the county of Clare, and had formed an acquaintance with a farmer's son there, who was rather of a better order; I believe his father paid 150l. or 2007. a year rent; and this man came into Ennis, where one of my police that I have already mentioned was then stationed; the policeman was on duty that night, and in consequence of this man being able to render a very material service to the young man, he said, You have been very kind to me; I think I am in possession of something that might be useful to you.' I was not at home at the time, but the policeman encouraged him to go on, and he told him that he had been very lately concerned in a conspiracy that appeared to him to have a desperate object in view, and that he thought he would be able to be of use to him; the man immediately communicated to me upon the subject, and I saw the person afterwards; when he told him the matter had been made known to me; he then told me candidly, he had been in Limerick, and had met a person from Dublin who had sworn him in, and that he had in consequence himself sworn in several in the county of Clare; and, after some further communications, I got from him the system of organization, and the oath printed, which had been brought from Dublin, and confided to him to make use of in his district; and from that person I received very considerable information as to their proceedings from time to time; he was very imprudent in his mode of life, he occasionally drank, and he made use of some expressions at one time that raised a suspicion of his having given some information, and about twelve months ago he was followed out one night by three or four individuals who assassinated him.

"Did he explain what that desperate object was, in which he was to serve his friend?-He explained that their intention was to overturn the government, and to destroy all the Protestants; and that, in the course of doing so, he would interpose as far as he could for him.

"Was he a Protestant ?-No, he was not.

"Was the person whom he promised to protect a Protestant?—Yes, he was."-H. C., 1824, p. 135-6.

That the rural population of Munster and Connaught are constantly in a state in which they are liable to be practised upon by such agents, is doubtless true: but that scarcely any influence of this kind is in fact exercised, that the objects of the Whiteboys are exclusively local, and that if any attempts have been made to engraft more general views, they have proved fruitless, has been shown by the detailed evidence already produced, to which may be added the general statement of Mr. Barrington.

"In your experience of the people, notwithstanding they have many faults, are you of opinion that generally speaking they are a people of a good and sound feeling?—I do think so. I never knew a single instance of hostility or combination against the Government for these last seventeen years. The Irish peasant is very much attached to any one who treats him kindly, but he is easily led astray.

"Within your experience they have had no political character?-No.

"And scarcely any that were tinged with a religious character?—I never knew but one case, and that was at Tarbert, a case of administering an oath to murder Protestants; that is a great many years ago.

Was that after the Tarbert corps was formed?—I think it was."-H. C. 1832. Nos. 284-7.

The secret oaths are another means of connexion, such as it is, between Ribbonism and Whiteboyism.

"You consider (the Commons' Committee say to Mr. O'Connell) the insurrectionary movements which have taken place in the south as distinct from Ribbonism?-Entirely (he answers); the only feature they have in common is, that the insurrectionary movements in the south were also coupled with secret association, and oaths of obedience and secresy."-H.C., 1825. p. 71.

Now, in some cases, it seems that the Ribbon oath directed against Protestants has been used for swearing in Whiteboys, or at any rate has been combined with the Whiteboy oath, so that hostility to Protestants has been added to hostility to land-jobbers.

There appears to have been a considerable variety in the oaths used by different bodies of Whiteboys in different parts of Ireland. One form of oath, unlike any other subsequently used, and merely relating to obedience and discipline, is preserved in the Gentleman's Magazine, as having been used by the original Whiteboys of 1762*. In the county of Leitrim, in 1806, the Thrasher's oath is stated to have been,—“ To keep secret; to attend when called upon; to observe the Thrasher's laws; not to pay tithes but to the rector, and to pay only certain fees to their own clergy." For the county of Longford it is given in similar terms, viz.,-" To be true to Captain Thrasher's laws, to attend when called upon, not to prosecute Captain Thrasher or any of his men, and to meet them the following night t."

In more recent instances a distinction is pointed out between the Whiteboys' oath and the Ribbon oath. Major Warburton.

Have you had any opportunity of discovering any distinction between the species of oath which was introduced into the county of Clare from the county of Galway, from the illegal oath which you had known taken in the south, on your first introduction into that county?—I think the Ribbon oath was different from the Galway oath.

* Vol. XXXII., p. 183. It is reprinted by Plowden, Hist. Rev., vol. i., p. 344.

Trials of the Thrashers, pp. 257 and 303.

"In what did it differ from the Galway oath ?—I consider the Ribbon oath more a political oath; I think the other was more for local objects.

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In which of those oaths was there mention made of Protestants?-Principally in the Ribbon oath."-H. C. 1824.

p. 136.

Mr. R. Cassidy, with respect to the Whitefeet of the Queen's County.

"You have not seen their oath ?-I have seen, and I have endeavoured to ascertain what the oath was; I have seen what was reported to be their oath.

"Did it contain any clause pointed in its hostility to Protestants?-One of the oaths I have seen was distinctly pointed against the Protestants; but in other instances where I have endeavoured to ascertain what the oath was, I have never been able to find that it was levelled against persons of any religious persuasion in particular."-H. C. 1832. Nos. 5981-2.

Two oaths are produced by the witnesses before the Committee of 1832. The first is avowedly a Ribbon oath, and was obtained from a Ribbonman by Mr. Hugh Boyd Wray, who gives it in evidence.

"Ribbon Oath, as given me by approver, J. — Jan., 1832:

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Re, 10th

HERE, in the presence of God, and sign of the Cross, I certify and swear on oath, at the hazard of my life, to be true to all orders and regulations made under the Duke of Ostridge and his committee.

** Here follow the regulations, which are also sworn to:

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*

No. 1. To be true to the Ribbon Acts.

"2. Never make a Ribbonmen without the consent of seven, and presence of three brothers.

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3. Never let bishop, priest, or deacon, know, but in gaol confession, the man that made you.

"4. Never spare, but persevere and wade knee-deep in Orange blood.

"5. Never have carnal knowledge of a brother's wife, sister, or first cousin.

"6. Never have a shilling, but you'll give half to a brother to save him from death or transportation.

"7. To be ready at twenty-four hours' notice to walk from one to ten miles, or ride from ten to twenty miles, when called upon by a brother.

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8. To give money when called upon, to purchase arms and ammunition.

9. Never strike a brother, and know him to be one.

"10. Not known.

"11. Never make a man without sanction of the man who

made you.

"12. Bear to have your right arm or left cut off from your body, and nailed to the gaol door of Armagh, before you waylay, betray, or give evidence against a brother.

13. Never aid nor harbour a robber in company, and know him to be one.

"14. Pass-word, What does the three L. L. L. stand for?' Answer, Louth, Longford, and Limerick.'

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· N.B.—In a former oath had from a private informant, the Ribbonman swore not to serve His Majesty unless compelled by hardship; and that when the day comes, to fight, and wade knee-deep in oppressors' blood, and that neither the groans of men nor the moans of women shall daunt him, for the ingratitude shown to his brothers of the Catholic church.

"And furthermore, a man acting contrary to his oath, to be put an end to as soon as possible."-H. C., 1832. No. 3998.

The second, which agrees in substance with the first, bears on its face the confusion of Ribbonism and

Whiteboyism just adverted to. It is furnished by Mr. Myles O'Reilly, who states, that "it is a rough copy of a Whitefoot's oath, as it was then practised in the Queen's County, and over all Ireland."