used
every exertion to have him taken, and for three years was
unsuccessful; until obtaining the aid of a neighbour, a petty
chieftain of a hostile clan, he at last succeeded. On the trial, one
of the men who had witnessed the murders, and whom Mr C---- called to
swear informations, denied the guilt of the accused, swore an _alibi_,
and declared that he had on the day in question sold him a cow at a
fair twenty miles distant. He was, however, convicted, and hanged on
the spot where the murders were committed. By punishments of various
kinds--transporting the most hardened, and sending others to the
treadmill--the people were at length brought into some sort of order.
Tim Halisy was Mr C----'s right-hand man--his manager, sub-agent,
&c.: he was rich in cows and sheep; and though rather advanced in
life, he married a very young girl, who had a fortune of forty cows.
By degrees, Tim grew careless, lost his office, and resolved
henceforth to enjoy a life of luxury. His habits became deteriorated;
and during the latter years of his life, a gallon of whisky was sent
for daily to the public-house; and this was put into the milk-pails,
and the cows milked into it. Upon this sustenance, Tim and his wife
lived; they spent the whole day at home drinking, and were not known
to use bread or animal food. As may be supposed, the cows soon came to
the market one by one; and Tim and his wife, after years of misery,
died in great indigence.
In the year 1822, Mr C---- commenced his local improvements. The first
thing he did was to obtain the opening of a new line of road from
Macroom to Killarney, and another to Kenmare. In the various works
connected with these, the people first learned the use of the spade
and shovel, and became inured to a continued day's work. There was now
a possibility of carrying corn to market if grown, or of bringing it
into the parish; and Mr C---- built a mill for grinding it. He also
built an inn, and induced a coach-proprietor to run his coach from
Cork to Killarney through Ballyvourney, it being a better line in
distance, level, picturesque, and beautiful--far surpassing in every
respect the old road by Millstreet. He gave sixty acres of land for a
clergyman's glebe, built a house for him, and undertook--long previous
to the late laws--the payment of the incumbent. The Board of First
Fruits built a church, but were obliged during the work to have the
protection of the military. In a very extensive cultu
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