wrong to complain of, no injury to redress, but who
for a small sum of money, or being chosen by the ballot of the ribbon
lodges, assassinated men whom they had never seen before, having been
pointed out by their associates in the ribbon conspiracy. Sometimes the
assassinations were on account of religion; in a few cases, for personal
vengeance; but, generally, they were in connection with disputes about
land. The state of the law was such as to have enabled the government to
put down these societies, and to disarm the people, who were unworthy to
be trusted with the liberty of keeping dangerous weapons; but the Whigs
were unwilling to incur unpopularity, and only acted with spirit and
determination when the government itself was endangered, and anarchy
impended. The Conservatives charged the government with tolerating, to
a certain extent, for political purposes, evils which nothing could
justify a government for allowing to be perpetrated. This imputation was
deserved.

The political agitations were of the usual character, but gradually
diminished; the events of the two preceding years having nearly
extinguished the Young Ireland party, and so lowered the tone of its
rival, as to deprive it of much notice either in Ireland or England.

An agitation for what was called tenant right extended itself, but
especially in Dublin, the great centre of all Irish agitation, and in
the north. The character of this movement will more fully appear when
noticing the debates in parliament which afterwards took place on the
subject: it is here only necessary to say, that the ostensible and real
objects of the agitators were very different. They professed to seek
justice for the occupying tenant; they desired to inflict injustice upon
the owner of the soil. The Irish tenant suffered much from an unfair
state of the law in favour of the landlord, who often used to the
uttermost the inequitable advantage thus afforded him. In the province
of Ulster this was less the case; a more generous disposition prevailed
among the landlords, and a more confiding one among the tenantry; the
relations between the two classes were, as described by themselves,
"live, and let live." The outgoing tenant claimed a right to a certain
sum for his improvements and interest, from the incoming tenant, which
was altogether irrespective of any bargain between the latter and the
owner of the soil. This prescriptive right was so generally recognised,
that all par