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Description of the Original Tory.
-- Their Manner of Swearing We have introduced an Irish outlaw, or tory, in the person of Shawn-na-Middoque, and, as it may be necessary to afford the reader a clearer insight into this subject, we shall give a short sketch of the character and habits of the wild and lawless class to which he belonged.
The first description of those savage banditti that has come down to us with a distinct and characteristic designation, is known as that of the wild band of tories who overran the South and West of Ireland both before the Revolution and after it.

The actual signification of the word _tory_, though now, and for a long time, the appellative of a political party, is scarcely known except to the Irish scholar and historian.

The term proceeds from the Irish noun _toir_, a pursuit, a chase; and from that comes its cognate, _toiree_, a person chased, or pursued--thereby meaning an outlaw, from the fact that the individuals to whom it was first applied were such as had, by their murders and robberies, occasioned themselves to be put beyond the protection of all laws, and, consequently, were considered outlaws, or tories, and liable to be shot down without the intervention of judge or jury, as they often were, wherever they could be seen or apprehended.

We believe the word first assumed its distinct character in the wars of Cromwell, as applied to the wild freebooters of Ireland.
Tory-hunting was at one time absolutely a pastime in Ireland, in consequence of this desperate body of people having proved the common enemy of every class, without reference to either religious or political distinction.