be paraded as a type of the class. That many acts of harshness and cruelty have been perpetrated in Ireland, more particularly during the time of the famine, I have no doubt. But, it is to be remembered that the famine year was an exceptional period; a sudden storm had broken out of a clear sky; the ship lay a wreck on her beam-ends. It was such a scene as reveals the mingled baseness and heroism of human nature, and doubtless, in the extremity of peril which threatened the landlords, their wives, and their children, many a man enforced his legal rights with distressing severity. That this was not the general practice is clearly stated by Judge Longfield in his evidence before Mr. Maguire's committee.
In answer to a question as to whether or not a bad feeling had arisen from many proprietors in different parts of Ireland having taken steps, at the time of the famine, to consolidate their farms, he replies, "I do not think that had much to do with it; the tenants were voluntarily giving up their lands in great quantities then;" and a little further on he states that "cases of forcible eviction for the proposed consolidation were very few.".[1] Now Judge Longfield's testimony on such
- ↑ The same opinion was educed by the Devon Commission.
"Much evidence of a most contradictory character was given upon the consolidation of small farms into large. Many statements were made of cases in which such consolidation had been effected; but these statements were, in general, met by
