OCR Text |
Show LORD DE FREYNE SURRENDERS. The most stubborn of Irish landlords land-lords has been brought to his knees by the United Irish League, whose destruction he sought by every means, fair and fouL Lord De Freyne will sell out to his tenants. Feudalism and the name of De Freyne have meant the same thing in North Roscommon for a hundred years. The Frenches of French Park, the head of which family is ever the Lord De Freyne considered their blood so very good that it could not be made less blue by peasant admixture. admix-ture. The Lords De Freyne considered consid-ered their title so very good to a considerable con-siderable section of the land of Con-naught Con-naught that they scorned the weakness weak-ness of neighboring landlords who sold out to their tenants, in' canny forethought of a time when no man would pay rent. When the tenants on the Dillon and other estates adjoining bought out their holdings they were able to undersell un-dersell and underbid the De Freyne tenants in all local markets and for all local public contracts. The De Freyne tenants proposed to buy. What presumption! What would become of the title without the lands? The people, advised by the United Irish League's Standing Committee, united in an agreement to pay no rent, and to make his lordship come to his senses. Police were drafted into the district from all over Ireland and for the first time in its history that neighborhood became lawless. Cattle were "houghed" or otherwise mutilated, and the energetic "peelers" are ever since suspected of these crimes and of having fired shots into many a cabin. The reign of terror lasted over a year, and in that time there were many heart-scalding evictions evic-tions on the De Freyne estate. His proud lordship next proceeded to the destruction of the United Irlish League. He boasted that he would accomplish it He would " imprison Redmond and all the other leaders for putting the people up to contumacy. contu-macy. But first he began court actions ac-tions against them for damages, so as to weaken their resources for defending defend-ing the criminal accusations to come. And now, as the newspapers state in a brief . paragraph, it is all over. Lord De Freyne has abandoned aban-doned the civil suit and the criminal processes. And he will sell out to bis tenants, but not, of course, until after the passage of the Land bill, which aims to compel the tenants to pay much more than he would be 1 willing to bargain freely for. He will also reinstate the evicted tenants in their holdings, having found it impossible impos-sible to find any to supplant them, and probably he will leave Ireland and endeavor for a time to support his title without a landed estate. Ireland is making history fast this year, and nothing shows it half as clearly as the humbling, the surrender, surren-der, of the greatest tyrant in the land, the heartless Lord De Freyne. |