AN ABORTIVE SEIZURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 429, 1 July 1881, Page 11

AN ABORTIVE SEIZURE.

Last Monday, the 25th April, may be set down as an eventfullv in the history of quiet litcle Cahir, on the lovely banks of the bright Suir. On the above day we had iuacted on its borders one of the most stirring scenes now so common through the country, viz., a seizure for rent. Though everything was managed in the quietest possible manner by the authorities, yet the affair, by some inexplicable agency or other, got abroad, and the consequence was that the most ignominious failure of the " landlord brigade " was the result. Various were the conjectures as to how the plans of the authorities became known. Some asseit that the spy was in the very camp of the enemy ; others put forward a different theory. Be this as it may, the full programme was in their hands, and whether or not I know the source from which it came I will not say. Some hour about noon, fifty or sixty men of the 18th Hussars, stationed at Cahir barracks, could be observed crossing Cahir demesne, seemingly with the greatest caution and silence. Their route lay directly towards Major Hutchinson's house, that gentleman being the principal personage in the comic drama played with the greatest eclat a few hours afterwards. Seventy or eighty police, under the command of Sub-inspector Bouchier and Colonel Carew, R.M., also attended and formed a living moving wall around the persons of the agent, the sub-sheriff, and three or four bailiffs. Immediately this little army proceeded to a Mr. Walshe's farm at Ballymacadem, on Lady M. Charteris's estate. Through her agent, Major Hutchinson, the present action was taken, because Mr. Walshe refused to pay his rent when a suitable and reasonable reduction was not forthcoming. Moreover, he is rated enormously high ; in fact he, with the other tenants on the estate (who are standing together) are paying grinding rack-rents. Arriving on the farm the agent and his party proceeded on their seizing business. Judge of their disappointment when their search was rewarded by finding on the whole premises only three bonhams. Those disagreeable customers could not be easily carried without much noise, so they were left behind. The only other animal found on the farm wa* a specimen of the he goat, which was tastefully and elegantly decorated with green sprays of ivy and holly tied with green ribbon?. On his large horns was a large pasteboard with the greeting " Welcome Major," in large letters. Great merriment was caused by this animal. Any person dared not approach him under pain of a good sound butting. A large crowd from the surrounding localities was on the spot. A quick fire of the bitterest taunts and jeeVs was kept up at the agent by the crowd, accompanied by a continuous fire of rotten eggs. Being thus defeated the little cavalcade wended its way again, quick step, into Cahir. The police, with their charge, proceeded by a back street to the barracks. Mr. Walshe addressed the assembled crowd at some length on the square of the town in a most eloquent manner. — Freeman.