Lord Salisbury’s Government

Lord Salisbury’s Government, however, persevered. The Perpetual Coercion Bill was introduced in March (1887), and, in spite of all the efforts of Irish Nationalists and English Home Rulers, in spite, too, of the proved inaccuracy of many of the statements made in order to show the ” lawless ” condition of Ireland, it passed by a majority of eighty-seven in July.

Working of the Coercion Act: The Mitchelstown Affray.—By the powers vested in the Lord Lieutenant under the new Act, the Irish Land League was suppressed, its meetings forbidden, and its papers seized. Some of the prosecutions were absurd in the extreme. A boy of ten was summoned for whistling a tune called ” Harvey Duff ” in the street, with such a threatening air as to ” intimidate ” a magistrate. An Italian organ-grinder who had taught his monkey to draw a little toy pistol and fire it in the air, was prosecuted under the Arms’ Act, and the weapon confiscated. Unfortunately, there was a more tragic side. At a political meeting held in Mitchelstown (Co. Cork) a Government note-taker tried to force his way through a crowd of some 8,000 people. This he failed to do, although no hostility was displayed towards him, as the people were tightly packed and could not move. The police who accompanied the note-taker began to use their batons on the heads of the crowd, who retorted with their sticks. 

   Finally the police retreated to their barracks and fired from the windows, killing three men. Were it not for the priests and a small band of soldiers, who happened to be in the town, and whose officer drew a cordon between the contending parties, many more lives would have been sacrificed, and not improbably the whole body of police been massacred.
The jails were filled with persons indicted for breaches of the new regulations.

Above : Portrait Of Gladstone

In 1885 the desired opportunity came. There had been disaster in the Soudan, culminating in the massacre of General Gordon and the English garrison at Khartoum. Justly or unjustly, the blame fell on the alleged vacillation of the Government. The Irish Party united with the Conservatives, and, in June, Gladstone’s Ministry fell. Lord Salisbury came into office as Premier.