that in which the offence was committed, mounted on horses seized from the owners for the occasion; and that other outrages of the same character were committed in two baronies of the county which they wished to have proclaimed.

In the same month an applica tion to the same effect was received from a meeting of thirty magistrates of the county of Li merick, contained in a Memorial representing the continuance of disturbance in certain districts of that county which were specified; and from magistrates

of the county of Meath, who urged the necessity of enforcing the Insurrection Act in certain baronies of that county in which disturbance was alleged to prevail. The lords justices did not enforce the Insurrection Act, in any instance, in consequence of these Memorials; but required the magistrates by whom they had been preferred to send depositions on oath of the several outrages which had been committed in their respective counties. Depositions on oath were accordingly transmitted, in consequence of this requisition, by the several gentlemen who had presided at the meetings of the magistrates.

Immediately on my return to Ireland, I took into consideration the several applications which I have before mentioned, and though

*Tulla and Bunratti.

+ The baronies of Pubblebrien, Coshima, Kenry, with the exception of some parishes, parts of the barony of Lower Connellan, Costlea, and Small Courty.

Demifore, Upper and Lower Kells, and some adjoining parts.

I found in them strong proofs of the spirit of disturbance and lawless combination which the magistrates had complained of; yet being naturally reluctant to have recourse to measures of extreme rigour, till all hopes of producing tranquillity by other means should have failed, I conveyed to the magistrates my intention still to postpone the enforcement of the Insurrection Act.

The first instance in which I deemed it expedient to call into operation the provisions of this law occurred in the county of Tipperary. A meeting of the magistrates of this county took place on the 22d of December 1815, for the purpose of taking the state of it into consideration; and I received from that meeting, at which forty magistrates attended, an unanimous application, that six baronies of the county might be proclaimed under the Insurrection Act. This application was accompanied by 58 depositions on oath respecting various outrages committed, for the most part, with the view of procuring arms.

I did not hesitate to give immediate effect to this application. The provisions of the act, which enabled me to appoint an extraordinary establishment of police, had been in operation in one district of the county* upwards of a year, and in a second † about four months. The exertions of that police had been unremitting, and many daring offenders had been apprehended. Among the

* The barony of Middlethird. The baronies of Kilnamanagh and Eliogarty.

resident

resident magistrates great unanimity and cordiality had for some time past prevailed, and to many of them the utmost credit is due for the zeal and activity with which they discharged their duties. The combined efforts, however, of the magistracy and of the police, aided by a very considerable military force, were insufficient to contend with that lawless spirit and audacity in the commission of crime, which placed in continual hazard the lives and properties of the peaceable and well-disposed inhabitants.

No less than four attacks had been made within a short period, by considerable bodies of armed men, upon the coaches conveying the mails through this county, although they were accompanied by a military escort: on these occasions some of the dragoons were killed, and other persons wounded.

In the barony of Kilnamanagh, a house had been hired as a temporary barrack for the accommodation of a military party, which, with the house adjoining it, was entirely destroyed in the month of September, by a very large body of men in arms, provided with various instruments of attack. A written notice was left, stating that it was resolved to destroy in the same manner any house taken by the government for a similar purpose.

Fortunately for the peace of the country, thirteen persons, together with their leader in this attack (the son of a farmer of considerable property), were capitally convicted at the special commission, subsequently held in this

county, in the month of January, 1816.

The weekly reports made to government by the magistrates superintending the police establishments, mentioned repeated instances wherein the houses of respectable inhabitants had been attacked, (in some cases in the day time), and the occupiers compelled to deliver up their arms. Several murders had been committed, particularly upon persons employed in the collection or valuation of tithes. One person thus occupied, though accompa nied by eight armed men for his protection, was killed in the daytime, and his party disarmed, within a short distance of the city of Cashel.

In the early part of the month of September, in consequence of the repeated acts of outrage which were committed in the counties of Tipperary and Limerick, and the violent and open manner in which the law was set at defiance, 1 directed a large additional military force, under the command of Lieutenant-General Meyrick, to march into these counties, with the view of aiding the civil power, and giving that confidence to the respectable and well-disposed inhabitants, which might induce them to remain in the country, and co-operate with the government in attempting to maintain tranquillity.

On receiving, on the 25th of September, the memorial which I have above alluded to, proceeding from an unanimous meeting of forty magistrates, I lost not a moment in issuing a proelamation, with the advice of the privy council,

council, declaring six (*) of the baronies of the county of Tipperary to be in a state of disturb ance, and subjecting them to the provisions of the insurrection act. Another (†) barony of the county was, in a few days afterwards, included in this proclamation, on the application of the magistrates.

In the course of the month of October, another memorial was presented to me from thirteen magistrates of the county of Tipperary, assembled at an extraordinary session of the peace, expressing their opinion, that four additional baronies, (†) not included in the proclamations, were in a state of disturbance, and praving that they also might be proclaimed.

Not having had sufficient reason to think that the baronies last mentioned were in such a state of disturbance as to call for the application of any extraordinary measure, I directed the clerk of the peace to be called upon to furnish the sworn informations of outrages committed, upon which the allegations of disturb ance rested.

After a consideration of the documents with which I was furnished, I did not think the neccssity for a compliance with the memorial I have last mentioned sufficiently established. I entertained a confident hope, that if the act was effectual in the baro

(*) The six baronies were those of Middlethird, Kilnamanagh, Eliogarty, Slewardagh, and Compsey, Clanwilliam, and the eastern barony of Lifa and Offa.

(t) That of Iffa and Offa West. (1) Upper and Lower Ormond, Ikerrin, and Ownay and Arra.

nies in which it had been recently enforced, its influence would be felt in those immediately adjoining them.

At the latter end of September, I received from forty-seven magistrates of the county of Limerick, assembled at a special sessions on the 26th, a representation that the entire of that county was in a state of disturbance, occasioned by a very general confederacy among the lower orders, and praying that the county might be proclaimed under the insurrection act A memorial was also received, concluding with the same prayer, from the magistrates of the county of the city of Limerick.

Having had sufficient evidence that the ordinary operation of the law was inadequate to maintain tranquillity in this county, and that it was in a state of serious disorder, it was proclaimed in council under the provisions of the insurrection act, on the 30th of September; and the county of the city, with the exception of such parishes as are within the city, was proclaimed on the 3d of October.

In consequence of the number of prisoners in the gaol of the county of Limerick, I deemed it expedient to issue a warrant for a special commission, for the purpose of bringing the offenders to trial.

In the early part of November it gave me great satisfaction to be enabled to inform your lordship, that since the insurrection act had been in force in the counties of Tipperary and Limerick, comparatively few crimes in violation of the public peace have

been committed in these counties,

and

:

and that they had enjoyed a state of tranquillity to which they had been unaccustomed for some time past that those provisions of the insurrection act which give facilities to the magistrates to recover arms from persons who are not entitled by law to possess them, had operated very beneficially; and I felt it due to the magistrates residing in the disturbed districts to report to your Lordship the great unanimity with which they acted, and the strong disposition they had shown to give effect by their personal exertions to the measures of government. At this period I received addresses from each of the grand juries of the county and city of Limerick, assembled at the special commission then about to terminate, expressing their satisfaction with the measures which had been adopted for the suppression of disturbance, and conveying an assurance that they had been attended with success

Notwithstanding the intimation which I had so recently conveyed to your lordship, that the state of the county of Tipperary was improved, at least there had been of late fewer violations of the public peace, towards the latter end of the month of November, Mr. William Baker, a gentleman of considerable fortune, and of the highest character and respectability, was assassinated on his return home from the special sessions at Cashel, where he had been discharging his duty as a magistrate. The circumstances under which this murder was committed, and which were proved in evidence on the trial of two persons concerned in it, are

strongly indicative of that depravity and sanguinary disposition of which this county had presented so many lamentable proofs. It appeared that in the month of September a house in the neighbourhood of Mr. Baker's residence had been attacked by an armed body of men, and, after considerable resistance on the part of the inhabitants, had been burned. Mr. Baker had exerted himself with great activity and success in detecting and committing to prison the perpetrators of this outrage; and in consequence of his exertions a conspiracy to murder him was formed in the early part of November. The murder was committed on the 27th of November in the day time, by a party of five persons. It appeared that in consequence of an order which had been issued (it has not been traced from whom) several persons (many of them from considerable distances) assembled on that day and the evening preceding, upon the different roads by which it was possible for Mr. Baker to return from Cashel, and were stationed in small detachments in different houses and places of concealment, for the purpose of intercepting him; that Mr. Baker was watched the whole day by persons appointed for the purpose; that his departure from Cashel was communicated by signals, and that when the shots were fired which deprived him of his life, a shout of triumph was raised by a number of people who had assembled in the neighbourhood, evidently to witness this barbarous murder.

On the 2d of December I issued a proclamation in council, offer

ing a reward of 5,0001. for the discovery of the person by whom the murder was committed. I shortly afterwards received an address, signed by 76 magistrates of the county of Tipperary, assembled at a special sessions of the peace on the 13th of December, expressing the strongest acknowledgments for the prompt administration of the powers confided to the executive government, and assuring me, that notwithstanding the recent murder of Mr. Baker, and the manifest intention of those concerned in it to intimidate the magistrates from the execution of their duty, they were determined to co-operate with the government in endeavouring to maintain tranquillity, and not to relax their exertions from the apprehension of personal danger. They concluded by praying, that a superintending magistrate and police establishment might be placed in the barony in which the murder of Mr. Baker had been perpetrated.

I gave immediate effect to the wishes of the magistrates thus conveyed; and a chief magistrate of police, with 50 constables, was placed in the barony of Clanwilliam. On the 28th of December a warrant was issued for a special commission to be held in the county of Tipperary.

In order that I might not interrupt a connected account of the measures which I was compelled to adopt in the counties of Tipperary and Limerick, I omitted to state, that in the month of November, a memorial, signed by several magistrates of the King's County, assembled at Clare on the 22d of November, was laid before

me, representing that various acts of violence, viz. the robbery of arms, the infliction of torture, the assembling in arms by night, and the administration of unlawful oaths, were committed in a small district of that county (*), and praying that it might be de-clared in a state of disturbance under the insurrection act.

I had previously received a memorial from a numerous meeting of the magistrates of Westmeath, assembled at Moate, on the 2d of November, stating, that the character of the disturbances which had so long prevailed in that county remained the same; that they were of opinion, that the ordinary powers entrusted to the magistracy were totally inadequate to ensure security to the inhabitants; and unanimously praying, that the provisions of the insurrection act might be put in force in two baronies of that county (†) without delay.

Having had convincing proofs, that in the districts pointed out by the magistrates of King's County and Westmeath, (and which are contiguous districts), a very turbulent disposition had long prevailed, many instances having occurred (some of which are enumerated in a former part of this dispatch) in which illegal oaths had been administered, in which houses had been plundered of arms, and witnesses and others suspected of aiding the administration of justice, had been murdered or most cruelly treated;