IRISH EVICTIONS.
purposes of party warfare; with most people whose feelings have been inflamed and sympathies aroused by a tale of wrong, to point out that there is very good reason to believe that no crime has, in fact, been committed, seems nothing short of an attempt to palliate evil deeds. It is always easier, always more satisfactory to superficial feeling, when things go wrong, to find a crime and a criminal to account for them. There, concrete and visible, is something against which in- dignation may be expressed, and indignation is the great safety-valve of painfully awakened feeling. It is so intolerable, to many minds, to find unexplained suffering in the world, that they are utterly unwilling to admit that they cannot find an immediate wrongdoer, either in man or in man's laws and customs. Alas l human misery cannot be so easily overcome. It is sad that it should be so, and it is sad, too, that cruel injustice—and, after all, injustice is not the least of wrongs— should so often attend the well-meant efforts to redress suffering. To some of our readers, then, we fear that we may seem to dwell too much upon what is Called—we submit un- fairly—the landlords' side of the question. But, in truth, our aim is simply to bring to the notice of the public the real facts of the case, and to answer the sophistical arguments based upon the evictions, and employed to prejudice the con-
sideration of the whole Irish problem. If we iasist, therefore, upon discussing the evictions without any emotional bias, it is not out of any lack of sympathy with the tenants who have had to leave their homes, or with the generous impulses of those who pity them ; but simply because it is absolutely necessary that the question should be looked at calmly and sensibly. All we ask is that Englishmen, to use Mr. T. Russell's appeal to the House of Commons, " should come to the consideration of the problem with clear and steady heads, as well as with warm and generous hearts."
We have urged before the fact that eviction in some form or other as a last resort must exist if property in land is to exist at all ; for what is left of property in land if the inability of an occupier to pay for the hire of land is to give him an indefeasible title to continued occupation I We would now draw attention to the interesting analysis of the returns of Irish evictions prepared by the Loyal and Patriotic Union, of which an abstract was published in the Times of Monday last. One of the strongest arguments used by English Home- rulers in support of the "Plan of Campaign " is this. Irish evictions, by reason of their immense numbers and extreme severity, differ completely from all other evictions, and, there- fore, Irish evictions may be dealt with in ways which would not be reasonable or just in other parts of Great Britain. That Irish evictions may, owing to the peculiar character of the people, require exceptional regulation we are not prepared to dispute ; but that Irish evictions are peculiarly numerous or severe can be distinctly proved to be untrue. During last Session, a return of the evictions which had taken place in Ireland during the first six months of the year—from January to June—was laid before Parliament. The numbers given in the return were 2,007. Ordinary people who read this return naturally enough imagined that all the horrors which they are accustomed to recog- nise as inseparable from the word " eviction," were let loose upon over two thousand Irish peasant families. Such a scene would indeed have been terrible, and might serve as a very natural excuse with the unthinking for saying, Better a complete revolution of the rights of property than the sufferings that must thus be caused to Ireland.' But what are the facts? The Loyal and Patriotic Union undertook the work of analysing this return, and of finding out what was the number of poor Irish farmers and cottier tenants actually driven from their homes. Accordingly, they applied to the Sheriffs of the different Irish counties for a complete list of the ejectment decrees issued by them. The replies for all but four counties were received ; and on these replies, a series of further investi- gations into the nature and circumstances of each case were instituted. The result has been that the Loyal and Patriotic Union have obtained the details of 1,233 of the cases enumerated in the return. They hope very soon to complete their investigation, and to obtain the list of ejectment decrees issued by the Sheriff in the four outstanding counties, and the details of such cases as have not yet come to hand in the twenty-eight counties dealt with ; but rather than submit to more delay, they have thought it best to let the public know the main result of their inquiry into the 1,233 cases. The first fact that shows how illusory is the Parlia- mentary return is that about 15 per cent. of the evictions are not for agricultural holdings at all. In other words, 191 of the 1,233 evictions are for dwelling-houses, "mainly situated in cities and towns." Besides this deduction, there are 21 evictions from "town lands,"—that is, from pieces of accom- modation land occupied by persons residing in towns, and from which, therefore, no eviction in the ordinary sense of the word could take place. Next, there are 143 cases where the defendant did not reside on the holding, but " on an adjacent farm, or had left the place derelict." Therefore, in 143 more cases no eviction could actually have taken place,—that is, out of the 1,233 cases investigated in the twenty-eight counties, only 878 could possibly have been evictions from agricultural holdings in which the tenants were turned out "on the roadside," or thrown out to wander " aimlessly over the storm-swept hills." But were all these 878 cases, evictions by cruel and oppressive land- lords ? In 118 of them the "cause of action was on title." That is, the tenants were " in some cases trespassers, in others they were wrongfully in possession under disputed wills and settle- ments, and in many of them the eviction was brought about by the tenant being indebted to the local shopkeeper or money- lender, who sold np the interest to satisfy his demand." These 118 so-called evictions cannot therefore be in any fairness attributed to "landlordism." There remain, then, 760 cases. In how many of these were the tenants and their families thrown out " on the roadside I" In 250 cases, the tenants were reinstated not merely as caretakers, but as actual tenants. In 377 cases, they were admitted as caretakers, pending redemption. In regard to these cases, a curious fact is men- tioned. In 16 cases, the technically evicted man actually sold his right to redeem. The caretaker, so far from being in a position of utter ruin, was actually possessed of a status with a money value. Thus, in the six months, the number of actual evictions in which farmers or cottiers were really turned out of their houses and homes, was 117,—that is, 1,233 nominal mean 117 actual bond Pule farmer or cottier evictions. Now, if the same proportion of actual to nominal evictions is allowed for in the four counties in which the investigation is not yet completed, and in the cases where details have not been obtained, which it may fairly be, and the total be then compared to the total number of agri- cultural holdings in Ireland, it can be shown that the actual turning out of house and home on to the roadside was only resorted to at the rate of one for every three thousand holdings in Ireland in six months. Certainly no very extraordinary exercise of the right to reoccupy landed property, when the poverty of Ireland and the ill effects of the agitation of the National League are considered. But not only is the number of cases astonishing in face of the talk connected with the evictions. The amount of arrears which were allowed to accumulate before eviction took place is equally remark- able. It must be specially surprising to the people who, as the Times points out, relate stories of tenants turned out for only owing a quarter's rent, forgetting, or not knowing, that a tenant in Ireland cannot be evicted unless at least one year's rent is due. The average amount due in the cases of eviction, technical and real, treated of in the return; is apparently two and a half years' rent at the time of obtaining a decree, a period which would have to be much increased if the execution of the decree were taken as the time from which to calculate.
These facts show the value of the gross numbers of the eviction returns. Out of 1,233 cases returned, only 117 are real farmer or cottier evictions of the Glenbeigh type ; the rest are either merely technical evictions, or evictions not from farms or holdings where the doctrine that no rent can be got out of the land can be applied. Compare it for a moment with evictions in London. At the same rate, London should have at the most only six or seven hundred evictions in the six months. It is impossible to say what the number really is, but something far larger than this, if what is often stated is true, namely, that there will sometimes be as many as fifteen families evicted in one court in a single week, when there is a hard frost, or work is hard to get. Then, too, London rents are not allowed to get two and a half years, often not two and a half weeks, in arrear. The Loyal and Patriotic Union are certainly to be congratulated on their labours in thus throwing light on the Return of Evictions, the numbers of which have often been so unfairly used. It ie, of course, possible that the Parnellites may be able to impugn these figures. They will certainly attempt to do so if it be possible. If they let them remain unanswered, or only deny them in general terms, not specifically, as is too often their habit, we may fairly consider that the accuracy of the analysis is admitted. It is certainly the duty of every one who desires— and who does not desire to ameliorate the conditions of the Irish land system ?—to study carefully and weigh truly the facts and figures thus collected on the subject of Irish evictions.
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