UGITIVE EARLS

IX. THE CONFISCATION OF ULSTER

X. THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER

XI. THE REBELLION OF 1641

XII. THE PURITAN PLANTATION

XIII. THE PENAL CODE. A NEW SYSTEM OF LAND WAR

XIV. ULSTER IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

XV. POVERTY AND COERCION

XVI. THE FAMINE

XVII. TENANT-RIGHT IN ULSTER

XVIII. TENANT-RIGHT IN DOWN

XIX. TENANT-RIGHT IN ANTRIM

XX. TENANT-RIGHT IN ARMAGH

XXI. FAKNEY--MR. TRENCH'S 'REALITIES'

XXII. BELFAST AND PERPETUITY

XXIII. LEASE-BREAKING--GEASHILL

XXIV. THE LAND SYSTEM AND THE WORKING CLASSES

XXV. CONCLUSION--AN APPEAL TO ENGLISHMEN

XVIII. TENANT-RIGHT IN DOWN 313

XIX. TENANT-RIGHT IN ANTRIM 328

XX. TENANT-RIGHT IN ARMAGH 346

XXI. FAKNEY--MR. TRENCH'S 'REALITIES' 356

XXII. BELFAST AND PERPETUITY 381

XXIII. LEASE-BREAKING--GEASHILL 387

XXIV. THE LAND SYSTEM AND THE WORKING CLASSES 401

XXV. CONCLUSION--AN APPEAL TO ENGLISHMEN 424

THE LAND-WAR IN IRELAND.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

As the hour approaches when the legislature must deal with the Irish
Land question, and settle it, like the Irish Church question, once
for all, attempts are redoubled to frighten the public with
the difficulties of the task. The alarmists conjure up gigantic
apparitions more formidable than those which encountered Bunyan's
Pilgrim. Monstrous figures frown along the gloomy avenue that, leads
up to the Egyptian temple in which the divinity, PROPERTY, dwells in
mysterious darkness. To enter the sanctuary, we are solemnly
assured, requires all the cardinal virtues in their highest state of
development--the firmest faith, the most vivid hope, and the charity
that never faileth. But this is not the only country that has had a
land question to settle. Almost every nation in Europe has done for
itself what England is now palled upon to do for Ireland. In fact,
it is a necessary process in the transition from feudalism to
constitutional self-government. Feudalism gave the land to a few whom
it made princes and lords, having forcibly taken it from the many,
whom it made subjects and serfs. The land is the natural basis of
society. The Normans made it the artificial basis of a class. Society
in nearly every other country has reverted back to its original
foundations, and so remains firm and strong without dangerous rents or
fissures. No doubt, the operation is difficult and critical. But what
has been done once m