Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 46, 9 March 1888, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.)

Mb. Wilvbid Biitmr's progress to Portumna to attend at the trial of bis appeal was as much like a criminal's journey as the conveyance of Lalla Bookh to the paradise of her bridegroom, It was a scene or a concatenation of scenes, of the most unbounded enthusiasm and welcome. He was accompanied to the Kingsbridge terminns by a large number of friends ; and at Athy,' Birr, Boscrea, and other places, he was presented with addresses of welcome and sympathy. The appeal was heard before County Court Judge, Mr. Rice' Henn. Mr. Blunt? was accompanied by Lady Anne Blunt, Mr. Shaw 1 Lefevre, M.P., ; Mr. Evelyn, M.P., ; and many other English visitors. Mr. David Sheeny, M.P., entered the court in custody. Mr. Atkinson,' Q.C., stated the case for the Crown, and narrated the circumstances attending the attempt to hold a meeting. He stated that Mr. Blunt was twice removed from the platform, tht»t on each occasion he resisted to the utmost of his power, ' called the police cowards and defied them to arrest him ; they did arrest him, and he had for this brought a large number of actions. Counsel argued that the placards K headed " English Home Rule Union " were sham and'that the meeting was merely an adjournment of the midnight meeting at Woudford on the 15th October which bad be,en> proclaimed. The County Court Judge who rejoices in the grand historic name of Henn has rendered ' signal Bervice- to his country's cause at a critical moment. On Saturday, January 7., this functionary delivered a judgment which is likely to earn for him a niche in' the temple of Themis. His solemn announcement amounts to this — that it is sheer blasphemy and open insurrection to dany that Dublin Castle is the most Bacred thing in the world, and that the right of public meeting depends entirely upon the will of a paid R.M. For open subversion of all constitutional law, and blind, brazen partisanship, commend as to Mr. Recorder Henn. On Saturday morning he delivered a judgement — save tke mark I— on Mr. Wilfred Blunt s appeal •gainst the sentence of two month's imprisonment passed upon him by two other learned supporters of an endangered social order — Messrs. Dillon and M'Sheahy, R.M.'b. The sum and substance of this judgment was a confirmation of the sentence, with the addition of an attack upon the character of Mr. Blunt which adds insult to injury. So grossly indecent a judicial exhibition has not been witnessed on any Irish bench since the days when the ribald jndge, Norbury, jested horribly as he consigned his victims to the gallows. Mr. Henn thinks, perhaps, that he has rendered the State some service. He has ; though not in the sense which his wisdom intended. He has done immense service to the Irish cause, in showing the English people what chimpanzee antics the Irish people are accustomed to witness occasionally under the pretence of administration of British law. Mr. Wilfrid Blunt is now employed picking oakum, in a convict's dress, for a crime similar to that for which the people of Greece put up a statue for bis wife's grandfather's memory only a short time back. He came to shield the Irish peasantry against the Castle, as Lord Byron went to shield the people of Greece against the unspeakable Turk. There is a very close analogy, in many respects, between the two cases ; and we may take comfort from the fact that the people with whom Byron threw in hia lot so many years ago are nowfree froa the thraldom of the unspeakables in Constantinople. We most earnestly trust that the health o£ Mr. Blunt will not seriously Buffer by the sacrifice which he is now heroically making for our cauße ; and we know Ireland will never forget it. After the farce had been played out, our noble fellow-country-men, the Royal Irish, had their usual innings. They behaved in a most brutal manner at Woodford, Portumna, and other places, batoning people in the most savage manner whenever they got the slightest chance. At Scariff , also, they have been distinguishing themselves. A large number of people, with a band, bad turned out tot give a welcome home to Michael Miuogue, a liberated Coercion Ac criminal. An official, named Doyle, with thirty batoneers, set upon them and beat them most brutally, without the smallest scintilla of provocation. Mr. Crotty, P.L.G., and a man named Macnamara have been very seriously injured by blows. It is maddening to think that these uniformed cowards are to be thus let loose upon peaceable unarmed people at 9very opportunity. It looks like a deliberate and cold-blooded at tempt. of the Oastle to goad the country into a state of mind more suitable to the diabolical designs of the Government than its present temper. The infamy of such a design is not greater on the part of its authors than that of the base instruments hired to carry it out. Setting aside our sincere&t sympathy for the illustrious victim — a sympathy the more intense from the fearless cheerfulness with which he takes his punishment — we cannot hide from ourselves that the confirmation of the savage sentence on Mr. Blunt is the severest blow that coercion has yet received. Mr. Blunt was tried for attending a daylight meeting on the 23rd of October, and sentenced for attending a midnight meeting on the 16th. But we may let that pass, for it is beyond question that the midnight meeting was in itself absolutely legal. As Mr. Shaw-Lefevre pointed out, it was not nntil eight weeks after, and then with a view to Mr. Blunts trial, that the Government itself dared to question its legality. The meeting, the removable and promovable puppets declared, was calculated to provoke a breach of the peace. Then why didn't it provoke a breach of the peace ? In the absence of the police there was no breach of the peace then. There has been no breach of the peace since. This meeting was held, as the police prophesied, to excite disturbance and outrage. There has been no outrage or disturbance, and the result has been peace, not a breach of the peace. It is hard enough to convict a man on the strength of a policeman's prophecy ; harder still when that prophecy has proved false.

Mr. Blunt 'a defence by The MacDermot, Q. 0., and Mr. Harrington waa beyond all praise, worthy of the high character of their client and the grave questions involved. With Mr. Atkinson, Q.O.s, prosecution from the strong Tory point of view there was not much fanlt to be found. We do not like to speak of Mr, Carson, knowing f nil well that he carefully preserve! oar oomment, and exhibits it as beggars show their sorea when he goes whining for alms to the Oastle. One might almost fancy that the brainless trnculency of this poor con* scienceless back would disgust even nis patron, Pethar. Mr; Oarson, whose name was unheard of nntil a couple of months' ago, was Appointed whfct is known in legal parlance as the Devil of the AttorneyGenera]. We snail- not scifntinise too closely the reasons of ma appointment. His fellow Unionists of the Bar whisper it with a saeer under their — suffice' it for us to say, that his ability, practice, or experience were in no way concerned in procuring it. The Attorney-General, it is rumoured, goes up. Mr. Carson's position of Devil is in danger, Pether the Packer succeeds in due course to the position of Attorney-General, andt Mr. Oarson, fearful of relapsing into the condition of brieflessness from which he was rescued by the Castle appointment, makes his court to the Packer by that imitation of his tactica which is the sincere,st,fl§ttery. He lapkfljev.en^he v *m|ll modicum of ability which redeemed Kether's abusive brutality fnjjn utter contempt. But there is no man who liea and scolds, however dully or brutally, in the Oatsle service that is without his wages, and Mr. Carson, donbtless, hopes for bis reward; in a seac on the Petty Sessions beach. He wqulc^make, an admirable colleague for Me. QecdJ Roche ; they are worthy of each otter. We could say nothing harder of either of them. From Downpatrick, Kerry, and Oavan, Leitrim and Waterford Quarter Sessions come the tidings of empty calendars. Mr. - (John Adye Curran received his white gloves with a grimace, and proceeded at once with zealous enjoyment to his enormous eviction business. County Court Judge Waters regaled the public with aome r most interesting criminal statistics. He conclusively demonstrated that the average of offences, having regard to the population, of the three counties over which he presided — Waterford, Oavan, and Leitrim<-~ waa a good third less than the average according to population in England, and only half the average in Scotland. In the interests of Coercion a few Gullinanea dhould be at once imported by the Castle into these counties. The summit of truculent audacity has, probably, been reached in the attempt of the Times and the Coercionist Press to turn County Court Judge Curran's white gloves into an advertisement for the Coercion Act. The devil, quoting Holy Writ to prove himself a saint, would not be a more edifying spectacle. But, possibly, the best answer to this piece of humbug is that furnished by the St. James's Gazette itself. " Mr. Balfour ought now to persevere," it says, •' until all Ireland ia as peaceful as Killarney has become." But in the rest of Ireland there is no crime at all. Ergo, if the Coercion Act be intended to put down crime, there is no longer any need for it. Yet the Coercion Act is not only not going to be suspended — it is going to be extended, Dublin and Meath, it appears, are now to be proclaimed under it. The Government must take their choice of the horns of this interesting dilemma, Either they use the Coercion Act only to put down crime, in which case they cannot use it against Dublin or Meath,; or else they are using it to carry out political persecution, in which case their organs in the Press had better shut up. There are extremely intelligible signs about that Mr. Arthur Balfour has grown weary of the task he has undertaken. That enterprising gentleman seems to have thought that all it was necessary ipr him to do was to proclaim the League and that it would forthwith cease to exist and that impossible rackrenta would thenceforward be paid on receipt of a ipost-card from the landlord or agent. Such were his expectations last August ; and now, after several months, he finds .he has not gained a single point. What more natural than that he shonld strive to fly from the uncomfortable fix into which he has worked himself, and to procure some other Ministerial post J There have been vague rumours as to the desire felt in high Conservative circles that Mr. Balfour shonld relieve Mr. Smith of the leadership of the House of Commons. To kick poor Mr. Smith about from place to place is a feat sufficiently easy of accomplishment, bnt here lies the crux. Who will replace Mr. Balfour in Ireland ? In all the Tory party there is not a single man of the slightest pretension to political capacity who would be foolish enough to take up the quarrel which Balfour has provoked in Ireland, and in which he is getting such an exemplary drubbing. The Standard, the leading organ of whatever is respectable in Toryism, sternly bids him stick to the job he has in hand ; but although Mr. Balfour 's prime pal, the Times, strives to connive at his escape, it is not likely that he will be able to run away, except with an imputation for cowardice and incompetence that will blast; all his political prospects. The Cork scandals, the loathsome details of which a sense of the respect that we owe our readers forbids us from touching on, save merely en passant, have not yet aroused the authorities to action. Although the alleged culprit's name is published and the depositions of his supposed victims have been legally sworn to, and despite the fact that the local magistrates have called upon Pasha Plunkett to unearth the suspected criminal, the Castle magnate declines to do anything in the matter. If the accused party were a tenant-farmer who had battled bravely for his hearth and home against the marauding myrmidons of landlordism, Captain Plunket would send his jackals after him at once and have him lodged safely in the county gaol ; but as the individual referred to belongs not to the masses bnt the classes, and is himself a Oastle hack, his companions-in-arms, the impartial pasha, will not, of course, put him under lock and key. Tory justice in Ireland has its different weights and measures, for in its estimation a West-Britisher is like a king —he can do no'ill ; while the record of every true Nationalist Is a priori set down an the worst of traitors or criminals. Mr. Lan«, M.P., is arrested, and will be tried and sentenced in due course. That much it is quite safe to assume without having the faintest notion of the charge or the evidence. But the circumstances

of his aftest exhibit in their revolting hideousness the methods of the Castle. Tne Rev, Canon Keller speaks out on the subjects as befits his hige, unsullied character and his sacred calling. To Mr. Lane he pays a touching tribute — a tribute which from such a priest, so grave, so reverend, of such gentle dignity and purity, most men would consider cheaply earned at the cost of a couple of months' imprisonment. "As for you," he writes, " whom I have long since r learned to love and cherish for your many estimable qualities, and whom a oommon suffering has rendered still more dear to me, permit me to offer you the cordial affection and sincere admiration of an earnest and devoted friend," The motives which manifestly dictated Mr. Lane's arrest Canon Keller denounces with holy wrath. Mr. Lane is to be imprisoned, not for committing crime, but for exposing crime. His offence is that he strove to cut out the foul ulcer that is eating into the heart of morality in Cork, as the French and Cornwall infamies were eating into the heart of morality in Dublin. If Mr. Balfour had been in power, doubtless Mr. O'Brien would have been clapped into prison the moment be dared to breathe a whisper against those Castle officials. Three times on three equally trivial pretexts Captain Plunkett, acting, doubtless, on directions fiom head-quarters, refused to prosecute his fellow-officials against whom these grave charges are made. For themselves, they lie tamely under the revolting accusation. The rumour of a civil action to vindicate their character proves to be a canard. But Mr. Lane's energy, it was feared, might coerce the Government into activity, and forth* with Mr. Lane is handed over to the tender mercy of a coercion court. Is it any wonder that a priest even of Canon Keller's gentleness and moderation feels constrained to write to Mr. Lane : " Your arrest and conviction will help all the more to focus a still stronger light of public opinion upon the loathsome conduct of Government officials, and the still more loathsome action of those who would shelter them from the punishment which their crimes deserve. What a hideous caricature of Government have we here I A man of high honour and integrity, a man whose devoted and unselfish action towards his constituents and his country has entailed upon him grave personal sacrifices — he is run into gaol and treated as a criminal, whilst the vilest enemies of society, the corruptors of innocence and youth, are permitted to hold theii heads high and walk your streets in tbe enjoyment of their liberty ! Vice and despotism have embraced, tyranny and corruption have joined hands in the odious regime which goes by the name of Government in this country at the present day. But it shall not be for long in holy Ireland that systematic destroyers of virtue will be permitted not only to poison the defenceless youth of our city but to compass and sneer at the degradation of those public men whom the people love." Yet this is the Government thus accurately described by a priest whoße p iety, gentleness, and troth are beyond all question, for which the coercionists have the unspeakable audacity to expect the active encouragement and support of his Holiness the Pope ; this is the Government to which the Meat Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer, Catholic Bißhop of Limerick, by his pet»lant letter, has rendered invaluable, though we would fain believe involuntary, assistance and support. The tactics by which the Winchester election was won for the Tories were as dishonourable as can be well conceived. They were the Bame discreditable tactics of Lord Hartington which Mr. Dillon so witheringly exposed to Lord Harrington's constituents and m the heart of Lord Hartington's Division. There is not a coercionist o them all that dare tell his English constituency squarely what coerf cion means — that it means the impriaoument of Lord Mayors, an - Members of Parliament, and newspaper editors iv the defeuceof a freed Press and free speech — that its one Hole object is to crush the organisation bj which tenants defend themselves against eviction. Coercionists lie freely and furiously on the subject, lie with, and lie altogether. They picture Ireland as a country overrun with Moonlighiers, cattle-naaimers, and murderers whom coercion is to put down. Mr. Dillon has sufficiently dealt with that calumny. He proved that outrage, even on the evidence of the police, is unknown outside a narrow ring of a couple of counties ; that the country, in proportion to its population, has scarcely half the crime of England. But this particular lie has been carefully nursed. It is as hard to kill as the hydra, and haß as many heads. It came up Bmiling at Winchester. On the last day before tbe polling, when there was no time for answer or comment, flaming cartoons were displayed in the windows in which the Irish people were depicted as a pack of barb irous savages, hacking and maiming, and inflicting cruel torture on poor dumb brutes. On this hint the Tories voted. It may interest the Most Ray. Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, to hear that side by side with these cartoons, in which the Irish people were depicted as a race of cattlemaimers, was displayed his Lordship's letter in prominent type, and that in the opinion of the coercionists it helped, eveu more than the cartoons, to secure the return of the Tory and coercion candidate. It is a sore of comfort to find the Tories so elated at retaining their old prescriptive seat at Winchester. For a week they could speak, write, or think of nothiDg else. The extravagance of their rejoicing denotes the depths of their previous despair. They can hardly now revert to their doctrine, held firmly through the long series of Liberal success, that success at a by-election meant nothing at all ; that it was, iv fact, a sort of argument against the party who succeeded. If Winchester, or a dozen contests like Winchester, could tempt them to a general election, then, indeed, we should not grudge the cost. The things that are done by the coercionists in Ireland are incredible in their malignant, meanness. That is in itself one of our difficulties. If anyone were to repeat on an English platform, the of the persecution of the sturdy Denis Macnamara at Enuis, he would be laughed at as a fool, or scouted aa a liar, by au audience accustomed to constitutional government. Macuamara was prosecuted again and as;ain for selling United Ireland, which is published and sold without let ov hindrance under Mr. Balfour '3 nose in Dublin. He was convicted, of course. Conviction is always of course in a coercion court. Aa appeal was refused equally of course, for Mr, Balfour at Birming-

ham explained to his trained troop of movables and promovablea that an appeal isinaonvdnieac to the Government. However, at long last Mr. Brosnan, who haa been sentenced on a similar onarge, bad, by a difficult and costly process, secured an appeal, and the Court of Appeal decided that the grounds on which he and Mr. Macnamara had bean convicted and suffered several months' imprisonment were grossly illegal. Then the magistrates, manifestly by orders from headquarter!, changed their tactics. At first it was attempted to boycott Mr. Macnamara's place of business. The police, note-book in hands, took up their stations at his shop-door, and took tbe names of the customers who bought their Christmas supply at his establishment. To the credit of the sturdy Nationalists of Limer'ck, be it spoken, this trick only increased his custom, whereupon a new device was resorted to. He had set up ii his shop-window a harp surrounded with shamrocks, with the criminal legen i anderneath of " God save Ireland." Will it be believe 1 he wti summoue I for this atrocious crion, and two removables and promovables were found shameless enough to convict and fine him? Let it be known henceforth, that in Ireland to pray '• God save Ireland," is a crime. How can we ezpeot the sober English people to believe this ? We can scarcely believe it onrselves. But it is true all the same. This criminal device and words were largely displayed on Christmas oards. The vendors had better beware. It was considered a startling thing to send men to gaol for cheering Mr. Gladstone, but it pales before this last exploit. Here are a fewji terns taken from obscure corners of the St. Janet* Gazette and the Daily News, which speak more than volumes (or the state of the rent question in England :— •' Mr. Edmund Brook, of Hoddam Oastle, Damfrieshire, and Meltham Hall, Hudderafield, has intimated to his Hoddam Oastle tenants that in consequence of the continued depression of agricultnre, and the low prices obtainable for farm produce, he has resolved to remit the whole of their rentt for the past half-year. This is the fourth time Mr. Brook has made a similar concession." " The allotment holders at Padbury, near Buckingham, have received notice from the authorities at All Sonli College, Oxford, that their past quarter's rent is remitted." "On Saturday last, at the rent audits held at Ayles bury, Mr. Leopold de Rothschild returned 30 per cent, of the rents due from the tenants on his Buckinghampshire estates for the half-year ended Michaelmas last, making 60 per cent, on the whole year's rent. This is the third halfyear in whicha similar remission has been made." "Bight hundred acres of arable land in the Isle of Sbeppy, well known for its productive nature, have just been let to a new tenant at the onpre* cedentedly low price of Is 2d an acre. The tithe on the land is 12s an acre." On each and all of these estates, the landlord supplies the tenant with a well built house — a house which to an Irish tenant would appear a gentleman's mansion— out-offices and farm-buildings all of which must be in thorough repair at the taking or possession, and together with this, the land must be completely fenced and drained at the landlord's expense. The farms on Mr. L. Rothschild's estate, which is situated in the richest part of England, are fenced and laid out like pleasure gardens. In Ireland it is the tenant who builds the house and out-offices, cuts tbe drains, and makes the fenced, all with his own labour and money — the landlord does nothing but let the bald land, and raises the rent as soon as tbe tenant has improved its value. Yet, in England, landlords are remitting the whole of i heir rents, are offering the land for nothing in order to induce the tenants to remain, while in Ireland the landlords are employing the English Government with their armed forces and their Coercion Act to evict tbe tenants from their homes, and imprison their leaders for seeking to obtain a paltry abatement. Tne St James's Gazette, which chronicles the letting of the eight hundred acres of arable land, " wall known for its productive nature," at Is 2d an acre, denounces the schedule of the Irish Land Commissioner! reducing judicial rents by 11J per cent, as robbery and spoliation, What an amazingly Grand Old Man he is, to be sure I He opant his seventy- Dinth year with articles in two of the magazines, a great speech, and a Continental trip, to which he goes as gaily as an undergraduate off for a holiday. One article — in the North- Amorioan Review — is a calmly philosophical disquisition on the unity of history j the other— in the Westminster— is a fiercely combative reply to Professor Ingram's attacks on his position on the Irish question. This great intellectual giant — what pigmies they are beaide him— they who are never heard of outside of England, he who fills the air, not of England merely, but of the world. He goes to Paris, and is mobbed by admirers when he strolls on the boulevards. " The journals," we are told, " are full of Mr. Gladstone." He goes to Florence. Daputations of public bodies surround his house, shouting " Viva Gladstone," " Viva L'lrlanda," recalling great services done by him to Italian liberty half a century ago, and wishing success to Home Rule — and be makes a speech from the windows in Italian. In the first month of bis eighty-ninth year he is the author of the chief article in the magazines of the month, both in England and the United States I No wonder that Lord Salisbury declares that so long as such an adversary stands in their path a reign of Tory tyranny is impossible in England. The Coercion Courts are working their way steadily through the thousand enthusiastic attendants at the Woodford midnight meeting like a machine, of which their salary is the motive power and Mr. Balfour's word the regulator. Mr. Mattin Egan, brother of the famous Father Egan, and Mr. Tully were the last two victims. The evidence of the police, on which the prosecution was based and the conviction obtained, was in itself conclusive of the innocence of the accused. The meeting was proclaimed by the Executive on the ground that it would infallibly provoke a breach of the peace. But the meeting was held, and the peace was not broken. It is absolutsly certain that if the authorities had had their own way they would have fulfilled their own prophecy. If Mr. O'Brien had given the police and soldiers who were massed at Loughrea and Portumna time, the massacre of Mitchelstown would have been repeated on a gigantic scale at WoodforJ. But the police and the authorities were foiled iv their gcod intentiens. The promoters of the meeting kept the peace in spite of them. There were, the sergeant in charge swore, only six police present, and more than five hundred of the people, and there

was no breach of the peace at or after the meeting. He further swore that when the police, without a shadow of legal pretext, forced themselves into the house of Mr. Keary, the two accused intervened to preveat them from being bundled, as they might legally have been, out into the street. For this those two men were sent to prison. They bad spaken briefly at the meeting, but there was no pretence that they had used a single illegal word in their speeches, or that a single illegal word was used by anybody. It is to be noted, too, that the prosecution dropped the absurd pretence that the Lord Lieutenant's proclamation had any legal effect, and there was loud laughter in court, in which even the removables and promovables joined (Mr. Balfour's eye being off them for a moment), when the constable described the sending to blazes of that precious document by Mr. O'Brien; The accused men were sent to prison because, in the opinion of the police and bench, the meeting in which they took part cheered and shouted, and the conduct and demeanour of the people of Woodford was calculated to intimidate themselves on the occasion. Not the least shameful circumstance connected with this Miserable fraud and farce is the culling out the victims by the authorities with the view of getting active political opponents out of the way. As we anticipated, Bloody Balfour has struck his colours to Father Ryan. At the last moment the Prison Board discovered that they bad power to allow him to wear his own clothes, and graciously granted him that permission, which he had already extorted for himself. The firm and resolute Coercion Secretary cannot even preserve a show of plausibility to cover his naked, sneaking hypocrisy. It will be remembered that it was after he had stolen Mr. O'Briens clothes, and they had been replaced — in fact, after Mr. O'Brien had triumphed over him — that he wrote his lying letter that Mr. O'Brien had sheltered himself under a medical certificate. In the same way, it was not until after a cowardly attempt was made to rob Father Byan of his clothes, and failed, that the dispensing power of the Prison Board was suddenly discovered. " Take off your clothes," said Balfour to Father Ryan ; " take them off at once." " I won't," said Father Ryan. •• I'll make you," said Balfour. " You cannot," said Father Ryan," •'s>nd you dare not." " Oh, very well, then, " responded Cromwell the Second, " I find I have power to let you keep them." The plain meaning of the incident is that, strange as it may seem, Balfour the Brave was afraid. Father Ryan was reviled in the Saturday Review, with which Mr. Balfour is still supposed to be connected, in language which we will not pollute our columns by repeating, and it was insisted that no distinction could or should be made between this cornerboy curate and any ordinary criminal. But whem the time for actioa came, Mr. Balfour shrunk from the ordeal of outraging the priest. He struck his colours to the indomitable 44 General" of Herbertstown. He will take his change out of obscurer victims, whom public opinion is powerless to protect. So Father Matt Ryan is to be allowed to wear his own clothes, and even to have a change of underclothing from big friends outaide 1 Prodigious I 1 And all this while Mr. Sheehy was being stripped naked, and the prison clothes forced upon his limbs by a gang of marderers, in order that he might be carried through the country between policemen like a common thief, and paraded before his own constituents in the garb of a criminal. Mr. Blieehy was brought to gaol and subjected to unparalleled outrages — cast on the ground, his handa tied, his clothes torn from his back ; and when brought as a witness to Mr. Blunts trial, and to t»e hearing of his own appeal, the prison dress was forced on him every morning by a gang of warders, that he might be paraded in the garb of a criminal before the eyes of his own constituents —an ordeal, we may say, through which, from first to last, Mr. Sheehy went with magnificent pluck and resolution. County Judge O'Connor Mejris was horrified when he beheld the plight of this noble representative of the people— clad half in the prison clothes, which had been forced upon him, and half in his own, hatless, his hair uncombed, a three weeks' growth of beard upon his face, for they would not let him shaye — and though confirming the sentence he ordered him at once %ots| treated as a first-class misdemeanant. He did not, however, make the sentence start concurrently with the one-month sentence, against which Mr. Sheehy had no opportunity of appealing, aud Whfch he was then serving out. So that we have this extraordinary anomaly : Mr. Sheehy goes on as a common criminal until the sentence for his Clonmel speech i 3 worked out— he goes oa having his clothes and Dedclotheß taken from him and punished with bread and water if he does not wear the prison dress— when, all of a sudden, when he comes to expiate his speech at Clonntel pins his speech at Frenchpark, he is raised to the status of a first-class misdemeanent, his own clothes restored to him, and all humiliating inflictions done away with. Such are the incongruities of the extravaganza which Bomba the Little calls Government in Ireland. Here is the rack-renters' estimate of the schedule, extracted from the rack-renters' own organ, the Umon ;—"; — " The reductions of the Chief Commissioners compare very favourably with the reductions made quite recently by the Sub-Commissioners. In .fact we believe it will be found that the decisions of the Chief Commissioners have furnished the landowners with the most crushing arguments against the equity or the necessity of the reductions of the Sub-Commis-sioners. These energetic gentlemen have been cutting down rents in 1887, by 30, 40, and even 50 per cent., the average reduction being 32.1 per ce*£. But these rents were, as a rule, much nearer Griffith's valuation, and therefore much more reasonable than the rents of 1885. In 1886 the average reduction was 24.1 per cent, which reduced the rents practically to Griffith's valuatioa. Tbe Chief Commissioners have deait very tenderly with the judicial rents of 1885, and raductions ranging from 10 per cent, to nothing at all. When a comparison is made vath their dealings with the rents <'f 1885, and the dealings m the Suf-Commissioners with tbe rents of 1887, the Sub-Commis-sioners will be in a somewhat anomalous position." For a brief space of time it almost seemed as if the Sub-Commis-Bioners, irho certainly could not be regarded as a tribunal over favourable to the tenants, would settle tbe land question by reductions varying from 40 to 50 per cent. Mr, Wrench wa3 appointed in the land-

lords' interest cm the Land Commission, and forthwith pleasure was put upon the Sub-Commissioners; The schedule just published ia a general order to them, aa Mr. Balfour's Birmingham speech was to his atipendaries, to reduce their reductions to a minimum. There are a vast number of appeals pending, and the schedule gives the tenant fair warning what to expect from the Head Commission. But, is there any rack- renter so dull as to fancy that a tenant having his rent reduced by Sub-Commissioners, who have at least seen the holding and have some opportunity of judging of its value, will pay a rent increased by the Head Commissioners, who have not seen the holding, and have no opportunity of judging of its value ? There has been a vast amount of outcry and protest in various districts by the tenants against the miserably unjust scale of the scheduled reductions. This is natural, but useless. The tenants' organisation still stands ai invulnerable as ever. The power that extorted a modicum of justice can extort all in due time, and will, For the present the tenant insisting on a reatonable reduction must deduct the reduction, such aa it is, already made by the Commission. This, so far as we can see, is the only practical effect of the schedule. Are there any other Oullinanes at work in Glare and Kerry, or is the estimable Sergeant O'Halloran more successful in his attempts to get up outrage than he was in the memorable ten-pound-note case 7 We ask these questions because of a villainous attack upon the houses of two widows, which took place in the former county a few nights ago. The affair was so unmanly and the excuse for it bo small, that it bears all the appearance of a thing got up to damage the character of the people. In Kerry, an esteemed correspondent assures us, the police deliberately wink at the outrages perpetrated by Emergencymen, with the same benevolent object, and make no attempt to bring the perpetrators to justice. He gives a case in point ; and he assures us that he speaks from personal knowledge :: — •' On the 10th December, the house of Dr. Kane, at Annascaul, was attacked by five ruffians who maltreated the master and his family most brutally. A gun was askdd for as a mere cloak. The police in the district got instant clues to the|o£fendera, and knew they came from a distance of 30 miles, for they arrested four persons from this neighbourhood, who were brought before Dr. Kane and discharged. It has been notorious for the past fortnight that the hirelings were driven from Gastleislaad, and the cars were paid for by an Bmergencyman, and it is fully believed that the latter was the author of the outrage. Dr. Kane and family believed from the attack, and the wounds they have got, it was meant to murder them. The police knew as well as the public where to find the offenders. I taw a note dated 24th ult. from Aanascaul, giving the names of the drivers who were engaged to convey the assassins from here. One of the drivers in question proclaimed that he coald and would aid in conviction — but no arrests till last Wednesday. The prisoners were taken to Tralee gaol after the remand ; and without being confronted with the injured family were sent a merry journey home again." Cork County is following the example of Meatta on the hunting question. A meeting was held at Cloghroe on Tuesday for the purpose of considering the conduct of the Husaar officers at Ballincollig in hunting the country in contravention of the agreement come to recently I by which they would by privileged to hunt if not accompanied by objectionable persons. Resolutions were adopted agreeing to prohibit hunting in future, und steps were taken to make known the fact that the lands would be poisoned. The occasion was rendered exceptionally interesting by the presence of the much-sought.for Mr. Cox, M.P. Mr. John Deasy, M.P., and Dr. Tanner, M.P., also attended. Dr Tanner said he never had any objection to the officers being allowed t« hunt themselves, provided that they should not be accompanied by those who used their power to act the part of ruthless tyrants. Mr. Cox, M. P., said he entirely approved of the course Dr. Tanner had taken, but we would have preferred to let the officers hunt if they gave the people what they desired in the way of excluding those who were obnoxious to the farmers of the locality generally, He regarded the Hussars in a different manner altogether from that in which he looked upon the police or the landlord party. It is worlhy of note that amongst the letters which the Irish Times has published on the question of the Meath hunting was an anonymous one which was as plain an incitement to those who live by the stable to violently attack the farmers who prevented hunting as words could make it. Had such an incitement been used by any journal on the other side the publisher of it would now be enjoyed the pleasures of the chase as they are known ia Mr. Balfour's gaols. That was a fine phrase of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, and absolutely true. The whole district about Woodford " reeks of coercion." He alluded mainly to the imprisonment of men for the mere assertion of their rights of free speech and peaceful meeting. Bu*t that, after all, is but a small part of the mingled system of corruption and tyranny that prevails, and has its headquarters in the police-barrack and the court. A correspondent has sent us tiome interesting details from this happy hunting-ground of coercion. When Mr. Shaw-Lefevre and Mr. Hill, of the Pall Mall Gaaette, were thrown off the outside carat Killmore, near Wooford, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre escaped almost unhurt, while Mr. Hill was bruised and shaKen so severely that he found it necessary to lie up for a week. Dr. Tanner was bent on taking part in the demonstration in Ballinasloe ; but after a brief struggle the doctor triumphed over the politician, and he remained to look after the safety and comfort of his patient. Mr. Hill was made comfortable in the house of a Mr. Larkin . To the house came Mr. Davis, as ill-conditioned an Orange sub-iaspec or as ever ordered a baton charge on a peaceful " Popish crowd. He imperiously demanded to be admitted at once to the bedroom of the patient. He was referred t* the Doctor. Dr. Tanner refused, Mr. Davis threatened force, but he was alone, aucl at one glance at the figure of the Doctor put that notion out of his head. He vented his wrath and disappointment in a storm of bad language, and a threat that at the next sessio > he would have Larkin stripped of his licence for harbouring bad char icters. We have no doubt whatever that he will put his threat into execution, and that a couple of corrupt removables will be found to commit this pieoe of barefaced robbery at his command.

It will interest the tenants of Ireland to know that the emptyheaded young nobleman who condescends to accept £20,000 a year for signing his name to proclamations, aud foxhunting, so long as he was let, has generously offered to sell his e3tate to his tenants on the ridiculously low terms of twenty-two years' purchase. Curiously enough, the tenants didn't all speak together in eager acceptance of the offer. On the contrary, none of them spoke at all. Perhaps they fhey thought the Viceroy was too childish and simple for the world, nd wished to give him an opportunity of considering his too generous proposal. There were some sotto voce suggestions of fourteen years, but that was regarded by the landlord as a joke. The day is not far off when he will have just as little chance of getting fourteen years' purchase as twenty-two. The old story of the Sybiline books is being repeated on every estate in Ireland. A correspondent who has bad the advantage of conversations with Mr. Shaw-Lefevre in the West of Ireland, gives us some of the right hon. gentleman's impressions at second-hand. In Loughrea, Woodford, and Portumna, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre has discovered that the whole social system circles round the gaol. Almost every respectable person he met in the villages through which he bad passed had either just come from gaol or was going there (sometimes both) ; or had been seeing some freiud to gaol or wag about to welcome some friend out ; or, at the very least, claimed the distinction of being a near relative — a parent, or child, or sister, or brother, or wife— of one of Mr. Balfour's criminals. " Claimed the distinction " are the propar words to use. Mr. Balfour has established a new order of nobility amongst the Irish peasantry, aud the gaol is the patent. For the life of us we cannot guess the object of prosecuting Mr, Corcoran, the foreman printer of the Cork Examiner, when Mr. Crosbie, Junr., acting editor, offered himself to prosecution aa the really responsible man of the paper. Tne foreman printer has practically no more responsibility for what appears in a newspaper than the printer's devil. He simply sees that his men set up the copy that the editor gives him. If the editor were not there to be arrested, or evaded his responsibility, there might be some shadow of a causa for going for the next available man. But Mr. Crosbie avows his responsibility, and asks that he be proceeded against instead of Mr. Corcoran. It looks like the very wantonness of Mr. Balfour's beat for cruelty of the mean and little kind to attack the printer and leave the editor alone. Only there is possibly a meaner motive still at the bottom of the proceeding. To imprison one of the Crosbies, who have always been known as men of extremely moderate and unaggressive politico, would be a step which would arouse resentment in quarters in Cork that have not been stirred, even by Alderman Hooper's imprisonment. Mr. Balfour and his Cork advisers are afraid of the expression of indignatiou which a very little more of nib ruffianism seems likely to evoke from classes of people in Cork who have hitherto kept ailent or ranged themselves on the anti-National side. We are aware of a cipher telegram which Mr. Balfour hid sent to Cork a little before he decided on the prosecution of Alderman Hooper. He wished to know what manner of men the Crosbies were, and what their antecedents were. He was informed in reply that Mr. Crosbie, proprietor of the llxaminer, was " a moderate man, with a strong Unionist backing." 'Ihis is more than the courageous Balfour, who knows nothing but contempt for public opinion, dares to face; and hence the humble mechanic is ofiLreJ up a victim to his cowardice and. malignity. A B'-artliD^ illustration cames to us from an esteemed correspondent in Angh:imore showing bow completely the Coercion Act has crushed the spirit of the paople. On Friday evening the prisoners convicted at Ballyhauiiis under the Coercion Act received a magnificent demonstration of welcome on their release. Our correspondent writes — '• Priests and people tura out to meet them, so that at four o'clock not less than 3,000 persons could have bean present, and what made the scene all the more imposing, and went to show the practical sympathy and perfect system of organisation amongst the people here, was the long line of carts, over two hundred, that came laden with provisions, etc., for the families of those recently imprisoned. To Mrs. Conioy, Miss D -udy, and Miss Hunt, little Bridget, the child of twelve (Balfour'.s youngest victim), suitable gifts were presented. Addresses were delivered by Rev. P. McAipine, Messrs. Glary, Hunt, Healy, Curley, and Lyons, after which the people returned to their homes, rejoicing in the thongat that they had done a good day's work, aud one that to the Misses Beytagh, the authorities, and to others not a thousa-id miles from here, will not be without its leßsoa.'" This is a fair picture of Bloody Balfoui's success in crushing the spirit of the League. P*ofes§or Galbraith very effectively nailed a thumping lie with which a statement of Mr. Gladstone's in his Dover speech was sought to be refuted in the Times, Mr. Gladstone had mentioned the case of a Dublin curate who had been deprived of the means of earning his bread because he ventured openly to espouse the cause of Home Rule. "The Dublin Hector," who was alleged to havd done this piece of boycottiug, wrote to the Times denying it. Professor Galbraith, on the contrary, declared the case was perfectly notorious in the city of Dublin, and he gave the names of the parties. " The rector," he said, " was Archdeacon Ryder, of St. Mary's, Donnybrook, and the curate, the Rev. Mr. Saodys, a young man univeraallv respected and beloved in the paii-h for his affectionate disposition and the diligent disch.irtie of his duties. He joined the Protestant Home Rule Association ; the storm burst on his head, and he was obliged to leave his post and seek for employment elsewhere." It is lucky Professor Galbraith was on the spot, or it might have done duty uncontradicted until the election was over. The coercion organs dealt charmingly with the disgraceful assault by the Orange rowdies on Mr. Gladstone at Dover. They #could b.toe no sympathy with illegal violence— none in the world. Still it could not be denied, they declared, that it was a startling illustration of the extreme unpopularity of the ex-Premier. In truth the disgraceful outrage on <he venerable statesman was a deliberatelyorganised piece of Tory black-guardism. We have not heard that anyona was arrested or i>iosecutel for the blackguardism. When Lord Haitmgton visited Ireland a lespectable citizen was dragged before the magistrate for offering him an address of remonstrance : bat that was in Ireland, of. course,

The convalescence, slow, but we trust sure, of Mr. Sexton lifts a load off the hearts of the nation. The high compliment recently paid to him in the conferring of lha freedom of tiia city proves, if proof were needed, how highly the Lord Mayor- Blest is esteemed by the citizens of Dublin, There is arduous work waiting for the Irish party when Parliament meets, and it is comforting to hopa thit toe brilliant young member for Belfast, the keenest sword aad the surest lance ia the fierce debate, the very Launcelot amongst the National party, will be ready when the charge sounds to tike his part ia the melie, A story was started in Dublin on Tuesday which probably had its origin in the wish of the inventor. It appeared in the congenial columns of the Irish imitator of the London Times. Briefly it was to the effect that the Government intended to suppress the National League in Dublin and Meath, aad further to be3tow some polite attentions on ourselves in the shape of a seizure. The rumour was not so well founded as the industrious inventor of it fondly hoped ; for the Dublin Gazette appeared in due course, and there was not a single word in it about the National Laague or our humble salve*. The only visible effeot of these rumours was to fill the League hall ia O'Connell-street choke-full with an enthusiastic audience, and to bring a large accession of gentlemen of position to the roll of membership. Certainly no man has done more to swell the ranks of the Lsague than Mr. Balfour by his puny attempts at its suppression. He has stirred up energy where before there was lukewarmness or apathy— in fact, infused new life into the movement all over the country. The very worst case that has yet arisen under the Coercion Act was that which took place in Kanturk in the so-called court in which the renowned Segrave and the hardly les3 distinguished Baton were the presiding functionaries. Three respectable traders of the town were convicted of conspiracy to compel other persona to boycott the Currass exterminator, Leader, on no other proof than that they h*d refused to sell their goods to him themselves ; and on this wretched trumped-up pretext they were sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment each. A peculiarly dark and repulsive feature in the matter is thepart Leader played in it. He admitted, on examination, that he had never had any previous dealings with those shopkeepers ; it seems he had gone into their premises and asked for goods in order that he might prefer a charge against them. We earnestly trust that there are not many people in the country like Leader ; for if his code of ethics is to preveil to any extent, there is hardly a man in business ia any rural community who can consider himself secure. It is all vanity for Mr. Balfour to imagine that the Coercion Act has any terrors for men who are resolved to be free. " I believe it steels and nerves every Irishman to suffer a little in the cause of his country, and I bel'eve the best place to learn true Irish patriotism is ia the heart of an Irish gaol." These were the words of a man who had just walked out of gaol, and still Mr. Balfour continues to prosecute here, there and everywhere, as though he entertained the delusive hope that Irishmen would thereby be more readily reconciled to misgovernment and oppression. At Drangan, county Tipperary, three shopkeepers have been sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment for refusing to sell goo is to a land-grabber named Mitchell. For groaning a person named Nui,tal in Kennagh, county LongEord, eight boys went to gaol for a month rather than give bail for their good behaviour. In Tullamore Mr. John Flanagan and his two sisters were sentenced to two months' imprisonment each for objecting to be turned out of their home. County Court Judge Ferguson is a model coercion judge. Brutal, ignorant, sordid, and selfish himself, one of the worst landlords in his district, he holds firmly to the orthodox creed of his order, that rent ' is the ark of the covenant and no punishment could be too sevsre for him that would lay sacrilegious hands on it. His victim was a young • doctor, Mr. James Magner, M.A., M.D., and bis crime that he was present at a meeting in which a resolution was passed, that rack-rents should not be extorted. Rack-rents, said the learned, impartial, rackrenting Judge, mean an ordinary rent (which is certainly true on his own estate), and he forthwith in a speech weighted with much bad language, convicted the doctor of being a party to a no-rent conspiracy. The insulting proposal, that Dr. Magner should purchase his freedom by abandoning the principles of the League, he indignantly refused, and theieupon the kindly Judge chuckled over the prospect that the sentence he was a bout to inflict would have the prospect of blasting his whole future career. It is quite possible that the sentence will not have the other effect which County Court Judge Ferguson manifestly intended of rendering the collection of his own rack-rents mor3 easy. The example of Ennis has been followed in Dromore. One meeting was " proclaimed " by a Castle underling, and lo 1 there are no less than four meetings held— all within a few miles of the spot where it was originally contemplated to hold the one gathering . Every Nationalist must congratulate the men of Tyrone on the spirit they have shown in thus vindicating the great public principle which the Castle now seeks to trample under foot. The right of public meeting is too sacred to be surrendered at the bidding of a fifth, class Castle clerk, or even of a man who plays the tyrant at twenty, five thousand a year. An enormous force of military and police was poured into the little town to crush out the right of the people of Tyrone ; but while they twirled their thumbs in the streets of that place, the manhood of tha county, surging out in all its might and energy, swarmed up to the points at which it was arranged the other meetings should be held, and there asserted to the full the privilege of freemen. Ths sturdy Presbyterian, Mr. McKlroy, stood side by side with the Catholic M.P., Mr. Kenny, in asserting the right of Tyrone-men, Catholic and Protestant, to give public expression to their sentiments on matters which affect their interests ; and the Protestant Home Rulers of the Nonh were represented there also in the persons of Mr. Jordan, M.P., and Mr. Alexander Bowman. So the Castle had its parade for nothing, and his learned once again what it has often learned before, that when there is a questiou of brains and skill at issue between it and the people, the establishment on Corkhill is nowhere in the race,