A Tour in Ireland | Page 9

on the middling
and lower farmers in order to support their cause, by paying attorneys,
etc., in defending prosecutions against them; and many of them
subsisted for some years without work, supported by these
contributions. Sometimes they committed several considerable
robberies, breaking into houses, and taking the money, under pretence
of redressing grievances. In the course of these outrages they burnt

several houses, and destroyed the whole substance of men obnoxious to
them. The barbarities they committed were shocking. One of their usual
punishments (and by no means the most severe) was taking people out
of their beds, carrying them naked in winter on horseback for some
distance, and burying them up to their chin in a hole filled with briars,
not forgetting to cut off their ears. In this manner the evil existed for
eight or ten years, during which time the gentlemen of the country took
some measures to quell them. Many of the magistrates were active in
apprehending them; but the want of evidence prevented punishments,
for many of those who even suffered by them had no spirit to prosecute.
The gentlemen of the country had frequent expeditions to discover
them in arms; but their intelligence was so uncommonly good by their
influence over the common people, that not one party that ever went
out in quest of them was successful. Government offered large rewards
for informations, which brought a few every year to the gallows,
without any radical cure for the evil. The reason why it was not more
effective was the necessity of any person that gave evidence against
them quitting their houses and country, or remaining exposed to their
resentment. At last their violence arose to a height which brought on
their suppression. The popish inhabitants of Ballyragget, six miles from
Kilkenny, were the first of the lower people who dared openly to
associate against them; they threatened destruction to the town, gave
notice that they would attack it, were as good as their word, came two
hundred strong, drew up before a house in which were fifteen armed
men, and fired in at the windows; the fifteen men handled their arms so
well, that in a few rounds they killed forty or fifty. They fled
immediately, and ever after left Ballyragget in peace: indeed, they have
never been resisted at all without showing a great want of both spirit
and discipline. It should, however, be observed, that they had but very
few arms, those in bad order, and no cartridges. Soon after this they
attacked the house of Mr. Power in Tipperary, the history of which is
well known. His murder spirited up the gentlemen to exert themselves
in suppressing the evil, especially in raising subscriptions to give
private rewards to whoever would give evidence or information
concerning them. The private distribution had much more effect than
larger sums which required a public declaration; and Government
giving rewards to those who resisted them, without having previously

promised it, had likewise some effect. Laws were passed for punishing
all who assembled, and (what may have a great effect) for
recompensing, at the expense of the county or barony, all persons who
suffered by their outrages. In consequence of this general exertion,
above twenty were capitally convicted, and most of them executed; and
the gaols of this and the three neighbouring counties, Carlow,
Tipperary, and Queen's County, have many in them whose trials are put
off till next assizes, and against whom sufficient evidence for
conviction, it is supposed, will appear. Since this all has been quiet, and
no outrages have been committed: but before I quit the subject, it is
proper to remark that what coincided very much to abate the evil was
the fall in the price of lands which has taken place lately. This is
considerable, and has much lessened the evil of hiring farms over the
heads of one another; perhaps, also, the tithe-proctors have not been
quite so severe in their extortions: but this observation is by no means
general; for in many places tithes yet continue to be levied with all
those circumstances which originally raised the evil.
July 15. Leaving Courtown, took the Arklow road; passed a finely
wooded park of Mr. Ram's, and a various country with some good corn
in it. Flat lands by the coast let very high, and mountain at six or seven
shillings an acre, and some at eight shillings or ten shillings. Passed to
Wicklow, prettily situated on the sea, and from Newrybridge walked to
see Mr. Tye's, which is a neat farm, well wooded, with a river running
through the fields.
Reached in the evening Mount Kennedy, the seat of General
Cunninghame, who fortunately proved to me an instructor as assiduous
as he is able. He is in the midst of a country