Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/363

Notes $undefined$ 10 Will. III., c. 3 (Irish).

$undefined$ 77 Will. III., c. 4 (Eng.).

$undefined$ 2 Anne, c. 7 (Irish).

$undefined$ 2 Anne, c. 7 (Irish).

$undefined$ 2 Anne, c. g (Irish).

$undefined$ Irish Commons Journal, March 17th, 1704.

$undefined$ Halliday Collection of Pamphlets.

$undefined$ Skelton, Works, V., 352.

$undefined$ King to Mr. Nicholson, Dec. 20th, 1712 (King MSS.).

$undefined$ "The poor are sunk to the lowest degree of misery and poverty, their house dunghills, their victuals the blood of their cattle or the herbs of the field."—Sheridan, Intelligencer, No. VI. (Halliday Collection of Pamphlets, Royal Irish Academy.)

$undefined$ King to Mr. Nicholson, Dec. 20, 1712 (King MSS.).

$undefined$ King to the Lord Bishop of Carlisle, Feb. 3rd, 1717 (King MSS.).

$undefined$ King to the Archbishop of Canterbury, March 23rd, 1720 (King MSS.).

$undefined$ Tithes were only levied on corn, potatoes, flax and meadow. Thus they fell chiefly on the poor, while the owners of the great grazing farms were exempt. The greatest grievance was connected with the manner in which the tithe was collected. If a cottier or farmer, "or his half-naked wife and children should inadvertently dig two or three beds of their early potatoes, without leaving the tithe or tenth spade undug, the tithe farmers immediately threatened to sue him for subtraction of tithe, to avoid which they were frequently obliged to take their tithes at his valuation. The tithe farmer frequently left his tenth part of his potato garden undug until very late in the season, in order to prevent the farmer sowing his winter corn in time, and thereby force them to take his tithe; for there was no specific time allowed for removing the tithe of potatoes, and a reasonable time (an expression often made use of) is vague and uncertain. Again, if the poor farmer should fail to take up his bond on the day it became due, he was obliged to give the tithe-farmer his own price for that year's tithe. The tithe-farmer often kept the peasants bound from year to year in this manner for several years successively, and obliged them to give for their tithes whatever he thought proper to ask."—A Letter from a Munster Layman of the Established Church to his friend in Dublin on the disturbances in the South. (Dublin, 1787.)  valua- 351