, and by whom, and when, and if he could not procure witnesses he was non-suited in claiming a fair rent. If the farm was at the seaside, the tenant was considered not to be entitled to normal reduction of rent because he could cut seaweed at the risk of his life; if he set up a mill, grew fruit or otherwise improved the holding, at his own expense, that was set against him. If he built "too good a house,' again at his own expense, that prejudiced his claim to a fair rent. If he set up a shop, that also, in practice, went against him; the value of the holding went up. The tenant was discouraged from doing anything to improve his place. The worse it looked the safer he was. Even though the Act was good in principle it proved to be what Dillon prophesied it would be: "a milch cow for the lawyers." Forster succeeded in making Ireland what is called in official documents to-day "an appropriate hell" for those who disagreed with him. Men were imprisoned without trial, grabbers and other offenders were severely dealt with; men were shot dead: Priests were arrested, including Father Eugene Sheehy of Limerick, a veteran who lived to be present at the inauguration of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. Parnell denounced the conduct of the English Government in Parliament. He was suspended for a vigorous attack on Glad |