The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

330 CHARLES STEWART PARNELL [1882
In the first quarter of 1881 there was one murder; in the first quarter of 1882 there were six. The total number of cases of homicide and of firing at the person in the first quarter of 1881 was seven; in the first quarter of 1882, thirty-three.
The total number of agrarian outrages in October 1881, when the Land League wras suppressed, stood at 511; in March 1882 the figure was 531. But it is unnecessary to dwell further on these details. The utter breakdown of the Coercion Act is beyond dispute,
* Everyone/ says Lord Cowper with perfect frankness, ' advised us to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act— the lords-lieutenant of counties, the police, the law officers. The police led us quite astray. They said they knew all the people who got up the outrages, and that if the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended they could arrest them. Of course we found out afterwards that the police were mistaken/
Some two years after the events with which I am now dealing I called one morning on Mr. Bright at his apartments in Piccadilly. lie was sitting at the table, wrapped in a dressing-gown and reading Plowclen's 'History of Ireland.' *Ah!J he exclaimed, 'they say I have lost all interest in Ireland since 1 voted for coercion, as they call it; still I have boon reading this book all the morning. The history of Ireland has always interested me/ Alter some talk about Irish history the subject of coercion came up again. ' They call it coercion/ ho said, ' but they forget the coercion of the Land League/
' Their coercion, Mr. Bright/ I said,' is at all events more effective than yours. Mr. Forstcr's Act was a complete failure. I felt very sorry that you voted for