Whiteboy leaders, and acted against the gentry and farmers who refused to give them potatoe ground at the rate which they prescribed. He thought that if an English gentleman were to invest capital in the centre of the most disturbed district, that neither himself nor his property would be in any hazard, provided he dealt fairly by the people; and he was persuaded that there was no people with whom he was acquainted, and he had conducted works in England and Scotland, that were more anxious for employment and more disposed to act peaceably when employed and treated with justice. Mr. Justice Day, who had been twenty-one years on the Irish Bench, stated that disturbances commenced in the county of Limerick upon Lord Courtenay's estate, where there was a good deal of oppression practised. In the county of Kerry they were principally owing to the total want of employment for the peasantry-the absence of the great landed proprietors-and consequent suffering and distress. In that county no feeling of religion had any part in the discontents, as the two sects lived there in perfect harmony; nor did he think there was any religious colouring in the character of the county of Cork or Limerick disturbances. Property, and not religion, was the principle that governed it -and individuals of both persuasions were indifferently the objects of attack. He considered that there was not a more loyal people on the face of the earth than the Irish, but they were heavily overburthened, and that Catholic equalization would be highly essential to the welfare and prosperity of the country. Mr. Dunn, a commissioner under the Tithe Act, attributed the disturbed state of a part of the county of Kilkenny to the excessive exaction of tithes and ejectments from land, and of the county generally to similar causes, combined with county rates and cesses, and all those extraordinary charges which fall exclusively upon the occupier of the soil. The tithe proctor had been murdered in the barony of Galmoy, and also a man of the name of Marum, a Roman Catholic, who had been much in the practice of looking out for reversionary leases-turning out the occupying tenantry and taking the lands into his own hand.

In 1825, committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons

with reference to the circumstances that had produced disturbance, and the best-informed persons, men of the most extensive experience in Ireland, examined before those committees, corroborated the evidence of the preceding session. That inquiry was of the most extensive nature, and merited the description given of it by Lord Melbourne in the House of Lords on the occasion of Lord Roden's motion-" everybody was examined, and about everything." Of Ribbonism, which has since been so much canvassed, very little appeared to be known. It was described to be the antagonist to the Orange faction, and that both existed usually in the same districts. The former excluded Roman Catholics from their body, and the latter Protestants; and they were equally bound by a secret oath. In the oath of the Orangemen, allegiance to the sovereign was conditional, being to support and defend the king so long as he supported the Protestant ascendancy; which the Deputy Grand Master declared to mean, "that the King and the Church and the Houses "of Parliament, and all confidential and principal officers "should be exclusively Protestant." One of the chaplains, who we may naturally suppose would give the tone to others of the body, described to the committee the mode by which he would recommend the pacification of Ireland. He was of opinion that it would be better to recur to the state of things as they existed previous to 1793, and to take away the elective franchise from the Catholics. This he stated, "would give confidence and satisfaction to the Protestants." He considered that the Roman Catholics "were in opposi❝tion to the Government," that "they were almost univer"sally bound together by oaths of a treasonable nature," which was proved by "the numerous convictions that had "taken place for people being engaged in the Ribbon soci"eties, Threshers' societies, and a number of others; first of ' all, the United Irishmen, then the Ribbonmen, then Thresh"ers, and now Whiteboys, all of whom have been guilty of "most violent and atrocious acts principally directed against "Protestants." He was asked, if he thought it possible to coerce, for any length of time, five or six millions of Catholics, which then existed in Ireland? he replied, "I do-the

"after the first ebullition was over*." It appears, therefore, that the opinions of persons who are or have been connected with the Orange society cannot be safely relied upon as guides for forming correct notions of the state of Ireland, or for adopting safe and sound principles for its government. When we find the views of Lord Roden differing from those of a great variety of persons of the most extensive experience with respect to that country, we may be excused for believing him to be under the delusion by which party zeal so strangely misleads even men who possess excellent understandings and amiable qualities in private life.

If we recollect aright, one of the pass-words or signs of the Orange confederacy, was, "Brother, where have you been?" "In a trance," was the reply. We think the person who entertains any doubt as to the causes and objects of outrages in Ireland, after so much investigation, might safely answer the above question in the manner prescribed. But what say the witnesses who have been called upon to prove the series of statements and charges embodied in Lord Roden's speech?

The crown-solicitors are entitled from their experience to the first place. Mr. Kemmis, crown-solicitor for the Leinster circuit, comprising Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny and Tipperary, and who has filled the same office for the county and city of Dublin, and that of solicitor to the Treasury in Ireland, for thirty-eight years, during which period he never missed a circuit, says, that on the Leinster circuit outrages are mostly agrarian, committed neither on account of religion or politics; and that in Tipperary there was always a great number of outrages, three-fourths or more of which are attributable to the letting and disposition of landt. Mr. Matthew Barrington, who has been for twenty-five years crown-solicitor of the Munster circuit, and who has the most accurate knowledge of the state of the counties of Cork, Kerry, Clare and Limerick, including the cities and counties of cities of Cork and Limerick, states that there being no manufactures in Ireland, the actual existence of the peasantry

*Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee of the House of Lords on Disturbances in Ireland, 1825, pp. 549, 550.

† See Minutes of Evidence on State of Ireland in respect of Crime, before

depends upon their having land, and the whole disturbances of the country are produced by a desire to possess it-that the persons chiefly engaged in the commission of outrage are the lowest description of labourers and farm-servants, persons without land and without employment-that the threatening notices lately served upon the farmers in the county of Clare were produced by the anxiety of the poor people to get conacre-that outrages have always been local upon his circuit, never directed against any persons on account of their professing any particular religious creed-that they have been always committed against men of all religions indiscriminately --and that in his twenty-five years' experience he never knew an outrage committed for a political object*. Mr. Piers Gale, who has been for twenty-two years crown-solicitor of the Home circuit, including the counties of Meath, Westmeath, King's, Queen's, Carlow and Kildare, says that there are no manufactures in Ireland, and that, consequently, if a poor man is deprived of his land, whether rightfully or wrongfully, he has little to depend upon, and is therefore extremely reluctant to leave the ground, and indignant at any person that takes it over his head, and that it scarcely ever happens that religion has anything to do with outrages on the Home circuitt. Mr. Hamilton, who has been for nine years crownsolicitor of the North-eastern circuit, consisting of the counties of Louth, Down, Antrim, Armagh and Monaghan, and of the counties of the towns of Drogheda and Carrickfergus, states that one great cause of outrage, the collection of tithes, was removed of course. That Armagh, in consequence of religious party differences, is the most disturbed county on his circuit. That the disturbances are produced by Orange processions, which are now, in consequence of the change in the law, attended by only the lowest class of Protestants. That the following is the manner in which the disturbances are produced: a number of Orangemen choose to walk in procession through some village inhabited by many Roman Catholics. They are decorated with various badges and insignia. The Orange flag is perhaps waved into some Roman

* Questions 7641, 7452, 7636, 1353, 7435, 7437. † Questions 8605, 8710.

Catholic's face; stones are then thrown at the procession party, who, of course, repel the attack. The destroying or wrecking of the whole village probably follows. The Protestants, being beaten out of the town by the Roman Catholics (who rise in great numbers for the occasion), get the worst of it; their flags are probably taken from them; their drums are trampled on and broken. They come back in a day or two, having collected all the forces they possibly can, and avenge themselves. This creates, of course, a great deal of private animosity between the parties who have been engaged in the conflict, and they will, some time or other, have their revenge for any particular injury they each have sustained during the affray*.

Mr. Hickman, who has been for upwards of twenty-five years crown-solicitor for the Connaught circuit, which includes the counties of Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, and the county of the town of Galway, says, that upon his circuit, of late years, he never knew one offence committed against a man on account of his religion, nor any directed against the Government and institutions of the country; that they all arise from disputes respecting land, wages, &c. Mr. Tierney, crown-solicitor of the North-western circuit for twelve years, which consists of Longford, Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Donegal and Derry, says that plunder has no influence in the offences which come to his knowledge, and that the prevailing cause of outrages is the letting and possession of land, and the dispossessing of the former tenants and occupiers.

The inspectors of police are the class of witnesses whose evidence perhaps next deserves consideration. Major Warburton had been upon the establishment of the Irish constabulary from 1816 to 1838, when he resigned. He was originally appointed a chief magistrate; then provincial inspector for about thirteen years; then deputy inspectorgeneral; and, lastly, inspector-general in the interval between the resignation of Colonel Kennedy and the appointment of Col. M'Gregor;-he says that there is a great deal of misery

* Questions 8929, 8935, 8940, 8943, 8941.

† Questions 8404, 8406-7.