lar ministry. In such a
case the issue is never doubtful. And if the ministry had shown a
determination to nail their colors to the mast, the Lords would have
lost no time in unfurling a flag of truce. As it was, their practical
acquiescence in the rejection of the bill consummated the rupture
between the Irish party and themselves. The speeches of the chiefs of
the Land League grew fierce, and at times violent, in their denunciation
of Her Majesty's ministers. Mr. W. E. Forster, especially, the Chief
Secretary for Ireland, a man of invincible resolution and ineradicable
prejudices, and yet withal a man of much rugged kindliness of nature,
became the victim of incessant interrogation and attack in Parliament,
and the object of an unrelenting and quenchless hate in Ireland.

At one time the tone and temper of leading agitators were all that could
be desired. "Abstain," said Mr. Davitt, "from all acts of violence,
repel every incentive to outrage. Glorious indeed will be our victory,
and high in the estimation of mankind will our grand old fatherland
stand, if we can so curb our passions and control our actions in this
struggle for free land, as to march to success through privation and
danger without resorting to the wild justice of revenge, or being guilty
of anything which could sully the character of a brave and Christian
people." Later on Mr. Davitt's feelings were less calm and his language
less measured, mild and sober; as when, for instance, he pictured to
his excited auditors "the wolf-dog of Irish vengeance leaping across the
Atlantic to redress and avenge the wrongs of Ireland." Mr. John Dillon
went further still, and ventured to intimate in a speech delivered at
Kildare the advisability of military drill and general preparation for a
resort to arms should the necessity arise.

Among the various means, legitimate and otherwise, adopted by the League
for the accomplishment of its ends, was that form of social ostracism
now familiarly known as "boycotting." Captain Boycott was an Englishman,
employed as agent of Lord Earne, and occupied a farm at Ballinrobe, near
Lough Mask. Emboldened by the powerful protection of the League, Lord
Earne's tenants had refused to pay the stipulated rents, and Boycott
served notices of eviction upon them. Whereupon not only the tenants on
the estate but the population for miles on every side of him resolved
not to have anything to do with him in any shape, whether of barter,
busin