spiracy to murder, and abetting in the murder of Robert Hall; but this we shall have occasion to notice in another place: suffice it to say, Mr. Hall was murdered, as described, in the forenoon, in a populous neighbourhood, where several must have been spectators, and in the midst of his tenantry, who should have been his protectors; and, yet, it is shocking to humanity to add, no hand was raised to avert the assassins' aim, no effort made to stop their flight; and, but for the most extraordinary and unremitting efforts ever used to elucidate the truth, this fell crime would still remain involved in mystery. Mr. Hall carried on most extensive works on his Demesne in its improvement, and, consequently, thereby afforded employment and support to many; he was, moreover, what is styled "a Liberal" in politics, and a great advocate for the mis-called "rights of the people ;" and yet such was the return he met with such was the measure of gratitude allotted to him!!! So much do such recitals savour of the fables of romance to ears not truly Irish, as to make them subjects of disbelief: to us they have not even the poor recommendation of novelty; they are the common-place details of similar every-day acts, and which now to pursue would not only extend to an almost indefinite space, but would fill with horror, more than interest, the well-disposed reader: pass we, therefore, on to the next species. The instances of employers being forced to part with farm Servants, who for honesty and diligencé in their Master's business become obnoxious to the ill-disposed; and so vice versa, the Master is often times obliged to retain in, or take back into, his employment the Servant who has been dishonest and neglectful! or, failing to do so, after warning to that effect, he suffers the penalty of his disobedience. The next class or species of outrages, and the last to be specially noticed, is, that of the frequent Burglarious Robbery of fire-arms-all other objects of plunder being disregarded by the persons committing those acts. A case which occurred within this month will prove this:-On Sunday, the 8th instant, the Glebe-house, close to the town of Cloughjordan, of the Rev. William T. Homan, Rector of Modreeny, was, during that gentleman's absence at his Church, entered by three armed men and robbed of fire-arms. In searching for these arms, a Desk was broken open which contained Bank notes, on seeing which, one of the gang, bringing forward a Domestic, made her reckon the money, and bound her by oath as to its safety until her master's return; another having broken a small China ornament, desired that Mr. Homan should be informed that the occurrence was accidental: and such are many of the cases. The next subject to be considered is not easily * See Appendix, No. 2. To un approached, it being one involved in more of doubt and mystery—namely, the origin of those outrages. At present it would appear to the casual observer that religious prejudices, or those of party or politics, formed none of the ground-works in the origin of agrarian outrages: such, however, are not the real facts of the case; for, though aggressions are now being directed against the possessors of property generally, with but little reference to sect or party, yet from the seeds of religious and party feelings have the present disturbances germinated. derstand this position, we must look so far back as the Revolutions of the 17th Century-to the forfeiture of Estates consequent thereon—and the introduction of a new race of Settlers into Ireland, the followers of William III., at the termination of those wars in 1691. These Settlers were naturally obnoxious to the subjugated Irish Catholics, who, from that time to the present, even in these days of emancipation, are not without their feelings of antipathy and jealousy towards the descendants of the Conquerors of Ireland: witness the various overt acts of rebellion, some even in the present century, for the overthrow of the British Throne in Ireland, and for the restoration of the forfeited Estates into the hands of Roman Catholics. Such has been the origin of the aggressions against the vested rights of property; but, to carry out that system with any degree of success, property must be assailed generally.* Yet, there is not an individual amongst the guilty actors who does not implicitly believe that Ireland will yet be theirs the result of a bloody Revolution. Hence the eagerness of the Irish peasant to be possessed of fire-arms; each stand of which is, in his opinion, the "Title-deed" to a valuable Estate in perspective. Illegal Societies having, therefore, first originated for the purposes of Party, arising out of religious rancour to the then possessors of property, the system has been, until the present day, going on increasing, as the words of the Latin Poet will describe— Parva metu primo; mox sese attollit in auras until, at last, no limit is set to those deeds of aggression. It is, however, to be remarked, that those illegal confederacies consist wholly of Roman Catholics, but, generally speaking, of the lowest and most ignorant classes of society; being confined, almost altogether ostensibly, to farm Servants and the younger branches of the families of small Farmers, who either are ignorant of, or connive at, the guilt of their sons. The incentives to crime are many and powerful, and hence follows its rapid increase; the most obvious of which shall now be noticed and in the first rank *See Appendix, No. 3. is that vicious and baneful political agitation, adopted of late years by unprincipled and artful Demagogues, for their own aggrandisement and profit-robbing a duped and ignorant people of their scanty and hardly. earned means of support, and plunging them into all the miseries of crime, by the dissemination of foul and seditious harangues, diffused through a Press enjoying too much liberty in its action-a Press, exercising that liberty to a most unwarrantable extent, and, subversive of humanity and loyalty, working, by the publication of inflammatory matter, on the feelings of a too credulous and excitable People. It may be here mentioned, that the portion of the Newspaper Press containing such objectionable matter is now much in the hands of the people, through the means of the various Temperance Society Committeerooms, and which, we regret to find, have been turned into places for political debates, and for holding Courts of inquiry into matters foreign to those they were, we will suppose, instituted for. And, though the Temperance Society has caused a great moral regeneration in Ireland, yet it is painful for one who holds it in respect to add, that, so far as regards the present disturbances in Tipperary, the operations of temperance are unfavourable towards their suppression. To the pernicious System of Money-lending, at rates of enormous Interest, as practised by the Smallmoney-lender of each locality, may be traced another powerful and fertile incentive to Crime. These B |