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men who are obnoxious to the people, and they are more likely to be attacked than any other persons.

"Where is your residence in this district?-In the neighbourhood of Mallow.

"Is there any part of the district that has been more subject to disturbances than the spot in which your residence is fixed? -It is considered the most disturbed part of Ireland, and outrages took place within half a mile of my house.

"Is your house barred or bolted in the night in any particular manner?—No.

"Have you had your family there?-My family have resided there for upwards of a year.

"Have you had any fear of disturbance ?-I have not.

"Do you conceive that any one of the middle gentry of whom you speak would be tolerably safe to live in a similar habitation?—I am persuaded they dare not do it; the people look up to me with very different feelings; I pay them, and receive nothing but their labour in return.

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Does it ever occur, even to the females of your family, to have any personal apprehension?-I do not think Mrs. Griffith had; but when I was from home, which, on an average, was six days out of seven, the female servants were afraid, particularly when they saw fires around them.

66 Did you often see those fires ?-Several times.

"Do you mean that you have a perfect sense of personal security in an open house?-I have not the least fear; there was no system of robbery in the country; the apparent motives of attack were either political or revengeful, and consisted chiefly in burning corn-stacks and thatched houses, particularly those belonging to the better order of farmers or to the middle gentry who had committed some act obnoxious to the people; but I never considered myself in that light, and I have no apprehension in passing through that country in the middle of the night.

"Had you no apprehension that you might be mistaken for one of the middle gentry?—That might have occurred; but if I had mentioned my name, I think I should have been permitted to pass.

66 Do you mean that your name is known through the whole of that district of nine hundred and seventy miles?—I am certain that it is, and that a large portion of the inhabitants know me personally.

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Did the Committee understand you right, that at the period when this country was most disturbed, the upper ranks of gentry would be more secure in going through it than the middle ranks of gentry?—I think they are more secure, at least there is more appearance of security; they ride about the country without being armed.

"And the others do not?-Some of the others do not.

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Do you conceive that a stranger, for instance an English gentleman, travelling either from motives of curiosity or commercial speculation, would be in security or otherwise?—In perfect security.

"Do you conceive that if an English gentleman were to engage in the investment of capital in any commercial or manufacturing speculation, in the centre of that very district, or the most disturbed part of it, that they would be in any hazard, personal or otherwise?-I think neither himself, nor the property, would be in any hazard, provided he treated the people justly, and paid them regularly.

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During the height of the disturbance, the superior gentry went about unarmed?-During the period of the disturbances which took place last year, in the neighbourhood of Charleville and Mallow, the gentlemen went about unarmed.

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If, then, they can trust their persons in this way by day, what was the reason they did not conduct themselves as other individuals, who had no apprehension, and who lived in perfect tranquillity at night? Because the depredations generally took place by night, and the gentry did not know to what extent they might proceed; the attacks were generally confined to houses at night, and individuals were not molested in the day-time.

"Persons who were not obnoxious to the population had nothing to fear from them ?-Every gentleman holding land

in the country must be more or less obnoxious, at a period when the greater number of tenants refused to pay any rent, and consequently they were not certain that their houses might not be attacked.

"You have drawn a great distinction between a person that has any thing to do with land and a person engaged in commerce and manufacture?—A great one; a person engaged in commerce or manufacture is generally a favourite with the people."―H. C., 1824, pp. 230, 231, 233.

Mr. Frankland Lewis remarks:

"When disturbances exist in Ireland, the persons who are active in them have settled objects in view, which are generally well known, and the character of them distinctly ascertained; and it does not appear to me, I never have been able to observe, that a wanton destruction of manufactories has ever formed a part of the objects of those persons who have been active in committing the outrages which are committed in Ireland. If the manufacturers were likely to have collections of grain driven for rent in their premises, I should expect to see them on fire; but I never heard that the establishment at Bandon was exposed to the slightest hazard; and I do not myself believe that any manufactory in the south part of Ireland would be exposed to more than casual or accidental danger, when disturbances occurred of which we are unhappily in the habit of hearing; and my opinion is, that the persons employed in manufactories will soon find out the fact; and that if they find that they can employ labourers with advantage, they will soon find that they can employ them with security."-H. L., 1825, pp. 35, 36.

"The traveller (says Mr. Inglis) need be under no apprehension in any part of Ireland. Irish outrages are never committed upon strangers; and however strong the disposition may be among the peasantry of Ireland to oppose the law and screen delinquents, I do not believe an outrage committed on a stranger and a traveller would receive anything but condemnation from all classes *."

*Tour in Ireland, vol. ii., p. 92.

This conduct is an additional proof that the Whiteboys act with a settled and limited object, and that however ready they may be to resort to extreme measures in order to accomplish that purpose, they put a restraint upon themselves in other respects, even when the means of gratifying themselves are in their power. For the most part, indeed, the conservative feeling, which we have above described, presides over the worst excesses of the Whiteboys: but when the country has been long and seriously disturbed, and the habit of submission to the government has been weakened by a considerable interruption, then the people begin to prey on one another, and the country begins to taste some of the horrors of the anarchy, of which the sack of a captured town affords a complete exemplification.

"When once the people (says Mr. J. Jebb, in charging the grand jury of Limerick) have indulged in this career, the effects are visited on persons of their own classes, and are not confined to persons of the upper ranks of society, against whom they were first directed, and who were the original objects of their hostility. These crimes, under which so many of themselves suffer, become general throughout the country; the bad passions of the heart-revenge of the slightest injury, the indulgence of the animal propensities of our nature-become frequent at the slightest temptation; and the consequence is, that in those parts of the country where such a system has prevailed, homicide is frequent at fairs and all public meetings under the most trivial provocation; abduction of females who offer any temptation either of fortune or personal charms; the violation of the persons of females, whether married or single, becomes frequent and general throughout the country. Gentlemen, the consequences of such a state of things are not confined to the upper ranks of society, against whom those outrages were originally directed, but they recoil on the unfortunate people themselves with tenfold violence; and poverty, distress,

want, aggravated famine, disease ripening into pestilencethese are the sure consequences of such a dreadful state of society, and are as inevitable as, in the progress of nature, cause produces effect *.”

Nevertheless even when the disturbances are at their worst, there is never so complete a subversion of law, or so frightful a demoralization, as accompanies an insurrection of slaves: such, for example, as is described by ancient historians to have prevailed in Sicily during the Servile War†, or such as, at a more recent period, has occurred in St. Domingo. The Whiteboys, even when masters of the country, seem always to pre

* Proceedings under Limerick and Clare Special Commission, 1831, p. 4.

Diodorus, Fragm. lib. xxxvi., gives the following striking account of the horrors produced in his native country by this slave rebellion :— "Not only (he says) did the revolted slaves ravage the island, but those persons in the country who had no landed property betook themselves to plunder and lawlessness. Numbers of these, reckless from their poverty, marched in bands over the country, driving away the cattle and sheep, and plundering the grain stored up in the homesteads: all persons whom these parties fell in with, whether freemen or slaves, they at once put to death, in order that no one might give information of their violence and excesses. The Roman authorities having ceased to administer justice, there was a complete anarchy: and all men having irresponsible power inflicted many and grievous wrongs on each other: in every place rapine lorded it over the possessions of the rich. Those who had hitherto been the first in power and wealth in each city, now, from this sudden reverse of fortune, not only were stript of their property by the slaves, but were compelled to endure in patience the insults and contumelies of the citizens. Hence no one considered anything as his own except what was within the city walls; whatever was without the walls they looked upon as lost, and swept away in the universal licence. And in general throughout the community there was a complete subversion of all legal rights: for the revolted slaves, having got possession of the open country, made every place inaccessible, being eager to take revenge on their masters, and not yet satiated with their unexpected good fortune: while those slaves who were within the walls being unsettled in their minds, and looking out with anxiety for the moment of deliverance, were most formidable to their masters."

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