but the increased rent that undoes the farmer.  And, indeed, in this country, where I fear the tenant hardly ever has more than one-third of the profits he makes of his farm for his share, and too often but a fourth, or, perhaps, a fifth part, as the tenant’s share is charged with the tithe, his case is, no doubt, hard, but it is plain from what side the hardship arises.’  What the gentlemen wanted to be at, according to the primate, was, that they might go on raising their rents, and that the clergy should receive their old payments.  He admits, however, that the tenants were sometimes cited to the ecclesiastical courts, and if they failed to appear there, they stood excommunicated; and he adds, ’possibly when a writ de excommunicato capiendo is taken out, and they find they have 7 l. or 8 l. to pay, they run away, for the greatest part of the occupiers of the land here are so poor, that an extraordinary stroke of 8 l. or 10 l. falling on them is certain ruin to them.’  He further states that, to his own knowledge, many of the clergy had chosen rather to lose their ‘small dues’ than to be at a certain great expense in getting them, ’and at an uncertainty whether the farmer would not at last run away without paying anything.’

Such was the condition of the Protestants of Ulster during the era of the penal code; and it is a curious fact that it was the Presbyterians and not the Catholics that were forced by the exactions of the Protestant landlords and the clergy to run away from the country which their forefathers had been brought over to civilize.  But there was another fact connected with the condition of Ulster which I dare say will be almost incredible to many readers.  The tenantry, so cruelly rack-rented and impoverished, were reduced by two or three bad seasons to a state bordering upon famine.  There was little or no corn in the province.  The primate set on foot a subscription in Dublin, to which he himself contributed very liberally.  The object was to buy food to supply the necessities of the north, and to put a stop to ’the great desertion’ they had been threatened with.  He hoped that the landlords would ’do their part by remitting some arrears, or making some abatement of their rents.’  As many of the tenants had eaten the oats they should have sowed their lands with, he expected the landlords would have the good sense to furnish them with seed; if not, a great deal of land would lie waste that year.  And where were the provisions got?  Partly in Munster, where corn was very cheap and abundant.  But the people of Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Clonmel objected to have their provisions sent away, although they were in some places ’as cheap again as in the north; but where dearest, at least one-third part cheaper.’  Riotous mobs broke open the store-houses and cellars, setting what price they pleased upon the provisions.  And, what between those riots and the prevalence of easterly winds, three