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At what time did the change take place?-About the year 1822. Having heard there were illegal societies in other parts of the kingdom, and from Maryborough being such a thoroughfare between Dublin and Limerick, and having eight fairs in the year, two assizes, and four quarter-sessions, I considered that it was very difficult for Maryborough to escape being infected, from the constant intercourse it had with other parts of the kingdom; and as I thought that prevention was better than remedy, I was determined to speak to my parishioners against illegal societies. I spoke against the illegal oaths, and the crime of perjury that was committed in taking them. In the year 1822, during the incumbency of Mr. Waller, the Protestant clergyman of the parish, I heard, from a private communication, that there were some persons made Ribbonmen in the parish. I consider Whitefeet, and Blackfeet, and Terry Alts, under whatever denomination they may be, pretty much the same, and having the same illegal objects in view, except the Blackfeet, who did not take an oath, but took a declaration equal to an oath, in the latter part of their proceedings. They made a vow on their knees, and promised that they would follow a captain or leader. I was informed who they were, and I went individually to them; there were about the number of twelve in Maryborough, and perhaps in the whole parish they amounted to about twenty. All, except two, who were strangers, promised me they would abandon their bad practices; they admitted that an oath could not be a bond of iniquity, and I was very glad to hear them say so. The two persons who infected the parish denied their misconduct; all the others acknowledged everything. As I could have no hopes whatever of the conversion of the two strangers I allude to, I denounced them on the Sunday following in the chapel. I exhorted the people as strongly as I could against all such societies and such oaths; I said they were detestable in the sight of God, and injurious to themselves in every point of

when carrying four Whiteboys to Kilkenny gaol, in which about thirty rioters and several soldiers were killed or wounded, in September, 1764, is mentioned in the Annual Register for that year, p. 100.

view. I did this in the three chapels belonging to the parish. The Protestants of the town, with Mr. Waller, the clergyman, sent a deputation to me to know in what manner I would receive an address from them; that they considered I was watching over the peace of the county so much, that I deserved some mark of their gratitude. I said I would decline it; that I felt very grateful for the disposition shown to me, but I wished rather to live a retiring life, except where my duty called for my exertions.

"Did your exertions produce a check to the progress of the conspiracy?—Yes, the parish remained very quiet; I was determined, by denouncing these persons, to intimidate others from coming to introduce any such system into the parish.

"Do you mean such persons as the two strangers ?—Yes; one was from the county of Tipperary.

"Did they show any resentment towards you?—Yes; the man from the county of Tipperary threatened my life, and I kept out of the way some time; but I hope I would not shrink from my duty if I was to lose my life; if I considered it such I would not be stopped by threats."-H. C., 1825, Nos. 316771.

In the following case the system made its way into the parish, notwithstanding the priest's exertions.

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"At what period did those disturbances commence ?—In the year 1827 a public building was undertaken in the parish [of Ballynakill, Queen's County], and to this building two rambling masons resorted; they came in from Mr. Cosby's estate; although not living there they were occasionally employed in that district; they came to this building, and after they were there ten or twelve days it reached me they were swearing in the people.

"What was the building?-Out-offices belonging to Mr. Cooper, who has an estate in the parish. On the succeeding Sunday I explained to the people the nature and evils of illegal combinations; I appealed to their own experience of the

horrors that resulted from like associations in 1798, and finally denounced the men by name, and thus succeeded in removing them from the parish; this was in the spring of 1827. It appeared that they infected a good many persons engaged in this building, for in a short time after that, a body of men from the colliery, as I am informed, assembled at this building, and paid a visit to one of the neighbouring farmers, forbidding him to dispossess some people under him; to be a good neighbour, meaning thereby that he should not refuse a free passage through his land to a neighbour who claimed it as a matter of right. When I heard this, I waited on the local magistrate, who apprised Mr. Foote, the chief of police, and I met them the following morning by appointment at the house so visited; the servants and work-people were examined, and I found it my duty to put some questions to them, which they declined answering until compelled by the magistrate. I think it was in the harvest of mowing, two men, one of them calling himself Captain Rock, paid a visit to Mr. Cooper's workmen, forbidding them to work under a certain rate of wages, and also requiring a better quality of food for the mowers; I apprised the magistrate of this also. We had the steward and workmen summoned; many of the respectable inhabitants of Ballynakill were present at their examinations. I put some very embarrassing questions to the steward, and upon both those occasions the people complained of my conduct, and said I outstepped my duty, and was rather officious. Those were the first two instances of insubordination that occurred in the parish over which I have presided for the last eight years; the persons concerned were not then known as Whitefeet or Blackfeet, but as members of the Ribbon Society.

"When did any further instances take place of this sort of proceeding ?-We remained pretty quiet for a year and a half afterwards, but I had occasion frequently to appeal to the people not to be employing strangers; one of my chapels is in the neighbourhood of Timahoe, which at that period was very much disturbed, and I found that many of the people of that district resorted to my chapel to swear in the people; and I

had (almost every second Sunday that I go there in turn) to caution the farmers not to employ strangers, and was at length under the necessity of forbidding such characters to resort to my chapel. The spirit of combination spread through the surrounding collieries, Wolfe-hill, New-town, Clough, and that belonging to Lady Ormonde; and after a short time it got into my parish, and a great many outrages were committed in consequence."-H. C., 1825, Nos. 4345-7.

The following singular mode of communication among the peasantry (like the transmission of the cross described by Sir W. Scott in the Lady of the Lake*) has been practised over a large part of Leinster and Munster during the last few years: it appears to have excited mixed sentiments of curiosity and alarm; and it is interesting, as showing the means adopted for practising on the minds of credulous, ignorant, and discontented people, though it does not appear ever to have been applied to Whiteboy purposes.

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Yesterday (says Sir Hussey Vivian) I received a report from Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow, Waterford, Cork, and Kildare, of quite a new proceeding, which has created a very great degree of alarm in the minds of the Protestants of those counties. It appears that strangers entered some of the towns on the 10th and 11th, in the middle of the night, either with pieces of lighted turf, parcels of powder, lighted sticks, or pieces of brown paper; those they gave to the Catholics, and told them they were charms against the cholera, or that some of the neighbouring towns had been destroyed by fire from heaven, and that they would be burned if they did not give the charm, in some instances, to four other Catholics, and those to whom it was given were to do the same to others, until the whole Catholic population had received the blessed turf: this set the whole population in motion; they were running in all direc

* See Note 1 to Canto III.

tions without waiting to dress, and they appeared to be inspired with indescribable zeal in serving the stipulated number; some had many miles to travel. This will be fully inquired into, but I despair of getting at the originators of the affair: my belief is, that the object was to ascertain in how short a time the Catholic population could receive a summons, for the purpose of intimidation regarding tithes. I have little doubt myself it had reference to tithes, and was an experiment in order to see how soon they could convey a communication, and how rapidly they could get large bodies together; because wherever there. is a sale of tithe cattle, the manner they meet it is to assemble large bodies to intimidate the people from buying, but not to commit any outrage."-H. C., 1832, No. 1475.

Mr. John Edge:

"Were you in Ireland when the holy turf was sent about the country?—I was.

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"To what extent in your neighbourhood did the thing proceed?-It went over the whole country, so far as I have learned; not only the part of the country where I lived, but extended to distant counties.

"Had you any conversation with the persons carrying it?— I had.

"Did it appear to you that they had any understanding of what they were about, beyond warning the people against the effects of cholera ?-I cannot tell what their understanding was. Do you think there was any political motive?—I do [not] think there was; I believe it was merely endeavouring to try the machinery of some further plot, to see how far it would extend.

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66 Do you conceive it was to put down the cholera ?—I conceive not.

"Did it appear to you by that means that information could be very rapidly spread through the country?—Yes, it did, inasmuch as I have seen telegraphs along the road on the hills as I have travelled to Dublin.

"But those were not connected with the turf-runners?--No,

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