obtain higher from the occupier; more is paid by the actual occupier
than is consistent with the safety and preservation of the machine;
the land is run out, and, in the end, that maximum of rent we have
described is not obtained; and not only is the property injured by
such a system, but in Ireland the most shocking consequences ensue
from it. There is little manufacture in Ireland; the price of
labour is low, the demand for labour irregular. If a poor man be
driven, by distress of rent, from his potato garden, he has no other
resource--all is lost: he will do the impossible (as the French
say) to retain it; subscribe any bond, and promise any rent. The
middleman has no character to lose; and he knew, when he took up the
occupation, that it was one with which pity had nothing to do. On
he drives; and backward the poor peasant recedes, loses something at
every step, till he comes to the very brink of despair; and then he
recoils and murders his oppressor, and is a White Boy or a Right
Boy;--the soldier shoots him, and the judge hangs him.

In the debate which took place in the Irish House of Commons, upon
the Bill for preventing tumultuous risings and assemblies, on the
31st of January, 1787, the Attorney-General submitted to the House
the following narrative of facts.


"The commencement," said he, "was in one or two parishes in the
county of Kerry; and they proceeded thus. The people assembled in a
Catholic chapel, and there took an oath to obey the laws of Captain
Right, and to starve the clergy. They then proceeded to the next
parishes on the following Sunday, and there swore the people in the
same manner; with this addition, that they (the people last sworn)
should on the ensuing Sunday proceed to the chapels of their next