how things stood. We were struck by the difficulty of obtaining
trustworthy information in Dublin, where the richer classes, with whom
we chiefly came in contact, merely abused the Land League, while the
Land Leaguers declared that the accounts of outrages were grossly
exaggerated. The most prominent, Mr. Michael Davitt, assured me, and I
believe with perfect truth, that he had exerted himself to
discountenance outrage, and that if, as he expected, he was locked up by
the Government, outrages would increase. When one reached the disturbed
districts, where, of course, one talked to members as well of the
landlord class as of the peasantry, the general conclusion which emerged
from the medley of contradictions was that, though there was much
agrarian crime, and a pervading sense of insecurity, the disorders were
not so bad as people in England believed, and might have been dealt with
by a vigorous administration of the existing law. Unfortunately, the
so-called "better classes," full of bitterness against the Liberal
Ministry and Mr. Forster (whom they did not praise till it was too
late), had not assisted the Executive, and had allowed things to reach a
pass at which it found the work of governing very difficult.

When the Coercion Bill of 1881 was introduced, many English Liberals
were inclined to resist it. The great majority voted for it, but within
two years they bitterly repented their votes. Our motives, which I
mention by way of extenuation, not of defence, were these. The Executive
Government declared that it could not deal with crime by the ordinary
law. If its followers refused exceptional powers, they must displace the
Ministry, and let in the Tories, who would doubtless obtain such powers,
and probably use them worse. We had still confidence in Mr. Forster's
judgment, and a deference to Irish Executive Governments generally which
Parliamentary experience is well fitted to dissipate. The violence with
which the Nationalist members resisted the introduction of the Bill had