"I will take a case mentioned by Professor Baldwin. I have
had some correspondence with that gentleman, and I believe
him to be a thoroughly honest man. I do not, however,
think he is a very clear-headed man, if he will allow
me to say so. I do not think he investigates his facts
very thoroughly ; but I believe him to be an honest man.
in the course of his evidence given before the Commission
he said, almost in a tone of triumph - "If the Commission
wants to see what is done by the cruel landlords in Ireland,
I advise them to send for the agent of the property on the
Island of Arranmore, in County Donegal." This statement
made a great impression on my mind. I thought such a man
would never give such evidence without having been on the
spot. However, the Commission took his advice; they sent
down a special Commissioner, and who do you think was the
first witness that the Commissioner examined ? Why, the
agent referred to, who turned out to be a money-lender
and meal-dealer in the town of Donegal. This man confessed
that he lent money to the people at 10 per cent interest,
and he also confessed that he sold meal to the people at 2s.
above the ordinary price, and then he adds, with truly
Irish vagueness, and "sometimes more." How much more we
do not know, but I should not wonder if he charges some
20 per cent to poor people for their meal. I would ask
your Lordships to look at the animus of a witness of this
kind. The people are all largely in his debt, for he
charges them 10, 15, or 20 per cent for the loans he
has made to them ; and he very naturally thinks that all
the produce of the soil ought to go to pay his interest,
and none of it to pay the 2 or 3 per cent which might not
unreasonably be expected by the landlord. He gives
evidence about the dearness of rent ; but then, with that
truly Irish character, which, I may say, is often extremely
open and honest, he proceeds to make a most extraordinary
admission. It appears he was not only a money-lender or
meal-dealer, but he also did a little at the trade of
farming, and it comes out in his evidence - and he did not
seem to be in the slightest degree conscious that he
contradicts in this any other part of his evidence - that
he had bought from one of these terribly high-rented
tenants a grazing at 25 years' purchase, after which he
goes on to say, almost in the same breath, that the tenants
are so very highly rented that he would not take their
farms, although they were given to him for nothing. That
is the first witness examined by the special Commissioner to
Arranmore, and then comes the priest. Now I understand this
priest, Priest Walker, was a smart respectable man, and I
believe that he, like Professor Baldwin, would not say
anything that he did not believe to be true ; but he
had not been long in his present position, and as the Land
League has been in active operation for a long time, and
the priests are, rightly or wrongly, supposed to be under
its influence, it was not matter for wonder that this
particular priest should bring forward the most elaborate
statistics to prove that the grossest cruelties had been
committed upon the tenants of Arranmore. Every item of
accusation was minutely accumulated against the proprietor
of Arranmore, so circumstantially that unless I had
inquired into it I should have taken it as a matter of
fact. But the moment that the rebutting evidence came
out, I saw at once what complete humbug the whole story
was. The trustees for the proprietor is the Common
Sergeant for London (Sir Thomas Charley), and he gives
statistics to show that every one of material statement
is a falsehood. I have seen Sir Thomas Charley, and he
tells me that the books of the property are open to anyone.
The truth is, the people were starving at the time of
the Famine, and that Sir Thomas Charley emigrated a
great many of the people at their own wish, and that
the tenants who remained were getting on very well
in their diminished numbers."
