excited the sects to collision and conflicts, in the northern part of Ireland particularly; where there is a great preponderance of Roman Catholics, as in the south of Ireland, (in which province there is scarcely one in a hundred of the humbler classes who is a Protestant,) religion does not operate at all, or very little; it is where the religions are nearly balanced. Your lordships and the public have heard much of Orangemen and Ribbonmen; the gentlemen of the county and the judges on the northern circuits have taken great pains to put down, and I hope successfully, that sanguinary spirit.

"Are you not of opinion that where any grievance is supposed among the people to exist, the religious distinction unites much larger bodies of people than would otherwise be united without that?—I repeat, that religion seems to me to have had little or no effect in the south of Ireland in the late disturbances. No doubt, where religion mixes, it will exasperate and combine to a fatal extent."-H. L., 1825, pp. 532-3.

The following are other testimonies to the same effect:

Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan, clergyman of the Established Church, principally resident in the county of Tipperary.

"You have stated that, in the disturbances in the county of Tipperary, you thought the religious rancour began in the spring of 1821?—I believe what I said was, that that was the time when I first thought that I could perceive the spirit of religious rancour.

"What do you mean by religious rancour ?-A hatred of Protestants, a dislike to Protestants as Protestants, mingling with the other feelings.

"Were there no instances of the hostility of the people creating those disturbances being directed against Catholics as well as Protestants ?-Yes, numerous instances; I believe I stated, that I conceived the disturbances to have commenced in the struggles of poverty; of course it was a war against property principally, and the religious spirit was a thing that

mingled in it, but was not the mainspring."-H. C., 1825, p. 464.

Major Warburton :

"With respect to the local objects you have spoken of, were not they indiscriminately levelled against property, whether in the hands of Catholics or Protestants?—Yes, they were, certainly.

They were introduced from the county of Galway?—Yes, at the time I have stated.

"The greater proportion of the property in the county of Galway is in the hands of Roman Catholic gentlemen, is it not? I should think it is, so far as I am informed; I know this, that there are a great number more Roman Catholics in Galway than in Clare, and that they possess more property.

"Did you not understand that the disturbances in Galway had been very much put down by the exertions of the Roman Catholic gentlemen, as much as of the Protestants?—I have understood so; I believe some of them took a very active part."-H. C., 1824, p. 136.

Major Willcocks :

"From what you have seen in the disorders in the south of Ireland, should you say that those disorders have assumed in any degree a religious character?—I really cannot take upon me to say that they have. I will add, the great mass of the population of those parts that I am intimately acquainted with is Catholic; I cannot speak of Cork, I have had no residence in fact in Cork; but in Limerick and Tipperary the great mass of the lower population are all Catholics, and of course the outrages are committed by a greater proportion of that persuasion than of the others; but I never heard of any religious distinction at all among the peasantry, as a matter that came under my view."-H. L., 1824, p. 56.

· Matthew Barrington, Esq.

Did those disturbances, which took place in 1821, 1822, and 1823, appear to you to be at all connected with the ques

tion of emancipation?-I think there was scarcely an outrage which could not be traced to a particular object: one was the attacking a proctor, another dispossessing of the land, attacking a former tenant, a party going at night to dispossess the tenant who had been put in, in order to have the possession restored to the former occupier. There is scarcely one which was not traceable to a particular object.

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You could not trace any connexion between those outrages and the question of Catholic emancipation ?—No, in no case."-H. L. 1825, p. 304.

Robert Cassidy, Esq., resident in the Queen's County:

"Do you conceive that the disturbances to which you have alluded have anything of a religious character mixed up with them ?-Decidedly not..

"When you say you consider there is nothing of a religious character mixed up with the present disturbances, do you mean to say that the Whitefeet are not associated together in hostility to Protestants?—I think not; nor have I ever been able to learn that the hostility of the Whitefeet was more directed against the Protestant than the Catholic."-H. C. 1832. Nos. 5978. 5980.

The absence of any predominant religious motive in the Whiteboy combinations further appears from the fact, that Catholics, as well as Protestants, are the objects of attack, wherever they possess arms, but more especially when they transgress the rules with respect to land.

It seems natural, that where the tenant is poor, the payment of rent should be disagreeable to him, whatever may be the religion of the landlord or agent who receives it.

"Do you find (Mr. Blackburne is asked) the resistance of the payment of rent for land, and the dispossession, apply equally in cases where he is a Protestant or a Roman Ca

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tholic, or is it confined to any description of landlord ?—' Not at all,'" is his answer.-H. C. 1824, p. 9.

Mr. Leslie Foster being asked

"Whether the Protestant middlemen find greater difficulty in enforcing their claims for rent than the Catholics ?" answers, "Certainly not; the consideration of religion does not enter at all, I think, into these relations."-H. L. 1825, p. 58.

For the same reason that a payment, if oppressive, when made to one man, is also oppressive if made to another man, the rules made by the Whiteboys, to protect themselves against destitution, are equally enforced against Catholics and Protestants. However strong the religious interest may be on other occasions, the feeling of self-preservation is still stronger; and the Whiteboy who might insult a Protestant clergyman, or break the windows of a Protestant church, would murder a Catholic farmer for taking land over another man's head, in the same way that Richelieu persecuted the Protestants at home in order to spread the true religion, but assisted them in Germany, in order to advance the more important territorial interests of his country.

The following testimonies show that the administrators of the Whiteboy code strike indiscriminately all transgressors of its rules, whatever may be their religious persuasion :

Major Powell.

"Were the outrages which were committed equally levelled against Catholics and Protestants?-They were invariably directed against Catholics; I have never known an instance of a Protestant being affected in that county by the system. I beg to remark there are very few Protestants, except in the higher classes, in that district [County of Kilkenny].

"How were the persons affected?—Their houses were attacked."-H. L., 1824, p. 101.

Justin McCarthy, Esq.

"Were the attacks made equally on the property of Catholics and Protestants?-In our country they were almost all made on the individual property occupied by Roman Catholics. In the part immediately adjoining me, the attacks were made principally upon the property held from a nobleman by a Roman Catholic lady.

"Were the attacks levelled against the Protestant clergy particularly?—In some instances they were, with respect to tithe, and with respect to individuals who had taken tithe. In many instances there was a general notice against the payment of any tithe.

"Was there any general notice against the payment of any rent? Yes, there was."-H. L., 1824,

Rev. Nicholas O'Connor.

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"Has this [the serving of threatening notices] been done indiscriminately on Catholic farmers as well as on Protestants?— I believe, if there is any preference given, the Catholics get more notices; the Whitefeet are most liberal people, for they make no distinction between Catholic and Protestant."H. C., 1832, No. 3195.

Mr. John Bray.

"Do the Whitefeet and Blackfeet, in those nocturnal visits, make any distinction between Protestants and Catholics?They visit Protestant houses to take arms; but the Catholics have been more exposed to personal outrage.

"If a Catholic farmer breaks any of Captain Rock's laws, he is as likely to be visited as a Protestant?-I rather think more so."-H. C., 1832, Nos. 3501-2.

John Dillon, Esq.

"Have the Catholic farmers been attacked by the White