Two Irish Nationalist Members, Mr. John O'Donnell and Mr. Jasper
Tully, were sentenced to two months' and one month's imprisonment respectively by the Resident Magis- trates on Tuesday at Ballymote, Co. Sligo. The action grew out of the troubles on the De Freyne estate, and the defend- ants were charged with exerting coercion on the landlord by holding an illegal assembly, at which they incited tenants to enter into a criminal conspiracy not to pay their rents. The case for the Crown was entirely directed to proving that the meeting was illegal, not by reason of circumstances of _appre- hended violence, but because of its intent, which was to terrorise or interfere with the rights of others, and hold up persons to odium for exercising the rights which the law gave them. The question of the jurisdiction of the Court having been challenged, the defendants were all allowed out on their recognisances, pending the decision of the higher Courts. Counsel for the Crown contrasted the defiant attitude of the defendants at the meeting, when they courted imprisonment, with their energetic efforts to secure an acquittal. But that contrast has always existed It remains to be seen how far such prosecutions will affect the operations of the United Irish League. If, as some observers allege, its scope is far less limited, and its basis far less secure or defensible, than its predecessor's, candidates for martyrdom will be few and far between.
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