IRELAND UNDER COERCION

THE DIARY OF AN AMERICAN

BY
WILLIAM HENRY HURLBERT

VOL. II.

SECOND EDITION.

1888

“Upon the future of Ireland hangs the future of the British Empire.”
CARDINAL MANNING TO EARL GREY, 1868

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER VII.

• Rossbehy, Feb. 21, 1
• The latest eviction at Glenbehy, 1
• Trafalgar Square, 1, 2
• Father Little, 3
• Mr. Frost, 3, 4
• Priest and landlord, 3
• Savings Banks’ deposits at Six-mile Bridge, 5
• Drive through Limerick, 5
• Population and trade, 5, 6
• Boycotting and commerce, 6, 7
• Shores of the Atlantic, 7
• Tralee, 7
• Killorglin, 8
• Hostelry in the hills, 8
• Facts of the eviction, 9-13
• Glenbehy Eviction Fund (see Note G2), 12
• A walk on Washington’s birthday, 13
• A tenant at Glenbehy offers £13 in two instalments in full for £240 arrears, 13
• English and Irish members, 14
• “Winn’s Folly,” 15
• Acreage and rental of the Glenbehy estate, 16
• Work of eviction begun, 17
• Patience of officers, 17
• American and Irish evictions contrasted, 17
• “Oh, he’s quite familiar,” 18
• A modest Poor Law Guardian, 18, 19
• Moonlighters’ swords, 20
• Father Quilter and the “poor slaves,” his people, 21,22
• Beauty of Lough Caragh, 23
• Difficulty of getting evidence, 25
• Effects of terrorism in Kerry, 25
• Singular identification of a murderer, 26
• Local administration in Tralee, 28

CHAPTER VIII.

• Cork, Feb. 23, 30
• Press accounts of Glenbehy evictions astonish an eye-witness, 30
• Castle Island, 31
• Mr. Roche and Mr. Gladstone, 31
• Opinions of a railway traveller, 31, 32
• Misrepresentations of evictions, 32
• Cork, past and present, 34
• Mr. Gladstone and the Dean, 35
• League Courts in Kerry, 36
• Local Law Lords, 36
• Mr. Colomb and the Fenian rising in 1867, 37
• Remarkable letter of an M.P., 38
• Irish Constabulary, morale of the force, 40
• The clergy and the Plan of Campaign, 41
• Municipal history, 43
• Increase of public burdens, 44
• Tralee Board of Guardians, 46
• Labourers and tenants, 46
• Feb. 25, 47
• Boycotting, 47-49
• Land law and freedom of contract, 49
• Rivalry between Limerick and Cork, 50
• Henry VIII. and the Irish harp, 50
• Municipal Parliamentary franchise, 51
• Environs of Cork, 52
• Churches and chapels, 53
• Attractive home at Belmullet, 54
• Lord Carnarvon and the Priest, 55
• Feb. 26, 56
• Blarney Castle, 56, 57
• St. Anne’s Hill, 56, 57
• An evicted woman on “the Plan,” 59
• The Ponsonby estate, 59
• Feb. 27—A day at Youghal, 60
• Father Keller, 61-76
• On emigration and migration, 66
• Protestants and Catholics (see Note G3), 68
• Meath as a field for peasant proprietors, 69
• Ghost of British protection, 70
• A farmer evicted from a tenancy of 200 years, 71
• Sir Walter Raleigh’s house and garden, 71-73
• Churches of St. Mary of Youghal and St. Nicholas of Galway, 73
• Monument and churchyard, 73, 74
• An Elizabethan candidate for canonisation, 75
• Drive to Lismore, 76
• Driver’s opinions on the Ponsonby estates, 77
• Dromaneen Castle and the Countess of Desmond, 78
• Trappist Monastery at Cappoquin, 78
• Lismore, 78, 79
• Castle grounds and cathedral, 79, 80

CHAPTER IX.

• Feb. 28, 82
• Portumna, Galway, 82
• Run through Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Queen’s and King’s County to Parsonstown, 82
• A Canadian priest on the situation, 83
• His reply to M. de Mandat Grancey, 83
• Relations of priests with the League, 83-85
• Parsonstown and Lord Rosse, 86
• Drive to Portumna, 87
• An abandoned railway, 88
• American storms, grain, and beasts, 88, 89
• Portumna Castle, 90, 91
• Lord Clanricarde’s estate, 92
• Mr. Tener, 92-128
• Plan of Campaign, 94-99
• Ability of tenants to pay their rents, 95
• Mr. Dillon in 1886, 96
• Mr. Parnell in 1885, 97
• Tenants in greater danger than landlords and agents, 100
• Feb. 29, 100
• Conference between evicted tenants and agent, 100-106
• Castle and park, 107
• The League shopkeeper and tenant, 108
• Under police escort, 109
• Cost of ‘knocking’ a man, 109
• What constitutes a group, 110
• Favourite spots for administering a League oath, 110
• Disbursing treasurers, 111
• Change of venue, 111
• Bishop of Clonfert, 112-115
• Bector of Portumna, 115
• Father Coen, 116
• Coercion on the part of the League, 118-121
• Deposits in banks, 120
• Should landlords and shopkeepers be placed on one footing? 121
• New Castle of Portumna, 122
• Portumna Union, 123, 124
• Troubles of resident landlords, 125-127
• Effects of the agitation on the people, 124
• War against property and private rights, 127
• Mr. Tener’s experiences in Cavan, 127-130
• Similar cases in Leitrim, 130-132
• Sale of rents and value of tenant-right, 133, 134

CHAPTER X.

• Dublin, March 1, 135
• Portumna to Woodford, 135
• Evictions of October 1887, 135
• Capture of Cloondadauv Castle, 137-141
• A tenant and a priest, 141-144
• Workmen’s wages in Massachusetts compared with the profits of a tenant farmer in Ireland, 146
• Loughrea, 148, 149
• Murder of Finlay, 150, 151
• The chrysoprase Lake of Loughrea, 154
• Lord Clanricarde’s estate office, acreage, and rental, 155
• Woodford acreage and rental, 155,156
• Drive from Loughrea to Woodlawn, 156-160
• A Galway “jarvey” on the situation, 156-159
• Woodlawn and the Ashtown property, 160

CHAPTER XI.

• Borris, March 2, 161
• Mr. Kavanagh, 161-163
• Borris House, 163-167
• A living Banshee, 165, 166
• Land Corporation—its mode of working, 167
• Meeting in Dublin, 1885, 168
• Rev. Mr. Cantwell, 168
• Lord Lansdowne’s property at Luggacurren, 169
• Mr. Kavanagh’s career, 170
• Books and papers at Borris, 171
• Strongbow, 172
• “The five bloods,” 172, 173
• Genealogy of M‘Morroghs and Kavanaghs, 173
• March 4, 174
• Protestant service read every morning, 174
• A Catholic gentleman’s views, 175
• Relation of tenants to village despots, 176
• Would America make a State of Ireland? 177
• Land Acts since 1870, 178
• The O’Grady of Kilballyowen and his rental, 179
• Dispute with his tenants: its cause and effect, 180
• His circular to his tenantry, 181-186

CHAPTER XII.

• Grenane House, March 5, 187
• Visit to Mr. Seigne, 187
• Beautiful situation of Grenane, 189
• A lady of the country, 189
• Mr. Seigne’s experience of the tenants, 191-194
• The beauty of Woodstock, 194-198
• The watch of Waterloo, 197-200
• Curious discovery of stolen property, 200
• Dublin, March 6, 200
• State of deposits in the Savings Banks, 200-201
• Interest on “Plan of Campaign” funds, 202

CHAPTER XIII.

• Dublin, March 8, 203
• Inch and the Coolgreany evictions, 203
• Sweet vale of Avoca, 204
• Dr. Dillon of Arklow, 204
• Fathers O’Neill and Dunphy, 205, 206
• Mr. Davitt watching the evictions, 207
• Lazy and thriftless tenants better off than before, 209
• A self-made committee, 211
• The Brooke estate, 212
• Sir Thomas Esmonde’s house, 213
• An Arklow dinner, 214
• Dr. Dillon in his study, 215-217
• Visit to Glenart Castle, 217

CHAPTER XIV.

• Dublin, March 9, 219
• Athy, 219
• A political jarvey, 220-225
• “Who is Mr. Gilhooly?” 221
• Lord Lansdowne’s offer refused through pressure of the League, 226
• Mr. Kilbride, M.P., and Mr. Dunne, 226-228
• Lord Lansdowne’s estate in Kerry, 228-231
• Plan of Campaign at Luggacurren, 231-236
• Interview with Father Maher, 236-239
• A “jarvey” on a J.P., 240
• “Railway amenities,” 241
• Dublin, March 10, 242
• Mr. Brooke, 242-248
• Unreasonable tenants, 243, 244
• Size and rental of estate, 246
• Sub-commissioner’s reduction reversed, 246, 247

CHAPTER XV.

• Maryborough, 249
• Archbishop Croke, 249
• Interviews with labourers, 251-253
• Views of a successful country teacher, 254, 255
• A veteran of the ’48, 256-260
• Amount of wages to men, 261
• The farmers and labourers and lawyers, 264, 265
• Dublin, June 23, 268
• Mr. Hamilton Stubber and Mr. Robert Staples, 268-270
• From Attanagh to Ballyragget, 270
• Case of “a little-good-for tenant,” 271, 272
• Mr. Kough and his tenants, 273-277
• Mr. Richardson of Castle Comer, 277
• Position of the tenants, 282
• £70 a year for whisky, 282
• Kilkenny Castle, 282
• Mr. Rolleston of Delgany, 283-292
• John O’Leary, 285-292
• Boycotting private opinion, 292
• The League as now conducted, 295
• Poems and Ballads of “Young Ireland,” 296
• Law Courts and Trinity College, 297
• American Civil War, 299-302
• Dublin, June 24, 302
• A dinner with officials, 303-306
• A priest earns over £20,000, 305, 306
• “Crowner’s Quest Law,” 309-311

CHAPTER XVI.

• Belfast, June 25, 313
• Ulster in Irish history, 313
• Moira, 315
• Views of an Ulsterman, 315, 316
• Beauty of Belfast, 317, 318
• Its buildings, 319-321
• Dr. Hanna, 322-324
• Dr. Kane, 325
• June 26, 326
• Sir John Preston, 326-328
• Mr. Cameron, of Royal Irish Constabulary, 328
• Police parade, 328
• Belfast steamers, 329
• Scotland and America at work on Ireland, 330

EPILOGUE, p. 333-349

APPENDIX.

NOTES—

• F. The Moonlighters and Home Rule (pp. 10, 38), 351
• G. The Ponsonby Property (pp. 59-66), 353
• G2. The Glenbehy Eviction Fund (p. 12), 360
• G3. Home Rule and Protestantism (p. 68), 362
• H. Tully and the Woodford Evictions (p. 149), 364
• H2. Boycotting the Dead (p. 151), 370
• I. The Savings Banks (P.O.) (vol. i. p. 39, vol. ii. pp. 5 and 200), 371
• K. The Coolgreany Evictions (p. 216), 372
• L. A Ducal Supper in 1711 (p. 283), 374
• M. Letter from Mr. O’Leary (p. 291), 375
• N. Boycotting Private Opinion (p. 293), 377
• O. Boycotting by Crowner’s Quest Law (p. 312), 382

CHAPTER VII.

ROSSBEHY,¹ Feb. 21.—We are here on the eve of battle! An “eviction” is to be made to-morrow on the Glenbehy ¹ estate of Mr. Winn, an uncle of Lord Headley, so upon the invitation of Colonel Turner, who has come to see that all is done decently and in order, I left Ennis with him at 7.40 A.M. for Limerick; the “city of the Liberator” for “the city of the Broken Treaty.” There we breakfasted at the Artillery Barracks.

The officers showed us there the new twelve-pounder gun with its elaborately scientific machinery, its Scotch sight, and its four-mile range. I compared notes about the Trafalgar Square riots of February 1886 with an Irish officer who happened to have been on the opposite side of Pall Mall from me at the moment when the mob, getting out of the hand of my socialistic friend Mr. Hyndman, and advancing towards St. James’ Street and Piccadilly was broken by a skilful and very spirited charge of the police. He gave a most humorous account of his own sensations when he first came into contact with the multitude after emerging from St. Paul’s, where, as he put it, he had left the people “all singing away like devils.” But I found he quite agreed with me in thinking that there was a visible nucleus of something like military organisation in the mob of that day, which was overborne and, as it were, smothered by the mere mob element before it came to trying conclusions with the police.

On our way to Limerick, Colonel Turner caught sight, at a station, of Father Little, the parish priest of Six Mile Bridge, in County Clare, and jumping out of the carriage invited him to get in and pursue his journey with us, which he very politely did. Father Little is a tall fine-looking man of a Saxon rather than a Celtic type, and I daresay comes of the Cromwellian stock. He is a staunch and outspoken Nationalist, and has been made rather prominent of late by his championship of certain of his parishioners in their contest with their landlord, Mr. H.V. D’Esterre, who lives chiefly at Bournemouth in England, but owns 2833 acres in County Clare at Rosmanagher, valued at £1625 a year. More than a year ago one of Father Little’s parishioners, Mr. Frost, successfully resisted a large force of the constabulary bent on executing a process of ejectment against him obtained by Mr. D’Esterre.

Frost’s holding was of 33 Irish, or, in round numbers, about 50 English, acres, at a rental of £117, 10s., on which he had asked but had not obtained an abatement. The Poor-Law valuation of the holding was £78, and Frost estimated the value of his and his father’s improvements, including the homestead and the offices, or in other words his tenant-right, at £400. The authorities sent a stronger body of constables and ejected Frost. But as soon as they had left the place Frost came back with his family, on the 28th Jan. 1887, and reoccupied it. Of course proceedings were taken against him immediately, and a small war was waged over the Frost farm until the 5th of September last, when an expedition was sent against it, and it was finally captured, and Frost evicted with his family. Upon this last occasion Father Little (who gave me a very temperate but vigorous account of the whole affair) distinguished himself by a most ingenious and original attempt to “hold the fort.” He chained himself to the main doorway, and stretching the chains right and left secured them to two other doors. It was of this refreshing touch of humour that I heard the other day at Abbeyleix as happening not in Clare but in Kerry.

Since his eviction Frost has been living, Father Little tells me, in a wooden hut put up for him on the lands of a kinsman of the same name, who is also a tenant of Mr. D’Esterre, and who has since been served by his landlord with a notice of ejectment for arrears, although he had paid up six months’ dues two months only before the service. Father Little charged the landlord in this case with prevarication and other evasive proceedings in the course of his negotiations with the tenants; and Colonel Turner did not contest the statements made by him in support of his contention that the Rosmanagher difficulty might have been avoided had the tenants been more fairly and more considerately dealt with. It is strong presumptive evidence against the landlord that a kinsman, Mr. Robert D’Esterre, is one of the subscribers to a fund raised by Father Little in aid of the evicted man Frost. On the other hand, as illustrating the condition of the tenants, it is noteworthy that the Post-Office Savings Bank’s deposits at Six-Mile Bridge rose from £382, 17s. 10d. in 1880 to £934, 13s. 4d. in 1887. After breakfast we took a car and drove rapidly about the city for an hour. With its noble river flowing through the very heart of the place, and broadening soon into an estuary of the Atlantic, Limerick ought long ago to have taken its place in the front rank of British ports dealing with the New World. In the seventeenth century it was the fourth city of Ireland, Boate putting it then next after Dublin, Galway, and Waterford. Belfast at that time, he describes as a place hardly comparable “to a small market-town in England.” To-day Limerick has a population of some forty thousand, and Belfast a population of more than two hundred thousand souls. This change cannot be attributed solely, if at all, to the “Protestant ascendency,” nor yet to the alleged superiority of the Northern over the Southern Irish in energy and thrift, For in the seventeenth century Limerick was more important than Cork, whereas it had so far fallen behind its Southern competitor in the eighteenth century that it contained in 1781 but 3859 houses, while Cork contained 5295. To-day its population is about half as large as that of Cork. It is a very well built city, its main thoroughfare, George Street, being at least a mile in length, and a picturesque city also, thanks to the island site of its most ancient quarter, the English Town, and to the hills of Clare and Killaloe, which close the prospect of the surrounding country. But the streets, though many of them are handsome, have a neglected look, as have also the quays and bridges. One of my companions, to whom I spoke of this, replied, “if they look neglected, it’s because they are neglected. Politics are the death of the place, and the life of its publics.”²

As we approached the shores of the Atlantic from Limerick, the scenery became very grand and beautiful. On the right of the railway the country rolled and undulated away towards the Stacks, amid the spurs and slopes of which, in the wood of Clonlish, Sanders, the Nuncio sent over to organise Catholic Ireland against Elizabeth, miserably perished of want and disease six years before the advent of the great Armada. To the south-west rose the grand outlines of the Macgillicuddy’s Reeks, the highest points, I believe, in the South of Ireland. We established ourselves at the County Kerry Club on our arrival in Tralee, which I found to be a brisk prosperous-looking town, and quite well built. A Nationalist member once gave me a gloomy notion of Tralee, by telling me, when I asked him whether he looked forward with longing to a seat in the Parliament of Ireland, that “when he was in Dublin now he always thought of London, just as when he used to be in Tralee he always thought of Dublin.” But he did less than justice to the town upon the Lee. We left it at half-past four in the train for Killorglin. The little station there was full of policemen and soldiers, and knots of country people stood about the platform discussing the morrow. There had been some notion that the car-drivers at Killorglin might “boycott” the authorities. But they were only anxious to turn an honest penny by bringing us on to this lonely but extremely neat and comfortable hostelry in the hills.

The constabulary are in force, but in great good humour. They have no belief that there will be any trouble, though all sorts of wild tales were flying about Tralee before we left, of English members of Parliament coming down to denounce the “Coercion” law, and of risings in the hills, and I know not what besides. The agent of the Winn property, or of Mr. Head of Reigate in Surrey, the mortgagee of the estate, who holds a power of attorney from Mr. Winn, is here, a quiet, intelligent young man, who has given me the case in a nut-shell.

The tenant to be evicted, James Griffin, is the son and heir of one Mrs. Griffin, who on the 5th of April 1854 took a lease of the lands known as West Lettur from the then Lord Headley and the Hon. R. Winn, at the annual rent of £32, 10s. This rent has since been reduced by a judicial process to £26. In 1883 James Griffin, who was then, as he is now, an active member of the local branch of the National League, and who was imprisoned under Mr. Gladstone’s Act of 1881 as a “suspect,” was evicted, being then several years in arrears. He re-entered unlawfully immediately afterwards, and has remained in West Lettur unlawfully ever since, actively deterring and discouraging other tenants from paying their rents. He took a great part in promoting the refusal to pay which led to the famous evictions of last year. As to these, it seems the tenants had agreed, in 1886, to accept a proposition from Mr. Head, remitting four-fifths of all their arrears upon payment of one year’s rent and costs. Mr. Sheehan, M.P., a hotel-keeper in Killarney, intervened, advising the tenants that the Dublin Parliament would soon be established, and would abolish “landlordism,” whereupon they refused to keep their agreement.³ Sir Redvers Buller, who then filled the post now held by Sir West Ridgway, seeing this alarming deadlock, urged Mr. Head to go further, and offer to take a half-year’s rent and costs. If the tenants refused this Sir Redvers advised Mr. Head to destroy all houses occupied by mere trespassers, such as Griffin, who, if they could hold a place for twelve years, would acquire a title under the Statute of Limitations. A negotiation conducted by Sir Redvers and Father Quilter, P.P., followed, and Father Quilter, for the tenants, finally, in writing, accepted Mr. Head’s offer, under which, by the payment of £865, they would be rid of a legal liability for £6177. The League again intervened with bribes and threats, and Father Quilter found himself obliged to write to Colonel Turner a letter in which he said, “Only seventeen of the seventy tenants have sent on their rents to Mr. Roe (the agent). Though promising that they would accept the terms, they have withdrawn at the last moment from fulfilment.... I shall never again during my time in Glenbehy interfere between a landlord and his tenants. I have poor slaves who will not keep their word. Now let Mr. Roe or any other agent in future deal with Glenbeighans as he likes.” The farms lie at a distance even from this inn, and very far therefore from Killorglin, and the agent, knowing that the tenants would be encouraged by Griffin and by Mr. Harrington, M.P., and others, to come back into their holdings as soon as the officers withdrew, ordered the woodwork of several cottages to be burned in order to prevent this. This burning of the cottages, which were the lawful property of the mortgagee, made a great figure in the newspaper reports, and “scandalised the civilised world.” The present agent thinks it was impolitic on that account, but he has no doubt it was a good thing financially for the evicted tenants. “You will see the shells of the cottages to-morrow,” he said, “and you will judge for yourself what they were worth.” But the sympathy excited by the illustrations of the cruel conflagration and the heartrending descriptions of the reporters, resulted in a very handsome subscription for the benefit of the tenants of Glenbehy. General Sir William Butler, whose name came so prominently before the public in connection with his failure to appear and give evidence in a recent cause célèbre, and whose brother is a Resident Magistrate in Kerry, was one of the subscribers. The fund thus raised has been since administered by two trustees, Father Quilter, P.P., and Mr. Shee, a son of our brisk little landlady here, who maintain out of it very comfortably the evicted tenants. Not long ago a man in Tralee tried to bribe the agent into having him evicted, that he might make a claim on this fund! At Killorglin the Post-Office Savings Bank deposits, which stood at £282, 15s. 9d. in 1880, rose in 1887 to £1299, 2s. 6d. James Griffin, despite, or because, of the two evictions through which he has passed, is very well off. He owns a very good horse and cart, and seven or eight head of cattle. His arrears now amount to about £240, and on being urged yesterday to make a proposition which might avoid an eviction, he gravely offered to pay £8 of the current half-year’s rent in cash, and the remaining £5 in June, the landlord taking on himself all the costs and giving him a clean receipt! This liberal proposition was declined. The zeal of her son in behalf of the evicted tenants does not seem to affect the amiable anxiety of our trim and energetic hostess to make things agreeable here to the minions of the alien despotism. The officers both of the police and of the military appear to be on the best of terms with the whole household, and everything is going as merrily as marriage bells on this eve of an eviction.

The air was so bracing and the scenery so fine that we walked most of the way. Two or three cars drove past us, the police and the troops making way for them very civilly, though some of the officers thought they were taking some Nationalist leaders and some English “sympathisers” to Glenbehy. One of the officers, when I commented upon this, told me they never had much trouble with the Irish members. “Some of them,” he said, “talk more than is necessary, and flourish about; but they have sense enough to let us go about our work without foolishly trying to bother us. The English are not always like that.” And he then told me a story of a scene in which an English M.P., we will call Mr. Gargoyle, was a conspicuous actor. Mr. Gargoyle being present either at an eviction or a prohibited meeting, I didn’t note which, with two or three Irish members, all of them were politely requested to step on one side and let the police march past. The Irish members touched their hats in return to the salute of the officer, and drew to one side of the road. But Mr. Gargoyle defiantly planted himself in the middle of the road. The police, marching four abreast, hesitated for a moment, and then suddenly dividing into two columns marched on. The right-hand man of the first double file, as he went by, just touched the M.P. with his shoulder, and thereby sent him up against the left-hand man of the corresponding double file, who promptly returned the attention. And in this manner the distinguished visitor went gyrating through the whole length of the column, to emerge at the end of it breathless, hatless, and bewildered, to the intense and ill-suppressed delight of his Irish colleagues.

Our hostess’s son, the trustee of the Eviction Fund, was on one of the cars which passed us, with two or three companions, who proved to be “gentlemen of the Press.” We passed a number of cottages and some larger houses on the way, the inmates of which seemed to be minding their own business and taking but a slight interest in the great event of the day. We made a little detour at one of the finest points on the road to visit “Winn’s Folly,” a modern mediæval castle of considerable size, upon a most enchanting site, with noble views on every side, quite impossible to be seen through its narrow loopholed and latticed windows. The castle is extremely well built, of a fine stone from the neighbourhood, and with a very small expenditure might be made immediately habitable. But no one has ever lived in it. It has only been occupied as a temporary barrack by the police when sent here, and the largest rooms are now littered with straw for the use of the force. At the beginning of the century, and for many years afterwards, Lord and Lady Headley lived on the estate, and kept a liberal house. Their residence was on a fine point running out into the bay, but, I am told, the sea has now invaded it, and eaten it away. In 1809 the acreage of this Glenbehy property was 8915 Irish acres or 14,442 English acres, set down under Bath’s valuation at £2299, 17s. 6d. Between 1830 and 1860 the rental averaged £5000 a year, and between these years £17,898, 14s. 5d. were expended by the landlord in improvements upon the property. This castle, which we visited, must have involved since then an outlay of at least £10,000 in the place.

After we passed the castle we began to hear the blowing of rude horns from time to time on the distant hills. These were signals to the people of our approach, and gave quite the air of an invasion to our expedition. We passed the burned cottages of last year just before reaching Mr. Griffin’s house at West Lettur. They were certainly not large cottages, and I saw but three of them. We found the Sheriff at West Lettur. The police and the soldiers drew a cordon around the place, within which no admittance was to be had except on business; and the myrmidons of the law going into the house with the agent held a final conference with the tenant, of which nothing came but a renewal of his previous offer. Then the work of eviction began. There was no attempt at a resistance, and but for the martial aspect of the forces, and an occasional blast of a horn from the hills, or the curious noises made from time to time by a small concourse of people, chiefly women, assembled on the slope of an adjoining tenancy, the proceedings were as dull as a parish meeting. What most struck me about the affair was the patience and good-nature of the officers. In the two hours and a half which we spent at West Lettur a New York Sheriff’s deputies would have put fifty tenants with all their bags and baggage out of as many houses into the street. In fact it is very likely that at least that number of New York tenants were actually so ousted from their houses during this very time.

“Oh! he will do very well,” said a gentleman who had joined the expedition like myself to see the scene. “He is a shrewd chap, and not troubled by bashfulness. He sat on a Board of Guardians with a man I knew four years ago, and one day he read out his own name, ‘James Griffin,’ among a list of applicants for relief at Cahirciveen. The chairman looked up, and said, ‘Surely that is not your name you are reading, is it?’ ‘It is, indeed,’ replied Griffin, ‘and I am as much in need of relief as any one!’ Perhaps you’ll be surprised to hear he didn’t get it. This is a good holding he had, and he used to do pretty well with it—not in his mother’s time only of the flush prices, but in his own. It was the going to Kilmainham that spoiled him.”

To make an eviction complete and legal here, everything belonging to the tenant, and every live creature must be taken out of the house. A cat may save a house as a cat may save a derelict ship. Then the Sheriff must “walk” over the whole holding. All this takes time. There was an unobtrusive search for arms too going on all the time. Three ramrods were found hidden in a straw-bed—two of which showed signs of recent use. But the guns had vanished. An officer told me that not long ago two revolvers were found in a corner of the thatch of a house; but the cartridges for them were only some time afterwards discovered neatly packed away in the top of a bedroom wall. It is not the ownership of these arms, it is the careful concealment of them which indicates sinister intent. One of the constables brought out three “Moonlighters’ swords” found hidden away in the house. One of these Colonel Turner showed me. It was a reversal of the Scriptural injunction, being a ploughshare beaten into a weapon, and a very nasty weapon of offence, one end of it sharpened for an ugly thrust, the other fashioned into quite a fair grip. While I was examining this trophy there was a stir, and presently two of the gentlemen who had passed us on Mr. Shee’s car came rather suddenly out of the house in company with two or three constables.

Shortly after this incident there arose a considerable noise of groaning and shouting from the hill-side beyond the highway, and presently a number of people, women and children predominating, appeared coming down towards the precincts of the house. They were following a person in a clerical dress, who proved to be Father Quilter, the parish priest, who had denounced his people to Colonel Turner as “poor slaves” of the League! A colloquy followed between Father Quilter and the policemen of the cordon. This was brought to a close by Mr. Roche, the resident magistrate, who went forward, and finding that Father Quilter wished to pass the cordon, politely but firmly informed him that this could not be done. “Not if I am the bearer of a telegram for the lawyer?” asked Father Quilter, in a loud and not entirely amiable tone. “Not on any terms whatever,” responded the magistrate. Father Quilter still maintaining his ground, the women crowded in around and behind him, the men bringing up the rear at a respectable distance, and the small boys shouting loudly. For a moment faint hopes arose within me that I was about to witness one of the .exciting scenes of which I have more than once read. But only for a moment. The magistrate ordered the police to advance. As they drew near the wall with an evident intention of going over it into the highway, Father Quilter and the women fell back, the boys and men retreated up the opposite hill, and the brief battle of Glenbehy was over.