subject of religion?-Not as far as I have heard."—Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1825, pp. 420, 421.

Major General Bourke, Magistrate in the county of

Limerick.

"Have you had any opportunity of observing the causes of the disturbances in other parts of the country which have fallen under your observation?—I have, from sitting as a magistrate under the Insurrection Act, and from residing constantly in the country. I believe that, on the Courtenay estate, near Newcastle, where the disturbances commenced, there had been some oppressive measures adopted towards the tenantry; in addition to which I apprehend that the pressure of distress, occasioned by want of sufficient employment, by excessive rents, by low wages and prices, by tithes and local assessments, as also the general indisposition on the part of the people to respect the laws, owing, as I think, to the state of the law in Ireland, may be considered as the prominent causes of the disturbances."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Lords, 1825,

p. 172.

Most Rev. Dr. Kelly, R. C. Archbishop of Tuam.

"In the year 1820 very serious disturbances took place in the counties of Mayo and Galway ?--In part of the counties of Mayo and Galway.

"Does it come within your knowledge that the cause of those disturbances was attributable in any degree to the pressure of tithes?—They generally complained of tithes, taxes, grand jury cesses, vestry cesses, the payment of the Catholic clergy, the high price of land: all those things together.

"Were their complaints louder against the pressure of tithes than against the pressure of any other charges?—No; they complained equally of high rents, grand jury cesses, and church rates.

"Those disturbances were the origin of what are usually called the Whiteboy disturbances?-They were called Ribbonmen.

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Then the efforts of those Ribbonmen were not directed

specially against tithes?-Not by any means; they were directed more against landlords."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1825, pp. 259, 260.

John Leslie Foster, Esq., M. P.

"To what circumstances do you attribute the frequent recurrence of disturbances in Ireland of late years?—I think the proximate cause is the extreme physical misery of the peasantry, coupled with their liability to be called upon for the payment of different charges, which it is often perfectly impossible for them to meet; the immediate cause of disturbance I conceive to be the attempt to enforce these demands by the various processes of the law; we are also to take into consideration that they are living under institutions for which they have neither much affection nor much respect. I have assigned what I conceive to be the proximate causes of the disturbances; I think the remote one is a radically vicious structure of society which prevails in many parts of Ireland, and which has originated in the events of Irish history, and which may be in a great measure palliated, but which it would, I fear, be extremely difficult now wholly to change. Your Lordships will have the goodness to observe, that any description which may be given of society, or indeed of anything else as it exists in one part of Ireland, does not apply to others; in truth there are different districts of Ireland almost as unlike each other as any two countries in Europe.

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Have the goodness to specify the different charges to which the people are liable?—The first and most important is rent; the next in importance I conceive to be the tithe; the third are the county-rates; and the fourth are the parochial rates; I mean the parochial assessments connected with the Established Church; the fifth and last head of contribution to which they are liable are the payments for their own clergy. I am not aware that there are any others.

"No taxes?—I am not aware of any direct tax to which the occupier of land is liable; there are indirect taxes of course, but of those they are unconscious. There are no

local taxes other than what I have enumerated."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Lords, 1825, p. 53.

Matthew Singleton, Esq., Chief Magistrate of Police, in the Queen's County.

"Are the Committee to understand, that you consider that the spirit of outrage has not been got under ?-It has not.

"Can you give any hint to the Committee, as to what you consider likely to accomplish that desirable object ?—I think if the laws were amended in one, two, or three instances, which I will suggest, it would tend to the security of the public peace; there is scarcely an outrage committed relative to lands, but what the people assign a cause for, if I may use that expression; in some instances the unfortunate people do show

one.

"What are the Committee to understand by showing a cause?-Oppression, high rent, low wages, and contracts being broken. I had two prisoners before me, one of whom was a boy, a few days before I came here; they were apprehended on a warrant, to give bail and keep the peace, and they told me a story, which, if true, I think is very severe : they told me that their forefathers (that was the expression they made use of) were in possession of a certain small plot of land; that they had a lease not expired; that they sent up a half year's rent to Dublin to the landlord; it would not he taken; when they returned it was spent; by that time the second gale came round, and they were not able to pay the rent; and then they were permitted to give up the lands, on condition not to pay the rent due.

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That is to say, they were not called upon to pay the arrear? They were not called upon to pay the rent due, on the proviso of surrendering the lands.

Do you give credence to all the oppressions stated ?—In many cases I do give credence. I have seen, and I know land to be set one-third above its value; and I have seen, at least I have heard and believe, that small cottagers who had land without a lease, before the assimilation of the currency, are

now called upon to pay the same rent in British currency.". Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1832, Nos. 4100-4.

John Dillon, Esq., resident at Maryborough.

"As soon as the Orangemen in Mount Mellick were put down, about that period different poor people were ejected and put out of their holdings, and then a new feature was added to the Ribbon system. They then became Rockites: they are the same as the Shanabests, and different other bodies under different denominations in the county, who endeavoured to procure a rise of wages, to prevent people being turned out of their holdings and to lower the rents; they are now called Whitefeet.

"Do you think that the convictions at the last commission will check them?—It may do it partially; but if they continue suffering under hardships, and they are certainly very great, Whitefootism will revive again.

"What are the hardships under which they are suffering? -High rent, want of employment, low wages, and tithe, they consider the greatest hardships; but it is not one of the objects of the Whitefeet to put down tithes."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1832, Nos. 2349-56-7.

Rev. Michael Keogh, parish priest of Abbeyleix, Queen's County.

"Is it the habit in the Queen's County to refuse letting small portions of land to poor people?—Yes, it is.

"How long has that habit been exercised?-I think since the Sub-letting Act was introduced.

"Is it your opinion that any of the disturbance is attributable to that cause, from the want of power in the poor man to obtain small portions of land?-Yes, I am of that opinion.

"Is it not rather to be attributed to their being placed under the necessity of looking for iand?-Certainly; if they had land they need not seek for it."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1832, Nos. 4685-8.

Mr. John Wiggins, an Englishman, land-agent in Kerry.

"Have many of the political difficulties which have arisen in the south-west of Ireland within your knowledge arisen out of the relation of landlord and tenant?-I conceive the relation of landlord and tenant has given rise to that political commotion which we call Whiteboyism. I have found less tendency to that commotion where the occupying tenants hold of the immediate landlord under the new system; but where there are three or four middlemen over those people, they are goaded to become Whiteboys."-Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons Committee on State of the Poor in Ireland, 1830, No. 4030.

All the above witnesses agree in a remarkable manner with regard to the causes of the Whiteboy disturbances: all trace them to the miserable condition of the peasantry, to their liability to certain charges (the chief of which is rent) which they are often unable to meet; and to their anxiety to retain possession of land ; which, as Mr. Blackburne truly states, is to them a necessary of life, the alternative being starvation. With the dread of this alternative before their eyes, it is not to be wondered that they make desperate efforts to avert it that crime and disturbances should be the consequences of actual ejectment is still more natural.

The poor Irish tenant clings with the tenacity of a drowning man to his cabin and patch of potatoground*; so that if a landlord, for the purpose of consolidating farms, wishes to dispossess several cottiers, he is often compelled to expel them by force, and to throw down the houses, as otherwise they would return.

* On the difficulty which a landlord in Ireland finds in recovering possession, see De la Cour, Minutes of Evidence, House of Commons, 1825, p. 552.