r. Sexton, along with the Treasurer, Mr. Egan, and the
Secretary, Mr. Brennan, and several others, were prosecuted by the Crown
on the charge of inciting to outrage. The prosecution, however, broke
down, as everybody expected it would, through disagreement of the jury.

When Parliament assembled in January, 1881, the policy announced for
Ireland was, as usual, one of concession and coercion. There was to be a
Land Act, and there was to be a Bill which would give the
Lord-lieutenant "power by warrant to arrest any person reasonably
suspected of treason, treasonable felony, or treasonable practices, and
the commission, whether before or after the Act, of crimes of
intimidation, or incitement thereto." The conflict over the latter bill,
which was first introduced, made the House of Commons more like a
bear-garden than a place of rational deliberation and debate. Even Mr.
Bright and Mr. Gladstone became exasperated, and charged back upon their
assailants with an energy and violence quite unwonted. Mr. Gladstone's
speech in particular aroused the House, angered the Irish members, and
proved to be the prelude to a prolonged conflict with systematic
obstruction, which went on for some time, night and day, without break.
Even Mr. Parnell for the moment lost all self-command, entered into an
angry conflict with the Prime Minister, defied the ruling of the
Speaker, and was expelled the House, as Mr. Dillon had been the evening
before. Some thirty others of the National party followed his example
of defiance with a similar result. At the close of February the Coercion
Bill was sent up to the Lords, and on the beginning of March received
the Queen's assent. The end of July saw the third reading of the Land
Bill in the Commons, after long and wearisome debate. The Lords amended
it to death, and sent it back to the Commons--the poor and pithless
shadow of its former self. Restored to life in the Lower House, it was
again presented for the acceptance of the peers. Again they struck at
its vitality, but the Commons said, _Nulla vestigia retrorsum_. A
thousand popular platforms and almost the whole provincial press called
upon the government to be firm; mass meetings in London and other large
cities and towns clamored for the abolition of the House of Lords and
the extinction of hereditary rule. Eventually the courage of the peers
gave way, and the Land Bill of 1881 became law.

The closing months of the year saw the Land League chiefs