At
this time there was an act of parliament in existence against illicit
distillation, but of so recent a date that it was only when a seizure
similar to the foregoing had been made, that the people in any
particular district became acquainted with it. By this enactment the
offending individual was looked upon as having no farther violated
the laws in that case made and provided, than those who had never been
engaged in such pursuits at all. In other words, the innocent, were
equally punished with the guilty. A heavy fine was imposed--not on the
offender, but on the whole townland in which he lived; so that the
guilt of one individual was not visited as it ought to have been on the
culprit himself, but equally distributed in all its penalties upon the
other inhabitants of the district in question, who may have had neither
act nor part in any violation of the laws whatsoever.
Bryan M'Mahon, on discovering the fearful position in which it placed
him, scarcely knew on what hand to turn. His family were equally
alarmed, and with just reason. Illicit distillation had been carried to
incredible lengths for the last two or three years, and the statute in
question was enacted with, a hope that it might unite the people in a
kind of legal confederacy against a system so destructive of industry
and morals.
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