The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-02-09 00:00:00

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PAIZLIAMENTAITY INTELLIGENCE.
HOIHIR OP LOlNtleleenow, Fink&
COAL TfUTTE&
Lord SHAFTESBURY ,presented a petition from Newton
Abbot sad Newten ha Derbyshire, praying for a repeal of
be di ties eto emits earned oonuatise.--Lind on the table.
Their Lordships the failloteeif fin Pont is how appeal mum
IRISH . ASHOCIA T lONS.
After the reading of the Order of she
Marquis of LANSUOWN rose, and said—" My Lords,
1 nee; paroant to die wordete I yesterday gave your Lordships, to
trove-e-• That an humble Address be presented to his Majesty,
patio; that hit Majesty,
.ivill be.graciouely pleased to order that
, ere be laid before this' House tomes of all despatches made by the
Lord latetitenint of grffiend rebuffs to the origin, progress, and
asturiof the teligioos and political societies of that conntry, and
their consequences.'-1 am Induced to obtrude upon the House on
this occasion, because I cannot racoon'e the assertion that has been
put into his Blajesty's mood), sod that we have heard in the
speech delivered from the Throoe, that • outrages in Ireland have
to a great degree ceased, and tied she is now participating in the
gene* metric:thy i' with the extraordinary•commimicatiom nn.
nixed to it, •Asare exists; in that country anociatihreeithich
have rtes irrectincilable with the Cohititution, and
'inhalant'', is ilitrox,f tbd by rettsperadoX'aitimosities, to
eudangek the peace society, tend to retard the bourse of national
icuproutosein ; followed by l'reconsmendation to the Legisbothe
to adopt, without delay, tome means to remedy that evil. I also
"sv rise in consequence of the 'observations of the Noble Earl oppositi,
in slaver tp a question i yesterday put to him, which cooeryed a
refusal to lay before the Honsc the documents that hot been re.•
envied on this subject ; and I feel that, combining all these cireum.
stances. the House is placed in a situation quite singular—l might
alemot say.unpteeeder!ted. Unprecedented, because, as far as my
recollection serves, I do not remember a single instance in which,
even in a time of war, and when war surrounded us pith dangers
on every side, the House was called upon to interfere with' the
liberties of ,the people, before a Cpminittee of Inquiry had been ap.
pointed, mad before the production of documents shich must show
the necessity for so interfering. Be It recollected that this proposi-
tion does not respect any particular class of his Majesty's subject.,
but professes to embrace all—to bring all into a situation in which
they are not now placed according to the law on the subject. There
sertalnly does not appear td'be any distinction to be made between
this country and Ireland. It is made'evident that the proceedings
of the society to which I have referred, whether or not those pro.
eeedingt be strictly legal. have imposed on his Majesty's Govern.
relent tbemecessity of making inquiries into the subject : but the
House is called upon even without any inquiry : if I do cot succeed
in the motion I bring before the notice of your Lordships, the
House is called upon, without knowing any thing of the evil, to
provide a remedy for it, to prevent the danger when no danger is to
be apprehended—when we are not only free from danger, but
when the period is one of increasing tranquillity—when there is no
fear for the future, and when there is none existing in the present--
when all parties unanimously join in praising the tranquil state of
that country—when it is asserted this extraordinary necessity exists.
'this tranquillity has been accounted for in different ways by the '
various patsies concerned.. The Catholic Association say it is
towing to their exertions that the present peace of the country is so
rranifest. The friends of the Lord Lieutenant say, and perhaps
they say justly. that it is owing to his continued care. The friends
of leis Majesty's Ministers say that it is owing to the rigorous mea-
sum which during the last few years they have carried through
Parliament ; and perhaps the Gentlemen of the other House may
that it is to the many amendments they have introduced into
Obit measures that weowe the peaceof the country and Its happy con-
sequences. however different those opinions may be as to the cause,
all parties and persons are agreed in the fact, that there is not in I.
land any body of persons willing to disturb the public peace, or,
chat will answer toy argument equally well, able to do so. Is this
tee moment then for us to tell the public that we are under the MP*
cessity, even without inquiry, to create new limitations to, and new
restrittions on, the libel', of the subje;t, without giving time
to ascertain' the danger against which we are called upon to provide ?
ttut persons hate told us that this inquiry is unnecessary, because
nt the notoriety of the facts. I must confess that it' at any one
iitsment, or on any one subject, I ever thought it wrong to use
ttns right of notoriety. I do now think it wrong, because on this
sehject.persons tre so likely to be misinformed, and to be in error.,
A circumstance hes occurred relative to the proceedings of this
very Catholic Association, and it has occurred within a few weeks,
which bears me out in the observation I have made. The perms
who were in error are not those of this country, whose information
must have been necessarily limited, but they are the actual Law
Officers of Ireland ; able men—who are well known to be so; yet
SO completely were they misinformed as to what took place in, that
Association, that they were induced to go to the tribunal of the
country, and prefer a charge against an individual for uttering se-
ditious expressions. But what was the consequence? So little were
they prepared with their statement and their evidences, that when
the matter came to he investigated—not by a petty jury, but by a
peed jury—they were not borne out in their charges against this
Member of the Association. It is impossible not to perceive that
if they had been well informed of what had actually taken place,
they would not have gone before a grand jury, and subjected them.
selves to such a defeat. There is a great tendency in Ireland,
among all parties, to exaggerate whatever takes place in that Assn
elation, and men may easily be misled by their feelings to misin-
terpret the words uttered there. I will say to your Lordships,
that those exaggerated reports--the vague statements you may
have heard, and the newspaper accounts you may have read, should
not induce your Lordships to engage in so very delicate--I may
say so very difficult—a task, as the resolution to attack the liberties or
the pursuits of the people, and the rights they possess under the
laws of England. I ask your bordabips to agree and to be satisfied
on these points. In the tun instance you should satisfy yourselves
to the existence of the great evil you are called upon to correct ;
is the second place as to the nature of this evil ; and in the third
place. and above all, you should satisfy yourselves, that in ex-
tinguishing this evil, or In attempting to extinguish it, you do not
create another, and a far greater evil than the one you are attempt.'
tog to put down. (Hear, hear.) To be satisfied on each of those
intuits, you must require the despetches that have been made by
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on the subject. NVhen you con-'
sitter bow difficult it will be to provides, remedy, you must consider
how necessary it is that you should receive intormation front those
who have the best opportunities of knowing what the evil is, and
bow far it extends. The information that should be laid belies
your Lordships, should be taken trout the mouths of those persons
whose more especial duty and interest it is to attend to the matter.
You are about to engage in a task, of which, I think, even WA
information, but 1 ant sure without it, although you may see the
commencement, no man can tell what will be the end. (Hear, heart.
'l'lier Noble Lord on the Woolsack, I say the Noble Lord on the
Woolsack, because every man must know under whose auspices the
Hill will be introduced, and must be quite certain that so delicate
and precious a pieces of workmanship as I will chow it to be, can
be placed in no other bands but his. I say that Noble and 'teemed
Lord will require all his ingenuity, and no man can rate that io.
geauity higher than I do, to perform the task. If the object of the
43111 be to extinguish the Catholic Association—the Catholic Rent
of Ireland as it is called, I ask if the Noble and Learned Lord
two the this without destroying the ordinary relations of society ?
est: he prevent people of any description from enjoying the
tmodderce which other are willing to confide in then] ? If
they be willing to receive money which others are ready to
g:ve, can he prevent this ? Is he able to intercept opinions
oetween one titan's mouth and another man's heart ? Can
he prevent one person from putting in his pocket that which
etothcr person hands to hint? If he cannot do this. be an'
du nothing I and if he does do it lie wilt do worse than nothing,
because he will engage in what I will call a legislative milk/.
.flut I will endeavour to show your Lordships, because it is kn.
portant to consider the difficulties, what those difficulties are.
premn'e, indeed, from what I know, from what passed in this ,
House on another occasion, that the Noble Earl who is anxious to
burg this Bill through this and the other House, will tell your
I.(oroships., that it is not to be a substantive Bill, but an amend-
luau of the Convention Act. But there is this difference between
them, and your Lordships will do well to consider it: the Convent.
Lion Act touches on tangible objects, but this Bill touches on ob-
jects that are not tangible. This Bill relates to delegations. I
will not trouble your Lordships with any observations as to whether
delegations be or be not injurious to society; but I know, that
noir different circumstance. they may bat serviceable; and I know
ttim some men—and those men are among the best this country has
pet:educed—have thought that delegations in times of grievance are
WO be-ter methods of obtaining redress. I might, among others,
more the name of my Learn ed Friend who the other day moved
t.se Address, who ha. delivered his opinion, that delegations were
not only a harmless but a useful mode of' repairing public grief.
MCA'S. I wiil admit that it was a tangible point in the law on
vebittit to act, when oaths were administered in Ireland; it might
be then fairly said, we will not admit oaths to be administered in
tUts, form, as they are calculated to disturb the public peace;
but when I see in the Catholic Association Ito outward farina at-
terded to—no proceeding take place to which there can be any.ra.
1101/1 objection, I ask what, in putting down this Association.
wilt you have one more than to get rid of words, and words only ?
You may object to the words Catholic Association--Catholic Rent
--and the word Rent I admit to be a very disagreeable one—but
what will you have done, when you have gotten rid of them ? 1
remember that some years ago, when a certain Noble Lord
was the Irish Secretary,.he exerted himself to put down what was
thee called theCatholicCoimmittee, and in a short time this Cabals
Committee was no more beard of. It is now the Catholic Associ-
snort, and the Noble Earl may, perhaps,, exert himself as sue.
centrally to get rid of the words Associrson and Rent; but the
question is, will nut the people still ply that rent 1 Several of
pay Noble Friends, who have filled offices in Ireland, must be
aware how difficult it is to make the Irish pay any thing. With
Obis feeling the taxes have been, in a great degree, removed from
them ; but I know that they will find it much more difficult to
prevent then, from paying, especially when they are deterred from
i; by Acts which they dislike. I have heard Oust many have timed
at difficult to get money into their pockets in opposition to the
lsw, but I have never heard that any hove found any difficulty
getting it out, whatever law may have ex!sted to prevent them.
I will tell the Noble Lords what I think they may be able to do,
anhough they will out make the rent less, they may make it more.
1 (Lay:other the story of a French poet--M. Piro', I think it is—
ante, on the night before his volume of poems Caine out, went to a
tne-.d, and said to him--" Pray go to the academy, and say that
you think my verses detestable. bet them condemn them, and 1
Ball be s ire to sell the whole edition." For my part, if I were
*lowed a poundage on this Catholic Rent, I would say, when the
JPeettemetit had met, " this Catholic Rent is a terrible thing."
!mild endeavour to get die Parliament to discountenance
it, itonnue I should then he sure to increase my profits. It

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