mitted by the English Government.

How then was this gigantic strike to be carried on without violence or
threatening life or limb? Quite easily was the reply--by extending the
process of "Boycotting." This is, it seems, the great constitutional
weapon on which neither horse, foot, nor artillery can be brought to
bear. Those who will not join the _Jacquerie_, and aid and abet those
Irish analogues of Jacques Bonhomme, Mike and Thady and Tim, in their
resistance to "landlordism" shall be "Boycotted"; and all those who
refuse to join in "Boycotting" an offender shall be treated in the
same way.

Already the stoutest hearted are yielding on every side to the dread
of being "Boycotted," a doom which signifies simply that the victim
must surrender or leave the country. It means that nobody will buy or
sell with any member of the family which is declared "taboo"; that the
farmer may drive his cattle and pigs to market, but will not find a
purchaser; that he may reap his grain and pull his potatoes, but that
not a soul in the country will buy them for fear of being "Boycotted"
himself. It means that the baker will refuse him bread, and the
butcher meat; that no draper who knows his wife by sight will sell her
as much as a ribbon; that not a creature will buy her butter and
eggs, chickens and turkeys, geese and ducks; that she will be unable
to buy any article of food or luxury for her children, and that they
will be "sent to Coventry" at school.

There is not an atom of exaggeration in anything here stated. It is
not a fancy picture, but as genuine as that of Mr. Boycott himself;
and there is no doubt that the taste for "Boycotting" is spreading
rapidly, as my informant, who is heartily in favour of it, declares it
is "clean within any law that could be made, let alone carried out."
It is impossible to compel any community to have dealings with a
person whom they dislike, and the anti-landlord party are determined
to carry their point without, as appears on the notices served on
farmers, "hurting one hair of their heads." "Isolation" has, in fact,
been added to the number of the arts which soften manners and forbid
them to be savage. It is the sprig of shillelagh in a velvet sheath.

XV.

THE "BOYCOTTING" OF MR. BENCE JONES.

CORK, _Friday, Dec. 17th._

The present condition of Mr. W. Bence Jones, of Lisselan, whom I
called upon to-day, illustrates most vividly the advance made in the
art of "Boycotting" since