The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE IIflak; jOititifiLLS.

The Tipperary Free Press, alter its am mint of
he invest on the body of Denis O'Shaughne csy, of
fipperaly, lidle proctor to the Rev. Robert 17arew
Armstrong, of Clonkelly, who was ma-dered of t the
sth instant, when in the act of valuing a fiat i of
.vhrat, has the following remark :
" The tithe proctors employed by the Rev, idr. A► .nl-
- have been very unfortunate. In ISIS, h Pme\ .s"
(Dwyer) was murdered near Clonoulty; in , 'Si'?, his
proctor (Scott) was attacked at Donaskeigh, and his tll-4
.hot ; and in 1831, his proctor (O Shaughnessy) rot, warred-
}low lon will this dreadful system be allowed t 0 con-.
•inue ? Why does not Mr. Armstrong agree to a fair settle-
,nent for tithes with his parishioners under the Tithes r:4"Er-
position Act?"
The same number of the Tipperary Free Pi .1."
.chick contains the above has an account of atiotl
.tra'r with a tithe proctor :
" In the last week Patrick Dwyer, Dr. Cotton's pro:-
and his assistants, valuators of the tithes in this parish,
were attacked on the lands of Kit ush by four armed men.
One of the valuators, a man of the name of Ryan, was
.everely beaten, and his tithe-book destroyed ; Dwyer and
:lie other Rot off, being on tt.e opposite side of the field,

in consequence of the appearance of Mr. Fogarty, who
uckily was near the scene, otherwise we might have to add
,he murder of another proctor to that of the unfortunate
Denis O'Shaughnessy.
" Dr. Cotton, upon application to Dr. Fitzgerald,
'.wined an order for the assistance of the police, who went
,vith the valuators on Tuesday last ; but such is the deter- •
alined opposition of the people (in cAlsequence as
7eiript to raise the tithes), that they assembled in great
autnlsers. fired some sorts, and sent forward a detachm.nt.
of Amazons, who attacked the flying proctors with all..
sorts of missiles, some 44 which, if report speaks true, were-
not of the most odoriferous kind."

These are daily occurrences, it would seer.n, in
Ireland. As to the Rev. It. Armstrong, he, no
loubt, considers it a purely arithmeticiti question-
Every fresh murder of a tithe proctor.' must be felt
in the bargain with his successor ; and when the
terms are such as to render it no longer profitable to
hold out against composition, he will scruple as to
the further employment of proctors. He probably
thinks that, as long as men have Mat object on to
venture their lives for his tithes, he ought to have
no objection to employ them. As ieligion s bound
up with tithes, what is the sacrifice of their liras,
compared with the obtaining a handsome income to
the Rev. R. Armstrong.--Morning Chro-Acle.
Last, night was devoted cliefly to Irish business
in the House of Commons. One measure, the
Lord Lieutenant's (Ireland) Bill (which went
through a Committee), was objected to by Mr.
O'Connell.—

" Half t1i.... Magistracy," te said, " consisted of the
Protestatit Rectors and Curates of parishes, who were not
popular, and did not desire to be so
He freely admltted that no just complaint could be made
apinst th amintment%, or refusals to appoint, by the
present Adirortittration, and he wishel matters to continue
as they were : at present the Lord Chs,acellor was respon-
sible, and if the prospects held east by the Reform Bill
were realised, that responsibility would be far from nomi-
nal. He defied Mis,laters to point nut an uneseeptionable
Noblernan kr tisz office of Lord-Lieutenaut in any enuoty
in Ireland,
of the Thirty Tyrants, which would place a &spat in
every county. At present it was possible to appeal to the
King-
4, , To fly ..uto village despots to the Throne;'
!rut hereafti.r that remedy, in the responsibility of the
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, would be at an end. People
had talked of the remedy of application to the King's
Bench, but in England the dominion of that Court over
the Magistracy was a mere mockery. In the last ten years,
thirty appli;,yaarus. had been made to it against lUagistrateg,
and not 4 single criminal information bad been granted.
Ten of those informations were against Clerical Magi-
strates, although the proportion of them in Elglana WAS
much less than in Ireland, In twelve of the thirty in-
stances, the Court had dismissed the complaint with costs,
to be paid by the. petty complaining; in eight °diets it
had been tii:ao4ted without costs ; and ten only with costs
to bA Fai the Magistrates. Even in England there was
a vast deal of despotism exercised by the Ma;istrates over
the poor, anti how much snore would it he in Ireland,
where itlagistratee were in hostility with Vaeir neighbours,
and endeavouring to multiply prosecutions and convic-
tions P

It is no easy matter for Englishmen to legielate for
Ireland, and we can easily conceive that the 'effect of
the Bill may not be always so beneficial as the
framers of it suppose. If Lord Plunkett have made
only good appointments, it is possible that .some of
the Lord Lieutenants may recommend improper
persons. But then Mr. O'Connell states, on the
other heed, that for twenty years. while Lord Clare
and the then Attorney-General Sanrin were at the
head of the Court of Chancery, the appointments
were generally bad, Under such a Government,
had there been Lord Lieutenants of Counties, it is
possible that the appointments during the twenty
years would not have been so uniformly objection-
able. The truth is, that the English system is had,
and the high system is bad. The Lord Chancellor
must always depend on the recommendation of
others; and the question is, whether he should de-
rive his information exclusively from Lord Lee-
' tenants, as in England, or be at liberty to cboose his
advisers, as in Ireland. All depends ors the quality
of the advisers; and we learn from Mr. O'Connell,
that " Sir A. Hart, when he took possession of
the S.etds, determined to appoint to the Magistracy
•no man recommended by a political partisan ; yet
he had been himself surrounded by and imbedded
in political partisans of an opposite faction." Lord
Chetieellors, therefore, with the best intentions
in the world, may be unable to sort uned
themselves with proper advisers.
Mr. Paget observed, that " in his opinion the zppnint-
meat of magistrates would be a power exercised with a
much greater sense of responsibility in the hands of; a Lord
Chancellor than in those of the Lord Lieutenants of coun-
ties. In respect of rank and qualifications the advantage
would be ahogetiter fin the side of the Lord Chancellor, for
Lord Liettivaaats were generally men of high rank, and
associa.::ml quite as little with the persons whose claims to
the inagistracy might come under consideration, as even
the Lord Chancellor. They most, of necessity, see with
others' eyes, and hear with others' ears, and in what worse
situation could the Lord Chancellor himself be placed ? If
they looked to the English magistracy, they would see that
it ittac'eudesl it large propertiou of the clergy ; and hearing
that fact in mind, they must feel that the Lieutenancy of
the counties had not been placed in good hands. Not that
he meant to cast any imputation upon the moral character
of the clergy; but there was no one wbe psid the slightest
attention. m the subject could fai to he fully aware, that
the e:lueation, profession, au!! hAbitt of the clergy, unfitted
them for the duties of the magistracy. In his opinion the
Bill would prove ereethiag but beneficial—aay :ning but
conciliatory. Whim one-third or one-half of the treetis-
tracy eitere. of the clerical proration, what could they
hape foe 2"
There seems to be a rood deal in what Mr. Paget
here observes. The Lord Lieutenants themselves
know often evry little of the characters of the men
apppoiated by them, and we all know that the ap-
pointments in nutty counties (in some they are
hood) are exceedingly objectionable. If a Lord
Chancellor feeds that the individual on whom he has
b-petaled for information has deceived him, he car
recur to another source; but a Lord Lieutenant is
teenerally a powerful individual, and when once ap-
pointed, he is only removed in extreme cases.
When a county has a weak Lord Lieutenant, it is
without hope with respect to its Magistracy. This
country has. become so exclusively aristocratical,
that any recommendation of a concurrence of the
people in appointments would be unpalateable to the
higher classes. We are satisfied,' however, that the
only chance of having a respectable Magistracy is
to make it imperative that the person appointed
should, before being allowed to act, be obliged to
have; the sutTrages of a certain proportion—say
three-fourths--of the inhabitants of the district
within which he acts. This would not only be a check
of the
on the Lord
recommendation,
ieubt Lieutenants t‘s and her v
ould lead
dtso
t‘hveli o c havey
,d
itche
ri
of
a good understanding between gentlemen ambi-
athned
mode
tious of the honours of the Magistracyneighbours. Therpeatisrosnornbeatshintghelikneairnt
iinng
osfeollitirpido..ltitMTehrlett.
ofa ndCilfergthye parishioners stand out,
the appointment;
the character and qualifications of the Clergy:met
Minister, but the parishionersmehnavienalshoe;tCohfu:ectho