Year: 1878

On FRIDAY night week, the l2th OF April
Mr.. ODonnell brought forward bis prom
ised motion in reference to Lord Leitrim,
and thereby gave rise to g remarkable
scene in the House of Commons. The
Dublin Freeman'S report begins as follows


MIR. O'Donnell rose to call attention to
the action of the Government in Donegal
with reference to the murder of the late
Lord Leitrim, and to move that it is uncon-
stitutional, snsuited to promote the ends
of justice, and calculated to foster disbe-
lief in the impartialty of the law. He said
Il de not know that l could better bring
the facts of this case before an audience
which is so largely composed of English
gentlemen than by supposipg an aginary
case, which, with the substitution of a few
names of persons and places, may easily
after wards be applied to the case of this
deplorable murder in Donegal, and to the
manner in which the Government are car
rying on the inquiry for the discovery Of
the assassins. i would ask the House to
imagine that On some morning the news
appeared in the London papers that ter
ri BILE outrage had occurred in some quiet
vale of Cum berland, in the midst of pop
uation coDspc cuous for their law abiding
virtues, conspicuous for their patient in
dustry, and conspicuous for the practice of
the duties of family and civil life. l will
further ask the House to suppose that this
landlord in Cumberland, accompanied by
two servants, had been suddenly attacked
in lonely part of the coantry and had
been shot down, and not only he but his
casual assistants and servants ruthlessly
murdered along with him. Such an oc-
curreuce as that happening in Cumberland
would have riveted the attention of Eng
land but if on further inquiry it was dis
covered that while no portion of Cumber-
land was moro conspicuous for its orderly
virtues aud for the absence of vice and
crime, yet nevertheless that that portion
of what was believed to be happy Eng
lish county had been placed at the mercy
of one who, by the lamentable shortcomings
of the English land law, had been enabled
to execute the caprices of come baron of a
semi- rbaric stage of civilization by cans
of the chicanery of nineteenth century
legal procedure; if it had been discovered
that during a quarter of century these
Cumberland dalesmen had been exposed to
the tyranny of a mental torture, that they
had been in the power of a man of iron
will and ruthless passion, who practically
exercised absolute power if it was known
on inquiry that the villages had been clear
ed, that the valleys in some cases had been
swept clear of their inhabitants, that over
all was hanging the doom of eviction or of
some punishment akin to eviction; and if,
sir, it was known that in spite of all that
continual torture, these wholeesle evictions
and that systematic determination, the
relations between the landlord and his
Cumberland tenantry had never been
stained by one excess of an agraran char
acter on tho side of this unfortunate ten
antry: if 1T were further ascertained that
the only case in which that Cumberland
landlord had been exposed to outrage, at
tempted violence, and attempted assas
sinhtion, was when his life WAS attempted
by the uncle of the humble girl whom he
H. u a L. IL, 4
the strength of conviction upon the minds
of all men that in such a long tried and
law abiding community, whom no extrem
ity of suffering during twenty five years
had goadcd to q violation of the law--it
would have struck every Engliehman
speaking with his brother Englishman that
it would be in the highest degree unlikely
that these peasants had entered into a
wide spread conspiracy of a mere agrarian
character, and that the murder which had
taken place would have required an enor-
nous amount of proof to bring it within
the category of mere attempts against life
and property. If, on further examination,
it was shown that this landlord was known
throughout all the, Northern counties as
the "bsd earl''-


Sir A. Gordon.-I beg to ask, air, If this
ia language which is fit to be addressed to
the House of Commonsf


Mr.. Parnell.-May l ask you, sir, to pro-
Lect the privilege OF speech, Wnen Luat
speech conveys the truth.


MIR. o'Donnell, resumiug, said that if
such msn had been noted for his debauch-
cry


Mr.. King Harman.-I ask the hon. mem
Der to say whether he can give proofs of
what he says, or whether he is maligninR
the memory of the dead earl on matter
of which he has no knOwledgef


DR.. Kes esealy.-There seems to be sys
tematic attempt to interfere with the free
dom and independence of Parliamentary
speech.


The Speakcr-The language which the
hon. mem ber has addressed to the House is
to be deprecated as being very strong, at
the same time l am not prepared to say
that he wes not within his right in using
the expressions he did.


NJ. Parnell. Hear, hear.


Mr.. O'Dcnnell, resumipg.-I have en-
deavored to push my foroearance to the
utmost in the case of the hon. member for
Sligo. What l state it will be for this
House to consider the value of at the con-
clusion of my speech. am endeavoring
at present to bring the broad questions of
right, of law, aud of justice before the