Mr. John Wiggins, an Englishman, land-agent in Kerry.

"Have many of the political difficulties which have arisen in the south-west of Ireland within your knowledge arisen out of the relation of landlord and tenant?—I conceive the relation of landlord and tenant has given rise to that political commotion which we call Whiteboyism. I have found less tendency to that commotion where the occupying tenants hold of the immediate landlord under the new system; but where there are three or four middlemen over those people, they are goaded to become Whiteboys."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons Committee on State of the Poor in Ireland, 1830, No. 4030.

All the above witnesses agree in a remarkable manner with regard to the causes of the Whiteboy disturbances: all trace them to the miserable condition of the peasantry, to their liability to certain charges (the chief of which is rent) which they are often unable to meet; and to their anxiety to retain possession of land; which, as Mr. Blackburne truly states, is to them a necessary of life, the alternative being starvation. With the dread of this alternative before their eyes, it is not to be wondered that they make desperate efforts to avert it that crime and disturbances should be the consequences of actual ejectment is still more natural.

The poor Irish tenant clings with the tenacity of a drowning man to his cabin and patch of potatoground; so that if a landlord, for the purpose of consolidating farms, wishes to dispossess several cottiers, he is often compelled to expel them by force, and to throw down the houses, as otherwise they would return.

* On the difficulty which a landlord in Ireland finds in recovering possession, see De la Cour, Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1825, p. 552.

As such extreme courses are not resorted to elsewhere, it may be desirable to give an example of one of these forcible ejectments.

Francis Blackburne, Esq.

"Has there been any recent instance, within your knowledge, of great numbers of persons having been ejected from particular properties?—Yes, there has.

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Mention any one instance that occurs to you?—The most remarkable that has occurred in my time has been the eviction of the occupants of a property of Lord Stradbrook.

"Mention the particulars of that eviction ?-A lease had been made by Lord Stradbrook, or his ancestor, for thirty-one years; the lease expired in 1823; the land had been subdivided to such a degree, that I believe there were between forty and fifty families resident upon it; it was between four and five hundred acres, I think. Lord Stradbrook's agent, upon the expiration of the lease, took possession, which the people gave him in point of form, and he let them back, upon an understanding, that when tenants were provided, and a new disposition made of the property, they should give up possession; the object being, upon the part of Lord Stradbrook, to consolidate those farms, to retain a great number of the old tenants, and to enlarge their tenements. I believe contracts

were made by his lordship's agent for new lettings, but when possession was demanded, upon the part of Lord Stradbrook, it was refused, and Lord Stradbrook was obliged to bring an ejectment; Lord Stradbrook's agent (there was no defence to the ejectment), attended by the sheriff, and several men to assist him, went upon the lands and dispossessed this numerous body of occupants; they prostrated the houses, leaving the people at liberty to carry away the timber; the number of persons that were thus deprived of their homes on that occasion was very large; I am sure there were above forty families, but I cannot tell the number of individuals; they were persons of all ages and sexes, and in particular a woman almost in the extremity of death.

"What do you conceive has become of them?—I should think they have been received from charity, up and down the country."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1824,

p. 21.

The following statements show how the actual eviction of tenants drives the individuals thus cast upon the world to vindictive courses of violence and outrage. Rev. Michael Keogh.

"To what do you attribute the commencement of these outrages?-The poverty of the people, and a great many having been ejected from their lands.

"State the particulars of the ejectments ?-On Mr. Cosby's estate there were a great many ejected; I have made inquiries of late into the matter, and from all the information I could collect, I found there were 174 families ejected.

"How many, upon an average, were there in each family? -I do not know the number; on Mr. Cassan's estate there were a great many ejected; and Mr. Johnson ejected thirtyfour families.

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Were there any other cases ?-Dr. Doxay, middle landlord in Ballyrone, ejected a few families, and they became very disorderly people. Mr. Roe also ejected others, and they turned out very bad; and many others whom I do not immediately recollect.

"Was Mr. Roe, like Dr. Doxay, a middleman?--Yes.

"Were those persons ejected during the term of their leases, or at the expiration of the term of their leases?—They were ejected principally at the expiration of their leases.

"Do you know whether those persons so ejected remain still in the country?-A great many of them do.

"Where did they put themselves ?-A great many crowded into Ballyrone, which is a village on the decline, and they got lodgings cheaper there; they flocked there and into the neighbouring villages.

"Was it at Ballyrone the disturbances began?-No, it was

not.

Where did they begin ?-They first began at Ballinclay, near Timahoe, on Mr. Cosby's estate.

"Subsequent to the ejectment of those people?—Yes.

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Those people were scattered through different parts of the county, carrying with them discontent wherever they went? -Yes; and they but too well succeeded in their objects.

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Do you conceive that is the cause, in a great degree, of the disturbance that has since taken place?—Yes, I am convinced of it."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1832, Nos. 4636-41; 4650-6.

Rev. John Delaney, parish priest of Ballynakill, Queen's County.

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You have stated that there is nothing political in these combinations, that they arise chiefly from local causes; can you state any circumstances that have occurred in your neighbourhood of late years that might have contributed to those combinations?-There have a great many causes occurred in neighbouring parishes, and perhaps some in my own. I will state one that occurred in my own parish: there were three families, comprising twenty-three individuals; the heads of those families were accused of having cut scollops or switches for the purpose of thatching their cabins, or perhaps for sale; there were some ash and oak. The parties so offending were summoned, and a fine of 5l. recorded against them; the landlord gave them the option of going out instanter (it was in the depth of winter, in November), forgiving them the arrears due and the fine, or pay the fine, and be served with notice to quit in six months; they chose the first alternative, and went out; their families were scattered over the parish. The next summer, 1830, was one of famine with us; we were obliged to introduce a sort of poor-rate, to keep the people from starving and dying in the ditches; two of those families were thrown upon the parish, and I had to support them myself; there was not so ample a provision for the poor in the district where they lived they came into the neighbourhood of the town; the people in the town very naturally objected to their being

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thrown upon their fund, and I had to give them 2s. or 3s. week to support them; one of the poor men lost his cow, Some time after being turned out, a series of calamities befel him; he took ill, and after lingering a long time in a state of the utmost destitution and misery, died of a broken heart. The sons of this man, together with a son of the second family above mentioned, became leaders in this system of Ribbonism, and I have reason to believe were some of the most daring and ferocious amongst them; one of them to this day has held out against all my admonitions, and has not yet surrendered himself.

"Did any other cases of considerable hardship occur in your neighbourhood?-There was a vast number of persons in the course of the last seven years ejected from the estate of the late Mr. Cosby; some of them came into my parish, and I found them exceedingly troublesome, and disposed to engage in those illegal associations; at length I was under the necessity of speaking to the farmers, and implored them not to encourage such characters, and if possible to prevent their settling on their land; and in truth it was no easy matter, for if they found an out-house unoccupied they would literally force themselves into it, and keep possession until they could procure shelter elsewhere, or until their participation in some act of outrage, or their attempts to propagate their favourite system, fell under the notice of myself or my assistant, and obliged us in self-defence to expel them from the parish. Our conduct in this respect was by them considered very severe and even cruel, and, I have reason to know, brought down on us their bitterest resentment. It was to those persons I alluded in the early part of my evidence, where I stated that I cautioned the farmers not to receive strangers, and forbade them to resort to my chapel."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1832. Nos. 4373 and 4377.

Robert Cassidy, Esq.

"You live in the Queen's County ?—I do.