,
and placed fairly before the world their respective statements. Had Mr
O'Connell alluded to the charges, he must have also adverted to the
explanations, and this would not have suited him; for with all his
talent for perversion, and, until the appearance of Lord Devon's report,
we thought that in this respect he was unequalled, he never could have
made so good a thing out of the same materials as he found left cut and
dry to his hand, in the passage of the report which he so often appeals
to. He therefore most wisely left "well alone." May we not ask what
became of all the instances of tyranny which were brought to light by
"the committee of grievances" of the Association? why were they burked
now, "when they might legitimately be used?" why go back for a quarter
of a century, when the atrocities reported and disseminated by Mr Balfe,
might have served him as an unanswerable justification for the adoption
by his followers of the "wild justice of revenge?" It was because the
charges made against the proprietors were proved to have been
fabrications, and because the unblushing perjury of the peasantry would,
if investigated, have excited horror and disgust. Even the kind-hearted
and sympathizing commissioners, in speaking of the people whose
condition they so much commiserated, are obliged to admit, that "there
is frequently a readiness amongst these to attribute their own wretched
condition exclusively to the conduct of their landlords, _sometimes with
an utter disregard of truth_, and almost always without admitting,
perhaps without seeing, how much of it arises from their own indolence
or want of skill." With his usual disregard of truth, Mr O'Connell
attributes the assassinations which have taken place in Tipperary, to
the number of ejectments which have been carried into execution. "They
found that in Tipperary, where the greatest number of ejectments took
place, murders were most frequent. For that county, in one year, no less
than 5304 ejectments issued from the Civil Bill Court, to which there
were 14,816 defendants; and 1724 ejectments issued from the superior
courts, to which there were 16,503 defendants; making a total of 7028
ejectments, and 31,319 defendants. Within the last five years, upwards
of 150,000 persons had been evicted from their lands in the county of
Tipperary."

As an instance of the extraordinary ignorance of the laws, in which the
commissioners venture to propose amendments, and of the negli