difference of religious feeling, have always come to that; because it is one of the strongest handles the ill-disposed can make use of to turn to their own purposes.

"Do you allude to an habitual discontent prevailing among the people on religious matters ?-I consider that whenever there is disturbance in the country, the discontent is more or less tinged with religious feelings."-H. C., 1824, p. 300.

Where such strong grounds of hostility exist, religious differences doubtless embitter the spirit of opposition; yet any person who will fairly review the evidence on this subject, however prepared to meet with traces of the mischief produced by the sectarian animosities of Ireland, will be surprised to find how little the Whiteboy disturbances have either begun or ended in religious hatred.

It is moreover to be observed that an obscurity has been thrown over the genuine objects of the Whiteboy combination by its confusion with Ribbonism; a confusion which exists not only in language, but in reality, as the one system appears in some instances to pass insensibly into the other, or rather the one is connected with the other. Now Ribbonism (strictly so called), which has prevailed chiefly in the north of Ireland, is a Catholic association, continued from the Defenders of the last century, and has been formed in hostility to the Orange association, consisting exclusively of Protestants*. The leading features of the Ribbon system, as well as its origin, are well exhibited in the following statement of Mr. O'Connell :

"Do you know at what time the Ribbon association began in the north of Ireland?-No, I cannot say when it began. My own opinion is, that it is a continuation of the Defender

* See Wyse's Hist. Sketch of the Catholic Association, vol. i., p. 409, 10, and above, p. 37.

systematically interfered to regulate this as other payments *; and these instances afford a good proof of the flexibility of the system-of its power of being applied to any purpose at the will of the movers.

"Have not you found (Dr. Murray, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, is asked), or have you not collected from your observation, that the insurrections in different parts of the south and west of Ireland have been directed as much against the payment of dues to the Roman Catholic clergy, as against the payment of tithe to the Protestant ?-They have often been so directed against the dues paid to the Catholic clergy (he answers), as well as against the tithes paid to the Protestant clergy."-H. C. 1825, p. 237.

The following remarkable instance of resistance to the priests' dues by Whiteboys is mentioned by Major Willcocks, who also gives an account of carding, a species of torture now abandoned.

"The bulk of the income of the Catholic priest is derived from dues of different kinds paid by their own flocks?-A good deal of it; and that was principally at one time the cause of the disturbance in Westmeath; the flock objected to the dues; they made a scale of fees, and any man that was found to disobey that table of fees, was put in personal torture, by what is called carding,' the most extreme torture I ever saw in Ireland.

"What do you mean by carding?—I have seen some of them, and I have seen the effect upon unfortunate individuals; it was really shocking to witness it; it was a board, probably not so long as this sheet of paper, with spikes something similar to sixpenny nails through it; to this board there was a handle put the unfortunate victim would be placed upon the ground or upon a table, upon his face, by some of those ruffians, who would scratch him down the back; and if it was a case in which severe torture was to be inflicted, they would

* Above, pp. 28, 40.

cut him across; I have seen it almost in what I would call cut like diamonds; the severest torture I ever saw.

"Have you ever known that inflicted upon women and children?-Never.

"That was inflicted upon those who complied with the demands of the Catholic clergy?-Those that broke their rules and regulations in that way, or in taking land, or in paying tithes.

"Was this schedule, to which you have adverted, peculiar to the county of Westmeath ?-I never saw it any other county. "Was the carding peculiar to Westmeath ?-I think it was in Meath, and I think it was inflicted at Garristown.

"Have those dues been abandoned by the priests since?— The priests for some time did not, but they were compelled to comply; they were threatened themselves with destruction if they did not; and the people there did not hesitate to come up to tell me that it was a gross imposition; but they never avowed that they were the perpetrators of outrage, but that they felt the severities of the dues that were demanded by the priests.”—H. C., 1824, p. 118.

An instance of a connexion between a Roman Catholic clergyman and the Whiteboy combination appeared during the proceedings of the Maryborough special commission; and even this bears rather the appearance of a vaunt made for the purpose of intimidation, than of a real guilty participation: if the individual in question had been in fact an accomplice with criminals, he probably would not have been quite so ready to avow it.

Myles O'Reilly, Esq.

"Have any circumstances come to your knowledge which have induced you to think that the Roman Catholic clergy, in their zeal against tithes, have been induced or led into the holding of any intercourse with this pre-existing faction of Whitefeet?-1 am very unwilling to suppose it possible that

system, which immediately ensued on the original formation of the Orange association in the north, and was connecting itself with the French Revolution, looking at a complete revolution in Ireland, and a separation from England. The Defender association was at first confined to the lower classes, but had the bad feature of being almost exclusively Catholic, as the Ribbon system is exclusively Catholic. Before the Defender system was put down, the Presbyterians joined a good deal among the Defenders, and thus combined, they mixed with the United Irishmen, when the events of the rebellion put down the Defenderism. Since that period, in proportion as the Orange irritation increased in the north of Ireland, has that of Ribbonism increased.

"Do not you think the extension of the Ribbon system, within the last few years, has considerably tended to spread Orangeism?-Unquestionably, they act on each other; the existence of Ribbonism makes it necessary for one perhaps to become an Orangeman, and the existence of Orangeism has certainly created many Ribbonmen.

"Does not it appear that the outrages that have taken place in the north of Ireland have generally taken place in consequence of conflicts between the Ribbonmen and Orangemen ? -No; a great many of them, in my opinion, and I have looked at them pretty closely, have originated with the mere insolence of triumph of the Orangemen, speaking of the lower classes of them. In their lodges they work themselves up into a great hatred of popery; they go out; they are armed with muskets and ball cartridges; and at the slightest sign of disrespect to them, they fire at the peasants.

Do you mean to say that they go out with arms to fairs, for instance, where men of both political feelings assemble; that one party goes armed and the other is unarmed ?—I have not the least doubt that if that, were the subject of inquiry, it could be established, that the Orangemen go to fairs unarmed; certainly the Catholics, many of whom are Ribbonmen, go equally unarmed, but the Orangemen, in general, leave their arms in a depôt, about a mile or half-a-mile from the fair. In

the evening particularly, a riot is easily excited, and the Ribbonmen are equally willing to commence it with the Orangemen; then the practice has been for the Orangemen to retreat upon their arms, and take their arms and shoot away, and many lives have been lost."-H. C., 1825, p. 71.

Mr. O'Connell further adds,

"The Catholics in the north are, I believe, more organized into Ribbonmen, and the Ribbonmen do not, if I may so say, choose to fritter away their strength in those driftless acts of outrage which the peasantry in the south do. With respect to the stability of the country, if a foreign enemy were to invade it, the north is in greater danger from its Catholic population than the south; they are better organized. We have a great deal more trouble to check Ribbonism than to check Whiteboyism in the south. By we, I mean the Catholic Association, and those who have taken an active part in Catholic politics."-H. C., 1825, p. 71.

Ribbonism has doubtless much more the character of an armed and well-organized association, with religious and political objects, than the local and irregular combinations of the south and west. The Whiteboys act rather from an obscure instinct of self-defence, which prompts them to those scattered and single, but constantly recurring acts of outrage which Mr. O'Connell calls " driftless," and which are deserving of this appellation, if it is assumed that general hostility to the government is necessarily the object of all disturbers of the public peace, but which nevertheless have a very decided and well-defined object, and if that object is rightly understood, are perfectly calculated (as we shall see hereafter) to secure it.

In a more vague sense, however, Ribbonism is sometimes used to comprehend, not only the religious and political party opposed to the Orange lodges, but also