alty: their acknowledgment of past indulgence, and their

earnest confidence of future favour.*

With respect to the general state of Ireland at this period, the prospect is truly gloomy. It appears from the public accounts, that at Lady Day, 1759, the nation was in credit 65,774l. 4s. 1d.; however the arrears upon the establishments had increased so considerably towards the conclusion of that year, that it besame necessary to order 150,000/. to be raised at 4 per cent. upon debentures to be made transferable..... This is to be considered, as the funded debt of Ireland: for the payment of the interest of this sum, certain duties were granted. In the beginning of 1760, his late majesty having ordered a considerable augmentation of his forces, it became necessary to recur to another loan to raise the intended levies; and accordingly a vote of credit was passed by the commons for raising 300,000t. at 5 per cent. and as it was found difficult to obtain the former loan at 4 per cent. an additional interest of 1 per cent. was ordered to be given for the 150,000/. before mentioned.†

* These two addresses are to be seen in the Appendix, No. LXVII.

† The late respectable and patriotic Hely Hutchinson, gives the following just account of the national distress on account of the decline of public credit. (Com. Rest. p. 59.) "The revenue, for the reasons already given, decreased "in 1755, fell lower in 1756, and still lower in 1757. In the last year, the "vaunted prosperity of Ireland was changed into misery and distress; the "lower classes of our people wanted food, the money arising from the extravagance of the rich was freely applied to alleviate the sufferings of the poor. "One of the first steps of the late Duke of Bedford's administration, and "which reflects honour on his memory, was obtaining a king's letter, dated "31st of March, 1757, for 20,0001. to be laid out as his grace should think "the most likely to afford the most speedy and effectual relief to his majesty's poor subjects of this kingdom. His grace, in his speech from the throne, "humanely expresses his wish, that some method might be found out to pre"vent the calamities, that are the consequences of a want of corn, which had " been in part felt the last year, and to which this country had been too often "exposed. The Commons acknowledge, that those calamities had been frequently and were too sensibly and fatally experienced in the course of the " last year; thank his grace for his early and charitable attention to the neces"sities of the poor of this country in their late distresses, and make use of "those remarkable expressions, "that they will most cheerfully embrace every "practicable method to promote tillage." They knew that the encouragement " of manufactures were the effectual means, and that these means were not " in their power. The ability of the nation was estimated by the money in "the treasury, and the pensions on the civil establishment, exclusive of French, "which at Lady Day 1755, were 38,003/. 15s. Od. amounted at Lady Day "1757, to 49,2931. 15s. Od.

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"The same ideas were entertained of the resources of this country in the "session of 1759. Great Britain had made extraordinary efforts, and engaged " in enormous expences for the protection of the whole empire. This country " was in immediate danger of an invasion. Every Irishman was agreed, that " she should assist Great Britain to the utmost of her ability, but this ability was too highly estimated. The nation abounded rather in loyalty than in "wealth. Our brethren in Great Britain had however formed a different opi"nion, and surveying their own strength, were incomplete judges of our

It is an unexceptionable axiom, that a distressed peasantry argues a corrupt or unwise government: the excesses therefore of desperate wretchedness are to be immediately sought in the soreness and irritation of the sufferers: though the efficient cause of the suffering must be traced to an higher and less responsible source. From the accession of the Hanover family, the execution of the Popery laws in Ireland had, as far as the personal disposition of the sovereign could influence the conduct of the Irish administration, been softened and mitigated. The rebellions of 1715 and 1745 had been raised and suppressed, without the slightest tarnish to the loyalty of Ireland ;* prone as her enemies ever have been to invent and provoke cause of persecution and punishment in that devoted kingdom. In the general rejoicing of the British empire at the descent of the crown upon a native monarch crowned with early laurels of vic

"weakness. A lord lieutenant of too much virtue and magnanimity to speak "what he did not think, takes notice from the throne, of the prosperous state * of this country, improving daily in its manufactures and commerce. His "grace had done much to bring it to that state, by obtaining for us some of "the best laws in our books of statutes. But this part of the speech was "not taken notice of, either in the address to his majesty, or to his grace, " from a House of Commons well disposed to give every mark of duty and "respect, and to pay every compliment consistent with truth. The event proved the wisdom of their reserve. The public expences were greatly "increased, the pensions on the civil establishments, exclusive of French, at "Lady Day, 1759, amounted to 55,4971. 5s. od.: there was at the same time "a great augmentation of military expence. Six new regiments and a troop " were raised in a very short space of time. An unanimous and unlimited ad"dress of confidence to his grace, a specific vote of credit for 150,000/. " which was afterwards provided for in the loan bill of that session, a second "vote of credit in the same session for 300,000/., the raising the rate of inte" rest paid by government one per cent. and the payment out of the treasury " in little more than one year, of 703,9571. 3s. 1.1-2d. were the consequences " of those encreased expences. The effects of these exertions were imme"diately and severely felt by the kingdom. These loans could not be sup"plied by a poor country, without draining the bankers of their cash; three of "the principal houses (Clement's, Dawson's, and Mitchell's,) among them

stopped payment, the three remaining banks in Dublin discounted no paper, "and in fact did no business. Public and private credit, that had been droop"ing since the year 1754 had now fallen prostrate. At a general meeting of "the merchants of Dublin, in April 1760, with several members of the House " of Commons, the inability of the former to carry on business was universally " acknowledged, not from the want of capital, but from the stoppage of all paper circulation, and the refusal of the remaining bankers to discount the bills "even of the first houses."

• It is notorious that when Murray, the Pretender's secretary, gave up all the letters and papers relative to the last rebellion in Seotland, a scheme which had been planning and contriving for seven years before, it plainly appeared, that the Jacobite party had no dependance upon or connection or correspondence with any Roman Catholic in Ireland. The very name of that kingdom not having been once mentioned throughout the whole correspondence. When in March, 1762, a general fast was ordained by the government for the success of his majesty's arms, the form of prayer and exhortation to the Roman Catholic congregations in Ireland were as staunchly loyal as any of the establishment, as may be seen in the Appendix, No. LXVIII.

tory in the wide extent of the war, in which he found his people engaged, Ireland alone was doomed to weep. In the southern province of that kingdom great misery, great soreness, and great disturbances existed in the lowest class of the wretched peasantry. They being chiefly Catholics, religion of course was stupidly and maliciously saddled with the cause of these riots. The insurgents at first committed their outrages at night; and appearing generally in frocks or shirts were denominated white-boys: they seized arms and horses, houghed the cattle, levelled the enclosures of commons, turned up new made roads, and perpetrated various other acts of outrage and violence. These unfortunate wretches, as is the case in all insurgencies, raised a popular cry against the rapacity and tyranny of their landlords: against the cruel exactions of tithemongers, and against the illegal enclosures of commons.

The only useful allusion to past riots, the only seasonable reflections, that arise out of them, the only fair historical purpose, to which the details of them can be applied, are such as tend to their future prevention. The most pointed exhortations to the discontented mass, but tend to aggravate whilst their soreness lasts; little avails it in the moment of fermentation whether their grievances be ideal or real; whether the cause of their irritation be just or groundless. Few, if any of the deluded multitude will read the history of their own misconduct in the pages, which fall under the perusal of those, who alone command the efficient means of prevention. Various causes about this period concurred in reducing this forlorn peasantry to the most abject wretchedness. An epidemic disorder of the horned cattle had spread from Holstein through Holland into England, where it raged for some years, and consequently raised the prices of beef, cheese, and butter to exorbitancy; hence pasturage became more profitable than tillage; and the whole agriculture of the south of Ireland, which had for some time past flourished under the mild administration of the Popery laws, instantly ceased; the numerous families, which were fed by the labour of agriculture, were turned adrift without means of subsistence. Cottiers being tenants at will were every where dispossessed of their scanty holdings, and large tracts of grazing land were set to wealthy monopolizers,* who, by feeding cattle, required few hands, and paid higher rents. Pressed by need, most of these unfortunate peasants sought shelter in the neighbouring towns, for the sake of begging that bread which they could no longer earn: and the only piteous resource of the affluent was to ship off as many as would emigrate to seek maintenance or death in foreign climes. The price then paid for the little labour, that was done, kept not pace with the rise of necessaries: it exceeded not the wages given in the days of Elizabeth. The landlords demanded extravagant rents from their cottiers, and to reconcile them to their lettings, they allowed them generally a right of common, of which they soon again deprived them by enclosures; the absolute inability of these oppressed tenants to pay their tithes beside their landlord's rent, made them feel the exaction and levying of them by the proctors, as a grievance insupportable.* These insurrections became daily more alarming to go

* Consequences have flowed (says Mr. Young) from these oppressions, which ought long ago to have put a stop to them. In England we have heard much of White Boys, Steel Boys, Oak Boys, Peep of day Boys, &c. But these various insurgents are not to be confounded, for they are very different. The proper distinction in the discontents of the people is into Protestant and Catholic. All but the White Boys were among the manufacturing Protestants in the North. The White Boys Catholic labourers in the South. From the best intelligence I could gain, the riots of the manufacturers had no other foundation, but such variations in the manufacture as all fabrics experience, and which they had themselves known and submitted to before. The case, however, was different with the White Boys, who, being labouring Catholics, met with all those oppressions I have described, and would probably have continued in full submission, had not very severe treatment in respect of tithes, united with great speculative rise of rents about the same time, blown up the flame of resistance; the atrocious acts they were guilty of made them the object of general indignation; acts were passed for their punishment, which seemed calculated for the meridian of Barbary; this arose to such a height, that by one they were to be hanged under circumstances without the common formalities of a trial, which, though repealed the following sessions, marks the spirit of punishment; while others remain yet the law of the land, that would, if executed, tend more to raise than quell an insurrection. From all which it is manifest, that the gentlemen of Ireland never thought of a radical cure from overlooking the real cause of the disease, which in fact lay in themselves, and not in the wretches they doomed to the gallows; let them change their own conduct entirely, and the poor will not long riot. Treat them like men who ought to be as free as yourselves; put an end to that system of religious persecu. tion, which for seventy years has divided the kingdom against itself: in these two circumstances lies the cure of insurrection, perform them completely, and you will have an affectionate poor, instead of oppressed and discontented vassals. (Young's Tour, vol. ii. p. 41, 42.) The late Lord Taaffe, whose high sense of honour, frankness, and independence had endeared him personally to his sovereign, as well as to all who knew him, has spoken of these Munster insurrections in a manner that cannot fail to carry full conviction to the unbiassed reader. (Observations on the affairs of Ireland, 2 edit. 1767, p. 19) "insurrection of some of the cottagers, in a few counties of Munster, is no "exception to the duty they owe and pay to their sovereign; nor is it fair "to reproach them with the madness of a route of peasants, wearied with life, " and desperate from invincible poverty. The whole body of Roman Catholics, "however, have been reproached, and are in some degree reproached still on "this account. It has turned out a very serious and tragical affair, and had it "not proved so, it would be cause of mirth to consider, how keen the appetite "for Popish plots must have been, which fed upon the idea, that France on the "conclusion of a treaty of peace with Britain, and evidently interested in the temporary observance of it, should immediately employ here the prevailing "plenipotentiaries of money, arms, and officers to conclude another private treaty with the Munster rabble, and all this with the view of exciting a * Popish massacre and rebellion through every quarter of this kingdom. Such

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vernment:* they instituted a commission of some gentlemen, of distinguish loyalty and eminence in the law, to enquire

" is the idea that has been propagated, and so sillily have some played their "game, that they admitted every body to look into their hands. It is happy •" that they did so. Others were less to be blamed for being seduced to think, " like Scrub in the play, that there must be a plot because they knew nothing "about it. But men of good sense, the friends of their country and of virtue, " went upon surer grounds, shewed no unwillingness to be well informed, and " are now very successfully pushing this affair into day-light. In and out of "the parliament they are doing good; and may their country receive the full "benefit of their moderation and patriotism. The Irish Catholics easily fore"saw that the disorders of the Munster levellers would affect them; and on "the first rising of that mob addressed the Earl of Halifax, then in the go"vernment, with the strongest assurances of their allegiance to his majesty. " The superiors of the Catholic clergy in that province, were at the same time " edifyingly active in pressing the duty of obedience and loyalty on their peo"ple.. This is well known. He of Waterford exerted himself, by giving the "government the best and earliest intelligence he could get of the intentions " and motions of those miscreants. He of Ossory distinguished himself also, " by excellent instructions (published in the public papers) for the civil con"duct of the people under his care. They issued excommunications, and de"nounced in vain the most tremendous censures of the Church against the in" corrigible and obstinate."

* In the month of January, 1762, the White Boys first appeared, and in one night dug up twelve acres of rich fattening ground, belonging to Mr. Maxwell, of Kilfinnam, in the county of Limerick. A special commission was immediately issued to try them, when two of them were found guilty, Bangyard and Carthy, and executed at Gallows Green, the 19th of June. (Hist. of Lim. p. 129.)

Doctor Campbell makes the following observations upon the state of the White Boys. Ph. Sur. p. 293. After considering all this, yet seeing at the same time that the greater, and certainly the best part of what I have seen, instead of being in a progressive state of improvement, is verging to depopulation; that the inhabitants are either moping under the sullen gloom of inactive indigence, or blindly asserting the rights of nature in nocturnal insurrections, attended with circumstances of ruinous devastation and savage cruelty, must we not conclude, that there are political errors somewhere? Cruelty is not in the nature of these people more than of other men; for they have many customs among them, which discover uncommon gentleness, kindness, and affection. Nor are they singular in their hatred of labour; Tacitus's character given of the Germans, applies to them, and all mankind in a rude state, mira diversitate naturæ, cum iidem bomines, sic ament inertiam, sic oderint quictem. At present their hands are thed up, and they have neither the actions of a savage, nor the industry of civilized people. There is no necessity for recurring to natural disposition, when the political constitution obtrudes upon us so many obvious and sufficient causes of the sad effects we complain of. The first is, the suffering avarice to convert the arable lands into pasture. The evils arising from this custom in England, were so grievous, that Lord Bacon tells us, in the reign of Henry VII. a statute was enacted to remedy them. But the mischief still increasing, Henry VIII. revived all the ancient statutes, and caused them to be put in execution. Yet notwithstanding this care, so great was the discontent of the people, from poverty occasioned by decay of tillage and increase of pasturage, that they rose in actual rebellion in the reign of Edward VI. and sharpened by indigence and oppression, demolished in many counties the greatest part of the inclosures. Here you see an exact prototype of the present disturbances in Munster, carried on by the rabble, originally called levellers, from their levelling the inclosures of commons, but now White Boys, from their wearing their shirts over their coats, for the sake of distinction in the night. There it was a rebellion, here it is only a star-light insur

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