H, ^.' hi'r\o\d Fo'rster

1

GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?"

THE OPINIONS OP EMINENT IIBEEALS WITH EEGAEB TO THE
PAMELLITE PAETY.

COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY
H. O. ARNOLD FORSTER,
AUTHOR OF "the TRUTH ABOUT THE LAND LKAGBE."

PUBLISHED BY THE PROPERTY DEFENCE ASSOCIATION
4 HENRIETTA STREET, DUBLIN.

"GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?'-
OR
THE OPINIONS OF EMINENT LIBERALS WITH REGARD TO THE PARNELLITE
PARTY.

Where facts are available, abundant, and uncontradicted, there is no
need to quote opinions, however weighty. That the charges brought
against the Land League and its successors are true, may now be
assumed as evident ; how far their truth ought to influence the public
with regard to their future dealing with members of the League, is
a matter on which every individual is able to form his own conclusions.
Nevertheless, as we must undoubtedly contemplate the continued pre
sence of some members of the Central Committee of the Land League
in the Imperial Parliament ; and as under another name the old organi
zation still carries on its operations in Ireland, it may be not amiss to
realise what is the opinion of some well-qualified judges as to the
character and aims of men who are still sometimes spoken of as ordinary
politicians. First, with regard to agrarian crime, which Mr. Parnell has described
as the " Wild Justice of Revenge," and of which the friends of the
League either deny the existence, or attribute to the carrying out of
evictions. Let us hear some views on the other side of the question.
Mr. Gladstone evidently does not subscribe to the wild justice of
revenge theory. On the contrary this is what he says : —
" We have got before us a state of crime widely extended. The fact is beyond Mr. Gladstone.
dispute, but the cause is made a matter of controversy. Gentlemen would have us
suppose that this crime is owing to distress in Ireland, that it is owing to evictions in
Ireland. It is evident, by the testimony afforded by facts, that it is owing neither to •
the one nor to the other  It seems to me that if we wish to ascertain
whence this crime really comes, we must watch its movements, and we must see what
are the concomitants of this crime. That which diminishes while the crime increases
is not likely to be the immediate and direct cause of that crime ; but that which
increases with the crime, and the movements of which corresp.on4 with it with wonder
ful exactness, then it is that the judicious enquirer -will begin' to believe that he is
getting nearer to th& true cause and incentive to the crime."  And he
concludes : "So that with fatal and painful pi^ecision the steps of crime dogged the steps. .
of the Land League, and it is not possible- to get rid by any ingenuity of facts such'
as I have stated, by vague and general 'complaints, by imputaijons against parties
imputations against England, imputations against Governments." '

" Guilty or not Guilty V

Mr. Cliilders.

Mr. Justice Joliiison.

Mr. Childers, speaking on the same subject, says : —
"It is quite enough for me to say only this in reference to that part of his (Mr.
Pamell's) speech in which he said that evictions and outrages had advanced pari passu;
that the whole of that statement, and the figures which the honorable member gave
have been entirely disproved in the debate."
Here is the opinion of the late Attorney-General for Ireland : —
" The common law code of the Land League was not the innocent statement put
forward in the House, but a code of terror and coercion, of murder and mutilation,
of threatening notices and nightly outrage."
Or again : —
" The Land League never changed ; its origin was outrage, and its working was
outrage. "
That Mr. Pamell's organization was directly connected with crime
and outrage is the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, is plain from
the following words of Lord Hartington : —
Lord Hartington < < jf y^^,^ ^ot until the Government were absolutely convinced in the course of the
autumn, that the leaders of the Land League and the organization were directly con
nected with a system which led to intimidation and violence, that they thought them
selves justified in acting under the Peace Preservation Act."
Sir William Harcourt, who so ably piloted the Arms Act through the
House, and who acquired considerable experience during the process,
is concise, accurate, and to the point. His views are worth attention.
It is thus he speaks of Mr. Pamell's " Policemen " : —
' ' The police of the Land League do not attack landlords alone. They spare
neither age nor sex."
Sir William is equally earnest in his views with regard to the " wild
justice of revenge ": —
' ' Members who go through the book (the outrage blue-book) ¦will find page after
page the same history of these abominable outrages by armed men, threatening every
man who did not join the Land League, or suspend the payment of rent."

Sir William ilarcourt.

THE LITERATURE OF THE LAND LEAGUE.

Lord Spencor.

There is equally little doubt as to what is the view of the highest
authorities with regard to the Literature of the Land League.
Lord Spencer, speaking of the Irish-American Press, "The Irish
World," and the rest, said : —
" We know that at this moment in America the Irish Press is stimulating the
feeling of the people of Ireland not only to rebellion, but also to assassination and
outrages of the worst kind."

" Gtiilty or 7iot Guilty ?" 5
Mr. Gladstone also well describes the journal which was circulated
with the sanction of Mr. Parnell and his Central Committee. Speaking
of the complicity of the Land League with the murder press of America
he says : —
" Mr. Parnell has said America is the only friend of Ireland, but in all his references Mr. Gladstone.
to America he has never found time to utter one word of disapproval about what is
known as the assassination hterature of that country. Not American literature ; no,
there is not an American who does not spurn and loathe it ; but there are, it is sad to
say, a knot of Irishmen who are not ashamed to point out, in the Press which they
maintain, how the ships of her Majesty's Navy ought to be blown into the air to
destroy the power of England by secret treachery, and how indi-viduals they are pleased
to select ought to be made the object of the knife of the assassin because they do not
conform to the new Irish gospel."
So far, indeed, were the Land League from repudiating the assassi
nation press, that they did all they could to stimulate its circulation.
Mr. Trevelyan's estimate of the Land League paper itself has been only
too fatally borne out by facts. The Chief Secretary is speaking of the
organ of Messrs. Parnell, O'Brien, and Justin MacCarthy. His words
are : —
" Such articles are as dangerous as the pistol and the sword cane." Mr. Trevelyan.
They proved to be so.
GENERAL POLICY OF LAND LEAGUE.
As to the general policy and conduct of the Land League and its
leaders, there is a great deal of interesting and accurate information to
be gained. Here is the opinion of one well qualified to speak as to the
general policy of Mr. Pamell's society. The present Attorney-General*
for Ireland is the speaker : —
" The Land League itself appeals to the lowest and basest of human passions, it Mr. Justice
appeals to avarice and greed. Other agitations in Ireland have had something iu
them to elevate them, something to raise them. They have had men, mistaken men.
who have been guilty of even criminal courses, but who had in them some height oT
soul, some warmth of feeling, some elevation of idea. But this conspiracy against
the law was one which appealed to the meaner part of human nature, and which
instead of touching the sentiments of nationality, addressed itself to the baser passions."
Lord Spencer agrees with most other authorities as to the constitu
tional nature of the Land League " uncrowned king." This is his
view : —
" That Association (the Land League), whatever its original object, has at different Lord Spencer.
times, through those who belong to it, openly advocated the uprootal of Landlordism
in Ireland. It went much further and proclaimed sedition and rebellion in Ireland."
*Mr. Justice Porter.

Guilty or not Guilty ?"

Mr. Justice
Johnson

A foreign view.

The late Attorney-General for Ireland was of the same opinion as the
present Lord Lieutenant. He says : —
"What was that (Mr. Pamell's speech at Dublin) but rank treason."
Or again : —
" Mr. Parnell himself was at this time steeped in treason to the lips."
The Attorney-General, seeing the matter from within, comes to pre
cisely the same conclusion as impartial observers who contemplated it
from without.
Mr. Charles de Mazade, writing in the " Revue des Deux Mondes,"
writes : —
"The Land League surrounds the whole population with a network of revolt and
insurrection. Security of person, right of property, business transactions, all are in a
state of suspense."
" And these words or words like them " — says Mr. Goschen, who makes the quota
tion — " do I believe represent the general opinion, not of Countries automatically
governed, but of the Liberal Countries of Europe, and of the United States of
America." The following general view of the character and objects of the League
is interesting, both on account of its admirable accuracy and of its being
enforced by the weight of a double authority.
Lord Granville quotes Mr. Bright as follows : —
Lord Granville " Mr. Bright described the agency of the agitators as one of outrage and murder.
and Mr. Bright. ^^ denounced their expropriation of the landlords and other 'violent and impossible
schemes." He said — "These propositions which no Government can listen to, which
no people can submit to — these propositions, depend upon it, are made by men who
in their hearts hate much more than they love the farmers of their country. "
Mr. Bright's colleague is equally emphatic in declaring his view as to
the " bona fides " of the organization which by its own account even has
received and not accounted for the sum of ;^t 35,000.
Mr. Chamberlain speaks as follows : —
Mr. Chamberlain "The Government has to deal mth the ill-concealed — I might almost say the
avowed — hostility of a certain section of the leaders of the Irish party. There is no
secret about what I am going to say ; there is no dispute about it, Mr. Parnell and
those who follow him have never concealed that their chief object is not the removal
of grievances in Ireland, but the separation of Ireland from England 
How can we satisfy these men. Our object is not the same as theirs ; we want to
remove every just cause of grievance. They want to magnify grievances and to
intensify differences. "
We are threatened with a large increase in the Parnellite Party in the
House of Commons. In case a renewal of the proceedings of late

" Guilty or not Guitly ?' 7
years is attempted, it will be useful to recall Mr. Bright's words when
speaking of the conduct of the extreme party in the House, he said : —
" I am greatly mistaken if it be not the fact that this Imperial Parliament will know jj,._ gjigjjt
how to defend itself from the grossest case of insult and obstruction which, in my
opinion, has ever been exhibited here.''
It is devoutly to be hoped that Parliament will know how to defend
itself if the policy of insult and obstruction is renewed.
Mr. Shaw Lefevre's estimate of the agitation which was directed by Mr.
Parnell is so remarkable that it merits special attention. He says : —
' ' In the whole history of agitation there never has been anything within my recollec- Mr. Shaw
tion more immoral, or more flagitious, than thjs change of front (demanding that rent
should be reduced to the prairie value) on the part of Mr. Parnell and the leaders of
the Land League after the passing of the Land Act  Under such
circumstances, to go to the country and demand the confiscation of the landlord's pro
perty from ;f 17,000,000 down to ;^2,ooo,ooo, is one of the most shameful acts in the
history of agitation. "
Mr. Shaw Lefevre, like Mr. Gladstone, is clear as to the gravity of
the offence committed by the Land League leaders, and the necessity
for their apprehension.
' ' If there were any doubt as to the gxpediency and propriety of the arrest of these
gentlemen (Messrs. Parnell, Sexton, &c.), it must have been set at rest by the issue of
the no-rent manifesto. A document of that kind is altogether without parallel in the
previous h^tory of Europe. Personally I know nothing more scandalous, nothing
more audacious, than the issue from the prison of Kilmainham, in which these gentle
men were confined, of the no-rent manifesto  A more audacious or
gigantic act of robbery was never perpetrated by the leaders of any agitation."
It is suggested by some that the time is not far distant when members
of the Liberal Party in England will be ready and willing to stretch out
the right hand of fellowship to the' leaders of the Parnellite party. The
suggestion is probably as groundless as it is shameless.
Either the -views which have been quoted are true or false. If they
are tme, it is the duty of every elector to ask himself whether he has
any right to associate himself, even in the most indirect fashion, with
the men of whom they can with any justice be entertained.
Here, at any rate, is a tolerably strong opinion to this effect. Mr.
Goschen is the speaker.
"I will say this, that it is not for Hon. Members who have signed a "no-rent Mr. Goschen.
manifesto," it is not for Honourable Members who have threatened to do all they can
to diminish the ties which bind England and Ireland together, it is not for them to
undertake the responsibility for the government of Ireland. This country would
indeed deserve to be looked upon with reproach and contempt if the Government
were to ask the active leaders of the Home Rule party to be responsible for the peace
of -Ireland. "

8 " Guilty or not Guilty ?"
Note i. — These extracts are selected merely because they chance to
be easily accessible. The most careless reader of the speeches of the
leading men of either party will be able to supplement them almost
indefinitely by other passages of equal strength and directness.
Note 2. — It is particularly necessary in studying the history of the
Land League to bear in mind the difference which exists between the
responsibility of its ordinary members, and that which rests on the
members of the Central Committee which sat under the presidency of
Mr, Pamell in Dublin. The working of the whole organization was in
their hands ; they knew or had the means of knowing everything that
was done by the local branches. They received and disbursed the
funds ; they concocted and distributed the foul literature of the Leagues
If it be true that a single crime was committed by or in the interest
of the Land League, they are entitled to the credit of it.
"The plan of the campaign (said United Ireland) must be in the hands of the
League, and whoever moves vrithout their order is a deserter ; whoever thwarts them
by individual action is an enemy." PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT t

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