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Page 4
They protested against any message being sent, unless it contained a
statement that during the sixty years of Victoria's reign Ireland had
been subject to much suffering and deprived of her rights, and that
therefore the Irish members of Parliament were dissatisfied and unable
to join in the celebrations.
The House of Commons would not entertain this, and a motion was passed
that the address should be sent to the Queen.
The Irish members continued their protests after the vote had been
taken, declaring it false and absurd to present the address when it did
not express the sentiment of the House, but only of a portion of it.
* * * * *
Captain Boycott has just died. You are probably familiar with the name,
and with the meaning of the word "boycott," but it may interest you to
know what a very young word it is, only seventeen years old, having been
coined in 1880, and that it derives its origin from this very Captain
Boycott who has just passed away.
He was a captain in the English army. After a while he sold out his
commission, and settled down as a farmer in Connemara, Ireland. He
became the agent of an Irish landlord named Lord Erne, and it was his
duty to manage the estate, see to the sowing and gathering of crops,
keep the houses on the property in repair, and collect the rents from
the tenants.
The Irish had long been complaining that their rents were too heavy, and
that their landlords did nothing for them in return for the money
collected. There was a good deal of truth in these complaints; the
landlords hardly ever went near their estates, and seemed to care only
for the money they got from the tenants. The whole conduct of affairs
was left in the hands of the agents, who were obliged to grind the money
out of the tenants to supply the wants of their masters.
It does not appear that Captain Boycott was more severe than other
agents, but he does seem to have been less in sympathy with the
peasants.
There had been a long period of bad harvests followed by a famine, and
the tenants could not pay their rents. They begged that their back rent
might be forgiven them, and their future rents lowered.
All over Ireland similar demands were being made. Irish agitators, as
they were called, were holding meetings all over the country, advising
the peasants to make these demands. Among the men who addressed the
people were Charles Stewart Parnell, John Dillon, and Michael Davitt,
all members of Parliament.
Excitement had run so high that the peasants had murdered several agents
who refused their demands.
Mr. Parnell and his friends urged the people not to commit crimes, but
to refuse to pay the rents demanded.
These leaders bade the people stop buying from, selling to, or working
for any landlord who refused to listen to their demands, and to prevent
others from having any dealings with them.
This is what is called "boycotting." Captain Boycott was its first
victim. He not only refused to lower the rents, but, according to the
story of the peasants, he reduced the wages of his laborers by a system
of petty fines.
Acting on Mr. Parnell's advice, the laborers refused to work for him,
and the tenants refused to have any dealings with him.
It was harvest-time, but the crops were left rotting in the fields,
because no one would lend a hand to gather them. The farm servants left
the farm, and there was no one to feed the cattle or milk the cows. The
country people round would sell neither food, clothes, nor medicines to
any of the family.
The peasants cut Captain Boycott off from the rest of the world, and
kept him thus isolated until the Government had to interfere.
A gang of laborers was sent down, under the escort of a troop of
soldiers, and gathered in the crops, and when the work was done, under
the protection of the soldiers, the Captain and his family were taken
from their home and safely guarded until they reached Dublin.
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