Paddy at Home ("Chez Paddy")

by baron de E. Mandat-Grancey

Before they separated, they had roused a great deal of anger towards each other. It is easy to see that the whole business was badly managed from the commencement. Lord Cloncurry had not the reputation of being a hard or exacting landlord. On the other hand, any one who is in the habit of managing land, and who is acquainted with the state of agriculture, not only in Ireland, but nearly all over the world, will see at once that the demand for a reduction of ten per cent. was not excessive. Only it is quite certain that the tenants owed the rents in arrear. In asking for a reduction on this portion of their debt, they were soliciting a favour, and to begin with threats is not the way to obtain a favour. Lastly, in spite of my sympathy for the Irish, I can never understand one thing—namely, that the landowner can be denied the right of sending away a tenant who will not pay.

However, this is of daily occurrence in Ireland, and the most singular thing is, that it frequently happens that tenants who refuse to pay because others have refused, send their money by post or let one of their children carry it over during the night, entreating the agent not to say that they have paid it, because they are afraid of the others. One small estate was named to me, on which all the tenants, with the exception of one or two, have regularly paid in this way for some years, each persuading himself that he is alone in doing so.

Lord Cloncurry lost no time before putting his threats into execution. The tenants all received a summons to pay. They took no notice of it, and it was soon known that they were to be evicted.

On the day named, everybody from two or three leagues round, assembled to witness the proceedings. Lord Cloncurry’s representative soon appeared, accompanied by an imposing escort of police and about fifty soldiers from the Limerick garrison. The priest was there encouraging his parishioners to struggle for the good cause. However, considering the customs of the country, the crowd was not very threatening. They threw a good deal of mud and a good many stones at the police; but that always happens, and no one attaches any importance to it. Every tradition was minutely observed on both sides. In each house, the whole family lay on the ground and refused to move. Two policemen then took men, women and children, in succession, and gently deposited them on the manure heap; then they carried all the furniture outside, and lastly the landlord’s agent took possession—carefully shutting all the doors and windows, or else the evicted persons would hasten in again, and nothing would be gained; whereas, if they broke open a door after the seals were once placed upon it, they would fall under the power of the law. All these operations are extremely delicate. If any member of the family is still in the house when the seals are put on, the eviction is invalid. Consequently, those interested in possession being retained often try to hide a child in a corner, or, better still, in a hole prepared in the wall or in the thatched roof, and if this manœuvre is successful, the unfortunate landlord is obliged to obtain a fresh writ, and, with another hundred men, to attempt a fresh eviction, for it all must be done over again. “The fôôôrme!” said Bridoison, “is substance.”

All the “fôôôrmes” were therefore duly observed on either side, and, on the whole, the affair passed off quietly. But it was scarcely ended, when an incident occurred which produced a deep impression. Lord Cloncurry’s representative was about to retire with the police, when a personage, whom no one had noticed until then, approached him, and intimated, in the name of the Land League, that all the land on the estate was boycotted, and that, in order to secure obedience to the orders of the League, the tenants would be installed, by its precautions, at the doors of their old houses, in such a way, that no interference would be possible. At the same time, the crowd opened, and he saw a number of carts filled with materials. Every one at once set to work; and before the day ended, fifty or sixty wooden huts, for which the frames had been sent all ready, were put up on the side of the road, and each evicted family was comfortably installed in one of them the same evening.

We may judge of the effect produced by this unexpected scene that the League had organised to give a new proof of its power. The arrangement has now lasted for two years; the seventy evicted families are supported at the expense of the League; the land on which these huts are built belongs to farms in the neighbourhood; they are regularly let to the tenants who occupy them. Some landlords wished to protest; but they were threatened with Lord Cloncurry’s fate, and so their opposition subsided.

At the same time, Lord Cloncurry has not yielded one inch. He put some cows into the boycotted fields, and curiously enough, their tails have not been cut off—an immunity that they probably owe to the fact that, on its side the authorities have stationed two or three bodies of police in the empty farms, and that the fields are patrolled by well-armed constables every night.

At Dublin, Mr. Harrington had told me about this business, recommending me to go and visit the Land League huts. It appears that the Association has profited so much by their action on this occasion, that in spite of the great expense entailed, it has built other huts under similar circumstances in other parts of Ireland. It is certain that the seventy men whom the League has supported in idleness during the last two years must be invaluable agents, and the whole proceeding also serves as a very fine advertisement for the League.

After a few minutes’ walk, we reached a place by the roadside where two of these huts are built. I wished to visit them, in spite of the Colonel’s advice, for he warned me that having been seen with him, I might expect a very cold reception, and might even be most unceremoniously turned out. “For,” said he, “these men are the most desperate fellows in the country!”

And, in fact, it at first seemed very probable that his words would be verified. In the first house I entered a woman was sitting near the door peeling potatoes; five or six children of different ages were in the corners; the husband, a great fellow with a bad physiognomy, was seated near the window, smoking his pipe, with his hat on and both hands in his pockets.