Protestants), suggested to the farmers to enter into a combination, under the sanction of an oath, not to take their tithes or to assist any clergyman in drawing them. And a form of summons to the clergyman to draw, penned with legal accuracy, was printed at Cork, at the expense of a gentleman of rank and fortune; and many thousand copies of it circulated with diligence through the adjacent counties of Limerick, Kerry, and Tipperary*.”

The Whiteboys of this period, however, did not content themselves simply with resistance to the payment of tithe, and intimidation of the individuals concerned in collecting it, but even carried their hostility so far as to attack the persons of the Protestant clergy. The bishop of Cloyne enumerates a long list of clergymen in his diocese and those of Ross and Cork, who had been threatened or assaulted by the Whiteboys.

The following may serve as specimens of these attacks:-" One (a dignitary in my cathedral) was forced to come out of his house at midnight, by a band of 150 ruffians, to swear that he would give up his legal rights; a gun being pointed close to his head whilst the oath was tendered, and a horse produced with a saddle full of spikes, on which he was to be mounted if he refused to swear." Another "was menaced (with dreadful imprecations) that he should meet with a horrible reception, if he did not obey their laws more punctually, though he by a public notice declared submission." Another "received a written message from the Whiteboys, declaring, with their usual imprecations, that if he intended such villany as to set tithe at the

* Present State of the Church of Ireland, p. 79. Similar statements are made in a pamphlet on the same side of the question, published in 1787, entitled "Advice to the Protestant Clergy of Ireland, &c. By a Layman of the Church of England.'

old rates, they had prepared a pitched shirt for him, in which they would set him on fire." "A clergyman, now resident in Cork, a fortnight since received a Whiteboy message, that his ears should be cropped or his tongue cut out of his mouth." "On the whole (continues the bishop), all the clergy in the extensive county of Cork (of whom only I speak with the support of authentic proofs), whose places of residence were in the country, were under continual alarm, and obliged to arm themselves in the best manner they could; and had they not yielded to the violence of the insurgents, I am persuaded, would have been personally ill-treated; perhaps buried in those graves which were in many places dug (professedly) for their reception *."

To so great an extent were the Protestant clergy of Munster the objects of popular attack at this period, that many of them fled from their parishes and took refuge in the large towns; and the Government, in the session of 1786, introduced a Bill to protect the persons, houses, and properties of rectors, vicars, and curates actually resident within the parishes †.' This Bill,

* Present State of the Church of Ireland, pp. 82-5. Grattan, in moving for a Committee to inquire into the state of tithes, in February 14, 1788, says," The most sanguinary laws on your statute books are tithe bills; the Whiteboy act is a tithe bill; the riot act a tithe bill." Speeches, vol. ii. p. 49. It is probably in allusion to the circumstances of this period that Dr. Doyle, in his evidence before the House of Commons' Committee on Irish tithes, states that "it is universally admitted that the first object of the Whiteboys was to dissolve the tithe system,"—a statement by no means true in a general sense. (Qu. 3044).

+ Irish Debates, vol. vi. p. 400. In a debate on this bill, Lord Luttrell tells the following story: "A friend of mine, a few days since, after riding through Urlingford early in the morning, overtook, beyond that town, a person, who proved to be a clergyman, riding seemingly in pain, with his head muffled to a monstrous size, and bound over with a napkin. My friend addressed him, being a very compassionate man, and inquired

after several debates, was finally lost, upon an amendment moved by the Attorney-general; principally, as it would appear, because it proposed to levy a fine on the land of the parish where injury was inflicted on the clergyman.

Notwithstanding the appearance of religious hostility which this conduct of the Whiteboys bears, there can be no doubt that tithe was at this time objected to by the Irish peasant rather as being an oppressive fiscal burden, than as being paid to the Protestant clergyman; rather as being a payment generally, than as a payment to a particular class of persons. Having once begun a war against tithes, it was natural that they should extend it to the receivers of tithes; just as a war against rent would naturally become a war against landlords. The peasantry of the south of Ireland, finding themselves pressed by heavy burdens, sought to relieve themselves of the pressure, and naturally began with that charge where the power of exaction was the least.

"The fact is," said Mr. Ogle, in a debate on the Bill for protecting the persons of the Protestant clergy, "that the landed man of Ireland is the great extortioner. There is hardly an estate which is not let to the highest penny, and much above its value. The poor tenant feels the oppression, and, not knowing which way to turn, falls upon the clergy as

what was the matter. Ah! Sir, said he, did you see, as you rode through that town, two ears and a cheek nailed to a post? I did; said my friend. They were mine, the clergyman replied." P. 432. This story is not told as a jest: it is afterwards seriously alluded to by the Secretary, Mr. Hely Hutchinson, who applies to the clergyman the lines of Virgil—

populataque tempora raptis

Auribus, et truncas inhonesto vulnere nares.

the weakest and most unprotected body of men. This is the true state of the case *."

66

'As to the peasantry of Munster," said the Attorney-general, in 1787," it is impossible for them longer to exist in the extreme wretchedness under which they labour. A poor man is obliged to pay £6 for an acre of potato ground, which £6 he is obliged to work out with his landlord for 5d. a day †."

That the Whiteboys of 1787 were not stimulated by any religious sentiments in their opposition to tithe, further appears from their conduct to their own clergy; as they equally comprehend the priest's dues in their new scale. The following placard was at this time posted by them on the doors of churches and chapels:—

* Irish Debates, vol. vi. p. 435.

+ Irish Debates, vol. vii. p. 63. The following statement of the condition of the Irish peasantry of this period occurs in a tract entitled "A Congratulatory Address to his Majesty from the Peasantry of Ireland, vulgarly denominated White Boys, or Right Boys." Dublin, 1786,

P. 17.

"The rates paid by the cottagers in Ireland, particularly in the southern and western counties, for rents, dues, &c., will surprise the reader; they must appear almost improbable. The following statement was made on an average amongst several thousands of these people."

£ s. d

2 5 6

£ s. d.

Each cottager is allowed 5d.

per day, which amounts

to 58. less than he pays 7 12 6 But not being employed

more than a certain time in summer and winter. Wages in summer

0 11 4

0 15 0

0 10 0

In winter.

0 2

0 3 3

3 4 9

do.

corn

Deficiency in earning be

low his expenses

This deficiency he is left to his own industry to make good at the time the iron-bound squire does not want his service."

"You are hereby cautioned not to pay ministers tithes, only in the following manner, viz., potatoes 4s. per acre, wheat and barley 1s. 6d. per acre, oats and meadows 1s. per acre. Roman Catholic clergy to receive for marriages 5s., for baptism 1s. 6d., for confession 6d. You are hereby warned not to pay clerk's money, or any other dues concerning marriages; be all sure not to go to any expense of your confessing turns, but let them partake of your own fare *."

Nor did the Whiteboys at this time confine themselves to regulating the dues to be paid to their own clergy; but they also, in many cases, attacked their persons. It is distinctly stated, more than once, by Mr. Hely Hutchinson, the Secretary of State, in the debate on the Bill for the Protection of the Protestant Clergy, that the Roman Catholic clergy had likewise suffered from the violence of the Whiteboys †. Several instances

*

O'Leary's Defence, p. 147. The clerk-money mentioned in this notice is the money paid for the priest's clerk. The confessing turns are what are now called stations. Another table of this kind was promulgated in a paper signed “Wm. O'Driscol, Secretary-General to the Munster Peasantry," dated 1st July, 1786—

"Resolved,―That the fickleness of the multitude makes it necessary for all and each of us to swear voluntarily not to pay priest or proctor more than as follows:

Marriage

1 0

See Address to the Nobility and Gentry of the Church of Ireland on the Commotions in the South respecting tithes. By a Layman. [Dr. Duigenan?] Dublin, 1786, p. 112.

of "The Roman Catholic clergy had been treated with the utmost cruelty by the same insurgents and rioters that had insulted and injured many of the Protestant clergy." Irish Debates, vol. vi., 409. In answer to an objection of Lord Luttrell's, he says:-" Had he attended an examination where I was present he would have seen it clearly proved, by clergymen of undoubted veracity, that the parishioners are in fault, and