sergeant was knocked into a ditch by a man named Malony. Malony was immediately arrested. The policemen then decided to retrace their steps, and proceeded to Davoren's house by the ordinary route. While they were thus engaged a crowd of about two hundred persons were busy barricading Davoren's house; so that when the policemen arrived they found it impossible to effect an entrance, while the crowd continued jeering, hooting, and threatening them. Under these circumstances the police returned home.

Some landlords are showing an admirable example to their class. Messrs. R. B. and G. F. L. Porter some years ago reduced their rents to Griffiths, valuation, and have now given a 15 per cent. reduction. The rents have as a rule, been punctually paid. Mr. Littledale, Whaley Abbey, Wicklow, has given 50 per cent. reduction, and some years since gave a permanent reduction of 20. A considerable number of others have made reductions of varying amounts.

Several boards of guardians, in view of the great number of tenants who will be dispossessed from their holdings, have appointed provisional committees to prepare apartments in the workhouse, to be known as "The ward of honor", for the use of evicted tenants, a special scale of dietary and other arrangements having been made for their benefit.

The following is the statement of the tenants as to the case on which the most important battle of the campaign in Ireland is likely to be fought: -Two hundred and sixteen tenants, occupying mountain land owned by the Marquis of Clanricarde, in Woodford, applied November, 1885, for 25 per cent. reduction on the rents then due. Lord Clanricarde vouchsafed no reply-not even acknowledging the memorial from the coadjutor Bishop of Clonfert and the parish priest to that effect. In March he began to issue writs and processes, taking out altogether from March till July thirty writs and seventy processes. The processes fell through owing to error in service of the writs. Ten were settled by agreement, four tenants were evicted, and sixteen writs are still hanging over and may be forced out any day. In evicting the four tenants, 700 police and 200 soldiers were employed at a cost for cars alone of £800 to £1,000. The tenants scalded the police and emergency men with boiling water, and this has been ruled by a magistrate not to be a breach of the peace, under the legitimate method of passive resistance. Fifty-six neighbors and sympathisers who garrisoned the houses and resisted the evictions are now awaiting trial in Galway gaol. The houses and holdings are now in need of emergency men under police protection. All the tenants have bound themselves to pay no rent at all till the four evicted ones are reinstated. Lord Clanricarde refuses to make any concession, and a pitched battle is expected, in which the whole force of the two sides will be employed. The land is mostly mountain heather land. What is tilled has afterwards been reclaimed by the tenants. Lord Clanricarde is a constant absentee, who spends nothing in improving his farms, and draws from Galway alone over £20,000 per annum. This year reductions of 40 and 50 per cent. have been made by the Land Commissioners on several of his farms. ANNIE BESANT.

Loneliness.

THE last time I cam' ower the muir
An eagle sailed abune;

An' strang he seemed in laneliness
When I was nigh foredune;
Sae I lay doun an' watcht him there
In the wanin' afternune,

As he swam atween the sinkin' sun
An' the thin gowd e'enin' mune.

Said I, the sun is strang alane,

An' the mune, an' the king o' air;
He hings like them in the heavens blue,
An' moves, an' needs nae mair;
An' never he seeks for a helpin' wing,
An' never he broods wi' care;

For his ee is bricht, an' his pinions strang,
An' he sees the haill warld fair.

But sudden a she-eagle screamed
An' he screamed back again;
An' I heard their hungry eaglets cry
Frae the edge o' a gloamin' glen:
Sae I rase an' said, The feathered kings

Are e'en but ruled as men ;

An' I thocht o' a face that micht look for me,
An' o' some gude freends I ken.

An' I said, When I can sail in air
I'll live lanely-but no till then.

SCOTULUS.

The members of the Fabian Society assert that the system of production for profit instead of production for use ensures the comfort and happiness of the few at the expense of the sufferings of the many, and that society must

be reconstructed in such a manner as will secure the general welfare and happiness.

AIM.

The aim of the Society is to help forward the reconstruction of the Social System in accordance with the highest moral possibilities.

METHODS.

The holding of meetings for discussion, reading of papers and reports. The delegation of members to attend meetings on social questions, debates at workmen's clubs, etc. The publication of tracts and pamphlets, pointing out the evils and immorality of the present system and advocating a policy of reconstruction. The appointment of members to put forward the views of the Society in lectures and addresses.

The Fabian Society collects and diffuses information on social questions; its objects are educational as well as militant. It seeks recruits from all ranks of society, believing that not only those who suffer from the present system, but also many who personally benefit by it, recognise its evils and will welcome a remedy.

The Fabian Society looks for the reconstruction of the social system in the emancipation of all natural and accumulated wealth from the control of individuals or classes, by placing such wealth in the hands of the Community for the general benefit. The Fabian Society further endeavors to help forward the regeneration and evolution of Society, and insists that only a general high sense of duty and the subordination of individualistic aims to the general good can bring about true justice and true liberty, and ensure the true dignity of Man.

BRANCHES.

Fabian Societies may be formed in any town or district by not less than ten persons, each such society prefixing to the name "Fabian Society" the name of its town or district, and using only such localised title in all publications and notices. Each such Fabian Society shall fix its own rate of subscription, shall have complete control over its own funds, and shall make its own rules; subject to the proviso that no rule shall be made which conflicts with the basis and aim of the central Society. It shall appoint one of its members as Corresponding Secretary, and communicate the name and address of the member so chosen to the Executive of the Fabian Society, thus providing facilities for intercommunication, for the circulation of literature, and for the exchange of lecturers.

All information may be obtained from the Secretary, Mr. Edward Pease, 150, Portsdown Road, London, N.W. The Society meets on the first and third Fridays of every month.

The bi-monthly meeting of the Fabian Society was held on November 5th, at 19, Avenue Road, W. K. Burton in the chair. W. H. Utley, T. W. McCornick, T. Blandford, M. Prentice, were elected members of the Society. It was moved by G. Wallas, seconded by J. G. Stapleton, and after some discussion carried, "That the recommendations of the Metropolitan Branches Committee be accepted by the Society, with the amendments proposed by the Executive". These amended recommendations were as follows:-" 1. The secretary and treasurer of each branch to be, ex-officio, members of the Central Society, with full rights. 2. Members of all branches to have the right to attend ordinary meetings of the Central Society, but not of voting, and members of the Central Society to have similar rights with regard to the branches. 3. Each branch to furnish the Central Society with a list of the names and addresses of its members every three months, and to keep the

Central Society informed of its times and places of meeting. 4. A General Council to be formed, consisting of the Central Executive Council, and of delegates appointed by the branches: the Council to meet once a quarter, and to be convenable on any emergency. The General Council to act only as an Executive Committee in matters requiring common action. A branch of ten members to return one delegate; one of fifty members, two delegates, and one of a hundred members or more, three delegates". The following resolution was then proposed by Annie Besant, and seconded by Hubert Bland, on behalf of the Executive: "That the members of the Fabian Society who are in favor of Parliamentary action form an association under the title of the Fabian Parliamentary League; that the League elect its own council and officers; and that all publications issued by it bear the name of the Fabian Parliamentary League only, and be paid for out of a fund raised for the purpose; that members of the Fabian Society and its branches be alone eligible to the Parliamentary League". Annie Besant explained the objects of the proposed League, and the discussion that ensued was carried on by H. Bland, S. Webb, J. S. Glennie, E. Pease, A. Varley, G. Wallas, A. Howard, Coffin, T. Bolas, G. B. Shaw, C. Burton, Smyth, W. H. Utley, Cisterton. A letter was read from Walter Crane. Amendments were proposed to cancel the last paragraph of the resolution, to change the word "Parliamentary" into "Political" in the title of the League, to form a Parliamentary Committee instead of a League; all lost. The original resolution was carried with one dissentient.

At the meeting of the Executive on November 12th it was decided to send notices to all members of the Society inviting them to become members of the Parliamentary League.

The second bi-monthly meeting was held at Willis's Rooms on November 19th. A very able paper was read by Sydney Olivier on "The Rent of Ability ", and the discussion was carried on by T. Bolas, S. Webb, W. K. Burton, Charlotte M. Wilson, G. B. Shaw, J. Robertson, Simmons, G. Wallas, Annie Besant, T. Phillips, W. H. Utley, R. Hember, J. M. Rigg. Mr. Olivier's answer closed the proceedings.

After a lecture delivered at Birmingham by Annie Besant, arrangements were made for forming a branch of the Society. The secretary pro tem. is H. K. Austin, C.E., Saltley, Birmingham, to whom all communications may be addressed. A branch was also formed at Woolwich; secretary pro tem., R. Banner, Woolwich Radical Club.

ENGLAND.

་་

The National Reformer says: Unprecedented distress prevails in the iron district of Mid Shropshire, more particularly in Horsehay, Dawley, Lightmoor, and Doseley, occasioned by the closing of the Horsehay ironworks and the more recent abandonment of the coalpits in the immediate neighborhood. Since June last, when the ironworks were closed and the men discharged, the distress has gradually increased, and now it has reached a climax. During the past two years the men have accepted reductions amounting to 32 per cent., but this simply staved off for a time the imminent closure of the works. The collieries have also by degrees been abandoned, the last being closed a fortnight ago. The only work that is now being carried on is at the boiler-yard at Horsehay, where some 70 men are employed, but even these are under notice, which expires on November 20th. The colliers and ironworkers together number between 800 and 900, and upon these nearly 2,000 women and children depend for subsistence. During the past few weeks nearly 100 persons have emigrated from the places above named. In the majority of instances the men only have gone. The plight of those left behind is sad in the extreme". Aye, and will not be permanently mended nntil colliers and ironworkers control their