Referring to the sensational views of evictions, some of which
had been exhibited under limelight in that very hall, Sir Henry James produced his evidence that many of the most impressive of those evictions had been got up under the influence of the National League, which desired above all things to see solvent tenants evicted in order that the landlords might be starved out, and that their unpopularity in Ireland might grow, and grow rapidly. He remarked on the fact that some of these solvent tenants,—tenants with plenty of money to pay their rent, but unwilling to pay it,—are such strong Leaguers, that they really acquiesce in evictions not unlikely to ruin them, only in order to play into the hands of the League and to undermine the landlords. Sir Henry James warmly praised Mr. Arthur Balfour's firm administration of Ireland, under which crime had rapidly dwindled and the worst kind of boycotting had been almost extinguished. Liberal Unionists had, he said, nothing better to do than to support heartily such an administration.
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