THE LATE EARL OF LET TRIM .

West Coast Times, Issue 2835, 4 May 1878, Page 3

THE LATE EARL OF LET TRIM .

Referring to the murder of the Earl of Leitrim, reported by cable on the 6th ult., tbe Brisbane Courier writes :—": — " The terrible crime perpetrated near Milford a smalltown in the County Donegal, is a .grievous episode in a grievous history. For many years past the late Earl of JLeitrim and the tenantry on his estates in Donegaljhave been at enmity. He was a anan whose ideas of the rights of the lord of the soil belonged to the old feudal times, when the owner of a large estate was master of the lives and fortanes of all who resided upon it, and they were merely his serfs. The way 3of his tenantry were not his ways, and tney were not prepared to adopt his 1 new fangled notions.' He did not recognise in them any right to their farms, but the narrowest they could claim under short leases, high rcntp, and hard conditions. They believed in sticking to the land on which they and theirs bad for generations lived, and when their leases fell in they claimed renewals, payment tor improvements, or other concessions. He on the other hand, was anxious to get rid of those whom he could not bend to his will. There also existed between them other causes of feud, religious and political ; and he, using the means the law furnished him with, did get rid of most of them. When their* leases ran out he would not renew on any terms, and his agents accompanied by what in Ireland was faniilhrly known as the ' crowbar brigade,' and protected by large bodies of armed police, evicted those who clung to their holdings, and would not give up peaceable possession, by levelling their cabins to the ground. Some of these evictions occurred under circumstances of peculiar severity, and attracted attention all over the kingdom, and severe comment from tbe Press both of England and Ireland. Tbe evictions took place in the .depth of winter, and old and infirm persons, women and children, were pat out in the snow on the mountain side, absolutely without shelter. Of course, when this once occurs throughout a whole vil'age it means terrible destitution and misery. If we remember rightly, these events created so profound an impression that The Times sent over a commissioner, who travelled through Donegal and Leitrim visiting most of the large estates, anil reporting on the condition of the tenantry. Uis published letters led to some severe comments in Parliament on the harshness of Irish landlords."