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NEW YORK—FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 31, 1883.
Price Five Cents,
. COL. KING-HARMAN’S TENANTS.
THE NEW YORK UERALD'S PHILANTHROPIC
“MODEL IRISH LANDLORD.”
BY JAMES REDPATH,
L
{ Last week, we printed this paragraph :
COL, KING-HARMAN,
This renegade Home Ruler seems anxious to disgrace two races.
He has West India colored blood in his veins, and he is disgracing
his negro blood by upholding the oppression of Ireland. He dis-
graces Ireland by misrepresenting her.
He seems to be anxious to rival the Ananias reputation of Buck-
shot Forster, whose resplendent genius for bearing false witness, I
have elsewhere shown.
A friend writes to me from Dublin:
“Col. King-Harman attacked you in his speech on Saturday night
thmines. I send you a copy of the Irish Times with
a full report of it. He first quoted what Forster said. about you in
the House of Commons, and added:
“Mr, Forster says, speaking of Mr. Parnell—“ The honorable
member for Cork does not even inquire into the action of another
of his assistants—Redpath—the intimate ally of the Land Le:
Redpath, who spoke at the League Convention in Dublin.
He was Mr. Sexton's right-hand man at a banquet where he publicly
avowed his intention of committing niurder, 6
any denunciation of Redpath afterwards;” and 1 follow that out
with a cutting from the papers we read from
, that the people should give them
money for their own aggrandizement, but on the faith of their doing
something, and now they are going again to delude the unfortunate
people and swindle them out of their hard-earned dollars, and again
to tell them that they are going to do something. (Hear, hear.)’”
“«Did you ever say anything that could by any perversity be con-
strued in that light?” .
No, of course, I never said anything of the sort.
But as Col. King-Haiman is held up as a model Irish landlord, I
shall tear away, next week, the mask behind which the slanderer and
evictor hides his true features, by telling what I know about him as
a landlord,
I now proceed to redeem this pledge :
Il.
If I shall prove that Col. King-Harman is not entitled to be re-
garded as a good Irish landlord, the parasites of the British power
in this country-will say that I have taken as my “shocking exam-
ple” of an Irish landlord one of the worst members of the class.
Let me first call witnesses, therefore, to proye Col. King-Harman's
right to the honor of being entitled to sit for an historical portrait
of a good Irish landlord.
Call Col, King-Harman himself! .On New Year's Day, a year
ago, seven hundred of his tenants marched into the town of Boyle
and asked a reduction of twenty-five per cent. on their rentals, Col.
King-Harman refused to allow it, and charged his tenants with in-
gratitude. He made a speech a¢ them, which was sent to the lead-
ing English papers, and republished, as a proof that nothing would
satisfy the insatiable Irish peasantry. It was then quoted in Parlia-
ment, and the “Hon,” Mr. Plunkett is reported to have shed tears
there over the ingratitude of Col. King-Harman’s tenants. Doubt-
less they’ were strictly rhetorical tears ; but, whether verbal or saline
in their texture, they aroused a strong feeling in England against
the Irish peasantry. Mr. Plunkett attributed to the malign influence
of the Land League and its “terrorism” the ‘‘unparalled fact”
that a tenantry, hitherto happy and devoted to Col. King-Harman,
had so suddenly turned against their ‘ benefactor,”
Col, King-Harmon himself claimed, as he had often done, that he
is one of the best landlords in Ireland, because his aggregate rental
is lower than Griffith's Valuation.
“Had you come here to-day,” he said, “with the demand that
your rents should not exceed Griffith's Valuation, I could have shown
you by figures which I have prepared that the Boyle and Rocking-
ham property, and a'small estate in the Queen's county, are let un-
» ° der Griffith's Valuation ; that the rents paid into this office by the
tenantry on my properties in Roscommon, Sligo and Queen's county
are under Griffith's Valuation. Griffith’s Valuation on these prop-
erties is £24,732, and the rental is only £22,000.”
‘Now, a landlord in Ireland who could prove that’ his rents were
£2,700 under Griffith's Valuation, would be entitled to be regarded
as a good Jandlord without further evidence. But Col, King-Har-
‘man also claimed that he had never pressed a man during the “four
bad seasons” that culminated in the last famine, and that he had
tried to do his duty ‘‘in helping my poorer tenantry by giving them
quantities of seed potatoes, and in some cases, oats free gratis, for
nothing” (!) *.* *. “Ifa poor woman, or man, wanted to pur-
chase a cow and came to the office stating good reasons, the price of
, the cow was forthcoming, and there was not much talk about repay-
‘ment afterwards.”" * *.* There is not a property around so
Jow-rented, or se fairly rented, as the Rockingham and Boyle prop-
<® #2 # “T call Heaven to witness how I expended my
eneigy, my money, my time, and my brains in trying to befriend the
Je.” *° # * “Is it not the fact that all over my property—
let, as it is, under Griffith's Valuation—I have been spending money,
right, left and center, in order to, benefit my people by giving em-
ployment.” i
These are specimens of the statements that Col, King-Harman
has been in the habit of making for years, and that have won for him
the reputation —in England—of being one of the best landlords in
Ireland.
ul
Mr. Gladstone, in a debate in the House of Commons, a year ago,
maintained that, under existing Jaws, the estate of a landlord was le-
gally liable for the support of its tenants. .
What was the condition of Col. King-Harman’s tenants during
the last famine ?
A special commissioner of the Dublin Freeman's Journal showed
that in the parish of Sheegorah, almost all of which is the property
of Col. King-Harman, out of a population of 681 no less than 370
tenants were on the Relief lists, and that in Cashel and Copse nine-
teen families, or about 100 persons, were in receipt of relief,
In these two parishes, it is shown “ that wherever rents have been
paid these last few years have been paid by the tenants’ earnings in
England, by the remittances of their friends in America, or by throw-
ing the support of their families upon charitable relief.” In these
two parishes Col, King-Harman had the fixing of the rents in his
own hands, unembarrassed, by any limitations or legal liabilities in
the form of settlements on relatives or other joint-heirs.
‘The local relief committee at Boyle had no less than 382 families,
tenants of Col. King-Harman, on their list during the famine of
1879.
His “ people” are described as a “crowd of wretched, desperate,
broken-hearted tenants.”
Iv.
Ihave a list of some of the rents charged by Col. King-Harman
in several of the townlands of his Roscommon estates, with the
poor-law valuation, I shall take them as they come—not selecting
the worst examples, but in the regular order. Let us see how they
bear out the assertion of Col. King-Harman that his fents are under
Griffiith's Valuation. To save space I’ shall omit the names of the
Se mig
+My i),
te ty
FERNS
\ ‘
tenants, but I will give them to any one who doubts the accuracy of
the figures.
In the townland of Western Cashel, which was farmed by twelve
tenants, the leases expired in 1875.' These tenants were immediately
lispossessed, For twoyearsthey were permitted to remain at greatly
increased rents. The townland was then ‘‘re-valued,” and the tenants,
were restored as permanent occupants, but at a Shylock advance in
ren’,
In this case I will give the names, but afterwards the totals only :
John McDonagh—Valuation, £10; old lease, £7 108.; new rent,
£15 188.; during suspension of tenancy, £17 2s. 4d.
Pat Queenan—Valuation, £4 15.; old lease, £4 5s. 6d.; new rent,
£8 8s.; suspension rent, £9 1s, i
William Lynch—Valuation, £2; old lease, £1138. sd.; new rent,
S338.
Martin McDonagh—Valuation, £5 155.; old lease, £x 3s. 5d.; new
rent, £8.
Wm. McDonagh—Valuation, £3 158.; old lease, not stated; new
rent, £5 138.
Thomas McDonagh—Valuation, £4 158.: old lease, £4 58. 8d.,
new rent, £8 12s,
James Keaveney—Valuation, £4 t0s.; old rent, £4 6s. rod.; new
rent, £8 18s.
Timothy McDonagh—Valuation, £4 158.; old lease, £4 10s.; new
rent, £9 158.
Widow McDonagh—Valuation, £4 108; old lease £3 18s.; new
rent, £8.
Thomas Keaveney—Valuation, £10 105.; old lease, £6 8s. rod.;
new rent, £17 10s.; rent during suspensicn of tenancy, £18 12s,
In addition to these increased rents, a charge hitherto unknown of
as, 6d. per lineal perch for turf cut on their own farms was imposed
on each tenant,
Aggregating these figures the result is that the Government valua-
tion is £48 10s., and the present rental, £83 2.
Lhave a list of fifteen of Col, King-Harman’s tenants in the town-
land of Sheegorah. The Government valuation of the holdings of
these fifteen (enants is £74; the total rental under the oid lease was
£81 38. 1d., and the present rental is £112 178. 4d. |—Continued
on page 8., ’
