THE LEWS DEFOLCKMENT CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7341, 30 May 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LEWS DEFOLCKMENT CASE.

Tbb trial of the nine men charged with being concerned in the deforcement of a mesaenger-at-arms and his concurrents at Valtos, Uig, on the Bth December last, was resumed before Sheriff Black at Stornoway. The Procurator-Fiscal (Mr. VV. Ross), Mr. Burns, solicitor, agent for Graham, and Mr. Napier Campbell, solicitor, Stornoway, agent for the other eight prisoners, having addressed the Court, the Sheriff, after an adjournment of half an hour, in delivering his judgment, said when he came to this island, a little more than four years ago, he found the crofter population law-abiding, courteous, affectionate, and altogether loveable. His Lordship defied the efforts of men to rob the Lews, men of these fine traits of character. That was how he found the crofters when he came to the island. How did he find them now ?' They were arrogant, and terrorism was universal, fie found that, there was discontent everywhere, and in some districts anarchy was supreme. For example, be found the landlord robbed of his rent, the traoksman robbed of his land, and officers of the law terrorised. The officers were so much terrorised in executing their duty that they had to flee for their lives, and boycotting had become painfully rampant. Tacksmen of the island were boycotted, well-dis-posed crofters were boycotted, and when be spoke of the well dieposed crofters in this island he knew that they dared not for their lives say what they felt. Attempts to murder —not one or two or three attempts—had been made in this island, and in a cowardly manner, by heaping stones npon the road, hoping that the carriages containing the intended victims should be killed. Several threatening letters had also been sent to parties in the island and what did he find in Stornoway ? It was very sad to think that even in Stornoway the reign of terror was complete. What were the causes of this agitation that had taken place? In the first place, there had been a great commotion in Ireland. Beneficent legislation did much at length to remove Irish grievances. People there and elsewhere thought that the Irish peasant had succeeded in getting justice by means of agrarian violence. The Irish agitation, in a manner, wan quelled by the passing of the Crimes Act. They experienced here something of the gronndswell of that Irish agitation. It began in Skye, and one of the wildest battles fonght was that of the Braes. It was a battle between law and lawlessness, and it was a lost battle for the law. He then told his friends in the Lews that that was the beginning of the end. He told them that they would not be long without a field of battle at their own doors. The most of the people were connected with the Free Church of Scotland—a "Church that had made great sacrifices. It was impossible for those who were the leaders of that Ohurch to look on without taking note of this fact, that men in the Lews and in the Outer Hebrides connected with the Free Church were becoming the prey of anarchists; that they were injuring the good name of that Church. The Free Church formed an association in Edinburgh, and tried to guide the evil torrent and prevent it from devastating and doing irreparable mischief. They made an honest effort. The anarchists utilised these reinforcements. They were delighted to find the Church taking up the cry, "Agitate within the law." The people did agitate, and the efforts of the Church' became fearfully misohievous in their results. He alluded to the defective educational condition of the island, and pointed out that the tax was 5s 8d per £1, in place of the Is 4d whioh it was anticipated by the Government would meet the rate. An effort was being made in the island to establish industrial schools, where, above all, the daughters of the crofters might be taught to become domestic servants. He subsequently mentioned emigration as a meant of relieving the congested state of the population. If a great crime were committed in the island, the first thing that was attempted was to deny that it had taken place at all. When it could no longer be denied, it was at once said it was not done by a crofter, or an attempt was m&de to belittle it, or to make it appear that it was the work of the tipsy man or some schoolboys; and so crime was going on, but; he wss happy to say that it was almost confined to one district. There was some of it no doubt in the parish of Loohs, where one poor farmer had committed the unpardonable crime of rising from the ranks of the crofters. There was an almost exceptional state of matters in the district of Uig. It was remarkable—phenomena], in fact —-that almost all the agrarian lawlessness in the island was in that parish, and was perpetrated by those connected with the Established Church. His Lordship said no more about the matter except that it was one calling for careful inquiry, and he must give his Established Church friends in the island a warning on it. It had been told him that that Church displayed the greatest amount of vitality of the Church of-Scotland, but the people belonging to it should not believe too much in their strength. In these parts the Established Church had not a great many friends, and he warned them that they had better take care and look to the matter. If the Church of Scotland desired to stand well with the country in the matter of agrarian lawlessness, let the General Assembly send down to those islands a .Commission of Inquiry into the remarkable phenomenon how it was that more agrarian lawlessness came from the congregation connected with the Established Church of Uig than from all the rest of the island put together. The district was perfectly honeycombed with agrarian lawlessness. Was it true or was-it not that members of the congregation and office-bearers were implicated in the matter? His Lordship did not say that it was true. He had no right to say so. He knew nothing of the teaching of the office-bearers of that Church, except what a gentleman volunteered on the previous day in the course of a private conversation which he had with him. His Lordship went on to remark, that be thought it was the bounded duty of every Free Church minister, for they had the ears of the people, to denounce outrages. There was not, he said, one single Free Church minister who had ever given tbe slightest countenance to agrarian lawlessness. It wan necessary that strong measures should be used.. He was sorry for the poor deluded crofters. They were mere, puppets, who were shifted about like men on a chess-board. He felt he had the wrong men before him. Those who were guilty were those men who, he supposed, were walking about clad in purple und fine linen, and fared sumptuously eVary day. With a sharp knife, he must do what he could to cut out the cancer before it reaohed the vitals. He would do what he could to smite down lawlessness with a hand mailed in iron.—After having spoken for one hour and ten minutes, His Lordship said he held that the crimes of deforcement and assault had been committed, and he accordingly sentenced the majority of the men to fifty days' imprisonment. The decision of the Sheriff cauied much indignation at Stornoway.