The Irish standard., 1889-07-13
EXTERNIINATING THE TENANTS.

! Iln EuC DuIDOEC Ol
EXTERNIINATING THE TENANTS.
All this does not need recapltulation
here. neither does the historr of the
struggle, with its famous Incidents.
frou the arrest of Canon Keller and
the slaughter of the boy O'Hanlon,
the first blood split by Mr.. Balfour's
administration, to the evictions OF last
year. What is now to be recorded is,
THAT during the present week the ex-
termination OF the tenants, under the
regime OF the Smith-Barry syndicate,
has begun. Twenty-one families have
been already (June l9) cast upon the
roadside. amid scenes of brutality and
license only to be paralleled in the
narch of devastating army Though
some barbarous country. The sacred
precincts of a church have been invaded
By Caddell's baton men; priests and
members OF parliament have been
insulted; inoffensive spectators have
been bludgeoned; and young peasant
girls arrested for defending their homes
haye been subjected to the licentious
ribaldry of their captors. This is the
sort of work that MIR. SmiJh-Earry has
set in motion against the tenan5ry Of
the Ponsonby estate. 1t is no wonder
he should have held back his eYlcting
army for a week while the English
member of Parliament fingered Oh the
estate to witness his proceedings. He
had all his preparations completed tor
the opening of the eviction campaign
some time ago. The troops We're
massed; the emergencymen were at
hand Captain Plunhet and Colonel
Cadtlel were in possession Of ToUghal !:
! but he learned that On the spot waiting
for him to begin were Mr.. John Ellis
NJ. T., and a number Of good lockers OH
from England. He hesitated to com"
mence. lie held his forces in check
from day to day, knowing that Mi.
Ellis would presently have to return to
Parliament and that the time Of the
other English visitors was also limited.
| at last Mr. Ellis returned to England,
and the Monday after his back was
turned Mr.. Smith Barry gave the signal
to open fire. But the cowardice OF his
guilty conscience had shaped his action
in vain. There have been plenty of
| ENGLISH LooKERs-ON .;.aa
these davs for all Lis precautions,
among them witnesses who will convey
not merely by word of mouth and
printed column, but by photograph aud
picture, the truth to the people of Eng
land. There are others also keenly
watching these proceedings on the Pom"
sonby estate. They are Irisbuen,
tenant farmers themselves, who, until
now, have provided Smlth-Barry with
the princely income which has enabled
him to maintain an establishment in
Cheshire and London, on a scale that
enables him to hide from the world a
disagreeable fact in the family history,
that. under less favorable circumsEan
ces. would ostracise him from the world
OF fashion. These are sons of noble
race, who in their country, settled the
land question when there were few
laws on the statute book but those
which placed tbs tenant farmers of
Ireland at the mercy of their hereditary
foes. They are not of the class who
regrad as salye to their consciences
that after these 400 homes are desoated
with the rents paid by them to Smith
Barry, their unhappy owners are
promptly provided for under the plan
of campaign. Nc thanks to Smith
Barry for it: he has pitted his Irish
rent roll against the war chest of the
plan. He has angered the whole Irish
race b9 his cruel meddlesomeness in an
| affair that was not his, and he should
have known that his tenants would be
more or less than human if they did not
share. and share bitterly, in that feeling
of anger. He has often been warned Of
this for any consequences that may fol-
low from this defiant outrage on the
sentiments of the whole Irish people.
He will have 40 one to blame but
himself. Nothing could exceed the
good spirits in which the tenants met
The crowbar brigade. Their houses,
unfortunately, were too wretched to
make long resistance to the battering
ram, and the horde Of rufiians who piled
their sledge hammers with almost super
human force against the barricaded
doors and windows. What resistance
was possible they made, as their dila-
pidated walls and roofs clearly demon
strated when
THE GORDON OF REDCoATs
was drawn from dismantled home. The
work which Smith-Barry has COM
menced is not half over vet, and mu- t
close this letter by asking your readers
to study for themselves the further
details in the daily papers. L believe
when the weeks work has been recorded
1t will proye that it is still in the power
of Irish landlordism and or Dublin
castle officials to startle the world by
deeds OF cruelty and oppression for a
parallel to which you will search in
vain amongst the sensational shilling
novels Of the present day.