Reassured by Mr. Birrell's persiflage, Mr. Ginnell delivered a speech
at Kilskeer, Co. Meath, on Sunday last, which constitutes the gravest indictment of the Chief Secretary's administration of Ireland that has yet been placed on record. He sarcastically contrasted the tone of Mr. Birrell's "brave words" at Southampton with his previous encourage- ment of the people's desire to have the land in Dublin, and declared that "those who were in earnest about getting the ranches broken up gave no heed to what Mr. Birrell intended to put in his Bill ; but acting on the advice he gave in Dublin, they used the hazel with courage and energy. Neither by open coer- cion nor by doing meaner things under the ordinary law could
Mr. Birrell save the ranchers He [Mr. Ginnell] had given his advice openly and he would continue to give it, and would help to put it into practice everywhere that he got the oppor- tunity." In a speech at Kells, Co. Meath, on the previous evening, Mr. Ginnell claimed that he had stirred up a seething agitation in the County Meath which all the forces of Dublin Castle would not quell until the bullocks were cleared off the ranches, and he recommended the labourers and workers to withhold their custom from any shopkeepers who held a ranch. We may also note that another Nationalist M.P., Mr. John P. Hayden, boasted at Boyle, Co. Roscommon, on Sunday that the Crown was not able to find a jury of twelve Irishmen to declare cattle-driving a crime. On the other hand, Dr. Healy, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, has condemned cattle-driving as both illegal and immoral, and a letter to that effect was read. at the Masses throughout the archdiocese on Sunday.
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