23 JANUARY 1886, Page 2

Lord Salisbury received on Tuesday a series of deputations from

societies formed to sustain the action of the existing law in Ireland,—from the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union, from the Irish Defence Union, and from the London branch of the Loyal Orange Institution of England. The cry of all the deputations was the same,—that the law is now powerless throughout the greater part of Ireland, and is superseded by the tyranny of the National League. Its so-called " Courts " quash decisions of the regular Courts in the country, and its decisions take effect. A farmer who had obeyed its orders gave the following reason for doing so :—" We cannot fight against public opinion ; the Government will not protect us, and the country cannot. By all accounts, Parliament will give Home-rule, when the people will do as they please." Major Saunderson, in a very able speech, stated,—what Mr. Healy in the House of Conimons subsequently absolutely denied,—that a written order of the National League in Newbridge, County Kildare, assured the labourers that no labourer could have any advantage from the Labourers' Act unless be could pro- duce a National League ticket. The most hideous instances of cowardly tyranny were given,—the stoning of women ; the deliberate worrying of a boycotted woman by a dog ; the boy- cotting of corpses, so that it was impossible to bury them for many days. The Provost of Trinity College said that teachers were boycotted, and so ruined, if they did not please the National League. The National Parliament, if granted, would be chosen from the very people who had instituted the whole boycotting system, and who would then enforce it with tenfold rigour. The mercantile men declared that Ireland was on the verge of ruin, and that no concession of local liberties would do anything but accelerate that ruin, unless the law were enforced and restored to full authority before such liberties were granted. Major Sannderson's significant remark that it would be better to cat the bonds with Ireland altogether, and let the Irish " fight it out among themselves," than leave matters as they are, evoked the loudest cheering from the members of these deputations. Lord Salisbury, in reply, simply thanked the deputations for the very important information they had given him, and assured them of the great weight he attached to their representations.