The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-09 00:00:00

mentioned in this House, but only mentioned, I believe, be-
cause we on this side of the house had dared the honourable
gentlemen opposite to bring the case forward if they had
any complaint to make upon it.—(hear, hear.) Thus it cer-
tainly happened that the subject was mentioned—( A laugh)—
but no motion or subsequent proceeding was founded upon it.
( Hear, hear, hear.) . The Right Honourable and Learned
Member for the. University of Dublin (Mr. Shaw) has in the
present debate applied himself chiefly to the subject which also
engaged his eloquence at the meeting at the Mansion-house
in Dublin, namely, the selection of sheriffs for 1836. This
likewise appears to me to be a matter of last year. My noble
friend's ( Lord John Russell's) charge against the honourable
gentlemen who sat on the opposite side of the house was, that
they shrunk from bringing forward in Parliament those charges
which they urged wit so much vehemence in places where
the Government had no power of reply.—( Hear, hear.) How
does the right honourable and learned gentleman meet this?
In July last the Earl of Mulgrave attended fur several suc-
cessive evenings in his place in the other House of Parliament,
and one would have supposed that such an opportunity' of
bringing him to an account for his government in Ireland
would not have been lost by the Hon. Geutlemen opposite.
The Right Hon. and Learned Gentleman in the course of the
debate on the present occasion has gone into most lengthened
and laborious proofs to establish that which we never denied,
namely, that in nine cases the Judges' list has been departed
from and other persons substituted to fill the office of Sheriff.
—( Hear, hear. )—And we gave ,the reason, the Earl of Mul-
grave gave the reason for so doing. The Earl of Mulgrave
stated in his place in Parliament the reasons which had in-
duced him to put aside the recommendation of the Judges on
the appointment of Sheriffs. ( Here there was an expression
of doubt or dissent f, out a Member sitting on the Opposition
side.) I think the Hon. Gentleman will find that the Earl of
Mulgrave did on that occasion state that he had felt it to be
his duty to put aside all gentlemen recommended to the (Alice
of Sheriff who were in any way connected with Orange lodges
—(Cheers)—or, to use hie'words, with a recent exclusive po-
litical society.—(Cheers.)—The Right Hon. and Learned
Gentleman says, with a gravity and solemnity of face which I
own quite astonished me, that in May, 1836, the fact was not
known that in the proceeding month of February we had in
nine instances departed out of the Judges' list. Why it was
as notorious as the sun at noon-day—(Hear)--the newspapers
attached to the party to which the Right Hon. and Learned
Gentleman belongs were ringing with it
" From night to morn, from morn to dewy eve."
( Hear, hear.) Yet the only charge brought forward in Par-
liament against the Earl of Mulgrave was, that he had im-
properly departed from the Judges' list in the case of Mr.
Leigh. Upon further inquiry, it appeared to the Noble Earl
that he had been misinformed with respect to that question,
and when his name again appeared in the list for the suc-
ceeding year he lost no time in appointing him.—( Hear,
hear.) The course which led to the setting aside of the
other names upon the list was resolved upon in the month of
December 1835, it was promulgated in February 1836, we
were in our places in Parliament during the whole of the ses-
sion, Lord Mulgrave was present in his place in the other
House in the month of May, and yet. till the holding of
the meeting at the Mansion-house in Dublin, in the month
of January, 1837, no accusation has been brought forward
against us impugning the propriety of that course.—( Cheers. )
The Right Honourable and Learned Gentleman has tried to
justify his case by going into some long details respecting
the character and qualification of the gentleman who was
to fill the situation of sub-sheriff for Wexford. He has
questioned the fitness of Mr. Corcoran to fill the office. I
believe him to be a gentleman of great respectability ; and
as a tolerably strong testimony to that fact, as well as to
his utility, I may mention the fact of his having been se-
lected as electioneering agent for the late lamented Mr.
Kavanagh.—( Hear, hear.) I do not -know whether
Hon. and Learned Gentleman would have preferred the con-
tinuation in office of the previous sub-sheriff, Mr. Reid, who,
upon a quantity of corn net being bid for at a tithe auction,
bought it himself, and set fire to it in the sight of a destitute
and excited multitude.—( Hear, hear.) I know not whether
the Hon. and Learned Member would have had that person
continued in his office; but so strongly did -the Government
feel the propriety of not running the risk of re-appointing
him, that' they addressed a note to the proper quarter ex-
pressing a hope that Mr. Reid would not again be named upon 1
the list of sub-sheriffs.—( Hear, hear.) That note was
promptly replied to. Mr. Reid retired, and Mr. Corcoran
became his successor.—( Hear, hear.) Passing, then, from
the case-of Mr. Corcoran I conic to that of Mr. Cassidy,
which has been made the subject of much severe comment in
the course of the present debate. It is a complaint very ge-
neral throughout Ireland,-and nowhere more prevalent than
in Queen's County, that there are to be found upon the
bench very few magistrates who profess the same faith or
sympathise with the opinions of the great majority of the
population. —( Hear, hear.) I do not mean to say that this
should stand as a reason for appointing or rejecting any par-
ticular person ; but it was undoubtedly a fact much to be
lamented. Several names were forwarded to Lord de Vesci,
the Lord-Lieutenant of the country—against whose integrity or
honour I should be the last person in the world to say a word
—as fit and proper persons to fill the office of sub-sheriff.
Lord de Vesci did not think fit to approve of those names, and
an appeal was in consequence made to the Lord Chancellor
arid to the Irish Government. An inquiry took place. Lord
de Vesci stated his objections to the names forwarded, and the
grounds upon which those objections were founded. In the
instance of Mr. Cassidy it appeared that his objection rested
upon certain proceedings before. the Court of Quarter Ses-
sions, with which that gentleman had been connected. The
case arose, I believe, out of a demand for county cess, which
Mr. Cassidy contended was improperly levied upon him. It
turned out that when the demand was about to be enforced,
some persons in Mr. Cassidy's employment offered a forcible
resistance, and a disturbance ensued. lam told that Mr.
Cassidy unequivocally expressed his disapproval of the con-
duct of his servants, although of course he was compelled to
bear the weight of the damages incurred in consequence of it.
Mr. Cassidy was recommended to the Government by several
gentlemen in the county of ,high station and great respecta-
bility. The Hon. Gentleman opposite shakes his head as if
that statement were not true.
Mr. VE SE Y—Will the Noble Lord name one of those
gentlemen?
Lord MO RP ET lI—I am in possession of the names of
several, and could mention them, if I pleased ; but I really do
not know whether I should be justified in bringing them
forward in this way.—( hear, hear.) I state the fact upon my
own responsibility.—(Cheers.) Persons whom 1 think to be
respectable, recommended Mr. Cassidy to the Government.—
( Cheers. ) His father had been reported to be one of the best
magistrates in the county of Kildare, and in the King's and
Queen's counties.—( Hear, hear.) His younger brother is a
magistrate and sheriff for Kildare, and he himself holds the
commission of the peace for the King's county, to which he
was appointed by Lord Oxmantown, no great advocate of agi_
tation or repeal.—(hear, hear.) But the utmost thunders of
the opposition seem to have been reserved for the appoietment
of Mr. Pigott. Now there is no nomination upon which, both
on public and private grounds, I take more cordial pleasure.—
( Hear.) Ido riot know a person of whom 1 have a higher opi-
nion, or for whom I anticipate a more successful career, whether
in the estimation of his fellow-citizens, or in the first walks of
his profession.—( Hear, hear.) He is a member of the Asso-
ciation.—( Hear.) That he has often appeared there or taken
any promiuent part in their discussions, or delivered any
of his sentiments there, lam not aware. The last time in
which I saw his name mentioned as connected with the pro-
ceedings of the Association was when that body had been very
near passizig a vote of censure upon him.—( Hear, hear.) But
undoubtedly I do not disguise that there are many members of
the Association who entertain to profess opinions widely at
variance with those of the Government under whom I have the
honour to serve.--( Hear, hear.) But I apprehend that in
availing ourselves of any benefit which may be received from
the advice of Mr. Pigott, we in no way remove any respon-
sibility which his appointment may impose either upon the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the chief law officers, or myself.
For my own part I can only say that I shall most willingly
share in any responsibility which may be supposed to result
from his appointment.—( Hear.) With respect to the Asso-
ciation, it is impossible to maintain that the existence of such a
bode, and the extent to which it carries its functions, can be
said to indicate a perfectly healthy state of society—( Hear)--
or that we could contemplate its permanent establishment with-
out giving rise to serious uneasiness and jealousy on the part of
the local Government.—( Hear.) I am therefore the more
tempted to bewail that mistaken and perverse course of policy
which made its establishment and its wide-spread and daily in_
creasing influence a natural, and, whilst men's natures continue
what they are, an inevitable consequence of the provocation
that had been offered.—(Cheers.) I have yet to learn, from
the opinion of any competent authority, that it is an Merrill
body.—(Hear, hear.) No Gentleman opposite has ventured
to state a positive opinion upon that point.---( Hear, hear.
The Hon. and Learned Sergeant (Jackson) spoke strongly
in support of the opinion that it was illegal, but he did not
far commit himself, as to declare positively that it was. The
Right Hon. and Learned Recorder for the City of Dublin
(Mr. Shaw) said that the Association was clearly against the
spirit, if not the letter of the law.--( Hear, hear.) A tole-
rable presumption, I think, that he does not consider it against
the letter of the law.—( Hear, hear.) I cannot suppose that
the Hon. Member for Dublin (Mr. West), who spoke last,
believes it to be illegal, because he fortified the opinion he ex-
pressed upon it, by quoting a passage extracted from a speech
made by Mr. Canning, in which the same grounds of illegality
were imputed against the predecessor of the present Associa-
tion—namely, the Roman Catholic Association.—( Hear. )
Thus it appears evident, from the tone adopted by the Hon.
Gentlemen opposite, that they do not consider this body to be
clearly and manifestly an illegal one.—(Hear.) At all events,
most happy am I to be the servant of a Government who will
not prefer to introduce new laws for its suppression, to remov-
ing those just causes of complaint which are the pretext arid
the aliment of its being and its vigour.—(Cheers.) A great
attempt has been made on the opposite side of the House to
impute a variance of opinion to different members of the Go-
vernment. I do'not anticipate any difference of opinion as to
the practical course to be pursued.—(Hear.) I suppose I
must leave the question of what composes an exact identity of
opinion in an Administration to be contested and settled by
the Hon. Members for Down and Tyrone.—(Laughter and
cheers.) Having now gone through most of the specific cases
that occur to my memory as having been alleged against us, I
must say, with respect to all the general and sweeping charges
of our being disgraced and degraded in our administration, and
holding office wholly subservient to the dictation of one single
individual, that while those who think these things are wel-
come, with all my heart, to their thoughts, I may meet them
with a denial as broad and absolute as the tone and mode in
which the expression of them has been advanced.—(Cheers.)
I know that such charges have not been confined to this as-
sensbly—l know that they have lately been uttered in other
places of high-sounding names.--( Hear, hear.) lam sorry
to identify or to associate either patrician titles or the Protes-