The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-22 00:00:00

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS' (IRELAND).—
ADJOURNED DEBATE.
The Order of the Day for the adjourned debate on the Mu-
nicipal Corporations (Ireland) Bill having been read,
Mr. W. S. O'BRIEN and Mr. JACKSON rose to
follgr. There were calls for both the Hon. Members, wtit
remained /needing, each claiming the right to be heard, whet
The SPEAKER intimated that the Hon. Member win
had moved the adjournment, was in possession of the House
Cries of Mr. " Brotherton, Mr. Brotherton," ancf Brea
laughter.)
The Hon.' MEMBER for Salford having declined to rise, till
Speaker called upon
Mr. Serjeent JACKSON, who claimed the indulgence 01
the House for a short time, inasmuch as much allusion had
becii made to him by the Noble Lord, (Morpeth), wbt
had spoken at a late hoer on the previous night, as
made it incumbent upon him to present 'himself at the
earliest possible period, to justify himself in regard to those
statements, and to vindicate those with whom he had acted.
In the former debate he had taken no vOluntary part, but he
lied been compelled to rise in consequence of the course taken
by the Nebie Lord opposite, who challenged those who hac
taken part hi the proceedings of the Protestant meeting a'
Dublin to justify the resolutions, especially the 14th, which
that meeting bad considered it its duty to pass. The Nobb
Lord had also defied the opposition Members to impugn tht
policy and proceedings of the Irish Government, declaring,
the same time, that he identified himself completely with the
wliole of the policy and conduct of the Irish Executive. It
was in answer to this challenge that he (Mr. Sergeant Jack-
son) had risen. As one who had taken part in the proceed-
ings of the Protestant meeting in Dublin, he felt it to be a
duty to himself and his Protestant brethren in Ireland to conic
forward and ,state to the House the grounda on which tht
meeting had adopted the resolutions in question.—( Hear
hear.) The House would recollect under what circum-
stances it was that lie and those with whom he acted had been
called upon to make these statements. The House woulc
recollect that it was not until Thursday evening that the
Noble Lord gave them notice of his intention to move the
first reading of the Irish Municipal Bill on the Tuesday
following, and to avail himself of that opportunity
to defend the Irish Government, and to impugn the proceed-
ings of the Dublin Protestant meeting. With so short a
notice it was utterly impossible for gentlemen connected with
that meeting to procure from Dublin those details and facts
upon which the resolutions of the meeting had been founded in
time for the debate of Tuesday evening, and consequently he
and the Gentlemen on his side of the House were under the
necessity of confining themselves to such facts only -as they
had come prepared with, and had a general and habitual know-
ledge of.—( Hear.) He had on a former occasion, oil behalf
of the Protestants of Ireland, charged the Executive Govern-
ment of Ireland with misusing its powers, and with abusing to
a flagrant extent its prerogative of mercy, and that charge ho
was prepared to repeat without the slightest modification.—
(Opposition cheers.) In support of those charges he had
detailed the most convincing_ facts, and he would appeal to
the sound judgment of the House and of the country whether
any one single fact which he had stated had been successfully
impugned or disproved by the Noble Secretary for Ireland,
or any other Noble or Honourable Member who had addressed
the House from the opposite benches.—(Opposition cheers.)
Had the Noble Lord attempted to deny the prominent charge
against the Lord Lieutenant, that he had appointed to the
most confidential and responsible situation under the Irish
Government, a gentleman who, however respectable and
amiable and talented he undoubtedly was, was a member
of the illegal body calling itself the National Association of
Ireland 2--(Loud cheers from the Opposition.) That promi-
nent feature in the impeachment of the Government of Ireland
it had not been attempted to controvert.—( Renewed cheers.)
Was it denied that Mr. Cassidy, though convicted of a riotous
resistance to the payment of county-rates, was appointed by
the Lord-Lieutenant a Magistrate of Queen's county.--
(Hear, hear.) No ; the fact had been denied in no quarter
except in a certain newspaper. Another charge which he bad
then brought against the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, which
charge he would now repeat, was, that the Lord Lieutenant
had been guilty of wholesale abuse of the prerogative of
mercy vested in him, by releasing prisoners charged with all
sorts of offences from the gaols in every part of the country.
Had that fact been disputed? The attempt made last
night by the Noble Lord opposite to show that the prerogative
had not been improperly exercised in one or two cases, and
that the Lord-Lieutenant had condescended to consult with
some one judge or chairman of quarter sessions in one or two
ont of numberless instances, was no answer to the general charge
made on such unquestionable grounds against the Lord-Lieu-
tenant as to his wholesome abuse of the prerogative.
As to the case of Macnamara, the Noble Lord had not .con-
descended to say a word about it. In short, the speech
of the Noble Secretary for Ireland, able and ingenious as
it was, and he (Mr. Sergeant Jackson) must admit to be
one of the best speeches he had ever heard made in a bad
cause, had not in the slightest degree displaced the facts or
weakened the charge which he (Mr. Sergeant Jackson) had
brought ferward.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord, on the
preceding evening, had stated that previous to the liberation
of Maguire from Cavan gaol, the Lord-Lieutenant consulted
the Judge who tried the case, and out of this circumstance
arose an aggravation of the Lord-Lieutenant's offence, for the
Noble Lord admitted that the Learned Judgo declared the
case to be one which did not call for the Lord-Lieutenant's
merciful interposition.—( Opposition cheers.) Yet, notwith-
standing this, in the very teeth of the Judge, was the sen-
tence of the prisoner, though convicted of attempting to shout
a revenue officer, first changed from transportation for seven
years into imprisonment for two, and afterwards altogether
remitted, and the man set at liberty; the only " justification !'
set up by the Noble Lord opposite being, that magistrates of
all parties concurred in recommending a mitigation of the
sentence; the Noble Lord adding, that the shot was fired by
the prisoner out of mere bravado, although a jury of his
countrymen had convicted him of having fired it with a ma-
licious intent.—( Hear, hear.) Nothing could be more ir-
regular or unconstitutional, than this practice of superseding
the verdict of a jury. This statement of the Noble Lord could
not, therefore, be regarded in any other light than as an idle
story. He had been accused in unmeasured terms of having
maligned and slandered Mr. Pigott and Mr. Tighe. It had
been represented that he spoke of Mr. Tighe as " person
of the name of Tighe," but he could refer to the report in a
Ministerial paper to show that his expression was " a gentle-
man of the name of Tighe :" and in reference to Mr. Pi-
gott, he had not said any thing discreditable to that gentle-
man. The imputation that he had spoken disrespectfully of
Lady Mulgrave he indignantly repudiated • he had evert con-
sidered her a lady most amiable and excellent, and in every
instance actuated by the best and most benevolent motives.
It was stated by the Noble Secretary for Ireland that Ma-
guire was discharged from gaol in consequence of the certifi-
cate of the gaoler, sub-gaoler, and local inspector, that if he
remained in prison they could not answer for his life ; but
how was it, if such were the real ground for his release, that
the certificate of the medical officer of the gaol was not pro-
duced ? Whose certificate so proper to refer to on such a
point if there were such a certificate ?—(Renewed Opposition
cheers.) The Noble Secretary pleaded that. in the case Of
Magrath the Lord Lieutenant had not consulted a Judge on
the subject, for the reason that the case was tried at the:
Quarter Sessions. The fact was, that the case 'was tried on
the home-circuit, before the Lord Chief Justice—(Loud Op-
position cheers) and this fact the Lord Lieutenant might
readily have ascertained.—( Hear, hear.) It was said, more-
over, that the jurors by whom the case was decided had
presented a memorial to the Loki Lieutenant recommend-
ing the prisoner to mercy, and that upon this memorial ' the
Lord-Lieutenant acted. Now he ( Mr. Sergeant Jackson),
happened to know that these jurors entirely disavowed hav-
ing put their signatures to that memorial.—(Opposition
cheers.) He considered the principle of the Government'
receiving memorials from juries liable to objection. The juror
who in Ireland refused to sign a memorial to the Lord-Lieu-
tenant in favour of an offender would peril his own life, and_
perhaps the lives of his family.--( Cries of " Oh, oh.") The
Noble Lord last night read a letter from a Mr. Tickell,
which imputed to him having said that on the first trial the
offender escaped because a person involved in the murder,
was impannelled on the jury. He said no such thing. What,
he did say was, that a pertoa who had taken an active,
part in challenging the jury had been sworn on the jury. He
stated further, that on the second trial a person who had,
been convicted of an offence against the peace of the country
was sworn on the jury, and, as everybody had anticipatee!?
no verdict was delivered on that occasion. Whether instructions
had been given on the first trial to wave the prerogative 01,
putting by jurors he could not say, but it was certain that on
the second trial such instructions were given. He was
posed to the packing of juries under any circumstances ; but,
above all, he thought it dangerous for parties charged with,
offences to have the opportu'nity of packing them; and the
return he had moved for would give the particulars in those
instances in which the Lord-Lieutenant had exercised the
power of releasing offenders from gaol; it would show the
number so discharged, the offences of which they were con-
victed, the time of their sentence, and the duration of their
imprisonment. To some of these cases he begged to advert.
One was that of an individual who had been employed in
the service of a master in Ireland. And, by the way, for
offenders against the revenue laws the Lord- Lieutenant had
less commiseration than for those of other classes, The
7th and Bth of Geo. IV. c. si, s. 46, enacted with respect to
persons convicted of having malicously proceeded to malt corn
for the purpose of inflicting on their employers the severe pe-
nalty of the law, that they should be imprisoned for not less
than three months nor more than twelve, that they should b° -
kept to hard labour, and that they should not under any Pre'
tence nor by any authority or order be discharged from prison
till the expiration of their full term of imprisonment. Ho did
not mean to say that the Act deprived the Crown of the ex-
ercise of its prerogative, but he would say that it afforded
evidence of the way in which the Legislature estimated the
offence. This, then, illustrated the impropriety 'of his
cellency discharging prisoners in the way he had done'. r°
would refer to another case of what he considered the "ll-
proper exercise of the prerogative of the Crown. Mr. Lac!'
rence Carew Smith was appointed a stipendiary magistrate 0
Ireland. lie was a member of the National Association.
It had been shown that the Executive Government and 'hi!
association were identified by the selection from the ac-
tive members of the association of persons to take ewe"
under the Government. The gentleman to whom he had 1.61'
for rod had filled the chair at a meeting of Roman Catholics'
in short, he was a conspicuous member of the Association; .
He considered the Association illegal. He would call 4,6
conspiracy to frustrate the laws of the land, and defeat t•
acts of individuals.----( Hear.) Mr. L. C. Smith presided
the chairman of the Duleek petty sessions. The Hon. elite
Learned Gentleman here gave a narrative of the ciretinl:i
stances under which a man of the name of 'Crews charg,"
Mr. Smith, mho was one of the election Committee of A'`..1.(1
ba
11. Grattan, with having desired him to burn the haggaid -
of a man named Slid, of Lawrence-town, because he