The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-12-18 00:00:00

THE AGITATION IN IRELAND.

The DtoZ;lin Correpondent of The Times, writing on Monday,
Ya

"Mr. Bence Jones has been 'Boycotted.' Every
fnerßon in his e mpl oyment left him this morning,
cluding the coachman, the gamekeeper, the car-
flter, and the other employes, numbering 28 in all.
hey received notices threatening that they would be
klardered if they remained in his employment. The
Llikiths in the district have refused to shoe Mr. Jones's
oonies, and the shopkeepers will not give supplies.
Cronin, R.M., and Mr. Mills, sub-inspector,
"alted the place to-day and endeavoured to induce
*e men to remain at their work, but without avail.
°'day Mr. Jones's son was engaged in feeding the
Fiattle and Miss Jones was looking after the dairy.
e affair has caused considerable excitement, and
e extra policemen have been sent to the district"

Times of Wednesday published a letter from
‘-'l.• Bence Jones, in which he gives an outline of his
kPerience as a landlord, and of his friendly relations
Vith h•
th tenant-1s until a recent period. The contents of
a letter are summarised and commented upon in a
444' in The Times, from which we make following
4tract :-.-
1;12-11.re writer is not unkiown to those who have made the
48- 'and question a subject of study. Mr. Bence Jones
totajontributed many intelligent letters on
also
been
m ItatilA°llB of Ireland to The Ties, and he has also been the
lien," of a series of articles on the sub i ject n Macmillan's
tleVuin-e• All the letters and papers have repaid perusal.
Zave led us to regard the writer as a just andhenour-
Nv firm and exact in his dealings with others, but
0:4 h.Larsh or tyrannical. We know, indeed, that Mr. Bence
othh .a.s been a model landlord, after the strictest example
e best model landlords of England. Ile has set an ex-
to his tenants in his own faming r ; he has
.improved
'esta. holdings
'
he has elevated their condition and his
An
Ais now a study for the surrounding count,
ry.havde
t,,,ta5tr,.4,8 happened? The tenants of Mr. Bence Jones A
,_•alitatri orders not to pay him any rent -beyond jo
Griffith's
and they have succumbed to the organised
ass'ane▪ °C,,`" Practised upon them. But this is not all., As Mr.
• eclined to accept 'Griffith's valuation, his la-
d servants have been warned to leave hini, and
Prodn-ya-reris have been drawn one by one 3
thick ce of his farm cannot be sold; threateningaw'leatt.ers_f_allsl
h. all ti,about him • his grave has been dug just in front of
•-'°r• In a word he has been Boycotted' for refusing
ttiteld obedience to he
arbitrary decree of an irresponsible
~.14Itaal, and,
Pleb- erPosed to continuous acts of lawlessness, net one of
sleeping or waking, every hour of his life, he
'list' • acorns likely to be brought before a Court of
asedel. Bence Jones is an Englishman by birth, who suc-
, to an Irish estate forty years ago and has over since
this 50b5 Ireland as a resident landlord. He spends part of
R,,a4cla in London; but, as he is fortunate enough to
Zsulee—tna good income apart from his Irish property, he is
I,7Vers-d- ~saY that his expenditure out of Ireland is
°,.3' his income out of Ireland, and all he receives
Zaa in the island is spent there, lie tells us he
eate ont £25,000 in permanent improvements on hAI
Zl'asnand his wages-bill on his own farm amounts
a Year, the rate of pay being relatively high. He
aMong'his tenants and labourers as English gentle-
!Kis, •ve at home, with abundance of good feeling on all
41,d rents punctually and cheerfully paid, There is
Shilling in arrears of the rent payable last June.
ordhaa--
, ry circumstances another half-year's rents
I,lle nave been paid on the 7th of this month ;
trig "enants have the money ready, and were will-
they th 1. • able to pay. But for a week
ud eythveletenants were. daily assailed by
Z▪ olea-,..t._11g letters, by notices, by speeches, by visits, by
cji",„',.'"on at markets and fairs, all enforcing the. sanr
ni"°a,—that they must not pay more than Griffith s
The tenants were not small cottiers, such
oe found in the extrema West, for many of
'24 aPPaY. More than £lOO a year in rent: but, suruounded
4,4attr, ' aides by terrorizing influences, they yielded to
ezn and begged tin ir landlord not to think worse of
f
-tlati 'or offering Griffith's valuation' only. What
cn this bears to the fair letting value of the land
Perhaps, be inferred from the fact that Mr. Bence
aSa.stirnakes in rent and interest on the lands he has in hand
e1,„405. an acre, the valuation' of Griffiths being lls, an
nm-Lne rent "having been stopped, the next step has been
left" off Mr. Bence Jones a labourers, that ,he may
and „ With his farm stock on his lipid, unable to manage it
utirr,cled
l'aable to sell His produce when sent to market is
haeuvala
3), a howling mob, and he is fortunate if it conies
lulsold, indeed, but unplundered.
or‘ c
-. Mr. Bence Jones is akpical case, and it is
!ktay which the attention of Her 11,:ijesty's Government
fairly challenged. Every one of the .steps taken
4.4411eae0 kerioa of actions directed against bins is an
gaitist the law. Threatening his tenants , is
.a
x!nilly I. hrea in
ung
himself is a crime. Threatening his
a crime Molesting his tenants in the high-
the mar.e ' ts is a crime. Driving away his
Zalpee,4-7'3, thatistlfe crirn'e.
If
it
1.)
strong to disstrongtrue as some still try to
ordinary is enough to cope with
:
Ettsk whvils
er
that prevail in Ireland,n we are entitled
an
I?,° to e'nY attempt has been made, in refer-
/4 0 war ne of the acts of w levied at Mr.
y an
through his tenantry, his labourers, or his
oring
y single person before the bar of justice.
gib" Yet been done, is it within the inten-

tion of her Majesty's Government in Ireland to employ any
of the means at their command to put an end to the tyranny
practised against Mr. Bence Jones? These are surely
pressing questions. We have the law broken openly, de-
fiantly, and continuously, and yet nothing is done to re-
establish the authority of the law." . .

At the meeting of the Kildysart, Labasheda; and
Coolmeen branches of the Land League, a resolution
was passed on Monday strongly condemning the
action of the Clare magistrates in advising the Govern-
ment to put coercive inea'sures in force. Nearly all
the farmers and shopkeepers of the Kildysart district
have joined the League. It has been decided to
allow only another week for those farmers who are
not yet members to decide, and, in case they do flat
join, no shonkeeper, smith, labourer, or other trades-
men will be allowed to work for them.

Several hundred men, in the presence of a strong
body of police, assembled on Monday morning, armed
with pickaxes and crowbars, at Lismonlin, near Balla,
and built a house for a man who had been evicted.

On Monday eveniiig a disturbance of a serious
character took place at Irishtown, within four miles
of Claremorris and seven of Tuam. A number of
persons attempted a forcible entry upon a farm from
which a man had been evicted. The police tried to
prevent them, but they assaulted the police, where-
upon the constabulary fired, wounding four of the
mob.

The Press Association says it has learned on in-
quiry at the Horse Guards and the Admiralty, that
arrangements are being made to send between four
and five thousand men to Ireland, should it be neces-
sary.
A Reuter's telegram from Washington states that
the House of Representatives have unanimously
adopted the following resolution :--" That the sym-
pathy of this House is' hereby extended to the un-
happy labouring class of Ireland in its efforts to effect
a reform in the present oppressive tenant system."
On Monday night a man who was returning home
from a fair at Aghafin, in the county Longford, with
£l3 in his pocket, the price of some pigs, was set upon
by an armed party who had lain in wait, and was
robbed and beaten to death.

"A Widow" writes to The Times :—"Sir,—May I
ask what I am to do when the poor-rates and county
cess come to be demanded? I am a widow residing
on my property in Ireland, but have not -received as
much rent for the last two years as would pay these
taxes. My son is serving his Queen abroad, and can
in no way help me. Will no aid be given to assist
those situated as I am, with utter ruin before them?"

The Earl of Shannon is one of the latest recipients
of threatening letters warning him that he will be
"served out" like Lord Leitrim and Lord Mount-
moues. For some months past Lord Shannon has
been residing at Castle Martyr, near Cork, and, to
afford all possible employment to the poor on his
estate, has kept many hundreds at wood-cutting and
faggot-making. Bills have been posted on all his
barns and gates forbidding the purChase of faggots or
firewood for fear of the consequences. His lordship,
like many others, is compelled to carry a six-shooter
with him whenever he leaves the house.

Telegraphing on Tuesday night, the Belfast correspondent
of the Daily Telegraph states ; "There has just been pub-
lished in Ulster a document which is designated 'A!Memo-
rial from the Protestant Tenant Farmers of Ulster to the
Right Hon. W. E. Foster, M.P.' The memorialists say that
they take the liberty of addressing Mr. Foster for the pur-
pose of placing before him some of the hardships of which
they complain under the present system of land tenure.
They state that, whilst deprecating all sedition, intimi-
dation, and other unlawful means of obtaining re-
dress, they wish it distinctly to be understood that
they feel strongly the many grievances under which they
suffer. Amongst these they specify the insecurity of tenure,
the power of the landlord to reap the benefit of the
tenants' improvements by raising his rent, and thereby con-
fiscating his property, and the charging of exorbitant rents
for waste lands reclaimed by the tenants' own labour and
expense. It is stated at the :lose of the memorial that
there will be one person in each market town to be fixed
on to receive the signatures of those interested in the cause
in that neighbourhood, and the document concludes,
There is no time to lose, Parliament meets early in
J anuary.' "