l86 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE H.J.
which was served on Mr.
Maxwell, an agent in the county of Bromnngg, Armagh.
Q'
1932.
Whose agent is he?—I
forget at this moment.
1853.
[The Witness delivered in the following document, which was
read:]
Sir,—Receive an advice from a well-wisher, and also a tenant on that once thriving and industrious estate, But alas its Wealth and prosperity are no more, it is now brought to biggary.
Like all others the question is, how Is all this brought upon it, the reply is by an oppressive agent and his unworthy master, A man unworthy of the position of life which he has obtained.
While other landlords have given their tenants a Reduction of their rents, he Refuses to give them any acknowledgment Whatever, and is Backed up to it By you his agent; For when any person asks any request of him he sends them to you, and says he has left the whole management to you, and yon then, the working tool, sets to work all manner of cruelty upon your vassal tenantry, pulling Down their cabins, tearing them from their farms, and Driving through the world, either Death in the Workhouse, or their chance of death in the emigrant ship, swearing by the holy Book of Moses that you will be a terror to them all.
Can such talk prosper ; it has done so for a while, But ere long there will be and to such cruelty; the whole cry amongst the tenants is away such men; the all rejoice in the Death of the oppressor; you are in a very perilous situation at present; your life is in Danger; there are men now a days Who come Down from Carriekmacross, and that upper country, who hire to shoot Landlords and Agents; and there was a man Come Down through this estate, he being sent here by the tenants of the portnorris estate, and he made Agreement with the Writers of this advice to shoot yon and your master for 50/.,
the first opportunity; you aie in Danger every Day you pass out of never Comen home With your Life, and We thought it our Bounden Duty to give you some warning that you might either make some arrangement that might satisfy your enraged vassals, or prepare a sheet and coffin, and some means of conveying your body Back to Derry, for if you Were Dead, the would not let your remains rist in this Country, the Would exhume your body, and Burn it as Warning to all tenants who shall from henceforth Come for your Country.
And We also Warn you that the Blood Money is now half Collected, and Lying in our houses to Deliver over the contractor for shooting you, and if you were shot in the midst of Daylight you need not have Any hope of the perpetrator ever Comeing to Justice, if thousands saw him committing the Deed, for instance see how Malavery Was Killed amongst the eyees of the Whole Country, and not one ever enterferd.
No not even the Jury When it came to a trial the would not suffer one hair of his head to fall, they said that that Agent Was taking the Lives of thousands By a long and lingring Death, take warning in time Lest you Wish you had Done so when to Late, " To Mr.
Stewart Maxwell^ Armagh,"
