unwilling to make, even if they were slight gainers in a pecuniary point of view. The government finds that it must choose between two alternatives; either to obtain no convictions in Whiteboy cases, or to provide for the witnesses: and however expensive the latter course may be, it is at least preferable to allowing the law to be tacitly repealed by the insurgents. The manner in which this assistance is afforded by the government will appear from the subjoined statements. W. W. Despard, Esq.:

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Do you conceive that the prosecutors who have come forward and done their duty, have been adequately protected in the Queen's County?—I believe that those that came forward at the last commission were; they have not been remunerated yet, but they have got protection; they cannot go back again; they would be murdered; there are some in Maryborough and some in Dublin; I believe the government will take care of them.

"Their condition will not be worse after prosecuting them than before?—I cannot speak to that; it will depend upon the intentions of government.

"Have any of them been supplied with the means of emigrating? I believe they have not since the last commission; I do not know what the government intend doing with them; I believe they will be furnished with the means of emigrating.

"Do you conceive if witnesses were adequately provided for, so that when they came forward and did their duty they did not render their condition worse than before, that it would have the effect of putting down the disturbance by the ordinary laws?— It might encourage witnesses to come forward to prosecute."H. C., 1832, Nos. 739-42.

Sir John Harvey, Inspector General of Police :"Has there been much difficulty in obtaining evidence so

as to detect persons connected with this Whitefeet system?In consequence of the system of intimidation, and the extensive nature of the combination, there has been great difficulty, but that has been in some measure overcome.

"Has it been a difficulty of such a nature that the long continuance of the system enabled it to get great head before there were any means of checking it by the execution of the law?— It has acquired a very great strength, but it has yielded to those means I have alluded to.

"In what way do you think it has been overcome ?-By the exertions of very intelligent magistrates and police officers, who have had funds placed at their disposal, and have made a judicious use of them; it is impossible to obtain information without payment.

"Were those funds appropriated till lately?—I think perhaps not quite sufficiently early; that means of remedy was not applied till it was clearly called for.

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Was it found possible to obtain evidence, or to execute the law, without having recourse to those means?—I should think it was impossible.

"It was found in practice there was a great extent of crime committed, and no person apprehended?—Yes.

"Does that appear upon the returns of your officers ?—It is a part of our instructions to them to use their utmost exertions to procure that evidence, but it was found impracticable.

"Has it occurred to you that you have seen an account of several hundred crimes, and hardly the arrest of a single person concerned?—Yes, I might say so to a very great extent, at one period."-H. C., 1832, Nos. 1944-51.

"Do you think that witnesses are sufficiently protected for the support of the due administration of the law ?-The dangers and difficulties which in Ireland all witnesses, who come forward to prosecute in insurrectionary cases, encounter, are so certain and so great, that I am often amazed that they are found to come forward at all. I think I have already men

tioned, that I have seldom seen an instance, where the punishment of the convict was to be transportation, in which I did not think that his situation was more enviable than that of the witness who prosecuted. As illustrative of that, it would not be a loss of the time of the Committee to hear the particular circumstances of a few witnesses who prosecuted at the late commission, and towards whom the government, I know, are most anxious to extend whatever protection they practically can. There is a man of the name of Thomas Miller, a Protestant, who prosecuted five persons to conviction; he was a farmer, holding fifty acres of land under a good lease, at 12s. an acre, having paid a considerable sum for the purchase of the interest; he was in his house in bed, at night, when his Catholic neighbour, a man of the name of Terrott, had his house violently attacked; Terrott made his escape, by bursting through a mud wall into another house, and ran off, and got some assistance from Miller, who rushed out in his shirt, giving the other man a gun, and having a double-barrelled pistol himself, and both ran immediately towards the house, where, having in vain sought Terrott, the party were ill-treating his wife and children; a mob of at least twenty-four persons arrived, some of them armed, engaged in this outrage, immediately advanced towards them, and Terrot besought Miller to fire on them; but this man, conducting himself with a degree of humanity and coolness that did him infinite credit, abstained from doing so until they had burnt priming twice or three times at him; they then rushed upon Miller, and he shot the man who seized him by the collar; the pistol was then knocked out of Miller's hand, and they beat him dreadfully, and left him in fact for dead. This man had been previously very much respected and regarded by all his neighbours, including those from whom he differed in religious persuasion. The Chief Justice, in passing sentence on one of the convicts, used these words :- You are much indebted to the representation made of you by that brave, gallant, and humane, and single-hearted character, Thomas Miller-that man who so nearly lost his life by the brutal and cruel violence of your associates, committed in your presence,

has stated you to be a young person of good conduct. I had a question put to him since your trial, with reference to that part of his evidence which represented you as stooping over his body and looking into his face, then within four inches of your own, and then weltering in his blood, whether that might not be attributed to a return of your good natural feeling, and to your wish to ascertain the extent of his danger; when that question was put to that honest man, he said at once, I would be glad to think so, and I believe it was so.' The Committee are to learn, however, that this excellent man, [is] compelled to contemplate, and, if possible, to effect the immediate expatriation of himself and all his family. A memorial, stating the facts of this case, was presented to the government, and they have signified, that if he contemplates remaining on his farm, there will be a police protection afforded to him; he has also been offered (but whether he will receive it or not I cannot say) a donation of 301.

"Does he live in a slated house?-I am not aware.

"Are you aware that the Irish Government, in similar cases to what you have stated, and where the parties lived in thatched houses, have given money to have their houses slated, and put in a state of defence ?-I should be very sorry to be understood, in what I have stated in reply to any previous question, or to this question, as at all advocating the case that the Irish Government are indifferent to the welfare of such persons; the contrary is distinctly my opinion and feeling; but I do not believe that the Irish Government are supplied with the proper means whereout to do that which their own wishes and good policy would lead them to do; they may in other cases, but I am not precisely aware in what particular cases they have furnished slated roofs in the manner mentioned, and I think it a wise thing to do. Two persons who gave evidence on the same trial, Terrott and Howse, have been offered the means of transporting themselves to America."-H. C., 1832, Nos. 5913-5.

Without the machinery of crown prosecutions, and the provision for witnesses in Ireland, the law, as far as

T

the repression of Whiteboy offences is concerned, would remain a dead letter; so complete is the system of terrorism directed against persons giving information in these cases. It is, however, worthy of remark, that this intimidation is not extended to jurors: at the seasons even of the greatest disturbance, there has been no difficulty in inducing persons to serve on common juries, and to convict prisoners where the evidence has been sufficient.

M. Barrington, Esq.:

"Have you given instances of the malignity of the people being infinitely greater towards magistrates who act under the Insurrection Act than towards jurors; have you not known such instances?—I have; I have never known instances of hostility to jurors, [at the same time that the persons who have been acting as jurors have been attacked, returning from the Insurrection Act, though they had been serving on a jury to try a capital offence, and on the Insurrection Act to try a transportable one*.] There is a rancour remaining in the country for years after, and a hostility against magistrates who act under the Insurrection Act; not the slightest against jurors."-H. C., 1832, No. 253.

It is difficult to understand on what principle jurors have been treated so leniently, while witnesses have been persecuted with such unrelenting cruelty. Perhaps they may have been spared from the feeling that the task of a juryman is thrown upon him by the law, and is not sought after by himself: whereas a witness comes forward spontaneously, and of his own mere motion; and therefore he seems to be gratuitously abetting a system which is the object of popular hatred.

*There is some imperfection in the report of the part of this passage which is inclosed in brackets. Its general purport seems, however, clear.