The Inception and Suppression of the "Old Land League of Ireland" [pp. 23-33]

THE "OLD LAND LEAGUE OF IRELAND."
What struck me most of all was the real, genuine, and unaffected earnestness of the several speakers. There was no display of ornate language; empty and unmeaning platitudes were
avoided. Every word was full of meaning, and seemed to
come directly from the heart. Even at the small rural meetings, at which the orators of the day were selected from the surrounding farmers or shop-keepers, there was a simple pathos and
persuasiveness in the arguments which they advanced in condemnation of the land system that appealed directly to the common sense of their auditors.
A great deal has been said about the manner in which the
Land League endeavored to enforce its edicts; that boycotting
was not the only weapon in its armory, and that incendiary fires,
mutilation of cattle, and murder itself were among the means
employed to promulgate its doctrines. The Phoenix Park case
gives the lie direct to the last part of the accusation; and as to
the others, I can only say that I have had seventeen years' experience as a police-officer, a great portion of which time was spent
in what are, by euphemism, denominated disturbed districts. I
have frequently had occasion to visit cases of alleged malicious
burnings or injury to cattle, almost invariably with the result
that I felt in my own mind a doubt amounting to a conviction
that no outrage had been committed, and that the injury complained of was the result of accident or attributable to some
cause capable of an innocent solution.
As to boycotting, it evidently had its origin in the practice
pursued in higher and more refined quarters of sending people to
Coventry.
Is boycotting of the most pronounced and practical kind unknown in Dublin Castle? What name is to be applied to the
system which openly excludes Roman Catholics from almost
every office of trust and emolument under the crown in Ireland, unless as scullions or stable-helps? Catholics have but little
to do with the distinguished staff composing the lord-lieutenant's household. Their names are few and far between in the list
of privy councillors. In the chief secretary's and constabulary
departments they are literally unknown, whilst among the resident magistrates, county and sub-inspectors of police, their numbers are so contemptibly infinitesimal that they are scarcely
worth noticing. What name is to be applied to the extraordinary practice, which was repeated over and over again in
courts of justice, of sneeringly ordering every Roman Catholic
to stand by as he presented himself to be sworn, and finally try
I 886.]
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