person or
property by a tax levied on the locality in which the crime was
committed, _has been long in operation,[11] and found to be utterly
inefficacious_. What is the use of an additional police force, when all
the exertions of those men will be rendered ineffectual by the
insufficiency of the laws which you refuse to strengthen? The guilty
cannot be affected by taxation, for they hold no land; they cannot be
punished by the ordinary laws, for they have established a system which
baffles their operation; but once enact effective Law, and proclaim down
the Association--show the people that you are determined to maintain
social order and to suppress insubordination--then, _but not till then_,
will you rally the good in defence of justice, and deter the guilty from
the commission of crime.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] _Times_, December 25, 1845.

[4] It is a curious fact, that the only witnesses whose
testimony the Earl of Devon ventured to use in support of Lord Stanley's
bill, were those of Mr Balfe, chairman of the "committee of grievances;"
a _discharged dragoon_, who was contradicted in almost every statement
he made by the most respectable persons on their oaths, and who was
obliged to retract some voluntarily; and of Mr Byrne, of the value of
whose opinion, or whose statements, we can form some estimate, from the
following extract from the evidence of Nicholas Maher, Esq.

Appendix B., No. 1097.

He is asked, has he read a particular statement of Mr Byrne's? And his
answer is:--"I _have_ read the evidence, and I must just state that Mr
Byrne is a person to whose evidence I would not give any weight."

[5]

IRELAND--LAND IS EXEMPT FROM

Assessed taxes, L4,204,855
Income tax, 5,158,470
Malt tax, 4,998,130
----------
L14,361,455

This is the _net_ amount of those taxes. The _gross_ amount which is
levied off the people will be about fifteen millions and a half, or
nearly one third of the total amount of the income of the country,
towards which Ireland does not contribute a single shilling.

[6] According to the Government survey, Leitrim contains
375,992 acres; the valuation, including the houses of the gentry and
shopkeepers, is L.120,000: add 25 per cent, or L.30,000, and we have the
fair rent at L.150,000, or under eight shillings an acre.

[7] Mr Reade, an extensive landowner, and a gentleman who