The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-09 00:00:00

THE IRISH MEMBERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir, •- Having met and defeated the attempts of a
clamorous majority in the House of Commons to compel
me to unsay my words, I find myself called upon to an-
swer in your columns a new and widely different charge.
You affirm that my original statement was that
"within the last few days" I had seen practised the
corruption which I denounced.
I do not know on what authority you make this
charge, but, on whatever authority, it is totally untrue.
Neither your own report of the proceedings, nor any re-
port which I have seen, gives it the smalleit support.
It is not only untrue, but absurd. The words attributed
to me in the reports are these :

" Short as my experience of this house has been, I must
say I do not believe, in the worst days of Walpole or the
PeLbams, more scandalous corruption existed than I have
seen, practised under my own eyes in corrupting Irish
members."
I referred to and repeated the identical phrase in italics
hi my subsequent observations in reply to the appeals
made to me by Sir George Grey and Lord Palmerston.
Is there any possibility of believing that a man who has
sat in the House of Commons almost daily since the pre-
sent Parliament met in November last, would say,
" Short as my experience in this house has been, I have
seen," &c., if he had been speaking "of the last few
days ?" The charge, you perceive, is not merely a fa-
brication, but a blunder.

My original statement, from which I never departed a
hair's breadth, was this :

" !ska,re taxing us (I said) without our consent. Moro
' bers hoNe voted against this budget, I believe,
t ;.gai s .ny measure on record. The Government, f
co ess, have got some Irish support. How they got it I
cannot tell, for I am not in the confidence of the right hon.
gentbraan who whips up the Treasury forces. Some few
of them, I have no doubt, voted for it from conscientious
motives. But, short as my experience in this house has
been," he.

I have ascertained from personal inquiry--what, in.
deed, I never doubted for a moment--that the Irish
members with whom I act knew thoroughly from the
first that I referred to the case of the men who betrayed
their public and solemn engagements to get into place.
Mr. Serjeant Shee, without the smallest communication
with me, stated this to the house. It never was even
suggested, till after I had withdrawn, that my meaning
was that a bag of money was carried round by the
whipper-in, and the votes bought up, like borough elec-
tors, at so much a-head. It is too absurd to fancy that
an independent member, in opposition to Government,
would have been permitted an opportunity of inspecting
transactions of this nature, if they occurred. But I
have yet to learn that corruption is less corruption be-
cause the man who falsifies his life and betrays his con-
stituents is not paid the bribe in a round sum, but by
quarterly instalments at the Treasury.
In your ordinary report of Friday's proceedings there
is an error which I must ask to have corrected. lam
made to say, in reply to Mr. John Ball, that "I did not
connect my statement of last night with the division of
Monday." As my answer is quite differently reported
in other papers, I fancy it was imperfectly heard in the
gallery. What actually occurred was this :—.NIr. Ball
was assuming, as I understood, that as my explanation
had reference to " transactions which occurred four
months ago," the Irish members not in. office had of
course no concern with it. I interrupted this assump-
tion with a hasty negative ; and another,,assumption-
phtting the converse of his first proposition, with a second
negative. I meant, in fact, to convey as 'briefly as pos-
sible—that while I never charged the body of Irish sup-
porters of the budget with direct corruption by bribes of
money, I could not, on the other hand, give them a bill
of health merely because I was not impeaching them
with the grossest venality.
Your reporter winds up his account of the second day
by stating that the business terminated amid consider.
able laughter. It is quite true ; but it was the triumph-
ant laughter of the opposition at Lord John Russell de-
clining an inquiry, and at one of the culprits shrinking
dumb and disconsolate behind the Treasury Bench when
he was expected to defend himself. For my part, a
number of the foremost members of the house, several
of whom I had not known before, came to me in my
place immediately, or throughout the evening, to thank
me for having preserved the honour of Parliament, as
Iwhelladassaimd.Lor
arnh,osnior,u
yr,oubyr
obedient servant,
stGoervizty,
DausFyirllay.ble

Eccleston-street south, April 7.

A CHILD KILLBD BY A BEAR.

A shocking tragedy occurred at Portsmouth on Friday
evening. The 38th Regimen
erwritleierehdwiasn
kept
tt
ignara-
rison, possess two bears,
yard adjoining a public-houosent(thteheßboasrraee ankde.CroAwnli,ttline
St. Nicholas °street) adjacent
boy, about six years of age,
ilnoe obfeetnhepllaaynidilioglitwhhtohsee
name is Curley, appears
animal, which NVaSCop!ide_orceidiel!i7vhtehrei
irseciezrsedohfimthewirteh-
*ment to be remarkably docile,
him to its (IT]. The child screamed
itsgl paws and dragged
out and a neighbour ran to his assistance and commenced
h
belabouring the brute with a wooden prop. The bear
by this time, heowever, had, with his teeth, seized the
unfortunate child by the neck, shaking him, in the lan-
guageof the person who had come to his assistance, as
a dog would shake a cat. Another man coming into
theyard attacked the animal with a crowbar, and he
sat length compelled to relinquish his hold of the
child, but who, on being taken away was quite dead.
His neck was dislocated and the flesh torn open in a
frightful manner, the teeth of the savage beast' having
met, apparently, in the child's throat. An important
vein being opened, every drop of blood in the boy's body,
seemed to flow out on to the pavement of the yard, and
this was licked up by the bear with a relish most sick-
ening,
to behold. The brute having tasted of human
blood, then became quite ferocious, and had to be de-
stroyed forthwith, which was effected by administering
a strong dose of poison. At the inquest that was held
on the child's body, it appeared that the 38th Regiment
had two bears in Mr. Curley's yard, a him ss. a
week for the use 'of it, but that about p
syinix g weeks since
they became very troublesome to him, one of them
escaping and creating great alarm in the locality, on
which he complained to the officers of that regiment,
when they sent one of the bears away to Gosport, where
the 88th Regiment have another bear. The coroner's
inquest returned a verdict to the effect—" That death
was caused by the bear's attack, and that sufficient cau-
tion had not been used in placing it in a place of secu-
rity." They also recommend that the other bears at
Gosport should be muzzled ; it would have been a great
deal better if they had recommended them to besbety
for whenever they are paraded through the public ,
n
tho-
roughfares, they naturally excite great alarm . t"
minds of the majority of passers-by, whilst it is onlyfor
ke
the gratification of a whim that they are the M all.

THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
i7nder the management of Mr. Backstone.
THIS EVENING, MAT 9,
Will he performed THE LADY OF LYONS. Supported by Mr.
Barry Stubvan and Miss Helen Faucit.
After which MR. BUCKSTONL'S ASCENT OF MOUNT PAR-
NASSUS.
Y
To conobide with OUR MAR

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THATRE, O XFORD-STREET.
made: the ManagemeEnt of Mr. Charles Kean.
THIS EVENING, MAT 9,
Will be performed the Tragedy of MACBETH. Principal cha-
racters by Mr. and Mrs. C. Kean.
To conclude with the new Drama, adapted from the French of
Mona. scribe, by Mr. Pa:grave vimpson, called MARCO SP DA.
Principal characters by Mgssrs. W. Lacy, J. Vining, Ryder, Graham,
and Everett Misses Heel and C. Leciercq.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
Under the Management of Madame Vestria.
THIS EVENING, MAT 9,
Will be performed A.S.S. Characters by
Messrs. F. Mathews,
Enter, and Rosiere ; Mrs. Macn‘mara and. Miss Wyndham.
Atter which, A FAST TRAIN—HIGH PRESSURE EXPRESS.
Characters by Messrs. C. Mathews, Baker, and Suter.
To be followed by 'TRYING IT ON. Principal character by Mr.
C. Mathews
To which will he added a DIVERTISSEMENT, in which Miss
iloiina Wright will appear.
After which, USED UP. Principal character by Mr. C. Mathews.