Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 21, 19 September 1890, Page 9

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.} At its last meeting the Limerick Board of Guardians, elected by the Catholic ratepayers of Limerick and speaking their sentiments, entered a vigorous protest against the Bishop's abusive personal attack on John Dillon. The guardians protested against his Lordship's sneer at the vast majority of the bishops, priests, and people of Ireland as a vulgar " crowd," in whose company Home Rale, or even heaven itself, would not be acceptable. The resolution continued "We feel it to be our bounden duty to emphatic illy protest against such unfounded attempts to vilify the character of honest John Dillon, who is the beloved of the Irish race at home and abroad, besides being the esteemed of the ablest statesmen of England, and the admired of all honest men the world over ; and, needless though it be, we once again express our unbounded confidence in John Dillon and his gallant colleagues, through whom we expect to secure the regeneration of our people." All over the country the challenge thrown down by the Bishop of Limerick to the Irish people — for really this is what his Lordship's latest epistle signifies— is being taken up and discussel with spirit. The verdict is overwhelmingly against the Bishop, while the feeling which accompanies it is one generally more in sorrow than in anger, that an Irish bishop should thus be found ranging himself with the hereditary oppressors and the bitter persecutors of his fellow-country-men. A large number of poor-law boards have condemned the letter by formal resolution, and other representative bodies are following suit. As a matter of course, the great body of National League branches throughout the country are at one mind on the subject. But few defenders of the Bishop have appeared, and these belong chiefly to the class whose quarrel he has espoused. One Catholic gentleman made a chivalrous but hopeless stand in his favour— the Hon. Gastou Monsell ; but his advocacy is suspicious, from the fact of the formal official connection of his family with the Government. Asa Catholic, he protested against any condemnation of the Bishop, but he was dealing with men who are as good Catholics as himself, and would, very likely, if the need arose, make far greater sacrifices in defence of their faith than anyone who stands up for conduct which is the greatest menace to Catholic faith that could possibly be thought of. The Times' Durban Correspondent telegraphs that Sir Henry Connor, Chief Justice of Natal, ie dead. He was son or Roderick Connor, of the Lands of Cullenswood, county Dublin, formerly one of the four Masters in Chancery, Ireland ; was born 1817, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating B.A. in 1838. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1839, took the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1841, and in 1854 was appointed Chief Justice and Judicial Assessor on the Gold Coast, administering the government there from 1854 till 1857. In the latter year he was appointed first puisne Judge of the Supreme Court, Natal, and upon two occasions acted as Judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape. He had been Chief Justice of Natal, and as such Judge of the Vice- Admiralty Court since 1874, and was senior member of the Executive-Council of Natal. He was created an honorary L.L.D. by the university in 1878, and received the honour of knighthood in 1880. " According to the poets," says the St. James's Gazette, " Ireland used to be a country where a young lady, dressed in her most expensive clothes, and with all her jewellery on, could walk about anywhere without the least fear of being robbed or molested. Mr. Parnell and his friends have changed all that. Some few days ago a poor girl, ai dairymaid, was attacked near Tipperary by four young ruffian*, who with their long kniveß, cut every scrap of clothing off, and sent her home naked. The victim of this brutal outrage had been working for a widow who is boycotted. When crimes like this are committed within two hundred yards of the police barracks it is obvious that the evil influences of the National League are still at work ; though, of course, those who directly or iniirectly instigated it will be ready enough to disavow all connection with the actual culprits." This is the London version of the lie which Dr. Patton's Tipperary correspondent, or Dr. Patton's colleague on Cork-hill, set going last week. The meaning end purpose of the fabrication is plain. It was as foal a lie as ever was penned about Ireland, but tbe liar has ea ned his half-crown. Dr. Patton duly forwarded this invention to PigottHouse Square, and it is now in circulation throughout England. The dog will return to his vomit, and the Tory to his Pigottry to the end of the chapter, Mr. David Kent's shadowing of District-Inspector Ball has had the good result of showing up the meaning of the detestable systems and of convicting the Chief Secretary of some serious misstatement, in the House of Commons. Mr. Balfour declared that the system was old, and that nobody was ever shadowed except those whom the police knew to be engaged in the organisation of intimidation. The Royal Irish Constabulary are, as everybody knows, goo 1 swearers ; but they must draw the line somewhere, and they are beginning to draw it at Mr. Balfour's answers. They decline any longer to swear up to that mark. District-Inspector Hill— the assertion of Mr. Balfour to the contrary— stated on oath when cross-examined, that since May, 1889, there was nothing whatever against Mr, Kent beyond vague suspicion. He could not point to " a BiDgle tangible act " on Mr. Kent's part to warrant the suspicion. Yet a policeman was detailed to follow Mr. Kent "as closely as possible." What that phrase means Constable Burke explained later on. The constable swore that "he kept close to the defendant, nearly treading on his heels ; and be believed it was very annoying and irritating to anyone shadowed." The District-Inspector gave some usefnl information as to the history of the practice. It commenced about twelve months ago, Mr. Hill swears, though Mr. Balfonr quotes precedents nearly a decade old. Mr. Hill never knew of persons convicted of serious crime, such as robbery and manslaughter, being shadowed. The delicate persecu-

tion is reserved for such hardened and abominable crimes as those who refuse to have any dealings with landgrabbers. Habitual criminals are, indeed, watched, according to Mr. Hill ; bat their heels are quite safe from constabulary beetle-crushers, and the Executive has too much consideration for the feelings of the irreclaimable offender to intrude a constable's nose between him and his pal. It is only Scotch Ministers spending their vacation in Bearch of the truth about Ireland, Australian lady visitors, and Irish priests on a mission to the death-bed who are subjected to such attentions. There is a slight doubt, we are glad to> hear, whether the law approves the infamy. It would make very little difference, of course, even if Chief Justice Petber could hunt up a reason for declaring that Irish policemen were entitled, at the discretion and under the direction of every autocrat of a Sub-Inspector throughout the country, to make life intolerable and social intercourse impossible, to everyone on whom the shadow of a policeman's suspicion falls. The system would be none the less infamous if a whole Bench of Castle judges declared it legal. Bu v it would prove most welcome to have the gallant defender of the Oloogorey outrages convicted once more of stimulating and encouraging the transgressing of the law, brutal though it be, which he claims it to be his special and peculiar office to vindicate. Mr. Paroell made a most interesting and, in its way, important little speech on Monday night on the vote to defray expenses in connection with the Board of Works. He prefaced his criticism of the operations of the Board by noticing the manner in which the vote was submitted to the House. Ireland, be remarked, was the best beBoarded country in the world. Its Government is practically carried on through Boards and bureaux, which are all represented in the House of Commons by a single member of the Government — for a lawyer knows nothing of anything but what his brief contains, and gentle Mr. Madden is too much of a parchment production to trouble himself about anything except the defence of the vagaries of the Removables. The result is that Parliament is asked to vote the votes for the Irish Government annualy without one word of explanation being offered as to what is being done for the money. The country is in the most backward condition industrially. Its development is the boasted object of all our Chief Secretary's dreams and meditations, and the development requires engineering skill aod at, ention. Yet the money for the engineers of the Board of Woika was asked, and not on.- word vouchsafed as to their work and achievements for the year. This his been the constant custom, ani the cousequeocd is that these gentlemen have done their work in the past with a carelessness that hai strewn the coast of Ireland with monuments of their almost incredible incompetency. Bat the illustration is only one example out of many which the present method of governing Ireland affords, and waich would justify a movement to rescue the country from the hands of the muddlers it there was never a national question involved . Mr. Parnell gave some amusing examples of their work. They spent £35,000 in improving the Arklow harbour. When they b^gan the " improvement " there used to be twenty feet of water in tbe harbour at low tide. There is now only a depth of four and a half feet there. The £35,000 " has been spent in diminishing the depth of the water at tbe entrance of tbe harbour by something between fifteen and sixteen feet, or at the rate of ovar £2,000 a foot. It was well for Arklow they got no more money to spend, though Mr. Jackson offers that in their defence ! in Greystones they turned fairly safe anchorage into dry land. Last year tney carried out forty-eigut projects, and of the forty-eight there are only forty-one useful or available for the purposes for which they were intended. This h how Ireland is to be developed by the nominees of tbe nominees of Westminster, Heaven save us from any further such development 1 Its effect on our present miserable wealth and resources would be the same as that on the waters of the Arklow harbour. Tbe mora development, the less there would remain of them. The election for Mid-Durham took place last Thursday, July 19, with the result that was easily foreseen. Mr. Wilson, tbe Gladstonian candidate, was returned by an immense majority — 2,094 ; but the Tories find consolation — or affect to find it — iv the fact that Mr. Vane Tempest polled 130 votes more than his brother did when be contested the seat before. The majority is large enough, but it would have been much larger were it not for recent Btrikes in the district and a consequent exodus of the working men, as well as for a paucity of conveyances on the Liberal side to carry voters to the polling places. But tbe great reason why it was not a still more emphatic pronouncement in favour of Home Rule on the part of the toilers of Mid- Durham was the complete assurance of easy victory which prevailed all through the constituency — a sentiment which inspired a certain degree of carelessness on the part of all concerned. It is little wonder that Mr. Balfour should take k ndly to evictors and exterminators, for he belongs to the tnba himself. What the family have done and are capable of doing was revealed to some extent by one of them — Gerald, brother of Arthur Jamas— bjfora tha Parliamentary Committee on Colonisation last Monday. Tae Stratbconan estate, the family property, was cleared by old Balfour, father of the present interesting lot in a fashion which would have delighted the soul of John George Adair or Allan Pollok. It supported eleven hundred tenants sixty years ago ; now it is all sheep-runs and deerparks, and supports no human beings save the few labourers who are indispensable for the keeping of the sheep and the deer and the forests in order. It is stated there is not a single genuine tenant on the property at present. Hence, it is evident that tenants are regarded by the Balfour lot generally as Carlyle regarded the Western Irish peasantry — that is to say, as " human swine ' No wonder that Arthur James regards the battering-ram and tbe petroleum-can as most serviceable factors in modern civilisation. The performances of Arthur James as Gaolor-General and Removable Oommander-in-Ohief have occupied the attention of tbe House of Commons for another week. Over the Prisons vote, tbe vote for tbe expenses of Removable Magistrates, and tbe deferred Police vote, a fierce battle raged at the end of last week and beginning of the I present one; The fire from the Irish benches was hot, concentrated,

and prolonged ; and the fierce light which the speakers thiew upon the whole machinery of Balfourism must produce such a horror t>f the infernal system in the public mind as to consign its aatbors and instruments to eternal infamy. From the lips of William O'Brien and John Dillon and Bdward Harrington the people of England have got such a picture of tbe Caddells, the Cecil Roches, and others of the same tribe, as orjly men who have had personal acquaintance with their lawless brutality could give ; and to the overwhelming testimony borne to their rowdy and boorish conduct not a single syllable of denial was possible, nor was it attempted. This is a fact which must make a tremendous impression on the public mind. The only defence attempted by the Chief Secretary was in favour of Colonel Caddell, whose public career he set forth in very eulogistic terms. But he did not venture to give a denial of the charges that this distinguished soldier had stuck out his tongue at a priest, had used foul language to a young girl, and had admitted that he acted in a dual capacity, magisterial and executive, in the famous baton incidents which marked the opening of New Tipperary. Similarly, when the Prisons Vote came to be discussed, Mr. Balfour did not venture to deny or defend any of the countless brutalities committed under his sanction, if not by his express direction. He only answered with a gibe or a sneer, and mockingly complimented those who had gone through the ordeal of his savagery on their healthy appearance. Not a word did he say in defence of the scandalous differences in treatment meted out to imprisoned Pressmen in Ireland and England respectively. Perhaps most interesting in connection with these all -important exposures was the admission dragged from the Government— though it almost took wild horses to do it — that the expenses of Inspector Concannon'a defence in the two trials of Nolan's action against him would be defrayed by the Crown. All the resources of evasion, quibbling, and shuffling were exhausted by the Chief Secretary and the Attorney-General before this was got from them, and so fierce and prolonged was tha debate to which it gave rise that the vote waß only carried by the application of the closure, at about three o'clock in the morning. Many a scandal has been perpetrated and defended under the shield of the Irish Chief Secretary, but this eclipses" them all in brazen injustice and flagrant defiance of law, justice and decency. The edifying struggle between the drunken exterminator, Lord Masserene, and Messrs. Dudgeon and Emerson, who discharged tbe double duties of solicitors and bumbailiffs on the estate, still, we are glad to see, continues with unabated vigilance. The contract of Messrs. Dudgeon and Emerson was very much the same as that of the estimable Dodßon and Fogg in the Pickwick Papers. Those sharp practitioners, we read, agreed to take their costs out of Mr. Pickwick. In the same magnanimous way Messrs. Dudgeon and Emerson agreed to take their costs out of the unfortunate tenants. All they claimed was the privilege of squeezing them quite dry. It was found, however, that the Plan of Campaign interfered unconsciously with the little arrangement. The tenants ungraciously refused to be squeezed, and Dudgeen and Emerson, like Dodson and Fogg, have now turned hungrier than ever on their employer. Judge Warren has decided that, as the wicked Plan of Campaign spoiled their little game, they are released from their original contract and are entitled to their full pound of flesh out of Lord Massereene. A pleasant prospect this to other embarrassed exterminators who have called sharp attorneys to their aid against tbe Plan of Campaign, It was really very fine to hear the brave Mr. Balfour declaiming agaiost any attack on his trusty Removables under cover of Parliamentary privilege. Is it possible he forgets the incident of Peggy Dillon ? Does he forget that it was under cover of Parliamentary privilege he calumniated the midwife, and that he appealed to Parliamentary privilege for protection when she strove to make him answer for his calumnies in court 1 Mr. Balfour is now as virtually indignant on behalf of Removable Cad of Tipperary as he was formerly on behalf of Removable Segrave of Mitchelstown. It will be remembered that when Dr. Tanner first denounced the convicted Bwirjdler, Segrave, who was in supreme command at the Mitchelstown massacre, and who for years polluted the bench of justice sentencing priests and members of Parliament to prison, the Removable's champion, Mr. Balfour, who had Hppointed him, was in great wrath at the bad taute of such an attack on " a distinguished and honourable gentleman and impartial magistrate." Dr. Tanner impolitely persisted. He proved that this man, who was at first a private and then a sergeant in the South African auxiliary forces, had been convicted of embezzling the canteen fund ; had been convicted of embezzling the pay of the troops ; and finally — worst and meanest of all — had been convicted of embezzling a five-pound note which was given him by a sick comrade for his family. He was cashiered in disgrace from the South African army before he was elevated to the Bench in Ireland. Dr. Tanner gave names, dates, and minute details of bis chargesThe smallest inquiry would hays convinced the Government of their truth. But no inquiries were made. On the contrary, the inconveniently persißtent Dr. Tanner was put out of the way as quickly as might be by some bogus charge before the Removables. But the Government did not escape so easily. The question was taken up by Mr. Dillon and Mr. Sexton, and the proofs pressed home so conclusively that " the distinguished and honourable gentleman," convicted swindler, Segrave, who, by the way, is a close and worthy relative of Pether the Packer, was " permitted to resign." We do not deny that there are some honourable gentlemen amongst the Removables, but we believe that swindler Segrave is a fair average specimen of the gang who ara employed most on the active service of Coercion. It may be necessary before long to show up another specimen or two for the edification of the public. A judga exhortiDg the people to rise up and take to lynch law is the latest novelty tbat the Irißh bench furnishes. Such advice was given in very unambiguous phraseology by Judge Harrison on Friday, July 18, with reference to the eastern portion of the county Galway. He thongbt, he said, l* would be a happy day for the administration of the law that tbe people should rise up and take the law into their own hands, as at present it is in a state of par-

alysis. Language of this sort in the mouth of Judge Harrison sounds odd. Hitherto that functionary has done nothing more shocking than pass fulsome eulogies upon Orange bigwigs ; and there is hirdly anything in the atmospherical condition to suggest the influence of the dog-star on ordinarily calm minds. What are the indications of the terrible condition of things in the eastern part of the county Galway which would excuse such an anarchial remedy as Lynch law his lordship did not condescend to say. The public Press, or as least that portion of it which delights in blood-curdling tales of agrarian outrage, and invents some when they are not otherwise procurable, has been dumb over the matter. The only perturbation which we hear of in eastern Galway is the result of the raiding opentions by Mr.Tener, on behalf of Lord Olsnricarde ; and surely Judge Harrison doesn't suggest that people should rise up and lynch Mr. Tener. Perhaps he would kindly explain. We concur for ouce with the Daily Express in considering the extraordinary charge of Judge Harrison, mainly important as indicating the utter breakdown of coercion in the district to which he refers. A mad sheep is proverbially a dangerous animal. We imagine he is a nuisance, particularly to his proprietors. Judge Harrison's injudicious candour lands Mr. Balfour in a very ngly predicament. This judge declares that the firm administration of the law, or, in plainer language, unrelenting coercion, has been an absolute failure in the east riding of Galway, of which the Marquis of Olanricarde is the principal proprietor. We can discount Judge Harrison's strong language easily enough. He is a fossil, but not dishonest, old Tory. For tenants to combine against rack-rents and eviction is to him " abominable lawlessness." Their refusal to facilitate and encourage land-grabbers and emergencymen is " intolerable tyranny," fur which lynch law is the only appropriate remedy. Sensible men may well smile at these incoherent ravings. But when Jndge Harrison tells os that " the administration of the law now Beems completely paralysed throughout this district," we may accept the statement as absolutely true — for " the administration of law " understanding the enforcement of coercion, of course. The Daily Express takes the same view very strongly. It rather inclines to the judge's opinion that lynch law should be adopted, but very plainly confesses with him that coercion has absolutely failed. " Such an utterance," writes the Express very truly, " never fell from the bench before. Probably," it adds, " because never before was the same spirit of lawlessness abroad." If the judge's picture of society in these regions be correct, what are we to think of the rose-coloured views so often presented to England from tha platform and in the House of Commons ? We commend the question heartily to the brave Mr. Balfour and his flatterers when they are next disposed, in the House of Commons or out of it, to indnlge in grotesque raptures over the triumph of coercion in Ireland. The Nationalists and the Plan of Campaign have conquered Mr. Balfour and Coercion on the estate of the Marquis of Clanricarde. It was a terrible conflict. Coercion did its worst there. To borrow the emphatic language of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, " the district was saturated with coercion." Every respectable man be met in the district was either going to prison or returning from prison. Every form of coercion has for the last four years been rampant in the district. The right of public meeting was sternly proclaimed, and Mr. Blunt was hurried off to Galway gaol as a common criminal for presuming to exercise the first privilege of an Englishman in Ireland Over three hundred persons were imprisoned from that district under one coercion pretence or another. Over a thousand were evicted. The district was flooded with police until there was a helmet behmd every buab. The Star Chamber was set up all over the place. The Removables worked double tides in convicting and sentencing. The most virulent Crown Prosecutor in Ireland, Mr. James N. Blake, was aiding and abetting. Tbe appellant judge, the Recorder of Galway, Mr. Henn, Q.C., was as reliable as a Removable. Even the eminent services of Pether the Packer were called into requisition, and he packed a jury of Wicklow Protestant coercionists in bis besi style for the conviction of a number of Galway Nationalists who had assisted auevicied widow in the saving of her hay. Coercion, undoubtedly, did its strongest and worbt ia the district. It was helped along by the covert aid and sympathy of the coadjutor-bishop. As to the final result of the struggle let Judge Harrison and the Daily Express testify. It is about time lhat we heard the last of that outrageous absurdity, the glorious success of Mr. Balfour's administration in lielaDd. The bladder is effectively pricked by sharp-pointed truths. It will never hold air again. From the Clanricarde estate the Daily Express looks North, still with angry and discontented eyes. It draws the distinction which Nationalists are alwayß anxious to draw between two things which Coercionists, as a rule, are anxious to confound — crime and crimeless agrarian combination. It directs attention to Judge Fitzgibbon'a testimouy to the crimelessness of Ireland — ' Lord Justice Fitzgibbon in his en rge to the grand jury of Antrim, drew attention to the unique absence of agrarian crime iv the north-eastern counties. The Commission which he opened in Belfast included six counties— Meatb, Louth, Monaghan, Armagh, Down, and Antrim. The population of these counties is 1,130,000, or more than one-fifth of the whole population of Ireland. Yet in this large and populous area he had met with not one single instance, even by report, of a crime arising from combination and conspiracy. This is, no doubt, very satisfactory in its way, nnd of course, the Judge was amply justified in using very complimentary language to East Ulster, and suggesting that it would be a very happy thing if the rest of Ireland would fail Into line with counties so law-abiding." Still the editor of the Daily Express is not happy. In truth it is not crime the landlords and their organs hate or fear, but the steady peaceful, legal, unconquerable combination which has taken the place of crime. The Daily Express lets the cat out of the bag with brutal frankness. It is not by any means sstiefied with the almost total absence of crime. "We must point out," writes the Exp ress, " That the absence of crime arising from combination and conspiracy by no meanß proves that illegal combinations do not|prevail in partß, at least, of these countieß, Are there no boycotted farms on the

Glensharrold estate, county Meath, none on the Shirley estate, county Monaghan ? It is not always desirable to see things in a rosy light. The absence of crime is one thing — the absence of illegal combination quite another. Till boycotting takes Itself away and men recover their civil rights no one can boast that the re'gn of law has been really restored. As to the condition of Ireland, there has been, in our opinion, a good deal too much concealment. It has been for some time past the cue of Government speakers to point out the widespread peace and security resulting from Mr. Balfour's administration of the law. We have no desire to minimise his work and its happy results, but when we know as a fact that even in peaceful Meath and in other counties there are farms lying derelict which no one will dare to occupy, which are we to think ? " What are you to think, Dr. Patton ? Why, that the tenants' crimeless organisation still holds the field in spite of the most savage Coercion ; that eviction is not a profitable occupation ; and that the land-grabbers' lot is not a happy one despite all the protestations of the brave Mr. Balfour to tke contrary ? It is plain that the Olanricarde Coercion Extension Act is badly needed in Ulster.