"Does their object appear to be confined to tithe?—No. "Have you any reason for believing that those persons within your district who are opposing the collection of tithes have any ulterior object?-I think, generally speaking, not.

"Then you consider them, in fact, as a very different description of persons from the Whitefeet and the Blackfeet?Yes, certainly."-H. C. Committee on Tithes in Ireland, 1832. Nos. 448-51.

Rev. Samuel Thomas Roberts, resident near Leighlin Bridge, county of Carlow:

"You say that tithe and rent are in the same situation; do you know any combination against rent?-With respect to a combination, I do not; but I know that the Whitefeet threaten the people with respect to rent.

"Do you confound the people who oppose tithe with the Whitefeet and the Blackfeet?-No."-Ibid. Nos. 609-10.

*

*

*

*

"Have not the Whitefeet in your neighbourhood engaged themselves in many other combinations besides the opposition to tithe ?—They have threatened persons whom they visited at night, with respect to rent; and in some instances, where men have lately occupied places that had been in the possession of others, they have recommended them to depart under peril of the consequences.

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Have they not seized arms?—They have.

"Have they not given notices against the taking of land ?— I do not know that they have given any written or printed notices, but they have given verbal orders to people.”—Ibid. Nos. 613-5.

Something of a more general description appears among the objects of Whiteboyism, in the confession of a man named Hickey, who was convicted and executed near Doneraile, in the county of Cork, in 1823. Mr. Newenham, who was high sheriff at the time, gives an account of what passed.

"I attended Hickey soon after sentence was passed; and on my return home that evening, I put down on this paper the communication there was between us. It is, as nearly as could be, in the words he used; he was considered the Captain Rock of that part of the country. I prefaced the questions by stating, 'Anything I now ask you, and you may answer, must be without any expectation that your life will be spared; your execution is certain.' The first question was, 'What object have you in view?-Getting rid of taxes, tithe, and things of that sort. The plan pursued would only destroy lives and property, and not gain your proposed end; it would render gentlemen less able to give employment?—Yes; but for one kind gentleman, there are ten the contrary.

Was there any religious feeling in your proceedings ?— The lower fellows spoke of this; but certainly that was not the idea amongst any of us; as a dying man I say so.' (This was said, I think, as he believed at the time, but it was contrary to what he before stated to Lord Doneraile.)"-H. C. 1824, p. 302; and see H. L., 1824, p. 182.

Little reliance is in general to be placed on the dying declarations of criminals, although they are often sought after with great eagerness; and in this case it seems that the prisoner gave different accounts of the same thing to different individuals. By taxes, he probably meant county cess, there being no direct tax in Ireland which falls on the poorer classes*; but though he represents the abolition of tithe as one of the objects, he distinctly disavows any religious motive. How far religion enters into the views of the Whiteboys; how far their combination partakes of an anti-Protestant character, is a question, not indeed hard of solution, but involved in some perplexity, on account of the many indistinct and inaccurate statements which have been

* See above, p. 75.

made on the subject of Irish disturbances, and the difficulty of distinguishing the Whiteboys from other disturbers of the public peace, who use nearly similar means for different purposes.

In viewing the question generally, without reference to evidence, it would appear à priori improbable that religious bigotry should manifest itself in the form of Whiteboy associations and Whiteboy outrages. When we look into history, it is certainly remarkable in how few instances religious hatred has been a popular passion-has been the simultaneous impulse of large masses of people. The great persecutions have all emanated from the government, supported by the priesthood, and have never met with any zealous concurrence on the part of the laity. Even, however, if it is admitted that there have been some cases in which a genuine popular tumult has originated in religious hatred (as against the Jews in different places during the middle ages); yet these have been mere transient bursts of feeling, succeeded by long periods of indifference or tolerance. But Whiteboyism is a permanent association, constantly watching over the observance of its rules, and pouncing from time to time on any transgressor of them; it has nothing of the character of fervid and fanatical zeal which might be expected of a religious crusade: nothing of the disposition to push an advantage, which might be expected of an extirpator of heresy. It is a protective union, coolly, steadily, determinedly and unscrupulously working at its objects, but sleeping in apparent apathy so long as its regulations are not violated. That there ever was a religious crusade, which sprung spontaneously from the people, and was carried on by them without the interference of

the government, has not yet been shown; but that theological hatred should assume the form of a succession of individual and unconnected outrages, that it should lead to a sort of chronic religious war, is a phenomenon not only altogether unexampled, but inconsistent with the best established principles of human

nature.

We will now proceed to examine the question more closely, and to arrange the very numerous statements which bear upon it.

In the first place it may be remarked, that those parts of Ireland in which religious animosities are (on account of the even balancing of the two parties) the most frequent, have ever been nearly free from Whiteboy combinations; while those districts which are the head-quarters of Whiteboyism, have been more free than any other part of Ireland from religious dissension; inasmuch as nearly the whole population of them is Catholic*.

"In the particular regions of disturbance (says Mr. Leslie Foster) I consider that religious animosities are and always have been less frequent than in other parts of Ireland. The great theatre of those differences are the northern counties of Ireland, in which the Insurrection Act has never been applied. Those religious animosities, however much to be regretted, have never led to insurrectionary movements; they have led to quarrels and personal outrages, but never to an attempt against the government."-H. L., 1825, p. 72.

* The dioceses of Ossory, Cashel and Emly probably include the most disturbed part of Ireland, (viz., the county of Kilkenny, the southern part of the county of Tipperary, and the south-east part of the county of Limerick.) In the first of these, (according to the Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction), the Roman Catholics are above ninetyfour per cent., in the second above ninety-six per cent., in the third abov ninety-eight per cent. of the population.

The same distinction is explained in the following able statement of Mr. Justice Day :

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Have the actual disturbances in Ireland originated in religious differences, or in what other causes?-The recent disturbances in Ireland have not had anything to do with religion. In what causes did they originate, in your opinion ?—The poverty of the people, which exposes them to the seduction of every felonious or turbulent leader; the want of employment; the absence and non-residence of landlords, who might superintend, control and advise; the want of education, which leaves them in a semi-barbarous state, and incapable of judging for themselves. These are some of the various and combining causes which may be enumerated. The severe and unconscionable rents too often exacted from the peasantry, ought not to be forgotten. There was a system (now diminishing, thank God) of sub-infeudation, which prevailed through Ireland, and which, after a succession of sub-lettings, left scarcely anything to the miserable occupying peasant to subsist upon. Every man, in this gradation of evil and unfortunate system, must have a profit, save the occupier, who pays all, is exposed to the distress of all, and starves himself. To this system are owing much of the sufferings of the south of Ireland.

"Have not persons of both persuasions been indifferently subjects of outrage and disturbance, from other causes than those of religion?-Those outrages have been inflicted indifferently, and with perfect impartiality. It appeared to me that the disturbances did not point at or mix themselves with religion. They were excited by designing desperate fellows, who looked for insurrection and a scramble; and it cannot be very difficult to recruit persons from such a peasantry, to fall in with such leaders. It was property and plunder they wanted; religion was totally out of the case. I recollect perfectly a Catholic gentleman's habitation as violently assaulted, and himself as obnoxious an object of these insurgents, as any Protestant could be."

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Upon the subject of religion I should have added that in some parts of Ireland religion influences a good deal, and has