ANOTHER AGRARIAN MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume XI, Issue 3240, 8 December 1880, Page 3

ANOTHER AGRARIAN MURDER.

The lessons which tho Laud Loaguo are daily inculcating upou the savage and cowardly peasantry of the South and West of Ireland continue to bear sad and melancholy fruit. Ou October 1C a fresh agrarian assassination took place at Iniahanacarig, n secluded spot between Drimoleaguo and Bantry, in the county of Cork. The intended victim on this occasion was a magistrate aud landed proprietor of the county, Mr Samuel Hutchins, of Ardnagashill, who was on his way home after baviug collected a few rents in the neighbourhood. This gentleman, however, more fortuoate than Lord Leitrira, Lord Mouutmorris, or any of those whose recent murder has stained the soil of Ireland with innocent blood, escaped 1119 assassin's bullet, which, missing its iutended prey, mortally wounded the driver, a man named John Downey. Mr Hutchins, who was proceeding homewards on a onehorse drag, seated side by side with the unfortunate coachman, no sooner saw the latter fall than with tho speed of lightning he jumped off the box, just in time to escapo being shot iv turn, as the murderer, who was lurking behind a hedge, armed with a doublebarrelled guv, the moment he perceived that the landlord was uninjured, again took deliberate aim at him with the second barrel. Had ho been less active, or delayed a single instant on the drag, Mr Hutchins' own death would have been equally certain, as the second shot, which was directed with a surer aim than the first one had beeu, passed directly over the seat where he had been sitting. All this took place on the high road to Baatry, one of the principal towns in the county Cork, in broad daylight, in the presence of a young woman whs wag travelling on tho same road, and withiu sight of several houses. It is to be regretted that Mr Hutchins, who is stated to have been armed with a loaded revolver, did not either pursue his assailant or fire at him himself, although ho is said to have distinctly seen him making his escape in the direction of a neighbouring wood, where of course he was soon lost to view. The police, whose barrack was at no great distance from the scene of the outrage, were soon on the spot, but their utmost exertions were unavailing, the uuhappy driver being already dead and no trace of the murderer forthcoming. As in the case of Lord Moantmorris, tho Government have offered a reward of £1,000 for the discovery of the murderer.

THE KEIGN OP TERROR,

'' It is Bomowkat diflicult for an ordinary Englishman to realise the preaent condition pf attairs in Ireland, as they were described by the noblemen and gentlemen who assembled in conference the other day in the Irish metropolis, and subsequently waited upon the Lord Lieutenant and Chief Secretary aa a representative deputation of the whole body of Irish landlords. In Dublin, the third city of the United Kingdom, the residence of the Viceroy, the Beat of the law courts, and the capital of Ireland, within eleven hours of London by rail, the landed proprietors of the country are actually obliged to m-jet in private and discuss measures for the preservation of their live 3 and property without venturing to do so in public, or allow the names and statements of the apeaksro to be made known. When Her Majesty's representative and the Minister who is specially charged with Irish interests in the Cabinet are compelled to receive a deputation of one hundred and iive landlords and agents almost by stealth, and to listen to the statements of men in the highest social position who tell them that it will coat them their lives were their names to be made known outside the Council Chamber of Dublin Castle, the people of this country will begin to ask' themselves .whether such a state of .things is to be allowed to go on, and if the Government arel prepared to admit that it is no longer in their power to protect human life or uphold the public tranquillity and supremacy of the law in Ireland.. Tho statements which were made would be almost incredible were it not that sad and irecent experience nan shown that when in!flamed with an unholy greed for the property :■< of ; others, and excited by the 'incendiary- i denunciations of professional 'agitators, there is no possible act of savagery at. which/ the Irish peasant will hesitate. Noblemen and gentlemen of the highest character, and whoso testimony it ss impossible to doubt, presented themselves before Lord Cowper, and giving their names and titles in a whisper, told him that.it was a matter ot grave doubt as to, whether they would ever reach home alive. Others were pointed out to him in the Council Chamber who had been long m»rked by the Vehmgericht fer assassination, and whose death by the bullet or the bludgeon was merely a question of time. Others, again, were being daily guarded by the police, and lived with their houses almost in a state.of siege. It.is no exaggeration to say that a rei^uof terror is prevailing at the present moment in the whole south and west of Ireland, and that every manwhois possessed of any property in land, or who from what ever other reason is obnoxious to the chiefs of the Land League, carries his life in h. land. Landowners and magistrates are deterred from the exercises of their rights and the performance of their judicial duties, tenants who are willing and anxious to pay their rents (an many unquestionably are),, are forbidden to do so, and should they venture to do it are obliged to invent some excuse for going to seethe agent, and actually decline to take receipts for the money lest they should be searched on their way home aGd^exposed to the summary vengeance of the secret tribunal. Outrage" succeeds outrage with systematic rapidity alike on man, beast, property, and there is nolonger the ; slightest confidence reposed in the ability of the law to protect anyone or anything. If the Government have aheady done everything iff their power to punish crimo and outrage, and the result is what we have seen, it.becomes plain to every reasonable man that the ordinary course of ..law and the constitutional powera with which Us. represente.tives are at present armed are totally insufficient to , cope, with the existing conspiracy against life and property.