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TATE PAPERS. 



403 



in arms by night, administered un- 

 lawful oatiis, prescribed laws re- 

 specting the payment of rents and 

 tithes, plundered several houses 

 of arms, in various instances at- 

 tempted, and in some committed, 

 murder ; it was considered ex- 

 pedient to issue a warrant for a 

 special commission, to be held in 

 the comities before-mentioned, 

 and in the cities of Waterford, 

 Kilkenny, and Limerick, for the 

 trial of such of the offenders as 

 had been apprehended. From 

 the evidence adduced at the Spe- 

 cial Commission, it appeared that 

 many of the outrages to which 

 I have referred were committed 

 by two combinations, very widely 

 extended among the lower orders 

 of the Roman Catholic population, 

 which assumed the name of Cnra- 

 vats and Shanavests, respectively, 

 and between which a violent ani- 

 mosity subsisted, the cause of 

 which was n(jt very satisfactorily 

 accounted for. As feuds of the 

 same kind, not growing out of 

 religious differences, occasionally 

 exist (though seldom to the ex- 

 tent to which this appears to have 

 prevailed), I have inseited in the 

 appendix to this dispatch a portion 

 of the evidence which was adduced 

 on one of the trials, from which 

 some information may be collected 

 with respect to the origin and ob- 

 ject of the combinations, by which 

 the peace of the country was at 

 that time disturbed. 



In the county of Tipperary nine 

 persons were tried : two for mur- 

 der, and seven for attempts to 

 murder ; five were tried for rob- 

 bery of arms, and twenty-two in- 

 dicted and tried under the acts 

 which generally bear the name of 

 the Riot and Whiteboy Acts, for 



assuming the name of Caravats, 

 and appearing in arms ; six were 

 sentenced to death, twenty-seven 

 to transportation, whipping, and 

 imprisonmentj and three ac- 

 quitted. 



In Waterford twelve persons 

 were tried ; seven for attempts 

 to murder, one for stealing arms, 

 and four for burglaiy and rob- 

 bery : they were all found guilty, 

 and sentenced to death. 



It was not thought necessary 

 to proceed to Limerick in execu- 

 tion of the commission 5 and there 

 were no trials of importance in 

 Kilkenny. 



Notwithstanding, however, the 

 number of convictions in the 

 counties of Tipperary and Water- 

 ford at the special commission, 

 and the severe examples which 

 were made, they do not appear 

 even in those counties to have 

 produced any lasting effect, or to 

 have materially checked the bad 

 spirit which prevailed in them. 



In the early part of 1813, and 

 during the whole of that year, 

 many daring offences against the 

 public peace were committed in 

 these and in other counties, par- 

 ticularly Waterford, Westmeath, 

 Roscommon, and the King's 

 county, the nature of which suffi- 

 ciently proved that illegal com- 

 binations, and the same systema- 

 tic violence and disorder against 

 which the Special Commission of 

 1811 had been directed, still ex- 

 isted. 



The offences against the public 

 peace, committed in the counties 

 which were the seats of distur- 

 bance, partook of the same ge- 

 neral character ; reports were 

 constantly received of attacks on 

 dwelling-houses for the purpose 



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