THE GOVERNMENT AND THE EVICTED TENANTS.
IT is evident that the Government are going to be placed in a position of intolerable difficulty in regard to the evicted tenants. On Sunday last, the " South of Ireland Evicted Tenants' Association " held a meeting at Cork, and received a report from their Honorary Secretary, Mr. John O'Connor, who described to them his recent interview with Mr. John Morley. Mr. O'Connor on that occasion pointed out, he says, that it was no good to appoint a Royal Com- mission, as " the Government must have been in possession of all the facts when they voted for Mr. James O'Kelly's Bill,"—a Bill, it will be remembered, proposed by the Nationalists for the reinstatement of the evicted tenants. "The postponement of a settlement," he went on, "until next spring would immensely increase their difficulties. A number of farms had been grabbed since Mr. Balfour's Act of 1891 and the passing of the 13th clause. The landlords apparently thought it to their interest to plant farms, and he impressed upon Mr. Morley that for the next six months it would be the game of the landlords to plant all the vacant farms, and that the evicted tenants would not stand quietly by and see their farms grabbed or planted, that the law would probably be broken, and that Mr. Morley, in the discharge of his duty, would have to call upon the forces of the Crown to uphold the law. He also pointed out that the immediate reinstatement of these tenants, so far from hindering Home-rule, would remove a block in its way." In regard to this, we are told that Mr. Morley "did not disagree with any of these views, and he pledged himself to do all he could for them." Mr. O'Connor then said, " Is that all the answer I can bring back to the evicted tenants ?" whereupon, we are told, " Mr. Morley made the statement which has been already published, to the effect that the Government were con- sidering the best means of meeting their wishes, which. they had already by their votes admitted to be reasonable and desirable in the public interests." Such is the problem of the evicted tenants with which the Gladstonian Party are confronted. It is a problem worth considering in detail, in order to discover what chance there is that a solution will be found. We have no desire to start with any general declaration that the present Government have no right to do anything to help the evicted tenants, or to say that on abstract grounds those persons should be made to drink the cup of their own folly and wickedness to the dregs. No doubt they, strictly speaking, deserve such a fate, for nothing could have been meaner or baser than the way in which they repudiated lawful obligations, which they were perfectly able to fulfil, at the bidding of the land agitators. On grounds of expediency and public policy, we should, however, be glad to see them relieved from the consequences of the fraudulent tactics which they pursued in regard to the landlords. Whichever side wins on the Home-rule ques- tion, we desire to see the land war put an end to. Anything, therefore, that would quench the last sparks of agrarian disorder would be welcome. Could, then, Mr. Morley find some just and reasonable plan for solving the problem of the evicted tenants, we should rejoice as heartily as any Gladstonian. But the question is, can any such plan be discovered ? We believe that none can be found. If the evicted tenants were a body of men who had been turned out of their homes because the pressure of famine had made it impossible for them to pay their rents, their case might be a strong one. As a matter of fact, however, they are nothing of the kind. With possibly a few ex- ceptions, they are men who engaged in the " Plan of Cam- paign,"—combined, that is, to extort from their landlords, by an organised strike, rents lower than those fixed by the Courts. It was never seriously alleged that they could not pay their rents. Indeed, they again and again openly boasted that they could pay, but that, so great was their patriotism, they would not pay. For example, early in 1887, Mr. John Dillon, M.P., reminded Mr. Roe, the land agent, that he could show him " men who can pay and won't pay, because I tell them not to pay Men who avow that they can pay and refuse to pay, because they are in the Plan of Campaign."—(Freeman, January 24th, 1887.) That language of this sort was habitually and advisedly used is a matter of common knowledge. A moment's reflection will show, indeed, that the " Plan of Campaign " was not necessary for any one who really could not pay. The ordinary law, with its elaborate safeguards as to fair rent and fixity of tenure, and its provisions to prevent evictions in cases where the tenant had entered into an agreement too heavy for him to carry out, afforded quite sufficient protection. Indeed, it was notorious that the poor tenants on a Campaign estate were not allowed to join the " Plan " and be evicted. There might have been difficulties as to their ability to contribute to the war- chest, and they were accordingly left out of the com- bination. Under these circumstances, nothing remained for landlords confronted with the " Plan of Campaign " but to evict, or to allow their land to be confiscated. Can we blame them for evicting ? But when they had evicted, they had either to let their estates to new tenants, or else to work them themselves. In most cases, though not till after a great deal of difficulty and a great deal of expenditure, they succeeded in getting new tenants. These were very often Ulster Protestants, attracted by the low rents of the South, and capable of disregarding the intimi- dation of a patriotic mob. These new tenants have, again, often bought their holdings under the Purchase Acts. Thus, reinstating the evicted tenants means, in most cases, either turning out tenants who have acquired the special status of an Irish tenant, that is, of an occupier with fixity of tenure secured to him by law—a tenure so privileged that, while the tenant pays the rent fixed by an impartial Court, he is as secure as an English copyholder —or else turning out freeholders who have a Parliamentary title to their freeholds. That the friends of the evicted tenants realise this is clear from Mr. John O'Connor's speech. " Mr. Byrne," said Mr. O'Connor, " thought the chief difficulty the Government had was the fact that many of the present occupiers of evicted farms had purchased under Lord Ashbourne's Act. If these men could show that they had effected improvements on the farms, they ought to be compensated ; if not, they should be sent adrift." It is, of course, all very well to say this sort of thing to the " South of Ireland Evicted Tenants' Association," but Mr. Morley knows perfectly well that no Government could begin its legislative work by a Bill to evict certain scheduled tenants from their holdings. The gross injustice of such a course would be too patent ; yet nothing short of an Act would do, for without special legislation the legal position of the plantation tenants is perfectly secure. Is there any other plan by which Mr. Morley could satisfy the evicted tenants ? No doubt Mr. Morley could make things smooth by allowing every evicted tenant ..t1 a week out of the Imperial Exchequer, but this is a plan hardly likely to find favour with the House of Commons. Equally impracticable is Mr. O'Connor's plan of getting " the Treasury, with the sanction of the Privy Council, to advance money for the purpose of reinstating the evicted tenants." The only scheme that would be legal and possible would be for Mr. Morley to get Parliament to vote a quarter of a milllion to be spent in buying, under voluntary arrangements, the tenant's rights in a certain number of farms, and in placing the evicted tenants in those farms. That the House of Commons will be likely to assent to such a course we should be very sorry to affirm. That, however, is the only possible outcome of the promises that we are now given to understand Mr. Morley has made. It will be interesting to see whether the Chief Secretary will have the courage to act up to his promises. That the Government have placed themselves in a false position by not plainly telling the land agitators at the beginning that they could not help the evicted tenants, is quite evident. It is clear, too, that they will sooner or later have to tell them so, and that every day the step is delayed it becomes more difficult. When the inevitable announcement does come, there is one member of the Cabinet whose position will not be a very enviable one. Mr. Shaw-Lefevre will at once be reminded by his Irish friends of certain speeches made by him when in opposition, in which he plainly gave the evicted tenants to understand that the Liberal Party, if victorious, would see them through. The important passages in these speeches, which have been collected in " Notes from Ireland," are worth quoting. At Woodford, on December 10th, 1889, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, after speaking of the " Plan of Campaign " tenants, and alluding to the victory which he declared the Gladstonian Party would obtain at the polls, went on to say :—" There cannot be a doubt that within a month after such a victory on the hustings every emergency-man will have fled the country, and every bogus tenant will have resolved himself into his original elements, and agreement will be come to, if not voluntarily, by some legislative process."— (United Ireland, December 14th, 1889.) Next week, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre was presented with the freedom of Drogheda, a town close to the Massereene Estate. In his reply, the First Commissioner of Works, after advising the Mas- sereene tenants to stand firm, declared :—" The day cannot be far distant when the General Election' will take place, and I have not the slightest doubt that after the General Election the Liberal majority will prevail again. I believe that the first act of that Liberal majority will be to bring to a conclusion those disputes, on equitable grounds, in such a manner that the evicted tenants will be replaced in their holdings."—(United Ireland, December 21st, 1889.) In the face of these declarations, it is difficult to see how Mr. Shaw- Lefevre can remain in office,—unless, of course, the Govern- ment undertakes the reinstatement of the evicted tenants. But, as we have pointed out above, this reinstatement will be impossible without an evicting Act. It is all very well to talk about voluntary agreements ; but even if the land- lords were willing, they could not make such agreements. The men now in occupation of the " evicted" farms will not leave them unless they are bought out, and the Govern- ment has no funds out of which it can legally make the necessary purchases. Some of them might, perhaps, be terrorised into giving up their farms by the employment of moonlighters ; but we do not for a moment believe that Mr. Morley would do anything to tolerate such practices, or would refuse police protection to the " planted" tenants. In any case, outside help would be sure to be forthcoming to help the planted tenants. The men in England who raised funds to help in planting the Campaign estates would, we feel certain, regard themselves as bound in honour to render legal and pecuniary assistance to the farmers whom they induced to accept the perilous position of tenants on a Campaign estate. The long and short of the whole matter is, that the friends of the evicted tenants have been deceived. The Gladstonians have gained their help by vague words of encouragement, but no substantial acts can be the out- come of that encouragement. In a few instances, and where the farms were not planted, but still remain derelict, pressure exercised from the Castle may be sufficient to induce the landlords to reinstate. The majority of the evicted tenants, however, can never be reinstated. This is a truth which very soon the Irish Members will learn from Mr. Gladstone. Doubtless the pill will be oratorically gilded, but it will be none the less bitter. But if the evicted tenants must abandon all hope of ever re-entering the farms which they wilfully abandoned, what is to be done with them ? In our opinion, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre and the other Englishmen and Irishmen who helped to delude these unfortunate "fraudulent debtors" should raise sub- scriptions for the purpose of sending them to America. Their places at home have been filled, and the sooner they are given another chance in a new country, the better for them and for the peace of Ireland.
Previous page
