Some time previous to this, the Irish Secretary said in the House of Commons that there was an organized combination amongst the people not to till their farms.  Such a combination could hardly exist to any considerable extent, but there can be little doubt that a strong feeling had sprung up in the minds of the people against tilling their farms, not because they were opposed to tillage, but for quite another reason:  they felt that whatever labour they might expend upon their farms would be thrown away, as far as they were concerned, because they knew full well that the landlords would seize the produce of their farms for rent, so that after expending their labour they would be still left to starve,—­in fact, that they would be tilling the land for others instead of for themselves.  Rents at the time were, of course, over due, and the landlords’ power to seize was unlimited.  At a meeting of the Claremorris deanery it was declared, that the assertion in the House of Commons, that there was a systematic combination not to till the ground, was a great calumny; and further, that there should be legal security that the people would get the fruit of their labour in autumn.  A petition to Parliament from Ballinrobe says:—­“Your petitioners have read with the utmost alarm the letter of the Secretary of the Board of Works, directing that twenty out of every hundred should be put out of employment on Saturday, the 20th inst., as we are convinced that death by starvation to thousands will be the result of such a fatal measure.  That we pray your honourable House, to direct the Board of Works to have the persons now employed on the public works transferred to labour on their own holdings, at the same rate of wages as if on the public works, from the 25th of March, inst., to the 1st of May next, enabling them, at the same time, to have seed on reasonable terms sufficient to sow their little farms, to prevent the recurrence of famine next year.”

The effect of the dismissals soon began to manifest itself in complaints and remonstrances.  Of Balla, in the county of Mayo, we read that the order was rigidly enforced there, that the people had no seed to sow their land, and that there was no provision for supplying them with food.  All remonstrance with the inspecting officer, writes a correspondent from Ballyglass, in the same county, is useless; he said the Government orders were peremptory.  No seed.  No food.

Ballnigh, Co.  Cavan:  Twenty per cent. dismissed, no provision whatever having been made for their support.

Enniscorthy, Co.  Wexford:  No provision made to supply food to the dismissed labourers.

Clones, Co.  Monaghan:  No provision.

Maryborough, Queen’s Co.:  No means of support.

Clonmel, Tipperary:  No provision.  The relief committee under the new Act is in course of organization, but some time must elapse before it can afford relief.