The Speeches (In Full) of the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., and William O'Brien, M.P., on Home Rule, Delivered in Parliament, Feb. 16 and 17, 1888.Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
History
The Speeches (In Full) of the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., and William O'Brien, M.P., on Home Rule, Delivered in Parliament, Feb. 16 and 17, 1888.
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
The greater number of the important struggles in which we were engaged
when this act was passed has been brought to a victorious conclusion
under the mouths of the right honorable gentleman's guns. (_Cheers._)
And upon what terms? I could speak for an hour, giving you instances of
the results; but the one thing that applies to them all is, that in
every single instance at least the original demands of the tenants have
been acceded to. ("_Hear, hear._") Every evicted tenant has been
reinstated (_cheers_), and every shilling of law costs incurred in the
struggle has been borne as an indemnity by the landlords. (_Cheers, and
"No."_) You could have got as good a result as that without the act. On
Lord de Freyne's estate, when the act was passing, the agent, Mr.
M'Dougal, wrote this letter: "Spot the men in your district who are able
to pay and won't; we will see, now that the Coercion Act is about to
become law, whether we won't make them honest men." It turned out that
the dishonest men beat Mr. M'Dougal and his master. They had confidence
in the Crimes Bill and the right honorable gentleman last autumn. Where
is Mr. M'Dougal to-day? He is gone, dismissed, and everything that the
tenants were then demanding has been conceded.
The very day after I came out of prison, I learned that the new agent
had had an interview with two of the most prominent of the campaigners
on the estate, and he not only agreed to the tenants' terms, but he
agreed to refund the sum of over £1,700, which Mr. M'Dougal had
dishonestly extorted from the tenants before the Plan of Campaign.
(_Cheers._) This money was wrung from the tenants by terror, by serving
one hundred and fifty writs of ejectment before they had the protection
of the Plan of Campaign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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