In the House of Lords on Tuesday Lord Salisbury moved
a resolution inviting the Government to enforce the law in Ireland. Clare, he said, was not the only plague spot, as indeed the reports of outrages daily show. Lord Curzon in reply said that until the end of January the Sinn Feiners had failed in their efforts to promote lawlessness. Since then, however, they had stirred up agrarian discontent in connexion with the undistributed lands and with the estates that could not be sold under the Land Acts during the war. The Government regarded this as a criminal conspiracy, and, as the constabulary were too few to maintain order, they had proclaimed. martial law in County Clare, with almost instan- taneous success. Hunger-strikers would not he released from gaol, but would not be forcibly fed. Lord Curzon said that Mr. Duke had lived laborious days and spent sleepless- nights in combating an organized conspiracy, though, we must add, he seemed until recently to be completely inactive.
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