of procuring arms, and the frequency of these attacks, and the open and daring manner in which they were made, were sufficient proofs of the desire which generally prevailed amongst those concerned in the disturbances to collect large quantities of arms, and thus possess the means of prosecuting their ulterior objects with a better prospect of success. Several instances occurred, in which the houses of respectable individuals were attacked, even in the open day, by large bodies of armed men; and others, in which the military, acting under the directions of magistrates, met with considerable resistance. It is worthy of remark, that in the many successful attacks which were made upon houses with the view of depriving the proprietors of their arms, it rarely occurred that any other species of property was molested by the assailants.

The principal objects of hostility, or rather the principal sufferers on account of their inadequate means of defence, were those persons who, on the expiration of leases, had taken small farms at a higher rent than the late occupiers had offered; and all those who were suspected of a disposition to give information. to magistrates against the disturbers of the peace, or to bear testimony against them in a court of justice, in the event of their apprehension and trial. In some counties, particularly in Westmeath and Roscommon, the most barbarous punishments were frequently inflicted upon the persons of those who had thus rendered

themselves obnoxious, and upon. the persons of their relatives.*

From the general terror which these proceedings occasioned, it became almost impossible to procure satisfactory evidence against the guilty. It frequently happened that the sufferers from such atrocities as I have alluded to, when visited by a magistrate, would depose only generally to the facts of their having been perpetrated, and not denying their knowledge of the offenders, would yet steadily refuse to disclose their names, or describe their persons, from the fear of future additional injury to themselves or their relatives. Even where the parties offending were deposed against and apprehended, there was frequently the greatest difficulty in effecting their conviction, from the intimidation of witnesses, and in some cases of jurors.

I fear few instances can be found of late, in the counties which I have mentioned, in which it has been possible for witnesses, having given evidence in favour of the Crown, on any trial connected with the disturbance of the peace, to remain secure in their usual places of abode.

In the latter end of the year 1813, a meeting of the magistracy of the county of Westmeath took place, at which eighteen of that body attended. They addressed a

*It is well known, that one of the combinations existing in these and other neighbouring counties derived the name of Car

ders from the nature of the torture with which the objects of its vengeance were visited, and which consisted in the lacera

tion of their bodies with a wool-card, or some similar instrument, memorial

memorial to me respecting the state of that county, which bears date the 29th November; they represented that frequent outrages were committed; that oaths of increased malignity had been administered; that three persons had been convicted on charges of administering and taking an oath, one of the obligations of which was "to assist the French and Buonaparte ;" and that the witness upon whose evidence that conviction had taken place had been recently murdered, under circumstances which were alone sufficient to prove the alarming state of that county. The memorial concluded with an earnest prayer, that a proposition might be made to the Legislature for the revival of the Insurrection Act.

From evidence adduced on the trial of six persons concerned in the murder alluded to in this Memorial (five of whom were capitally convicted), it was proved, that the murder was committed by a party of eighteen men selected from a larger body who assembled in divisions of 12 each from three separate parishes, for the purpose of planning and perpetrating this murder. I may also add, that nine persons were shortly afterwards convicted on the same charges with respect to the oath on which the convictions mentioned in the memorial of the magistrates took place.

Similar meetings of the magistrates of Waterford and of the King's County took place about the same time, and I received from both representations of the disturbed state of their respective counties, and earnest application

for an increase to the military force stationed in them. In the Memorial which I received from the King's County, which bore the signature of sixteen magistrates, it was stated, "that alarming disturbances existed in that county, and the adjacent parts of Westmeath; that almost every night houses were plundered of arms; that they considered stronger measures than those which could be resorted to under the existing laws absolutely necessary; and that the re-enactment and enforcement of the Insurrection Act would alone enable them to maintain tranquillity.

In the month of January 1814, I received from the governors and 28 of the magistrates of the county of Westmeath a second Memorial, urging the necessity of the immediate revival of the Insurrection Act. In this county three murders had been then recently committed within the short space of a month, two upon persons suspected of giving information against offenders.

Your Lordship will recollect, that in the early part of January 1814, I felt it incumbent upon me to call your attention to a representation made to your Lordship by his Grace the Duke of Richmond, in the month of August preceding, on the subject of the disturbed state of a considerable portion of the interior of this country, and expressed my deep regret, that notwithstanding the measures which had been adopted by the government, in concert with the commander of the forces, and the general vigilance and activity of the resident magistrates in those parts where the distur

bances

bances principally prevailed, no effectual progress had been made towards the restoration of tranquillity; that the same spirit of outrage and tendency to unlawful combination still existed in many parts of the counties of Westmeath, Roscommon, and the adjoining districts; and that the reports then recently received from the courties of Tipperary, Limerick, Kilkenny, and the King's County, had produced repeated instances of a daring and systematic violation of the law.

I stated that the principal object of the misguided persons who were concerned in the outrages which had been committed, appeared to be the collection of arms, and the intimidation of all those who were likely to give information that might lead to their apprehension and conviction; that to such an extent had this system of intimidation been carried, that the most savage excesses had been committed without the possibility of apprehending those concerned in the perpetration of them, on account of the reluctance of the sufferers, from the fear of future injury, to give information against them.

I added, that I could not ascertain, that the various combinations which existed in different parts of the country proposed to themselves any definite object of a political nature; nor was there any evidence at all conclusive, that they acted under the immediate guidance of leaders of weight, either in point of talents or property; and that although there had appeared symptoms of concert and co-operation in some parts, still I had no reason to be

lieve that there was any general understanding between the combinations existing in the different counties.

I stated, that it was impossible, however, that such combinations, although they might not have any plan well digested and arranged, and were not in pursuit of any common object, could be considered otherwise than as highly dangerous; that they afforded a proof of a very general disposition among the lower orders in those districts in which they prevailed, to attempt by force and intimidation the redress of what they considered to be their local grievances; they excited the utmost alarm among the peaceable and well-disposed for the safety of their persons and property, and if suffered to gain strength and consistency, they would become instruments which the designing and disaffected might readily employ in the furtherance of their political views, should some better opportunity occur for the prosecution of them.

I represented to your Lordship, that the state of the existing laws which regarded the preser vation of the public peace, and the expediency of extending the powers of the government and of the magistracy, were subjects to which, in all probability, it would be my duty to call the attention of your Lordship before the approaching meeting of Parliament, and that in the mean time I should depend upon a vigorous exertion of the powers with which I was then vested, and upon the cooperation of the military force, for the means of counteracting the spirit of outrage which pre

vailed in many parts of the country, and of preventing its extension to others.

In consequence of the continuance and increase of the disturbances referred to in the letter which I have quoted above, it was determined to submit to Parliament the expediency of extending the powers of the Government and of the Magistracy; and accordingly in the month of March, in the session of 1814, a bill was introduced, the object of which was to provide for the better execution of the laws in Ireland, by enabling the Lord-Lieutenant in council to proclaim any district to be in a state of disturbance, and to station in it an establishment of constables proportioned to the extent of the district, acting under the immediate superintendence of a magistrate appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant. It was provided by the bill, that the salaries of the magistrates and constables, and the general expenses attendant on the execution of the act, should be defrayed by a presentment of the grand jury, to be levied on the district proclaimed to be in a state of disturbance this bill passed into a law; and, at a later period of the session, the act which had been previously passed in 1807, which generally bears the name of the Insurrection Act, was introduced, and, after being slightly modified, received the sanction of the Legislature.

:

The first instance in which I had occasion to apply the powers thus committed to me by the first of the acts above referred to, occurred in the county of Tipperary. Early in the month of July 1814,

I had received a memorial from a meeting of magistrates and gentlemen, held in pursuance of a public notice, requesting, in consequence of the recent murder of Mr. Long, a magistrate of the county, and other alarming outrages, that the district of Ardmoyle, in the barony of Middlethird, in which the murder was committed, might be proclaimed. As the acts above-mentioned had not then received the royal assent, I directed that the magistrates should be informed, that there was no law then in force by which that district could be proclaimed; but that I relied upon their exertions to bring the offenders to punishment, and was ready to cooperate in their endeavours with the full assistance of the civil and military powers.

In the month of September the resolutions of a general meeting of magistrates of the country of Tipperary, convened at Cashel, for the purpose of taking the state of the country into consideration, were transmitted to me, praying, that in consequence of the numerous murders and other outrages committed in the barony of Middlethird, it might be proclaimed under the provisions of the act 54 Geo. III. c. 131, which enables the Lord-Lieutenant to assign an extraordinary police establishment to a disturbed district.

As I felt strongly the necessity of establishing a regular police in a county in which the ordinary civil power was proved to be entirely inadequate to the repression of the disorders which had long prevailed in it, the barony of Middlethird was proclaimed in coun

cil, on the 6th of September, to be in a state of disturbance, and a magistrate who had long been confidentially employed by the Government was appointed the superintending magistrate, with an establishment of 30 constables. In two other districts of the county of Tipperary* similar police establishments have been subsequently placed, on the application of the magistrates of the county. Your Lordship is aware, that the officers attached to these establishments possess no powers whatever in enforcing the execution of the laws beyond the ordinary powers of magistrates and constables nominated in the usual manner; and I have already observed, that the expense incurred by their appointment is borne by the district in which they act.

I shall now proceed to mention the several instances in which applications have been made by the magistrates for the enforcement of the Insurrection Act, and the measures which have been in consequence adopted.

In the month of November 1814, I received a Memorial from the governors of the fourteen magistrates of the county of Westmeath, stating, that the recent outrages committed in that county proved a continuance of the same lawless conspiracy which had existed for some time past, and which rendered the lives and properties of every person in the disturbed district insecure; and praying for the enforcement of the Insurrection Act in certain districts of that county.

The baronies of Kilnemanagh and Eliogarty, and the barony of Clanwilliam.

With this Memorial I did not comply, still indulging a hope that the continued exertions of the magistracy, aided by a considerable military force which had been detached into this county, would preclude the necessity of resorting to any extraordinary exercise of authority.

On the 23d of March 1815, a meeting of twenty-eight magistrates of the same county took place, summoned by the clerk of the peace, in the mode pointed out by the Insurrection Act; and a Memorial was addressed to the lords justices, who administered the Government during my absence for a few weeks in England. The magistrates observed, that the ordinary powers entrusted to them were totally inadequate to ensure that security which every subject has a right to derive from the laws of his country; that the punishment of criminals led only to the murder or banishment of those who had given information against them, and that protection was only to be found in the vicinity of the military posts; they concluded by calling upon the lords justices to enforce the Insurrection Act in several baronies* of the county of Westmeath.

On the 18th of April, a Memorial, concluding with a similar prayer, was received from twentyone magistrates of the county of Clare: they mentioned, that houses were frequently plundered of the arms contained in them by disorderly persons, who came from parts of the county remote from

Brawny, Clonlonan, Kilkenny, West, Rathcondra, Moycashel, and parts of the barony of Moygosh, &c.

that