act, from the agitation of the
demagogues, presented one scene of growing lawlessness and crime. The
king's speech was even made to foster this spirit of insubordination. It
had recommended the consideration of the tithe question in parliament;
and the Irish Catholics construed this into a condemnation of the tax.
Looking upon the tithes, therefore, as already denounced by the king
and the parliament, they thought they were justified in resisting
the payment of them. Everyman refused to pay; and threats, arson, and
murder, were directed against all who in any way connected themselves
with the payment, or collection of tithes, whether as clergyman,
proctor, policeman, or payer. Recourse was even had to intimidation
by public proclamation; chapel doors were desecrated by placards
threatening death and destruction to all who should pay tithes. Thus
instructed at the very sanctuary where peace alone should have been
taught, the ignorant and misguided peasantry everywhere committed acts
of violence and outrage. The premises of the tithe-payer were reduced to
ashes, and his cattle were houghed, or scattered over the country, or,
as in Carlow, hunted over precipices. Moreover, scarcely a week
elapsed in which a proctor, or a process-server, or a constable, or
a tithe-payer, were not murdered. An archdeacon of Cashel was even
murdered in broad daylight, while several persons who were ploughing in
the field where the act was committed, either would not, or dared not
interfere. Neither life nor property were safe; and in the beginning of
February the Irish government found it necessary to have recourse to the
peace-preservation act, and to proclaim certain baronies in the county
of Tipperary to be in a state of disturbance. This, however, had no
effect; large bodies of men everywhere openly defied the law, and roamed
about the county, compelling landlords to sign obligations to reduce
their rents, and to pay no tithes. They even compelled some farmers
to give up their farms and their houses, and, in some instances, they
committed the most atrocious cruelties. An end was put not only to
the payment of tithe, but to the payment of rent; and the terror which
prevailed on every hand acted as a shield to the offenders. In fact, it
was considered a crime to be connected with any attempt to execute the
law against the insurgents, and to betray any activity in preserving
order was to become a marked man; such a man was sure of being made