I should apologise to the Public for imposing upon it a work so unattractive in style and arrangement as this pamphlet. As a matter of fact, when I commenced, about eight days ago, to make a note, for the convenience of reference at any time, of a few salient facts regarding the fight that has been waged so fiercely for forty years, between landlord and tenant in this Parish, I had not the smallest intention of writing a book. Very soon I found myself unwarily committed to a task which I had never essayed in my life, unless I was prepared to sacrifice, on account of its incompleteness, the work I had already done. I preferred to go on; and the growth of my labour and perseverance is "Gweedore."

Its matter I have studied for years—the facts I have verified in every possible way within my reach. No one is bound by my conclusions or inferences, except in so far as my premises warrant them as right and reasonable. I have expressed my views freely, and I must add honestly and sincerely, I only ask that the reader will not condemn toe merely because he may think differently. If he were in my place he would probably agree with me.

The subject in hand deals largely with persons, and it was impossible to treat it without being personal. It was my desire to be fair to every one ; and if I have . wronged anyone, or caused him pain, I must say it was foreign to my intention; and I shall be glad to undo the Wrong, if it be pointed out to me, wherein I have wronged.

In this respect, too, its publication will, I hope, relieve myself, because from the various duties and occupations of my life 1 have been utterly unable to correspond so fully on this and various kindred subjects, as I myself wished, as the importance of the matter deserved and my respect for my friends demanded. The pamphlet is by no means full or exhaustive. It would take a book of a thousand pages to contain all that occurred even within my own day in this agrarian struggle. I hope that what I have written will put the condition,of things in this region in truer light before the public; and that it will contribute even a little towards the final solution of the Irish difficulty,

About 24,000 acres of this area is held in Fee by the landlords, so that the area in the actual occupation of the tenants is about 20,000 acres. .

Being only a portion of a parish (Tullaghobegley) there are no distinct and separate official records or statistics from which one may collect facts about the district. It is known in ecclesiastical language as Tullaghobegley West, but it is popularly known as Gweedore. It is nearly conterminous with the Petty Sessions District of Bunbeg, regarding which official information is obtainable in the Census Returns, but there are considerable differences, which make the returns regarding Bunbeg Petty Sessions District unreliable for accurate information about Gweedore. Excluding Government servants—police, and coastguards, and some ex-police—and a few Protestant families imported into the place by Lord geoege hill—the

and numbers 960 families almost exactly. The average number in family exceeds 5i, so that the population may be placed accurately at about 5,000.

of land in Gweedore is only Seven-pence. The average valuation of an acre of Gweedore laud it its prairie or natural state—the state in which it was handed over by landlord to the tenant or the tenant's predecessor in title—is only Three half-pennies!

The average size of holding in occupation of tenants would be about 20 acres, about the fifth of which is arable ; and the average valuation of the acre of these holdings is something less than One Shilling—hence one acre of the rich lands of Meath is worth 40 acres of the laud cultivated by the Gweedore tenant ; and the cultivation of the Gweedore holding, if done by hired labour, would be 4,000 times as expensive as the cultivation of the one acre in Meath.

It is wet, spongy bog, lying on granite. It requires such an extraordinary allowance of manure that it seems to have no fertilising properties in itself, and to be only a medium for developing the fertilising properties of manure.

A man frequently manures the land three times in the year for a potatoe crop, and after all that he needs to stimulate the growth of an oat crop in following season by an additional coating of manure. The work of cultivation is

The laud is turned over with the spade ; it is broken and harrowed with an iron rake worked by the hand ; and the manure is most generally carried to the land on the backs of the people.

Manure is an essential element of cultivation. Hence the untoward labour by land and sea undergone by the people to provide manure. Hence too, the comparatively small area under crop, because it is useless to crop the land without an abundant supply of manure, and where the stock is small and the fodder almost nil there cannot be that abundant supply. In fact the land is not entirely an agricultural land ; it is

and on its pastoral products in the past the people depended chiefly. In the good pre-landlord days its people used and developed its pastoral and agricultural qualities, and lived, if not in comfort, in peace and contentment. They used and enjoyed, without let or hindrance

EVEEY FOOT AND INCH OF THE 44,000 ACEES. The district was not even then without landlords, but the landlords of that day were a humane, sympathetic and good hearted class.

The rents were small as compared with the fabulous figures to which they were raised by the

that succeeded them. And the landlords of that day would take a sheep in lieu of the rent, or work on a public road, and they never resorted to any harrying methods, if the tenants were not able to pay.

About 40 years ago the inhabitants of Gweedore occupied and used the 44,000 acres that make up the area of Gweedore, and the rent payable for same was about £650. But a new class of landlords had replaced the old and they adopted

hitherto unknown to the unsophisticated peasants of Gweedore. The late Lord george hill was the pioneer of this class. However else the landlords may have differed, they seem to have conspired to adopt identically similar methods of tyranny and oppression against their tenants. Their first act was one of spoliation and appropiation by which they seized for themselves Dearly 24,000 acres of the area of Gweedore ; and they restricted the tenants to the occupation of 20,000 acres, and they pushed up the rent of £660 to about £1,789 15s 9d ou the 20,000 acres !

entailed upon most of them—all of them on the hill estate—the expensive necessity of altering their houses, or pulling down the old homesteads and building up new houses in a different place. The rundale system, which had previously prevailed was per force broken, and the dilusion of " squaring'¹ the holdings substituted instead. For this wholesale spoliation the landlords did not give a farthing of compensation ; for the removal and change of dwellings or building up new houses, necessitated by landlord arbitrariness, the landlords did not pay a penny. They duly stimulated the superhuman efforts of the poor tenants by almost

previously payable for the whole on the miserable remnant still permitted to remain in the occupation of the tenants. The story of the misery and terrorism that followed on the wake of these acts of aggression on the part of the landlords, it is not intended to include in this short summary. It is well told in the blue-book of minutes of evidence before a

into alleged distress in Gweedore and Cloughaneely in the House of Commons in the summer of 1858. Then, as now, the law was on the side of the oppressor and against the people ; and the landlords of that day backed up by the forces of the Crown crushed the poor people of Gweedore, and obliged the district already almost bled to death by the landlords to bleed still further to the tune of

to rivet firmly and finally the chain of landlord slavery around their necks. In sulliness and silence they suffered on, the unwilling victims of a tyrannous power. They made the rents and maintained their existence not out of the land.

some of years as tender as eight, who hired themselves away like white slaves to the service of the farmer in bordering counties, or nearer home. From these same sources, too, came the money to pay the price of the Indian meal, funrished from time to time, by the meal merchant, on the credit system, to keep soul and body together. Thus they forged ahead year after year wearing their lives away with the landlord leech ever sucking their vital veins.

there arose the Land League agitation ; their pent-up feelings find expression ; and, like the worm, they turn upon the oppressor, and stand defiantly at bay.

come in to strengthen their hands. The landlords will not recognise distress ; they will not contribute to its alleviation ; but they will insist, good crop, bad crop, or no crop—starve the people or die—that they will get their rents. The power of the landlord is broken before a united people, and the people will no longer starve, or live on charity, and pay the landlord.

for the maintenence of the people of Gweedore. And through all that time the landlords did not contribute anything to their aid, nor did they willingly abate a penny of their rents.

It should, however, be noted, that the money had been specially contributed to maintain the roof tree over families doomed to eviction or already cast out upon the world. Captain hill, olphert, Mrs. stewart and Mr. nixon received charity money under those circumstances ; as also Mr. joule, Meencladdy, and Mr. key, Crolly. Through all this time the landlords, who not only dominate the Union Board of Guardians, but, generally form the Board through themselves or their nominees, as Guardians of the Poor, persistently refused to extend any relief to the distressed. Gweedore, however, is

and are qualified to vote for a Poor Law Guardian. Not a single
one of those 960 families was qualified to vote for a Member of
•Parliament before the recent Franchise Act. The landlords not
only did not exercise themselves co help the people to tide ovev
the distressful years, but they plied. . .

with all their might to force the people to pay impossible rack-rents at the very time that the people were living on public charity, and the crops in the ground were the growth of charity seed.

had been passed and become law for some years before the people were able, owing to the distressful times, to take advantage of it to check the ravages of the landlords. Indeed, had it been necessary for the people themselves to put the machinery of the Land Court in motion, it would never have been done, owing to their poverty. But

and the responsibility for them ; and towards the end of 1883, he put over 400 cases into the Land Court out of the several estates.

In the March of the following year the first session of Land Sub-Commission Court was held in Bunbeg. Mr. bodrke, the present R.M. of the Gweedore district, was the legal member and Chairman of the Sub-Commission, Mr. mahony (now M.P.) and Mr. gray were the non-legal members.

Having heard the cases—81 in number, off the hill estate, and Messrs. mahony and geay only having inspected the holdings, judgement was given on 27th March, '84, and

The landlord promptly appealed all the cases, and a cry was got up against the Bub-Commission by the landlord party. The cry succeeded ; the Sub-Commission was broken up. Mr. gkay was sent down to Cork and a strongly landlord partisan, a Mr. sproule, was sent to take his place, and to fight the landlord cause in Gweedore and Clohaneely. Mr. burke, himself a landlord or land agent or both, was also added to the party, viewing the farms.

Mr. mahony, a fair and honest cemmissioner, disposed to give fair play to the tenant, was overborne by

and in the subsequent cases from the hill estate only 25 per cent, of a reduction was granted. Even in these cases the landlord appealed the most of them. It should be remembered that the appeal was a sort of weapon to frighten the tenants from going into court, on account of the costs that must be incurred.

in deference to a memorial from the tenants of Gweedore setting forth their inability to attend at Derry, or the County town, Lifford, on account of want of means, fixed a Special Sitting for the appeals at Bunbeg, in July, '85. The result of the hearing of the first batch of appeals was to

fixed by the Sub-Commission at 38 per cent, of reduction. Thereupon the landlord party withdrew all the remaining appeals.

The following schedule sets forth how Land Courts hare worked in Gweedore. About 30 cases on olpheet estate in Gweedore was not in Court, and no reduction was voluntarily granted by landlords.

Over 500 cases on the hill estate were not in Court but UNDER THE PEESSUEE OF AGITATION

a reduction of 30 per cent, in these cases was granted with several other valuable concessions.

On the nixon and stewart properties in Gweedore, several tenants were not able to take advantage of Land Act. The nixon tenants were induced to take a reduction of 19^ to 15 per cent, out of Court. The stewart tenants were not allowed anything.

Previous to the re-construction of the Court of Sub-Comtnission, in deference to the landlord cry, there was some confidence in the Laud Court Tribunal. Undoubtedly there were then some really good honest men amongst the Sub-Commissioners who had the respect and confidence of the public. But after the change of the Sub-Commission here, the people lost all confidence in the Court, and the results fully warranted their distrust. In fact the experience gained by them taught the people that their best chance for justice and fair play lay in constitutional agitation.

and oppression, because they sanctioned and ratified rents on the holdings in the condition in which the Sub-Commissioners found them at inspection, and that was fastening, under the sanction of law, rent upon the poor tenants' improvements. Thus, for instance, on the Olphert estate the old rent of James M'Geever which was 22/-, was fixed in court at ll/- or 50 per cent, less than old rent, yet ll/- on James M'Gcever's plot means

because the area handed over by landlord to James M'Geever, 80 years before, was a little over G acres of bog, and the Government Valuation of that quantity of bog, according to Sir Bio-hard Griffith, was about

Therefore a liberal rent upon the holding applotted to M'Geaver •would be, at that time, one shilling.

Poor M'Geever paid 2'1UO per cent, of a rack rent for thirty years ! And by the legal machinery of the day his successors shall have to pay I'OOO per cent, of a rack rent, possibly forever !

There are Eight Estates, or portions of Estates, in Gweedore. Captain Hill is the largest laud owner in the parish. He owns about 21,000 acres, out of the entire area of 44,000 acres. The following record gives approximately, indeed, accurately, so far as I have been able to make out the names of the owners, the areas, valuations, and changes, in rent, etc. :—•

HILL ESTATE. 1. Captain Hill's Estate. (a.) Area—24,189 acres. (b.) Gross Valuation—£1,159 2s.

(/I.) Valuation of land held in Fee by landlord, and landlord buildings—£304 6s.

(/'.) Gross Valuation of laud and buildings in occupation of tenants, £854 16s.

Number of tenancies now (September, 1889), by reason of existing sub-tenants being recognised tenants under settlement of 1837, 920.

(k.) Gross rent of estate when ib came into hands of Lord. George Hill, £499 10s.

(in.) Portion of this Gross rent, purely agricultural, and paid by native tenants up to 1882, £1,100.

(n.) Present agriculture¹ rental, (old rent being reduced to this figure by the Judgment of the Land Court in 1884, and by the influence of agitation in 1887,) £800.

Lord George Hill purchased nearly all his Gwecdore property about 1838. It is not my intention now to go very much into detail, but to grasp thoroughly the condition of things created by Lord George Hill, one must first bear in mind that, in the purchases made by him, he only bought the supposed or alleged interest of the outgoing landlord or landlords. Now, the outgoing landlords from whom Lord George Hill purchased, had no right of occupancy in the district.

Lord George Hill on his advent to f.ie place set about appropriating to himself more than the naif of the entire estate— over 12,000 acres. He himself admitted this iu his evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons in 1858. He not only appropriated to himself, without compensation, half the estate ; but, in carrying out a scheme of " squaring-' the holdings, he obliged the tenants to cast lots for the new holdings created under the "squaring" process, and to change their place of abode from where they lived to whatever holding their lot fell. In making this change, and in building new houses, they got

Allowing £10 for each house, and placing the number of families at 600, the change would mean a loss of £6,000 to the tenants. £10 is only a very low estimate of the cost of building even the most lowly cabin in ths place. Then, allowing that the value of the area of over 12,000 acres taken by the landlord was equal to that of the 20,000 acres left iu the hands of the tenants ; and, it was, so far as the landlord's claim was concerned ; because the enhanced value of what was left in the hands of tenants, was

or their predecessors ^;ii title, the existing rent at that time of £4:12 should have btcii reduced by one-half, or made £236.

The landlord iu equity and justice should have compensated the tenants to the amount of 20 years purchase at least for their interest in the half of the estate that he appropriated, and should have reduced the rent on the half left iu their occupation by one naif. The compensation to the tenants for the half appropriated at 20 years purchase would come to about £5,COO. The loss to the tenants, even at this point, would be £11,000. But the rent of the half of the estate was raised to over £1,000. The old rent for the WHOLE estate was only £<Av2 _; and to put over £1,000 upon THE HALF OF IT was surely

But to make matters worse the place was crowded witli police in •those days to carry out this

There were seven barracks—one at Dunlewey; one at Thorr ; one at Gweedore Hotel; one at Bunbeg ; one at Middletown ; one at Glassagh, one at Innishirrer, aud one at Meena-claddy. Their duty was " driving" for rent, "driving" for taxes—police tax and sheep tax! They harried the people and crushed and defeated them. The district, including a small portion of Clohaneely, paid within one year over £3,000 in police tax and sheep tax.

It arose out of the opposition given by the natives to the introduction of Scotch Shepherds and Scotch Sheep farming on ibff mountains, forcibly taken from the people.

There was a syndicate of landlords, so to speak, leagued together to subjugate the people ; Hill, Olphert, Nixon, etc. But Lord George Hill was the Smith-Barry of the party. He was their leader. But they were all engaged in carrying out the sarue project and in the same way—Olphert in Clohaueely and Lord George Hill and a number of smaller landlords in Gweedore.

In 1862 Lord George purchased the last portion of the present Hill property. The rent of it at the time of purchase, I learn from the estate bailiff and from the tenants, was £27 10s. The purchase included Kuockastolar and Meencorwick. In a very short time—almost the year after—this rent of £27 10s was raised by Lord George Hill to about £8y.

Adding the rent of this more recent purchase to the rent of the purchase of '38 the gross rent of the Hill estate at purchase would be £499 1 Os, and adding the increased rent of the recent purchase to the increased rent of the former purchases one gets

or more; and mark ! upon the half of the estate which had been previously held and occupied for £499 10s. It may be said that Lord George Hill expended money on the estate. Aye ! but it was for his own aggrandisement and not for the benefit or improvement of the tenants.

Yes ! I should say that it was proved in the Court of Land Commission in Bunbeg, in 1884, that Lord George Hill expended

and it was contended that the "squaring'' was an improvement for the tenants ! ! Granting that he should get some beneficial result from the expenditure of £000, it would entitle him to put on an increase of only £21 at most!

Lord George Hill managed to get six Coast-Guard Houses erected, and a Watch-house and Boat-house, and a Petty Sessions Court (the main lever for working the rent machine), a Dispensary house, a Medical Doctor's house, an additional Police-Police Barrack, a Pound

some few comfortable residences for colonists settled by him in the district, mills and kilns, and stores and dwelling houses attached. But those buildings and the Bunbeg fishery bring the family a steady income of about £600 a-year in the shape of rent.

He also built the Gweedore Hotel, which has had such an extraordinary run of custom for the past few years. It was on those

that Lord George Hill expended his income, but on the tenants' holdings he expended no money.

By the operation of the Land Act of 1881, the tenants acquired a legal right to grazing oil 9,000 acres of the mountain taken from them in 1854.

HOW THE RENTS WERE INCREASED. The rents were increased by the simple process of multiplying by two or three, or other figure, as the case might be ; by putting on 10s or £1 additional on changing the name of a tenant, or recognising a case of sub-diusiou, and by cutting out new farms on the head lands, valleys or mountain sides, belonging to the townlands near them by

EVERY TITLE OF USE AND OCCUPATION, and the actual consent and recognition of the previous landlord. Lord George Hill carved as many as about 130 new farms out of those commage rights of the tenants, and was drawing an annual income of about £180 from same. By various influences the present, agricultural rent is made about £800. But it is still nearly 50 per cent, above the old rent before Lord George Hill became owner ; and, certainly, still 50 per cent, above

having regard to the real value of his interest in the holdings. The struggle on this estate commenced after the death of Lord George Hill in '7'J, and continued with varying fortunes through eight years. Certainly no method was left untried on the landlord side to extract the impossible rents. lu the autumn of '86,

was chosen agent, I really believe, ad terrorem. Colonel Dopping put on all possible pressure, but lie entirely failed to squeeze the rent out of empty pockets.

He threatened eviction : he threatened pulling down houses, etc. But all to no purpose. I really think that he did not for 14 months of hard labour take iu 50 agricultural rents out of 800. Finally after

in October, 1887, a settlement was arrived at between the representatives of the landlord and myself, without the presence or interference of Colonel Dopping. One of the conditions insisted upon on the side of the tenant, and the first iu order of importance, though not expressed on the face of the Draft Agr cement, was that

in the agency. He was relieved of tiie duties of the agency some time later on. The following selected newspaper reports will give a fair idea of how the struggle was waged towards the end.

Nearly 120 of the tenants have not been able yet to pay the amounts placed upon them under the settlement of November, 1887.

to meet this settlement after the distressful jear of 1886, and prices were almost down at bottom in '87. The settlement cleared accounts down to 1st November, 87. Little, if any rent has been paid to the landlord since, for tiie causes above stated, and because of the exceptionally bad crop of '83, which brought considerable distress to Gwuedore in the present year. A very substantial part of the

dtjnfanaghy, fkiday. — Colonel Dopping, the newly-_appointed agent over the Hill property in Gweedore, attended at Bunbeg to-day for the collection of rents. The tenants, headed by the parish priest and curate, attended in a body. The agent insisted before he would hear Father M'Fadden on reminding the tenants that they could not lie allowed to remain in possession of their holdings without paying; rent, and that if they failed to pay proceedings should be taken. He called upon all who had the money to come forward and pay, and save themselves and others from the vortex of costs. He had conie amongst them as the friend of the tenants—(laughter)—and he would be sorry to be obliged to take proceedings, but he would not be deterred by any power or person—even the king- of the Realm or the Governor-General of the country—from doing his duty.

Father M'Faddeu was glad to hear from Colonel Dopping that he came amongst them as the friend of the tenants, and he hoped that the Colonel would prove his sincerity in saying so by dealing with the tenants in a friendly and conciliatory spirit and offering them such abatements as were adapted to their poverty and the depression of the time. Father M'Fadden argued that the depression could not be denied. It was proved from statistics that the prices from which the judicial rents were fixed two years ago had fallen at least 20 per cent. Sir James Caird contended that the rents in such a place as this had entirely disappeared, and were not recoverable by any power. The Land Commission refused to sanction a loan for the purchase of the Tatf'e property in the West of Ireland, and of other properties, on the ground that the rent was not payable out of the land, but by earnings and wages. This is pre-eminently the case of Gweedore. The depression was admitted by the majority of landlords throughout Ireland, and near to our own doors. On the adjoining estate of Messrs. Twigge & Peebles, the agent had been directed to grant 35 per cent.

The Marquis of Conyngham, on the neighbouring property of the Bosses, was allowing 20 per cent, and several other landlords in Donegal were acting even more liberally, and should Gwesdove be denied every reduction—Gweedore that was the most rack-rented estate not only in Donegal, but in all Ireland—the Land ^ourt had decided so by allowing'the greatest reductions that I noticed to have been given anywhere throughout Ireland, except on the property of the Irish" Church Mission .Society, on the of Achill. Father M'Faddeu felt convinced iu his'heart that

the demand for 6s 8d in the £1 on rents now due was moderate because lie was satisfied that not even the smallest rent was payable out of the land. Those tenants from whom the Colonel was now demanding full rents had been struggling for existence for the past six years by the aid of charity in one shape or other and much of the crops of this year out of which ho expected rent had grown from charity seed. He (Father M'Fadden) had distributed as much as 170 tons of seed potatoes alone, not to talk of oats last spring. He therefore, felt justified in putting before him 'the application of the tenants for a reduction of 6s 8d in the £1 on rents now due to those who could scrape together a year's rent or less, and time and forbearance for all who could not.

Colonel Doppiug said that he had no alternative hut to press when there was a combination to pay no rent. (" No, no ; only a fair rent.")

Hereupon Father m'fadden stood up and said that he would set the Colonel's mind at rest on that head—that there was a combination to exact a reasonable reduction, and that he was the head of it. They had fixed upon (is 8d in the £1, yet he (Father M'Fadden) did not tie himself to that figure if he saw the slightest disposition for mediation and conciliation, but Colonel Doppiug definitely asserted that no power would cause him to swerve from his course, but let him bear in mind that he was now face to face •with a people resolute as death, and fearless from desparation.

Colonel Dopping here took up the rent roll, and inquired about particular cases. He asked why Margaret Doogin could not pay her rent, which was only £1.

Father m'fadden slated that he planted her holding last year with charity seed, and that the woman was only a caretaker, being evicted last August

Colonel Dopping—Well, Mr. M'Fadden,'I see you down here for a 15s rent, and you me 80s.

Father m'faddeit—Yes, I am out of the charities of the poor people, but not out of the produce of the laud, and I refuse to pay on that principle without a reduction.

Colonel Dopping evaded the question as to whether he admitted there was a depression warranting the reduction asked.

Father m'fadden said it would save "time and shorten the discussion if the Colonel would say at once if he would grant a generous reduction.

The tenants, who had filled the Courthouse and thronged in a large crowd at the door, hereupon left in a body groaning vociferously for Colonel Dopping.

To the Editor of the Derry Journal. gin—The gallant Colonel who lias undertaken the unenviable task of managing the Hill property in Uweedore comes again on the scene after four months retirement in his usual character. Viewing the courage of this soldier in the light of experience, his threats may be regarded as empty banter and nothing more. At the safe distance of forty miles from the scene of action he tries to excite great alarm amongst the landlord ridden peasantry of Gweedore ; but those hardy wights laugh at him at long range, and despise him at close quarters. He may, by the aid of his Winchester repeater and a Coercion Government, hope to make gold from granite, but it takes little fore-knowledge to prophesy that the effort will fail him. In this age of conferences he might perhaps, with wisdom, bethink himself of arbitration as a good way of floating him •off the bank on which he has driven. The terms offered him nearly a twelve mouth ago are still available, and there still remains the alternative of the Campaign. The enclosed postcard is a sample of several to the same effect—Yours truly,

. " Glencarrick, Fahan, Sept. Oth, 1887. " If I go to Gweedore and obtain warrants for possession of the house now occupied by you as caretaker, I shall most certainly have the house knocked down.; so if you wish to be restored as tenant yon had better at once pay up all due and costs'-to me,

gweet>oke, tuesday night.—To-day Colonel Dopping and an emergency bailiff of the name of M'Elwaine, with 90 police in charge of Mr. Ulick Burke, R.M., and commanded by County -Inspector Lennon and District Inspector Stevenson, were

engaged serving summonses for the Petty Sessions, at Bunbeg next Monday on parties on the Hill estate who are in possession as caretakers or trespassers, and who have all refused to give up such possession. The people, not knowing the exact object of this unexpected invasion, took very little notice of the proceedings, and only a few women and children from the immediate scene of operations honoured the occasion with their presence. Colonel Dopping was in a high condition of " law," fuss, and otnciousness, and lie was serving out "law" at every one that crossed his path all day. After a considerable amount of marching and manceuvering they succeeded in serving about twelve summonses. Bailiff Diver was the pointsman to show the houses. At an early stage of the proceedings Father M'Nelis, who was in attendance, entered one of the houses in which Colonel Dopping and the bailiff were delivering a summons, and to the astonishment of the rev. gentleman and every one else the Colonel told the rev. gentleman

and that he should leave, and that the premises were Capt. Hill's. Father M'Nelis with coolness inquired whether he was breaking any law, and the Colonel replied somewhat grandly that he was. Thence the Colonel did all the speaking, and the rev. gentleman treated him with silence, contempt, and disregard. After this episode, which took place at Dore, the force marched forward to Kuoekastolar. Approaching an elevation of the road at this point, a stone, hurled by some unseen hand, was seen to rise up high into the air, and poise, so to speak, over the front of the procession in which moved Colonel Dopping, the bailiff, Diver, and the emergency summons-server, M'Elwaine, anil suddenly come down as it were with a swoop on the head of the uni'cTtmmie bailiff. His hat was knocked off, and-the weight of the missile took effect on his bald head, and immediately his face was covered with blood. The Special Resident Magistrate, and all the force, got into great excitement over this.

and the police were going at the double to charge about a dozen men thai were list'essly lounging on a stone fence, and would have driven against the granite boulders as a moving army, did not Father M'Nelis successfully recall them all to their senses, and point out that there were no people in it. Colonel Dopping was sustaining his faithful servant, Diver, by the arm, and all moved on again. When the reached the house of Neil O'Donnel, who is still absent reaping the English or Scotch harvest, the Colonel turned pompously in to serve a summons, with the bail iff and Emergency man at his heels, and the police in the rear.

the Colonel darkened the doorway, O'Dounell's wife who was the only person in the house, discharged a basin of hot water full in I"⁸ f^ace- He retreated precipitately, and the bailiffs retreated too, and the woman alons held the place. The royal police got rapidly into position to storm the solitary woman, and marched down upon the door.

and asked the police " Where are you going ; is it to kill that one poor woman ?" Ashamed, they fell back, and the good priest calmed Mrs. O'Donnell from the further attack, and the summons was served under coyer of 90 police. After straggling over a considerable tract of the country two more summonses were served before the party returned to the landlord's hotel where they are quartered. After some refreshments the Colonel moved out agaiu in another direction, and this time on a car, with only four police bringing up the rere. He desired to serve a widow and another family in the village of Meenacuing, which is near the hotel, and like an Island in the midst of a sea of moor. Even here the Colonel's path did not run amidst roses. As he was entering the village he crossed Father M'Fadden, who was driving-home from the direction of Dunlewey. As soon as Father M'Fadden saw the old gentleman he suspected something, and he dismounted, and returned to watch the actions of the Colonel, There was hardly one about, the place is so isolated, and the few in the village were otherwise engaged.

rushed into the house of widow Doohan, and served her with a summons that, she being caretaker, did refuse to give up possession. They then proceeded to the house of the lute widow Doogan. They door was closed, hut the Colonel soon made his way in, followed by the bailiffs. By this time the small protection party of police had conie forward. The summons is, in this case, for trespass. There was a consultation inside, and it looked as if they were going to clear the house. At this stage Father M'Fadcu stepped into the hov;l, and took up a position to the rear of the building. This caused a disappointment and the Colonel took courage to tell

and _ called upon him to leave the house. Father M'Faddeu replied that ha had never met before in his life such arrant 'Impudence and impertinence, and called upon Colonel Doppiug to his authority. There wa s a good deal of strong talk upon boll;

sides, and eventually the Colonel made in the direction of Father M'Fadden, and put his hands upon him to remove him by force. Father M'Fadden thereupon required of the Colonel to withdraw from his presence, and not place his hands on him, or that he " should regret it to the last day of his lile."

and remained satisfied with saying that he would summons the rev. gentleman to the next bench. Father M'Fadden told him he might take such course as he pleased, but that all the power at his back could not frighten him away from the path of duty. This closed the day's proceedings. The police are quartered at the hotel, and remain in the, district as an army of occupation, the conveyances that brought them into the place on Monday having all gone back this morning. To all appearance there will be a mouth of hot work in this unfortunate region. The landlord has refused the slightest reduction for the past two years, and there is no appearance of yielding 011 his part. The people will hold out to the bitter end, and few of them can do anything else. They are quite unable to meet the cruel demand of the landlord.

was adopted last year, and many of the tenants funded a year's rent, less 6s 8d in the £. They will probably be driven to adopt the same course this year if there will be any of them able to pay even a Campaign rent. The action now is against 81 caretakers, and about 35 in possession of their own action, all of whom were evicted in August'86. Notices under the new Act are being served on 71 more tenants. Orders for possession will be granted probably on Monday iu those cases where summonses were served to-day, and the evictions will follow not earlier than seven days afterwards. The work of serving summonses will be continued, it is expected, to-morrow.

gweedoke, wednesday night.—To-day a force of 75 police, under the supreme command of Mr. Burke, temporary K.M. for Donegal, and generalled by County Inspector Leiinon and District Inspectors Stevenson and Winder, marched and counter-marched over the district

in demanding possession from six parties who Avere evicted in August, '80, and who have been in possession since as caretakers or otherwise. There was no incident of interest during the day, except that Colonel Popping was constantly remhjding

every one that they were trespnssers, or retaining possession by force, and soon. If the doors did not yield to his omnipotence, there'was certainly forcible detainer, and there was constantly ou _ni_g track, that inconvenient drag on the proceedings, Father M'Fadden, ^w^o was for ever upsetting his little plans and theories, and interrupting his speeches, and reminding him occasionally that be himself was a trespasser, that he had no authority to intrude bis presence ou one family, at least, which he disturbed by an unexpected, as it was an unwarranted visit. All that was done in each case was a

which was refused in each case with devout imprecations on the head of Colonel Dopping, and an occasional accompaniment of boiling water. I suppose there will be a repetition of these evolutions to-morrow, and henceforward, until the usual demand is made from the 40 or 50 still unwarned. Then there will follow the summonses, and thereafter, at the legal interval, the evictions and the knocking down of the houses, as the Colonel has threatened on not less than thirty post cards. In the ordinary course no evictions can take place before Monday week, or the 3rd of October, and probably the work which will entail the

will then proceed without delay. The registered letters containing notices under the new act, by which seventy one tenants are to be made only caretakers, arrived in the district to-day. In the afternoon there was a meeting of the National League, Derrybeg, at which the new situation was lucidly explained by Father M'Faddeu, and the duty of the hour for the people put strongly before them. Father M'Nelis also addressed the meeting.

The following resolutions were proposed by Father M'Nelis and seconded by several of those present. In putting the resolutions Father M'Fadden dwelt with emphasis ou the matter of each resolution, and the untoward action of the landlords that niude the adoption of those resolution necessary. They were received with enthusiastic applause, and passed unanimously.

They are as follows :—1st. " That having regard to the tact that it is our settled conviction that Colonel Dopping has been ^flt _ into Gweedore to terrorise the people and disturb the district, in the vain hope that by these methods a peasantry ig from hand to mouth, and depending mainly for subsistence the earning* of themselves and their families at home and would" be driven to meet the impossible claims of the

landlord, we hereby pledge ourselves to decline to recognise Colonel Dopping in any capacity, and to refuse to have any dealings with him as regards rents or any other matters appertaining to the management of the Hill estate."

2nd. " That in view of the action of the landlord, supported by a tyrannical Tory Government, and the preparation now going on to exterminate a large portion of the people for the non-payment of rack-rents which accrued in exceptionally bad and distressful years, we hereby record our solemn purpose not to pay any rent until this persecution of the people is discontinued, and until those already evicted are reinstated on easy and practicable terms, and until the proceedings now in course against others are abandoned, and until concession suitable to the condition of the times are granted to the tenants generally. '

3rd. " That we are now, as we have been at all times, quite prepared to negotiate any arrangement between ourselves and the landlord on reasonable and equitable grounds, and if there be no movement in this direction on the part of the landlord, we must regard ourselves bound to defend ourselves by the most effectual means at our disposal, which we take to be a continuance of the Plan of Campaign.

On Monday last, at Bunbeg Petty Sessions, Colonel Dopping summoiied a number of the peasants of Gweedore who had signed caretakers' agreements, and obtained warrants for the possession of their holdings. The Colonel has been iu the Gweedore district for some time demanding possession from persons holding as caretakers, and serving summonses in order to bring the parties to Petty Sessions and procure warrants against them. During the past few days upwards of

containing the notice provided for in the recent Land Act which constitutes the tenants receiving- them caretakers. These may then be summoned to Petty Sessions, aud warrants obtained for possession as iu the case of weekly tenements, instead of having to take proceedings at the Quarter Sessions, as it was necessary to do under previous acts. Colonel Dopping has been one of the first, if not the ^ery first, to avail himself of this

of the Land Act, and he expresses his fixed determination to carry the work of eviction to the bitter end. The tactics which the landlord party are about to adopt in Gweedore with the evicted tenants is one that will speedly ensure the condemnation of every honest man wherever the story will be known. They propose to begin the extermination on Tuesday next in the fashion in which it was carried out in Glenveigh. That is, they will level the houses to the ground as soon as the miserable occupiers are evicted, and leave the poor people without shelter, in the face of the coming winter,

This scheme they make no secret of in the hope that the mere mention of it, or at most that a few evictions executed on the barbarous plan will have the effect of frightening the other unfortunate tenants into paying a rent that never was, nor never can be, extracted from the miserable patches of soil, miscalled farms that the toil and sweat of years have made among the leagues of rock und barren heath that form the district known as Gweedore. To assist in carrying out this design the Government has, as it has on many another occasion, granted a force of over 100 police, with the usual attachment of

at a cost which must in the aggregate almost equal if it do not exceed, the sums the landlord is so strenuously striving to wring from an impoverished people. The peasants of Gweedore, however, have been too often made acquainted with the worst that landlordism can do'to quail even now, and the first act in the drama of passive resistance was played on Monday at Bunbeg when not a single man or woman of those summoned, either by Colonel Dopping or the police authorities put in an appearance in court. The scene presented in the Petty Session Court of Bunbeg was a singular one. Hitherto the great trouble to the authorities was the very large numbers in which the people crowded to such

but they were taken by surprise on Monday, to find none but themselves near the place. More than an hour before the Court opened 100 police, under County Inspector Lennon and District Inspectors Stevenson and Winder, occupied the Courthouse, itself

Nobody except the patriot priest himself and a few friends from a distance came near the scene, and the police sat again on the rocks keeping watch and ward lest they should be taken by surprise. Inside the Court-house the scene was of the dullest and most formal description imaginable. A file of police were drawn across the room, and these with one or two others were the only occupants of the Court. Ou the bench were the two resident Magistrates,

ME. ULICK BOURKE AND MR. R. H. BERESFORD, while in front sat Mr. Mackay, S.C.S., representing the police, On the opposite side sat Mr. Edward M'Fadden, solicitor, watching the proceedings on behalf of the tenants, and with him sal Father M'Fadden, Father Peter Kelly, P.P., Dnnfanaghy _:Father D. M'Gettigan, Ivincashlagh; Father 1). Stephens. Cloghaneely ; and Father M'Nelis. Colonel Dopping and his solicitor, Mr. Mallins, were also in attendance, and two bailiffs, one the famous Diver, were dodging about, evidently endeavouring to keep themselves concealed from view. At invervals they would be called on to prove the service of the summons, or the identity of the person on which the summons was served.— Diver was always ready to prove whatever was asked, but the other bailiff, M'llwaine, was not so glib, having to stop to adjust his spectacles or reflect on the matter, and once he broke down altogether. The various defendants were called, but no response was made by any of them, and the evidence was given pro forma and warrants ordered to issue. It had been rumoured that Father M'Fadden himself was to have been PROSECUTED FOR TRESPASS ON an EVICTED FARM, but no such course was taken, though there is every reason to believe that Colonel Dopping applied for a summons against the rev. gentleman. Before the buisuess before the court was over, Father M'Fadden and the other priests left, and proceeded to Derrybeg, where several thousand people had assembled, and a meeting was held to protest against the proceedings in Gweedore and the prosecution and sentencing of William O'Brien,

Rev. JAMES M'FADDEN, P.P., Gweedore, took the chair _On the motion of Mr. P. Doherty, Letterkenny, seconded by jjr. Edward Coll.

The rev. chairman briefly expressed his pleasure at being called upon to preside at a meeting held under such circum-gtances, and introduced

1st—That we heartily condemn the tyrannical action of the Tory Government and their salaried officials in committing to gaol for six months the noble minded, pure hearted, self-sacrificing, William O'Brien, for the courageous and constitutional exercise of free speech and civil liberty in defence of the persecuted tenants of the descendant of " the wolves of the Galtees."

2nd—That we contemptuously scorn and despise the action of Captain Hill in sending his bloodhounds to Gweedore to haress and oppress the rack-rented tenants of that district, and that we pledge ourselves to meet with fearlessness and courage the struggle now forced upon us, and to resist by every constitutional means, to the utmost of our power, this last outrageous attempt to support dying landlordism in Gweedore.

Father kelly said that though the resolutions provided him with an excellent text, he would prefer to say something of a general character on the situation. The first resolution stated that William O'Brien—(loud cheers)—had been committed to jail for a period of six months for the crime of defending the constitutional right of free speech and civil liberty. (Cries of " Shame.") There was a Crimes Act in force in Ireland at the present time, stated to be aimed at the suppression of crime, but what it aimed at suppressing was the unreadiness, the unwillingness of the Irish people to

(Cheers.) There was no crime to be suppressed in Ireland but the crime of rack-renting that lie knew of, and if the Government took up the unwillingness of the people to submit to that, and called it a crime, reason and humanity would contradict them. (Cheers.) Mr. Balfour, and those with him, might conjure up crime in Ireland, and pass stringent laws to suppress it, but there was no truth in the assertion. There was no fair treatment or justice in the cause that Mr. Balfour upheld. The people of G weedore did not require to be told that the

i-ents of former years are not payable at present. In Dunfanaghy market on the Saturday previous the highest price obtained for oats was G^d per stone. Did the landlord expect that old rents or anything bordering upon them could be paid at such prices ? But he must say that so far as he could see in the parish of Gwe/jdore it made little difference whether markets were high or low, because the people had nothing to sell. (Cries of "True for )ou.") What were the rents of Gweedore demanded upon ? It was not upon the produce of the soil, but upon the produce of the

(Hear, hear.) And if Colonel Dopping—(groans and cries of " The walking gallows",)— who asks you to pay rent out of your hard earnings or the earnings of your children in other countries for the rocks and swamps, I say you have a perfect right to say no. .(Loud cheers.) He was sorry that there was not a Government shorthand writer present to take down what he said, because he uttered every word with deliberation and with the conviction that they were true and just. (Cheers.) The rents of the people of Gweedore have been largely reduced—in some instances a-half, and in nearly all a-f'ourth—some years ago, but since that times had gone from bad to worse, and the people demanded a further reduction—(hear, hear)—and said, and said truly, that they did not take out of the land the rent that was demanded from them. In the face of that, look at the action of the Executive of the country

into Gweedore, to insist upon the people paying more than what was fair and just. (" Shame.") They had offered Colonel Dopping what was fair and just, and he would not accept it. He would have his

Well, let him take it. (A voice—" He does not get the, blood.") As blood was mentioned, he hoped that there would be no blood spilled in Gweedore, either that day or at any time. If they were provoked on any occasion, they should hear with a great deal before they resorted to violence—(hear, hear)—because that was what their enemies wanted. They wanted them to strike the first blow, so that ten in return for it might be given. But if they were calm and resolute they were bound to win. (Cheers.) Such meetings as that he was addressing were often proclaimed, and he did not know but that one would have proclaimed also, but at any rate he wished to say that the

in proclaiming to the world what they believed and knew to be a grievance—(cheers)—while on the other hand every facility was given to the landlord faction to proclaim calumnies on the people. They did not want to do anything except to claim the rifht as freemen to assemble and state their grievances, and to put forward their claims by all fair means, and the words of the resolutions were not too strong when they called the action of the Government tyrannical. (Cheers). The Speaker concluded by advising the people to follow the wise counsels and leadership of Father M'Fadden, who had always led and advised them. right—(cheers)—and he hoped that the people against whom decrees had been granted in the Court that day, would be in Gweedore for many a long year. (Loud Cheers.)

Eev. D. STEPHEN'S, in seconding the resolutions, said the resolutions sent a message of sympathy to Win. 0 Brien in the face of the persecution he was suffering at the hands of the Executive. And who was more deserving of the sympathy of the men of Ireland than dauntless Wm. O'Brien. (Cheers.) It was Mr. O'Brien who first unfurled the glorious banner of the Plan of Campaign. And for that crime of proclaiming the right of the people of Ireland to ha\e

he had been lodged in a prison cell, and afterwards sentenced to a term of imprisonment. (Shame.) Why then should they not send him a message of sympathy and encouragement. (Applause.) The second resolution referred to the special grievances of the peasantry of Gweedore. And truly if there was a peasantry on the broad face of Ireland that had grievances it was the peasantry of Gweedore. Who made the homes of Gweedore ? Was it Captain Hill or Dopping ? ("No, no.") Captain Hill cave them the

and the people of Gweedore had changed the black heath, the urown bogs, and the granite rocks into fruitful and verdant grass. _ (Hear, hear.) Should they then be called upon to pay reat for that soil and that verdant grass created by their own

¹' . No, all they had to pay for was the heath and the granite and the bosf. Who was it that built up the humble "omes of Gweedore"? Surely it was not Capt, Hill or Colonel v £r_0j _ifc _waii _thc _toil _au(] ,,_(ljoul. ,_uld _the _BWe._tt _of

the people of Gweedore that made these homes. (Cheers.) Therefore, when Captain Hill and Colonel Dopping seek to charge them on that toil <iucl labour they were acting unjustly, and they knew it, and they were backed by the

lie would say they should be resisted—(loud cheers)—if there was any manliness, as he believed there was amongst the peasantry of Gweedore—(applause)—they would fight for their homes and fight for them to the very last. (Cries of "We will.") But while he would urge them to fight for their homes, he would urge them to fight within the law. For it would he most foolish of them, a poor defenceless people, to face the law of England, backed by the black coats and red coats of the British army. The fight, therefore, that he would urge them to carry on for their homes would be a fight within the law ; carrying on a CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE TO THE VERY LAST.

If they saw, as they were likely to see, Colonel Boppiug coining down in a week with the crowbar brigade, to level their humble homes, they should resist that invasion ; resist it within the law, but resist it with all the power at their disposal, and they would have the approval of the civilised world. The people of Ireland would approve of the action of the manely men of Gweedore, in standing for their homes, which poor though they might he, were dearer to them than all the World besides. They were the homes in which they first saw the light ; they were the homes in which the older men of the parish, long ago, brought tlieir young brides ; they were the homes in which their children grew up around, them, and they were, in consequence of all these sacredf ties, dearer to them than all the world besides. (Applause.) Why, then, should they not defend them, and defend them to the last, hut within the law. (Cheers.) Let the people act in that way, and they would have not only Ireland approving of the defence, but the democracy of England would cry out,

(Loud Cheers.) They would not only have the democracy of England and Ireland at their back, but they would have the greater Ireland, the exiled Irish race all over the world saying with the democracy of England, " well done, Gweedore." Let them stand by their homes and defend them ; let them carry on the constitutional struggle in tlieir defence, and under the guidance of their good patriot priest, Father M'Fadden—(cheers) —they would be sure in the end to gain a glorious victory. (Loud and prolonged cheering.)

FATHER M'FADDEN, in putting the resolutions, assured people though Mr. O'Brien had been sentenced to three tiis' imprisonment he was free to-day, and might be at that moment addressing a meeting in Mitchelstowri. (Cheers.) whatever the ^resu^ might be, they were prepared to follow in the footsteps °f William O'Brien, and he, himself, without hesitation,

—(cheers)—and was prepared to follow him from Cork gaol to Jlitchelstown Petty Sessions and back to Cork gaol or elsewhere as the case might be. Mr. O'Brien had assisted the tenants of the Kingston estate against the Countess of Kingston, whose family had, by reasons of the ravenous and rapacious nature of their treatment of their tenants, had been called the " wolves of the 6-altees." That meeting raised its voice in a similar cause, and against a family of hardly more popular tradition. They had Captain Hill—(groans)—whose history was nothing, but who had the misfortune to have the sins of his father visited upon him. Because of the effort to

out of the poor peasants of Gweedore.Captain Hill had sent a man of peculiar history. It was a matter of history that there was a Popping living in '98 known as " Heppinstall" or the " Walking-gallows." (Groans) Well, he dared say that their friend Colonel Dopping would not deny his ancestry. (Groans) Let them take a look at the Hill estate, and if by any estimation or calculation they could convince him that the rents on it were actually low he Would be satisfied, but they must convince him'mathematically. When Lord George Hill came to Gweedore all Gweedore belonged to the people. There was not a house in the whole area of Gweedore that did not belong to the people. There was not a single settler in all Gweedore,

(Cheers.) What was the rent of Gweedore at the time that Lord G«orge Hill came into possession ? It was £472. That was the rental of the estates, except the Knockastolar estate, of which the rent has £S7 10s. That added to £472, came to barely £500, for all G weedure. And what did Lord George Hill do '{

Suddenly and unexpectedly about the 20th of November, overtures came from the landlord side towards a settlement.

Terms were eventually submitted, of which I, acting for the people, approved. The settlement was brought about by the Resident Magistrate, then living at Gweedore, and the Crown Solicitor for Donegal,

The triumph for the people was announced by Special Telegram in the Dernj Journal of the 25th November, 1888, as follows :—

gweedore, thursday. — The Plan of Campaign is triumphant in Gweedore. £900 of costs are wiped out, and nearly 60 per cent, abatements allowed. All sub-tenants are recognised as tenants, and the future rents fixed by an agreement in 500 cases at a reduction of 30 per cent, on the present rents.

on the Hill property in Gweedore has thus ended in a signal triumph for the tenants. How hard the fight was fought on both sides is all but too familiar to the public. Year after year did the tenants demand reductions, and year after year did the landlord persistently refuse, until at present there are due nearly four years rent on the estate. The unpaid rents amount to about £8,500. Every manner of pressure was brought to bear upon the tenants. £900 of costs were incurred by the landlord to force them to surrender—all to no purpose. In December, 1886, " The Plan of Campaign" was adopted, and the tenants held firmly together, calmly awaiting theissue of events. There are at present about 160 tenants in occupation as caretakers or trespassers in the eye of the law. The result of the negotiations just concluded is, that all these parties will be reinstated tenants ; that all costs are caacelled ; that a lump sum of £1,450 will be accepted in lieu of £8.400, rent due to the 1st November, 1887 ; that in all cases in which judicial rents have not been already fixed, agreements will be signed

on the present rents ; that the existence of sub-division, which is very prevalent on the estate will be recognised, and all sub-tenants will be dealt with as tenants. This is, perhaps, the most signal victory for the Plan yet recorded. The landlord would not grant a penny reduction for the past two years, and now at the eleventh hour he has yielded to the tenants more than they ever demanded, with a net loss to himself of over £2,500. The tenants are to be congratulated on their success, and may be reasonably excused in their proud boast that the Plan of Campaign still holds the field.

The friends of Lord George Hill refer with triumphant satisfaction to speeches in the House of Commons, more especially the speech of Sir Robert Peel, applauding the work done by Lord George Hill. They also refer to Press notices of Lord George Hill's own Pamphlet

But they do not clearly state that the speeches were based upon the pamphlet, and that the criticisms were criticisms of the account written by Lord George himself in his own favour.

I happen to have the most recent edition I think of this pamphlet before me, the fourth edition printed.

in 1866, and there appears on the fly leaf, in writing, a criticism of the work, which niy intimate knowledge of the facts forces me to accept as a true and honest criticism. It is as follows :—

" This is a summary of alleged fects from Gweedore, which might, perhaps, with more regard to truth and accuracy be called 'Fictions from Gweedore,' conceived, arranged, and printed by the Lord of the Soil himself, to dispose public opinion, to receive with equanimity the shock and outrage imparted to it by the cruel, not to say, unjust action of doubling rents, appropriating immemorial rights, and otherwise oppressing an already rack-rented and harrassed tenantry."

It is also very frequently stated that Lord George Hill expended the rent, and all he was worth for several years, on the Estate.

sib—I am sure that you will be glad to receive any communications on the matters dealt with in your columns by your " Special Correspondent in Ireland" which will put those matters before your readers in their true light, and which will correct the errors and inaccuracies into which your correspondent has fallen, owing, no doubt, to the sources from which he took his information. For • this reason I have no doubt that you will gladly give space to this letter from me in reference to the twelfth letter from that gehtle-man, which appeared in your issue of 2nd Instant. I will not observe upon that, letter except in so far as it deals with Gweedore, with which I am officially connected for many years.

You will be less suprised to hear from me in this connection when you know that your correspondent did me the questionable honour of introducing- me into his letter in the following way " In this, as in other things, the people are believed to have been acting by the adnse and under the directions of their parish priest."

With the history of Gweedore prior to the advent of Lord George Hill, and the facts that led up to a Parliamentary inquiry in '58, and the report of that inquiry I am not concerned, except in so far as the evidence of men still living who had known Gweedore before Lord George Hill ever set foot ou it, and public records established beyond cavil, that the representation put forth

The memorial of the schoolmaster is ever eagerly put forward by the landlord class, because it serves their purpose.

It would be repudiated with the same eagerness by the, same party if it did not.

It is evident to anyone that, if the habits and manners of the people of Gweedore have kept pace with the progress of time and civilisation since 1838, it is a stupid fallacy to connect that change with the landlordship of Lord Hill. It is also evident that different manners and habits do not always assure material improvement and prosperity—quite the contrary. And now as against Kye, the schoolmaster, let me introduce the estate bailiff, who was put forward by the landlord at the hearing of land cases before Sub-Commission in March, 188J, to prove this particular point—namely, that the action of Lord George Hill in Gweedore improved the district—what does this man prove ? He solemnly swears that the people were more comfortable and better off before the time ot Lord (faon/e Hilt than t/ivij arc to-day. The wail of the old man, of over GO years on the property, must have gone back lo the pre-Hill period, as it is not yet half a century since Lord Hill made the first purchase in Gweedore, and so his

is only empty sound as applied to the action of Lord George Hill. In the first place Lord George Hill had no " new cuts" to give, except he robbed some man of his immemorial rights and property. And this is the reason why the priest of that clay denounced anyone who co-operated with Lord Hill in this spoliation.

no doubt, in the shape of promising that the cuts would be free of rent for some years. But after the denunciation of the priest, the bait did not take, and three native tenants who had accepted these "cuts" threw them up. But Lord Hill persevered, notwithstanding, and he imported tenants for these " cuts." And by this method the people were induced to take them rather tnan see a new plantation in the district. But they were not ^al'owed to enjoy them for seven years free : no, nor for one year. It _was attempted by the landlord party to establish this "etore the Sub-Commission Court, but they failed, i, /^ a case in point, John Doogan took a "new cut," and he ^»<l to pay for it the very first juar. There is not, that 1 am

As to his mills and stores, they are the best paying concerns he has. He got over £700 from Government for grinding Indian Corn iu 18-17 ! ! The meagre out-door relief he gave to some tenants of a stone of meal in the week or fortnight, was to keep them out of the Workhouse.

There was always a steady and successful opposition kept up on the Hill property against any one going into the Workhouse. The bailiff used to intimidate the friends and relatives of the paupers that they would have to pay for tit-em if they entered the Workhouse. And those who did go, and they were exceedingly few, were immediately brought back by the landlord, with a promise that something would be done, which was generally conveniently forgotten. The cojjin and s/irotuJiiiff supplied at death, in some cases, were probably borne by the rates always as at present. Your correspondent is very hopeful as to the recuperative powers of the evicted tenants, when he says that most of them will probably redeem before the lapse of six mouths.

No ! " Till Birnain Wood do come to Duusinaiie." Impossible ! The cause that led up to eviction—inability to pay —is, in their case, intensified by the methods of recovery resorted to by the landlord. Your correspondent states that the rents arc very low. He pleades like a strong partisan, and adduces cases of small tenancies at 5s and so on. The rents average about 80s to each tenant.

But amongst such a poor class one shilling means a pound, and for them it is as difficult to raise a shilling as it is for others to raise a pound. Judge O'Hagan, in giving judgment in the Gweedore land cases, by which there were confirmed

made the following observations---'' In very many cases the alterations we have made may seem trifling, only a few shillings ; . . but, where a rent is a matter of only Ijjs or 18s, of course a rise or a reduction of a few shillings is, comparatively speaking, the same as it would be iu the case of pounds, if the rent was mentioned

the alterations minute, having regard to the extreme poorness of the tenantry and the amount of the rents."

But your correspondent fulls into a gross mistake when he states that for those rents the tenants " get house and land such as it is, with free grazing, turf and seaweed for manure,"

And he amplifies this in the following sentence, to convince your readers of a state of things that docs not exist at all.

In the case of Nelly O'Dounell, there is an excellent slated dwelliPg'h°^use and offices, which I could not erect for the whole purchase money, £108. It was formerly built by a man who had keen to America. The purchaser raised part of the money — because the whole price has not been yet paid — in various ways

by the earnings of his son, who is a school teacher, &c. It was certainly an insane speculation, but the sentimental attachment to the old place cannot be rooted out, and the purchaser, who has a large family, desires to settle them around him even in poverty. The purchaser in the case of Hugh Sweeney, is a shop-keeper, who is as far forward with the payment of his rent, I am sure, as any man on the estate ; and, I dare say, he has met all demands yet made upon him in this way, and I don't believe " that he professes that he is unable to pay" absolutely. 1 am sure he is not able to pay from the produce of the holding.

Even the purchaser in this case, shopkeeper, though he be, has yet paid only one-half the purchase-money. In the third case, that of Owen Boyle, your correspondent states an utter falsehood in saying that Boyle sold a rental of 12s 6d at £51. He only got £40 for it,

And this transaction illustrates the folly of the simple peasants of this place in the matter of laud purchase.

Sweeney, the purchaser, was not the master of a shilling the day he bought in this holding. He was not able to pay the auctioneer's fee, and in this as in many cases, it is quite likely that the sale will never bo perfected, and that Sweeney will be obliged to sell it again, possibly at a tremendous sacrifice.

^ holding was formerly part of the holding now in possession of Sweeney, and when offered for sale he wished to restore the old boundary of his father's place, and foolishly went to extremes to do so. On that very clay he pledged portion of the ^Jand just purchased to raise £6. He got his sister's only cow, ^aud Sold it too, and he sold the potatoes he required to support him-^Self and his old mother, and by all these shifts and schemes he "Bade up half the purchase-money— £20. The other £20 has Oot been paid yet, and will probably not until the j'lace is again P¹^ to the hummer,

The fourth case, that of Fanny Ferry, who sold a holding of £1 Os lOd yearly rent, at £40, is, like many others a foolisli speculation of a young married man to settle in his native parish, Only the half of the money has been paid, and I cannot say how it Was found. The purchaser was married last February, and likely he got some help from his wife's friends. But whatever means he has for himself, he made it by fishing. He is a lobster fisher, and I cannot recommend his wisdom in embarking his hard-earned money in a worthless patch of bog and rock.

In the fifth case, the purchaser is a young mail who has been to America, and succeeded in saving some money there and were it not that he with his American money was available, the holding might not be sold at all. Only half price yet paid.

In the case of John M'Monigle, who sold a rental of 10s for £31, there is a comfortable house on the little holding which must not have cost less than £20, and the purchaser is a merchant who lives on the other side of the road. This man made a goodly fortune in the gold fields of Australia, and on his return home some years ago he got a small plot of ground on which he built a shop and premises.

He desired to extend his holding m a certain direction, and the tenant on the land contiguous on that side consented to move, and he purchased this holding of M'Monigle's to effect the change.

In the next case, that of M'Connor. the purchaser is a school teacher, who had only a small plot around his house, and this little holding being alongside he took advantage of the sale,

In the case of Hugh Gallagher, who sold a rental of 18s 1-Jd
for £60, there is a capital new house, value at £40 011 the hold,
ing. The purchaser had sold his former holding to a returned ,
Yankee, so that in this case, too, j

The purchaser in the case of Sarah M'Bride, the last case, is noi 1 from this Parish at all, and I know nothing of his circumstances-I know the holding in question to be near an unrestricted liberty '• of grazing on another estate, and possibly the purchaser had this 1 in view in paying £20 lor a place that is really not worth £0. '

Those very sales sought to establish the value of land ii Gweedore, and its fitness to produce rents, prove the contrary. Three of the above sales were forced on by fear of the evictions ^ that were just pending, and the sheer inability of the tenants to J pay. By these cases the cultivation of land in Gweedore is proved to be an utter failure, when weighed with impossible^lrents. Those parties gave up the effort iu despair, and they arc

depending on the kindness of friends, or their own industry for support, some of them in America, others in County Derry, _and others in an adjoining parish ; but all of them away from the "Model Estate," to which they can never look back only with loathing and abhorrence.

If the public will conclude from the nine sales mentioned that land is valuable in Gweedore, and that its people are comfortable, notwithstanding the peculiar circumstances of each case, the following facts will naturally cause them to change their opinion :—Last Spring, Owen Boyle, of Upper Dore, offered his holding for sale, and he could not raise a purchaser.

Edward Boyle, from the same townland, offered another holding for sale, and he could not get a purchaser. Owen Boyle, Derrybeg, offered a holding for sale, and there was found no one to buy.

Maurice Sweeney offered a holding for sale, and there was found no one to buy; and Michael Gallagher made several attempts to sell his holding during the Spring, and he did not succeed in finding a purchaser. In point of fact, the finding of a purchaser of a small holding here is almost like a chance that may arise at far distant intervals.

For instance, Daniel M'Fadden, about twelve months' ago, had almost given up hope of being able to sell his small holding on an adjoining estate, when fortunately for him there came home to the village a young man from Montana, America, who purchased from him. Only for this fortuitous event he might not have sold since.

I now come to notice that portion of your correspondent's letter which represents the entrance of helpless families to the Workhouse last Summer, as connected with those evictions, and with a triumphant flourish he tells us that

He clearly has had advantages that I have not, in such a free access to official records and landlord's secrets ; but lam able to state that out of 88 families affected by the 69 ejectments of Captain Hill, only 15 had any members for a longer or shorter period in the Workhouse.

Whether those who entered the Workhouse had some small stock, as was true in some cases, or whether they had not, they were a people that had no provisions, nnd had no credit, and were mainly dependent on me for subsistence. And when I was unable to help them, what remained for them than the Workhouse.

The action of the Guardians throughout this whole business was most extraordinary. They took recourse to every possible shift and scheme to refuse admittance to the people, and those they did admit were very soon turned adrift again, and thrown upon me for support.

It is very remarkable that while I was pressing the Chief Secretary and other authorities to have the wants of the people attended to, at that very time the relieving officer of the Dun-fanaghy Guardians was visiting the district every Monday at the, Gweedore Hotel—out-of-the-way place for the general public of, this Parish—suddenly and without any notice whatsoever, so that he had been visiting for three weeks before I or the people knew! he was doing so, and it was only on the 31st May that his move- >• ments were accidentally discovered by me. But his attendance ; there was a cruel farce. It was merely a show to warrant evasive answers to official inquiries. On that Monday there were about; 180 applications for relief, people were fainting with hunger while | making those applications, and a number were kindly treated and i refreshed at the Constabulary barrack. Yet the relieving officer • left, and there was no further notice taken of those

There were some entered the Workhouse who had some stock, but really at the time the posse^sjbn of an infinite number of stock was practically useless, as there was no sale.

But there was a very large proportion of these people who sought the shelter of the Workhouse, who had no stock at all. Yet they were turned out by the Guardians all the same. I will just give one example, that of James Sweeney.

His family was in a most wretched condition. They had not and have not a four-footed beast. The wife and children went into the workhouse, as it was to-day, and they were sent out next morning, by an extraordinary meeting of Guardians, because the husband was supposed to be able to earn 2s or 3s per day, whereas, in point of fact, he could get nothing to do at that particular time. That very day

I met himself on the public road in his bare feet. I do not undertake to account for every individual case, but I undertake to say that any person whom I advised to go into the Workhouse, were really in need of, and deserving indoor relief. But my experience of the Dunfanaghy Guardians is simply this, that one must first die of starvation, and then they may be regarded by them deserving of relief, but not necessarily even in that case, because they would manage to wriggle out of responsibility even in those cases. The most cruel thing in connection with the visit of the poor people to the Workhouse, was the refusal of the Guardians to give them conveyances back to their homes. Some poor old people were put to death's door in the effort to make home at a distance of 20 miles.

The Guardians would not supply a conveyance, and Daniel had no means to engage one. He could only manage to get his brother's horse, with only side creels.

Outside the Workhouse Dan put James a lad of five years, into one creel and Kate a child of seven into the other, he put the wife with Patrick, a boy of two years, in her arms behind the creels, and him self and Edward, a boy of 8J years walked along ;l»y the horses side. It was certainly a pitiable procession.

When about half-way, by some slight accident the poor woman fell off the horse heavily on the road, and in her effort to gave the child in her arms, she hurt herself severely, and when she got to her cold, miserable, and comfortless home, she was gbliged to take to such bed as she had, and before morning she Was prematurely confined, and thereafter for some weeks she passed through a terrible ordeal of almost fatal sickness.

Your correspondent adverts to sub-division in spite of the landlord. I have never known the landlord to sincerely Object to sub-division. It was on the contrary a most acceptable •proceeding to him because it was one of his various ways of Vising the rent. Every sub-division or change of tenancy was made the occasion of an increase of rent. Even consolidating iarrns was made an excuse for putting up the rent. For instance >$vhen John Doogan bought his sister's holding and added it to his own, the rent, which had been already doubled on each fielding,

WAS INCREASED UPON HIM STILL FUBTHEB. In fact, if a tenant tried to make his mother more happy and comfortable he was obliged to pay an additional rent over it.

For example Patrick M'Bride decided to let his mother occupy the room of his dwelling and have a fire to herself, and as soon as the agent heard of it he demanded 8s additional on account of the " second smoke" in the house. He promised to take off this increase whenever the mother resumed living with the family, but when that time came he refused to do so.

Unhappily there is much wretchedness in many families, and one Will not walk far in the thick of the Parish without meeting houses of great misery—but there is no parading of specially got up things.

I think it was Mr. Bush, of Eossall School, Fleetwood, that called upon me, and expressed a wish to see some cabins. He was in much hurry, so that we walked into the houses almost consecutively as we met them, even in the kidney of the Parish. There was no preparation or fore-knowledge there, and I refer your correspondent to Mr. Bush. To talk of the selected potatoes and seaweed being partaken of in every house, in anticipation of a look in from a gentleman whose approach was signalled, is pure fiction. Such dishonesty and deceit do not, thank God, prevail amongst the

In this matter I challenge investigation, and 1 challenge particulars. I myself accompanied several philanthropic gentlemen through the different parts of the parish, year after year, since '79, and in only one case, to my recollection, did we accidentally come upon a family engaged at their frugal mid-day meal of potatoes and sea-weed.

The poor-rate is, no doubt, very considerable, and is almost entirely paid by the landlords, and this is a direction in which landlords here could materially improve their condition.

The people of the district derive no benefit from it, and I would heartily co-operate in any action that would aim at having this huge, practically tenantless, pile closed up as a workhouse, and having it turned to some useful public purpose.

Will the officials of the estate honestly say if they ever knew so much rent to have been paid within the same time of collection or in one season as there was paid in December, 1884 ? And last year, if the agent had not been so obstinate in refusing even the smallest reduction when other landlords in the neighbourhood to the south-west, had been freely granting 20 per cent., a considerable amount of rent would have been paid. But he would follow his own ways, and he has got his reward. It will depend upon his wisdom in this respect whether he will get rents to any appreciable extent this year.

Let me illustrate the readiness of the people here to be reasonable, and to make even the greatest sacrifices when dealt withja ajdndly, tolerant, and forbearing spirit.

On the Dunlewy estate, in this parish, reductions amounting to almost 40 per cent., were freely granted last year, and the rents were well paid, except in a few cases of exceptional poverty that were not pressed. That reduction was made permanent, and even this year, the, agent, who was resident amongst the people for some time in the autumn, received a considerable amount of the rent due in November, 1885, simply because he confirmed a liberal reduction allowed last year, and because he was satisfied to take whatever the tenant was willing and prepared to pay.

I admit that there-are over two years rents due in most cases on nearly all the estates in Gweedore, including Captain Hill's, and I attribute this in the main to a succession of bad years and the general depression, as well as to the fact that the rents are exorbitant, but I attribute also in great measure to the inflexible obstinacy of the landlords and their agents in refusing to deal with their tenants in a spirit of humanity and justice.

I will conclude this inconversently lengthy communication, with a few statements of fact, and let your readers say whether the memory of the late Lord George Hill should be held in gratitude and benediction in the hearts of the people of Gweedore.

(3) Lord George forced the people to abandon their former system of land tenure, known as ruudale. This change entailed serious losses, both in the quantity and quality of the holdings ; and it caused a pulling down of the old homesteads, and a building up ot new houses, as far as possible, near the public road, a point on which Lord George insisted.

In this process of alteration Lord George Hill took exactly the one half of the estate, 12/100 acres, from the people, and called it " his i/rm." He admitted this in his evidence before the Parliamentary Inquiry alluded to above. I have not seen any excuse given for this astounding act of spoliation, except that offered by Lord George Hill himself that, though he did this, he allowed the tenants to retain as much as was sufficient for their wants. This was mountain grazing.

The sheep flocks were suddenly getting small, and compensation was sought for in the usual way and up to £3,000 were levied on this locality.

The parish was filled with constabulary. There were eight barracks in a parish of about 800 families.

They were engaged driving and lifting every available property for rent, for taxes, and so on. There was a veritable reign of terror.

(5) A few instances of how the process of putting up the ren'4 went on and of the teductions granted by the Land Commission Court. The rent of the Island of Innishirrer was raised from £5 to £22 10s and the Griffith's valuation of the land of the island is only £3 4s. The rent of the Knockastoler estate purchased in '62 was raised from £27 15s to £*0. And the increase was put on the second year after this purchase.

I already alluded to the judgment of Judge O'Hagan. fl now give a few examples of reductions granted by Land Court on. Lord George s estate.

Another Commission has followed after the Commission of inquiry in the House of Commons in 58, and the second Commission has vindicated the industry, veracy, and honesty of the people (.see Judge 0 Hagan's judgment), and has sustained the views that I and my predecessors in office have been advancing for almost a generation.

To form a correct opinion of the report of the Parliamentary Committee in '08 one should read the Blue Book of the evidence and the late John George MacCarthy's draft report—the only tenants friend on the Committee. But all those points put forward by your correspondent were much more forcibly put forward by the landlord counsel before the Land Commissiou and with only the result above stated.

Your correspondent did not inquire whether those gay ghawls and bright aprons he saw on the Sunday were " borrowed plumes," nor did he inquire how many pious and virtuous men and women were that Sunday at home from Church in Gweedore for want of sufficiently decent clothing,

He did not observe that devout old man of 70 winters, who saw happy and prosperous days before Lord Hill, came over him, pick his way in the bare feet along the rugged rocks and rough roads to Mass. He did not see the inhuman hovels of mud and bog into -which poor, honest, hardworking tenants have been dfiyen to shelter themselves by the evicting edict of Capt. Hill.

I am sorry, sir, that your correspondent has come and gone apd has seen nothing.

He has heard a great deal; but he has been imposed upon ; Mid he in turn has imposed on your readers.

'BETTER OF FATHER M'FADDEN TO MBS. HAET IN REPLY TO THE HON. SOMERSET WARD IN THE - "ST. JAMES' GAZETTE."

•^•e following letter to Mrs. Hart was drawn from me by Sasorx of a. correspondence on the subject of Gweedore Industries, . Wd the evidence of Mrs. Hart before a Select Committee of the se of Commons on Irish Industries, and sets forth in their "ght, matters, which it was sought to misrepresent by said

my dear mrs. habt—The letter of Mr. Somerset Ward to the St. James's Gazette, called forth, it is alleged by your evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on Irish Industries, is beautifully of a piece with the efforts of the Irish landlord at the present time to bring discredit upon every movement having the sympathy and support of the

and to goad on the present Government to forge chains of Coercion to bind fast both priests and people, while they, the landlords pursued, unchecked, and unrestrained their time-honoured recreation of drawing the life-blood of the poor in the shape of impossible rack-rents, and scattering desolation over the land by carrying out sentences of death.

Evidently Mr. Ward did not rush into the St James's Gazette out of zeal for the promotion of Irish Industries. Nor do I see how your evidence could be distorted to reflect in any way on " the late Lord George Hill." To say that Lord George had been instrumental in establishing

A LONDON KNITTING AGENCY IN GWEEDORE . before your day, and therefore that you may not claim any credit; for reviving and developing the industry is very silly of Mr.; Ward. He may not be aware that long before the presence of

the knitting industry was more flourishing and more profitable! than it ever became during his reign of terror in it. In my mind,! Mr. Ward, like Lord George Hill before him, cares very little] for the condition of the knitting industry, except so far as benefits; himself. If he desired to serve the poor people on whom he and: his master live and thrive, he could easily have adopted a more effectual way than rushing into the

COLUMNS OP A BIGOTTED LONDON PAPER, to blacken their character. If he be really solicitous for the honour and fame of the late Lord George Hill, he should know j by this time of day that he need not waste his time digging monuments of that gentleman's usefulness and benevolence in j Gweedore, for they are not in it.

Mr. Ward would better consult, for the respect of the
memory of Lord George Hill, and the peacefulness of his rest,
by not disturbing him so frequently and unnecessarily. The
theme is already threshed out by the friends of Lord George Hill,
and any effort of Mr. Ward can only serve up a most distasteful
rehash. ij

Messrs. Allen & Solly would likely have established a branch agency in Gweedore if Lord George Hill had never been born. This is not the only district, I am sure, in which that firm have an agency.

Who is to get the credit for the extension of their business in other places. Is there no Mr. Ward to do them justice by chronicling the fact to their everlasting glory in the St. James s Gazette. One good cart would bear away in one load all the hose of one year in palmiest days of this much praised agency carried on by the landlord's bailiff-in-chief.

It was not surely to make this memento of Lord George Hill's noble life that Mr. Ward wrote to the St. James's Gazette. No, there is something else gnawing at the heart of Mr. Ward. ' The priest' to whom she alludes in her evidence disturbes his slumbers ; and visions of that dreadful practice of' boycotting,' haunt him even in Downpatrick.

Above all the 'Mane, Thecil, Phares' of Balthasser, are written broad and long, on the Hill estates in Gweedore, and the hour of its destruction is at hand.

Passing to particulars, I must say that at no time was the manuiacture of English made yarns so profitable and flourishing as it is at the present time. Nor do I believe that the firm of Allen, Solly & Co., had any time previous more work done for them in Gweedore. Gweedore will cease to be what it is, a knitting centre, when it will even dream of ' boycotting' the knitting industry. It never did so, and it never shall. Mr. Ward forgets to tell the readers of the St. James's Gazette, that the " local agent" to whom he refers is the chief bailiff on Captain Hill's estate, the manager of Captain Hill's hotel, and the agent's—Mr. Ward's—general man.

It is not necessary to tell you why it is that the poor people of Gweedore should be more than human indeed if they regarded any of that class with particular affection.,

It is not surprising that the knitters should discontinue to patronise such an obnoxious party, and prefer to work for tifose who have their interests really at heart and sympathise with them in their difficulties. The workers for the landlord's party were at all times a very select few ; and the influence and intimidation of the landlord class still retain the greater number of this few in their service. The agent at 12 miles distance referred to by Mr. Ward is a Mrs. Sayers of Dungloe, who has been doing a little in this way for over fifteen years. Her business in this line, however, is very small, and her workers have been, at all times,

They went there last June—yes, and every June since Sayers commenced the business. But I challenge Mr. Ward to produce the knitter who said that she or they were prohibited from taking the yarn from the agent in Gweedore.

I deny the allegation, and I assert that the liberty of th«
subject to do as they please, is as intact and untrammelled in
Gweedore as it is in Downpatrick or London. The cowardice/
that drove Mr. Ward to write in the St. James's Gazette, instead
of the Deny Journal, in the vain hope that readers in Gweedors
would never hear of it, may cause some not to use their liberty,.
If there are such, and I am not aware that there are, they may,
blame themselves. '

The reference by Mr. Ward to the distance travelled by the.
women of Gweedore, is intended to aggravate the alleged evilj
which drives them to such trouble and labour, to obtain what;
they might get at home. ]

Did the customers of Mrs. Sayers, in Dungloe, ever get any work from the landlord agency at Bunbeg, or did the supply from' Bunbeg, small, occasional and spasmodic as it always was, ever fully absorb the labour of the few who get it ? Did this much-talked of supply from Bunbeg ever engage the one-twentieth of" the knitters of Gweedore for the one-twelfth part of the year ? Is it not a fact that even at the present time, with yarn coming into the district from ten or twelve sources, the employment is very partial and occasional ? It has been always usual with the knitters of Gweedore to travel to Dungloe for yarn, yes, and to Doochary, eight miles further off, and even occasionally further still. They are a thrifty class, and rather than be idle, and not; earning, they would travel twenty, aye forty miles, to get yarn, i/ they were sure of finding it at that distance. I hope English; readers are sufficiently instructed on Irish affairs, to attach little' importance to writers like Mr. Ward. I shall be very much pleased if you will be able to secure insertion in the St. James's Gazette for this letter, as it exposes the facts which Mr. Ward studiously suppressed,

^; to the evidence of the Hon. somerset ward.—Page 245, questions 8373 to 8581.

gi_K—I have to thank you for receipt of portion of the evidence of the Hon. Mr. Ward, touching the Hill property in the district.

The drift and nature of the Hon. Mr. Ward's evidence surprised me exceedingly. I would have hoped that the Hon. Mr. Ward would have acquainted himself fully with the matters with which he undertook to deal, and that the accuracy of his statements, at least in substance, would be unquestionable. But his representations five so wonderfully unreal, that 1 am forced to conclude that he knows very little, it anything, of the matters on which he gave such remarkable evidence.

Ignorance does not excuse him from the grave responsibility of such misleading evidence, though I feel quite disposed to accord him the indulgence due to one who rashly and unthoughtfully dares to give solemn evidence on a subject of which he shows utter ignorance.

I am now accustomed to a large amount of misrepresentations from the class to which the Hon. Mr. Ward belongs ; and for his aspersions I was quite prepared. But that he was not justified in his rejections will appear as I proceed.

I cannot possibly deal with every clause and sentence of the Hon. Mr, Ward's evidence, hut I will try and touch the main questions.

The cuttings sent me are not consecutive and do not embrace all the questions touching Gweedore, hence I feel more or less embarrassed. I think it very unfair, not to say untrue, i'or the Hon. Mr. Ward to state that he tried to get on with me. He simply meant to have his own way, and tried very hard, 1 admit, to get me to co-operate with him in accomplishing hi? aim, or. at all events, not to oppose him. On his visit to me, in December, 1883. 1 received him -very civilly, I thought. My curate happened to be present, and the Hon. Mr. Ward was accompanied by some young man. I confess I regarded his language to me and his manner on that occasion exceedingly imperious and uncompromising. There had "°en'about fourteen ejectment decrees obtained in June, 1883, which had not been yet executed. 18Mo was a year of great distress in Gweedore. The people were maintained and the crops were put in mainly by charitable friends. Mrs. Power Lawlor supplied breakfasts for the school children till 'he 15th of August; the Society of Friends-had supplied a large quantity of potatoes. In those circumstance;! it was natural that the rents would not be payable out uf the produce of the lan.l, and that liberal reductions would '^Je allowed ; moreover the tenants had beer, engaged, during the closing months of '82 and the early mouths of '83, in paying the qualifying gale, ^and taking advantage of Arrears Act. But the Hon. Mr. Ward would not Assent to any terms but his own, which meant no mercy. I consented to "aye a deputation of tenants meet him next day, and before that meeting

he urgently pressed the point that the tenants must pay either there or at
Lifford, meaning the Court of Quarter Sessions. Following up this threat
the ejectment decrees obtained in June, 1883, were executed in February,
1884. I was enabled, by public charity, to pay amounts required by the
Sheriff on that occasion. Arid thirty-six fresh ejectments were issued for
Quarter Sessions at Lifford, January, 1884. The tenants defended on
grounds of distress, 1888, &c., and though Chairman gave decrees for two
years' rent to November, 1883, yet he directed stay of execution till 1st
June, 1884, on payment of one year's rent into Court before llth February,
1884. '

Prosecuted tenants managed to correspond with instruction, as to paying one year's rent into court, hence, decrees were not available to June. Meantime the terms referred to in this question were agreed to between the Hon. Mr. Ward and myself, as between landlord and tenants, and the first batch of cases was dealt with by Court of Sub-Commission. I desire it to he noted that this agreement was the only act of compromise or arrange-., ment consented to by the Hon. Mr. Ward, and that the chief feature of it, from the tenants standpoint, was the ante-dating of judicial lease. My earnest conviction that the court should, from the merits of the cases, give large reductions, determined me at once to accept this arrangement in lieu of the reductions which I, on hehaif of the tenants, urged for. This arrangement included the tenants against whom ejectments were pending in June. I recommended this arrangement to the tenants, and, aa a matter of fact, they adopted every available means, including borrowing and selling, to carry out the important condition for the landlord—the payment of one full year's rent. Out of nearly 800 tenants there were only 130 defaulters, and the defaulting arose out of sheer inability, except perhaps a few cases where there were some disputes and misunderstanding between landlord and tenant.

The ejectments obtained in January were not executed, and the landlord's solicitor consented to accept half costs, which I paid from charitable sources. By judgment of Sub-Commission, on iirst batch of eighty-four cases, an average reduction of about 88 per cent, was obtained. This pained the landlord party, and caused the Hon Mr. Ward to regret, no doubt, the terms agreed upon. All the cases were promptly appealed, and every effort was made to break up the Commission before the hearing of the remaining 204 cases that had been entered, and by affidavits and other- ; wise, the Chief Commission was induced to list, out of order, a few select cases out of above eighty-four, to be heard at first sitting in Lifford, and two chief valuers were sent down for a special inspection, valuation, and inquiry. By the efforts of the tenants contra this course of forced pressure and surprise fell through, and seventy-one cases were eventually listed for hearing in ordinary course at a special sitting at linnbeg, in July, 1886. The Commissioners having graciously consented to hold a court at Bunbeg, in the middle of the parish, instead of at Lifford, forty miles away, for the convenience of the poor people, and in reply to a memorial from tenants requesting same. On 31st July, 1885. judgment was given by Court in Dublin, which practically sustained judgments of Court of Sub-Commission.. I desire special reference to judgment of court on that occasion, and I request that introductory remarks of Judge O'Hagan be printed, and form part of this statement. (1 enclose copy herewith.) Over 120 appeals lodged by landlord were abandoned, the tenants having various assurances that they individually would get same reduction as their neighbours had obtained in court, and knowing it io have been agreed that they could adopt this course, or go into court at their own option, waited for action of landlord on this matter.

At hearing of cases, subsequent to first batch, landlord raised every possible difficulty and objection—particularly the objection of sub-division, and a great many cases were dismissed on this technical ground. In this way

In hundreds of other cases, where sub-division existed, the tenants thought it useless to go into court, as their cases would certainly be dismissed. Hence no further steps were taken by them, and they were necessitated to accept such reductions as landlord thought fit to grant, or none at all, and the average reduction allowed by landlord was only about 12J per cent, instead of 30 per cent, allowed by Land Court.

These reductions I thought it my duty to advise the tenants not to accept, for they were insufficient for justice and merits of cases, and the whole procedure seemed to me at variance with spirit of agreement. At the same time I told the tenants they might individually deal with the landlord, and press in each case for reductions similar to those granted by the Land Court to their neighbours. Further steps have not been since taken by tenants, beyond putting this matter before agent, through me in last December. I enclose original agreement referred to in this statement.

I wish to direct your particular attention to fact that Chief Commissioners had specially valuable means to guide them in their decisions, having had for some of the cases, the opinions and valuations of their own special valuers, including Mr. Gray, their chief valuer.

Now, according to terms of agreement, the rent due to November, 1882, was to have been paid in 1884, and it was, with comparatively few exceptions, which arose out of inability to make up rent in any way. In December, 1884, first payment of reduced rent should have been made, consisting of one and a-half years', to May, 1884. This was done by nearly all who had got rents fixed by Court, and by many others as well. In fact, I think, this first payment was well made - many paying, when able to do so, through 1885. In December, 1885, second payment, on reduced scale, should have been made, being one and a-half years' to November, 1885. This 1885 was a ruinous year, and brought on the distress of 1886 in (rweedore. In December, 1885, tenants memorialled, as admitted by the Hon. Mr. Ward in his evidence, all to no effect, except so far as the Hon. Mr. Ward. consented to take a half-a-year's rent then, and balance due in May following.

Many paid the half-year. Those unable did not pay, but, owing to the hardships of 1886, none were able to pay balance due to November, 1885. At May the Hon. Mr. Ward brought 73 ejectments, affecting 93 families, at Summer Quarter Sessions. In August last they were carried through. The Hon. Mr. Ward gave evidence before you in October. He resigned /the Management of the estate later on. Colonel Dopping, agent to the lato Lord Leitrim, was appointed agent over (Iweedore property.

Now, let me state shortly that no concessions were made on the Hill liroprvty by |,i_u, landlord, except a reduction of '25 per cent., allowed in JJuci-mlxT, 1881, on payment of two years' rents. This concession was only '"adt; \vbi'u military and constabulary wert> actually marching to carry evictions. I consented to this arrangement, and used my influence 'to gel tenants to pay, and nearly ill 1 who could manage it paid. By this step, ; 'Arrears Act. coming in in 1882, was useless for many on the Hill pro-t^rty. So much so that the Hon. Mr. Ward, in his evidence in Lifford, in •January, 1881, stated, in reply to Mr. O'Doherty, solicitor, that the owners

" ^reai'^s -^^ct- 1 ^1a-y special stress on this, as so much has been said;
thu Arrears ^t, ,

Notwithstanding the recognised distres&fuluess of llie past five years the landlord did nol sacrifice a penny of his rent, except the little that lie had been obliged to yield by the operation of the law—the arrears that have accumulated to the present time, being about two years' rent at least, have so accumulated mainly by the way in which the. Hon. Mr. Ward managed the estate and directed the, collection of rent. In November, 1885, there were one and a-half years' rents due. December 1885, instead of granting •reductions as requested, he consented to accept a half-year's rent then. Further payments since were rendered impossible by the distressful year ot 1886, hence two years' generally due in November, 1886.

8377.—In reference to this question, I desire to state that the Hon. Mr. Ward stated in Litiord, before Court, in January, 1884, that gross rent of estate was about £1,692, that agricultural rental of native tenants, excluding colonists, imported by Lord George Hill, or other settlers, was over £1,100.

Now, the old rental of the estate in the hands of Lord George Hill, was stated at Commission of Inquiry in House of Commons in 1858, according to evidence of his own laudsteward and general manager, to have been only £472 (see question 7182 of report of this inquiry). The old rent of portion, subsequently purchased, that is Knockastoler property, was £27 10s. Hence gross old rent of estate would not equal £500; yet same estate was made by Lord George Hill to yield over £1,100 agricultural rent, and nearly £1,700 gross rent. Take, in connection with this, admission of Lord George Hill himself, that 12.000 acres ot this mountain pasture was cut off from them and called " my share" (meaning the landlord's share), without a 6d compensation, but on the contrary almost, tripling rents besides, and you will estimate the value, of to "improve the. people," as stated by the Hon. Mr. Ward in question 8602, as motive actuating Lord George Hill iu purchasing

Question 8409.—Migration is not at all so remunerative or reliable source of earning money now as it was. The chance of getting employment is exceedingly precarious, and many leave home in search of employment, and are obliged to obtain, in charity or by loan from some friend, their return passage fare. Glasgow is the centre to which our labourers congregate and they scatter out to Wishaw, Coatbridge, Paisley. &c., andin harvest they proceed to Northumberland (in England). They never go to Liverpool or Manchester, and it is a strong proof of ignorance of the habits of the people on the part of the Hon. Mr. Ward to say that they do.

With regard to knitting industry, it is perfectly false to attribute the exclusive dealing in 1885 to the League or the agrarian difficulty. It was entirely the result of the action of the landlord and his party, in the matter of the election of Poor Law Guardians. There was also a rivel industry established by the benevolent Mrs. Hart which offered much more remuneration and general employment in knitting, &o., than anything that had ever previously existed.

As president of the National League, I must emphatically deny that anyone was ever " prohibited" by the League from taking yarn, or doing anything they pleased, and as a matter of fact they did as they

The industry now proceeding under Mrs. Hart gives over £1,000 worth of employment for the year. In its palmiest days the work given out by Messrs. Allen and Solly would not exceed a yearly average of over £230, or £10,000 for over forty or more years in which they have connection with Gweedore; and it should not be overlooked that a very considerable number of knitters from Bosses—a totally different parish —obtain yarn from the landlord's sub-agent, who ia the agent fol' Alien and Solly,

Question 8427.— The holding sold by me to Daniel O'Donnell— who hud t^en recently returned from America, and had about £3,000 in gold

ben be touched Irish soil— contained 16 acres 1 rood and 10 perches, •stead of four or five acres, as the Hon. Mr. Ward stated; I never 1 tirned the land, and there was none of it reclaimed by me ; the

nolosed arable portion of it is between seven and eight acres — the price ⁶ _np owing to the competition between two returned Americans, O'Donnell and M'Govern. The higher the value of the tenant's interest, tjie less will be the interest of the landlord. This holding was parochial

roperty sold by me with consent of bishop, and the transaction did not bring a farthing into my pocket.

Question 8439.— I never got £60, or so far as I recollect any money towards the distress fund from lessees of fishery; I own having received some aid from them towards Gweedore Flood Disaster Fund in 1880. I never got such a letter as the Hon. Mr. Ward gives extracts from ; I believe I got one letter, but it was not to the effect alleged by any means ; the arrangement with Liverpool steamer was a free choice ; the lessees could have got plenty of carts to do their work if they liked. The lessees unnecessarily arranged to have their fish carted away to Perry on Sundays, and I felt bound to protest as a matter of duty, and the carriers refused to continue carting on Sundays. As a consequence the steamer was utilised.

8440.— The day 'swages for fishermen at best, was only at rate of 2s.; and only five men discontinued the fishing in 1885, two of whom were old and any longer unfit for the work, one a shoemaker, the other a butcher, and one a widower, who had no one but himself to mind his home and place, and who was in any case engaged but for five or six weeks on a sort of emergency boat when supply of fish was good, and like the case of knitting, no one was ever prohibited from working, and, as a matter of fact men freely took on the work for the first time without being in the least molested or annoyed. The non-payment and the irregular payment of rents in the past six years arose from the exceptional severity of the years, and the inflexible management of the estate. In any case in which the landlord acted reasonably, or in a conciliatory way, I invariably co-operated, and to his advantage too. This year tenants are prepared to make extreme efforts if reduction be granted ; therefore, reply to this question is not true.

8448. — I always publicly offered to buy at ten years' purchase of a fair rent.

8452. — The case referred to in this question is that of a widow, Magey ^oll, of Core. The sub-division had been sanctioned previously by Mr. j "am, and the objection of the Hon. Mr. Ward at hearing of case be-'ore the Land Commission, on ground of sub-division, was over-ruled ™pa a fair rent fixed. I only arranged between brother and sister as to

ar t ⁶ *^ns*^nua*i°ⁿ therefore in this question is malicious, and the grounds that ^er'y baseless, and Captain Ward knew this when he said — " In case he did, alleging that I encouraged sub-division.

tli«(, ii — '™hi^s is a false statement ; so are all the statements conveying Ther ^tenan*^s burned the land to the rock. I have never seen it. i_>l;l * ^ls> on the fresh bog and on the deep bog lands, a process of heat-fit_aj ij if *° i'¹ spring, that is, towards the end of April, and in the fire v* * °f May ; the piles of earth are never allowed to burn out into a 5^mbustion ^is ^kept ^st°PP^ecl up within mass, by which all is e ta ^a °'^lemioal action stimulating first growth is carried Oij, atoa earth—not ashes--is scattered and crop put in,

Anyone knowing the time of preparing land in Gweedore must at the ignorance of the Hon. Mr. Ward, who states that this preparation is going on in February.

Questions 8452 and 8453.—On the case of subdivision here represented as done at my instance, I wish to add a few more remarks. In th^ judgment delivered by Court of Sub-Commission, at Bunbeg, on the 28th of July, 1884, Mr. Bourke made special mention of this particular case in these words:—" In Magey Coil's case, having received no reply from the lateagent to the letters I wrote (as agreed on in Court) to him as to permission to subdivide this farm, we take Rose Gallagher's evidence as correct, that Mr. Exham gave permission to subdivide this farm, and we have fixed the judicial rent."

The Hon. Mr. Ward, no doubt, saw this judgment, and in face of this I cannot understand how he could give such evidence as he has given consistently with truth and honesty. More surprising still, he led the Com-mission to believe that this holding contained " not more than three acres," whereas the area agreed upon for this farm is exactly 37a. Ir. 18p.

I desire also to point out that the statement of the Hon. Mr. Ward, under question 8460, is entirely without foundation—namely, " They burn the surface of it every year until they get to the jrook, and then go somewhere else."

I am sorry to have to say that the whole evidence of the Hon. Somerset Ward, so far as the extracts sent to me enable me to speak is entirely unreliable, misleading, and at variance with fact. This arises probably from his want of knowledge of the subject. He evidently does not know the estate or the lives and habits of its tenants. This is not surprising, as in all probability he may not have spent two months of his life there altogether, and the most of that, in all likelihood, as a tourist or pleasure-seeker. Mr. Murphy made the points referred to by the Hon. Mr. Ward, and many more at hearing of land oases; but the Court had reason to believe that he was misinformed or mistaken. All agree that burning is not only useful but necessary for reclamation of deep bog. It was admitted at inquiry in 1858 that the reclamation of moors around the Gweedore Hotel cost £14 per acre, and the reclamation on most lands through the district was more difficult.

Anyone living amongst the people knows the toil and labour they undergo in providing manure from sea and from mire, and from all available means about the homestead ; and it is perfectly ridiculous to Bay that earth itself supplies " soil and manure."

8468.—The waref are commenced when first Lord George Hill put foot in Gweedore (see Blue Book of 1858).

Lord George Hill himself states—question 6792—" There was about 12,000 acres cut off, and called my share." 6185—" Steps were taken to oblige them to pay." 6929—"I found it necessary to put the whole of the tenantry under a notice to quit," &c. Reply to question put to 3-Cruice, Sub-Inspector, 8079, &c., " Yes, enormous outrages."

There were additional police forces, there were magisterial inquiries, there was driving for rent. The first warrant for sheep tax was fof £1,200. This was during times of disturbance on Adair property. Behold the veracity and accuracy of the Hon. Mr. Ward, " That profound peace prevailed but for me."

8473.—I got a public character for maintaining the landlords and supporting their starving tenants, and obtaining through charitable means* monies to pay rents and costs and keep roof over their heads. clergyman stated to myself and curate that the

, ^ subscribe for me a testimonial form. i mentioned those matters on occasion refei

led to people present if this was not true—they said"" Te9*' ¹¹⁶ they did not use the words given by the Hon. Mr. Ward, and did not express their assent as to shooting, because of this

!erred to and for support ap->t true—they said, " Ye9," >y the Hon. Mr. Ward, and shooting, because of this

knew nothing, and I did not ask for their view on it, though I t ted that in this way too the landlord party stood indebted to me as I *!>*the information which, in the warmth of the moment, I volunteered

8477.—The so called " Squaring of farms" brought inourablernin on the district in the spoliation and rack-renting that followed, and the whole

rocess cost landlord, according to himself, only £600. P §468.—I should say at question 8468 that in the district of the Bosses, where the condition of the people, for the most part, much the fame _as {_n Gweedore, the different landlords granted to all four shillings in the pound of reduction for judicial periods outside Court, and they oranted besides twenty per cent, last year, and are doing the same this year. Perhaps this explains, the favourable contrast made by the Hon. jlr. Ward. In my honest opinion misery, poverty, and discontent settled in Gweedore with the advent of speculators like Lord George Hill. Thia evil has festered ever since. It will take a drastic remedy to cure; and happiness, peace, and contentment will only come when these gentlemen and their successors will cease to own the land of Gweedore, for I do not believe that it is possible for their nature to allow them to deal honestly, justly, and sympathetically with the poor suffering people.

I enclose several cuttings, &c., which you will please return when
naed. Yours, respectfully,

P.S.—I should observe that for the past six years I have been the channel of conveying to the poor people of this locality about £6,000, in food and seed, and clothing ; and that in the year, just ended, I expended £1,000 in the same way, but mainly in procuring seed potatoes.

Memo, of Agreement between Captain Ward on behalf of Captain Hill, and Eev. James M'Fadden, P.P., on behalf of tha Gweedore tenants.

8. Judicial rents thus fixed by the Court, or by consent, to ta^ke effect from 1st November, 1882, provided such rents are fixed by coi •>nt, or ^riginating Notices served by the tenant or landlord, as the caV|may I*⁶! within six months after decisions in the cases now listed are given ^bythe Sub-Commissioners, or if appealed against by the Land Commissioners.

4. One year's rent at the old rate due 1st November, 1882, to be paid
*« the time fixed by the agent of the estate, immediately after the

5. A. year and a-half's rent at new rate, to be paid at the time ap-
Pwnted by the agent of the estate in the month of December, 1884, and

year and a-half's rent at same rate to be paid at the time appointed by ^De agent of the estate in the month of December, 1885.

(From the Deny Journal, 3rd August, 1885. THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION.—the gweedobb distbict.

Mr. Justice O'Hagan and Mr. Commissioner Litton, Q.C., sat inthj Land Commission Court, Dublin, on Friday, to deliver judgment rq seventy-one oases from the Gweedore district, heard at Bunbeg, county Donegal, in the early part of July,

Judge O'Hagan said—Judgment remains to be given in a very largj number of cases which were heard by us at Bunbeg, county Donegal. ' We were urgently requested to sit specially for these cases at Bunbeg, on : the ground that the people could not, without very great difficulty attencl at the assize town of Lifford, where they would be otherwise heard. We accordingly sat at Bunbeg. The cases before us were oases on the estate of Mr. Hill, Mr. W. Olpherts, and, I think, on Mr. Stewart's ; but, by far the largest number were on the estate of Captain Hill. Now, the ' place, Gweedore, in the West of Donegal, is very well known to fame; it is a wild and romantic district, and the soil is, for the most part, tnrf " resting on granite. In one of the townlands there was a difference, and it was rather a stony soil; but for the rest of Captain Hill's estate it ap- [' peared the soil was altogether turf lying on rock. The question raised / before us whether the turf could be considered a distinct element of value. ! Tnrf, there, I need hardly say, is of great value ; the cultivation is not, as it is in very many oases, of a cut away bog, but it is upon the turf j bank itself, and it was stated that if the bog was wholly cut away there Would be nothing remaining in the nature of soil on which to grow crops. But upon the turf, potatoes are grown, and oats ; and there is, in addition, of course, the turf for fuel, and there is mountain,^;grazing for their cattle. It was contended strongly by the solicitor for the tenants that we could not regard it as a distinct element of value, inasmuch as if it were not for existance of the turf the; place would be wholly uninhabitable. In our opinion we must take the' holdings as they are, with all their conveniences. Lord George Hill bought this property fifty years ago, when the holdings were in rundale, and his idea was to change this system into the ordinary tenure. It was argued too that the people were not prepared for this change, and that they were better off under the old system; but we cannot doubt that the change was from a more primitive to a better system. The people were admittedly an industrious people; and we, having heard the evidence very fully, came to the conclusion that they were an honest and veracious people. The gentlemen who conducted the cases for the landlord and tenants conducted them with as admirable temper and discretion as we ever remember to have met in any part of the country. I will only add that both the Sul'-Commissioners and ourselves in very many cases made alterations in tltf rent either by raising them or by lowering them, which may seem vei'J trifling, only a few shillings ; but as I have had occasion, on several othe'¹instances, (everything is comparitive) and where a rent is only itself 1$ or 18s., of course a rise or a reduction of a few shillings is, comparatively speaking, the same as it would be in the case of pounds if the rents wJ³mentioned in pounds; so that although we generally avoid as far as we eft" making minute alterations, yet we cannot consider the alterations minut?; having regard to the extreme poorness of the tenantry find the amount ^airents.

According¹ to Thorn's Almanac of 1887, Wybrants Olphert is landlord of 18,133 acres, the valuation of which, including buildings, is only £1,802, or about thirteen pence per acre.

The management of this estate has attracted much attention during recent years. But the estate has come into notoriety now not for the first time. Wybrants Olphert took an important part in the war that was waged between the people and the landlords of Gweedore and Clohaneely, in THE MEMOEARLE DAYS OF '58.

In the conspiracy of landlords then created to appropriate and confiscate the immemorial rights of the tenants, he stood in importance next to Lord George Hill. He gave valuable evidence, from the tenants point of view, before the Committee of the House of Commons in '58. He then admitted that he had taken 2,000 acres of mountain grazing from the tenants of Keeldmm, and in extenuation of his crime, he added, "IF I HAD TAKEN 5,000 ACRES MORE FROM THEM

I WOULD HAVE LEFT THEM PLENTY!" It is not surprising that men guided by such loose principles of " mine and thine" do extraordinary things. On that occasion he also said that the tenants had

But he has not since recognised the existence of this commonage. He repudiated it at the hearing of the land cases before the Court of Sub-Commission in '84-, and a few weeks a.go the emergency men, now in his service, drove the tenants' sheep from the same commonage to the newly constituted Pound at Ardsmore.

Mr. Olphert repudiates all pre-existing rights and privileges of his tenants. He denies that they held the grazing rights of | extensive mountain tracts. He denies that they had the right of turbary, as in the case of the tenants of the Island of Innisbofhi. Of course

will support him. It was always so : and will be so, I suppose, until the citadel of landlordism crumbles to the ground. But I should be very glad to know how it conies that those tenants were the recognised occupiers and usors of those rights in '58, and that the Government Officials returned their names in the official public records as such, if they were not really in occupation _Of, and really using those rights ? And if they had a legal title to those rights in those days, how did they loose the title or how was it filched from them ?

It is undoubted that the tenants of Keeldrum Upper held in common 3053a. 2r. 30p. of Mountain Grazing, when Sir Eichard Griffith made the last General Valuation of Ireland about 30 years ago.

Daniel Gallagher is the first householder entered in Griffith's Valuation under the townland of Upper Kee'drurn, his fellow tenants follow after him in order with the aiea in their own exclusive occupation ; and at the end of the list there is the following entry :—

Again I find the samo to be the case as to Magheraroarty Mountain. This mountain belonged at this time to the tenants of the Townland of Magheraroarty. Because in Griffith's Valuation, under the Townland of Magheraroarty, there is the following entry :—

Now Michael M'Padden was then the first tenant in the Townland of Magheraroarty.

to which the tenants were in the habit of migrating with their stock in the Summer mouths.

There is also under the Townlaud of Meeularagh, in Griffith's Valuation, the following entry :—

Now John Coll was at that time the first tenant entered on the books from the townlanJ of lamsbofiu Island. And it is from this bog that the poor tenants of Innisbolin are now driven by the forces of the Crown as if they were robbers ; ami it is their turf cut ou tliis bog that are cut up and

at the present time by emei^'encynien, protected by police ! The landlord does not go to the trouble of evicting them out of their occupation, nor does the Crown or the law require him to do so. The law aud the Crown allow him to proceed by main force and •violence, and protect him in doing so !! This is an extraordinary condition of facts that needs explanation.

There are some matters in coutrovesy about this estate. but they have no bearing on the case of the tenants. The friends of the landlord were exceedingly glad to get an opportunity of riding off on a side issue upon the question of what the estate originally cost. The question for the tenant to consider is, whether he is and has been for years paying it rack-rent—whether he has been ruthlessly deprived of his rights—and whether he is outrageously treated by his landlord in being thown on the street, and openly robbed of all he possesses, because of the non-payment of

I have certainly a distinct recollection of hearing Mr. Robert Olphert stating in Falcarragh, in June, '84, before the Court of Land Sub-Commission, that the gross income of the estate was about £'2,300. I am sure Mr. Robert Olphert will not deny this. It is now contended that the estate is worth little or nothing to the landlord—that the nett rent from it is nearer £300 ! then any other sum that could be named, Mr. Robert Olphert, writing to a Mr. Baker, of Clacton-on-Sea, under date 80th April, '89, states in reference to his father's income from, the estate—" His (Mr. Olphert's) margin in the best of times is probably nearer £300 than any sum I could name."

and I have no doubt, that the tenants will pay '20 years purchase for the entire estate on the basis of £300. If a man robs me of £20, what matter to me what he does with it. What lie does with it does not excuse him or relieve me. I am wronged all the same. In a letter to the "East Anglican Times" of 28th June, 1889, Mr. T. W. Russell mentions 13' towulands purchased by the 0>phert family since the purchase of the original grant from Captain of Culmore about 1613. I have not the slightest doubt that the original grant made to Harte under the Ulster Plantation included alt the Olphert Estate, except Lower Baltouey, Cashel, Devlin. In fact included more, because the Olphert family, if I mistake noli parted with some of their property about Carrowcaunon. Mr. Russell furnishes a list of 13 townlamls,

j[_e gives tlie townland first, tlien lie gives a local sub-denomination of same towland next as a distinct townland. By this process

Though it is entirely immaterial, perhaps Mr. Eussell may ]jo able to find out when was Meenlaragh and Glasserchoo purchased, and who were the previous owners, if they were not included in the purchase at £oOO, subject to a Crown rent of £8 from Harte in 1613.

01' course the Olpherfc estate is cut up now. My remarks apply to the condition of things in '84. Since that time Mr. Bobei't Olphert managed to sell Lower Baltoney at the

of a rent fixed by the landlord himself! These are not yet peasant proprietors; they are only now tenants to the Crown and they are hardly yet two years under their new masters. I hope they will beneiit by their blind impetuosity, but I certainly very much doubt it.

1 also find that Upper Keeldrum is now in hands of Messrs. llobert & Albert Olphert. So it is difficult; to determine now which is which on the Olphert estate.

on this estate. There was undoubtedly a great effort made to deter the tenant from going into court. James Gallagher of ot Cashel, whose rent was £6 18s 4d, was the first tenant on the Olphert estate that took courage to go into Court. He served an orginating notice in March '82, and by some mysterious cause his case was not heard until March '84. He himself told me frequently of the extraordinary pressure put upon him by landlord

° settle out of Court and not go on, that lie would be overwhelmed With cost, and that he the (landlord) would appeal. Gallagher J^Vent on notwithstanding and got his rent reduced to £4 10s. The

•\y, . '>'it the bulk of the tenants did not i'are so well as Gallagher. "<^u pi'essuve was being put upon the tenants not to go into Court,

and many of them in their blindness and ignorance agreed to accept the terms of these settlements. These settlements offered, I think, an average of 12-L per cent, reduction on the old rent, but Uncle.v them the tenants blindly signed away important and vital rights, as the terms of the settlement herewith, given show. The copies that I saw did not even specify the area on which rent was fixed when the tenants' signature was asked to be attached, so that as u matter of fact

ANY AREA MIGHT BE FILLED IN SUBSEQUENTLY, Here are the terms of the agreement:—

fair rent of the above holding, and we apply to the Land Commis
sion Court to file this agreement to the intent that the said rent of
£ may be the judicial rent of the holding,

and the landlord requires, that as between the landlord and tenant, the right of shooting and taking game, and fishing and taking fish, shall belong exclusively to the landlord, subject to the provisions of the Ground Uamo Act of 1880,

The italics are mine. I think about 100 such agreements were signed over the entire estate.

About 140 cases on this estate were entered in the Land Court and dealt with in July, 1884. The time for inspecting the holdings •was very adroitly fixed for July, when the poor lands look bloomiest. Mr. Olphert, himself, J.P. and D.L., managed to accompany the Sub-Cornrnissioners when inspecting the holdings—this, of course, be was legally entitled to do—the poor tenant despoudingly loitered behind, while the D.L. was eloquent in describing the excellence of the soil, &c. Mr. Olphert did not hesitate to bring luxuries on his car for the Sub-Commissioners to enjoy at their at'tercourse at dinner. Those things occurring under the eyes of the tenants

in the impartiality of the judgments to follow, and so it turned out that the reductions granted were a far way oft' the reductions granted in Gweedore. The gross rent of the 117 cases in Cl<r haneely was £340 14s Sd, and it was reduced to £259 16s 4d, or 28 "per cent, off.

landlord cry. Mr. Mahony was the only tenants' friend on the
gub-Commission, and out of 117 cases he

and would insist on allowing a much greater reduction. He was overborne, of course, by the landlord majority.

A considerable portion of the Olpherb estate lies within the Parish of Gweedore; but, if I except the district popularly known as Gliisserchoo, there are only five tenants in Gweedore under Mr, Olphert. Four of them inhabit part of Fawnaboy close by the ha so of storm-stained Eriigal, and one adjoins the Hill property on a portion of the mountain or moor of Upper Keeldrum. In the remarks I am about to make, I shall confine myself to Glasserchoo, made notorious iii recent years by being the scene on more than one occasion of ruthless e-. ictions on the part of the landlord. The clearance of that district in July '84, after its people had been maintained by public charity, and the crops had been mainly planted by seed supplied from the same source in the previous distressful year of'88, is still vividly present to the minds of the people of the local ity and of the publ ic generally. The poor people were in chat year

and were left to perish in the ditches, where they huddled for shelter for eight days, so far as the landlord was concerned, and so far as the Board of Guardians of the poor, of which the landlord was then and is still the Chairman, were concerned. This " pink of perfection" Board, inspired, no doubt, by the Chairman who dominates it, not only neglected their primary duty, but actually refused to send their Relieving Officer to visit those pitiable creatures after their eviction, and to investigate their condition and report on it. Even more, they refused to supply conveyances for the transport to the Workhouse—20 miles away—of the old and infirm, and helpless children ; and when others did provide carts to do so those model Guardians of the Poor refused to pay the cost. And, when the poor evicted tenants of Glasserchoo found their way to the Workhouse, those same Guardians headed by their Chairman, the landlord, soon contrived an excuse for Spelling them from the Workhouse and throwing them again ^acu'ift, shelterless on the bleak cold world.

and after a short time I was enabled to pay to the landlord his full forfeit of rent and costs and to re-instate again in humble houses those afflicted families. It is impossible to express the blissful joy and happiness of the restoration, but it was charity did it, and may the reward fall a thousandfold where it is due, as I am sure it will.

It is worthy of remark that this happy issue was largely due to the warm-hearted sympathy and charitable efforts of a noble Presbyterian Clergyman whose admirable virtue of doing charity by stealth, has kept his name, in this connection, still unknown to the world.

Times did not improve for the poor peasants of Glasserchoo. It was at all times a struggle for life. But disastrous seasons and distressful years made the effort too unequal. '83 came suddenly on the wake of '70, and '86 on the wake of '83 and all these years were years of bitter suffering and hardships for them, and but for the sustaining hand of charity they would have sunk under the ordeal. The potatoe crop was a good average in '87, but the prices of agricultural products had almost touched bottom. Through all those years appeal after appeal was made to the landlord, but he seemed to mock at their helplessness. Weary of patience and long suffering and driven almost to desperation the people took the bold decisive step in '87, which led up to the present condition of things, by which the landlord seems determined to destroy not only Glasserchoo, but his whole estate, notwithstanding that he must feel convinced in his heart that by doing so, he must also destroy himself and all who depend upon him.

The district popularly known as Glashercoo and forming the portion of the Oluhert estate in Gweedore with which I am dealing, 'comprises Glasserchoo with its two sub-denominations Bunaninver and Letcata, part of Derrvconnor and Magheraroarty mountain. Formerly it was an uncultivated tract of mountain and ixnor without any inhabitants, and was used in common as a grazing ground by the adjoining townlands of Magheraroartf, Meenlaragh and Derryconuor. The rent of it then was included in the rent payable by those townlands. Hence any occupation of it now, or at any time, is an appropriation of the commonage rights of those townlands, and any rent paid in consideration of that occupation is an unwarranted increase on the rent due upon it. It is unnecessary to say here that the landlords never expended a farthing in money or in labour or improvement on this waste of moor and mountain.

One may get an idea of the value of this land in the condition }n which it was handed over hy the landlord to the tenant by lea.rning the value of portions of it still unreclaimed and unimproved. The landlord claims, and unfairly and unjustly claims in my mind, to hold in Fee to himself 1,049 acres of.Maglieraroarty mountain. Now thirty years ago took place the last general valuation of Ireland. It was made by Sir Eichard Griffith. The valuation put upou this 1,049 acres--and there is much of it a great deal better than portions brought into cultivation by the tenants—by Sir Eichard Griffith is £4—or' less than One Penny per acre !

IPUNANINVEROB COBBAN'S PORT—FIBST RENT 10s. Now as to the particulars of Rental and number of tenants-James Curran was the first man who inhabited Burianinver, and his rent was then Sixteen KhiUintjst.

It was after this man that the bay of the sea adjoining was called Cumin's Port—the people still call it in Irish " James Curraivs Port." Curran's Port is an inlet of the sea and not the .Dame of any tract of land.

The three sons of James Curran, Hugh, Phelimy, ;in<l Owen, succeeded to him, and there were then in Bumminver three ^dwellings, 'league M'Fadden, who is still living¹, remembers well that his house was the fourth house in Bunaninw.

There are now 15 families in it, and the rent of it in '84 was £19 8s Od. In only one ease has a Judicial Kent been fixed, tlie case of Daniel Doohan—his old rent was £4 5s, and it was reduced by the Court of Land Commission in'84 to £rt, so that the present rental of Bunaninver is £17 18s 6d. LETOATA.

Letcata is another sub-denomination of Glasserchoo. Teagne M'Eadden remembers well when his grandfather, Owen M'Fadden, occupied it all at a rent of £!. Owen M'Fadden, was then the only tenant on it.

There are now four families living on it,and the rent in '84 was £9 7s Gd. One tenant. Roger O'Brien, trot his rent of £3 10s tkl reduced by the Land Court in '84 to ''£•> J;is fid, so that the present rent of Letcata is £3 IDs fid. GLASSERCIIOO PROPER.*

At the marriage of the grandfather of Philip M'Gee, who is a fresh old man of about 60. all this Olasserchoo Proper belonged to Shane M'Geady, and Philip M'Gces grandfather got the half of it with his wife, the daughter of Shane M'Geady, \# a dowry. Teague M'Fadden, the oldest mau in the district, says that the rent paid by Shane M'Geady was £!•

There are 22 families in it now, and the rent of it in '84 was £21 11s. By the action of the Land Court in '84 in 12 cases this rent was reduced to £18 15s 6d, at which it stands now.

This portion of Glasserchoo district was formerly occupied by one tenant, Daniel M'Cafferty, and more recently by two Philimy MTafferty and Thomas M'Geever. They were paying £1 of rent each.

It is now occupied by 8 families, and the rent of it in '84 was £8 10s. By action of the Land Court in '84 £1 11s was taken oft this figure, leaving the present rent £6 ] 9s.

This townland, as the very name implies, was formerly the grazing of the townland of Mngheraroarty. It was the custom then for the tenants to emigrate in the summer months to this mountain side and settle on it in sod huts for a few months for the benefit of the stock. The plnce was not then liable to any rent separately. The rent payable for it was included in the rent of Magheraroarty. As to the occupation of it subsequently by tenants, John M'Geever a young man of about 3."> told me that he remembers well to have heard from Daniel M'Cafferty an old man of 80, who died la years ago, that his (John M'Geever's) grandfather was the first man that ever settled on Magheraroarty mountain, and that in the beginning there was no rent at all payable for any part of it as a distinct rent; and that subsequent to this man " squatting" upon it, the landlord imposed upon him £1 of rent.

There are now 10 families on it, and the rent of the portion occupied by the families was in 1884, £8 4s. One of tenants, Neal Heraghty had his rent of £1 15s 6d reduced by Land Court in 84 to £1 7s 6d, which leaves the rent payable for the portion occupied by tenants £7 16s.

In 1854, or thereabouts, the landlord took from the tenants without compensation, and appropriated to himself 1,049 acres. This tract is in its prairie, or natural condition, and the annual valuation put upon it by the Government is £4, or, as I have already stated less than One Penny per acre !

"With regard to this Glasserchoo district, therefore, the following facts seem to be incontrovertible :—

2.—'That the adjoining townlands on the Olphert estate had the right and title to it by grazing, and occupation in that way.

t 5.—That the rent payable and paid for 30 years, previous to November, '8-1, was £69 14g 6d.

7.—That of these 37 are recognised by landlord as tenants, and that there are therefore 19 sub-tenants.

8.—That only 18 of these tenants had their rents fixed by Court of Land Commission ; and that their gross rent, which was £28 Os 6d, was reduced to £21 2s ; or 35 per cent, reduction ; whereas, Mr. Mahouy, one of the Sub-Comniis-'•sioners, differed from his two colleagues (who were accused of strong landlord leanings) and would make the reduction 35 per cent.

9.—That nineteen tenants and nineteen sub-tenants got no -reductions whatsoever, on the old rack-rents, and that there is still payable out of the district the impossible rent of £62 16s 6d.

The area of the Glasserchoo district as defined above, is 1,983 acres. Of this about 774 acres are in the occupation of the tenants, and about 1,310 acres are claimed to belong " in Fee" to the landlord. The valuation of the land in occupation of tenants is about £40, or something over Is per acre. The valuation of the portion claimed to be held " in Fee" by landlord is £5 5s, or about one penny per acre. The difference in value of the land in occupation of the tenant and land credited to landlord is the result' of the industry, and labour, and improvements of the tenant. But as the landlords never gave any assistance, in any shape, to the

* It is a Avell authenticated fact that Shane M'Geady was the only tenant of Glasserchoo, including Letcata and Buna-Jrinver, about 149 years ago. He had three daughters. One Daughter got married to a man called " The Connaught Man." The second got married to James Currau, and the third got •married to Philip M'Gec's grandfather. (Philip M'Gee is now a hale man of less than 00.) To the first daughter Shane gave as a portion Letcslta, to the second Bunauinver or Cur-rau's Port; to the third daughter the half of Glasserchoo proper.

f In July, 'S3, I had a schedule of tenants and rents of the Glassercho'o district, from Mr. Olphert himself, in which he returned names of 37 tenants, and a annual rent of £69 14s 6d,

This Rack-rent of Glasserchoo was piled on in various ways from time to time. It reached its maximum height in '6(5, when in substitution for " duty c/ai/s" the landlord added the last straw to the already unbearable burden in the shape of 2s on every tenant.

The first way of increasing' the rent was the increasing of the number of tenants, by sub-dividing the laud and putting a smart rent on the new tenant. This process resulted to Mr. Olphert iu having 37 tenants, where there iiad been previously nc tenants at all. The second way of increasing the rent and piling the agony on the tenants was what is known as the " New cut" or New farm dodge. A. B. C. and 1). held and occupied and used every square foot of a townlaud X. The landlord comes and enters upon the lauds of X. held in common by A. 13. C. and I), and seizes it without compensation aud divides it into new farms of— say 8 acres each—and places a rent of £1 per year upon this area.

LAND WHICH HAD BEEN ALREADY THEIRS. Which really belonged to A. B. C. & I), and the real value oi' which was only about eight pence, and he invites A. B, C. & 1). to come, and accept these new farms and pay ,£1 yearly for them or if they do not others will. Lest strangers would come in and give trouble iu the hitherto quiet aud peaceable neighbourhood A. B. C. & D. foolishly accept their own back again, and under duress undertake to pay the £l of rent additional to their old in consideration of having what had been already their ova formally seized by landlord and handed back to them again! Thi* method was practised very generally by the present Mr. Olphert over his estate, but more especially in G lasserchoo. Previously '54 he had only laid off a few of those " New cuts' but iu' aud the years immediately following he lockspitted off a very la¹' number of them. There was hardly a tenant in Glasssevuh⁰⁰who did not take, in the circumstances mentioned, one of " New cuts"; aud. in some cases, two \veretakenby one This process really created new tenancies and sub-divided the 1. iiud 1 cannot understand hew the landlord, who resorted to >. systematically and as a profitable and paying business, can say tl'^alie did not encourage sub-division.

By these various methods the Olphert i'amily piled up j?69 14s (id of rant on Glasserchoo, which had been previously paj'ing "° separate and distinct rent, except in so far as its rent was included in the rent of the adjoining towulaucLs that had its use and occupation as a, grazing tract, and created iiity-six families where there had been no families at all, and thirty-seven tenants where had been previously no resident and occupying tenants,

Not only did Mr. Olphcrt continue to increase the rent hy the " New cut'' scheme, hut he made it the occasion of putting money into his pocket immediately. Ho is alleged to have charged tines in many cases before accepting the new tenant, or the old tenant, as tenant of the " New cut'' or new farm.

On this question of '• Now cuts" let me introduce Mr. Olphert himself, as examined before Committee of Inquiry into alleged destitution in Gweedore and Cloliancely in .185*.

of " New cuts,'¹ 1 think you represented to the Committee that, in the case of Hugh M'Cafl'erty, the rent you charged him was £4 or £5 :' Mr. Olphert—1 think it is either £.I. or £5, the arrears on the place.''¹

4986—What do you mean by arrears oh the place, who occupied it before :' No oik; occupied it before.

•1988—This was a more- cut out of your property ? It was. In dividing the to\vnlaud this cut was left to the outside, and the people wanted me to cut it up into several lots among them.

4:989—Was it a i^irip of laud cut out of your estate :' It was, 4990—Was it in a state of nature ? It was. 4991—Did you build a house upon it ? I did not.

;. "A. short time ago Hugh. M'Cafl'erty, himself, told me that he Was charged £0 on accepting this " New cut."

4993—What do you mean by arrears ? I put a charge of £1 upon it_; the tenants of the town would not allow any person to take it. I would not be browbeaten by them

5010—Have you made as many as twenty New cuts ? (Mr. Maguire was then cross-examining Mr. Olpherl in reference to Glasserchoo.) I have given additional farms to old tenants, but no new ones.

5011—Was not that laud that you made into New cuts in the possession of the tenants before ? They cut turf off it, and they cut bog off it for mire, and so on.

5012—Do you charge entrance money ? I charge the rent
when they get a cut, (payment of a year's rent in advance) and I
give them a receipt up to November

5013—I suppose that all these cuts you speak of represent the land in a state of nature ? Yes. I

5018—You charge a man for this land in the State of nature the very first year he occupies it ? I do, and I

These replies of Mr. Olphert on oath convey an important lesson, and establish out of his mouth nearly all the allegations against him—(the black type, capitals and brackets in the extracts are mine.)

It is clear that the tenants, as a body, were opposed to this " new cut" scheme. That the " cuts" were taken under duress ; that the landlord insisted on arbitrary entrance fines, and that exhorbitant rents were charged for land already belonging to tenants.

Xed Gallagher, .Den'ycomior, hud to pay XI.j of it fine 011 being accepted tenant of a "new cut," about 13 years ago—and £'2 for another new cut subsequently taken, and the landlord put £3 13s ot rent on the two "takes," the value of which would not exceed Eighteen Fence.

(The cuts are about 8 to JO acres, and the valuation of or 10 acres hi a state of nature is tf peace or 10 peucu.

Now, those exorbitant rack-rents heaped upon Glasserchoo were paid punctually for over 30 years. But in this case, as in all other cases, the people became educated by agitation, and they were made sensible of the wrongs inflicted upon them, and their own constitutional power to resist those wrongs. Together with all this, the years from '80 to '88 were, for the most part, marked with almost alternate years of severe distress for all Gweedore, but more especially for this miserable region of Glasserchoo. And, as a matter of fact, these machines (the tenants) for feeding the landlords' pockets with rents, were maintained working, and in order by the gvnerous benevolence of a charitable public, while the landlord shared iu no way in the hardships of the times but seemed rather much the better for it. A meeting of the two parishes, and of all the Olphert tenants, was held at Glasserchoo on 1st November, 1887.

I acted honorary secretary of that meeting : and, in pursuance of a resolution to that effect, 1 forwarded copies of resolutions to the several agents of the several estates.

The reply received from the agent of the Olphert estate, which I introduce in full here, speaks for itself, and silences those who talk of Mr. Olphert allowing liberal reductions. I did not hear again from Mr. Olphert, or his agent, in reference to the matter until the day of the Ardsmoro eviction, when the agent, on being approached by me with a visw to a settlement, stated, that he would allow li.Vper cent, on the judicial rents and 25 per cent, on the non-judicial for year ending 1st Nov., 1887. Now the schedule of revised rents for year 18S7, gave a further reduction of almost 15 per cent, in the Union of Dun-fanaghy on rents fixed in 1884, in which years most of the rents fixed by the Court of Laud Commission on the Olphert estate had been fixed.

I publicly offered to refer the case between Olphert and the tenants to arbitration. There was no notice, to niy knowledge, taken of ray overtures. And my sense on the question was frequently expressed to visitors, and I have not the slightest doubt conveyed to Mr. 0 phert. I did all in my power to bring about a reasonable settlement. But I was not going to take upon myself the responsibility of personally meeting the landlord's terms ; nor was I disposed to stand again at the world's gates to beg the money to pay Mr. Olphert his rent and costs as

I had done in 1884. The essence of a settlement is that it should he practicable, and such as that the fulfilment of its terms would not beggar the tenants, and render them unfit to continue the cultivation of their holdings. And I could not, and would not, and will not he a party to any settlement except a practicable one in the sense I have stated.

" I liave to acknowledge ;'our letter of 8th inst., enclosing-resolutions which you state were adopted at a " monster meeting of the tenants of Gweedore and Cloughaneely on the 1st November." As I conclude, you simply repiesent the people of Gweedore. I confine my reply to their case. The Government have made arrangements dealing with " judicial rents," by which Mr. Olphert will be legally bound, and he directs me to state lie does not see the necessity of making any concession other than that which the law directs. He cannot accede to your proposal as to wiping out outstanding arrears.''

What a mocking it was on the part of Mr. Hewson to write such a letter. He knew very well tluit there were only 18 judicial tenants on all the Gweedore portion of his estate and his letter amounted to an accentuated refusal. I did not write to Mr. Olpliert because I know from experience that Mr. Olphert and Mr. Hewson conveniently shift responsibility as suits.

I wrote to Mr. Olphert in '84 in reference to the then evicted tenants of Glasserehoo. I got the following reply

"dear sir—I received your letter yesterday and by same post forwarded it to Mr. Hewson, my agent, as I have determined not to interfere with him in the management of the Glasserehoo tenants."

dear sir—" Mr. Olphert has forwarded your letter of the 18th List, to me, mid desires we tn state that no less than full debt awl cnxta 'icill 1/e accepted frrmi Ms cricted tenants."

Here we have an instance of the great evil that the land agency system is to the country. Agents have been the curse of Ireland, and it has been always my impression that were it not for agents and bailiffs landlordism in Ireland would be much more bearable. Whoever is accountable the landlord side has been quite callous to the condition of the oppressed tenants.

The vengeful persecutions visited upon the tenants of the Olphert estate at the present time, at the hands of police and emergency men, are inhuman and fiendish ! These

are almost daily occupied with depredatory raids in one pluce or another. This week those cruel emergency men are mowing down the green crops of oats (the oats are not yet nearly ripe) in Glasserchoo, that grew from seed supplied by the charitable contributions last Spring, of warm hearted friends in Great Britain and Ireland ! In committing those depredations they carry revolvers on their hips, and they work under cover of the policeman's loaded rifle. Yesterday there were in Glasserchoo three carts, three horses, eight emergency men, two Inspectors of Police, and forty police, all engaged in cutting the unripe oats of poor Widow Curran, Michael Ferry, and James M'Geady— and these suffering people got very substantial assistance to crop their land last Spring from charity. Let the British taxpayer look to the million and a-half paid out to over 12,000 police for such services. What were the spoils of yestefcday's proceedings ?

SIX SMALL CARTS OF GREEN OATS! ! The same savage work has been continued to-day. Thus the cruel reign of terror is carried on witli the support and approval of a cruel discredited Government,

The appended newspaper reports explain, to a great extent, the course taken by the tenants and their friends in reference to this Olphert business.

THE RENT QUESTION IN DONEGAL. GREAT MEETING- OF THE PARISHIONERS OP GWEEDORE AND CLOGHANEELY AT GLASSERCOO. The most important meeting in point of numbers and enthusiasm and practical results, called together in this locality for several years, was held on Tuesday at Glasserchoo, a townland four miles from Derrybeg and bordering Cloghaneely. The entire manhood of Gweedore and Cloghaneely, and a goodly representation of the womanhood too, met together in that wild mountain moor to hear from trusted leaders the oft told tale of their sufferings at the hands of cruel landlordism, nn<l to have carefully laid ilown for them the course they were to follow in the crisis of their trial* now brought before them by a combination of many evils. This Glasserchoo had bitter memories for the poor peasants of Gweedore. It was here that three years ago, last July, the landlord—Wybrants Olphert—published an edict that Glasserchoo should be destroyed, and

It was the poor tenants of Glasserchoo that were allowed to watch the weary days and nights foi¹ a week after the evictions, in ditches and gravel pits, in shielings of sticks and heather, unnoticed by the Guardians of the Poor, presided over by tlio landlord. And it was in the case of the tenants of Glasserchoo at that time, that a sympathetic Christian-hearted public, led and encouraged by a benevolent Presbyterian clergyman, placed funds at the disposal of the parish priest, winch satisfied the thirst of the landlord, and which secured for these poor miserable creatures a return to their old homes and firesides. The memory of those scenes, and the circumstances attending them, were revived to-day, and excited earnestness and determination in the minds of the assembled people. No one looking out over Glasserchoo, Derryconnor, and Magheraroarty mountain to-day, would associate the prospect with human existence. A flock of plover or wild geese passing out to Tory, would hardly choose this track as a resting place for an hour—

full as a sponge with water, relieved on the hill sides with frequent piles of granite boulders. The idea of wringing nearly £100 in rent out of such a district, tells one strikingly of " man's inhumanity to man." In the midst of this dreary track,

with Tievealehad and Bloody Foreland to the rere, and Tory Island and Horn Head far ahead in the foreground, the meeting vras held. The immense multitude that came from Gortahork, as it covered the road for nearly a half mile, was an imposing si<rht. The contingent from Gweedore, though not so large, _mtist have numbered over 1,000. Both bodies, led by their respective bands, playing "God Save Ireland," met at the appointed spot, and without further delay the business of the meeting was inaugurated by unanimously appointing Father M'Fadden to preside. Father M'Fadden acknowledged the honour of being elected to preside at such an important assembly of the Nationalists of Gweedore and Cloghaneely ; important in many respects, but chiefly important in the respect that the meeting was likely to have a remarkable influence on the issue of the STEUGGLE NOW GOING ON ALL OVER IRELAND

between the Irish people and landlordism, so far as that struggle was confined to this portion of North-West Donegal. The chairman said he would have occasion to address them at greater length further on, that now he would invite his courageous and brave-hearted friend, Father Stephens, to address them.

The appearance of Father Stephens was greeted with ringing cheers and waving of hats. In the course of an excellent speech, of nearly three-quarters of an hour, Father Stephens put clearly before the meeting the great evil of Irjgh landlordism, and how the system existed and thrived on the life-blood of the poor people; and he illustrated how the evil was typified in the landlord residing amongst them, and gave striking instances of the grasping greed of that gentleman, and his honeyed ways in imposing upon the people. The time had now come, if ever, for the people to assert themselves, and to refuse to be any longer

They must at last make an effectual strike against rack-rent, and in doing so they must be thoroughly united. They had a magnificent example in the recent noble conduct of the peasants of Gweedore. Gweedore defeated the landlords and the Government, and they remained snug and warm in their homes to-day despite the united efforts of the landlords and the Tory Government. The people of Cloghaueely were more or less behind in the running, and their inactivity was recoiling on their own heads. A constitutional agitation now, would save them bye and bye, when they would be called upon to purchase their holdings'. The Land Court would not, he was sure, advance the

money for the purchase of the holdings of Gweedore even at ten year's purchase, whereas in Cloglianeely by representations of a certain sort, the Laud Commission recently advanced over 10 years' purchase for a townland. If they went on beggaring themselves and paying impossible rents, the cry still would be in the mouths of the landlords that they were well off, and that they always paid their rents. Father Stephens exhorted the people to mate that meeting the first step towards their emancipation from the slavery of landlordism, and to do so by a united pledge to insist upon the reductions asked for in the resolutions that would now be read for them. (Loud cheers.)

Mr. Griffith, Carrowcannon House, who was warmly received, briefly proposed the following resolutions :—

1st—"That this meeting heartily condemn the action of the English Government in Ireland, in handing over Mr. William O'Brien to Recorder Hamilton, of Cork, to confirm the sentence of his imprisonment, instead of affording him even the semblance of a trial before some tribunal less openly and pronouncedly, biassed and prejudiced."

2nd—"That we regard the conduct of Dublin Castle iu hounding down Mr. Blunt and his associates of the Home Rule Union of England, as an outrage on civilization more becoming the deeds that disgraced Bulgaria."

3rd—"That we, the tenants of Grweedore and Cloglianeely, find ourselves utterly unable to meet rents and arrears in the present year, except our respective landlords will grant liberal reductions on both ; that this inability arises from a succession of had years, an unprecedented fall in prices, the almost total absence of demand for our little stock, when brought to fair or market, at auy price, and the poverty last harvest of the oat crop, the only crop usually put to market.'¹

4th.—" That in those circumstances we consider it just and reasonable that all outstanding arrears and other claims on the part of the landlord up till the 1st November, 1880, be wiped out on payment of one year's rent, reduced by Gs 8d in £1 ; and that the rent for the year now ending be reduced by 5s in the £1 in the case of the judicial rents, and 8s iu the £1 in the case of the non-judicial rents."

oth—" That in the event of the landlords accepting those terms, we pledge ourselves to take prompt action to pay ^UP the rents thus reduced, to the best of our ability."

6th.—" That copies of these resolutions be forwarded to tl>⁶respective landlords of Gweedore and Cloglianeely."

Father M'Fadden, on rising to propose the resolutions, ___ — My friends of Gweedore and Cloghaiieely, I must bespeak vour patience to bear with me for a considerable time, as the juatters with which I desire to deal with will cover a great deal of ground, and as I intend to repeat in Irish whatever I may /grst say in the language of the stranger. I notice two policemen "jbere, but I don't think they are professional note takers. I wish ^; they were, and that they would take a full note of all my remarks J-jnd furnish me a copy. But I must say that I hope that they '^f- will not have the audacity to make note of a single isolated ^•'sentence of my speech, without giving the whole speech. Apropos •f of this matter ot the police, let me caution my people of Gweedore ".^gainst allowing themselves to be imposed upon by those menials. ?,'0f course you are aware the police in Gweedore are on the "rrarnpage for prisoners for the past two months, and the efficient ^grand body that they are, they have not yet succeeded in taking $one prisoner. (Cheers.) It has come to niy knowledge that the

|-POLICE INTEUDE THEMSELVES ON PRIVATE | . FAMILIES AND SIT UP IN THE HOUSES, Doping, no doubt, that the object of their search might come jlkito this or the other house and fall an easy prey to them. Now ijjitme tell you that a policeman has no right to intrude his todesired presence on your house or family, and that you should ftpt allow one of them to sit or to stand in your house. If duty ''pills him there, let him show his authority for entering your 'Bouse at all, and if he has got anything to do, let him do it promptly and leave the place, and if he will not leave when he las no right to enter your place, you may lawfully use as much Jlrce as is necessary to turn him out of your house. And with fegard to their power to

ft-they have a warrant for the arrest of any member of your fstaily they may break your doors at any time if you do not Wait them. And if they have a reasonable suspicion that you are harbouring within your house any one for whom they flftve^a warrant, they may also break the door. But they have right to break any door unless they have such reasonable picion. Let them break your door, and have them brought at Petty Sessions, and then we will see whether they had a hie suspicion. You know that at the last Court at the only law-breakers that appeared were the police-J and the Hill estate bailiff'. They only were adjudged ^'breakers, and were fined. Now as to the particular end of this meeting, the resolutions proposed for your mention certain terms which the circumstances ol the

times warrant you, and justify you, in demanding from landlords. In dealing with these resolutions we must distinguish the class of tenants who may have had judicial rents fixed either by the laud court or by agreement from the class who have not had their rights so fixed—and we are to distinguish arrears of rent to November, 1886, from the year's rent accruing due today the 1st November, 1887. On all arrears, whether judicial or uou-judicial you ask, and you very properly ask, a re-lease or clear receipt on payment of 13s 4d in the £, of one year's rent. And on condition of such payment you moreover ask that your landlord will wipe ont any other claims he may have upon you, by way of costs for legal proceedings or anything else. I con-sider the landlord will be very blind, indeed, to his own interests, who will not accept those terms as to the arrears. THE TERMS ARE CERTAINLY MORE LIBERAL THAN

and they are better than the landlord will likely get again. Then as to rent for this year. You ask for 5s in the £1 on the judicial rents. Your demand is quite too reasonable and moderate. And why do I say so ? Because it is now admitted on all hands that the full in prices since '84, the year in which your rents wove fixed, has been such as to require a further reduction of W to ;)<J per cent. That is true, supposing that you got your rents fairly and honestly fixed at that time. But I tell you you did not get them so fixed, and I will prove my case by one example out of many.

TAKE THIS PRECIOUS TOWNLAND of GLASSERCHOO, belonging to Mr. Wybrants Olphert. In 1884 fair rents, or rather rents, were fixed by the Bub-Commission in eighteen cases. The gross old rent iu those eighteen cases was £28 Gs 6d, and the rent fixed by the Laud Court was £21 2s, or 5s in the £1 of a reduction. But Mr. Maliony differed from his colleagues in ten of these cases, and Mr. Mahouey wished to make the gross judicial rent of the eighteen cases £18 4s (id, instead of £21 'is, or over 7s in the il of a reduction. For instance iu the case of Hugh M'Geever, the Sub-Commission reduced the o'.d rent of £1 5s to only £1, whereas Mr. Mahoney would fix it at 15s. And iu James M'Gready's case the old rent of'£l '2s, which the Sub-Commission reduced to only 18s, Mi'-Mahouey would further reduce to 18s. I could illustrate in3' position from uuiuy other eases as well, therefore I conclude, that your rents were fixed much too high in ^!84, and that iu asking only 5s in the £). reduction this year, your demand is exceeding'*)' moderate. That is true of the class that got their rents fixed b/ direct application to the Court, but there is au unfortunate class ot judicial leaseholders who allowed themselves to be imposed up⁰'¹'by the landlords or their

and to the benefit of the lartdlord. To those unfortunate tenants a, reduction of os in the £1 is quite insufficient, but let them bear the punishment of their own sins, they would not be advised by ,|beir best friends. The cruel injustice done them I will prove by a case or two from the Nixon estate in Gweedore. The agent, Mr. Swiney, prevailed upon several there to sign an agreement at a reduction of 3s in the £. Now, the average reduction granted by the Land Court on that portion of the Nixon estate was exactly 6s in the £. And to deal with particular cases—in the case of John M'Hugh the old rent of £2 Is 9d was reduced by the Court to £1 Is ; and in the case of Shane Ward the old rent of £2 17s nd was reduced to £] 5s, and so on. Now iii the case of these tenants who had their rents fixed by agreement at such

a reduction of 5s in the £ is utterly insufficient. Therefore, I conclude, that you are not only perfectly justified in demanding as a right a reduction of Gs in the i on judicial rents, but your demand is entirely too modem ie. As to the non-judicial rent I am almost, ashamed io he w party to demanding only 8s in the £, because it is grossly un!hir to those tenants who were not in Court. For instance. John, who lives next door to Paddy, got through operation of Court in 183!, a reduction of Os in the £ of his rent, which is exactly the same as Paddy's rent. I have already shown that John is too moderate in asking only 5s in the £ this year on his judicial rent. Therefore, to be really consistent, Paddy should demand over 10s in the £ of a reduction. I therefore think you are exceedingly moderate iii your demands, and if your landlords examine the thing critically they will find that they are really the winners by accept-^lno your terms. But having once fixed your terms stick to them. There was a time when the landlord could frighten poor tenants to do anything. That time is past.

bailiff has lost his power of striking terror into the tenants. he bogie of costs is now exploded. Evictions are almost im-I fi ^e—^as I know from experience, and I consider the land-⁽i a most insane fool who wastes his substance on useless Q_W°^ce5>dings or evictions. You have the matter entirely in your (. v¹ hands. A landlord may crush John, or James, or Mary, ~^e» singly, but he cannot crush all his tenants united—

they will crush him. The great cry of the landlord is, " We •will give due consideration to individual cases." The individual case is his hope. You will not deal with him now individually.

and let no man break out from the body. (Cheers.) The landlord may refuse your terms, moderate though they are. If he do, leave him for some time to reflect upon himself. He will possibly threaten vengeance in a thousand ways. Tell him. to come on, that you are ready. Mass together with the wall of justice at your back, and the blessing of God upon your arms, and tell him to come on. And should it come to eviction—a most foolish proceeding in my mind for the landlord—let the law assert itself. It will take it a long time to do so. In five long days in Gweedore they put out four tenants. These tenants were never as comfortable as they are to-day. (Loud cheering.) There was, for instance, a short block of a kitchen, without any chimney, thrown down on Widow Boyle. Now she is living in a magnificent new house, with three chimneys. (Cheers.) I tell you the game of evictions is played out.

if it ever come to that. Evictions are honourable now, and if you are evicted your condition will lie improved, and you will have earned the sympathy of the whole civilised world, and the blessing of the priests and of the hierarchy of Ireland, awl of the God of Heaven us well. A little over a week ago the grand Archbishop of Dublin went down to Coolgreany to sympathise with the Brooke tenants who were driven out of their homes, and the mourning family of poor Kinsella, who was murdered by the emergency gang. And he blessed the old people, ;nid he blessed the children, and he blessed their temporary homes, the National League huts, mid he cheered them to courage and patience, and told them that they would soon be back in their old homes again. (Cheers.) It is, therefore, no longer a humiliation, or a shame, or a suffering to be evicted. Archbishop Walsh seems to have been raised up l'.Y Providence as the Moses of the Irish people. As Moses delivered the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt, and the persecution oi Pharaoh and his hosts, so will Archbishop Walsh, please God, deliver the Irish people from the slavery and persecution ⁰' landlordism. But, like Pharaoh,

and no amount ot checks will enlighten them to see the ui'^r°^rof their ways, and possibly they may persevere with a

Don't be guilty of an injustice to your wives and your families, don't be guilty of an injustice to your creditors, who have supplied you with the necessaries of life. Is there anyone here present who has paid the shopkeeper as well as he has paid tba landlord ? (Cries of " No.") I thoaght so. You have rewarded the wickedness and cruelty of the landlord who has been

and you have punished the poor shopkeeper for sparing you. I say it is a monstrous injustice on all consideration to run in and exhaust all your means of livelihood for the coming year, because a landlord may send you a blue paper or a white paper. Until you learn to despise such proceedings you are not qualified to deserve the glory of defeating tyranny. You are a slave and you ought to be allowed to remain a slave. But you are all now committed to an undertaking that you will have to act up to the instructions you received to-day. And if your landlords will not be reasonable or heed not your moderate terms, I would strongly advise you to fund your money with some reliable friend

(Loud cheers.) It is a capital remedy. It saves his money for the poor man, from whom it would otherwise rapidly glide away. It seems the wiser for the tenant, for having once deposited his money with trustees, he will hardly pay it again to the landlord, find it makes the weak-kneed man strong and sate. I don't know Anything more useful for the tenants from every point of view than the Plan of Campaign. (Cheers.)

The resolutions being then proposed, were received with acclamation, and at the close of the proceedings a resolution pledging the meeting to adopt the Plan of Campaign, in case the landlords refused to grant the term asked, was passed amidst great cheering.

-the fi_rst meeting of the Gweedore branch of the Irish Na-otj^na' keagne for the new year was held at Middletown the ^16r uight, under most encouraging circumstances. The de-•% duly elected, during the past week in the different

townlands, met in great spirits, each betraying a consciousness of having acted his part honourably and well in the important events of the past year, and showing every confidence in hi_gability to share successfully the struggle of '88. A regular ovation greeted the president and vice-president as they entered the hall. The cheering was most hearty and enthusiastic, and lasted for several minutes. Evidently the meeting appreciated the services of their leaders during the past year, and cheerfully availed of the opportunity to give expression to their feelings. The first work was the calling over of the roll of newly elected members of committee, and the appointment of officers for the present year.

APPOINTED PRESIDENT FOR THE YEAR, took the chair amidst warm applause. Having formally acknowledged the honour of being continued in the presidency of the branch, Father M'Fadden congratulated the meeting and the parish on the result of the elections of committee members, which took place during the past week, and spoke hopefully of the work of the branch, for the coming year, with such material for the general committee. He had to submit for their approval a matter of detail in working the organisation, arid before he entered on any formal address to the meeting he would take the sense of the members on this matter. He always regarded it a great individual sacrifice and inconvenience for members of committee to attend regularly at their meetings, more especially as some of them had to walk—coming and returning—as much as sixteen miles. It occurred to him, therefore, to recommend a change, to the effect that I he parish be divided into convenient districts, and that district meetings be held at a suitable place weekly, and that a general meeting, at which all should attend, be held but once a month. The change was received with general approval, and was adopted, and rules and regulations for the guidance of district meetings were submitted and affirmed. After disposing of these routine preliminaries,

Father M 'fadden stood forward and delivered a strong inaugural speech, which elicited the hearty and frequent plaudits of the meeting. He said that he would Dot dwell upon the credit that the Gweedore Branch of Irish National League might take to itself for the magnificent work it did during '87. Their achievements in the past year reflected honour on themselves, honour on their leaders,

honour on Ireland, and would form the brightest chapter in the future history of the parish. But he did not feel it his duty that night, however pleasant it might be to do so, to dwell on the victory that was won, but he felt it rather his duty to invite

Attention to the work that remained still to be done. He spoke ;-jyith a lively sense of the responsibility attaching to every word .Qf his when addressed to them who placed almost supernatural Confidence in him ; the responsibility attaching to his utterances 'as a public man and as a priest. With that sense of his responsibility and his position he told them that, as long as he anjoyed health and liberty, he would never permit any tyrant to ^:flesola'e the land

AND STARVE AND EXTERMINATE THE PEOPLE over whom he had been placed to keep watch aud ward. I Cheers.) An edict had gone out almost that very day that a large district of this p'arish must be laid waste, and that never again must G-lasherchoo be known as a district peopled by the famishing peasants of Gweedore. Wybrants Olphert has not pow, for the first time, put down his foot in determination. The gcenes of July, '84, and the hardships of the clearance of that ;day have not yet been forgotten. But an evicting landlord feels jto remorse for the past, and Mr. Olphert has again entered upon his course against those self same people. That day he (the Speaker) had been handed

FORTY-FOUR EJECTMENT PROCESSES, issued by Mr. Olphert against his Gweedore tenants, and that Dumber covers nearly all the tenants he has ia Gweedore. By ihat act, Wybrants Olphert showed his vindictiveness. Why flid he mark out the Gweedore tenants first ? Had he not abun-flant material in Cloglraueely ? Why did he, while granting abatements, paltry, ao doubt, to his Cloghaneely tenants, explicitly exclude the Gweedore tenants from the benefit of any such arrangement ? He could well understand the action of Mr. Olphert. It was at him (the speaker) Mr. Olphert was striking. Mr. jOlphert had raised the sword within the boundary of Gweedore |arish ; he had provoked warfare ; and he (the speaker) took up the challenge, aud trusting to the

JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE CAUSE Miich he championed, he had little doubt as to the issue. (Cheers.) He only wished that Englishmen, aud Irishmen too, would come tod visit Glasserchoo, and see for themselves the miserable tract tot of which Mr. Olphert will persist in squeezing impossible *ents. He almost stands alone in his attitude to his tenants, for te (the speaker,) was not aware that he had given a penny of Seduction to any of these tenants, except what they got through file operation of the Land Act. He would not occupy their atten-Kon further with this subject at present, knowing that there Should be several opportunities to return to it again. I can only Wvert to another subject, on which I should like to dwell at greater length, as illustrating how the Government in Ireland is Restituted by the present Ministers of the Crown. He referred

Mr. Blunt was not a stranger to G weedore. He was here in the Spring of 1886, and spent several days at the speaker's place, and sueh were his impressions with regard to landlordism in Gwee-dore at that time, that a letter-from him to the Pall Mall Gazette. setting forth those impressions did not get insertion for fear of consequences, lu that same year Mr. Blunt went to the West and acquainted himself of the management of the Clanricarde estate. If Mr. Blunt visited Glasserchoo, he would, Father M'Fadden had no doubt, be as enthusiastic, in condemning the action of Mr. Olphert as lie was in condemning that of Clanri-carde. The rev. gentleman then discussed the Blunt case. The country, he said, had not heard the last of the Blunt.trial. Mr, Bluut had friends in England and in every part of the world. Only a few days ago he had a warm, letter of sympathy from Arabi Pasha, and it may be that Providence had ordained that the trial of Mr. Blunt would be the

(Loud applause.) Father M'Nelis proposed the following Resolutions in an eloquent speech :—

8. That \ve indignantly protest against the action of Mr. Wybrants Olphert, in replying to the appeal of his Gweedore tenants for reasonable reductions, by a wholesale service of ejectments, and that we solemnly pWge ourselves to exhaust all constitutional means at our disposal to disappoint his vindictive expectations.

The Resolutions were supported by other speakers, and, ⁰¹¹being put from the chair, were passed amidst cheers.

(Derry Journal, January 18, 188y.) THE RENT QUESTION IN GWEEUORE.— AT GLASSERCHOO.

gwkbdobk, monday night.—To-day an immense the people of Gweedore and Cloghanedy was held at C

the scene of the famous November meeting, to protest against the action of Mr. Wybrants Olphcrt, in the prosecutions he has instituted against his tenants in the Gvveedore district, and to encourage the people in the course which they have taken up in reference to the land question iu their locality. The meeting was very largely attended by people from both parishes, thousands assembling with bands and banners, inarching by mountain road and bleak hillside, to the place of meeting decided ou beforehand. The authorities in Gweedorc having heard of the proposed demonstration, made arrangements to have a large force of police on the scene, though previous experience in the district has invariably taught that meetings unattended by the police have passed over iu perfect quiet.

being the best guarantee for the preservation of the peace. The police were mustered at Meeuaclady barracks at an early hour, under the command of Mr. Burke, E.M., and were evidently under the impression that the meeting would be held on the same spot as that of November. In this, however, they miscalculated. The Gweedore contingent, being the first to arrive, marched on in the direction of Cloughaneely for some distance, until the men from the latter district were met. The meeting was at once got 'started, while the

_f The following resolutions were adopted, prior to the arrival ' of the police :—

J 1. The conduct of tliu police, on last Saturday, nt Meeua-frclady, in bayoneting aud batoning inoffensive helpless boys and r girls, deserves to be condemned and stigmatised as inhuman, l, _autl _bl._utal,

:.pasfc seven years ; and that we consider the action of the tenants fprced upon them by his unreasonableness.

4. That we assemble together, to-day, for the purpose of
mutual sympathy and encouragement; and, that we thereby
mutually pledge each other that, having once unfurled our flag-
in the cause and interest of self-preservation, we shall maintain
it floating until it is lost and torn from us in ignominy and defeat,
or until it peacefully furled in the glory of victory.

Father Stephens supported the resolutions in a speech delivered with great feeling and deliberation, in the course of which he said that landlordism desolated the country, and that the whitened bones of Irishmen and women in the bottom of the sea, testified to the fact that Irish landlords might be called the

MURDERERS OF THE IRISH PEOPLE. The designation found illustration even on the ground on which they stood, for did not the landlords of Glasserchoo, four years ago, turn but thirty hard struggling starving families on the road side to die ? And death would probably have been the fate of those unfortunate creatures were it not for undying charity which is ever available for the oppressed. The speaker dwelt upon the injustice of landlordism as exemplified on the estate of Mr, Olphert. The landlords insisted on EXACTING WHAT THE WRETCHED SOIL NEVER

and that he scornfully rejected the reasonable overtures of the tenants. The dealings of Mr. Olphert with his tenantry were historic, and in it there was not to be found a relieving trait. He had insisted on depriving the people of their mountains, in face of fact that these mountains had been for ages past the property of tenants. He had

from the areas belonging to the people, and insisted that they should pay again for their own laud, and submit to additional rent for the ground for which they had already been paying rack rents. Father Stephens illustrated his arguments by several cases, amongst them that of Ned M'Nulty, who was obliged to

nor were there a tenantry who had paid such rents so punctually and so well for the past 50 years. Yet now, in the midst of their sufferings, they are turned upon, and their past fidelity is ungratefully forgotten. Their present demand was only remarkable in its moderation, yet the landlord refused all concession, or only granted a two-penny half-penny abatement, weighted with conditions that made it impracticable, in order no doubt, to he able to write to the Castle that he did offer a fair reduction. Father Stephens concluded a strong speech of visible effect amidst ringing cheers.

Father M'Nelis and Father M'Fadden followed in stirring "speeches, which, owing to the lateness of the hour of receiving 'despatch, we are unable, we regret, to publish.

A most enthusiastic meeting of the tenants of Gweedore and Clohaneely was held the other day, on the historic ground of Glasserchoo—that portion of Mr, Olphert's property that belongs to the parish of Gweedore,

The chair was taken at three o'clock by Patrick O'Donnell, one of the tenants of Ardsmore, who is to be evicted next week.

A series of resolutions was submitted to the meeting and passed. The resolutions express indignation at the treatment of the Inishboffin Islanders, especially condemned the conduct of the landlord and the authorities in stigmatizing the people as thieves (for taking turf to which they claimed a right),

suggesting public works for the distressed peasantry, and repudiating Mr. Balfour's reply to Mr. Arthur O'Connor.

When the resolutions were read, Father M'Fadden rose amidst ringing cheers to address the meeting. He dwelt at considerable length and with great emphasis on the abuse of the power of the law and the administration of the law in the hands of the landlords of the district, who alone were vested with the commission of the peace. He adduced several instances to prove the

except in so far as it was in their hands an instrument of torture and terror to their tenants, and a machine and a lever for extorting impossible rents. He made special mention of the case of the Innisbofliii tenants, as one of special hardship, and one in which the landlord, and the Irish landlord slaves, the constabulary, proceeded with a most reckless and audacious disregard for law and justice. The Islanders of Innisboftiu are entered 'u Griffith's valuation as the occupiers of 3''a. 2r. 12p. of bog in Meenlaragh. Some of the tenants of Meenlaragh (proper) paid rent as sub-tenants to the. islanders for a small portion of the bog, of which they had taken possession. The islanders have been the constant usors of this bog ; therefore they could not be treated as guilty of larceny in continuing to use it. THE LEGAL REMEDY FOR THE LANDLORD WAS

Father M'Fadden expressed his surprise at the Court of Petty Sessions presuming to decide the case, as it was clearly n cft^se ° recognised occupation, or at least of disputed title. 'The i'^ev'

Speaker also referred to an act of utter contempt for law by magistrates. From instances quoted, and from his own uniform experience, Father M'Fadden concluded that there was no law for the classes in this district, except to crush and overpower them. Talking of the coming evictions, he said that the landlord for the recovery of a few pounds was going to seize all the tenant possessed, and to turn him out on the street to starve, or enter the Workhouse.

in the shape of rack-rent, and the thanks he now receives from his landlord is to drive him out because he has failed to pay one year's rent. In Ardsmore the houses, the offices, the stone fences, the gardens, the improvements, were in some cases worth £400, all made and created by the tenant, and by the eviction Mr. Olphert seizes it all for a paltry £2, £3, or £4, as the case may be, without tendering a penny of compensation; and let them bear in mind that Mr. Olphert never expended a farthing on the holding. Father M'Fadden went on to say that a great change had come over things since November, 1887, when they had Offered very liberal terms to the landlord. He did not believe that the tenants could fulfil those terms now.

THEIR POTATO CROP WAS AN UTTER FAILURE. Steamers were never before at this early time of the season plying' 'between Derry and their ports with Indian meal. Where would they get Indian meal for nine months to come ? They had duties ofcharity, and grave responsibility to themselves and their families. He would think it would be heroic on the part of the ienants if they were to manage to pay their landlords one whole gear's rent and get a clear release to November, 1888. The case jtf the Gweedore tenants of Mr. Olphert was somewhat worse Shan that of his Clohaneely tenants. He was told that rents •claimed to November, 1888, amounted to at least four years! ,He would congratulate Mr. Olphert if he got a gross year's rent ' the p'resent rate, and in return give a clear receipt to his Qlas-choo tenants. He knew that the landlords of this district did want the land. The Hon. Somerset Ward swore before the Commission in Belfast, on October, 1880, that " the without the people was useless." It is the rent they want, they don't care where the rent comes from, if they get it. Mr. hert said so, in evidence in Liffbrd, on January, 1884. If priests begged the world and paid rents and costs to landlords °^U^ k^e ^most satisfactory and acceptable to landlords. The ⁸P^ea^^er ^said that he had, most unwisely, done this in the ^ut tin's was a thine of the past. It would not occur a^nin. not desire to

PLAY THE ROLE OF AN UNREASONABLE MAN in this matter of the rent question on the Olphert estate, and he would, therefore, propose to refer the whole question to the arbitration of three competent parties—say Mr. Dillon, Mr. O'Doherty, and Mr. Bourke ; or if the landlord party preferred it he wonld name Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien on behalf of the tenants, and let the other side name two others. In conclusion, he impressed upon them the invincible power of union, and besought them not to give their enemies a handle by any acts of violence or outrage, (Applause.)

Father stephens, in the course of his speech, said—The principal object of our meeting' here to-day is to protest against the persecution the poor islanders of Innisboffin are at present undergoing at the hands of their landlord and his abettors. Here is a class of men whose life is at the best of times a hard one. Living on a barren island three miles distant from the mainland, they are often exposed to great danger in seeking to make a livelihood for themselves and their families by fishing. The crops which the cold soil of the island yields are not nearly sufficient for their support. To add to their hardships this year there is no part of the district where the potato crop is such a complete failure as on the Island of Innisboffin. Now these islanders, as you are aware, have no turf oh the island. They have, as you know, always been iu the habit of cutting their turf on Meenlnragh bog, on the mainland, and conveying from there to the island. This was a work of considerable difficulty. They first had to carry the tnrf on their bucks through the marshy bog; then throw it over a high bank to the shore beneath, then gather it into their boats and ferry their boats across the waves to the island. Then again carry it in bags or creels across the rocky shore to their homes.

TAKING ADVANTAGE of their ISOLATED POSITION, knowing that he had them fully in his power, Mr. Olphert made it a rule some years ago, when poverty began to make some of them fall back iu the payment of rent, that no islander could take material for a fire without first paying their rent. The Innisboffin people h,aving joined the tenants on the mainland iu a

COMBINATION FOR A FAIR REDUCTION, the attempt is made to starve them into submission. And w this attempt the landlord Government lends its aid. A police barracks was established in the neighbourhood of the bog whe¹'⁶the islanders cut their turf, and no matter what is said to tb^econtrary, the police stationed there have been solely employed ]^Bacting the part of bog bailiffs. When the cold of winter set ^Jl1and they could stand it no longer, the poor islanders

and carried off in broad daylight a couple of boat-loads of turf, and they were summoned as theives before the landlord bench at Falcarragh, and it was the police-sergeant who swore home the charge of turf-stealing- against them. They are branded as thieves , and to be sent to Deny gaol for taking the fruits of their own toil. They are branded as theives for taking turf, which Mr. Olphert himself once admitted on oath they had a right to, for in his evidence before the Royal Commission in 1858, he swore that his tenants " have as much turf as they can cut for fuel." Again, in Griffith's Valuation, thirty acres of bog at Meenlaragh are valued on the tenants of Innisboffin. These tenants when they had their land in court were allowed " turf as heretofore." But, now in this year of exceptional severity, owing to the failure of the potato crop, the people of Innisbofin must, according to the mandate of Mr. Wybrants Olphert, do without a fire because they will not pay him his rack-rents to the last farthing. Concluding, the reverend gentleman, referring to the rent question, said — However, notwithstanding your altered circumstances, yon arc still, I believe,

and to hand over to the landlord all that you then laid by. One thing, however, I think I may say on your behalf, that if he once puts you to the trouble of eviction, you will no longer be prepared •to stand by your generous offer, and that the conditions of settlement of the rent dispute will become more difficult for him. (Applause.)

Father m'nelis also addressed the meeting in a thrilling and persuasive speech. He said that he did not entirely agree with the previous speakers on the matter of paying rent. lie Appealed to their own reason whether in view of the fact that a season of bitter want stared them in the face, they did not con-rider it their duty to keep the little monies their children had earned in England and Scotland, and at service, or which they

;J the Government opened works for the employment of labour it alter the case, but his experience did not /warrant him in ding that the Government would do so. 'lie believed that should hold their little means against the days of hunger starvation until they were made sure that the Government

would provide for their existence. Or he would advise them to pay their lawful debts to the meal Merchants, and thus make for themselves friends who would be able and willing to come to their assistance iu the day of suffering. (Applause.)

After addresses from other speakers the meeting separated in the utmost good order. There were no police present.

The evictions were carried out with rigour in Glasserchoo in May of the present year. The inhuman proceedings went on under the special patronage of the Government, in the person of Mr. Baltbur's secretary, Mr. Fisher.

Twenty-five families were cast upon the world in one day. They were taken in and accommodated by their friends and neighbours, and they are still liviug in this way in the district ; some of them have built themselves sod huts. The Government and the landlord party sought to make great capital, political and otherwise, out of

by the landlord to some of the Glasserchoo tenants ou the eve of the evictions. The circulars were received on Wednesday, 82nd May, and iu some cases on Thursday 23rd, and the evictions were proceeded with on Friday the 24th. It was said that these ciiculars were sent around to the poorest tenants, who were not supposed to be able to pay, and that the receipt of the circular was a guarantee that eviction in the case would not be proceeded with. There were 19 of those notices circulated amongst the tenants of Glasserchoo, and about 40 over the whole estate.

It is always the great desire of landlords to deal with their tenants individually. They can fleece and despise one tenant. They are perfectly helpless before a compact combination of all the tenants. In the present crisis Mr. Olphert would have given his eye for one tenant who would come in and settle though he didn't pay a farthing at all of rent! Such a tenant was no where to be found ou the Olphert estate ! Olphert harked back on the days of his power. He got tenants to help him to break the combination not to take the " now cuts" in '54. May not some one be found now to do the same ? " None more likely to do so to-day," complacently soliloquises Mr. Olphert, " than the leal felloAv that stood to me in '51. I know he is the best off, and the most independent man iu GUissurdioo, and that lit is not of

that class whom I am requested, for any sake, by Government and everyone else, not to evict, lest that public opinion would howl ju horror at such outrage, and to whom I am

and others, to offer some easy terms to put myself and fclie Government right before the public, and to make some little political capital out of the business. I know all this, but then I must issue some notices to satisfy the Government and to cover appearances. I will send one to Hugh M'Oaff'erty, the man that enabled me to break the combination against the " new cuts" in 1854- He is, perhaps, the only man in the townhmd • able to pay. But if there is a man in Ireland to be drawn out of the combination by a favourable, outrageously-generous, offer to himself personally, it is Hugh'M'Cafferty. "Fill a notice to Hugh M'Cafferty and offer hini to take anything or notkinr/ at all I!"

"SiE—I am directed by Mr. Olphert to state that owing to
ills special circumstances of your case he will accept the sum of.
£•> 15s Oil in full discliari/e of your debt, if i>ai<l >>y the 1st July,
should you be able to prove to satisfaction that you are not able to
pay this amount in full, he iri prepared to take such lesser sum as
you can pay in full discliarije of your rent and arrears.—Your
obedient servant, geobge hewson."

The italics are mine. This notice made innocent Hugh M'Cafferty expect that he would not be evicted.

The landlord party and their advisers knew that this stratagy Would throw M'Cafferty off his guard, and that there remained but one other hidden adroit move to

On the morning of the 2-Hh everyone around is engaged preparing for the work of the day. Hugh M'Cafforty alone seems secure in the midst of all the danger, and lie walks abouc, and his house lies wide open, offering entrance, and cead milla failthe, as usual, to any person that wishes to come in. To his horror the evicting army march up the lull and surround his house. Tho

inner ring of the crow-bar gang fill the house, and the sweet persuasive methods of agent, and magistrate and officers, &c., are tried upon Hugh M'Cafferty, and -ire tried in vain. Then come the threats and the ruin and the loss, and the exhibition of the machinery of destruction ! Bold M'Cafferty scorns their overtures, and bids them defiance. " The times are not what they used to be !" dolefully hums Mr. Olpheit now in his musings iu Ballyconnell.

had been served the previous day. I ani perfectly satisfied that the notices were a delusion and a fraud. Why the notice allowed the parties served to the 1st of July to carry out the proposal. "He will accept ... if paid by the 1st of July," and the family are ruthlessly thrown on the street next morning, the 34th May !! The story of the evictions of Ardsmore, Ballyness, and Drimnatinny on this estate, last January and April, is burned into the hearts of the people and already written in blood and tears in the records of the land war in Ireland.

will mark for all time the struggle for bare life on the Olphert estate, and tell the tale of the atrocities of felonious landlordism iu West .Donegal. The work of extermination is not yet completed on this estate. It is to be all cleared of its people. Several evictions are just now maturing, and the next month will probably see the fell work in full swing. Mr. Olpherfc will, in future, and deservedly so I think, be regarded as amongst the most heartless and inhuman tyrants of his class.

The Olphert evictions of 188'J have acquired an additional notoriety through the introduction to the county for the first time, of the latest and most improved engine for executing destruction and pulling down houses at evictions—the Battering Ram. It is essentially an engine of attack. This particulai¹engine was provided by the Government. In its course of transit from Derry, where its \ arious parts were supplied at the order of the Constabulary by different contractors, it was always consigned to the police barracks. The following " Manifest' or "Invoice" which iiccoiupanied it iu its transit by rail from Den¹/ to Lettcrkcuny, tells the component parts of this monster :—

4 Short poles 2 Poles with S iron shoes 4 Sledges, 3 crowbars 4 Picks, 2 P. 0. chains 2 Shovels and handles

THE BATTERING RAM A USELESS SHOW. The Battering Rain lies, and has been, for the most part, since its arrival in the district, in the yard of the police barracks, Falcarragh. From whatever cause it has not been yet used at an eviction. It serves the purpose of a show at Falcarragh to English visitors. It is a characteristic and striking memorial of Mr. Balfour's benevolent designs and good intentions towards the Irish people.

The following telegraphic messages which appeared in the Derry Journal, within the past week, graphically represent the present condition of the struggle on the Olphert Estate, and fitly close the chapter of this pamphlet dealing with that property :

Emergencymen Cutting and Carting away the Unripe Crops Under Cover of Loaded Rifles.

bunbeg, monday night.—This morning the army of occupation in West Donegal was partly mobilised from Annagry to Bunfanaghy. The object of the movement was kept secret until the different detachments concentrated on Glasserchoo. In the middle of the black mass from the east there moved three emergency carts, seven emergencymen, and a bailiff. The emergency-Kien came armed with scythes, two graips, a pitchfork, a shovel, and revolvers on their hips. The police, to the number of forty, officered by two inspectors, came armed with rifles. The force Scattered out over the district, and occupied vantage points of view and position in the event of a surprise or rising. A detach-ttent filed around the g*een oat field of James M'Geady, and Stood guard while the bailiff and the emergency gang cut it down. ^o one hut a lunatic would out the crop in such a green, unripe State, but anything is good enough for purposes of vengeance, " is supposed to inspire a good deal of ravages committed

under cover of the guns of her Majesty's police. Having finished the small plot on M'Geady's holding they moved into a field of Michael Ferry's. They next attacked a small plot of very green oats belonging to Widow Curran. Six carts bore away the spoil of the day, and at three o'clock the curtain dropped on the first act of this farce. The game is not worth the candle to the landlord ; about two tons of green oats to three carts, eight bailffs, and forty police.

It is supposed that this work of carrying away the crop will go 011 until nothing remains but the cold bleak bog, and then Glasserchoo will be a barren waste, returning neither the landlord uor anyone else a single penny until it becomes peopled again—without the people it is worth nothing. Father M'Fadden and Father Gildea were early, on the scene. During the day there arrived Miss Borthwick, a lady artist from London ; Mr. Surnner, of the Manchester Guardian, and Father Boyle. Miss Borthwick made some interesting sketches. A visit was paid to Meeularagh Bog, the scene of the malicious turf ravages of the emergencymen and the bailiff and the agent Hewson. Anything so atrocious as the cutting of the turf and piling them into bog holes is inconceivable. The poor, famishing families of Innis-boffin Island will want for the first winter iu their lives firing next winter, and Mr. Olphert will have the consolation—sitting before a crackling, sparkling, and bright coal fire—of reflecting that he buried their turf deep in the bog, that was theirs time out of mind, and is theirs still iu all honesty and justice. The British public will hear with pain that the spoils of to-day's plunder, are, for the most part, the fruits of seed purchased last spring out of funds contributed by charitable friends in England and elsewhere,

GWEEDOBE, GLASSERCHOO, EVICTED FARMS. The Emergencymen still Carrying off the Crops.

btjnbeg, thursday.—The work of spoliation commenced in Glasserchoo on Monday was continued for the past three days-The Comity Inspector attended yesterday, and was present when tlv- emergence men were cutting down the crops of those who have not been evicted at all. Poor Widow M'Lean, lying sick and dying in her humble cabin, could yesterday hear the noise of the emergeiicymaii's scythe cutting down the crops outside her cabin door, that grew from charity seed obtained last April. Let the public mark that Widow M'Lean was not evicted at all. Her son-in-latf is away reaping the English harvest, r.nd there are very few i^]1the district, except helpless famishing women and children-

Widow M'Lean's daughter was the only one present to protest against forcibly cutting down and carrying off her oats, but she was frightened off the place with threats and curses by the emergencymen. It is enough to drive the people to desperation. Does the Inspector-General know that the County and District-;'Jnspectors and the police of Donegal are drafted from Arran-more Island and Dunfanaghy, and all the intermediate stations to protect Mr. Olphert's emergency gang in committing these atrocious deeds. They also carried off the oats of Charles M'Geaver and ;Charles M'Geaver was not evicted. The Englishdeputationists will stave something to see and hear in Gweedore. The eye of England is already turned on the scene of those atrocities. Miss Orrne and four other young ladies, from the London Womens' Liberal ?&nd Radical Association, were present, and were shocked at the '"thole proceedings. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, of Harrow, came upon :the scene later on. The indignation of everyone is aroused by |hose fresh atrocities on the Olphert estate. Everyone is con-ijinced that they are being perpetrated not for any benefit to the., landlord, because the crop is worthless to anyone in its present • jijnripe condition, and the spoils do not amount to more than two ifons in the day. It is only a process of subjugation and conquest. IPhe landlord is digging wider the chasm between himself aud his -tenants every day.

The total area of land held by Mr. Nixon in Gweedore is about 3,211 acres. The landlord claims to hold in Fee, including about 35 acres of water, 1,976 acres. The tenants hold and occupy about 1,235 acres. Valuation of 1,976 acres in landlord's hands is onepenny fartMny per acre. Valuation of 1,235 acres in tenants' hands is twenty pence per acre. The land held in Fee by landlord, the value of which is only one penny farthw/j, is as good (and some of it is better) as the laud in occupation of the tenants, which is valued at twenty pence per acre. The difference in value has been made and created by the tenants' improvements and labour.

There are 111 families living on the Gweedore portion of Mr. Nixon's estate. The average valuation of the holding occupied by each family is less than £1.

The rent of the estate, when purchased by the Nixon family about 1845, was £73 10s.

Pursuing the course of the other landlords, the Rev. Mr. Nixon, the new landlord of this estate, increased the rents, appropriated mountain grazing and sand banks, charged poor rate where it was not legally due, and placed a rent upon sea weed ! The mountain grazing he allowed the tenants to use for a small rent, but he put a very high rent on the sand banks.

Like Lord George Hill and Olphert, he carredhis tyrannical projects at the point, of the bayonet, and like Lord George he kept a " Notice to Quit'¹ constantly hanging over the heads of the tenants.

By various methods lie succeeded in pushing up a rent of £73 10s to the enormous figure of £193 9s Id. This exhor-bitant rack-rent was paid punctually on this miserable estate for over thirty years.

By action of Land Commission Court in 1884 and by agreements between landlord and tenant out of court, under duress, because the tenants could not go into court owing to the existence of sub-division, the rack-rent of £193 was reduced to about £155, which is more than 100 per cent, higher than the rent payable at time Kev. Mr. Nixon came into possession, and the rev. gentleman did not expend a farthing in money on improvements on the estate.

The management of this estate is in the hands of a company of agents, the senior member is himself a landlord and carried out evictions recently in Clohaneely, on the small estate he owns there. The partner of the firm is his son. I blame the agency here again for most of the troubles and sorrows of Brinlack and Grlassagh. Mr. Nixon seems from his letter to me to be an exceedingly extreme man. Still lie has not put his threat into execution, and I am sure, if left to himself, he never will put it in force. I never met the gentleman in my life, but those who know him says that he is a good-hearted gentleman. Many a good-hearted gentleman the Irish land agency system has made a monster of cruelty. I believe that if an angel from heaven came down to own land in Ireland, and manage it by bailiffs and agents, they would make the angel a fiend !

The tenants on this Nixon property were always miserable. They had to be maintained largely by charity through the past ten years. They are only slightly removed in condition from the Olphert Gweedore tenants, who are decidedly uniformly more wretched than the Nixon tenants.

The agents of this estate pressed for the payment of rents at various times within past six years by ejectment processes, evictions, and so on. In '84 a large number of the tenants of Glassagh were evicted, but they were re-admitted caretakers, and by the aid of piiblic charity in this, as in the case of Mr. Olphert, the tenants were enabled to satisfy the landlord's claim before the redemption period had lapsed.

The distressful years told upon those tenants as well as others. They attended the famous meeting of 1st November at Glasserchoo. I sent in the resolutions to the agent. He sent them on to the landlord. The landlord sent me the annexed reply which, with an explanatory introduction, I sent to the Press. The condition of things that arose out of the action of the tenants in '87, and the attitude of the landlord towards them still prevails. Prosecutions had been, previously to that, taken against a large number of the tenants, and I think that about 40 families are now caretakers only, and it only needs the usual easy legal procedure to obtain orders for their eviction..

I would strongly advise the landlord against taking such extreme action. It cannot possibly be fruitful of any benefit to him. 'Like all the lands in Gweedore, the land is perfectly valueless without the tenants, and by maintaining the tenants upon it, even at a nominal rent, the landlord will gain more by it than he can by any other earthly means.

dear sib—A meeting of the tenants of Gweedore and the adjoining parish of Cloughaneely was held on the ] st inst., at which it was uuaniniously resolved that the landlords of the two parishes should accept the payment of one year's rent, less 6s 8d in the £, in full satisfaction of all arrears and other claims to the 1st November, 1886, and that an abatement of 40 per cent. be allowed on the non-judicial, and 25 per cent, on the judicial rents for the year ending 1st November, 1887. In accordance with a resolution of the meeting, copies were posted to the several landlords or their agents. The accompanying' reply was received by me from Mr. Harper C. Nixon, who is the owner of 3,211 acres of land'in Gweedore, and over 6,000 acres in Cloughaneely, the gross valuation of which is about Is 3d per acre. The portion of the estate in Gweedore comprises two townlands, and is occupied by about one hundred and ten families. The land is of the poorest quality, the average valuation of the land of Glassagh being only about 4cl per acre. The present owner succeeded to the property at the death of his father, the Eev. Alexander Brown Nixon, in 1882. The Rev. Mr. Nixon purchased this estate in 1845, a few years after Lord George Hill had purchased several other small estates in Gweedore. In his methods of dealing with the tenants he followed scrupulously the lead of Lord George Hill. He raised the rents, appropriated the mountain grazing, and in many ways harried the poor peasants most unmercifully.

The Rev. Mr. Nixon was examined before the Commission (1858), and admitted having charged the tenants poor-rate, when not legally due by them ; having taking mountain grazing from them ; having charged them for the liberty of collecting along the shore the sea-weed washed in by the ocean; and having

introduced strangers, and applotted to them holdings, " to show the people that the land was mine." This rev. landlord also admitted on oath before said Com mission, that he kept his tenants continuously under '-Notice to Quit," in order to be able to get rid of tenants without delay, " to keep control of the property," and "to prevent a family being bred there." Previous to his accession to the property in 1845, the rent of Glassagh was £2'2 10s ; about 1854 he raised it to £66 18s 6cl, having previously (immediately after he became owner) deprived the tenants of this townland of 1,427 acres of grazing commonage. The old rental of the townland of Brialack was £51. He raised it to £126, and also deprived the tenants of their mountain grazing. These two townlands form the Gweedore portion of Mr. Kjxon's estate, which he now threatens to " clear," and in which he hopes there will not be " a single family left." As fstated, there are about 110 families in all in those two towniands, and at present the half of them are only caretakers, having had notices served on them under the new Land Act. The aauexccl schedule sets forth the Government valuation of land, the rent previous to the advent of Bev. Mr. Nixon, and the increase of rent and curtailment of grazing rights effected, by him after purchase—Government valuation of land, £113 IBs ; rent previous to purchase by Rev. Mr. Nixon, including all grazing commonage and other rights, £74 2s; increased rent exacted by Eev. Mr. Nixon for 30 years previous to arrangement under Land Act, 1881, £198 9s Id ; grazing commonage taken from tenants, was 1,940 acres, 3 roods, 21 perches, while old rent for entire area was almost trebled oa portion left them.

After the Land Act of 1881 the rents were slightly reduced. More than half of the tenants were debarred of the benefits of this Act, owing to the existence of sub-division, and were obliged to accept a voluntary abatement on the part of the landlord of about 15 per cent. Forty-five tenants entered court in 1884, and had rents fixed at an average reduction of 30 per cent. In the forty-live cases, the gross old rent was £88 11s Sd, and the judicial rent fixed by the Court is £61 los Id. On this small estate the landlord never expended a penny. All the work of improving and reclaiming the sterile soil and building the houses was done by tenants. The hind is almost literally studded with huge granite boulders, and the soil is of the worst description and exceedingly shallow, except where it is pure bog. The evidence °f labour and industry on the part of the tenants to be seen over this small estate is the wonder of every visitor. The landlord's ^lnterest in the land iii its present condition, as compared with the tenants, would be fairly fixed at about 5 per cent. This vastly larger interest of the tenant is inseparable from Uio soil, and the carrying

out of Mr. Nixon's threat means simple open robbery. What may call my own, in his Gweedore estate, is exceedingly indeed.

sir—I have received a communication from you purporting to be a copy of " resolutions" passed at a monster meeting of tenants, which was, I saw, addressed by you in a highly inflammatory speech. The most monstrous thing I see about your meeting are these resolutions, the last of which in particular, saying that the tenants Avill pay to the best of their ability if granted their unusually exorbitant demands—pre-supposes an amount of innocence in the landlord which is perfectly refreshing. You have been trying to excite these people in a way highly unbecoming to any man, but simply disgraceful to one who professes to be a minister of that Gospel which is eminently one of peace ; and I may look in vain in any of your speeches for anything which may show that you heed the Divine command, " when smitten on one cheek to turn the other." You go altogether beyond your functions, and make a mess of it, too, especially when you talk such twaddle as you did about my agreements with my tenants outside the courts. Did they not go into this with their eyes open ? And I am sure they would not have agreed for the os reduction, if they thought the Court would give more. They were very lucky to get any, but it will not do them much good for long. Now, in as few words as possible, I will answer your letter. Owing to the very offensive wording of the resolutions and speeches, which show me plainly that it is useless to deal kindly any longer with those tenants, I may tell you that I would not now accept 99 per cent, of all rents and costs clue to me, as I am going to clear the two townlands of Brinlack and Glassagh, and it is my land I want now. Remember they are merely living on my land as long as I let them, and I will not regard cost in carrying out my plans. I have ample private means, and will set aside a certain sum yearly, until all arc out of that. In doing this I am only following out the Scriptural precept, that a " mail

what he likes with his own." I am determined on this, and five, or, at the most, ten years' time there will probably t be a single family left there. It will be no hardship to the ple to have to go elsewhere, as, according' to you, they are such bad circumstances they can hardly live, and, besides, According to you, each ene, as they are evicted, will be supplied flfith a house with three chimneys. In fact, I think, according

^0 your showing, I will deserve their hearty thanks for evicting them ; and, of course, I will level each house as I proceed, so «ou may look round for some sites for your three chimnied houses Somewhere clear of my property.

Now you know what I intend doing — with as little harshness »s possible — but at the same time firmly. if.

I am writing to you thus mildly and quietly, for many reasons, because I hope you will let the tenants see this, and how |according to you) I intend to benefit them, and also from the fatural respect every man and Christian feels for a minister of Religion, even when that minister is such a man as you.

t I need hardly tell a man of your shrewdness, or rather cun-|ing, that resistance will be utterly useless, as it is only a question $f time and money, of both of which I have plenty. Believe itte, sincerely yours,

_; P.S. — You may as well send me a line to say if you have got
this ; the advice concerning yourself I give you gratis, and the
jest requires no answer. Nothing you can say will have the
Smallest weight with me. . H. C. N.

Mr. joule, who resides in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, is the owner of the townland of Meenaclady, in this parish. He purchased it from Mr. Woodhouse. about twenty-five years ago, and in all fairness to Mr. Joule, I must say, that the exorbitant increases of rent and the appropriation of mountain grazing had been accomplished by the outgoing landlord. I should, perhaps, here observe that it was a very general practice with retiring landlords in this district to

before putting them to market for sale—that is to say, piling up rents to a fabulous figure in order to fetch a high price. Purchase money was regulated by the rental, and the prospects held out generally of its capability of being increased even yet more. This was the case with regard to Meenacladdy. Mr. Woodhouse had raised the rent of Meenacladdy from £31 to £67, and had taken from the tenants 1,180 acres of mountain grazing.

to which they had a right, by use and occupation, since time immemorial. It should be particularly noted that those grazing commonages must have been included in the old rents. Since the adyent of Mr. Joule, aonie new cuts have been added, and in this way rent further increased to some extent.

The area held in fee by landlord is about 1,230 acres, including water. The area permitted to remain in hands of tenants is about 720 acres. The yaiuation of the land held in fee by landlord is a little over lid per acre. The valuation of land in possession of tenants is exactly lid per acre. In this case, as in all other cases, the difference of value has been created by the industry and labour of the tenants.

At the time of the disastrous—disastrous to the tenants— change forced upon the tenants by Mr. Woodhouse, they were also

to meet the change effected by taking the place out of the rundale system. This was an additional severe hardship and expense. Thus the poor tenants of Meenacladdy were deprived of the two-thirds almost of their land, and the rent oil the remnant left was

The disastrous effect of all this is strikingly brought out by a comparison of the stock—sheep and cattle—possessed by tenants previous to this raid on their rights, and the stock in their possession in subsequent years. The comparative statistics were Diade out for the now well-known Mr. Tuke, in the spring of 18*0. From those statistics, which are given with full particulars, in Appendix I. of Mr. Tuke's pamphlet, " A visit to Donegal and Connaught in the Spring of 1880," it appears that the number of cattle usually possessed by the tenants of Meenacladdy previous to the days of landlord aggression on their rights—about 'o-i was 248, as compared with 71, which was the number in their possession in 1880. The number of sheep usually had in those days when people had the mountains was 928, and in 1880, the number of sheep was only 1^7. I have not taken a census of the stock this year, but I very much fear that the stock is diminished even much more since 1880. The number of families in Meenacladdy is 40. They are uniformly poor and miserable. They ai'e, in fact, more uniformly wretched than the inhabitants of any other to\vuland in Gweedore, except perhaps, the persecuted poor of Glasserc.hoo. All the tenants in Meenacladdy, except those disqualified by reason of sub-division, had rents fixed by Court of Land 'Commission in 1854.

In the 28 cases disposed of by Court an average reduction of thirty-three one-third per cent, was granted. Bj this means the rent of £71, which had been punctually paid for over thirty years, was reduced to about £50. Of course several tenants were debarred of benefit of Land Act on account of sub division. The adversity of the past ten years told woefully on Meenacl :ddy. "There was hardly an alternate year since in which their maintenance did not depend largely on public charity. Ife was not, therefore, surprising that they fell into arrear in the payment of Tent. Pressure in the shape of ejectments were brought upon them more than once by the landlord. But with only this result,

|° maintain the families attacked in the shelter of their luuubb y°mes. The last payment towards this object was made by me s? January, 1880, being for rent and costs to the amount of £34. ^ the previous year I had jviid over £14 to keep poor Widow

O'Brien in her homestead. This thing could not go on for ever, and in 1887 the tenants of Meenacladdy threw in their lot with the other tenants of the district. My note to the agent enclosing resolutions of the meeting of November, 1887, drew from the landlord, Mr, Joule, the following reply :—

deae sib—I duly received the copy of the last three resolutions said lo have been adopted at a monster meeting on the first of the month, accompanied by a letter from James M'Fadclen, P.P., the Chairman, I presume, who asked you to inquire as to my views on said resolutions.

All I have to say in reply is that I do not acknowledge any right on the part of the Priest to interfere with my tenants, and that I think it would he well if Father M'Fadden would confine himself to his spiritual duties.

I shall, therefore, take no notice of resolutions forwarded through him—probably drawn up by himself, and passed at his bidding.—I remain, dear Sir, yours truly,

Last year, while I was in Berry gaol, Mr. Joule brought ejectments against 10 of his tenants.

Having noticed the proceedings in the press, I wrote to the Solicitors of the landlord with a view to effect an arrangement.

dear sirs—I see by ejectments issued recently again⁸' some of the tenants of above-named townland, Meenacladdy, t^na" you are the solicitors for the landlord. I therefore, make bold to approach you in the character of intercessary mediator in beha't ot those poor people, who are my parishioners. They are, ui¹" doubtedly, people of the poorest means, and of a most helpl^es. and wretched condition. A visit to the place and the cabins °

, the tenants will convince any one of this. They have become helplessly in arrears to the landlord and shopkeepers. I am quite sure they could not arrange with all their creditors at Is in the £. Eents and debts due against them are bad, unpayable, and uncollectable. From the manner in which the landlord has treaied the people in the past nine or ten years, and from the way he is dealing with his tenants of Tory Island, I believe that he is a good-hearted, forbearing man; and I cannot believe that he would, of his own free choice, press upon those poor tenants for impossible payments or object to a reasonable arrangement. I therefore, desire to convey to you on behalf of the tenants of all Meenacladdy, except the bailiff, an offer. It is the best offer I can make ; it is the best offer will likely ever be made. It is made now in all earnestness for an amicable settlement. I shall be the only person who will suffer from it. The longer it remains unaccepted by the landlord, the worse it will be for the landlord. I speak to you. thus frankly and openly not by way of threat, but because I am really opening to you my heart and rny mind fully on the subject. I beg to offer you a cheque for a gross year's rent of the townland at present rate, excluding bailiffs rent, provided that, in consideration of receiving such cheque from nie, you (1) will gn e rne a clear receipt to last gale day, which is at present 1st May, 1888, for each and every tenant of the townland, excluding bailiff of course. (2) That you will recognise as tenants all sub-tenants now in the townland ; (3) and that you will grant a reduction of 6s in the £ on their present rents, as the rent payable in future to the few tenants who have not had their rents fixed by the Court of Land Commission.

I think the gross year's rent at present rate, amounts to about £45. Of course, I assume the cancelling of costs incurred by all past legal proceedings, and the abandonment of all present legal proceedings. I also, of course, assume that any tenant, who is now, or who may become, before the acceptance of these terms, a caretaker, that such tenant will be re-instated tenant.

P.S.—I must add that it is out of my power to enlarge or improve the above-stated terms in the landlord's interest.

P.S. ?—As to exact amount of gross rent I do not bind my-
^Self, but, of course, I .should get a list of townland and the exact
Present rental; and any payments already made or hereafter to be
Qiade direct to the landlord, or anyone acting for him, should be
Deducted from amount to be lodged by me. J. M'F,

Mr. Mailing returned to mo letter of which above is a copy, suggesting that I had better communicate direct with landlord on

dka.k Sis—rl sent the enclosed letter touching your Meena-clackly property to your solicitors. It has been returned to me with a note suggesting that I should correspond with the landlord direct on the subject. I, therefore, take leave to forward to you the communication without alteration or change.

Trusting that the matter with which it deals will receive your favourable consideration,

To the above communication the landlord did not deign to reply, and things remain still in the condition in wiiich they were then, with only this difference that another year's rent has since accrued.

Ejectment decrees were obtained in due course, and " eviction made-easy notices" served, by which the ten tenants were converted into caretakers.

I now find that summonses have been served upon them t° appear at Petty Sessions, Bunbeg, on 23rd instant, to show cause why they should not give up possession of their holdings.

The magistrates of Bunteg will issue orders for possession to landlord, and, thereafter, will follow, but not earlier than eig^l1^ days, the evictions. These &\ ictions will probably form r^ar'¹. °i the extraordinary eviction campaign, which is threatened to vis¹this district in October.

Mrs. Anne Stewart is the owner of Knockfolla, ov Bloody-foreland. It contains l,167a., Sr., 16p. All the land and mountain are in the use and occupation of the tenants. The townland lies like a broad plateau at the base of Bloodyforeland, which rises over 1,000 feet above the sea level, spread out to the shore of the Atlantic, which rises abruptly from the water's edge to the landing above. The shore forms a regular precipice alt-round the outer edge of the plateau. The American Liners (Anchor Line Company) take their

The townland is lying flat before every storm from north and west, and the chances of raising a crop successfully in an/ year is exceedingly precarious. Its inhabitants, who number 33 families, are very poor.

The rent of Bloodyforeland, according to the information furnished to rne by its oldest inhabitants, was formerly £4. It was subsequently raised to £16, then again to '£26 5s; and about 85 years ago it was raised to the

The valuation of the land is £31, or less than £1 per household, and about sixpence per acre.

Sub-division prevails to a great extent, and only six of the tenants were eligible to go into court of Land Commission. In only four of these six cases were reductions granted. The gross rent in these four cases is £8 10s 6d, and the reduction allowed amounted to about 95 per cent. Practically, therefore, the rack-rent that has extorted for over 30 years is the rent still payable.

Up to 1880 poor-rates were charged and collected off the tenants, though they were not legally entitled to pay poor-rates ^at all. They are all valued much under £4, and, according to the law, it is necessary to be valued aboce .-64, in order to become liable for poor-rate. On this point I have before me two receipts setting forth how this

so that parties were charged not only half the poor-rate as it is represented to be done, but actually much more than the whole poor-rate payable for the year.

I find from the receipt before rne that Pat M'Fadden (Hugh) was charged and paid for half poor-rate in 1877, three shillings. Now, I believe, that the rates made that year on the Electoral Division was only one shilling, and the rate is always struck on the gross valuation. The gross valuation of Pat M'Fadden (Hugh) is £2 5s. Therefore, the whole poor-rate for that year would be only two shillings and three pence, and to satisfy for half poor-rate, poor M'Fadden is fleeced out of three shillings. He was treated in the same way in 1878.

And in 1878 John M'Geady, whose gross valuation is only £2 2s, was charged, for half poor-rate, two shillings, whereas, the whole poor-rate was only about two shillings and one penny. Some agitation was necessary to put an end to

The people are perfectly illiterate, only one man in the townland can write his name.

Legal proceedings were had recourse to at various times for the past five years, to oblige the tenants to continue to pay the impossible rents demanded, but they were

much less to pay rent. The last settlements with the land agent were made in January, 1885, by means of public charity, and the tenants were obliged to depend largely on charity, even for existence, for the past ten years.

I believe that the landlady is a rather good representative of her class, and that

slie would be sympathetic and indulgent. No rent has been paid for some year?, and the landlady shall have to elect, between clearing the townland or accepting such terms as the tenants will be able to meet. I sincerely hope that she will yield to her natural kindly disposition,

and adopt the latter courss. The following newspaper report describes the last attempt to enforce payment of rack-rents in Bloodyforelaiid :—

THE POLICE FORCE. ENGLISH VISITORS ON THE SCENE. ' gweedoke, friday night.—The Gweedore evictions have come to a sudden termination in spite of the determination of Colonel Popping to refuse all offers of settlement and execute his decrees. On Thursday evening, after I had left for Dunfanaghy, a telegram was received by the Resident Magistrate ordering the •withdrawal of the force of police engaged in protecting the agent and his emergency men, and in consequence the work of extermination had to be abandoned. The cause for the action of the Government is unknown, but it is conjectured that the visit of Professor Stuart and other English gentlemen to Gweedore had the effect of bringing matters to a crisis. The suddenness of the change is best told by the fact that about ten o clock on Friday morning the Resident Magistrate, contrary to his opinion expressed the previous evening, received a telegram ordering the evictions to proceed, and in the evening of the same day he received the order directing the withdrawal of the police. But be the cause what it may, for the present, the work of extermination is stayed in Gweedore. It is understood, however, that Colonel Dopping will apply for a renewal of the lapsed warrants, and for fresh ones at Bunbeg Petty Sessions on the 25th of the present month, and that the Campaign will be re-opened forthwith. In the meantime the efforts of Professor Stuart to obtain a settlement have not been successful. The learned professor left Gweedore at an early hour this morning for Dublin, where he purposes having an interview with Captain Hill, owner of the property, with a view to arranging the difference between him and his tenants.

Mr. Blane, M.P., arrived at Gweedore to-day to attend the evictions, but was agreeably surprised to learn that they were over for the present. But though the evictions were over, the •preliminaries for a fresh series on a neighbouring property were to be gone through, and a force of fifty men, under Mr. Bourke, R.M., County Inspector Lenuon, and District-Inspector Winder, marched from Gweedore Hotel this morning to Bloodyforeland Point, for the purpose of protecting bailiffs while demanding possession from seven tenants

ON THE ESTATE OF MRS. STEWART, Dalkey, County Dublin, who had been evicted and reinstated caretakers. The time for redemption having elapsed, possession Was to be demanded to-day, in order that warrants for eviction might be obtained at next Petty Sessions. Originally the rental of Bloodyforeland was £26 8s, but it was raised to £i'3 13s 6d.

The seven tenants to be evicted owe in round numbers £99, two-thirds of which are costs heaped on unnecessarily by the landlords. The district itself is the bleakest and most sterile even in Gweedore, lying exposed to the full strength of the Atlantic gales without any shelter. Hardly any crops will thrive. Looking across the country nothing is visible save huge stone walls, which have been built with stones removed from the land by the tenants, and it was to this district that the party went to-day to demand possession from the people wh^or'- the rents were doubled within living memory. Mr. Blaio, M.P., Mr. E. J. Beale, Liberal candidate for South Pancras, Mr. Renwick Seager, secretary of City of London lladical "Union, Father M'Fadden, and two clergymen, accompanied the force. From an early hour laorns and whistles were blowing a'.l over the country, and by the time the police set out the peasants were gathering in hundreds along the hills overlooking the line of march. Blooilyforeland is the only place in Gweedore where a collision between the police and the people has ever occurred, and Father M'Fadden strongly objected to such a small force being taken to protect the bailiff, who is specially obnoxious to the peasants. A serious conflict occurred here in January, 1887, and eight peasants were sentenced to six months' imprisonment for assaulting the police on that occasion. At one time to-day it looked like as if the disturbance was about to be repeated. When the police had got about four miles beyond Derrybeg, on the road to Rloodyforeland, an immense crowd had collected and built fortifications across, obliging¹ the police to take off into the bog. Father M'Fadden appealed to the Resident Magistrate to retire, as his force was totally insufficient to cope with the tremendous crowd of people, and was only tempting the people to attack it. Mr. Uourke stated he would have to go on when the force was so far. A little further on Mr. Lennon, C.I., halted his men, and asked the Resident Magistrate's permission to disperse the people off (be hillside, ns they were very threatening. The people at (his tin;o wove fully ."00 yards from the police on the steep hill above the road, and were not interfering with them beyond cheering. The police were ordered to prepare to load, and a sorgeiml in the district was busily engaged in taking the names of such as he knew win011,0; the peop'p. Father M'Fadden interfered, nncl asked .Mr. Bourke to prevent the sergeant taking the names of the people, as it was exasperating them, and if that were done he would

but if that were not stopped he would go home, and leave the responsibility on the imirisfn^e. After some delay Father M'Fa/ulrii's request was I'rmiie !, and the force moved on a furtlier, when a stone was thrown by some person, The

were again halted, and the County Inspector asked Mr. Bourke, E.M., to read the Eiot Act. That gentleman did not consider that proceeding necessary, and Father M'Fadden, addressing the people in Irish, they scattered along the hillside, hut still kept in sight of the police. The bailiff now made his first demand for possession. The house to which he went had had the door removed, the fire extinguished, and all the inmates were gone out of it. The farce of demanding possession from the empty building was gone through, and the procession moved on. The next house was visited, and the same absurd proceeding gone through, and a third was about to be visited, when Father M'Fadden, noticing that the houses were being visited seriatim, suspected that the bailiff did not know from whom to demand possession, and asked for a list of the seven caretakers. The bailiff refused, and replied he was going to demand possession

Father M'Fadden protested against this course, and Mr. Beale and Mr. Seager interfering, pointed out that the bailiff might be prosecuted for trespass by such of the tenants as were not caretakers. Mr. Bourke, E.M., and Mr. Leiinon consulted, and told the bailiff that they would only afford him protection to such houses as lie had a right to visit. It then turned out that the bailiff knew only one out of the whole lot, and intended to take the course of visiting all the houses, as Father M'Fadden suspected. This Mr. Bourke would not allow, and the police were marched hack again to the Gweedore Hotel, and the object of the landlord party was completely frustrated. It should be stated that both the County Inspector and the E.M. expresssed themselves as most anxious to avoid a collision between the police and people.

As the police moved off the people gathered together on the hillside overlooking the ocean, on the extreme end of Bloodyfore-land Point, and an immense meeting was organised immediately. Father M'Fadden presided, and there were also present — Mr. Blain, M.P., Mr. E. J. Beale, Mr. Eenwick Seager, Rev. P. Dun-Gartan, and Rev. J* Boyle, Terinon.

Mr. blain, who received quite an ovation, said he was happy say that they had made arrangements of such a character that landlords, bumbailiffs, agents, military and constabulary, had t day been defeated. (Cheers.) They had won on that occasion. The bailiff had demanded possession at one or two houses, out he would have to make these demands over again. He was Alighted to see the admirable self-restraint exhibited by the People that day under great provocation, for he could imagine no peater provocation than that of a man stating to another that he «ad the power of driving him forth from

where he had a natural right to the soil. (Cheers.) The landlords and their Mends talked about the rights of property, but they said nothing about the rights of the people. It was the people who had the first right, the first claim on the soil of their country, and they would enforce that right as far as they could. (Cheers.) But it was the opinion, of every person in the country that landlordism in Ireland must go as an institution. Mr. Gladstone—(cheers)— had said in the House of Commons that landlordism must go—so far was an advance made that the Tory Party itself had said the landlords must go. They were going to introduce a measure to purchase out the landlords. The only thing to be watched was that the Tory Party did not give too high a price for the land, or that the price would not he such as would weigh upon the people for generations. Besides, it was not alone for those who came after them that advantages were wanted. The present occupiers of the soil were entitled to some advantages also. (Cheers.) Ee-ferring to the employment of the armed forces of the Crown to aid eviction, he said the people of England would he persuaded to prevent the handing over of the Crown forces for the use of private individuals to enforce the payment of a rent that the land did not produce, but he could assure the people that no amount of constabulary or bayonets could make the people pay rent if they were unable to pay. Bayonets would never collect such ivnls if there were 80,000 of them in Gweedore. He would remark that Professor Stuart—(loud cheers)—who was there the previous day, had made a very fair offer on the tenants' behalf to the landlord, but the agent refused that offer. He would now advise them not to come in contact with the agent any more. They could not be compelled to do so. The agent might have power of attorney from the landlord to collect rents, but he had no power of attorney from the people to receive rents. (Hear, hear.) Sir Win. Hareourt, one of the greatest constitutional lawyers in England, had stated that if a person were prepared to take the civil consequences of refusing to pay rent it was not a criminal act, and no criminal prosecution could be brought. He would, therefore, advise the people to keep away from agents and bailiffs and such people, and to sign no document they might produce, because such documents would be for the purpose of keeping the people outside the benefits of future legislation. The Liberal party would do their best to plant the people in the soil as freeholders, and they would yet succeed. (Cheers.) The liou. gentleman concluded by assuring the people that though this advice to them might be some sort ot intimidation, he was quite prepared to go to gaol for it. Well '^sthim be sent, but the fact of him being in gaol would not get th^elandlord his rent a bit the quicker—(cheers, and cries of " never') .—and if the people were sent to gaol for defending their hunu"^e

homesteads they would only be accompanying the men of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and they could rest assured that that would not be calculated to obtain the payment of impossible rents. (Loud cheers.)

Mr. E. J. Beale said the Liberal Party was determined that the Tory Government would not make the tenants pay too heavy a price for the land. He had been in Gweedore for the past two days, and he was annoyed at the price that was put on what was called farms. He would simply call them back gardens. It was a farce to call them farms—they were not large enough—(cheers and laughter)—and it was a farce and a delusion for the landlord to demand a rent that the land could not possibly pay. (Hear, hear.) He was sure that neither the Liberal Party nor the tenants wished to rob the landlords, but at the same time they must see that the landlords did not rob the tenants. (Cheers.) It was desirable that the landlords should be paid a reasonable price for their claim on the land, and then let them go, and God be with them. (Laughter.) He expressed his delight at the order observed by the people that day, at a time of extreme provocation, and said if the voters of England were aware of what the Irish police really was they would have them cleared away and a proper police force created in their place. (Cheers.) Continuing, the speaker said he believed the people of Ireland did not want separation, but only Home Rule, such as the other countries under the English Crown enjoyed, and he assured the meeting that it would only be a very short time until they enjoyed that blessing. (Cheers.) It would be one of the first measures passed by a

- Liberal Government. It might be some time before the Tory Government was out of power, because they would cling to office,

¹ as they knew that once out of office it would be many a long day ere they would again be in office to misuse their power as they

Mr. Seager proposed the following resolution, which waa unanimously adopted—"That we vehemently protest against the , Government sending its forces to carry out such an outrage, i farce, and illegal proceeding as was witnessed to-day, and warns them that such action is calculated to exasperate an already suffering, patient, and forbearing people. That this meeting of tenants in Gweedore protests against the action of the landlords in attempting to coerce the people into payment of an impossible rent, and expresses hope in the liberality of Great Britain in bringing about a satisfactory settlement of the Laud Question, and obtaining Home Rule for the people of Ireland."

Father M'Fadden briefly addressed the meeting, and the people ijuietly dispersed.

I have been requested to state that Father M'Fadden has received the sum of £25 from Most Eev. Dr. Walsh, to institute a fund for the evicted tenants in Gweedore, and the Professor has promised £50 towards the same object. It is understood that at the Petty Sessions in Bunbeg on the 24th of the present month, the peasants arrested for defending their homes will be prosecuted under the Grimes Act, In the meantime quiet will reign in Gweedore, as the police force leave for their respective stations to-morrow.

The Earl of Leitrim owns one townland iu Gweedore, Money-more. It lies like an isosceles triangle on the side of Mount Errigal, with its base washed by the shore of Dunlewey lake and its top at the summit of the mountain. The area of the town-land is only 492 acres, and the valuation of the land is £20, or about lOd per acre. There are only eleven tenants. 365 acres are held in fee by landlord at a valuation of £-2 10s or l|d per acre. The portion of 127 acres occupied by tenants is valued at two shillings per acre, the enhanced value of this portion being largely created by the industry and labour of the tenants. By the arrangement between the present landlord and the tenants under the Land Act in 1882, the tenants are allowed the use of the 465 acres for grazing, turf, &c.

THE IRON AGE OF LANDLORDISM in this townland passed away to a great extent with the old re/jime under the late Lord Leitrim. The oppressive practices under the reign of the late Earl contaminated the management of the estate under the present earl until he was able to reconstruct the constitution of liis office. The last display of landlord power in Moneymore was in December, 1881, when Colonel Doppin? came down with the sub-sheriff to evict ths whole townland. I think about eight of the tenants were able to manage to pay and the rest were evicted. Colonel Dopping passed away from the management of the Leitrim estate in the following year, and with him further trouble for Moneymore.

Under the old Earl of Leitrim the rent was increased from £13 to £41 10s, and 365 acres commonage were taken from the tenants, and the right to turf. It is also said that

THE OLD EAEL CHARGED POOR-RATE in cases in which tenants were not by law entitled to pay ^lt-Under the present Earl, by agreement between himself and ti® tenants, the rent of £41 lOs'was reduced to £26 10s, and a¹¹former rights restored,

The agent, Mr. Manning¹, in reply to my letter containing resolutions of meeting of 1st November, 1887, consented to grant a further reduction of 20 per cent, ou the above reduced rent. I considered this action reasonable, and I accordingly approved it, and recommend it to the tenants, and they paid the rent, and their has been no trouble that I have heard of on the estate since. I understand that a liberal reduction was allowed last year as well.

THE METHODS OF INCREASING THE KENTS under the old Lord Leitrini, as they find illustration in this townland was certainly extraordinary.

About 1856 the late Earl took it into his head to increase the rent of Moneymore, and his then agent, a Captain Baker, was sent around to visit the place and make a report. It leaked out the basis of increase would be the number of oat stacks iu the haggard by each house. It was in October when the crops had been just gathered into the little gardens. The estate bailiff, who happened to be friendly to one of the tenants, Hugh Ferry, gave him the hint about the coming tour of inspection, and about the oat stacks. Hugh took the suggestion, and amalgamated his two little stacks into one. And, as a matter of fact, the rent of Hugh was fixed inexplicably lower than that of his' neighbours. Widow Gallagher happened to have two farms, one on the Leitrim estate and one on another estate adjoining .near to hand. She worked both farms, and she collected the produce of both little holdings into the garden near her dwelling on the Leitrim estate. Captain Baker came around, counted the stacks in the garden of Widow Gallagher, reported thereon, and the rent of the poor widow for the holding under Lord Leitrim, WHICH HAD BEEN ALREADY EXCESSIVELY HIGH, and which was 32s, was increased to the crushing rack-rent of £B 10s I I

This estate passed into popular hands about fourteen years ago, and since that time it has been managed in a broad liberal spirit, and largely iu sympathy with the. requirements of the tenants. There is hardly an estate in Gweedore, however, that Was so excessively rack-rented by its former owner, Mrs. Russell. The former rent of £42 lUs 6d had been raised to about £142. By mutual agreement with present owner, Mr. Hcburn, this rack-rent was reduced to about £97, a few years ago. In '87 the landlord had the good sense to recognise the necessity of the times and to yield to the moderate demand of the .tenants, which the other landlords in the district had spurned. As a result he got in his rents fairly well. Mr. Hebuni and his tenants got on most amicably,

and he receives such payments as they are able to make. He wisely discontinued the services of Mr. Hewson, as agent, some years ago, and this had an important influence for the better'for landlord and tenants. Mr. Hewson is the notorious George Hewson, of Dromahair, who is now, and has been, for 5 years, managing the Olphert estate.

The area of the Dunlewey estate is about 7,075 acres, and the average valuation of the land is about 2^d. There are 4,164 acres held in fee by the landlord. Two-thirds of the tenants are fairly off as compared with the people generally, and about one-third of them share in the struggle for bare life characteristic of Gweedore. Were it not that the landlord is a good-hearted, sympathetic gentleman, the condition of the tenants would be far different.

The Grolly estate belongs to a Mr. Key, who resides, I believe, in London. The agency was in the hands of Mr. Hewson, the . now famous agent of the still more famous estate of Olphert. I am not aware that he has exercised any agency functions with regard to Crolly for some time. And, I think, so much the better for the landlord and the tenants. The area of Crolly (including 18 acres, 1 rood, and 35 perches of water), is 2,471a. 3r. 34p. Its valuation is £25 5s, or about 2|d per acre. The rent of Crolly, when purchased by Mrs. Russell, from whose hands it passed to Mr. Key, was £34. This philanthropic lady

At this figure it stood until 1884, when by the decision of the Court of Land Commission this rack-rent was reduced to a lesser rack-rent of £48 10s lid, or about 28 per cent off. Thus even the reduced rent is nearly 100 per cent, higher than the valuation, and over 100 per cent, higher than the old rent. The rack-rent of £65 had been paid for over thirty years. The last attempt to enforce its payment was by a wholesale

EVICTION of the ENT1EE TOWNLAND in 1885. The first attempt to carry out the evictions in February, 1885, proved abortive, but the attack was resumed in the following May, and on that occasion the agent was somewhat more flexible-and accepted such payments on account as the tenants were able to make ; and, on that occasion, charity came to the assistance 01 some of the tenants, and preserved the roof trees over them. ^° rents have been paid since. Several attempts were made by ^^ietenants to obtain reductions suitable to the falling off in pi'i^cesand the adversity of the seasons,

For some time past the tenants hare not been troubled with any applications for rent. There seems to be no responsible person to represent the landlord, and the whereabouts of the landlord himself is unknown to me or any of the tenants.

From the necessarily short summary I have given of the eight estates, or portions of estates, in Gweedore, it appears that the benefits of the Laud Act of 1K81, such as they are, have reached, in various ways to all the tenants in Gweedore, except about thirty on the Olphert estate, and about twenty-five on the Stewart estate, and about twelve on the Joule estate. The benefit to the great majority on the .Nixon estate is very insignificant, because it was by an agreement with the landlord at the paltry reduction of about ] 2^ per cent. MARVELLOUS SUMS PAID AWAY IN BACK-RENTS.

I find by totting up figures at my disposal that the gross rent of Gweedore, previous to the operation of the Land Act of 1881, was in round figures about £1,740. By the operation of the Land Act that amount has been reduced by about £450. That leaves the gross rent still payable by the people of Gweedore about £1,290. This amount payable now is 100 per cent, above the amount payable thirty-five years ago, and is 85 per cent, above the Government valuation. But the Croc eminent Valuation is no standard for rent, because tho Government valuation is (100 per cent, above Hie value of the land in the condition in which the tenants received, the land from the hands of the landlord, and the higher value of the land now has been made and created by the tenants alone, the landlord not having in any way contributed, anything towards it. The rent payable injustice and equity to the landlords of Gweedore for its 41,000 acres, would be about £306. And if a law were passed, giving the poor struggling tenants the benefit of their improvements, its rent would be reduced to that. That would be a fair rent. Taking that as a fair rent which should have been payable for the thirty years previous to '84, Instead of the rack-rent of £1,740, one finds that at 1884 the tenants of Gweedore had already paid to their landlords in the shape of rack-rent, £41,220, or over

Taking even the present rent of £1,S90, as a fair rent, which it is not, instead of £1,740, the tenants paid in the thirty years' previous to \S4, £13,300, or eleven years' purchase.

There are only two ways of restoring equilibrium in the present confusion. The one way is to enact a law to fix equitably and fairly the value of the tenants' interest in the land, giving him credit for his improvements ; tho other, a discontinuance of dunl interest by purchase. The principle of the first way has been Recognised by the Act of 1870. That Act recognises the fact that

the landlord is not the owner of the land, that he is only a joint owner with the tenant. Every legislation on the land question since has heen a confirmation and expansion of that principle. But no law yet has gone sufficiently far

TO DO AMPLE JUSTICE TO THE TENANT. I know that the law is inadequate, and that its administration is deplorable, so much so that the Act of '81 may be said to he played out, and that it must be replaced by a better Act. But I think that the public should not fail to throw its proportion of the blame of the shortcoming's of the Land Courts on the law itself. Why allow the Court any discretion in a matter affecting the tenants' rights ? Why not introduce-a clause in the Act directing that the Court shall give the Tenant due credit for all his improvements ? If that were so, the rent of Gweedore

WOULD BE PAYABLE AND WOULD BE PAID. But it is hopeless to expect that its people will be able to pay rents immeasurably oiit of proportion to what is equitably due to the landlord. I do hope that a day will soon come when one or other of those ways will be adopted to get out of the dead lock that now exists. It may be said by some, who do not feel the weight of the situation that the rents are small. Small is a relative word, and suppose some standard beside which the thing so designated is placed. I would ask those people what standard do they apply when they say that the rents in Gweedore are small. Compare them to any standard available, and do justice to the tenant and you will find them excessively J/ii/Ji. If a man owe 10s and hns not a penny, and that the non-payment of the 10s hurls him out on the street, robs him of his house, of his improvements, and of the fruit of the sweat and toil of his life ; think you is the 10s an immaterial thing to him, ?

the Gweedore tenant has worked his holding to what it is. His interest in it is counted by the years and years of incessant labour sunk in that land by himself, his family, and possibly his fathers before him ; and his interest in it is imbedded in the laua and inseparable from it. The day he is turned out he must go of e^ipty handed, he cannot carry his interest in the land with him. To say that he may get compensation, under the Act of 70, in a court of law, is to talk like a child. How can a poor man in Gweedore, who is not able to put boots on his feet, or buy a stone of Indian meal, to feed himself and his family, how can he move a court of law ? And what court ?

A poor, simple peasant to bring a landlord before a landlord court to get benefit from a landlord law I I

On the evening of the 25th November, '84, I was honoured by being placed in the chair at the seventh annual re-union of the natives of Donegal resident in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. My remarks on that occasion may still have an interest for the reader. They disclose pretty clearly the condition o! the people of Gweedore; the relations between people and landlords, the class nature of Irish laws, and the prostitution of the administration of the law in Ireland. After a suitable introduction I continued as follows :—

I am glad to see that exile only makes you better patriots and fonder of home and Ireland, and that you have adopted a most effectual method of preserving the memories and associations of your native county fresh in your minds by these pleasant and happy social re-unions. There is one feature boldly prominent in this assembly, which is particularly gratifying to me as an Irish priest and an Irish patriot, and which is the best guarantee to the public of the dignity, respectability, and influence of this meeting. It also shows that the Irish people, wherever they go, carry with them that beautiful trait of their character at home—love for and attachment to their priests. (Applause.) The large and representative attendance of priests and dignitaries of the Church on this platform to-night proves, natives of Donegal, that even over here in Scotland you maintain that noble character of your race. Be it always so ! Patriotism and religion run in the same channel. In all your undertakings look to those annointed guides, and rely on it that they will not only save you from errors and indiscretions, but they will prove your strongest stay in the fiercest winds of adversity—

'^:In this union between priests and people lies the strength of the Irish jCause, and for this reason have our enemies been always trying to weaken ^:or break the bond that unites them. But in this they have failed, and will, please God, ever fail. At no other period, perhaps, of our country's jbistory was this union more complete than it is to-day. Bishops, priests, '»nd people of Ireland are now banded together, under the standard kept ttoft by the Irish Parliamentary Party, and the causes nearest and dearest to their hearts they entrust to the care and keeping of Mr. Parnell and his jioble colleagues. (Enthusiastic applause.) Yes, in Ireland " the priests are with the people still," and it is a deep pleasure to me to be able, on my Seturn home, to tell your friends that here in Glasgow and its neighbourhood the natives of Senegal are with the priests, and the priests are with

the natives of Donegal. It is this burning love which you cherish for the Irish priest, fighting the battles of his people, and not any personal qualification of mine, that has induced you to put in your chair to-night the parish priest of Gweedore. (Cheers ) This region of Gweedore has a painful and sad history. The common curse of Ireland, bad landlordism, hag fallen with special vengeance on that unhappy district, and even to this day its people are the pitiable victims of landlord tyranny and oppression To-night one hundred families in that parish have only the uncertain title of caretakers to their homes and firesides. On the 1st of January, ^!85, the time for redemption will have passed, and if they will not in the meantime have paid the full forfeit demanded to the uttermost, by the class law of Ireland, their lands, their houses, and the fruits of their toil and sweat for years, will become absolutely vested in the landlord, without any chance oj recovery, and they themselves may be cast on the world without home or shelter. Even more, all the tenants of one small estate—twenty-five families - are liable to be evicted any day. Bents had accumulated in recent years through sheer inability to pay. The agent took proceedings last July, and obtained ejectment decrees. On the 10th inst. he visited the district, with those decrees very probably in his pocket, and a revolver in his belt, with a view to come to some arrangement. The poor tenants were unable to meet his terms, and in their helplessness they have only to await the next step, which will likely be the sheriff and his brigade. Sorrow and grief must be the portion of many of my parishioners in Donegal, and it is difficult for to be cheerful under such depressing influences. We may survive famines and distress, which, are the natural outcome of bad seasons, because they only come periodically and at distant intervals, but it will be impossible for us to outlive the constant scourge of landlordism unless its days are shortened and its power for evil paralysed. I never knew landlordism so violent and insatiable as it is in this very year in Gweedore. Landlords must get their own terms, irrespective of tin-, circumstances of the people, and despite the fact that we are only emerging from a period of distress and starvation. The year '83 was a year of severe trial to the people, and it was public charity, as you are aware, that sustained them through the struggle. But the earth may refuse to give the crop and the people may starve, but the landlord must have his rent without loss or diminution. There must be no distressful seasons for him. Other creditors will be satisfied with payments by instalments, but this will not satisfy the landlord He must get all he asks at once or else eviction.

The other day in Meenaeladdy, the agent of Benjamin St. John Baptist Joule, of Eothsay, Isle of Bute, should get two years' rents from these poor tenants or else he would prosecute. He unblushingly told those creatures . if they had the two rents all to twopence, he would not accept it. Some of the tenants managed to make up the two years' rents, though I have heen told that some of these who did so will not be able to give theviselves a dinner on Christmas Day. The menacing attitude of the landloi.ls and their unparalleled conduct during the past year in Gweedore are, it i^eenis to me driving the poor people to desperation, Last Sunday week as i was passing through the church a poor woman ran up to me who seemed in great agony of mind. She spoke to me in Irish of course, to the following effect—" I have but 24 shillings," she says, " which shall I pay, the rent or some of my lawful debts, which I owe for meal that supported myself and my family six years ago?" And on yesterday week as I was returning from a station, poor Widow Doogan almost ran under my horse's f^ee' crying " what will I do ; what will I do; the bailiff warned me to-day that I would get an ejectment process if I would not pay the rent at once ; these are but samples of the cries and wails that are daily meeting my ears. Here it is well to remark that the inhabitants of Gweedore are not farmers in the^proper sense of the term.

The produce of their small holdings in the most favourable seasons would not support them for three quarters of the year. They are rather like applotment labourers, and are dependant largely for their subsistence on labour. Hence it is that there is in every season of the year a large number of the able-bodied men of Gweedore in almost every centre of employment in Scotland and the North of England, and that from early spring till harvest, there is an almost continuous flow of migratory labourers from it, and then at harvest time a general exodus of such labourers. And at home, in Ireland, there is amongst them the general practice of hiring out boys and girls, and even children, from May to November—and from August to November, and sometimes even during the winter months, in the counties of Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Derry. To give you an idea, I will illustrate from a case that came under my notice last week. I met a parishioner, who has a weak young family, the eldest only fifteen years. He had been returning from Tyrone with three of his children who had been at service there during the summer. The eldest, fifteen years, had been out since May, and had 55s of wages. The second, a child of 13 years, had also been out since May. I did not inquire what wages the second child had; but the third, a child of eleven, was at service only since 1st of August, and had got in that time 35s. The father himself, with whom I was talking, had only returned from Scotland about a month ago after the harvest. This may be regarded as

and it shows how much our people depend on employment for a means of subsistence. It also shows how any falling off in this source of income must affect their condition. The crop is subsidised by the wages, and vice versa, and if either the one or the other fail partial distress and destitution must follow. But if both fail together, starvation or mendicancy are inevitable. Now the rents are paid by the wages or earnings abroad. I don't think there are twenty holdings in Gweedore that pay the rent and support the families living on them. That Widow Doogan, to whom I have already referred, as in great dread of getting an ejectment process, had a little girl of hers hired in her own townland for the summer at 25s. Of this she managed to save 20s. Her yearly rent is 20s, but she happened to owe three years' rent. She told me that she would give the 20s to the landlord for one year's rent, and in doing so she was

TAKING THE BIT OUT OP HER OWN MOUTH. I called into her house one morning last week, as duty brought me in that direction, and I found herself and her little boy and this little girl sitting around some boiled potatoes that were laid out on an old sack spread on the earthen floor, without anything whatever to use with the potatoes. That poor creature could not pay 20 farthings out of the produce of her little holding much less 20s, and when her supply of potatoes will fail, to what will she turn ? Now the primary cause of the deplorable condition of the people of the district from which I come is, in my mind, the misgovern -ment of Ireland; and what is said of Gweedore will apply to other parts of Ireland as well. A good fostering Government, knowing the wants of the people and legislating for the people, and in behalf of the common weal, would not allow the causes out of which this condition of things arises to continue. But English rale in Ireland is sustaining and perpetuating, as yet at least, landlordism in Ireland, as I hope to show by and by. And landlordism is the main source and origin of the state of things of which I complain. About 40 years ago the inhabitants of Gweedore had the absolute and unchecked enjoyment of its mountains and its lands and its shores, and they were a pastoral and agricultural people, and though they had not the polish and./i/c's.-ic of modern progress, they had the substantial things on which to live, the butter, the bread and the eggs. I am only tepeating the words of one of the estate bailiffs, giving evidence at

last March. But then there came a horde of property and land speculators into the country, who purchased up several small estates, and inaugurated a reign of disaster for the simple peasant people. The people were cleared down from their mountain grazing and outlets, and they were driven back from the sand banks that lie along the sea shore, and they were chained down, as it were, to a narrow ribbon of cultivated land that lay midway between sea and mountain. Through this strip of land ran the principal public road, and it was made incumbent on the people, who had almost in every case to change their dwellings under the new iron regime, to build their houses as far as possible along the road, so that till to-day the town-lands look like one straggled, unsightly street. Then followed

and in some cases even the trebling. For instance, the rental of the town-
land of Carrick, which was only £42, was raised to £133. And the rental
of Innishirrer Island, which was only £5, was raised to £22 10s. Every
opportunity was availed of to pile on the agony to raise the rents.
Changes of names of tenants and subdivisions were gladly acknowledged
an additional 10s or £1 was put to the rental. New cuts were lock-spitted,
out of the virgin bog, and new tenants were squatted thereon. Nothing
was left undone to make the estates pay. Where people paid best tenants
were allowed to multiply to such extent that there was hardly room to
build their little cabins across their holdings. Where game paid best the
tenants were put off, and the ground preserved for game ; and the mountain
grazing was set to Scotch shepherds. All this encroachment on the rights
of the people and confiscation of their property were not only tolerated by
the Government of the country, but were enforced by the strong arm of the
law. The unhappy region was put in charge of an army of occupation,
which eventually awed the persecuted inhabitants into forced submission.
Therefore do I blame landlordism for the woe that has fallen on the land.
And English rule in Ireland supports landlordism. Its laws are enacted for
landlords, enforced for landlords, and administered by and through land
lords. That English law in Ireland in past times was made for landlords
will hardly be questioned. But I will prove presently that recent enact
ments, which might be regarded as in behalf of the tenants and the people,
are in reality, and by mal-administration, for the benefit of the landlord
class. That English law in Ireland is enforced by the Government for
landlords, let the forty-nine corpses of the crew of the Wasp, that went
down on the west end of Tory Island—let the departed spirits of those
gallant seamen bear me witness ? That the laws are administered by land
lords with us cannot be denied. The landlord sits on the bench ; he pre
sides at the Board of Guardians ; he is all powerful at road sessions court ;
his counsel prevails at the Grand Jury ; i

and in Donegal. I think about 90 per cent, of Donegal magistrates are landlords or landlords' agents. Now, I shall deal briefly with four recent enactments, intended, I will grant, for the benefit of the people. And while recognising their usefulness, and feeling grateful so far to the Government that passed them, I will show you that they have been perverted to the benefit of the landlords, if they were not originally and really drafted in their favour—I refer to the Seeds Supply Act of '80, the Land Act of 'Si, the Arrears Act of '82, and the Tramways Act of '83. The Seeds Supply Act was administered through the Board of Guardians. The Board of Guardians of the Dunfanaghy Union, in which Gweedore is situated, j³notoriously landlord, and so far as their service to the poor in my district is concerned, they might be designated the Guardians of Mogul. But vitl> regard to thy Seeds Supply Act, they took no. action until it was late in the

spring, and the seeding time actually on. They did not—like other boards —advertise in any newspaper for good seed, but at the eleventh hour almost every guardian and officer under Hie board hurriedly opened

and every sort of potatoes and oats, with different varieties sometimes mixed together, were given out to the poor people at extravagant prices. The goods were provided, I understand, by those several agents at low prices from every person who had any sort of potatoes or oats to sell, and were re-sold to the poor at fabulous profits. In point of fact it was so late in the season when the opportunity was given that many had their crops in, and in several cases, I am told, that oats were obtained which were never sown at all, but used for other purposes. And in many cases it is said that cash was given in lieu of seed. I know one flagrant case, which came under my notice. John Ward got 15s in cash, instead of 5 cwts. of potatoes, and his name is entered in the rate collector's book for 21s—4s for each owt. of potatoes, and Is for weighing them, forsooth ! This is a specimen of the sweet officialism of the Dunfanaghy Board of Guardians, guided and ruled by landlords. But this Act subserved, the landlords' interests. It secured their rent for them in the following year, and left the poor tenant still deeper in debt. Let me illustrate by the case of Widow Mary Curran. This poor widow got eight stone of seed oats under the Act from the guardians at Is 6d per stone. It produced a stack of 49 small stocks. This stack was taken by the landlord's bailiff and the landlord's two servants in lien of the rent, and

THE POOB WIDOW WAS LEFT WITHOUT A STEAW of her harvest, and she was still indebted for the price of the seed to the guardians. I am not talking anecdotes. I prove this from the agent's receipt which I hold in my hand. It appears she was allowed 42s for 49 stooks, and I was told that the oata were very good, and promised a good yield (here the rev. gentleman read the receipt.) Therefore, this Act was made to serve landlords and impoverish the people. At the present time my people are mercilessly driven by the collector for the instalments of this rate still due. And he is prosecuting the living for the arrears due against the dead, though the living party had no concern with it nor derived any benefit from it; and also prosecutes for what was never received at all; and threatens in one case a man, who purchased a small holding from a man who emigrated, with prosecution if he will not pay the seed rate due by the man in America. With regard to the Arrears Act of '82, it is unquestionable that it was an important boon to the landlords. It secured for them at once one year's rent due in November, '81 as well as the half of the antecedent arrears. And, having regard to the rnercilessness with which the Irish landlord scourges his tenants with the iron rod of the class law of the land for recovery of rents, it is not surprising that the arrears were, after all, but small. The gross rental of holdings under £30 valuation is about £6,000,000, and the gross amount applied for to Government in liquidation of the half of the antecedent arrears was only £600,000, or the tenth part of one year's rent, so that the loss, if it may be regarded a loss at all, suffered by the landlords is exceedingly insignificant. But the Act put poor tenants to extraordinary straits to take advantage of it. I will illustrate this by one instance in my parish. Bell Doherty had not paid the qualifying gale within the prescribed time, and she was anxious to take advantage of the Act. Her rent is only 3s altogether, but even 3s She could not realise, except by sale of poultry— HER STAFF OF LIFE.

She carried two fowls to a shop to sell in order to make out the balance of the rent which she required. She found one of them smothered when 'she came to the shop. The shopkeeper allowed her one shilling for the

dead fowl, the other she was unable, I think, to dispose of, but, however she managed, she got the 3s, but when she presented the year's rent the time for paying the qualifying gale had elapsed, and, after all her efforts, she lost the benefit of the Act. This I confess to be an extreme case, but it only conveys an idea of the trouble and straits to which the tenants of Gweedore were put in order to avail of the Arrears Act. And, after all, the principal landlord of the district lost only about one-third of the gross rental of the estate by the operation of the Act. From the circumstances of the times, and the distressfulness of the seasons then, I am thoroughly convinced that the landlords scored a good profit by the Arrears Act. Now, as to the Tramways Act of last year, it is glaringly a landlord bit of legislation. The interest on the paid-up capital of construction ia secured by guarantee, half to be paid by cesspayers of guaranteeing area, and half by Government. And if, after construction the

LINE WILL NOT PAY WORKING EXPENSES, the interest on such deficit will be secured in the same way. Now, let me observe that no one can be more anxious than I am for the development of Ireland, where necessary, by railways ; but to saddle an already poor and over-taxed peasantry with a perpetual guarantee to indemnify the constructors for paid up capital deserves very serious thought. And the guarantee required in the case of the Tramways Act is different from the guarantees hitherto required in the construction of Irish railways in this, that whereas under the special Acts for such purpose hitherto the taxation should be borne equally between owners and oocupiers, in this case it is to be borne by the occupiers alone, and the owners as such—that is to say, the landlords—are released from any liability. The Treasury undertake the portion of taxation hitherto paid by the landlords, and the tenants are left as they were. This seems to me a very clear case of legislation for landlords. And the landlords are quite alive to the advantages derivable for themselves from this Act. In Donegal two projects of tramways in which I felt interested, as my parish was to be included in the guaranteeing area, were mainly advocated by the landlord class—the same class who, during all the distressful years of '79, '80, '82, and '83, exerted themselves to stop the stream of charity flowing to the district by industriously circulating that either there was no distress at all, or that it was greatly exaggerated. The termini of the two projected lines were to be almost within the demesne walls of two resident landlords, who tried to secure all the influence of their class to get the projects sanctioned by the Grand Jury. The benefit that would result to those gentlemen by the construction of those lines would be enormous. Yet as owners they would not have to pay a penny of taxation on the foot of it. But let the poor tenants of Gweedore and elsewhere pay forever the guaranteed interest. I say for ever, because it is not likely that the lines would ever pay. The Irish Parliamentary party, with their usual keen discernment, saw this difficulty of guarantee in the scheduled districts, and tried to get a clause introduced to obviate it, but failed. I am glad to notice that Mr. Parnell has introduced a bill this session to amend the Tramways Act, and I hope it will meet this objection to the Act of last year. Now, I come to a few

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LAND ACT OF '81, which is admittedly the best attempt that has been yet made by &¹¹English Government to deal with the laud question of Ireland. This Act, if administered in the spirit of the Act, would, I think, be a great benefit to the country. But it has been strangled in its administration, and has been so perverted in its use, as to give a new life to landlordism¹¹and to perpetuate rack-rents. This deplorable result is due to the influence worked upon the men appointed to administer the Act by *"*> landlords of the country. I will establish this point by giving you facts

from my own experience of the working of the Land Act in my part o{ Donegal. In the first place, wherever it was heard that tenants desired to go into Court on a certain estate in my neighbourhood, a most vigorous effort was made by the landlord and his friends to dissuade them from doing so, and so successful was this system of intimidation, that only one tenant on that estate put his case in court during the three first years. And what is most remarkable, and what has never been to my knowledge explained, this one case, in which instructions had been given, and notice had been served on the landlord in March, 1882, was not listed for hearing and adjudicated upon by the Bub-Commission Court until March, 1884. When after a long interval, some of the tenants on this estate, took courage to go into court, every strategy was adopted to discourage them, by constantly harping in their ears about costs, and threatening appeals, and so on. Eventually the tenants arrange! to meet at a publican's to collect the necessary information to fill the originating notices. A sergeant of police, at the instigation, it is supposed, of the landlord, came to the publican and told him that if he admitted the tenants into his house for the purpose aforesaid

at the next annual renewal of licenses. On the occasion that the tenants did come to this publican's place there were two policemen in attendance, and the publican was so much intimidated that he did not allow the tenants to enter his house, and they were obliged to retire to a small cabin in the neighbourhood. In Gweedore 420 cases were put into court in December, 1883. Of these cases eighty-four from the estate of Captain Hill were heard at Court of Sub-Commission in Bunbeg, in March, '84, and a reduction of 38 per cent was allowed on the gross rental dealt with. The landlord got furious over this result, and he promptly appealed the eighty-four cases, and the agent exercised all the influence of his class to get the Land Commission to take up test cases out of these eighty-four, and dispose of them at once, and stop the further hearing of the other cases by the Sub-Commission, and thus prevent " similar reductions" being granted to the tenants. Now, this was an outrageous attempt to interfere with the free action of the Sub-Commission, and a clear direction to the Land Commission to intervene to save the landlord from the effects of a fair administration of the law ; and, strange to say, the Land Commission did yield to the landlord influence, and actually sent down from Dublin a special batch of valuers to report on the cases prior to hearing. Of course the tenants resisted this step through their solicitor, and the appeals, thus strangely brought on out of course by the landlord, were not dealt with. When this strategy to interfere with the free administration of

failed, another method was had recourse to, which proved eminently successful on the landlord side. Sir Hervey Bruce, Colonel Digby, Viscount Galway, and others put question after question in Parliament about Mr. Gray, one of the Sub-Commissioners, until he (Mr. Gray) was removed from county Donegal and sent to Cork. The re-constructed Sub-Commision dealt with the remaining cases, and gave only 25 per cent, reduction instead of 38, the cases being exactly parallel. Even 'Still the personnel of this Sub Commission was not sufficiently landlord, its it had on it Mr. Mahony, who was strongly suspected by the landlord Blass of tenant leanings. Hence at the reducing of the number of Sub-.Commissions in July last Mr. Mahony was cashiered, Mr. Gray was Cashiered, and every man who ever displayed any tenant sympathies was Dismissed, and only strong landlord partisans were retained. So that the present Sub-Commission of Donegal is thoroughly landlord. The |egal member has been a land agent, one of the non-legal members is a landlord himself, and the other is a firm landlord champion. And, of course,

the tenants of Gweedore and elsewhere have lost all hope of having theii? cases impartially tried by suoh a tribunal, and will not enter their cases until this is all changed. More than this, the landlords are adopting another method of preventing tenants going into Court, and that is by wholesale appeals. Out of 272 oases Captain Hill has appealed 1»4, and out of 135 cases Mr. Olphert has appealed 80. This has the effect of wearying out the poor people, and discouraging them running the risk of of such expenses as the prosecution of appeals must entail. The result of all this is that

and, having regard to the trifling benefit that they will obtain through it, they have ceased to use it. The decision of the court, even in oases where reduction is supposed considerable, only legalises rack-rent. For instance, the tenants of a small estate in Gweedore went all into court. The old rent of the estate was £65 Oa 6d. The judgment of the court reduced it to £48 10s lid, or nearly 100 per cent, over the Government valuation which is only £25 5s. And it should be clearly borne in mind that in Gweedore the landlord has not expended one penny on the holdings, and that whatever value the land now possesses above its prairie value is all the creation of the tenants' industry and labours; and Sir Bichard Griffith's valuation of the surrounding moor, which is similar to the present arable to its original state, averages 2|d an acre. And the Land Act secures for the landlord 1,000 per cent, over this; even in cases where reductions are perhaps greatest. Another most. ingenious way of filching away the rights of the tenants under cover of this Land Act is by agreements between landlord and tenant out of court on form 33. It is easy to impose upon simple uneducated peasants in feis way, who only attend to the reduction they are offered, and never think of valuable rights, which they may unwittingly sign away. I have seen one of these forms, and by it the tenant was asked to give up his title to seaweed and to turbary, and to undertake the payment of all county cess. And the form did not set forth what he was getting for the rent. Even the area was not fixed by it, so that, in point of fact, such documents LEFT TENANTS ENTIRELY AT THE MERCY OF THE

Having referred to the manner in which the Land Act of '81 is now administered, and to the fact that the tenants are rapidly ceasing to use it, it becomes evident that it is played out and that further legislation on the subject is imperative. Those who suppose anything else deceive themselves. There is a feeling that landlordism in Ireland is still all powerful for evil. The eviction returns of the past six months too painfully prove this. Yes, if peace, prosperity, and contentment come to the Irish people the land laws must be still radically improved—even to the total abolition of landlordism, which alone will solve the land difficulty. Employment must be provided for our people at home, and Ireland made happy and prosperous from her own internal resources. The experience of three hundred years gives us little cause to expect that this glorious end will be attained through laws made by strangers. For the realisation, therefore, of our happy hopes we must look forward to¹ the restoration to Ireland of her right to make her own laws and manage her own affairs. That bright future may be nearer to us than we are aware. Ireland is asserting herself all over the world. Ireland is asserting herself, as she never done before, in the English House of Commons. There her noble sons, Parnell and party, are pleading her cause, and fighting her battles with a vigour and enthusiasm that cannot fail of victory. Let us be true to them, true to each other, true to Ireland, and, in a time not far distant, we may celebrate a social re-union, not in a friendly city in a land of exile, but in the heart of grand old Donegal! (Loud and prolonged cheering.)

The hon. someeset waed, Downpatrick, who was then acting agent ou the Hill property, in Gweedore, submitted a list of purchasers of Tenant-right, that took place on the estate for the seven previous years, to Mr. Thomas A. Dickson, M.P., who had been visiting Gweedore at the time, and had taken a deep sympathetic interest in the people and their difficulties. The list furnished was sent on to me by Mr. Dickson, and the receipt of it induced me to write my A^Tiews to Mr. Dickson, as follows :—

The list of purchasers furnished proves the greatness of interest which toil and industry creates in soil which is in itself comparatively valueless, and how marvellously small the owners' interest is, as compared with that of the occupiers. It proves, too, the scarcity of land and the growing density of the population. It proves an insatiable land-hunger and an inexplicable attachment to childhood's home, which can alone explain the folly of an investment, which must necessarily be a continuous dead loss. Yet the cases submitted are not, as will appear from consideration of their peculiar circumstances, fair samples of the purchase-money paid for small holdings, excluding three or four of very exceptional character, the sales rei'erred to will not exceed fifty years' purchase, and allowing a small average value of £20 for the buildings on these lands purchased, it will reduce ths price to thirty years' purchase ; which, having regard to the demand, or rather the requirements, because the demand is not very great, as there are exceedingly few parties who are able to purchase or can raise money to do so, and the supply will not be regarded extravagant even in the present state of the market.

When an opportunity offers of establishing a house, however poor, and their remains no alternative but the emigrant ship, a man and wife in Gweedore, or the parents of a young married couple, will give all they possess or all that they can conveniently borrow, to take advantage of that opportunity and settle themselves in the midst of their friends and their native parish. It is not, in point of fact, the value of the holding as an agricultural farm, but how much money can be realised even by contracting' ruinous liabilities, is the subject of consideration. And these matters are largely directed by the prospective earning power of the family. A man with a promising young family, of whom one or two are already able to enter on service, and he himself able to go to the English harvest, will contract terrible liabilities, and he will be credited to an enormous extent, confiding solely in the working and earning power of the family. In this and like circumstances a man will purchase a little holding at an enormous price, without a penny in his pocket, or perhaps a meal of porridge in. his house. For instance the purchase of the holding of 10s for ,£45 was made in '82 by a man, who had to go straight_to_ a

THE SYSTEM OF GIVING " NEW CUTS," from the head lands and cut away bog or moor, at the expense and damage of the tenantry generally, has been put a stop to, and hence the increased hunger for the occasional spots that sheer poverty, on the part of the occupiers, causes to be sold. But, if we take regard to facts, the prices are not above what the outgoing tenant feels himself entitled to on account of his toil, labour, and improvements. For instance, Ferrigal Boyle, (Daniel) of Dore, without detailing with mathematical exactness, all he did on his holding, created in it an interest represented by £l$ft, his holdings and offices are well worth £70. His interest then is represented by £250. His fair rent is £2 11s; therefore, his own interest alone amounts to almost 100 years purchase. But it should be borne in mind that the expenditure of labour and capital on such land as is on the seaboard of Gweedore, does not pay, perhaps, in many cases 1 per cent.

Take again the case of Charles M'Bride, of Carrickateskin, who has a " new cut" at 12s Gd yearly rent, which you saw. It is still only a barren area of about four acres. If Mr. M'Bride created an ordinary tenant-interest in it, by reclamation, &c., such as the hard-struggling labourer in Gweedore does, and build a. comfortable house on it, and thus make it a fit place to rest in for a home, or what might be called a home, I am sure he would get a very high price for it, from a returned American, who wanted to rest, or start some little shop, perhaps, with his money; or from a newly-married pair who had no home.

But in this case just mark the fact that M'Bride bought this holding of 12s 6d yearly rent at 80s or 2J years purchase ! This shows what it is that creates the high price—the instant urgent necessity on the part of the purchaser to find a resting place and the competition very probably with another in the same extreme necessity ; the heart-rending, famishing hunger, and poverty, on the part of the seller which forces him to part with the bit of land on which he had set his heart and in the reclamation of which, may haps, he has poured his life blood. These are the circumstances which set up the price of the land in

Gweedore to such surprising figures. Though it be but a small return for the amount of labour expended on it by the tenants it is excessively above the intrinsic worth and value of the commodity. The circumstances of the place, and the nature and habits of the people, being that of migratory labourers, who return to their homes to rest their wearied and worn bodies for a few months every year, and the fact that only a very circumscribed area is cultivated, or at the disposal of the people, make all thoughtful and competent judges to throw the

out of their heads entirely when estimating the agricultural value of the miserable holdings of this place. The facts are patent and are the outcome of the inborn idiosyncrasy of the poor people ; and, it would be as unreasonable and cruel to punish them for this second nature, as it would be to crucify the Zulu for the colour of his skin.

The usual fortnightly meeting of the above Branch was held in the League Hall the other night. The Rev. James M'Fadden presided. After the discharge of routine business the chairman addressed the meeting. He remarked with great satisfaction on the change that had been worked in the land since last meeting. The elections had concluded, and Ireland was placed in the proud position of being represented by men of her own choice and after her own heart. A miserable minority, embodying landlords and place-hunters, no longer usurped the power of drafting laws for Ireland. The return of members of Parliament is now Tested in the people instead of the landlords, and nobly have the people done their duty. In no county, perhaps, has the emancipation been so complete as in county Donegal.

nor will it be necessary to invoke the services of those splendid patriots, who have hitherto voiced its grievances in the English House of Commons. Each division of the county is ably and well represented, and the West Donegal Division of the county may rest assured that its wants and its grievances will be faithfully looked after by the courageous and intrepid southern, into whose hands it has lovingly committed itself. Having wrested ourselves successfully out of the grip of landlords as usurpers of the right of franchise, there remains for us in order to achieve

our thorough redemption and regeneration, but to shake off the blighting influence of this class as landowners aud rent extorting machines. This, too, is made practicable by the efforts of a united people, and if it will not be accomplished within a very short period

As long as existing rents are paid, so long will there be landlords and landlords of the very worst type. There is no word of any landlord in Donegal taking advantage of the Purchase Act. Nor will there be any word so long as the tenants pay the rack-rents that are now screwed out of the people. We shall see how the process of collecting rents will go on in this season, which foreruns one of the hardest summers, according to the best authorities, which has come since '47. We shall see whether the Government will sacrifice the people in order to satisfy the unjust and unnatural demands of landlords. We shall see whether the simple benighted people will gather, scrape, sell, borrow, and beg to pay the landlord and cheat and rob the merchant. Whether they will maintain the luxury of idlers, and be forced themselves to appeal to public charity to save themselves and their wives and childrefr^ from perishing by hunger. Where nothing can be paid or ought to be, I cannot see the use of petitions or memorials. If all, or nearly all were able to pay a reduced rent, I then would advise that course, but I know that the vast majority of tlie people can pay no rent in the present year. Nor are they bound by any law to do so, nor will any just law compel them. When land fails to meet the first claims upon it, it is foolish to argue about claims that come next in order. But the land for several years past, more especially this year, has not produced the wherewithal to remunerate the tenant for his labour and capital. In such circumstances to talk of rent being payable as a just debt is out of the question. Eent should come off the land for which it is asked in some shape. And, when it does not, rent is not due on the part of the occupier. It might be fairly argued that something was due to the tenant by the landlord in such a contingency. Farming is a sort of speculation, in which landlord and tenant are partners. The landlord supplies his share of the capital in the shape of the farm in the condition in which it is at the time the tenant takes possession of it. The tenant adds his share of the capital in the shape of labour and cost of cultivation, and adds to the capital lodged in the land itself by his improvements. Ordinarily speaking, if the partners have contributed equally! towards capital, they should be equal sharers in the profits and\ equal sufferers by the losses. But by special terms the landlord

asks but a FIXED SUM as his SHARE of the PBOFITS, which he,calls rent; this sum ought to be measured by the first value of fclie land which he let out to the tenant. It appears to

me perfectly just and proper that, when the speculation does not pay, and when the tenant, instead of making profits, suffers a considerable loss, that the landlord ought to share the loss equally, or at all events, to such extent as he should in a paying year share the profits. In other 'words, in a year like the present, the landlord should, instead of asking for any rent, hand over the rent to the tenant, the tenant having, in the non-paying year, maintained the concern and kept it afloat at a loss to himself, for the benefit of both landlord and tenant. I do not admit the fairness of testing the tenants' solvency by inquiring into the earnings, during the year, of himself or his family in Scotland or elsewhere. There is no obligation of rent for a holding that has failed to pay for itself out of monies earned outside of the farm. Hence it appears to me that it is the duty of landlords to remit entirely the rents now accruing due as the smallest of their obligations. A neighbouring agent, Mr. Hammond, of Burtonport, in replying to a deputation on this rent question, some weeks ago, fell into the egregious mistake of instituting a parallelism between landlords and merchants. I should like to hear from Mr. Hammond or his supporters wherein the comparison fits. Unsupported by argument the theory is too ridiculous to be seriously dealt with. The idea that a merchant should drop 50 per cent, of his accounts as much as a landlord should remit 50 per cent, of his rents ! There must be a lot of phosphorus floating in the atmosphere of Burtonport ; ordinarily developed brains are not so fertile in conceiving new methods for popularising rents. (Applause.) I have very little hope that the landlords will make such concessions as the circumstances of the times demand. Yet strong importunity may be rewarded, and the tenants throughout the district should urge and press upon the landlords the state of facts, and call upon them not to press for the recovery of rents this year, and to make liberal reductions—of at least 50 per cent. —in those cases where payments are possible. A general agitation on constitutional lines should be carried on in every parish to invoke the intervention of the Government to stop the power of eviction till the return of more prosperous times. I have been told to-night that 300 or 300 constabulary are expected here in a short time to carry out evictions on the properties of Mrs. Stewart, Mr. Joule, Captain Hill, and Mr. Key ; whether the rumour may be correct, I am unable to say, but I am strongly of opinion that this move, if contemplated at all, is chiefly for the

to sacrifice all they possess to pay the rents. This and similar processes of intimidation are always had recourse to by the landlord class. Their bailiff's are constantly harping into the cars of the people that if they do not pay " they will be cleared out." These methods nearly always succeed in driving the people to beggar themselves and rob their creditors to satisfy the landlord,

The spirit of slavery and awe of the bailiff and landlord has not been yet conquered, and, with all the opportunities they have, the people are not yet sensible of their own power. In my opinion desperate evils ought to be met by desperate remedies. And it is a desperate evil that forces a man to give up nearly all lie possesses to satisfy heartless extortioners, and to expose his wife and children to hunger and starvation. For my part I should resist such oppression to the last resource of the constitution. The law •which strengthens the hands of tyrants to scourge poor starving householders and blight a people in this way, I regard a most unjust law, and I should hold myself guilty of unpardonable wickedness in encouraging or approving such law by anticipating it or co-operating with it in any way to give it effect. Let such a cruel law be invoked by the class whom cruelty becomes ; and let the cause of its wickedness fall upon the landlord class. Let it be enforced by the Government, and let the shame, dishonour, and sin of its results fall upon the Government. But let not the people, so long as they can help it, cooperate in the murder of themselves and their children. (Cheers.)

Father m'nelis followed in a stirring speech. He felt quite satisfied that there was no obligation whatsover in strict justice on the people here to pay any rent, that they had already paid the fee-simple of their holdings twice over in rack-rents. But then there was the difficulty of the law enabling the landlords to come down upon them and ruin them entirely. In the circumstances it was hard to advise, but one thing was certain, that if they were strictly united they would eventually triumph. He believed that if all the tenants from Gweebarra to Dunfanaghy were of one mind and one action they would force the landlords to do them justice. (Cheers.) The following resolutions were then proposed and adopted unanimously, amidst cheers :—

1st.—" That the Gweedore Branch of the National League heartily congratulate the Nationalists of Ulster on their gallant conduct throughout the electoral campaign, and the glorious results of their labours."

2nd.—" That this branch hails with unbounded delight the emancipation of Donegal from Tory and Whig representation in Parliament, and the advent of the hour that places the guardianship of its honour, its rights, and its interests, before an alien House of Commons in the hands of four true, talented, and patriotic sous of Ireland."

3rd.—" That we congratulate this Western Division of the County on being represented by a fearless Southern patriot, and that we confidently hope that Mr. O'Hea will champion the cause of Gweedore in the House of Commons with the watchfulness, courage, and ability of an O'Brien or a Sexton."

4th.—" That we appeal to the landlords of this parish not to press for the recovery of rents in this year, owing to the fact that

stock, out of which alone rent can be realised, are unsaleable, and to offer to those who may find themselves able to pay a reduced rent, such abatement as the general depression necessitates ; and, above all, not to take recourse to legal proceedings and evictions to enforce payment upon miserable people, who have always in the past been obliged to appeal to public charity to bear the burdens thus imposed upon them."

5th.—" That we strongly condemn the attempt in some quarters to place business men's accounts and landlords' rent in the same category, and that we entirely fail to discern wherein the comparison lies,"

Kev. james m'fadden, P.P., Gweedore, writes as follows:— " Dear Sir—A Commission of Inquiry seems to be the recognised way with Lord Salisbury's Government to shirk an imperative duty, and if we may judge from the experience already had, there is little to be expected from the labours of such commissions. Possibly more encouraging results may attend the labours of the Eoyal Commission on Irish Public Works. In any case something may be gained, as nothing can be lost, by ventilating, through the medium of the Press, individual views as to what is the exact necessity, and as to how it can best be obviated. That Donegal needs to be improved is beyond question, and the Government should be convinced of this. Except Mayo it is the poorest county in all Ireland. Taking its rich and its poor holdings together, the mean Government valuation of each is £9, which is the lowest of all Ireland, except Mayo. Therefore, Donegal, before almost any other part of Ireland, should engage the attention of the Government and its Commission of Inquiry. But in most parts of Donegal the mean valuation on which families subsist is so low that it becomes a mystery how they can subsist at all. For instance, the mean gross Government valuation of each holding in the large parish of Templecrone is only £1 12s ; in the parish of Lettermacaward, only £1 17s ; in the parish of Tullaghobegley only £2 os_; in the parish of Glencolumbkille only £2 7s ; in the parish of Kilcar only £2 16s ; and in that portion of the parish of Tullaghobegley, known as Gweedore, the mean Government valuation of the holdings—exclusive of buildings—is only 19s. If, say, 12 acres of good land—value about £1 per acre—be the least upon which a family can live, it becomes strikingly evident how it is impossible for families to exist on holdings of such abysmally low values as above. Of course, it

The end and aim, therefore, of everyone who really and seriously desires to serve the county should be to impress upon the Government and the Commission the absolute necessity of so amending the Act, that light railways and other improvements would he carried out in county Donegal and other scheduled districts of Ireland, by a free grant from Parliament for the purpose. If I mistake not a resolution to this effect has already been passed by the Grand Jury of the county, and I would like to see them pass a strong resolution on the matter at their next meeting. Moreover, the Tramways' Act of '83, is most unfair in principle, and is directly for the benefit of the owners of land, or the landlord class. Previous to that Act railway schemes were promoted by private bills in Parliament, and the Government did not contribute directly to any guarantee required for raising capital, but any local guarantee required was borne equally by the owners and by the occupiers, so that if there was a local guarantee, for instance, of £l,dOO necessary in any case, the taxation consequent thereon would be levied equally, half and half on the landlords and on the tenants. The Tramways' Act changed all this, no doubt, but entirely in favour of the landlords. The Government now undertakes to pay Ihc half of the interest on the paid-up capital, providing, at same time, that such payment will not exceed two per cent., and the remaining half must be paid by the occupiers, that is the tenants. Consequently the construction of forty railways in Donegal will cost the landlords nothing, and whatever taxation follows must be borne by the tenants. This, perhaps, explains the zeal of landlords in promoting railway schemes. And as to the scheme in question, which is to be known as the " North-West Donegal (Lennon Valley) Light Railway," it is promoted by a landlord and supported by landlords, and one of its supporters is a landlord and a-n agent, with whose name there will be forever associated, in J?V

mind at least, thoughts that are repellent. Only last Saturday it was attempted, by the bailiff of this gentleman, to throw poor widow Doohan, of Clohaneely, while actually in the grip of death, out on the street to die.

But the fact that this scheme is under the Tramways' Act, and |hat it is promoted and patronised by the landlord class, should cause the tenants and cesspayers to view it with strong- suspicion, and to hesitate before undertaking the heavy ^liability to them of its construction. But in the prospectus of the company, it is proposed to include in the guaranteeing area, and to tax for this proposed line of railway the Parishes of Killygarven, Clondevaddog, Meevagh, Clon-dahorkey, and Raymunterdoney. I don't think the cesspayers of those parishes will likely consent to be burdened with taxes for any such ptu'pose^fcnd then the entire taxation will fall upon the parishes of Anghnish. Tullyfern, Kilmacrenan and Gartan. And what will that taxation be, and what will it amount to ? <Jt will he the whole interest on the paid-up capital during the construction of this line, which may be ten years, or even, twenty years, and the half of the interest after it shall have *heen of|psd for traffic. How much will that amount to ? Well tMrt depends on the cost of construction and the price at which the'company can raise the capital. It is proposed to be a line of 20 miles—12 miles from some point of junction with the Letterkenny and Lough Swilly Railway, below Manorcunningham, across the Swilly to Kilmacrenan ; six^ miles from Kilmacrenan to Churchill, and two miles of a branch by Lough Feni to Milford. The cost is estimated at £4,000 per mile, and £10,000 for the bridge across the Swilly, or .£90,OuO in all. But it we take the cost of the Swilly bridge, as estimated by the eminent engineer, Mr. "W. J. Doherty, to be £60y 00, then the total will be £140,000. If this amount be raised at 8 per cent, the interest on it will be £4,900 per annum. If it can only be raised at 4 per cent, the interest on it will he £5,600 per annum. Assuming that the guaranteeing area will be confined to the above-named four parishes, and that the taxation of Gartan will be confined to only an area of £1,000 valuation, as proposed in prospectus, the total valuation of the guaranteeing area will be £20,766. An annual payment of £1,200 will amount to 4s 0£d in the £1, and an annual payment of £5,600 will amount to os 5d in the £. The cesspayers should have to pay the entire interest on the paid-up capital during the period of construction, if it were twenty years. Then after the line was opened and working, they should have to pay 2s Ojd in the £1 or 3s 5d in the £1, as the case might be; because the Government will only pay half the interest, and in no case will it pay more than 2 per cent. But if the proposed line will not pay its working expenses—

a very probable and almost certain contingency — then the difference between the amount earned and the actual working expense must be met by the cesspayers in some way.

The prospectus is very encouraging, but lines of light railways already made in Donegal over districts supplying an immensely greater traffic than the proposed line will command, have not paid even working expenses. And if the proposed line will pay anything like what is stated or represented, I am surprised that some company does not take it up as a speculation, and that the cesspayers are troubled at all with the matter. Then what about the little arrangement with the Letterkenny and Lough Swilly Eailway Company to use their line from the junction into Derry ? That arrangement will not he completed for nothing ; and the cesspayers will have to stand the money. And probably the Harbour Commissioners in Derr$%will expect another costly arrangement with them. The alternative proposed in prospectus, in event of arrangement with Letterkenny Company failing, or pushing on the line to Derry by Carrigans, and the taxation for the extension to be borne by the same guaranteeing area makes the case infinitely worse. I should not have adverted to this scheme at all only that it recognises and tends to perpetuate an Act which I honestly believe to he insufficient for the development of a county like Donegal, whereas every effort should be made to have that Act amended or a new Act passed by which such improvements would be undertaken and completed by funds supplied by Government for that purpose. My further remarks I must reserve for another letter.¹'

"Dear Sir—Continuing the subject on which I addressed you last week, it occurs to me that the resources of Donegal will never be sufficiently devoleped by railways alone, and that any project of railway extension should be in connection with some undertaking by which the broad road of the sea, which bounds the county on the North, South, and West could be availed of. The great portion of the population of Donegal dwell along its seaboard. Certainly its most congested and most distressed districts lie on the shores, and it must strike everyone that the natural and most convenient outlet for those localities is by the sea. Having once opened a sea passage, railways become necessary to feed the traffic by sea, and to accomod'ate travellers. The superiority of the sea way over the railway may be abundantly illustrated. But one case may serve my purpose. Last week there were 3, '00 boxes of mackerel carried by steamer direct from Kinsale to London, and apart from other important advantages, the freight was less by £900 than it would be by the railway route by Mil ford-Haven. And at the present time goods from Derry are delivered

by ships at Burtonpourt for 6s per ton. And I dare say the carriage by railway to Letterkeuny is as high if not higher. But owing to the want of pier and harbour accommodation on the coast, sea-traffic is practically nil. Improvements in the way of piers and harbours would have the additional advantage of serving and developing the fishing industry. I think the necessity of one or two commercial and fishery piers on the north-west coast of Donegal will not be disputed. It only remains to fix the sites of those piers. It is unnecessary to say that much blundering has already taken place in the matter of building piers in Donegal. Even the very last efforts in this direction have been, I fear, mistakes. It amounts almost to waste to invest a large amount of public money in a pier in some out of the way place to which there is no regular sailing, at which coasting ships cannot call, and at which ships cannot take refuge in a storm.

More than that, there should be a large population and a jood expanse of country behind to supply traffic to warrant the erection of a large pier. On this account Portsalon pier must be a failure, on account of its proximity to Mulroy and Rath-mullan ; so must Downings pier be a failure. The private pier at Mulroy meets the commercial requirements of the entire districts of Eossgull and Fanad, and a much, wider area, and is worth, in usefulness, nearly all the Board of Works' piers on the whole Donegal coast. The interests of the fishermen of Eossgull and Fanad would have been much better served by a few conveniently-situated boat-slips, and the expenditure of money would have been immensely less. Port-na-blaugli pier must, I think, remain for ever a ridic'ulous folly, to be approached only by land, and any expenditure of public money in Sheephaven should be in deepening and widening the channel up to Dun-fanaghy. The most important and suitable site for a pier on this coast lies on Gweedore bay. The bay itselfy is a harbour of refuge, and the pier would open up the district from Dungloe to Falgarragh. I have had soundings made at the end of a reef of rocks, on which it is supposed the pier would be built, and the depth at low water in spring tides is 12 feet, and the rise of the tide here is 12 feet, so that at high water the depth alongside the pier head would be 24 feet. Even at lowest ebb small coasting steamers and ships could come alongside this pier, and any sized vessel could do so at high water. The bay is well sheltered from the west and north by a series of islands lying outside the bay like a huge break-water. There is a good passage into the bay from the east and from the west. The proposed site of the pier is known as Magheragallon. The erection of a good commercial pier here would open up a vast tract of country, so far as sea communication is concerned, and it would also prove an Immense boon to the fishermen of the district. To create a

large traffic at a pier like this, it would be necessary to open up ways of approach from the surrounding and outlying districts. For this purpose I would advocate the construction of a light railway from Letterkenny to Durtgloe, by Creeslough, Falcarrgh, and Magheragallon in Gweedore. This would be a line of about 60 miles, and would cost about £240,000. The pier at Maghera-galloii would cost between £0,000 and £10,000, and as the line of railway runs for almost all its length through a distressed and scheduled tract of country, and as the pier is in connection with the line, and for the benefit of same tract of country, I think the Government should supply the capital necessary for the execution of the work. The proposed pier would he about twelve miles by rail from Dungloe, and the proposed line would serve as a shipping place for the inexhaustible mines of beautiful granite that lie around Dungloe. I am delighted to hear that an English company have almost completed arrangements to start granite dressing and polishing on a large scale at Dungloe. The light railway to Magheragallon pier would just be the thing to export the granite of that district.

The Sligo and Liverpool steamer can call without much inconvenience ; even as it is the same steamer calls weekly in Gweedore Bay during the salmon fishing season. This proposed pier, with the light railway referred to, or with only a short line of railway from Creeslough to Dungloe, would serve the commercial wants of this immediate seaboard. The seaboard further west—from Gweebarra to Donegal—-would be best served, I think, by making Killybegs its seaport, and building there a suitable pier, and connecting the entire coast by a light railway from Donegal to Carrick, with a branch to Ardara. The execution of these several works would give employment to the thousands of migratory labourers, who proceed from those districts year after year, to England and Scotland in search of work. The earnings thus afforded would also enable the struggling peasants to reduce their now unbearable burden of debts, and possibly to replace their stock that recent bad years and pressure by landlords for impossible rents have almost entirely cleared out of the country. But it should be borne in mind that pier building is not a class of work that affords much employment for unskilled labourers, and much immediate improvement should not be expected from an outlay of money in this way. But little as may be earned by the locality is made less by the contract system that prevails. Every contractor naturally desires to make money, and hence lie employs very few untrained workers, and if he is an extensive contractor, he brings plant, horses, and men, from his centre of operations, and the work goes on without any appreciable benefit to the poor people, whose poverty and distress caused the work to be undertaken. This is a matter that deserves serious

consideration. Railway building and road making supply most unskilled labour, so that either the one or the other will bring more employment than pier building. But even works of this kind afford not that relief to districts that might be expected, owing to the same faulty contract system. But it is premature to offer an opinion on this phrase of the matter. The immediate object now is to direct attention to this important subject, and to induce all who are in a position to do so, to help in giving it practical shape. But though the benefit of the labour of construction be dealt out equally to every household, yet it cannot be lasting, and the relief at best will only be temporary. No doubt railways and piers will improve the locality exceedingly, and bring many latent powers of maintenance into play, yet withal the value of the holdings must be increased to the standard of " live and thrive," if the country he made self-supporting, and if the eternal drain by famine, eviction, aud emigration, will be stopped. How this may be done, even in Gweedore, may form the subject of another letter.

Dear Sir—By my letters on this subject I do not wish to prove or to argue that the land is unable to support the people. I only wish to show that in its present undeveloped state, the families living in Gweedore and elsewhere on the North-West seaboard of Donegal, must draw largely from extensive sources to maintain themselves; and, as a consequence, that an immense improvement must be made in the condition of the land, and the seaboard generally, before this portion of county Donegal is made self-supporting. Having once established the necessity of an improvement in this region, it then becomes the duty of the Government, at least, to inquire. In my previous letters, I established from statistics that Donegal is the poorest county in Ireland except one, and that the average valuation of its holdings is much below the level, not of a "live and thrive" point, but of a " live at all" standard. And I also proved that in the case of several parishes on this North-West sea-board, the average valuation is almost infinitely below what is necessary for families to subsist on. No person will contend that a family can subsist on an acre of land, even though it were really value for 45s per annum, and pay 45s for it. For instance, it would not be argued that a family could live on an acre of good land in Meath, where I-.good land is of that value. And I have no doubt that a holding

of 45s valuation in Meath has the same maintaining power as a holding of a like valuation in Donegal, and if the 45s holding will not maintain a family in Meath, nor will, a fortiori, a 20s holding in Gweedore support a family. On the contrary, the Gweedore holding will be the less unequal to the task, as 40 acres of rock and bog are more difficult of cultivation than one acre of good rich land. And as the average valuation of land in Gweedore in its present state is only 6d per acre, it would take 40 acres to make a holding of £1 valuation. The case is made still worse when we consider that for each acre the landlord extorts as rent, not its real value, but 300 per cent, its value. Now, as a matter of fact there are 2,107 families in Templecrone ; 1,78? in Tullaghobegley and Gweedore ; 503 families in Letter-macaward ; and 781 families in Glencolumbkille, whose average fholding is not worth an acre of good land in county Meath. Here, therefore, if anywhere is an urgent case for the serious attention of the Commission now inquiring into the development of Ireland by railways and piers, and its members will hardly discharge their obligations to the country and the Government if they will not make a full and searching inquiry into the condition of this seaboard and every conceivable way of improving it. The construction of a light railway from Letter-kenuy to Dungloe by Gweedore, and the erection of a good pier at Magheragallon, would vastly improve the locality, and raise the value of its holdings. We have an almost endless supply of excellent granite in Gweedore ; there is beautiful marble at Dunlewey ; there is a very superior sand for glass at Mnckish ; and in the parish of Tullaghobegley there is an almost inexhaustible supply of bog ore.

And one acquainted with this district will admit the necessity for a good level road for general traffic from Bedlam (in Cloghaneely) to Dungloe. The traffic should lie along the shore through the population, and the accommodation in such way is very bad. A line of road in this very course was engineered and partly made by the Board of Works in '47. It is exceedingly well laid off, and runs almost horizontal the whole way. The making of this road would give valuable employment. And if it were continued to Letterkenny by Falcarragh, Cloonbarra, Moyra mountain, Feyrnore, Loughaher, Creeslough, Barnes Gap, Stra-gaddy, Gartanlough, and Foxhall, it would employ the labourers of all the congested districts through which it would pass. If this road were made wide enough a tramway could be laid on the one side of it.

There are in the parish of Gweedore and Tullaghobegley 16 975 acres of reclaimable land, aud there are 8,935 acres only "broken in" and not sufficiently reclaimed. This affords a vast field for employment and improvement. But it requires capital

which the people hare not. There is much to be done in the way of draining, scouring, and embanking rivers, removing boulders, and raising fences. The necessity for improvement is unquestionable. I have noted some of the many ways in which that improvement may be done. Let the Government step in and take action, and supply the money. And I would urge that the money be given as a gift and not as a loan, on the ground that the districts are too poor to be taxed.

But if repayment be insisted upon, either wholly or in part, let the taxation be levied like the poor-rate, and not as county cess. I say so, because the occupiers of poor holdings in Donegal are already crushed by an unequal distribution of even the existing taxes. They pay, proportionately, far more than the landlords and the occupiers of large rich holdings. "We, here on the seaboard, that have the worst roads imaginable, narrow, and without protection, pay, proportionately, a great deal more county cess than the landlord and other gentlemen who will insist on having footpaths, stone walls, and fences made in the neighbourhood of their demenses and residences at the expense of the county. This is really a great grievance that the poor struggling householders of Donegal ought to look at. I will prove my point by one case, and a similar state of things prevail elsewhere.

In the Union of Dunfanaghy there are about 52 rich holdings. They cover 35,229 acres, or about the one-third of the entire area of the Union, and their average acreage is 1,007, and the average valuation £33. Well, there are 2,745 poor holdings, of which the average acreage is 17, and the average valuation £3. Now, you will find that 17 is contained in 1,007 fifty-nine times, and that if the holding of the rich man were valued proportionately to that of the poor man, the valuation of the holding of 1,007 acres would be £117 instead of £33. The consequence is, that the poor man is paying 500 per cent, more taxes than the rich man.

You will notice that this arises from the fact that 9,745 dwellings are valued upon the poor holdings, instead of only 52, which are valued on the rich holdings. It would seem to me, therefore, to mean ruin to the poor people to tax them for public works. And it was always inexplicable to me, and is still, how a poor Gweedore man is, has been, since its construction, and probably ever will, be contributing towards the maintenance of the ietterkenny Railway, and that, too, at the rate of 500 per cent, more than—say Mr. Olphert, of Ballyconnell, Mr. Stewart, of Horn Head, Captain Hill, or any landlord in the Union.

Local guarantees for loans in poor districts like this are out of the question ; but if there must be a guarantee let it be imposed as poor-rate.

Any attempt to deal with the development of the North-west coast of Donegal, more especirlly as regards its sea-fishing re-

sources, would be incomplete without some reference to the important fishing station of Tory Island. It is the fishing station of this coast, in fact the almost solitary case in which deep-sea, fishing is carried on. The Commission will not complete their work until they have made a prolonged visit to Tory. I hope, too, that the ''Enchantress" will visit G-weedore Bay, and that Sir James Allport will hold a sitting at Bunbeg for a full investigation of the several points I have touched in these letters.

We have been requested to publish the following letters referring to other letters which have appeared in these columns from Rev. James M'Padden, P.P., Gweedore :—

rev. sib—I am desired to inform you that the members of this Commission have now read with attention your three letters to the Derry Journal, of which you sent them copies. Time and tide did not permit them to land at Gweedore and meet you there, but they have inspected Magheragallon and Tory Island, with a view to the suggested erection of harbours there. If you have any further information to give or suggestions to make on the subjects within the scope of the reference to this Commission, they would be glad to hear from you at this address.—I am, rev. sir, your obedient servant,

Dear Sirs—If we exclude 18 rich holdings, containing over 500 acres each, the average valuation of the land of the whole Dunfanaghy Union is 3s 5d per acre. The average valuation of the acre in the parish of Tullaghobegley, which comprises Gweedore, is Is 3d. These figures prove that the average soil of the entire Union is bad, or at all events, in a backward state of culture, and that the land of Tullaghobegley is the poorest and

the worst in the union, Now, I find that the average valuation of the acre in the 18 rich holdings is only 9d (nine pence). -By this it appears that the poor holdings are paying four and a half times more in county cosh, &c., than the rich, and that in making the valuation, the basis of purchase, or fair rent, the estimate would be immeasurably above the real value, because as it is, tha calculation would be made for the 2,779 holdings at a gross valuation of £8,940, instead of £1,965, the value on level with valuation of rich holdings, I have no doubt that the occupiers of those 2,779 holdings would gladly purchase at even twenty years' purchase of a gross valuation of £1,965. In one of my printed letters I stated that the average valuation of holdings in Gweedore, excluding buildings, is about 19s. These points, strikingly picture the poverty of the people, and are useful in coming at a way of purchase. And I am strongly of opinion that the discontinuance of the dual interest is absolutely necessary in this Union for prosperity and contentment. I know it is iudispen-sible in Gweedore—because the owners of the land treat us more like wild beasts than rational fellow-creatures. They do not show even the average consideration shown by the average Irish landlord. They only approach us by legal documents and force of arms, and threats and warnings. For the past eight years, only in the year '80, did they allow any reduction in their rents. We got other benefits and reductions, but it was only through the operation of the law. We were deprived of the intended benefit of the Arrears Act by the severe methods of estate management carried out here. On the largest estate the loss to the landlord by the operations of that Act did not exceed the one-third of a year's income from the estate, though nearly every tenant on the estate took advantage of the Act. As to the public works necessary in this parish, I have already written pretty fully in those letters of which I forwarded copies. On mature consideration, I believe that the building of a commercial pier at Magheragallou, in Gweedore Bay, would be the most useful for all purposes as a first undertaking, and I think we should rest contented, for the present, at least, with a grant for this purpose. I assume, of course, a free grant. I have not the slightest desiie that Maghera-gallon be selected for the site of pier, if it is not the best and most suitable for the end in view. I think it is. Because if the pier were erected here it would not be necessary to start a special line of steamers, as ihere are already regular bi-weekly sailings between Sligo and Glasgow and Sligo and Liverpool. And the traffic at this pitr would fully warrant those steamers in calling regularly at it on the inward and outward journey without requiring any regard or subsidy. And regular sailings - to and from Berry would, I ana sure, be established, at least, if a small subsidy were granted by the Government. I believe this Would go far to meet the present wants of the district. Railways

would come in due time after the coast was developed through the water-way. It should not be forgotten that the end of railway communication is to carry goods and passengers to a seaport. We have the seaport here at our doors, and it would he impolitic if not foolish to press for a long line of railway over a barren, mountainous and moory tract of country with no population, and little else except bog and rock and heather, for the accommodation of the population which lies along the shore, which furnishes an excellent outlet by the sea, without first developing the seaway. I hope you will give the matter full consideration, and that amongst the many suggestions you may make for the improvement of this locality, you will not forget to recommend and to urge the erection of a commercial pier at Magheragallon.—Yours respectfully,

Landlord.	No. of Cases.	Old Bent.	Judicial Rent.	$o. of Appeals by Landlord.	Average Reduction.	Observations
		£ s d.	£ s d.
Captain Hill	84	153 14 1	95 9 0	84	38 per Cent.	S.v. Mahony would insist
						on a much greater re-
Captain Hill	188	329 2 4	246 19 2	110	25 „ „	duction in S4 cases.
Mr. Nixon	45	88 11 8	61 13 1	11	30 „ „	«
Mrs. Stewart	6	10 11 6	830	3	20 „ „
Mr. Key	19	65 0 6	48 10 11	0	28 „ „
Mr. Joule	28	54 8 4	37 19 6	0	30 „ „	Mr. MahonyVould iasisfc
						on 35 per cent, reduc-
						tion, but was overborne
Mr. Olphert	18	28 0 6	21 2 0	9	£o j> r>	by his two colleagues.
Earl of Leitrim	Townland of			Settled by
	Moneymore	41 10 0	26 10 0	Agreement oul	35 5? «
				of Court.
Mr. Heburn	Dunlewey Property,	142 0 0	97 0 0	Settled by Agreement ou( of Court.	3 85 » t>

Charles Boyle, . .	. 2 5 10 .140	190 110	Confirmed Reduced to 18s
F- 5°yi_e'			Dismissed : not in occu.
Owen Boyle	.126	0 19 0	Dismissed : do, Confirmed.
0 Boyle,	. 1 15 0	160	Confirmed.
n Boyle,	. 3 12 0	2 11 0	Confirmed.
\j. .La^v* ' p. Boyle,	.100	0 12 6	Confirmed.
James Boyle, . .	. 1 14 8	0 19 0	Raised to £1 4s
j¹ M. Boyle,	. 4 17 0	2 11 0	Raised to £2 17s
Paddy Boyle, James Boyle, sen ,	.268 . 1 10 0	160 0 18 0	Confirmed. Raised to £1 Is.
p. Gallagher,	.150	096	Raised to 1 3s.
Manus Gallagher	. 1 10 0	0 18 0	Confirmed.
James Gallagher,	,. 3 12 0	2 16 0	Confirmed.
Widow M. Gallagher,	1 4 9	0 16 0	Confirmed.
Hugh Gallagher, Con Gallagher,	,.213 . 168	1 17 0 190	Confirmed Confirmed
Owen Gallagher,	.. 100	0 15 0	Reduced to 13s.
Widow H. Gallagher,	.. 1 13 6	1 11 0	Confirmed.
H. Gallagher,	.. 1 14 8	150	Confirmed.
William Gallagher,	.. 0 13 0	0 10 0	Confirmed
Charles M'Hugh,	.. 3 16 10	200	Raised to £2 6s
P, Outran,	.. 1 15 4	1 5 0	Confirmed.
S. M'Gee,	.. 2 16 0	1 11 0	Confirmed.
James M'Gee,	.. 1 IB 9	1 4 0	Reduced to £1 2s
P. M'Garvev,	.. 0 10 0	0 10 0	Confirmed.
H. M'Ge'ehan,	. . 0 15 0	0 9 0	Confirmed.
M, M'Fadden,	.. 120	120	Reduced to £1.
Corn. Gallagher,	. . 11 0	0 17 0	Confirmed.
D. Gallagher,	. . 2 IS 4	1 17 0	Confirmed.
A. Gallagher,	. . 0 12 0	0 10 0	Confirmed.
J, Green,	.. 2 10 0	170	Confirmed.
•Tames Gillespio,	. . 2 5 (1	1 2 0	liaised to £1 10s.
•I. O'Donnell,	.. i la u	1 5 0	Confirmed.
P. O'Donnell,	.. ] 40	100	Confirmed.
N. O'Donnell,	.. 229	1 10 0	Confirmed.
H. O'Donnell,	..208	1 12 0	Confirmed.
D. O'Donnell,	.. 0 14 0	0 10 6	Confirmed.
M. O'Donnell,	..286	150	Confirmed.
B. O'Donnell,	.. 163	0 19 0	Confirmed.
A. O'Donnell,	.. 140	0 16 6	Confirmed.
0. O'Donnell,	.. 1 16 0	156	Confirmed.
B. O'Donnell,	.. 186	0 18 6	Confirmed.
Art. O'Donnell,		_t ₍	Adjourned.
0. Doherty,	'.. 2 10 6	1 18 6	Confirmed.
J- Doherty,	..200	199	Confirmed.
H. Doherty,	..170	120	Reduced to 18s.
#• Doherty,	.. 0 12 6	0 10 0	Confirmed.
D. Doherty,	.. 2 10 0	1 7 6	Confirmed.
M. Doogan,	.. 200	1 2 6	Confirmed.
A. Doogan,	.. 134	0 17 0	Reduced to 15s.
/• i^oogan,	.. 2 10 8	2 6 0	Reduced to £2.
*. Doogan,	.. 3 18 2	280	Biased to £2 12s
• Doogan	. . 2 5 4	140	Confirmed.
_'J'he total change	on appeal in	the seventv-one eases is a reduction of
. ^l ^;JS Od, and on the '"crease of 9s 6d.	fifty-lour cases on Captain H		Hill's estates is only an

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