Above : Portrait Of John Blake Dillon

The summer of 1879 had teen cold and wet. Most of the crops were extremely poor, and the potato crop practically a total failure. This, of course, meant for the rural population of a great part of Ireland nothing short of famine. Amongst the despairing peasantry, the advice of the Land League to consider the needs of their families before satisfying the claims of the landlords, and, at the same time, to ” keep a firm grip on their homesteads,” found ready acceptance.

In many cases, however, all the money which the people possessed had been able to borrow had been expended, so that even for food
Jtlnng remained, and only by means of charitable relief could they be saved from actual starvation. Parnell, accompanied by John Dillon Vson of the John Blake Dillon of 1848), betook himself to America, and chiefly from the Irish of the United States, over fifty thousands t0 be used partly to feed the starving people, and partly for the fund for political programme of the Land League. Other Were started in Ireland, and great quantities of food and clothes Were distributed.

Still, the sufferings of the people, especially in the and west, were very severe, and numbers died of actual hunger diseases produced by lack of proper nourishment. Rents could of course, be paid, and too often the landlords, deaf to all entreaties at least, delay, evicted without pity. That in consequence outra ‘ took place was far from surprising. These the leaders of the Land League denounced, as not only in themselves criminal, but as likely prove most detrimental to their cause. At the same time, they to 1 care to give as much publicity as possible to any particularly flagrant cases of eviction.
The Conservative Government which had been in power was defeated at the General Election (March, 1880), while the triumph of the Home Rulers in Ireland was complete ; sixty-five members pledged to their policy were returned to Parliament.

The new Liberal Government included, besides the Premier Mr. Gladstone, several other Ministers favourable to the Irish cause and much hope was entertained that at least the hand of the evictor would be stayed. The Upper House had, however, to be reckoned with. A very moderate ” Disturbance Bill,” designed to entitle those who could clearly prove that the arrears of rent for which they were to be evicted were due to the prevalent state of distress, to receive some ” compensation for disturbance,” though passed by the Commons, was rejected by the Lords (July, 1880). It was about this time, and on the advice of Parnell himself, that the method afterwards called, from the name of the land¬lord (Captain Boycott) against whom it was first employed, ” boycotting ” began to be used by the adherents of the Land League. Any person who took or even bid for a farm from which another was held to have been unjustly evicted was to be ostracised. No one should hold social intercourse with him, serve him, buy from him or sell to him. This was a terrible weapon, and those who wielded it could not be expected to be free from prejudice. Inconvenience, loss and annoyance, amounting to positive persecution were inflicted, in not a few cases, on persons who had done little or nothing to deserve it.

The Irish Chief Secretaryship, an office which had come to be considered as of much more importance than the Viceroyaity itself, was then held by Mr. William Forster. He had all an Englishman s respect for the law in and for itself, and he was perplexed when faced with a state of affairs in which it was constantly ignored or broken, while the public voice approved and encouraged law-breakers. An attempt to convict the chief Land League leaders of a conspiracy to incite th* tenants to refuse the payment of their just debts, that is to say, of they decided in the disagreement of the jury, and the prosecution was, fnr the present, abandoned.