MISCELLANIES. 



421 



satisfactorily under the considera- 

 tion of his Majesty's Govern- 

 ment, 



But, although those two con- 

 victions involved gross violations 

 of the laws, yet what was there of 

 political disturbance, or of factious 

 contrivance, in either case ? I 

 could not see any thing of the 

 kind. 



Next, the Commission proceeded 

 to Waterford, which was repre- 

 sented to us as being in a most 

 disturbed state. But in no one 

 part of the county did it appear, 

 that there was that frequency of 

 crime, from which any systematic 

 hostility to the constituted autho- 

 rities could be inferred. There 

 was one conviction for an abo- 

 minable conspiracy to poison ; but 

 the actuating motive appeared to 

 be, not of a public nature, but 

 mere individual interest. It was 

 the case of a miscreant from the 

 county of Cork, hired and sent 

 for the particular purpose of 

 gettmg rid of an aged man, whose 

 life was the surviving life in an old 

 lease, and which lease the vile 

 contriver was materially interested 

 in extinguishing. This was the 

 real history of this crime. 



Another conviction was for the 

 murder of Mr, Smyth, in the 

 month of October last. I must 

 observe, that this gentleman was a 

 Roman Catholic. What the cause 

 of this murder may have been, is 

 at present only matter of private 

 surmise. But no person has even 

 whispered, that it proceeded from 

 political or party feelings of any 

 kind. There was a third capital 

 conviction at Waterford ; it was 

 that of two men, for burglary in 

 a dwelling-house. This was the 

 only transaction that wasj in its 



nature, of a public description. It 

 appeared in evidence, that a body 

 of armed men planned and exe- 

 cuted an attack upon the house, 

 but the only discoverable motive 

 was, that "the owner had been 

 previously an inhabitant of the 

 county of Cork, and had ventured 

 to take the farm in question." 

 Here, indeed, we see those public 

 outrages proceeding to a degree 

 mischievous in the extreme, and 

 deeply to be lamented. Those un- 

 fortunate wretches will imagine, 

 that, because a stranger to the 

 county has the audacity to inter- 

 fere between them and their land- 

 lord, they are to violate the laws, 

 assemble in arms, and make an 

 example of the intruder, who 

 shall settle in this country. These 

 are terrible delusions, pregnant 

 with violence, bloodshed, and anar- 

 chy. The peasantry cannot too 

 soon reject and abhor them, as 

 ruinous and absurd. 



Gentlemen, I do not allude to 

 your county, I hope the system of 

 setting lands bj' auction, ofsqaeez- 

 ing from the vitals of the tenantry 

 more than the actual value of the 

 produce of the land, does not 

 exist in this county. I hope and 

 believe no such system prevails 

 here, because like causes produce 

 like effects ; and, in that case, the 

 calendar now before me would 

 have exhibited a very different 

 picture. At present, its contents 

 amount to one charge of murder, 

 one of rape, and one against a 

 woman for the supposed murder 

 of a bastard child. These are 

 crimes of a high and serious na- 

 ture, yet of ordinary occurrence 

 in every county. But lean descry 

 no trace of any system of general 

 disaffection, or of political mis- 



