Ex Libris
C. K. OGDEN
v
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
%
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ARTHUR
MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
COMPILED BY HIS COUSIN
SARAH L. STEELE
FROM PAPERS CHIEFLY UNPUBLISHED
Does the road wind up-hill all the way ?
Yes, to the very end. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
WITH PORTRAIT
Pontoon
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
I 891
All rights reserved
TO
HIS CHILDREN
AND
GRANDCHILDREN
2017839
PREFACE
ONE beautiful January morning, with the blue expanse
of the Bay of Naples shimmering under our windows
in the sunlight, I received a letter which changed all
our plans for the year.
It was to ask me to undertake the Biography, now
placed before the public, of my cousin Arthur Mac-
Murrough Kavanagh.
It has been a labour of love, of love both to the
dead and the living, and though I feel very deeply
how inadequately I have portrayed that noble life, yet
I have striven with all my heart to do it justice.
My object has not been to make an exhaustive
Biography. It has rather been to show, as much as
possible in his own words, how, deprived as he neces-
sarily was of the usual course of education, his early
life of travel, assisted by his own keen observation
and self-reliance, made good that loss ; how his
character thus moulded gave him the high place he
filled in the esteem of those whose opinion is of
value ; how his thoughtful work for his own people
x PREFACE
and for his country was unweariedly carried on through
difficulty and disappointment ; and how he strove for
no other reward than the approval of his conscience
and of his God.
I could never have undertaken the task but for the
guidance and co-operation of my husband. From the
beginning to the end his ungrudging help was always
ready, and his deep appreciation of Mr. Kavanagh's
rare qualities rendered it doubly effective.
My cordial thanks must also be given to those
whose greater knowledge of various portions of Mr.
Kavanagh's life and work was so loyally placed at my
disposal. To Mrs. Kavanagh first, then to Mrs.
Bruen, the Bishop of Ossory, the Bishop of Cork,
Lord Courtown, Mr. Sweetman, J.P., Mr. J. F.
Vesey- Fitzgerald, Mr. G. D. Burtchaell, and the Rev.
G. W. Rooke.
My acknowledgments are also due to the Right
Hon. W. H. Smith, the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen,
and the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, for valuable
material they allowed me to publish ; and, further,
to my sister Mrs. Meredyth, Mr. T. E. Kebbel,
and Mr. C. A. Cooper of Edinburgh, for incidental
assistance.
Mrs. Alexander's beautiful verses which close the
Biography need no comment from me beyond this
word of gratitude for the privilege of publishing them.
I cannot conclude without expressing the earnest
PREFACE xi
hope that this imperfect record of one "of whom the
world was not worthy," whose whole life revealed
the humble submission of a Christian, united to the
manly chivalry of a noble race, may not have told its
story in vain.
SARAH L. STEELE.
FLORENCE, Christmas Eve, 1 890.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Kings of Leinster, I ; Strongbow and Eva Kavanagh, 2 ; Art More MacMorrough
and Richard II, 2 ; Art Boy MacMorrough, 3 ; Baron of Ballyan, 3 ;
Thomas Kavanagh of Borris, Esq., M.P., 4; His two marriages, 5; The
Austrian branch, 5 ; The " Empress - King," 5 ; General Dermitius
Kavanagh, 5 > A Styrian churchyard, 6 ; Family relics, 7 ; Crown of Kings
of Leinster, 7 ; Charter horn, 7 ; Book of St. Moling, 7.
CHAPTER II
Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh : his birth, 8 ; Placed at Celbridge, 8 ; Intro-
duced to his cousins, 9 ; Sir Philip Crampton, 9 ; Holiday games, 10 ;
Fishing for ducks, 10 ; Residence at St. Germains, n ; The Villa Strozzi
at Rome, 12 ; "Arthur's Hymn," 12.
CHAPTER III
Borris House, 13 ; Borris Chapel, 13 ; House besieged in 1641, 14 ; Second siege
in '98, 14; A promise ! 15 ; Rout of the rebels, 15 ; Borris demesne, 15;
Borris brook, 15 ; Barrow scenery, 16 ; Drummond Lodge, 17.
CHAPTER IV
Egypt The 'wilderness The Holy Land, 18 ; Narrow escape on the Nile, 19 ;
"Dougal M'Tavish," 21 ; Purchases, 21 ; Sport on the Nile, 23 ; A desert
encampment, 24 ; Jerusalem, 25 ; Miraculous stone, 25 ; In favour with
the Bedouins, 26 ; Revolution of '48 at Marseilles, 27 ; Hadji Mohammed,
27 ; Lufraand Gwherda, 27 ; Love of animals, 28 ; Another narrow escape,
28 ; Smith O'Brien's rebellion, 29.
CHAPTER V
Tom's majority, 30 ; Start once more for the East, 30 ; Fair of Nijni-Novgorod,
31 ; Air-beds, 32^; Volga scenery, 32 ; Kasan, 33 ; Cuisine on the Volga,
33; "Les ames' damnees," 34; Encampment of Calmuc Tartars, 35;
xiv CONTENTS
Arrival at Astrakhan, 35 ; Anti-combustion regulations, 36 ; Gale on the
Caspian, 37; 111 -bestowed hospitality, 37; Arrival at Baku, 38; Fire-
worshippers, 38 ; Wild scenery, 39 ; Turcoman horsemen, 40 ; "In durance
vile," 40; A useful dog, 41 ; Narrow escape, 42 ; Arrival at Teheran, 44.
CHAPTER VI
Embassy at Teheran, 45 ; Servant in fever, 45 ; Instantaneous recovery, 46 ;
Himself in fever, 47 ; A Persian prince, 47 ; A miserable Christmas Day,
48 ; Is lodged in the harem, 48 ; Touching stories, 49 ; Tabriz, 49 ; Pur-
chase of horses, 49; Coursing hares, 50; Lake of Urumiah, 51 ; Terrible
weather, 52 ; Deep snow, 52 ; A fruitless expedition, 53 ; Snow and salt !
53 ; A wretched voyage, 54 ; Nestorian missionaries, 55 ; A new servant,
56 ; Our larder gone ! 57 ; A Kourdish village, 57 ; Handsome natives, 57.
CHAPTER VII
Reception by Kourdish Governor, 59 ; Magnificent costumes, 60 ; Unsatisfactory
dinner, 61 ; Khan refuses his medicine, 6 1 ; Soda-water springs, 63 ; Up
to the saddle-girths in snow, 63 ; Dinner under difficulties, 64 ; Floundering
through snow, 65 ; A dangerous mountain pass, 66 ; On guard at the gate-
way, 67 ; Coat and rifle stolen, 67 ; Messrs. Conolly and Studdert, 68 ;
Mr. Layard and Dr. Sandwith, 69; Nineveh, 70; Arrival at Bagdad, 71 ;
A malodorous rencontre, 72 ; Tower of Babel, 72.
CHAPTER VIII
Departure from Bagdad, 73 ; " Old Woman's Pass," 74 ; On the march to
Shiraz, 75; " Praesentior Deus!"76; Arrival at Shiraz, 77; Tombs of
Sadi and Hafiz, 77 ; A plague of locusts, 78 ; Tomb of Darius, 79 ; In-
vitation to dine with the Khan, 80; The Khan's dog, 81 ; The Prince-
Governor, 81 ; "Pride feels no pain," 82.
CHAPTER IX
Ispahan, 83 ; Again in fever, 83 ; Escort of soldiers, 85 ; A plague of scorpions,
86 ; Hill-side on fire, 87 ; A mountain pass, 88 ; Colonel Williams (after-
wards of Kars), 89 ; Mr. Wood's severe illness, 89 ; Summer encampment,
90; "A hell upon earth," 91 ; Poisonous spiders, 92; "Plait a Dieu,"
93 ; Plain of Aleshtan, 95 ; Unpaid taxes, 96 ; The Government asserts
itself, 96 ; Playing the jereed, 97 ; Curious arch, 97 ; Pretty gipsy girls,
98 ; At the mercy of our escort, 99.
CHAPTER X
To Bombay, 100 ; Ill-arranged commissariat, 100 ; Island of Ormuz, 101 ; A
squall, 102 ; Everything adrift, 102 ; Muscat, 103 ; Flying fish, 103 ;
Bombay, 104; Letters from home, 104; Purchase of horses, 105; Sporting
expedition, 106 ; A multitude of servants, 106 ; Start for Poonah, 107 ;
The traveller's bungalow, 107 ; A tremendous rat, 108 ; Beautiful birds,
109 ; " Pie-crusts again ! " 109 ; " Notice to quit," 1 10 ; A fox-hunt, 1 1 1 ;
Black buck deer, 112 ; An uncomfortable night, 113.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI
Aurungabad, 115 ; Review of the Nizam's irregular horse, 115 ; The first tiger,
116; Curious ancient fort, 118; Caves of Ellora, 119; Fair sport, 119;
Adjunta, 119; Peacock vice tiger, 120; Another tiger killed, 121; The
camel and the tiger, 121; A herd of pigs, 122; More tigers, 123; The
last tiger, 125; A good bag, 125; Left alone, 125; Tom's death, 126;
Mr. Wood's death, 126; Carrier of despatches, 126; In the Survey De-
partment, 126; A solemn resolution, 127; Return to Ireland, 127.
CHAPTER XII
Takes possession of the property, 128 ; Marriage, 129 ; Improvements at Borris,
129; Lady Harriet Kavanagh, 129; Greek lace, 129; Borris lace, 130;
Railway to Borris, 130; Mr. Mott, 130; Ballyragget, 130; Scenery of
Ballyragget, 131 ; Feudal castle, 131 ; Anne Boleyn, 131 ; Elected
Guardian of New Ross Poorhouse, 131 ; Great disorder there, 131 ; Mr.
Sweetman, J.P., 132; Roman Catholic Chapel at New Ross Poorhouse,
^33 > Saw-mill on the brook, 134 ; Early morning rides, 134 ; The old oak-
tree, 134 ; The chieftain among his vassals, 135 ; The " Father Confessor,"
135; Christmas gifts to the poor, 135 ; Sunday afternoons, 136; "Miss
Nolan," 136; Borris Chapel, 137; Entries in diary, 137.
CHAPTER XIII
Love ol sport, 139; Love of nature, 140; A very young bear, 140; "Bessy"
sent away, 141 ; Monkeys, 141 ; "jack," 141 ; "II bravo cacciatore," 142 ;
"Poor Jack!" 142; "Nelson," 142; An adventure in Albania, 143; Fox-
hunting in Ireland, 144 ; A perilous leap, 144 ; Sells off hunters and
harriers, 144 ; Fishing on Irish lakes, 145 ; A cruise to the North Cape,
145; A visit from a whale, 145; Lobsters, 146 ; A sea-nymph, 146;
Nocturnal daylight, 147 ; Magnificent scenery, 147 ; Near Drontheim, 147 ;
Magic effect of sunshine, 148; Hammerfest, 149 ; The Pasvig River, 149 ;
Mosquitoes, 149; Salmon-fishing, 150; The Russian Lapps, 151 ; Scarcity
of meat, 151 ; Bag, 152; Bag of 1865, 152.
CHAPTER XIV
Builds the Eva, 153; Walter's illness, 153; Letter to Mrs. Kavanagh, 153;
On the voyage to Malta, 155; Love of the sea, 155; Yacht-racing, 156;
"Neck and neck," 157 ; The Eva wins, 158; To Corfu, 158; Albanian
dogs, 159; A typical specimen, 159; The lamb's trust, 160 ; A bathing
adventure, 160 ; Photography, 161 ; Cession of Ionian Islands, 162;
Back into harness, 162.
CHAPTER XV
Wishes to enter Parliament, 163; Dissuaded, 163; Proposes Captain Pack
Beresford, 164; The duties of property, 165; Contests Wexford, 167;
Defeats Mr. (now Sir John) Pope Hennessy, 167 ; The Fenian rising, 167 ;
Nocturnal reconnoitring, 167; Revives privilege for yachting M.P.s, 168 ;
Cruise round the Dutch Coast, 1 68 ; Conflagration at Antwerp, 168 : Roast
apples, 171 ; Returned unopposed for County Carlow, 171 ; The model
members, 171.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVI
Poor Law (Ireland) Amendment Bill, 173; The Star on his maiden speech,
173; The maiden speech, 175; Note from the Speaker, 1825 "
speech of the night was Kavanagh's," 182.
The
CHAPTER XVII
Peace Preservation Act, 183 ; Defends his own constituents, 187; Intoxicating
Liquor Bill, 189; His conduct on the Bench, 190; A murder case, 191 ;
Poaching, 191; Flogging in the army and navy, 192.
CHAPTER XVIII
His eldest son's majority, 193; Congratulatory address, 193; The priest's
speech, 194 ; He introduces his son, 194 ; Toast of " Our Landlord," 199 ;
He returns thanks, 200; The tenants betray him, 201 ; Hostile demon-
strations in Borris, 202 ; Letter to Mrs. Kavanagh, 202 ; The new Irish
representation, 203 ; Mr. Gladstone, 203 ; In the press and on the plat-
form, 204.
CHAPTER XIX
Work for the Church, 205 ; Patronage in the Church of Ireland, 206 ; Episcopal
endowment, 206 ; Member of representative body, 207 ; New constitution
for the Church of Ireland, 208 ; Revision of the Book of Common Prayer,
209 ; His liberality towards the Church, 211 ; Diocesan Nominator, 212 ;
Tribute to Rev. Dr. Jellett, 213.
CHAPTER XX
The Bessborough Commission, 215; Refuses signature to report, 215; Draws up
separate report, 215 ; Meeting of Irish landlords, 216 ; Censures Sub-Com-
missioners, 216; Formation of the Land League, 218; Its terrorism, 218;
The Irish Land Committee, 219; Emergency Committee, 219; Property
Defence Association, 219; Mansion House (London) Committee, 220; A
broken holiday, 220 ; Irish Defence Union, 220 ; Land League tactics,
221 ; The Land Corporation of Ireland, 222 ; Its object, 223 ; Privileges of
Irish tenant - farmers, 225 ; Anti-Plan of Campaign Association, 225 ;
Derelict Land Trust, 226 ; Death of his second son, 226 ; Resigned to
God's will, 227 ; Lord Charles Beresford, 227 ; East window in Borris
Chapel, 227 ; Verses by the Bishop of Ossory, 228.
CHAPTER XXI
Mr. (now Sir) G. O. Trevelyan on the two Irelands, 229 ; Loyal and disloyal, 233 ;
Education abused, 235 ; Agitation made easy, 236 ; Atheist and ecclesiastic,
237; Communist and business - man, 238, 239; The Roman Catholic
Hierarchy, 239 ; Its influence declining, 241 ; Infidelity and Socialism, 242;
What does Home Rule mean, 243.
CONTENTS xvii
CHAPTER XXII
American sympathy and support, 245 ; The Ballot Act, 246 ; The Three Fs,
247 ; Financial scare and its effects, 248 ; Murder and murder, 249 ; Mr.
Trevelyan's service in the cause of order, 250 ; Statistics of agrarian crime,
251 ; Ribbon Society, 253; The Irish informer conspicuous by absence,
255 ; An Irish St. Bartholomew's day, 255 ; Mr. Forster's foresight, 255 ;
The " last link " speech, 256 ; Remedies proposed for Irish difficulty, 257 ;
Analysis of the Irish character, 259 ; A peasant-proprietary, 259.
CHAPTER XXIII
Death of Lady Harriet Kavanagh, 261 ; Her high culture, 261 ; Funeral at St.
Mullins, 262 ; Disturbed Ireland, 262 ; The note of warning, 263 ;
Prosecutions at Petty Sessions inadequate, 264 ; The lowered franchise,
264 ; Mr. John Morley appointed Chief Secretary, 265 ; Identity of the
Land and National League, 266 ; Boycotting, 266 ; The reign of terror,
266 ; Attempt to ruin the Bank of Ireland, 267 ; Attack on Cork Steam-
ship Company, 267 ; Recommends a Unionist coalition, 269.
CHAPTER XXIV
Mr. Gladstone's -volte-face, 271; His "insane bills," 271; Mr. Kavanagh's
suggestions as to future policy, 272 ; The " British Constitution," 273 ;
" Coercion," 275 ; The Land Question, 276 ; Dual ownership intolerable,
277 ; The Purchase Acts, 279 ; Local Government for Ireland, 285.
CHAPTER XXV
Failing health, 286 ; End to Castle Government, 287 ; A royal residence, 287 ;
Two secretaries for Ireland, 287 ; Modification of Irish Privy Council, 287 ;
Deterioration in breed of cattle, 288 ; Letter to Right Hon. G. J.
Goschen, 288 ; Letter to Right Hon. W. H. Smith, 293 ; The Right
Hon. J. Chamberlain, 293 ; Recapitulation of views on remedial legisla-
tion, 294-296; Successes of Land Corporation, 296; Mr. Hurlbert's
"Three Fs," 297; Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, 297; Serious illness,
299 ; Attends all meetings and boards as usual, 299 ; Present at naval
review off Spithead, 300 ; Last cruise of the Water Lily, 300 ; Rapidly
increasing illness, 300 ; Death, 300.
Epilogue, 301.
Verses by Mrs. Alexander, 303.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT . . . . . to face Title-page
VIEW OF BORRIS HOUSE . . . to face page 13
FACSIMILE OF WRITING . '. : . 138
MEMORIAL CROSS . . . . after the Epilogue
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
PROEM
His strength was as the strength of ten,
Because his heart was pure. TENNYSON.
AMID all the beautiful scenery of Ireland, no lovelier
view can be found than that from the ancestral home
of the Kavanaghs.
Green levels of lawn and wood carry the eye to
where in the distance the Barrow winds down to the
sea, and on the left to the deer-park hill, where, among
trees and fern and almost within hearing of the brook
he loved so well, sleeps the noblest son of all that
kingly race in a small ruined church, now consecrated
as the family burying-ground.
His physical privations, overcome by sheer principle
and pluck two of his most signal characteristics
never debarred him from mingling with his fellows,
and fulfilling all the duties of a resident Irish land-
lord.
For many years he served his country in Parliament
from 1866 to 1868 as member for the County of
Wexford, and from 1868 to 1880 as member for the
County of Carlow from which latter he was unseated
in circumstances which ever after painfully affected
him.
From that time till the close of his life, though
xxiv PROEM
shut out from the Legislature, he still assisted with his
clear judgment and well-balanced mind in all schemes
set on foot for the benefit of Ireland, chiefly in devising
and working the Land Corporation, which, if properly
supported, would have neutralised the Land League,
and conferred untold blessings on the country.
The rehabilitation of the Church in Ireland also
engrossed much of his time and thought. Indeed
while neglecting nothing for the best interests of his
own tenantry he spared no effort on behalf of the
people at large.
And when the summons came to "go up higher,"
all knew that at this crisis of her history Ireland had
lost the ungrudged and ill-requited service of one of
the truest patriots she ever possessed.
CHAPTER I
This was the noblest Roman of them all. SHAKESPEARE.
No family in the British Islands can point to a more
ancient pedigree than the Kavanaghs.
They can trace it back to the dawn of Irish
history. Tradition, indeed, carries it far beyond
that limit to the legendary foretime, nay, even to
the fabulous Feniusa of Scythia, coeval with the
Tower of Babel, whose descendants, having wandered
into Egypt, found their way back again to Scythia,
and thence to Spain, from which country Heber and
Heremon, the two sons of Gallamh or Milesius,
crossed over to Ireland, reduced it to subjection, and
divided it between them.
From them sprang lines of kings ruling over the
five monarchies into which the island was split up.
" One branch of the descendants of Heremon event-
ually established themselves as kings of Leinster
(writes the accomplished scholar and antiquary, Mr.
G. D. Burtchaell), and from Murchadh, or Morrough,
King of Leinster, in the eleventh century, the family
became known as MacMorrough, or the 'Sons of
Morrough.' The grandson of this monarch was
, Dermot MacMorrough, King of Leinster, surnamed
2 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
na-nGall, that is, 'of the Strangers,' who invited the
Normans to Ireland in 1167.
" Dermot, in order to secure the support of Richard
de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow, to
re-establish himself in his kingdom, from which he had
been expelled, agreed to give him his daughter Eva in
marriage. On the death of Dermot in 1171, Strongbow
claimed the throne of Leinster in right of his wife, and
in defiance of Irish law and custom. He was soon
obliged to renounce his pretensions to establishing
himself as an independent sovereign, and surrendered
his rights as such to King Henry the Second.
" Dermot, however, had left a son, Donell, surnamed
Caomhanach, or Kavanagh, which means the * Hand-
some.' His descendants claimed to be lawfully
entitled to be kings of Leinster, and were from time
to time successful in defying the English power and
asserting their rights.
" Of these descendants the most renowned was Art
MacMorrough, son of Art ' More,' or the Great, at
whose 'puissance,' says the chronicler, 'all Leinster
trembled.' He re-established the sway of his clan
over the greater part of their former territories. In
right of his wife he became entitled to lands in the
County Kildare, which, however, were declared by the
English Government in Ireland to be forfeited by
reason of her marriage with an ' Irish enemy.' Art
determined that he would merit this title, and became
so formidable to the English power that Richard the
Second came over in person to oppose him. An
amicable arrangement was concluded by which Art
accepted other lands in place of those of which he was
deprived, and in consideration of a pension surrendered
his rights to the King. He did homage, swore
ART BOY MACMORROUGH
allegiance, and, together with the other kings of
Ireland, received knighthood from King Richard's
hands in circumstances of great pomp in Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin. The compact was very soon
broken, and Art renewed hostilities. King Richard
was obliged to visit Ireland a second time, but failed
to make any impression on the Irish monarch, who
vowed that not for all the gold in the world would he
again submit. From that time till his death in 1417
he waged incessant war against the English colony,
and helped to reduce the Pale within the narrowest
bounds.
" After his death the power of the clan gradually
declined, and Art More's descendants became divided
into several rival houses.
" One of the junior lines was that of St. Mullins 1 and
Polmonty. Art Boy MacMorrough, alias Kavanagh,
of Borris and St. Mullins, County Carlow, and Pol-
monty, County Wexford, was father of Cahir Mac Art,
who succeeded in getting the English Government to
recognise him as chief of his name on acknowledging
himself an English subject.
" In 1553 he was rewarded by being created Baron
of Ballyan for life his eldest son Morgan receiving
at the same time the title of Baron of Cowellellyn.
" The line was carried on by the Baron of Ballyan's
fourth son, Brian MacCahir of Borris and Polmonty.
He died in 1575, having married Elizabeth, daughter
of Hugh O'Bryne of the County Wicklow, by whom
he left several children.
" The eldest son, Morgan Kavanagh of Borris and
Polmonty, was Member of Parliament for County
1 Pronounced Mullins the accent on the last syllable. Ryan (History of
Carlow) spells it "Molines."
4 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
Carlow 1613 to 1615, and died igth of June
1636.
" By his first wife Elinor, daughter of Edmund
second Viscount Mountgarret, he had sixteen chil-
dren, of whom Brian, the eldest son, succeeded his
father.
" Brian Kavanagh was fortunate in being able to
preserve his estate from the general confiscation which
took place after the reduction of Ireland by Cromwell,
and died ist December 1662. His second wife was
Eleanor, daughter of Sir Edmund Blancheville of
>
Blanchevillestown, County Kilkenny, and Lady Eliza-
beth Butler, daughter of Walter eleventh Earl of
Ormonde and aunt of the great Duke of Ormonde.
"His only son Morgan, the issue of this marriage,
succeeded, and died in the reign of Queen Anne. He
married Mary, daughter of Thomas Walsh of Pilltown,
County Waterford, by Ellen, daughter of John Lord
le Poer of Curraghmore, and was succeeded by his only
son, also Morgan, who was born in 1668, and died 226.
February 1722. By his first wife Frances, daughter
of Sir Laurence Esmonde, Bart., of Clonegal, County
Carlow, and Lucia, eldest daughter of Colonel Richard
Butler, the great Duke of Ormonde's brother, he had
three sons, of whom Charles, the second, entered the
Imperial army and died Governor of Prague in 1766.
" The eldest son Brian succeeded his father, and
died 22d April 1741, leaving by Mary his wife, eldest
daughter of Colonel Thomas Butler of Kilcash, a son
and heir Thomas."
Thomas married in 1755 Lady Susanna Butler,
daughter of Walter Butler of Garryricken, sister of
John seventeenth Earl of Ormonde, and died in 1 790,
leaving several sons and daughters, of whom Thomas,
THE AUSTRIAN BRANCH
the fourth son, born March 1767, inherited the family
estates.
Thomas sat as M.P. for the city of Kilkenny in
the last Irish Parliament, and after the Union repre-
sented the County Carlow in the last two Parliaments
of George the Fourth, and the first of William the
Fourth. He married first, on the 24th March 1799,
Lady Elizabeth Butler, daughter of John seventeenth
Earl of Ormonde, and by her, who died in 1822, he had
issue, Walter, who died in 1836, and nine daughters,
of whom six died spinsters and three were married
the eldest, Anne, to Colonel Henry Bruen of Oak
Park, County Carlow, M.P. (whose son was afterwards
Arthur's colleague in Parliament from 1868 till 1880).
Mr. Kavanagh married secondly, on 28th February
1825, Lady Harriet Margaret Le Poer Trench,
daughter of Richard, second Earl of Clancarty, and left
at his decease in 1837 Thomas, who died at Batavia on
a voyage to Australia for his health in 1852 ; Charles,
also unmarried, an officer in the yth Hussars, who
died in 1853 ; Harriet Margaret, who died 7th May
1876, widow of Colonel W. A. Middleton, C.B.,
D.A.G., R.A., at the Horse Guards, and Arthur
MacMurrough, the subject of the present biography.
A few words may here suffice for the Austrian
branch of the family.
Among the archives at Borris House some old
letters, written in German, very faded and hard to
read, make mention of one Baron Kavanagh who
was chamberlain to the " Empress- King," Maria
Theresa, and of another Kavanagh who was chamber-
lain to her son, the Emperor Joseph the Second.
These are most probably General Dermitius (the
Latinised form of Dermot) Kavanagh of Hauskirchen,
6 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP,
who died in or about 1750, and his brother-in-law,
Baron John Baptist Kavanagh of Ginditz in Bohemia,
to whom he left the Hauskirchen estates.
John Baptist died in 1774, and the property seems
to have been for some time without a claimant.
According to the letters above referred to, a Baron
Kavanagh towards the close of last century, when
on a tour in Carinthia and Styria, wandered into
a village churchyard and suddenly came upon a
monument erected to one of his name. He drew the
custodian's attention to the inscription on the tablet
and asked to which Kavanagh it referred. The man
told him the deceased had left no heir ; that for a
quarter of a century the estate which had belonged to
him had remained without an owner ; and that by
Austrian law it must at the end of twenty-seven years
revert to the Crown. Baron Kavanagh, who seems
to have been Maurice, only son of John Baptist, Baron
of Ginditz, and to have unaccountably permitted his
rights to lapse, investigated the affair. It was a
condition that the property must always be held by a
Kavanagh, and finding that, as the next of kin, he him-
self was the heir, he successfully vindicated his title.
Maurice, who thus became "seized and possessed"
of the estate of Hauskirchen, died unmarried in 1801
at Ofen in Hungary, a general of cavalry and com-
mander-in-chief in that country.
There being again no direct heir to the property,
it must have reverted to the Austrian Crown unless
claimed within twenty -seven years, when, in 1818,
Walter Kavanagh, Esq., of Borris, at that time
its rightful owner, renounced his title to it in favour
of his cousin Count Henry Kavanagh an officer in
the Imperial army.
FAMILY RELICS
The legal instrument by which this renunciation
was effected seems to have been vitiated by a technical
flaw, in that the consent of the Austrian Government
to the transfer had not previously been obtained.
The renunciation thus became invalid, and as Mr.
Kavanagh failed to assert his rights to the property,
a nephew of the last possessor, Count Schaffgotsch,
became the owner.
The representative of the Austrian branch of the
family is now Baron Harry Kavanagh, who lives near
Rohitsch in Styria.
Among the family relics preserved at Borris were
the old crown and charter horn of the kings of
Leinster. In the troubles of '98 they were removed
for safe keeping to Dublin, and deposited in Trinity
College. When tranquillity was restored and they
had to be given up, the crown was not forthcoming.
It had mysteriously disappeared, and no clue to it
could be found. Years afterwards there was a report
that it had turned up at Toulouse, but nothing
more was heard of it, and even the report was not
authenticated.
The charter horn, however a large fluted cornu-
copia of ivory mounted in brass and resting on a
brass eagle was restored, and is still an heirloom
at Borris House.
Mention should also be made of another relic, the
Book of St. Moling, still shown in the library of
Trinity College : a piece of Irish work of great
antiquity, made of leather and mounted in silver, on
the model of the ancient Egyptian book-satchels. It
was long in possession of the Kavanaghs as Chiefs
of Idrone, whose tutelary saint, St. Moling, gives his
name to the Abbey of St. Mullins.
CHAPTER II
Non sine Dis animosus infans.
HOR. Car. iii. 4. 20.
By the gods' peculiar grace
No craven-hearted child.
SIR THEODORE MARTIN.
ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH, third son of the
late Thomas Kavanagh, Esq., M.P., by his second
wife, Lady Harriet Margaret Le Poer Trench, was
born at B orris House 25th March 1831.
From the outset it was manifest that his up-
bringing must be different from that of other men,
born, as he was, without limbs. But it soon became
equally apparent that his was a nature that would
rise above every disqualification and fit him to bear
no common part in the battle of life.
In 1839 he was placed in the house of the Rev.
Samuel Greer, curate of Celbridge in the County
Kildare, for two reasons : first, that, being at Cel-
bridge, he would be under the eye of Colonel Conolly
of Castletown, his mother's cousin, on whose judgment
she placed the fullest reliance, and, second, that he
might have the companionship of the younger Conolly
children of Mary, now wife of the Right Hon.
Henry Bruen of Oak Park, County Carlow ; Fanny,
who died unmarried in 1874; and Richard, whose
EARLY BOYHOOD
death occurred in 1870 when attache to the Legation
at Pekin. With them his weekly half-holidays were
spent, and the recollections of those boyish days sent
me by Mrs. Bruen I cannot do better than transcribe,
to show the early promise which was so nobly fulfilled
in later life :
" We first became acquainted with Arthur when he
was put under the charge of a good clergyman of high
scholarly attainments the Rev. Samuel Greer, who
was curate of Celbridge, the village at the gate of
Castletown, my father's place.
" As well as I can recollect, it must have been
about the year 1839 or 1840 when, on our return from
Donegal, where we usually spent the autumn months,
as my father was M.P. for that county, we met Arthur
as we were walking with our nurse my youngest
brother, my sister and myself in the grounds of
Castletown.
" I remember well this first meeting with the merry-
looking, very fair-haired boy, riding his pony, and in
the most fearless way trying to get it through a very
narrow gate. Of course he succeeded (as he usually
did in whatever he attempted, even at that early age),
to the admiration of us, his cousins, and from that day
we became dear friends, drawn to him by his singularly
engaging manner, so genial, so manly, so full of
sympathy a most delightful boy who came into the
routine of our young lives like a sunbeam.
"So bright and full of fun was he that the days
when we did not meet him in our walks were com-
paratively dull.
" I suppose he must have been placed with Mr.
Greer partly in order to be within reach of the great
Dublin surgeon, Sir Philip Crampton, whose rare
io ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
professional skill, it was hoped, might devise some
mechanism to make up for what had been denied him
in physical development. This must have been a most
trying ordeal to his fine unselfish nature, so light-
hearted as he was, so grandly submissive in his sense
of privation. Much pain, great discomfort, and con-
tinual disappointment were all that came of it, borne,
however, so uncomplainingly that one must feel they
were not the only result ; while the sympathy from us,
his child-friends, so gladly and lovingly received by
him, drew him nearer to us than aught else could have
done. Even as children we could not but wonder at
his cheerful submission to his many annoyances and dis-
comforts, and indeed the continual consultations over
his case must have been most trying to so manly a
boy.
"His holidays were spent with us. He used to
ride up to Castletown a careful lad leading his pony,
and his faithful nurse, Anne Fleming, in attendance.
After our formal schoolroom dinner, presided over by
our very strict governess, who kept us all four in great
order, we were allowed to amuse ourselves in any way
we liked in any part of the large house.
" Delightful were these afternoons ! Arthur led the
games and was first in everything! His personal
influence was even then remarkable, and we were all
so devoted to him as to be his most willing subjects.
As though he were a king we would follow his will as
law, and he often led us, or the children of his tutor,
into the most ridiculous pranks, or predicaments, not
always looked upon by our elders with strict appro-
bation.
" From his upstairs room in Mr. Greer's house he
would sometimes amuse himself by fishing, as it were,
EARLY BOYHOOD
with a bait at the end of a long string for the ducks in
the yard below, till one day a duck swallowed the bait !
and then great was the excitement as he pulled up the
string and landed the duck safely in his room, to be
killed, plucked, cooked, and eaten in haste, lest the
performance should be discovered by Anne Fleming,
or by Mrs. Greer, who, kind and good to Arthur, ruled
her household with a strict order notwithstanding
which he could induce the children to obey him in most
of his wishes.
" He even persuaded Mr. Greer's eldest son to
submit to having his ears bored as if for earrings !
Arthur himself performing the operation with the
greatest glee. And how often in after years he has
described this, enjoying the recollection of it and
wondering at the victim's meekness under so painful
an ordeal !
_" Often, of course, he was in disgrace for so enter-
taining himself and his young companions, but he was
seldom long depressed at that time of his life. The.
sternest could not long be angry with him. His merry
bright face and winning ways drew out every one's
love and attached all to him, both high and low ; and
when in 1841 we left Castletown for Paris to spend
two years on the Continent, the parting from him was
most grievous to us all. His fearless undaunted spirit
and pluck had made him a hero in our young eyes, and
the friendship thus begun in childhood ripened in after
life into the intimate and sympathetic intercourse that
lasted to the end."
His education was then continued during a two
years' residence at St. Germains with his mother
and sister, and on a subsequent short visit to
Italy.
12 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, n
Of his stay in Rome he retained a lively recollec-
tion, and often afterwards spoke of the apartments
they occupied in the Villa Strozzi now, alas ! de-
stroyed, like so many others, for the reconstruction
of the city.
I cannot quite fix the date of my own earliest recol-
lections of Arthur of his pleasant visits to our school-
room when he came to see us in Dublin, and would
playfully supervise my weary struggles over simple
sums of our long sojourns at Borris, where one of
our amusements was to harness his mother's pet spaniel
" Prince " to a little cart, seated in which he would
drive me about the entrance hall and (not least) of
the hymn, "Arthur's Hymn," as we used to call it, and
all the dearer to us for that reason, which might seem
to foretell his future love of the sea, and the steady-
trust that deepened with advancing life in a Father's
guidance :
'Twas when the sea with awful roar
A little bark assailed,
And pallid fear's distracting power
O'er each on board prevailed
Save one the Captain's darling child
Who steadfast viewed the storm,
And, cheerful, with composure smiled
On danger's threatening form.
" Why sporting thus," a seaman cried,
" While dangers overwhelm ? "
" Why yield to fear ? " the child replied,
" My father's at the helm ! "
Christian ! From him be daily taught
To calm thy groundless fear ;
Think on the wonders He has wrought ;
Jehovah's ever near.
CHAPTER III
Ille terrarum mihi praeter omnes
Angulus ridet. HOR. Car. ii. 6. 13.
In all the world no spot there is
That wears for me a smile like this.
SIR THEODORE MARTIN.
THE old gray stone building, since 1570 the family
seat of the Kavanaghs, commands from its position a
widely -extended view over the fine woods of the
demesne across the valley of the "goodly Barow"
to the blue mountains in the distance, Brandon, Mount
Leinster, and Blackstairs. Turreted walls and the
rich colouring of years attest its antiquity, and the
chapel wing, added at a later period, consecrates the
beauty of the historic house. Through the tangled
ivy that veils the chapel the Gothic windows show their
mellowed tracery, while, guarding like sentinels the
narrow pathway leading to it, stand the venerable
beech -trees that Sunday by Sunday have watched
generations of worshippers wending their way from
the village to what, in fact, is the parish church of
Clonagoose.
But far other gatherings than that of a peaceful
congregation has the old house witnessed. Stormy
scenes have been enacted round its walls, rebel and
loyalist contending for the mastery. Twice has it sus-
14 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
tained a regular siege and twice driven off its assailants
gallantly. The first of these was during the great
rebellion of 1641, when it was surrounded by the insur-
gent Irish, whom it kept at bay till they were finally put
to flight by Sir Charles Coote of Castlecuffe in the
Queen's County an ancestor of the Cootes of Ballyfin.
Again, in the rising of 1 798, it was attacked by the
rebels and again defended by a Kavanagh Arthur's
father, who all through the insurrection bore a most
honourable part. In his Memoirs of the Different
Rebellions of Ireland, Sir Richard Musgrave says of
him that, having been distinguished by his devotion
to the Crown and his energy as a magistrate, he was
"peculiarly the object of rebel vengeance." On the
night of the 24th May, accordingly, Borris House was
invested by a body of about five thousand insurgents,
who, we read in Ryan's History of Carlow, were
driven off by Captain Kavanagh's yeomanry corps,
leaving behind them fifty men in killed and wounded.
Returning to the assault on the I2th of June, the
rebels began operations on the village of Borris, lying
under the demesne wall. They burned the houses of
the tenants, and followed up their advantage till they
were met by a determined resistance at the house itself,
which was garrisoned by twenty of the Donegal militia
and seventeen of the yeomanry. Commanded by one
Kearns, a priest, who was afterwards hanged at Eden-
derry, the assailants attempted to batter down the
walls with a howitzer, but made no impression on
them, and were compelled to retire with considerable
loss.
"One of the insurgents," says Sir Richard Mus-
grave, "who was wounded and could not retreat,
proved to be a tenant of Mr. Kavanagh's who lived
nil DEMESNE OF B ORRIS 15
close to the house, and to whom he had been singularly
kind. On being asked why he had embarked in this
treasonable enterprise, he confessed that he was
tempted to do so by a promise of obtaining a portion
of the estate " a promise not then made for the last
time !
Round Borris, indeed, both house and village, there
was a series of encounters with the rebels the only
encounters, it is said, in which the loyalists were
decidedly successful during that memorable rising. In
one of these at Kilcomney, a short distance off, the
King's forces were commanded by Sir Charles Asgill,
and, with a few discharges of artillery, put the enemy
to rout. They retreated precipitately to the County
Wexford through the Scollogh Gap, and were pursued
by the regular troops for six miles, losing many ol
their number on the road, and finally abandoning their
cannon, baggage, stores, and provisions.
But those wild scenes have long given place to
others of a more peaceful nature, and in the early light
of a summer morning from the windows of the old
house nought can now be surveyed but the outlined
hills and the dark woods, and the Barrow just sug-
gested by the faint mist that the sun has not yet dis-
persed, while the lawn below is alive with rabbits,
fearlessly sporting in the silence, unbroken save by the
twitter of the wakening birds.
The demesne of Borris is skirted on one side by the
Barrow, into which, under Bunahown Bridge, dashes
the brook a mountain torrent bright and rapid even
in the hottest summer, reminding one, in places, of the
Garry as it threads the Pass of Killiecrankie, with just
the same brown pools lying clear and still between the
mossy boulders rounded by the water, just the same
1 6 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
high banks, clothed with trees and underwood. The
Borris brook indeed is smaller, but, in its picturesque
course, not the less lovely, with the large clumps of
rhododendrons, scarlet and purple, showing brilliant
patches of colour through the dark green of fir and
beech. Might not Coleridge have seen it or heard it,
in vision or dream, when he sang
of a hidden brook
In the leafy month of June,
That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune ?
Attractive enough as a trout stream, with its little
wooded islets and " fairy forelands " breaking the
current, it has yet other attractions which some may
prize still more clear crystals and even pearls !
But for salmon the angler must turn to the Barrow,
the varied scenery of which as it winds majestically
past Borris down to New Ross recalls, not seldom,
Tennyson's
slow, broad stream
That, stirred with languid pulses of the oar,
Waves all its lazy lilies and creeps on
Barge-laden,
through fields
browsed by deep-uddered kine,
till, as it widens between lofty, bold, and wooded banks
it might equally have suggested Sir Walter's
Where through groves deep and high
Sounds the far billow !
Many a time from the boathouse, near the bottom
of the old deer-park, has Arthur steered a gay party
out under the arch fringed with wreaths of ivy into the
broad river, then past Bunahown Bridge and through
DRUM MO ND LODGE
the frequent locks that equalise its levels, past the
ruined abbey of St. Mullins, where generations of his
forefathers rest, and so down the gliding water
beneath the romantic old bridge of Graigue to Drum-
mond, where, half hidden by trees and half covered
with roses, nestles the small slated house, built about
thirty years ago, when the sporting instincts were
highest. Now the little place is deserted save for an
occasional picnic. But none who ever shared in them
will forget the joyous parties round that informal board,
at which the steersman of the morning, presiding as the
kindly host, welcomed all to the dainty contents of the
hampers. And after the merry luncheon came the
pleasant ramble through the woods, dense with honey-
suckle and ivy, till just in time to save the tide began
the journey home through the still evening not the
least enjoyable part of an excursion, always one of
the chief delights of those happy summer days at
B orris.
CHAPTER IV
Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,
Sich ein Character in dem Strom der Welt. GOETHE.
A Talent moulds itself in quiet study,
A Character in life's eventful stream.
FROM the still life at Celbridge and afterwards at
Borris, where, amid the scenes and associations just
described, his education was carried on by tutors, we
have now to accompany him on a tour, during the
years 1846, '47, and '48, through Egypt, in the track
of the Israelites, to the Holy Land.
Shut out from the discipline of a public school, he
had the best possible substitute in foreign travel, with
its special opportunities of observation and reflection,
enhanced under the guidance of his highly - gifted
mother.
A detailed record of this journey has been preserved
in a series of letters, chiefly from Lady Harriet, and,
in much fewer number, from others of the party,
which included his eldest brother Tom, his sister
Harriet, and their tutor, the Rev. David Wood.
About the middle of October 1846 they left
Marseilles for Alexandria, and thence proceeded to
Cairo, where they hired two boats, and, early in
November, began the ascent of the Nile as far as the
third cataract. Their experiences were mainly those
CHAP, iv "PRAESENTIOR DEUS.f" 19
of every traveller interested in the past and present
of the great Nile valley, and, as described in the
letters, were thoroughly enjoyed by the whole party,
favoured as it was by ample leisure, and, as far as
concerned the young people, by a superintendence
and companionship advantageous from every point of
view.
Tutorial work, chiefly in Latin and Greek for the
boys, with regular readings in history, sacred and pro-
fane, filled up a portion of the day, the rest of which
was spent in sport upon the river banks, when not
occupied by visits to scenes now of easier access to the
archaeologist and art student.
Of these expeditions Arthur, by this time in his six-
teenth year, hardly missed one, whether its object was
a jackal hunt, a shot at an ibis, an ascent of the Pyra-
mids, or an exploration of the ruins of Thebes. He
was his own master in all his movements, and enjoyed
a freedom which in any other so circumstanced or
poorer in resource would hardly have been safe.
Not, however, that he was invariably prudent.
Through all his life he had more than his share of
narrow escapes, of which the following, on the I4th
January 1847, was among the most providential.
The two dahabeayahs on which they were making
the voyage upstream were moored alongside each
other near the shore, between Luxor and Karnak.
He was sitting on the gunwale of one and leaning
over half asleep on the gunwale of the other, while
the rest of the party and all the servants were away
on an expedition or below in the cabins. Either a
breeze or the swell from some passing boat caused the
dahabeayahs to drift apart. He fell between them,
and they closed over him. An Arab on the shore
20 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
saw him fall and gave the alarm, so that he was
rescued, though to all appearance drowned, and it was
long before he was restored to consciousness.
Of this life half sport, half study, and all pleasure
he grew so fond, that its renewal on the return
voyage only heightened its charm for him, and it was
with something like regret that he exchanged it even
for the journey across the desert. No incident or
experience was thrown away upon him ; and it may
be noted here that, though the youngest of the party,
he was the aptest to pick up, and the longest to retain,
the language of the Bedouin escort, insomuch that
when necessary he could act as interpreter. At home
in the saddle, on horse, camel, or mule, he rode across
the desert, drinking in the melancholy fascination of
its aspects, living or inanimate ; and to the close of
life he never lost the vivid and solemn impressions
of Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, and the wilderness
between Egypt and the Promised Land.
The following letter to his brother Charles, then at
Borris, will show how little, in point of observation
and literary expression, the boy of sixteen had missed
by not having been at a public school :
"BEYROUT, 26th May 1847.
" MY DEAR CHARLEY We have completed our
Egyptian and Syrian travels, and have arrived at
Beyrout. We do not know whether we are to leave
for Constantinople and spend another year in our
wanderings, or else to go direct home. The next
letters will decide us.
" We have had a very jolly time of it. We crossed
the desert in force, having joined with three other
parties, making in all sixty camels. We went round
1 DO UGAL M l TA VI SH "
by Petra and Sinai, and at Hebron we exchanged the
desert camel for the Syrian horse. We enjoyed the
desert immensely, but fully appreciate the difference
between the parched and arid sands of Africa and the
grassy plains, wooded mountains, and silver streams of
the Land of Promise,
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit,
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute,
Where virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all, save the spirit of man, is divine.
" I bought a horse from the Governor at Hebron
a very nice little fellow. I have ridden him all the
way from Hebron to here. He is generally well-
behaved. His name is Dougal M'Tavish. We have
another horse in the party of the same sex, with whom
he fights.
" I am writing this letter at a window looking out
on the sea, and while I was drinking a glass of sherbet
it was blown off the table into the dirty street, but, as
you see, I have got it back all safe.
"We have parted with all our Arab servants to-
day, and are sending them back to Alexandria by
steamer. We are going to take Ishmael, our drago-
man, to Ireland. He is a very nice sort of fellow. I
am sure you will like him. He has very long mous-
taches.
" Tom has got a Turkish dress all embroidered
with gold for ^13. Hoddy [his sister Harriet] has
got a lady's dress, and I have got a Bedouin's costume.
Tom has also got the carpet Mehemet Ali Pacha used
to say his prayers on. It is white satin, all covered
with gold. It cost ;io. He has also bought an Arab
gun, nearly sixteen feet in the barrel, all inlaid with
silver. He and I have joined together and bought a
22 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
brace of Arab horse-pistols all covered with silver,
besides sabres, scimitars, daggers, and knives innu-
merable. I also bought a beautiful little horse-piece,
inlaid with silver what the Mamlouks use. We have
also got shields made of giraffe and crocodile skin,
along with spears and Nubian knives. I am sure you
would enjoy the East immensely the most delicious
fruit and everything enjoyable.
Tis the land of the East, 'tis the clime of the sun !
Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done ?
"It would charm you to see their beautiful eyes
Those eyes' dark charm 'twere vain to tell !
But gaze on those of the gazelle,
It will assist thy fancy well.
"It seems as if it were a dream, a fairyland!
Picture to yourself gardens of apricots and pomegran-
ates, vineyards and oliveyards, intersected with spark-
ling brooks and silver fountains, where the rose and
the myrtle in full bloom send their fragrant scents to
the cloudless heavens and perfume the balmy air with
their delicious odours. I cannot help reciting Byron's
beautiful lines, so striking for their truth and the
beauty of their composition."
And here the letter closes with a transcript from
memory of the familiar
Know ye the land, etc.
In further illustration of the use he made of his
opportunities I may give the following letter to the
Rev. Ralph Morton, then tutor to his brother Charles
at B orris.
"JERUSALEM, $oth October 1847.
" MY DEAR MORTON It is a long time since I
have written to you indeed I believe not since I was
iv SPORT ON THE NILE 23
at Marseilles ; and I am sure you must have attributed
my silence not only to neglect, but to entire forgetful-
ness of you and your former kindness. And although,
certainly, my idleness would deserve such an inter-
pretation, I must say this is not the case. The only
excuse I will plead is my own idleness and the difficulty
of finding an opportunity from constant travelling.
The rest I will leave to your indulgence. . . .
" We are going to cross the short desert. We
expect to meet the D s in Egypt. We heard that
they were going to spend the winter in Rome, so we
wrote to them to come out to us instead ; for I believe
travel in Egypt is the easiest sort of travel.
" I am sure you would like these countries extremely
(if I have lived long enough with you to be acquainted
with your tastes). I even think that Charley my
patriotic brother would find means for enjoyment.
The best shooting, I believe, in the world is to be
found on the Nile birds of all plumage in abundance,
from the large white pelican to the beautiful little green
and gold humming-bird. There is also wolf and wild
boar and hyena hunting, which is generally managed
on horses with rifles ; also coursing gazelles with
beautiful Persian greyhounds. I have been out cours-
ing gazelles sometimes here. We also ran a wolf with
the dogs, but the poor fellow has very little chance,
and gets pulled down in no time.
" I am very fond of the Bedouin Arabs they are
so good-natured and hospitable. We often got into
their encampments, particularly on our way from
Jerusalem to Damascus, and used to stop with them
till our own tents came up, when we set to work to
pitch and get ready for passing the night.
"The tents generally are pitched in half an hour.
24 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
We have three tents : one large one for the ladies,
another small one for us, another smaller one again for
the dragoman, cook, helper, and luggage. The instant
we halt the cook sets to work to light his fire and get
the dinner ready, while the dragoman and helpers are
pitching the tents, making the beds, collecting the
luggage, etc. For two hours our camp shows a very
busy and lively scene. By that time dinner is ready,
and we all sit down. The rest smoke their long
chibouques or narghilehs (narghileh is a machine for
smoking tombak, a strong tobacco, through water).
After dinner we smoke until eight, when we go to bed,
having always to be up at four. Then begins a busy
scene. The tents are struck, everything packed up,
we get our breakfast while they are loading the mules,
and, in about an hour and a half, you would not know
where we had passed the night.
" We lunch in the middle of the day, for, breakfast-
ing at four and not dining until six, one feels the want
of something at that time.
" We have bought our horses at Beyrout for this
journey to Cairo six. I have got a very nice horse
indeed. I gave seventeen hundred piastres for him.
He has a true Arab mark on his ear, and everybody I
have shown him to says that if not entirely he is very
nearly pure Arab breed. He stands about fifteen
hands, has a beautiful head and fine ear, long nose,
almost a milk-white coat shining like glass ; his limbs
are fine without a puff; his eye and the expression of
his countenance fiery, yet sweet an odd phrase to use
about a horse, but I do not know any other which
expresses what I want so well. He is the admiration
of everybody here. Mamma even thinks he will be
worth taking home.
JERUSALEM 25
" Now I must try to give you a description of
Jerusalem.
" The frontispiece in your small book of Palestine
affords a very good representation of the Jaffa gate as
viewed from the Bethlehem plain. The town is walled
round, the walls being kept in a perfect state of preser-
vation by the Sultan. Some parts, of them are very
curious, the stones being of immense size, some twenty-
seven feet long by ten broad an evident sign of their
antiquity. One side of the wall stands near the valley
of Jehoshaphat, but it does not overhang it, as draw-
ings generally represent. The streets are very narrow,
dirty, and badly paved. There are four clergymen
here. The Bishop is a Prussian, Gobat by name.
Before his appointment he was a missionary in Abys-
sinia. Mr. Fisher, an Englishman ; Mr. Nicholayson,
a Dane, who married a Mrs. Dalton, an Irish lady.
The other, a Mr. Ewald, is a German. They are all
very nice and good-natured, and have been kinder to
us than any people we have met on our travels. There
is also here an English consul, a Mr. Hine ; and
English doctors, a Mr. Sandford and Mr. M'Gowan
the latter at present in Jaffa. They all treat us
more as if we were their near relations than mere
travellers passing by. We have hardly spent an
evening at our house since we came, being invited
nearly every evening either to dine or to take tea, and,
in the day, making picnic parties to places of great
interest.
" There are very extraordinary things shown here
by the monks utterly ridiculous and difficult even for
the most credulous to believe ; such as the stone that
would have cried out if it could, etc.
"We are going out to-day gazelle-hunting, and I
26 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
hope we shall have some success. Tom and I are
thinking of buying a brace of these greyhounds, if we
can get them for a reasonable price.
"We start the day after to-morrow for Cairo by
the short desert, across which we are going to ride our
horses. We shall then have traversed both deserts,
having crossed the long one by Petra and Sinai coming
here a journey of thirty-six days, while this one is
only twelve.
" I have plenty more to say, only I have neither
time nor paper. How is ' Prince ' ? and my hound ? "
A letter from his eldest brother, who was one of the
party, supplies details of the sport not given by Arthur
himself. It is dated at a farther stage of their journey.
"RHODA, 6tk March 1848.
"... Lord Morton, whom we met up the Nile
this year, has lent Arthur a gun, with which he has
shot a great many wild geese, ducks, and snipe. He
shoots much better than Mr. Wood, who began about
the same time that he did, and can hit a bird flying
quite well. His shooting is quite as wonderful as his
riding. He is also the only one of the party who can
speak Arabic, which he does perfectly.
" The other day, when riding through the bazaars,
he encountered a number of Bedouin and Arab sheikhs
whom he got acquainted with in the desert, and with
whom he is a great favourite. As soon as they saw
him, they all ran up and kissed him on both cheeks."
Yet another letter of Arthur's, addressed to the
Rev. Ralph Morton, may here be inserted. It is
dated Marseilles, loth April 1848, by which time they
had closed their wanderings in the East, had visited
vi THE REVOLUTION OF '48 27
Smyrna and the shores of the Black Sea as far as
Trebizond, had explored Constantinople and its waters,
and passed another winter in Lower Egypt.
"... In a former letter from Rhoda I mentioned
that we were to go to Malta for our quarantine and
then come home by Italy. We changed our plans and
intended coming here and then starting for Algiers
or the coast of Spain, as the North of Italy was too
much disturbed for travelling. When we came here
affairs were so unsettled that our intended trip to
Algiers had to be given up. . . .
"We hear nothing now but the Marseillaise hymn
and see nothing but troops patrolling the streets. The
National Guard has been recruited, and the Civic
Guard called out. A great panic has struck all com-
mercial men. The bankers refuse to cash any bills
whatever. The shops are all shut at sunset, because,
there being no demand for their articles, they do not
care to burn their lights for nothing. All public works
have been stopped because the Government have no
money to pay the workmen. There is general dis-
satisfaction on account of the elections being put off.
So much for the good of a revolution ! I think
certainly not less than two thousand men have passed
under my window to-day, armed with muskets and
sabres, and commanded by officers of the line. . . .
"We are taking home an Arab servant. His
name is Hadji Mohammed. Also two beautiful
Syrian gazelle-hounds which we bought at Jerusalem.
[They were called Lufra and Gwherda the Arabic,
1 believe, for Rosebud ; the former black, the latter
white, deeply stained with henna.] I sold my horse
at Cairo. Poor beast ! I cried the day I left him he
28 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
knew me so well ! He used to lick my face when I
came out of the tent in the morning to see him, and
at the luncheon-time in the heat of the day, when I
used to sit under him for shade, he would put his head
between his front legs to take a bit of bread, without
moving, for fear of hurting me."
This fondness for animals of all sorts, and very
specially for horses and dogs, was a strongly marked
trait in his character. Indeed, his power over them
was wonderful. He would speak to them in tones
and terms of coaxing endearment the animals listen-
ing as if they understood his wishes, and obeying, as
if forced by his influence to give up their wills to
his.
In 1848, after his return from Egypt, he was
thrown a good deal into the society of his two nieces,
daughters of Colonel Bruen of Oak Park, his com-
panions in many a frolic, riding or driving. Anne's
ponies or, his own partly trained ones he would drive
four-in-hand, she sitting beside him to help by pelting
the leaders with little stones. Or he would himself
drive over, tandem, to Oak Park, where he was
always a welcome guest to none more than to his
brother-in-law, Colonel Bruen, who, though much his
senior, regarded him with affectionate admiration.
But in his riding excursions he was generally quite
alone. Once, in the old deer-park at Borris, his horse
bolted with him, tearing round the park three times.
He was just able to guide him when his strength
began to fail ; so, hoping to stop his mad career by
facing an impossible fence, he turned the animal's
head to the demesne wall. At that moment the girths
gave way, the saddle he was strapped into turned and
iv A NOCTURNAL ADVENTURE 29
he was swung round. He remembered nothing more,
and was found lying insensible beside the horse.
Another very striking incident of that year should
be mentioned. It was at the time of Smith O'Brien's
rebellion, and he was staying on a visit to his great-
aunt, then Dowager Marchioness of Ormonde, at
Garryricken ("Garden of the King"), near Slieve-na-
Man, where the unsuccessful rising took place. To
reconnoitre the movements of the "patriots," he went
out by night to see their encampment on a favourite
hunter given him by Colonel Bruen. He succeeded
in getting near their outposts, but was discovered,
and pursued by some of their "cavalry." Only the
speed and cross-country powers of his good horse
" Bunny " saved him from being captured their horses
being unable to take the fences, to which he fearlessly
put his own.
CHAPTER V
#/3W7T(ov iSev acrTea Kai voov cyvw. HOM. Od. i. 3.
Wandering from clime to clime, observant strayed,
Their manners noted and their states surveyed. POPE.
As slow our ship her foamy track
Against the wind was cleaving,
Her trembling pennant still look'd back
To that dear isle 'twas leaving.
So loth we part from all we love,
From all the links that bind us,
So turn our hearts where'er we rove
To those we've left behind us. Irish Melodies.
SHORTLY after they returned to Ireland in 1848 his
brother Tom celebrated the attainment of his majority
amid the congratulations customary on such occasions,
and in the following year Arthur and he, again ac-
companied by Mr. Wood, started on a prolonged
tour once more to the East.
Their journey was to lie through Scandinavia,
Russia, down the Volga and over the Caspian, to
Northern Persia, Kourdistan, and, by the valley of
the Tigris and the Persian Gulf, to the Bombay
Presidency and the Province of Berar.
Of this expedition Arthur kept a journal, in great
part preserved, which, both from its still fresh interest
and the view it affords of him as an observer of nature
and mankind, may be given in pretty full extracts.
CHAP, v THE START FOR ASTRAKHAN 31
To him the experience proved an education and
discipline during the years which other young fellows
spend at college, and just as on the tour through
Egypt and Syria it called into play his powers and
resources, mental and physical, developing both, and
forming the habits and tastes which influenced so
much of his after life.
Accordingly, on 4th June 1849, ^ e small party
left Kingstown on their long adventurous journey ;
and through Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Fin-
land, without much striking incident, reached St.
Petersburg on the 28th July, and Moscow on the
8th August.
Of these towns and their neighbourhood they
made a thorough exploration, and on the 24th reached
Nijni-Novgorod, while the annual fair was in progress.
There they spent some days laying in stores and
enjoying the varied and picturesque aspects of the
celebrated gathering. On the 4th September began
the work of packing, as on the following day they
expected to start on the steamer for Astrakhan. He
says :
" We were by way of travelling light, and, certainly,
the length of journey and time considered, we were
not overburdened with either luxuries or necessaries.
When everything was packed the baggage list showed
six portmanteaux, two cases of sherry, one of brandy,
one of tea, four gun-cases, three bundles of beds and
cloaks, two carpet-bags, two hat-boxes, two leather
bags of shot, and innumerable small parcels. The
voyage down the Volga, it was supposed, would make
at least one case of sherry look foolish, so, that ex-
cepted, the above list was our outfit for Persia. Three
bundles of beds sounds large, but those consisted of
32 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
air-beds and two couples of cloaks tied up into a very
small compass, and were as uncomfortable concerns as
deluded travellers ever tried to sleep on. When in-
flated to the full extent the floor was just as soft, and
when I tried to make mine a little softer by letting out
some of the air, I was shot out on the floor by the
rush of the air going to the one side. I therefore
gave up the contest, and remained satisfied with the
floor. The amount of portmanteaux might well, I
think, have been reduced. Gun-cases and shot, if we
had been gifted with prophetic vision, would certainly
have been left behind. But, allured by vivid expecta-
tions of every kind of sport, we would as soon have
left the guns as Wood his collection of Murray's
Handbooks, which, with a volume called Family
Medicine, filled the book-box. Three pocket-knives
and forks constituted our canteen outfit, and of every-
thing else we had to take our chance."
After a false start on the 5th, they got off on the
6th in a steamer the Hercules which he describes
as "a fine vessel, flat-bottomed, five hundred horse-
power, and tremendous length. Every evening," he
continues, "at sunset we lay to, and started at sunrise,
a necessary precaution from the innumerable sand-
banks with which the river abounded. Sometimes it
looked more like an arm of the sea with the tide out,
just leaving the sand visible. A little farther on it
would narrow, passing the foot of a low copse-covered
range of hills, running then through a small district of
gardens and villages, where we usually (that is, when
we reached such an oasis) stopped to take in wood,
provisions, fruit, etc. It would widen again, and
apparently lose itself in an interminable stretch of sand
and water."
v CUISINE ON THE VOLGA 33
On the Qth they reached Kasan (ten versts from
the bank of the river), when two boats they had in
tow ran on a sandbank. After six hours they got off
one, and were,
" \\th September,
" Still working away without any seeming chance
of getting off the other. The weather was very cold
and showery. Our condition was much improved by
having got rid of all the passengers at Kasan, except
one fat Russian. Our dinners were very bad, con-
sisting alternately of patriarchal cocks and horseflesh,
followed by pudding made of goodness knows what.
The sherry and beer we got at Nijni turned out very
satisfactory, and many a health to our absent friends
was drunk in both of them. About 5 P.M., to our
great joy and contrary to our most sanguine hopes, we
succeeded in hauling the hulk off the sandbank, in
which affair we had a grand specimen of the idleness,
stupidity, and obstinacy of the Russian sailors.
" i2th September.
" Left the fatal sandbank at 6 A.M., having been
delayed at it nearly forty-eight hours, and steamed on
prosperously through the day, which was cold and
showery. Stopped at 9 P.M.
" 13/7* September.
" Started early, and arrived at Simbirsk at 4 P.M.
Very hot weather, with showers. Stopped at 7 P.M.
" i4/// September.
" Started early. Weather sultry. Saw plenty of
game duck, wild geese, teal, widgeon, and cormor-
ants on numerous sandbanks. I also saw two brace
34 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
of wild swans. On one side of the river the hills
abound in partridge, and on the other, the low swampy
bank covered with sally bushes, in wild boar. How-
ever, as the steamer would not stop for us, we had to
forego the pleasures of the chase.
"iStA September.
" A beautiful day. Arrived at Samara about 9 A.M.
Stopped some minutes to discharge passengers. Saw
plenty of game, among them a brace of pelicans and
some birds which, I think, were of the same species as
those on the Bosphorus, called 'les ames damnees.'
Fired two or three shots with a rifle, but with no suc-
cess. The heat, though great, was of that exhilarating
kind, which showed us we were reaching the southern
latitude. The banks seemed thinly populated. On
an average we did not see more than two or three
villages a day, and scarcely ever a cultivated field.
Water-melons, apples, and pears abounded in the
villages we happened to stop at.
" T.6th September.
"Had service in the morning. Started at 2 P.M.,
having taken in a large quantity of wood. Had the
captain to dinner. A lovely day.
" i ith September.
" Sailed early. Hot weather. The hills on the
side of the river changed from being wooded to barren
rocks, composed chiefly of chalk and sandstone.
" i8/A September.
11 Saratov. Left the boats there to discharge cargo,
and went to a village farther down to take in wood,
making thereby a tremendous row all night. Got rid
ASTRAKHAN 35
of the fat Russian. Wood got his cabin to himself,
and Tom and I and my servant slept in the other
not a very fair division.
" 2oth September.
" Very cold day. Stuck on another sandbank.
Succeeded in getting steamer off, after a delay of nine
hours. Passed Kamischkin at about 7 P.M.
" 2 \st September.
" About noon arrived at Tzaritzin, a large town,
where we stopped to take in sufficient wood to last us
to Astrakhan. Got some grapes, the first I saw in
Russia.
" 2 2d September.
" Started at 6 A.M. Hot weather.
" 2$d September.
" Had service in the morning. Passed immense
quantities of pelicans and several encampments of
Calmuc Tartars, their huts consisting of branches of
trees stuck in the ground. They live entirely on fish
and their flocks.
" 2$th September.
11 Stuck on a sandbank. Passed a man riding a
camel. I never knew before that camels were in use
so far north.
" 2$th September.
" Arrived at Astrakhan at 9 A.M. The part of the
river under the town where we lay was crowded with
shipping from the Caspian, some of them with two
masts oddly rigged, carrying a sort of lateen and a
mainsail. Their poops were raised to an extraordinary
height, and very gaily painted something like the
pictures one sees of the ships used by the old Romans.
36 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
There being no rooms to be had in the town, we were
obliged to stick to our quarters on board and go to a
cafe for our food it being contrary to law to have fire
on board any ship lying there. Even candles and
smoking were forbidden under pain of a thirty rouble
fine. Thinking, however, that the two latter clauses
of the law were too ridiculous, I broke them both.
" Took a drive through the town, but found no-
thing worth seeing. It lies very low and is straggling.
The streets are wide and not paved but covered with
deep sand, which of a windy day makes it very dis-
agreeable. The inhabitants seem to be chiefly Calmuc
Tartars and Persians. We found capital grapes and
melons of every sort in great abundance.
"26th September.
"A severe frost in the night. Finding the route
to Tiflis by the Caucasus out of the question, we took
our passage in a Russian Government steamer bound
for Baku. On board we were introduced by the
captain to several German engineers and inspectors of
the port, who were very civil to us and helped us a
good deal. Among them a Mr. Hoist spoke English
very well. To brighten our present gloomy prospects,
we were told that the yellow fever was raging at Baku,
and generally carried off its victims in six hours. Re-
turned on board the steamer at 1 1 P.M., where our
quarters consisted of two beds in the mess-room, which
my servant and I occupied, and a cabin for Tom and
Wood.
" 27/7* September.
" Sailed at 3 A.M. The deck was covered with
Persians and Circassians. Our companions were
Petersen the engineer, the first, second, and third
v GALE ON THE CASPIAN 37
lieutenants, and an artillery officer, who spoke French,
returning to his quarters at Kisliat The cabin was
dirty and dark and always filled with a cloud of tobacco
smoke. Our meals were as follows : Petersen supplied
us with breakfast and tea ; at dinner and supper we all
messed together. These meals consisted of cabbages
boiled in oil for soup, beef and potatoes fried in oil,
and a water-melon. At 4 P.M. stopped for the night
at a fort on the mouth of the Volga.
" 2%th September.
"Started early. A heavy swell. The wind due
north. Arrived at Tarki. Lay there three hours, but
it being too rough for a boat to put out, the artillery
officer who was to have landed there was obliged to
come on, in hopes of being able to go on shore at
Derbend. A gale blowing in our favour, a very heavy
sea running, and the deck being badly caulked, every
wave that washed over made a regular shower in the
cabin. The wind being fair, we set all our sails hoping
to reach a dangerous part of the sea before sunset.
However, the wind falling, we were disappointed.
By 9 P.M. the captain, although it was a moonlight
night, deemed it prudent to turn back for six hours, so
as not to reach the dangerous place before sunrise.
" At supper we were foolish enough to produce a
bottle of brandy, on the strength of which the first
lieutenant got drunk. The night being rather rough,
the captain and second lieutenant, who was the officer
of the watch, were deadly sick, and the third lieutenant
in bed. The consequence was that when the sun rose
on the morning of the ist October they could not tell
where they were. They had no chronometer on
board, and always came to us to know whether it was
38 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
time to take their observations. As our watches all
went differently, they were sometimes sadly puzzled.
" Arrived at Baku at 9 A.M. Called on the Gover-
nor, who generously gave us and the artillery officer
rooms in his house. Both he and his wife spoke
French. The town, which seems very old, is built on
the side of a hill. The roofs are all flat, and the most
outstanding object is the minaret of a mosque. The
bazaars are miserable and the population almost en-
tirely Persian. Dined with the Governor, who enter-
tained us very well after the Russian fashion, and
produced some capital English porter after dinner.
" Hired horses and went with Petersen to see the
Fire Worshippers, a distance of fifteen versts, the road
lying through fields totally uncultivated. The Fire
Worshippers are well worth seeing. Their fire con-
sists of naphtha -gas issuing from the earth. Their
court or mosque is strongly walled round, with four
fires inside it and about forty outside.
" 3^ October.
" Dined at the Governor's, and instead of going to
Tiflis decided to go by steamer to Enzeli and Reshd,
and thence to Teheran. Our friend the Russian
officer left us for his quarters. We parted with regret,
for he was exceedingly good-natured, gentlemanlike,
and in every way anxious to help us. Tom and Wood
went to tea with the General, and I went on board
with the luggage.
" ^th October.
" Sailed at 5 A.M. Tom and Wood lost their cabin,
the wife and child of a Russian officer occupying it.
"5//fc October.
"Anchored at Lenkoran at 8.30 A.M. It is beauti-
v START FOR ASTRABAD 39
fully situated, the mountains very high and thickly
wooded. Although the last town on the Russian
frontier, it has a much more European aspect than
Baku. Lay to all day. Started at 8 P.M. Stormy
night. Found ourselves in the morning blown far
away from Enzeli and obliged to go on to Astrabad.
" %th October.
"Arrived at a small island with a Russian settle-
ment. Spent the evening with a Russian officer, who
spoke French very well, and treated us most hospi-
tably.
"gth October.
11 Engaged a Persian who spoke Russ to go with
us first to Astrabad and then to Teheran. Left the
island at 9 A.M., the Captain giving us a champagne
breakfast. Arrived at a Russian factory at the village
of Gazaw, and then bade adieu to the Couba steamer.
Petersen, etc., lodged in a small room in the doctor's
house, and were fed by the people in the factory. In
the night the jackals kicked up a great row.
" iot/i October.
" Started for Astrabad about a quarter to 9 A.M.,
taking nothing with us but our guns and beds. The
road lay through jungle and forest, said to abound in
tigers, lions, wild boar, and every sort of game, of
which we saw nothing except a few pheasants, hares,
and jackals ; and from the covert found it utterly
impossible to get a shot. Trees of every sort, from
the gigantic oak to the beautiful acacia, grew in the
greatest luxuriance. The wild or rope-vine entwining
itself among the trees, in places forming an immense
net, made the covert perfectly impenetrable. We
40 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
passed wild pomegranates and figs in the greatest pro-
fusion, and halted about noon. Not having brought
any provisions, we shared a pilau with Hadji Abbas.
"At 4 P.M. halted half an hour for their prayers,
and at 5.30 P.M. stopped for the night at a small village
about two hours distant from Astrabad the Hadji
declaring that from the Turcomans the road was too
dangerous to travel in the night, and that a Persian
had been killed by them on the same road the night
before.
" Put up in the Khan, a sort of shed with a large
dusty room smelling very strong of bats. About a
quarter of an hour after our arrival, he brought us in
the leg of a chicken and a small plate of rice rather
scanty fare for four hungry fellows. A very cold
night.
" \\th October.
11 Off a little after daybreak. When about half an
hour from Astrabad the Hadji pulled up and showed
us in the distance a line of horsemen, who, he said,
were Turcomans. So after having cursed them as
sons of dogs, and children of the Evil One, he set to
work most vigorously to tell his beads, thanks to
which precaution, I suppose, we rode unmolested about
9 A.M. into the village a walled miserable sort of
place. The inhabitants, a bigoted tribe, received us
most inhospitably.
" On entering the gate, one of the dogs which had
followed us from the factory, being nearly as hungry
as ourselves, killed a chicken, which occasioned not a
little stir, and led to our being caged up for the best
part of the day in the middle of the only square, and
pelted diligently by the inhabitants with rotten eggs
and bad oranges soft things, no doubt, but not the
v ON THE ROAD TO TEHERAN 41
less trying to the temper. We were put up for the
night in the cock-loft of the worst caravanserai (it not
being allowed for Christians to enter the better ones),
and there got a sort of breakfast which we sadly
wanted. Left Astrabad about 3 P.M. Halted 6 P.M.,
and put up at a dirty mud hut.
" 1 2th October.
" Started at 6 A.M. No breakfast. Stopped for
an hour in the middle of the day, and arrived at the
factory at 2 P.M. Bathed about 9 P.M., after which,
being nearly dead with hunger, we attacked and con-
sumed sixteen eggs.
" 13^ October.
"Off by 8.30 A.M. for Teheran, with ten horses,
five for riding and five for luggage, and stopped at
noon for an hour. Halted about sundown and spent
the night in an open shed.
" i^th October.
" Daybreak found us on the road. Arrived at
Ashraf by 9 A.M. Stopped at a beautiful orange
grove. Three dogs accompanied us from the factory :
a water-dog I called " Diver," a large rough one
named " Tiger," and our friend whom we styled " The
Chicken," who much to my delight (for I was nearly
starving) succeeded in catching another fowl for us,
together with which, and some meat and eggs which
we fortunately secured in the bazaar, made up the first
good feed we had had since we landed in Persia.
Fruit was rather scarce, we found, but succeeded in
getting two melons and some wild grapes. Left Ash-
raf by 11.30 A.M., having found the inhabitants more
hospitably inclined than those of Astrabad. Halted
42 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
for the night, and having no house slept under a tree
very damp.
" i$tk October.
" Started by daybreak. Arrived at Sari, where we
changed our horses, which were miserable, and the
Hadji left us. We had every reason to be satisfied
with him. He was strictly honest, active, and obliging.
He delivered us into the hands of a Persian who also
spoke Russ, and came with him from Nijni, a watch-
maker by trade. Put up at the caravanserai, but were
cursed by swarms of mosquitoes.
" 1 6th October.
" Although up and packed by 6 A.M. we could not
start our new muleteers and man Gabbett by name
until after 10 o'clock. We found the inhabitants very
uncivil. The town, though large, was filthy. Halted
at 4 P.M. Slept out. Rain in the night all our
things wet.
"i7//fc October.
"Off by 7.30 A.M., and began the passage of the
mountains. A wet evening. The scenery was beauti-
ful, but the road villanous, in some places absolutely
impassable to any but the native beasts, who were well
used to tumbling through such passes. The path,
sometimes about a foot broad, and very slippery from
the rain and mud, ran along the side of the mountain
the rock rising abruptly on one side, a precipice of
five or six hundred feet on the other : a very grand
picture to look at, but very far from pleasant to travel.
Twice my horse slipped one of his hind feet over the
side, and only that he recovered himself in a miracu-
lous manner, he and I were dashed into a thousand
pieces.
v ON THE ROAD TO TEHERAN 43
" Halted in a farm shed, which was deluged in the
night by the incessant rain. Bought a sheep for four
dollars, which was seized on by the muleteers, who
were too bigoted to eat anything we touched, and we
saw very little of it in consequence.
" iSfA October.
"Delayed till 10 A.M. by floods of rain. Leaving
the wooded mountains, our path lay sometimes over
rocks covered with thorny underwood, sometimes by
the bed of a river rendered almost unfordable by the
rains. Halted at 4 P.M. at a shed large enough only
to contain Wood and Tom, while I slept by the watch-
fire. Having seized the sheep's head, we made a
capital porridge of it, and had the first good breakfast
since our arrival in Persia ; for I, not drinking tea, got
only one meal in the twenty-four hours, consisting of a
greasy pilau when we halted.
"19^ October.
" Off at 8 A.M. Very windy. Halted at 4 P.M. at
a large caravanserai filled with travellers, and got a
place with difficulty. We were nearly smothered with
smoke, and the donkeys, horses, dogs, and men kicked
up a fearful row during the night.
" zoth October.
"Very cold and foggy morning. The country
through which we went was a complete desert, abound-
ing in conies, one of which we killed. Halted in
another caravanserai.
"2ist October.
" I shot a grouse. Halted in a small village.
44 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, v
" zzd October.
" Off by sunrise, and in about five hours rode into
Teheran and put up in a large caravanserai, where we
were most unmercifully mobbed the natives trying to
break in the doors, climbing up on the roof and throw-
ing dirt and stones at us through the holes."
CHAPTER VI
Aspera multa
Pertulit, adversis rerum immersabilis undis.
HOR. Ep. I. ii. 21.
He braves untold calamities, borne down
By Fortune's waves, but never left to drown.
CONINGTON.
" 23*3? October.
" FOUND the British Minister had left before for
Tabriz. Tom and Wood called on Messrs. Reid and
Thompson, the attaches. They kindly gave us rooms
in the Embassy, and told us we must be their guests
at dinner during our stay. Met at dinner a Mr.
Burgess and a Mr. Hector, a Bagdad merchant, who
offered to take our heavy luggage with him to Bagdad.
My servant William was attacked with fever.
" z$th October.
"William worse. Attacked myself, and very ill
till 4th November. Hired two servants Ali as cook,
Charum as general servant.
" 8//& November.
"William and I improving. To try the merits
of our new cook, gave a dinner to Messrs. Reid,
Thompson, etc., which turned out more respectable
than I anticipated.
46. ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
" i o//z November.
" The doctor considering William and me strong
enough and change of air desirable, we left Teheran
about 3 P.M. Rode into Kend about 7 P.M. and put
up at the Shah's house. Very cold. William very
weak and complaining.
" izth November.
"Had a long day. Put up in a small room at a
dirty village.
" i $th November.
" Off two hours before daybreak. Wet, cold, and
windy. Arrived at Kazvin drenched, after ten hours'
ride. Put up in a very fine caravanserai.
" i4//$ November.
" Found the ground covered with snow, and, as
William threatened to die if we went on, we were
obliged to make up our minds to stop.
" \$th November.
" Started with thermometer below 15 F. Piercing
cold wind. Halted in the mountains at a very small
village, where we had a room and fireplace of the
tiniest.
" i6th November.
"William again pleaded his inability to go on,
declaring we should have to bury him on the road, so
we decided to stop again. We, however, threatened
to send him back with Charum a sulky fellow, who
spoke no English ; upon which, having eaten a great
bowl of rice-milk, he jumped up and promised to delay
us no longer.
vi DOWN WITH FEVER 47
" 1 1th November.
"Off early, thermometer below 11 F. Halted at
a good village, where again I had a threatening of
fever.
" i8t/i November.
"Arrived at Sultania, where we found a Colonel
Sheil and his bride, Dr. Dickson, and Thompson's
brother. The dinner and champagne were both too
good, for in the morning I found myself in a regular
attack of fever. However, after an eight days' journey,
of which I can remember only the misery (being hardly
able on some days to sit on my horse), we rode into
Tabriz on the 26th, where Mr. Stephens most hospi-
tably received us as his guests. On our arrival we put
William under the care of a doctor, a Maltese, who
spoke English perfectly. He found that from the in-
tense cold William had got frost-bitten in his toe, and
was in danger of losing it, but that otherwise he was
pretty well. We decided, however, on sending him
home by Trebizond and Constantinople.
" 2']th-2gth November.
" Spent in trying to recover from an attack of
diarrhoea, in hopes of being able to accompany Tom
and Wood on an expedition to Tiflis.
" 30^ November.
"Went out hunting with Malichus Mirza, a Persian
prince, son to Fat-Ali Shah, but saw nothing. We
found him a very nice fellow, quite civilised in all his
ways and ideas, and a great sportsman. We dined
with him the dinner capital, served in European style.
Champagne, etc., flowed like water.
48 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
" \st December.
" Tom and Wood started for Tiflis, while I, finding
myself much worse, was obliged to stay behind. Mr.
Stephens's kindness to me I shall never forget, and
also the doctor's. All the days passed alike, some-
times getting better and sometimes worse.
" I5//& December.
" Breakfasted with the Prince, and in the evening
got a violent attack of dysentery and liver complaint.
" 2$th December.
" Between sickness, loneliness, etc., I spent the
most miserable of Christmas Days.
"26^ December.
" Better. Wood and Tom returned. Got a re-
lapse in the evening.
" \st January 1850.
" Got up for the first time, but fell ill in the
evening.
" 2 d January.
" Better. Moved to Malichus Mirza's house for
change of air, and remained there till the i5th."
[His life under the Prince's roof he long afterwards
described to Mrs. Bruen, who has kindly communi-
cated to me the following details. He was semi-
unconscious when the move took place, and, on coming
to, he found himself lodged in the harem, where he
was nursed by an old black slave who became devoted
to him, insomuch that when to a certain degree con-
valescent she would convey him for recreation into
the ladies' apartments. There he met with every
vi " THE GLOOM OF THE HAREM" 49
kindness, and was entertained by the stories of the
former lives of the inmates, many of them most touch-
ing in their descriptions of how they were carried off
from their homes. One of them a beautiful fair-
haired Armenian- awoke his deepest compassion by
her pathetic longing for her own relatives and home.]
"The evening of the i5th I started alone for
Sheshuan, the Prince's country-seat. Tom and Wood
having arranged to come after post, the consul and
the doctor accompanied me a part of the road.
" I certainly ought to remember the hospitality and
kindness I received in every way and from everybody
more especially from the doctors who attended me
in the kindest manner during my long illness.
"In all the books of travel on Persia, Tabriz is
described as the most beautiful and healthy of cities.
To me it appeared far different. I never could find
out anything interesting either in or near it. The
town itself is large and straggling, situated in a barren
plain at the foot of a large red hill. I believe all the
hills round it are of the same colour, but as I never
saw them unless clad with snow I cannot tell.
" On our arrival at Tabriz we bought three horses
which belonged to Colonel Farrant. Tom chose a
thoroughbred Arab, Wood a fat hack, and I a pony
an obstinate little brute but a capital walker. They
all, however, broke down before we got far. We also
bought an octave of port wine, and having discharged
Charum a worthless lout we engaged another man,
Pierre, who spoke a little French, to come with us to
Urumiah.
"After two hours and a half arrived at Sardarud.
Quarters bad. Windows without glass not pleasant
on a snowy night.
E
So ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
" 1 6th January.
" Off at a quarter to 7 A.M. Dreadful day of snow
and wind. Arrived at Gogan quarters very good.
Started at a quarter to eight, and rode in seven hours
into Sheshuan, where I found the Prince, who received
me kindly. Had a tte-a-tete dinner with him on rather
doubtful dishes for one recovering from dysentery.
" 1 8/A January.
" Spent a stupid day, having seen nothing of the
Prince until dinner. He said he had passed his d^y
in the bath, previous to his starting for Teheran, to
escape the myrmidons of the Governor, Hanza Mirza,
who had followed him from Tabriz, and then infested
his house, in the name of the Government, to recover
sixteen thousand tomaums, which it was said he had
misspent during his period of maladministration. This,
however, he always denied, and said the Government
owed him thirty thousand tomaums. Hearing all this
was but poor satisfaction for me who had waited for
him the whole day, as he had appointed me to be
ready at an early hour to go out hunting with him.
"igth January.
"About i P.M. Tom and Wood arrived. In the
afternoon the Prince brought us into his garden, a large
enclosure of about forty-five acres, to hunt hares. The
chase was conducted in the following manner. He
collected all his servants, fifty or sixty, and a large
number of greyhounds, which he posted in different
parts of the garden. The servants then began to beat.
After some time a hare was found which might have
afforded a good chase but for the number of dogs and
men. Another hare afterwards appeared, which the
"ONCE MORE UPON THE WATERS!*
Prince, in the most unsportsmanlike manner, shot.
The hares were something rather larger than ours, and
formed a capital dish at the champagne dinner he after-
wards gave us in one of the apartments of the harem.
At dinner he insisted on our tasting a specimen of all
his Persian preserves, which were numerous, and some
of them certainly most delicious.
" 2Qth January.
" Had prayers in the morning and sent our horses
on by Achmed to Urumiah the Prince having offered
us a boat to cross the lake of that name, which was by
way of being a voyage of only a few hours, and there-
fore a short cut. He also gave us leave to have a few
days' shooting on the island which lay about half-way
across the lake, and to which he said he had sent on
tents and everything to make us comfortable.
" 2 ist January.
" Saw the Prince in the morning for a few minutes
before our departure. He told us he had settled
everything for us which we found was either a great
fib or that his servants cared very little about his
orders. We had the greatest difficulty to get mules to
convey our luggage a distance of about eight miles
to the boat, and did not reach it till about 3 P.M.,
where, instead of the nice little craft he had promised,
we found a heavy passage-boat, crowded with people,
and heavily laden with corn. The wind being con-
trary, they could not sail until it changed, which they
expected it to do at sunset, so we settled ourselves on
a heap of corn on the deck and piled our boxes round
us to try and shelter ourselves from the bitterly cold
wind. Fortunately we had brought a large quantity of
bread with us, as provision for the time we expected
52 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
to be shooting on the island. On this and a bit of
sausage we made a miserable dinner and turned in,
lamenting our fate at being obliged to spend the night
in such cold quarters.
" 22d January.
" The wind having changed in the night, we awoke
to find ourselves anchored within a stone's throw of
the island. The wind blowing a regular hurricane
ahead, we told the men to land us, and to our great
disgust were informed that it was utterly impossible to
move until the wind changed or fell. Neither of which
it did until 2 P.M. of the 23d, when it became quite
calm, and, by dint of three hours' punting and pulling,
we reached the island, thoroughly sick of the whole
expedition.
"The boat in its shape resembled a square tub
with two masts and sails, rather than anything else.
We reckoned that, sailing her best, she progressed
about two miles an hour the possibility of tacking or
sailing with a side-wind seeming never to have entered
the sailors' heads. Having discussed our bread and
ham, we lay down, determining to have a good day's
shooting the following day on the island, which the
Prince described as swarming with game of all sorts,
deer, wild sheep, partridge, etc. A bitterly cold night.
" 2 ^th January.
" On awaking we found nature wearing her most
disheartening aspect. We were covered with snow
about an inch thick, and it was still snowing hard, with
every prospect of its continuing. However, having
eaten our bad breakfast, we started in different direc-
tions in search of game, and of the Prince's tents,
where, in case of our chase being unsuccessful, we
SNOW AND SALT! 53
hoped to obtain some fresh water and provisions. I
saw several coveys of red-legged partridge and a few
wild sheep, but failed in getting either, and at length
returned on board, nearly frozen to death and more
disgusted with the island than I had previously been
with the boat. Tom and Wood returned soon after,
equally unsuccessful and cold, but our hearts were
cheered in about two hours by Pierre making his
appearance with fresh water, a large bowl of thick
cream, and a live sheep. Having got the provisions
on board, we ordered them to sail for Urumiah, but
were told it was impossible, the wind being unfavour-
able.
" 2 $th January.
" Found ourselves in the same position a bitterly
cold wind blowing right ahead, accompanied with
showers of sleet and snow. The sheep, however,
afforded us a good breakfast and dinner, and with some
arrack and port wine, which we had in our stores, we
managed to keep the vital spark alive. Towards
evening, the wind having fallen, they rowed out and
anchored a few hundred yards from the shore, in case,
they said, of a good wind in the night.
" 26th January.
" The good wind having sprung up in the night
lasted only long enough to blow us half-way across,
where we found ourselves anchored, tossing about in
the most disagreeable manner, with a cold head-wind
and the lake washing over us, so as to spoil the
remnant of our bread and render our position most
uncomfortable. The water being nearly as salt as the
Dead Sea, left us when it dried in a complete incrusta-
tion. No fish can live in it, but its banks swarm with
54 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
wild fowl of all descriptions. To better our condition,
when we asked for breakfast Ali informed us that they
had eaten the rest of the sheep, and that there was no
meat left. During the day, the wind having changed,
we sailed for about an hour, but soon again it became
unfavourable.
" 2 ith January.
"Our provisions and water failing, we set
vigorously to work to stir up the crew, and after five
or six hours' hard punting and pulling we reached the
shore, where we found Achmed and our horses waiting
for us. Remounting, we set off to a neighbouring
village to procure quarters for the night and mules to
bring up our luggage. Heartily congratulating our-
selves on our escape from the boat, we all unanimously
agreed that it was the most disagreeable voyage we
had ever made tossed about for six days on the deck
of a small boat, and the weather intensely cold. The
warmest night that we spent on board, the thermometer
was below 15 F. Our stock of fresh water was frozen
so hard that, in trying to break the ice to get a drink,
the jar that contained it was broken and the ice
remained as hard as ever. I certainly think that
humanly speaking we owed our lives to our Russian
fur cloaks and four bottles of the Prince's best arrack,
which we were fortunate enough to bring with us.
" 2&tA January.
" After breakfast we started for Urumiah, and found
the road very difficult from the quantity of snow. The
plain was certainly the best cultivated and, except the
province of Mazanderan, the most fertile part of Persia
I had seen. The town, enclosed like Tabriz and
vi NESTORIANS AND THEIR WORK 55
Teheran with a deep fosse and mud walls, is sur-
rounded by gardens.
"We arrived there about 3 P.M. and were most kindly
received by the American missionaries, particularly by
Dr. Wright, who assigned us two rooms, and made us
his guests. At dinner we met his wife, a kind amiable
person. The dinner was very good, but being a
temperance community they drink nothing but water,
which I thought rather a bad plan in such cold weather.
" 2C)th January.
" At about 8.30 A.M. we were summoned to prayers,
which much to our edification were conducted in
Syriac. First a hymn was sung, then a chapter in the
New Testament read, verse about, and then one of the
native priests gave an extempore prayer. There were
about fifteen or twenty Nestorians present. At break-
fast we were introduced to Dr. Perkins, the head of
the community, and another missionary who had ridden
down from a neighbouring village. Afterwards they
introduced us to two Nestorian bishops, one of whom
had been to America with Dr. Perkins and spoke a
little English. They then conducted us through their
book-stores, printing office, etc., which is very cleverly
managed. They have printed a great many copies of
the New Testament and other books in Syriac, and
are at present preparing to print the Old Testament.
They also publish a weekly journal in the same
language for the benefit of the natives. At dinner we
met the rest of the community.
" $oth January.
" After breakfast Tom and Wood started to see a
village where Dr. Perkins and Mr. Studdert resided
56 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
with their families. In the evening two trays of sweet-
meats arrived as a present from the Prince-Governor.
" $\st January.
"Spent the morning receiving visits from the
principal men of the city.
" \st February.
" Breakfasted with Mr. Stocking a grand spread.
Met all the community. Pierre not being able to
accompany us farther we engaged a German servant
John by name very highly recommended by Dr.
Wright. His former history was certainly extra-
ordinary, and his adventures rather different from what
one would suppose should befall a man bearing so high
a character for honesty as he did. However, we were
fully repaid by confiding in Dr. Wright's recommenda-
tion.
" Started at half past 2 P.M. Messrs. Wright,
Stocking, etc., accompanying us part of the way.
They certainly form a community of as kind people as
I ever met. We rode four hours into Ardishei, and
put up at Mar Gabriel's house. He received us very
hospitably, but we were immensely bothered by the
curiosity of the natives. The road was very muddy
from the thawing snow and the rich quality of the soil.
" zd February.
" Snowing hard, and the country almost impassable.
Started at twelve o'clock. The small irrigation canals
being swollen to a great height, two of our mules fell
into the stream, and we found to our dismay that the
mule that carried our store-box or larder was one of
them. We were particularly disgusted at its occurring
vi OUR LARDER GONE! 57
then, as one box was full of dainties provided for our
journey by Mrs. Wright's kind forethought such as
chicken, mince-pies, and European bread and butter.
The snow-drifts we encountered were tremendous
neither horses nor mules would face them. As soon as
they perceived them they turned their backs on them,
we lying down on their backs to escape the cutting
wind. Arrived at a quarter past three o'clock at Kermi
and found very fair quarters.
" $d February.
" Off at a quarter past ten. Crossed a large river
by a bridge. The road was good, lying along the
side of the lake. Fine morning. Arrived at Garkan
a village built on a promontory stretching into the
lake. Quarters pretty fair but bitterly cold.
" 4th February.
" Off at 9 A.M. The road at first lay along the
side of the lake until i P.M., when it turned west,
crossing a small chain of hills. As long as we kept
on the lee of the latter we were very comfortable, but
as soon as ever we reached the top and began to
descend the weather side, we were exposed to a fear-
fully cold west wind which nearly shaved the skin off
our faces. After descending the hills and going
through a miserable hour's ride in the plains of Sulduz,
we reached a small Kourdish village, where we were
obliged to stop on account of the river being impass-
able from the ice. At first the inhabitants were in-
clined to be uncivil, but soon finding that we intended
to pay for what we got, they lodged and treated us
well enough. The men are a fine independent-look-
ing set, the women in general well -looking some
58 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, vi
very pretty. The plain is almost entirely sown with
wheat. I do not remember seeing a single garden.
The villages are surrounded by large mounds of ashes
instead of manure, as the inhabitants use the dung of
their cattle for firing.
" 5 th February.
"Off at a quarter to 10 A.M. The road for two
hours lay over the plain leading us through thick
jungles of bulrushes. We kept a sharp lookout for
game, but saw none. Having at length found a place
to ford the river, we joined the regular road and
arrived at Vasje Bulak by 7 P.M. The cold was in-
tense. There being no room in the good caravanserai,
we were obliged to put up with a very small one, so
we had to go without our dinner both which circum-
stances went far to sour my temper."
CHAPTER VII
TTJV 8' cis TOVS Ka/x5ovx ov ? f[A/3oXr)v 5Se TTOIOWTGU . . .
S' airrtov evTavOa, 7Tt7rt7TTet ^twv aTrAeros, wore a.TTKpv\f/ KGU TO, 6V Aa
KOU TOVS dvOpiairows KaraKet^evovs' KCU TO, vTro^vyia o-weTreS^o-ev 17
Xiwv* KCU TroAus OKVOS ^v avi(TTao-^at. XEN. Anab. iv. 1-4.
And thus they made entry into Kourdistan. . . . And as they
were bivouacking there the snow came down heavily, insomuch that
it shrouded their accoutrements and the men as they lay ; and it be-
numbed the beasts of burden ; and great was their reluctance to rise.
" 6th February.
" TURNING out with fearful appetites we made a
clean sweep of the rest of our ham and fifteen eggs,
and then sent our letters of recommendation to the
Governor, who forthwith despatched his ferash to
move us and baggage to his house. We were re-
ceived by him in his judgment-hall, a considerable-
sized room. We found him and a lot of Kourds
sitting round a large charcoal pan. His Highness
was seated in an armchair, while all his followers
squatted on their hunkers. When we entered he
immediately stood up, and motioned us to sit in arm-
chairs that were placed at his side. We were then
served with kalcouns and tea. The judgment cere-
mony lasted three hours, during which time, as out ' of
respect to our host we were obliged to hold our
tongues, we had ample leisure to study his face and
costume and those of his companions.
60 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
" They were all fine-looking men, but he was by far
the handsomest man I ever saw. Their splendid cos-
tumes, in my eyes handsomer than either Turks',
Arabs', or Persians', showed off their fine manly coun-
tenances to great advantage immense turbans of silk,
striped white and brown silk kaftans, confined at the
waist by a strap fastened by a richly-embossed silver
clasp, and over all a cloak, lined, according to their
rank, with sheepskin or fine fur, and all of course
armed to the teeth.
"After the important business of the judgment-
hall was over, our host turned and salaamed to us with
great courtesy, insisting on our remaining his guests
during our stay in the town that is, until we could
find mules and decide on which route to take. He
also volunteered to do everything in his power to help
us on the road.
"We found it very difficult to ascertain anything
about the routes, each man we asked giving a different
report. One said he had attempted the short route by
Leggan, but had been obliged to turn back. A second
said that even the long route by Suleimania was im-
passable. A third said that if we would wait five days
for his mules he would take us the short way. The
Governor strongly recommended us not to attempt
it ; but, having made up our minds to face every
difficulty, we determined to accept our third friend's
offer.
"After sunset, dinner was brought in on three
trays, which were placed on the floor, one before our
host, a second before Torn and Wood, and a third
before me. We accordingly set to work, Tom and
Wood slobbering away with their hands. I ho.d fortu-
nately a camp-knife and fork in my pocket and got on
vii KOURDISH DINNER AND ITS RESULTS 61
passably, first attacking a very rich-looking mess ; but
having swallowed one mouthful was obliged to desist,
feeling very much the worse. The dish consisted of
rotten cabbage, stewed in vinegar and oil, flavoured
with a very nasty sort of spice. I next attacked a
greasy pilau. Knowing that it always contained some-
thing in the shape of meat inside, I set to work to
burrow, and at length succeeded in hauling out the
back of a lamb, which I began to eat but, the Gover-
nor having finished, etiquette obliged me to come to
also. In vain I waited for another tray to make its
appearance. The washing of hands followed, and I
had to consider myself as having dined.
"In the evening we endeavoured to amuse the
Governor by showing him different things. He was
much surprised at the daguerreotype of Hoddy [his
sister Harriet]. He expressed great admiration and
said, How happy would a man be with such a wife !
He left us about 8 P.M.
" 7/7* February.
" Unsuccessful in our search for other mules.
About 3 P.M. the Khan made his appearance and
showed us his chain armour, which was certainly very
handsome. Greasy dinner followed by a stupid
evening.
" %th February,
"In the morning word was brought that the Khan
was sick and wished one of us to see him, so Wood
went and found him labouring under an attack of
greasy dinner. He gave him some medicine which, in
the evening, on being sent for again, he found his
Highness would not take, because it smelt nasty.
Wood, however, managed to coax it down his throat.
62 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
His illness gave us a long day's peace, in saving us
from his visit, which, although good-naturedly intended,
was an atrocious bore.
" ()th February.
" Khan better. Started at i P.M. on a duck-shoot-
ing expedition along the banks of a good-sized stream
which runs close to the town. After some trouble and
a good freezing we succeeded in killing a brace. On
our return we found the Khan quite recovered.
Wood's revolving pistol was exhibited for the fourth
time at his usual visit, and at 9 P.M. the Khan left us,
heartily sick of his company.
" ioth February.
"Wet day. Had prayers in the morning.
"nth February.
" Got ready to start to see some antiquities, but,
the day coming down wet, we were obliged to put it
off till some more auspicious time.
" 1 2th February.
" The day being as fine as we could expect, we set
off, and after a canter of about twelve miles arrived at
the place. It was a large square tomb, sculptured out
of the solid rock, something like the tombs of Beni
Hassan on the Nile. Coming home we went along
the riverside in hopes of getting some game, but were
unsuccessful. In the evening Tom got an attack of
fever lasting to the i6th. The man's mules having
come in, he was in a hurry to be off, but Tom not
being sufficiently strong we made him wait in his
turn.
vii SNOW UP TO THE SADDLE-GIRTHS 63
" \lth February,
" Had prayers in the morning. Tom being much
better, and the day much warmer, we took a ride to
some curious soda-water springs about three miles
from the town. The water bubbles out of the solid
rock, and is very good to drink, but rather flat.
" \%th February.
" Sent for the muleteer to load, Tom being quite
recovered, but he refused to go, saying he had to shoe
his mules a lie, of course. The truth was, he wanted
to stay for another large caravan which was to start
the next day.
" igth February.
" Got off at about 10.30 A.M. The first part of the
ride was pleasant enough, but when we began to
ascend and get into the snow it became bitterly cold,
and our difficulties began in earnest. The large cara-
van, which consisted of seventy horses laden with
iron, having gone before to beat down the snow, made
the first part of the ascent tolerably easy at least
when compared to what followed. But when we got
near the top, our mules being more lightly loaded, we
had passed the caravan, and were obliged to chalk out
the road for ourselves ; there was not a track to be
seen nothing but a sheet of smooth shining snow
gradually ascending till it was lost in the clouds, which,
to better our condition, were gathering fast on the
mountain - top we had to pass over. Our horses
were wading up to the saddle-girths, and sometimes
falling into a ravine which had been filled up by a
snow-drift, when nothing was visible but our own
heads and sometimes the horse's nose and tail. It
certainly was the most disheartening business I ever
64 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
went through. However, as there could be no going
back, we had to put the best face on it we could. At
last we reached the top of the hill, where the snow
nearly blinded us.
"Then began the descent, which was much quicker
work than the ascent sometimes rather faster than
we wished. Our horses being too wise to attempt to
walk down, tucked their legs under them and slid
down at a tremendous rate, the mules generally rolling
down the best way they could. Having at last
reached the bottom, after an hour's easy riding we
came to a small village, where we got a room and lit a
fire, but the smoke soon obliged us to seek other
means of keeping ourselves warm. Our cook swore
he was so cold he could not prepare anything, which,
I believe, as he was very lazy, was only an excuse
although the thermometer was below 1 1 F.
" 2oth February.
" Off about 9 A.M. Sleeting hard. Got wet through.
Cleared up at noon, and the wind rising froze our
clothes on us, making them as hard as sheet -iron.
At 3 P.M. got into snow again and lost our way.
The mules soon got thoroughly done up with wading
in it, and we were obliged to come to ; so scooping
a hole in the snow we ensconced ourselves among
our horses and boxes. Luckily, having a cooked
chicken and some bread with us, we did not starve,
although it was a small pittance for ourselves and
three servants. Getting two bottles of port and one
of arrack, we drank deep healths to our friends at
home, wishing that they might never find themselves
in such a plight. We then wrapped ourselves in our
wolfskins and chose our respective places. I got
vii FLOUNDERING THROUGH SNOW 65
under my horse as a sort of shelter from an approach-
ing snowstorm. However, as he was rather uneasy
in the night and trod on me several times, it would
have been better to have borne the brunt of the
weather. My clothes also thawing, I had to undergo
a trial of the water cure.
" 2 1 st February,
" Wood's horse, getting loose in the morning, began
fighting with my horse, and soon routed me out.
Not caring to sleep again, I woke the others, and
we made preparations for getting under way. Off
a little after 9 A.M., floundering through the snow.
Sometimes we got tremendous falls into ravines
which had been frozen over and the hollows filled
with snow-drifts. In such cases we had to dismount
and pull the wretched animal out by the tail and neck,
and then taking all our carpets and cloaks lay them
across to form a sort of bridge for the mules.
"After seven hours of this work, during which we
accomplished a distance of some four miles from the
place where we slept, we arrived at the side of the
mountain, and were lucky enough to find a large
cave with plenty of firewood in it. We accordingly
got in, picketing our horses at the mouth, and, lighting
a large fire inside, the cave became so full of smoke
as to drive us nearly mad.
" 22d February.
" The muleteers saying they must stop at least a
day to rest their mules, Tom and I went out with
our guns to try and get something for dinner, and
were lucky enough to get a brace and a half of snipe.
We were obliged to give the greater part of our
stock of bread to the horses, for which we had no
provender. We also sent one of the muleteers to
F
66 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
a village about three hours off to engage twelve
guides, as next day we had to cross a worse part
than we had encountered, and also to bring some
food for ourselves and horses. He returned about
sunset, fetching a pair of fowls, some bread, and a bag
of rice for the beasts, there being no barley. He
said that the guides would meet us at the beginning
of the pass next day.
"After dinner we were surprised by the arrival
of a large caravan of about a hundred and twenty
horses. They described the pass as almost impractic-
able sixty horses were obliged to leave their loads
and make the best of their way forward without them.
Shortly after two men were carried in insensible, and
Wood was sent for to try and bring them to. With
one he succeeded, but the other was too far gone.
" 2$d February.
" Having fortified ourselves with a tolerable break-
fast and a dram of brandy, we set out for the pass.
About an hour from the cave we came to the spot
where the muleteers had been obliged to leave their
loads the night before. Sixty loads all stood about
in the snow, some of them half a mile off the right
track. There were large dogs left to guard them.
Poor animals ! they must have had a cold night of it.
After a good deal of labour, tumbling, and rolling, we
at length got into Riaz. The road was much less
difficult than I had expected. It was bitterly cold
the thermometer never ranging above 15 F
" 24/7* February
" When we wanted to start we found the courtyard
gate locked. On telling them to open it, they refused
vii ON GUARD AT THE GATEWAY 67
until we should pay them a considerable sum. We
declined, and drawing our pistols, told the landlord
that if he did not open it at once, we would blow his
brains out. He saw we were in earnest, and that
our pistols were not likely to miss fire. He began
to growl, and said he would take half. A pistol was
immediately presented at his head, which decided the
matter, and the door was opened without more ado."
[Mrs. Bruen, from a conversation held years after
with Arthur, adds : " The armed villagers still threaten-
ing to close the one outlet, he saw the danger, and
suddenly forcing his horse into the open gateway,
guarded it with his rifle, until every member of the
party had safely left the yard, and then he quietly
rejoined them."]
"We had not gone far when John found that they
had stolen his coat. We forthwith returned and
made them give it up. They had stolen Tom's rifle
the evening before, but he recovered it by offering a
reward.
" Had an attack of rheumatism in my chest. The
scenery was wild and beautiful. Arrived about 3 P.M.
at a small village. Beastly quarters their cows
being stabled with us.
"2$th February.
" Off by 9 A.M. Having got out of the snow, we
went on comfortably enough. The road was very
steep. Arrived at Roandoze at half -past one, and
had good quarters.
" 262/1 February.
" Stopped to rest the mules.
68 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
" 27 th and 2%th February,
"Went by a fearfully bad road, ending in worse
quarters ; rain pouring the whole time.
" isf March.
" Got into the plain. Saw lots of gazelles and wild
goats. We were entertained by the sheikh of the
village."
[It must have been about this stage of the journey
that the party lighted on the track of the two English-
men who had some years before ventured on the
same route Messrs. Conolly and Studdert the first
Europeans, they were told, who had come that way.
Arthur mentions the incident in his book pub-
lished long afterwards The Cruise of the Eva, from
which I transcribe it, as here falling into its proper
place.
"In Kourdistan I found poor Conolly 's prayer-book,
and was shown by an interesting Kourd the very
tree to which he and poor Studdert were tied and
foully murdered, the Kourd said, because they would
not become Mussulmans. We had no intention of
being turncoats either, but I expect we owed our
whole skins to our poverty, possessing little more
than our horses, rifles, and a change of clothes, one
shirt off and another shirt on. I don't mean to say
that these were all we started with, but certainly they
were all we had left, and the Kourds may have
reasoned that it was hardly worth risking their
precious lives in exchange for ours, the value of our
possessions included. They all dread the shining of
a copper cap. They saw the glare of our caps once,
but to this day I do not know how we escaped."]
vii FERRIED OVER THE ZAB 69
" 2d March.
"Left at 4 A.M. in hopes of being able to get over
the river Zab and reach Mosul by night. Arrived at
the river by sunrise. The mules were unloaded and
swam across. We and our luggage were ferried over
on a small raft, about the size of an ordinary dinner-
table. The river was about a quarter of a mile in
width, and the current tolerably strong. The raft
had to make seven voyages, so that we were delayed
till about 3 P.M., when, it beginning to rain, we were
obliged to make for the nearest village, where we
got a miserable hole as quarters. It being too late
to cook anything, we bought some boiled fowl from
the natives, on which we made a very scanty dinner.
" 3</ March.
"Off at 10 A.M. Stopped at a village two miles
from Mosul, and having killed a sheep, got a double
allowance for dinner.
" Afth March.
" Wood and John went on in the morning to get
a house, we following with the luggage. Arrived at
about 2 P.M. We found that a house had been
secured, but that we were invited to feed with Mr.
Rassam. We were surprised to find so large an
assemblage of English Mr. and Mrs. Roland, Dr.
Sandwith, Mr. Layard, and others.
" $th March.
"Went out coursing and killed two hares. The
ground about Coungak was splendid for riding.
Spent the next two days buried in subterranean
passages, seeing slabs, bas-reliefs, inscriptions, etc.,
70 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
which have been so well described that I need not
waste my time in attempting what I could not do.
" 8//fc March.
" Rode a distance of about eighteen miles to
Nineveh, where I found Mr. Layard and Dr. Sand-
with. Dined and slept there.
" gth March.
"Went out coursing with Tom. Two fair runs
and two deaths. Arrived at Mosul at sunset.
" ioth March.
"Service in the morning.
" \\th March.
" Dined with Mr. Layard. Met Mr. and Mrs.
Roland. Discovered Mrs. Roland to be a sort of
connexion.
" i^th March.
" Started at about 2 P.M. on a raft made of goat-
skins. Our beds were raised on rude platforms,
roofed with felt, more like beaver-huts than anything
else. Came to, an hour before sunset.
" I5/V& March.
" Crossed the rapids over the bridge of Nimrod.
Tom shot a brace of partridge, and I had one shot
at a pig.
" 2isf March.
" Blew so hard from the S.E. that our raft nearly
went to pieces. We had to stop and land everything.
Such a quantity of sand was driven up by the wind
that everything was filled. We were obliged to get
under lee of the hill to eat such food as was not
completely spoiled. Having discovered during the
vii ARRIVAL AT BAGDAD 71
day some spoor of lions and other animals, Tom and
I went about a quarter of a mile to a place where
the marks showed they came to drink, determining to
wait there all night, but it coming on to thunder and
rain, our powder was drenched, so we retired rather
disgusted.
" 22d March.
" The wind having ceased, we mended the raft
as best we could, and got away. About an hour after,
the wind having sprung up again, we came along-
side of an island covered with brushwood. Tom
having gone on shore, came back with word that he
had seen seven pigs. Accordingly we landed with
guns and rifles. I got a shot at a pig about fifty
yards off, but missed him in a disgraceful manner.
He, however, did not seem to pass the insult over
unresented, but turned round and came at me. I
immediately seized my gun, which was loaded with
swan drops, and gave him the benefit of them full in
his face. He turned tail and made off before I could
reload.
"We set sail in the evening, and met the East
India Company's steamer Nitocris coming up with
Captain Jones, who was surveying the country.
"23^ March.
" Arrived at Bagdad. Kindly received by Captain
Kemble, the acting Resident. He advised us if we
wanted to see Babylon to start at once that evening,
and ride all night in order to catch a party consisting
of his brother, Commodore Porter, commanding in
the Persian Gulf, and Signer Casellani, the dragoman
or secretary, who had started the day before. We
took his advice, and set off after dinner. Rode till
72 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, vn
2 A.M., when we arrived at a caravanserai, where we
took a few hours' sleep, and then started once more.
" Such a stench as there was in the caravanserai
I never smelt ! For we unfortunately came in with
a large caravan carrying Persian dead bodies to be
buried in the holy city of Kerbola, as they believe
that, if they do not die there, they must make their
way to it after death. They have thus adopted the
fashion of carrying corpses on mules to the aforesaid
city by way of avoiding the trouble of a post-mortem
navigation, to the great annoyance of travellers
possessing olfactory nerves.
"We proceeded at 9 A.M., reached Hilla, and put
up at a Jew's house, who gave us very good
quarters.
" 26th March.
" Having hired fresh horses, we started for Bes-fel
Nimrod by interpretation the 'Tower of Babel.'
Reached it after two hours' cantering. It is a curious-
looking heap of old burnt bricks, part of the fabric
still standing. We got nearly to the top of it, and
I thought we were much nearer heaven on the
summit of the Pyramids. Having picked up some
bricks, we cantered back after dinner. Then Tom
and I rode all night, and got into the city of the
Caliphs at 8 A.M. of the 27th."
CHAPTER VIII
Praesentiorem et conspicimus Deum
Per invias rupes, fera per juga,
Clivosque praeruptos. . . . GRAY.
Our God to us yet nearer is
On trackless rocks, 'mid mountains wild,
On brink of yawning precipice.
HERE occurs a break in the diary until
"2$d April.
" Leaving Bagdad we joined a party of Russians,
and got on our way. Found it dreadfully hot. About
two hours after dark we reached a middling -sized
town.
"25/ft April.
" Off at 9 A.M. By 3 P.M. the thermometer marked
120 F. in the tents, and when bathing the water was
above blood-heat.
" 26th April.
" Started with party of Russians about 2 A.M. to a
steep mountain pass of about four hours. The road
was dreadful, the scenery picturesque. Arrived at the
caravanserai at 9 A.M. (the others of the party came
in about n A.M.), and rested the remainder of the day.
"2ith April.
" Off at 5 A.M. Crossed another pass, not so bad
as the former. Breakfasted at a small village, and
74 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
halted about two hours ; then started for Kazeroum at
sunset.
u t%th April.
"The Russian colonel and Wood started early for
the ruins of Shaipoor, while Tom and I, wishing to
spare ourselves and our horses, proceeded quietly to
Kazeroum.
"zgth April.
" Left Kazeroum about 2 P.M., and got into a very
pretty station at the source of a river, in time to pitch
our tent before dark. Rode over to an Arab encamp-
ment, where I bought a nice little mare for fourteen
tomaums. Crossed what is called the ' Old Woman's
Pass ' reckoned one of the most dangerous in Persia.
It is of an immense height. From one of the highest
ridges the Bay of Bushire can be seen, although three
days' journey distant. The road was dreadful in the
ascent the side of the mountain almost perpendicular,
and the horses having no footing, except small holes
cut in the slippery and perfectly glazed slabs of rock.
My horse, 'Jack,' carried me over with only two
falls more than any of the horses which were led, with
nothing on their backs, could boast of."
[It was doubtless about this stage, of the journey
that he had the terrible experience recorded fourteen
years afterwards in The Cruise of the Eva, from
which I transcribe the following account of it :
" I remember once going through the very agonies
of death. ... It was in Persia, in the year 1850, on
the march from Bushire to Shiraz, where the track
for I cannot call it a road leads over one of the
grandest mountain passes it has ever been my lot to
viii "PRAESENTIOR DEUS /" 75
cross. I must here correct myself, for I am wrong in
calling it a mountain pass ; the country lies in plateaux,
rising, as you go inland, like the Ghauts in the Deccan.
When you start from Bushire, you march along an
extensive level plain, towards what appears to be a
blue line of hills on the horizon ; as the distance
decreases, the softness of the outline disappears, and
the blue line assumes its true shape. When you get
under it, a perpendicular wall of almost polished rock
towers over your head, bounding the lower plain
on which you are, as far as the eye can reach, with
apparently an insurmountable barrier ; the path leads
on along the base, till a dark cleft or fissure in the wall
of stone, too narrow to be dignified with the name of
valley, opens to your view. Into this the path leads,
and here this wonderful ascent commenced.
" Hewn, or worn out of the solid rock, is a narrow
causeway barely wide enough for a laden mule, with
holes worn into regular steps, like a cow-track in soft
ground, by the feet of thousands of beasts of burden
that have trodden it from ages past, and leads you, at
no very gentle gradient, up the side of this ravine. A
sheer perpendicular wall of rock above, high enough
almost to shut out the sight of day ; a sheer per-
pendicular precipice of rock below, losing itself in the
shades of a dark and terrible abyss, and no parapet to
save you from the effects of a single false step.
"Although it is fourteen years ago, I remember it
now as vividly as if it was but yesterday. I was just
rallying after a fourteen months' bout of jungle and
intermittent fever those who have suffered similarly
will understand better than I can describe the state of
one's nerves after such training. I was as weak as a
cat; my strength artificial, derived from the daily
76 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
dose of sixteen grains of quinine. With a splitting
head, I was glad to be let go through the daily march
in the middle of the caravan, with my horse's head
tied to one of the baggage mules. Luckily for myself,
I had heard before of this horrid ravine, and deter-
mined to take the management of my own beast to
myself. We were getting tolerably high up, when a
halt occurred, occasioned by one of our number losing
his head, as it is called by-the-bye he had never had
either fever or quinine to upset his nerves ! However,
he declared his inability to proceed : his firm convic-
tion was that he should throw himself over the brink.
I have heard of giddy nervousness assuming this form,
the sufferer being seized with an irresistible longing
to rush upon the very fate he quails at. He was
taken off his horse, and had to be supported during
the remainder of the ascent by a muleteer on each
side. The mule in front of me was laden with two deal
boxes, which contained our canteen effects, and although
not heavy, were rather a clumsy load, as the boxes
were three or four inches wider than was customary.
" I do not quite know how it happened, but going
round a projecting angle of the hill, the poor animal
stumbled and struck the corner of the box against the
rock ; the shock staggered him, and I fancy I can see
the unfortunate beast now, and hear his cry of agony
as he fell over the brink, the echo of the crash at the
bottom being the last we ever heard of him or his
load! It lasted but a minute, but in a second you
may live an age ; it would have been a relief to screech
were it not for very shame ; but the rear part of the
caravan pressed on behind, and on I went, filling up
the gap in our ranks, to make way for those that
followed."]
vin ARRIVAL AT SHIRAZ 77
" Our road lay for the next hour or two through a
beautiful valley covered with fine oaks. Had a long
chase after a wild goat and at length caught him he
having got his horns jammed between two rocks. He
was of immense size and must have been the patriarch
of the flock.
"After crossing the valley, we began to ascend
once more. When we had got about half-way up the
second ascent, we reached a caravanserai, where we
stopped a few hours to breakfast and rest the mules
and horses. Started again at 3 P.M. Completed the
ascent and descent, and, riding across a level plain,
arrived at the station by 9 P.M., when, taking a hasty
dinner, we turned into the only lodging we could get.
"May Day,
" Offearly. Met numbers of nomad tribes changing
their winter quarters. Encamped by the side of a
river. Arrived at Shiraz at twelve noon. Were
received by Hadji Gowam the acting Governor, who
let us have a fine house and a beautiful garden. He
also placed a company of soldiers at our disposal. The
news of the surrender of Meshed had just reached the
town, to testify their joy at which the bazaars were
illuminated and numerous fetes came off.
3 </ May.
" Spent in receiving visits a species of entertain-
ment I cordially detest, especially when the visitors
are Persians. Their compliments and never-ending
lies are enough to disgust any man who claims common
sense.
" 4/7* May.
" Rode out in the morning to see the Palaces,
Gardens, and Tombs of Sadi and Hafiz. We reached
78 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
Shiraz at the best time to see it, when all its roses
about which Persians rave were in full blow. The
gardens certainly were beautiful at least, compared
with the surrounding desert.
" $tA May.
11 Passed in making purchases of the Shiraz pro-
ductions, such as enamelled boxes, etc.
" 6th May.
" Intended to have started, but our new tent being
still unfinished, and the Russian colonel not having
concluded his arrangements till the next day, we packed
up our purchases and sent them to Bushire.
" ith May.
" Rode five hours to a good-sized village, and put
up at the caravanserai. I had often heard of the
plague of locusts, but never believed they could do
such mischief till now, when I saw the ground abso-
lutely black with them. The whole country for miles
had been sown with corn, not a single blade of which
was left ; even the straw was eaten level with the
ground. The sheikh of the district predicted a famine,
as that was the part of the country on which Shiraz
chiefly depended for its supply of corn.
" The Russians arriving late, breakfast and dinner
were turned into one. Had a touch of fever.
" %th May.
" Off early. The road led through a marsh. Saw
lots of game, and killed some teal in spite of a terrible
headache. Arrived at Takht-el-Yamsheed, or Perse-
polis, by noon. Set about exploring the ruins, which
were certainly the best worth seeing after Baalbec that
I had ever come across.
TOMB OF DARIUS 79
" loth May.
" Started at sunrise some of the party taking a
circuit to see the tomb of Darius, while Tom and I
proceeded quietly on our march for four hours. Jack's
back being sore, rode the mare.
" Off before sunrise. Bad mountain pass. Found
the mare safer than I expected.
" 1 2th May.
" The whole party myself excepted started to
see where Solomon's mother was buried. As for
myself, having an attack of fever, I was very glad to
get a day of rest.
" 13/7* May.
" Eleven hours' march brought us to a village near
Persepolis.
" 14/7* May.
" Parted with the Russians. Saw Darius's tomb on
the march. After eight hours reached the station, and
pitched our tents in the gardens which surrounded it.
" 15/7* May.
" Off before sunrise. Rode four hours through a
fine mountain pass to a small village in the heart of the
mountain, where, there being no room to pitch our
tents, we got into the surrounding gardens.
" 1.6th May.
" Sunrise found us on the road. Joined by a troop
of cavalry, going to meet the Prince- Governor of
Shiraz, who was coming from Ispahan to assume the
reins of office. The captain of this respectable troop,
8o ARTHUR MACMURROUGIf KAVANAGH CHAP.
a very civil fellow, showed us some hawking. The
road was very bad. After three and a half hours' ride,
reached the plain where we encamped. Rain all day
and night, making everything wet.
" i ith May.
" Off early. Found all the villages deserted. The
inhabitants, having heard of the Prince's approach with
his troops, had fled into the mountains to avoid being
plundered. Encountered a tremendous hail -storm.
On arriving at the station we found there the son of
Klaku, one of the Bactrian chiefs, also going to meet
the Prince. In the evening he came down to our tents
by way of returning Tom's visit ; but, I believe, only
to get some wine, for which, unlike a Mussulman, he
had a great predilection. I feigned sleep to prevent
being bothered, and, in feigning it, it came over me, so
that I did not awake until every one had turned in,
thus missing my dinner, of which I was very far from
glad, as I had had only a crust of bread for breakfast.
" i&tt May.
" Started before sunrise the Khan starting at the
same time. Tom and Wood went on with him, while
I remained behind with the caravan. It rained a good
deal during the day. Arrived at the station an hour
before sunset Tom and Wood nowhere to be found.
Sent the muleteer to look for them, halted the caravan,
and pitched the tents. About an hour after a man
rode in, bringing a note from Wood, saying that the
Khan had invited them to dine and spend the evening
with him, and they wished me to proceed there with
the caravan immediately a distance of about two
hours. I wrote back that the tents were pitched and
vin THE- KHAN'S DOG 81
dinner ready, and that if they intended to dine or sleep
in their own camp that evening, they had better return
as soon as possible, as I did not mean to strike the
camp that night. In the course of the evening they
returned. The Khan arrived about 7 P.M. on the 2oth.
" 2Qth May.
" As we passed the Khan's camp, one of his ser-
vants came out and seized a dog I had bought the day
before from one of his own men. He insisted that the
dog was his, and I of course refused to give him up, as
I had bought him. We both got furious, and I ended
the matter by applying to the Khan, who declared
that the dog was his, and that the man who sold him
had no right to do so. He insisted, however, on my
taking him as a present, at the same time returning
the money I had paid for him.
"Had two runs after gazelles. Rode nine hours
into the Ezd Khouran an extraordinary village built
on the bank of a deep river.
" z ist May.
" Rode four hours into a fine caravanserai.
" 2 2d May.
"A dreadfully hot ride of six hours, into Koo-
misheh a good-sized town, but bad quarters. Hadji
Gowam's son, with all his train, overtook us on the
road, on his way to meet the Prince.
" 2$d May.
"Off before sunrise, and after four hours' ride
arrived at a large caravanserai, where we found the
Prince-Governor, Ferouz Mirza, encamped. He had
just arrived from Ispahan. He travelled in a small
82 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.VIII
caleche, of which an English farmer would be ashamed,
surrounded by a lot of retainers on horseback, who
made dust enough to smother an ordinary man ; but,
as 'pride feels no pain,' His Highness endured it.
Stopped there till after dinner, then started and arrived
at Ispahan by 7 A.M. of the 24th."
CHAPTER IX
Trape/jLTTiTTTfi yap TLS opeivrj rpa^la KCU aTroro^os /JLera^v TWV
Kal T^S TLfpcriSos, o"Tva e^owa SixnrdpoSa Kal a.vQ pwirovs Xycrrd'S.
STRABO, c. 728.
For it is a mountain country, rugged and precipitous, that lies
between the Susii and Persia, abounding in passes difficult to thread and
in men who are robbers.
" 24/7* May.
" THE first sight of Ispahan was extremely beautiful.
Met by Joseph, whom we had sent on, after a letter
from the agent, to get us a house in Haifa. Got fair
enough accommodation. The agent and his son were
Armenians, who had been educated in Bombay.
" 26th May.
" Had a severe attack of fever, which lasted on and
off till the 1 2th of June.
"A few days after getting better, went out on a
shooting expedition for change of air. Killed nothing,
and being obliged to sleep out, brought on another
attack of fever, till a few days before we started.
" 24/7^ June.
" Having found mules, and getting ready our large
tent, we started, bringing our friend Glen with us as
our guest. I never left any place with such delight as
Ispahan. Except going out once coursing, and once
84 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
to see a celebrated ' shaking tower ' and a mosque, I
spent my time in bed with fever, or lolling about the
house too ill to do anything. Left at sunset and rode
five hours into Kejjufabad. Put up at a very fine
house splendid gardens all round the town.
" 26th June.
" Started two hours before sunrise. Arrived, at
Teheran by 9 A.M. Could get no house, so put up
under a tree in the town.
" Off three hours before daylight. Pitched tent
near Askaran. Very hot.
" Off early. Saw lots of small buzzards, and killed
about six brace. Stopped at a small village for break-
fast, and during the heat of the day. Started again
at 4 P.M. Arrived at Dumbeneh by 9 P.M. Cold. I
slept on the roof, the house being too thickly inhabited
by vermin.
" zgthjune.
" Got into Chonsar by i P.M. A very pretty town
surrounded by gardens. Put up in a caravanserai.
" Started at sunrise. Rode two hours through the
gardens, and four more into Gookayou. Put up in a
fine house.
" istjuly.
" Started in the middle of the night. Rode six
hours into a good-sized town, and six hours farther
into a small village a pretty place for encamping.
Slight attack of fever.
ix DOWN AGAIN WITH FEVER 85
" 2djuly.
4 ' Long and hot ride through a village, where we
put up in a house of refuge for criminals. Left very
ill.
" Four hours' ride into Burudshird, where we got
a very nice house in a garden outside the town. Im-
mediately on arriving had a bad attack of fever, which
lasted several days. Being tired of getting fevers, I
proposed going home by Tabriz, at which Wood was
very indignant.
" Off early. Got to the encampment after eight
hours. Dreadfully hot ride. Were visited by two
sheikhs whose property had been confiscated by Sulei-
man Khan for robbery. They asked us to speak a
good word for them, and treated us very civilly. Hav-
ing sent the caravan on (only keeping our own beasts),
we were surprised at seeing it before us after only two
hours' ride. Arrived at Haroumabad by mid -day.
Dreadfully hot. Pitched in a garden. Had a row
with the muleteers, who refused to take us on to the
Commissioner's encampment according to their agree-
ment. This delayed us, naturally.
" Having got mules, we started after sunset, and
rode six hours to the foot of the hills. During our
stay, the son of Suleiman Khan, the Governor of the
town, and Mirza, the Prince-Governor, behaved very
civilly to us, giving us a company of soldiers to protect
us from thieves, for which the town was notorious.
However, they were not of much use, for during the
86 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
night a saddle-bag was stolen from under Wood's
head, without awakening him. A fellow also put his
hand under my pillow, but not being so heavy a sleeper,
I awoke and was about to give him the benefit of a
pistol-ball, when, hearing me move, he got away. As
I was sleeping under mosquito-nets, I could not see
where he went, or I should have fired after him.
" igthjuly.
"Off early. Rode five hours to a very pretty
encamping-place, in a small valley at the junction
of two rivers. The scenery through which the road
passed was beautiful. On the road two of the mules
strayed one laden with our big tent and another with
some of Wood's luggage. We immediately sent back
to look for them, and they were found about midway
from the last stage some half-mile from the road.
Killed several red-legged partridge and woodquests.
11 2oth July.
" Off early. Rode four hours into Nazar-el-Khan.
Instead of pitching tents, spread our beds under a fine
oak. Lots of scorpions, devil's coach -horses, large
spiders, and all sorts of disagreeable beetles.
" 2 1 st July.
"Started at sunrise across a bad mountain pass.
Sunrise splendid. Stopped to breakfast at 9 A.M., and
it being dreadfully hot remained till 3 P.M., then started
again. Lost our way. Wandering about till near
midnight, when we found the luggage mules. To
comfort us, we heard they also had lost their way;
neither muleteers nor guides could tell where we were.
Very little water and less dinner.
ix HILLSIDE ON FIRE
" 22d July.
"Stopped till 10 A.M., when the guide whom we
had sent on to reconnoitre brought back word that
they had found the road. Loaded and started, and
wandered about the greater part of the day, missing
our way every hour. At length about 3 P.M. we
reached Kurki, a small village in a deep valley. Com-
ing down the hill, Tom and I discovered a well of
clear water in the shade. Stopped there two hours
and bathed. Started again, but found it almost im-
possible to join the luggage, the inhabitants having
set fire to the dry grass, and before we could get
through, the whole hillside was in a blaze. However,
we had nothing for it but to push our horses as hard
as they could go, for the flames were closing in all
round, and the large dry oaks had already caught fire
over our heads. The heat was suffocating. The
poor animals, frightened to death, were frantic, and
dashed madly on, rushing through the blazing thickets,
for we could not see the path. At length unexpectedly
we came on a river, plunged in, and, having got across,
put up to rest the almost exhausted animals. Had a
look at the scene of conflagration. The thermometer
152 F.
" 2 $d July.
" Tom and I started three hours before sunrise
with a guide to make our way by a short cut to
Monghea, instead of going two days round with the
luggage. We were told that we could get there in
four hours, but that the road was too bad for any
beasts of burden. After going along the valley for
two hours, where the road was certainly bad enough,
we arrived at a sort of cleft or opening between two
mountains, through which a stream flowed.
88 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
"Up this we began to toil. It certainly was the
most dreadful piece of work I ever went through.
Most of the road was a series of stairs, or rather
natural projections of solid bare rock, over five or six
feet in height, up which the horses had to jump, with-
out anything to prevent them, if their feet slipped,
from rolling into the valley beneath. Sometimes the
path ran along the bottom of a ledge of rock higher
than one's head, the track being sometimes not wider
than half a foot, and sometimes where the stones were
broken away the horses had to step from stone to
stone, like crossing a ford on stepping-stones, the
precipice beneath ending in a river.
" Occasionally we came to places where, I think,
a wild goat himself would have felt ill at ease. Not-
withstanding, ' Jack ' walked on as unconcernedly as if
he were traversing a level plain.
" Tom was nearly going headlong, horse and all,
over the precipice. His horse, being frightened, made
a mistake, and in trying to recover himself one of his
forefeet went over the side.
"About 9 A.M., having performed half the ascent,
we stopped for breakfast under the shade of a large
walnut-tree.
" Starting again in about half an hour, we commenced
the second ascent, which was a good deal steeper than
the first, but the soil being soft the horses had better
footing. About 2 P.M. we sighted the camp, pitched
on the high ridge of the opposite mountain, and
with about four hours' tremendous descent ultimately
reached it.
" Mirza Jaffa Khan's camp was pitched nearest the
top, the Russians next to him, and the English on
another ridge lower down, and about four hundred
ix A GROUP OF CAMPS 89
yards distant, separated by a rather deep valley,
through which lay the dry course of a river. All
round the Russian and Persian camps the wild pome-
granate grew in great abundance, and the side of the
valley which separated the English from the other
camp was covered with thick groves of myrtle. The
English tents, being lower down, lay in a regular forest
of fine oaks.
" Behind all the camps rose a precipitous wall of
barren, scraggy rocks of a grayish- white colour, shut-
ing us in on the N.N.W. and N.E., while the prospect
to the south commanded a wide irregular valley until
close to the mountains over Dizful. When' we arrived
we stopped at the Russian camp, as the road came in
that way. They made us promise to live with them
until our caravan should arrive. Before dinner we
went down to see Colonel Williams [afterwards of
Kars] and his party. Found all well except Wood,
who was dangerously ill from an inflammatory sore
throat, caught from bathing while too hot.
"About noon the luggage arrived, and I went
down to choose a place for our encampment. Fixed
on one about three hundred yards to the east of
Colonel Williams's camp, beside a small tank of water.
Dined with Colonel Williams.
" Employed in pitching our large tent and un-
packing, and on the following days in arranging for
kitchen, stables, etc. Altogether we had a shed of
about seventy feet in length and twenty-eight broad,
built along the side of a ridge, so that, looking over,
one could see the valley some hundreds of feet below.
90 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
The kitchen occupied one end of the shed, the hen-
house and servants' dormitories joined it, the pantry
and store-box apartment next, then came our sitting-
room and dining-room all in one. The whole affair
was built of the branches and leaves of the oak trees,
all the sides being left open to give us the benefit of
any air that might be stirring, except the eastern side,
which I closed with the curtain of our small tent, to
keep the morning sun off my bed. Tom and Wood
slept in the large tent, which was pitched on a terrace
about ten yards distant. The stable was built on the
same terrace as the tent, close to the kitchen.
" About a week after our arrival, when we had got
well settled, we sent John to Dizful to buy such things
as we could not procure from the camps, such as
candles, spices for curry, flour, sugar, coffee, etc. He
returned in about a week, and got an attack of fever,
the fright of which did him more harm than the illness
itself.
" \Qth August.
"Had a slight attack of fever myself for a few
days. The accounts of Wood were sometimes better,
and other times worse. Heat tremendous. Just
before sunrise, the coolest part of the day, the ther-
mometer was 95 F. Found the natives, of whom we
had heard very bad accounts, very civil, well mannered,
and far less given to lying than their neighbours the
Persians. When first we arrived we found it rather diffi-
cult to get provisions from them, but afterwards, when
they saw that we paid for what we got, they supplied
us regularly with grapes, figs, milk, masta-curds, cheese,
sheep, barley, beans, and now and then a wild goat.
Eggs, rice, and chickens were very scarce, and we were
obliged to send to Dizful whenever we wanted any.
ix "A HELL UPON EARTH" 91
"As far as I could make out, our numbers alto-
gether reckoning all the troops, soldiers, etc. did not
fall short of two hundred and twenty souls, besides two
hundred and forty mules and horses, so that, consider-
ing the sort of country we were encamped in, we could
hardly be surprised if, towards the end of our sojourn,
provisions particularly barley became both scarce
and dear. It certainly was the most miserably stupid
summer I ever spent.
"The Russian camp being about half a mile off,
and the road leading to it being too steep to travel,
except before sunrise or after sunset, we saw rather
little of them, and Wood being so ill in the English
camp, we saw nothing of them either. The doctor,
who came down nearly every day to play whist with
Tom, sometimes dined with us. In the early part of
Wood's illness I used to go every day and play chess
with him an amusement he seemed very fond of.
However, it was soon declared to be too exciting for
him in his weak state, so it was given up.
" Having read all our books, there was nothing for
us to do but to smoke and try to sleep, which the flies
by day and the mosquitoes by night made rather diffi-
cult. It certainly was a hell upon earth. The heat
and glare reflected from the rock-salt round sometimes
nearly roasted us alive. The only breeze we ever got
was from the south, which, as the rocks above sheltered
us from the north-west and east, came thoroughly
heated from the Dizful and Shuster deserts. The
valley was famous for its breed of scorpions and
snakes. One of the Khan's servants, while bathing,
was bitten by a snake, and died in two hours. Scor-
pions were innumerable. We found two large ones
devouring one another in Tom's bed, both of which I
92 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
deposited in a bottle of spirits for future exhibition.
All the servants were more or less bitten. We also
saw lots of immense spiders, said to be more poisonous
than scorpions, ' Lutinis ' 1 by name. We killed two
larger than a full-grown mouse, and another smaller
one on Tom's coat, which I preserved as a specimen.
" Thus flowed on our lives, with no difference or
manner of change Wood still continuing in the same
doubtful state, until the 8th September, when, he being
reported nearly out of danger, the Russians struck
their camp. We were sorry to lose them. The
colonel was a very nice fellow, a Russian who com-
bined polish and sincerity.
" i6M September.
11 All the large tents struck. Colonel Williams
told us that he had changed his plans, and instead of
going to Susa as he intended, had decided on starting
for Ispahan. We were sorry for this alteration, as it
prevented us from seeing Susa, where we expected
good sport. We therefore resolved to accompany him
as far as Kirmanshah, thence striking off to Bagdad.
The colonel and all his party dined with us. He
engaged our little Indian cook and gave us his head
cook, an Armenian, in exchange, at the same time tell-
ing us that we must join his table as long as we should
remain with him a proposal we were too glad to
accept, being heartily tired of our tte-a-tete meals.
" 1 ith September.
" Spent in making arrangements for starting, viz.
selling all our useless traps. The Colonel took our
large tent and the Khan our tables and chairs.
1 Probably a local term.
PLAlT A DIEU" 93
" i8M September.
" Post arrived from Bagdad, bringing us a budget
of home letters.
" i gth-2 2d September.
" Employed in devising means for the conveyance
of our servants and luggage to Haroumabad, as we
heard that mules were not to be had for love or money
at Dizful ; so we sent round to all the neighbouring
encampments to hire bullocks and men.
" 2$d September.
" Hearing that a lot of mules had come for the
Khan, I sent up to his camp to try if I could persuade
him to let us have some. He good-naturedly gave us
eight, which saved us a lot of trouble.
" 2$th September.
" Up at 3 A.M. Got our caravan under way about
six, and arrived at Scoderere by 10 A.M. The road
was pretty fair. One of the Colonel's mules fell over
a precipice and was killed. The young Khan joined
us at breakfast, which we discussed in a cave. In the
evening we had some fishing in the tanks, which are
very large, and said to be of ancient date.
"25/1* September.
" Off at 5 A.M. Went through a beautiful pass.
Road very dangerous. One mule killed and several
severely injured. Arrived at Goolam by 11.30 A.M.
Very hot; thermometer 125 F. in the tents. The
Khan dined with us, as he was going next day to Diz-
ful. He was rather a nice young fellow, and spoke
French after a sort. The Colonel christened him
' Plait a Dieu,' from a propensity he had to use that
phrase.
94 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
" 26//J September.
"Off at 3 A.M. Arrived at our station by half-past
ten. Encamped by the side of a nice river. Very
hot. Fished in the evening, but caught nothing.
" 2>jth September.
" Started at 4 A.M. Got at twelve noon to a very
pretty encampment on the Haroumabad river. Dis-
covered an antique balcony cut out of the solid rock,
about ten feet from the ground. Made our beds
there, and slept till sundown, when we had a bath in
the river.
" 28/7* September.
" Off at 4.30 A.M. Marched to 10 A.M., then halted
at the top of a high mountain pass for the mules to
arrive, but discovered that we had outmarched our
station by about two hours. Breakfasted, and then
marched till 3.30 P.M., when we got into a very dirty
station, with only salt-water springs.
" 29/7* September.
" Got to Nazr-el-Khan.
" 30//& September.
" Encamped in a pretty small valley at the junction
of two streams.
"3irf September.
" The road was steep but very pretty, something
like travelling through an English park. Encamped
on a small hill in sight of Haroumabad.
" ist October.
"Off at 6.30 A.M. Dressed in full fig. Met
Golumjeer, elder brother of ' Plait a Dieu,' with a
crowd of horsemen outside the town. They went
ix THE PLAIN OF ALESHTAN 95
through the jereed exercise for our entertainment.
Some of them did it very well. At length we arrived,
thoroughly dusty and tired. We were very well
lodged in the Prince-Governor's house, a very fine
place with a large garden and an immense tank of
water. We got lots of the finest grapes and melons
we ever tasted, besides apples, pears, pomegranates,
quinces, etc., in the greatest abundance.
" 2d October.
" We went to the bath, escorted by a regiment of
soldiers to protect us from the mob.
" 3</ October.
" Hired mules and donkeys to carry us to Kirman-
shah.
" 4th October.
" Off at 9 A.M., and on
" $th October
" Arrived at the encampment, which was pitched
in the plain of Aleshtan, celebrated in Persian records
for the number of fine horses and mules bred by the
inhabitants. We were therefore surprised that during
a ride of two hours, to the place of our encampment,
we saw only a few wretched-looking horses and young
mules, half -starved from having lost their mothers
before they were able to cater for themselves. Accord-
ingly the Colonel sent for the Khan of the district to
solve the riddle, who said
" In the former spring the Government had sent
their tax-gatherers to collect the taxes, but owing to a
scarcity which prevailed, their corn having suffered a
severe blight, they not only refused, but plundered the
tax-gatherers. The Government, for a wonder, taking
the upper hand (for the tribe is a powerful one), sent a
96 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
lot of soldiers to punish their audacity by driving off
all the animals that were worth having, to the number
of ten thousand mules and eight thousand fine mares
and horses. The people, naturally enraged at this,
were then in open rebellion against the Government,
and instead of the Colonel being able to increase his
stock, he was afraid that the people would try in a
measure to pay themselves out of our caravan for the
loss they had sustained by carrying off all our beasts
to the number of eighty head. He added, moreover,
by way of comfort, that it would be no loss to us, as
the Government would easily make it up by giving us
an equal number of the beasts which they had carried
off from the people, and that, as theirs were much finer
than those they proposed to take from us, we should
on the whole profit by the exchange. However, as we
were blind enough not to perceive the great advantages
which were to accrue to us in case of such an event
happening, and not relishing to remain there until the
Persian Government should send us the means to
move, we told him as much and parted he promising
to do his best to protect us.
"Accordingly, about two hours after, eight ragged-
looking cut-throats came down armed with matchlocks,
and along with them a donkey -load of melons, as a
present from the Khan, Caring little for the threat-
ened danger, and seeing that the guards did not run
away or hide, which they would have done had there
been any chance of an attack, we turned in at 3. 30 A.M.
of the 6th, and found everything right.
" 6th October.
" Off at 5.30 A.M. Got in at twelve midnight.
Found next morning that clever thieves had been at
ix PLA YING THE JEREED 97
work, getting into the cook's tent without awakening
anybody, and had stolen nearly all our kitchen-
furniture.
" ith October.
"Off at sunrise. Got in, half an hour before sun-
set, having hunted all the country for AH Khan, with
whom we were to encamp, but without success. We
were met on the road by different chiefs, with lots
of horsemen, who escorted us through their different
districts.
" 8M October.
" Ali Khan arrived in the morning from his camp
three hours off. Starting after breakfast, he escorted
us a good way, his followers of whom he had about
fifty playing the jereed and going through a sham
fight. Arrived at mid-day at a good-sized village with
beautiful gardens, where we had a great feed of fruit.
Reached our station at sunset.
" gth October.
" Under way by sunrise. The Colonel and his
party went straight to Kirmanshah Tom and I mak-
ing a detour to see Bezitoun and Taki Boustan. The
latter place was well worth seeing a curious arch cut
out of the solid rock, from under which flowed a large
stream of cool clear water. The former did not strike
me as at all worth the trouble of the ride. It is merely
an inscription cut in the face of the rock about eleven
hundred feet from the ground.
" Rode into Kirmanshah about 5 P.M., and were
lodged in one of the Governor's palaces a fine roomy
house with an immense garden, where we remained
till the 1 3th, when we started alone for Bagdad.
H
98 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
"We were very sorry to leave the Colonel and his
party, from all of whom we had received the greatest
kindness. Indeed, Colonel Williams himself treated
me more like a father than a mere friend. After four
hours' scorching ride, we arrived at a dirty caravanserai,
where we put up.
" 14/7; October.
" Off at 5 A.M. the muleteer making a grievous
complaint about our killing his beasts by travelling in
the heat of the day. Marched six hours into Haroum-
abad, where, the caravanserai being full, we had to
put up at a mud cottage beastly dirty quarters.
" i$t/i October.
"Started at 2 A.M. Rode seven hours into Kirind.
Good quarters.
"i6th October.
" Off at daybreak. Rode four hours into Meuntaz
very bad quarters. In the evening went to see the
gipsies. Some of the girls were very pretty.
" i8M October.
" Marched into Kasiri - Shireen. Visited and
bothered by the commander of the troops on the
frontier. However, he gave us fifty men to escort us.
"igtA October.
" Started at 2 A.M. Marched into Hairiki by eight.
Put up at the Consul's house. The Consul and all
the inhabitants were in great trouble about the Kourds
who were robbing the villages about. Visited the
Pacha, who asked us to let him take advantage of our
escort to send his despatches to the Governor of
ix "AT THE MERCY OF OUR ESCORT" 99
Bagdad, which, of course, we agreed to, and started
our caravan in the night.
"igth October.
" Owing to the Pacha's things not being ready, we
were delayed until the evening. Rain during the day.
About 4 P.M. we started. The Pacha accompanied us
about five miles, and then, with many apologies for not
coming farther, he left us to the mercy of our escprt,
which consisted of about fifty Arabs, all mounted."
CHAPTER X
QdXaTra, 6a.Xa.TTa.. XEN. Anab. iv. 8.
The sea, the sea 1
Thy towers, Bombay, gleam bright, they say,
Across the dark blue sea. BISHOP HEBER.
HERE the diary breaks off somewhat abruptly. The
travellers continued their journey apparently with
little that is noteworthy, until on the 23d December of
the same year it is thus resumed :
" Left Bushire. Weighed anchor at 7 A.M. After
leaving the roads, set the square canvas. Light breeze
from north-west. Light swell, in which the vessel
250 tons rolled tremendously. She seemed as if she
were built entirely for that sort of amusement, having
rather little breadth of beam in proportion to her
length. She was schooner -rigged after a fashion.
Half of the after-cabin was portioned off as a harem
for the female Persian passengers.
" The Captain did maitre d? hotel, making a very
generous arrangement with us more so, indeed, than
we liked ; but as he was rather given to taking offence,
we had to consent. His cuisine, however, was far
from the best. At two bells in the forenoon, break-
fast was to be seen spread in filthy disorder on the
table in our dormitory. In the main cabin at eight
ISLAND OF ORMUZ
bells, tiffin and grog were served. Either there or on
deck, at eight bells of the afternoon watch, the repast
called dinner made its appearance. Heaven help the
epicure, or the delicate jaws of any fair lady, who
should have to choose between starvation or masticat-
ing the patriarchal cocks on board the Sir Charles
Forbes! Last, though not least, at 8 P.M. the joyful
sound of ' pipe to grog ' resounded through the ship,
after which we had a smoke, and then stowed our-
selves away in our respective berths for the night.
" 2 ^th December.
" Smooth water. No wind. Very strong current
setting up the gulf. Making only two and a half
knots an hour.
"25^ December.
" Passed Bassadore. Saw the Constance and Tigris
lying in the roads. Double allowance of grog to dis-
tinguish Christmas Day.
" 26th December.
"At 2 A.M. let go the anchor at Bunder- Abbas
a curious -looking town, under the government of the
Imaum. A lot of natives, half Persians and Arabs,
came on board to inspect the wonders of the steamer.
Got under way at 2 P.M. Passed the island of Ormuz
before sunset, about which Moore has written such a
false description, as he has of all Persia. The remains
of the town and fort were barely visible, and all that
could be seen of the island was a series of concave
mounds, composed of divers coloured sands or soil,
which looked more like the production of some sub-
marine volcanic eruption than the lovely and flourishing
island described in Lalla Rookh. A slight breeze from
the south-east.
102 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
27 th December.
" Breeze increased to a gale. The vessel barely
making headway. Heavy sea rolling her paddle-boxes
under. At noon eased away two points. Got the
stay, trysail, and reefed mainsail close hauled. Four
and a half knots leeway. About 2 P.M. the gale
changed into heavy gusts, coming down with heavy
rain. The first gust blew the staysail into ribbons.
Shortly after, the main - forestay was carried away,
coming against the funnel with a sharp crack. Saw
a waterspout on the starboard quarter. Heavy black
clouds gathering about twenty miles to leeward over
the land.
" About 8 P.M. took in the mainsail, but before it
was well furled down came the squall which had been
gathering in the north-west. It began with torrents
of rain such as one sees only in Eastern climes. Then
came the wind rushing along the water and covering
it with foam. It struck us on the port bow, and, as
the ship heeled over, everything below went adrift
tables and chairs, boxes, portmanteaux, beds off the
locker. Our crock of butter came down with a run,
leaving the floor in a nice state for those who liked
sliding. However, that was washed up by the streams
of rain-water which emptied themselves into the cabin
through the chinks in the skylight. Everything
was noise and confusion until the helm was put
up, and immediately paying off, she righted, and
went along for some minutes in apparently smooth
water. The squall soon settled down into a steady
breeze from the north-west the fairest wind we
could have. Set the foretop and foresails, and made
from seven to seven and a half knots during the
night.
MUSCA T 103
" zWi December.
" Fair breeze ; smooth sea. Arrived at Muscat at
7 P.M. Found two French vessels lying in the bay.
" 2gth December.
" Lay there all day discharging cargo, etc. An
extraordinary-looking place, built at the end of a small
rocky bay upon cliffs of rock. The houses are all
white, and apparently clean, for a wonder, and the
rocks, being of dark reddish brown, give the place
altogether a rather curious appearance. Over the
town, and at each side of the entrance to the bay,
batteries were perched, also built of white stone,
accessible only by steps cut out of the solid rock.
One of them, which was built nearer the water's edge,
resembled on a small scale the Castle of Chillon.
" $ofh December.
" In a dreadful mess all day, taking in coal. An
English vessel arrived just before we sailed at 7 P.M.
Course east by south. Fine night.
"3itf December.
" Beautiful weather. Light breeze from the south-
east. Carried square sails, besides fore-and-aft canvas.
Passed Ras-el-Hadd.
" i st January 1851.
" Light breeze from the south-west. Course east
by south. Six and a half knots an hour.
" zd January.
" Fine weather. Course ditto. Light breeze from
the east. Saw lots of flying, and a shoal of black, fish.
Calm night. Seven knots an hour.
104 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
" $d January.
" Freshening breeze from north-east. Kalliwar
coast eighty miles distant on the weather-bow.
" ^th January.
" Breeze steady from the same point. Saw a shark
and a few sea-snakes. Very heavy dew at night.
" 5^ January.
" Fresh breeze dead ahead until noon, when it
calmed. Put on full power, and the wind coming at
4 P.M. from the south-west and by west, carried fore-
and-aft canvas but all our efforts were in vain to get
in before dark. Reached the outer lightship half an
hour after sunset. Bombay at 8 P.M. About half an
hour after, we were boarded by the Custom House
officers, which reminded us that we were once more
under English government.
" 6th January.
" Up early. Wood started before breakfast to
engage rooms for us at the Hope Hall Hotel. About
10 A.M. started with the luggage for the Custom House.
While there I got into a palki, and went to the post-
office, where I received a budget of letters. Arrived
at the Hope Hall for tiffin, then taking Colaba Point.
" 1th January.
" Got into better rooms. Went out early to leave
letters of introduction. Romaine got a letter from Sir
E. Percy, inviting him to go and live with him, which
he immediately accepted. He returned in the evening,
saying he had been introduced to a Colonel Brooks,
who was about to start in a few days for Lahore, and
that he had joined him, thinking it a good way of
getting to Cashmere.
x PURCHASE OF HORSES 105
" Qth January.
" Decided on accompanying Romaine. Dined with
Sir E. Percy.
" ^th January.
" Hard at work all day getting our outfit.
" i oth January.
"Wood succeeded in getting a horse a large,
strong brute, eight years old, which had been ridden
by a lady, and therefore suited him to a T, for four
hundred rupees. In the evening I concluded for a
four-year-old, cob build, for the same money.
" i \th January.
" Bought a tent for a hundred and sixty rupees, a
pony and buggy for the servants for three hundred,
and a large well-bred charger from Colonel B. for eight
hundred. Wood declaring that he was going to turn
out a great sportsman (Heaven save the mark !), and
must have another horse also, closed for an old horse
for four hundred rupees.
" izth January.
"Went to the dealer's stables before breakfast, and
closed with him for three horses an iron-gray for
Romaine, a bay for Tom, and a light gray for myself,
all of them under four years old, for seventeen hundred
rupees. Tom and Wood went to church, and I went
down to Romaine, who rather astonished me by telling
me he had given up the Cashmere expedition, and was
going to sell his horses and take the steamer for Cal-
cutta immediately, on hearing which I countermanded
the hackeries and gave up the expedition. Dined with
the Commodore. Met Colonel B , Captain Jen-
io6 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
kins, Captain Heatly, Mr. Jones, Colonel Ogilby, etc.
Got home at 4 A.M. of the i3th. Obliged to get out
of my engagement to visit the Caves of Elephanta
with Captain J . Romaine changed his mind
about going to Calcutta, but we remained firm, spite
of all Wood's splendid representations. Romaine
dined with us.
" i^th January.
" Rode down to Romaine to bid him farewell, but
he was gone.
" i$th January.
" Tom and Wood went to a ball at Government
House. As we had got our horses and outfit we de-
termined to make an expedition to Nuggur for sport,
and afterwards to the Caves of Adjunta and Ellora.
Wood made tremendous preparations for killing game,
getting enough bullets moulded to shoot all the tigers
in India, and also getting a boar-spear, his reason for
which I could not make out, as he seemed to find it
difficult enough to sit on his horse without any such
encumbrance.
" 1 6th January.
" Completed our arrangements about servants, of
whom we had a precious lot, viz. butler, second servant,
third ditto, cook and helper, bheestie, and seven ostlers,
besides John and Badal.
" I7//J January.
"Tom and Wood went to a soiree at Sir E.
Percy's.
" \%th January.
"Applied to Sir John Grey for Billy's [his cousin,
William Bookey's] leave, who kindly granted it. Wrote
x START FOR POONAH 107
to him to come down to join us. Went to look at two
terriers, but two hundred rupees was more than I cared
to give.
" igt/i January.
" Dined with the Commodore, and got home about
midnight.
" zoth January.
"Up early. Hard at work getting ready for the
start. Went into town after breakfast to get money.
Called on Sir E. Percy and Mr. Basset. Started
from the Hope Hall Hotel at 5.30 P.M.
" My party consisted of myself, fifteen flunkeys, five
led horses, and six hackeries. All the flunkeys walked
except Badal and the butler, who went in the buggy.
Rode my new horse 'Sir Roger,' who did not at all
like the exchange of his idle comfortable life in the
hotel stables for the fatigues of a marching one.
About an hour after dark crossed the causeway con-
necting the island of Bombay with the mainland, and
shortly after that, the commencement of the Poonah
line of railroad, and then, taking leave of villages,
cottages, and gardens, we marched through the jungle
until half an hour after midnight, when we arrived at
Tannah.
" Put up at the Traveller's Bungalow a species of
hotel built by the East India Company for the accom-
modation of all gentlemen travelling in their dominions,
and as I considered myself one of that number, I took
possession of a fine clean airy room, furnished with
three arm-chairs, a mahogany table, and a bedstead.
Put up the horses in the stable. Stowed my bawarchi
in the cook-house, and filled the enclosure with my
hackeries altogether making myself at home. The
io8 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
carts arrived about 2 P.M. of the 2ist, when, having
seen that the horses were all right, I stowed myself
away, much to my own satisfaction, as I was dread-
fully sleepy.
"Awoke about 8 A.M., and to my joy discovered a
bath-room, and breakfasted at 9 A.M. Dined at 2 P.M.;
very much satisfied with the cook, who fed me like a
fighting-cock. Started at 3.30 P.M., and had an hour's
delay getting the things ferried over an arm of the sea.
Rode 'Sir John Grey,' who was at first very much
inclined to be rebellious.
" The first part of the road was good and the
scenery beautiful, but as soon as ever light deserted
us, we commenced a passage over a lot of sea-bogs, in
which the buggy and its contents disappeared. Two
hackeries also sank as if they were never to rise again,
and were with difficulty hauled out by the natives of
the neighbouring village. As soon as the moon rose
our troubles ceased, and we had a spell of about four
hours through low jungle. On my arrival at Pan well
found the Collector of Tannah in the bungalow, and
with difficulty succeeded in getting a room. Had an
encounter with a tremendous rat, which I killed with
Wood's spear. Reached next stage at 2 A.M. of the
22d, but the hackeries did not come till five hours later.
Saw the serpent-charmers and jugglers. Got the carts
off at a quarter to four in the afternoon, and myself at
a quarter to six. Rode into Chukun at 8 P.M., sending
the hackeries on. Halted there with the horses until
4 P.M. of the 23d, and then marched in three hours
and three quarters into Kappooly.
" Road good, but filled with hackeries carrying
soldiers' baggage. Indifferent bungalow. Had a
lovely ride of about two hours up the Ghauts. The
x ARRIVAL AT POONAH 109
scenery was beautiful. The variegated foliage of the
trees, and the rich plumage of the paroquets, parrots,
and humming-birds, as they flew screaming from tree
to tree, made me realise that I was at length in the
long-looked-for, long-wished-for India.
" On reaching the top ridge a most extensive view
broke on me. I could see plainly over the top of a
smaller range of hills Colaba Point and Bombay
Harbour, and on turning to the right I saw laid out
before me the line of road on which I had been
marching for the last two days.
" Reached Kandala at 5 P.M., a small place beauti-
fully situated, and put up at the bungalow. Hackeries
arrived at 7 P.M. The temperature very perceptibly
cooler.
" z^th January.
" Started at 4 P.M. Road a little hilly afterwards
through large plains of rice and wheat. Marched into
Carly at 6 P.M. and sent hackeries on. Stopped at
Carly with the horses until 4 A.M. on the
" 2 ^th January.
" Passing Nagotna, arrived at Poonah at 7 A.M.
on the
" 26th January.
11 Put up at the Sirza bungalow for breakfast,
sending the butler out to hire one by the day. He
returned in about an hour with word that he had found
a very nice one with stables and lots of room, into
which we moved and found that it in every way veri-
fied Baloo's description. Sent to the post-office to
see if Wood or Tom had kept their promises ' Pie-
crusts ' again ! There not being stabling enough, we
had to pitch our tent for two horses. An unpleasant
I io ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGPI CHAP.
day, cloudy, with hot wind and plenty of dust. The
house infested with mongeese.
" 2 ^th January.
" Having succeeded in hiring an immense unwieldy
machine of a carriage, drove to the loth Hussar mess-
room and left my card for Stopford Blair, and also
called on Captain Studdert of the Bombay engineers.
" 2%th January.
" Got word from the landlord that a certain captain
wanted to take the bungalow, and in more express
terms got ' notice to quit' on or before the 3ist of the
month at which I was mightily enraged, considering
it altogether a very shameful proceeding.
" 30/7^ January.
" Rode to Captain Studdert's to inquire about a
bungalow I had heard of. He was not in. Coming
home, my horse threw me into a prickly-pear bush,
from which I emerged very sore. At breakfast
Captain Studdert appeared, inviting me to go and live
with him until the rest arrived, and gave me another
bungalow for the servants and baggage. I accordingly
went down to him, and found myself very comfortably
established. Met Captains Wells and Cooper.
" 31^ January.
" Up before daylight and rode to the Brigade
parade, where I was introduced to General Armisty,
About 2 P.M. Tom and Billy arrived, and I went up
with them to the bungalow. Dined with Studdert.
Wood arrived at midnight.
" \st February.
" Rode up from Studdert's in the morning and had
A FOX-HUNT
my things moved. We dined at the mess of the ist
Fusiliers.
" 5*// February.
" Bought a fox and had a run with terriers after
Reynard five minutes without a check, and a kill in
the open. Dined with Studdert.
" 6th February.
" Left Poonah at 5 P.M., Wood stopping behind.
Marched five hours and then found we had gone ten
miles wrong. I then got into the buggy, and reached
Lunee by 2 A.M. of the yth, seldom having had such a
fearful shaking. Halted the hackeries. Tom and
Billy arrived at ten, had supper and turned in. In-
tended stopping the day, but hearing there was nothing
but hares to be got, we packed up and started at 4 P.M.
Marched into Kondipory at 9.30 P.M., and got some
rumbled eggs and anchovy toast as an apology for
supper.
" 8M February.
" Started at 5 A.M. Reached Seroor at 9 A.M.
After breakfast, sent our cards to Major Tapp, the
Commander of the Poonah Irregular Horse, asking
him to admit us to his garden, Captain Studdert
having told us not to leave Seroor without seeing it.
His answer was very civil, inviting us to lunch with
him.
" 9//z February.
"Tom not feeling well, Billy and I started and
reached the hunting-ground by daybreak. The jungle
was very thin and we found no game in it. Saw hares,
but, being more ambitious, we let them go their ways
in peace, and leaving the covert we struck through the
cornfields until we reached the side of the mountain,
112 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
up which we toiled, and gained the summit just as the
sun rose. We were disgusted at finding nothing
except a few herds of buffaloes tamely grazing near
their owners' huts. We then determined to separate,
Billy to persecute the hares and partridge, and as I
had only my rifle I continued to search for deer.
' Fortuna favet Jortibus' I descended the other side
of the hill, and, getting into the dry bed of a river, had
not proceeded far when I perceived in a field, where the
Indian corn had been cut, four deer of the black buck
species, about five hundred yards distant, gazing at me.
" I was rather disconcerted when I saw they had
discovered me, but as they did not seem to take it
much to heart I suppose they took me for a native
I advanced towards them without altering my pace,
until I had shortened the distance to about two hun-
dred yards, then away they went and I had to risk a
running shot, which at that distance of course missed.
I fancied that the hindmost one staggered a little after
I fired, but that was all I had to comfort me. Then
loading, I sent the coolies round one side of the hill,
while, in hopes of intercepting their retreat to the
jungle, and getting another shot at them as they
dashed past me, I galloped to the other side, but all
in vain I saw no more of them. Billy had been
equally unsuccessful, so we returned to the bungalow
empty-handed.
" Major Tapp called after breakfast. Tom and
Billy lunched with him. I took a ride in the evening
with the Major and the English of Seroor.
" loth February.
" Wood arrived at 4 A.M., just as we were getting
on our horses for the jungle. Spent the day in ex-
x AN UNCOMFORTABLE NIGHT 113
citing but unsuccessful deerstalking. Paid our adieux
in the evening to the Major and others, and at 8.30 P.M.
Billy and I cantered into Tufa after three hours'
ride, when, having no servants or beds, we were
obliged to throw our coats over our horses, and,
fastening the reins round our waists, did our best to
go to sleep. The ghora-walas arriving about mid-
night, and relieving us of the horses, we divided our
bedstead between us, and slept till 8 A.M. of the nth."
CHAPTER XI
Frater, ave atque vale !
CATULL. ci.
Farewell to thee, Brother, farewell !
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God. ROMANS viii. 28.
" izt/i February.
" STARTED about 6 A.M. and reached Nuggur at 9 A.M.
Breakfasted in the Sirza bungalow, sending the butler
to look for another. We succeeded in getting Mr
Tucker's, by far the finest I had seen.
" i$th February.
" Billy and I went out deerstalking.
" i$th February.
" Ditto and had our joints shaken to pieces for
eight hours, and saw nothing.
" i6tA February.
" Took a ride round the fort in the evening, and
" \1th February
" Went to see some tombs.
"i8/^ February.
" Received deputation from some rich natives.
AURUNGABAD 115
" 2o//z February.
" Left Nuggur at 6 A.M. and arrived at Doggerajan,
or the ' Happy Valley/ at nine. Put up at a Hindoo
temple. The valley was very pretty, shady and cool,
very small, precipitous and deep, but so filled with
different sorts of trees that from the bottom it was
almost impossible to see the sky. Started at 3.45 P.M.
and rode an hour and a half into Imaumpore. Saw a
few deer and some partridge.
" 2\st February.
" Started at 5 P.M. and rode down the Ghauts into
Rushampore. Lost our way.
" zzd February.
" Left at daylight. Rode four and a half hours into
Toka. Saw a large herd of black buck, and at 9 A.M.
Mackenzie and his wife and daughter arrived, and we
were obliged to turn out and make room for them,
"23^ February.
" Started at sunrise, and immediately crossing a large
river, which, however, was nearly dry the boundary
of the Nizam's dominions we cantered into the next
halting-place by 9 A.M. During the day I got a very
good specimen of a kingfisher.
" 2 ^th February.
" Off by daylight, and got into Aurungabad for break-
fast, then went in search of a bungalow, and succeeded
in getting a tolerably respectable one.
" 26th February.
" Went out at daylight to see a review of the Nizam's
Irregular Horse, a very fine body of men, commanded
entirely by English officers. On returning home we
got a message from the native commanding officer ask-
n6 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
ing us to dine at the mess. It was a pleasant dinner,
and a tolerable display of fireworks, manufactured by
the natives, took place afterwards.
" 27/7* February.
"Started alone in a bullock-gharry to look for deer
at about 4 A.M. Just as the sun rose I came in sight
of a herd. Got about two hundred yards from them ;
then, as they began to move off, I fired, and after more
unsuccessful shots returned home disgusted with my
exploits. On reaching the bungalow, found Wood and
Tom had gone out to breakfast. On going into Billy's
room he shouted out " A tiger ! " and then told me we
were to go to a jungle about six miles off, where a
tiger had killed a bullock the evening before, and had
been marked in by the shikarris. '
" Accordingly we started off, joining the three Orrs.
We cantered across the plain, then, passing through a
steep ghaut,, we found the elephants, and proceeded
across a small range of hills, when we came upon a
small steep valley, the sides of which were covered
with thick prickly jungle, where the tiger was said to
be lying. The party was then divided. There being
only two elephants, Tom and Brigadier Twemlow went
on one with Mr. Orr ; Wood, Dr. Orr, and I on
another. The others proceeded on foot, taking up the
position on the top of the hill which best commanded
the jungle.
" The elephants then commenced beating the cover,
the one which I was on going first. After proceeding
for about five minutes in the jungle, we espied the tiger
lying between a large rock and mimosa bush, but before
we could fire he gave a loud ' roo-of,' and dashed away
down the valley, exposing himself to a hot fire from the
hill, and at length took shelter in an almost impenetrable
THE FIRST TIGER 117
jungle of wild prickly-pear bushes. We then turned the
elephants, and descending the hill, posted ourselves
under the bush in which he had taken shelter, while
the coolies on the top of the hill rolled down large
stones into the thicket to try and dislodge him but
all in vain. The only means which then remained of
turning him out was to get one of the elephants up to
the ledge of the hill and drive it through the jungle,
for which service the beast on which I was, being the
stauncher of the two, was chosen. Accordingly we set
off, and making a slight detour we reached the top of
the ledge, and, entering the cover, proceeded for some
minutes without any interruption, when all of a sudden
the elephant halted, and began to trumpet, refusing to
proceed farther.
"After vain endeavours to get him on, we were
obliged to get him up another ridge of the mountain,
on which he proceeded for a minute, then stopping,
began to trumpet again. We knew that we must be
close to the tiger, and, expecting him to charge every
minute, prepared to repel his onset, when, uttering a
loud roar, he charged up the hill to where F. Orr and
Frank Suter were standing ; but receiving two balls,
one through his left fore-leg and the other at the back
of his shoulder, he turned tail and retreated into a
thicket close to where we were. Wood gave him one
barrel, which hit the ground close to his head, the only
part of his body visible. I then took a pot-shot at him,
and was fortunate enough to send my ball in behind
his left ear, at which he sprang out of the bush and
made his way to another lower down, after receiving
four more shots.
" We then descended the hill until we got below the
jungle in which he was and began beating up, when
ii8 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
we saw him lying about fifty yards ahead of us. W.
Orr giving him a shot, he charged down at us, but being
too badly wounded, he rolled helplessly into a bush
about five yards from us, where we gave him the con-
tents of our rifles and polished him off. He was a fine
young tiger, not quite nine feet from the tip of his nose
to the end of his tail. He had received fifteen bullets
all about his shoulders and head ; and after tying him
on the back of an elephant we set off to our several
destinations. I went with W. and J. Orr to Dowluta-
bad, where I found our camp, and dined with the Orrs.
The rest returned to Aurungabad.
" 2%th February.
" Set off at sunrise to see the fort very curious old
place surrounded by three strong walls, a fosse, etc.
after passing which, the ascent is made by a subter-
ranean staircase, tunnelled through the solid rock. At
the top of every landing-place there was a furnace and
trap-door for the purpose of pouring down hot pitch
upon the assailants, with various other amiable inven-
tions. The top of the hill was surmounted by another
strong battlement, and a temple to the presiding deity.
Within the outer walls the jungle is pretty thick, and
affords shelter to panthers, cheetahs, and peacocks.
Wood, Billy, and Tom arrived.
" Word was brought that a tiger had killed a bullock
close to the camp, so we all sallied forth and were con-
ducted to a garden of castor-oil plants, which were
almost impenetrably thick. Some of us were posted
round it, while others began to beat. On coming on
the spoor we found it was a panther, and, after fruitless
endeavours to discover him, were obliged to give up
the attempt.
xi CAVES OF ELLORA 119
"Struck camp at 4 P.M. Marched up a very steep
ghaut and arrived at Rosa about sunset. Took pos-
session of a gentleman's bungalow, who, luckily for us,
happened not to be at home.
" \st March.
11 Started at sunrise to see the Caves of Ellora. In-
spected three or four of the best, and then, having had
enough, returned to breakfast. Struck camp at 4 P.M.
and rode into Dowlutabad. Put up in a temple.
" zd March.
" Rode into Aurungabad to breakfast, where we
remained till the 8th, and pitched our tent under a thick
grove of mango-trees.
" gth March.
" Rode into Kinolo. Country wild and jungly
tolerably well stocked with game of the small kind.
Found the tent pitched under a small grove of man-
goes. A thunderstorm came on and we took shelter
in a temple. Very hot.
" loth March.
" Started at sunrise. Much cooler, cloudy sky.
Rode three hours into the station a tolerably pleasant
encampment by the side of a stream. Found the
jungle fairly stocked with peacock, hares, quail, and
partridge, and made a good bag.
" ii tA March.
"Off at six. Arrived at Adjunta by 9 A.M.
Breakfasted in a caravanserai, which was so beastly
and so Persian -like that I almost fancied myself
in fever again. About twelve the tent arrived, and we
had it pitched outside the walls of the town, under the
best tree we could find, which was bad enough, afford-
120 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
ing us little or no shade, and consequently making the
tent very hot. Sent out my two shikarris to look for
sport, with orders to meet us next day at the caves.
" \2th March.
" Started early. Rode one and a half hours to the
cave the road down by the Ghauts being almost per-
pendicular. The shikarris arrived, but said they had
seen nothing but one elk.
" \$th March.
" Went out at sunrise with Tom to a jungle about
two miles off. On arriving there, a pig got up, to
which I immediately gave chase. On riding through
the dry bed of a river after him, all of a sudden I came
on the fresh trail of a tiger, and shortly after on the
skeleton of a horse. I immediately made my way to
a rock, and getting my rifle, the coolies, of whom we
had about thirty, formed in a body and began to beat,
putting out nothing but a few peacock. We afterwards
went to another jungle, where we saw a few pea-fowl
and killed nothing. Sent the shikarris about six miles
off to see what they could find there.
" \tfh and \$th March.
" Spent in pursuit of game.
" i6t/i March.
" Returned to Aurungabad.
" i %th March.
" Off at dawn. Reached the station at 7.30 A.M. At
dinner inspected the performance of a native rope-
dancer. In the night three hyenas came to the water
to drink, near my bed. I fired at them, but, the moon
being clouded, missed.
THE CAMEL AND THE TIGER
" 2oth March.
" At Aurungabad and its neighbourhood, making
almost daily sporting expeditions, till
" \z th April.
" Arrived at Chickapore by 9 A.M. Started again at
4 P.M. Rode down a very steep ghaut in the province
of Berar.
" 14/7; April.
" We started at dawn. Arrived at Peepre by eight,
where we found our party, consisting of Dr. Orr,
Hughes, and Suter. The only sport they had had
was the day before, when they had killed two cheetahs.
The shikarris having brought in the report of a tiger,
we started Suter and I on the young tusker, the
doctor on his own elephant, and Billy on Hughes's.
The scene of action was the bed of a river partially
dry, with patches of thick jungle on the banks. After
beating up and down for some time, the doctor
suddenly stopped by a thick bush and fired. We
asked what it was, and he said, ' It is a tiger, and he is
dead ' ; and so it turned out. The ball had entered
above his eye and killed him without a kick. We
then set off to look for a tigress and her cubs, which
were reported to be higher up the river, but after a
long search we gave up. A spotted deer was the
next thing that fell to the doctor's lucky rifle.
" On our way home we overtook the camel which
was carrying the tiger's body to our camp, when one
of the most ridiculous scenes I ever saw took place.
The camel as he walked along turned his head, now
to one side, now to the other, to inspect his strange
burden, and seemed far from satisfied with what he
saw. At length he mustered up courage to smell the
122 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
body, which he had no sooner done than his panic
was complete. He kicked violently, broke from the
man, and set off at a pace to which fox-hunting was a
joke. Soon the pack began to turn, and all that was
visible of the royal beast was his tail and hind-legs
swinging about in the air ; and the camel, getting
doubly frightened by the fore-claws and head of the
brute dangling against his own hind-quarter, redoubled
his exertions to rid himself of his load, which he soon
managed to do. Notwithstanding, he ran for about
five miles farther without pulling up.
"iStA April.
" Marched into Chitaum. I came in with a large
herd of nilgai. After a tolerably long stalk, I got a
very fair shot and wounded a large bull. After I fired
he fell, and I thought I was sure of him, but before I
could get my carbine he managed to get up and
escaped. While we were at dinner a large herd
of pigs passed close to the table. Orr and Suter got
on their horses and started after them with their
spears. I went to a place where corn was stacked
to sit up for pigs, but did not get a shot. At 3 P.M.
went out to beat some heavy jungle saw some spotted
deer, pigs, etc. Bag : one pig, one rock-pigeon, five
partridges, one hare.
-iltJi April.
" Marched eight miles into Aleghaum. About
five minutes after we arrived, word came in of a
cheetah. Went out without breakfast and had a
long troublesome beat through thick willow jungle
before he came to light. When he did, he behaved in
such a cowardly manner that he showed us little sport.
Bag : one cheetah, two pigs.
MORE TIGERS 123
"i&tfi April.
"Went out in the morning. Had a long chase
after a large ape, and having brought him to bay, shot
him. At breakfast news came that a tiger had killed
one of the hackeries near the jungle. We went out,
but did not find him.
" 2oth April.
" Marched into Chikelgaum. Just at sunrise we
came across a herd of nilgai. Orr and Billy went
after them. A few minutes after, a young cow, having
missed the herd, charged right through us, knocked
down my ghora-walas and shikarri, coming right
against my horse, and at length, getting clear of us,
set off to join the rest.
" 2 is? April
"Started at sunrise. Beat for half an hour, when
two shots from Orr and a cry ' He is dead ' concluded
our sport. The animal was a tolerable-sized tigress.
The ball went in at the ribs and, I fancy, lodged in the
heart. Hearing of another tiger at a place called
Lunee, after some discussion the elephants were
despatched and we followed on our horses. Reached
the spot after two hours and a half, beat about two
hours, and at length gave it up and commenced
returning, when Orr (always in luck) pushed his hathy
through a small thick bush, out of which the tigress
jumped, receiving at the same time a ball in the side.
She then came across the plain with her tail up and
roaring a little, and would certainly have settled an
unfortunate coolie who was right before her, had not a
volley from Hughes and Suter pulled her up. She
then raised herself up on her hind-legs and commenced
growling and making faces at us, when I sent a ball
124 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
in through her eye. Reached camp at sunset. Bag :
two tigers.
"t$d April.
" Off at sunrise with hathies, etc., to beat. Orr
broke the leg of a spotted deer, had a run after him,
and at length pulled him down in the jungle. I killed
another buck. Beat the jungle for some time, when a
shot from Orr did for another tigress. Bag : one
tigress, five spotted deer.
" 2%th April.
" Marched four hours and a half into Maun. After
breakfast, started for the jungle there. Bucklawar
Sing said there were three tigers. The scene of
action was the course of a river, with light jungle on
the banks. After beating up for about ten minutes,
we saw the tiger sneaking up our side of the river.
The tusker was immediately put about, and we gave
chase. We soon came within seventy yards and gave
him a volley, but without effect. He then cantered
on, sometimes turning round and showing his teeth
and lashing his tail, and at length came to, behind
a small bush, at which we immediately went. When
we got about a hundred yards from him, he came at us,
roaring magnificently. Suter fired and hit him, but he
came on. When within about ten paces of us, our
huge elephant rushed at him, knocking him down.
However, he managed to get out behind him, and
charged one of the shikarries who was walking after
us. He cut like lightning, the tiger close upon him.
Our elephant was hopping about at such a pace that
we could not fire, and were every minute expecting
to see the poor man killed, when the tiger fell dead
into a bush.
THE LAST TIGER 125
" Before we had well time to look at him, we per-
ceived some scouts in a tree waving to us, so we set
off, and getting across the river into the island, we
soon put up a brace of tigers. They crossed the river
we after them. They then separated, and we soon
came up with one, which Orr shot dead in a bush, and
then led after the other.
"After following him some time I marked him
into a bush, which we surrounded. When about ten
yards off, he sprang out at us. We fired, but as the
elephant chose to charge, he not only knocked us out
of our aim, but into the bottom of the howdah. Orr
then followed him into another bush. Out he came at
him, when to his disgust he found that all his guns
were discharged. The beast then stood up on his
hunkers, and began to claw at the elephant, when the
mahout hitting him a clip in the face with his auchush,
he retreated into a thicket. By that time we had
come up, having loaded our guns, and despatched him
with a volley. Hughes and Billy killed a bear, and
wounded another tiger, which was afterwards found
dead, and brought in. Bag : four tigers, one bear."
With this satisfactory record of a day's sport, the
extracts from the diary may close. Mere notes of the
daily bag and little more form the remainder until
the 8th June 1851, when the entry under that date
stands thus : " I left for Aurungabad" there, as we
know, to join Tom and Mr. Wood.
He was afterwards left alone by them on different
occasions, and Tom during one of these absences hav-
ing had two attacks of haemorrhage of the lungs, it was
decided that for the benefit of his health he should
embark on a voyage to Australia. With that object,
126 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
accompanied by Mr. Wood, he left Bombay on the
1 8th December 1851. By the time they reached Java
the invalid had become much worse, and he died at
Batavia at the close of January 1852.
Mr. Wood then continued his journey to Australia
by himself, but, shortly after arriving there, he too
died from the effects of an accident.
So of the three who, full of hope and anticipation,
started from Borris in 1849, only one survived to
return.
Man is immortal till his work is done,
and Arthur's life-work was still in the future.
Left alone in India, with none but the friends he
had made for himself, and with only thirty shillings in
his pocket, it became absolutely necessary for him to
earn his living. Tom's sudden illness had evidently
incapacitated him from making any arrangement for
his brother to whom he was deeply attached, and, by
some unfortunate mischance, the remittances due from
the property not reaching him, Arthur was forced to
search for immediate employment. Meanwhile, his
newly-made friends generously came forward to assist
him, but he could not bear to trespass on their kind-
ness beyond what was actually necessary, and for that
reason, and to eke out their timely loans as much as
possible, he often restricted himself to one meal a day.
At length he was given the employment of carrier
of despatches between one part of the district near
Aurungabad and another a responsible post, necessi-
tating long weary rides at full speed, and all for a
very low, well-nigh nominal salary.
After a time he accepted a subordinate berth in
the Survey Department of the Poonah District, under
the East India Company, at ,400 per annum. In this
A SOLEMN VOW 127
situation which he filled for about a year, when he was
recalled to Ireland, he gave such satisfaction to his
superiors that they offered to keep it open for him
promising a rise in it if he would return to India.
Then it was when, still the youngest son, depend-
ing solely on his earnings, and one might think dis-
qualified from advancement in almost any career, that
he made the following resolution : To attain in public
life the same distinction as his father, both as Irish
landlord and as member of Parliament.
One of the last things he did before leaving India
was to buy a silver filigree card-case which he set
apart " for his wife." This was his first gift to the
cousin whom he afterwards married, and is now her
most valued possession.
On his return home in 1853 he was appointed
under-agent to the property, and discharged his oner-
ous duties with the vigilance and conscientiousness that
he carried into everything he undertook. But none,
even among those who knew him best at that time,
could discern how the varied trials he had surmounted,
and the experiences he had passed through, were
preparing and maturing the large-minded politician
and the large-hearted country gentleman.
CHAPTER XII
So didst thou travel on life's common way
In cheerful godliness. WORDSWORTH.
IN 1854, by the death of his brother Charles, Arthur,
or, as he must now be called, Mr. Kavanagh, suc-
ceeded to the family estates. He was then twenty-
three years of age, and the cares and responsibilities
inseparable from his new position were aggravated
by the serious financial difficulties that confronted
him. These had arisen partly from mismanagement
during the long minority of his brother Tom, but
chiefly from the distress caused throughout Ireland
by the failure of the potato crop and consequent
famine of 1848, the effects of which lasted for many
years if even now they can be said to have
ceased.
In these circumstances, when he first took pos-
session of the property, he felt that to bring it into
order again was well-nigh beyond his power. Never-
theless he set himself loyally to the task, and worked
early and late to fulfil it in this, as in all things,
making his duty to God and man his first aim. And
this went on without intermission till the land legisla-
tion of 1870 and 1882 so revolutionised the relations
between landlord and tenant, and introduced such
uncertainty as to what further changes might be pro-
MARRIAGE 129
jected, that it became hopeless for even good landlords
to persevere in improving their property.
In 1855 he married his cousin, Frances Mary,
only surviving daughter of the Rev. Joseph Forde
Leathley, Rector of Termonfeckin, County Louth, by
his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Daniel Toler and
Lady Harriet Osborne, and by her had seven children,
four sons and three daughters.
The ceremony was a very quiet one, performed at
i Mountjoy Square, Dublin, the residence of his aunt
my mother Lady Louisa Le Poer Trench. Few
were present at it, and of those few all but three have
now passed within the veil.
Shortly after his marriage he set on foot various
schemes for the improvement of the picturesque village
of Borris, which lies under the demesne wall improve-
ments which have made it one of the prettiest villages
in Ireland. According as the long leases fell in
and the existence of such old leases explains what the
landlord, powerless in the matter, often gets the
blame of, viz. the ruinous condition of buildings in
otherwise prosperous towns he replaced at a merely
nominal rent the tumble-down thatched cottages by
others, roomy, well-slated, and comfortable. He him-
self drew the plans, and received the medal of the
Royal Dublin Society for the best cottage at the
lowest cost.
By Mrs. K-avanagh's thought and care these new
houses were soon adorned with creeping plants, to
which the little town owes the impression it makes
of a neat English village. But its outside ornamenta-
tion was not her only care. Years before her
marriage her mother-in-law, Lady Harriet, had
brought from Corfu specimens of old Greek lace
130 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
which, modified by her taste and skill to suit the
fashion, she taught the village women to copy. Every
single pattern was traced by her own hand and given
out every week to the workers poor women in their
cottages who were thus enabled to add to the weekly
family earnings.
All this was afterwards taken up by Mrs. Kava-
nagh, and by her unwearied superintendence brought
to such perfection that " Borris lace " soon became
well known for its beautiful designs and delicate work-
manship, not surpassed in its own style by any of the
"cottage industries " of Ireland.
Not content, however, with the partial rebuilding
of Borris, Mr. Kavanagh aided most materially in
giving it the advantages of railway communication. *
In 1858 a branch line was opened from Bagnalstown
to Borris by the enterprise of an English gentleman,
Mr. Mott, in conjunction with some others, and to
him Mr. Kavanagh made a gift of fourteen miles of
land for the purpose. Unfortunately the necessary
capital for continuing to work it was not forthcoming.
Mr. Mott broke, and the railway had to be closed.
And closed it remained for a year, till, seeing the
many advantages the neighbourhood would derive
from it, especially if the original project for its ex-
tension to New Ross in connection with the Wicklow
and Wexford line could be carried out, he assumed
the whole management of it, and at a loss of ^5000
worked it himself, until it was finally taken up by the
Great Southern and Western Railway Company.
But Borris was not the only village he undertook
to reconstruct. Another on his County Kilkenny
property owes even more to him Ballyragget (the
" Town of the Raggets "). The name to English ears
xii BALLYRAGGET CASTLE 131
may sound uncouth, but to many a lover of scenery it will
pleasantly recall the broad Nore gliding silently through
the rich pasture-land, the avenues of magnificent lime
and beech trees, the ilex grove suggesting the beauty
of an old Italian villa, and, towering over all, the
well-preserved ruins of the gray feudal castle its
former strength attested by its ivy- covered turrets
and walls.
It dates from the sixteenth century, when it was
built like every other stronghold in the county, ac-
cording to tradition by Margaret, a Geraldine married
to a Butler. This heroine, the " Mairgread Geroit"
of popular story, lived oftener at Ballyragget than at
any other place of strength in Kilkenny, and after her
it was for a time, it is said, the home of her grand-
daughter, Anne Boleyn, in her yet untroubled girl-
hood.
Elected in 1857 one of the guardians of the New
Ross Poorhouse, Mr. Kavanagh entered on the duties
with his usual energy, and, till the close of his connec-
tion with the Board, fulfilled them with judgment and
perseverance. And they entailed a weekly drive of
thirty Irish miles, there and back, on an outside car,
in all weathers ; but the work so interested him that
he rarely allowed anything to prevent his attend-
ance.
He found much to do. Great negligence in its
administration demanded searching inquiries, and a
general reform, which he directed all his efforts to
carry out. In November 1861 the following entry in
his diary describes the state of things "Found a
very bad way of business going on. No stock ever
taken. Nothing ever checked. No wonder the rates
are high."
132 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
The graphic account sent me by one of his largest
tenants, Mr. Sweetman, J.P., shows that his services
were not wholly unappreciated by the other members
of the Board :
"One evening riding home with Mr. Kavanagh,
after a day's hunting, I said to him, ' Now, Mr.
Kavanagh, I hope you will take what I am about to
say in the spirit I intend.'
" ' Oh,' said he, ' say what you like.'
"'Well, then, I think you do yourself and others
great injustice in hiding your bright intellect under a
bushel.'
"He replied, 'You think more of me in that way
than any other person.'
"'Well/ said I, 'if you will take your proper
place in public affairs, I will be much disappointed if
you do not make a name for yourself. The annual
election of chairmen to boards of guardians will take
place in a few days. Will you allow me to propose
you as Chairman to the New Ross Board ? '
" He replied, ' They would not elect me.'
" ' Well, leave that to me. I will not subject you
to a defeat, but, if you are elected, you will act ? '
" ' Very well. Do as you like.'
"After some opposition he was elected, and I now
unhesitatingly say, a better president of a public board
could not be. He was most painstaking and just, and
in his decisions in any case that came before him his
religion or politics could not be discovered."
In proof of this I make another extract from a note
sent me by Mr. Sweetman. The perfect liberality it
evinces is especially remarkable in a country unhappily
the scene of so much religious animosity :
" For several years it was looked upon by the
xii RELIGIOUS LIBERALITY 133
Roman Catholic guardians as a great scandal that the
Sacrifice of the Mass and other parts of Roman
Catholic religious worship should be performed in the
dining-hall, with the debris of breakfast and other
meals piled up in its corners. For years efforts were
made to alter this, but without success, and at length
I got a resolution passed, asking the then Poor Law
Commissioners to set apart a portion of the house for
Roman Catholic religious worship. After a long
correspondence, they consented, and it was then
decided by the Board to build a small chapel. At
that time there were from three hundred to four
hundred Catholics in the house, and but five or six
Protestants. After the usual red-tape delays, an
inspector having been sent down to report, etc.,
tenders were advertised for, but, when put in, they
proved so high (I believe from ^300 to ^400) that
the expense was warmly opposed by a large section of
the guardians.
"After it had been considered at several different
meetings, the matter came on at length for final dis-
cussion, when Mr. Kavanagh, who took an active part
in it, said
" ' Oh, never mind the expense ! If we build any-
thing, let us build something we need not be ashamed
of.'
" This observation carried the day. The chapel
was built, being the first of its kind in Ireland, and,
when finished, Mr. Kavanagh came up to see it and
was greatly pleased.
" I must say that all applications made by the
chaplain, Mr. Kavanagh was always anxious to have
attended to, and his action in this matter was much
and favourably spoken of."
134 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
In 1862 the idea occurred to him of utilising for
the benefit of his tenantry and the neighbourhood
generally the water-power of the mountain brook
which rushes through the demesne into the Barrow.
This he did by erecting a saw-mill, to which after a
time he added turning-lathes, and accepted extensive
contracts for bobbins from cotton factories in Eng-
land, supplying much of the material from his own
woods.
A sketch of his ordinary life at home will be of
interest in these days when so much is said (not always
in the fairest spirit) about Irish landlords and their
duties.
Up and out by six o'clock in summer mornings and
by daylight in winter, he would either exercise his little
pack of harriers (which he always hunted himself) or
ride over the demesne to inspect the works in
progress.
With all that pertained to the management of an
estate, whether farming or forestry, his acquaintance
was practical and minute. In the question of the re-
planting of Ireland he took great interest, but other
and more urgent calls on his attention prevented his
developing any scheme for carrying it out. He was
indeed in closer touch with the wants of the country
than the majority of landlords, and this was of signal
service to him both in dealing with the tenantry and
in promoting their interests in Parliament.
From his early morning rides alone with his dog
he would return in time for family prayers, conducted
by himself, and, breakfast over, he would repair to the
courtyard behind the house and take his seat on a
stone bench surrounding the old oak-tree that stands
almost in the centre. There, like a chieftain in the
xn THE OLD OAK-TREE 135
midst of his vassals, he would sit patiently listening to
all who came from far and near, with their tales of
perplexity or grievance, to seek counsel or redress.
All were received, men and women alike, with the
same unfailing sympathy, and many a curious piece of
family history or story of impending feud could that
old tree reveal ! But it could also tell of the invariably
just decision, given with the cheery sympathetic smile
and words that robbed even an adverse " ruling" of all
sting. Nor was it only in matters of dispute that he
was consulted by them, or his mediation sought.
Many a happy marriage between " likely " parties was
planned and made up by him under the shadow of the
old oak-tree.
That his intervention in their private concerns was,
in those days at least, valued by his tenants, is
shown by the name it procured him among them of
the " Father Confessor," and was still further proved
by the fact that many of them, on their death-beds,
left their daughters to him as his "wards," know-
ing that their trust in him would be justified by
his solicitude for their welfare and settlement in
life.
When this patriarchal court under the old oak-tree
broke up, he would again ride off alone across country
to visit outlying farms on the estate, and inspect the
improvements, almost in every case of his own making.
Greeted on all sides by marks of affection and respect
as he passed the men working in the fields, his cheery
" God bless the work, boys ! " would be responded to
by " God bless your honour ! "
Till 1880 when for a time the family broke up
from Borris it was his Christmas custom to have
several animals slaughtered and distributed among his
136 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
workmen and the very poor people in the neighbour-
hood. Most accurate lists were made of the recipients,
and a just distribution ensured by his personal superin-
tendence of the cutting up of the meat. Blankets,
suits of clothes, and flannel petticoats, were also among
the seasonable gifts : and as many of the poor people
for whom they were destined lived far away some
in the mountains and some in parts of the estate
difficult of access he used to have as many parcels
as possible tied to his saddle, and from the old
oak-tree he would joyfully ride off to bestow them,
never so happy as when giving pleasure to the poor
" sending portions to them for whom nothing was
prepared."
That old oak-tree was a great rallying- point at
Borris, particularly on Sundays, when after the plea-
sant luncheon, lingered over as it could not be on
week-days, he would whistle to the little fox-terrier
that went everywhere with him and adjourn to its
shade. Then, mounted on his old brown mare "Miss
Nolan" (frequently with a favourite cousin seated
behind him), and accompanied by the house-party on
foot, he would make the round of the place past the
saw-mill and along the brook to where, under the
shadow of the stone-pines, and wooded hill-sides, it
rushes down to the Barrow ; across Bunahown Bridge,
and on, on, past the wood lawn or through the old
deer-park, back to the old oak-tree.
He was the life of the party full of fun, and
relishing with keen appreciation the humorous side of
everything. None who knew him only in later years
could realise what he was before disappointment first,
and failing health afterwards, had robbed him of the
bright spirits of early manhood, though never of the
xii SELF-COMMUNINGS 137
charm of manner and sympathy that won all who came
within their influence.
And as evening closed in, the hour came for service
in the beautiful little chapel, approached from the
house through a long passage leading into the gallery,
used as the family pew, where, Sunday after Sunday,
seated in his special corner, he would show by his
reverential participation in the service that, with him,
religion was no empty form. 1
The spirit in which he undertook all his work is
marked by an entry in his diary on the last day of his
twenty-ninth year :
"This is my last of the twenties; to-morrow
(D. y.) the thirties begin. What a ten years to
review ! When I began them, a homeless wanderer
in India; what mercies I have had showered upon
me ! Have I tried to use and not abuse them ?
Have I cared for the people committed to my charge ?
Have I tried to make myself useful, and duly to fill
the position in which I have been placed ? Hard
questions to answer. I have tried : but have I looked
to God to help me, to give me patience, to encourage
me when I have been weary and disgusted, to make
me thankful for what I had, and not longing for
things I had not ? "
In the same year, 1861, when on his return from a
winter's cruise in the Ionian Islands he was welcomed
back with hearty demonstrations of joy by the tenantry
bonfires, illuminations, and crowds assembled to
cheer him this touching comment appears in his
diary :
" Poor people ! they must like me ; but how I
1 Appendix A.
138 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xn
have deserved that they should do so I cannot think.
God grant me grace to cherish their affection and to
guard it as a precious blessing one I can never prize
enough, or guard too jealously."
Such were his deep humility, his simple piety, his
sense of duty. 1
1 Appendix B.
CHAPTER XIII
Sanum hominem qui et bene valet et suas spontis est oportet varium
habere vitaa genus : modo ruri esse, modo in urbe, saepiusque in agro ;
navigare, venari. CELS. De Medicina, I. i.
A soundly-constituted man, who enjoys good health and independ-
ent means, should vary his mode of life : sometimes frequenting the
country, sometimes the town, and oftener the open fields. He should
yacht and hunt.
SUCH was the Roman patrician's advice, even after
eighteen centuries still valid, insomuch that no memoir
of a "good landlord" can be complete without its
chapter on sport. This is pre-eminently the case in
Ireland. Even through Mr. Kavanagh's graver pur-
suits it will, I think, be seen that he had his full share
of the national characteristic, though, unlike many
others of his class, he never allowed his pleasures to
interfere with his duties.
With his love of sport, he had a strong love of all
animal life. Horses, dogs, monkeys, parrots, all knew
his interest and felt his power, for over them he had a
wonderful influence, which in their several ways they
each acknowledged, as I think can be traced in the
records of his travels.
"There are few things that I enjoy more," he
writes in The Cruise of the Eva, "than, unseen, to
watch the movements and habits of wild animals to
see them as they are among themselves, pursuing
140 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
their various devices in unconscious security. I have
often lost a shot by thus indulging my fancy, and in
no single instance did I ever regret it.
" From hardly any sort of sporting have I derived
greater pleasure than during the hot season in India,
waiting through the night at a ' do ' or pool of water,
the only one perhaps within miles. The variety
of game that one sees, each coming in his own peculiar
fashion ! the timid deer listening for every sound,
trying each breath of air for the taint of an adversary ;
the sneaking hyena ; the wolf and jackal, with their
slouching gait, on the qui vive alike for prey as for
danger! The pig first, perhaps, an old patriarch
boar, with his gleaming tusks and bristly back comes
down to have a root and wallow in the mud, or per-
haps a whole sounder, and the long lanky sows with
their half -grown young ones, bent upon the same
errand."
His fondness for nature, indeed, embraced the
tangled forest and " various -vestured " hill -side as
well as their wild inmates.
"Its very beauty was a drawback to the sportsman,"
he writes of an Albanian covert that arrested his gaze,
"with the lovely Mediterranean heath eight to ten feet
high covered with its snow-white bells the rhododen-
dron, laurustinus, arbutus, vying with each other in the
richness of their blossoms ; the Judas-tree with its
bright scarlet twigs and leaves, the dwarf cypress, the
jessamine, in some parts all bound together and inter-
woven with the sarsaparilla creeper."
He was once given a very young bear, not much
bigger than a large muff, which in its shape it much
resembled. It was chained up in the courtyard, and
its little house was near enough to the old oak-tree to
xin "BESSY" 141
allow it to sit on the encircling stone bench beside
its master, who would caress and play with it as no
one else ventured to do, stroking it and talking to
it, until it actually seemed to understand.
Never once when beside him would " Bessy " show
any symptom of the untamed nature which, when she
grew too big to be any longer a pet, forced him to
send her to the ist Life Guards, who in their turn and
for the same reason sent her back to him, and he then
most unwillingly had to transfer her to the Dublin
Zoological Gardens, where she now is.
The little monkeys too, that from time to time he
had as pets at Borris, were tended through their
various illnesses with a care bestowed on few dumb
animals. But the hero of this group was "Jack," of
whose first appearance at Borris Mrs. Kavanagh sends
me the following account :
"In March 1863 Arthur returned home from the
Ionian Islands, we preceding him overland. He
sailed to New Ross, fifteen miles from Borris, and I
drove to meet him. As the car on which he was
drew near, I saw that on the driver's seat sat a very
large ape, which filled me with dismay. Savage to
all others, he was quite gentle with Arthur, and
perfectly devoted to him. On one occasion he
broke his chain and made his way to the nursery
nurses and children flying before him in terror. The
' Master ' was sent for to dislodge him, but, on arriving,
it was many minutes before he could speak for
laughing. There on the middle of the table sat
Jack, one paw deep in the cream-jug, looking blissfully
content. However, at one word from his master he
quietly returned to his own quarters, to every one's
relief. There he often received visits from strangers,
142 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
who sometimes found to their cost that Jack was not
to be treated with too great familiarity.
"One lady, heedless of warning, ventured to
approach him, when Jack put out his paw and seized
a string of real pearls she wore round her neck and
put them into his mouth, and great was the trouble
his master had to make him disgorge them."
But poor Jack met with a most tragic end.
Though due to an accident, it was a real grief to Mr.
Kavanagh, who was much attached to him. Jack was
in the courtyard one day, at a time when the house
party were going out for a day's shooting in the
demesne. Among them was Signer B , an Italian
gentleman who, with his family, had settled in the
country. Out into the yard stepped il bravo caccia-
tore ready for le sport, which he facetiously com-
menced by levelling his gun. It was unfortunately
loaded, went off by accident, and blew off poor Jack's
head, just missing one of the grooms, who, not a
moment too soon, had moved out of line I will not
say out of aim for aim there was none. It was
purely an accident, which I am sure Signer B
regretted nearly as much as we all did who were
at Borris at the time.
I do not think, however, he was ever invited to
join another shooting-party there !
Who that knows the garden at Borris can fail to
remember the beautiful deodara that marks the resting-
place of " Nelson " dearest of dogs and gentlest of
retrievers unable to survive the parting when his
master started on a lengthened cruise on which he
could not be taken ! Or the little fox-terriers that,
one after the other, were his constant companions I
had almost said playfellows !
xin "PRAESENTIOR DEUS /" 143
His horses too returned the affection, ay and the
tender care he had for them. Even the half-broken
ones, to which in his journeys in semi-civilised countries
he was often reduced, would take him over ground
where an unladen one could scarcely keep its footing.
For they not only "knew their rider," but loved him,
as by his voice he would encourage them, sympathising
with their difficulties and sometimes even with their
terrors.
" When on a shooting-expedition in Albania," writes
Mrs. Kavanagh, "he was quite dependent upon the
miserable horses of the country to carry him about,
as no English horse could with safety have got over
the hill -tracks, which were very steep and often
slippery.
"At Avalona only one horse could be procured for
him and that a mere bag of bones. Starting on this
wretched beast to a covert where pig were reported to
be, he was accompanied by the Greek beater and the
sailors, while I walked close behind him. It was
most unusual for him to ride near the rest of the party,
for generally he preferred to keep quite away from
them, as by doing so he had a better chance of shots.
We had not gone far up a very steep mountain-
path, where every now and then the horse, ever
responsive to his call, had to spring up rocky steps fit
only for goats, when just as we reached a spot with a
precipice at one side many hundred feet down to the
sea, the horse attempted one of these jumps, failed,
and rolled over the brink. A small cactus-bush about
ten feet below checked his farther fall, and Arthur
quite calmly called to the sailors to unstrap him from
the saddle. This they did, being able to climb down
where few others could have ventured, and hoisted
144 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
him up to the path, while the poor horse rolled down
and was instantaneously killed.
" This did not shake Arthur's nerve in the least,
for next day he rode over a still more impracticable
mountain, and distanced all his party, till at last I
overtook him, though in doing so the sharp rocks had
cut through the soles of my boots, and I was almost
barefoot."
Commenting afterwards on this incident in The
Cruise of the Eva, he says :
" I daresay it would not have been a painful death,
but there is something more than usually awful in it
that I do not fancy something peculiarly exciting to
the nerves in looking down a dizzy abyss and then
find you are going over into it."
Borris is within reach but by no means easy
reach of some of the meets of both the Carlow and
Kilkenny fox-hounds, and with them in early years he
had many a good day's hunting. His riding across
country was marvellous. Though often indifferently
mounted, he rode as straight as any of the keen
sportsmen with whom the country abounded. Indeed
one of the best riders of them all told Mrs. Kavanagh
"how at one more than usually large fence in the
midst of a run the whole field actually pulled up in
horror at seeing Arthur put his horse at it, and only
breathed again when they saw him galloping away on
the other side."
But as business and other cares grew upon him,
hunting was given up like almost all his other plea-
sures and in 1863 he sold off his hunters and his own
little pack of harriers not without deep regret. Till
the last year of his life, however, when at home, he
rarely missed his daily gallop round the place.
xiii FISHING ON IRISH LAKES 145
Fishing was another very favourite pastime of his,
both at home on the Barrow and also on distant
excursions such as to Lough Arrow in Sligo and the
Westmeath Lakes, Derevaragh in particular, at the
rising of the May-fly, and sometimes even as far as
Russian Finland and the Arctic Circle.
These latter he made in the Eva, and from 1864 to
1866 (when he entered Parliament) he, with two
friends, rented a lodge on the River Pasvig, beyond
the North Cape, for salmon-fishing, a sport in which
he delighted and was very successful.
The following account of one of these cruises,
taken from letters sent home to Mrs. Kavanagh, shows
the zest and ardour with which he entered into the
pleasures and even the roughing of the voyage, and
makes a fitting close to this sporting chapter :
"Near BERGEN, Wi June 1864.
" After three days rough weather in the Channel,
on the fourth we took our departure from Cromer
Head and steered for Udsire Light.
" On the 7th my watch was the morning one flat
calm. V. was on deck with me, and we were trying
to fish in two hundred and eighty fathoms of water (at
least that is the depth the chart gives), when we spied
two white things skimming along under the bottom of
the ship. I thought they were two skates or flat fish,
but they turned out to be the two fins of a whale. He
passed under us and, giving himself a tumble on the
other side of the vessel, soon showed what he was.
He gave another swim round us, coming then close
alongside, so near that he could be touched with a
boathook. He gradually let his tail sink down till he
was in a perpendicular posture, with his head over the
L
146 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
water. There he remained for nearly five minutes
having a quiet look at us. It was flat calm, and the
water quite clear, so that we could see his whole form
quite distinctly about twenty-five feet long, and big
in proportion. I don't think he was a regular whale,
but more of the black fish species. Certainly, if any
one else had described such a scene to me, I should
not have believed him.
" When the excitement of the whale was over we
discovered that we were in sight of land, and, a breeze
coming up, we were soon up to the island of Udsire,
where we determined to come inside, and took a pilot.
He brought us to the Bommel Fiord up here. The
scenery is certainly lovely, and the water even in the
roughest weather (we came in when it was blowing a
gale of wind) smooth as glass. I am sure you would
enjoy it thoroughly, and (D. V.) we may have a summer
out here yet. From hurrying up north we have been
obliged to leave some of the finest scenery behind us,
but even the straight route is beautiful.
"LAT. 62.40 N., LONG. 5.15 E., izth June.
" The first day's sail from Bergen we met nothing
very wonderful in the way of scenery, through a laby-
rinth of rocky islands barren and low, the extreme
wildness of which was their charm. We met lots of
natives out in their jolly little prowes. In the calm
they came alongside, and bartered lobsters for biscuit.
Such lobsters ! One party we met coming in from a
bank about fourteen miles out to sea, where he had
been fishing all day with only a little girl about eight
years old in the boat with him. She was pulling the
two stroke oars (sculls) by which these boats are
steered, and splendidly she did it, pulling as long and
FIORD SCENERY 147
steady a stroke as her father. Poor little child ! We
gave her a lot of sugar and some sweet biscuits, at
which she was greatly pleased, and insisted on shaking
hands with H. who gave them to her.
"It is now broad daylight all night, although we
are still six or eight degrees south of the Arctic Circle.
The second day's sail brought us into really grand
scenery. At mid-day we got into such a gorge ! with
mountains covered with snow towering over our heads,
and a series of waterfalls from the melting snow fall-
ing perpendicularly four hundred and five hundred
feet. The end of this gorge was something too grand !
the fiord turning round the base of Hornehlen,
which hung over our heads two thousand eight hun-
dred and sixty-seven feet plumb from the water. The
fiord in the turn is not a mile wide. We fired two or
three cannon shots, and the echo was astounding. I
don't think I ever saw anything grander than that
day's sail.
"We have passed Christiansand, and are now
getting into the fiord which leads up to Drontheim.
We had a heavy fog all last night till about two hours
ago, and had ticklish work picking our way in among
the network of rocks, but now it is quite bright and
fine with a strong north breeze, so that she just lays
her course, and we are spanking along at a great pace.
" \tfhjune.
"We have had all sorts of weather since I left off
writing : yesterday a heavy thrash all night, with just
as much wind as we could carry our canvas to. At
4 A.M., when I was called, I found the glass had gone
down five-tenths, so I guessed we were in for some-
148 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
thing nice. It was flat calm when I got on deck and
a screeching hot sun ; then came a puff from S.E., hot
as any sirocco ; and then it began to pipe in style. I
ordered up Caines (the skipper) and his watch, and
double-reefed her fore and aft, and stowed the foresail.
The water was quite smooth, as we were in the sound
between Hitteren island and the mainshore, but the
squall blew as hard as I have ever experienced, laying
the ship on her beam ends. This lasted till 10 A.M.,
when we got up to the point where the Drontheim
Fiord runs inland, and down which the squall came as
if through a funnel ; but as there was nothing for it but
to put her at it, and finding we were making little way,
we dragged her into a little bay, where we found very
fair shelter, and next day (i5th) got into Drontheim.
"Between calms, currents, and headwinds, it took
us to the 22d to get to the west fiord between the
Lofodens and the mainland, and we are now sailing
along with a fair wind. The scenery all the morning
has been very grand black scraggy mountains with
sharp peaks of every conceivable shape and form
rising from one to three thousand feet out of the fiord,
which is about a mile wide. All the valleys and
crevices are filled with snow, which has hardly begun
to melt at all yet. The sky is all clouded and wild-look-
ing, which keeps up the sombre character of the scene,
and the wind off the snow makes one's teeth chatter.
" Suddenly the fiord takes a turn, so that the sides
of the hills are exposed to the sun, and the whole
scene is changed as if by magic hardly a vestige of
snow to be seen. The hills sloping up from the water
are clothed with the bright green of the young birch
first-rate-looking covert! A cascade here and there
drains off the water from the snow that is melting.
MOSQUITOES! 149
On the top of the hill a settlement of wooden houses,
a church, and the parson's house complete the
contrast.
" We got into the Arctic Circle on the longest day
of the year, and, had we had a clear horizon, would
have seen the sun just dip and rise again.
"At Hammerfest by the 27th, after which a dead
beat brought us to the Sorroe Sund. Here we had
to go out to sea, and on coming in again two whales
came about us. One came close alongside, and then,
getting frightened, tried to dive under us, but missed
his reckoning and came such a bump against our keel !
shaking the vessel fore and aft.
" i \th July.
" The end of our voyage. On the evening of the
4th we got to the Kloster Fiord, into which the Pasvig
river runs, at the mouth of which we are now lying,
and, getting into the gig, pulled up the river to call on
Mr. Klerk. His house lies about two miles upstream.
He is the great man of the district 'lens man' ; and,
so far as we can see, nearly the only man in it king
and subject all in one. He is quite a gentleman in
manner, and was eight years in the copper mines at
Alten, where he learned English. He has a very snug
sort of settlement, the only one within miles. He
gave us every information about the fishing, which had
only just begun, and we got back on board about
I I P.M.
" The mosquitoes were dreadful ! As the evening
was close, we found them in possession of every cabin,
although we are anchored at some distance from the
shore. One could only get peace either in a cloud of
tobacco-smoke or under the mosquito-curtains. The
accounts we heard of them were certainly not exag-
ISO ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
gerated. They are not so bad in other parts of
Norway as they are here ; indeed we met hardly
any till we got round the North Cape, and it is
a well-known fact that the farther north you go
(short of course of the ice-fields), the worse they
are.
" On the 6th we opened our fishing campaign,
breakfasted at eight, and pulled up in the gig to
Klerk's, towing the dingy after us. Picked him up
and pulled on up the river, the fishing-part of which
does not extend more than a mile above Klerk's house,
as there you come to a fall up which the salmon cannot
get. In the pools and rapids immediately below it lies
our ground.
" The first day I was unlucky and killed nothing.
H. killed four one over forty Ibs., all over twenty Ibs.
I fish out of the dingy, the others off the shore. Next
day we went earlier to work. I killed four. Between
us we killed twelve, and one grilse.
" I cannot call the climate pleasant, at least so far
as our present experience of it goes. If the wind is
southerly or the sun shining, it is a great deal hotter
than the Mediterranean and the mosquitoes swarm.
If a northerly wind, it is cold enough for flannel shirts
and the warmest coats, even though you may be work-
ing hard, thrashing with a heavy salmon -rod, and
sometimes there are two or three of these changes in
a day.
" I don't think we have much prospect of shooting.
Ptarmigan, white grouse, and black game exist, but in
no very great number, and do not come in till after the
frost and snow set in, when they come to feed upon
the birch-pips.
" The scenery is nothing particular. The hills are
xni THE RUSSIAN LAPPS 151
rocky and abrupt, but not high, and covered with
birch-scrub wherever there is any soil. Inland, I
believe, it is flat and swampy, with pine-forests.
" Seals are almost a myth. On the whole voyage
we have only seen four or five. Our fishing-ground is
in Russian Lapland, not in Norway. We cross the
frontier every day we go to fish. On one bank of the
river there is a Lapp settlement a lot of huts built of
logs, and a log chapel with some pictures and candles
in it. The Russian Lapps are of the Greek Church.
The whole population are down on the sea-coast fishing,
and we have availed ourselves of their absence to
appropriate one hut, where we have luncheon, and into
which we retreat when the day is calm and the mos-
quitoes unbearable. Then we shut the door, light a
fire of sticks, and keep our eyes shut till the smoke is
gone.
"\lthjuly.
" We have been fishing every day except two since
the nth, and up to yesterday evening have, among us
three, killed seventy-seven salmon, weighing one thou-
sand seven hundred and ten Ibs., which gives an
average of twenty-two Ibs. for each fish. H. has as
yet killed the largest forty Ibs. I come next to him
with a thirty-six pounder. I have to keep the ship
with my rod, as the others give all their fish to Klerk,
and I try to lay in a store of dried fish for the voyage
home. It is impossible to get meat here. We have
been able to get only two lambs.
"Since writing the above I have had the best day's
fishing I ever had, or, I suppose, ever will have. I
killed eight salmon, weighing one hundred and sixty-
six Ibs., to my own rod.
152 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xm
" Our salmon bag is now made up, and, between
us three, shows one hundred and twenty-three salmon,
weighing two thousand six hundred and ninety-three
Ibs., average twenty-one Ibs., which is not bad at
least for unsophisticated people who are used to Irish
rivers."
[In the following year, the result of another short
season of ten days was, to Mr. Kavanagh's rod alone,
thirty-nine salmon, average weight twenty Ibs. three-
quarters per day. Total weight eight hundred and
twelve Ibs.]
CHAPTER XIV
GaAacrcra K\v^ec Travra T' o.v6p(air<av KO.KO..
EUR. /. T. 1201.
The sea-wave washes down all man's annoys.
BUT the outdoor pleasure that survived all others was
the life afloat.
From 1857 he always kept a yacht, and in 1860 he
built one himself a schooner of one hundred and
thirty tons which he christened the Eva, after his
eldest daughter, who bore that historic name.
Every year he made a short cruise, except when a
more distant voyage had to be undertaken for a special
reason, such as the health of his eldest boy Walter,
which had caused Mrs. Kavanagh and himself the
deepest anxiety, aggravated by what proved to be a
needlessly alarming medical report. On this sorrow-
he wrote to his wife a most touching letter, which may
here be given, as it preceded the winter cruise in the
Mediterranean prescribed by Sir William Jenner :
" I am very sorry, my own dearest, that you should
write in so sad a mood, although I cannot wonder at
it. The dreadful anxiety completely knocked me
down. . . . It is very hard to place one's whole trust
and confidence in God. I do not think the trust you
should try to feel is that God will avert anything, but
154 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
to trust implicitly that what He orders is for the best ;
to feel that He is your nearest, dearest, firmest friend ;
that when you are in trouble you can, as it were, put
your hand out, and lean on His Almighty arm sure
that He is both able and willing to help you in every
time of need. This alone can take the sting from
earthly sorrow ; but it does take it indeed ! Had I
not felt it, I would not say so. So try to feel it,
dearest Fuz feel that Walter has a Father in Him
who watches over him day and night, and without
whose leave a hair of his head cannot fall. Trust
implicitly in His mercy.
" Do not think that I am canting or that what I
say is hypocrisy. Inconsistent as I am, I do feel in
my heart that God hears my prayers. I have often
been startled at their being so quickly answered, and
sometimes so literally. I try to pray for every little
thing that I want, and when sometimes the very thing
came, or happened unexpectedly trivial as it might
be I could not help thinking that it was sent as an
encouragement.
" One of the greatest comforts is to feel that God
sees every thought of one's heart. He knows the
frailty of one's nature, and in His mercy forgives the
bad, while the faintest shortest prayer breathed, or
even felt in the heart, is seen also seldom though it
be. I cannot express exactly what I mean, but I
often feel that it is so, and I think that the feeling
increases one's trust in God. The ' dreadful anxiety '
was almost unbearable until that feeling of trust began
to come again, and,' as I prayed, it strengthened until
I believed that in His never- failing mercy He had
again heard me. I still think and believe He has
for Jesus Christ's sake. ' Whatsoever thou shaltask in
xiv "CRUISE OF THE EVA" 155
My name, I will give it,' is a promise, although centuries
old, as strong and sure as the day it was made. May
we all feel it !
" I don't want to preach, dearest ; but I do some-
times feel really what I have written too seldom
indeed. Inconsistent, proud, often dissatisfied with
what I deem a monotonous life, often forgetful of God,
I still feel that He ' came not to call the righteous but
sinners to repentance.' "
In 1860 the Eva was fitted out for sea, and
started on December ist for Malta. Mrs. Kavanagh
and the two boys went by P. and O. steamer to join
him there, after which the whole party proceeded to
Corfu, and remained in those waters till July 1861.
Again, for Walter's health and also for the shooting
on the Albanian coast, he sailed for Corfu in October
1862, and was joined at Naples by Mrs. Kavanagh and
the children. This voyage lasted till April 1863, and
is described in his Cruise of the Eva. In this book,
written during intervals of the most prosaic county
business, we can feel his " passion for the long lift of
the wave," and admire the thoroughness with which
he had mastered the "mystery" of navigating a vessel
under every vicissitude of sea and sky. No fair-
weather sailor, sharing only the enjoyments though not
the hardships of the life, but taking his regular watches
four hours at night and four hours in the day his
volume teems with practical knowledge such as the
mere amateur yachtsman seldom acquires such, too,
as would not be thrown away on those more kindred
spirits who delight with him in what he calls the " daily
work and progress of sea-going life." "To those," he
adds, " who do take an interest in navigation, in that
science which teaches the mariner with certainty to
156 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
find his way over the trackless deep, there is no lack of
employment, no day which does not bring its own
amount of interest to keep the mind at work. For the
speed and comfort of the voyage certainly, and the
lives and safety of your crew possibly (under God, of
course, for it is He who holds the mighty deep in the
hollow of His hand, and it is at His word the stormy
wind ariseth) depend upon your care, skill, and
judgment.''
Who but a born seafarer, with the rapture of a
poet and the eye of a painter, could have written the
following passage from The Cruise of the Eva, describ-
ing an impromptu race between his own schooner and
a rival of larger tonnage on her way out to Malta ?
" 1.6th November.
" Strong westerly wind, squally, aneroid down to
29.6^. . . . At half-past one the small schooner got
under way, and a little after two we sighted our anchor,
having first tied down a reef in the mainsail and got
our small jib out, as it was blowing fresh. As we
passed the G she was just leaving her berth, but
for some reason she made a tack in the roads, which
gave us a start. Stood on starboard tack till we
could clear Europa Point ; then 'jibe oh,' a critical
job even in a large schooner when it is blowing hard ;
and in this case it nearly cost us a man, as he stupidly
got foul of the mainsheet as it came over. I thought
at least his leg was broken, but he providentially
escaped with rather a sore bruise.
"The G came round the Point about ten
minutes after us, and, making a shorter reach, jibbed
to windward of us. We then fell to work, hoisted the
Evas rags, set square sail and foresail ; but the
A YACHT RACE 157
G got her sails quicker than we did, and no
doubt overhauled us. The squalls came heavily off the
Rock, convincing me, if I had a doubt, that the trysail,
and not the mainsail, is the canvas for a schooner
running when it is blowing heavily. . . .
"In the present instance we could not, for the
honour of the Eva, have shortened sail, as long as
our adversary carried all hers. So we drove her into
it, and merrily she went, skimming over the huge
waves like a bird ; now on the top of a regular stunner,
flying through the water like a racehorse ; then slower,
as he passed on under her bows and her stern sank
into the deep leaden-coloured valley, waiting for the
next ; and he was an angry chap, but superbly beautiful
in his anger such an exquisite emerald hue as the
declining rays of the old sun made through his bristling
crest as he topples over, looking as if he must break
upon our cross-trees ! But no ! She was not inclined
to try that game. Quick as thought, she was on his
top when, in his baffled rage, with a deafening roar, he
broke about her main channels. On ! on ! again as
if exulting in her victory and showing her wild joy by
her mad race through a sheet of creaming, seething
foam, forward she went, surmounting the highest tops,
frustrating the worst efforts ; her deck as dry as a chip,
save for the frothy particles of foam that the increasing
wind carried from the billows' broken tops. The little
dear ! How I wish I was on her deck now I
"By this time the G had caught us up and
was on our broadside, and here began the real race.
For more than an hour we sailed neck and neck. It
was a pretty sight, for it was a fair sea-going race :
none of your large jibs ; none of your big topsails ; but
blowing a gale of wind, the whole sea covered with
I 5 8 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
ragged streaky foam, the beautiful range of the Sierra
Nevada in the distance, with its snow-capped ridge
gilded by the rays of the now setting sun ; and these
two frail-looking vessels, defying the rage of the
elements, each to outvie the other. The G , fair
reader, is, I think, as pretty a yacht as I would wish
to see ; and I would not deserve the name of even half
a sailor, if I did not love and admire my own !
"It now came on to blow harder. ' Up main tack,
ease down the throat and peak halyards a foot or so ! '
This manoeuvre eased her considerably, and we began
to draw ahead. We had arranged before we started
that at eight o'clock we were to show a light each, to
determine our relative positions then. Accordingly
as eight bells went, we showed our light, and had the
satisfaction of being answered by our adversary well
astern !"
In this rapid, glowing, picturesque style, none the
less enjoyable for its lack of all literary pretension, we
are made to accompany the Eva as she skims the
Mediterranean to Palermo, where the recent annexation
of the Two Sicilies to the kingdom of Italy is shrewdly
commented on, and thence to Naples, where Mrs.
Kavanagh and the children came on board. Quitting
the blue bay beneath the burning mountain, they thread
Scylla and Charybdis, and drop anchor in Corfiote
waters, when the yachtsman on the high seas becomes
the keen indefatigable sportsman in the happy hunting-
grounds of Albania.
The book has long been out of print, and this
might tempt me to extract from it some of the charm-
ing descriptions of coast scenery, of mountaineer life,
of nature in her varied flora and fauna as they were
scanned by the inner and outer eye of an observer
xiv THE ALBANIAN SHEEP-DOG 159
whom nothing escaped. But I must limit myself to
one or two more instances of the mingled sagacity and
fun that enliven its pages:
"The Albanian dogs are without exception as fine
a race of animals as I have ever come across. Large,
powerful, savage and half-wild, they are most formidable
assailants ; indeed, their attacks are the greatest danger
one has to encounter in Albanian shooting : even in
self-defence you dare not kill them, as their lives are
rated far above a man's. If you shot an Albanian, you
might get into a row, no doubt, but if you shot a dog
you would never hear the end of it it would be foolish
to trust yourself in the same region again ; and when
one comes to consider how the shepherds are situated,
one cannot wonder that they prize their four-footed
allies so highly. Without them, the wolves, jackals, and
foxes would very soon leave the shepherd a Flemish
account of his flock ; and yet under the guardianship
of these fine dogs I don't think the denizens of the
jungle often get a taste of mutton, even in the lambing-
season.
" I have seen a whole flock of sheep with their
young lambs left in the middle of a jungle, solely and
entirely in charge of these dogs ; perhaps twelve or
fifteen dogs guarding two hundred sheep, and well
they reward the trust reposed in them. They post
themselves at various distances, forming a circle round
their charge, and woe betide the stranger, be he man
or beast, that dares to molest them.
" I am very fond of dogs, and these noble fellows
excited my admiration immensely. I remember watch-
ing one hoary patriarch sitting at his post, the very
picture of an old fellow who had pursued his dog-path
through life uprightly and fearlessly. The scars and
160 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KA VANAGH CHAP.
cuts about his noble head spoke of many a bloody
battle, of many a hard-fought field. I am sure, if we
only knew how he came by them, they would have
been as clasps and medals and Victoria Crosses to the
old hero. He seemed, while he sat thinking, as if his
mind had wandered back to the adventures and scenes
of his past life, which now, in all dog-probability, was
near its close. He was disturbed from his reverie by
a little lamb staggering up to him and falling against
his shaggy side. He turned his great head round and
looked at the little beast, licking his old chops as much
as to say, ' I should like awfully to eat you, but I am
in honour bound to defend you ; ' and to avoid tempta-
tion he got up and stalked away. Our chaps came up
at the time, and as if to prove the good faith of his
promise to the lamb, he went at them with all his
might. Pick up a stone, of which they have a most
wholesome dread, and show a fearless front, and they
are not difficult to keep off.
" Sometimes, however, if you are alone, they will
charge home, and then it does become serious. I
have known of some severe accidents to happen, and
have heard of many more. One officer who was with
us was bitten twice, and so badly too that each time
he was laid up for nearly three weeks. A reverend
gentleman from the garrison also came in for a maul-
ing ; and ill-natured folks said that the dogs did not
approve of clergymen shooting. Another son of Mars,
although he was not hurt, came in for rather an unplea-
sant and ridiculous adventure. He was shooting in
some place about Santa Quoranta, when coming, alone
as he thought, upon a tempting- looking river, he
determined (the day being hot) upon having a bath.
Accordingly he peeled off his clothes, leaving them,
xiv HIS SKILL IN PHOTOGRAPHY 161
naturally, on the brink with his gun, and proceeded
to enjoy himself. He had not, however, been long
paddling about when two savages, in the shape of two
Albanian dogs, came down upon him. The water
proved his protection, as they would not face it, but
they took precious good care he should not come out,
and posted themselves accordingly as sentinels over
his clothes. How long he was kept there I do not
know, nor will I vouch for the truth of the report that
it was the women out of the village that rescued him,
but so I have been told."
The enjoyment of the wild life in Albania was not
restricted to the sportsmen. The ladies also had their
share of it, as Mrs. Kavanagh pleasantly narrates :
"We all liked the climate of Corfu, and the
sport on the opposite shore of Albania afforded
Arthur the keenest pleasure, in which we all parti-
cipated, accompanying him as far as was possible, and
when tired either resting on the ground or climbing
into one of the splendid ilex trees with which that
country abounds, where, out of sight and scent of the
game, we often saw far more than the sportsmen. The
interest of watching the wild animals when they fancied
themselves unobserved was unfailing, and the return in
the evening to the yacht was always pleasant. An
excellent well -cooked dinner awaited us, and then
music (which Arthur always passionately loved) closed
the day."
A favourite amusement of his was photography,
which he acquired before the days of prepared plates,
and when it was far less common than it is now. On
this expedition he often proved his skill in the art
now taking a group of Albanian women in their pic-
turesque costume now a view of some lovely land-
M
162 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xiv
locked bay now of an imposing ship of the line at
anchor all of them even now unfaded, while many of
them reproduced in chromo-lithography form the
illustrations of The Cruise of the Eva.
The annexation of the Ionian Islands to Greece
was at that time contemplated, and he, like so many
others, felt it hard to acquiesce in a policy that gave
that lovely group into foreign keeping. His prophetic
fear was realised that, when on the 7th of March they
left Corfu, they would never more see the Union Jack
waving from the citadel.
The delightful holiday so much enjoyed was
brought to a somewhat premature close by bad news
from Ireland the first distant rumbling of the coming
storm : " Tenants were getting rusty because they
could not enjoy their idea of tenant-right, which would
seem to be living rent-free on their farms, and being
supported as well."
And so the Eva set sail again for home, and 1 7th
April saw " the old ship anchored in Irish waters."
Then once more the harness was put on, and bravely
worn with never again so long a respite till the
end.
CHAPTER XV
Servetur ad imum
Quails ab incepto processerit et sibi constet.
HOR. A. P. 126.
Be thus maintained the part :
The close shall be consistent with the start.
THE time had now come for him to take his proper
place before the world. His experience of local and
county business qualified him for the larger sphere
that Parliament offered, and opportunity only was
needed.
That opportunity seemed ripe in 1862, when a
vacancy occurred in the representation of the County
Carlow. His wish then to come forward as a candi-
date was very strong, but, as Mrs. Kavanagh writes,
he received no encouragement, and refrained from
putting himself in nomination. "With the deepest
regret," she continues, " I have to acknowledge that I
used all my influence to keep him back. It seemed to
me that, accustomed as he was to a life of constant
exercise in the open air, the confinement of Parlia-
ment would be most injurious to him. How little
one can judge for others ! There is no doubt that the
thirteen years he subsequently sat in the House were
the happiest of his life."
Yet how well prepared he was for the great arena
164 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
of politics, and how thoroughly he understood its
qualifications, may be inferred from the speech he made
on the hustings in July of that year when proposing
Captain Denis Pack Beresford, who had come forward
in his stead to represent the county. And that he not
only understood but also possessed those qualifica-
tions, his whole subsequent life, both in and out of
Parliament, sufficiently proved. In this light the
speech itself will not be without interest, setting forth
as it does, though incidentally, his own aims and views.
Mr. Kavanagh said :
" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen I beg leave to
propose Denis William Pack Beresford, Esq., as a
fit and proper person to represent this county in
Parliament.
"He has come forward at the request of the gentry
and constituency of this county, and the only sorrow I
feel is that he has not found some person better fitted
to introduce him to you.
" From his address, you are already aware that he
comes forward on Conservative principles. You have
read the address, and it is unnecessary for me to
explain those principles to you.
" I believe that it is usual for candidates on coming
forward on an occasion of this kind to explain their
political opinions and give pledges of their political
conduct, but I shall tell you what is more satisfactory
than any pledges or explanations the precedent of the
past.
"He has been amongst us eight years. You have
seen him fulfil all the duties of his station as a magis-
trate, a landlord, a grand juror, and a Poor Law
guardian, and the many other duties of a country
gentleman. It is from the manner in which these are
xv HIS POLITICAL CREED 165
performed that we can estimate a man's character and
judge of his mode of action in scenes of a higher
kind.
" It is an old and hackneyed saying that property
has its duties as well as its rights (hear, hear). The
duties of a landlord in this country are far from trivial.
His responsibilities are great in many ways, and the.
duties he has to perform are very numerous, for the
care of his tenantry and the poor, the increase of in-
dustry, and the suppression of crime, are all objects of
a landlord's attention (hear). It is a fact that when
the influence is extensive the responsibilities are com-
mensurate. From him to whom much is given, much
will be required.
"Captain Beresford has fulfilled all the duties of
his station conscientiously a fact which I can bear
witness to, as his property lies adjacent to mine. That
he has cared for the poor and forwarded his tenants'
interests, not only I but many persons can bear wit-
ness to. It is to these facts that I refer to prove that
with the same conscientiousness and diligence which
he has shown in a private sphere he will fulfil and
discharge the duties you will this day entrust him with
(cheers).
" I know that it is customary to expect or ask of
candidates on the hustings, political pledges. I am
certain that what the present candidate pledges him-
self to do he will perform, but nevertheless I propose
to send him free and unbound (loud cheers). I would
ask him to lay aside all party feelings (prolonged
cheering), to consider each measure proposed, and
advocate or reject it as he thinks fit. I would leave
his conduct to his own sense of right and justice (loud
cheers). I would ask him to seek grace from Above
1 66 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
to guide him as to the way that he should act, and I
cannot leave him with a more friendly wish than that
he may find that grace to guide him as to what he
ought to do and give him strength to do it " (loud
cheers).
By the spirit of this political creed his whole life
was guided, both public and private. By it he may
be judged.
In 1866 the opportunity at length arrived for him
to carry his principles into the parliamentary arena,
and they will be seen to have actuated him in debate
at St. Stephen's as well as in the routine of home
duties.
The sitting member for the County Wexford, Mr.
George, Q.C., was appointed a judge in the Court of
Queen's Bench, and the representation of the county
thus vacated, was proposed to him in the way described
to me by Mr. Sweetman, whose words I cannot do
better than quote :
"In the Board-room [of the New Ross Poorhouse]
there happened to be present three or four leading
ex-officio guardians who, after the transaction of busi-
ness, fell to discussing among themselves who would
be a suitable candidate for Mr. George's seat. I went
over to them and said :
"'You want a candidate ? You need not go far
for one. 1
" And on my mentioning their chairman :
" 'Oh,' said they, 'he would not consent.'
" I replied :
" ' If an influential deputation will wait on him and
explain matters, I will undertake that he will consent.
But he will not otherwise come forward.'
" They at once grasped at the idea and went into
xv M.P. FOR COUNTY W EX FORD 167
the town to consult others. Meanwhile I privately
mentioned to Mr. Kavanagh what they were about to
do."
The deputation in due course waited on him and
received his consent to contest the county, which he
did, and was returned at the head of the poll against
Mr. (now Sir John) Pope Hennessy, the numbers
being 4523, and Mr. Kavanagh's majority 759.
About that time many changes of vital import for
Ireland were looming on the horizon, and from the
first his attitude with respect to them showed that
he fully gauged their grave significance.
Some months after his election to Parliament the
long unsettled state of Ireland had culminated in the
Fenian rising, and so great and widespread through
the country was the feeling of uneasiness, that he
thought it prudent to put the old house in readiness to
stand if need were another siege. Night by night,
as in the rebellion of '48, he would ride out alone to
watch the secret drilling and manoeuvres of the in-
surgents, and thus get some insight into their strength
and probable movements. He was no alarmist, but
his intimate knowledge gained at first hand of the
country and of the people enabled him to interpret
the signs of the times ; and how loyally he strove to
sound the note of warning often to deaf ears will
be seen farther on. None knew this better than the
rebels themselves, and, as his coming on horseback
was naturally easy of discovery, his approach would
be signalled from hill to hill long before he could
reach their semi-military gatherings.
"Wonderful as was his riding in the hunting-field,"
says Mrs. Kavanagh, " where, as all know, excitement
inspires both man and horse, it was as nothing to that
1 68 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
on these lonely nocturnal expeditions across a country
which any one accustomed only to an English sporting-
county would regard with horror."
During his representation of the County Wexford,
which lasted till November 1868, he was, as far as
speech-making went, a silent member, but all the time
he was quietly preparing himself for the future by the
careful study of the procedure of the House and its
then mode of conducting business.
To his exertions at this time, it may here be stated,
is due the revival of the. privilege formerly enjoyed by
members of the House of Commons of having their
yachts moored in the river under the House itself. Of
this privilege he availed himself session after session,
to secure on the "silent highway" a little rest and
recreation, doubly welcome after the heated and stormy
atmosphere of many an Irish debate.
Attendance in Parliament kept him much in
London during that year, except for an occasional run
down to Lymington. In August, however, he took a
real holiday, and went in the Eva for a cruise round
the coast of Holland. On his return he crossed from
Antwerp, but before starting he was witness of the
terrible conflagration that on the night of i4th Sep-
tember broke out among the shipping.
In a letter to Mrs. Kavanagh written the following
day he describes the scene :
ANTWERP, i$th September 1868.
" Last night we came in for a splendid fire. Three
'schuites' [that is, barges, varying in size up to 1000
tons], loaded with petroleum, lying alongside the quay,
took fire about a quarter before eleven. For an hour
they burned as petroleum only can burn. It was a
xv GREAT FIRE AT ANTWERP 169
grand sight flames that lit up the entire town and
river, and the volumes of black smoke that hung with
inky density higher than our masts. It was just at
the young flood that they took fire. I don't think we
had swung up the river half an hour, consequently the
schuites themselves with their crowd of unhappy
neighbours were all hard and fast in the ground,
unable to move, and it seems almost a miracle that
every one of them was not destroyed. However, as
the tide rose, between tug steamers, warping, pushing,
and screeching, they got them off and sent them adrift
up the river.
"In the meantime they had got two powerful
steam fire-engines to play upon the burning mass, not
knowing that thereby they were only making matters
worse. Of course you know that, in the late experi-
ments on this rock oil, it has been clearly proved that
a jet of steam is required to create perfect combustion
which their stream of water at once supplied.
Before, although a fearful fire, it ,was lurid and heavy,
mingled with dense clouds of smoke. The instant
the jet of water touched it the red smoky glow was
changed as if by magic into a clear, vivid blue, shoot-
ing almost to the sky.
" The wind had been blowing off the shore, rather
towards us. Just then it changed, or rather a gust
came from the opposite side and blew the flames on to
the shore, on which there were, I suppose, over one
hundred barrels more petroleum, besides bales upon
bales of cotton, and half Antwerp, with eyes and
mouths wide open, gazing in petrified horror.
" For a minute I certainly did think the whole
business was in a blaze. Providentially, the wind
changed again. If what was on the quay had
i;o ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
ignited, I am sure hundreds of lives would have
been lost.
" Meantime the schuites had burned down to the
water's edge, and, the tide rising fast, we supposed
that the whole thing would have been over. Every
minute small globules of fire became detached and
floated towards us, first one or two, then hundreds, till
the whole river looked spangled very pretty, such a
curious sight ! but not pleasant in a ship built of
wood.
"At last the tide got into the burning hulls, but,
instead of putting them out, it floated the entire mass
of blazing oil out of them, and up the tide it came like
a great burning island, with flames eight to ten feet
high, blazing, roaring, and hissing in the water. Then
there was a general scurry ; all were taken by surprise ;
so anchors were slipped, warps cut, and all drifted
away where they could.
"A large iron steamer from Grimsby, laden with
coal, was the first. Fortunate it was she was not
wood, and they managed to cut her adrift before her
cargo ignited, or we should have had another style of
fuel added to the general blaze. She divided the fire ;
part came out and up the middle, the other part inside
and under a landing -pier formed of wooden posts,
which I need hardly tell you was in a blaze in two
minutes, and demolished before much longer. How-
ever, this was providential, for that part of the oil got
hung to the posts and things and was burnt out with-
out moving, whereas, had it gone on, it would have
swept the whole length of the quay, with five or six
large steamers besides smaller vessels.
"The other island of flame that came outside
concerned us more. Fortunately we were anchored
xv M.P. FOR COUNTY CARLOW 171
well over the other side of the river, so there was no
actual danger of its touching us, but, about fifty yards
on our own quarter, there was an American barque,
about 1000 tons, discharging petroleum into a schuite
alongside her, right in line of the drift. Up it came,
and, right between their two bows, went the burning
mass. That was a bit exciting, for, if the barque had
caught fire, I don't think we should have been burnt,
but roasted, to death. They cut away everything, and
away went the schuite surrounded with fire. As she
paid off round the barque's stern she caught fire, her
petroleum ignited, and there was another fearful
blaze.
"About thirty yards above the barque there was
another schuite riding at anchor, laden with apples.
Athwart her hawse came the one that had last caught
fire. In a moment she was in flames, and, her rope-
mooring being burnt through, they all drove up
together, and we lost sight of them round the turn of
the river. In all, five schuites and the wooden pier
were burnt no lives lost.
" The river this morning is literally covered with
roast apples ! "
[In the General Election of 1868 he was, on the i8th
November, returned along with Mr. Bruen, unopposed,
for the County Carlow. United by ties of family and
friendship, as well as of party, the two colleagues, in
and out of Parliament, worked in perfect harmony
together "model members for the Model County"
until April 1880.]
CHAPTER XVI
Quid referam ingenium magnaeque capacia curas
Pectora, custodem depositique fidem ?
Eloquiumque potens mandatis addere pondus,
Comere res tenues, promere difficiles ?
BUCHANANI Epigr. ii. 20.
So full of purpose was his heart and head,
So true his conscience to the trust imposed,
His words but added weight to all he said
The trite ennobled, the obscure disclosed.
e Hro6 fj.lv MeveAaos eTTiTpo^dS-rjv ayopevev,
TLavpa fj,fv d\Xa fj.d\a Aiyews, 7Tt ov 7ro\
OvS' a^a/xa/JToeTrrys, ^ Kai yevet va-repos ?yei/.
HOM. //. iii. 213
When Atreus' son harangu'd the list'ning train,
Just was his sense, and his expression plain,
His words succinct, yet full, without a fault ;
He spoke no more than just the thing he ought.
POPE.
IT was not till ;th April 1869 that Mr. Kavanagh
intervened in debate. Even through the several
stages of the Bill for the Disestablishment and Dis-
endowment of the Church in Ireland he had done little
more than record his vote against the measure, though
few were better able, from knowledge personal and
historical, to place the defence of the Church on its
true vantage-ground. But he preferred to leave that
honourable task to others older and more experienced,
CHAP, xvi HIS MAIDEN SPEECH 173
if not more competent, whom he had certainly assisted
in private, as he steadily supported them in public.
On the above date the Poor Law (Ireland)
Amendment Bill came on for second reading a
Bill to procure for Ireland one of two things: either
the old English law of settlement and removal, or
the new English law of union chargeability. The
second reading having been moved by Mr. M'Mahon
(M.P. for New Ross), who said the Bill was identical
with that which had been introduced by Mr. Sergeant
Barry (Solicitor-General for Ireland), Mr. Bruen, Mr.
Kavanagh's colleague in the representation of County
Carlow, moved as an amendment that the Bill be read
a second time that day six months. After Mr. Knight
and Mr. Synan had spoken in a similar sense, Mr.
Kavanagh delivered his maiden speech, the circum-
stances of which were so vividly described in the Star,
Mr. John Bright's organ (then conducted by Mr. John
Morley), that I shall give the ipsissima verba of the
reporter, since known to have been Mr. Edward A.
Russell, afterwards Member of Parliament, and now
editor of the Liverpool Daily Post :
"In the debate upon Mr. M'Mahon's Bill, which
proposes to apply the principle of union chargeability
with respect to the Poor-rate to Ireland, the heaviness
with which the discussion hung upon the House was
relieved by the peculiar interest which the maiden
speech of Mr. A. M'M. Kavanagh, one of the
members for Carlow County, excited. Seldom has
the leader of the Government or Opposition been
listened to with such breathless attention, or had
riveted upon him so steadily the eyes of all his hearers,
as was the case with Mr. Kavanagh. Although the
hon. member for Wexford County had on a few occa-
174 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
sions placed notices on the paper, and duly put his
questions to ministers, he did not, up to the close of
the 1868 session, address the House, nor had he done
so in the new Parliament as Member for Carlow
County until last Wednesday.
"When the House had been for some two hours
listening rather lazily to the familiar and combative
utterances of some three or four representatives from
Ireland, one of the latter sat down, after delivering
himself upon Union chargeability, and half a dozen
other Irish members started to their legs, straining
their necks to catch the eye of Mr. Speaker. But the
right hon. gentleman in the chair, quietly nodding
towards the Opposition benches said, ' Mr. Kavanagh.'
" The effect of the words was electrical, and in an
instant every eye in the House was turned towards the
back seat, almost under the gallery, where the hon.
member for Carlow sat, cool and collected, his papers
arranged before him on his hat, and his face turned
towards the chair.
" Opening his views in clear, well-chosen language,
the hon. gentleman dived into his subject, and, in the
course of a speech of some twelve minutes' duration,
exhibited an intimate knowledge of the question under
discussion which, as an extensive Irish landowner, he
would naturally possess, placing before the House his
own experiences of the working of the Poor Law
electoral system, and taking this comprehensive view
of the Bill before the House : that it was only a frac-
tional part of that larger and more important question
which the Government should deal with, viz. national
taxation.
" To his remarks the Speaker and the Premier
[Mr. Gladstone], especially the latter, paid great atten-
xvi HIS MAIDEN SPEECH 175
tion, and as the hon. member took off the upper sheet
of his notes of reference from his hat and applied himself
to the next slip, encouraging cheers came from every
part of the House.
" At the conclusion of his speech Mr. Kavanagh
was loudly cheered.
"Judging by the matter of his first address, and
the manner in which it was received, it may reasonably
be predicted that Mr. Kavanagh, who belongs consti-
tutionally to that type of men which wins in public
life, the men with the large heads, deep chests, and
faces full of force, will be often heard with advantage
in the House of Commons."
Though dealing with a somewhat dry subject, a
speech that won from the opposite side such generous
eulogy, to say nothing of the cordial appreciation of
the Speaker, will be read even now with interest, and
I give it as it appears in Hansard.
Mr. Kavanagh said: "That he supported the
amendment of his hon. colleague (Mr. Bruen) that this
Bill be read a second time that day six months,
because he thought the subject of Union rating was.
merely a portion of that far larger question of national
taxation which was so ably brought before the House
a few weeks before by the hon. baronet the member
for South Devon (Sir Massey Lopes), and because he
held that the principle of this measure was unjust unless
it were considered in conjunction with that larger
question.
" He understood the First Lord of the Treasury
to promise on that night that, when other questions
which he regarded as of more importance had been
disposed of, the attention of Her Majesty's Ministers
should be directed to the consideration of that subject.
1 76 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
When that occurred he hoped that the taxation of
Ireland in that respect would not be excluded from
their deliberations. '
" He was quite aware that this subject of national
taxation was now before the House, and he would not,
therefore, further refer to it than by saying that in his
opinion it was a very great injustice that landed pro-
perty alone was held liable for the reliet of the poor.
" So far as he could gather, there were three main
arguments used in support of the principle of this Bill
first, that the principle had been adopted in Eng-
land, and should, therefore, be applied to Ireland ;
secondly, that Union rating would remove the en-
couragement which electoral rating held out to land-
lords to clear their properties of the labouring classes,
lest they should be taxed for their support ; and,
thirdly, that the high rates on town electoral divisions,
as compared with rural electoral divisions, were mainly
due to the influx of the pauper population so cleared
off the estates of the landlords.
"With respect to the first argument, his hon.
colleague had sufficiently disposed of it ; but he must
be allowed to say that it was with no small surprise
that he heard their argument used by hon. members
opposite, whose general cry was that no analogy
existed between the two countries, and who claimed
legislation of the most exceptional sort for Ireland.
Without going further, he need only refer on this point
to the Irish Church Bill, and to speeches from hon.
members .opposite about the Irish land question.
"As regarded the second argument, he would say
that if it were applicable in times past, it was not so
now. He could not remember the year 1838, when
or in 1839, he believed the Poor Law Act came first
xvi HIS MAIDEN SPEECH 177
into force in Ireland, nor could he from his own per-
sonal knowledge say much about the famine or those
terrible years that succeeded it. He believed, how-
ever, that it was dire necessity, and not the landlords,
that drove the people into the towns from the rural
districts. They fled from their dwellings, where
pestilence was rife, and starvation stared them in the
face, into the towns, where food was to be had. He
had both heard and read the accounts of those who
were engaged in endeavouring to alleviate the suffer-
ings of those unfortunate people, and from them he
gathered that the difficulties they experienced arose,
not so much from want of money, as from the almost
impossibility of conveying the food to the starving
multitude who were scattered about. The natural
consequence was that the survivors flocked into the
towns and workhouses, where the food was to be
obtained. But he thanked God such was not the
present state of affairs, and he firmly believed that, so
far from this argument being now applicable to Ire-
land, the present tendency was for landed proprietors
to build dwelling-houses and encourage labourers to
settle on their estates, for in many places the want of
labour had begun to be seriously felt.
" The third argument was the consequence of the
second, and if the one were not applicable, the other,
which was based upon it, could have no force.
" For argument's sake, however, he would admit
that an increase in the rates of a town electoral divi-
sion was caused by the influx of the labouring class
to obtain employment. If such were the case, he
would ask, was not the very temptation which the
town afforded these people to come into it a very
substantial proof of its comparative prosperity ? Did
N
178 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
the town owe none of this prosperity to the district in
which it was situated ? Was it not the centre of trade
to that district, the market where the produce of the
land was sold, the mart where the occupiers of the
land obtained their different supplies, by which the trade
of the town was created and maintained ? Did the
inhabitants of the town possess no advantages over
the country farmer ? Was not the value of his pro-
perty in the town electoral division enhanced by its
situation to an extent more than sufficient to counter-
balance the high rating he complained of?
" The clearest way to come at the truth of this
was to analyse the two cases. Suppose a man living
in a town electoral division to be owner of three acres
of land, representing a value in the Ordnance valuation
of 2 per acre, for which, on account of its vicinity to
the town, and its consequently increased value, he
received a rent of ^3 per acre, and suppose that the
poor-rates which he had to pay were at the rate of
43. 6d. in the pound on his Ordnance valuation,
amounting to i : 75. on his three acres. Then, on
the other hand, suppose another man in a rural dis-
trict, also the owner of three acres, of exactly the
same description and quality, with an Ordnance valua-
tion of ^i per acre, liable to a poor-rate of is. 2d. in
the pound on that valuation, amounting to 35. 6d. on
his three acres, and that he received a rent of i : IDS.
per acre. Which of the two men would be in the
best financial position ? The town-man would receive
out of his three acres a net annual income of ^7 : 133.
The rural man out of his three acres would receive a
net annual income of 4. : 6 : 6. The town-man, there-
fore, after paying all these high rates and 45. 6d. in
the pound was a very high rate would be a richer
xvi HIS MAIDEN SPEECH 179
man by ^3 13:6 annually than the rural inhabitant,
independent of other advantages and they were
many which the owner of land in the vicinity of a
town possessed over a country farmer.
"These were not exceptional cases got up for the
occasion, but simple facts that had come under his
own notice during the fifteen years that he had been
connected with the Board of Guardians in the borough
(New Ross) for which the hon. and learned gentleman
was member.
" Was the town, then, he would ask, only to enjoy
the advantages of its position, and not be responsible
for the drawbacks consequent upon the mixed nature
of its population, and which was by no means due to
the influx of paupers from the country ?
" No one who had any knowledge of these matters
would attempt to deny that there were other causes of
these high rates, with which the rural districts could
have nothing, either directly or indirectly, to do.
"He was sorry to say that the great social evil
occasioned in many town electoral divisions an im-
portant item in taxation.
"Again, if the town were a seaport, a class of
people quite distinct from the rural element flocked in,
and by sickness or other causes became dependent on
the rates.
" Two special cases had been quoted as arguments
in favour of the principle of this measure. One was
the town of Dungarvan, and the other that of Gorey.
"In both cases only a small stream divided the town
electoral division from the rural, and in both of them it
was known that a migration of paupers did occur, and,
by merely crossing these streams, became charge-
able to the town divisions. But he maintained that
180 ARTHUR MACMURROVGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
these two cases were merely cases of boundary, and
ample power existed in the hands of the Poor Law
Commissioners to set those matters right.
"He had, he thought, said enough on the subject
of town versus rural electoral divisions, and he would
now, in a very few words, refer to what he regarded as
a no less important consideration namely, the relative
positions of the rural districts themselves. In some
electoral divisions there were mines, and why should
they impose a tax on the other divisions for the
support of the paupers coming from the mines ?
"He might remark that he did not think that
implicit reliance could be placed in all cases upon the
returns as to the rates in certain districts. The hon.
member for New Ross had stated in his speech that
some years ago there was a poor-rate of 33. 6d. in the
pound charged upon the rural electoral division of Bally-
murphy, while at the same time on the town electoral
division of New Ross the rate was only tenpence in the
pound. He was not in a position, speaking from
memory only, to question the correctness of the statis-
tics which the hon. member had qyoted, but, as the
proprietor of that electoral division of Ballymurphy, of
this he was certain, that he had never applied to the
Board of Guardians of the New Ross Union to relieve
him from that high rate by placing part of it upon
New Ross or any other electoral division in the
union, which was, in fact, the principle of the measure
now before the House.
" Suppose an electoral division owned by an
absentee landlord, who never looked after the poor
upon his property, never tried to give them employ-
ment or to ameliorate their condition, and that this
electoral division has consequently become swamped
xvi HIS MAIDEN SPEECH 181
by a large pauper population, who had come upon the
rates for their support in the way of outdoor relief, and
thereby increased the rating of that division to double
that on another division in the same union where a
resident landlord had looked after his people, built
them houses, and perhaps often pinched himself to
keep them in employment and keep them off the rates.
Now, was it fair that the latter should be taxed for the
shortcomings of the former ?
" The effect of this Act, so far as the rural
divisions were concerned, would be to make pro-
prietors careless about the condition of their poor,
inasmuch as they would cease to be individually
responsible for their support.
" The opinion of the Duke of Wellington had been
already quoted, and it was useless to repeat it. But
of this he was convinced, that a Union-rating Act
would tend to increase the indiscriminate granting of
outdoor relief, which was a very dangerous principle
when carelessly administered.
" When the taxation ceased to be local, and was,
therefore, only indirectly felt, a feeling of mistaken
charity, or a desire of obtaining popularity, might
oftener influence a guardian in obtaining outdoor
relief for those very little poorer than some rate-
payers who might be taxed for their support. It
would also tend to make many guardians careless
about attending. What was everybody's business
was nobody's business, and it would end by putting
increased expense upon the union by necessitating
the appointment of paid guardians to carry on the
business.
"He had great pleasure in supporting the amend-
ment of his hon. friend."
182 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xvi
His speech settled the fate of the Bill, for that
session at any rate, and he had the gratification of
receiving, hastily pencilled on a sheet of notepaper,
the following testimony from the Speaker :
" DEAR SIR I offer you my compliments on the
excellent manner and tone of your speech, which, as
you will see, has made a very favourable impression
on the House. Yours sincerely, J. E. DENISON."
In the lobbies, standing about in groups or passing
out on their way home, members of all parties might
have been heard exchanging the remark repeated
often enough in after years that " the speech of
the night was Kavanagh's."
CHAPTER XVII
Ova.Tu>v TC /cat a&xvcmov
ay ft 8iKcu<3v TO ftia.ioTa.TOV
FIND. ed. Christ. Frag. 28.
King of all things mortal and immortal, Law establishes with
omnipotent hand the supreme constraint of Justice.
Ce n'est ni la force du nombre, ni la puissance populaire, ni la
liberte meme qui doit preValoir : c'est une e*quite" souveraine, analogue
a la Providence divine elle-meme. VILLEMAIN.
There is no Nation of People under the Sun that doth love equal
and indifferent Justice better than the Irish ; or will rest better satisfied
with the Execution thereof, although it be against themselves ; so as
they may have the Protection and Benefit of the Law, when upon just
Cause they do desire it. Sir JOHN DAVIS,
Attorney- General of Ireland under King James I.
MR. KAVANAGH took no part in any debate subse-
quent to that on the Poor Law Rating Bill until 1870,
when the Right Honourable Chichester Fortescue,
Chief Secretary for Ireland, introduced his Peace
Preservation Act.
On this measure his views may be given at some
length, as they will be read with profit in the light of
events which necessitated more stringent legislation.
The scope of the Bill was merely temporary. Its
provisions were to remain operative pending those
1 84 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
remedial measures which were to put an end to the
discontent of which agrarian crime was the expression.
It was carried by an overwhelming majority, which
included supporters of the Opposition as well as of the
Government, and of course Mr. Kavanagh voted for it.
But he did not do so without words of warning, which
history has amply justified. He drew attention to
the fact that no remedial legislation can effect the
slightest diminution of crime when this proceeds from
no sense of wrong on the part of a peasantry
"plundered and oppressed by their landlords," but
from influences arising from the perennial aspiration of
so-called patriots to sever Ireland from Great Britain
plotters who by every art known to the revolutionist
play upon the susceptibilities of the ignorant, the
impressionable, and the impulsive, and treat all such
legislation as but a grudging concession of rights
unjustly withheld.
He asked how it came to pass "that, little more
than a week having elapsed since a measure of an
unquestionably exceptional nature had passed the
second reading, guaranteeing to the Irish peasant
security of tenure, they should now be engaged in
devising means to ensure to the Irish landlord security
of life?"
The necessity for some such measure as that
before the House was, he showed, "unquestionable
and urgent." In his opinion it had only been too long
postponed. But in promising to give it his earnest
support, he could not refrain from glancing at what
appeared to him to be two of the principal causes
which had brought about this present unparalleled
crisis ; they were ceaseless, reckless, unprincipled
agitation, and feebleness and partiality on the part
xvn PEACE PRESERVATION ACT 185
of the Government in their administration of the
law.
Having given as. specimens of the agitation in
question some extracts from incendiary speeches by
Roman Catholic clergymen, he " would ask the Govern-
ment if one man paid, or otherwise incited, another
man to commit a murder, was the former not amen-
able to the law ? Was it less culpable, then, to excite
to a general massacre of an entire class, than to an
individual assassination? If the law as it at present
stood did not give the Government power to take
notice of speeches of that nature, why did they not
seek for that power which Parliament would gladly
give them in this Bill ? But if the present law
did give them the power, why had they not
used it ? "
He asked, if the two reverend agitators had been
ministers of the disestablished Church, would they be
allowed with impunity to incite to such deeds ? " All
he could say was, Heaven forbid they should ! He
was sorry to be obliged to say it, but he believed it
to be true, that such had been the policy of Her
Majesty's Government since they came into office.
The policy of the previous administration in some
cases was very near akin to it. Fenian processions
the noble Earl, now Governor-General of India (the
Earl of Mayo), permitted unnoticed, or nearly so,
while Orange processions were stopped by force, and
their leaders thrown into prison. He was not an
Orangeman. He deprecated, as strongly as any man
could, such processions, or any act calculated to give
offence ; but he did like even-handed justice. With-
out it, those whom they tried to conciliate would scorn
and despise them, and in the minds of those who
1 86 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
suffered from their injustice they raised feelings of
bitter hate.
" He would conclude by asking Her Majesty's
Government gravely to consider the vast importance
of the present crisis, to remember that it was from no
earthly Hand they held the power for weal or woe, and
before more blood was spilt to do justice and fear
not." '
Those impressive words, from the lips of one whose
clear insight into both sides of the complicated Irish
question enabled him to judge it fairly and in a states-
man-like spirit, were not without their effect. But
this, as usual, was evanescent, as the powers conferred
by the Bill were to lapse within a limited period.
While all such legislation has been fitful, the move-
ment it seeks to arrest has been continuous, and in
their journey down stream the brazen pot of agitation
has invariably wrecked the earthen pot of repression.
Nothing but a steady enforcement of the law for the
good of Ireland, unswayed by party exigencies, can
command the respect of the ill-disposed on the one
hand, or the confidence of the well-disposed on the
other.
Legislation in Ireland for the protection of the
minority is very apt to be called " coercion " by those
who feel it as a deterrent ; but the plausible misnomer
was so clearly exposed in a speech Mr. Kavanagh
delivered on 22d March 1875, in the debate on the
second reading of Sir Michael Hicks Beach's Peace
Preservation (Ireland) Bill, that some extracts from it
will not be inopportune.
He said, " That he should not have trespassed on
the time of the House, but for some remarks of the
noble Lord the member for Westmeath (Lord Robert
COERCION" 187
Montagu), who had denounced the conduct of this
country towards Ireland as grossly tyrannical and
coercive. That strain was taken up by hon.
members opposite, and echoed and re-echoed until
at last an hon. member found in the Irish famine
the curse of British rule. The hon. member
went further than that, and said the result of
English policy had been to turn the population of
Ireland into rebels. He (Mr. Kavanagh) thought
the hon. member must have been carried away by
his feelings, for he could hardly have remembered
what the state of affairs was at that time ; he could
hardly have remembered that if it had not been for
the charity and generosity with which England went
to the aid of Ireland in that hour of need, the people
would not have lived to be rebels, but would have
perished with want. He had never yet heard it said
that, with all their faults, the Irish people were want-
ing in gratitude, and the hon. member for Meath
must have forgotten himself in making such a remark.
" He (Mr. Kavanagh) endorsed the old saying
that ' Speech is silver, and silence is gold ' ; but they
might be too silent, and he felt bound, on behalf of his
constituents, to come forward now, and not allow the
imputation to be cast upon them that they were either
participators in, or sympathisers with, the crimes
against which these acts were framed. His constitu-
ents regretted with him, sincerely and earnestly, the
necessity which first caused the adoption of them, and
which he regretted to believe made their continuance
imperative.
"Against what was the law relating to murder
framed ? Was it not against the crime of murder ?
Who felt it as a restraint or coercion ? Was it not
i88 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KA VANAGH CHAP.
those who committed murder ? Who felt the law
against the administration of unlawful oaths to be
coercive ? Was it not the conspirator ? Who felt the
law enacted against the writing of threatening letters
as coercive ? Was it not the dastardly coward ?
and crime made dastardly cowards of all her votaries.
" Those laws were not felt as coercive or as restraints
save by those who wanted to break them, and he
believed that they could have no stronger proof of the
necessity for their continuance than the fact that they
were felt as a restraint. Those laws, to the well-disposed
and peaceable inhabitants, were a protection, not a
restraint ; and he thought that hon. members opposite
paid their constituents a very sorry compliment by
representing them as groaning under the oppression
of laws that were directed against such crimes. . . .
" His constituents felt with him sorrow and regret
that Her Majesty's Government, who were responsible
for the peace of the country, should be obliged
to come to that House to ask for such power ;
but he emphatically denied that his constituents felt
those laws either as a restraint or a coercion. He
confidently asserted that, for the last four years, since
the mad dream of Fenianism had vanished, no case
either of arrest or prosecution had taken place in the
County of Carlow. As far as that County was con-
cerned, therefore, these acts were a dead letter, and
he might say, on his conscience, that they might be
repealed without the slightest risk, so far as regarded
the County of Carlow, if the Government chose to
show that mark of favour to a well-disposed and
peaceable part of the country. . . .
" He wished from his heart that the same could be
said for the other parts of Ireland ; he wished from his
CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR-TRADE
heart that hon. members opposite, instead of exciting
the passions of the people by describing to them the
Peace Preservation Act as one of tyranny, would show
them how, if they ceased to desire to commit crime,
the law would cease to oppress, and the so-called yoke
to gall."
In May 1875 the "Sale of Intoxicating Liquors
on Sunday (Ireland) Bill" came on for second reading,
and it received his cordial support. He had not
always approved of it, but he states the motives that
induced him to change his views on the expediency
of the measure, in a short speech so liberal in its tone
and so sound in its reasoning, that now, when the
subject of temperance is so much before the country,
it too may be read with profit.
He said, that, "in supporting the second reading
of the Bill, he felt constrained to assign some of the
reasons which had induced him to alter his opinion
on the subject. He had hitherto resisted its passage,
on the ground that he thought it savoured of class
legislation, and that it was an interference with the
rights of the working man ; but further consideration
of the subject had led him to think more favourably
of it, and induced him to form the opinion, that when
society was unable to regulate its own actions in
accordance with the rules of propriety, then it was
time for, and the duty of, the Legislature to interfere.
" He had had brought before him overwhelming
evidence of the evils produced in Ireland by Sunday
drinking, and of the overwhelming desire of the
great body of the people that the Legislature should
deal with the matter as proposed by the Bill now
before the House. He had heard many objections
urged, but he was not scared by the fear that the
190 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
passing of this Bill would lead to what some described
as private and illicit drinking. He knew the people
well, and he did not believe that, although easily led
and prone to yield to temptation, their character was
that of besotted drunkards. So far from it, the Irish
people possessed many high and many estimable
qualities, the standard of morality of the nation was
considerably above the average, and, if we could
provide or guard against two principal causes, Ireland
might challenge the world for immunity from crime.
" The two causes to which he alluded were these
first, disloyalty and discontent, originating in past
mismanagement, and now kept alive by unceasing
agitation, with the crimes which had grown out of
that cause. Government had been endeavouring to
deal with it of late, and, he was sorry to say, had met
with but qualified success, and for this reason, that
legislation had been directed to lop the branch, and
not to cut the root.
" The second cause of crime in Ireland was drunken-
ness, and in coming here that day to ask the House
to pass that Bill, they were asking the House not
to lop the branch, not to deal only with effect, but
to lay the axe to the root, for he believed that
Sunday drinking was the most prolific cause of the
crimes which filled the Irish calendars, and Irish
members came there with one accord to ask Parlia-
ment to mitigate that evil, and remove the tempta-
tion. . . .
"He should say no more, but give the second
reading of the Bill his most cordial support."
In the same spit-it he discharged his duties as
Justice of the Peace, a position in which his absolute
equity and determination to strengthen the hands of
xvii CRIME AND ITS PUNISHMENT 191
Government by enforcing respect for the law were
eminently conspicuous.
The Rev. George W. Rooke (precentor of St.
Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, and for many years
previously private chaplain at Borris) kindly contri-
butes the following: " I can well remember the evening
of a sad day when a murder had been committed in
the village. From the circumstances of the case,
it was very difficult to detect those who were guilty.
But his judgment and his patience overcame every
obstacle. Regardless, as usual, of personal ease, he
remained at the Court-House till the small hours of
the morning, examining witnesses and investigating
every minute detail, till evidence pointed in the right
direction. And it was mainly through his persever-
ance that the murderer was convicted and the ends
of justice finally attained."
Again Mr. Sweetman sends me a characteristic
anecdote, which he thus introduces :
" Since his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of
the County Carlow in 1880, all his recommendations
for the Magistracy were based on an intimate know-
ledge of the requirements of the district and of the
capabilities of those whom he recommended.
"As an illustration of what he considered to be the
duty of a magistrate, I will mention a case that
occurred at the Borris Petty Sessions many years
ago. A man was summoned for trespass in pursuit
of game. The offence was fully proved, but the
Bench was divided in opinion as to the amount
of punishment to be meted out to him it having
come to the ears of one of the magistrates present
that he was a poacher although never before
brought up on that charge. After some discussion,
192 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xvn
Mr. Kavanagh said : ' Recollect, we are here to
punish and not to persecute ; and any amount of
penalty you inflict on this man beyond that which the
case now before us deserves would, in my opinion,
be persecution.'
" I remember on one occasion," continues Mr.
Sweetman, " telling him that I found great fault with
his voting for the retention of flogging in the army
and navy. His reply was : ' I am as much against
flogging as you are, but, under existing circumstances,
I did not like to be a party to removing that power
from the authorities.' "
CHAPTER XVIII
Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, a landlord of landlords.
SIR CHARLES RUSSELL
(Opening Speech for the Defence before the
Parnell Commission, p. 257).
IN January 1877 m ' s eldest son, Walter, attained his
majority, but, for family reasons, its celebration was
postponed till the following October.
A dinner and ball to the tenantry of the three
counties Carlow, Kilkenny, and Wexford and
festivities for the gentry heralded his assumption of
man's estate. Surrounded by his family, then an
unbroken circle, and welcomed by all, Walter took
his position as heir to the " Chief of the Sept
and Nation," and entered on its responsibilities amid
the blessings of his father's dependents.
A deputation from the Carlow and Wexford
tenantry waited on him with a congratulatory address,
which was signed by the Rev. P. Carey, P.P. of
Borris, and presented by him on their behalf. 1 In
that address, couched in terms of admiration for the
father and of fair augury for the son, it will be
found that, with every desire to express the hearti-
ness of their good will, they could frame no higher wish
than that the son should resemble the father. Nothing
1 Appendix C.
o
194 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
better or more hopeful for themselves could they
conceive than the realisation of that wish certainly
nothing better for the object of it. And, in unison
with this, at the dinner to the tenantry, Father Carey
used the following words in proposing the health of
Mrs. Kavanagh. Alluding to her loyal co-operation
with her husband in his efforts for the good of the
people, and especially to her establishment of the
Borris Clothing Club, etc., he said
" She has done all this and much more without
any alloy or taint of bigotry. In this, as in many
other social virtues, she resembles her beloved
husband (cheers), for he is not only a good landlord
that is, he never raises the rent and never puts out a
tenant who pays a fair rent (loud cheers) but he assists
and does good to his people, props the tottering tenant,
helps the weak, and builds houses for the poor
(renewed applause). May the prayers of the poor
obtain for him blessings for time and eternity."
Two of Mr. Kavanagh's speeches at that dinner
the first to introduce his son in his new position, the
second in reply to the toast of his own health must
be given in full, as conveying his hearty response to
the good feeling shown by the people, as well as the
strong grounds they had for their love and loyalty.
After giving the toast of Her Majesty the Queen,
which was heartily honoured, he said
" My friends, the next toast I have to propose is
the health of my son Walter, on the occasion of his
having attained his majority within the present year.
It may seem somewhat singular that I should do so
myself, and not, as would be perhaps more usual, have
left it to be proposed by some one among you, as I am
sure it would have been with all the earnestness and
xvin HIS SON'S COMING OF AGE 195
heartiness of your kindly nature ; but the occasion of
our meeting here to-day is not one of ordinary
occurrence.
" To my son, I need not tell you, it is an era in his
life, and to you and me it is an event of scarcely less
importance, considering the strong ties of mutual
interest and, I hope I may say, of warm friendship
which bind us all together.
" I need not now dilate upon the well-established
fact of the identity of interest of landlord and tenant.
I need not tell you that, even without that great tie of
clanship which, if history speaks truth, has bound us
and our ancestors together during centuries that are
past and up to the present time, our interests are so
interwoven, so identical, that neither prosperity nor
adversity can touch the one and leave the other
untouched. That is, I . think, a fact that must be
apparent to you all : if any great calamity or pressure
were to come on you it must fall on me too, and, on
the other hand, if I get into embarrassed or needy
circumstances, I lose the power of affording help to
individual cases in the hour of adversity I lose the
power, no matter how much I may possess the will, of
either protecting or advancing your interests in the
many ways that only a landlord can. That is what I
term our identity of interest, and it is, as bearing upon
that, that I regard the occasion of our meeting here
to-day, when I introduce to you my son, who will, with
God's blessing, hereafter occupy my place and have
charge of your interests, as an event of no mean
importance to you all.
"It is, then, regarding it in that light that I have
taken this part of the proceedings upon myself, and
partly because I feel that on an occasion like the
ig6 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
present there is no one more fitting to wish to another
every blessing, temporal and eternal, than a father to
a son. That is my apology, boys, for perhaps spoiling
the part and taking upon myself that which might have
been performed in a more graceful manner and in more
fitting terms by many others, and, having thus prefaced,
as it were, what I have to say, I must bid you all a
hearty welcome, and thank you from my heart for
your kindness in coming here to-day.
" It is no empty phrase that I use, for I look upon
your presence as an unmistakable token of that kindly
feeling and affection which I most highly prize not
only prize as coming from yourselves now, but as the
unbroken continuance of those feelings which have
existed between your forefathers and my own for ages
past, feelings the true warmth of which is seldom
found save in Irish hearts and on Irish soil. I am sure
if those old mountains which bound our barony could
speak to us their experience and recount to us the scenes
that they have witnessed, they could tell of many a
gathering such as this, when our ancestors met to rejoice
together and congratulate each other upon some kind
act of Providence. It may have been on some signal
victory as the conquerors on some hard-fought field
for, if history speaks the truth, hard knocks and broken
heads were the custom of the day. It may have been
in more peaceful times, on some such occasion as we
are met to celebrate to-day ; but the object matters not,
the feelings that drew them together were the same,
and I am thankful and proud to believe that the same
feelings of kindly interest, of mutual trust and friend-
ship, and, I think I may add, of warm affection, which
existed between them, have been handed down to us,
their descendants, unimpaired in warmth, unaltered
xvin HIS SON'S COMING OF AGE 197
by circumstances, and, more than all, untired by
time.
"It is as a proof of this, one more among the
many that you have shown me during the time I have
been among you, that I thank you for your presence here
to-day, and on my own part, need I assure you, that it
is now what it always has been a pleasure to me to
meet you. I would ask, can any one doubt, can any one
wonder that I should feel both pride and pleasure in
finding myself surrounded by such an assembly as that
which I now address ? Surrounded by men, many of
them old and well-tried friends, among whom I have
passed the greater portion of my life in uninterrupted
harmony and friendship, and by women too whose
cordial greetings and kindly smiles have never been
wanting to afford to me a hearty welcome when I went
amongst you, the wonder would be, not that I should
feel thankfulness and pleasure in this, the wonder
would be if I did not, and if I did not, among all the rich
blessings which God has poured upon me, prize as
among the richest that which is the brightest jewel in
a monarch's crown a people's love.
" Time flies fast, and it is now some two-and-
twenty years since I had the pleasure of meeting many
of you on this same spot. I use the word many of you,
because I cannot use the word all. During the lapse
of that time, many who then met me here have passed
away, and I miss from among your numbers the face
of many a tried and valued friend ; but such is life ! and
I must not now dwell upon the sad features of a retro-
spect. But, as I have said, it is now two-and-twenty
years since I met many of you on this same spot. On
that occasion it was my good fortune to have to introduce
to you my wife. I told you then, if memory serves me
198 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
right, that, as years roiled on, and as you came to know
her, you would learn to love and value her for herself.
1 do not claim to be a prophet, but I think my words
were true. You welcomed her then for my sake, but
now I think she has gained for herself a place in your
hearts that I could never give her.
" Now I meet you here to introduce to you my son
on the occasion, as I have already told you, of his
having attained to the age of manhood and responsibility,
and in doing so I will use the same words which have
already proved such a happy omen, and say that I
hope, as years roll on, and as you come to know him
really well, you will learn to love and value him for
himself, and that he, on his part, remembering and
realising to the full the immense responsibility attached
to the position, which I trust God will spare him to fill,
will try to deserve your confidence and win your love,
and that, having won it, he will guard it as a prize that
gold could never buy. I think I can promise that for
him with every confidence. I think I can promise
that, no matter what temptations the world may hold
out to him, the old blood that runs in his veins will
never let him forget the duty that he owes to his
people, and that the real, the true meaning of the word
landlord is the tenant's friend.
" I will say no more. His introduction to you now
is, in a way, but a formal matter, for he is known to
most of you, and has been brought up amongst you,
and will, I hope, with the blessing of God, spend his
life amongst you. I hope when his time comes, as
please God it will, to enact the same scene which we
are met to celebrate to-day, he will be able to pass on
to his descendants and to yours, in unbroken love
and unimpaired integrity, the trust, the confidence, and
OUR LANDLORD" 199
the affection of a happy, a prosperous, and a loving
people."
To this speech, which was loudly applauded from
point to point, and hailed with quite a storm of cheer-
ing at its close, Walter made a worthy reply, after
which the toast of "Our Landlord," fittingly assigned
to Mr. Sweetman, J.P., was proposed in these words
" This toast requires no words of mine to cause it
to be received by this assembly with affectionate and
enthusiastic respect Our Landlord. He has now been
over us for upwards of a quarter of a century, and during
that period I defy I was goin'g to say his enemies,
but I really believe he has not one I defy any one to
show one single act of harsh treatment on his part
towards any of his tenantry. On the contrary, his
kindly feeling towards them, and his anxiety to pro-
mote their prosperity and to increase their comforts,
are proverbial. If any of them gets into a difficulty,
when brought before him, he will assist him, nurse him
out of it, and, if the man deserves it, set him going again.
"It is a well-known fact that, when the cattle
disease visited his estates, he in many cases replaced
the stock lost by his tenants ; but those feelings of
kindness towards those under him are hereditary ; they
come to him from a long, long line of ancestors
royal ancestors of whom history tells us of sacrifices
made in olden times in protecting the interests of their
followers and dependents. I have a vivid recollection
at one time, in an assembly such as this, of hearing his
princely father say, ' I am fond of my tenants,' so that,
in point of fact, he could not be otherwise than what
he is : he knows the duties devolving on him, and he
performs them. But as all those acts are so well known
to every individual present, it would ill become me to
200 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
occupy your time, particularly in his presence, in dilat-
ing on them. I will therefore call on you to drink to
the health and long life of our good, kind, and just
landlord."
With Mr. Kavanagh's reply to this speech, received
as loyally as it was given heartily, I may conclude the
account of the rejoicings at Borris. His words were
these
" I am now to do what is perhaps the most difficult
task of the day, and that is to try to return thanks
adequate thanks I cannot but to express in words
how deeply grateful I feel to my friend Mr. Sweetman
for the kind way in which he has proposed, and to you
for the warm manner in which you have drunk, my
health. I wish I could practically realise the truth that
' out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.'
In my case it is nearly the direct opposite, for when I
feel most I can say least, and now when I would much
covet the gift of eloquence to try and express my feel-
ings, I fail to find terms to thank you for the kindness
you have done me.
" I wish, my friends, I could think I deserved the
warm eulogy Mr. Sweetman has passed upon me ; but
although I cannot claim all the credit he ascribes to me,
I am not, believe me, less grateful to him and to you
for the high compliment you have both paid me, and
for the credit you have given me for endeavouring to
do my duty towards you.
"It would be but a small part of the truth for me
to say that I have, all through our intercourse, felt a
real interest in you all. Not only that, but I have
always, as I could not help, learned to look upon and
regard our welfare as identical. But, my friends, no
matter what efforts I might have made for your wel-
" MAN'S I NCR A TITUDE '
fare, if they had not been seconded by you they would
have availed little, so that I must not claim to myself
the credit of all the success that God has been pleased
to bless my efforts with.
" I believe, my friends, there are few very few in
any country who have been blessed with the amount
of confidence you have placed in me. Day by day and
year by year, as I marked its growth, I felt how great
would be the account required of me if I either slighted
or abused it. I have been among you, as my friend
Mr. Sweetman said, some twenty-five years. I do not
allude to the time previous to that, for I need not say
that I was born among you, but during the twenty-five
years I have had the management of my property
nothing but the greatest unity and good feeling has
existed between me and my tenantry the kindly
greeting and cordial recognition when we met, and the
hearty ' God bless and save you ' when we parted.
Therefore, my friends, what I have to do now is not
only to thank you and Mr. Sweetman for your kind-
ness to me in drinking my health as you have done,
but for the warm affection, trust, and friendship of a
lifetime which, believe me, is far more than an ample
reward for whatever I have been able to do."
With the lapse of little more than two years all
these relations were dissolved.
The tenants, apparently so proud of their landlord,
seduced by promises not to say threats with every
demonstration of ingratitude and vindictiveness, con-
tributed to create the majority that returned a stranger
to represent the " Model County " in Parliament.
The wound thus inflicted he felt most deeply, and
it saddened his life till its close. It was for his people
202 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
that he felt it, even more than for himself; but, bitter
as was his disappointment, he never relaxed his efforts
for their good, though the relations that had so long
subsisted between them and him for the happiness of
both, were severed never to be renewed.
Never again could he place the old trust in their
professions of regard never again believe that, as he
had stood by them, so they would stand by him.
An end was made of all that when the declaration
of the poll at Carlow on loth April gave the lie to
their pledges, and proved that they had deserted him.
On the day of the election, before the result of the
poll was declared, he had to go to the County Kil-
kenny to record his vote for the Conservative candidate
Lord Arthur Butler. That evening there were bon-
fires and illuminations in Borris and the surrounding
country to celebrate his own defeat. The following
letter to his wife shows the spirit in which he en-
deavoured to face it :
"nM April 1880.
" Many thanks for your dear letter.
"It would be folly to deny that the blow is a sharp
one, but to me it was not unexpected, for I always
felt how hollow was the ground we stood upon.
"The sharpest part of it is the belief that is forced
upon me that the majority of my own men broke their
promises to me. My confidence in them is gone, and a
great interest and pleasure in home-life gone with it.
"That is the poisoned stab. If I could have
believed them true, the actual defeat would be easy to
bear, because I have nothing that I can see to be
ashamed of in it. But to have to look forward to
passing the rest of my life among them is almost more
than I can do.
xvin MR. PARNELL'S ITEMS 203
"I do not think more than forty of my fellows
gave me a vote. But there is no good in brooding
over it, and one must guard against the natural
impulse to resent it, which God alone can help
one to do.
" Do not, my darling, fret yourself for me. I look
upon the defeat as God's will, and try to take it as.
such. That makes it lighter than I could have
believed.
" The sting that rankles is the treachery and deceit
of my own men ' my own familiar friends in whom I
trusted ' but that feeling must be choked. I wish I
could say or do something to cheer your own dear
self. Believe what is the real truth : that it is all for
the best. It must be, as it was ordered so." l
On the assembling of the new Parliament, Mr.
Kavanagh's, like many another of the "old familiar
faces," was missing.
The representation of Ireland was entering on new
conditions.
The lowered franchise which five years later gave
the illiterate peasant a vote (or rather multiplied votes
for the parish priest to place at Mr. Parnell's disposal),
flooded it with publicans, petty tradesmen, adventurers,
and such like, who, holding their seats at the good
pleasure of the "uncrowned king," made the clamour
of obstruction their substitute for debate. Even when
these men became Mr. Gladstone's supporters, of which
of them from their leader downwards could he say :
"A gentleman of whom I ever desire to speak with
the greatest respect " ?
This reference he made to Mr. Kavanagh at a
1 Appendix D.
204 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAF. xvm
time when the absence of the ex-member for Carlow's
experience, sagacity, and judicial fairness had become
more and more felt by the House.
Irishmen of education, judgment, and experience,
with but few exceptions, had now little chance of
making known their views save from the platform or
through the press, and among the numerous speeches
and letters delivered or published from time to time,
none were more opportune or statesmanlike than Mr.
Kavanagh's. So anxious was he that the world should
have an intelligent appreciation of the Irish Question
and of the difficulties involved in its solution, that he
was always ready to be interviewed by representatives
of journals, American as well as British. Not only so,
but he committed to writing, for circulation in official
quarters, many statements of opinion and detailed
memoranda, some of which given in later chapters
will be found to have lost nothing of their value by
their now, for the first time, seeing the light
CHAPTER XIX
Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
Tovs
EUR. /<?, no.
I serve the Church that reared me.
IN 1869 the Church in Ireland "the missionary
Church which," according to her opponents, " had
failed"! was, by Act of Parliament, disestablished
and disendowed, and the co-operation of the laity in
the several dioceses had become essential to grapple
with the many difficulties that confronted her, and
so to re-organise her system, that, on the expiry
of the life-interests of her clergy, for which alone the
Act provided, her places of worship should not be
closed, nor her ministrations cease throughout the
land.
" Mr. Kavanagh," writes the Bishop of Cork,
"was one of those who from the first recognised this
necessity, and threw himself heartily into the work of
re-organisation. The influence of his character, and
the position which he held in his own county, made his
help in every way most valuable.
" Immediately after the disestablishment of the
Church he became a member of the Organisation
206 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
Committee, composed of the bishops and representa-
tive clergy and laity of each diocese, which drafted the
Constitution of the Church for consideration by a larger
body of representatives ; and, as soon as the Con-
stitution was adopted, he filled every important position
to which the suffrages of his fellow-churchmen could
elect him.
" He became member of the General Synod and of
the Diocesan Synod, and of the smaller executive
body, the Diocesan Council. Indeed, as he was con-
nected by property with the three dioceses of Ossory,
Ferns, and Leighlin, not a few offices were laid upon
him.
" The patronage of the Church is administered by
Boards of Nominators presided over by the Bishop,
three nominators representing each parish, and three
nominators representing the diocese, to act in every
vacancy which may occur during their term of office
a plan suggested by the late Bishop Selwyn of New
Zealand and Lichfield. Mr. Kavanagh was always
chosen to fill the post of Diocesan Nominator ; and to
the discharge of the duties of the office he brought
that good sense and knowledge of character which
distinguished him in every relation of life.
"At the close of the year 1874 the Bishop of
Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin, the late learned and
highly distinguished Dr. O'Brien, died, and from that
time all provision for the See from the funds of the
late Established Church ceased. It had been wisely
determined that, if possible, in order to secure per-
manence and independence, the incomes of the Bishops
should be provided from endowment. This object com-
mended itself to Mr. Kavanagh. He took a leading
part in securing this provision for the united diocese
xix REHABILITATION OF THE CHURCH 207
of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin, and never ceased his
exertions working quietly and systematically until
a fixed and sufficient income was provided for the
future Bishops.
"In the year 1876 Mr. Kavanagh succeeded the
late Viscount de Vesci as a member of the representa-
tive body of the Church of Ireland. This is the body
entrusted with the management of the general financial
concerns of the whole Church. He continued to
attend the meetings of this body, of which he was a
valued member, until his last fatal illness.
"His mind was eminently practical ; and this
showed itself in his work for the Church. He was
ever characterised by deep religious feeling, and took
a strong interest in all religious questions ; but he was
never influenced by that desire for change and altera-
tion of the doctrine and discipline of the Church which
marked some of the laity, and led to protracted discus-
sions on the revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
On these occasions, although he generally voted with
his lay friends, it was his obvious desire to find a prac-
tical solution and to do what in his judgment would be
most conducive to the interest of the Church.
"These characteristics, which a few years after
placed him at the head of various organisations for the
protection of the property of Irish landowners, made
him ever welcome in the councils of the Church.
With a large knowledge of the world he united an
intimate knowledge of the people of Ireland, and of
their modes of thought. Taking a practical view of
every subject, his natural reserve and self-control
restrained him from intervening prominently or hastily
in discussion, but when he did, his wide experience,
conveyed in clear and telling language, gave unusual
208 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
force to the expression of his opinion, and placed him
high in the esteem of those with whom he was brought
in contact for deliberation or for work."
This able summary of Mr. Kavanagh's services to
the Church is worthily supplemented by the following
more detailed sketch furnished me by the Bishop of
Ossory :
" My acquaintance with Mr. Kavanagh began at
the time that the Church in Ireland was disestablished
and disendowed, and from that period until his death
we were continually brought into close contact by
means of the Church councils, synods, and committees
in which from the first he took such a leading and
prominent part.
"As the Church Act deprived the Church in
Ireland of everything except the life-interests of the
clergy and a sum to compensate for private endow-
ments, it became necessary to form a financial scheme
for its future maintenance, and to husband its small
resources to the best advantage. In this matter his
immense ability and capacity for business were of the
utmost importance, and did much to enable us to pass
through a most difficult crisis and to lay wise founda-
tions for future security. He more especially con-
cerned himself with providing an episcopal endowment
fund for the diocese, and with the aid of a few like-
minded with himself, he secured a permanent provision
for the See of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin.
"More serious matters soon engaged the attention
of our Church, as a new constitution had to be
adopted, and fresh rules and statutes provided for its
altered circumstances. Here his practical wisdom and
strong common sense were most helpful, and it was
soon manifest that in matters more distinctly con-
xix REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK 209
nected with the Church's highest welfare, he was not
only supremely anxious but far-seeing and judicious.
" Difficult questions arose both as to the formularies
and canons of the Church, and in dealing with these
Mr. Kavanagh exhibited that calm judgment, tact, and
decision for which in other matters he was so distin-
guished. In 1870 a committee of clerics and laymen
was appointed on the motion of the Marquis (after-
wards Duke) of Abercorn to ' consider whether, with-
out making any such alterations in the liturgy or
formularies of our Church as would involve or imply
any change in her doctrines, any measures could be
suggested calculated to check the introduction and
spread of novel doctrines and practices opposed to the
principles of our Reformed Church, and to report to
the General Synod in 1870.' Mr. Kavanagh was a
leading member of that committee, and, being myself
one of its secretaries, I had the fullest opportunity of
knowing his opinions upon the subjects which at that
time occupied the attention of the Church and after-
wards came into full review when the General Synod,
of which he was also a member, took up the wider sub-
ject of the revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
" The two things which struck me most in connec-
tion with his relation to this part of the Church's work,
were, first of all, the pains he took to make himself
master of the subjects under discussion, and, secondly,
the moderate conclusions at which he generally
arrived. It was striking and instructive to observe
how, as a layman, in the midst of theological debates,
and without attempting any elaborate arguments, he
contrived, without parade, to throw light upon the sub-
jects under discussion. Sometimes it was by asking a
question which suddenly brought into due prominence
p
2io ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
a point that had been rather overlooked ; sometimes
by reference to a fact, historic or other, which gave a
new complexion to the topic under review ; sometimes
by the exercise of that shrewd common sense which is
often worth more than the most elaborate of theories.
"It was customary on that committee for the mem-
bers to write papers upon special subjects. These
were printed and circulated among the members and
afterwards discussed. One of the most thoughtful of
these was from Mr. Kavanagh's pen, and while it was
marked by a firm resistance ' to all these innovations
in doctrine and worship whereby the primitive faith
hath been from time to time defaced and overlaid,' it
nevertheless exhibited a strong repugnance to that
spirit of intolerance which would force all opinions into
one narrow groove and demand absolute uniformity in
matters that were unessential.
" On the general subject of revision he took up no
extreme or party position. He made it his rule (I use his
own words) ' to distinguish between those points which
were raised by the conscientious scruples of earnest
deep-thinking men and the cavils of those who, having
no real convictions one way or the other, gladly seize on
every excuse for schism.' There were a few points in
which, relying on this distinction, he advocated either
slight changes or explanations in our liturgy, and it is
worth noting that, in the final issue, some of these
were adopted. But with regard to most of the passages
objected to in the Prayer-Book his recorded language
is, ' I prefer adhering as closely as possible to the old
words, which are, throughout the entire book, unsur-
passed for simplicity and beauty of expression.' He
laid it down as an axiom that the teaching contained in
a public liturgy should be, not only in doctrine, but in
LIBERALITY TO THE CHURCH
expression, ' no more than the Bible warrants and no
less than it authorises.' And he wisely maintained that
the pushing of extreme opinions did ' as much harm by
exciting men's prejudices and driving them to the very
opposite extreme, as by deceiving and misleading them.'
" I mention these things in order to show that in
this remarkable man the Church of Ireland had a wise
and trusty counsellor in matters affecting her spiritual
character, as well as an able and judicious helper in
her more secular concerns. But it was in these latter
he was most widely known. During the twelve years
that I have been Bishop he was by far the ablest and
most helpful financier in my diocese ; never absenting
himself from our councils ; weighing every statement
in our documents and reports ; endued with a marvel-
lous power of explaining involved and difficult accounts
and making them clear to ordinary minds ; and always
speaking with a strength of honest, calm conviction
that carried weight and influence in all our discussions
and debates.
" Of his generosity and liberality it is unnecessary
to speak. As he was foremost in our councils, so was
he also foremost with his pecuniary assistance. His
purse was as fully at the service of his Church as
either his tongue or his pen. In more senses than one
it might be said that ' his house joined hard to the
synagogue.' It was a treat to witness the way in which
he conducted family worship, and it left behind it the
impression of reality and devotion. The private
chapel annexed to his mansion was always used as the
Parish Church, and the clergyman received ^"100 a
year, in addition to his salary as incumbent, for acting
as chaplain to the household. It is deserving of record
that, when after the passing of the Church Act a
212 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
special Sunday was appointed in order to make collec-
tions in behalf of the disendowed and disestablished
Church, the largest offertory in the whole of Ireland
was contributed by the congregation at Borris. It
need scarcely be added that by far the larger portion
of that generous contribution came from the princely
liberality of the lord of the soil. When the unhappy
condition of the country made a serious alteration in
the means of our gentry, he was one of those who
never reduced his contributions towards religious
objects or relaxed his self-sacrificing endeavours for
the maintenance of his Church ; and we all felt and
knew that in this, as well as in all his other acts, he
was influenced by the highest and most sacred con-
siderations.
" There was one office filled by Mr. Kavanagh
both in the diocese of Ossory and in that of Leighlin
which brought out in a special manner his deep
attachment to his Church and his earnest zeal for the
best interests of religion. He was one of the Diocesan
Nominators in each of those two dioceses, and his duty
as such, in connection with the other Diocesan and
Parochial Nominators and the Bishop, was to select and
appoint suitable clergymen for vacant incumbencies.
In discharging this duty he not only manifested the
greatest conscientiousness, but he likewise took the
greatest pains to ascertain the relative claims of the
clergy and their fitness for the special requirements of
the various parishes. With him it was a solemn duty
to be performed with careful deliberation and with
earnest prayer ; and it was evermore a comfort and a
privilege to the Bishop to feel that he had such a wise
and true-hearted assistant in such an important work.
" One always felt assured that in Mr. Kavanagh's
xix TRIBUTE TO THE REV. DR. JELLETT 213
esteem the spiritual interests of the Church were of
more vital moment than the gathering in of its assess-
ments or the investment of its funds. He carried that
deep conviction with him even into cases that con-
cerned individual souls. I have known him to be
filled with such anxious concern for the spiritual
state of a friend who was troubled with doubts and
difficulties about revealed religion, that he went himself
through a course of careful reading upon the evidences
of Christianity in order that he might help that
struggling spirit out of the quagmire of unbelief, and
help to place the unsteady feet securely upon the Rock
of everlasting truth.
"It was not often that he spoke in public about
these sacred subjects which lay nearest to his heart,
but when he did, it was with an earnestness and
solemnity that left their deep impression upon all who
heard him. At the last diocesan synod which he
attended, after making an able and exhaustive state-
ment concerning the position and prospects of the
Church, he closed with some earnest and solemn
words, in which he pressed home upon all who heard
him their duties and responsibilities as Churchmen and
as Christians. It is to be regretted that these words
were not taken down at the time ; but they were words
which, coming from him, could not easily be forgotten,
and now that his lips are for ever silent they will be
more and more distinctly impressed.
"It was the last time that he addressed us, and his
heart was full to overflowing as he spoke about the
recent death of the late Provost of Trinity College,
the Rev. Dr. Jellett. The words he then applied to
that illustrious man may now with all truth be repeated
concerning himself. They were these
214 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP. xix
" ' His death was a great loss to his country, to his
Church, and, he might add, to every one who had the
advantage of his acquaintance and the privilege of
calling him his friend. For himself he happily had
both, and he keenly felt the great void which his
death had occasioned, both as a godly and wise coun-
sellor to Church and State, and to himself as a valued
friend.' "
CHAPTER XX
Tantus labor non sit cassus.
From the DIES IRAE.
Such labour be it not in vain.
. . . Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.
MILTON.
WITH the return of Mr. Gladstone to power the Irish
Question was thrust into unexpected prominence, and
Mr. Kavanagh's exclusion from Parliament brought
him no respite from public affairs.
On the 29th July 1880 a commission was appointed
to inquire into the working of the Landlord and
Tenant (Ireland) Act of 1870 and of the Acts amend-
ing the same, with the purpose of improving the
relations between landlord and tenant, and of assisting
the latter towards the purchase of his holding. This
was the well-known Bessborough Commission ; and
one of the five who sat upon it was Mr. Kavanagh.
Its report, issued in the first days of 1881, was
signed by four of the Commissioners by two of them,
however, with a reservation ; while Mr. Kavanagh
refused his signature to it altogether, as he believed
that the remedies it proposed would produce greater
evils than those they cured a belief more than con-
firmed by subsequent events. He therefore drew
up a separate report upon the evidence heard before
2 1 6 AR THUR MA CMURRO UGH KA VAN A GH CHAP.
the Commissioners, and this, as constituting what in
discussions on the Land Act of that year was
repeatedly referred to as the ablest exposition of the
landlord's case that had ever been put forth, I have
thought right to give unabridged in the Appendix. 1
In 1882 the Land Act became law. It would be
idle at this time of day to enter on a review of that
measure, with its creation of dual ownership, now seen
to be intolerable. Like so many of its predecessors, it
has shrunk into a mere stepping-stone towards that
more statesmanlike enactment whereby the tiller of the
soil shall also become its owner.
Meanwhile its administration was soon felt to be
quite out of keeping with the professions and
assurances that had expedited its progress through
Parliament to be, in fact, so charged with injustice to
the landlords that their leading representatives sum-
moned an "aggregate meeting" in Dublin to try and
avert the loss, in many cases the ruin, it must ere long
bring upon them. At the meeting, which was held in
the Rotunda on the 3d January 1882, the speeches
were of exceptional ability ; but one of the very
weightiest was Mr. Kavanagh's, who, after showing
that Mr. Gladstone's words on the yth April and on
the 22d July 1881 meant if anything that the Act
would certainly not effect a wholesale and universal
reduction of rents, proceeded to answer the question,
" Have we got a dispassionate and impartial Tri-
bunal ? "
Waiving all question as to the impartiality of the
Head Commissioners, he passed a severe judgment on
the Sub-Commissioners firstly, for their decisions in
themselves ; secondly, for their almost uniformly with-
1 Appendix E.
xx THE SUB-COMMISSIONERS 217
holding the grounds on which these were made ; and
thirdly, for the insufficiency of such grounds when
they ventured to give them.
"It has been announced," he said, " that the rent is
to be fixed, not according to the value of the land itself,
but according to the capability of the occupying tenant
to get value out of it. The extravagance of such a
principle is too glaring to require comment. A hold-
ing may be of the best description, the land of the
richest quality, with every facility for realising its
productiveness. It may be that these very facilities
were conferred by the landlord's expenditure. But,
according to this new theory, if it be held by a drunk-
ard, a thriftless, idle, or slovenly tenant, who fails to
work the holding to profit, the landlord is to get
nothing out of it. A direct premium is held out to all
kinds of extravagance, by which it would not be
difficult for the tenant to arrive at the stage of not
paying any rent at all.
"Take another instance, and by no means an
uncommon one in all parts of the country the holding
small and poor, the family large and soft, as the saying
is. How would that be when the tenant applied to
have a fair rent fixed ? We had a striking case of
such as that before us when I was on the Bess-
borough Commission in Galway. A witness came
forward to represent his own case and that of his
neighbours, and stated, as well as I remember, that
there were eighteen families living upon fourteen acres
of poor land. He did not ground his complaint upon
excessive rent ; that, I believe, was something nominal ;
but he declared that if he held the land for nothing he
could not live on it. Now, if we follow this newly
announced principle in this case to its logical sequence,
2i8 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
it is clear that the landlord, instead of receiving rent,
should pay the tenant for occupying the land.
" We have another announcement not a whit less
extraordinary in the case of a tenant holding a rich bit
of meadow-land in the vicinity, I think, of the city of
Limerick. It was proved that the land had been of
considerable value from its inherent fertility. But this
went for nothing on the landlord's behalf, because it
was proved for the tenant that by taking excellent
crops off it, year by year, without putting a single bit
of manure on it, he had entirely exhausted it. The
rent was reduced to the value, I believe, to which the
tenant had by his wanton and, I might almost say, his
malicious conduct deteriorated it."
His whole speech made a marked impression at the
time, but it had no appreciable effect on the adminis-
tration of the Land Act. Nothing remained but to
accept the position as created by law, and to try by
what means the rights of property could be saved from
still further infringement.
The Land League, formed in 1882, owed its first
successes to its intimidation of the tenants above all, to
the vengeance it wreaked on those who paid their rents.
To such a pass had its terrorism come that, like
many another landlord, Mr. Kavanagh at dead of
night received visits from his people, afraid of going
near him in open day. Then, having paid their rent,
they implored him to keep it dark, as they dreaded its
becoming known to the League. Tenants even
travelled to some distant post-office fifteen or twenty
miles off and thence transmitted him their payments
enclosed in a letter adjuring him to give them no
receipt or acknowledgment of any kind, lest the League
might get wind of the transaction. So terrorised, the
xx DEFENSIVE ASSOCIATIONS 219
tenants came to feel that non-payers were, financially
at least, better off than those who paid, and there is no
doubt that the spread of this feeling recruited the
ranks of the League. Then too arose on the tenants'
part the inevitable ill-will to the landlord he had
defrauded, in confirmation of the odisse quern laeseris
principle : you cannot wrong a man and not hate
him.
Against these demoralising forces counteracting
measures on the landlords' part were not wanting.
From the commencement of the struggle Mr.
Kavanagh had foreseen that in the not distant future
legislation would be carried out to the serious detri-
ment of the owners of property in Ireland, to meet
which he suggested the formation of a body called the
"Irish Land Committee," consisting of representatives
from each county, who were to devise means for
vindicating the rights of the landowner, not only in
Parliament and the Law Courts, but throughout
England and Scotland. As one of its honorary
secretaries he worked with unceasing energy, and
it was chiefly through its agency that members of
Parliament and public speakers drew the information
which subsequently proved so invaluable. Besides
this there were the Emergency Committee and the
Property Defence Association, with both of which he
was connected the latter set on foot in the autumn
of 1880 at a meeting presided over by the Earl
of Courtown, to whose kindness I am indebted for
details as to its management. For well-nigh twenty
years he and Mr. Kavanagh had worked together
on various committees, and during most of the later
part they were chiefly engaged in carrying out plans
for the relief of the threatened minority. They first
220 ARTHUR MA CMURRO UGH KA VAN A GH CHAP.
met with this object on the Land Committee above
mentioned, and again in December 1882, when under
Sir John Whitaker Ellis (then Lord Mayor of London)
the Mansion House Committee was formed to assist
in the defence of property in Ireland. Of this Mr.
Kavanagh was a member, and also its commissioner
for supplying it with information, and for the trans-
mission of funds to Ireland.
Carrying forward the work of the Property
Defence Association and attending to the multifarious
matters brought before it some of these naturally
belonging to it, others again devolving on him as
one of the heads entailed a mass of correspondence
that pursued him even on his rare holidays, as shown
by this extract from a letter to Lord Courtown, dated
9th October 1882, and written from the R.Y.S. Water
Lily, Southampton :
"Altho' when down here I am by way of being
on a holyday, this letter is my forty -third since I
got the post at two o'clock on Saturday, and I only
left London on Wednesday night " (4th).
All this time the scheme of the Land Corporation
was revolving in his head, and he was arranging its
provisions concurrently with the business of the older
society. That business was complicated not the
least by conflicting views and claims. There was
also much financial pressure, consequent on the
waning interest in the Mansion House Fund, which,
after about a year of generously-afforded aid, ceased
to contribute, and was finally wound up * transferring
its balance to the Irish Defence Union established in
London.
Sundry changes in the staff of the Property
1 Appendix F.
xx CHECKMATING THE LAND LEAGUE 221
Defence Association, and the differences of opinion
which led to them, gave both Lord Courtown and
Mr. Kavanagh occasion for much thought and anxiety
in addition to the responsibility their co-trusteeship
involved. Conscientious personal investigation where
such was practicable was, indeed, habitual with them,
and guaranteed to the subscribers of the funds the fullest
certainty of their upright management.
The bodies above referred to were especially useful
in supplying men to serve writs in cases where the local
bailiff had been intimidated from discharging the duty.
A tenant owing rent was thus brought under legal
process, and a sheriff's sale of his property would in
due course ensue. The Land League having warned
off any others from bidding at the sale, the tenant
would himself be the sole bidder bidding sixpence
for a cow or a bull and so the sheriff, in the absence
of other bidders, was obliged to sell the animal for
that sum. Such a sale, of course, could not satisfy
the landlord's claims, and then it was that the above-
mentioned associations would intervene, sending an
agent of their own to bid against the tenant, and so
raise the price till the rent owed, or a fair equivalent,
was paid.
Blocked in their first game by this move, the
League constrained the tenant to make a clean sweep
of his effects, and so nothing was left to be put up
but his right in his holding. The League boycotted
the farm, and, as no man durst bid for it, it could not
be disposed of. Here again the associations above
referred to interposed, and by themselves becoming
purchasers of the interest in the holding, prevented
the sale from being turned into a farce.
But how to deal with the land so purchased was
222 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
the difficulty. Tenants hung back through fear.
The land was in danger of lying derelict and running
to waste, and to keep it so was part of the game
of the League. Then Mr. Kavanagh came to the
rescue, though it was not without reluctance that " he
forsook the old landmarks of kindness and goodwill
that had so long characterised the relations between
most landlords and their tenants." But what with
the inertness of the Government and the uncontrolled
activity of the League, he had no alternative but
in his own words "to replace the landlord by a
Corporation which, proverbially, was without a body
to be kicked or, in this case, to be shot."
In a prolonged interview he had with a corre-
spondent of the New York World, who came from
America to investigate the Irish difficulty from both
sides, Mr. Kavanagh gave a full account of the circum-
stances under which he started the Land Corpora-
tion. As a powerful defensive weapon in the hands
of the loyalists it could, he showed, achieve nothing but
good, while it taught the Land Leaguers the salutary
lesson that they could not have matters all their own
way. It was also calculated to have a wholesome
effect in dissipating the wild communistic visions that
had been conjured up before the poorer peasantry.
But there was another class to whom it did more
direct and tangible good.
It was an aid to poor landlords. It intervened
between them and their unscrupulous enemy, and
saved them from ruin. There were, and still are,
many families in Ireland, the lineal representatives
of some of the oldest proprietors, reduced to the
direst straits by sundry causes, such, for instance,
as the famine years 1846-50, when they assisted their
xx THE LAND CORPORATION 223
tenants to tide over the crisis families who, though
they surmounted that ordeal, have ever since had a
struggle for subsistence. Others, from different causes
not seldom beyond their control, were compelled to
mortgage their small estates to an extent which left
them but little margin to live upon. In the case of
such estates, rents had not been raised for years.
Guided by the old "live and let live" principles
which have regulated the conduct of their class, such
landlords afforded an easy mark to the Land League,
which no doubt drew encouragement from its know-
ledge of their helplessness. To them the refusal to
pay rent for two years, or even for one and in some
cases eight or nine years' rent was owed ! meant
the foreclosure of mortgages, and therewith privation
of the bare means of living in the present, and utter
ruin in the future.
"To interpose between them and ruin," says Mr.
Kavanagh, " was the first object I had in view, as it
was of those who acted with me. In defending them
we were defending the outposts of our own position,
for, if they were conquered, further attack would have
been facilitated and the position of the Land League
considerably strengthened. This latter reason no
doubt recruited our ranks with numbers not quite
disinterested, and will," he added, with far too trustful
anticipation, "if the combat continues and the
necessity arises, enlist the wealth of the entire landed
and vested interest of England in our cause.
" Only in quarters where the League had made it
necessary was the Land Corporation, with its rigidly
commercial working, to be substituted for the landlord,
and opposition to it could take the form only of out-
rage. For this," said Mr. Kavanagh to his American
224 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
interviewer, "we are prepared, not only by armed pro-
tection, but also from the fact that we are able and
determined to recover damages for malicious injuries
from the ratepayers of the districts in which they
occur. This compensation is chargeable on the County
Cess, a fund which is chiefly paid by the tenant-
farmers, and we will therefore, by our claims against it,
create in them a direct pecuniary interest in repressing
outrages. This will have the good effect of rousing a
reaction in favour of law and order throughout the
country. It will teach the Land League that its fight
with its peculiar weapons is over, that it is met on
every hand and beaten. Agitation, of course, as of
old, will continue in Ireland. But the untamed colt of
the Land League has a bridle placed upon him by the
Land Corporation."
I have stated above that the Land League was
formed in 1882. The Land Corporation was regis-
tered on St. Patrick's Day, 1883. These dates are of
importance, inasmuch as an attempt was made in Par-
liament to justify the starting of the former on the
ground that it had become necessary as a defensive
movement on the part of the tenantry against a combi-
nation of the landlords. The very converse is the
truth. As Mr. Kavanagh reiterated to his American
interviewer, the Corporation was purely defensive
from the outset, and when the extermination of the
landlord class was the openly avowed object of the
Land League, it could hardly be called unwarranted.
The names published in support of the Corporation
were those of all the largest and best landlords in Ire-
land, with but few exceptions men who never did a
harsh deed, men whose tenants, by their own evidence
before the Bessborough Commission, admitted that their
xx THE LAND CORPORATION 225
estates were fairly and humanely managed. In Mr.
Kavanagh's own words: "Their only complaint was
that they had a feeling of insecurity, not knowing
what manner of man the present landlord's successor
might be, or how he might treat them. To give them
this security, and on behalf of other tenants on dif-
ferently-managed estates, they asked for fixity of
tenure. They have got it. They asked for the right
to sell their interest in their farms. They have got it.
They asked for fair rents, and they have got a Court
with the most arbitrary powers, formed almost exclu-
sively of men whose leanings are towards their side,
to which they can appeal if they feel themselves
aggrieved. In fact, the tenant-farmers of Ireland hold
their farms on exceptionally favourable terms which
no other tenants in any other country in the world
possess. The object of the Land Corporation is not
to infringe these new rights which the law has given
them, but to teach them to obey and look to the law
for the enforcement of them rather than to the counsel
of those who know that if peace and order were re-
stored the hope of their gains would be gone."
The scheme alike in conception and practical
working was Mr. Kavanagh's, and, had it received the
countenance, not to say the support, it deserved, it
would have gone far to settle the land difficulty and to
spare the country those deeds of violence and vindic-
tiveness that have darkened its history for the last
eight years.
No move in the policy of the Land (or National)
League escaped Mr. Kavanagh's vigilance. In 1887,
after the announcement of the Plan of Campaign, he
threw himself with all the weight of his experience and
power into the " Anti-Plan of Campaign Association " ;
Q
226 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
and again in 1889 he actively promoted the "Dere-
lict Land Trust," set on foot to render assistance to
tenants who took farms on estates which had become
vacant from the adoption of the Plan. These, like the
other defensive associations already enumerated, owed
much of the success of their working to his interven-
tion, which only ceased when his last fatal illness made
further exertion impossible.
The winter of 1882 was clouded by the heaviest
sorrow he ever had to bear. In the midst of anxious
work maturing and moulding the Land Corporation
came the mournful news that his second son Arthur,
lieutenant R.N., had been invalided home from the
South American station. The news fell like a thunder-
bolt, for, except in a letter from his son saying he had
" had an attack of bronchitis, but was better," no warn-
ing had reached him.
A young fellow of the highest attainments, loved
by every one who knew him, and giving promise of a
career worthy of his honoured name, he had passed
far ahead of all competitors of his year in the very
stringent examinations for his profession. At the age
of twenty he was already full lieutenant, and in
passing for that step gained the coveted "three
firsts."
But all the loving hopes centred in him were fated
to be crushed !
When he returned to England in advanced con-
sumption it was clear that the end was not far
off, and in three short weeks the bright young
spirit was at rest "safe in the haven where he
would be."
To his father the blow was overwhelming, not only
xx DEATH OF HIS SECOND SON 227
from his tender love for his gallant boy, but also from
his natural pride in the rare abilities and high char-
acter he displayed. But the " silver lining " even to
that dark cloud revealed itself, and with deep thankful-
ness he was able to record in a letter to the Bishop of
Ossory his dear child's coming "in abject dependence
and earnest faith to Him who alone can save," and
the comfort to his own heart thus mercifully given.
" From that hour the sting of the blow was taken from
me, and what happened since was light to bear. The
answer to prayer came, and the sting of death was
gone."
One of his brother officers speaks of the impres-
sion he had made, of his " extreme amiability and kind-
ness as a messmate, of his great qualities as an officer
(which were in everybody's mouth), and of his manly
devotion to sport of his good common sense, his life
as a Christian, and his patience under suffering,"
during his last voyage home.
Lord Charles Beresford, under whom he had
previously served, wrote thus : "I had the greatest
affection for him. He was one of the best officers in
the navy, and he was a real loss to the country. There
are not too many like Arthur Kavanagh."
In the private chapel attached to Borris House,
Mrs. Kavanagh, " To the glory of God," and in re-
membrance of her sailor son, placed a stained-glass east
window which, while it records the mother's sorrow,
points to her "strong consolation" her faith in her
ascended Saviour.
I close this chapter with these touching verses by
the Bishop of Ossory, which he has kindly allowed me
to publish. They evince the deep sympathy which
united him in unbroken friendship with Mr. Kavanagh,
228 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xx
enabling him to speak the "word in season," alike in
sorrow as in joy. They were sent by him to Mr.
Kavanagh at this time.
" He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever
and ever." Ps. xxi. 4.
" We asked life of Thee, O Lord, '
Both life and length of days :
Thou heard'st our prayers, but answeredst them
In Thy mysterious ways.
" Thou gav'st him life the blessed life
That comes through faith in Thee ;
And then the everlasting life
Of immortality.
" We bless Thee 'mid our grief and tears ;
We bow and kiss the rod ;
For ' through the grave and gate of death '
Our loved one passed to God.
" The waves are passed, the storm is o'er,
For him the port is gained ;
For us his blessedness assured
God's mystery explained
" Lord, come Thyself and fill this blank,
Let Heaven the nearer be ;
Be more to us for that dear child
Who has gone home to Thee."
CHAPTER XXI
He being dead, yet speaketh.
ON the Qth of February 1883, addressing his Border
constituents on the Irish Question, Mr. (now Sir) G.
O. Trevelyan, then Chief Secretary, pointed out that
the British public seemed unable to realise the fact
that there are two Irelands the Ireland of the intelli-
gent, the well-educated, the law-abiding, and the
comparatively prosperous, and the Ireland of the
superstitious, the ignorant, the disloyal, and the
poverty-stricken. Commenting on this remark, to the
soundness of which he testifies, Mr. Kavanagh, in a
paper written at the time but never given to the
world, proceeds as follows :
" This division exists in so marked a degree that
it constitutes a characteristic distinguishing Ireland
from any other nation, and unless this is thoroughly
understood it is idle for any one to attempt to pre-
scribe a cure for her condition. It is what I must call
a sort of dual life ; no other words would describe it.
We have two distinct classes constituting her popula-
tion. The first or loyal class, already indicated, who
would live and let live, and be only too glad to be left
alone to pursue their avocations in peace, includes
a far larger number from the poorer grades, such
as tenant-farmers, labourers, small shopkeepers, and
230 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
tradesmen, than many would believe, and its numbers
would be larger still were it not for the dire system of
intimidation which has forced many of them, actuated
only by the self-preserving instinct, to join the other
ranks. This class is seldom or never heard. Its
members hold aloof from mobs and political meetings ;
among them are not to be found the noisy elements of
the turbulent sections ; indeed, they are too passive,
too quiet, and from the fact that they are so their
existence as a class is often doubted ; but, for all that,
it is as certain as that their presence affords a glimmer
of hope for better times.
" I know the country well, and although many
here in England may doubt the assertion and say
that ' the tree must be known by its fruits,' the cheering
fact remains that there is a large and influential party
in Ireland (excluding the landlord class, whose interest
in the support of order, whatever their political opinions
may be, is too patent to be questioned) who are sick
unto death of this never-ceasing agitation and turmoil
which has resulted in so much crime and misery.
The agitation was aimed at the landlords, but, sorely
as they have suffered, it has come with even heavier
severity upon the poor, and has turned many among
the lower classes, who at first if they did not actually
approve at least watched its progress with interest,
into earnest well-wishers of the cause of order.
" ' You must never forget/ says Mr. Trevelyan,
' that there is an Ireland of men of all parties and
creeds and callings who, whatever else they differ
upon, unite in wishing to preserve law and order and
the right of every citizen to go about his business in
peace and safety. It is the gravest mistake,' he
adds, ' to underrate the numbers and the claim to
xxi THE "TWO IRELANDS" 231
respect of the party of order in Ireland.' This is the
cheering side of the picture, and though emerging only
now from the shade, it shows a light ahead. As con-
fidence begins to be restored, this party of order will,
I confidently hope, take courage and cause its salutary
influence to be felt. Even as I write the prospect
lightens. The evidence given at the Kilmainham
inquiry discloses the enormity of the plot ; but while it
does, it shows that the Government have tapped the
source of information, and when once the fear of giving
evidence is overcome the chief safeguard of the con-
spirators is demolished. We see already that juries
can be found again in Ireland to give an honest verdict
even at the risk of their own lives. Their independ-
ence once more established, the most dangerous
element in the reign of terror will have been removed,
and the power of the law will again be felt.
" On the other hand, we have the dark and gloomy
side still too plainly visible the other party in this
dual state, what Mr. Trevelyan calls ' the other Ireland,
the smaller Ireland, as I firmly believe, of the men
who foment and condone and sympathise with crime.'
" I wish I could agree with him as to its being the
'smaller Ireland.' He is undoubtedly correct, if the
intelligence, education, and wealth of the party of
order is to be given its proper position and counted in
proportion to the responsibility which it represents.
In that he has at once an overwhelming majority.
But if the poll is taken by counting heads, I fear the
numerical majority will be found on the side of what
I designate as the ' second class,' which represents
little that is estimable (even giving credit for mistaken
fanaticism), and all that is cowardly, dishonest, violent,
and disloyal. I might with truth prolong my list of
232 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
such like qualifications until I had exhausted every
evil term in the dictionary ; but abuse is neither
argument nor proof, and the history of the country
during the last two or even three years will depict
more vividly and truly than any words of mine could
do the diabolical spirit which originated and supplied
the motive and developing - energy to this Land
League conspiracy. Started under the ominous title
of 'Struggle for Freedom,' it soon assumed the direct
weapons of tyranny, and did not shrink from the
murder of its own employes, if suspected of wavering,
to sustain its power and enforce its rule. Started
plausibly to defend the rights of the poor, it soon
established a reign of terror, in which none but the
rich or independent durst disobey its laws. The
social structure was subverted and, as Mr. Trevelyan
says, ' instead of the law being a terror to evil-doers,
evil-doers were a terror to the law-abiding and
industrious.' He describes in his speech the state of
affairs he found when he took office in Ireland. It is
a plain, true statement of things as they were not a
word of exaggeration either as regards the dismally
desperate conditions of the country or the danger or
responsibility of the office he was called upon to fill.
And, if he and Lord Spencer will allow me to say
so, the admirable manner in which those onerous,
distasteful, and most important duties have been dis-
charged, has well earned for them the gratitude and
esteem of every loyal subject of Her Majesty.
" This dual state, then, is the condition which
must not be lost sight of in attempting to unravel the
Irish tangle. Mr. Trevelyan in the same speech
says: 'At this time the position, if not of Ireland, at
any rate of the Irish government, is more critical than
xxi THE "TWO IRELANDS" 233
it has been at any preceding time, on account of the
want of knowledge of a great many people of what
Ireland really is. The cardinal division of Irish
society is not, as is sometimes imagined, between
Whig and Tory, between Protestant and Catholic,
between the camp of the tenant and the camp of the
landlord' ; and then he describes what it is in the words I
have already quoted. It may fairly enough be argued
that Ireland is not singular in this dual condition
this division of classes ; that in every country the
same exists ; in every country there are rich and poor,
bad and good, industrious and idle, contented and
discontented ; in every country there are political
differences of opinion more or less strongly marked.
But in no country that I know of is there the same
clearly defined palpable line of demarcation between
the two antagonistic sections of the population that
there is in Ireland, and that is what English people
do not understand. It is difficult to find terms under
which to designate them, but the nearest I can think
of those that most truly characterise the main
principles of each are loyal and disloyal.
" United under the former are differences in
politics, creeds, and interests, Liberal and Conserva-
tive, Whig and Tory, Protestant and Roman Catholic.
Some of all classes and all of many classes are drawn
together by the common bond of loyalty. This is the
party of order.
" Opposed to this we have the disloyal class ; and
it is in its particular composition and characteristics
that, I believe, we may find the peculiarities which
distinguish the case of Ireland from that of any
other country. Composed of many sections forming,
numerically speaking, I fear, the majority of her
234 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANACH CHAP.
population, they are also held together by a common
bond, and that is ' hatred of the British Crown and
connection.' Unreasonable as this may appear to
people in this country, various as may be the reasons
which give rise to it, different as may be the objects
which each have in view in fostering it, it is the bond
of union and common platform which brings together
and joins discordant spirits and men who would other-
wise be rivals if not foes. Here we have ignorance
and education, the atheist and the ecclesiastic, the
communist and the business-man, hand in hand truly
a strange combination ! Many of the poor and
destitute are in it. Whether their want is occasioned
by misfortune or by their own recklessness (but more
especially the latter), having nothing to lose, they
look for the possibility of gain by a revolution, and
as their numbers are made up chiefly from the un-
educated, their ignorance renders them an easy prey
to the designs of agitators, whose never-ceasing story
is that all their ills are the consequence of British
government. Many of the farming class (and, con-
sidering the special form the agitation took, this
cannot be wondered at), as also shopkeepers and
artisans, though not in actual want, are in it men
who can read and are, comparatively speaking,
educated. In all of their minds the hope is no doubt
more or less present that revolution might possibly
bring some amelioration of their material circumstances.
But, whatever effect that may have in influencing their
conduct, one of the most active causes of their dis-
affection is this : that the only source of information
they possess, the only means within their reach of
forming any judgment on public affairs, is through the
medium of the Irish (so-called) 'National' Press.
xxi EDUCATION IN TREASON 235
" Since education has become more general in the
south and west of Ireland disaffection has increased
tenfold. Why ? Because, first, as a general rule, in
former times every National school teacher in these
districts was a rebel, and took real care to instil his
own principles into the minds of his pupils. Second,
because, when the people learned to read, they could
get nothing else to read than papers dyed with treason.
No matter what party was in power, every action of
the Government was misrepresented, whether wise or
foolish, just or unjust, harsh or benevolent. It
mattered little ; it was twisted or exaggerated to
support the popular views, as they were termed.
" The simple fact is this, that the lower classes of
the population of Ireland have been reared and
brought up in treason. These may be new and
startling facts to the majority of Englishmen, but
they are facts which no impartial man who knows the
country can controvert.
" It is, then, to the adhesion and complicity of
these lower classes that this disloyalty owes the
numerical majority of its supporters, and it is this only
which gives it any semblance of the right to call itself
a national movement. But, although their co-opera-
tion gives it material power and influence, if we are to
be just, in the circumstances I have described, we can
hardly hold the people responsible for the line they
have taken or blame them for their disloyalty. In
order to put the saddle upon the right horse, we must
look further into the ranks of this strange confedera-
tion, which although now an exaggerated growth is
not of very new creation, and in them we find men
on whose behalf no exculpatory plea of ignorance can
be urged. We have both education and talent in the
236 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
form of the political agitator a character which has
figured more or less in every page of Irish history
since she has been endowed with the rights of con-
stitutional government. To the action of these
political agitators, both in the present and in the past,
we owe much of the existing trouble. Charitably we
might try to palliate their excesses by the excuse of
patriotism, but, unfortunately, history would not bear
us out. Instances are not wanting of political agitators,
wild in their patriotism, reckless in their eloquence,
who when they had climbed up by the steep ladder of
popular passion and excitement to office, the object of
their aim, returned to their right mind and became
powerful and consistent supporters of law and order.
The history of many a brilliant ornament of the Irish
bar would afford examples of such conversions, and, I
may add, that some of those who now sit upon and
adorn the Irish bench have helped to sow the wind
from which they now reap the whirlwind. Their case
in the past is not very different from the actors on the
political stage in the present. Ambition, love of
notoriety, self-interest in some form or other, whether
the desire to pull down their superiors or to exalt and
advance themselves, are the actuating motives which
influence these so-called popular leaders seldom, if
ever, real patriotism.
"In no country in the world is the path so easy
or the promise of reward so bright to the political
agitator as in Ireland. Under no government is the
pursuit of that trade attended with so little risk. Look
at France : how did she deal with Prince Napoleon for
issuing a manifesto which is simple child's play when
compared to the very mildest of the incendiary
harangues delivered by these agitators within the
xxi THE TRADE OF THE AGITATOR 237
last three years ? How would America have dealt
with such an agitation and reign of tyranny and terror
as we have suffered from ? Freedom of speech and
liberty of the subject are the valued and inherent
rights of free-born men, and under no form of govern-
ment are they so thoroughly possessed and enjoyed as
under the British Constitution. But when these rights
are prostituted by reckless adventurers to forward their
own ambition, the position is reversed, and the right of
liberty is turned into an instrument of tyranny. Thus,
we see, in this confederation we have two influences
acting and reacting upon each other. We have chronic
discontent, disloyalty, and ignorance among the lower
classes, rendering them a fertile soil for the agitator's
operations. His trade or calling is constitutionally
licensed and he not unnaturally makes use of this
liberty to foment the discontent, to increase the dis-
loyalty, and to darken the ignorance which are the
origin of his existence and the mainstay of his power.
Under circumstances such as these there is small room
for hope to those who long for peace ; no apparent
elements of the dissolution of the disturbing causes ;
rather the principles of perpetual motion.
" There are other classes still to be noticed in this
confederation of disorder. I have put them in appo-
sition as atheist and ecclesiastic, as communist and
business-man.
" The atheist or infidel and communist are classes
which I can afford to dismiss with brief notice, although
from among them are probably drawn the tools with
which the others work the executive who carry out
the orders of the inner circle. I hope they are few, but
we have no very trustworthy means by which to estimate
or test their numbers. Both communism and infidelity
238 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
are importations from America, therefore we may not
be very far wrong in assuming that most of those
young men who have returned from there are tainted
with them. 1 How far they may have spread their
doctrines among the farmers' sons when meeting them
at public-houses and other places it is not easy to say ;
but, no doubt, amongst such they have found willing
listeners and minds already prepared to receive their
teaching. The farmers, as a rule save in so far as
this land-agitation has imbued them with a part of this
principle are not communists. They have something
to lose, and they fail to see the charm of dividing what
they have among the labourers and their poorer
neighbours. With their sons it is different. All they
have is prospective ; and although we might have
hoped that interest in their families' concerns and
welfare would have tended to keep them steady, it is, I
fear, too well known that the insidious teachings of
their American friends and an unprincipled press have
proved too much for them, and that from their numbers
the ranks of the party of disorder are to a considerable
extent recruited. It is not a cheerful outlook for the
future that the rising generation are more deeply
disaffected than their forefathers ; but it would be folly
to ignore it. If the labourers had joined this move-
ment, heart and soul, it could hardly, considering their
wretched condition, have caused much surprise. But
I think they have been shrewd enough to see that they
had not much to hope for from it. They perceived
that in the division of the spoil the programme was to
leave them out and let them remain labourers still.
1 After the bursting of the Fenian bubble large numbers of the farmers' sons
fled to America. A considerable portion of these have since returned, many of
them attracted by the rising which the Irish-Americans confidently expected would
take place. A. M. K.
xxi ECCLESIASTIC AND INFIDEL 239
"The business-man is also a class over which I
need not waste much time, and I do not believe that
the party of disorder can number many among its
ranks. With those who have joined it their motive
has been, I must believe, one more of self-preservation
the fear of losing customers than approval of, or
sympathy with, its objects. If the report is true, we
have in the last Mallow election an example of the
kind of pressure brought to bear upon merchants and
traders. There the account states that the farmers
of the surrounding district assembled en masse before
the election in obedience to the command of the Land
League and told the shopkeepers who had votes that,
unless the Nationalist candidate was returned, they
would withdraw their custom and deal elsewhere.
Yielding to temporary pressure such as that in a
district like Mallow may be excused ; but it is difficult
to understand how educated men, brought up to busi-
ness habits, which are certainly supposed to be based
upon the principles of common honesty, can join hands
with communists.
"Yet, much as this is to be wondered at, it is far
more astonishing to see the ecclesiastic making common
cause with the infidel. We have Archbishop Croke
'and Bishop Nulty disseminating as mischievous doc-
trines and using as violent and reckless language as
ever distinguished the speech of a Land League
agitator ; and, when members of the hierarchy of the
Roman Catholic Church not only countenance but
promote this disloyal confederation, we need not be
surprised if every one of its meetings is attended by
priests, and if the curates, almost to a man, are enlisted
in its ranks. To my mind it is simply incomprehensible
how men occupying their position, with history to warn
240 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
them, can fail to see the danger to put it on no higher
grounds of prostituting the influences of religion to
serve political ends. It is a subject of no small con-
gratulation that Cardinal M'Cabe has been spared and
remains still to exercise the salutary power which his
position and his well-known high character deservedly
give him on the side of order. His loss at this crisis
would have been immense, for there has never been a
time when the interests of his Church in Ireland more
urgently required the guidance of his wisdom and
steady hand than now.
" Those members of the hierarchy who have given
their countenance to this movement and their en-
couragement to the lower orders of their clergy to
co-operate with it have incurred a very grave respon-
sibility. It is the consequence, and only the natural
consequence, of their own acts that their influence and
power for good over their flocks have been weakened.
Not one of them can deny the fact that the power of
the priesthood over the lower classes of the Irish
people has received a rude shock, and, in my opinion,
the rulers of that Church have the unscrupulous license
of their curates to thank for it. Since even the com-
parative spread of education among those classes, their
minds have received some enlightenment. They per-
ceived that there might possibly be some other test
for right and wrong than the dictum of their curate.
But when that curate announced from the stage of a
public meeting, or, worse, from the altar of their accus-
tomed and sacred place of worship, wild theories in
excuse or palliation of murder and other crimes, their
old landmarks in religion were blurred, if not obliterated ;
questions began to exercise their consciences, and their
faith in the infallibility of their Church's teaching was
xxi WANE OF CLERICAL INFLUENCE 241
shaken. With the ignorant and superstitious, when the
old belief is once weakened, the passage to infidelity is
not a long one. From outside, while this change was
going on while this doubt was deepening in their
minds they were, I may say, flooded with Trans-
atlantic literature, ventilating every kind of socialistic
and atheistic principles, which were further indus-
triously disseminated and propounded by emissaries
from America, and by the young men who had returned
from there after the Fenian scare was over.
" This process has been gradual. To its actual
commencement it is not easy to fix a date ; but the
first clearly-marked evidence of the weakening of the
influence and power of the Roman Catholic clergy over
their flocks was apparent during the Fenian agitation
of 1866-68. Then, I believe, many of them, cer-
tainly the majority of the hierarchy and parish priests,
endeavoured to stay the plague, but even by that time
they found that much of their power of restraint was
gone, and since then its decline has been more marked
and rapid.
" There are many, I believe, who think that this
change is a subject more for congratulation than regret,
and in this they are not without both ominous facts
and weighty arguments to support them. As a broad
rule, the general power of the Roman Catholic Church
has been exercised more against than in favour of the
British connection. As a strict rule, the influence of
the lower clergy I mean the curates has with rare
exceptions been exercised to create and foment discon-
tent, to set class against class, to embitter differences,
and to import religious fanaticism and violence into
civil questions. But, notwithstanding all these con-
siderations (and I fully appreciate their weight), I can-
242 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
not agree with those who hold this view. I do not
believe that the diminution of the influence of religion
can be regarded as an improvement in the moral or
social condition of any nation. What they mean is
clearly this, that the diminution of the influence of the
priesthood as now exercised would be a subject to be
grateful for not the diminution of the influence of
religion. That I grant them. But I cannot see how,
circumstanced as Ireland now is, it is possible to
separate them. The question I ask myself is this, If
religious feeling, and with it the influence of the Roman
Catholic clergy (the one hangs on the other), were to
disappear, what is to succeed it ? The people will not
rise higher. They must sink lower. Socialism and in-
fidelity would simply become general. I am not attempt-
ing to defend or justify the use I might more fitly call
it the abuse which the clergy have made of their power.
I am merely giving the reasons and considerations
which influence me in forming the opinion I hold.
"It may seem that I am rather needlessly dragging
the subject of religion into the controversy to compli-
cate and embitter its discussion that I have no war-
rant save some far-fetched notion for classing in this
confederation the ecclesiastic and the atheist.
" I can but point to France to prove my posi-
tion. What happened in the course of her Revolution ?
When Socialism became triumphant was not Religion
swept away ? And were not abstract definitions, coined
to suit the popular whim, substituted for the saving
truths of Christianity ? What did the ' Commune ' do ?
Were not priests and bishops, venerable and venerated
by their flocks when in their right mind, shot down in
Paris in the open day ? Infidelity and Communism
are inseparable !
xxi WHAT DOES "HOME RULE" MEAN? 243
" To pass over unnoticed the bearing of this
movement upon religious interests would be to ignore
the ominous warnings of the past. The clergy of the
Roman Catholic Church those, I mean, who have fallen
in with this movement may say that they join the
others only on political grounds, in their desire for
' Home Rule,' and that it is unjust to mix them up
with Communism and disloyalty.
" For argument's sake allow that it is so. What
does ' Home Rule ' mean ? The answer required is
not the specific interpretation given to the term by this
or that theorist. But what does it mean as under-
stood by the masses of the Irish people ? On that
point we are left in no doubt. It is too clearly and
distinctly defined by their exponents to leave any room
for question. It is separation from England. That
achieved, what does any sane man expect would follow ?
Probably the immediate consequence would be civil
war, as the North would hardly submit tamely to be
governed by the other provinces. If the North was
overcome or only succeeded in maintaining its own
independence, what would be the condition of the rest ?
Can any one doubt it ? Anarchy and Communism !
A repetition of the French scenes, with no one can tell
what ultimate result.
" There is no use in trying to shirk the real issue of
the question. Let the clergy's excuse be such as I
have suggested or not, they cannot throw off their
weight of responsibility in the matter. No man who
joins a movement has any right to try to shelter him-
self under the excuse that he did so with the impression
that it had an object or meaning different from that
which has been accepted and understood by the mass
of those who supported it. The clergy knew perfectly
244 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xxi
well the light in which the people regarded it, and,
whether they joined it from their own convictions or
for the object of sustaining their popularity and of
sailing with a tide they could not stem, their culpability
remains the same. By joining in it they were palpably
lending their influence and the influence of their posi-
tion to support the objects of the Communist, and
so to bring about the inevitable consequences of his
success.
" It is, then, with no desire needlessly to import the
religious element into the consideration of this great
question that I have dwelt upon the part the clergy of
the Roman Catholic Church have taken in it ; but
simply from the fact that, both in the present and in
the past, they have assumed so prominent a place in
all political matters that to leave them out in describing
the present complicated and deplorable condition of
affairs in Ireland as regards these two great and
antagonistic parties, or the causes which have produced
it, would be to give a very imperfect and misleading
representation of facts, upon the clear and true appre-
ciation of which so much of grave importance hangs in
the future.
" I have now stated as thoroughly and clearly as
I am able what are, in my opinion, the component
elements of this party of disorder ; and the next import-
ant point which it is necessary that I should refer to
is the nature of the present conspiracy, which has grown
out of and been matured by it, and I think I shall have
little difficulty in showing that it is in many important
respects different from those which have preceded it."
CHAPTER XXII
He being dead, yet speaketh.
" FROM time immemorial we have had in Ireland
rebellious plots, conspiracies, and agitations of more or
less gravity ; but, without underrating the importance
of the crisis in 1 798, or of any of the previous insurrec-
tions which resulted in an appeal to force, I think the
present is the most deep-rooted and the most serious.
All the prospects of success in the former attempts at
revolution which assumed any magnitude or import-
ance depended more or less on the promise and hope
of foreign aid, which invariably failed at the critical
moment. This, however, has been laid on different
lines, and based upon the spirit of disaffection, the
individual action, and the dogged and determined com-
bination of the people. American sympathy and
support was, no doubt, calculated upon, or Mr. Parnell
and his friends would not have taken the trouble to
cross the Atlantic to make the speeches we have heard
so much about. But it was not upon aid from
America as a State that these conspirators reckoned.
It was upon the support, whether in the form of men
or money, which it was thought the turbulent elements
of her population would be likely to supply. In this
they were not far wrong. Money they have got, and,
246 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
had matters come to blows, I believe they would have
got men too.
" This agitation practically dates back to the
Fenian Conspiracy in 1866-68; for although that
appeared to die out after the futile attempt at a rising
in the spring of 1868, the organisation has been
efficiently, although secretly, kept up, and the spirit
which fed it has been always present.
"The originators, therefore, of the Land League
Confederation had a matured organisation upon which
to begin work. They had a soil already well pre-
pared in which to sow their seed. At the commence-
ment, and until that seed had time to take root over
the whole country, they advisedly kept their ulterior
objects dark, and restricted the movement to a political
agitation within the bounds of the law.
"The passing of the Ballot Act aided them
materially, and the result of the General Election which
immediately succeeded that, although it brought about
a change of ministry and put the Conservatives into
power, gave them a parliamentary party sufficient to
warrant their carrying the war into the legislative
chamber. The result of their unscrupulous policy
upon the action of the House of Commons the con-
dition of "dead lock" to which their persistent
obstruction almost brought the legislative machine
gave their supporters in the country fresh heart.
They, for the first time perhaps, really saw a glimmer
of hope that their dreams of separation from England
would be realised. The people further saw, as
regards their own immediate interests, that the pre-
ceding agitation and turmoil the Fenian rising, the
Clerkenwell explosion had got for them the dis-
establishment of the Irish Church and the passing of
THE THREE Fs 247
the Land Act of 1870; and they, not unnaturally,
thought that persistence in that line would be pro-
ductive of further concessions sops to Cerberus, I
might call them. In this belief they were encouraged
by the result of the General Election of 1880, which
strengthened their parliamentary party, and brought
back to power the same ministry who had showed
themselves so sensitive to the influences of agitation
and outrage. It is indeed hardly possible that upon a
people gifted with such quick perception when their
own interests are at stake as the Irish are, the Mid-
lothian speeches should have failed to produce some
effect.
" Then, again, the main principles of the agitation
of 1879 were devised with more than ordinary
ingenuity. They were framed with the purpose of
appealing to the cupidity of every tenant-farmer in
Ireland, and this they did most successfully. Revolu-
tion, separation from England, and other extreme
objects were, as I have said before, most cleverly kept
in the background. Tenant-right the great principle
of the North and other two Fs (fixity of tenure
and fair rents) were the ostentatiously -adopted
mottoes, so that for the first time we have the tenants
of the North drawn into and made accomplices in a
movement, the real and ulterior objects of which
would, if successful, have wrought their destruction.
" There came to pass also at this time a peculiar
conjunction of circumstances which more or less
directly tended materially to favour this agitation.
"It will be remembered that the Land Act of
1870 gave to the tenants a considerably greater legal
interest in their holdings than they possessed before
an interest which was readily available as a security
248 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
for borrowing money or getting goods on credit.
This the shopkeepers, the petty usurers or " Gombeen
men," as they are called, and the local banks did not
fail to take advantage of, and an almost unlimited
system of credit was extended to the farmers, who were
rendered perhaps more than ordinarily careless or im-
provident by the good years and large harvests of the
five or six seasons preceding 1878.
"In that year there came a change. There was a
partial failure in the crops, and the money market
began to tighten. In the early part of 1879 there was
almost a financial panic in Great Britain, brought
about by various causes. The failure of the City of
Glasgow Bank and other large concerns occurred.
The English and Dublin wholesale merchants pressed
for payment upon the Irish retail dealers, and they, in
turn, came upon their rural customers for a settlement
of their claims. Added to this, the harvest was the
worst that had been known for years the season a
most inclement one. Mr. Parnell was reported in one
of his speeches delivered at this time in the County of
Mayo to have thanked the elements for fighting on
his side. He well knew the lever the prospect of a
bad harvest and consequent poverty would give to his
agitation. The situation was simply this : all credit
was suddenly stopped and the peasantry over head and
ears in debt, with little or no prospect of being able to
pay. Then the Land League programme appeared,
affording a short and easy solution of the difficulties
under which the tenants found themselves. Thus
we see that the agitation which appealed directly
to the cupidity of the lower classes was brought
to bear upon them at a time when a combination
of indirect and most unfortunate circumstances gave
xxn MURDER AND MURDER 249
to it an initiatory force which it is difficult to over-
estimate.
"Its history is well known. It grew and flourished.
At first a canvasser for support and adherents, it soon
passed into the position of an omnipotent . dictator,
forcing fealty and submission by terror, and punishing
disobedience to its laws by death.
" I have already said that this agitation, although
originated against the landlords and upper classes, has
fallen with much more terrible severity upon the poor
and the defenceless. By specifying certain murders in
the former classes, I do not imply that the others which
I do not mention are less horrible and revolting. It
would occupy too much time and serve no purpose
now to go through the details of the bloody list. But
there is a danger, and I would guard against it, that
the peculiar circumstances and shocking incidents of
poor Mrs. Smythe's murder at Barbavilla and the cold-
blooded atrocity of the Phcenix Park butchery (I refer
to them merely as a type of the others) may divert
attention from the class of victims who are really the
most to be commiserated from the defenceless poor
upon whom the cowardly tyrant's arm fell with im-
munity from risk, and with wanton and remorseless
cruelty. In the case of every outrage committed
against the upper classes, no matter how carefully pre-
cautions have been taken and plans prearranged, a
certain amount of danger has to be faced a danger
of resistance, a chance of being fired at again,
of being identified and ultimately punished. There-
fore there always was more or less brute courage
called into action in their perpetration. But in
the murders of the poor there was no such risk,
and in their commission we have exemplified the
250 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
true characteristics of the originators of the Land
League.
"Mr. Arnold Forster in his letter to the Times of
1 6th February 1883 brings out this point so forcibly
that I cannot do better than quote his words :
' Horrible as are the exploits of the " inner circle," as
described by many witnesses and as exemplified by
many hideous crimes, they are not, as some recent
critics have declared them to be, the "worst crimes
which have disgraced the present agitation." The
instinct which led the Phcenix Park murderers to
attack Mr. Burke, or which prompted the assailants of
Mr. Field in their cowardly assault, was the instinct of
wild beasts who, in attacking those charged with the
administration of the criminal law, were merely trying
to get rid of their natural enemies. It would be an
insult to the brute creation to draw any such compari-
son with regard to the agrarian and Land League
murders of which the Chief Secretary speaks. These
murders, one and all, were perpetrated in almost every
instance with one definite object that, namely, of
securing obedience to the rules of the Irish National
Land League ; and were intended either to procure or
to avoid the payment of money. Mr. Trevelyan has
done good service to the cause of order both in
England and in Ireland by brushing aside the false-
hood with which the Land League leaders and their
supporters have invariably sought to cover the iniqui-
ties which were perpetrated in their behalf. Ninety-
nine out of every hundred Englishmen when asked
who were the victims of the Land League agitation,
would reply that they were landlords or agents, who,
according to what Mr. Parnell 1 called "the wild justice
1 After Bacon : Essays, iv.
xxii STATISTICS OF MURDER 251
of revenge," had been shot down in pursuance of a
rough system of reprisals. Mr. Trevelyan states in
general terms that this was not so, and declares that
the sufferers were the defenceless and the unoffending.
I have been at some pains to inquire into this matter,
and the result of the inquiry is certainly somewhat
startling. Some time ago Mr. Dillon, in one of those
flourishes with which readers of Land League oratory
are familiar, declared that "there would soon be
evictions and processes by hundreds and thousands,
the result of which, he feared, must be bloodshed and
massacre in Ireland, and," he added, in a tone of
melancholy which by the light of the facts seems
somewhat grotesque, that "the massacre would no
doubt be mostly on the side of the Irish people."
Mr. Dillon, as it turned out, was perfectly correct.
The massacre did take place, and it was almost
entirely on the side of the Irish people. But who
were to be the perpetrators of the massacre Mr.
Dillon does not mention. The following figures will
throw some light on the question. I find that from
the ist of January 1880 down to September 1882
there were no less than 10,058 agrarian offences of all
kinds reported. Of purely agrarian or Land League
murders, not including the Dublin crimes, there were
57. Of the victims 25 were farmers or the sons of
farmers, 10 were labourers or herds, n were per-
sons of various occupations unconnected with the
landlord class, i was a magistrate and murdered as
such, 6 only were bailiffs' agents or process-servers,
while 4 alone, out of the whole 57, were landlords.
Again, there were 145 cases of attempted murder. Of
the persons attacked, and the majority of whom were
more or less dangerously wounded, 62 were farmers, 19
252 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
were labourers or herds, while 22 only were bailiffs'
agents or process-servers, and 10 only were landlords.
322 cases of firing into dwellings were reported, yet
only 33 of the occupants of the houses attacked were
of the landlord class or its dependents. In short,
it was upon the poorest, most defenceless, most
thoroughly Irish section of the population, that the
Land League waged unrelenting war, and whom it
mutilated, murdered, robbed, and terrorised in the
interests of its miserable unwritten law. These simple
facts the League and its supporters have always
endeavoured to conceal, and by perpetually affirming
their opposite, have succeeded in misleading public
opinion to an incredible extent. There are no illu-
sions about these matters in Ireland. There it is
known that the vast proportion of these outrages were
committed by and on behalf of the Irish Land League.
While the " inner circle " counts its victims by units,
the Land League counts them by scores. The bulk
of the outrages were committed under the auspices of
the local Land Leagues, at a time when, to use the
words of United Ireland, " the plan of the campaign
was in the hands of the Land League, and whoever
moved without their order was a deserter whoever
thwarted them by individual action was an enemy." '
" He then proceeds to show how Messrs. Parnell,
Sexton, and Dillon the members of the central
League were in constant communication with Messrs.
Brennan, Boyton, and Sheridan, were the avowed
friends of Devoy, and the pensioners of Patrick Ford
of the Irish World; and he concludes with these
words : ' As soon as the English public realise that
the Irish National Land League never would have
existed for a day, and never in fact did exist, without
xxn DIFFICULTY OF GETTING EVIDENCE 253
the sanction of wilful murder, the better it will be. It
will be a great mistake if we allow the dramatic
circumstances of the tragedies in Dublin to divert our
minds from the far more cruel, far more frequent, and
far less excusable outrages which were committed by
or on behalf of the Irish National Land League.'
" There is a further peculiar characteristic of this
conspiracy which distinguishes it from those which
have preceded it, and bears materially upon the main
question. During the whole of its progress up to last
autumn, there has been an impossibility of obtaining
any information save the general report of outrages.
As to the tactics or plan of action of its organisers, or
any evidence which could lead to the conviction of
the parties guilty of the crimes that had been com-
mitted, the whole community seemed to be bound
under a common seal of secrecy, and practically of
complicity. We have only to remember the verdicts
of the different coroners' juries in the cases where the
police and one or two others were tried for firing in
defence of their lives, and in the discharge of their
duty. If these verdicts had been allowed to take
their course, many judicial murders would have been
committed.
"As regards agrarian outrages this difficulty of
obtaining evidence has always been present, but not
at all to the same extent as regards other crimes.
It would appear as if agrarian murder came more
peculiarly under the code of the Ribbon Society, and
was carried out under its directorate, and we have
seen in what has passed very strong evidence for the
assumption, if not belief, that the Land League, if not
one with them, adopted their rules. However that
may be, one important element which must not be lost
254 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
sight of in endeavouring to understand the nature and
character of this party of disorder, and to appreciate
fully the great difficulty of dealing with them, is the
deplorable circumstance that when an agrarian crime
is committed in a district in Ireland, the whole popu-
lation of that district at once become 'accomplices
after the fact.' That is, I believe, the legal term :
what I mean is, that all with one accord join in refus-
ing to give information if they possess it, or, if they do
not, they are as united in endeavouring to throw
every possible difficulty in the way of discovering
those who do.
" During my experience as a magistrate in Ireland
I have had several investigations to conduct in
agrarian murder cases, and have found invariably
present the spirit I describe. In cases of other sorts
of crime it has been quite different. Englishmen
must not think that agrarian murder means only the
murder of a landlord for evicting a tenant. In the
cases that came before me the victims were tenants,
and their crime, according to the Ribbon code, was
trying by fair means or foul, it did not much matter
which, to obtain the land of another.
" But I have digressed, and must return to my
point, which is the strict secrecy observed by those
implicated in the present movement. On every other
occasion of a conspiracy of the same magnitude there
always have been means of getting information as to
what was at least likely to happen, and as to the
general, if not the particular, tactics of the organisers.
In 1798 the Government had full information on these
points, as also in 1847, and in the Fenian conspiracy
of 1866 to 1868. Then, I well remember, I had no
difficulty in getting information. I was warned of the
xxn THE EARLY SPRING OF 1881 255
intended rising at Caherciveen a week before it took
place, and sent what I knew of it to Lord Mayo (then
Chief Secretary for Ireland), as also of the Dublin
dmeute which followed almost immediately afterwards.
" But during the present crisis, the usual attendant
on an Irish conspiracy the Irish informer has been
conspicuous by his absence. It may be thought that
no information of a rising or open insurrection was to
be had because none was intended. It is very hard
to say what were or were not the intentions of the
prime movers. I believe there were divided counsels,
but of one thing I am certain, that some movement
was confidently expected. Whether this expectation
was general or not I cannot say. I can only speak of
those parts of the country with which I am connected.
At first it was reported that it (whatever ' it ' was)
would take place in the early spring of 1881. Some
will remember how full the streets of Dublin were of
Yankee-looking strangers at that time. Then it was
fixed for the night of the 3ist December 1881, and
again for some date, which I do not remember, in
February 1882. The rumours were very vague as to
what form it was to assume. The commonest report
was that it would be a renewal of St. Bartholomew's
Day a general massacre of the Protestants. I have no
doubt myself that something of the kind was intended,
and that it was only averted by Mr. Forster's fore-
sight in filling the country with troops.
"The question, however, of what was or what was
not intended is of little moment now as bearing upon
the point I want to make clear, and that is, the secrecy
which attended this movement which distinguished it
from all other similar movements, and which gave it its
peculiarly ominous and dangerous characteristic con-
256 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
nected it clearly with the Ribbon Society, and with the
spirit which ruled it.
"At the commencement there seemed to be a split
between the Fenian party and the Land League fac-
tion. It may have been put forward as true for a
purpose. But whether pretended or real, the Dublin
revelations show that they very soon healed their
differences, and joined hands for the common object
which I may summarise as this the destruction of the
landlord-class as the first and principal redoubt before
attacking the connection with England. That the latter
was the real and ultimate object of the organisers is
clear from the words used by Mr. Parnell in his speech
at Cincinnati on 23d February 1880, as reported at
the time. ' None of us,' he says, ' whether in America
or in Ireland, or wherever we may be, will be satisfied
until we have destroyed the last link which keeps Ire-
land bound to England.' This declaration was of
sufficient breadth and force to enlist the Nationalist or
Fenian element. Thus, by the conjunction of these
two principles, all the parties of disorder in Ireland
were, for the first time known in history, united under
one flag, and the most formidable and deep-laid con-
spiracy organised that ever threatened the peace of the
country.
" The League once extirpated root and branch, the
reign of the Uncrowned King and his power for evil,
in its present form at least, will be at an end. In this
there is, I trust, a hope for peace, if not a permanent
one, then for a few years of quiet, until some fresh form
of agitation is invented, based of course upon the ele-
ments of disturbance ever present, and the rich promise
which legislation in the past holds out to agitation in
the future.
xxii LESSONS OF THE CONSPIRACY 257
"The past is gone and cannot be recalled. It is
only in so far as affording a guide and a warning that
a review of it can now serve my purpose, and it is with
that object alone that I have endeavoured to give a
general account of what has happened, and to bring
into prominence the circumstances and facts which, in
my opinion, are the main causes of the condition in
which we are now placed. This conspiracy, with all
its evil consequences, has been a warning to us ; but,
unless we understand rightly and thoroughly its real
origin, the warning will be of no use, perhaps do more
harm than good.
" By its light, however, I hope, if I have described
it correctly, we may be able to form a right judgment
as to the merit and value of the various remedies pre-
scribed, which I have now time to mention only cur-
sorily. Among these, on the one side, we have Mr.
George's essay, Progress and Poverty, the full bear-
ings of which I have not been able to master, but, so
far as I have, his prescription would appear to be
identical with Mr. Davitt's doctrine. He brings us
back to first principles to the first chapter of Genesis
as it were, and the second verse of the history of Ire-
land ; it, Ireland, was without form and void and Mr.
George proceeds to shape it. We have Mr. John
Morley's treatise in the Nineteenth Century of
November last, which, without any disrespect to him,
T think I can show displays, on many points, that
English ignorance of Irish affairs to which I have
referred, as well as prejudice and distorted judgment
on the whole. We have Dr. Posnett's letters advo-
cating the lowering of the franchise, parliamentary
and municipal. We have Mr. O'Brien's exhortation to
the Government as their legislation has so crippled
258 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
the landlords that they cannot continue their improve-
ments to undertake the reclamation of waste lands,
arterial drainage, planting, and other works, to give
employment at the public cost, and so to supplement
what the landlords did and can now no longer do.
And we have, the most ominous of all, the announce-
ment which Mr. Gladstone is reported to have made
at Cannes, that he now believed that the real cure for
Ireland was decentralisation. I presume that means
abolishing the Local Government Board in Dublin,
and placing the administration of local affairs entirely
in the hands of the people. From among all these
proffered blessings it is not easy to choose. All,
except Mr. O'Brien's, point practically to the same
end. I fear, however, unless Mr. Trevelyan's good
sense and judgment are allowed their due influence
and weight, that, whatever is done, we shall again
experience what is now becoming a very common
result of party government : that the measure will be
devised with a view to strengthen party-power, regard-
less of the requirements of the case or the benefits it
may confer on Ireland.
" On the other side, we have many and carefully-
calculated schemes for the gradual formation of a
peasant proprietary, without either robbery or confisca-
tion. We have schemes for relieving by emigration the
poverty-stricken districts of their surplus inhabitants.
I should much like to have attempted, by a careful
review of these, to show where I thought them wrong
and where I thought them right ; but I felt that it
would be simple folly to try to discuss a remedy with-
out first endeavouring to describe the nature of the
disease (as I understood it) for which it was suggested
as a cure. In doing that I have (I hope not uselessly)
xxn PEASANT PROPRIETARY 259
occupied so much time, that I must not trespass
further, although I would be glad of the opportunity
of pursuing the subject to the end.
" I may, however, be allowed to add one word in
conclusion as an indication of the direction which I
think should be followed. If the trade of the political
agitator is stopped in that I include the action of the
so-called ' National ' press there is no reason why
Ireland should not become as quiet, prosperous, and
contented a country as there is in the world, and a
pleasanter one than most others to live in. The
characteristics of the people (when let alone) are the
best generous, warm-hearted, with, strange as it may
seem to say so, the true instincts of real loyalty in-
herent in them, if they were afforded a chance to
develop them their great, their national fault is their
being so easily influenced and led ; and it is by the
action of those who have obtained the lead over them
that all their evil qualities are brought to light and
their good ones concealed. But as, in the present
state of public feeling while this wave of democracy is
in the ascendant, it is not likely that the political
agitator will be interfered with, we must look for the
most probable means of establishing order, despite his
efforts.
" To find such, it is only a common-sense axiom to
say that we must try to enlist as many as we can on
the side of order, and in the present condition of affairs
I can see no other way of attaining that result with the
same likelihood of success as by the establishment of a
large class of peasant proprietors.
" Once you give a man a proprietary interest
something to lose it is only the logical inference that
he will become opposed to anarchy and lawlessness.
260 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xxn
To give a lower franchise now, under existing circum-
stances, is not really to give increase of political power
to the people as a people, because they are not free to
make an independent use of it. Its only effect would
be to give increase of power to the political agitator,
to the disturbers of the peace of the country, and to
the enemies of England."
CHAPTER XXIII
But the record fair,
That memory keeps of all thy kindness there,
Still outlives many a storm, that has effaced
A thousand other themes less deeply traced.
COWPER.
Otbs JrcTTVVTcu . TOI Sc cr/acu cuoxrowtv.
HOM. Od. x. 495.
Alone he keeps his head, while, shadow-like,
The others waver.
COWPER'S lines above quoted indicate the feeling which
brought Mr. Kavanagh's tenantry once more into
sympathy with the old house, when, in the July of
1885, the family vault was reopened to receive his
mother.
Full of years, loved and honoured by all, Lady
Harriet died at Ballyragget Lodge, which had been
her residence for well-nigh a quarter of a century.
There, as in former days at Borris, her time was spent
in doing good to every one who came within the
sphere of her refining influence.
She was. a woman of high culture and of unusual
artistic power. During the years the many years, I
might say that she spent abroad, her sketches and
water-colour drawings assisted the records of her
graphic pen in reproducing for the benefit of those
left behind the beauties of the scenery in which she
262 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
delighted. Egypt, Palestine, the lovely island of
Corfu (endeared to her by many ties), and the scarcely
less lovely Neapolitan Riviera all enriched her
portfolio, till it became a very magazine of bright
impressions and happy recollections.
Failing health for the closing years, a "calm
decay" had confined her entirely to Ballyragget.
But when the end had come she was brought back to
Borris, to the old home, for one night, on her way
to her last resting-place : the picturesque abbey over-
looking the Barrow.
In the early morning the mounted tenantry from
far and near assembled to escort to St. Mullins the
remains of her who was so long and so well known to
many among them. The striking convoy accompany-
ing the hearse slowly passed down the sloping street of
Borris, where the closed shops and hushed bystanders
attested the widespread sorrow for the gentle lady.
Memories of kindly words and deeds, and the tears of
those she had befriended in the dark hours of desola-
tion and poverty, welled up as the procession passed
on to lay her in the old Abbey there to rest in " sure
and certain hope " till the morning of the Resurrection.
In the September following, Mr. Kavanagh, on his
return from one of his brief holidays, found Ireland in
a state of rampant lawlessness on the Nationalist side,
and of grave disquietude on that of the loyal and well-
disposed. By personal interviews and through the
daily post he received ample confirmation of this im-
pression from gentlemen belonging to nearly every
part of the country, and he was strongly advised to
call together a meeting in Dublin to represent em-
phatically the uneasiness felt by the minority, and
xxin THE NOTE OF WARNING 263
the prevailing sense of urgency for the adoption of
measures to check the Land (now become the National)
League.
This advice he refrained from following, as he was
unwilling, directly or indirectly, to embarrass Lord
Salisbury's newly-formed Government or to prejudice
its position, rendered doubly difficult by the circum-
stances bequeathed by its predecessor. He took
occasion, however, to make known his views on the
condition of affairs, and in a letter which he wrote on
the 2d October, and which even now, except in a few
passages, must be withheld from publication, he com-
mented strongly on the widespread boycotting and
terrorism, as proved not only by the reports of the
constabulary and divisional magistrates, but also by
personal observation and by facts received at first hand.
"I do not believe," he says, "that the country
was ever in a more deplorable condition. ... It is
reported that the ' Coercion ' Act, as it is called, will
not be renewed, on the ground that the ordinary law
is sufficient to govern the country. ,
" This is, of course, a point upon which country
gentlemen like myself are not competent to offer an
opinion. But, if it is a fact that the ordinary law is
sufficient to deal with the existing crisis, the present
condition of Ireland would prove that it is not put in
force.
" That, I may say frankly, is the main apprehension
of a large number of the loyal classes, and I cannot
too strongly emphasise the great danger of allowing
the action of the National League to go on unchecked."
Again, writing on i4th October, he says :
" I accept the statement, but, I must confess, not
without some misgiving, that the ordinary law will
264 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
prove sufficient, and I am thankful to be assured that, in
cases where it is applicable, it will be vigorously applied.
" I trust, however, that I shall be forgiven for say-
ing that in my opinion prosecutions at Petty Sessions,
directed against comparatively unknown persons, ad-
judicated upon by local magistrates, and resulting,
probably at most, in the inflicting of trifling punish-
ments, although in themselves necessary, will go but
a short way to re-establish order and to check crime,
if in notable cases no proceedings are instituted.
"All experience in this country shows that, to
meet and defeat conspiracy, it is at its chief instigators
that the blow must be struck, and I very much fear
that the effect upon the public conscience of such pro-
ceedings against those who are, in reality, but tools in
the hands of others will be of little avail, if meetings
are permitted to be held throughout the length and
breadth of the land, where resolutions are adopted, not
only encouraging systematic boycotting, but, in several
instances, naming the individuals who are to be singled
out for attack. ,
" I claim sympathy not so much on behalf of those
who are, comparatively speaking, in a position to
defend themselves, as for those who, while legal
proceedings are pending, are being absolutely and
irretrievably ruined by the action of the League."
The late autumn of the same year witnessed the
General Election on the recently -lowered franchise,
and Mr. Gladstone, it will be remembered, appealed
to the constituencies for a substantial majority, on the
express ground that it would make him independent
of the now greatly-augmented Parnellite vote. The
response was more than dubious ; but it brought a
decisive change in his policy.
THE ONE POLICY 265
Early in 1886 the new Parliament met, and Lord
Salisbury's Government, having been defeated on
Mr. Jesse Collings' Amendment, was succeeded by
Mr. Gladstone's. Once more the Irish Question was
thrust into the foreground. Mr. John Morley was
appointed Chief Secretary, and the misgiving soon
became general that the unhappy island was again to
become the victim of experimental legislation. How
sorely unfit she was for any such ordeal may be
gathered from a paper written by Mr. Kavanagh in
the late spring a paper never published, but strikingly
prescient, as the following extracts will show, of the
dangers ahead and of the one mode of averting
them.
"If either party, Conservative or Liberal, had
possessed the courage to proclaim the Land League
and renew the Crimes Act, or pass some other Act
for the prevention of crime and boycotting, their action
would have been welcomed with silent gratitude by
hundreds of thousands of the farmers and labourers
in the country. None save those who have lived in
Ireland and had personal knowledge of what has taken
place during the last six years can form any idea of
the grievous tyranny to which the people have been
subjected, or of the range and manner in which the
powers of the National League have been exercised.
"It is a great mistake to suppose that there is any
difference, save in the slight change in name, between
it and the Land League, which was suppressed by Mr.
Forster as an illegal combination. The head offices
are the same. It is worked by the same men. Its
sources of support are the same. Its objects are
the same. Its means of enforcing obedience are the
same.
266 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
"It is a well-known fact that in many districts
the law of the land is superseded by the law of the
National League, and its members boast of it. With
the Supreme Court, or Court of Appeal, they have
minor courts established throughout the country. In
their organs, from the Skibbereen Eagle to United
Ireland, I have seen their decrees published inflicting
fines or ordering boycotting for breach of rules or dis-
obedience to their mandates. The graver kinds of
punishments by which their authority is enforced, such
as murder, personal violence, burning of house or
offices, maiming of cattle, and other phases of outrage
(the latest invention 'being holding a girl while a dog
tore her legs), are not named in those papers, but they
are quite as well understood.
" That the objects of the new and the old League
are identical is evident from the decrees issued on the
land and on the rent questions. As to the first, there
are the same punishments for, and denouncements
against, the taking of ' evicted ' farms, or ' land grab-
bing,' as such is popularly termed ; and, as to the
latter, almost the same ' no-rent ' manifesto was issued
as before. Although the effect was less general, every
effort was exerted to make it equally so. That there
was no real general unwillingness on the part of the
tenants to pay their rents I know from my own case.
Many of my tenants have come privately to me within
the last few months saying that they were quite ready
and willing to pay, but that they dared not do so, lest
their houses should be burned, themselves or members
of their families injured, or their cattle maimed. Others
have come asking to be served with writs or processes
as an excuse for paying. One very peculiar case that
I heard of was that of a poor woman, after she had
xxin THE NATIONAL LEAGUE 267
paid her rent, begging to be served with a process
which she might show as a proof that she had not
paid ! But such is the state of the country that I
regret to say only too many well -authenticated in-
stances of such facts can easily be given.
" There is, however, this difference between the
old and the new League : the former was proclaimed
before it had much time to develop, the latter has been
allowed to grow unchecked till it has gained enormous
power, established branches in every part of the land,
and extended its actio'n to interference with every
undertaking in public or private life. The working
of Acts of Parliament, no matter how beneficial, has
been interfered with. The Land Purchase Act has
been rendered practically inoperative. The applica-
tion of the Labourers' Dwellings Acts has in many
districts been limited to building houses only for
members of the League, for others distorted into a
weapon for injuring ' obnoxious ' individuals, which
simply means that, by their loyalty, they have brought
themselves under the ban of the League. No public
company or institution is too great to be above its
aim : instance the attempt to ruin the Bank of Ireland,
the attack on the Cork Steamship Company, the
attempts to boycott National Schools. I believe there
are over sixty of such instances, but the particulars
and numbers of them can easily be ascertained by
reference to the Education Office. It would be a
return well worth moving for.
" No act of private life is too trivial to be beneath
the ken of the League. A farmer cannot hire or dis-
charge a servant, buy or sell his stock, or do any act,
no matter how common, in carrying out his lawful
business, without rendering himself liable to be called
268 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
to account. No more can a labourer or a shopkeeper.
And it should be borne in mind that the rules of these
district branches of the League are as often framed
with the object of indulging the private malice of the
ruling spirit as of enforcing any intelligible prin-
ciple. Under circumstances such as these it can
be no matter of wonder that the people should
look for relief by the re-establishment of the author-
ity of the law and the restoration of their personal
liberty.
"It is in shrinking from giving this relief that I
think both the great parties in their turn are most
seriously to blame. The weakness, and I may say
cowardice, which they have thus displayed have
immensely magnified the difficulties of the future
government of the country, and have confirmed in the
minds of many the previously fast-growing belief that
the real power has passed from the British Government
to the Nationalist leader and his party. It is certainly
true that, according to the rules of party warfare,
appearances favour this opinion. Mr. Parnell, as
parties are now in the House of Commons, certainly
holds the balance in his hands. But it seems to me
almost beyond belief that a party of eighty-six, whose
avowed object is the destruction of the Empire and
the ruin of England, should be allowed to rule over
the rest of the House of Commons, the majority of
whom, it is to be hoped, love their country and are
jealous of its honour. Under ordinary circumstances,
the mere supposition that such could be the case would
be absurd, but under those to which I have referred it
would be hard to say what might not be possible. It
is that doubt which makes me say that, bad as our
present condition is, the future, humanly speaking, is
xxin UNIONIST COALITION RECOMMENDED 269
even more gloomy. Were it not that the issue lies in
higher hands than ours, there would seem to be but
little chance of light. Feeling this, I cannot yet bring
myself to think that all is hopeless that all our public
men have lost the sense of right, or that the English
people, when they understand the true issues, would
ever consent to hand over Ireland to the confiscation,
anarchy, and ruin which the Nationalist programme
would involve.
" I would hope that the result of this crisis would
be the formation of a coalition, consisting of those
members of the two great parties, who, seeing the
imminence of the dangers threatening the Empire,
will sink their party differences and unite in one strong
body to avert disaster. If they do so, the crisis will
have been, I believe, productive of real good ; but,
until this great problem is solved, it seems to me
but waste of time to speculate on the future, or to
endeavour to discuss the questions which may then
arise. The whole fate of this country practically hangs
upon the question of the restoration of law and order.
If the Union is to be maintained, the National League
must be suppressed, and the laws of the Empire
enforced. Until this is done, we are in no position to
consider future legislation, because it is idle to talk of
making laws which would be inoperative when passed ;
and if the Union is not to be maintained, the sooner
the loyalist inhabitants are made aware of the fact the
better, that they may have an opportunity of escaping
with their lives."
It was to the manipulators of the Irish- American
conspiracy, miscalled the "National League," flushed
with past successes and approaching triumph, that Mr.
Gladstone proposed to commit the destinies of the
270 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xxm
industrious, the educated, the law-abiding minority,
Roman Catholics and Protestants alike ; and it was
by the unexpected and tardy intervention of such
a coalition as Mr. Kavanagh indicated that the
attempted revolution was to be frustrated. But I
anticipate.
CHAPTER XXIV
Hoc caverat mens provida Reguli
Dissentientis condicionibus
Fcedis, et exemplo trahenti
Perniciem veniens in aevum. HOR. Car. iii. v. 13.
This had his prophet-soul foreseen,
Prompt to reject the compact mean,
With its train of woes that, in future ages,
Must on the Empire supervene.
To the surprise and dismay of the constituencies, Mr.
Gladstone capitulated to the Separatist leader against
whom he had so lately courted their help. As his
newest panacea for Ireland, he had adopted Home
Rule ! This policy he unfolded in two bills, concur-
rently brought forward one to exclude Ireland from
representation at Westminster and to concede to her
a Parliament in College Green ; the other, as the con-
dition precedent of its companion, to buy out the land-
lords, and so relieve her of what on the threshold of
her " new departure " she must have found a difficulty
fraught with risk, if not disaster.
The fate of those bills "those insane bills," as
Mr. Goschen characterised them was settled after six
weeks' discussion. They were rejected in a full House
by a majority of thirty rejected, moreover, by that
very coalition of loyal Liberals and Conservatives
which had commended itself to Mr. Kavanagh. A
272 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
General Election ensued, with the result that the country
reaffirmed the verdict of the House four times over.
It raised the majority of thirty to well-nigh one hundred
and twenty, charged with its mandate to maintain the
unity of the Empire.
It would serve no useful purpose to review Mr.
Gladstone's stupendous " rhetorical misadventure," to
show the inconsistencies of his scheme to grant Home
Rule to people whom his legislation had been treating
as imbeciles or minors, unable to make or keep a con-
tract ! Equally idle would it be to dwell on the cruel
wrong it must visit on Ireland by withdrawing her
representatives from the invigorating friction the
education, in a word provided by the Imperial Parlia-
ment. The reader is too cognisant of the character-
istics of Mr. Gladstone's bills to require more than this
reference, from which I now pass to what will be per-
used with present interest: Mr. Kavanagh's "Few
suggestions for consideration as to a future Policy
of Government for Ireland."
This paper, written in the Carlton Club just after
Mr. Gladstone's defeat at the polls, has hitherto been
read by only a few political friends ; but from its
author's experience and fair-mindedness, it will be
welcome to all who have at heart the permanent good
of Ireland :
" I must preface what I have to say by a few words
as to the condition of the country.
" At the present moment it is, perhaps, compara-
tively quiet, because those who really rule it have, on
grounds of expectant policy, given the mandate for a
temporary peace. When this object ceases to have
weight there is little doubt that the same condition
of things will reappear which existed but a few
xxiv HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF 273
short months ago, and the effects of which exist
still.
" That condition was simply this : that, save in
times when it was in open rebellion, it never was in a
more unsettled state and seldom in a more threatening
one. Even now no one knows from day to day what
to expect. Trade is paralysed. All confidence in the
support of law and order has vanished. Civil contracts
are practically worthless. In some districts the Queen's
writ does not run. In some even the fundamental
laws of every civilised state for the protection of life
and property are powerless ; the mandates of an ille-
gally constituted body, the National League, being
alone regarded.
"These are facts which are too well and widely
known to render it necessary for my present purpose
to dwell upon them.
" For the causes which have produced this condi-
tion we have not far to look. It is a case of history
repeating itself, and of Ireland being made, as of old,
the battleground of English party strife.
" The British Constitution is a grand one, guar-
anteeing to every subject the greatest amount of
freedom consistent with the safety of the common-
wealth. The system of party government is also as
near perfection in its theory and conception as any
human device can hope to reach. But for either of
these to have a fair trial there are conditions absolutely
needful, and they are : that those who hold the helm
of the State and lead the parties should have a con-
scientious regard for the first principles of right and
wrong, and make ambition subservient to patriotism.
" An impartial review of the history of this country
for the last twenty years will show, I fear, how these
T
274 ARTHUR MACMURRO&GH KAVANAGH CHAP.
conditions have too often been ignored ; how the love
of power, the desire for place, have perverted mighty
minds, and how the sacred trust of the destinies of a
great nation has been prostituted for the furtherance of
personal ambition.
"We have had during the period I have named,
more especially within the last few months, instances
too palpable to be questioned of words eaten, pledges
repudiated, policies which were declared to be outside
our planet's sphere, not only brought ' within measur-
able distance,' but as warmly advocated and adopted
as they were before, by the same lips, stigmatised as
immoral, denounced and condemned. But invariably
this sudden change of opinion has been in the direction
of bidding for the support of whatever political section
appeared most likely to be in the ascendant or even to
hold the balance of power, regardless of ultimate con-
sequences as of present honour.
"No constitution could stand such a strain. In
England, with the old constituencies, the majority of
whom were educated thinking men, it might have had
a chance. But with the newly -enfranchised masses
that hope seems vain.
" Encouraged by the example of a great popular
leader, numbers of adventurers are ready to step into
the arena as devoid of principle as of any material
stake in the country, and, instead of trying to lead or
direct the masses whose trust they seek, they bid for
their votes by playing upon their cupidity and pander-
ing to their passions.
" Even in a country like England such a course
can, I fear, only result in disaster and disgrace. But
in Ireland, with an excitable population peculiarly open
to the influences of agitation, the numerical majority
xxiv SILENCE NOT CONSENT 275
reared in disloyalty from their cradles, whose only
source of information or means of forming an opinion
upon the questions of the day are derived from the
Nationalist journals and other treasonable and un-
scrupulous publications, the consequences are a hundred-
fold more dangerous, and have already brought us face
to face with the existing crisis.
" Bad as the present is, the future prospect appears
to me to be more gloomy, and if the weak and waver-
ing policy of the past yearns to be followed, I can see
no other result possible than anarchy and civil war.
" On the other hand, I believe that if the Govern-
ment once showed a firm front and an unmistakable
determination to restore and maintain order and to
punish crime, and showed, further, that they regarded
that as their first and paramount duty, and did it because
it was right, there would be little difficulty in the task.
They would have with them the sympathy and respect
of a very large number of the people a very much
larger number than many would suppose.
" I have no doubt that both parties, Conservative
and Liberal, have, in their turn, shrunk from the policy
of firmness and adopting the means necessary to restore
and maintain order from the fear of losing popularity
and being charged with ' Coercion.'
" It is a very grave mistake which many English-
men of both parties are under to suppose that the
majority of the rural population in Ireland (I do not
speak of the towns) are really sympathisers with crime.
It is quite true that since the establishment and spread
of the Land League the people are in such abject
terror that not one in a thousand dare raise a voice
against a system from which they suffer more acutely
than any other class. But that is not from sympathy
276 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
with crime or from any love of the yoke under which
they groan, but from the utter absence of all moral
courage. That is a national characteristic, and con-
stitutes the main difference between the inhabitants of
the two islands.
" Believing that the circumstances I have named
are the chief causes of the present condition of affairs,
I must put the restoration of law and order involving,
as I believe, the absolute necessity of the suppression
of the National League as the first and most import-
ant duty of any government.
"It may be found that to facilitate, or even render
possible, the efficient accomplishment of this task, the
granting of additional powers to the executive may be
necessary. In that event their application should be
extended to the United Kingdom and their duration
made permanent.
"With the large Irish population under the direct
influence of the Fenians and other types of rebels now
living in many parts of England, the general applica-
tion of these extended powers may be found not only
desirable, but absolutely necessary, for the protection
of the loyal inhabitants of the country. Making such
permanent in character would do away with the diffi-
culties and heart-burnings of their periodical enactment.
Neither could be objected to, save on the ground of
sentiment, and I confess I have little sympathy with
that kind of sentiment which calls the prevention of
murder and outrage ' Coercion.'
" Next in importance to the restoration of law and
order, and indissolubly connected with it, comes the
Land Question.
" There can be little doubt that it, with the majority
of the people in Ireland, underlies the Home Rule cry.
xxiv YEOMAN-PROPRIETORS 277
With ninety- nine out of every hundred of the agri-
cultural population who follow Mr. Parnell it is the
question of the land that influences them. If that
was settled, the force would be taken out of the agita-
tion, and it would in the future be supported only
by the roughs and scum of the towns and country, who
will go on plotting and agitating to the end of time
no matter what the condition of affairs.
" The system of dual ownership created by the
Land Act of 1881 although previously existing in
Ulster, where 'tenant-right' has hitherto been a legalised
and acknowledged system has, in the south and west,
produced a condition of affairs that is simply intoler-
able.
" The enormous injustice of giving to the occupiers
in those provinces a vested right in holdings which
they neither inherited nor bought has naturally led
them to believe that, as this was extorted by agitation,
persistence in that course must ultimately result in
gaining for them, on like terms, the fee-simple of their
holdings. It will be impossible, I believe, while ' party
government ' exists in this country, to convince them of
the contrary, and while this belief remains, agitation
with all its inseparable evils of poverty and crime will
be the consequence. We cannot change the system of
government, and, in that condition of affairs, we must
therefore look for other remedies.
"In my opinion, the only practically efficacious one
is, by the development of the scheme on which the
Purchase Acts are based, to establish a large and yearly
increasing class of yeoman-proprietors, so that in course
of time the majority of those having the franchise will
be, in the support of their own individual and vested
interests, ranked on the side of law and order, and thus
278 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
rendered fit to be entrusted with larger powers in the
administration of their own local matters, for which
they are now eminently unfitted.
" The advantages offered to the tenants by the
Purchase Act of 1885 are so material, that this end
ought not to be difficult of attainment, but now the
tenants will not of their own accord come forward as
purchasers, because those who lead them and whose
interest it is to keep up agitation, knowing that it
would settle the question and quiet the country, use
their influence to dissuade them ; and, further, because
they have been so demoralised by concession after
concession, that they would rather look to the chance of
what may come than avail themselves of what is now
offered.
" There are only two ways that I can see of meeting
the difficulty : one is to convince them of the finality
of the present legislation ; the other to introduce an
element of compulsion into the Purchase Scheme.
" The first I believe to be impossible. The second
I do not like on principle.
" I think the tendency of legislation during the
past twenty years has been far too much of what some
would term the ' paternal system of government ' the
- meddlesome ' I would call it. As an instance I may
mention interference with the right of private contract.
"As an extension of that principle I would, if it
were possible, avoid making purchase compulsory, and
be in favour of applying pressure by indirect means.
" Another objection that I have to the introduction
of direct compulsion into the Purchase Scheme is that
its effect would be general and too sudden.
" As to its generality, I think it would be most un-
wise to force all the small holders in Ireland to buy
xxiv LORD ASHBOURNE'S ACT 279
their holdings. One of the real evils affecting Ireland
is the chronic poverty of large masses of the people.
There are districts in the south and west where the
population is so large and congested that the land on
which they depend entirely for their support is in-
capable of yielding it. To force such as these to buy
would be to perpetuate and increase the evil instead of
alleviating it. In these cases, if compulsion is to be
applied, it should be in the direction of a generously-
devised scheme of emigration.
" As to its suddenness, it would be nothing short
of a revolution, and although for a good object and
devoid of the main objections usually consequent upon
such occurrences, I must say that I think these violent
and sudden changes should where possible be avoided.
The adoption of indirect means might meet this
point.
"It is difficult, I admit, in the face of facts before
us, to devise efficacious means to induce tenants to
purchase their holdings when the advantages held
out to them by Lord Ashbourne's Act failed to do
so. At even twenty years' purchase on the present
rents, a substantial reduction on his present payments
would be secured to the tenant buying under it, and
he would become the owner in fee after a certain
number of years.
"The reasons which, notwithstanding the advan-
tages offered, prevent the working of the Act I have
already stated. There is, further, a very general, and,
I fear, growing belief in the minds of the tenants, based
upon some speeches of the late Chief Secretary for
Ireland (Mr. John Morley), that the power of the State
will not be much longer used to enforce payments of
rent ; consequently, that the obligation to pay will
280 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
cease ; and that, by obtaining money from the State
to purchase their holdings, they would be exchanging
a liability which they would be forced to meet for one
which they would not. The firm administration of the
present law would no doubt do much to disabuse their
minds of this idea and turn their attention to the
Purchase Act. If they were convinced that it would
be persevered in, it would have great effect. But,
with the always possible chance of a change of
Government and a change of policy, too much cannot
be counted upon from it.
"Another indirect means of inducing tenants to
purchase would be to enact that the holding of any
tenant who refused a fair offer of sale under the Act
should from the date of his refusal be placed outside
the provisions of the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881.
This plan of indirect pressure should certainly be ap-
plied in all acute cases by such I mean cases where
the tenants, having had judicial rents fixed, refuse to
pay them without a further allowance, more especially
when they enter into a combination to extort it.
" I am inclined to think that if indirect means such
as these could be adopted the Purchase Acts would no
longer remain a dead letter, that by degrees the object
of establishing a large class of yeoman -proprietors
would be accomplished, and that the objections to an
arbitrary, general, and sudden change would be avoided.
But, while I say this, I am bound to add that the
gravest difficulty still remains, and that is, under the
present plan of party government, the almost practical
impossibility of convincing the Irish people that there
was real finality in any legislation connected with the
land. Unless that is done, it is clear that no purchase
scheme could work ; and, having regard to the difficulty
LAND PURCHASE 281
of doing it, I admit that compulsion pure and simple
may be found indispensable. I have stated my objec-
tions to it, but I believe that under the present ex-
ceptional condition of the country the adoption of
the policy of the Land Purchase Acts is so imperative
that the advantages it would confer would far outweigh
the objections I have raised.
" The important question of providing the required
money has been considered already by many much
more competent to give a sound opinion than I am.
All I would say about it is that I believe it could be
arranged without any financial risk to the State. The
price of the land bought could be paid by consols or
land debentures. The State would not be asked to
pay money, but to give its credit as security, and for
doing that it would have, so long as the real power
was retained by the British Parliament, ample security
agsfinst loss.
"In the first place, it would have the fee-simple of
the land bought. In the second, it would have the
value of the tenants' interest, evidence of which is
afforded by the enormous prices still paid for ' tenant-
right.' People who would lightly forfeit the possession
of land would not be so eager to acquire it as the
prices they pay for it prove them to be. As each
succeeding instalment was paid to the State by the
occupier, his acquired interest in the land would be
increased and he would be the more unwilling to lose
it by default. If the occupiers were satisfied that a
speedy and irredeemable eviction would follow the
non-payment of the yearly instalments, the necessity of
the State having recourse to such would, save in very
exceptional cases, at once cease. To provide against
these I would suggest a system of mutual responsi-
282 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
bility, so that all living within a certain area would
become mutually responsible for each other's payments ;
all sympathy with defaulters would thus be put an end
to, and the other occupiers of the area affected would
in their own interests endeavour to find a solvent
substitute or purchaser for a holding rendered vacant
by the action of the State in enforcing payment. The
most powerful weapon in the Land League policy
would thus be made inoperative.
" Great stress has been laid by agitators on the
depression of prices of agricultural produce and con-
sequent inability of the tenants to pay their present
rents. If this was a fact, it might undoubtedly affect
the position of the State as creditor in the way of
being security for the repayment of the purchase
money. But it is only a fact with regard to wool,
butter, and wheat (the last is not now a factor in Irish
agriculture). In all other items the prices are now
higher than when the majority of rents in Ireland were
fixed, many of which have since been materially re-
duced by the arbitrary action of the Land Court.
" Looking at the question from the commercial
point of view the practical one from which the British
taxpayer should regard it I am convinced that it is
not only the most effectual but the cheapest solution
of the present difficulty. Unceasing agitation is the
main cause of crime and of the difficulty of governing
Ireland. It is a direct and most potent factor in pro-
ducing the present depression. It has paralysed trade
of all kinds, destroyed confidence, and checked enter-
prise alike in commercial as in agricultural matters.
This stagnation and stoppage of the normal circula-
tion of money has most seriously crippled the means
of all classes of consumers, with, as must be the case,
xxiv THE CHEAPEST SOLUTION 283
a like detrimental effect upon the interests of the
producers, whether merchants or farmers. General
poverty has been the only possible result, naturally
increasing discontent, and rendering the sufferers more
open to the designs of agitators whose chief interest
it is to foment it. Thus the main results of the agita-
tion go on acting and reacting upon each other, and
will continue to do so in an increasing ratio while the
cause remains.
" I believe the adoption of the Purchase Scheme
would remove this cause. It would certainly take
from the agitator the cry which has most force with
the people. Agitation stopped and confidence restored
by the firm administration of the law, prosperity would
by degrees return, and, as it did, the general poverty
would be proportionately lessened. As this change
progressed, the benefit would be felt by the exchequer
in the form of increased products from taxation, which
are invariably affected by the prosperity or the reverse
of a nation, and as the country became pacified it
would be relieved from many of its present burdens.
Considering all these facts, I think I am warranted in
my assertion that the Purchase Scheme is the cheapest
solution of the present difficulty. In stating them I
have also given my reasons for believing that it is the
most effectual one, and I can only say in conclusion
that I look upon it as the only one by which finality is
attainable.
" The Irish tenantry have been demoralised by an
unceasing series of concessions, each pronounced to
be the very last. First the Land Act of 1870, then
the Act of 1 88 1, quickly followed by the Arrears Act
the most demoralising of all. The Purchase Act of
1883 succeeded it, and that was followed by the Act of
284 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
1885 ; and now the tenants look for the realisation of
the most revolutionary hopes engendered by the wild
utterances of a Prime Minister to buy the support of
rebels.
" Not until the Irish tenant is the owner in fee of
his holding, with no creditor but the State, will he feel
that the limit has been reached, and that there is no
further object in clamour and disorder.
" Law and order having been established and the
Land Question fairly and permanently settled on the
lines, or some such lines as, I have endeavoured to
indicate, I should no longer hesitate to entrust the
occupiers (who would then be on what I may call the
high road to become the owners in fee of their holdings,
and who would thus become individually responsible
for the payment of the rates) with the main control of
the expenditure of those rates, for then the proper
administration of the rates would be their own direct
and individual interest. As matters are now, the
manner in which they are administered proves that a
large majority of the ratepayers regard the power
they have over them more as a means for giving effect
to political objects and party animus than as a grave
trust for the relief of the poor or for their due applica-
tion to the object for which they were levied. To put
it shortly, I regard direct individual responsibility for
the payment of rates as an essential qualification for
the possession of control over their administration, and
I believe the extent of that control should be com-
mensurate with the amount of rate paid.
"The process of the conversion of occupiers into
owners or quasi-owners (such as have agreed to buy)
under the Land Purchase Act must, I believe, be
gradual to obviate the delay of bringing about that
xxiv LOCAL GOVERNMENT 285
condition which, I have said above, I regard as in-
dispensable. Merely by the action of the Purchase
Act, I would suggest that the payment of all rates
should now be thrown upon the occupier, and that the
rent payable to the landlord should, from the same
date, be reduced by the average amount of rates
allowed by him for a certain number of years.
" Under these changed conditions I believe that a
large measure of local government ought to form a
part of a future policy with regard to Ireland, and
should, so far as practicable, be on the same lines as
for England and Scotland.
" This part of the question is of too large and grave
a nature for me to do more now than merely touch the
fringe. It is full of difficulties involving conflicting
interests and consequent jealousies, but, notwithstand-
ing, there is no insuperable obstacle that I can see to
a fair and just settlement. The desire of a capable
citizen to have a direct voice in the control of purely
local administration is in itself a healthy one, and should
be rather encouraged than suppressed.'
CHAPTER XXV
Oh, think how to his latest day,
When Death, just hovering, claimed his prey,
With Palinure's unaltered mood
Firm at his dangerous post he stood. SCOTT.
ABOUT this time his health began to fail, and he had
no doubt contracted the seeds of the malady that three
years later closed his earthly life. In thought and
action, however, he still lived for Ireland lived for her
with all the devotion and vigilance of his best days.
In the foregoing chapter he expressed his convic-
tion that with law vindicated and order restored, with
the Land Question fairly and permanently solved, and
with the occupiers made responsible for the payment
of all rates (an equivalent reduction in rent being given
in lieu of the increased charge thus thrown upon them),
there need no longer be any hesitation. as to entrusting
them with the main control of the expenditure of those
rates. He regarded direct individual responsibility
for the payment of rates as a condition precedent to
the right of controlling their administration, and
further, he believed that the extent of that control
should be commensurate with the amount of rate paid.
Subject to these paramount conditions, he had
thought out a system of local government which
might, in his opinion, be safely and beneficially given
CHAP, xxv A ROYAL RESIDENCE 287
to Ireland. This, however, he had not, so far as. I
can find, committed to writing, and a few jottings on
the subject are all I can lay hands upon.
From these I conclude that he would have put an
end to the Castle government of Ireland, and replaced
it by a permanent government independent, that is
to say, of the vicissitudes of party changes. Its
tenure of office would, therefore, have remained
unaffected by these, and in this way a continuity of
policy could in some degree have been secured.
"If," he says, "in carrying out this suggestion, an
arrangement could be made by which a member of the
Royal Family would fill the post of Representative of
Her Majesty, with a permanent residence in Ireland,
it would have, I am convinced, a most powerful and
salutary effect.
" Under this arrangement, the administrative
functions of the Lord Lieutenant and his Secretary
could be discharged by two secretaries for Ireland
one, either a peer or a commoner, with an ex-officio
seat in the Cabinet, and the other with a seat in the
House of Commons. Further, in this direction,
I believe the Irish Privy Council could with advantage
be utilised after being strengthened and having a
representative element introduced into it.
" But in making these suggestions I feel that I am
going into the details of a part of the subject rather
outside my present purpose, which is simply to give
my views upon what I consider to be the two most
important problems of the Irish difficulty. In ven-
turing to offer them, I do so more with the object of
exemplifying the main lines of the policy that I am in
favour of, than of attempting to define the practical
means of carrying it out."
288 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
At this point the paper, itself a fragment, ends
abruptly, and I do not know whether he proceeded
further with his suggestions. That he fully con-
templated completing them I have no doubt. But the
incessant calls on his time and energies seem to have
postponed it till it was too late.
Among them the agricultural state of Ireland
occupied much of his attention particularly the
deterioration, becoming daily more serious, in the
breed of cattle. On this subject a letter to the
Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, kindly lent to me for
publication, explains his views. Now that, owing to
various causes, grazing is so largely replacing tillage
throughout the country, his practical suggestions will
come with special weight.
"BORRIS HOUSE, BORRIS,
" i8//fc December 1886.
" MY DEAR MR. GOSCHEN Lord de Vesci has sent
me your letter of i4th inst., with enclosures from Mr.
Milner and Mr. Le Hunte.
"The latter is an old friend of mine, and I fully
endorse all Mr. Milner says about him.
" The facts that they both state I look upon as
indisputable the connection of poverty with agita-
tion ; the greater the former, the more easy to work
the latter.
" That the depreciation of prices of agricultural
produce in a country like Ireland must not only
increase but create poverty is also self-evident.
" The cattle trade is our main branch of agriculture,
and that the quality of our cattle has deteriorated, and
is yearly becoming worse, any one who knows the
country can testify to.
PEDIGREE BULLS 289
" I believe that Mr. Le Hunte is quite right that
the main cause of this is the absence of good bulls.
In that fact alone there is tremendous change in this
country. I can remember myself that ten years ago
the country was full of good bulls, and now, save in
some very favoured districts, you would have great
difficulty in finding one.
"We used to have in every county Agricultural
Societies with annual shows at which prizes were
offered for the best sires of all sorts, and they were
keenly contended for by both landlords and farmers.
Now these have all disappeared. The landlords
could not afford to subscribe to keep them up, and the
farmers were told to boycott them (although that word
was not invented then). They were told that such
were landlord institutions and that they should have
nothing to say to them.
" With these the breed of good bulls has practically
disappeared, and consequently the young stock now
reared in Ireland has deteriorated in a most marked
degree, and must each year become worse as the good
blood becomes more and more diluted with the coarse
country breeds.
" Consequently our stores when sent to England
are not in demand and cannot command the prices
that they used.
" I believe that if the quality of our store cattle
had been sustained, the foreign stores would hardly
have been looked at. The Yankees are wide enough
awake on this point, and do not grudge the highest
prices for pedigree bulls to improve their breed, and
that is now beginning to tell.
"It may be said that the landlords are to blame
for this. No doubt the immediate cause lies at their
290 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
door, but their line of action arose from inability to
pursue their former course, not from unwillingness.
They were forced by the political changes, the action
of agitators, and the people, to discontinue their
subscriptions to these local societies. They could not
give the high prices for well-bred sires that they used
to do ; and no one, I think, can blame a man for
discontinuing a course which he no longer can afford
to pursue. Many are ruined altogether, and the
strongest are only struggling to make the two ends
meet.
" Those are the causes, and Messrs. Milner and
Le Hunte have very truly described the effect or
results.
"I have said all along that I believe firm govern-
ment was the first and most essential element in the
effort to remedy our ills, but I thoroughly agree with
Mr. Milner that ' remedial legislation ' should accom-
pany such.
" I need not repeat his cogent reasons for saying
so, and I also as fully agree with him that the true
direction of such would be a wise liberality in fostering
the material resources of the country. It is difficult,
I am ashamed to say, to prescribe for Ireland a
practical and safe way of doing this, because ' remedial
legislation ' has so often been perverted, and I may
say prostituted, by jobbery. We cannot forget the
enormous jobs that were perpetrated under the late
' Seed-rate Act ' or under Relief Works. These are
so fresh to my mind that I am almost afraid to
advocate any course.
"If jobbery could be guarded against, I feel
confident that it would be difficult to find a more
practical and efficient way of materially benefiting the
xxv THE R.A.S. AND THE R.D.S, 291
country than the endeavour to improve the breed of
cattle, and thus bring back the character and quality of
our stores to what it was.
"The proper mode to do it is the difficulty. I
cannot agree with Mr. Le Hunte as to the Boards
of Guardians being the proper means. They ad-
ministered the seed-rate to which I have already
referred, and I firmly believe if this was entrusted to
them that we should only have a repetition of the
same kind of proceedings. In fact, I believe, if they
had the carrying out of such a scheme, no loyal man
would be allowed any advantage from it, and I have
no doubt the coarsest kind of bulls would be bought,
if they only belonged to Nationalists, and the price
paid would be in proportion to the political achieve-
ments of the owner, irrespective of the value of the
animal.
"It is a humiliating opinion to have to give of
one's own country, but I cannot help it, and I hardly
know what means to recommend to carry out such a
scheme.
" There is one association that might I think be
utilised for that purpose. The Royal Agricultural
Society of Ireland and the Royal Dublin Society
decided on Thursday last to amalgamate and to apply
for a new charter. The Government in granting the
charter might make it a condition that they should
carry out this trust.
" The Royal Agricultural Society did an immense
deal in past days in keeping up good sires bulls,
stallions, rams, and boars by holding their shows all
over the country and offering large prizes.
"The Dublin Society also worked in the same
line, holding a winter show every year in Dublin and
292 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP,
also giving prizes. It continues to do so still, I
believe.
"The first, the 'R.A.S.,'was mainly a landlords'
association, and almost collapsed from the reasons I
have given. The amalgamation was carried out to
prevent its entire collapse.
"The latter, the ' R.D.S.,' was never a purely
landlords' association, but was and is composed of
men of eminence in all the professions.
" I believe Lord de Vesci has already suggested
to you the adoption of this body. He did so to me,
and I racked my brains to try to think of any other,
but I cannot. Every other plan that occurs to me is
full of objections, but I think that with care this might
meet the want.
<( I am ashamed to trouble you with such a long
hurried scrawl, but I am much pressed for time just at
present and could not manage to compress what I had
to say into shorter limits. Yours very truly,
" ARTHUR KAVANAGH."
Correspondence on practical subjects like the
above, attendance at innumerable meetings in various
interests, ecclesiastical, political, and magisterial to
say nothing of the several patriotic and defensive
associations with which he was connected sufficiently
filled up his time. Amid all these preoccupations his
opinion on Imperial affairs was still in request even
on the part of those who held high office in the State.
Early in the autumn of 1888 an important
correspondence passed between him and the Right
Hon. W. H. Smith on the Irish Land Question. One
of his letters, by Mr. Smith's courtesy, I am now
permitted to make public.
xxv THE RIGHT HON. W. H. SMITH 293
"BoRRis HOUSE, September 1888.
" DEAR MR. SMITH In further reply to your letter
of the igthinst, which I simply acknowledged when it
reached me, I think it was about two years ago that I
sent you my memo, about the Land Question which
you referred to.
" The state of the country was then much worse
and the prospects for the future more gloomy than
they are now, but this fact (which I am thankful to
admit) does not cause me to change the opinion I then
expressed, which was, as nearly as I can remember,
that the restoration of law and order should be the first
object of the Government, and then the gradual crea-
tion by purchase of a large class of peasant-proprietors.
" This opinion was based upon what I must call the
political vicissitudes of the constitution under which
we live.
" Much of the present improvement is due to better
prices, a most favourable season, with the prospect of
an abundant harvest, which has in many places been
already realised. But I believe the main cause is the
firm and impartial administration of the law under
Mr. Balfour's rule.
" Neither of these causes can we count upon as
permanent. Nothing is proverbially more changeable
than the weather, and experience proves that political
affairs are fully as uncertain.
" We have, therefore, the same contingencies, not-
withstanding the improvement, to guard against that
we had two years ago, and I still believe that the
course I then advocated is not only the only sound
one, but it is the only course that possesses any reason-
able prospect of success.
" Mr. Chamberlain, in a conversation I had with
294 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
him last June, expressed the opinion ' that considering
the nature of the majority which supported the Govern-
ment in the House of Commons, and the fact of the
democracy now practically holding the reins of power,
it was impossible for the Government to go on simply
upon a policy of repression ; that in order to preserve
the confidence and support of their present followers,
they were bound to take some step in the line of
remedial or progressive legislation ; and that the only
step which appeared to him under present circum-
stances to meet the case was extension of local
government in Ireland. It was with the object of
preparing the people of Ireland for the discharge of
this duty, or to fit them to be entrusted with it, that he
advocated the Purchase Scheme. He believed that
extension of this power to the people in their present
irresponsible position would be madness ; that they
would use it for objects of tyranny over the loyalists,
giving effect to personal spite and party feeling, as
demonstrated now by the way they use their power on
Poor- Law Boards and such other local matters over
which they have control.'
"In this I thoroughly agree with him, and believe
that the. only way of achieving this end is by the con-
tinuance and extension of the Purchase Scheme, there-
by making the majority or a large number of the
present occupiers responsible for the payment of the
rates and taxes, over the expenditure of which they
would be given the control.
" Further than this, the creation of peasant-pro-
prietors is, I believe, the only course which has any
reasonable prospect of success in attaining the object
of raising the present occupiers above the influence of
agitators, who are the curse of the country.
xxv THE RIGHT HON. W. H.' SMITH 295
" Each year, as the scheme progresses, a larger
number will acquire a direct or a yearly-increasing
interest in their holdings, with an ultimate prospect of
becoming the owners in fee. They will then, it is
natural to suppose, become the supporters of a system
which secures to them such advantages, and be ranked
on the side of the loyal and peaceable members of the
community.
"We have clear evidence that these results will be
the certain consequence of the success or extension of
this system, from the action of the leaders of the
National League in doing all in their power to prevent
the tenants from purchasing their holdings. They,
whose interest it is to foment discontent and keep the
country in turmoil and trouble, know well that, with
the increase of the purchase system, their power for
evil must decrease. Their knowledge of that fact,
demonstrated by their action in trying to prevent pur-
chases, is the strongest evidence we could have of the
power for good which that scheme possesses. You
have, I am sure, noted the avidity with which the
agitators endeavoured to make capital out of the
apparent refusal or unwillingness, on the part of the
Government, to advance more money last summer for
the purposes of Lord Ashbourne's Act. . . .
" I am not in a position to know the exact facts of
all the sales which have taken place, but, from all I
have heard, I believe that, so far as the Act has gone,
the results have been most satisfactory.
" It is no doubt true that the effect of the Act is to
place a man who has availed himself of its provisions
in an advantageous position as compared with his
neighbours who had not. . . . There are no cases of
purchase in this neighbourhood, I am sorry to say;
296 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
therefore no such cases come under my notice. But I
should say the man who did not buy had only himself
to blame, and that, by extending the Purchase Scheme,
the best opportunity would be afforded him of remedy-
ing his error. But even as the case stands I do not
see that he has any injustice to complain of, nor have I
heard of any such being made.
"As to the danger of allowing farms to remain
derelict which have been bought and which the Govern-
ment have been obliged to evict on account of non-
payment of the instalments, I fully appreciate the
grave importance of it, and see what a tool might be
made out of the fact by those who oppose the Purchase
Scheme. . . .
" I can only hope that there may not be many cases
of that kind to be dealt with. I ground that hope
upon what I think is about the most cheering mark
of the improvement in the times. It is this : the
National League are losing their power to prevent the
people from taking evicted farms. In the Land Cor-
poration we have had during the past year many
instances of this fact. On the O'Grady estate, where
we are fighting a fierce battle with the Plan of Cam-
paign, we have, within this last month, scored a great
victory a tenant having taken one of the principal
farms, paid all rent and costs, and agreed to all our terms,
which were less favourable than those offered by The
O'Grady in the commencement of the struggle. This
is, I believe and hope, only the prelude to a general
give-in on that estate. On Brooke's estate (Cool-
greany), another test case of the Plan of Campaign,
three or four of the evicted farms have been let during
the past summer. . . .
" I have read Mr. Hurlbert's book with much
xxv "IRELAND UNDER COERCION" 297
interest. His object in writing it was to influence
American, not English, politics, but I think such an
exposition of the action of the National League coming
from his pen ought to do good. If it could be circulated
among, and could be read by, the masses who now form
the English constituencies, it would show them that, in
the eyes of an American Republican, the so-called
coercion of the Irish Executive was of a far milder
form than would be meted out to offenders on the other
side of the Atlantic.
" I agree with him that the ' three Fs ' now neces-
sary for Ireland are Fair Dealing, Finality of Legisla-
tion, and Fixity of the Executive. Their absence
constitutes the backbone of the Irish difficulty. The
fact that party exigency may at any moment produce
fresh legislation, and that the turn of the electoral wheel
might as suddenly substitute a vacillating for a firm
executive, is at the bottom of that absence of security
and confidence without which prosperity and material
confidence cannot exist.
"It is this condition of affairs which, I feel, con-
stitutes the chief difficulty in trying to answer a
question which has been put to me ' What I would
endeavour to do if I were responsible for the conduct
of affairs ? '
" It is not easy for me to realise such a position, nor
do I know anything of the wheels within wheels now
running in political circles. But I would say that I
regard the maintenance of the Union, and, as a means
thereto, the preservation of the Unionist party, as of
the first importance. Next to this, though hardly
secondary in importance, I must put the firm adminis-
tration of the law.
" Nothing could be better than Mr. Balfour's rule.
298 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP.
If it can be continued either by himself or by some
other equally firm and impartial man, we can desire no
improvement. I believe in this the main political
difficulty lies, as Mr. Gladstone and his followers use
the prosecution of the agitators to make political
capital out of. How far such tactics may tend to shake
the allegiance of Liberal Unionists or to influence the
opinion of English constituencies I cannot tell. But
I believe any relaxation of the firm attitude which Mr.
Balfour has adopted would now do incalculable mis-
chief, and I believe that the efforts of our public
speakers and political associations could not be better
directed than by instructing the English constituencies
as to the truth on this point. In this way I think
Hurlbert's book will be of great use. If I were
responsible for the conduct of affairs, I would certainly
regard the maintenance of order as a vital point.
" The Union being preserved, and the law firmly
and impartially administered, I would extend the Pur-
chase System. It is not one that can work any great
change suddenly, and it is the better for that. As it
developed, and as year by year a large number of
occupiers were converted into quasi-owners of the land,
we have every reason to believe that they would
become orderly and peaceable members of the com-
munity, and fit to be entrusted with larger responsi-
bilities. According as that change became apparent
and developed, I should have no hesitation in entrust-
ing them with, first, under-powers in local government
matters, and ultimately, as the scheme was completed,
with entire control over the rates and taxes which they
had themselves paid always assuming that my first
two conditions, the ' Union and Law,' were maintained.
" I do not believe that the British taxpayer would
FAILING HEALTH 299
run any risk in making the advances required for the
purposes of Lord Ashbourne's Act. After a few years
there would be no necessity for an actual fresh
advance, as the repayments would afford means for
carrying on the Act. In my opinion, the fact that the
scheme must work gradually is strongly in its favour.
Any great radical change like it which was sudden and
sweeping in its effect would be little short of a revolu-
tion, and be. a dangerous experiment upon a people
with the temperament of the Irish race.
" There are, of course, in working out this scheme
many suggestions which might be made, but I do not
regard your letter as inviting such, and, until the main
question is decided as to the continuance of the Pur-
chase Scheme, details would be premature. But, if I
understand your letter rightly, I do not think you
would care to be troubled with such questions at
present.
" I shall be quite ready to go into the minor
matters I have referred to if my doing so can be of
any use to you. Yours very truly,
"ARTHUR KAVANAGH."
The last two or three years of his life were spent
in frequent suffering and consequent depression,
though, now and again, the old bright spirit would
revive. The political outlook was such that, except in
the continuance of Mr. Balfour's guidance of Irish
affairs, he had but little to hope for in the future,
seeing so clearly as he did the danger to the country
of a feebly-administered government. Still, with sink-
ing powers and breaking spirits, he never failed, to the
very last, to attend all the meetings and boards in
Carlow, Kilkenny, and Dublin, for the despatch of
300 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH CHAP, xxv
business connected with land or Church, just as he did
in full health, just as regularly, just as conscientiously.
The one recreation he continued to allow himself, and
that grudgingly, was an annual trip in his yacht the
Water Lily to the coast of Holland for duck-shooting.
His last summer on earth was spent mainly at
Borris, and by that time the change had become very
apparent. In July he took a small party of cousins in
the Water Lily to see the great naval review off
Spithead, in honour of the Emperor of Germany.
Thence he went to the Dutch coast, where he was
soon joined by Mrs. Kavanagh. There the fatal ill-
ness of which the seeds had been so long developing
made such rapid progress that he was forced to return
to London for medical advice.
October, November, and the greater part of
December were passed in rapidly-increasing illness
and suffering, bravely borne with silent unmurmuring
resignation to God's will and on Christmas morning
he died.
Not to the sound of the weird singing of the Ban-
shee, that tradition assigns as herald to a Kavanagh's
death, but to the music of the Christmas anthems
before the throne, he entered his Father's house,
to hear the welcome words : " Well done, good and
faithful servant ! " J
1 Appendix G.
EPILOGUE
Cui Pudor et Justitiae soror
Incorrupta Fides nudaque Veritas
Quando ullum inveniet parem ?
HOR. Car, i. 24.
Where shall be found the man of woman born
That in desert might be esteemed his peer,
Sincere as he, and resolutely just,
So high of heart, and all so absolute of trust ?
SIR THEODORE MARTIN.
So lived, so died, Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh.
His was a life of high aspirations, of noble deeds,
of unconscious heroism.
To those who loved him the loss is beyond words
the steady loyal friend, the wise counsellor, gone ; the
music of the full-toned gentle voice hushed.
But to her his best and dearest who for more
than thirty years, in joy and sorrow, " in sickness and
in health," shared his life and was (what those who
wished him well would have sought for him) a loving
helpmeet seeking nought in which he could have no
part making his aims and objects hers who can tell
what it is ?
And to Ireland, for which he toiled so long and so
patiently, the loss of his clear sense and unbiassed judg-
ment will be felt in the dark hours she may yet have
to pass through. Well for her if those who then sway
302 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
the councils of the Empire seek their guidance where
he sought his, and follow it as earnestly.
I feel that my pen has but feebly sketched this
most interesting character and career. The physical
privations which would have crushed the fibre of a
weaker nature served but to crown his moral complete-
ness. This was shown in all the manifold vicissitudes
of his life in the lonely midnight watch in the north-
ern seas in the yet more lonely midnight ride through
the Indian plains no eye upon him save the All-
seeing One of his " great Taskmaster " and still more
in the life he entered on at home of patient self-
denying toil for others toil for his people, for his
country, for his God.
His political career may safely be left to the judg-
ment of posterity, who will gauge with true perception
the import of his chief work the " Land Corporation
of Ireland."
But I, who had the great happiness and privilege
of knowing him intimately all my life, may tell of what
he was in private. Of the "light address" the fun
that charmed and never wounded, of which flashes
appeared to the last of the musical voice so rare in
any one inured to an outdoor life and of the ready
cordial help in any and every difficulty I think I,
more than most, can speak in loving remembrance.
For his manner invited a confidence which the result
always repaid ; and many besides myself will gratefully
recall the sympathy and help received in times of
anxiety and perplexity from him who now lies sleeping
in the little ruined church on Ballycopigan "until
the day break, and the shadows flee away."
VERSES BY MRS. ALEXANDER 303
30TH DECEMBER 1889.
Lay him down, lay him down in the full eye of Heaven,
Beside these grey walls in the fields of his home,
Where Princes, perchance, of his line have been shriven,
And peasants for prayer and for comfort have come.
Lay him down in all Erin no temple so fit is
To cradle the bravest and best of his name ;
The soft winds of even shall sing his Dimittis,
And stars for his lyke-wake at midnight shall flame.
Meet resting this spot in its wildness and beauty
For the Patriot true in a nation's despite,
The man that was faithful to God and to duty,
Whose judgment unerring still held to the right ;
Whose soul was so grand in its simple reliance,
Who stedfastly purposed and patiently wrought,
Who feared not opposers, nor quailed at defiance,
And smiled at the honours that found him unsought.
Devoted, heart-true to the people who scorned him,
Who craftily injured and cruelly spoke
Unable to value the gifts that adorned him,
Or fathom the love of the heart that they broke.
Ingrate and forgetful Ah ! tenderly leave him ;
The Arms everlasting around him are cast
No chiding can chafe or ingratitude grieve him,
Who sleeps in the Lord when his labour is past.
C. F. ALEXANDER.
APPENDICES
A, p. 137
IN illustration of the remark in the text, the Rev.
G. W. Rooke writes :
"A very striking feature of his character was his
cheerfulness. In my intercourse with him this often
impressed me as very remarkable. And to those who
looked for it the source was not hard to find. It
sprang, I believe, from a feeling of Christian content-
ment and happy thankfulness to Almighty God.
" I recollect as if it was only yesterday the solem-
nity and the earnestness of his sonorous voice repeating
the beautiful ' General Thanksgiving ' of our Prayer-
book, those first Sundays when I officiated as chaplain
in the chapel attached to Borris House."
B, p. 138
For many years the two hymns and collects that
are given in facsimile of his writing, headed every
new diary that he commenced.
C, p. 193
ADDRESS
TO
WALTER MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH, ESQ.
WE, the tenantry of the Carlow and Wexford estates,
tender you our heart - felt congratulations on the
occasion of your attaining your majority.
308 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
You have bright prospects before you youth, with
all its charms wealth, with all its influence and you
have the name, the fame, and prestige of an ancient,
illustrious, and, we may add, a royal family.
Cast on the ocean of life, you cannot go astray, for
you have a safe pilot in your esteemed father, and his
acts are your chart. He is a good landlord, a benevo-
lent gentleman, particularly kind to the poor, and per-
fectly free from bigotry or exclusiveness in dealing
with his tenantry.
Goodness must come to you by inheritance, for
you have all the blood of the MacMurroughs in your
veins and expanding your heart. May your voyage
through life be prosperous, may you escape the perils
of the deep, and may it be very many years before you
arrive at that haven or bourne "from whence no
traveller returns."
That God may grant long life and happiness to
Walter MacMurrough Kavanagh, Esq., the heir of
Borris House, is the prayer of all his tenants.
Signed on behalf of the tenantry,
P. CAREY, P.P., Borris,
Chairman.
i of/i October 1877.
REPLY
GENTLEMEN Deeply gratified as I must feel at
the warm expressions of congratulation and regard
conveyed to me in your address, I fear that I am
totally unable, in a few words, to return you sufficient
thanks, and also to express all the feelings which must
naturally arise on such an occasion as this.
In your allusions to my father you have anticipated
my own sentiments, and you may rest assured that I
will, to the best of my ability, follow so good and
thorough an example.
APPENDICES 309
The occasion which has called from you so kind an
address has for me its responsibilities as well as its
pleasures, but I hope you will find that your best
interests will be ever at my heart, and I trust that the
more we know of each other the better friends we
shall become.
In conclusion, gentlemen, I must once more thank
you for the kindly spirit and affectionate wishes con-
tained in your address, and I shall always connect it in
my remembrance with the Carlow and Wexford tenants.
(Signed) WALTER MAcM. KAVANAGH.
D, p. 203
Not always, however, did he continue to express
even that inadequate degree of blame for conduct
so base.
The Bishop of Ossory says that in later years his
invariable reply to any one who spoke to him of the
ingratitude of his tenants and dependents was : 'If
the poor people had been let alone they would not
have acted as they did ; they were forced to it by
others.'
E, p. 216
BESSBOROUGH COMMISSION
SEPARATE REPORT BY A. MACM. KAVANAGH, ESQ.
I cannot agree in the draft report submitted by the
Chairman, as I dissent from some of its propositions
and the manner in which they are presented. I have
therefore endeavoured to draw out a short statement
of my views upon the evidence we have heard, as a
more satisfactory mode of proceeding than by attempt-
ing to move amendments to those portions of their
310 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH^
report with which I do not agree. I do not attempt
to put this statement forward as being at all exhaustive
of all the different questions brought under our notice,
but as enabling me more explicitly to express my
opinion upon those points which appear to me to be of
the greatest moment.
The weight of evidence has, in my opinion,
undoubtedly proved that the properties of the
majority of extensive landowners, which comprise the
largest portion of agricultural and pastoral land in
Ireland, have been well and humanely managed.
That on them the lands are let low, and the rents
rarely raised.
That evictions on title have been very rare, and, '
although in many cases the power of ejectment has
had to be used for the purpose of obtaining the pay-
ment of rent, in comparatively few instances have they
resulted in the ultimate displacement of the occupiers.
On the other hand, it has shown that the Land Act
of 1870, while conferring considerable advantages upon
the tenant-farmers of Ireland, has not been altogether
successful in affording them such adequate security as
was expected, particularly in protecting them in all
cases against occasional and unreasonable increases of
rents.
Evidence has been given that on several properties
some purchased as speculations, others belonging to
owners who have had no real tie to either the land or
the people, save that of deriving their income from it
rents have been unduly raised to what has been
described, in some instances, as an exorbitant extent,
not only upon the value of the lands themselves, but
upon the improvements effected by the tenants on them.
And it is contended that in districts where such cases
of injustice have occurred the feeling of fear and
apprehension has spread, even among those not likely
to be affected by them. In the North and those
districts where tenant-right usages prevail, this raising
of rent has been stated in several cases to have almost
destroyed the value of the tenant-right, and I believe
APPENDICES 311
a careful study of the evidence will show that one of
the effects of the Act 1870 has been on the whole
more prejudicial than beneficial to the tenants on
several of the properties subject to these usages in this
particular respect.
In the other districts of the country not subject to
clauses i and 2 of the Land Act, the evidence has, I
believe, proved that the beneficial effect of the Act has
been much more generally felt. Evictions on title a
power seldom used and never unwarrantably on the
great majority of large and well-managed estates has
been most materially checked where before it was
unjustly exercised, although instances of it still remain ;
and of the great number of complaints of raising of
rents which have been made during the course of our
inquiry, some of which have been simply childish and
others bearing on their face their own refutation, the
majority as the evidence will, I believe, show date
previous to its passing ; but sufficient instances have
been shown to have occurred of what would appear to
be the unjust exercise of both these powers, since 1870,
to prove that even in these districts the Act has failed
to be altogether effectual in preventing abuses.
The weight of evidence has, however, proved that
the question of rent is at the bottom of every other,
and is really, whether in the North or South, the gist
of the grievances which have caused much of the
present dissatisfaction. I think that the evidence
suggests the conclusion that the Land Act, as now in
force, does not afford sufficient protection to the tenants
against the unjust exercise of the power to raise rents
in unscrupulous hands ; and, although I admit that in
adopting the suggestion of a system of arbitration for
the settlement of disputes as to rents and other matters
of valuation, I am endorsing an interference with rights
of property and freedom of contract open to grave
economical objections, and which to the great majority
of landowners who have not abused their powers
will, I have no doubt, appear unwarrantable ; yet,
having regard to the mischief which the unjust exercise
312 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
of the power has occasioned, I can come to no other
conclusion than that, in any proposed alteration of
present rents, whether at the instance of landlord or
tenant, when the two parties cannot agree, the question
should be left to arbitration, with final reference, in the
event of the arbitrators being unable to agree upon an
umpire, to a Land Court or Commission which should
be appointed for that and other purposes. It will, I
think, be apparent that, if the Government see fit to
interfere in the question of rents, they are bound to
substitute for the landlord's power which they displace
an impartial tribunal which will command the confidence
of the public, and that they are further bound, as
essential to the fair settlement of the rent question, to
have a new general valuation of the country. If any-
thing has been clearly established on evidence during
this inquiry, the fact that the present Government
valuation is not a dependable standard for the settle-
ment of rents has been most thoroughly demonstrated.
Fair as it may have been for the purposes of taxation
in the years when it was made, the evidence shows
that even then it was considered as below the fair
letting value of the land ; and this fact is corroborated
by the written testimony of the late Sir Richard Griffith,
who was head of the Commission, as well as by the
evidence of many other trustworthy and independent
witnesses.
I must add that I am opposed to the attempt to
draw out any rules for the guidance of arbitrators in
their task of determining what a fair rent may be,
further than the general instructions which are in
justice too apparent to require mention, that the
improvements effected by the tenants should be fully
credited to them, as well as that any expenditure made
by the landlord for a like purpose should be put to his
account.
The evidence has, as might be expected, proved
that the great desire of the tenant-farmers is for fixity
of tenure and free sale. It is urged in favour of these
that the first exists in practice on all the large well-
APPENDICES 313
managed estates, and that the second is only a logical
sequence of it, that in fact the Land Act in clause 3
gives an interest, and that a vendible interest, and that
therefore no very great practical change in the circum-
stances now existing on the largest portion of the lands
in Ireland would be the result of the concession. It is
further urged, on the grounds of the importance of
giving to the tenants full security in the enjoyment of,
and compensation for, the improvements they have
made ; and this argument is, in my mind, the only one
of real weight in this matter, backed up as it is by
instances of hardship and oppressive action on the
part of some of the small proprietors, to whom I have
already alluded. In the shibboleth of agitation,
"Fixity of Tenure" and "Free Sale" are coupled
together as if they were one term, but I cannot regard
them in that light. The Land Act, while giving com-
pensation for disturbance which some call an interest,
leaves the sale of that interest subject to the landlord's
power of eviction, and it is idle to assert that, because
a landlord from right feeling gives to his tenants the
right of continuous occupation, so long as they discharge
their obligations towards him, he thereby conveys to
them the right to sell their holdings. To give fixity
of tenure by law, although a very considerable and
arbitrary interference with landlords' rights, would not,
it is true, involve any great practical change as regards
the majority of large landowners (provided it was given
to the tenant under certain approved conditions) in
their present relations with their tenants ; but to extend
at once to all parts of the country the right of free sale
would be in those districts not now subject to clauses
i and 2 of the Land Act a very important change, and
a very material and practical interference with the rights
of property, and therefore it appears to me simpler to
try to deal with the two questions separately.
First as to fixity of tenure. It is contended that
the Land Act in clause 3 admits the principle in the
case of certain holdings by giving the occupiers a claim
for disturbance if turned out by the act of the landlord
314 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
for any other cause than non-payment of rent ; the fact
is clear that it does so within a certain limit of duration.
But it does not give interminable fixity of tenure, and
the proof of this is to be found in the Act itself. A
lease of thirty years is made the equivalent of a
disturbance claim, and the landlord by giving that can
free himself at its expiration from the penalty on the
recovery of the possession of his own land. It is there-
fore, I think, clear that any Act of the Legislature
giving to the tenant perpetual fixity of tenure would be
foreign to the principle of the Act of 1 870. Those who
advocate its extension as an existing principle would
be, in my opinion, much more logically correct in
adducing as their example or warrant for this argument
the numerous cases on the old estates, where the
tenants are never turned out so long as they pay their
rents ; but whether it is right or just to deprive good
landlords of a right which from good feeling they
seldom if ever exercise, because some bad ones abuse
it, is a question I must leave Parliament to answer.
However that may be, the change would not be one,
as I have shown, which would practically interfere
with rights often used this has been in fact admitted
by the majority of large landowners who have given
evidence before us, and the advisability of the general
extension of the principle has been endorsed by not a
few of them, as also by many agents of great experience
on behalf of others, as well as by County Court Judges
and other independent witnesses ; in short, there has
been much less disagreement on this point than I was
at all prepared for, and if I was only acting for myself,
and if my own interests were alone at stake, I should
have no hesitation in agreeing to their recommendations.
But, on the other hand, we have a number of the largest
landowners whose estates have been always managed
on the very best principles, whose opinions are fairly
represented by the evidence of Lords Lansdowne and
Durferin, who, while never arbitrarily exercising their
power, entertain the strongest objection to legislative
interference with it. In this view they are supported
APPENDICES 315
by the evidence of Mr. Ferguson, Q.C., County Court
Judge, who, while wishing to extend the principle,
considers it would be destructive of ownership and
difficult to compensate the landlords for it ; and although
my own opinion is what I have stated, I cannot
disregard the unmistakable weight and truth of such
evidence, and what I believe to be the fact, that had it
been possible to receive further evidence on the subject,
many landlords would have come forward to endorse
it the circumstance that they had not that opportunity
I regret the more as I may naturally enough perhaps
be held responsible for it.
Under all these circumstances, I am not prepared
to recommend the general extension of fixity of tenure.
My opinion on the most material point remains un-
changed that the Land Act, as it now stands, does
not give sufficient security to the tenant, and that it is
both just and expedient that this security should be
increased. But it seems to me that there is another
mode of attaining the same end, and of giving practical
security of tenure to the tenant, without such a direct
and sweeping interference with the rights of property
as the first would involve ; and that mode is to stand
by the principles laid down in the Act of 1870. By
some of the County Court Judges it was recommended
to increase the penalties on eviction in clause 3, and
by others to abolish all limit, leaving the amount of the
penalty to be inflicted altogether to the discretion of the
Court, and, where they deemed the justice of the case
required it, to refuse to give a decree for possession.
This, it was asserted, would have the effect of giving
practical security of tenure to all tenancies coming
within the provisions of that clause. Some substantial
extension of this power I am quite prepared to recom-
mend, so far as residential occupiers are concerned,
believing that, without conveying to the tenants a
direct share in the property of the landlords, which
granting "fixity of tenure" undoubtedly would do, it
would confer upon them that practical security to
which the majority, from the peculiar circumstances
316 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
of their positions, are fairly entitled. But I am
bound to add that, although I recommend its applica-
tion only to existing residential tenancies and not to
bona fide new lettings, there is no concealing the fact
that the recommendation, if successful, will practically
deprive the landlord class of the rights of both rever-
sion in and control over the majority of holdings on
many properties for the arbitrary interference with
which by the State it is only just that they should
receive fair compensation.
As to the extension of free sale, although the
majority of the evidence of tenant-farmers has been in
favour of it, there has not been the same unanimity of
opinion on this as on the former point. Some few, I
allow looking farther than the present, have objected
to the tax which the universal extension of free sale
would impose upon those anxious to obtain land in the
future, and in this view they have been supported by
the evidence of both the landlords and agents who
have had the most experience in the working of the
different phases of the Ulster custom ; so that even in
the North, where the custom of sale exists already, the
wisdom of removing such limitations as are now in
force is not unquestioned ; and when we come to the
proposal to make the extension universal to create it
de novo in districts where no trace of it has ever existed
the difficulty, if justice or fair play is to be considered,
is most materially increased. It is further shown by
those whose views are not solely limited to the benefit
of the present occupiers, but who consider the pros-
pects of the future, that such a general extension would
not only limit the future possession of land to those
who have capital, and thereby preclude a very con-
siderable portion of the population, whose only capital
is their labour, from the possible chance of its acquisi-
tion, but would saddle all future tenancies with a rack-
rent, no matter how liberal or indulgent the landlord
might be, as the rent reserved to him would only be a
portion, and it might be only a small portion, of the
true annual charge to which the holding would be sub-
APPENDICES 317
ject, as the interest on the sum paid for its acquisition,
although a voluntary imposition on the tenant's part,
must necessarily be added. I am bound, therefore, to
say that, having regard to the future, I fail to see that
its general extension must necessarily convey the un-
mixed blessing to the commonwealth which some
anticipate. That the general evidence of the tenant-
farmers is in favour of it is only natural, as they are in
the status of present occupiers whose position would
necessarily be much improved, and cannot therefore
cause surprise. Evidence was given by one or two
labourers and by some other witnesses on their behalf,
and the tenor of it was, if I remember right, opposed
to the farmers' claims, with whom they seemed to have
no great common interest ; but to pursue this subject
now would be to go into the great question of the over-
populated and poverty-stricken districts, which I must
reserve for another part.
On the other hand, the evidence in favour of its
extension has been based upon the assertion, which is,
I believe, a fact, that on the majority of holdings the
improvements, if such they can be called, if not alto-
gether have been chiefly made by the tenants, and
that, without the right of sale, in the event of their
leaving they would not adequately be compensated for
them.
It was further urged in favour of its extension
that the custom already exists on many estates outside
of Ulster those of Lord Devon, Lord Portsmouth,
and Lord Portarlington, were specially named ; and on
them it was proved that it worked admirably, stimulat-
ing improvements, producing contentment, and render-
ing ejectments almost unnecessary for the recovery of
rent. Some landlords and not a few agents, believing
that these results would be the natural consequences
of its further development, advocated it,, and in this
they were supported by the evidence of many of the
County Court Judges. Other landlords, regarding it
chiefly from the point of view of affording to them
increased security for their rent, and as a possible
3i8 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
temporary sop to agitation, were inclined to acquiesce,
yielding more perhaps to the present pressure than to
what they deemed the justice of the case. But with
very rare exceptions all classes of witnesses agreed
that where no payment had been made, either by the
occupying tenant or his predecessors, for the acquisi-
tion of the good-will or improvements, the landlord
should receive adequate compensation for the transfer-
ence of the right; and it was as generally admitted
that the landlord should have a right of veto to protect
himself against the intrusion of objectionable characters
upon his estate. Except by some few graziers them-
selves, the extension was not advocated to those kinds
of holdings. As regards them it was asserted that a
man's capital was all required to stock his farm, and
that it was not desirable that it should be absorbed in
the purchase of the good-will ; and as to improvements
on them it was asserted that, in the real permanent
sense of the term, there could be and were none ;
and it was further stated that even if the right was
extended to those, or indeed to any very large class
of farms, the price they would fetch would be small,
as the competition was limited.
I have now, as shortly, as fairly, and as clearly as
I can, given the /my and cons which were adduced by
either side on this great question, for I regard it as
about the gravest and most difficult that was submitted
to us. For my own part I must say that I entertain
no disinclination whatever to extend this right to the
majority of holdings on my own property, although I
have spent very large sums myself in the improve-
ment of them ; and I must confess that strongly as I
was opposed to its general extension before I entered
upon this inquiry, the evidence I have heard, and
done my best to sift, has convinced me that doing so
would confer more advantages on the present occupiers
than disadvantages on me. I can say, moreover, that
I would be glad to see its application made general, if
it could be justly done, believing that it is the simplest
and most efficacious way of giving that perfect security
APPENDICES 319
to the tenants which I do think, where the improve-
ments are all or mainly their own, they ought to have ;
and giving that would, I am of opinion, be such general
advantage to the country that the landlords might be
content to make some sacrifice to attain it. In those
districts where the improvements have all been made
by the tenants, the difficulty or injustice, so far as the
landlord's rights are concerned, is not so glaringly
apparent, provided the power of using a veto on their
part is preserved against an objectionable incoming
tenant ; but in other districts where enormous sums
have been spent by the landlords in improving their
properties on some few properties it has been proved
that the English system exists in its purity, the land-
lord having made all the improvements and on hold-
ings where tenant-right formerly existed and has been
bought up by the landlord, instances of which have
been proved, its extension or re-establishment would,
in my opinion, be simple confiscation, and an unwar-
rantable and arbitrary interference with rights of pro-
perty which the circumstances could in no sense justify.
I am therefore, on these grounds, not prepared to
recommend its absolutely general or universal exten-
sion, so far as those special districts to which I have
referred are concerned, without the free consent of the
landlords themselves. The majority of the witnesses
who advocated its extension to those districts where it
did not already exist coupled their recommendation
with the condition, as I have already stated, that the
landlord should receive adequate compensation for the
transference of the right. This principle, I maintain, is
strictly a just one, and it is only subject to it that I am
prepared to recommend the extension of the right of
sale to those holdings now coming under the provisions
of the Land Act, where the tenants have made all or
the chief part of the improvements.
With these three safeguards which I have now
recommended, i.e. the check upon raising rents,
giving increased power to the Court in reference to
evictions, where such apply to residential occupiers,
320 ARTHUR MA CMURRO UGH KA VAN A GH
extending to all holdings now under the Land Act
upon which the improvements have been made by the
tenant the right of sale, I believe the position of the
present occupiers, or their representatives, would be
such that they would have nothing to fear from the
action of any landlord, no matter how harsh or un-
scrupulous he might be. But, on the other hand, I am
bound to add that, although in weighing the evidence
I have endeavoured to eliminate all revolutionary pro-
posals, my three recommendations do involve very
arbitrary and material interference with the rights of
landlords, to which many would entertain, and with
every reason, the strongest objection ; and that if the
Government see fit to adopt them, or to propose
legislation in their direction, that proposal should be
accompanied in fair justice by an offer of purchase at
a fair price guaranteed by the State from those land-
lords of either the whole or such portions of their
estates as they objected to have such made applicable
to. And I think it will be admitted that my position
in urging this is much strengthened by the fact, which
in my opinion is proved in the evidence, that so far
as the management of the large estates is concerned
and it is of importance to remember that they com-
prise the greatest agricultural and pastoral area in the
country no change in the present law would appear
to be called for.
On the subject of the " North," and the different
customs existing there, much evidence was given, as
distinct from the question of the extension of the right
of sale to those districts where such does not now
exist. In my opinion it was shown, as I have already
stated, that the exercise of the power of raising rent
on the part of the landlords, where unduly used, was
the grievance most severely felt, and that, I would
hope, the proposal for the settlement of disputes with
regard to rents, by means of arbitration, would fully
meet ; but still, as is only natural in a system so com-
plex, there were other points brought under our notice,
such as office rules, which, although distinct from the
APPENDICES 321
rent question, affected more or less directly the value
of the interests involved. The most important named
was the custom existing on many large and well-
managed estates of limiting the price to be paid for
the tenant-right. On this point there was a great
conflict of opinion, those in favour of it asserting that
it afforded most material and salutary protection to the
incoming man, keeping the price to be paid from
reaching the exorbitant amount which it was often
proved to do on account of the reckless competition
(especially in the case of the smaller holdings) for the
acquisition of land. Instances of almost incredible
sums thus paid were freely given. The natural conse-
quence was also dwelt on with much force that in the
absence of some limitation a purchaser had often not
only to spend all his own capital, but had to borrow
largely, thus starting with a load of debt about his
neck. To my mind the economic principle is indis-
putable, and the rule a most salutary one. But, on the
other hand, I am bound to admit that the weight of
evidence was clearly in favour of its abolition ; and by
the weight of evidence I do not refer to numbers
some landlords and many agents of the greatest prac-
tical experience, admitting the wisdom of the principle,
condemned its working as almost impossible. It was
asserted, indeed I might say proved, that where a
limit was attempted to be enforced, sums of money
were invariably paid outside the office in an underhand
way, and the limit utterly disregarded. It was further
shown that the attempt to enforce a limit was a source
of an immense amount of soreness and discontent
among the tenant-class. It was contended on their
behalf that a man could only sell what he had, and
that any attempt to lessen or limit the value of that
was most unjust. On Colonel Forde's estate especially,
and on some others, what would appear to be a most
satisfactory system of settling this point by means of
arbitration was shown to exist, and, perhaps, the pro-
posal for settling disputed rents might be found applic-
able generally in this case also. If it did command
Y
322 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
the confidence of the parties interested, it would cer-
tainly appear to me to be the wisest course, in the
interest of the tenants themselves, to adopt ; but if it
did not, and the feeling of discontent and soreness was
likely to be continued, I think, in the interests of the
landlords, it would be better that the rule should be
abolished.
The question of the method of sale, " public
auctions v. private sales," was also one upon which
there was a good deal of difference of opinion ; and on
this I think the weight of evidence, even in the
tenants' interest, was more against than for the public
sale. It was urged, and I think with great force, that
the excitement of public competition, sometimes in-
creased by fictitious offers, often induced buyers to
make bids which in their cooler moments they would
never have done, and recklessly to incur liabilities
which most materially embarrassed their future; and it
was further shown that the highest bona fide price
could always be obtained by either private sale or
what is termed a private auction a species of sale
which it appears is customary among them, neither of
which are open to the objections urged against the
other. On these grounds I am clearly of opinion that
the landlord's right to forbid public sales by auction
should be retained. Another point was as to the land-
lord's right of selection of the incoming tenant. By all
sides it was admitted that he should have the right of
veto, to protect himself against the introduction ot
objectionable characters or insolvent tenants upon his
property. But it was further urged that he should
have the power of giving the preference, if so inclined,
to a tenant on his estate. This would appear to me to
be a very reasonable and natural discretion to give
him, and provided, but only on that condition, that the
value of the tenant-right was not lessened thereby, I
would be in favour of the preservation of that right.
There may have been other points referred to in the
course of the evidence relating to the Ulster custom,
but as I do not pretend to make my report an ex-
APPENDICES 323
haustive one, I have only attempted to touch upon those
which appeared to me to be of real importance ; and of
those there is, I believe, only one more that I need
mention, and that is securing to the Northern tenant
resident on his holding the continuous occupancy, or
security of tenure, which I propose to give to tenants
under the same condition in the other districts ; and
that, I believe, would be achieved by the Act as it
stands, with the extension of power that I suggest
should be given to the Court under clause 3. The
Act, in clauses i and 2, gives to the tenants under
them the right to claim under any other sections of the
Act, which would clearly allow them, in the event of
an eviction, to come before the Court under the
extended powers in clause 3, when the Court could
leave them in possession by refusing to grant a decree.
Having by these recommendations, as I believe,
thoroughly protected the interests of all the present
occupiers now coming under the provisions of the Act
of 1870, and their representatives, I am most decidedly
of opinion that for the future all bonafide new lettings,
whether within or beyond the same scope, should be
subject to entire and absolute freedom of contract.
Powerful evidence was given to show that in the
present lawless state of affairs, the fairest "and justest
landowners were not sufficiently protected in the
enforcement of their most obvious rights, and in any
change of the law increased facilities should be given
for the assertion of just rights, and for the summary
punishment of those who by terror or otherwise inter-
fere therewith, or retake the possession of lands which
have been legally given up to the landowner. If the
evidence shows that under the existing land code
tenants were not sufficiently protected from some hard-
ships, it also demonstrates that under the same law
landlords have been unable during the past few months
to assert any rights whatever.
I do not feel called upon to discuss the present
agitation, or the proper mode of dealing with the
prevailing anarchy, or whether it should affect the
324 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
selection of a period for legislation in reference to land,
or to speculate upon the effect which any such legis-
lation might, have upon the present critical state of
affairs. These grave topics demand the earnest con-
sideration of Parliament, but appear to be outside the
scope of our reference. It must be borne in mind that
the present development of the agitation is not reflected
by the evidence given by tenant-farmers some little
time ago before us, and that the proceedings of the
Land League meetings give a representation of opinion
in favour of the most extreme, communistic, and revolu-
tionary views, which no legislature can fulfil or satisfy.
To every one who has either heard or read the
evidence it must be apparent that there are circum-
stances existing in some parts of the country requiring
both stringent and immediate remedies, which satisfying
the popular cry for the " Three Fs " would not touch.
Evidence of the strongest nature was given during the
inquiry of a condition of affairs existing in the West
and other over-populated districts, which the establish-
ment of fixity of tenure, even coupled with free sale,
would, in my opinion, only perpetuate, without alleviat-
ing. It is contended that by the granting of the right
of free sale these small holdings would be ultimately
absorbed, and so the present evil would be removed.
But inasmuch as the whole population of these districts
are paupers, I fail to see who would be the purchasers,
unless the purchase by outsiders is contemplated, which
would only have the effect of making a change in, not
lessening, the population, or establishing a class of
middlemen, which has been unanimously condemned ;
but even if there was this local absorption assumed,
the process would be so slow that the country would
have to undergo many of its past trials before the
remedy could be efficacious. In my opinion, the
circumstances of these over-populated districts can only
be dealt with by State interference, in the way of a
liberal and humane scheme of emigration, by sending
the people out in charge of their ministers to the large
and fertile districts of unpopulated land in Western
APPENDICES 325
Canada, where homes and the means of acquiring their
living could be provided for them, such as they could
never have in this country, and opportunities would be
afforded to enlarge the holdings of those who remain
behind.
A scheme was proposed, and strongly advocated
by some witnesses, that these crowded districts should
be relieved of the surplus population by transplanting
the people to the tracts of waste land in different parts
of the country, where they should be paid as labourers
by the State until these lands were sufficiently reclaimed
to support them ; but I must say it is a recommenda-
tion that I could not take upon myself the responsibility
of endorsing. I believe, if they are to be moved (and
I can see no other cure for such cases), emigrating
them to good lands is a much wiser course than migrat-
ing them to lands as bad, if not worse, than those
they left.
Much evidence was also given as to the labouring
class, and the condition of many of them shown to be
bad, both in respect of their dwellings and means of
support ; but no practical suggestion that I can call to
mind was offered for their amelioration. The giving
to them gardens and dwellings, which some suggested
the Church Surplus Fund should be devoted to, would
only be planting them on plots insufficient for their
support, without placing any more certain means for
earning or gaining their subsistence within their reach.
They (the labourers) are not incorrectly described as
small farmers without farms ; and I fear a change in
the present land law, which makes the possession of
a certain amount of capital a sine qua non for the
possession of a farm, will not do much to improve
either their present position or their future prospects.
In my opinion, the reason of their poverty and want
in many districts where small holdings are in the
preponderance is the fact that small farmers are simply
labourers with farms, who do not require extraneous
aid to till their farms. And, therefore, save in the
seasons of seed-time and harvest, in such districts the
326 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH'
labouring classes who depend on labour only for their
support must always suffer more or less acutely from
the want of employment. One of the effects of the
Land Act of 1870, as shown by the evidence before
us, was that it had stopped many landlords from spend-
ing money in improvements on their estates, and I
greatly fear that the further interference with their
rights now suggested must, if adopted, have a much
more marked effect in that direction, and, insomuch as
it has, the future prospects of the labouring classes in
the way of obtaining employment must be injuriously
affected. It is only another, although a less extreme,
phase of over-population, and I can only see relief in
the same, although a less extensive, application of the
emigration scheme.
PEASANT-PROPRIETORS
This subject has been touched upon by almost
every witness, and the evidence has been as conflict-
ing as voluminous. While originally in favour of it
when I entered upon the inquiry, believing that in the
common-sense view of the matter an owner of property
of sufficient size to afford to him an adequate subsist-
ence would be opposed to revolution, and anxious to
preserve what he had, and that by creating such a
class in Ireland we should be adding to the ranks of
those interested in the support of law and order, and
diminishing the numbers who are now at the beck of
every agitator, no matter how wild his theory or com-
munistic his principles, I must admit that considerations
of a very weighty nature have been urged against the
scheme by those who view it from the point of its pos-
sible, if not probable, results, and their opinions, it is
only fair to say, are formed from the experiences of the
past. As illustrations of their views the examples of
the old perpetuity leases have been given us in evi-
dence, where the lessees holding on grants for ever at
a nominal rent, have been, so far as the question is
APPENDICES
327
practically concerned, in the same position as owners
in fee ; and the condition of those properties now have
been cited as exemplifying what the result of peasant-
proprietors would be, and if they can be taken as a fair
example of what the result of a future experiment in
that direction would result in, I think that even the
most ardent advocate of that scheme would not con-
sider it as encouraging. By the evidence it is shown
that very few of the representatives of the original
lessees are now in possession. Ruined by idleness and
extravagance, their grants soon passed into the hands
of mortgagees, who, looking only to gain, let and
sublet, divided and subdivided their lands, till over-
population with its consequent ills of never-ceasing
want and periodical famine were stereotyped in those
districts ; and even in the few instances which remain
of the representatives of the original lessees still con-
tinuing in possession the condition is no better. It is
shown that as occasion arose for each owner to make
provision for his family the same course was adopted,
till the successive increase of each generation reduced
the holdings to a size utterly inadequate to the support
of those depending on them for even a bare subsist-
ence. The difficulty, almost impossibility, of preventing
subdivision under such a system has been dwelt upon
by many witnesses, while the danger of it has been
admitted by almost all.
The condition of those who have already become
purchasers of their holdings under the Church Com-
missioners, and the Bright clauses of the Land Act,
has also been the subject of very conflicting evidence ;
by some the present position of many is described as
worse than before they bought the late bad seasons
the small area and bad land of some of the holdings
the high prices which were paid the large amount
of costs, especially of purchases made under the Bright
clauses the high amount of interest charged when
the amount to be paid down by the purchaser had to
be all or partly borrowed, being among other causes
given as the reasons, and it certainly does seem a
328 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
reasonable assumption that when a purchaser has to
borrow all, his position cannot be improved by the
change.
On the other hand, it has been shown that many
have prospered well, and that in such cases the sense
of contentment and security has resulted in a very
marked degree in the great improvement of their
allotments. As might naturally be supposed, this
satisfactory condition is almost entirely limited to
those who, having money of their own, were saved
from the necessity of going to the money-lenders to
provide the amount required by the Acts to be paid
down, and their success would clearly seem to be due
in a greater degree to their own thrift and industry,
which enabled them to save this money, than to the
fact that they were saved the high rate of interest to
which others had to submit.
Varied, however, as the opinions have been upon
the subject, the weight of evidence has most unmis-
takably gone in favour of, subject to certain safeguards
and limitations, what may be termed a gradual scheme
for the establishment of tenant proprietors in suitable
localities throughout the country. The proposal which
some very few, I admit, advocated, for the Govern-
ment to buy out all the landlords in Ireland, in order
to re-sell the lands to the tenants, was one which was
almost unanimously condemned, riot only as unpractic-
able, but in the highest degree injurious, and is in my
opinion altogether too wild even to admit of disqus-
sion.
The suggestions as to limitations and safeguards in
carrying out the gradual scheme were many, but may,
I think, be summarised under a few heads. First,
subdivision was admitted by almost all to be the great
danger to be guarded against ; the great difficulty,
almost impossibility, of its prevention was urged as an
insuperable objection against the scheme at all, and it
must be apparent that great difficulty does exist in the
future. So long as any of the instalments of the pur-
chase-money advanced by the State remain unpaid, the
APPENDICES 329
provisions of the Acts are stringent and cogent enough
to prevent it, and it is only after that when, under the
present law, all State control would cease, that the
danger would arise. On this point it was suggested
that the difficulty would be met by making these sales
to the occupiers grants from the Crown subject to a
nominal perpetuity rent (which would warrant a small
reduction in the first cost to the purchaser), and to a
condition against subdivision or subletting ; in fact,
against alienation of any part less than the whole. It
was further suggested on this point, and I think
wisely, that the purchaser should not be prevented
from mortgaging or selling his interest, so long as he
dealt with the whole ; interference with either of these
rights would certainly appear to me to be both unjust
to the purchaser, and in no way necessary for the secur-
ity of the State. If mortgaged before the instalments
had been paid off, their priority would not be interfered
with, and if sold, the same conditions that were bind-
ing on the original purchaser would continue so on his
successor.
Second, as to fixing a minimum limit to holdings that
were to be sold to occupiers, a considerable amount of
evidence was given, and varied opinions expressed as
to the smallest quantity of land upon which a family
could subsist. Some witnesses were of opinion that 10
acres were sufficient, but the majority named the mini-
mum as between 20 and 40 acres ; others maintained
that sales should not be made to holders of less than
50 acres, and others named 100. The question is a
difficult one, but of not the less importance to the well-
being of the country, if the scheme of a peasant
proprietary should be seriously entertained by the
Government. It would, in my opinion, be worse than
a dangerous experiment to establish owners on plots
of ground which were not of either sufficient size or
quality to support them ; it would only be tending to
perpetuate the misery and want which now exist in
many districts. Its only recommendation is the chance
that in the future these small owners would be obliged
330 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
to sell, and that gradual consolidation would ultimately
remedy the evil. But to establish a system the only
recommendation for which is the chance that it might
die out is hardly a commendable policy. As to the
other class of holdings, of from 20 to 40 acres, I cer-
tainly would be in favour where thrifty, industrious
men could be found able to provide the necessary pro-
portion of the purchase-money themselves of affording
them facilities to purchase their holdings, subject to
the safeguards I have mentioned when estates were
brought into the market, provided the sale of the
remainder was not thereby prejudiced, or where land-
lords of themselves were willing to sell. But while I
would afford facilities to them, I must confess that it
is the establishment of the larger class of holders, of
from 100 acres upwards, that I would most strongly
approve of, and it is from men of that class that, I
think, the most material benefits to the community
would be derived.
A modified scheme of establishing a peasant-pro-
prietary was dwelt on with much force by some wit-
nesses, in which they recommended that the State
should advance money to tenants to purchase long
leases or perpetuities from the landlords at the present
or reduced rents, and in favour of it I must admit there
is a good deal to be said. It would facilitate and
encourage a lasting agreement between landlords and
tenants which would remove their relations out of the
arena of dispute, and would contribute to the peace of
the country. Many landlords, I have no doubt, would
be willing (where they had the power) to grant long
leases or perpetuities, at reduced rents, if they received
any fair consideration for doing so, and others, whose
rents are admittedly now much below the value, would
be ready on a like condition to do the same. The case
of limited owners would be easily dealt with, and the
interests of remainder-men secured by law. It might,
moreover, be found to be a very valuable alternative
to offer to landlords who, not wishing to sell their pro-
perties, objected to the other interferences with them
APPENDICES 331
which have been suggested. The suggestions on
other points were many, as might have been expected
from the number of witnesses examined such as to
the further facilities which it would be advisable to
afford to those desirous of purchasing their holdings,
as to the removal of limitations and restraints existing
under the present law, or under rules made by the
Board of Works, and other matters.
As to the first, it was contended by many that the
larger proportion of the purchase-money recommended
in the report of Mr. Shaw Lefevre's Select Committee
might safely be advanced by the State, more especi-
ally in the North, where there would be the additional
security of the value of the tenant-right.
By others it was submitted that thrift and industry
should be made a necessary qualification to entitle
would-be purchasers to aid from the State, and that
no advance should be made to those who could not
provide out of their own resources the amount required
to be paid down ; and, although it is not easy in a case
of this kind to devise a hard and fast rule which
would not be subject to objections, it does seem to
me that some test or qualification of this sort would
be of use.
A considerable amount of evidence was given as to
the different systems of purchase under the Church
Temporalities Commissioners, and the Bright clauses
of the Land Act, carried out under the direction of the
Board of Works ; and the latter was shown to contrast
most unfavourably with the former, which was stated
to be much cheaper and simpler in its method. It was
further asserted that many who were most anxious to
purchase were debarred from doing so by the expense,
complications, and delay which purchases under the
Bright clauses entailed. These, with other suggestions,
which I do not touch upon, are minor points of detail
with which the Legislature can have no great difficulty
in dealing. To me it would appear as hardly admis-
sible that, if the main principle and object of the
proposal is right and sound, and I believe it is, a fault
332 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
in the machinery should be allowed to prevent its
success.
I am, however, of opinion that, to carry out a
peasant-proprietary scheme successfully to any extent,
the appointment of a Royal Commission or a Special
Board would be absolutely necessary.
I have thought it right, in referring to this pro-
posal for creating peasant proprietors, to place the
objections which have been urged against it plainly in
the foreground. As being myself still strongly in
favour of it, I wished to guard myself against the
charge of prejudice, and I have therefore, perhaps,
given more than due prominence to its possible
dangers. But to me the proposal appears to possess
the advantage of being far more free from that arbi-
trary interference with the rights of property which the
other proposals involve ; and as I have already stated
that I regard the adoption of the suggestions as to
rents, tenure, and sale as only in justice admissible
where accompanied with fair compensation ; or, if they
preferred it, the offer of sale to the landlords at a
reasonable price ; the extension of this principle (the
Bright clauses of the Land Act) would afford to the
State the means of disposing of estates, which would
in this way come upon its hands, with only a very
trivial, and quite possibly without any loss ; and on
this ground, as well as on its own merits, I am pre-
pared most strongly to recommend its favourable
consideration.
\o>th January 1881.
F, p. 220
At a meeting of the Mansion House Committee
held 7th November 1882, the Right Hon. Sir John
Whitaker Ellis, Lord Mayor, presiding, it was moved
by the Lord Mayor, seconded by Viscount Folkestone,
M.P., and carried with acclamation
" That the thanks of the Committee of the Mansion
APPENDICES 333
House Fund for the defence of property in Ireland
are eminently due and are hereby conveyed to A.
MacMurrough Kavanagh, Esq., who upon the invita-
tion of the Committee and at much personal sacrifice
of time and labour undertook the very difficult and
responsible position of Commissioner for the due
application of the funds to secure the very important
ends for which it was raised. The loyal, fearless, and
able manner in which these arduous duties have been
performed by Mr. Kavanagh entitles him to the very
hearty acknowledgment, not only of this Committee,
but of all interested in the preservation of law and
order and the restoration of peace and prosperity in
the sister kingdom.
"That this resolution be suitably emblazoned and
framed and signed by the Lord Mayor
" J. WHITAKER ELLIS."
G, p. 300
EXTRACT from the SERMON by the Lord Bishop of
Ossory, preached at St. Canice's Cathedral, Kil-
kenny, at Morning Service on the 29th December
the first Sunday after Mr. Kavanagh's death.
" We have lost a great and a good man, one who was
indeed a tower of strength, and whose removal is not
only a private but a public loss. I shall not dwell at
any length upon his public life ; it lives in the annals
of his country, and has received a generous and
appreciative notice in the press. Gifted with great
mental power and firmness of character, he overcame
difficulties which would have overwhelmed any
ordinary man ; but by the sheer force of his worth
and character he won among the foremost a foremost
place. He held by birth and ancestry a unique
position, which linked him on to the early history of
his country, and gave him a rank beside which most
334 ARTHUR MACMURRO UGH KAVANAGH
patents of nobility seemed to be things of yesterday.
But he had something nobler than birth and lineage.
He was the very soul of honour, and had a supreme
contempt for everything that was base and mean ;
and better still, he had a conscience enlightened and
guided by Divine Truth. He was not a man to make
a display of his religious feelings, but he was not a
man who would ever venture to conceal them. He
lived and acted in the fear and love of God, and
sought to regulate his life and conduct according to
the Divine will. Born to wealth, and with great
capacities for enjoyment, he lived no life of selfish
ease. If he had an ambition, it was to live and die
at home, to be the friend and benefactor of his people,
and to render his life serviceable to them and to his
country. In the Imperial councils of the nation his
voice was always listened to with respect and con-
fidence, because of his wisdom, his prudence, and his
thorough conscientiousness. And those who differed
from him had even to acknowledge that, if he was a
formidable opponent, he was always a fair and generous
one.
" What he was to our Church, both by his ability
and his liberality, is known to us all. Wise in
counsel, and specially able in all matters of finance,
we shall miss him from our councils, and especially
from the representative body of the Church, of which
he was an honoured and most diligent member. Ever
since our disestablishment he held a most important
position upon our Boards of Patronage, and I can
bear witness that to him it was no formal discharge of
a mere function, but a careful and prayerful investiga-
tion of each case that came before him, and an earnest
desire to seek for good and suitable men to fill our
vacant parishes. He viewed his office as a solemn
trust committed to him by God, and he endeavoured
most faithfully to discharge it.
" Those who knew him in the intimacy of his
private life can bear witness that he was a loving
husband, a tender father, a considerate master, and a
APPENDICES 335
kind and courteous friend. It was something never to
be forgotten to witness how he conducted the family
worship of his household ; the reverent way in which
he read the Holy Scriptures ; the earnest and devout
manner in which he offered up prayer and thanks-
giving at the Throne of Grace. Strangers, and
sometimes those of another creed who had the
privilege of being present at these devout services,
have acknowledged how much they were impressed
by them. But, better still, the whole life and conduct
of the man harmonised with these devotions. The
truth was that all this useful and noble life had its
roots deep in his strong and simple piety. His was
the attitude of a lowly heart that had come to Christ
for mercy, and a trusting heart that ever looked to
Him for grace ; and so when trials and anxieties came
upon him he was calm and immovable ; and when he
was misjudged and ungenerously treated he exhibited
a noble patience, a generous forbearance. He could
well leave his character to be its own defender, and his
memory will be honoured and loved when that of
his defamers is forgotten, or remembered only with
virtuous indignation. A standard-bearer amongst us
has fallen, and the world is all the poorer for the loss
of such a man. As the true type of a Christian
gentleman, he has left a legacy for imitation to those
who hold positions anything like his own ; and to us
all he has left an example to do our duty in that state
of life to which it has pleased God to call us.
"It is just three years ago this very week that
I consecrated a new burying-ground in his own de-
mesne for the use of his family ; and vividly do I recall
how, as I stood beside him on that occasion, he joined
in the solemn service with uncovered head and with
subdued voice, while he prayed God would 'soon
accomplish the number of his elect ' and hasten his
kingdom. How little did we think that he would be
the first to occupy that consecrated soil ! We would
have wished for the sake of his country, his Church,
his family, and his friends that the evening of his day
336 ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH
was far distant from him still. But our Heavenly
Father has ordered it otherwise, and we can only say,
' Even so Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.'
Thus Christmas morning came this year, and while we
were joyfully celebrating the birth of our and his
Redeemer, one of the best of wives was mourning the
loss of one of the best of husbands, and his dear
children were lamenting, as well they might, the
removal of a beloved and loving father.
" May the God of all consolation be in their midst.
He alone can fill up with His Own Presence the
blank that is left in their heart and home. If human
sympathy can lessen grief; if the respect and love and
honour felt for their departed one can give consolation,
they have sources of comfort on every side. But they
have better consolations than these. They know. in
whom he believed ; they can feel assured that he has
eternal rest ; they can look forward in ' sure and
certain hope ' that they shall see him yet again in the
home where death and parting can never come.
' Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for
the end of that man is peace.' "
Among numerous letters of sympathy the two
following were received by Mrs. Kavanagh one from
a private friend, who although differing from her
husband in politics was for many years a loyal fellow-
worker with him in the cause of Ireland ; the other
from one of the many public bodies with which Mr.
Kavanagh had been associated.
" 26th December 1889.
" MY DEAR MRS. KAVANAGH Your letter received
this morning prepared me for the letter which came
by the next post from Mrs. Meredyth. I hardly
know how to write to you in your great sorrow. It
is difficult to realise the loss, not only to you and all
those most nearly related to him, but also to those who
had the high honour of being intimately acquainted
APPENDICES 337
with him ; and yet again to the country at large, and
Ireland in particular.
" I know that all those who like me had been thrown
much with him will agree that no finer character ever
lived, or one who worked for the common good with
a higher ideal.
" I think you will find that the remembrance and
consciousness of this must surely be some comfort
and consolation to you and your family. I am always,
yours most truly,
COUNTY KILKENNY GRAND JURY, SPRING
ASSIZES 1890
VOTE OF CONDOLENCE
Proposed by Hon. L. Agar Ellis, seconded by E.
L. Warren, Esq.
" We, the Grand Jurors of the County of Kilkenny,
assembled at Spring Assizes 1890, take this, the first
opportunity, of placing on record our sorrow at the
severe loss the County has sustained through the
death of the Right Hon. Arthur MacMurrough
Kavanagh. It is with feelings of pride that we look
back at having been associated with him in the business
of this County, and it is with unfeigned grief we
mourn our able colleague. Not only for the present
do we pass this resolution, but for the purpose of
holding up to those who succeed us so good an
example ; and we gladly seize upon this occasion to
show our full appreciation of those noble qualities
which made Mr. Kavanagh one of Ireland's greatest
sons. W. DE MONTMORENCY, Foreman"
1 2th March 1890.
INDEX
ABBEY OF ST. MULLINS, 7, 17, 262
Abercorn, Duke of, 209
Addresses, congratulatory, 193
Adjunta, Caves of, 106
Agency, Borris, 127
Agitation, belief in, 277
premium on, 236
Air-beds, 32
Albania, 158
Albanian dogs, 159
Aleghaum, 122
Aleshtan, plain of, 95
Alexandria, 1 8
Alten, copper mines of, 149
America, suppression of treason in,
237
American missionaries, 55
support of separatism, 245
" Ames-Damnees, les," 34
Animals, love of, 139
Anne Kavanagh, 5
Anti-Plan of Campaign Association,
225
Antiquities in Kourdistan, 62
Antwerp, great fire at, 168-171
Ape, large, 123
Arctic Circle, 149
Ardishei, 56
Armisty, General, no
Army and navy, flogging in, 192
Arnold Forster, Mr., quoted, 250
Arrears Act, demoralising nature of,
283
Arrow, Lough, 145
Art Boy MacMorrough, 3
More MacMorrough, 2, 3
Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, 5
Asgill, Sir Charles, 1 5
Ashbourne's Act, Lord, 279
Ashraf, 41
Askaran, 84
Astrakhan, 31, 35
Atheist and ecclesiastic, 237
Aurungabad, 115, 120
Australia, 5, 125
Austrian branch of the Kavanaghs, 5
Avalona, providential escape at, 143
B , SIGNOR, 142
Babel, Tower of, i, 72
Babylon, 71
Bagdad, 71
Bagnalstown, 130
Baku, yellow fever at, 36, 37
Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., 297, 299
Ballot Act in Ireland, the, 246
Ballyan, Baron of, 3
Ballycopigan, 302
Ballyfin, the Cootes of, 14
Ballyragget, 131
Castle, 131
Lodge, 261
Bank of Ireland, attempt to ruin, 267
Banshee, the, 300
Barbavilla, Mrs. Smythe of, 249
Barrow, the River, 13, 1 6
Barry, Serjeant, 173
Bartholomew's Day, renewal of St.,
255
Bassadore, 101
Basset, Mr., 107
Batavia, 5
Beach, Sir Michael Hicks, 186
Bear, pet, "Bessy," 141
killed in India, 125
Bedouins, 26
Berar, province of, 30, 121
Beresford, Lord Charles, 227
Bergen, 145
Bes-fel Nimrod, 72
340
INDEX
Bessborough Commission, 215
' ' Bessy, " pet bear, 1 4 1
Bethlehem, plain of, 25
Beyrout, 20
Bezitoun, inscription at, 97
"Billy," see Bookey
Black ( Sea, shores of, 27
Blackstairs, 13
Blair, Mr. Stopford, no
Blancheville, Sir Edmund, 4
Blanchevillestown, 4
Boathouse, 16
Boleyn, Anne, 131
Bombay, 30, 104
Bommel Fiord, 146
Book of St. Moling, 7
Bookey, Mr. William, 106
Borris agency, 127
brook, 1 6
Chapel, 13
east window in, 227
Clothing Club, 194
House, 13
refortified, 167
sieges of, 14, 15
lace, 130
village, 129
murder in, 191
Boycotting, 266
Boyton, Mr., 252
Brandon, Mount, 13
Brennan, Mr., 252
Brian Kavanagh escapes Cromwellian
confiscation, 4
Mac Cahir, of Borris and Polmonty,
3
Bridge, Bunahown, 15
of Graigue, 1 7
Bright, Right Hon. John, 173
Brooks, Colonel, 104
Bruen, Anne, 28
Mary (see Conolly), 8
Colonel Henry, 5, 28
Right Hon. Henry, M.P., 5, 171,
173
Bulls, pedigree, 289
Bunahown Bridge, 15, 136
Bunder- Abbas, 101
" Bunny," 29
Burgess, Mr., 45
Burke, Mr. Thomas H., murder of,
250
Burtchaell, Mr. G. D., I
Burudshird, 85
Bushire, 100
Bay of, 74
Business-man and communist, 239
Butler, Lord Arthur, 202
Lady Elizabeth, 4, 5
Lucia, 4
Colonel Richard, 4
Lady Susanna, 4
Thomas, of Kilcash, 4
Walter, Esq., of Garryricken, 4
Byron, Lord, 22
CAHERCIVEEN, 255
Cahir MacArt, an English subject, 3
Caines, the skipper, 148
Cairo, 18
Calmuc Tartars, 35
Camels in Russia, 35
Camel and tiger, adventure of, 121
Caomhanach, "the Handsome," 2
Cape, North, 145
Carey, Rev. P., 193
Carinthia, 6
Carlow County, 3, 163, 171, 193
Carlton Club, 272
Carly, 109
Casellani, Signor, 71
Caspian Sea, navigation of, 37
Castle government, 287
Castlecuffe, Queen's County, 14
Castletown, County Kildare, 8
Cathedral, Christ Church, 3
Cattle-breeding, 288
disease, 199
Celbridge, 8
Chamberlain, Right Hon. J., 293
Chapel, Borris, 13
New Ross Poorhouse, 133
Charles Kavanagh, Governor of Prague,
4
7th Hussars, 5, 20
death, 128
Charter horn of Kings of Leinster, 7
Charybdis, 158
Chickapore, 12 1
Chikelgaum, 123
Chillon, Castle of, 103
Chitaum, 122
Chonsar, 84
Christ Church Cathedral, 3
Christianity, evidences of, 213
Christiansand, 147
Christmas custom, 135
Chukun, I 08
Church in Ireland, the, 205
patronage, 206
Cincinnati, Mr. Parnell's speech at,
256
INDEX
Circle, Arctic, 149
Clancarty, Richard, second Earl of, 5
Clare, Richard de, Earl of Pembroke, 2
Clerkenwell explosion, 246
Clonagoose, parish church of, 13
Clonegal, 4
Clothing Club, 194
Coalition of loyalists, 269
" Coercion," 186
Colaba Point, 104
Coleridge quoted, 16'
College, Trinity, Dublin, 7
Collings, Mr. Jesse, M.P., 265
Communist and business-man, 239
"Confessor, the father," 135
Conolly, Colonel, of Castletown, 8
Fanny, 8
Mary (see Bruen), 8
Richard, 8
and Studdert, Messrs., 68
Constantinople, waters of, 27
Constituents, loyalty to, 188
Coolgreany estate, 296
Cooper, Captain, 110
Coote, Sir Charles, of Castlecuffe, 14
Cootes of Ballyfin, 14
Corfu, 129-155
Cork, Bishop of, 205
S.S. Company, attack on, 267
Coungak, 69
"County, model," 171, 201
Court, patriarchal, 135
Courtown, Earl of, 219
Cowellellyn, Baron of, 3
Crampton, Sir Philip, 9
Croke, Archbishop, 239
Cromer Head, 145
Cromwell, 4
Crown of the Kings of Leinster, 7
Crystals in Borris brook, 1 6
Cuisine on the Volga, 33
in the Persian Gulf, 100
Curraghmore, 4
DALTON, Mrs., 25
Damascus, 23
Darius, tomb of, 79
Davitt, Mr., 257
Deer-park, 16
Denison, Right Hon. J. E., 182
Denmark, 31
Derbend, 37
Derelict Land Trust, 226
Derevaragh, Lough, 145
Dermitius (Dermot) Kavanagh, 5
Desert, the, 20
Desert, the short, 26
De Vesci, Viscount (late), 207
Lord, 288
Devil's coach-horses, 86
Devoy, Mr., 252
Diary, entries in, 137, 138
Dickson, Dr., 47
Dillon, Mr. J., 251
Diocesan Endowment Fund, 206
Nominator, 212
Dizful, 89
Doctors, English, 25
Doggerajan, 115
Donegal, Colonel Conolly M.P. for, 9
Militia, 14
Donell, MacMorrough, 2
Dowlutabad, 118
Drontheim, 147
Drummond, 17
picnics at, 1 7
Dublin, Royal Society, 129
Dumbeneh, 84
EAST window in Borris Chapel, 227
Ecclesiastic and atheist, 237
Edenderry, 14
Egypt, I, 1 8
Eleanor Blancheville, 4
Election, general, 1868, 171
general, 1880, 202
general, 1885, 264
Elinor, daughter of Viscount Mount-
garret, 4
Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh O'Bryne, 3
Ellis, Sir John Whitaker, 220
Ellora, Caves of, 106, 119
Emergency Committee, 219
Endowment Fund, Diocesan, 206
Engineers, Bombay, no
Enzeli, 38
Escapes, providential, 19, 28, 74, 143,
171
Escort, ragged, 96
Esmonde, Sir Laurence, of Clonegal, 4
Europa Point, 156
Eva, daughter of Dermot MacMor-
rough, 2
Eva, R.Y.S., 153
Cruise of the, \ 5 5
Ewald, Mr., 25
FAT-ALI SHAH, 47
Fence, a very stiff, 144
Fenian rising, 167, 246
weakening of priestly influence dur-
ing, 241
342
INDEX
Feniusa of Scythia, i
Ferouz Mirza, 81
Fevers, 85, 90
Field, attempted murder of Mr., 250
Fiord, Bommel, 146
Drontheim, 148
Kloster, 149
Filigree card-case, the, 127
Finland, Russian, 31, 145
Fire Worshippers, 38
Fish, flying, 103
Fisher, Mr., 25
Fishing, 145
Fleming, Anne, 10
Flogging in army and navy, 192
Forbes, the Sir Charles, 101
Ford, Mr. Patrick, 252
Forestry, 1 34
Forster, Right Hon. W. E., 255, 265
Fortescue, Right Hon. Chichester, 183
Fox-hunting, ill, 144
France, Commune in, 242
Socialism in, 242
suppression of treason in, 236
Fusiliers, 1st, 1 1 1
GALLAMH, i
Gap, Scollogh, 15
Garkan, 57
Garry river, 15
Garryricken, 4, 29
Gazaw, 39
Gazelles, 23
hounds, 27
George IV, 5
George, Mr., Q.C., 166
Mr. Henry, 257
Germains, St., n
Germany, Emperor of, 300
Geroit, Mairgread, 131
Ghauts, ride up the, 108
Ginditz, 6
Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E., 174,
203, 264, 265, 271, 272
Gobat, Bishop, 25
Gogan, 50
Gombeen men, 248
Gookayou, 84
Goolam, 93
Goschen, Hight Hon. G. J., 271
letter to, 288
Graigue, Bridge of, 17
Greek lace, 129
Greer, Rev. Samuel, 8
Grey, Sir John, 106
Guardians, jobbery by boards of, 291
Gwherda, gazelle-hound, 27
HADJI ABBAS, 40
Gowam, 77
Mohammed, 27
Hafiz, tomb of, 77
Hairiki, 98
Haifa, 83
Hammerfest, 149
Hanza Mirza, 50
Harem, life in a, 48
Haroumabad, 85, 93, 98
river, 94
Harriet Kavanagh, Lady, 5, 18, 129,
261
Margaret Kavanagh, 5, 18, 21, 61
Harry Kavanagh, Baron, 7
Hauskirchen, 6
Head Commissioners, 216
Heatly, Captain, 106
Heber, descendants of, I
Hebron, 21
Hector, Mr., 45
Heirlooms, 7
Hennessy, Mr. (now Sir) John Pope, 167
Henry II, 2
Henry Kavanagh, Count, 6
Hercules, the, 32
Heremon, descendants of, I
Hilla, 72
Hillside on fire, a, 87
Hine, Mr., consul, 25
Hitteren island, 148
Holland, coast of, 1 68, 300
Holy Land, 1 8
Home Rule, 243, 271
Horeb, Mount, 20
Hornehlen, 147
Horses, love of, 143
Hughes, Mr., 121
Hungary, 6
Hurlbert, Mr. W. H., 296
Hussars, 7th, 5
loth, no
"Hymn, Arthur's," 12
IBIS shooting, 19
Idrone, Chiefs of, 7
Ilex grove, the, 131
Imaumpore, 115
Intoxicating Liquors (Ireland) Bill, 189
Ionian Islands, annexation of, 162
Ireland, the Church in, 205
" Irelands, the two," 229
Irish Defence Union, 220
Land Committee, 219
INDEX
343
Irish law and custom, 2
people, characteristics of, 259
Irish World, the, 252
Irregular Horse, Poonah, 1 1 1
Ishmael, the dragoman, 21
Ispahan, 82
Israelites, 18
Italy, II
"JACK," 141
his tragic end, 142
Jackal hunt, 19
Jaffa gate, 25
Jehoshaphat, valley of, 25
Jellett, Rev. Dr., 213
Jenkins, Captain, 105
Jenner, Sir William, 153
Jereed exercise, 95
Jerusalem, 25
Jobbery, 290
John Baptist Kavanagh, 6
Jones, Captain, 71
Jones, Mr., 106
Joseph II, Emperor, 5
Jugglers, Indian, 1 08
Justice of the Peace, Mr. Kavanagh
as, 191
KAMISCHKIN, 35
Kandala, 109
Kappooly, 108
Karnak, 19
Kasan, 33
Kasiri-Shireen, 98
Kavanagh, Art Boy, 3
Art More, 2
Arthur MacMurrough, 8 ; birth, 8 ;
education, 8 ; boyhood, 9 ; his
cheerfulness, 10 ; first in every-
thing, 10; "duck-fishing," n ;
"ear-boring," II ; parts from his
cousins, 1 1 ; at St. Germains, 1 1 ;
in Rome, 12; in Dublin, 12;
" Arthur's Hymn," 12 ; in Egypt,
wilderness, Holy Land, 18 ; on
the Nile, 19 ; tutorial work and
sport, 19 ; narrow escape, 19 '>
in the desert, 20 ; linguistic apti-
tude, 20 ; acts as interpreter, 20 ;
letter from Beyrout, 20; " Dougal
M'Tavish," 21 ; purchases, 21,
22 ; delight in the East, 22 ;
letter from Jerusalem, 22 ; sport
and tent - life, 23, 24 ; Arab
horses, 24 ; skill in shooting and
riding, 26 ; speaks Arabic, 26 ;
a favourite with the Bedouins,
26 ; letter from Marseilles, 26 ;
eye-witness of '48 Revolution, 27 ;
fondness for animals, 28 ; return
from Egypt, 28 ; narrow escape
at Borris, 28; Smith O'Brien's
rebellion, 29 ; reconnoitres rebel
camp, 29 ; second journey to the
East, 30 ; travels through Den-
mark and Scandinavia, 31 ; St.
Petersburg, Moscow, and Nijni-
Novgorod, 31 ; on the Volga,
32, 33 ; on the Caspian, 37 ;
arrives in Persia, 39 ; adventure
at Astrabad, 40 ; on the road to
Teheran, 41 ; narrow escapes, 42 ;
arrival at Teheran, 44 ; down
with fever, 45 ; a miserable Christ-
mas Day, 48 ; guest of Prince
Malichus Mirza, 48 ; lodged in
the harem, 48 ; hunts with the
prince, 50 ; on Lake Urumiah,
51; starts for Urumiah, 54; a
Nestorian community, 55 ; enters
Kourdistan, 57 ; a Kourdish chief,
59 ; ride through snow, 63-65 ;
on guard at the gateway, 67 ;
rheumatism in the chest, 67 ;
finds traces of Messrs. Conolly
and Studdert, 68 ; meets Mr.
Layard, 69 ; visits Nineveh, 70 ;
arrives at Bagdad, 71 ; en route
to Babylon, 7 1 ; Tower of Babel,
72; "Old Woman's Pass," 74;
arrives at Shiraz, 77 ; at Ispahan,
82 ; and at Teheran, 84 ; down
with fever, 85 ; hillside on fire,
87 ; mountain-stairs, 88 ; at the
Russian camp, 89 ; dines with
Colonel Williams, 89 ; in fever
again, 90; "a hell upon earth,"
91 ; Colonel Williams and he
exchange cooks, 92 ; letters from
home, 93 ; plain of Aleshtan, 95 ;
tax-gatherers, 95, 96 ; witnesses
sham fight, 97 ; Kirmanshah, 97 ;
lodged in governor's palace, 97 ;
parts from Colonel Williams, 98 ;
takes his passage to Bagdad, 98 ;
leaves Bushire, 100 ; in the Per-
sian Gulf, 101 ; arrives at Bom-
bay, 104 ; purchases outfit, 105 ;
shooting expedition, 106 ; up the
Ghauts, 1 08 ; arrives at Poonah,
109 ; thrown into prickly - pear
bush, no; leaves Poonah, III ;
344
INDEX
reaches Nuggur, 114; enters
Nizam's dominions, 115 ; the first
tiger, 116; sporting expedition
from Aurungabad, I2O; second
tiger, 121 ; tigress, 123 ; kills
her, 123; more tiger - shooting,
125; leaves for Aurungabad, 125;
left alone, 126 ; carrier of de-
spatches, 126 ; serves in Poonah
Survey Department, 126 ; makes
a solemn resolution, 127 ; returns
to Ireland, 127 ; appointed under-
agent at Borris, 127 ; succeeds to
family estates, 128 ; marriage,
129 ; improves Borris village,
129 ; receives medal of Royal
Dublin Society, 129 ; rebuilds
Borris in part, 130 ; assumes
management of branch line to
Borris, 1 30 ; improves Ballyragget
village, 130 ; elected Guardian of
New Ross Poorhouse, 131 ;
Roman Catholic chapel in Poor-
house, 133 ; establishes saw-mill
at Borris, 134; his daily life at
home, 134-137 ; devotion to his
tenantry, 137; sport, 139; love
of animals, 139 ; and of nature,
140; "Bessy," "Jack," and
" Nelson," 141, 142 ; love of
horses, 143 ; providential escape
at Avalona, 143 ; sells off hunters
and harriers, 144 ; fishing expedi-
tions to Irish lakes, 145 ; and to
North Cape, 145-152; good
sport, 152 ; love of the sea, 153 ;
anxiety about his son, 153 ; letter
to his wife, 153 ; cruise to the
Mediterranean, 155-158; sport
in Albania, 159; skill in photo-
graphy, 161 ; bad news from
Ireland, 162; returns home, 162;
wishes to enter Parliament, 163 ;
dissuaded, 163 ; speech at Captain
Pack Beresford's nomination, 1 64 ;
M.P. for County Wexford, 167;
refortifies Borris House, 167 ;
reconnoitres rebel movements by
night, 167; revives yachting
privilege, 168 ; great fire at Ant-
werp, 168-171 ; M.P. for County
Carlow, 171 ; maiden speech,
175-181 ; effect on the House,
182; speaks on Peace Preserva-
tion Act, 183-186; defends his
own constituents, 188 ; changes
views on Sunday (Ireland) drinking.
189, 190; conduct as J.P., 190,
191 ; made Lord Lieutenant of
County Carlow, 191 ; efficiency
as magistrate, 191 ; flogging in
the services, 192 ; his son comes
of age, 193 ; proposes his health,
1 94 ; responds to toast of his own
health, 200 ; ingratitude of his
tenantiy, 201 ; defeated at general
election, 202 ; letter to his wife,
202 ; Mr. Gladstone's tribute to
him, 203 ; endeavours to retrieve
the situation, 204 ; his readiness
to be interviewed, 204 ; helps to
rehabilitate the Church, 205 ;
becomes member of reorganising
committee, 206 ; also of General
Synod and of Diocesan Synod,
206 ; elected Diocesan Nominator,
206 ; secures Endowment Fund
for united diocese of Ossory,
Ferns, and Leighlin, 206 ; mem-
ber of representative body, 207 ;
attitude on revision of Prayer-
Book, 210; his liberality to the
Church, 211 ; his belief in Chris-
tianity, 213 ; sits on Bessborough
Commission, 215 ; draws up
separate report, 215 ', speaks at
landlords' meeting, 216 ; censures
Sub-Commissioners, 216 ; visited
by tenants at midnight, 218; sug-
gests Irish Land Committee, 219 ;
and becomes its honorary secre-
tary, 219 ; co-operates with Lord
Courtown, 219 ; member of Man-
sion House Committee, 220 ; and
Commissioner for distribution of
funds, 220 ; origin of Land Cor-
poration, 222 ; interview by cor-
respondent of New York World,
222 ; joins Anti-Plan of Campaign
Association and Derelict Land
Trust, 225, 226 ; death of his
second son, 226 ; writes paper on
the two Irelands, 229-260 : urged
to call public meeting, 262 ;
measures to check the National
League, 263 ; his views on the
situation, 263 ; writes paper on
perils ahead, 265-269 ; his sug-
gestions for future government of
Ireland, 272 ; failing health, 286 ;
suggestions for local government,
286 ; correspondence with Right
INDEX
34S
Hon. G. J. Goschen, 288 ; and
with Right Hon. W. H. Smith,
293 ; his last illness, 299 ; last
trip to Holland, 300 ; death on
Christmas morning, 300
Kavanagh, Mrs., marriage, 129 ; im-
provement of Borris, 129; Borris
lace, 130; letters to, 145, 153,
1 68, 202 ; dissuades him from
entering Parliament, 163 ; her
health proposed by Father Carey,
194 ; establishment of Borris
Clothing Club, 194 ; places east
window in Borris Chapel, 227
Arthur, Lieutenant, R.N., his illness
and death, 226
Brian MacCahir, of Borris and Pol-
monty, 3
Brian, escapes Cromwellian confisca-
tion, 4
Brian, 4
Charles, Governor of Prague, 4
Charles, 7th Hussars, 5
Dermot (Dermitius), General, 5
Donell (the "Handsome"), 2
Harriet, Lady, 5, 18, 129, 261
Harriet Margaret ("Hoddy"), 5,
18, 21, 61
Harry, Baron, 7
Henry, Count, 6
John Baptist, Baron of Ginditz, 6
Maurice, General, of Hauskirchen, 6
Morgan, Baron of Cowellellyn, 3
Morgan, of Borris and Polmonty,
M.P., 3
Morgan, 4
Morgan, 4
Thomas, 4
Thomas, M.P., 5, 14, 127, 199
Thomas, 5, 18, 26, 30; illness and
death, 125, 126
Walter, 5
Walter, 6
Walter, his illness, 153 ; attains his
majority, 193
Kazeroum, 74
Kazvin, 46
Kearns, rebel priest, 14
Kejjufabad, 84
Kemble, Captain, 71
Kend, 46
Kerbola, 72
Kermi, 57
Kilcash, Colonel T. Butler of, 4
Kilcomney, 15
Kildare, County of, 2
Kilkenny foxhounds, 144
Killiecrankie, Pass of, 1 5
Kilmainham, 231
Kingstown, 3 1
Kinolo, 119
Kirind, 98
Kirmanshah, 92, 97
Kisliat, 37
Klaku, Bactrian chief, 80
Klerk, Mr., 149
Kloster Fiord, 149
Knight, Mr., M.P., 173
Kondipory, 1 1 1
Koomisheh, 81
Kourdish costumes, 60
dinner, 60
governor, 59
Kourdistan, 30
Kourds, description of, 57
LABOURERS' DWELLINGS ACT, 267
Lace, Borris, 130
Greek, 129
Land Act (Ireland) of 1870, 247
of 1882, 216
Corporation of Ireland, 220-225
grabbing, 266
League, 248
legislation, 128
Landlords, aggregate meeting of, 216
Lapland, Russian, 151
Lapp settlement, 151
Layard, Mr., 69
League, Land, 218, 248
National, 263-265
Leathley, Rev. Joseph Forde, 129
Leggan, 60
Le Hunte, Mr., 288
Leinster, Kings of, I, 2, 7
Mount, 13
Lenkoran, 38
" Lens man," a, 149
Lichfield, Bishop of, 206
Local government, suggestions for, 286
Lofoden Islands, 148
London, Lord Mayor of, 220
Louth, County, 129
Lucia Butler, 4
Lufra, gazelle-hound. 27
Lunee, in, 123
" Lutinis," 92
Luxor, 19
Lymington, 168
MACART, CAHIR, MACMORROUGH, 3.
M'Cabe, Cardinal, tribute to, 240
346
INDEX
M 'Go wan, Mr., 25
Mackenzie, 115
M'Mahon, Mr., M.P. (New Ross),
173
MacMorrough, family of, I
Dermot, King of Leinster, I
" M'Tavish, Dougal," 21
Magistrate, Mr. Kavanagh as, 191
Majority of Thomas Kavanagh, 30
Walter Kavanagh, 193
Mallow election, 239
Malta, 155
Mansion House Committee, 220
Maria Theresa, "Empress-King," 5
Marseillaise hymn, 27
Marseilles, 18, 26
Maun, 124
Maurice Kavanagh, 6
May-fly, rising of, 145
Mayo, late Earl of, 255
Mazanderan, province of, 54
Mehemet Ali, his prayer-carpet, 21
Meshed, surrender of, 77
Meuntaz, 98
Middleton, Colonel, C.B., R.A., 5
Milesius, I
Milner, Mr., 288
Mirza Jaffa Khan, 88
Malichus, Prince, 47
"Model County," 171, 2OI
Moling, book of St., 7
Monarchies, five Irish, I
Mongeese, no
Monghea, 87
Monkish legends, 25
More, Art, see MacMorrough
Morgan Kavanagh, Baron of Cowell
ellyn, 3
Kavanagh, M.P., of Borris and Pol
monty, 3, 4
Kavanagh, 4
Kavanagh, 4
Morley, Right. Hon. John, 173, 257
265
Morrough, King of Leinster, I
Morton, Lord, 26
Rev. Ralph, 22
Moscow, 31
Mosquitoes, 149
Mosul, 69
Mott, Mr., 130
Mountgarret, Viscount, 4
Mount Horeb, 20
Leinster, 13
'Sinai, 20
Mountjoy Square, No. 1 , 1 29
Mullins, St., Abbey of, 3, 7, 17, 262
urchadh, King of Leinster, I
urder at Borris, 191
luscat, 103
Musgrave, Sir Richard, 14
AGOTNA, IO9
a-nGall (of the Strangers), 2
Naples, 155, 158
'apoleon, 236
farghileh, 24
National League, the, 263
Press, the, 259
Schools, 267
School teaching, 235
Mature, love of, 140
sfaval review, 300
l^avy, flogging in the, 192
SJazar-el-Khan, 86
Nelson," 142
Iestorians, 55
w Ross, 1 6
Poorhouse, 132
Poorhouse Roman Catholic Chapel,
133
New York World, the, 222
New Zealand, Bishop of, 206
Nicholayson, Mr., 25
Nijni-Novgorod, fair of, 31
Nile, the, 18
Nimrod, bridge of, 70
Ninety-eight, 7, 14
Nitocris, the S.S., 71
Nizam's dominions, the, 115
Irregular Horse, the, 1 1 5
"Nolan, Miss," 136
Nominators, Boards of, 206
North, the, 243
North Cape, 145
Norway, 31
Nuggur, 1 06
Nulty, Bishop, 239
OAK PARK, 5, 8, 28
-tree, the old, 134, 14
O'Brien, Right Rev. Dr., 206
Smith, 29
Mr. W., M.P., 257
O'Bryne, Hugh, 3
Obstruction in Parliament, 246
Ofen, 6
Ogilby, Colonel, 106
O'Grady, The, 296
estate, the, 296
" Old Woman's Pass," 74
INDEX
347
Ormonde, Walter, eleventh Earl of, 4
the " great Duke "of, 4
John, seventeenth Earl of, 4, 5
Dowager Marchioness of, 29
Ormuz, Island of, loi
Orr, Dr., 116
the Messrs., 116
Osborne, Sir Daniel Toler, 129
Lady Harriet, 129
Ossory, Bishop of, 227, 228
PALE, the, 3
Palermo, 158
Pan well, 108
Paris, II
Parliament, Imperial, thinks of enter-
ing, 163
enters, as M. P. for County Wexford,
167
of 1880, 203
Irish, 5
Parnell, Mr. C. S., M.P., 203
his "items," 203
Party government, weakness of, 268
Pass of Killiecrankie, 1 5
" Pass, Old Woman's," 74
Pasvig River, 145
Peace Preservation Act (Right Hon.
C. Fortescue's), 183
(Sir M. Hicks Beach's), 186
Pearls in Borris brook, 16
Peasant-proprietors, 259
Peepre, 121
Pekin, legation at, 9
Pembroke, Richard de Clare, Earl of, 2
Percy, Sir E., 104
Perkins, Dr., 55
Persepolis, ruins of, 78
Persia, Northern, 30
Persia, 74
Persian dead, 72
Persian Gulf, 30, 100
storm in, 102
Petersburg, St., 31
Petra, 21
Petty Sessions, prosecutions at, 264
Phrenix Park murders, 249
Photography, skill in, 161
Picnics at Drummond, 17
Pilltown, County Waterford, 4
" Plait a Dieu," 93
Plan of Campaign, 225
test cases of, 296
Poaching case, 191
Poer, John, Lord le, of Curraghmore, 4
Polmonty, 3
Poonah, 109
Survey Department, 126
Poor Law (Ireland) Amendment Bill,
173
Porter, Commodore, 71
Posnett, Dr., 257
Prague, Charles Kavanagh Governor
of, 4
Prayer-Book, revision of, 207
Prayers, family, 134
Prices, depression of, 282
Prickly-pear bush, thrown into a, I IO
" Prince," 12, 26
Progress and Poverty, Mr. Henry
George's, 257
Promised Land, 20
Property Defence Association, 219
Prosecutions at Petty Sessions, futility
of, 264
Purchase Acts, efficacy of, 272-285
QUEEN, the, toast of, 194
Quoranta, Santa, 1 60
RAILWAY to Borris, 130
Wicklow and Wexford, 130
Great Southern and Western, 1 30
Ras-el-Hadd, 103
Rassam, Mr., 69
Rat, encounter with, 1 08
Rebellion of '98, 14
of 1641, 14
Reid, Mr., 45
Relics, family, 7
Relief works, 290
Reshd, 38
Residence, Royal, in Ireland, 287
Revision of the Prayer-Book, 207
Rhoda, Island of, 26
Ribbon Society, the, 253
Richard II, 2
Richard II revisits Ireland, 3
Roandoze, 67
Rock, the, 157
Rohitsch, 7
Roland, Mr. and Mrs., 69
Romaine, Mr., 104
Rome, stay in, 12
Rome, Church of, 239, 244
opposed to British connection, 241
" Roo-of" ! 116
Rooke, Rev. G. W., 191
Rosa, 119
Royal residence in Ireland, 287
R.Y.S. Eva, 153
Water Lily, 220, 300
348
INDEX
Rushampore, 115
Russell, Mr. Edward A., 173
Russia, 30
Russian camp, 89
Ryan, History -of Carloiv, 3, 14
SADI, tomb of, 77
Salisbury, Marquis of, 263
Salmon-fishing, 16, 145
Samara, 34
Sandford, 25
Sandwith, Dr., 69
Santa Quoranta, 160
Saratov, 34
Sardarud, 49
Sari, 42
Saw-mill at Borris, 134
Scandinavia, 30
Schaffgotsch, Count, 7
Scoderere, 93
Scollogh Gap, 15
Scorpions, 86
Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 16
Scylla and Chary bdis, 158
Scythia, I
Sea, love of the, 153
Secretaries for Ireland, 287
Seed-rate Act, 290
Selwyn, Bishop, 206
Separation, true meaning of "Home
Rule," 243
"Sept and Nation," the, 193
Seroor, 1 1 1
Serpent-charmers, 108
Service, evening, 137
Sexton, Mr. T., M.P., 252
Shaipoor, ruins of, 74
Sheil, Colonel, 47
Sheridan, Mr., 252
Sheriff's sales, 221
Sheshuan, 49
Shiraz, 77
Shuster desert, 91
Sicilies, kingdom of The Two, 158
Sieges of Borris House, 14
Sierra Nevada, 158
Simbirsk, 33
Sinai, Mount, 20
" Sir John Grey," 108
" Sir Roger," 107
Skibbereen Eagle, the, 266
Smith, Right Hon. W. H., 293
Smyrna, 27
Smythe, murder of Mrs. , 249
Snakes, 91
Snow, adventure in the, 63-66
Society, Royal Agricultural, 291
Society, Royal Dublin, 129, 291
Soda-water springs, 63
Sorroe Sund, 149
Southampton, 220
Spain, I
Speaker's note to Mr. Kavanagh, the,
182
Speech, Father Carey's, 194
Mr. Sweetman's, J.P., 199
Speeches, Mr. Kavanagh's, 164, 175,
184, 1 86, 189, 194, 200, 217
Spencer, Earl, 232
Spiders, 86
Spithead, naval review off, 300
Sport, 139
Star, newspaper, 173
State-assisted Purchase, 281
Stephens, Mr., 48
St. Germains, n
Moling, book of, 7
Mullins, Abbey of, 3, 7, 17, 262
Stock, deterioration of, 289
Stocking, Mr., 56
Strongbow, 2
Strozzi Villa, 12
Studdert, Captain, no
and Conolly, Messrs., 68
Mr., 55
Styria, 6
Sub-Commissioners, 216
Sulduz, plain of, 57
Sultania, 47
Sunday afternoons at Borris, 136
Suter, Mr. Frank, 117
Sweden, 31
Sweetman, Mr., J.P., 132, 166, 191,
199
Synan, Mr., M.P., 173
TABRIZ, 45, 49
Takht-el-Yamsheed, 78
Taki Boustan, 97
Tannah, 107, 1 08
Tapp, Major, 1 1 1
Tarki, 37
Tax-gatherers, Persian, 95, 96
Teaching in National Schools, 235
Teheran, 38, 41, 44, 84
Temples, Hindoo, 115, 118
Tenant-right, 162, 247
Tenantry, devotion to, 137
ingratitude of his, 201
Tennyson quoted, 16
Termonfeckin, 129
Terrorism of Land League, 218
INDEX
349
Terrorism of National League, 266
Thebes, ruins of, 19
Theresa, Maria, 5
Thomas Kavanagh of Borris, Esq. , 4
M.P., 5, 14, 127, 199
5, 30, 126
Thompson, Mr., 45
Tiflis, 36, 47, 48
Tigers, 116, 121, 123-125
Tigris river, 30, 70
Times, The, 250
Toka, 115
Tombak, 24
Toulouse, 7
Treason taught in National Schools,
235
Trench, Lady Harriet Margaret le
Poer, 5
Lady Louisa le Poer, 129
Trinity College, Dublin, 7
Provost of, 213
Trebizond, 27
Trevelyan, Mr. (now Sir), G. O., 229,
250
Trout-fishing, 1 6, 145
Tucker, Mr., 114
Tufa, 113
Turcomans, 40
Twemlow, Brigadier, 116
Tzaritzin, 35
UDSIRE light, 145
Unionist party, suggestion of a, 269
United Ireland newspaper, 252, 266
Urumiah, island of, 51
lake of, 5 1
town of, 54
VASJ BULAK, 58
Villa Strozzi, 12
Volga river, 30, 35
WALSH, THOMAS, Esq., of Pilltown, 4
Walter Kavanagh, 5
6
153, 193
"Wards," 135
Water Lily, R.Y.S., 220, 300
Wells, Captain, no
Wexford, 15, 130, 167
tenantry, 193
Whales, 145, 149
Wilderness, the, 20
William IV, 5
William, his servant, 45
Williams, Colonel (afterwards of Kars),
89,98
Wright, Dr., 55
Wood, Rev. David, 18, 126
World, Irish, 252
World, the New York, 222
YACHTING privilege, 168
Yacht race, description of, 156
Yeoman-proprietors, 277
ZAB river, 69
THE END
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