The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1888. BOYCOTTING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1735, 10 May 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1888. BOYCOTTING.

As the meaning of this term is not well understood, it may probably prove interesting to some of our readers to know exactly what it signifies. We have heard of a man who searched the dictionary for it, and was greatly surprised at not finding it there. Of course it is not in any dictionary, for it is a word that was coined in the year 1880 to express a newly-developed social condition. Ostracism is the nearest equivalent to it to be found in a dictionary, hut it does not exactly convey the same meaning. Sin order to full significance, it is necessary to give a little of the history of the popular movement in Ireland. Iu 1879 Ireland was suffering trom a famine, in consequence of a bad harvest aud a fall in prices. Mr Parnell urged upon the attention of the Government the miserable condition of Ireland, and introduced a Bdi entitled “ The Compensation Jpr Disturbance Bill/ This Bill provided that any tenant evicted for nonpayment of rent should be allowed by his landlord compensation for any improvement'/© had made on the land during his tenancy. This appears to be very fair. If a tenant had made improvements on land, it appears only fair that he should be paid for fchy

work he had done. Mr Gladstone, who was then the Prime Minister, supported the Bill, and it was in the speech that he delivered on the occasion that he made use of the often-quoted words that “ eviction processes were falling all over Ireland as thick as flakes of snow.” The Bill passed the House of Commons, but the moment it reached the House of Lords it was thrown out at once. Mr Parnell then proposed to tack the Bill onto the Estimates, as in that case the Lords would have to pass it or else reject both itself and the Estimates, because the Lords cannot amend money Bills. Mr Gladstone was doubtless afraid of a deadlock. If the Lords rejected the Estimates he would have no money to go on with, and a deadlock would have been the result. He probably was afraid of this, and did not go to the extreme point suggested by Mr Parnell. Binding so small a measure or justice as this rejected in an houf when famine raged in the land, the people of Ireland began to despair of ever getting anything done for them by the British Parliament, and they resolved to take the matter into their own hands in the best way they could. They found that as soon as a landlord evicted a tenant from his farm scores of other farmers were ready to take up the land. Not only wore they ready to take up the farms, but they invariably gave large bonuses to the landlord, together with his rent. The landlords had, therefore, an interest in evicting their tenants, for the new tenants would pay them bonuses. Mr Michael Davitt was the first to see that so long as this continued evictions would go on, and so he hit upon a plan to stop it. He called a meeting and formed the first branch of the famous Land League, and soon its rammifications spread all over the land. The members of this League, amongst other things, pledged themselves not to buy from, or sell to, or speak to, or have any dealings whatsoever with any person who would take up a farm from which a tenant had been evicted. The first man to whom the League turned its attention was Captain Boycott. He did something in defiance of the League, with the result that one fine morning he found that all his servants had left him, and that not one of his neighbors would speak to him or work for him, or buy from him, or sell to him. He went into the nearest town, and he could not get a storekeeper that would sell him a pinch of snuff ; he looked around for men to save his harvest, but in rain. He was completely ostracised, and entirely cut off from any communication with his neighbors; he was literally “ alone in a multitude.” From the North of Ireland a large number of Orangemen came, with banners flying and drums beating, to cut down his harvest. They did it, and it was thought that there would be a fearful riot between the Leaguers and the Orangemen, but no such thing occurred. The Land League had its members under control, and no one would dare to fight in defiance of its orders. The Orangemen had to go home, and Captain Boycott had to leave the district; but after a time he came back, and made friends with the Land League—and the last we heard of him was about five years ago, when he was the most popular man in the neighborhood. Captain Boycott having been the first to whom the new system was applied, it was henceforward called after him, and that was how the word “ boycotting ” originated. From that time forward when a man was cut off from all communicatiou with his fellow men he was said to be boycotted. On moral grounds, of course, the system cannot be defended, but the people were driven to its adoption, and through its means they saved thousands from death by starvation, while it struck terror into the hearts of landlords.

THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. The Plan of Campaign is not two J years old yet. It was originated by »Messrs John Dillon and William O’Brien in the beginning of last year, when the people were again in a miserable condition. The cause of the misery then was that prices had fallen by about 50 per cent. The people could not pay their rents, and the landlords were, as usual, evicting them. To meet the case the Plan of Campaign was adopted, and the way it is worked is as follows :—Tfao tenants of a landlord meet and agree amongst themselves as to the amount they can afford to pay. They then go to the landlord, explain to him that low prices have ruined them; that they have not made sufficient to pay his rent, but that they will give him what they can afford if he will give them a clean receipt. The amount they generally deduct is about 25 per cent. If the landlord accepts their offer everything passes off smoothly, and there is an end to it; hut if the landlord refuses they tell him that the money will be placed in the hands of a trustee, who will keep it safe until such time as the landlord likes to accept it. They also warn him that if he go to law they will spend the money placed to his credit in the hands of the trustee in defending themselves. Very frequently the trustee in whose hands the people place tins money is the parish priest, but, of course, this js kept a secret. It was as a trustee that Pather Roller, of Youghall, was imprisoned. He was supjcqooed in a bankruptcy case before Judge Boyd, gad whpp asked questions

as to whether any money of this kind had been committed to his charge he refused to answer the question, on the ground that it was a secret confided to him by his flock, and that it was not lawful to compel him to divulge it. Father Matthew Ryan was imprisoned for the same thing, and we believe that almost every priest who has been sent to gaol suffered for a similar offence.

Wo notice that Archbishop Red-, wood, in an interview with an. Auckland Bell reporter, said that the “ Plan of Campaign ” and the “ League ” are identical. His Grace is in error, The National League—there is no Land League now, for it was suppressed many years ago—embraces every aspect of the Irish question. It is a sort of Government: it deals with everything; there is no question affecting Ireland beyond its scope. But the Plan of Campaign is only what we have above described it —a means of repressing the rapacity of the landlords. As regards the Pope’s recent action, our opinion is that he has condemned the Plan of Campaign, hut not the National League On the face of it, the Plan of Campaign is morally wrong, so long as we acknowledge that the landlords possess any property in land, and have a right to claim rents for it. It is not right that any body of men should be able to say to any man to whom they owe money, “ This is all you can get,” and we belieye that it is this which the Pope has condemned. The Plan of Campaign is wrong in principle, but it was not adopted until the people were driven to despair. Just as in 1879, Mr Parnell introduced into Parliament a Bill providing that the lands should be revalued by a Court, and that no tenant should be disturbed until it had been legally decided by this Court whether he was paying too much rent or not. This Bill, like all the Bills Mr Parnell has ever introduced, was thrown out, and the people, as in 1879, losing hope of the law ever doing anything for them, adopted the Plan of Campaign. Since then a far more liberal Bill has been passed by Parliament, and the Courts have been established to revalue the land. The result is that these Courts have cut down the rents much belo w the Plan of Campaign, and that a great many landlords now prefer to accept the offers of their tenants in this way than go to law. The Pope in all probability looked at the principle of the thing, without inquiring into the exceptional circumstances of the case, and condemned it, and in our opinion this is all he has done. It is a question that concerns morals, and on that ground he has interfered, but we do not believe one word about “ denying absolution,” or inflicting other pains or penalties. This is all thrown in. He has condemned boycotting and the Plan of Campaign in a general way ; no doubt the same way as he condemned the movement at the time of the Parnell fund. There was nothing about absolution then, and there is, we feel certain, nothing about it now, and his condemnation will float over the backs of Irishmen as gently as water floats over the back of a duck. At any rate Irishmen never did, and never will, submit to any Papal interference in their domestic politics, and the Pope knows it well, and if he has interfered at all, he has done so, so as to show that the Church could nob countenance anything opposed to its moral teaching.