86 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [fiOOK I. 



The county of Tipperary has 402,563 inhabi- 

 tants, and the number of persons brought to jus- 

 tice at the assizes during the years 1832 and 1834 

 was 3724 that is to say, 1241 a year on an 

 average. Thefts, however, which among a less ar- 

 dent people form nine-tenths of the crimes com- 

 mitted, are unknown in this county ; and among 

 these 1241 persons annually brought before the 

 assizes, only fourteen were for theft. The remain- 

 ing 1227 crimes consisted in sending threatening 

 letters to the new farmers, destruction of cattle, 

 arson, armed attacks on houses, firing upon houses 

 and persons, homicides, stealing arms from the 

 stores, commotions and fights in short, all the 

 elements of civil strife ; and notwithstanding this 

 continual state of warfare, the inhabitants are a 

 most charitable and hospitable people, strongly 

 attached to their religion, their country and their 

 families, and whose manners are perfectly chaste. 



