The Manchester Examiner. — 1848-09-23 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

THE IRISH MARAUDERS. (From the Times.)  Ballingarry saw the beginning and the end of the Irish rebellion. It proved the utter want of talent, of conduct, of enthusiasm, and of ordinary courage in the repeal mob. There will be no Ballingarry again, because never again in our time will any number of Irish rioters attack fifty policemen in a position of ordinary strength. But there is something else besides rebellion, which is quite as great a nuisance, though not quite so ambitious. The gang of ruffians that rushes into your homestead at midnight, that drives off part of your cattle and wantonly slaughters or mutilates the rest, that carries away all the booty it can lay hold of, having first applied a match to your haystack or your thatch, is about as serious an evil to the particular sufferers as a rebel army drawn up in battle array in the open field. When we hailed the triumphant defence of Widow Cormack's house against Smith O'Brien and the host of blackguards at his heels, we never meant to insinuate that the thirst of devastation and pillage was for ever stanched in that undisciplined people. The Robin Hood style ot life will always have its attractions among barbarous tribes; and there always will be found men of a certain rank and with a degree of education who would rather head a gang of robbers than sit behind a desk, or overlook the tedious operations of profitable husbandry. There is no longer the least hope of political success for the disaffected Irish. We must look, therefore, to some other 'motives for the gatherings on the banks of the Suir; and those motives must be found in that unhappy taste for disorder, wild excitement, strange adventure, desultory revenge, mere mischief, and wanton destruction, for which the Celtic race have been so long, unhappily, distinguished. It is only the strong arm of England that has kept down their predatory propensities. At the smallest encouragement, and with half a dozen "gentlemen" in green and gold uniform to give them some countenance, they will forthwith take to the hilltops, make forays on the plain, rob the plantations for fuel, and the farm-yards for food. As we have already observed, the freebooters of Tipperary and Waterford have no pretence of either political or social oppression. It is not poverty or neglect that has fixed the locality of the outbreak, but, strange to say, wealth, industry, and enterprise. The valley of the Suir is rich and well cultivated, full of smiling homesteads occupied by the better class of farmers. The surrounding hills are scarped or pierced everywhere with quarries and mines. An immense amount of capital has been sunk in the neighbourhood; and so far from the population having to complain that the local resources have not been adequately developed, there has been a vast immigration from less fortunate districts. This, of course, is the very place for robbers. The metropolitan burglars do not prey on the needy artisans of Bethnal Green. They do not search cracked tea-cups for ha'pence, or rotten shelves for cheese-parings. They are plotting against the merchant's safe, against the banker's parcel, against the plate chests and toilet tables of Belgravia and Grosvenor Square. In like manner the banditti whom Messrs. Doheny, 0' Mab ony, and O'Gorman, and other distinguished repealers, have the glory of leading, have stationed themselves "convenient" to one of the richest spots in the whole of Ireland. They are plundering the rich, not delivering the poor ; and, of course, like it all the better if they can live well and cheap under the name of repeal. But whatever the rank and motives of the outbreak, there is only one way of dealing with it. There is one law for robbers and murderers, whether they be called Mahrattas or Thugs, Caffres or Celts. Wherever miscreants flock together for the purpose of destruction and pillage we have no alternative but to employ against them ;11 the means and all the laws of regular warfare. Hero is a rebel army, flying columns, encampments, watch-fires, scouts, night attacks, in fact, all the name, reality, and terror of war. As war deal with it. When an