IRISH "AGRARIAN- OUTRAGE."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 267, 14 June 1878, Page 7

IRISH "AGRARIAN- OUTRAGE."

Nx . . (From the New York Times.) One evening m the year 1827, two years before Catholic, emancipation and when Ireland was wound up to a pitch of excitement such as she had not known since 1798, four gentlemen sat round a sumptuous Umner-table in Dublin. They were a remarkable quartet The host was by no means the least so. He was Sir Philip Crampton, a man worthy to rank with a Pare or a Hunter, who by sheer W of gciuus had raised himself to the highest pinnacle of prof essional fame mSST ° n i i C Sfste W ei^ Mr. Blake, Chief Eemembrancer , the W? ? f^nt Puchard Shiel, and William Lamb, Chief Secretary for Ireland, better known as Lord Melbourne. There was a political object in this party. Melbourne had confided to Sir Philip his desire to meet some of the leaders of Irish agitation. He wanteS to hear « the other side," and his biographer tells us that, « wMleTombating stoutly for the^dispensability of maintaining order at Sy cost, as the first condition of legal liberty, Melbourni was invohmtanly moved by the touching recitals of wrong and oppression which daily drove the peasantry to madness, and disdained to hide Ms disgust at the manner in which criminal justice was administered by tS Si r + - ]imeS , and a partisan Beach - He be S an t0 understand for ™2 *w f nCG ar ° SC the ss W ath y agrarian outrage which \uis not shown to mean or mercenary crime, and after listening to details of vengeance wreaked on agents and underlings, he very characteristically exclaimed, « Why don't they go at the bi *W» i£ senteasm answered the question in part, and for the rest the habit of going aimed after nightfall. For many men then always carried pistols when going out bunting, for safety when returning at dusk. IS some had had a hundred hair-breadth escapes-one landlord inS perary earning the sobriquet of << The Woodcock," because so hard to hit. But Melbourne's question, and his way of putting it, made a great impression onSheil, and, when twelve years later, his English fellow-guest who had meanwhile become Prime Minister, luinmoned him to ask what in the world could be done for Ireland, Shell said: Do you remember your question to me at Crampton's table twelve years ago, 'How is it that they don't shoot one of the biff 'uns?' lou see that they have come to that way of thinking at last " " Yes I remember," said the Prime Minister. '< It is terrible ; and no one can tell me what is to be done. As one of the severest judges said to tonTlon 'a o"' '* ' bangin S woukl do "' ifc ought to have been m , 1 .? hC S 1 mC 7, iat 1c1 c sc of tMs remarkable conversation was the murder of the Earl of Norbury, in the demesne of his seat, Durrow who £t+w? i: ?O3? O3 ; bui 7> tie descendant of one of Cromwell's soldiers Zln t I i Ireland, was the son of an execrated man, the judge who sentenced Emmet ; but personally he was not only inoffensive but excellent. The crime to this hour remains a myster^S^ S.P C lh • Il ?f Ul b^ S fallen h ? an assassin's hand until Lord Leitam met his fate on Monday. His is a widely different case. i«- T.™ fr ??* $ a grantee oi land at tne Plantation of Ulster &^^iS"i L f? tnmadded largely to possessions lU^T^f £ ■ -^ c ? imtl 7> aa <* ha d become a very wealthy man. s lt't 'ii e r m nches be f , ell fr reputation, and there was not in the ww? ZtVa fT I<e d T es P isecl h ? those of Ms own rank, more loathed by those below it. His arbitrariness and want of kindly con! sideration were by no means the worst of his offences in the eyes of

dependents. He further took advantage of their helplessness to make it subservient to Ms own gross immorality, and fathers and brothers knew that the compliance of those dearest to them was the price which must be paid for a roof over their heads. The Irish, whatever their faults,' are the most moral of people, and many a so-called agrarian outrage " really has its origin in a widely different cause, huch, then, was the hoary-headed reprobate who has just been sent to his account. For years he has been almost a social pariah, living on his wild remote properties, on which he scarcely dared to move unless guarded by two fully armed constables ; and there are thousands of men in Ireland to-day who, although they would ordinarily strain every muscle to seize an assassin, would not go a yard out of their way to convict the killers of the Earl of Leitrim? It is now many years since an accident revealed to society the pitiful meanness of this miserable man. The late Earl of Carlisle, the viceroy, a man whose only fault was an excess of kindliness, while travelling in the West, bespoke rooms at a certain hotel. The landlord expressed his great regret that he was compelled to refuse his Excellency. When pressed, le admitted that Lord Leitrim, his landlord, had given stringent orders to that effect, because the Irish Government had felt compelled to refuse some unreasonable request which Lord Leitrim had made. Had the insult been to Lord Carlisle merely as Lord Carlisle, no one would have been more sublimely indifferent to it, as one of the most popular men among those of all parties and creeds, he could well afford to be ; but as representative of the very person of the sovereign it could not be passed over, and a stroke of the viceregal pen erased his insulter's name from all public employments. We have adverted to these points to show that while it is, of course, greatly to be depl6red that Lynch law should be in vogue in Ireland, or anywhere else, there has been in the present instance a degree of provocation that removes the case fiom the ordinary category of agrarian offenses, which have happily been, of late, extremely infrequent. Lord Leitrim has for forty years been provoking vengeance. He has had ample warning, and has only met Jus death by persisting in running in the very teeth of danger.