The murder of a family named Joyce in Ireland in 1882. Ten men were put on their trial for the crime, of whom two turned Queen’s Evidence, and the remainder were convicted, three being hanged. In 1884 Casey, one of the informers, declared that he had given false evidence against Myles Joyce, one of the men who had been hanged, and that he had been ordered by the officials, on pain of capital punishment, to swear away this man’s life. A searching inquiry confirmed the justice of the sentence, but the case was made the pretext for a violent attack in Parliament upon the Irish Secretary.
McKinley Tariff.
A Tariff Act passed in the United States in 1890. Large increases were made in the import duties, and the measure as a whole was one of thoroughgoing protection. It was repealed in 1894.
McMillanites.
The Cameronians were so called, after the Revolution, from the name of their minister, McMillan.
Mad Cavalier.
The sobriquet of Prince Rupert of Bavaria, nephew of Charles I.
Mad Parliament.
A Parliament of Henry III, which met in June 1258. It was by this Parliament that the Commission was appointed which drew up the Provisions of Oxford.