STATE PAPERS. 



407 



vjiiled in many parts of the coun- 

 try, and of preventing its exten- 

 sion to others. 



In consequence of the conti- 

 nuance and increase of the dis- 

 turbances leferred to in the letter 

 which I iiave quoted above, it was 

 determined to subaiit to Parlia- 

 ment the expediency of extending 

 tlie powers of tlie Govei"nment 

 and of the Magisti'acy ; and ac- 

 cordingly in the month of March, 

 in the session of 1814, a bill was 

 introduced, the object of which 

 was to provide for the better exe- 

 cution of the laws in Ireland, by 

 enabling t!ie Lord- Lieutenant in 

 council to proclaim any distiict 

 to be in a state of distuibance, 

 and to station in it an establish- 

 ment of constables proportioned 

 to the extent of the district, act- 

 ing under the innuediate super- 

 intendence of a magistrate ap- 

 pointetl by the Lord-Lieutenant. 

 It was provided by the bill, that 

 the salaries of the magistrates and 

 constables, and the general ex- 

 penses attendant on the execution 

 of the act, should be defiayed by 

 a presentment of the grand juiy, 

 to be levied on the district pro- 

 claimed to be in a state of dis- 

 turbance : this bill passed into a 

 law ; and, at a later peiiod of the 

 session, the act which had been 

 previously passed in ISOr, which 

 geneially bears the name of the 

 insurrection Act, was introduced, 

 and, after being slightly modi- 

 fied, received the sanction of the 

 Legislature. 



The first instance in which I 

 had occasion to apply the powers 

 thus committed to nie by the first 

 of the acts above referred to, oc- 

 curred in the county of Tipperary. 

 Early in the month of July 1814, 



I had received a memorial from a 

 meeting of magistrates and gen- 

 tlemen, held in pursuance of a 

 public notice, requesting, in con- 

 sequence of the recent murder of 

 Mr. Long, a magistrate of the 

 county, and other alarming out- 

 rages, that the district of Ard- 

 moyle, in the barony of Middle- 

 third, in which the murder was 

 committed, might be pi'oclaimed. 

 As the acts above-mentioned had 

 not then received the royal assent, 

 I directed that the magistrates 

 should be informed, that there 

 was no law then in force by which 

 that district could be proclaimed; 

 but that I relied upon their exer- 

 tions to bring the ofiFenders to 

 punishment, and was ready to co- 

 operate in their endeavours with 

 the full assistance of the civil and 

 military powers. 



In the month of September the 

 resolutions of a general meeting 

 of mtigistrates of the country of 

 Tipperary, convened at Cashel, 

 for the purpose of taking the state 

 of the country into consideration, 

 were transmitted to me, praying, 

 that in consequence of the nume- 

 rous nmrders and other out- 

 lages committed, in the barony 

 of Middlethird, it might be pro- 

 claimed under the provisions of 

 the act 54 Geo. ill. c. J31, which 

 enables the Lord-Lieutenant to 

 assign an extraordinary police 

 establishment to a disturbed dis- 

 trict. 



As I felt strongly the necessity 

 of establishing a regular police in 

 a county in which the ordinary 

 civil power was proved to be en- 

 tirely inade()uate to the repression 

 of the disorders which had long 

 prevailed in it, the barony of Mid- 

 dlethird was proclaimed in coun- 



cil. 



