MR. MORLEY'S TASK IN IRELAND

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 101

MR. MORLEY'S TASK IN IRELAND

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famous opportunity. Mr. Morley's first winter in Ireland is unluckily the worst season of the decade. The Hon. Charles Nugent, when he remarked, after the great fair of Ballinasloe,' There is no use in publishing our misfortunes; there is almost no price for cattle,' spoke the universal language of cabin and hall; and to the disaster of cattle selling at cost price there is added the ruin wrought by a harvest-month of daily rains and floods. It took Mr. Balfour more than a million of Imperial money two years ago to cure a distress not one-fourth so extended. The landlords had only to wait, and there would have been trouble enough for the Government in the course of nature. But they had held back so long to oblige Mr. Balfour, that they could not resist the temptation to rush into the fray with their eviction notices, and help to make the Home Rule Government of Ireland a hell upon earth. The Committee of the Landlords' Convention assure us that the statement ' that the Irish landlords have resolved on instituting ejectment proceedings to embarrass the present Government, which they desisted from enforcing during the regime of the late Government,' is utterly untrue. But the accusation was not that they met to pass a formal resolution declaring war on Mr. Morley; it was that they commenced the war and are in the thick of it. In the paper which contains the diplomatic note from the Landlords' Convention appears also the following: ' Mr. Arthur Langford, landlord of the Rowles property, served eviction-made-easy notices on nine of his tenantry some years ago. He did not issue summonses or seek to recover possession. He has now, however, served summonses for possession on the nine tenants whom he had converted into care-takers.' Why did not Mr. Langford summon the Crowbar Brigade before the General Election? The proofs are as … continue reading »

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