The Boycott Sensation

C.ipt. lïoyeott, who hasfigured so larga ly of late in the cable news froni Greal Britain, is ono of those who have greatness suddenly and rudely tlirust upon them. lic is a retircd officer of the British anny, and has for more than twenty years been a tenant farmer in Ireland. His farm lies on the shore of Loch Mask, in the parish of Hal linrobe, County Mayo, Connaught, Iroland. It is stated that he nover had any trouble with his own farm laborers, but hie employment as agent for Lord Krne has gotten him into no end of trouble. The land-league agitation, it seeui.s, got hold of the tenants of that lordling, and they refused to iay their rents. It then beeamc Capt. Boycott's duty as agent, actingunder orders, to serve notices of ejectruent on the non-paying tenants, and see to their eviction. With the usual logic of the mob, the whole countryside, as with one impulse, visited the penalty for this harsh action upon the agent, instead of the landlord. His farm hands, under threats, all left him, and his house-servantsdid the saine. With a erop almoat ready for harvesting and a considerable number of domestic animáis to care for, he and his two daughters were left to get along as best they could. He could hire nobody; workmen or workwomen of any sort were threatened with lynchlaw if they set foot on his farm ; even tradesmen were afraid to sell him household supplies ; he dared not inove out-ofdoors without an armed escort of constabulary. Being comparatively a poor man, and having a erop worth $2,600 left to rot on the ground, nis case was a hard one. It wa9 taken up by Orangemen at Dublin- probably by instigation of the awthorities - and a forcé of' volunteers was raised to go to Ballinrobe and save Boycott's erop ibr him. The peasantry in his vicinity hearing of the proposed relief expedition, rose in arms to resist its coming. The government retaliated by furni.shing a larfíemilitary escort to protect the Orangcinen. They have safely wade their march under this escort, and are now cutting Boycott's oats and rye, and digging his potatoos and turnips, while infantry nnd cavalry stand guard over them as if in an cneniy's country, This brief account will niake the telegraius concorning Boycott and the expeditioo for his relief intclligible. There are many storics about Boycott's harshnessand meanpess, luit they are asido trom the niain (juestion. Howcver uiuch of a curmudgeon lie may be, he has a right to have his erop harvested in peace by anybody who is willing to do it. And it is not by thus letting the fruits of the earth go to waste that Ire land'a dbtrem is to be rclieved or her suftering people made fat. How many other harvests besides Boycott's are doomcd by the land-league agitators to rot for want of labor to save them we have no means of knowing. But it h not at all likely that Boycott is the only man against whom that sort of vpngeance lias been decroed. It i u bad policy, and one likely to be retueiu g bered thu nest time America is asked to feed the peasantry who might be fed a home if the products of the land were per mitted'to be be garnered.