The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-18 00:00:00

Pr
ilrelaill#un

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1848.

The new Irish rebellion, after all, turns out to be
little more thin an organized system of robbery on a
large scale. Heavy contributions are levied by and
on behalf of the patriots, who make predatory excur-
eione from their mountain fastnesses, plundering the
Wises of all who have not joined in the movement, of
money, arms, and provisions, and carrying off the
flocks and herds of the farmers to feed their gallant
associates at the camp on Slievenamon. Feast-
ing is the order of the day, and those
who undor ordinary circumstances enjoy a meal o 1
meat but once or twice in the year, are now gorging
themselves to repletion, day after day, with the finest
beef and mutton, fattened in the rich meadows and fer-
tile valleys of Tipperary. This may not prove quite
so satisfactory to the farmers. It would, no doubt, be
very agreeable to meet the demands of the landlord,
or the rate-collector, with assertions that the entire pro-
duce of their holdings had been carried off by the boys;
that the wheat which had been threshed fur market
and the fat cattle, by the sale of which the rent, rates,
taxes, and other demands were to have been provided
for, had supplied the commissariat of the national
troops ; bat the reality is not quite so pleasing—a few
thousands of hungry men, whose appetites are
sb *pored by the keen air of the mountains, will re-
quire considerable supplies
.of provisions to maintain
them ; although they may in the first in-
stance be contented to prey upon the Saxon
and the oppressor, their friends themselves must
in time provide for their wants and exigencies.
When a necessity arises they will not pause to in-
quire whether the devoted shee,p are the property of
friend or foe, of the supporters of the union, or of true
and gEtnuine Irishmen, but the leg or loin will be
devoured With equal gusto, whoever may he at the
cost of pro Siding them.
At present nothing can be pleasanter than the lives
of the insurgents. Everything is "couleur de rose."
The weather is admirably suited for al fresco enjoy-
ments, and the Irish peasantry are at all times ready
Qrdelr the present moment without troubling them-
selves 'very deeply as to the consequences of their
frolic.
wive, theand then
a day of retribution will speedily
very material alteration will take
plaee in their views and feelings. They will occa-
sionally
meet with warm receptions, and not be
permitted to cry off
impunity. In • place their neighbours' goods with
Of sheep, or a
few sacks of a fat ox, half a score
of corn being car-
ried off, some eight or
ten of the plunderers
may chance to remain on
the
vayed to ditrance vide in
field, or to be con-
-leelem
atone by perpetual banishment for el
h or Nenagh
of the laws of property, and their u
etfeir violationtunate
for mutton. An organized band of plunderers
taste
cannot
long continue to set the law at defiance. Their vic-
tims will speedily find it essential to bring the ay,.
tem to a termination, and to put the police and
military on the track of the cattle-stealers. They
mill begin to think the claims of their landlords les;
difficult to be encountered than the unascertained and
unlimited demand of the pikemen and riflemen,
who may chance to bivouac in keit- vicinities. When
the receipt of the half-year's gale is snugly de-
posfted in their pockets no new demand can be made
on account of that rent, but it is quite different with
the armed bands who prey upon the country. It will
4lot bia rcieived as a plea against any new contribu-

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