However, he only remained in prison for seven years. In 1878 he received what the English call a _ticket-of-leave_. The individual who receives this ticket is set at liberty, but conditionally; he is still under police supervision, and the Government has the right to imprison him again without further trial until the end of his sentence. Mr. Davitt’s case had been widely known. On the day that he returned to Dublin with one of his fellow prisoners, liberated with him, 300,000 persons waited for them at the station, and the impression produced was rendered deeper and more lasting by this man falling dead through the rupture of an aneurism as he entered the hotel where Mr. Parnell was waiting for them. At this meeting at Irishtown the theory of the Land League was first explained. Curiously enough, Mr. Davitt first thought of the idea, but he did not make the first speech--he had missed the train, so others opened the subject instead of him. In such a centre it could not fail to receive an enthusiastic welcome. Thanks to an active method of propaganda, it spread through the country so rapidly and so successfully that a few months later Mr. Parnell summoned in Dublin a meeting of delegates from all parts of Ireland, who were charged with drawing up the statutes of the Association, which, under the name of the IRISH NATIONAL LAND LEAGUE, was established on the 21st October, 1879. The general principles which were to guide the Association, are stated in the following declaration:--The objects of the League are-- I. To obtain a reduction of rack-rents. II. To facilitate the acquisition of the land by those who cultivate it. III. To attain these ends the League will undertake-- 1st. To create an organisation which will bind all the tenants together. 2nd. To defend all those who may be threatened by the landlords with eviction from their farms, through refusing to pay rack-rents. 3rd. 4th. Lastly, to neglect no opportunities of forcing Government to pass laws allowing the tenant to become the owner of the soil he cultivates, by means of the payment of an annuity, and under the most favourable conditions possible. The document was signed by Parnell, President; Patrick Egan, Treasurer; Michael Davitt and Thomas Brennan, Secretaries.