The political movements of the Recess had been followed with growing anxiety by the Queen. Bye-elections and municipal elections seemed to show, not only that the hold of the Government on the country was becoming feebler, but that a working alliance between the Tories and the Irish Party had been formed. Mr. Parnell’s followers had been divided in opinion as to how they should treat the Land Act, some declaring that they should impede its working, others urging that every advantage should be taken of it. Mr. Parnell, after some hesitancy, united his Party on the policy of “testing” the Act. The Land League was directed to push into the Land Courts a series of “test cases,” that is to say, of cases where average rents were levied, so that a clear idea might be gained of the practical working of the Act. At the same time, the Irish people were led to believe that, unless the Act reduced the rent of Ireland from £17,000,000 to £3,000,000, that is to say, unless it reduced rent to “prairie value,” it would not do justice. The tenantry were warned by the Land League not to go into Court, but to stand aside till the decisions on the test cases were given. When Mr. Gladstone visited Leeds in the first week of October, he fiercely attacked Mr. Parnell for interfering between the tenants and the Law Courts. Mr. Parnell retorted in an acrid and contemptuous speech at Wexford on the 9th of October. On the 13th of October Mr. Parnell was arrested in Dublin as a “suspect” under the Coercion Act, and all his more prominent followers were in quick succession lodged in Kilmainham Jail. Mr. Healy was in England, and Mr. Biggar and Mr. Arthur O’Connor escaped the vigilance of the police and joined him. This _coup d’état_ was somewhat theatrically contrived. It was so timed that Mr. Gladstone was able to announce it at a municipal banquet at the Guildhall, where he declared that the enemy had fallen, amidst rapturous shouts of applause. The Land Leaguers retaliated by issuing a manifesto to the Irish people to pay no rent whilst their leaders were in prison--a false step, for, in view of the opposition of the clergy, a strike against rent was not feasible. The Land League was then suppressed by Mr. Forster as an unlawful association, and agrarian outrages began to increase every day. According to the Nationalists, this was the natural and necessary result of locking up popular leaders, who could alone restrain the people. Mr. Forster, however, regarded the growth of the outrages as an act of vengeance on the part of the League, whose leaders secretly encouraged them. In Ulster, however, the Land Act worked well, and rents were reduced from 20 to 30 per cent. all round. Every week fresh drafts of “suspects” were lodged in jail, and as the year closed it became evident that Ireland was fast falling under the terrorism of the old secret societies. [Illustration: THE ROYAL FAMILY IN THE HIGHLANDS: TUG OF WAR--BALMORAL v. ABERGELDIE.] CHAPTER XXV.