In some cases, doubtless, the stronger party has been attacked; but that the safer course has generally been followed, will appear from the following statements; and indeed has already been partly explained in showing that the Catholics are as much assailed as the Protestants*.

"What (says Mr. J. Moore, on the Limerick Special Commission) has been developed during these investigations? Is it the poor man contending with the rich, or the rich man oppressing the poor man?-No such thing. A selfish principle of monopoly was the main-spring of their proceedings—the same which runs through almost the entire system, and which has given birth to these outrages; for we find the inhabitants of a particular district prescribing rules and regulations, by which they exclude from the sphere of their influence, as they would the enemies of the country, the inhabitants of the same nation, and the subjects of the same king, saying, not only they shall not presume to inhabit a certain place, but forbid the exercise of their lawful occupations. Thus, then, we see the poor man the object of their persecutionst."

The following remarks occur in the Attorney-General's address to the court at the close of the same special commission:

"It so happens, that with the exception of a very few cases -so few, that I could easily enumerate them—we have been administering the law of the land, not for the protection of the rich, but for the protection of the poor, the weak, and the defenceless. Whatever may have been the original cause of those wicked associations, certain it is, that their force and fury generally fall on the very poorest of the poor. I need hardly, as a proof of this, call to your lordships' recollection what has lately passed in this court. A man has been sen

* Above, pp. 129-36.

+ Report of the Limerick and Clare Special Commission in 1831, p. 117.

tenced to transportation for life this day, who, in the name and by the terror of those wicked associations, levied tribute from the merest paupers in the county, and compelled the poor widow to dispose of her chicken for six-pence, which she was obliged to pay, to meet their illegal demands. Again, (I can hardly trust myself with the recollection of it,) the sickly child, the only son of a widow, was tortured in his mother's presence, to compel him to discover the alms which the hand of charity had bestowed on her. These are a few selected from numerous cases, in which the law has raised its shield to protect the weak, and has stood forward the avenger of the cause of the widow and the orphan*."

Similar observations are made by the AttorneyGeneral at the termination of the Maryborough Special Commission.

My lords, I would further remark, as a circumstance peculiar to the prosecutions which have taken place under this commission, that, overrun as this county is by lawless, extensive, and powerful confederacies, there is scarcely an instance in which a criminal has been brought to justice in which the crime has been perpetrated against the person or property of a man of power or rank. The objects of the aggression have been those who have been unable to protect themselves,-the poor and the defenceless. I could prove this by enumerating the cases one by one. There is not, I believe, in the whole catalogue, a single person prosecuting in the rank of a gentleThe victims of lawless outrage, unable to redress their own wrongs, have seen justice executed on their authors with the most exemplary success, and I trust will have learned that as the law is ready to afford them protection, so it is their interest, as well as duty, to aid its administration by all the exertions in their power."-p. 324.

man.

Major Powell:

"Were the outrages levelled chiefly against landlords, or

* Report of the Limerick and Clare Special Commission in 1831,

p. 217.

R

against persons who came to occupy tenements from which the previous tenants were expelled?-They were against persons who took land for the purpose, I believe, of reletting it; or persons who took land after other persons had been dispossessed."-H. L., 1824, p. 101.

Colonel Rochfort, Queen's County :—

"Is the association, and the ends of it, directed against the gentry?—Not particularly.

"Have they been attacked?-No; I only know of one gentleman; they attacked the Rev. Mr. Trench, curate of Athy he was at church; and when Mrs. Trench had come home, and was washing her hands up stairs, a band of armed men came in, and attacked the house, and carried off the

arms.

:

"That is the only case where the house of a gentleman has been attacked ?—Yes, the only house, I believe.

"Has any gentleman been injured in any way?—No, I believe not; but Captain Lyster was fired at, but he was not injured.

"The attack on Mr. Trench was more by stealth than by violence?—Yes, it was four o'clock in the day *.

"Against what class are their efforts directed?-Against all the lower farmers who have arms; a portion of the Whitefeet might have gone for arms, but a great many committed robberies and burglaries, which all fall upon the poor. At the last commission three men attacked a poor woman's house, where she and her aunt lived together, and the whole property was not worth 10s.; they robbed her of what they could get, and two of them violated her; they are sentenced to transportation.

"In other cases, the attacks were upon farmers holding a few acres of ground?—Yes; and frequently in the same family, when there were disputes in the family, mostly about a small quantity of ground."-H. C., 1832, Nos. 1067-73.

* See an account of this transaction above, p. 211. The attack was certainly not made by stealth: it was made by a party of armed men in the open day.

John Dillon, Esq. :

"Were the attacks made upon the very low description of farmers holding small pieces of ground?-They were made upon every class.

"Were they made upon farmers holding ten or twenty acres? -Not except they had taken land lately in the possession of another.

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The question refers to attacks for arms?-Every one was attacked that had arms, if they could get at them.

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They interfered with every person they thought fit about land?—Yes; they did not attack those that were armed and they thought would defend themselves."-Ibid., Nos. 2367-70.

Major Warburton :

"Were they [the outrages] levelled chiefly against landlords, or against persons who came to occupy tenements from which the previous tenants had been expelled?—I think they were levelled against both; that they were levelled against the parties acting under the arrangement with the landlord, and against the landlord for making the arrangements, in many cases that occurred.

"Were many of the outrages directed against the clergy, or against the collectors of tithes ?—Many of them against tithe proctors; there were not many of them against the clergy, I think."-H. L., 1824, p. 78.

When the attack is directed against the landlords, it is rather made upon their property than their houses or persons.

"Was the destruction of property (Serjeant Lloyd is asked) chiefly levelled against the landlords or the tithe-owners?— The property that was consumed when I was in Cork (he replies) was in the instances where distress had been made for rent, and drawn off; it was very frequently consumed: when tithes have been drawn in kind, they also have been consumed." -Ibid., p. 112.

Bishop Woodward, in his pamphlet on the Whiteboys of 1787, says, that in the county of Cork, at that time,

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so general a terror of violence from the common people prevailed, that few persons, if any, thought it prudent to distrain for rent, or to process for debt.” He adds in a note, that "one gentleman made the attempt [to distrain for rent], but I have good information that a notice was fixed up in the adjoining town forbidding any person to buy the goods; and the agent was under the necessity of procuring a party of soldiers to guard the corn distrained."—p. 83.

The Whiteboys have probably been of opinion with Jonathan Wild, that mischief is too valuable a thing to be wasted; and hence they have rarely committed a crime without an object, or attacked a powerful person when their end could be equally well attained by attacking a weak one. They have evidently sought in general not to provoke any unnecessary hostility. Hence, at seasons of the greatest disturbances, strangers settled in the county, and not mixed up with dealings in land, or mere passing wayfarers, are suffered to remain unharmed. The evidence of Mr. Griffith, the engineer, will explain this point.

"When you first went among them, had you any feelings of personal insecurity?—Never.

"Have you ever gone about armed amongst them?-Never. "Is that the case with the middlemen of this district ?— Some of the middle gentry go about armed, and some are attended by horse-police; I speak of the middle gentry; the higher order of gentry never go about armed; at least I have never met any who were.

"Do you think that altogether an imprudent precaution on the part of the middle gentry of whom you speak ?—I think it may be very necessary for their protection; in general they are