On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    this county , I know not . It is a tax , of which you will impose the greater pnrt , or perhaps the whole , upon your countj '; and it falls wholly upon the occupying tenants or farmers Pray keep this circumstance constantly in your minds . The benefit of this tax is your own . By its operation , you have your farms well

    divided and improved ! good roads made round your estates ; useful bridges and walls erected . Indeed , I have known counties which have been parcelled out to undertakers by baronies , and where no man could get a job without the consent or the baronial undertaker ; they met and commuted , and it was

    thus agreed— " 1 give you your job here , and you give me my job there /' I may be asked - why do I mention those things . The Grand Jury know them very well } but then they ought to be concealed . Miserable , infatuated notion ! These things are not concealed 5 there is not a Grand Jury job in the country which is not known and

    commented upon by the peasantry . Every mischief , and every enormity I fiave this day stated , is as thoroughly well known to the peasantry as to the gentry throughout Ireland . The affected apprehension of exciting and exasperating them , by a reprobation of those enormities ^ is puerile and

    contemptible . It cannot do mischief ; it cannot add to the poignancy of their feelings ; it may allay or soothe them .: already those exactions are the subject of discussion , and of minute scrutiny , in every cabin ; what are the consequences ? Dreadful heart-burnings and

    deep murmurs—the visit of the constable who collects the cess , is a day of general mourning , and distress , and tribulation . I spoke freely of these things to the Grand Jury of the county of Tipperary , —what was the beneficial result ? The foreman ( Mr , Bagwell ) came forward soon afterwards from the

    Grand Jury room , and stated publicly in Court , that , in consequence of my charge , he and his fellow-jurors had thrown out applications for presentments to the amount of' £ ' 9 * 600 . These

    may be presumed to be jobs , under pretence of building walls and bridges , filling hollows , lowering hills , Sec Here , indeed , was some good done by this sudden impulse of economy—here were the fruits of a free and candid exhortation before the public eye . Gentlemen , the judge , whose duty

    Untitled Article

    it is to pass the presentments , can be of little service towards detecting " a job —he lias no local knowledge . — . ^ knows not the distances—the ratesthe state of repairs—or tbe views of the parties . He may indeed suspect the job , and tear the suspected pre

    scntmeiit ; but he may tear , inadvertently , that which is useful , and \^ the job pass . Therefore , for the sake of the county , do as Mr . Bagwell did at Clonrnei . Begin the reformationand discountenance , firmly , all parcelling of "jobs . **

    Gentlemen , when I visited trie House of Industry at Clonmel , ( which is liberally and conscientiously conducted by an association , consisting of persons of every religious persuasion ,

    with the Protestant parson and the Catholic priest at their head ) , never did my eyes witness a more blessed sight—I immediately asked , what do you pay to the matron and to the manager ? " The sura was mentioned

    — - ^ t was small— I suppose , said I , ' * it is no object of a county job . " Mr . Grubb , the benevolent Mr . Grubb , smiled , and said , ** You have hit it , ray Lord—that is the fact . " But tfiere is one remedy * that would

    111 my estimation , more than any other , especially contribute to soothe the minds of the discontented peasantry , and , thereby , to enable them patiently to suffer the pressure of those burthens , which cannot , under existing

    circumstances , be effectually removed —I mean the l < equal and impartial administration of justice ;—of that justice which the rich can pursue , until it be attained ; but which , tliat it

    tuny benefit the cottager , should be brought home to his door * Such an administration of justice would greatly reconcile the lower orders of the people , with the government under which they live j and , at no very distant period , I hope , attach them to the

    law , by imparting its benefits * and extending its protection to them , in actual and uniform experience . Gentle men , if you ask me , how may this be accomplished ? I answer , by a vigilant superintendence of the administration of justice at Quarter Sessions , an < J an anxious observance of the

    conduct of all justices of peace *— Perhaps , the Cointhission of the Peace , in every county in the kingdom , should be ex * ammed . During a long war , in sea-

    Untitled Article

    656 Judge Fletcher's Charge .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1814, page 656, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2445/page/68/