Major Joffw« Tandy.
ai January 1832.
G.
JYtegeraW,
Esq.
34 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE 386.
Have there been any combinations in your district to compel any of the landlords to reduce the rents in any way ?—No,
I have not heard of any.
Gera/d jRtegera/*/, Esquire, again called in; and Examined.
387.
IN your former evidence you stated that you considered it impracticable and impossible, in the present state of the country, to enforce the payment of tithe; will you explain why it is that you think such a measure impracticable?—
I should divide the difficulties into two branches, that is, into those parishes that are under the Composition Act, and those which are not.
The difficulties which present themselves, in respect to the parishes that are not under the Composition Act, and that pay tithe, are, first, the clergyman, generally speaking, attempts to recover his tithes by civil-bill process at quarter sessions.
The first difficulty he has to encounter is the procuring a process-server to undertake to serve the process; for in most instances, of late, the process-servers have absolutely refused to do so; and in a recent communication with the assistant barrister of the county of Tippe-rary, I was obliged to request that gentleman to enter into and promulgate a resolu-tion to dismiss any process-server who refused this duty; this he at once acceded to.
However, it was necessary, in the case I speak of, to have a process-server specially selected and appointed; supposing, therefore, the difficulty of getting a process-server to undertake the duty to be surmounted, then there is the legal difficulty of serving the process; the parties will shut up their doors, and keep out of the way.
I am now supposing that there is no physical obstruction, no violence; and in this manner the peasantry render the service of a process almost impossible.
Latterly, however, they have not contented themselves with this passive resistance; but they have proceeded to actual acts of violence upon the process-server, so as to render it necessary to send out a large body of armed men to protect him.
Supposing even that this difficulty were got over, of the service of the process, the next is to find an attorney who will undertake to move those processes at quarter sessions; and in most places, of late, the attornies have, generally speaking, been so intimi-dated that they have refused to move tithe processes.
In fact, one case came under my own knowledge, where four magistrates, from a remote part of the county, on their way to attend the Thurles quarter sessions upon magisterial business, were mistaken, at the entrance of the town of Thurles, for four attornies ; and the mob told them, on no account or pretence, to dare move the tithe processes, for if they did, they would never leave that part of the country alive.
Supposing even this difficulty got over, and that a decree has been actually obtained, I do not conceive that the clergyman would be one jot nearer obtaining his tithes; the decree would be a dead letter, for he could not execute it; no man would undertake to go out unless protected by a very large armed force; and the very machinery of taking out such an armed force would create such an ec/atf in the county, that it would give the parties against whom the decree was obtained sufficient notice to remove their stock or crops, so that the person going to execute the decree would find nothing to execute it upon.
If the decree were obtained against the body of the individual, there are a thousand other subterfuges by which he could evade the pay-ment also ; and even if distress were levied under the decree, the difficulty would not be got over, because the distress must be sold ; and who would buy it ?
It would be branded, "Tithe!"
so that no person would purchase; and I believe many instances have occurred in which it was necessary to send tithe so seized from the Southern part of Ireland, under an escort of armed persons, up to Dublin, to be embarked for England.
388.
There being instances of notices being served for tenants to pay in kind, would the clergyman, even if served with those notices, be able to collect his tithe in that way so long as the present disposition continues which is evinced on the part of the tenantry ?—I
think he would be under as great a difficulty in that way as any other; because it would be necessary for the clergyman either to go or send for the purpose of drawing the tithes, and in the present temper of the country he could not procure persons to work for him ; he could not procure horses and carts; or if he could procure them, they would not be permitted to draw away the tithe from the land ; in fact, some persons, to my own knowledge, who did attempt it, were attacked and beaten, and their carts broken by the people, and there was therefore an end of that mode of proceeding.
389.
Would any reasonable increase of" the military and police establishments-relieve the clergy from the difficulty ?—With
respect to the police, I should be very
