The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-17 00:00:00

MORTMAIN COMMITTEE.

Mr. HEADLAM moved that the Select Committee
on the laws of mortmain do consist of seventeen Mem-
bers, and to nominate the following Members:—Mr.
Headlam, Lord John Manners, the Attorney-General for
Ireland, Mr. Hutt, Mr. Marshall, Lord Harry Vane,
Mr. Shafto Adair, Mr. Anstey, Mr. Drummond, Mr.
Fitzpatrick, Mr. Hardcastle, Sir H ibert Harry Inglis,
Mr. Heald, Mr. Keogh, Mr. Philip Howard, Mr. Mon-
sell, and Mr. Meagher.
Mr. HUME thought there was a rule fixing the num.
ber of Members at fifteen, unless there were special rea-
sons for it.
Mr. HEADLAM said his reason for adding three ad-
ditional Members was that there was not a sufficient
number of Members of the Roman Catholic religion.
Mr. WALPOLE said the question was whether the
Committee were to meet merely to make a report, or
whether they intended to examine further witnesses. If
the former,
he had no objection; but if the latter, these
new Members had not had the advantage of hearing the
previous evidence. •
Mr. HEADLAM said there was only one witness to
be examined, but of course he would not object if it was
found necessary to examine others.
Mr. ANSTEY said if the 'Hon. Gentleman intended
to close the labours of the Committee, he was not taking
the best means of doing so. It any of the new Members
required it, it might be necessary to go over the evidence
again.

Mr. P. HOWARD supported the additions proposed
to the Committee, as it was essential that so large and
important a class of the community should be repre-
sented.
Mr. DRUMMOND, as a member of the Committee,
protested against any further evidence being taken.
Mr. SCULLY said the constitution of the Committee,
which showed so large a preponderance of members of
one class of opinions, had caused great dissatisfaction in
Ireland.
The committee was then appointed.
OUTRAGES IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRELAND moved

for a Select Committee to inquire into the state of those
pares of the counties of Armagh, Monaghan, and Louth,
which are referred to in her Majesty's speech; into the
immediate came of crime and outrage in those districts;
and into the efficiency of the laws, and of their adminis-
tration, for the suppression of such crime and outrage.
The Learned Gentleman said that his motion was sub-
stantially the same as the one he intended to make be-
fore the change in the Government took place.—(Hear,
hear.) Oa the first night of the session he drew atten-
tion to the subject, which was alluded to in the Speech
from the Throne, a paragraph of which spoke of the
crimes and outrages in the three counties of the north of
Ireland, included in his motion. The Noble Lord then
at the head of the Government informed him that inas-
much as a Special Commission was sitting, and had not
finished its proceedings, it would be premature to go
into the subject at that time. The Noble Lord was un-
doubtedly right, and he could not proceed with the
matter then. But when the Commission had terminated,
he gave notice of a motion for a Committee to inquire
into the causes why the law had proved insufficient in
the counties of Louth, Monaghan, and Armagh, for the
suppression of crime. The Right Honourable Baronet
the then Home Secretary, put a motion on the paper as
an amendment to his, the terms of which he (Mr.
Napier) had adopted, because he found on looking at the
amendment, that there was no real difference between

them. He conferred with the Right Hon. Baronet on
the subject, and the Right Hon. Baronet, with the cour-
tesy which always distinguishes his intercourse with
members on either side of the House, in expressing his
concurrence in the obkot in view, said he should make
no opposition to his taking any step to bring the subject
before the House. He need not say that it was a sub-
ject of the deepest interest to the Irish people, or that it
claimed the most serious atttention from the House, be-
cause there could be nothieg of greater moment than the
security of life and property in Ireland, which, however
they might differ on matters of policy, was, after allohe
substratum of good government. Now,
the Speech from
the Throne adverted to the state of those districts, and
he thought he was entitled to lay before the House such
clear and unambiguous evidence of a very startling
nature, respecting the state of those very districts of
the country, as would at least call upon the House to
pause well, to consider it, and to lend every con-
stitutional assistance to inquire into, and remove
if possible, the causes which produce a state
of things at variance with the preservation of
life and property, with the introduction of capital,
with employment, with industry, and with every
thing of importance either to the owners or to the occu-
piers of land in this portion of the country. In the
course of last year, the grand jury of the county of
Louth, of which Lord Claremont, an extensive landed
proprietor in the county, was foreman, presesred.a me-
morial to Lord Clarendon, in which they drew attention
to what struck them as an organiz,d system of crime
other mattersrelatingge
demanding earnest investigation. It suggested that the
Intonst
now
necessary
able police officers should be sent into the country,
aeguiregoatkanroewtalred of the "Ribbon" system, and
not
alone during to the administration of the, law,
to enter into. He (Mr. Napier) af-
terwardsn of the state of crime in that county
cases, he was perfectnl
twilitleoars, selecting only the cases con-
nected with the
ttlni •ct, er e inp
overt acts of a great confederacy,
system. So startling were these
return embraced would put the law down,conscious that they were the
which,ifraiacfetnyienta down,gpoaupitenns
tc
ohnfo.
f December,
and
ni cdt
property.wit h the l a wyr—h
The
law--an e
tour
conspiracy
period between
the 20th of April, 1849, and the 29cetlil
It embraced twanty-three separatelBsl.
ders, shooting with intent to cases,
acting'
Deur-
wounding, threatening notices, acting' acsutting and
of unlawful assemblies, administering umelmbers
oaths, and preventing prosecutions for n
oar" f u l
And be found that out of those tweet'
e.
three cases, in five instances only there had been eO,,Y:
victions: in all the rest, the law not having been able to
overtake the criminal. Shortly before the meeting of
Parliament a Special Commission was issued to the
county of Monaghan, which was proceeding at the time
the session commenced; and that Special Commission,
issued on the part of the Government, marked its sense
of its consciousness of the peculiar state of criminality
of the distric,. The Hon. Member for Windsor, the
Solicitor-General for Ireland, atteeded on that Com-
mission, and he was bound to say, from all the inquiry
he had made, that he had conducted the cases at that
Commission with great ability. But no convictions were
had, and the cases remaining ~ere removed out of the
Queen's Bench, with a view of being taken to :another
part of the country, white there was a probability of
getting a better class of jurors. At that Commission a
judge, inferior to none in learning arid judgment, pre-
sided. As the cases remaining were to go down to be
tried at the next assizes he would not further allude to
the Commission, the men being untried. The Right
Hon. Gentleman then referred to the charge delivered
by the Learned Judge to the grind jury, in which
he awed it was t(n true that Ribbe
nism prevailed
in all its terrors iu that district. He next alluded to
very the murder of Mr. Bateson, and said he had a
im-
portant document which had been submitted to the late
Chief Secretary for Irelite nervid (Sir William So lle,a
e ,
signatures to which 160 gignures were appended. Among
th,,m th,,se of three licuteeaets, tweuty-seven deputy
lieutenants, and die Mag-istra'.es of the three counties he
had flawed'. The statement iti mat document corr.,s-
winded with what had be(n said by the present Lerd
Chancellor of Ireland, of murder,. and attempts at mur-
der. The sympathy that prevailed in favour of the con