OF FREEMEN OF LIMERICK, & c. ( 1761.) 11 exorbitant tolls exacted at the gates, markets and quay— and the filth and dirt permitted to lie in the streets, lanes, quays and docks ; that he has been frequently present when complaints have been made to the several magistrates upon account of the exorbitant demands for toll and gateage; that in the year seventeen hundred and forty, and from thence to seventeen hundred and forty- five, complaints were gene- rally redressed, but from that time to the present, he never heard of any one person being redressed ; that the linen- board granted to the corporation a spinning school, and a number of wheels, reels and looms, that the council turned the widows out of the almshouse, and set up the looms there, how long they continued there he could not say, or what became of them, but heard they were permitted to go to rack ; that the council made a lease of part of the almshouse and garden thereunto belonging, to Mr. Richard Vincent, burgess, that he is well assured that the alms- house and garden were the scite of the church and church- yard of St. Nicholas, and when that parish was united to St. Mary's, one of his predecessors granted it to the corporation for an almshouse, which was built at the expense of the corporation and several charitable benefactions; that he is confirmed in this opinion, because the Dean used to reserve two rooms, and also the garden, for two widows of his appointment; that he frequently applied to the chamberlain for the 201, a year which the corporation ought to pay for the support of the Blue- school, but he re- fused to pay it, alleging he was in advance for the corporation 600/. that the Blue- school is not now subsisting; that in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty- five or one thousand seven hundred and forty- six, he applied to several members of the council, and particularly to Arthur Roche, for a small strip of ground belonging to the corporation, to which he proposed adding a little of the Deanery ground which was adjoining to it, in order to build a school- house on it, and Mr. Roche declared while he lived he never would consent that an inch of the corporation ground should be set until it was out of lease, and that then it should be set up to cant in the court of D'Oyer Hundred, that every freeman should have an opportunity of bidding for his own convenience; that the old lease of the said strip of ground expired soon after, and the said Roche took a fee- farm lease of said ground, with several others for his own use, from the mayor and common- council ; that he believed Arthur Roche was mayor in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty- three, and that he acted very honestly and uprightly in that year; that he believed most of the bad regulations in the city, since the year one thousand seven hundred and forty- five, have been owing to the making the said several leases, and the raising said two thousand pounds. Your Committee find, that a petition was preferred to the House of Commons in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty- three, in the name of John Hickie and others, in behalf of themselves and several farmers of the counties of Clare, Limerick, and Kerry, complaining of several abuses in the collection of the duties of gateage and tolls in the city of Limerick, and that the same was ordered to be heard at the bar of the House, and after several proceedings thereon, it was mutually agreed between the petitioners and the corporation of the city of Limerick, that the matter of complaint should be referred to and determined by the right honourable Sir Ralph Gore, Baronet, Chancellor of His Majesty's Court of Ex- chequer, the honourable Thomas Marlay, esquire, his Majesty's Solicitor General, and Francis Bernard, esquire; and the said referees accordingly examined into the said several matters in the presence of the several persons concerned, and awarded that the several duties specified in a schedule annexed to their said award, and no greater customs, duties or tolls should for the future be collected or paid for or on account of the several commodities and particulars therein specified; and the said several parties acquiesced in the said determination, and agreed that the said schedule or docket, signed and sealed by the said referees, should be lodged in the hands of the clerk of the House of Commons, and should be confirmed under the seal of the corporation, to the intent that the merchants and farmers might know what they were to pay, and the corporation what was to be received; and the said original award and agreement now remain in the hands of your clerk. And your Committee find, that by the said schedule the toll to be taken out of a Winchester barrel of com containing four bushels, was to be an ale quart. Your Committee find in the corporation books, a schedule of the ingate customs, which differs only in a few particulars and of little consequence, from the said schedule annexed to the said award. And your Committee find in the corporation books, immediately after the 270. said