ceeded that it has generally taken two, three, or four years before it has been entirely suppressed?-In Clare, the whole disturbance was suppressed in a few months, to the astonishment of every body. Last year, if it had not been for the activity of the police magistrate in Limerick, Mr Vokes, I question whether that county would not have been as bad as ever Clare was. "Would not similar results follow to those which you have described in other counties, notwithstanding there might be every disposition on the part of the magistrates to do their duty?-Certainly; I think had there been a local magistrate in the Queen's County, whose duty it was to watch the incipient outrage, that he might have checked it, and in the other counties also which have been disturbed. I would therefore have a police magistrate, as well in the peaceable as in the disturbed counties, who should be responsible; and on the first outrage occurring, let the whole force of the government and the law officers, investigate the case till they came to the root of it." Every one practically acquainted with Ireland, knows how much the administration of justice is disfigured or prevented by the party spirit which prevails on both sides. Mr Barrington justly considers the operation of permanent judges, free from such local influence, as one great advantage to be derived from the proposed permanent magistrates. "You have given as one of your reasons for the appointment of a permanent stipendiary magistracy, that the resident magistrates in Ireland were generally under the influence of party spirit?-I did not say so; I said we could not get a local agent except from one party or the other. "That is not the case with respect to the magistrates at all?-Party is much more in some parts of Ireland than in others. "Do you consider a stipendiary magistracy would be so regulated as to be free from the influence of all party considerations?—I do; I judge of it from the mode in which I see some police magistrates act. "Would you propose to give to the stipendiary magistrate the civil jurisdiction of all ordinary magistrates, or confine his jurisdiction to criminal matters ?-I would give him the full power of all ordinary magistrates, and the commission for every county adjacent to the one in which he is residing; this man being responsible to Government, there is no great danger that any party feeling would prevent him from doing his duty. "You originally said that in Ireland there was a tendency among the common people to create disturbance, unless they were checked?-I think the great fault in Ireland is, that the people are not inclined to appeal to the laws as they do in this country; the great object is to make Irishmen attached to the law, and that can only be done by perseveringly prosecuting every case, no matter of what description. "You would have a stipendiary magistrate in every county?—Yes; and he should take out of the hands of the parties themselves the administration of the law. If a homicide occurs at a fair, instead of the people coming forward to prosecute, they wait till the next fair, and then commit, in retaliation, a murder on the other side. I would take the prosecution out of their hands; I would not wait till they gave the information; it should be the duty of the magistrate to force forward the prosecution, and punish the persons who had committed the first homicide." The same change is strongly recommended by Colonel John Roch fort, an active and intelligent magistrate in Queen's County : "How do you account for the lower such a formidable association, and commit orders of the people being able to establish such outrages for so long a period, without it being checked in the first instance? -It was the want of a sufficiently numerous police in the country. I think there are some legal arrangements wanting that may check the commencement of these outrages. "Do you think that the quickness with which the parties commence a system of outrage and establish intimidation, leads to the making it so formidable at once, as to counteract the open efforts the magistrates are able to make?-I think in the present state of Ireland there is a general intimidation over the country; the moment a Rockite notice is served, or a demand for arms made, intimidation commences, though it has been in a perfect state of quiet before. "Do you conceive that the ordinary powers of magistrates, with the best disposition to suppress any thing of this kind in the first instance, are sufficient for that purpose, or can be applied in the instantaneous manner necessary to stop the progress of it?—No, I think not; I think there is something wanting to enable us to check the commencement of the out rages, for they commence by small beginnings; a single man quarrelling with his own family about the division of some property, is enough to set it agoing; he gets in some people from the neighbouring county, they serve a Rockite notice and commit some outrages, and 'intimidation follows, nobody knowing where the blow will fall next. by "Then with the view of preventing the recurrence of this system of association in the Queen's County, are you of opinion that some amendment is wanted with regard to the power possessed magistrates generally, with respect to the means of administering the law?—I think the first commission of crime might be prevented by a more ready administration of the law; by the Crown solicitor having a clerk or a partner residing in each county town, who should have an office open ready to receive all applications and information upon the subject, and whose duty it should be to collect the evidence, and do every thing in his department in the office; and I think that the quartersessions should be, in the case of any disturbance, not adjourned over for three months together, but no longer than a week or a fortnight, according to the exigency of the case, so that prompt justice might be administered. "Your object would be, in having this deputy-solicitor of the Crown, to watch the early proceedings, and assist the magistrates in taking steps to put a stop to it? Yes, and to assist individuals who are attacked, and cannot afford to go to a solicitor themselves." But it is not sufficient that the recommendations contained in these depositions, and embodied in the Report of the Committee, are adopted by Government; it is also indispensable that some provision be made for the protection of witnesses who speak against the Whiteboys, and of the jurymen who are summoned to their trials. As matters now stand, they are so completely intimidated, that conviction too often is impossible. The only way to meet this dreadful evil, is to authorize Government, upon a report from the Judges on the Circuit, that juries will not convict from intimidation, to suspend that mode of trial altogether, and convict the criminals as in courtsmartial, by the Judges alone. Provision at the same time must be made for the emigration, at the public expense, of all witnesses, with their families, who are deemed worthy of it by the court, and consider their lives or properties endangered if they return to their houses. These are strong measures; but strong measures alone will be attended with any effect in a country so distracted as Ireland. It is in vain to apply to a people on the borders of the savage state, the institutions or franchises of a highly civilized society, or which turies of tranquillity and peace. The work well under a training of censystem of intimidation which checks any attempt even at justice, is thus described by Colonel Rochfort: It is needless to comment on this state of things; till it is removed, there is an end of order or protection to life in Ireland. It is evident that great part of the licentiousness of Ireland has arisen from the administration of justice by the country gentlemen; in other words, by one of the parties in the state over the other. All the witnesses examined before the Committee concur in stating that there is a thorough distrust of law in every part of the country, and a settled belief that the courts are nothing but the engine by which the ruling party wreak their vengeance on their adversaries. The length to which this party spirit is carried, is such, that in the opinion of the most competent judges, it in a great measure disqualifies the better class of the people from taking an active part with any good effect, in the suppression of disorders. Sir Hussey Vivian's opiIreland. nion is decisive on this point: "Do you think there is any class of society, farmers for instance, so exempt from the spirit of party, in the agitated counties, that it would be safe to put arms in their hands? Undoubtedly not. I think there is that party spirit, that if you put arms into the hands of one party, you incur the animosity of the other; and we know of the arming of the yeomanry in the north, and there is no doubt that that has led to organization, and to a certain extent arming, of the Ribbonmen; there is, I conceive, in consequence, more danger of collision in the north than in any part of Ireland. I have no doubt that the yeomanry could put them down if they came to blows; but still there is more danger to be apprehended from the very circumstance of both parties being to a greater extent better armed than in any other part of Ireland. "That is, where the arms are put into the hands of those of a particular creed? -That may have produced the effect I have stated. "The question was this-Supposing a case where the only distinction of individuals was the interest which was possessed in the district, measured by the amount of property possessed?—In order to do that, you must re-organize the minds of the people of Ireland. "Supposing, in the Queen's County, the most respectable class of farmers were armed, do you think they are so exempt from the spirit of disturbance in the county as to afford a sufficient guarantee that they would use their arms in support of the constituted authorities?—I should doubt very much whether, in case of a disturbance, they would not use them against each other. I know there is a violent party spirit that must be overcome to prevent their so doing, and this pervades all Ireland.' "3 The same intelligent officer, whose command and opportunities of observation extend over all Ireland, has given equally decisive evidence as to the superior efficacy and impartiality of the police, in the discharge of their arduous duties. No. III. [March, "Can you state the feeling with which they are regarded by the people?-With a very great degree of animosity in most parts of the country. regular troops?-No; on the contrary. "Does that animosity extend to the "To what do you attribute that?-We act in support of the civil authority; they are the civil authority; theirs is a sort of system of espionage, and they have many duties to perform which occasion their being disliked by the people. "Can you suggest any improvement in the constabulary establishment in Ireland? I think that is not within my province; the police force seems to me a very good one; they generally conduct themselves admirably well. "Do you consider that the hostility of the people to the police is any impeachment upon the police?-Certainly not. "You would say, perhaps, the measure of hostility was the measure of their utility?-Certainly, in a great degree." "What is your opinion of the conduct of the police ?-My opinion of the conduct of the police, formed after the enquiries I have made, is, that it has been generally excessively good; and I believe the police has been most efficient, for nothing can be better than the manner in which they have conducted themselves where the troops have had to do with them. In the testimony of these competent judges, we have a clear plan pointed out for the pacification of the ordinary disturbances of Ireland -a vigorous and efficient clerk of the Crown, or public prosecutor in each county, with a proper establishment of efficient clerks, to investigate cases, and take evidence at all times-a local magistrate of character and talent, selected from the higher grades of the bar, to try transportable cases at all times, and superintend the preparation of the capital ones for the Circuit Judges-an extension of the police, who now discharge their duty with such praiseworthy fidelity and forbearance, and their establishment in such force as to make resistance impossible. Such is the system recommended by the practical men in Ireland, after centuries of suffering and disquietude, under institutions framed on the English model; and it is precisely the same as was established three centuries ago by the wisdom of the Scottish legislature, and to which the long tranquillity and orderly habits of that country are mainly to be ascribed. But great as would be these improvements upon the criminal practice of Ireland, and absolutely indispensable as they are to any thing like a tranquillization of that distracted country, it is evident that something more is necessary to put down the organized insurrection which now prevails in so many of its provinces —which has so much increased since the labours of the Committee were closed, and now threatens to sever the connexion between the two countries. In investigating the evidence on this important subject, there are four conclusions, to which every impartial mind must arrive, and which are amply supported by the testimony of witnesses, on both sides of politics, above all suspicion. 1. That the ordinary disturbances, prior to the agitation on the Catholic Question, arose from merely local or agrarian causes, and had no connexion with political discontent, or the government of Great Britain. 2. That during the Catholic Question, this discontent was seized hold of by the Agitators, and turned to political purposes. 3. That the machinery erected for agitation or emancipation, is now applied to the ulterior objects of Catholic ambition, Extinction of Tithes, the Repeal of the Union, and the Resumption of the Estates of the Protestants; and that the country is thereby in a continual state of outrage and intimidation, utterly destructive to all the purposes of good government. 4. That the supine indifference, or tacit encouragement of Ministers to this agitation, is the circumstance which has brought it to its present alarming height. Mr Barrington, the crown-solicitor for Munster, declares "The Whiteboy system has, for the last sixty years, continued under different names; as, Peep-o'day-boys, Thrashers, Whiteboys, Righters, Carders, Shanavats, Caravats, Rockites, Black-hens, Riskavallas, Ribbonmen, the Lady Clares, the Terry Alts; these latter were the names they assumed last year in Clare. Now we have The outthe Whitefeet and Blackfeet. rages have been of the same kind for the last sixty years; the only variation is, that the horrid torture called carding' has not been used at all latterly; a few years back that system (which was a dreadful mode of torturing a person whom they they wished to punish) was in frequent practice. ders of proctors and gaugers, preventing exportation of provisions, digging up land, destroying fences, houghing cattle, resisting the payment of tithes, and other outrages similar to those which have occurred in Clare last year, and which are now the subject of investigation in the Queen's County. "A few of these cases will, I think, give much more information to the Com mittee than any general observations or opinions. I have traced the origin of almost every case I prosecuted, and I find that they generally arise from the attachment to, the dispossession of, or the change in the possession of land; hatred of tithe proctors prior to the Composition Act, and from the passing of that act, until the last year, we had not in Munster a single outrage relating to tithe; previous to the Composition Act we had several murders of proctors. Then the compelling the reduction of prices of provisions, the want of employment, and in Clare the want of potato ground; the introduction of strangers as workmen. One of the outrages at Clare, for which fourteen men were convicted, was that of a Kerry man going to get work in Clare; his house was attacked and prostrated. I have never known a single case of direct hostility to the government as a government, although hostility to the law leads to hostility to the government; but as to direct opposition to the government, I never knew an instance of that being the object." "Associations have been formed for regulating the prices of land, attacking houses, administering oaths, delivering threatening notices, taking arms, taking horses at night and returning them again in the morning, taking away girls, mur Of the mode in which these outrages were committed, and the height to which they have risen, the following account is given by the same witness: "Can you state what means are taken by these gangs to propagate these systems, as you have given the Committee to understand that there is a willingness on the part of the peasantry to commit crime?—I do not wish the Committee to understand any such thing. I believe the greater number join through terror and necessity, from the kind of houses they inhabit, and the retired situation in which they are placed. The parties to the murder of Mr Blood went to the houses of many poor farmers to compel them to go with them. Some of these farmers told me that they were delighted to hear of their execution; they said so secretly, knowing I would not disclose it; they frequently made them join when they went out at night. Captain Rock (the man Dillane, who I have alluded to) told me that he has been obliged to threaten to fire at his own men to make them attack a house. “What are the means by which they exercise these systems of intimidation over the lower orders?-By going to their houses at night, and swearing them to join, and be ready whenever they may be called on to take arms or to attack houses. If they refuse, or their wives and families should in any way prevent them, they were formerly carded, but latterly wounded or flogged, or some other punishment inflicted on them. "Is punishment nearly certain to follow the non-execution of what is ordered to be done?-Most certainly; and the consequence is, the whole peasantry of a county, not having any means of resistance, are obliged to join. When this system commences, the whole county is soon in a flame, if it is not discovered and instantly checked. "In the first instance, the gang obtains the support of a great number of indivi duals? Yes. "Does this intimidation operate further, so as to check the administration of the law?-It does; they are threatened if they attempt to prosecute or give any information, and they swear them not to do so. In 1821, the county of Cork and the bounds of Kerry were in a most dreadful state, the King's troops were attacked, and the people took possession of a town; there was a regular battle between the people and the light infantry and yeomanry of the county, at Deshure. The gentlemen took the rifle brigade behind them on horseback, and pursued the insurgents. A special commission was sent down, which quieted those counties at once." Such was the origin of the system of outrage and intimidation in Ireland, and the means by which it rose to the formidable height which it has assumed of late years. But still, till taken advantage of by the political Agitators, it never assumed a general aspect, or acquired, except in 1798, a political character. But it was of this inflammable and reckless state of the public mind, in the lower classes, that the Whigs and Agitators took advantage to organize agitation, on the subject of Catholic Emancipation, and which is now applied with so much efficacy, to effect the suppression of Tithes and the Repeal of the Union. Col. Rochfort declares that he was a firm friend to Catholic Emancipation. He was asked, "what do you conceive to be the reason that that measure has not had the effect has "From the information you have received, do you conceive that the organization against tithes is a resistance that sprung up among the peasantry, acting upon the result of their own feelings on the injustice of it, or a resistance that is promoted by Agitators?It is hardly possible to say: I think it was in the first instance a question that arose out of the writings and principles set forth by Agitators; but it has got such a hold the way out of it; like other great quesamong the people of Ireland, I do not see tions, it has been taken up too late. Since I have been in Ireland, I have been all every military station; and I took a great over the country; I have been in almost deal of pains to endeavour to ascertain the feelings of the people of Ireland, and to see what it is that excites them, and whether they have any grievances to complain of. I have been in 500 different cottages, and I have seen and heard a great deal of the cottagers and farmers, and ascertained their opinions. One day when out hunting, I said to a farmer, 'I wish I had a large landed estate here, I would soon settle this question of the tithes, as far as my property was concerned.' He said, How would you do words tithes or church-cess,' (which, by it?' I said, You should never hear the the way is a greater grievance with the people than the tithes). I would say, there is my land, will you give me L.150 a-year for that farm, and I will settle all " |