GENERAL 
in their wages, and also to fix a 
certain proportion of able seamen 
to be employed in every coaster. 
The coal-owners not acceding to 
their demands, they began to use 
measures of force, which were the 
more serious from the method 
aud order with which their opera- 
tions were conducted, displaying 
an organized combination similar 
to that in the naval mutiny. They 
took entire possession of the river 
Tyne, by a chain of boats which 
did not allow a vessel to put to 
sea without a regular permit. The 
efforts of the local magistrates, 
and conciliatory propositions from 
the merchants, proving insuffi- 
cient to restore obedience, whilst 
the sailors in other ports were. 
also manifesting a disposition to 
combine for similar purposes, 
government resolved to inter- 
pose with effect to quell this dan- 
gerous spirit. A strong force, mi- 
litary and naval, was collected at 
_the disturbed ports, which was so 
judiciously applied, that no re- 
sistance was attempted on the 
part of the sailors, and their 
coercive system was immediately 
broken up. Reasonable offers 
were then made to them, which 
they accepted, and tranquillity 
was restored. Not a life was 
lost on the occasion, and a-few 
of the ringleaders only were ap- 
prehended, to abide the sentence 
of the law. Further particulars 
of this occurrence will be found 
in the Chronicle. 
The sister island, which seems 
fated never long to enjoy a state 
of internal quiet, was in this year 
the scene of disturbances, which 
in various parts seriously out- 
raged the public peace, and were 
not effectually suppressed by all 
HISTORY. [141 
the exertions of authority. It 
is observable that in the many 
years of disturbances in Ireland, 
the particular subjects of griev« 
ance, and views of the malcon- 
tents, have been perpetually vary- 
ing; so that it would seem, that, 
from some unfortunate cause, a 
spirit of resistance to the esta- 
blished order of things is con- 
stantly in existence in the mass 
of people, ready to be called into 
operation on any occasion by 
which the passions are tempo- 
rarily excited. In the present 
year the great object of popular 
attack has been the tythe system, 
always, indeed, a topic of com- 
plaint, and likely so to continue 
while tythes are exacted with 
rigour from the lowest classes, ~ 
for the support of a religious esta- 
blishment of which they are not 
members. The purpose of the in- 
surgents was distinctly announc- 
.ed in-a proclamation posted by 
them on the bridge of Clonmel, 
commanding the Irish people to 
lay aside all their trifling feuds of 
Caravats and Shanavests, and to 
adhere to the great point of cut- 
ing down the tythe proctors, and 
those who gain by tythes. The 
principal seat of the disturbances 
has been the counties to the south 
and south-west of Dublin, as 
those of Tipperary, Limerick, 
Waterford, and. Kilkenny, in 
which, violences have been ex- 
ercised that have rendered mili- 
tary aid and extraordinary magis- 
terial powers necessary for their 
suppression. - In the narrative of 
parliamentary transactions will 
be found an account of the legis- 
lative measurestaken forstrength- 
ening the hands of government. 
Of these the principal was the 
