Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-05-18 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

WHY A SERGEANT WAS MURDERED. John Kennedy, president of the town council of Loughrea, said he was vice-president of the Land League and the National League in that town at the time of the murder of Sergeant Linton, in 1881. The Loughrea branch passed a resolution condemning the murder. He believed Linton was over-officious in regard to the public, and that he also worked the police too hard. Cross-examined, the witness said that he was aware that seven undetected murders occurred around Loughrea in 14 months. His branch did not take an action with regard to the murder of Dempsey, though lie lived in the district. Witness did not know Linton gave evidence at the State trials, nor did he know that he had made himself obnoxious to the Land League supporters. It was never suggested that agrarian causes had anything to do with• Linton's murder, though there were wholesale arrests in the neighbourhood at the time. Bartholomew Calavan, a well-to-do-looking; farmer, said he resided within a short distance of Mr. Bottrell's estate in Tuath. He knew something of the raising of rents on the estate. In many eases the rents had been doubled, while the landlord made no improvements at any of the tenants' holdings. In 1879 there was great distress in the district. Witness was president of the local League, and he produced the books and accounts. The branch never held a Land League Court. Subsequently witness was secretary of the National League, but there was no outrage in connection with that body. The tenants were all prepared to pay rent upon obtaining a fair reduction. He -denied that the landlord  himself had made "miles of drains."  There  was no crime committed after the Land League was established in his district. His branch of the Land League never exercised any of their judicial jurisdiction except on one occasion, when they made inquiry into the circumstances of a dispute between Mr. Bottrell and his herd with respect to the caring of his sheep. They never boycotted anybody. He' heard that Mr. l3ottrell had been shot at, but the League made no inquiry into that matter.  Edward Jennings, commission agent, Clonbur, said he recollected the establishment of the Land League in Clonbur in October, 1880, when he was appointed secretary of it. So far from the League encouraging outrages, he believed it put them down. In cross-examination the witness said the League was suppressed in 1881. A list of the names of the members was kept. The branch was a weak one, and they did not expend any money in defending prisoners. Asked if there had been any boycotting about Clonbur, the witness caused some merriment by stating that the only act of boycotting there took place in 1882, and he was arrested and imprisoned for it, although he had as much to do with it •as his lordship on the bench. On the subject of outrages the witness mentioned several which had been committed.in 1879, when there was no Land League in the district, but had no knowledge of outrages which the AttorneyGeneral had specified as occurring in 1880 and subsequent years. The League denounced the outrages publicly, and he had done so himself. He thought there were some secret societies in Clonbur at that time, and they prevented people from taking evicted farms. On re-examination the witness stated thAt there was starvation in his parish in 1879. The people were rack-rented and they were heavily in arrears to the shopkeeper and the landlords._  John Monaghan, Oughterard, Galway, stated that from 1875 the tenants had their rents raised in _proportion as the times improved. There had been many evictions about Oughterard in the famine years, and on the property of an insurance company there it was the practice to levy fines on such tenants as gave shelter to the evicted tenants. There were no outrages committed on those landlords who treated their tenants kindly. The Court then adjourned.