k of the
peace's return made to him, the number of ejectments entered in the
years 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, in his court, were 1753, and there
were decrees or dismissals in 1210 of those cases. He is asked--"10.
Have you any opportunity of knowing whether a considerable proportion of
those cases in which decrees are so made are carried into
effect?--"There is in the county of Armagh a very intelligent
sub-sheriff, Mr McKinstry, and he informed his brother, the deputy-clerk
of the peace, that the number of warrants signed by him as sub-sheriff
in the last five years was, according to the best of his knowledge and
computation, _about seventy in each year; and that of these seventy, he
thought not more then one-fourth was put_ in force; _so as to cause a
change of tenancy, certainly not more than one-third_."

So that out of 1765 processes issued in one of the most populous
counties within five years, only about 350 decrees were presented to the
sheriff for signature; and that officer declared, he thought that not
more than a fourth of the number (90) were put in execution--and this
gives an annual average of about 23. But had the number of ejectments in
Tipperary been as great as Mr O'Connell asserts, still the eviction of
the tenantry would have been fully justified; for we have the evidence
of Mr Sergeant Howley, the assistant barrister, to prove that no tenant
was so proceeded against who did not owe an enormous arrear. This
gentleman is asked--"6. In your experience, has it occurred to you to
observe whether, in the majority of cases, more than a year's rent has
been usually due, or just enough to found a suit?--My experience enables
me to say, that more than a year's rent, and frequently three years'
rent, is due before an ejectment is brought."

Mr Dillon O'Brien, a sessions attorney in that same county, and an
out-and-out follower of Mr O'Connell, admits--"That the landlords have
recourse to ejectment more as a means of getting the rent, than of
evicting the tenantry." The Liberator's reference to Tipperary is an
unfortunate one for his purposes; for not only have we it in our power
to prove, by the most unimpeachable evidence, that comparatively few
evictions or consolidations of farms have taken place there, but we can
demonstrate most satisfactorily, that the tenantry in this bloodstained
district hold on the most moderate terms as regards rent, in general by
a lease, and that they are in the full enjoymen