Your army cannot catch them: the Irish bring them in; brothers and cousins cut one another's throats.' In May, 1653, the council issued the following printed declaration.
'Upon serious consideration had of the great multitudes of poore swarming in all parts of this nacion, occasioned by the devastation of the country, and by the habits of licentiousness and idleness which the generality of the people have acquired in the time of this rebellion; insomuch that frequently some are found feeding on carrion and weeds,--some starved in the highways, and many times poor children who have lost their parents, or have been deserted by them, are found exposed to and some of them fed upon _by ravening wolves and other beasts and birds of prey._' No wonder the wolves multiplied and became very bold, when they fed upon such dainty fare as Irish children! By what infatuation, by what diabolical fanaticism were those rulers persuaded that they were doing God a service, or discharging the functions of a Government, in carrying out such a policy, and consigning human beings to such a fate! By a printed declaration of June 29, 1653, published July 1, 1656,[1] the commanders of the various districts were to appoint days and times for hunting the wolf; and persons destroying wolves and bringing their heads to the commissioners of the revenue of the precinct were to receive for the head of a bitch wolf, 6 _l_; of a dog wolf, 5 _l_; for the head of every cub that preyed by himself, 40 s.; and for the head of every sucking cub, 10 _s_: The assessments on several counties to reimburse the treasury for these advances became, as appears from Major Morgan's speech, a serious charge.

In corroboration it appears that in March, 1655, there was due from the precinct of Galway 243 l.

5 s.

4 d.

for rewards paid on this account.