their great surprise and delight, merely binding each with two sureties in small sums "to be of good behaviour." The ringleaders were committed for trial, but later on were also discharged at my request by the Government. When the recognisances were being entered into, the farmers offering themselves as bail found themselves in a position of some difficulty. All had-some nolens, others volensjoined the Land League, and few, if any, had paid their rents. Having been sworn, and asked in turn if their rent was paid, the answer almost invariably was, "No, sir." But when some were questioned as to the reason for its not having been paid, all were cunning enough to see the difficulty of giving a satisfactory answer. If the rent was due owing to inability to pay, they could not be looked upon as solvent bailsmen; and if, on the other hand, they admitted that they had the money but would not pay, they naturally feared being at once compelled to do so by those to whom it was due, as well as thereby proclaiming to

the world the imposition they were seeking to practise. However, as it was my duty to keep order and not to collect rents, all were admitted to bail. One of the highest office-bearers of the local Land League came to my house the same evening, and thanked me with sincerity for "having let them off so light,” adding that he had now done with the whole business.

During the hearing of this case I publicly gave notice that the law would be at once put in force against any person of high or low degree, who, on the part of the Land League, attempted to create disorder by disseminating its doctrine within my jurisdiction. A few mornings afterwards the police officer in court drew my attention to the fact that a Mr Cox, "a gentleman from Dublin," had met the people coming out of chapel the day before, and urged upon them in violent language not to draw back in the course upon which they had entered. Mr Cox was in court at the time, and as he had no satisfactory explanation of his conduct to give, I informed him

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THREATENING JURYMEN.

that, unless he left the county within twentyfour hours, the law would be put in force against him. He left accordingly; and during the whole of the subsequent two years no "gentleman from Dublin " ever ventured openly to visit or to make a speech within the extended and troubled jurisdiction afterwards given into my charge.

There was much executive duty to be performed in the county, in order to stamp out the lawless spirit showing itself among the people. The assizes were held in March (I write from memory), and the result did not much assist me in the work I had in hand. Several prisoners were brought to trial; but the juries, as elsewhere in Ireland at the time, showed a marked determination to acquit. Two jurymen at Longford told me that they had been visited at night by a member of the local Land League committee, and warned of the peril they would incur if in the jurybox they proved true to their oaths, but "faithless to the cause." They exacted a

IRISH JURY LAWS.

33

promise from me to take no notice of the information which they gave, in order that I might realise the difficulty of the position in which jurymen during such times found themselves placed. One of them added, that the anxiety of jurymen seemed to be, on retiring to their room to deliberate, as to which should be the first to say "Not guilty."

The strength of the ordinary law in Ireland is never likely to be found in its administration by county juries, selected under the provisions of existing Acts of Parliament. A Committee of the House of Lords, composed of eminent men, held a most exhaustive inquiry in 1881 into the whole subject of the Jury Laws in Ireland; but, if I mistake not, the laws are as glaringly defective to-day as they were then.

By the end of April I was able to report to Lord Cowper that order had been completely restored in the county of Longford, and in May I left on a month's leave to take the baths at Droitwich, as I was feeling ill, and was suffering much bodily pain. The Irish

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34

RECOGNITION OF SERVICES.

Government was pleased to acknowledge the work done, and the result attained. I also remember with gratification the remark addressed to me on leaving by the Catholic bishop of the diocese, who, when bidding me good-bye, thanked me for " the mercy as well as firmness" displayed in dealing with his people. My work was made light by the Christian and law-abiding spirit shown by the bishop and priests in the county of Longford; for without the assistance they on all occasions were ready to give me, without the example of moderation they displayed, and the good influence they exerted among the people, Longford might have rapidly become a second Kilmallock or Loughrea.