The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-06-19

cattle driving and gate-1ifting. They are, in fact, humdrum, practical pus- iness-like institutions, and if anyone has visions of masked men and TO- mantle swords of justice he goes very far astray. All clergymen are mem bers of the arbitrators' panel ex oflcio. The local Sim Fein Club chose ten laymen by democratic election out of 25 nominees. The clergy then passed decision that in no case should there be a preponder- ance of priests over laymen on any particular board. Usually 1t works out in practice that three arbitrators sit, one of whom is a priest. All litigants must sign a pledge that they will accept the findings of the cour. and obey them implicitly. In the vast majority of cases that have so far arisen this obedience has been forth coming; in the rare exceptions the offender has been dealt with by the police arm of the volunteers. In cases where a man is accused of some act of agrarian aggression a summons is sent to him, and if he refuses to an- swer it the executive arm of Sim Fein sees to it that he attends. At court meetings, it is put plainly before liti- gants' that it is a serious business and that no nonsense will beltolerated in the way of dallying about the full flment of the verdict, The courts deal only with agrarian cases, but of course the term is wide and inclu- sive in an agricultural country. Their object is simply the promotion of an authority which derives it's sov- ereignty from the general will.
 The Court and the Audience
 
 held in a vast detached house looking out over the bay-an eighteenth cen tury mansion built for some rich merchant or captain before the Act of Union, the invention of steamships, and the decline of Ga1way's great ness. On the ground floor is an office and a billiard-room. Upstairs in fine room that was a saloon running the whole length of the house the court met. At a table in the center sat the registrar and the three arbritrators for the night, priest as president and two profess sional men from the elected panel All round the room were the 1itigants and friends-small farmers and graziers who snatch livelihood off the rocks or wonder whether the winter rains will flood all or only half their land. The room was draped with Sim Fein colors, and on the wall were photo graphs of the men who died in the Easter rising.
 It was a quiet, orderly, keen1y in tent crowd, breaking into an occa- sional laugh at some naive or obvi- ously crafty answer as the case pro- ceeded. Litigants may employ solici- tors or do their own business, but the complete absence of legal techni- 3o 4l,- course less necessary than in an ordi- is a peasant woman, with a shawl over her head and shoulders, watch ing with those black eyes that are so common here a legacy of the one time Spanish colony, no doubt-the little battles of the disputed acres. The whole audience is keen; it has come not from curiosity but to see an an issue of moment decided. Their life is the land, and the fate of a hold ing is destiny indeed. They are not demanding communism or confisca- tion, but simply the right to buy or rent enough to make their farm an economic proposition. It is an axiom of the Congested Districts Board that 25 acres constitute an economic hold ing, but I am told that this IS not applicable to the rock of West Gal way, however much it may suit the richer Midlands. I gather that the Sim Fein arbitrators would look upon 40 as a decent minimum in this dis trict.
 Two cases were heard during the evening on which was present, and both onducted billingually-that It is to say, each man or woman spoke in the language which he found the T~ @1 the townsmen speak mostly English, but the small farmers of the coast use Irish by preference. Naturany the arbitrators have to be bilingual. and there are no interpreters. After the two had been heard the 1itigants and their friends were ordered out of the room, and stood smoking in the street while the arbitrators de- liberated above.
 At last the company is recalled, and the Chairman pronounces the decisions. The verdict is received in perfect quiet, with no demonstra- tions of anger or triumph, and the court is dissolved with no more dig nified formula that a polite That's all''
 A Popular Tribunal
 About the court I visited there wa~ no poInp or ceremony of any kind. no theatrical gestures such as mignr be expected from men who deem themselves citizens of a young repun- lie and creators of a new social order. It was simply an affair of busy men giving up their evenings to help out their neighbors to the best of their ability, reconstituting a native law where British law has collapsed. l believe that the decisions are per- fectly fair and that political bias does not color any verdict. understand that the first plaintiff in one local court was a Unionist, who demanded and was granted protection from vexatious invasion of his property He has not been troubled since. That, of course, is the important point in the eyes of political opponents Of Sim Fein. These courts have a real authority because they are popular, and thus people who do not accept the ideal of an independent Irish Re public yet attend the courts because they know that the findings will be generally recognized.
 It affords an interesting study for the political theorist. Here is law being made manifest as the articula- tion of public opinion, not as the