Perhaps the most serious and immediate consequence of the Coercion Act was the arrest of Parnell, which took place on October 13. This event, which caused frenzied joy in England, was one of Forster's worst mistakes in Ireland. The Land League at once issued a "No rent" manifesto. It was signed by Parnell, Dillon, Sexton, and Brennan, who were all in Kilmainham Gaol, and Egan, the treasurer of the League at Paris. Forster, not sorry to be able to do so, retorted by proclaiming the League an illegal association, the legality of which proceeding was doubtful, according to Lord Eversley. It had been impossible to convict the League of a violation of the law and the Coercion Act contained no clause authorising its suppression. On the other hand, the "No rent" manifesto was also an obvious blunder. The clergy denounced it from every altar in Ireland, as indeed they could hardly help doing, and only in the west, where large bodies of the poorer tenants were already refusing to pay their rents without deduction, did it take effect. The agrarian war was consequently intensified, and English opinion greatly incensed. The local heads of the League were arrested all over the disturbed areas, and the Coercion Act pressed into the service of landlords to enable them to collect their rents, no matter how excessive they might be. Evictions were naturally multiplied. Most serious consequence of all--and directly traceable to the ill-advised arrest of Parnell and the leaders of the Land League--secret societies, with their inevitable accompaniment of crime and outrage, began to take the place of open and, at least relatively, constitutional agitation. Parnell {173} had been asked by an admirer, who would take his place in case of his arrest. "Captain Moonlight will take my place," was his grim reply. Captain Moonlight did so. During the months preceding the passing of the Coercion Act there were seven homicides, twenty-one cases of firing at the person, and sixty-two of firing into dwellings. The work of the suppressed Land League was carried on by the Ladies' Land League under the presidency of Parnell's sister. The ladies, if they did not actually stimulate crime, did little to suppress it. When Parnell eventually emerged from Kilmainham, he was furious with them, both on account of their policy and their extravagance. Outrages had increased, and they had spent £70,000 during the seven months of his incarceration!