a trial and conviction of persons for a murder committed ?

I am.

"What case do you allude to?-I allude to the murder of a person of the name of Quarn.

"Was that at the last assizes?—Yes, it was.

"Was that murder perpetrated in the noon-day?—It was. “And near the public mail-coach road?—It was.

"As it appeared to you, for the purpose of being revenged on a person who had taken land, and thereby offended some of the people of the country?—The person came in as a stranger, for the purpose of protecting the orphans of his brother.

"But it was considered an undue interference?-Quite so. “And his servant was murdered in consequence?—Yes.

What were the circumstances connected with Mr. Mason's [Marum's] case, to which you have alluded?-From what I have understood, Mr. Mason [Marum] was a great landjobber, and was in the habit of taking land after tenants who were dispossessed or gave it up.

"Had he been a tithe proctor?-Not to my knowledge. "Was he a Roman Catholic?-He was.

"Is not a near relation of his a Catholic bishop?—He is. "Ofwhat place ?-Of Kilkenny."-H. C., 1824, p. 169. Mr. John Dunn, resident in the Queen's County: "Have any other circumstances occurred in that barony to promote disturbance?—Yes; within the last six or eight years. an individual has been much in the practice of taking lands, what they say in Ireland over other men's heads, looking for reversionary leases; and it has caused a revival of the flame which I think was dying away, till this act revived it, turning out the occupying tenants and taking the lands into his own hands.

"Was this individual of the name of Marum, and was he not murdered lately in this barony?-That was his name; and he was murdered.

"Before him, had not this practice been acted upon by other persons?-It had; but not to the extent that he carried it on.

"Of what religion was Mr. Marum ?-A Roman Catholic. "Was he not connected with the Catholic bishop of Ossory? -A brother."-H. C., 1824. p. 266.

John Robinson Price, Esq., Magistrate of the Queen's County :

"On the very borders of the barony of Ossory, on a noble Lord's estate, an ejectment was brought against the middleman; a habere issued, possession was taken, and the land was relet to a Mr. Marum, not to the tenants in possession, which is the usual way, for the six months' equity of redemption. Mr. Marum deluded the tenants with the hope that he took that land for their benefit; but when the six months expired he turned out those tenants, and I am told he sold their household effects for the six months' rent: the consequence was his cattle were houghed, and driven from the county of Kilkenny into the Queen's County, for that purpose: for three years this system was kept up, and Mr. Marum was shot in the open day afterwards, in the midst of a dense population."-H. C., 1832. No. 6676.

Colonel John Irwin, Magistrate, resident within eight miles of Sligo :

"What is the state of the country in your neighbourhood, as to the tranquillity of it ?-We are tranquil to the surface; we have occasionally, when whiskey puts the lower classes off their guard, riots at fairs, broken heads, and such like assaults; and we occasionally have a transaction of a worse nature; we have had two lately in our county. I should here beg leave to be permitted to add, that of late years, these riots have been most commonly directed by Roman Catholics against the Protestants.

and a

"Of what description ?-One was the burning the house of a man who had got notices two or three times to surrender his farm; he had taken it about two or three years ago, servant boy of his was burnt in the house. Another was, an attack upon an industrious man, I believe with a view of getting money, in which they exercised most barbarous cruelty;

an old woman they put upon the fire, and not content with that, they scored her with a red-hot iron.

"Were they common robbers, or connected with insurrection?They came from that part of the county where we had reason to apprehend the insurrectionary spirit prevailed most; the borders of Mayo.

"Therefore you conclude, that was connected with an insurrectionary expedition ?-They had associated and formed a body of men for the purpose; is was not an ordinary robbery.

"The first of those robberies arose out of a tenure of land? -Yes; the man having taken land two or three years ago, from which another had been evicted."-H. C., 1825. p. 693.

Mr. Blackburne likewise mentions two cases of Whiteboy outrage; in one of which the hiring of a stranger, in the other the taking of land over another man's head, was the obnoxious act.

66

Hiring a stranger in the country is a matter against which confederacies have shown great hostility. A man calling himself Keilly, had, about three years ago, been charged with murder in the county of Kerry. He came to Limerick, where he contrived to earn a little money, from time to time, and to support himself; the circumstance of his having been so charged, was, I am now fully satisfied, well known in the county of Limerick; he became the servant of a person of the name of King, who had lately taken a farm of which another person had been dispossessed; a party of from nine to twelve persons determined to attack King's house, and after having drank a great deal of whiskey at a neighbouring public-house, they proceeded to King's, where they found Keilly; they had a double object to effect, that of punishing King for taking the land, and of punishing Keilly for being a stranger, and for hiring himself permanently in the country. King was not at his house, but they beat Keilly barbarously; I am sure that great numbers of persons were at the instant acquainted with that outrage. They continued to beat and belabour this unfortunate man for

an hour and a half; they affected to give him time to say his prayers, but they beat him in the way I have described, and left him, supposing he was dead; that was one of the worst. outrages that has come within my knowledge; and the Committee will regard it as a singular circumstance, that though the people in the country could have got rid of Keilly, by giving him up to the law, and having him sent to Kerry to stand his trial for the murder, they preferred effecting their object, by doing justice, as they call it, themselves.

"Had this individual, who was the object of attack, given any other cause of offence than you have mentioned ?-None whatever.

"Was there any feeling of general indignation at such an attack being made by twelve men acting in concert upon one unarmed man ?-I do not think that his situation excited any commiseration; and I think there were nineteen or twenty witnesses produced by the prisoners, in order to make out cases of alibi, every one of whom were, I am persuaded, grossly and wilfully perjured.

*

"Is there any misconstruction as to the nature of the lease; do they distinctly understand that they have only a temporary interest in it?-There is not the least misconstruction or misunderstanding on these subjects, not adverting to this particular instance of King's farm, which was one, that it required some capital to manage; but looking at the general system and condition of the country, the situation of a tenant in such a country as I have described, who is about to lose his land, must be considered. His land is his sole means of subsistence and support; it is really the only thing to which he can look as the means of preserving the existence of himself or his family; he therefore clings to it with the utmost determination. In truth, it is necessity that makes him look to the loss of the land as the greatest evil that can befal him.

66

Is there any feeling that it is an act of positive injustice towards an old servant, to dispossess him of his land, or merely a feeling applicable to those persons who have land, and who

combine against all other persons that may be competitors for it? I think it is both; they both think it unjust, and each poor man, who wishes to preserve the possession of his own land as tenant, of course willingly assists his neighbour when he wants assistance to effect the same purpose."-H.C., 1825. pp. 8 and 9.

The Earl of Kingston, resident in the county of Cork:

"Is your lordship acquainted with the circumstances which led to the murder of the family of Franks, in the county of Cork?-Franks's were tenants of mine, and also of several other people; they were murdered, I think, at Meadstown, not on my estate, but not very far from it, not above half a mile or a mile from a farm they held from me; the young man had sworn, as I have heard and believe, against a man of the name of Shehan, for having fired at him, and this man was tried and transported for it; but it is generally believed now that Shehan was not guilty of that. The young man had also been extremely oppressive to his tenants and under-tenants, exacting the rent from them, and as heavy a rent as he could, when it was due, never by any chance paying his own, I am sorry to say (I was his landlord), and of course he might have done the same upon the other estates that he did upon mine. There was a conspiracy against him, and he and his father and mother were murdered."-H. L., 1825. p. 435.

The Whiteboys, although their objects are for the most part defined and their laws known, sometimes interfere in an irregular and capricious, and what (as compared with their regular system) might be called an arbitrary and tyrannical manner.

Rev. Michael Keogh, Queen's County:

"You have stated you found out this combination; what did you believe to be object of the combination?-To obtain better wages, to lower the rent of land generally, and prevent others taking the land from which they were ejected.