The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-20 00:00:00

w.s placed at the time in a peculiar position—then I
'agree with the Noble Lord that there would Is 3
greueds fur deducieg an interence nut unfavourable
to Lord Clerenden's conduct on the occasion under
discussion. But the Noble Lord the First Minister of
the Crown cuts away that ground himself, by stating,
that sects transactions are ordinary transactions in
land.—(L en' cheers.) The Noble Lord cannot
have the advantage of both positions.—(Cheers.) He
west choose either; and it is because I believe them to
be ordinary transactions in that country—a conviction
which the Noble Lord has not disproved-s-that I ask the
calm and dispassionate vote of this House on such con-
duct—that I Del( their opinion as to whether these trans-
actions shall have their approbation, and whether or not
they will perpetuate a system of a nature to weaken the
authority of the Executive, and to reflect discredit on
the administration of public affairs in Ireland.—(Cheers.)
I have now brought back this discussion to the real
point—the point from which it started, after the discur-
sive argument of the Noble Lord. Lord Eliot may have
expressed his satisfaction with Mr. Birch in 1842, but
that is an additional reason for the House expressing its
own opiniou in 1852.—(Hear.) Lod Derby may have
had transactions with the Irish press when he was Chief
Secretary of Indeed; but that is only another reason for
this House expressing an opinion now. Every statement
of the Noble Lord, in fact, destroys his own argument,
and renders it more and more impossible for him. to ride
off his case by means of an appeal in justification
to the existence of an extraordinary crisis at the
period in question.—(Cheers.) If this were, indeed,
a motion brought forsvai d for the purpose of casting
a stigma upon ineividual character, as the Noble
Lord assumes it to be, I very much doubt if my Noble
Friend the mover, who has introduced so important a
matter in so temperate a manner, and who is himself
proud of being an Irishman.—(Hear, bear.) I very much
doubt, I say, if he would have made any motion of that
naiure—(flear, hear)—and certain I am that I should
not have been the individual to support it.—(Cheers.)
If this was if transaction arising out of extraordinary
circumstances, produced by the heat of political proceed-
ings, and not of a normal character, then I freely admit
that every generous man would feel disposed to cast a
veil over it, and to say it has never occurred before, and
probably may never occur again, and therefore it is not
my duty to notice it.—(Cheers.) That very cheer is
the best argument in favour of the motion.—(Cheers and
laughter.) We have it on the confession of the First
Minister of the Crown, however, that this transaction is
part of a system. That every secretary of the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland pursued that system, and this ren-
ifers it the more important on my part to ask the House
if they believe that system to be a pernicious one. It is
not an affair of Peeling or taste on the part of the House
of Commons, it is an affair of public duty that we should'
examine these remarkable circumstances which the
Noble Lord has referred to, and express an opinion upon
them. Now, Sir, I have nothing to say as to the con-
duct of Lord Eliot—that Noble Lord has friends in
this House ready, if necessary, to vindicate his conduct.
But the Noble Lord (Lord J. Russell) has referred
to all other secretaries, and in a marked allusive manner
he referred to Lord Derby, when he, as Mr. Stanley, was
secretary for Ireland. Now I remember to have read a
book recently which throws considerable light on the
mode of conducting Irish affairs at that time: I believe
it was the fact that during the. Administration of Lord
slegleses, now a member of the present Government,
when party spirit ranged high in Ireland, when the press
in that country—cud no country is more influenced by
the press—was divided between two great sections, the
Orange and the Catholic party, or what we did call the
Catholic party—l believe it was the fact that the Go-
verment of Lord Anglesea, wishing that the temperate
tones of a wiser policy should be heard by his Irish
cnuotrymen, did attempt, and not unsuccessfully, to es-
tablish a newspaper. Is there any one who will quarrel
with the conduct of Lord Anglesea in this matter?—
(Hear, hear.) Is there any one in a free country like
this, which owes so much of its liberty to a free press—
is there any Honourable Gentleman present who will
say that such conduct was disgraceful? who will not, on
the other band, maintain that it was bold, wise, and
proper conduct for a Government to attempt to establish
an organ in order to express its opinions faithfully in a
country where the public press was ranged between two
hostile parties?—(Hear, hear.) I say I know nothing
could be more legitimate, proper, and praiseworthy than
for a Government to attempt to infuse a temperate tone
into politics; and I say it was a wise policy for Govern-
ment, amid the exacerbations of party, to attempt to re-
gulate the public mind, and to soften it down to a safer
tone, and to succeed in establishing for itself an addi-
tional amount of influence in support of the Adminis-
tration. 1 believe this was the case in the Adminis-
tration of the Marquis of Anglesea, and I believe it pro-
duced beneficial fruits. A newspaper was established
by a respectable man, it was written by a not undistin-
guished man, a member of the Irish bar, and it had a
salutary iefluence on public opinion. If, Sir, I chose to
view the question merely in a party point of view—if I
availed myself of the allusive remark of the First
Minister of the Crown—if I chose to denounce that at-
tempt of Lord Anglesea, instead of meeting it with my
sincere admiration—l might refer to the memoirs of
Lord Cloucurry, in which strange revelations of certain
noblemen are given, and there find a passage which
would not at all have assisted, not what I will call the
argument, but the brilliant explanation of the First
Minister of the Crown. The Administration of Lord
Anglesea was placed under circumstances of great ddfi-
eulty—it was in great straits—it was anxious to pursue
a truly national policy, and therefore a newspaper was
established, written by honest able men, who en-
joyed the respect of that society of which they
were the ornaments.—(Hear, hear) But who
were the prime advisers of the Lord Lieutenant of that
time? I am afraid, though it may mortify the Gen-
tleman to say so, that he did not exercise so much in-
fluence over the mind of the Lord Lieutenant as his
talent entitled him to exprct. There was a camarilla,
Lord Cl. ncurry says, in the Castle et Dublin at that
time. Three or four individuals entirely managed the
Lord Lieutenant, but the Chief Secretary was not one
of them. I recollect reading that, amongst these three
or fur individuals, the most eminent, the most influen-
tial of all, was George Villiers, now more distinguished
as the Earl or Clarendon.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
when, therefore, that distinguished individual went in
his new name and his new
capacity to Dublin, he was
not entir' ly ignorant of the state of that country; and
when adorned with that surpassing decoration which the
Noble Lord had referred to, he was not entirely unac-
quainted with the Irish press.—(Hear, and laughter.)
The Knight of the Garter condescended even to know
a newspaper editor. Distinguished as this individual
was in position and iu ability—decorated as he was
with his worthily won honours. I cannot believe
that the Viceroy was ignorant of the men who pro-
dueed leading articles. I must, however, ex-
extremeth at e astonishmentminent perso n atw h
ot e
mode
padreospstedinyby to use
the language of the Noble Lord, and that I
should make no mistake I made a minute of the words
—" At a moment of peril and concern to the Crown and
the British empire, the Viceroy of Ireland should have
sought an antidote." The Noble Lord read one after
another these leading articles, which led to so many
public trials, and so much painful public punishment—
articles which excite d many persons to misconduct, and
which produced acknowledged perils to the state. The
Noble Lord wishing to find an antidote, and to encou-
rage some writer who would counteract those seditious
efforts which imperilled the Crown and the empire—the
Noble Lord with all his previous experience and ac-
qaaintance with the press, when Mr. Villiers, as
may be learned from Lord Clurcarry, falls into
the trap of—Birch.—(Laughter and cheers.) lam the
last man to depreciate the influence of the press. I
respect and admire the press, fur to the press I think
we are indebted for some of the greatest blessings we
enjoy, and I believe it affords the best security for
liberty. But, at the same time, I do not take an
exaggerated view of the power of the press. It
is not clear to me that in either revolution
or rebellion the very best leading article would
save the country.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) Nay,
I doubt whe her the Noble Loll], in a moment of diffi-
culty and danger. would think that even a leading
article in the Times, written with more than usual
ability, would serve all the purposes he wished to ac-
cou3ptisb, and avert all the expected danger. But,
certainly, if the Noble Lord went to the press tor help,
he would go to the Times, not to the Satirist—(lenr,
hear.) Here we have fairly put before us these facts
temperately expressed—that the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, doing as the First Lord of the Treasury tells
us was usually done, placed himself in communication
with a newspaper—l do not say whether great or small,
or whether its reputation was high or base—in order to
gain the influence of that newspaper to support his
Administration, paying that newspaper out of the public
purse.—(Rear, hear.) And then we are told that
this is not a subject for the House of Commons to
inquire into, and the First Minister of the Crown
rites and appeals to the Lord Lieutenant's great
deeds, and says we ought not to inquire into the
circumstances involving u question of public morality,
because the Noble Lord succeeded in putting down a
rebellion. This is the old story of Scipio revived. Had
the Noble Lord contented himself with this position the
matter would have been intelligible, coupled with the
significant intimation that it was part of a system which
had always prevailed. Is it the opinion of this House
that such a system should always prevail?—(Hear.) Is
it the opinion of the Horne of Commons that it is bene-
ficial to the country that the Government of Ireland
should subsidise the press from the public funds? That
is the question we have to decide—that is the question
in which the country is interested. What the country is
now watching for is, whether the vote of the House of
aa
division,
t said
Duni d ofa ep
hu
Commons shall put an end to a system which, in the
had heard
language of the resolution, is of a nature to weaken the
authorityd of the executive and to reflect discredit on the
haeffaar'dirgn.—oth( nothing
u it. affairs.—(Loud
tahheee r sa.
arguments
u
OBROUSE, who rose amidst • rtial cries for
adduced on the
statements madoepptohsuittehside of the House, or in the
that this motion was justified,
at all tended to show him
ore to cast a stain oni the ments
iion that it was not of a na-
tee ant, and to embarrass the
eccoaradcter of the Lord-Lieu-
Ireland.—(Hear.) The lion. Membernuet of public affairs in
seire (who had not displayed his
for Buckingham-
speech he had just made) had endeavouredlusual ability in the
there was a distinction between the course to show that
the period when Lord Stanley was
Chief
fstaken during
Ireland and that taken by the present Lord-Lieutenant;
for
but he (Mx. Hobbouse) did not perceive any distinction ;i apt;
between the two proceedings. In the former instance the
Croveretneet retained particular writers to advocate its
cause, and this was all which had been done by the pre-
sent Viceroy. If there were any difference between the
two cases be thought the difference was in favour of
Lord Clarrndon, for at the time the latter had engaged
tee eerdees of the newspaper, law and good order w,:re
very much at stalte. Ho was informed that the
Dublin Times, the paper alluded to as having
been engaged while Lord Stanley was the Chief Se- ;