Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 19, 31 August 1888, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.) Thi Government has at last succumbed before the determined attitude of the brave men of the County Clare. It seems that the £1200 Toted by the grand jury of the county, as compensation for head* constable Wheleban's family, has been quite absorbed by the expenses attendant on the collection t Consequently, the authorities found themselves caught in a " vicious circle," out of which there was no hope of them extricating themselves, save and except by acknowledging their incapacity— an admission which they made as graciously as possible under tbe circumstances, by withdrawing their cess-collectors and Emergency men from the field of battle. This triumph teaches Balfour a much-needed lesson, for it shows him that tbe Irish people are resolved, as far as in them Her, to pat ■every obstacle in his way when he audaciously comes forward to ■compel them to pay a humiliating blood impost. He acd his colleagues must now follow the same line of conduct, so far as Mitchelltown is concerned, and lick the dust in Cork as they have licked it in Clare. Tbe Court of Exchequer, on Saturday, June 30, gave its decision in the case of Father Kennedy. Their lordships upheld the sentence of two months' imprisonment passed by the Removables in the rev. gentleman's regard. Father Kennedy, who is still staying at Bray for the recuperation of bis health, wilt, therefore, very soon become a guest of her British Majesty. The name of another priest will be added to the glorious list of soggarths who have already proved their loyalty to Ireland behind the prison bars of Balfour's cells. That hospital for Parliamentary invalids, tbe House of Lords, shook off its apathy on last Tuesday, July 3, and woke up lo life for an hour or two. One of " our old nobility," the Earl of Oamperdown a pillar of the constitution, and an august peer of the realm, csuld not, it seems, sleep «t ease— or for the matter of that, sleep at all— until he had given full vent to his feelings on the subject of the murder of James Fitzmaurice. His lordship's vigil must have been a dreary and a tedious one, for the murder in question took place on tbe 21st of last January. That the League was responsible for this tragedy the noble lord was more than satisfied. We will not, bow* ever, weary our readers with Camperdown's rhodomontade. Suffice it to say, that the prim dude was immediately brought to book by Earl Spencer, who said that the National League was a perfectly legal organisation. The present Government, he continued, had not yet snceeded in putting down that powerful and influential body, and he adhered to the opinion he expressed in Wales, that the National League was not directly connected with crime. It was against its interests that it should be so. and he maintained that because individual members of a body took part in outrage, it was not fair, or right, or just, to accuse the central body of being connected with outrage and with crime. The Marquis of Salisbury later on enlivened the dull assemblage with his usual cock-and-bull stories about National League crime, and the indirect part taken therein by the Liberal leaders. Tbe great speech of the evening was, however, that of Lord Coleridge, who very indignantly expressed his regret that the debate bad taken place at that moment, because it would make the already difficult task in the O'Donnell case, in which he was engaged, Blill more difficult. On the whole the Tory peers made a very sorry exhibition of themselves on this occasion. They showed a high banded contempt for justice and the etiquette of the courts, while professing to be the fearless and the immaculate champions of law and order. Speaking at a garden party in London on Saturday evening, June 30, Mr. Gladstone pointed out tbe full significance of the extraordinary change that has come over the electors of Thanet since 1886. If it can be inferred, and there is no reason to show the contrary, that a similar change has taken place all over the country, then the Tory party, in case of a general election, would not only be defeated, but almost annihilated. •• It was worth while," Mr. Gladstone thought, "to compare the figures of tbe Isle of Thanet in 1886 and 1888 with the general result, in order to fee how they stood, and where they were likely to stand, because after all there would be other elections after this, and account would have to be taken of the sentiment of the • country. In 1886 they were beaten by a majority, taking the country all over— be was speaking from memory, bnt he did not think he was far wrong— by about 70,000. That was about sor 6 per cent.— it was fourteen hundred and odd thousands against thirteen and odd thou- . sands. They were beaten because for every hundred voters of their own in 1886 the opposite party bad 106 voters. Tnat was tha statement of 1886, but how did they stand now 7 In 1886 they had 1,311 voters, yesterday they had 2,889, bo that in point of fact they had got not six added, which would have enabled them to stand even with their opponents, not six added to every hundred, but 100 added to every hundred (cheers). He would not go any further with the discussion; he thought the Bimple mention of those figures would show them, if there be in the conntry at large a change of opinion at aU approaching that which had taken place in the Isle of Thanet, they were as safe at the next general election as if the election had already taken place (cheers), and not only safe to win — because that was not the only thing for the sake of the country he boped— but in a decisive manner,so that this great (rouble might be brought speedily to an end." The eviction campaign is still also in full swing. The crowbar brigade has performed its latest feat on tbe Cormack estate, near Thsrles, where, with tbe ail of the inevitable;battering ram, two tenants were pnbliclv thrown out on the roadside. A hundred \ of tbe Boyal Irish stood like a Roman guard around tbe evicting party, who afterwards proceeded to Matober and evicted an old man eighty .years of age on the property of a certain Mr. Apjohn. The veteran farmer was in such a dying condition that even the county inspector pleaded on his behalf, but the Emergencymen had no pity, and he was taken out on the road in his bed, and cruelly deprived of bis little 4U»ne*tead, It is bard to restrain one's feelings when reflecting on

such atrocities 1 We may add that several evictions also took pla<* on the same day on the estate of the Bey. Mr. Waller, near Bathkeale, in the County Limerick. Limerick Gaol can hold no more. It is glutted from floor to ■oof. Her Majesty's Government, not wishing to keep its guests cribbed, cabined, and confined like so many sardines in a box, ha* generously condescended to transfer some thirty or forty of the prisoners to Clonmel prison. It will now be Tipperary's fault if all the cells of the Olonmel Bastile be not toon as full as those of Limerick. Where will Mr. Balfour find cages for all the would-be gaol birds, who have as little respect for his Mannikin Myrmidons as for the Heathen Chinee ? Perhapß Lord Salisbury will oblige his nephew with a few bot-houses in Manitoba for that purpose. It is the old story of the mountain and the moose all over again ' A cause celebre, which was expected to last over a month,. dwindled into an insignificant legal squabble, summarily put a stop to by the Lord Chief Jastioe on Thursday, July 6, on the ground that evidence of tbe truth or falsehood of the alleged libels against persons other than the plaintiff would not be allowed to be gone into in this case. The Attorney-General having remarked that he would not trouble the court further by calling witnesses, Mr. Buegg, counsel for Mr. O'Donnel addressed the jury for his client, after which the Lord Chief Justice summed up, and a verdict was, after one minute's deliberation, found for the defendants. And so what was to be the greatest case of modern times ended in an inglorious fizzle. The Time* technically triumphed. In reality, however, the orean of Printing-house-square has come oat of the ordeal badly beaten and lacerated. For the past few months mysterious whispers were Roiog the rounds regarding the terrible revelations which the Times was i prepared to make in court on the connection of Pamellism I with crime, The Parnellite party was to have been emitted hip and thieh by Mr. Walter's trusty rapier, and the only possible result of the combat could be that the Irish leaders would be abandoned by the Gladstones, and flung out into nether darkness. All these prophecies were bandied about with a smug self-satisfaction by Tory high priests and acolytes, who rnbbed their hands with ill-suppressed glee, and were already preparing to wnte its epitaph for the Home Bole cause. These ardent spirits have, however, been woefully disappointed . The discomfiture of the Tune* must have f alien on their souls with the chill of the Catacombs. The Thunderer's epistles, reeking with slang, bore the brand of concoction in their every line. The scribe who was paid to indite them did his work in a slovenly fashion. The Times, of course, made no effort to bring forward even the shadow of a proof in favour of their authenticity. After firing its mud pellets it slinks away into the background, whining for Mr, Parnell to follow it to its own ground and to its own citadel, where the Irish leader would be forced to play the role of one pleading against a certain dusky monarch in the latter's court and before the tatter's tribunal. Mr. Parnell, however, is not to be caught by Mr. Walter's chaff. He has asked for a Parliamentary investigatton into the authenticity of the letters in question ; and, if this inquiry be refused, the only conclusion that the public can come to on the matter wil I be that the epistolary, productions referred to are the most unmistak* able forgeries. Mr John Mandeville has been struck down in the very flower of his manhood. The sad event took place, after a short illness of three days, at the residence of the deceased, Clonkilla Houbs, Mitchelstown on Sunday evening, July 1. Mr. Mandeville was born in the year 1849, and was, on his mother's side, tbe nephew of the late Colonel John O'Mahony, in whose principles and policy he was a profound believer in the early part of his life. When the Land League struggle was inaugurated Mr. Mandeville threw himself mlo it with a heart and a half— his motives being of a most disinterested character, as he was not in any sense a struggling tenant himself, being the owner of a freehold farm, which was formarly the property of tha Head Centre of the Fenian Brotherhood in America. His efforts on the Kingston estate in workwg tbe Plan of Campaign qualified him for a plank bed in Tullamore, where he spent three months in mid-winter, undergoing very brutal treatment from the hands of Balfour's myrmidons. On one occasion he was deprived of clothes and bed, ani left alone in his cell with a solitary sheet around him ! It would be puerile to deny that these barbarities told on his constitution, strong, sinewy, and muscular though he might have been. Mr. Mandeville was in private life of a quiet, genial, and kindly disposition, and had among bis political opponents many who could not but have admired his uprightness of character and bis brave and generous disposition. His afflicted widow has received telegrams of condolence from many well-known Irishmen, such as Messrs. William O'Brien, T. M; Healy, T. O. Sullivan, and Alderman Hooper. Various public bodies have also forwarded messages «f sympathy to Clonkilla House. John Mandeville will be long remembered by his countrymen as one who suffered and who died for the cause of Irish nationality. Done to death, practically speaking, as he was by Mr. Balfour's gaolers, he will be regarded as a martyr by Irishmen all the world over. His premature demise will remain one of the darkest blurs on the Chief Secretary s escutcheon, and one of the direst condemnations of the policy of brute force and tyranny. The Rev. M. David Humphrey, 0.C., of Tipperary, has written a very logical and interesting letter on Lord Cloncurry s surrender to his tenantry : In this communication the rev. gentleman goes backward a few years into his lordship's dealings with the people on his estate The rents of Lord Cloncurry's tenants are, he says, about 50 per cent, over Griffith's valuation. In 1881 the tenants demanded an abatement of 20 per cent., but his lordship refused to accede to such a request, sold their holdings, and evicted them on .title i» April. 1882; The tenants had a choice between eviction and paying up all rents and costs and taking leases for sixty-one years in order to shut them out from the Land Court. His next offer was that they should pay all costs. If he had let them back as I***7 tenants before 1883 they would become present tenaats and cou id , take him into the Land Court. After referring to the 1 patriotic aid given to the evicted tenants by Miss Parnell and the Ladies' Land League, Father Humphrey reminds the public that

kvLbrd Oloncurry's next move was to sue Mr. M'Gough, solicitor, for the coats on the false plea that he had not been authorised by the tenants to def and the actions at law. All his lordship's efforts, however, proved futile . The pluck and enduranoe of the tenants, and the generous support afforded them by tbe National League, have at last compelled him to surrender after he lost £U,OOO, fourteen years' rent of the evicted lands. £6,000 was the sum which his Emergencymen cost his lordship. His terms of settlement now are — he will charge no arrears nor costs, and let back the tenants at the old rents. The tenants, however, will not accept such conditions, and have decided only on offering Lord Cloncarry fourteen years* purchase of Griffiths' valuation. " His lordship's evicted farms," writes Father Humphrey, " have now been vacant about six year* and four months, and if necessary they shall remain vacant for sixty-six years. Such is tbe result of all the coercion, all the contemptible tyranny that has been carried, and is being carried on, in this country in the name of law." Mr. Balfour has been of late moving heaven and earth in order to avert tbe possibility of an autumn session. His colleagues, however, refused to oblige the Chief Secretary in this instance, as the press of public business is so urgent, and the amount of work to be got through is so immense, that an im mcdia -c adjournment to next year has been found to be absolutely out of tbe question. Parliament, then, will re-as3emble either towards the close of October or at the beginning of November. Mr. Balfour was some short time ago enjoying tbe perspective of "ruling" Ireland throughout the winter— quite free from the trammels of Westminster, and out of the reach of all those members who had fallen into the inveterate habit of putting him daily and even ho urly a series of most disagreeable and annoying questions on almost every detail connected with his Irish policy. The poor man was hugging to himself the sweet deluBion that he bad five or six months before him for refurbishing tbe rusty wheels of bis big, nnwieldy coercion engine, and trying to mike it work somewhat more successfully than it has hitherto been doinp. He must now, however, give up such sunny hopes, and continue to carry out bis policy under the fierce white light of Westminster, We wonder if it be the gloomy perspective before him that seems to be making ducks and drakes of the Obief Secietary's senses. A usually well-informed correspondent communicates to the public the interesting intelligence that on Monday, July 2, Mr. Balfour left the House and stalked out on tbe terrace by the Thames while the rain was falling io torrents, where he paced to and fro for nearly threequarters of an hour minus hat or overcoat I That the unfortunate man was thoroughly drenched on this occasion admits of no doubt whatsoever. The incessant attentions of the waves wear away a rock ; and it iB just possible that the ceaseless queries of the Irish members may be fretting away Mr. Baifour's brains — now that he has no big, brawny Under-Secretary to parry t.ie blows of his assailants or act as a target for their missiles. Or, mayhap, it may have been the news of John Mandeville's death that smote him with remorse, and induced him to do penance for bis sins by subjecting himself to this cold bath on the banks of tbe Thames. His Homeric duel wita the wasp, and his arm-swinginp promenade through St. James's Park, look ominous, indeed, in the light of this bis latest eccentric adventure. Mr Balfour co sadly needs a rest that we muse coufess his medical advisers are guilty of a gross dereliction of duty in not sending him at once lor villegiature either to the Riviera or the Sandwhich Islands, far from tbe dto and worry of: tbe Irish political arena. Mr. Michatl Davitt at an indignation meeting held on Sunday, July 1 at Gla-gow to protest eg linst Mr. John Dillon's imprisonment, took occasion to pass some remarks on the case of O'Doanell v. the Times. Mr Davitt expressed himself obliged on this occasion, in tin interest of what he termed truth and iairplay, to correct a statement which was gang tbe round cf tue Pnsa and which was calculated to do injustice to an unfortunate and a bva'eo man. It was chargei, he said, in some quarters, and hinted ia most o hers, that there had been a collusion betwc en Mr. v' Oonnell and the Times. Tbeie was no troth whatever in this repoit, ho added. Mr. O'Doanell bad pursued his late course of action not in accordance with Mr. Parnell's, but witn Irs (Mr. Davitt'o) views and advice. Mr. Daritt, in conclusion, offered to stani in the dock in answer tj tue CGarges brought against him by the Times. The following passage from the leading English Liberal daily expresses tbe view taken by all impartial Englishmen of i he cowardly and unfounded attacks that have been made on Air. Parnell. It is only oce <f many passages from different sources that we might quote to the same effect : — " We need not say, as the late Mr. Forater said in 1882, that Mr. Parnell is a ge it lew an, and that his word must be imp.icitly believed. For, apart altogether from the absurdity cf the case agaiubt him, and the completeness with which he has answered it, his assailants have publicly said that they cannot and will not give the only evideice which would be sufficient. The apology is a very lame one, what our American cousins call ' thin.' Tbe missing witnesses would be in greater danger of penal servitude than of assassination, but, whatever way be its intrinsic value, it was a most cogent reason for not publishing what could not be substantiate 1. Tbe line hitherto followei by the Government has been to abstain from joining in the plan of campaign against the characters of tbe Irish members, while turning all the pivjudicj created b/ it to their own account. Mr. Paruell is more than justified for declining to bring tbe action which his enemies sought to force upon him." The same gitat Liberal organ has also voiced, in unmistakeable terms, the verdict pronounced by public opinion in Kngland on the conduct of Sir Bichard Webster. Tais is how it deals with him :—: — > '• Wo deeply lament the blow which Sir Bichard Webster has aimed at tbe noble profession of which he is the unworthy head. The Bar of England has a history of wbicb any country and any calling might be proud. Its members bave seldom been de if to the cry of the needy. They aye seldom feared the f row not the great. They have resisted the encroachments of the Crown. They have curbed eveu the arrogance of the Bench. In times of tyranny and in titnea of revolution they bave upheld the twin pillars of literty and law. From a lawyer James I. met with tbe staunchest opposition ever offered to

an absolute monarch. From a lawyer William HI. received the mott splendid compliment ever paid to a constitutional sovereign. The Bar has rendered great service to the public, and enjoyi great advantages in return. The privileges of the Press, npon trhioh * stupid and ignorant attack was recently made, are as nothing to the privileges of the Bar. Counsel may blast as many characters as they utter sentences, and their victims can get no redress. Bat that immunity has hitherto carried with it a corresponding obligation. It has always been understood that no counsel will make any statement in court which he is not prepared to prove by the evidence of witnesses he is ready and willing to call. The Attorney-General spent Wednesday in making defamatory aspersions of the grossest kind, which he wholly declined to support in any way. There seems to be a notion abroad, wheace derived we know not, that the Attorney* General was stopped by the Lord Chief Justice. No idea could be more erroneous. Sir Bichard Webiter was left to himself, with the result that be stigmatised his own conduct in terms almost as strong as it deserved. We do not believe that any law officer of the Grown since the Revolution would have done what Sir Biohard Wtiteter did. If humbler members of the legal profession follow his example, Parliament will have to interfere by curtailing the rights so grievously abused. Sir Bichard Webster may plead that he did not think anyone would be so silly as to believe in the genuineness of the letters he was instructed to read. At present it is he, not Mr. Parnell, who stands upon his trial ; and if the House of Oonrmoni does not insist upon probing this scandal to the bottom the constituencies will know the reason why."