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in a state of perpetual alarm and fear. There is scarcely a guilty man in the county of Clare, who is not deliberating whether he will not inform on his guilty associates-whether he will not run a race with them, and combine to be the first to give evidence to the Crown. The consequence of this state of distrust and fear is, that multitudes desert their houses and ordinary occupations, and skulk about the country, scarcely daring to appear by day, or to sleep under a roof by night. This, as I am informed, is the condition of a large portion of the population of this country. It is the natural consequence of crime, which, if persevered in, must involve them in ruin. Recollect how often has it been said in this court, that no man could trust with safety to his associate in guilt. This is now felt and acknowledged universally.-Two days ago, we saw this truth exemplified on that table. Men who had been united by what was deemed the strongest of all possible ties-men associated in crime, and bound to go hand in hand in the work of spoliation and murder, we saw coming forward, and to save their own lives, without hesitation or compulsion, giving evidence against their guilty associates. After this, am I not right in saying, that as certainly as such men trust each other, so surely will they be betrayed. You are not aware, but it is the fact, (I shudder when I speak of it,) that I could have indicted a brother on the testimony of a brother, who was ready to give that testimony, in order to save his own life. This could have been done, but it would have outraged the laws of nature and humanity, and I, therefore, spurned the man who thus volunteered to take away the life of his own brother. But when we find a brother willing to violate the strongest ties of nature and affection-when we find such ties yield to the love of life-let me ask, if a brother cannot be trusted, who can *?"

It may indeed be thought a waste of words to dwell on the evil effects of a system, which not only exists in

* Limerick and Clare Special Commission, pp. 216, 217.

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defiance of the law, but is intended to supersede and overbear the law, and which is carried on by means of the most atrocious outrages. But illegal systems may exist and flourish, which do not, like Whiteboyism, affect the whole frame and composition of society. For example, smuggling is an illegal system, supported by violence, constantly rising up against the attempts of government to suppress it, and necessitating the maintenance of a separate military and naval establishment in order to contend with it. But smuggling might exist, and even in a considerable degree, for centuries, without producing worse effects than the loss of a certain portion of revenue, and the demoralizing of a certain small number of persons on the coasts, where the illicit traffic prevails. With Whiteboyism, however, it is far otherwise. This system pervades the whole society; it sets the rich against the poor, it sets the poor against the rich; it constantly actuates the whole agricultural population in their most ordinary dealings; it causes sleepless nights and anxious days to those who do not individually feel the weight of its vengeance. It is not the banding together of a few outcasts, who betake themselves to illegal courses, and prey on the rest of the community; but the deliberate association of the peasantry, seeking by cruel outrage to insure themselves against the risk of utter destitution and abandonment. Its influence, therefore, even when unseen, is general: it is, in fact, the mould into which Irish society is cast; the expression of the wants and feelings of the great mass of the community. So far as it is successful, it is an abrogation of the existing law, and an abolition of the existing govern

ment; for which it substitutes a dominion, beneficial apparently in its immediate consequences to the peasantry, but arbitrary, capricious, violent, unprincipled, and sanguinary, oppressive of the upper, and corruptive of the lower classes, and in the long run most pernicious to the entire society.

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CHAPTER VI.

SUGGESTIONS OF A REMEDY FOR IRISH
DISTURBANCES.

WE have now, by means of copious and authentic testimony, exhibited the whole scheme of Irish Whiteboyism; we have described the spirit which moves it, the form which it assumes, the measures which it adopts, and the effects which it produces. We have likewise traced the Whiteboy disposition to its source, and proved, by unimpeachable evidence, that it springs from the peculiar state of the peasantry which makes the possession of land a necessary of life. Having shown that the Irish disturbances have this origin, it is needless to say that there is no prospect of suppressing them by the fear of punishment, so long as the same causes continue in force. All species of legal severity, compatible with our form of government and our state of civilization, have been tried and have failed. Panarum exhaustum satis est*. Upon men who have nothing to hope in their actual state, and little to fear from the consequences of crime, it is vain to attempt to work with the ordinary engines of What influence can a ruler exercise on a man who despairs of being better, and yet can scarcely be worse? who has nothing to gain by obey

vernment.

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* "Till some step is taken in favour of tillage and the poor (said Dr. Campbell in 1775), Whiteboyism will probably remain, in defiance of all the severities which the legislative power can devise, or the executive inflict."-Philosophical Survey, p. 313.

ing the law, and nothing to lose by disobeying it? "When the heart is past hope (says the proverb), the face is past shame*." As well might we endeavour to resuscitate a corpse by administering medicine to it, as attempt, by offering a vain protection, or threatening a vain punishment, to work upon people so dead to motives upon which the very existence of government

is founded. But even if coercive measures had been more successful than they have proved,-if the law of the state had waged a more prosperous war with the law of the Whiteboy, it would be advisable to remove, as far as possible, the motive and tendency to disturbance. Without a criminal law a state could not exist; but the less reliance that is placed on this ultimate sanction, the sounder is the condition of the society. It is most expedient that diseases should be cured, when they exist, even by means of the most painful remedies, and the most torturing surgical operations; but it is far better to prevent the existence of a malady which necessitates such modes of treatment.

In order to ascertain what plan of prevention offers the best chance of success, or (rather it should be said) is exposed to the fewest chances of failure, it will be desirable to give a succinct view of the present state of the poorer class in Ireland, of that class by whom, and for whose benefit these disturbances are carried on.

In Ireland there is no legal provision for the poor; so that whenever a person is unable from any cause to maintain himself, or to obtain a maintenance from his relations, he is forced to have recourse to mendicancy. The causes which drive persons to mendicancy are

* "Chi non spera il bene, non teme il male."-MACHIAVEL

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