those outrages; they generally send a communication to some five or six or ten miles off, and they come in a body to effect their purpose."-H. C., 1832, No. 3193.

The persons who commit these crimes do not, like the bandits of Italy, or the London thieves, follow crime as a profession: they are merely called out by their brethren for the occasion, and when their task has been done, they resume their ordinary habits of life.

"Do you believe (Mr. Barrington is asked) that when men have so committed themselves in violation of the public peace, that it is almost impossible for them to recede, and they are obliged to keep that up in their own defence because they are not re-admissible into society?—I do not find that exactly (he answers); for very soon after disturbances have ceased, in which some of these men have been deeply engaged (where they have not been concerned in murder) they have become quiet and peaceable, and have returned to their former occupations*."

The crimes committed by the Whiteboys as a punishment for the violation of their commands, may be reduced to three heads:-1. Death; 2. Corporal infliction ; 3. Destruction of property. With regard to homicides committed by the Whiteboys, there is nothing remarkable in them, except that they have been sometimes accompanied with circumstances of great cruelty. The murder of the Sheas, when a house was set on fire, and the persons who attempted to escape were caught on pitchforks†, affords an instance. They have likewise been sometimes committed in the face of day, and in the presence of large numbers of people, who were approving spectators of the act. As to bodily in

* H. C., 1832, No. 31.

A similar instance of cruelty among the Scottish borderers is recorded in the ballad of Edom of Gordon, in Percy's Reliques.

fliction, severe beatings are very common; mutilation is also sometimes practised. The horrible practice of carding, above described*, has now been disused; so that even the Whiteboys have followed the stream of opinion in softening the rigour of their punishments. The usual modes of destroying property are, the burning of houses and haggards, and the houghing of cattle. In some cases, the ears and tails of horses, and the teats of cows are cut off; sheep are likewise shorn and mangled in a barbarous manner, not for the sake of the wool, but in order to spoil the sheep. Windows are likewise often broken, and other property in and about houses damaged or burnt. Other modes of inflicting pain are occasionally resorted to; such, for example, as the ravishing of women in order to wreak vengeance on their husbands or fathers. A short and easy mode of arriving at a desired end is the turning up of grass land, sometimes practised by the Whiteboys. By these means, the farmers are compelled to let their ground for setting potatoes, without the long and troublesome process of notices, burnings, beatings, and murders. This method was practised to a great extent by the Terry Alts in the last disturbances in Limerick and Clare; bodies of several hundred or even several thousand men with spades used to assemble, sometimes in the day-time, and turn up a meadow in a few hours.

The following general view of this part of the

* P. 146, and see p. 107. I see, however, from a paragraph in the Fermanagh Reporter, recently copied in the London newspapers, that, during this winter, a large party of Whiteboys visited a man in the county of Leitrim, and “with a hollybush (a new substitute for the card) lacerated and punctured his back and shoulders in a most shocking manner, and otherwise beat and battered him."

Whiteboy system is given by Chief Justice Bushe on the Maryborough Commission :

66

Illegal oaths are administered by them, often by compulsion, to unhappy wretches who attribute to them an obligation which they deny to more legitimate engagements. Vengeance is denounced against all who refuse to join those associations, or resist their mandates, or give information of their crimes; by these means they become numerous, and the incessant and indefatigable plunder of arms from all descriptions of loyal and peaceable subjects soon renders them formidable. The destruction of property follows, houses and barns and granaries are levelled, crops are laid waste, pasture lands are ploughed, plantations are torn up, meadows are thrown open to cattle, cattle are maimed, tortured, killed. Those persons who incur their displeasure are visited by parties of banditti who inflict cruel torture on their persons, mutilate their limbs, or beat them almost to death. Men are deliberately assassinated in the open day, who have in any way become obnoxious to the insurgents, or opposed their system, or refused to participate in their outrages, and sometimes the unoffending members of a family are indiscriminately murdered by burning the habitation of one devoted victim."—(p. 5.)

In certain parts of Ireland the Whiteboy code is constantly in operation, and if any man either from rashness or necessity from time to time dares to violate it, he is immediately made to suffer either in person or property, and his example is sufficient to prevent a repetition of the offence. At certain intervals, however, from accidental circumstances, the spirit of the people is roused by some oppression, or they are excited by some trifling occurrence, and the ordinary state of (what may be termed) intermitting Whiteboyism is aggravated into a rapid succession of outrages, almost bordering on insurrection. The state

of the country, when thus generally disturbed, is described by many witnesses.

"At that time, (says Mr. Blacker, of the north of the county of Cork,) every species of crime was committed; murders, robberies, burnings of houses, houghing of cattle, serving of threatening notices, severely beating obnoxious persons, every species of crime that could disgrace a country; fires seen at night, conflagrations of houses, five, six, seven, eight, and nine, in different parts of the country, and the gentlemen's houses barricadoed *.” "There had been some houses burnt, (says Mr. Bennett, of another district,) some persons flogged, some stacks of corn and turf had been burnt; and I found the people in the county, the gentlemen and the farming class of the better description, in a state of very great alarm ." "The county of Limerick, in 1821, (says Major Willcocks,) was very much disturbed, and numbers of murders committed, several places burnt and destroyed, and several persons beaten, and cattle destroyed and houghed, houses attacked and arms taken ‡."

Of the county of Clare, when under the Insurrection Act, Major Warburton says:

"There were a great number of burnings, both of houses, haggards, and cattle; threatening notices were served; and a variety of other outrages, such as houghing cattle and sheep §."

Mr. Becher, describing the north-western part of the county of Cork, in 1821, says :

"It was exceedingly disturbed; the common people were in the habit of going out at night administering illegal oaths, attacking houses for the purpose of getting arms, and in short executing whatever their wishes or inclinations were. There was a general difficulty in obtaining rents from them, and altogether the state of the country was what might be called a state of insurrection ||."

* H. L., 1824, p. 15.

H. C., 1824, p. 96.

|| H. L., 1824, P

H. C., 1824, p. 81. $ H. L., 1824, p 77.

133.

He is further examined as follows:

"Was not every gentleman, indiscriminately, in that country, whether a humane landlord, or the contrary, obliged to barricade his house?—Yes, all; but notices were given to some, that they need not do it.

66 Do you think they could have trusted to those notices ?— Certainly not.

"How long did that state of barricado last ?—I am not so accurate as to dates, as to be able to answer that question correctly; but I think it was in the year 1821. I was attending my duty in Parliament here, and on my way home, in Dublin, I got a letter from my brother, stating that the country was in that state. I made as much haste as I could to get down, and arrived the day after the battle of Newmarket, as they call it, had taken place; and for the remainder of that winter, we were in the habit of hearing of horsemen galloping on the roads round the domain. In short, the people had the country in their possession at night; by day, they were kind enough to leave it to us. We frequently observed signal fires thrown up at night; and there was every symptom of an approaching insurrection. I inquired among the common people, for information as to the nature and object of their proceedings; but I was generally told it was a subject not to be talked of without danger of fatal consequences. This state lasted, I think, for the rest of the winter; then the Insurrection Act began to operate a little in checking it, because it kept them at home. I do no think it operated effectually for some time, but at length it began to check it; and now I think, they are feeling the effect of the restraints imposed upon them, and the country has certainly beome quieter.

"Was it necessary to barricade by day-time ?—Yes, it was, during that time; and in fact, several arms have been taken since that, in the day-time."-H. L., 1824, p. 141.

The following report of a month's crimes, in a district of the King's County in 1834, will give a more