The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-11 00:00:00

elt)--the (Aber deeming the law a snare, and trembling at the
idea of being stiitora for justice.
Can anybody possess Orin particle of statesmatAike quality,
doei riot perceive wh it a demoralizing and clisturbirg effect
it must have 611 ilia oicial state to lose confidence in the ad-,
ministration of the law—to itt.lsre to. the great mass of the peo-
Je little beyond the odious and criminal, but, alas too natural
wild justkt." t_4l. r40,ng,,05"
Look at the Bench or iietiost:s I cast show you a grotty erg
aged and decrepid men, tottering oil gia verge of the grave.
Why remain they there, these venerable senigi 7' Why do
they not seek the refuge for old age and infirmity, that liuefitt
retreat to which they have been for many, many years, legally
entitled ? Why do they persevere, when every friend whispers
in the ear of each " solve senex-centem ?" Alas I alas I there
they remain in the hope—in the expectation that the sun of
Toryism may once again arise over Ireland—in the expecta-
tion that their successors may be "of the right sort," that
the next generation may feel the scourge of biassed and pre-
judiced tribunals, and that the day-dawn of impartial justice
may be postponed until the times of our grandchildren.
If a philosophic stranger were to come amongst us, and
were to see the pertinacity with which our ancient Judges
cling to the Bench, he would not require any other proof of the
mode in which their past lives were spent, than what he finds
demonstrated by the motives which prevent the aged men from
resigning.
But see, my friends, what prospeetg are before us.
Who has heard in Parliament the furious outcry with
which Jackson screams forth his attacks on the religion
and liberties of the people of Leland ? Who has heard
the self-repeating dullness of Shaw upon the same scent ?
Who has witnessed the " coma ntortuum" of rancour with
which foolish Litton relinquished a lucrative profession to dab-
ble in Parliament in anti-Irish and anti-Catholic politics ?
Who has seen all, or any of these men, gist must shudder at
the class of men who are courting Toryism in the foulest of
her dens, in order to qualify as members for the Irish Bench
of Justice. Yes, this is the greatest grievance of all—the
want of control over the administration of justice, which the
remoteness from Parliament renders inevitable in Ireland.
This grievance has, I I6now, its source in the spirit of the
ascendancy faction; but if is not the less afflictive on that
account.
How little do English wri'ers or readers reflect upon this
fertile source of discontent ? How little do they appreciate
all the evils that flow from the settled conviction in
the popular mind, of the insecurity of all rights, when
the fountains of justice are deemed impure and tainted. What
would the state of England be if the English people had no
confidence in the great majority of the Judges, and felt no
security in the administration of the laws ? Why England
would rise at one unanimous bound, and cleanse the Bench at
once of all its pollution.
idly. The third grievance belongs to the same category with
the second—the administration of justice. The branch I now
allude to is more ministerial than judicial, yet its influence is
great—l mean the appointment of Sheriffs. In the corpora-
tions which have that power the evil is known and universally
felt. The exclusive nature of our corporations renders par-
tiality inevitable. In Dublin the scat of our supreme Courts
of Justice, no man for years upon years has been appointed
Sheriff, unless be has rgiven the most distinct pledge of
being an anti-Catholic partizan. How strange it would
appear in any country but Ireland, that for an office
which the law instituted for the pure administration
of justice, the qualification should be not only an avowal
but a pledge of party spirit. The Sheriff ought to be
strictly impartial, yet in -Ireland he owes his office to a proof of
decided partiality. This evil extends its deleterious conse-
quences all over Ireland, because such a Sheriff returns the
Juries not only for the Court of Queen's Bench, but. in the
numerous civil actions which any plaintiff may deem it hig
interest to try with the aid of a Dublin Jury.
Indeed, everybody in Ireland admits the mischief's arising
from Corporation Sheriffs ; but are we better off in our
counties at large? Until the time of Peel's essay in Secre-
taryship the Irish Sheriffs for the counties were appointed by
Government generally, at the instance of the county Mem-
bers. This mode of nominating Sheriffs was loudly com-
plained of, and was indeed liable to the greatest abuses. Peel,
finding himself pressed by the public clamour, declared that
he would reform this proved abuse. But how did he re-
form that abuse ? Why, by making the matter worse.
He gave the appointment virtually to the Judges. Honest
Joseph Surface I He knew his men. He cast away all respon-
sibility, and gave my Lords, the Judges, an opportunity of in-
dulging their partizan feelings. The selections by the Judges
were worse in many instances than those by the Government,
and certainly the Judges were not improved by being charged
with a duty so closely connected with politics, and above all
with elections. It is true that Lord Normanby has found it
his duty in several instances totally to reject the list of She-
riffs drawn up by the Judges—rather a significant hint of his
convictions respecting the purity or the intelligence of those
Judges. But the House of Lords has assailed him for so
doing; and as we well know of what materials that House is
composed, I ask how any man can answer to me that Lord
Normanby will be allowed for another year to attempt to give
us impartial Sheriffs. There cannot be a stronger proof of the
precarious tenure by which we hold all that is dear to man,
than the conduct of the House of Lords on this subject.
I may, by way of parenthesis, ask whether anybody has
read Chief Justice Dogherty's evidence before the Committee
respecting the Irish Sheriffs. Oh ! what a memory 1 Oh
what a Chief Justice Lord Anglesea has given us I
4thly. The fourth grievance which Ireland sustains belongs
again to the category of the administration of justice. It con-
sists in the unceasing partisanship of our juries. The encou-
ragement given by the leaders of the Opposition to the Orange
faction—that encouragement increases individual party spirit,
and unhappily that spirit is daily becoming more and more rife
in the jury-box. Unless Orangeism be put down, and all re-
ligious distinctions be totally buried in oblivion, by means of a
perfect equalization of civil rights, this source of legal iniquity
will last, and Orange Juries will continue to convict innocent
Catholics, and acquit, as they have so frequently done, guilty
—notoriously guilty—Orangemen.
sthly. The fifth grievance also belongs to the law. I mean
the magistracy. The partial and oppressive conduct of the
Irish magistracy has been proclaimed by men of all parties,
Tories as well as Whigs. By each and every party we have
been promised revision and redress. But from none have we
obtained it. It is true that Lord Normanby has gone through
an investigation of the magistracy, and that he has struck out
of the Commission many obnoxious men, but how many ob.
noxious names has he left? How many truculent and worth-
less partizans has he left in the Commission? He has used
the pruning-knife with a trembling, and restricted hand, air'
now the old game is going on—almost every improper person
deprived of the commission of the peace has multiplied soli-
citations to be restored—l am sorry to say, some with success,
and there is every appearance that many more will equally
succeed. Our magistracy is then little amended, and the
amendment is daily growing more scant and unsatisfactory.
6thly. The sixth grievance is one of the utmost magnitude,
_it includes the Church temporalities. There is a Church in
Ireland richly supported by the State., which is not the
Church of the people. The Engl,sh people—taking the majo-
rity for the whole—have their Church supported by the State
The Scottish people hare in like manner their Church sup-
ported by the State. The Church supported in Ireland by the
State is not the Church of the Irish people, nor of one-tenth
of the Irish people. A miserable fraction have the Church
revenues, which ought to belong to all. This is indeed a mon-
strous oppression—an oppression which is not practised in any
other part of the globe, save in Ireland. Call it tithe—or
style it composition—or name it rent-charge, it is essentially
the same—a fund enforced from all for the support of the
Church of the few. It is also idle to say that the landlords
pay it. The tithe, or composition, or rent-charge, is produced
by the labour and capital of the tenant, as well as out of the
soil of the landlord. Catholic tenants, and especially
Catholic landlords, are insulted, as well as unjustly
stripped of their property, by being obliged to pay for
the propagation of tenets and doctrines whic they believe
to be erroneous. The wrong and injustice of compelling the
payment of the rent-charge to the Protestant Clergy is the
greater, because the tithes, which the rent-charges represent,
were originally created for, and dedicatei to, the support of
the doctrines and disc'pline of the Catholic Church. It is not
insisted on, or even sought for, that the lent-charges should
be paid to the Catholic Clergy. What we do insist upon is that
the rent-charge should be 'educed forty instead of twenty-five
per cent., and the residue applied to purposes of public and
universal utility.
7thly. The seventh gri-vance is one of such notoriety that
it needs only to be mentioned. It is the unreformed state of
our Corporations. England has Corporate—Scotland has
Ccrporate Reform—lreland has be na most grossly insulted by
the refusal for years to give her any Corporate Reform, and
then by offering her, under the pretence of Corporate Reform,
a measure calculated and intended to enhance and perpetuate
every existing mischief and oppression.
We must not forget that it is to the Irish Members England
and Scotland are principally indebtedfor their Municipal Re-
form. Shall Irishmen then tamely submit to be defrauded of
their right to Corporate Reform, and to be insulted into the
bargain ?

ithly. The next great question is the state of the elective
franchise. The contrast between Scotland and Ireland in
this respect is most afflicting. The contrast between England
and Ireland in this respect is most insulting. Ireland is the
poorest country of the three, yet the qualification to he a voter
is more than double the amount in money over that in Eng-
land. In Wales one person of every twenty-three of the entire
agricultural population is an elector.
In England one person out of every twenty-four of the en-
tire population is an elector.
In Scotland one person out of every forty-five of the entire
agricultural population is an elector.
In Ireland only one person out of every one kundred and
fifteen of the agricultural population is an elector I I
Thus in Scotland the number of electors exceeds that of Ire-
land, in the ratio of the population, by twice and a half—in
England and Wales by four times and a half. Speaking in
round numbers, we ought, in order to be on an equality with
Scotland, to have three times the number of electors which
we have at present. To be on equality with England we
cught to have five times the number of electors we have at
present. Is this to be endured in patience arid submission ? I
confidently believe not.
9tbly. The ninth and the last of the selected grievances,
and one of the greatest of all, is the inequality of the Parlia-
meniary representation. If we had our proper proportion of
Members, we could set at defiance Tory baseness, Tory- Ra-
dical treachery and Whig apathy. My conviction is, that if
we gain every other point which would tend to render th,•
Union useful, we should lose the rust unless we obtained our
fair share of representation. The population of Engla,id
Wales by the last census 19:13 13,899,675—th-t of Seotianci
2,363,930—that of Ireland 7,943,940; but Scotland has 53 re
presentatives ; Ire'and but 105.,Speaking 'n rou,.d number, the
2,400,000 Scotch have half the number of representatives
which the Irish have, although the Irish are eight millions. ,