Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-06-08
Coercion In ireland.

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plshment Of its purpose. Tranquility and
order have not been secured by the suspen-
sion Of legal processes, and the resort to
military force in the execution Of the laws
has not been followed by the moral effect
that usually attends the barring of the strong
arm OF government. The fear Of the pas
sage Of the land bill has apparently inspired
landlords to anticipate the restrictions IL
will place upon their arbitrary power over
their tenants, and evictions for arrearages of
rent go on with remorseless frequency.
Riots, assaults upon the police and military,
arrests and imprisonments, is the burthen Of
the daily dispatches from Ireland. A dis
patch of the fourth instant, describing sad
scenes at evictions near Limerick, says !;
at is saddening sight to watch evictions
| carried on with the assistance of her ma.
jesty's troops. After Kennedy and his fam
lily and household goods were turned out of
their home near this city, and the door
barred up and the police departed, the
mother and her six little children were sit
ting amid or walking about the ruins Of
their once happy home. There was nothing
between them and the blue sky. Night was
coming on, they had nowhere to go, and
thus they were left without ray of hope to
cheer them. The Cold Stream Guards and
the police proceeded to the next tenant
to be evicted, and, as these magnificent
looking soldiers, the flower of her ma
iesty's troops, filed down by the little cabin,
one could not resist calling to mind their
exploits in Englands greatest wars and
cRspafipG tRewu ~ ktheir present service.
I x week ago a 6orce' Of over one hundred
soldiers and police had to protect bailiH
who attempted to serve sixty processes for
rent on the estate of Captain Maxwell Fox,
near Tullamore. A large crowd assembled,
and stones were thrown at the police. In
each case the doors were removed from the
houses and the entrances blocked up with
stones. But these were removed and the
processes posted in conspicuous parts of the
tenements." With varying score of particu-
lars, this story comes from every part Of
Ireland, and during the past few weeks has
been swelling into ominous notes of troubles
more serious than any which have yet be-
fallen there. Armed parties lie in wait for
these bands of officers and soldiery, fire on
them from the cover of woods, rocks and
hedges, and daily the blood of some peasant,
soldier or official stains the soil of Ireland,
adds fury to the passions of the enraged
populace, and stimulates the government to
acts of greater severity. Indeed the gov
eminent is urged to give the military greater
liberty in the use of firearms against rioters
and assaiants, and if the restraints upon the
soldiery are relaxed and wider range al
lowed to the discretion of officers in dealing
with the turbulent peasantry, scenes of mas
sacre may yet be added to the, as yet, COM
paratively bloodless record of land disturb.
ances in Ireland. The fact that England's
efforts at coercion have failed to coerce, a
result not warranted from the experience
derived from previous acts of coercion,
ganization that is effectually holding the
Irish people together in a systematic resist
ance to landlordism, to which they attribute,
not without reason, all the woes which at.
Aict their island. The land league is that
organization. Though its former leaders
and managers are in prison, the control Of
it has descended to other hands who are
still directing it as an engine OF resistance
| t. Whathar tha looJ orn
will be able to keep it under the control of
wise and pacific counsels, as Davitt aud
his fellow prisoners had done, directing its
energies through legitimate channels to Sc
cure the amelioration of the condition Of
Irishmen, or whether, under less discreet
counsels, it will become, like the revolution
airy clubs of France, when they were cap
tanned by red republicans, an instrument of
wild and fanatical physical resistance to
the military power of England,-these are
conjectures which time will settle. From
the fact that resistance to evictions daily
grows more and more lawless and deter
mined, that assaults, arson and killing in
crease, that the constabulary cannot safely
appear except under military protection, and
that civil processes cannot be served unless
the officers are backed by soldiery, it is ap-
parent that the league is led by men more
reckless and daring, and, doubtless, much
less patriotic, than those whom England
now holds in custody. If disorder increases
in the ratio it has been growing it may
soon require a regiment to evict a tenant,
and the whole military power of England
may soon be engaged in turning out of doors
the poverty-stricken farmers of Ireland, with
their wretched wives and children. This Irish
question seems to be drifting into condi.
ton which may end in the disruption of the
Gladstone government. The land bill, loaded
down with innumerable amendments, makes
slow progress through the commons. Its
passage by the lords, unless shorn of its
ameliorating provisions, is matter Of doubt.
Under the most favorable circumstances, il
will be months before the measure can be.
come law, and, during this time, what dis
asters may be precipitated in Ireland which
no land bill, however benefcent, can rem
edy, may be conjectured from the present
troubled and unconciliatory frame of the
IrishImind. The complications growing out
of the evident disfavor with which the Glad
stone land bill is regarded by many liberals
the hostility of home rulers to the bill, and
the chance that in new election the two
great parties would be 30 evenly divided
that they would hold the balance of power
in new parliament, with the rising discon
tent among the conservatives that severel
measures towards Ireland are not adopted
may necessitate an appeal to the people.
No MORE OF THE "WEED."-Secretar,
Lincoln Of the war department at Wash
ington has, by order, prohibited the us'
of tobacco by the cadets of the militar,
academy at West Point. In this we doub
not he has done wisely and periodically
The use of tobacco is highly injurious, es
pecially to boys and young men. 1t result
in a loss of vigor of body and mind an,