CH. IV.] SMALL TENANTRY. 69 



preceding month, the houses of various persons, fol- 

 lowing tenants who had been ejected, had been set on 

 fire. There is no violence to which a man who is ejected 

 is not driven, and the whole parish become his accomplices. 

 A farmer was lately advised to murder the man who had 

 supplanted him, in order to avoid being himself punished, 

 and the farmer was murdered. The people are delighted 

 to have pointed out to them such instances of revenge. 



In the barony of Middlethird, hundreds of threatening 

 letters have been sent, and the magistrates give a long list 

 of persons beaten, wounded, or killed by armed parties. 

 Houses have been burnt, and the landlords have been 

 obliged to save themselves by flight. Each parish has its 

 regulations respecting the taking of land, undertakes to 

 cause them to be put in force, and punishes those who 

 contravene them. In the barony of Decies-without- 

 Drum, the general rumour has always been, that the insti- 

 gators of the crimes are people of a higher class, but this 

 has never been proved. 



Lastly, in the province of Ulster, some baronies have 

 remained tranquil, but in many others numerous and atro- 

 cious crimes have been committed. The witnesses agree 

 in assigning, as the causes of all the disturbances, mo- 

 tives of revenge against those farmers who have superseded 

 ejected tenants. In reply to the inquiries of the Commis- 

 sioners, as to whether this system tends to favour the in- 

 crease of the population, the witnesses stated, that so 

 much was this the case, that unmarried men pay more for 

 their farms than those who are married, because their pos- 

 session gives them an opportunity of marrying. 



Amongst all the witnesses whom the Commissioners 

 examined in the barony of Kilconnel, they found only two 

 old unmarried men. One of these a good workman, espe- 



