say, that all Associations of every description, in this country, whether of Orangemen or Ribbonmen-whether distinguished by the colour of Orange or of Green all combinations of persons, bound to each other (by the obligation of an oath) in a league for a common purpose, endangering the peace of the country, I pronounce them to be contrary to law. So long as those Associa tions are permitted to act in the lawless manner they do, there will be no tranquillity in this country; and particularly in the north of Ireland. There, those disturbers of the public peace, who assume the name of Orange Yeomen, frequent the fairs and markets, with arms in their hands, under the pretence of self-defence, or of protecting the public peace, but with the lurking view of inviting the attacks from the Ribbonmen-confident that, armed as they are, they must overcome defenceless opponents, and put them down. Murders have been repeatedly perpetrated upon such occasions; and, though legal prosecutions have ensued, yet, such have been the baneful consequences of those factious Associations, that, under their influence, Petty Juries have declined (upon some occasions) to do their duty. These facts have fallen under my own view. It was sufficient to say- such a man displayed such a colour, to produce an utter disbelief of his testimony; or, when another has stood with his hand at the bar, the display of his party badge has mitigated the murder into manslaughter.

That moderate pittance, which the high rents leave to the poor peasantry, the large county assessments nearly take from them; roads are frequently planned and made, not for the general advantage of the country, but to suit the particular views of a neighbouring land-holder, at the public expense. Such abuses shake the very foundation of the law they ought to be checked. Superadded to these mischiefs, are the permanent and occasional absentee land. lords, residing in another country, not known to their tenantry, but by their agents, who extract the uttermost penny of the value of the lands. If a lease happens to fall in, they set the farm by public auction to the highest bidder. No gratitude for past services. no preference of the fair offer-no predilection for the ancient tenantry, (be they ever so deserving.) - Nothing (as the peasantry imagine) remains for them, thus harassed and thus destitute, but with strong hand to deter the stranger from intruding upon their farms; and to extort from the weakness and terrors of their landlords, (from whose gratitude or good feelings they have failed to win it,) a kind of preference for their ancient tenantry.'

To these several causes of disturbance, we may add certain moral causes. There has existed an ancient connection, solitary in its nature, between the Catholic pastor and his flock. This connec

tion has been often, with very little reflection, inveighed against, by those who call themselves friends to the constitution in church and state. I have had judicial opportunities of knowing, that this connection between the Catholic pastor and his flock, has been, in some instances, weakened and nearly destroyed; the flock, goaded by their wants, and flying in the face of the pastor, with a lament able abandonment of all religious feeling, and a dereliction of all

regard

regard to that pastoral superintendance, which is so essential to the tranquillity of the country.'

6

I now come to another source of vice and mischief, with which you are, perhaps, unacquainted" Illicit Distillation." From this source, a dreadful torrent of evils and crimes has flowed upon our land. The excessive increase of rents had induced many persons to bid rents for their farms, which they knew they could not fairly or properly discharge; but they flattered themselves, that, in the course of years, the value of those farmis would rise still higher, and that thus they might ultimately acquire beneficial interests. In the mean time, they have had recourse to illicit distillation, as the means of making good their rents. Hence the Public Revenue has been defrauded to the amount of millions - Nay, it is a fact, that at one period not far back there was not a single licensed distillery in an entire province- namely the north-west circuit. The resident gentry of the county generally, winked with both their eyes at this practice, and why? because it brought home to the doors of their tenantry a market for their corn; and consequently increased the rents of their lands- besides they were themselves consumers of those liquors, and in every town and village there was an unlicensed house for retailing them. This consumption of spirits produced such pernicious effects that at length the executive powers deemed it high time to put an end to the system. The consequence was, that the people, rendered ferocious by the use of those liquors, and accustomed to lawless habits, resorted to force, resisted the laws, opposed the military, and hence have resulted riots, assaults, and murders.'

A grievance of too frequent occurrence in Ireland is the committal to jail of men in the lower ranks, on light and trivial grounds. Judge Fletcher mentions (p. 18.) that, on opening the Assizes of 1814 at Clonmell, he found a hundred and twenty names in the calendar; and that, notwithstanding this multitude of prisoners, the whole business was finished in three days, two persons only being guilty of serious crimes. At Waterford, the case was nearly similar; and the whole of his circuit proved, like all his preceding experience as a judge, that the counties declared by public rumour to be disturbed were in fact in the enjoyment of perfect tranquillity. Ireland,' he adds, has been favoured by nature with her richest gifts; let it not be asserted that its inhabitants are a race so vicious and depraved as are no where else to be found.' Happily, some instances of benevolent landlords occur, such as Earl Fitzwilliam in Wicklow and the Marquis of Hertford in Antrim; noblemen who give a preference to the tenant in possession, and never refuse to renew his lease on an advance merely proportioned to the general rise of the times. This, however, is far from satisfying the majority of Irish landlords; who, living at a distance from their tenants, have no scruple

in

in handing them over to the rapacity of the middle man, and are not ashamed to obtain from Grand Juries, at the expence of the middle and labouring classes, a variety of accommodations subservient to their personal convenience.

For my part, I am wholly at a loss to conceive how those permanent absentees can reconcile it to their feelings or their interests to remain silent spectators of such a state of things- or how they can forbear to raise their voices in behalf of their unhappy country, and attempt to open the eyes of our English neighbours; who, generally speaking, know about as much of the Irish as they do of the Hindoos. Does a visitor come to Ireland, to compile a book of travels, what is his course? He is handed about from one countrygentleman to another, all interested in concealing from him the true state of the country; all busy in pouring falsehoods into his ears, touching the disturbed state of the country, and the vicious habits of the people.

Such is the crusade of information upon which the English traveller sets forward; and he returns to his own country with all his unfortunate prejudices doubled and confirmed — in a kind of moral despair of the welfare of such a wicked race, having made up his mind that nothing ought to be done for this lawless and degraded country.

'Gentlemen, I will tell you what those absentees ought particularly to do they ought to promote the establishment of houses of refuge, houses of industry, school-houses, and set the example, upon their own estates, of building decent cottages. — Are the farms of an English land-holder out of lease, or his cottages in a state of dilapidation? he re-builds every one of them for his tenants, or he covenants to supply them with materials for the purpose. But how are matters conducted in this country? Why, if there is a house likely to fall into ruins, upon an expiring lease, the new rack-rent tenant must rebuild it himself: and can you wonder if your plantations are visited for the purpose, or if your young trees are turned into plough-handles, spade-handles, or roofs for their cabins? They are more than Egyptian task-masters, who call for bricks without furnishing a supply of straw.'

'Gentlemen, as to tythes, they are generally complained of as a great grievance. In the time in which we live, they are a tax upon industry, upon enterprize, and upon agricultural skill. Is a man intelligent and industrious does he, by agriculture, reclaim a tract of land, and make it productive of corn, he is visited and harassed by the Tythe Proctor; does his neighbour, through want of inclination or of skill, keep his farm in pasture and unimproved, he is exonerated from the burthen of tythes, and from the visitations of any clergy not belonging to his own church. Far be it from me to say, that tythes are not due to the clergy. By the law of the land, they have as good a title to their tythes as any of you have to your estates; and I am convinced that the clergyman does not, in any instance, exact what he is strictly entitled to. But this mode of assesment has been much complained of; and it is particularly felt in this country, because the Catholic receives no

spiritual

spiritual comfort from his Protestant rector; he knows him only through the Tythe Proctor, and he has moreover his own pastor to pay.

Gentlemen, you have in your power another remedy for public commotions. I allude to the assessment of the presentment money upon your county. It seems that the sum of 90ool. is now demanded to be levied: whether this sum is, or is not, an exorbitant one for this county, I know not. It falls wholly upon the occupying tenants or farmers. Pray keep this circumstance constantly in your minds. The benefit of this tax is your own. By its operation, you have your farms well divided and improved; good roads made round your estates; useful bridges and walls erected. Indeed, I have known counties which have been parcelled out to undertakers by baronies, and where no man could get a job without the consent of the baronial undertaker; they met and commuted, and it was thus agreed-"I give you your job here, and you give me my job there." I spoke freely of these things to the Grand Jury of the county of Tipperary;-what was the beneficial result? The Foreman (Mr. Bagwell) came forward soon afterwards from the Grand Jury-room, and stated publicly in Court, that, in consequence of my charge, he and his Fellow-Jurors had thrown out applications for presentments to the amount of 9600l. These may be presumed to be jobs, under pretence of building walls and bridges, filling hollows, lowering hills, &c. Here, indeed, was some good done by this sudden impulse of economy here were the fruits of a free and candid exhortation before the public eye.'

But there is one remedy, that would, in my estimation, more than any other, especially contribute to soothe the minds of the discontented peasantry, and, thereby, to enable them patiently to suffer the pressure of those burthens, which cannot, under existing circumstances, be effectually removed-I mean the "equal and impartial Administration of Justice;" of that justice which the rich can pursue, until it be attained; but which, that it may benefit the cottager, should be brought home to his door. Such an administration of justice would greatly reconcile the lower orders of the people, with the Government under which they live; and, at no very distant period, I hope, attach them to the law, by imparting its benefits, and extending its protection to them, in actual and uniform experience. Gentlemen, if you ask me, how may this be accomplished? I answer, by a vigilant superintendence of the administration of justice at Quarter Sessions, and an anxious observance of the conduct of all Justices of Peace. - Perhaps, the Commission of the Peace, in every county in the kingdom, should be examined. During a long war, in seasons of popular commotion, under Chief Governors, (all acting, unquestionably, with good intentions, but upon various principles, and different views,) it is not improbable, that many men have crept into the commission, who, however useful they might occasionally have been, ought not to remain. The needy adventurer - the hunter for preferment the intemperate zealot the trader in false loyalty the jobbers of absentees if any of these various descriptions of individuals

are

are now to be found, their names should be expunged from the Commission; and if such a mode of proceeding should thin the Commission, vacancies might be supplied, by soliciting every gentleman of property and consideration to discharge some part of that debt of duty, which he owes to himself and the country, by accepting the office of Justice of Peace. Should their number be inadequate to supply the deficiency, clergymen, long resident on their benefices, more inclined to follow the precepts of their Divine Master, by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked Catholic, (although, adhering to the communion of his fathers, he should conscientiously decline to receive from him spiritual consolation,) not harassing and vexing him by a new mode of tything, and an increase of tythes: but seeking to compensate the dissentients from his communion for the income he derives from their labour, by shewing a regard for their temporal welfare-attached to their Protestant flocks by a mutual interchange of good offices, by affection, and by habit: such a man, anxiously endeavouring, not to distract and divide, but to conciliate and reconcile all sects and parties, would, from his education, his leisure, his local knowledge, be a splendid acquisition to the magistracy, and a public blessing to the district committed to his care. Men of this description are retired and unobstrusive; but, I trust, if sought after, many such may be found.'

From Mr. Ensor's pamphlet, we have no inclination to make extracts. He seems to delight in treading on inflammable materials, such as the Violation of the Act of Union, the Treachery of Ministers, the Despotism of Government, the Jealousy of one Part of the Empire in regard to another,' and a variety of equally promising topics. His tract is divided into a succession of chapters, one of which treats of the State of landed Property in Ireland; another, of Tythes; a third, of the Conduct of the Executive Government; a fourth, of the late Insurrection-bills, &c. We are always desirous of listening to information with regard to Ireland, if we have reason to expect accurate and dispassionate statements: but, as we cannot view Mr. E.'s publication in that light, we must take our leave of him without farther ceremony, and again point the attention of our readers to the passages quoted from the aged and benevolent Judge.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE,

Art. 12.

FOR JUN E, 1816.

POETRY.

Waterloo, a Poem with Notes. By Henry Davidson,

Esq. Advocate. 8vo. pp. 115. 58. 6d. sewed.

1816.

Murray.

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