STATE PAPERS. 



405 



memorial to me respecting tiie 

 state of tliat county, which bears 

 date the 29th November ; they re- 

 presented that frequent outrages 

 were committed ; that oaths of 

 increased malignity had been ad- 

 ministered ; that three persons 

 had been convicted on charges of 

 administering and taking an oath, 

 one of the obligations of which 

 was " to assist the French and 

 Buonaparte j" and that the wit- 

 ness upon whose evidence that 

 conviction had taken place had 

 been recently murdered, under 

 circumstances whicii were alone 

 sufficient to prove the alarm- 

 ing state of that county. The me- 

 morial concluded with an earnest 

 prayer, that a proposition might 

 be made to the Legislature for 

 tlie revival of the Insurrection 

 Act. 



From evidence adduced on the 

 trial of six persons concerned in the 

 murder alluded to in this Memo- 

 rial (five of whom were capitally 

 convicted), it was proved, that the 

 murder was committed by a party 

 of eighteen men selected from a 

 larger body who assembled in 

 divisions of 12 each from three 

 separate parishes, for the purpose 

 of planning and perpetrating this 

 murder. I may also add, that 

 nine persons were shortly after- 

 wards convicted on the same 

 charges with respect to the oath 

 on which the convictions men- 

 tioned in the memorial of the ma- 

 gistrates took place. 



Similar meetings of the magis- 

 trates of Waterford and of the 

 King's County took place about 

 the same time, and I received 

 from both representations of the 

 disturbed state of their respective 

 counties, and earnest application 



for an increase to the military 

 force stationed in them. In the 

 Memorial which I received from 

 the King's County, which bore 

 the signature of sixteen magis- 

 trates, it was stated, " that 

 alarming disturbances existed in 

 that county, and the adjacent parts 

 of VVestmeath ; that almost every 

 night houses were plundered of 

 arms ; that they considered 

 stronger measures than those 

 which could be resorted to under 

 the existing laws absolutely ne- 

 cessary ; and that the re-enact- 

 ment and enforcement of the In- 

 surrection Act would alone enable 

 them to maintain tranquillity. 



In the month of January 1814, 

 I received from the governors and 

 28 of the magistrates of the county 

 of Westmeath a second Memorial, 

 urging tiie necessity of the im- 

 mediate revival of the Insurrec- 

 tion Act. In this county three 

 murders had been then recently 

 committed within the short space 

 of a month, two upon persons 

 suspected of giving information 

 against offenders. 



Your Lordship will recollect, 

 that in the early part of January 

 1814, I felt it incumbent upon 

 me to call your attention to a 

 representation made to your Lord- 

 ship by his Grace the Duke of 

 Richmond, in the month of Au- 

 gust preceding, on the subject of 

 the disturbed state of a consider- 

 able portion of the interior of this 

 country, and expressed my deep 

 regret, that notwithstanding the 

 measures which had been adopted 

 by the government, in concert 

 with the commander of the forces, 

 and the general vigilance and ac- 

 tivity of the resident magistrates 

 in those parts where the distur- 

 bances 



