Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 8, 9 December 1892, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(Weekly Freeman, October 15.) His Exoellency Lord Houghton was made the object of a popular demonstration in O'Oonnell street on Tuesday. The presence of the vioe-regal equipage outside an establishment there attracted a large crowd, who waited patiently nntil his Exoellency appeared. On taking his scat in the carriage Lord Honghtoa waß enthusiastically weloomed, and he drove off amidst cheers. " lii is the worst fair I have ever stood in or can recollect " is the verdict of an official land valuer on Ballinasloe. The cattle fair of Friday justifies the statement. Prices were down even on late disastrous quotations, and sellers were unable to realise the prices offered for the same stock last May. It is hard to see where the remedy for this condition of things is to be found. The problem is a question of rent.

The Midleton annual fairsbowa that the same depression in the prioe of cattle that was found to exist at the great fairs of Ulster and Oonnaught exists also in Munster. Sheep showed a considerable fall, aad mutton was to be had at tyi per lb. Horned cattle went as low as £5, and milch cows of the best quality failed to obtain purchasers at £13. There was a fall of 10a to £1 per head on the prices of horned stock at recent fairs in the South.

The landlords of the County Limerick are making arrangements for a wholesale clearance. On one property alone, that of the Hayes minors, no leaa than eighty per cent of the tenantry are under notice of eviction. A campaign has just been concluded near Abbeyfeale which threw fifty persons out of their homes, and an old beggarwoman has been turned out of a little wayside hut, put up for her by the neighbours, to make room for a number of emergencymen who ■ally thence occasionally to make seizures of cattle throughout the district.

The Duke of Devonshire has a circular to be addressed to his tenantry informing them that his Grace has decided to grant them an abatement of 22$ per cent off their rents now payable. The circular it appears has created a good deal of disappointment amongst the tenantry, as during the past couple of weeks an opinion prevailed that his Grace would allow at least 30 per cent reduction, as a similar reduction was made during a depressed season a few years before the death of the late Duke, and the tenants state that the present time is as trying a season on them as they ever experienced, and that cattle are now even a greater drug in the market than the year the late Duke allowed 30 per cent off their rents. It is now certain that there is to be a bitter struggle between the landlords and tenants in Clare this winter. The outlook for the latter is, indeed, lamentable. The farmers have been unable to sell their stock, except at a third of the price the same class of stock would have realised two years ago. The crops, too, are in a ruinous state from the adverse weather. Nothing short of an Arrears Bill iB wanted in most cases. It is stated that a great part of the approachng quarter sessions at Kilrush will be devoted to ejectments and processes for rent on the adjoining estates. A number of the Vandeleur tenants, it is farther stated, were served with rent processes and ejectment suits a short time ago. The tenants in arre*rs on this estate were also noticed that, unless they paid up the arrears that bad accrued they would forfeit the concessions granted under Sir Charles Bussell's memorable arbitration award. On Thursday at the meeting of the Drogheda Board of Guardians Mr James Bichard Drew said, as they might have observed from recently published letters received from the late Mr John Boyle O'Beilly, addressed to V^h-t Jas. Anderson, the deadjpatriot desired to rest under a certain s:one in Dowth churchyard. After considerable search the stone, waioh was entwined with ivy, was found. Last week this stone was raised and carried away. Tbe caretaker stated th« man who did so said he had Mr Gradwell'a authority for his action, and that it had been sent to Amerioa. The caretaker had since been informed it had not been sent. Mr M'lvor moved that iheir ■•oUeitor be instructed to take prooesdings. If the stone were going

to be sent to Amerioa to be placed over; the grave of John Boyle O'Beilly it should be gilt at the expense of tha Guardians. Mr Everett seconded Mr M'lvor's motion, which was adopted. Mr Drew, replying to the remarks of Mr M'lvor, said the wish of the dead patriot should be carried out, and his remains brought to Ireland. Friday night an exceedingly large audience assembled at the Gaiety Theatre, the occasion b9ing made specially attractive by the fact that the Lord Lieutenant and a party from the Vice-regal Lodge were present. Outside a large number of people assembled and cheered his Excellency very warmly as he ariived. The Vice-regal party were received by Mr Guon and conducted to the Vice-regal box On their arrival the orchestra playei " God Say« the Queen," and the audience in all parts of the house rose to their feet and cheered very enthusiastically. Lord Houghton came to the front of the box and bowed his acknowledgments, and the cheers were renewed as the ladies of the party and the Viceroy bowed. When the general cheering had subsided a voice called for cheers for Home Bule and Morley, and the call was heartily responded to, though a few hisses mingled with the cheers, The Lord Lieutenant advanced to the front of the box and bowed bis acknowledgment of the cheers for Home Bule.

The late3t of the series of articles in the Daily Chronicle on the subject of the evicted tenants deals with the reinstatement in their holdings as a matter of course, and discusses bow they are to be secured and assisted after they are reinstated. The writer advocates the absolute necessity of compulsory sale, which he thinks mast also be extended to the Ulster tenant-farmers, who are clamouring for it impatiently. He also discusses the necessity of some assistance for the evicted tenants when starting after reinstatement, as they have no stock or money to buy it, and their land has fallen out of heart through compulsory idleness. The Chronicle correspondent declares that he has ascertained that the Hibernian Bank will be willing to lend with a safe margin and sufficient interest on the tenant right of the holdings that are restored and purchased. But he doubts that the other banks will follow suit. He suggests that the other tenants may be aided by national subscription or out of the Paris Fund. To outsiders it must indeed seem ntrange and most discreditable that the

tenants should be allowed to suffer for one moment while this great sum, subscribed by Irish charity, is available for their relief. The Bedmondites and their Brighton ally have brought this disgrace on the country. The correspondent is right about the planters, from whom he expects little or no trouble in settling the estates. '• There remains, he writes, " the question of the new men, the ' planters ' as they are called. I have already given my reasons for the conclusion that, speaking generally, they are bogus tenants." He pays the highest possible testimony to the patience with which the evioted, soothed and encouraged by hope, have borne the injustice and the hardships to which thoy ar« exposed. He writes— "Nor do I think there will be much unwillingness on the part of the new men to go, or any great desire to haggle as to terms. As my friend a Catholic dignitary said, the life of these men would not be a happy one if their unwillingness to leave was the only difficulty in the way of the return of the old men. These latter have been very quiet, but they have never abandoned the hope of return. It is a remarkable fact that upon all the estates upon which the Plan of Campaign has been in operation for a long time past there has been a complete absence of outrage. We see upon each estate a body of men, in some cases numbering hundreds, clustered together, living for years in enforced idleness, expatiating to each other day by day upon their wrongs, attributing all their misfortunes to landlords abd agents, often within their reach, seeing other men upon the holdings they still consider their own— men whose antecedents entitle them to no respect, and who have indulged in wanton destruction of houses and out-buildings, whilst they have seldom put spade or plough into the land ; and yet the compilers of agrarian crime do not even get the report of a threatening letter having been sent to add to their lists." But the Chronicle writer is shrewd enough to see that if hope failed trouble would begin. The grabber's life then would be " not a happy one." It is for these reasons he thinks there will not be much trouble, in view of all the circumstances of tbe case, in inducing the squatters to move on. The article is interesting showing how universally the restoration of tbe evioted is accepted as a thing of courts in England.

Eviction proceedings were carried out on Friday, 7th inst., on the Richardson estate, near Camlough, about three and a half miles from here, when the sheriff's men evicted an old man from his holding, and took over possession of two other farms in the same district on behalf of the landlords. Early in the forenoon a sheriff's bailiff left Newry for Camlougb, and on arrival at the lattei village was met by a bailiff from the estate, and both proceeded, unaccompanied by any police escort, to the townland of Eshwary; and took over possession of the farm of Catherine Murphy for the landlords' trustees. They then proceeded to the adjoining townland of Keggal, and also took possession of a farm of land there which was held by a tenant named Catherine Fearon, Both farms had been vacant for the past two years or so, a considerable amonnt of arears of rent having accumulated, which the late tenants were unable to pay. The bailiffs then made a move to the townland of Oarrickclongban, about half a mile from Camlough, and proceeded to the house of a man named James Torley, aged about 60 years, who resided alone in that townland. Torley held a farm of about twenty-eight acres of barren mountain land, for which he owed several years' rent. The decrees in these cases were obtained at the January Quarter Sessions of this year in Ballybot (Newry), before County Court Judge Kisbey. Torley it may be stated, only occupied the farm as a caretaker for some years p&Bt. About a fortnight ago an order for possession was granted by the magistrates at Ballybot Petty Sessions. Torley was soon made aware of the bailiff's business, and but a short time was occupied in clearing the house of the few chattels which it contained. This accomplished, Torley was ejected from the place and the door fastened up, and possession of the place taken for the trustees. The eviction was carried out very quietly, rery few people in the district being aware of the bailiffs presence in the midst. On Thursday, a meeting of the Route Tenants Defence Association was held in the Town Hall, Ballymoney. There was a large attendance of farmers and others, it being the fair day, The chair was taken by the president of the Boute Tenants' Association, Mr Thomas Tweedie. The chairman said now all parties in the State appeared to be favourable to land purchase, and even the Belfast News Letter was advocating the adoption on the estates of absentee landlords. He need not tell practical farmers that this was a time of great agricultural depression. The yield and prices were both below the average. Mr John Megaw, J.P., proposed the following resolutions:—" That the continued depression in the chief industry of Ireland, agriculture, demands the immedia f e attention of the Government. That in view of the inability of many farmers to pay their rents under the present depressed circumstances, we urge upon the Government the necessity of enforcing by legislstive means such reductions in reat generally as shall bring just and adequate relief to the agricultural class ; and further, we are of opinion that rents upon unsold estates should be equalised wit 1 ) annuities oa sold estates That, being convinced of the unsuitability of double ownership in the soil to the requirements of modern agriculture, especially in the face of increasing foreign comottition, we reiterate our demand for the compulsory abolition on equitable terms of this system, and declare that this change should not depend upon any political contingency whatever. That the defects of double ownership are most painfully notorious on the estates of absentee landlords, and it is a scandal to modern civilisation to allow such territorial abuses to exist, embracing, as chey do, a wrong to the tenantry and to the interests of the country. That, inasmuch as the interests of the tenants in the soil were not adeqnately protected by fair rent section of the Land Act and as its administration has in many cases been mo9t unsatisfactory, together with the desirability of providing a proper basis for purchase we demand a complete amendment of said section. That the duty of the farmers of Ireland is to strenuously urge the paramount importance of their interests irrespective of politics ani creeds." Mr Kuox seconded the resolution and it was supported by Rev Mr Armour, Jttev Mr Mairs, and pabsed, this terminating the proceedings.