The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-22 00:00:00

PUBLIC PIELOSECUTOR.

In reply to an HON. ME KBEs,
Lord PALMERSTON said there was no intention at
present to appoint a public prosecutor.

THE IRISH CHURCH.

On the motion that the Speaker do leave the chair to
go into Committee of Supply,
Mr. MOORE would take the opportunity of asking a
question of the noble lord, the Secretary of State for
the Home Department. The answer would affect
the moral condition of a large portion of her Majesty's
subjects, and also the condition of the Government.
He could assure the noble lord that opinion in Ireland
was not in a state of inafference, but that the question
was being taken up alertly and seriously. It was the
duty of the Irish membem to oppose any Government
which did not declare its intention of legislating on the
Established Church in Ireland but on the basis of per-
_

feet religious equality. The hon. gentlemen who had
joined the Administration were pledged to the details of
Mr. Sharman Cravrford's bill, and therefore he inferred
that his colleagues woulid also support that measure.
The question which he would put in a candid manner,
and which he hoped would meet with•an equally candid
answer, was, whether it was the intention of the Go-
vernment to legislate with regard to the Established
Church on a basis of religious equality between the
several religious denominations in that country, and at a
fitting time and right opportunity to introduce such a
measure ?
Lord J. RUSSELL add that, in answer to the hon.
gentleman, it was not the intention of. the Government
to interfere in any way with the Established Church in
Ireland. He believed that the Government had made
no promise to induce the two gentlemen referred to to
accept office.
Mr. O'FLAHERTY/deprecated any discussion upon
this subject at the presemt moment; there were other evils
which required more imam aediate settlement. He would
ask the hon. gentleman i.vhether he was prepared to sit
upon the same bench with the hon. member for North
Warwickshire (Mr. Spoo ner).
Mr. LlJCASisaid that at the present moment he and
his friends were sitting on the same benches with the
lion, member for North -Warwickshire, and they saw no

Mr. HINDLEY wished to put the question of which
he had given notice to the Secretary of State for the
Home Department, if the Government intended to pro-
ceed with the prosecutions which had been commenced
against certain parties in Buckinghamshire for distribut-
ing placards animadverting on the Militia Bill ? Similar
placards had been distributed for the last 10 years re-
ferring to the regular army, and it was thought that
they might be applied to the militia without subjecting
the parties circulating them to prosecution. The mo-
ment the Government stated them to be illegal the Peace
Society had ordered them to be withdrawn, and they
were withdrawn accordingly. He hoped, therefore, that
no further steps would be taken by the Government, as
it would scarcely be fair at this time of day to make war
upon the circulation of opinion.
Mr. FITZROY, in the absence of the noble lord the
Secretary for the Home Department (Viscount Palmer-
ston having shortly before quitted his seat), begged to
state that the Government did not intend to proceed with
the prosecutions referred to.

Mr. BRIGHT thought the noble lord the Secretary
for the Home Department would not have done wrong
if he had remained to answer the question, particularly
as on a former occasion, when his hon. friend (Mr. '
Hindley) took the liberty of putting it, the noble lord
answered him in a tone not particularly civil, and seemed
inclined to treat certain persons out of the house as if
they had been guilty of breaking some law, or of com-
mitting some very grievous offence. The charge against
the persons who had been lately held to bail was, he
presumed, that they had been guilty of something which
went by the name of sedition, in advising young men
to avoid enlisting in the militia. Now, when they re-
collected—and there were military officers in that house
who could corroborate what he stated—the means
commonly taken to induce unthinking men to enter
into the army or the militia, means of the most
scandalous and improper character—(cries of " oh,
oh r)—he thought it was open to persons taking a dif-
ferent view, in a free country like this, to give contrary
advice. He might refer to some passages of the evidence
given by a distinguished military officer before the com-
mittee on the army and ordnance estimates in 1850.
Major-General Brown, who was then, and might be now,
adjutant-general, acknowledged that young men were
commonly seduced into the army by a species of " crimp-
ing" process ; that they seldom got anybody to enter
into the army who could do anything better, and that
those who entered were chiefly people out of work and
the like. The same gallant officer added that it was not
always the smartest men who made the best recruiters,
but that the man who could tell a good story or sing a
good song—a jolly fellow, in short. They had heard a
good deal lately about gagging the press, but it might be
a question in future whether gagging newspapers or gag-
ging the bill-posters, was meant. If means of the des-
cription he alluded to were taken to induce men to en-
list, it was fair for him or any other person who believed
that a young man by enlisting would do badly for him-
self as well as his parents or family, to persuade him to
give up his intention and remain at home in pursuit of
his industry. The placards in question gave a woodcut
of a scene which must have been witnessed by many
members of that house—a military flogging—with cer-
tain extracts from the New Testament, the United Ser-
rice Journal, and the "Autobiography of a Working
Man," written by Mr. Somerville, who had himself been
on one occasion most unjustly and cruelly subjected to
that punishment. Nobody could say that there was
anything in those placards that was untrue, and seeing
that men were subjected by the vote of the house last
year to the punishment of flogging in the militia, he
said he should be wanting in his duty toward his neigh-
bour not to advise young persons against putting them-
selves in a situation where they might be subjected to
this brutal and degrading punishment. It was a mon-
strous, an infernal thing, that in a free country persons
who put those placards iu their windows should be
liable to the undefinable charge of sedition, He was
informed by a correspondent at Christchurch, in
Hampshire, that houses there were arbitrarily entered
by the police in search of those placards, without their
producing the shadow of authority or warrant for their
proceedings. He was exceedingly glad to hear that the
prosecutions which had been commenced were not to be
continued, and in this respect lie believed the present
Government would carry out the resolution already ar-
rived at by that which preceded them. Legal proceed-
ings, however, had been suspended over the heads of
individuals for a period of six weeks, and .persons to
whom no moral guilt was imputable, been conse-
quently subjected to very serious expense. Nothing
could be_more_ unfortunate than that Government should
strain a vague law, such as sedition, for the purpose of
implicating them in an offence on this ground. He wished
to know if instructions would be given that the persons
new in gaol on this charge should be forthwith set at
liberty ?
Viscount PALMERSTON (who had now returned
to his seat) said—l have to apologise to my hon. friend
who asked this question, for having been absent from
my place at the moment he put it, but I was called out to
look at an act of Parliament on another subject, and I
thought from the course of the discussion on the Irish
Church question, that I should be back in time to give
an answer. It is true, as my honourable friend (Mr.
Fitzroy) stated, that it is not the intention of her Ma-
jesty's Government to proceed with those prosecutions,
and the reason is this—that whatever may have been
the intentions of the parties who have caused those
placards and pictorial descriptions to be printed and
circulated, those intentions have wholly failed. (Hear,
hear.) The good sense and patriotic spirit an feeling
of the English people have induced them to treat those
invitations to abandon the cause of their country with
the contempt they merit. (Cheers.) The attempt
to thwart the public service having failed, I thought
it would really have the appearance of vindictive-
ness to pursue the prosecutions which had been
instituted. I have, therefore, given notice that
those prosecutions should be entirely and absolutely
dropped. I shall not take the trouble of requiring
the parties to enter into their recognizances, and there-
fore of course anybody who is in prison on this charge
will be released. The hon. gentleman who has just sat
down alluded to the case of Mr. Somerville, which
formed the subject of one of the pictorial exhibitions on
the placards. He had received a letter from Mr, Somer-
ville on the subject, which he would read to the house.
The noble lord then read the following letter, inclosing a
copy of a letter to Mr. Hindley

" Militia—Peace Society.
" To the Right Hon. Lord Palmerston.
" 36, Lime-street, Liverpool, Feb. 17, 1853.
"My Lord,—l observe by the newspapers that Mr.
Hindley is to put a question about the anti-militia placards
of the Peace Society. I have written by this post a letter
to Mr. Hindley, of which I annex a copy. Should that,
gentleman not read or notice my letter, I trust your lord-
ship will do so, and set me right with the public. I am
more interested in that offensive placard than any other
person. I am a literary man, earning bread for self and
family by my pen, and eating it only by favour of the
public who buy my productions. As your lordship will
perceive, the Peace Society, who have placarded me all
over the kingdom, have placed me in a false and odious
position.
" I am, my lord, your lordship's obedient servant,
ALEXANDER SOMERVILLE
" (' One who has Whistled at the Plough'), &c."
Copy of a letter to Mr. Hindley, 17th Feb., 1853.
" Sir,—Seeing in the newspapers that you are to put a
question to Lord Palmerston on the subject of the anti-
miiitia placards posted throughout the kingdom by the
Peace Society, I beg your attention to the following facts,
and I think you should in fairness read this letter in the
house :—The placard in question contains an engraving of
a man tied up to be flogged. It contains also a description
by me (in a book entitled the Autobiography of a Work-
ing Man') of the punishment I received while a soldier in
the Scots Greys, on the 29th of May, 1832. I have reason
to complain of that offensive placard, and complained of it
to the Peace Society as soon as I knew of its existence,
and on ,the following grounds
" 1. Because my own opinion has been decidedly in fa-
vour of the volunteering of recruits to the militia, in pre-
ference to a compulsory ballot (or invasion of the domestic
circle by a conscription) ; and because, if the battalions of
the militia were not filled by volunteers, the conscription
must have been resorted to.
"2. Because I do not believe that militiamen were or are,
likely to be flogged, unless they commit crimes which they
may easily avoid.
" 3. Because my book was intended to be, what every
page of it proves, a warning to young men in the army,
and to soldiers already there, not to connect themselves
with politics, and regimental politicians, as I unfortunately
did ; also, to dissuade civilians from connecting themselves
with physical force movements.
" 4. Because a quotation is prominently made from my
book in the Peace Society's placard .without their naming
the book, or explaining why I was flogged, but on the eon.
leading any one not acquainted with me to infer
beforepla.
trary,
of
gthtautte
the
ewnats).the only one used th
that I was some malefactor, guilty, probably, of a vile
moral crime (which soldiers usually are guilt.
Punishment which
receiving isv.inßgeoasuuchseampyunniasmhme
cwassrd
to
daetesorldimeernwfhreomha,cielusunffteeeredrth
" 6. Because I was not asked if I should
to be used for such a purpose. allow my name
And, lastly, if I had, I should ha
No.'—l am, &c., ve emphatically said

AVXINDER SOMERVILLE
Charlei Ilindley, Esq., M.P."

Well, I think that that letter does great credit to the
writer. (Hear, hear.) The hon. gentleman who has
just sat down i understand began his remarks by finding
fault with me for having said something on a former oc-
casion which he considers to be offensive, or uncivil, or
rude, to the Peace Society. Now I then stated whtahtel
cannot retract, namely, that I think that the course
pursued was a grave offence. (Cheers.) Their intennctliotyno
was to obstruct the public service— (hear, e_
depriveparam Parliament
deliberately
that
to have. But, sir,rta yttehloyef honourablethothoseugh tmeansthat
thei
4o fi
n ledboe:t enannrt)scrleys whic
oughtli
the
calculatedp roc proceedings dtei n
and that a man may publish what
ggsaginsthteitupredseb7ththaet tlahteg'se
Lt 3 a tree c this
likes. Well, he
Gisoesvefrrneme ent
country,were
country, and it is free
lamayw. pußbulisthilw thisl t
countryhe likes, ed it is not against any