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After what has paffed in this Houfe and upon the notorie ty of the commotions referred to, I should think myself uftifiable in now moving an addrefs to the Crown, declaring that we were ready to give the most decided fupport to government in fuppreffing them, did I not think it neceffary to stop for one moment, to answer the charges that have been made against government, and to lay before the House what has come to my knowledge refpecting the proceedings of the infurgents.

Their commencement was in one or two parishes in the county of Kerry, and they proceeded thus:--The people affembled in a mafs-house, and there took an oath to obey the laws of Captain Right, and to ftarve the clergy. They then proceeded to the next parishes on the following Sunday, and there fwore the people in the fame manner, with this addition that they (the people last fworn) fhould, on the enfuing Sunday, proceed to the chapels of their next neighbouring parishes, and fwear the inhabitants of those parishes in like manner.

Proceeding in this manner they very foon went through the province of Munster. The first object of their reformation was tithes; they fwore not to give more than a certain price per acre-not to take from the minifter at a great price -not to affift or allow him to be affifted in drawing the tithe, and to permit no proctor. They next took upon them to prevent the collection of parish ceffes-then to nominate parish clerks, and in fome cafes curates-to fay what church fhould or should not be repaired; and in one case to threaten that they would burn a new church if the old one was not given for a mass-house.

At laft they proceeded to regulate the price of lands, to raife the price of labour, and to oppofe the collection of the hearth-money and other taxes.

In all their proceedings they have fhewn the greatest addrefs, with a degree af caution and circumfpection which is the more alarming, as it demonftrates fyftem and defign. Bodies of 5000 of them have been seen to march through the country unarmed, and if met by any magiftrate, who had fpirit to question them, they have not offered the smallest rudeness or offence; on the contrary, they have allowed perfons, charged with crimes, to be taken from amongst them by the magiftrates alone, unaided with any force.-Wherever they went they found the people as ready to take an oath to cheat the clergy as they were to propose it; but if any one did refift, the torments which he was doomed to undergo were too horrible even for favages to be fuppofed guilty of. In the middle of the night he was dragged from his bed, and buried alive in a grave lined with thorns, or he was fet naked on horfeback, and tied to a faddle covered with thorns;-in addition to this, perhaps his ears were fawed off-There is this day an account received of two military men, who had exerted themselves in the line of their duty, being attacked by a body of rightboys, and I fear murdered, for there is but little hope of their recovering of their wounds. The way in which the rightboys perpetratéd this crime was, the two men were walking together, armed, they fet a dog at them, when one of the men fired; he had no fooner thrown away his fire, than a multitude rushed upon the two from behind the ditches, and wounded them in a moft shocking manner.

Now, upon the beft enquiry that I have been able to make, it does not appear that there is the leaft ground to, accufe the clergy of extortion. Far from receiving the tenth, 1 know of no inftance in which they receive the twentieth part, I am very well acquainted with the province of Munfter, and I know that it is impoffible for human wretchednefs to exceed that of the miferable peasantry in that province. I know that the unhappy tenantry are ground to powder by relentlefs

relentless landlords-I know that, far from being able to give the clergy their juft dues, they have not food or raiment for themselves, the landlord grafps the whole; and forry I am to add, that not fatisfied with the present extortion, some landlords have been fo bafe to inftigate the infurgents to rob the clergy of their tithes, not in order to alleviate the dif treffes of the tenantry, but that they might add the clergy's fhare to the cruel rack-rents already paid. I fear it will require the utmost ability of parliament to come to the root of thofe evils. The poor people of Munster live in a more abject ftate of poverty than human nature can be supposed able to bear their miseries are intolerable, but they do not originate with the clergy; nor can the legislature stand by and fee them take the redress into their own hands: Nothing can be done for their benefit while the country remains in a ftate of anarchy.

Upon the beft confideration that I have been able to give the fubject, two circumftances, which have contributed to fpread the commotions, require to be immediately cor rected.

The firft is, that under the present existing law the kind of combination which pervades the province of Munster is deemed but a misdemeanor; it is a bailable offence, and no magiftrate can refufe to take bail for it.

The fecond is, the infufficiency and criminal neglect of magiftrates throughout the great county of Cork; there is fcarcely a magiftrate that will act. In the neighbourhood of the city of Cork indeed one gentleman, Mr. Mannix, exerted himself, much to his own honour and the public benefit. In the weft of the county, Mr. Cox alfo behaved with great propriety. If other magiftrates had acted in the fame manner these two gentlemen did, the commotions would not have exifted for a month.

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A right honourable friend of mine has declared, that he thinks it odd that government should have, upon a former occafion, prosecuted the steelboys for high treason, and they fhould have indicted the rightboys for a misdemeanor only. -I fhall tell him why? It would be very wicked and very oppreffive, indeed, for any lawyer to indict a man for high treafon, where the law had particularly described his crime and called it a mifdemeanor only; befides, I am free to own, that if by any ingenuity these combinations could be tortured into high treason, I would not be very ready to declare the whole province of Munfter in rebellion. At Clonmel, a man was indicted capitally, and though his offence was of a very black dye, and complicated with treachery, yet it was a matter of great difficulty to prevail on a jury to find him guilty, and when they did, they ftrongly recommended him to mer,

cy.

A charge has been made against government for fuppreffing informations against a sheriff's bailiff, and from this it has ever wifely been inferred that government abets the rightboys. Now as I have the information in my hand, I fhall fubmit them to the House, and whether it was poffible to ftrain an indictment out of it.

This is the information of Daniel Duggan, sheriff's bailiffy who acknowledges, that on the evening of Monday the 12th of June, returning home to Cloyne, he had occafion to stop He further confeffed, that he was then overtaken by two men, one of them a slender man in black clothes, who asked his name and where he dwelt; which be ing told, he asked if he knew Nick Dalton, John Ahern, and William Power? He faid he did; on which he defired him to go and tell them, Captain Right would be with them on Saturday night. He bid the man in black go himself, who faid, if he did not go, he would make an example. Being therefore in dread of his life, he went to the houfe of Dalton,

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and delivered him the faid meffage; afterwards meeting Ahern on the road, he delivered him faid meffage : And further fayeth not

The next is the infoamation of Catherine Ahern, wife of John Ahern. She fwears, that fhe came up to her husband, on the road between Cloyne and her house: that he was converfing with Daniel Duggan: that, on her coming up, her husband told her Duggan had a fummons for him from the whiteboys: that Duggan made no reply: that deponent and her husband returned home; and that the man in company with Duggan never spoke one word. And further this depo◄ nent fayeth not.

The next is the information of John Ahern. He was met on the road to Cloyne about ten o'clock at night, on the 12th of June, by Daniel Duggan, who asked him to drink a pot of porter, which he refused, it being late, Duggan then put his hand in his pocket, pulled out fome papers, and said he had a fum of money for deponent. Deponent apprehending faid fummons was a notice from the perfons called whiteboys, faid he would not take it. Duggan then pulled out a handful of papers, which by the little light that then was, depo nent believes were fummonfes; and Duggan faid, he had one for him, one for Nick. Dalton, one for James Garvan, and one for William Power, from thofe gentlemen, meaning, as deponent believes, the whiteboys. The man in black spoke not one word, and further this deponent fayeth not.

Now, I am bold to fay, that upon thefe informations it would puzzle all the crown lawyers in the three kingdoms to form an indictment, and if I had been in the place of the learned and honourable gentleman, that was fent down to profecute, I fhould not have hesitated a moment to have fuperfeded the committal, and discharged the man without bail. A man pulls out papers, which in the night, another

man

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