wholly neglected, except for a little I had done on it myself during the previous five or six years. There were not only many poor tenants, but a still larger number of poorer laborers, often unemployed, and whose ordinary wages, when they were employed, were only 6d. per day, or 3s. per week, and even that they were grateful to get. I paid 4s., and was thought liberal. dence with regard to either. No one There was an immense population and M. BETHAM-Edwards. From The Contemporary Review. "BOYCOTTED." SOME EXPERIENCES IN IRELAND DURING IN order to make the outrage com- I have actually lived in Ireland for thirty-eight years since 1843. For the last twenty years, since our children were of age to require better teaching than could be had in Ireland, I have had a house in London, and came here for three to five months every year. For the first thirty years of my life my home was in Suffolk, on the very edge of Norfolk, and except for the absences that a public school and university and the bar required, I lived there, as most of the sons of country gentlemen live, and with the same tastes and habits. for good could be made on it by the utmost one could do, it was plainly impossible. To try to bale out the sea would have been as likely to succeed; but it was the plain duty of those to whom God had given property in the country, to do what we could, and with that object alone my wife and I went over and settled there three or four months after our marriage. My Suffolk taste for farming made living in Ireland less unpleasant to me personally. I had no agent, but managed the estate wholly myself, with a Scotch bailiff for the small farm I then held, whose business it was to go amongst the tenants and teach them how to grow clover and turnips, of which before they knew nothing at all. It was in the very height of O'Connell's agitation for Repeal of the Union, and the country was much disturbed. That I could make a residence in Ireland profitable, by farming myself, and improving land, never crossed my mind; it would have seemed unpractical folly to expect such a result. To rescue the estate from further decline was the most that I thought could be done. In Norfolk, where most of my knowledge of farming was got, it was thought that a gentleman could not make farming pay. The general opinion was, that whatever a gentleman could honestly make out of a farm in his own hands, a responsible tenant could afford to pay him for it as rent, and make a living out of it besides. For some years before I settled in Ireland I had managed the estate, going over twice a year for the purpose. Besides being very much out of order, it was much in arrear of rent. The first When I married in 1843, I settled in step was to wipe off nearly all the arrears, Ireland, wholly as a duty. It was very telling the tenants that, in future, whatdistasteful to me, and still more to my ever rent any one had promised, he would wife. But in those days there was no have to pay regularly. That no one would doubt that it was right to do so. be turned out, except for non-payment of It was before the great famine of 1846. | rent, or very gross misconduct, and no 1776 one's rent be raised during his life. So | 40s. per acre as rent and interest on every one held as if he had a lease for capital. Of course, improvements of all his life. The rent days were fixed, July 6th and Dec. 6th, as the most convenient periods for the tenants. The result very soon was great regularity of payment. For years I sat down to receive rents at II A.M., and by 3 P.M. half a year's rent was lodged in the bank. There was no pressing, and not a rough word was used. Only good-will and friendliness appeared on both sides. There were, of course, occasional defaulters, but only from indolence and drink. These were forgiven all the rent they owed, and allowed to take away whatever stock and goods they had, and given a few pounds besides. Their land was applied to enlarge the farms of those who remained and were thriving. The improvement in the circumstances of the tenants, and the increase in the number and quality of their stock were wonderful. No stranger being brought in, but the land of all who were turned out being divided among those who remained, tenants being turned out became a pleasure to all except the poor fellows who had to leave. Still the whole system rested on potato growing, and when the potatoes failed, in the great famine of 1846, a number of tenants collapsed. These nearly all emigrated, as did numbers of laborers; we have often since heard of them as doing well. Abatements of rent had to be freely given, till the effect of the famine had passed. Then the same system of order and regularity was resumed. Such order is very much disliked in Ireland, but I attribute great importance to it; it has gone on ever since, and the tenants, with very few exceptions, have steadily prospered. They are much better off than on most other estates near. Some are wealthy men, and a great many are comfortable. My rent has always been easily and regularly paid, and disputes or differences between them and me have been simply unknown. Of the land given up to me during the famine, much remained in my own hands. I found I could not let it again at the old rent; so, at first, I farmed it myself, with the intention of re-letting it when times mended. But when I found it was pay. ing I kept it in my own hands. The old rents were 17s. per acre on an average. For many years I have cleared a profit of 20s. an acre beyond the 175. viz. 37s. Some years I have cleared a total of over sorts have been carried on. All wet land throughout the whole estate has been drained, except one bog, from which there is no outfall. Old fences have been levelled, and new ones made. Many cottages for laborers built, twenty-two good ones of two stories, and great employment given in every kind of improvement. All tenants turned out were offered work, if they chose to do it. A year ago I had between thirty and forty men regularly at work, paying £25 per week as wages-£1,300 per annum. We gave 3s. a week higher wages than any one else near. Our farm was flourishing, and so we could afford it, and it seemed a means of raising the condition of our people; 135. per week included the value of cottage, garden, and potato ground in the field (as much as each had manure for), which together I valued at 25. per week. These were the wages of ploughmen and all our best men: Ios. a week was the lowest the inferior men got. In many cases more than one member of a family was employed. One family drew, in cash, for two or three years, 395. per week. In sickness half wages were allowed, besides other help. A penny club provided blankets and flannel and other clothes at small cost. I have been assured, by one who had good means of knowing, that before we went there no laborer had a blanket, and very few farmers. Now they abound, and even coverlets and sheets. One woman is believed to have taken a blanket every Christmas for over thirty years past. No one can guess what she did with them. Any signs of poverty or want have long been unknown among them. When, now and then, a new family happened to come as laborers, the change in their appearance after a few weeks was striking. With the laborers, as with the tenants, anything like quarrels or disputes were unknown. A jog now and then, to keep them up to their work, was the most. Every sort of relation between us and them, their wives and children, and my wife and children, were as friendly as can be conceived, and in any troubles and sickness they always came first to us. The former house on the property had been stolen by a tenant in old times, who used the doors, windows, staircases, chimney-pieces, etc. in a house for himself on land which he had near. I had, therefore, to build a new house on a different site, where I made a charming place; and there we lived, in, as far as could be seen, There was not one shilling of arrear 1878 had no doubt been a bad year, but grave, and a threatening notice was stuck on the door. The hole was about six inches deep; and as the notice said it was to hold both my son and myself, who are both more than six feet high (he is six feet six inches) and not slight, it did not appear to be a very practical threat; so the gardener filled up the hole, and we laughed at it. The rent day, December 7, was on a Tuesday, and on Monday there was a large fair at Clonakilty, where threats were again freely used. A most respectable old tenant, who was known to be especially friendly with us, and who is rich, and had no trouble in paying his rent, was going home from the fair in a car in the dusk, when three men rushed at him and threw a glass of water in his face, to prove how easily they could have thrown vitriol. By the side of the road along which most of the tenants came to my house there were the ruins of an old cabin. In these some men hid themselves on the morning of the rent day; and, as they saw a tenant coming up, they ran out and thrust before his face a sort of placard on a stick, threatening him if he paid. EVERYTHING went on as usual until the month of November. Our district is usually a quiet one, and the people of a good sort. We saw accounts of the do- It is necessary to know the people and ings of the Land League in other parts of the country to realize the amount of fear the country, and we knew a few men, of such threats caused. Many were threatno weight or character, made a talk on ened four times, a frequency that could the subject in the towns near, and held not have been necessary had they been some meetings, but they and the meet-known to partake in earnest in the views ings were alike contemptible. In Novem- of the Land Leaguers. It was known ber reports began that our tenants would that an ill-conditioned, inferior shopnot pay their rents as usual on December keeper, who holds some town fields near 7; that only the poor-law or Griffith's Clonakilty from me, was active in the valuation would be paid. Knowing the League, and two or three country tenants men's circumstances, I did not believe had also taken more or less part in it. the reports; and their characters made But most of the tenants had nothing to me certain that, however they might be do with it, though no doubt they would led into it by others, who might make have no objection to profit by it, if it was them believe they would gain by refusing possible without burning their own finto pay, a spontaneous movement of the gers. That would have been too great a sort was very unlikely. I therefore took height of virtue for such men to attain. no notice of the reports, and went about among them as freely as usual. None of them said one word to me on the subject, or said they were ill off, or asked for any reduction, or even for time to make up their rent. About a week before December 7 every tenant received a threatening letter by post with a halfpenny stamp on it, open at the end, warning him on no account to pay more than Griffith's valuation. Similar threatening notices were posted in the town of Clonakilty and the neighborhood. One night a hole was dug in the grass near my hall door to represent a With very few exceptions, and these caused wholly by drink, they were all more than able to pay their rent easily. The year, as I have said, had been very favorable in our district, both in produce and prices of all kinds. At the usual hour for paying they assembled at our gate, and a kind of informal meeting was held, from which, however, some kept aloof. The rents of a few happened to be less than Griffith's valuation. These came in and paid as usual. Altogether I received about £100 instead of £1,300. A deputation of four of the largest ten A ants then came in, and asked me to take | feed them was not pleasant. They Griffith's valuation. I wholly refused, thought this would surely upset me. telling them they had done well at their present rents for many years when times were good, and though times had been less good for two or three years, they had not been bad to such an extent as to make a reduction of rent right; and 1880 had been a capital year in all respects. Nothing could be more civil than they were, nor did I use a hard word to them. Their chief anxiety seemed to be to entreat that I would not blame them for not paying, and to assure me that it was only the threats that had stopped them. I had had a message from one of these very men a day or two before to say I need not be afraid. He had the rent ready, and would pay soon. Another very old man lingered behind to tell me he had the rent in his pocket, and would pay it if I told him to do so; but he hoped I should not tell him. Of course I did not tell him to pay, but told him to go home, and leave me the rent in his will, in which way the Land League could not hurt him. At which he laughed heartily. They went away at last without paying. I told them finally that they could do as they pleased, and I should do as I pleased. From the window of the room where I sat I could see in the direction of the hall door, near which the rest of the tenants were; but it was plain they were very anxious to keep out of sight of the window. I could see them dodging round corners and getting quickly out of sight in a way that made me laugh. In fact I only got to know from others who were, or were not there. The whole thing was the most sheepish piece of foolishness ever seen. I was told that when they again got outside the gate, before they separated, a second kind of a meeting was held. One suggested that all should pay Griffith's valuation into the hands of two or three, who should lodge it in the bank; but they were far too wise for that kind of dodge. Some paid their money into the bank in their own names, and when lately they paid me, sent me word it had been there safely all the time. During the following days rumors went about that our laborers would all be taken away, because we refused to obey the Land League. As I farm about one thousand acres, and have on them nearly one thousand head of stock, the prospect of having these left suddenly with nobody to flock of sheep were eating turnips on a hill facing our house, and we used to look the first thing in the morning to see whether the two men whose business it was to cut turnips I put them into troughs, and shift the fold, were still at work. At last, at the end of the week, threatening notices were sent to all our laborers, including coachman and gamekeeper, mason and carpenter; and on Monday morning all ceased to work except one who had lately come out of hospital after rheumatic fever. During his illness we had helped his wife and children. My land steward talked to the men during the previous week, and they promised fairly, that come what would, they would not leave our stock to starve. But all went away, nevertheless. They all stopped work, as I said, except one laborer and two dairymaids. The coachman came for a few days early in the morning, and after dark to feed and do up the horses. The carpenter now and then went to the farm to do small jobs: one of the dairymaids soon gave up work. So we were left to our own resources. The garrison consisted of myself, my daughter, and son. My wife and another daughter had been obliged to leave home a week before to take care of a younger boy who had scarlatina at Rugby. had our household servants, all English but one. The gardener, also English, and the one garden laborer. We At the farm were Mr. D. Law, the Scotch land steward, and his two sons, one sixteen and the other fourteen, his daughter and the one dairy-maid. After a time a capital man came, William Brown, whom I had brought over twentyfive years before from Wraxall, Somerset, as gardener, and his son and daughter, neither very strong. He had been in business for some time on his own account, and was doing a job of building for me in Cork, which was just about to stop for the winter. Two policemen were sent to our house to protect us; and a large house at the village, a mile off and half-way to the farm, was used as a temporary barracks for four more police. There was room in this house also for four or six laborers, to whom the police were a convenient protection. A drunken tenant had been turned out of the farm a few months before. He would, no doubt, have been reinstated by the mob, as happened to a | having helped to Boycott us. After a fortnight the police authorities The gov ernment tried to get evidence, but none could be had, as is always the case under such circumstances in Ireland. Twice in the following week a number of our former laborers were seen loitering about the village. They were joined by the Roman Catholic priest, and some informal meetings were held. No evidence could be got of what passed at them. There were dragoons at Bandon, ten miles off, and once they patrolled out to us, stayed an hour and returned home. I had about sixty head of cattle tied They did good, as showing that help could up in stalls fattening. There was a score be had, if wanted. The talk afterwards of very fine, half-bred, shorthorn bullocks was that "the country was red with among them, not yet two years old, only them." After a week or two a company half fat, but which, having had cake and of marines was sent to Clonakilty, three corn on the grass all summer, were in miles off, and they too now and then pa- beautiful condition, as stores, thriving, trolled in our direction. growthy beasts that were sure to pay well. I was very anxious to have as little pro- | There were also between two and three tection as possible, so that if we suc- hundred sheep, fattening on turnips. ceeded in fighting through successfully, There were, besides, near one hundred it might not be from the weight of protec- cows, two hundred ewes, and as many tion given us. younger sheep (stores), and the balance was young cattle of different sorts and ages. It was needful to steer between running any unwise risk of outrage, and being over protected. In the case of the outrage upon Captain Boycott in Connaught, such an army was sent to protect him and his helpers, as made it clear to all that similar protection could be given to very few; the resources of the British army would have been insufficient for that purpose. It soon came to our knowledge that at the Roman Catholic chapel of the parish in which my farm lies, after mass on Sunday morning, my laborers were all called into the vestry (or sacristy, as they name it), where was the priest, and a publican from Clonakilty, connected with the Land League there. As is usual in such cases, the priest professed to be ignorant of what they came for, and asked them what they wanted? To this they gave no answer, but the matter soon was opened all the same. The man asked, "Who will pay us our wages?" It was answered, "How much do you get?" To which they seem to have replied truly. The publican then came forward and said they should be paid by the League at Clonakilty, and the priest confirmed him, undertaking to see them paid. One of themselves said, "There must be no black sheep." Nothing was said as to how long their wages should be paid. This is all that came out. If proof could have been got of it, no doubt it was enough, with what happened afterwards, to justify an indict. ment against the priest and publican for The Christmas market at Bristol was on the Thursday following; so, for fear of what might come, we ascertained that there was room for them on the Bristol steamer, and on Monday night sent a lot off to Cork for the Tuesday steamer. We sent all the fat beasts and the score of shorthorn bullocks, thirty in all, so as to lessen by half the number and work of feeding those fattening, and also forty fat sheep. The half-fat bullocks were to try Bristol market; and, if they did not sell well, to go on by train to Sir Thomas Acland, at Killerton, to whom we often send store stock, who was willing to keep what he wanted himself, and his man would sell the rest to advantage. They were so good that my Scotchman said he could have cried, when he saw them turned out of the stalls, that he had not to finish them for the butcher. Getting clear of them of course relieved us much. In the previous week, having sent three cart-loads of oats in ordinary course to Bandon market for sale, they were followed about the town by a howling mob who would let no one buy them. And they were not sold. As our stock had to take the rail at Bandon, we feared they would be stopped there by the mob. They started early in the night, the police escorting them, and the Bandon police meeting them there. I suppose they were not expected, as they were trucked and sent off without trou |