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

SUN,

federacy throughout the population, that murders were
andperpetrated
thoughin opena
day,
Specialthat
Commissionjurors
d een intimidated,
ap-
pointed, these men had not been put upon their trial.
Such a state of things required a calm, a searching, and
grave investigation.—(Hear, hear.) . The present was no
epgrreavdteoussueohccaasgiooenstsiotantetdo
on.
ld
dent Member of the House, and that he would give every
ttphhattar tt;typh oecisuiwteiscotuni Inlcel he aehttleascdop otno
saidda when he was an indepen-
aid to the executive Government in such a manner.
After he had given notice of a motion on the subject,
he had received information of what bad occurred to
a gentleman whose name he would not mention. The
Ribbon confederacy had met and sat on trial on
that gentleman, for they had a judicial body—
theydi had tried him and condemned him to e.—
that(Hear,a
Ribbonman,
ihh hear.)
or
o. )rn
aTheo h
w
was obliged to leave. and the farm being unlet heohmhma idt ted
left o
was
r
re-
turned and required to be let in again as tenant, which
co
hadffe e offence
been he
a had
tenant, n a ne committed
the gentleman would not permit. He also referred to a
similar case on the Glenny estate, and asked was
that The
state of things to be permitted?—(Hoar, hear.)
law was set at defiance, and life and property wero
without security. There were a set of laws in Ireland
which made conspiracy and murder a capital offence in
that country, but such a law did not apply to England,
death for that offence. In 1810 a law was passed about
Justice Blackburne and the
and in the Munster circuit a man had been sentenced to
the ribbon system, and Mr.
late Commissioner said no one could read that Act with-
out seeing that the crime it aimed at was at the very
root of the disturbances of the country, and the cause
of their assembling that day. It was a mistake to call
such a matter a land question. The system had its
own code of laws, and they were ready to carry them
out even to the death of the party obnoxious to them.
There was great difficulty in getting evidence under
the law of 1810, and it was a rule in the
confederacy that not only the party who administered
the oath and the man who took it should be present on
the occasion. In 1816 the Insurrection Act passed, one
of those Acts justified by extreme necessity, as he (Mr.
Napier) was of opinion that it was better always to ex-
haust the ordinary powers of the law. In 1824 another
Act was passed, and one also in 1839, and the Chief Jus-
tice, in referring to these Acts, said, undoubtedly the
ordinary laws were sufficient, if they could be efficiently
administered. By referring to the difficulties they would
see how it was the law could not be executed, and what
means, should be adopted to break down a confederacy
so dangerous to the peace and prosperity of the country.
If they could only secure safety to life and property
there was no reason why capital should not flow into Ire-
land, and why the resoures of Ireland, which God had
made so abundant with a benignant hand, should not be
fully developed. The Right Hon. Gentleman then re-
ferred to the case of Jones, who was tried before Mr.
Justice Ball, when a great body of evidence respecting
the ribbon confederacy was produced—their signs in
short-hand, and their rules and regulations. The con-
federacy it must be known, may not be confined to Ire
land. It had spread.into England, and was to be found
at Manchester and other places, and it had also made its
way into Scotland. He next referred to a trial at Ar-
magh before Mr. Justice Crampton, and the charge de-
livered by that Learned Judge, and also to the opinion
expressed by the late distinguished Chief Justice Bushe,
a man of whom Ireland may be proud, who presided at
a Special Commission at Maryborough in 1832; and
nothing he said could be read with more advantage than
the charge of that eminent Judge. Mr. Justice Burton
said the confederacy had its own code of laws, which
they endeavoured to carry out; and the question was,
whether the laws of the confederacy or of the land
should prevail. In 1822, Mr. Plunket, then
Attorney-General for Ireland, prosecuted in one
of these cases, and the object of the prosecution
was to bring before the public the ramifications of the
confederacy, a matter which was thought even more
important than the conviction of the prisoner.
It was to be observed, that the class of persons
in the confederacy was not the poorer class of persons,
but the comfortable and the better class.—(Hear, hear.)
In 1824, there was a Committee of the House of Lords
on the subject. Mr. Justice Blackburne was examined
before that Cominittee, and the evidence he gave on that
occasion showed his knowledge of the people and the
state of the country. Lie showed what were the objects
of the society, its efforts to get possession of the soil,and
the intimidation it exercised over the, poorer. classes, and
he (Mr. Napier) thought that when they saw the better
classes bending under the operation of the confederacy
they ought to sympathise with the poorer classes.--
(Hear, hear.) The case of the poorer Classes ought to
be regarded in a fair and temperate spirit. The next
inquiry was in '32 before a Committee, which numbered
upon it many of the most eminent members of the
House. That Committee, in their report adverted to
the Special Commission of the previous year,when there
were 99 cases for trial, out of which there wero 38 con-
victions; and the reason for the convictions being so
numerous was attributed by the Attorney-General
to the fact that he only brought forward cases in
which he was certain of getting verdicts of
conviction. That Committee of Special Commis-
sion was followed by the Coercion Act of Lord Grey,
which expired in '35. After alluding to the system of
Crown challenges in Ireland, in setting aside jurors, he
referred to an important Cominittee of the House of
Lords in '3B, before which Major Warburton gave evi-
dence confirmatory of the views of • the judges. The
present course of the cenfederacy was, that when any of
their party was dispossessed of a farm, the land should
lie waste, poor-rates and other rates accumulating, and
at length the land was obtained on their own terms.
Formerly the law enabled them to convict parties having
passwords in their possession, but that law being re-
pealed they could no longer convict for that offence.
Now he thought, that a law that nipped such a conspi-
racy in the bud was a wise and just law.—(Hear.) If
the Legislature could do anything on that subject it
ought to do it. Let it be said that the Legislature could
do nothing, and meet the question with a direct nega-
tive. On the contrary, if anything could be done for
the protection of life and property in Ireland, then
whatever is necessary should be done. It was his
intention to bring the matter before the House, and now
that he had the honour of standing in his present posi-
tion, he felt himself bound to take up the subject with-
out delay. It was his intention to bring, before the
House a code of laws for the regulation of the relations
of landlord and tenant, and he hoped the measures he
would introduce, would have the effect of sitnplyfying
and improving these relations.—(Hear.) Nothing. was
more necessary than to put down these, for the purpose
of promoting the peace and prosperity of Ireland.
There was what, by a desecration, was' called a cate-
chism; ono of the principles inculcated was to discoun-
tenance any man taking land over a tenant to assist in
robbing landlords. There was a series of murders, be-
ginning in April, 1849, which were committed, and for
which the parties had not been convicted. It was not a
matter of religion, for some of those who fell victims
were Catholics, and some Protestants. The first was
the case of two brothers, who were care-takers of land
which lay untenanted, and for which the parties going
out of possession were compensated. These two men
were murdered in open day, and the murderers had never
been brought to judgment. There was another case of
a murder committed in Armagh upon Mr. M'Avila. He
was agent to a property in that county. The party was
brougnt to trial, but acquitted. The jury, although they
acquitted the prisoner, declared that they thought he was
guilty. What he meant to say was, that the jury, al-
though they had not what they considered sufficiently
conclusive evidence to find a verdict of guilty, yet had
no moral doubt that he was the party who committed
the crime. This man went to America, and on his
deathbed confessed that he was the person who com-
mitted the crime. In 1850 a gentleman was fired at in
open day, and in 1851 Mr. Coleman was murdered, and
his body found covered with eighteen wounds. The party
accused was taken up, and afterwards admitted to bail,
upon the surety of two parties at 101. each. This man
absconded to America. A young man named Maclary
was murdered going to mass. His sister accompanied
him and sought to protect him. She threw herself over
him, but the assassins beat him to death with cudgels.
His crime was that his father had an addition made to
his faun of 'somb land, which had been given up by the
tenants; The,parties were tried by a jury exclusively of
Roman ,Cathelies-; seven were in favour. of condemning,
and five for an acquittal. From these instances he hoped
that an alteration would be made in the consitu-
tion of the juries which tried these eases, and that a
better class of jurors should be impanelled to try them.
It was anomalous that a superior class of persons should
by the present law have to try cases of- a civil cha-
racter, and that these criminal cases should be tried by
jurors of a lower grade. In one case a party as he Came
out of the court said—" I'm the boy who did the job."
Then there was the murder of Mr. Bateson. This gen-
tleman had a model farm, in the cultivation of which he
spent 4601. a year in wages; thus giving employment to
the people. Ample testimony was paid to the excel-
lence of his character; a journal, entertaining opposite
politics to him, described him as a good man, perhaps
the best landlord in the county who gave employment
to the people throughout the year.
There was the
murder of Mr. Eastwood, the perpetrators of which
were never brought to trial. Mr. Chambre was
the last case. This gentleman bad never disposses.sed
a tenant; he spent 6001. a year in wages for.
u batrd e
labour. What, then, was his crime? He had made
pthaasstetdhese over,m
himself active in putting down the system of Ribbonism.
Re had selected these cases as specimens, and in none of
which a conviction had been obtained. The assizes
conviction.rnsoshldbe co
mlmtttiwaesd
and nothing done bY Parliament to effect a remedy. It
was known that in" cth uses assessments were made
to defend the prisoneres aw
fi
rt
g hi
tmf apl ut nh tnyg,
He received a letter from a
gentleman residing in the
he was acquainted, who statedeounty Monaghan, with whom
he had reduced his rents.il that, to meet the times,
upon the price of corn for the tla
the had made a valuationt
al-
lowed two-thirds upon that valuation to three years, and
serving one-third for himself, yet that s the
tenants, re-
serving
ition, that though some of them such weas the or-
re they dare not pay it. This gentleman said
that Ribb willing, yet
ism was at the bottom of all this disorder. Thareon-
ats
held out against all those who resisted, and if the m wheread
courage to disregard them, the females of their families
were threatened. This touches their feelings in a way the:
fsw men could resist. Captain Warburton, who had
been sent down by the Government into these districts,
and who had great experience, in such matters, could
give the Committee valuable information. Major grown-
rigs; COO Id also give information, and had already drawn
up a paper suggesting some improvement in the law to
meet the evil.—(Hear, hear.) It was objectionable to
have the constables returning the jurors. In one case a
constable had himself been placed in the dock for one of
these offences. It was of great
importance that they
s.hquid have a=
proppr class of
jurors, atid wit'lni the bir-
ounistances were such that they could take them to other
districts, there ought to he a power to do so, in order to
have a trial free from those local intimidations. These
things could be brought before the Committee, and then

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