"In your opinion, what are the causes of those disturbances? --I should think they have proceeded from different causes in the different counties. In the county of Limerick, I apprehend that they commenced upon Lord Courtenay's estate, and that there was a good deal of oppression practised upon that estate: in the county of Kerry, the disturbances were, I think, a good deal owing to the total want of employment for the peasantry, and the consequent great distress and suffering; and perhaps a good deal so in the county of Cork, but I know more of the county of Kerry; I think those are the proximate causes in those two counties."- Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1824, p. 247.

John O'Driscol, Esq., Barrister, resident in the county of Cork.

"What do you consider to have been the cause of those extensive disturbances that have existed in the county of Cork, and the adjoining counties?—I think there were a great number of causes combined; the immediate cause no doubt was the distress of the people, and the want of food.

"Did the state of rents contribute, in your opinion, to lead to a spirit of insurrection ?-No doubt of it; rents and tithes, I think, were both in that part of the country extraordinarily high.

"Was there much oppression practised in forcing the payment of those high rents ?-Yes, a great deal of oppression. Were the claims for tithe very high also ?—The tithes were also very high.

"Was the rate of tithe required, at all reduced in proportion to the fall of prices?—I do not think they were reduced at all in proportion to the fall of prices; they were reduced but very slowly and very inadequately to the fall of prices.

"Do the landlords and the clergy put in force all the rigours of the law, in endeavouring to enforce payment of those high rents and tithes ?—I think they do very generally; there are a considerable number of middlemen in that part of the country, who are by habit, and perhaps by necessity, severe.

"Was it not utterly impossible for the people to pay the rates

of tithe and rent that were claimed from them ?—I think the rent and tithe, and other charges on the land, made it utterly impossible for the people to pay anything like the demands.

"Are you of opinion that any political feelings have contributed to render the common people discontented, and disposed to embark in insurrectionary projects?-Yes, I am sure political feeling always mixes with these disturbances; when there are disturbances arising from any immediate pressure upon the people, political causes always come in to aggravate and to increase those disturbances.

"What is the nature of those political feelings?—I think they arise altogether out of the distinctions which the law makes betwixt Catholic and Protestant."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1824, p. 381.

Richard Griffith, Esq., civil engineer, employed by the government in conducting public works in the counties of Cork, Limerick, and Kerry.

"Were they in a state of quiet in that part of the country [County of Limerick]?—They were at that time [1822]; the disturbances had just subsided.

"When did they begin again?—In the spring of the year 1823.

"Had you an opportunity of observing what was the cause of that renewal of disturbance?-I can hardly give an opinion upon what was the cause; there were several causes which may be adduced; the apparent causes were the high rents and the low price of agricultural produce, which created great distress among the people; but the Whiteboy system was the prime mover of all. The people themselves attributed the disturbances to distress, arising from the causes I have mentioned."Minutes of Evidence, House of Lords, 1824, p. 36.

William Henry Worth Newenham, Esq., resident in the county of Cork.

"What has been the general effect of carrying into execution the Insurrection Act in those parts ?-It has been attended with great advantage.

"Does it appear to you that it has stopped the outrages only, or altered the disposition of the people to commit outrages? It has stopped the outrages; I do not think the disposition of the people much altered.

"Can you judge of the causes that created that disposition to outrage?—There are several causes: we have a very dense population, with I may say comparatively very little employment; the system of letting to middlemen I consider another cause, and the tithe also has been complained of as a cause.

66 Do any other exciting causes occur to you at this moment, as having contributed to create the outrages ?-The heretofore high rent of land I consider as another cause.

66

In what way occasioned by competition ?-Decidedly by competition; people are very much in the habit, in my part of the country, of overbidding one another, for the purpose of getting possession of land.

"Did it appear that the rent so paid was more in value than the produce of the land would authorize?-Very frequently more than it fairly ought to pay."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Lords, 1824, p. 181.

Justin McCarty, Esq., Magistrate, resident in the county of Cork.

"What do you consider to have been the immediate causes of the disturbed state of the country in your neighbourhood?— I conceive the immediate causes were the exertions that were made to seduce a very large population without the means of employment, and who were particularly obnoxious to the attempts of individuals, from the state in which they were placed from the revolution that took place after the war; and who were suffering from the fall of prices, from high rents, and the debts that they owed. I conceive the attempts that were made to disseminate those prophecies [of Pastorini] as one great cause. The immediate disturbances proceeded from individuals having been sent into the country to excite the people, and to take the lead."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Lords, 1824, p. 208.

Marquis of Westmeath, resident in the county of Westmeath.

"You refer the disposition to disturbance which prevails more or less in Ireland, in a great measure to the miserable situation of the occupying tenants?—I do, certainly, of a great many of the occupying tenants; the prosperity of an estate must more or less depend upon the proprietor of it, that is, the person having the possession: but the proprietors, in many instances, have nothing to do with their own estates."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Lords, 1824, p. 229.

Rev. John Keily, parish priest of Mitchelstown, county of Cork.

66

Is not some of the most disturbed part of the county of Cork contiguous to your parish, Kildorrery? The disturbances have come to the Rock Mills; in fact, I have traced the disturbances very early, and I have particularly traced them along the two highways from the county of Limerick to Cork. There are a number of carmen travelling constantly, believe, extolling the system that then prevailed in the county of Limerick; they made an impression upon the people as they went along, and they prepared them for receiving the system more than other parts of the county were prepared.

"Do you trace the system from the county of Limerick?— From the county of Limerick undoubtedly to the county of Cork. If it was an object to the Committee, I would enter more into detail, because I have made it my particular study, and I published two letters in the Southern Reporter, addressed to Mr. Hyde, and signed a Well Wisher. I found, by some means or other, I was known to be the author, and I thought it right to stop; but the fact was, that the disturbances originated in the western part of the county of Limerick, through the conduct of Mr. Hoskins. The times were very bad for the farmers, and there was a peculiar kind of gentry, a kind of middle order between the rich gentry of the country and the peasantry; persons who were generated by the excessive rise of the agricultural produce during the war, and got the educa

tion of persons above their rank; by the fall of the times these were reduced to their original level. Without the habit of labour, they associated with the lowest description, and in order to keep themselves in the possession of their lands, and so forth, they deferred to the system, and hence, I believe, arose the organization in the system itself, that could not have been devised by the lowest order of the peasantry. In many instances, the persons alluded to had the cunning to keep themselves a good deal out of view, but when the system began to explode they left the country, and they carried the feeling with them in their course; some were outlawed, and some went from one place to another; they had friends, and as they went along they tainted others; that is, as far as I could learn. I undertook several journeys on purpose to make myself acquainted with the system, and from a vast relationship in the county of Cork, among a certain description of people, I believe I made myself tolerably well acquainted with it."Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1825, pp. 401, 402. Rev. Thomas Costello, parish priest of Abington, county of Limerick.

66

What was their distinct object ?-From the history of the disturbance, as it has now been found by experience, it appears that it originated in the conduct of a gentleman on the Courtenay estate. He was very severe towards the tenants, and the people who were in wealth previous to that, were reduced to poverty, and they thought proper to retaliate upon him and his family, and upon those who took their lands, and this was the origin of it; and the same spirit so spread all over the country, that if a person made an offer for another man's farm, a party was made up to attack him. If the landlord was considered severe, there were notices served, and his house attacked, and from this general principle private parties were formed who began robbing in the country; they demanded at every house a sovereign, as they said, to procure powder and ball for the general cause of redressing wrongs, but in fact they were only private robbers.

"Was there anything in their oaths connected with the