EJECTMENT OF TENANTRY (IRELAND).
MR SMITH O'BRIEN: After witnessing the consumption of three
hours devoted to an examination of the case of six factory
girls in Scotland, I hope I shall not be considered as
trespassing too far on the attention of the House when I ask
about twenty minutes or half an hour of time, whilst I bring
under your notice what I consider to be a case of great
oppression. The complaint to which I refer regards the
expulsion of sixty-one families, in all 270 persons, from
the homes of themselves and their fathers. An ejectment
under circumstances of a painful nature, a short time back,
attracted general attention as described in a Roscommon
paper. This statement caught the eye of a most respectable
friend of mine, the proprieter of the Dublin Freeman's
Journal - a gentleman to whom the right hon. Secretary for
the Home Department has given an historical name, by
classing him with those who, with all respect, I must
ever consider were the victims of an infamous prosecution.
He sent a special reporter to the spot where the alleged
clearance was said to have taken place; and it is to the
report of the gentleman so sent down that I am now about
to call the attention of the House. It is certainly written
in strong language, but not stronger than the occasion
justifies. - The hon. Gentleman read a long statement from
the Freeman's Journal, dated Mountbellow, county of Galway,
Wendesday night, March 25, describing the village of
Ballinglass, parish of Kilasobe, and barony of Killyon,
county of Galway, and the eviction of a number of tenants
from huts they had erected on land obtained from the bog
on the estate of a Mrs Gerrard. The principal features
were these:-
"At an early hour of the morning of Friday, the 13th
instant, the sheriff, accomoanied by a large force of the
49th regiment, commanded by the Captain Brown, and also by
a heavy body of police under the command of Mr. Cummings,
proceeded to the place marked out for desolation; the
people were then according to the process of law (I could
not produce a copy of the habere) called on to render
possession, and then the bailiffs of Mrs. Gerrard commenced
the work of demolition. In the first instance the roofs and
portions of the walls were only thrown down; the former,in
most instances, lie on the side of the road. Great pains
must have been taken to demolish the houses, as the walls
were very thick, and composed of an umber clay, and when
the inside turned up good plaster and whitewash always
appeared. Not content with throwing down the roofs and
walls, the very foundations have been turned up. When this
last act had been perpetrated, the 'wretches' took to the
ditches on the high road, where they slept in parties of
from ten to fifteen each, huddled together before a fire
for the two succeeding nights. I saw the mark of the fires
in the ditches; every body can see them, and the temporary
shelter which the 'wretches' (I cannot help quoting the
word so often) endeavoured to raise round them with the
sticks, rescued from their recent dwelling.
"A boy there about nine or ten years of age, told us
that one of the bailiffs told his mammy not to take in any
of the people who were turned out, but his mammy let in an
old woman after that. I would not have placed much reliance
on this corroboration, except for what you will learn some
further on. It is to be hoped, for the sake of humanity and
of womanhood, that Mrs. Gerrard is ignorant of that order. I
expressed a wish to be directed where I could meet some of
the poor people, when the man said, 'Oh, here is one of them
coming down the hill.' This person who soon joined us was old,
and as he raised his hat to salute me, his fine white hair
floated on the breeze. He was a fine athletic handsome old man,
with a mournful countenance, and as he addressed me in the
beautiful and simple salutation of the country, with 'God
save you, sir!' (he spoke English very well) I felt a
reverence for the old, ill-treated and unhappy man.
"Are you one of the people who were recently turned out? I
inquired.- Indeed, I am, Sir, said he, with a heavy sigh.
"How old are you, Sir? - Nearly eighty.
"How long did you reside in the village of Ballinglass? -
Over sixty-eight years, Sir; and he burst into tears.
"How many in family have you? - Three, together with myself;
but I had a great deal more than that. Some of them are dead
and gone, and well for them they didn't live to see this
desolate day: others of them are married, and some more of
them are gone to America.
"How much land had you? - Why, I can't rightly tell, as there
are no regular farms, but there was over 400 acres belonging to
the village.
"Did you owe any rent? - I did, Sir.
"Were you able to pay it? - I was, Sir, and willing too, but
she wouldn't take it for the last five half years.
"Why so? - Why, because, Sir, she wanted to throw down the
houses to make bullock pastures.
"Did you ever offer the rent to the lady? - I did, Sir, more
than twenty times, and I offered it to her agent also, but they
would not take it. We went to the hall-door (meaning the hall-
door of the lodge already mentioned) often with the rent, but
they would not take it from us. Every man in the village but
one offered the rent over and over, but they wouldn't take it;
and we offered to pay that man's rent, but they would't take
that either.
"Is it true that the remainder of the walls were ordered to be
thrown down to prevent the people from sheltering themselves at
night? - In truth it is, Sir; they wouldn't let any one go near
the place; we slept in the ditches for two nights, and I got pains
in my poor old boans after it.
"Did the women sleep in the ditches? - They did, Sir, and I saw
one of the women with a child at her breast hunted by the bailiffs
from three places the night after; they threw down the houses
when we were under the walls, and they came to put out the fires,
and they put out the fires in the road ditches on us too."
The report then proceeds to give a list of the persons, form which
it appeared that sixty-one families, numbering two hundred and
seventy persons, had been evicted.
"It appears that the 'one man' so often before mentioned who
refused to pay the rent, had some of his land let to under-tenants.
He went away leaving some rent due; the people offered the rent
which they used to pay this man to the agent of Mrs. Gerrard,
and demanded receipts, but he would not give any receipt
except one 'on account' of rent due. The people owed no rent,
and therefore they refused to take receipts on account."
That was the statement. He was bound to say that of the
transactions he knew nothing of his own knowledge, but taking
the representation of them as correct, here was a picture
of an Irish village! This was a picture of the civilization
which had been introduced into Ireland. Why it would be better
for Ireland to return into the state of barbarism which existed
before the English connexion than to enjoy such a state of
cicilization as this. At Least it was right, when the House
was called upon to enact coercive measures, that they should
know what were the circumstances which stimulated the people
of that country to outrage. Give fair play to both parties,
that it might be known against whom coercive measures should
be passed; whether against the peasantry, by locking them up
in their homes away from their lawful occupation, or against
the landlords of Ireland, by passing some measures by which
they should be compelled to perform their duties. He had
done what he conceived to be his duty, and it would be for
the House to determine what course they would take. The hon.
Member concluded by moving -
"That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, to
inform Her Majesty that the attention of this House has been
directed to a case of ejectment of tenantry which has recently
taken place at a village named Ballinglass, in the county of
Galway, in which it is stated that not less than sixty-one
families, comprising 270 individuals, have, in one day, been
expelled from their habitations, under circumstances the most
cruel and heartrending, and to pray Her Majesty, that She
will be graciously pleased to give directions that the
Stipendiary Magistrates, and other officers of the Irish
Constabulary, who are in the habit of reporting to the
Executive outrages committed by the peasantry of Ireland,
or such Commissioners as Her Majesty may be pleased to
appoint, be required to furnish to Her Majesty's Government
such authentic information respecting the facts of this
case as they may be able to collect upon the spot, and
that such Reports may be laid before Parliament at as early
a period as possible."
SIR J. GRAHAM said, that the hon. Gentleman declared that
he knew nothing whatever of the transaction except what he
had collected from newspaper report, which he had read, and
which, he said, had been positively contradicted in another
newspaper which he had not seen. He took it , that the hon.
Gentleman knew nothing of the transaction except from
newspaper report. He wished he could state that he entirely
discredited it. He had already stated that under the present
circumstances of Ireland, he had expected that Irish landlords
would exhibit more than ordinary forbearance - that they
would do so in the present unhappy circumstances of Ireland;
and generally there had been that forbearance exhibited. The
hon. Gentleman talked of outrages that had been committed. He
was confident that there was no person in that House, but had
a sincere desire that outrages should not be committed, and
when committed should be suppressed by lawful means. But, to
render Ireland habitable, tranquillity should be preserved.
He must say that that terrible system which went under the
name of the "clearing estates," ought to be discountenanced;
and if it proceeded it would be absolutely necessary to check
it by legislative means. At present he knew nothing of the
facts of the case. Having made this statement, he thought the
hon. Gentleman would agree with him that it would be
superfluous to move an Address to the Crown, as the matter was
under inquiry by the competent authorities, and the Ministers
had not yet received the information. When that information
was received, he should be prepared to inform the hon.
Gentlemen and the House what on inquiry were the real facts.
In the meantime he thought it only justice to the parties
concerned that the House should suspend their judgement, these
allegations having been met by a positive denial.
"MR. SMITH O'BRIEN observed, in reply that it was not with
any view to give sanction to outrages that he had made the
present Motion. He had no desire to be popular with murderers;
he had denounced such crimes in language stronger than any
that had been used in that House; and he had more than once
exposed his life to danger in an endeavour to suppress such
crimes. His object was to impress on the House the necessity
of taking some steps to remove the causes of these crimes.
He would withdraw the Motion on the understanding that the
right hon. Baronet would lay before the House the results of
the inquiry.
Motion withdrawn.
