But not to lose more time, I will ask the gentlemen on the other side of the house to explain the tendency of that paragraph in the address? My fears can do no harm; but I should be happy they were done away. I again call upon gentlemen for an explanation. [Here Mr. Connolly made a considerable pause.] No answer! then I take it, that my suspicions are justly founded, and that no answer can be given. Good God, Sir, is it consistent with sense to enact new laws, before you try whether the old ones would answer the purpose? And this is the case, for the supineness of the magistrates has been admitted on all sides. But, Sir, I consider this as a measure to intimidate the protestants of the kingdom, and to furnish a pretext for an unconstitutional police-bill. If these turbulences are not exaggerated, then government are highly censurable for not having prevented them in time; and if they are not, they are doubly so, for certain ill-founded alarms; so that in either case they are culpable in the extreme, and forfeit the confidence of the people.

The peasantry of the south, we are told, have the greatest meetings ever known; nay they are in arms, as the proclamations tell us. Well, why did not government in the infancy of insurrection suppress it? Would not any moderate man be inclined to suspect them of misconduct, and of abetting the outrages of the south, when they recollected that the protestant insurgents in 1763 were tried for high treason? What is the inference to be deduced from this fact? Just this;

that government were not so well disposed to punish. Strange, indeed, that protestants in 1763, should be indicted for high treason, and that the catholics in 1787, should be guilty of a higher crime, and only indicted simply for a misdemeanor. Let the friends of government reconcile this with the idea of " vigorous exertions." I will no longer engross the time of the house, but hope that government will, in no shape whatever, attempt to subvert the liberty of the subject, or trench on the constitution."

It is evident, that the existing laws were very sufficient to quell the disturbance in embryo; and, if they had suffered the volunteer institutions to subsist, insurgency would soon disappear. Mr. Longfield then remarked. "Since I came up to Dublin," said he, " I begin to doubt, whether I generally reside in the county of Cork or not, I hear such loud and numerous reports of violences, outrages and disorders in that country, a word of which I never heard at home, that I begin to think I have mistaken the place of my abode. But what is truly terrible in its consequence is, that by the speech from the throne I see it is taken for granted, that all those reports are true, and a scandalous imputation and reproach is thrown, not only on a great and respectable county, but on a whole province: I do, therefore, think it my duty to state to the House, what really is the fact, and they will see, that the interposition of the magistrates alone, without the aid of new or sanguinary laws, or without the interposition of the military, is sufficient to

reduce the formidable insurgents about whom such a clamour has been raised.

When I went down to the county of Cork last summer, I found no disturbance existing, though in the last session of parliament I had been told there was. I live near the town of Cloyne; my demesne bounds it. The right reverend prelate of that diocese had not then applied for any military assistance, but lived quietly secure at home, in the protection of the neighbouring gentlemen. The first thing that could be called a disturbance was of such a kind, that I was induced to think government had a hand in it. (This caused much noise in the house.) Some very respectable people of Cloyne came to me, and told me that a bailiff belonging to the high-sheriff had been sent amongst them, with notices to provide a quantity of arms and ammunition, and a number of horses, by the following Sunday, for the use of captain Right. I thought it odd enough that a sheriff's bailiff should be employed on such a business, and, as a magistrate, I sent for him. He confessed the fact of having served the notices, and said he was employed by captain Right. I desired him to give information against captain Right, which he refused, upon which I committed him to gaol, returned the bills against him, and brought persons of credit who had sworn examinations and were ready to prosecute, but to my astonishment I found that the grand jury had thrown out the bills. I spoke to Mr. Kemmis, the crown solicitor, who said he could do nothing without

an order from government, and as I was not in the habit of asking favours from government, I there let the matter drop.

This was the first disturbance I had heard of; the next was that captain Right swore some of the people in my neighbourhood to observe his regulations; yet another gentleman and I, attended by a single servant, made this formidable captain Right a prisoner, and safely lodged him in gaol. Such being the case, there ought not to be a general charge of delinquency against the county of Cork, because some of its magistrates were supine. After what I have mentioned, government sent forces down to my part of the country; two of their officers were Englishmen, one a Scotchman; the people could not be supposed to have any very great partiality for them, or they for the people, yet they lived unmolested in good quarters, and never had occasion to be called out to quell any disturbance.

A nobleman of great talents, knowledge, experience and sagacity, had the chief command of the troops sent into the province of Munster. I wish we had his report, if there was any regular way of coming at his report; you would there see that none but the lowest wretches, who groan under the most intolerable oppressions, were engaged in any disturbance. If that noble lord was here, he would make you shudder at the account of their miseries."

The attorney-general endeavoured to find another cause for it, in the wretchedness of the Munster peasantry. After detailing the progress

"I

of the Right-boys, he said, I am very well acquainted with the province of Munster, and I know that it is impossible for human wretchedness to exceed that of the miserable peasantry in that province. I know that the unhappy tenantry are ground to powder by relentless landlords. I know, that, far from being able to give the clergy their just dues, they have not food or raiment for themselves, the landlord grasps the whole; and sorry I am to add, that, not satisfied with the present extortion, some landlords have been so base, as to instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of their tithes, not in order to alleviate the distresses of the tenantry, but that they might add the clergy's share to the cruel rack-rents already paid. I fear it will require the utmost ability of parliament to come to the root of those evils. The poor people of Munster live in a more abject state of poverty, than human nature can be supposed able to bear-their miseries are intolerable, but they do not originate with the clergy; nor can the legislature stand by, and see them take the redress into their own hands. Nothing can be done for their benefit, while the country remains in a state of anarchy."

After stating what he considered contributed to spread these commotions, viz. the offence being bailable; the magistrates criminally neglectful and insufficient; he added: "A charge has been made against government, for suppressing informations against a sheriff's bailiff; and from this it has even wisely been inferred, that government abets the Right-boys. Now as I have the