It's buckshot they used.

Buckshot! Thank the merciful Mr.Forster for that same.

'Buckshot-Forster,' as the Irish reverently call him." Angela flushed with indignation as she looked at the crippled man.
"What a dastardly thing to do," she cried.
"Ye may well say that, Miss Kingsnorth," said the merry little doctor.
"But it's betther than a bullet from a Martini-Henry rifle, that's what it is.

And there's many a poor English landlord's got one of 'em in the back for ridin' about at night on his own land.

It's a fatherly government we have, Miss Kingsnorth.