A terrible agrarian murder has been committed in county Mayo,
the first, it is said, for 100 years. Mr. James Hunter, a Scotch shepherd, hiied a farm of Dr. Gibbings on a lease which, as he held, included a right to a bog amidst some mountain land. Dr. Gibbings' tenants, however, said it was their land, and cut turf in the bog. Mr. Hunter, decent Scotchman as he was, with no notion of indefinite rights, brought an action against one tenant named O'Neill, a man paying only 18 for his occupancy, won it, and attempted to levy the costs, which amounted to 145, by seizing his unripe crops. He was warned of his danger, and might have cut down the unripe crop, but being a Scotchman, said he would take charge himself as sheriff's officer, and wait till the crop was ripe. He did so, took charge, and on his return home was shot dead. It will be observed that he was not shot for claiming the bog, but for seizing his adversary's crops to pay costs, a perfectly legal transac- tion, though made oppressive by two incidental circumstances ;- the enormity of the demand, which was not Mr. Hunter's fault, but that of the law, which first taxes us to pay judges and then fines us for appealing to them ; and, secondly, that the seizure of the crop implied eviction, and therefore starvation for O'Neill.
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