The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-04-23
EMOTIONS IN IRELAND.
HARDSHIPS UNDER WHIIH iHE
TENANT LABORS.
Rapaciiy OF the English Landlords
Cases Of cruel WrOngs-Mr.
Blunt's Investigation.

London correspondence of the New
York Herald: A fortnight ago | sen
the Herald the results of an interview
wi h Mr.. Wilfrid Blunt narrating tn,
eviction outrages on the estate of Lore
Kingston, an Irish peer. The lattel
had replied tartly, disputing many O.
Mr.. W lfrid Blunt's allegations. Mr.
Blunt returned pluckily to the sub
Ject, and gives to-day more chapters
and verses of his instances, some OF
which | select as they came from the
lips of those evicted. He quotes one
venerable Celtic patriot thus:-'The
Irish peasant is driven further back
from the good land to the had, from
the plains to the mountains, always
outwitted by the law, which he does
not understand. Yet you complain
when the peasants turn on You and
blood is shed. Believe me at the day
OF judgment the poor Irish will not be
judged by the English law, nor by the
laws OF political economy, nor, as /
sometimes think, even by the ten COM
mandments."
IN TaE WAKE OF THE EvICTED.
Mr.. Blunt then describes how he
had been last week, while Mr.. Glad
stones debate was on, tramping over
the barren hills in the wake of $50
men In military uniform, with rifles
and bayonets, sent out to hunt half a
score OF the very poorest but WORTH
est OF Lord Kingston's tenants from
their mountain homes. Continued
Mr.. Blunt: "There could be no decep.
ton here about their poverty, no pre-
tense OF politica combination. other
than that given by long instinct of
race preservation, inherited from
centuries of resistance. The Land
League to these peasants, though il
has partly organized them, has sog-
gested not a new idea of home rule to
them, but the right to keep their
homes, and the landlord, with an
armed force be ind him, has in their
view as little right to dispossess them
as Alaric had to dispossess the Sen
ators of Rome"
CASE OF CRUEL WRONG.
Mr.. Blunt interviewed the eyicted
Pat Reynolds, aged sixty nine, with
his wife, aged 5ixty, and one girl, aged
five. The other children, who are in
America, have sent money till this
year for rent, The land, comprising
six acres Irish, had belonged to the
wife's family for generations. She re-
membered the rent being only fifteen
and later it was e5. He is
evlcted now for half years rent, with
costs, CD los. l0d When asked whv.
with such an exorbitant rent, he had
not taken his case to the Land Courts.
he said it would have been useless, as
he could not afford it. The cost would
have been e3 or CA. Pat had bui [
twenty-nine years ago good stone
house, 42Xl4 feet; value, ESQ. His
movables were two goats, three suck
ing pigs and furniture, say e5; hav,
say e3. His debts amounted to e2O.
principally to pay the rent. But for
his children in America he cou d not
have lived. Their failure this year to
send money caused his eviction.
The next eviction tenant questioned
was Bridget Lee, aged forty wears.
with five children. Her husband
went to America thirteen years ago.
and has Sc the rent regularly since
then till this year. The last money
received from him was e3 in October.
Her rent was e5 los. for six moor
acres. She was evicted for a hat
years rent, the possessions being two
COWS, yearling calf and two goats.
She owes to banks 60, to the shop.
Ella; for children's clothes, g., and ia
Jhe neighbors for seed oats. l6 sbill-
ngs. The enormous rent charged to
this woman, says Mr.. Blunt, is four
times its value in England. 1t has
been due TO the fact Of the husband
making money in America, and TO
his, too, is due the credit given to
1er.
RAPACIoUs LANDLoRDIsM.
Another case was that of Charles
Ward, aged sixty years, who has a
wife and four daughters at home. and
,wo daughters and a SIN in America.
They are very tidy people. He and
his father used to hold twenty acres
If good land and nine and one-half
poor, the whole for el0. Nine wears
lgo Lord Kingston took away twenty
lcres OF gooi land, on which there
was good house, built by the ten
ants, and left them nine and one-half
lcres of waste. This was reclaimed
1y the tenant, making new rent of
CO. Ward has built a stone house on
lis present holding, the value of
which, judged by a mason present.
vas G45. He is being evicted now for
/ half years rent, the cause of failure
o pay being bad times and no money
rom America. He owes e22, and
being asked why he did not sell his
interest in the land, he said it was too
Door and too high up in the
mountain, and nobody had money
" would buy. The ONLY people who |
)uy the land now in Ireland were
hose who came back from America,
nd they wouldn't come to such a
,lace as this. The wife had asked to |
'e readmitted as a caretaker, but was
efused unless she promised to have
Ter rent ready in month and then TO
lear out. This she could not do.
ADVICE TO LORD KINGSTON.
Mr.. Blunt ends by recommending
lis story to Lord Kingston, as a peer
DON perhaps to vote on the Home
Rule and Land Purchase bills, and
ids him, ''if he still doubts me, send
ut an honest man, not a lawyer, to
xamine my cases, CT rather to come
Iimself, and | wlrrant we should not /
itfer greatly in our estimate of En-
lish law in Ireland"
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