the proprietor. In the former case the injury to the individual is incidental; in the other it is the sole object of the crime. Even a robber who uses violence to effect his purpose, or a burglar who kills a man in order to prevent him giving alarm, has no ill-will against the individual: he would much prefer obtaining the property without being forced to use threats or destroy life.

The condition of the Irish peasantry is quite unlike a state of society in which thieving is not thought ill of; such as that which prevailed among the ancient Greeks, and in some barbarous nations on the confines of Greece in the time of Thucydides *; among the Arabs of the Desert, and among the Borderers of England and Scotland. The latter were a set of outlaws, who formed almost a separate community of freebooters, were subject to a peculiar jurisdiction appointed to control them, practised no regular industry, and depended on plunder for their subsistence. Their hand was against every man, and every man's hand was against them. Hence, when caught, their doom, as Walter Scott says, was sharp and short †; they were hanged on the next tree, or drowned in the next water. Nevertheless, they made it a rule not to provoke more hostility than was absolutely necessary for their purpose; and hence they were extremely careful not to shed blood, while they laid violent hands on every kind of property which they could carry off. The White

* I. 5.

Border Antiquities, in his Prose Works, vol. vii. p. 109.

"But I return to our Dalesmen or Borderers, in whom, though some things are to be noticed to their dispraise, yet there are others to be greatly admired; for most of them, when determined upon seeking their supply

boys, on the other hand, are not distinguishable from the rest of the community; their object, like that of the secret tribunals of Westphalia, is to strike in secret, but with effect; they do not seek plunder in the individual case, but to enforce a law for the general advantage of the poor; consequently, if they meddle with property, it is to destroy it, in order to inflict pain and to give an example to others, not to take it for themselves; and if this is not sufficient, they kill without mercy. And so far are they from relying on plunder for a livelihood, that their violences are committed in order to perpetuate a state of things, in which they shall be able to live by regular industry.

When the Whiteboy system is in such a state of activity as has been just described, the intimidation is complete; a general terror pervades all classes; and it is less dangerous to disobey the law of the state than the law of the insurgent.

Mr. James Lawler, resident in Kerry.

"You have stated that the people do not feel the protection of the law; will you be good enough to state to the Committee what their feelings and notions are with regard to the law? When they see that persons, notorious instigators, and persons who terrify them publicly; when they see them come among them again, freed from all responsibility of law, they exclaim, What are they to do?

"That is, you mean by instigators, the persons who have

from the plunder of the neighbouring districts, use the greatest possible precaution not to shed the blood of those that oppose them; for they have a persuasion that all property is common by the law of nature, and is therefore liable to be appropriated by them in their necessity, but that murder and other injuries are prohibited by the divine law."-Leslæus de Origine, Moribus et Rebus gestis Scotorum, cited by W. Scott. Essay on Border Antiquities, App. ii. Prose Works, vol. vii. p. 146.

been the leaders of the disturbances ?-Persons who have been the subordinate and atrocious leaders of the disturbances.

"Then the want of protection that the people feel, is protection against the persons concerned in outrage?-Against outrage.

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Have those people obtained a considerable degree of influence by their system of terror?-No doubt of it; the system of terror is most dreadful.

"Then the industrious poor people suffer equally with the upper orders from those disturbances ?-They are the persons who suffer most, both in their feelings and their property, and their lives and their persons."-H. C., 1824, p. 442.

The O'Conor Don is asked, with reference to the proceedings of the Whiteboys in the county of Roscommon in 1831 :

"Was their violence attended with any success; did they carry their point?-Yes, for some time; the landlords were obliged to promise to reduce their rents, and to submit to their dictation. No man dared to work for a landlord who would not comply with their orders. They were fearless of apprehension. They went even to a magistrate at twelve o'clock on a Sunday, and requested him to reduce his con-acre rent, and he felt obliged to agree to do so."-H. C., 1832, No. 298.

"That the ordinary laws of the country, (says Lord Oxmantown, lieutenant of the King's County, in a letter to the chief secretary,) administered by a magistracy zealous and upright are unable to withstand an organized combination, both reason and experience have fully proved. Why it should have been so is very obvious. The combination is directly opposed to the law, and it is stronger than it, because it punishes the violation of its mandates with more severity, and infinitely more certainty than the law does. If a peasant resists the combination, it is scarcely possible he can escape punishment; but if he violates the law, his chance of escape is at least fifty to one. You will find I am warranted in what I say by a comparison of the convictions in a disturbed district, with the out

rages, recollecting that several persons are usually engaged in committing each outrage, probably on an average not less than five; so that if five be a fair average, the outrages should be multiplied by that number to give you the convictions which should have been had, were the law effective in every instance. The fact that the same individual has often been engaged in several outrages does not alter the position; because if the laws were carried into effect, there would be a corresponding number of convictions had against him*.”

Having now explained the machinery by which the Whiteboy law is carried into effect, it remains to show who are the persons on whom the weight of the Whiteboy's arm falls,-who are the victims selected for the exercise of his vengeance.

So far as the taking of arms is concerned, it is manifest that those persons only are attacked who are likely to have arms in their possession. But with respect to the other two main objects of the Whiteboy offences, viz., the regulation of dealing with land, and of the employment of individuals, it is manifest that both parties to the forbidden contract being equally guilty, the Whiteboy has the option which of the two he will punish, the landlord or the tenant, the employer or the servant. Now it almost invariably happens that the latter, and not the former, of these two is selected; that the poor and weak, not the rich and strong, are the sufferers. A gentleman may barricade his house, and if he has a numerous household, and is well supplied with arms and ammunition, he may bid defiance to any force which the peasantry can bring against him. But the thatched cabin of the poor man is de

* Papers relating to the State of Ireland, 1834, p. 20.

It may be observed that the invention of gunpowder has had a levelling and democratic tendency, not only in assisting to make infantry a more powerful arm than cavalry in the field, but also in diminishing

He

fenceless, is easily broken into, and easily burnt. has no servants or retainers to protect him, and less means of bringing offenders to justice. Moreover the murder of a poor man produces less sensation, and is sooner forgotten than that of a magistrate, a chief constable of police, or a clergyman*. Accordingly, if a tenant is ejected, not the landlord, but the new tenant is made responsible; and if, after due notice to quit the land, he remains immovable, justice is forthwith executed upon him. The same course is taken with strange servants or labourers: the master who has perhaps been the means of bringing his servant from a distance escapes unhurt, but the servant himself is persecuted till he leaves the spot; or is killed if he refuses to depart. In fact, the Irish peasant reverses the cry of the French revolutionists, Paix aux chaumières, guerre aux châteaux! The Whiteboys, it seems, (though, from sympathy, they would doubtless, if they could, bear lightly on their own class,) have been unable to avoid the injustice imputed to more regular systems of law, of dealing out different measures to the poor and to the rich.

"Plate sin with gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;

Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it."

the protection of armour at home. A feudal baron, living in a fortified castle, never going out except in armour, and on horseback, and with a train of armed followers, was almost an irresponsible being among an unarmed population when gunpowder was unknown, and he might oppress his vassals and villeins almost at discretion. A modern Irish landlord may barricade his house, and he is secure so long as he remains at home; but if he ventures in the open air, he is liable to be shot from a distance by a man who may have given his last farthing to purchase the powder and ball with which his stolen gun was loaded.

* See above, p. 23, note, for the account of the suppression of the disturbances in the county of Kilkenny, in the first Whiteboy rising.