MICHAEL DAVITT ON IRISH CRIME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 514, 16 February 1883, Page 13

MICHAEL DAVITT ON IRISH CRIME.

In the speech recently delivered by him at Staley bridge. Mr. Davitt spoke as follows :—: — In Ireland at present there is a total absence of almost every other class of crime except agrarian crime, and this fact must be borne testimony to on all sides. We find the subject of Irish crime narrowed down to one peculiar kind, What then is the origin of this peculiar class of Irish crime ? How is it perpetuated ? How can it be effectually stamped out of Ireland ? To find replies to these questions I must do what is seldom attempted on either side of the Irish land question, namely go back on the history of agrarian crime in Ireland and find a point from which we can commence a logical inquiry. I know many people believe, or force themselves into such belief, that agrarian outrages commenced with the Land League, and that the founder of that terrible organisation should be hanged for the crimes which have been committed since that movement commenced. I, of course, demur to that, and I will endeavour to show such people that agrarian crime in Ireland is more than a century old, and that to agrarian crime and to nothing else is due the death of the Land League. About the year 1760 was formed the first agrarian secret society, known in the history of Irish landlordism as " The Whiteboys." Their origin was as follows — The landlords of Tipperary under promise of a reduction of rent were allowed to enclose large tracts of commonage in that county, upon which the farmers from the time of the old clan system of tenure had had the right of pasturage for their cattle. The landlords refusing to grant the stipulation after seizing upon the commonage land, the farmers banded themselves together for the purpose of demolishing the fences which enclosed the pasturage ground, and from wearing a white sheet or similar covering of disguise, they became known as the " Whiteboys." Outrages of a frightful character began to be perpetrated, and the Agrarian Secret Society extended its ramifications over other parts of Ireland under various other names. As in every other instance of an agrarian outbreak in Ireland the origin of the Whiteboys, and the motive for the crimes perpetrated by them, are clearly and unquestionably traced by history and independent testimony to acts of glaring confiscation by Irish landlordism. Arthur Young, in his celebrated tour in Ireland sixteen years after the appearance of the Whiteboys, writes of the treatment of the people at that time :—: — " To discover what the liberty of a people is, we must live amongst them, and not look for it in the statutes of the realm. The language of written law may be of liberty, but the situation of the poor may speak no language but that of slavery. There is too much of this contradiction in Ireland. A long series of oppression, aided by many ill-judged laws, has brought the landlords into a habit of exercising a very lofty superiority, and their vassals into that of most unlimited submission. The oppressive conduct of the little country gentlemen, or, rather, vermin of the kingdom, altogether bears still heavily on the poor people, and subjects them to situations more mortifying than we ever beheld in England." Writing of the origin, the crimes, and the cure for " Whiteboyism," this enlightened Englishman spoke words more than a hundred years ago which apply as strongly and as pertinently to the Ireland of this hour as those which he applies to the Ireland of the penal laws :— | " The Whiteboys being labouring men, met with all those oppressions I have described, and would probably have continued in full submission had not very severe treatment blown up the flame of resistance, The atrocious acts they were guilty of made them the objects of general indignation. Laws were passed for their punishment which seemed calculated for the meridian of Barbary. It is manifest that the gentlemen of Ireland never thought of a radical cure from overlooking the real cause of the disease, which in fact lay in themselves, and not in the wretches they doomed to the gallows."

OaD it not be said to-day, in the language of Arthur Young, that " the real cause of these abominable crimes is overlooked because a radical cure is not thought of." The Maamtrasna massacre can only be read by prejudiced minds in the light of agitation, and aa an outcome of the teachings of the Land League. Yet stubborn facts assert themselves in this instance on the side of truth, and declare — first, that no branch of the Land League was ever formed or a public meeting held in that part of Connemara ; second, that all the parties concerned in the murder of the Joyce family, I believe, with the exception of the informers, were not only unable to read, but to speak English, and were .consequently, unable to study either Land League literature or peruse the newspapers in which Land League speeches were reported ; third, the only man connected with the Lough Mask murders to whom a suspicion of Land Leaguism was attached is the man Mathias Kerrigan, upon whose evidence two men have been convicted — Kerrigan whom the Government prosecutors declare was innocent of complicity in the killing of Lord Ardilaun's bailiffs (applause). Having come thus far ia the treatment of this very difficult and unpopular point, I have now to make reference incidentally to a statement made in Dublin last week by a poor office-seeking miserable Castle hack named Teeling. He was employed as counsel to defend those wretches who have been tried for the Lough Mask murders, and in order to propitiate himself with Dublin Castle and to win some favourable comments from the editor of the London Times and such men in England he launched into an attack upon the Land League, and declared that it was responsible for most of the crimes committed in Dublin during the last two years. He referred to the fact that Mathias Kerrigan had received clothes and money from Miss Anna Parnell and the Ladies' Land League while he was a suspect in Gal way Jail. I deny that Mathias Kerrigan was ever a Land Leaguer. I don't know what his opinions are. I don't know whether he ever attended a meeting, but this I know, he is an informer and that he turned Queen's evidence, and that he never received any countenance as such from the Land League (cheers). I only regret that there is not a law in this country, and in every civilised country;, that would

provide that the wretch who wormed himself into the- confidence ofr his fellow-men in order to hand them over to the law, should suffer the penalty of those who placed confidence in him (cheers). But while Mr. Teeling would insinuate that the informer Kerrigan was a Land Leaguer, the Crown Prosecutor, the Castle and the English Government declared that Mathias Kerrigan "had .nothing to do with the murder ; therefore the Land League is cleared up, even out of the mouth of the Crown Prosecutor acting for the English Government in Dublin. But it is true that Mathias Kerrigan received some clothes and some money in charily from Miss Anna Parnell and her colleagues while he was a suspect in Galway Jail. But I want to ask this question — How could these ladies, working in Dublin for a charitable object, sit in judgment upon every man that was arrested under Mr. Porster's regime in Ireland ? (Cheers). Could they know whether he was guilty of murder or not ? Unquestionably they could not. He was arrested as a suspect under a Coercion Act passed in consequence of the Land League Agitation, and the ladies were compelled to give assistance to every man who was put in prison in Ireland by Mr. Forster without being brought to trial before a judge or jury (cheers). When he was in Galway, or any other prison, why didn't the Government charge the murder against him, and from that instant the ladies of the Land League and the men of the Land League would have had nothing to do with such a man (cheers). But as a prisoner under the Coercion Act I hold that the ladies had no alternative but to treat him as they treated the 900 other innocent men who were put up by Mr. Forster in Ireland (applause). Well, having disposed of this clumsy calumny hurled at the Land. League by an office-seeking lawyer in Dublin, I have to refer to a similar calumny which I believe is to be uttered against the same devoted body of Irish ladies to-morrow in connection with the trial that ia now proceeding in Dublin. I learned on leaving Dublin yesterday that a letter was found upon the man who is now being tried for the murder of Lord Ardilaun's bailiffs, and that in that letter men-, . tion was made by the lady writer of Mr. Parnell. I believe the application from this individual was for relief, and that the lady who answered his letter stated that his application, like all such applications, now amounting to thousands, I believe, every week, should be laid before Mr. ParneH, and because this letter is found upon this prisoner the Castle organs in Dublin and the enemies of the Land League endeavour to establish a connection between the Land League, Mr. Parnell, and the murder of Lord Ardilaun's bailiffs (cries of " Sbame "). Well, I need not, I think, defend the character of the Ladies' Land League or of Mr. Parnell here ' (cheers). Mr. Davitt, having referred to the crime that existed anterior to the Land League and when there was no agrarian agitation, and also shown that dor* ing the recent movement the country was comparatively- free ' from outrages, continued — There is a war and a hatred between landlord and tenant as fierce as though it were carried on by force of arms. There is a suspicion, too, between landlord and tenant which is not known between any class of people in this country, and there is ahatred,. too, which I believe under the present and past system has been pursued in Ireland which can never be— l assert can never be — healed or eradicated until the radical cure advocated by Arthur Young 100 years ago for the same disease is applied, and the social rinderpest of Ireland, the origin of agrarian murder and outrage, the fell inspirer of Maamtrasnas— lrish landlordism — is stamped out by just, humane, and courageous legislation (loud cheers). I would therefore say to the English people, remember these facts, all of which are testimony on our side. Irish landlordism is a crime in itself, inasmuch as it is a system of robbery. It has bred, and is at this moment still breeds ing, discontent, poverty, and misery in Ireland, and these are agencies in the production of crime. Its gifts to Ireland have been workhouses, prisons, and the emigrant ships. But English legislation must share with Irish landlordism the responsibility of the last three years' agrarian crime (hear, hear). If you want to kill agrarian crime in Ireland do not perpetuate, but abolish, its cause — landlordism. If you want to win the Irish people over to law and order, make the law of the people of Ireland as you have made the law of Canada, and when you do this, and show that order shall rest upon the constitutional rule of Ireland and the good of its people, instead of resting as now upon brute force and the political ascendency of Dublin Castle, you will solve the problem of Irish discontent, and give to us the peace we demand, and to yourselves the reward which a contented and prosperous Ireland would represent to you (cheers). Our duty as Irishmen, despite calumny, crime, temporary disasteT,prejudice, or insensate opposition, is to press on in a just and a noblo cause that will, with God's blessing, effect the successful redemption of our old fatherland (loud cheers).