Government being completely re-established in authority in those districts under my control; but if, on the other hand, they were only partially executed, and the people, the lawless and law-abiding, recognised hesitation or timidity, the position would have even been more hopeless than it was before. On Monday, 23d May, the warrants reached me, and the evening was spent in making arrangements for having them executed the next morning at daybreak.

Kilfinane is situated about seven miles from Kilmallock, upon a spur of the Galtee Mountains. It is unconnected by railway with Kilmallock, and is upon the border of a large extent of country stretching away to the mountains, on the confines of the three counties of Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary, where the inhabitants had shown themselves to be peculiarly lawless and defiant. It was therefore necessary to provide a military escort, as well as the constabulary, to bring in the prisoners by road to Kilmallock, for conveyance by rail to

Dublin. The officer commanding at Charleville was requested to march his men on Kilmallock, so as to arrive there from Kilfinane at six the next morning, and the detachment at Kilfinane was warned to be ready for duty at daylight. At 2 A.M. on the 24th May we marched with about fifty men from Kilmallock, arriving at Kilfinane at about 4 A.M. It was a lovely morning. The road passed through the richest country in Ireland. In the fields on each side there were large herds of fat milch cattle, up to their hocks in rich pasture. The scenery became more beautiful each mile, as we got on the higher land. I shall never forget the reflections that passed through my mind when, turning round, I looked down upon the fertile country below, extending as far as the eye could reach in one long valley, teeming with life, and apparently as peaceful as it was lovely to look upon.

On arrival at Kilfinane, Captain Bell, with his detachment of the 48th, joined our party, which formed up quietly in the square in the

centre of the town. The police officers at once proceeded to execute the warrants, and before long the prisoners were seated upon cars ready to start. The parish priest, the Rev. Father Lea, of course appeared upon the scene, and entered into communication with them. As one of the "suspects," named Daniel Reardon, a local publican, was about to get upon the car provided for him, he shook his clenched fist violently at me (I was standing at about two yards' distance), saying, “You have done your worst now-by God! I'll have your life!" The Christian priest, standing beside him, remarked, with a significant look "Don't say that, Dan; others may do it." Though there were signs of disorder, the return march was completed by seven o'clock, and the prisoners sent off to Dublin by the first train. There was no disturbance at Kilmallock.

at me,

Having got rid of the hostile power in occupation, it only remained for me without loss of time to proceed to establish the authority

G

98

LAW RE-ESTABLISHED.

of the Government before the Land League rallied from the effects of the blow it had received. Isolated arrests under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, properly known as the Protection to Person and Property Act, though restraining the individuals, and thus perhaps preventing crime, never had much effect in restoring order. The local vacancies thus created were speedily filled up by hungry

66

patriots," and no good result was produced in the district. Where no good effect was produced, a bad one followed. But in removing the whole local governing body of the Land League at the same time, the opportunity was provided for re-establishing the authority of the Government, bringing the people to a sense of their duty, rallying the well-disposed, and generally putting the locality into a condition more becoming to a portion of the United Kingdom. This end could, however, only be attained by local administration on the part of an officer of some position charged therewith. It was out of the question to sup

WANT OF LOCAL EXECUTIVE.

99

pose that the duty could be carried out by the Lord Lieutenant or his secretaries in the Castle at Dublin, and yet our executive organisation was so faulty that no officer in a district was definitely charged with this duty. The county inspector of constabulary had no magisterial authority, and very properly so. The local justices considered that their duty began and ended in attending petty sessions courts and disposing of the cases there brought before them. Many of the resident magistrates believed that they were not clothed with any more general authority than the local justices possessed. If the Government had orders to give, they were prepared to execute them; but it was in their opinion no part of their duty to initiate action for the maintenance or restoration of order. For instance, all resident magistrates with whom I ever conversed on the subject were convinced that the violent, disorderly, and seditious public meetings of the Land League were palpably illegal, and were followed by crime, bloodshed, and