Second,
landlords and agents, who rented land too high and raised the rent on
the tenant's own invested improvements. Third, the priests, who could
repress outrage and reveal crime if they chose to do so. Fourth,
Catholic tenants who took the law into their own hands instead of
patiently waiting for redress by law.
According to this gentleman, the only innocent persons in Ireland were
the Protestant tenantry; so to root out the Catholics and replace them
by Protestants was the only possible way to have peace in the country.
Boycotting he referred to especially as a dangerous thing, which
paralyzed all industry and turned the country into a place governed by
the worst kind of mob law.
Another gentleman of position and experience said that a strike against
paying rent led easily into a strike against paying anything at all;
that society had really become disorganized. Many held back their rents,
which they were well able to pay--had the money by them. The Land League
had done a great deal of harm. At the same time this gentleman confirmed
the Athleague gentleman's statement that rents were raised past the
possibility of the tenant's paying, that eviction was cruel and
persistent, the belief being that large grass farms were the only paying
form of letting land.
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