Dealing with the Land League he said it had been
attempted to compare it with the Corn Laws, but Mr. Bright had
completely demolished that miserable argument. It was compared also to
the trade unions, but they made an onward step in the intelligence and
in the love of law and order among the working classes. They had never
tainted themselves by word or deed which would bring them into suspicion
in connection with the maintenance of law. The leaders of the Land
League were now put forward as martyrs on the same platform as
O'Connell; but on every occasion of his life-long agitation O'Connell
set himself to avoid whatever might tend to a breach of law and order.
Then Mr. Gladstone showed the necessity of the Coercion Act from the
condition of Ireland, where during the past year there had been a great
increase of crime, and the outrages were agrarian, and not connected
with the distress. It was a significant fact that the agrarian outrages
had risen and fallen with the meetings of the Land League. Nothing could
be more idle than to confound the agrarian crime of Ireland with the
ordinary crime of England, or even of Ireland. In regard to general
crime, Ireland held a high and honorable place, but how different was
the case with agrarian crime! He referred to the miscarriage of justice
in Ireland, and said that the bill, if passed, would restore to Ireland
the first conditions of Christian and civilized existence.
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