410 ANNUAL REGISTER, IS\6. 



resident magistrates great unani- 

 mity and cordiality had for some 

 time jjast prevailed, and to many 

 of them the utmost credit is due 

 for the zeal and activity with 

 which they discharged their du- 

 ties. The combified effoits, how- 

 ever, of the magistracy and of the 

 police, aided by a very consider- 

 able military force, were insuffi- 

 cient to contend with that lawless 

 spirit and audacity in the commis- 

 sion of crime, which placed in 

 continual hnzard the lives and 

 properties of the peaceable and 

 well-disposed inhabitants. 



No less than four attacks had 

 been made within a short period, 

 by considerable bodies of armed 

 men, upon the coaches conveying 

 the mails through this county, 

 although they were acconipanied 

 by a military escort : on these oc- 

 casions some of the dragoons 

 were killed, and other persons 

 wound<'d. 



In the barony of Kilnamanagh, 

 a house had been hired as a tem- 

 porary barrack for the accommo- 

 <lation of a military party, which, 

 with the house adjoining it, was 

 entirely destroyed in the month 

 of September, by a very large 

 bedy of men in aims, provided 

 with various instruments of at- 

 tack. A written notice was left, 

 stating that it was resolved to de- 

 stroy in the same manner any 

 house taken by the goveinment 

 for a similar pur| ose. 



Fortunately for the peace of the 

 country, thirteen peisons, toge- 

 ther with their leader in this at- 

 tack (the son of a farmer of coi\- 

 siderable property), were capitally 

 convicted at the special commis- 

 sion, subsequently held in this 



county, in the month of January, 

 1816. 



The weekly reports made to 

 government by the magistrates 

 superintending the police estab- 

 lishments, mentioned repeated in- 

 stances wherein the houses of re- 

 spectable inhabitants had been at- 

 tacked, (in some cases in the day 

 time), and the occupiers compel- 

 led to deliver up their arms. Se- 

 veral murders had been commit- 

 ted, particularly upon persons 

 employed in the collection or va- 

 luation of tithes. One person 

 thus occupied, though accompa- 

 nied by eight armed nien for his 

 protection, was killed in the day- 

 time, and his party disarmed, 

 within a short distance of the city 

 of Cashel. 



In the early part of the month 

 of September, in consequence of 

 the repeated acts of outrage which 

 were committed in the counties 

 of Tipperary and Limerick, and 

 the violent and open manner in 

 w hich the law was set at defiance, 

 I directed a large additional mili- 

 tary force, under the connuand of 

 Lieulenant-General Meyrick, to 

 march into these counties, with 

 the view of aiding the civil power, 

 and giving that confidence to the 

 respectable and well-disposed in- 

 habitants, which might induce 

 them to remain in the country, 

 and co-operate with the govein- 

 mept in attempting to maintain 

 tranquillity. 



On receiving, on the 25th of 

 September, the memorial which I 

 have above alluded to, proceeding 

 from an unanimous meeting of 

 forty magistrates, I lost not a 

 moment in issuing a proclama- 

 tion, with the advice of the privy 



CQuncil, 



