and spade in small scraps of dearly-rented land. Tithes seem to be
collected in a more harsh manner than they are collected in England.
The minute sub-divisions of land in Ireland--the little connection
which the Protestant clergyman commonly has with the Catholic
population of his parish--have made the introduction of tithe
proctors very general, sometimes as the agent of the clergyman,
sometimes as the lessee or middleman between the clergyman and the
cultivator of the land, but, in either case, practised, dexterous
estimators of tithe. The English clergymen in general are far from
exacting the whole of what is due to them, but sacrifice a little to
the love of popularity or to the dread of odium. A system of tithe-
proctors established all over England (as it is in Ireland), would
produce general disgust and alienation from the Established Church.


"During the administration of Lord Halifax," says Mr. Hardy, in
quoting the opinion of Lord Charlemont upon tithes paid by
Catholics, "Ireland was dangerously disturbed in its southern and
northern regions. In the south principally, in the counties of
Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary, the White Boys now made
their first appearance; those White Boys who have ever since
occasionally disturbed the public tranquillity, without any rational
method having been as yet pursued to eradicate this disgraceful
evil. When we consider that the very same district has been for the
long space of seven-and-twenty years liable to frequent returns of
the same disorder into which it has continually relapsed, in spite
of all the violent remedies from time to time administered by our
political quacks, we cannot doubt but that some real, peculiar, and
topical cause must exist, and yet neither the removal, nor even the
investigation of this cause, has ever once been seriously attempted.