Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/22

 attack. In a few minutes eighteen of the police, including the commanding officer, were killed.

At Castle Pollard, in the county of Westmeath, the chief constable having been knocked down, the police fired, and nine or ten persons were killed.

At Gartroe, near Rathcormack, in the county of Cork, on an attempt to enforce the payment of tithes from a widow named Ryan, the people resisted, the military fired, eight persons were killed, and thirteen wounded: among the killed was the widow's son.

In this sad conflict, while the track of blood marked the path of the tithe proctor, the Protestant clergyman was often reduced to beggary, the ties of charity which bound him and his family to his poorer neighbours were broken, and he often fled in dismay to the large town where he might find protection, and sleep secure. Sixty thousand pounds were voted by Parliament for the relief of those despoiled clergymen, and the State undertook to levy the arrears which were unpaid. But this campaign, carried on by horse and foot, amid hooting, jeers, and popular intimidation at every auction and on every farm, was singularly unsuccessful. The amount of the arrears was computed to be 104,285l.; the amount recovered was 12,000l., and the cost of collection was 15,000l.

It was desirable on every account to put an end to the tithe war. But the question arose, whether it would not be wise to seize the opportunity for depriving the Church, which was not the Church of the people, of some of those funds which could not be used for spiritual instruction. To this contest I