MISCELLANIES. 



.519 



end to the system. The conse- 

 quence was, that the people, ren- 

 dered ferocious by the use of those 

 liquors, and accustomed to law- 

 less habits, resorted to force, re- 

 sisted the laws, opposed the mili- 

 tary, and hence have resulted riots, 

 assaults, and murders. 



Can you wonder, that, in such 

 an imu^oral state of things, all 

 tranquillity and obedience to the 

 law were banished from those 

 counties ? Absentees, too, have 

 increased : disgusted with the state 

 of things, they desert their post in 

 the time of peril : but, yet, should 

 a farm happen to fall out of lease, 

 keeping strict eye that it be set up 

 to the highest bidder. These 

 things have produced disturbances 

 every where ; but. Gentlemen, 

 whether they apply to your county, 

 to any extent, or at all, is for your 

 consideration. 



I have thought it right from the 

 false colouring that has been given 

 to those things, to remove all such 

 illusions, and to state the plain facts. 



Gentlemen, I have heretofore, 

 with good success, called upon the 

 Grand Jury of a great northern 

 county (Donegal), where private 

 distillation had reached to an in- 

 tolerable excess, to show some 

 sense of their own interests by the 

 suppression of that practice; and 

 I am happy to say, that call was 

 attended to, and produced useful 

 public resolutions. I am glad to 

 hear that this mischief is a stranger 

 in your county ; guard against its 

 introduction ; it is one of the great- 

 eat practical mischiefs ; the revenue 

 is plundered by it, the morals of 

 the people depraved, and their 

 conduct rendered riotous and 

 savage : establish, in the room of 

 whiskey, a wholesome malt liquor. 



and you will keep your peasantry 

 in peace, in health, and in vigour. 



Having thus given you a sort of 

 sketch of what I have seen upon 

 other circuits, I shall advert to 

 what I have observed upon the 

 present circuit. The first county 

 of this circuit which was the ob- 

 ject of his Majesty's Commission, 

 was Kilkenny. The country had 

 been previously alarmed with such 

 rumours and stories from that 

 quarter, that the order of this 

 circuit was inverted, for the ex- 

 press purpose, as was alleged, of 

 meeting the supposed exigencies 

 of that county by an early assizes. 

 I did not preside in the criminal 

 court there ; but I have been in- 

 formed by my brother Judge (Day) 

 of what passed. Four capital con- 

 victions took place ; of which 

 the subject matter arose from two 

 transactions only. One of those 

 transactions, comprising two of 

 those convictions, was of no recent 

 date ; it occurred early in 1813 ; 

 and had been already tried at the 

 Summer assizes of Kilkenny, ia 

 that year. At that assizes, the 

 two criminals had been found 

 guilty of an attempt at assassina- 

 tion, a most atrocious outrage in- 

 deed. Their execution was sus- 

 pended by an argument upon the 

 legality of their conviction ; the 

 conviction was proved illegal ; and 

 of course they were, for the second 

 time, tried and convicted at the 

 late Assizes. But how such a 

 case could warrant the extraor- 

 dinary colouring which was given 

 to the alleged disturbances of 

 that county, or called for any 

 parade or bustle, 1 am wholly at 

 a loss to discover. The other of 

 those transactions was also of a 

 flagitious nature ; it was a heinous 



