The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-07 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, Feb. 6.
IRELAND.—SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS

CORPUS ACT.

- ---
Sir GEORGE GREY said he rose, in pursuanee
of the notice he had given on the first night of
the session, to mk for leave to bring in a Bill
for the continuance, for a limited period, of tie
Act of last session for the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act in Ireland. Her Majesty's Government would
gladly have dispensed with such a motion if they felt
they could have done so consistently with their duty, and
that the time had arrived when they felt that the ordi-
nary powers of the law, with which the Government had in
ordinary times been entrusted, would have been sufficient
to enable the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland adequately to
discharge those responsible duties which attached to his
office. The Government were deeply sensible of the
gravity of the proposal which he (Sir G. Grey) had now
to make to the House. They were not insensible to
those serious objections which might, and ought to be
entertained, with respect to a temporary suspension
of the constitutional rights of the people of
ibis realm—(Hear, hear)—but they felt at the same
time that there might be exceptional cases in which
those objections could not obtain, and that there
might be a conviction—and a conviction entertained by
the best statesmen of the best times—that there were
circumstances in which the very spirit of our
Constitution demanded a temporary and partial
suspension of those rights, in order to enable
the Government to maintain the constitution itself,
and to defend it against the assaults of those men who
might be seeking its overthrow. It is one of those oc-
casions which was held to justify the appeal which her
Majesty's Government made in July last for the Habeas
Corpus Act in Ireland, to which appeal Parliament cor-
dially responded, thereby giving moral effect to
that measure, without which it must have been compa-
ratively useless. But it was with a deep sense of the
responsibility attaching to thole to whom the adminis-
tration of affairs in Ireland was confided, that the
Government had felt it impossible, consistently
with their duty, to recommend to Parliament.
that these extraordinary powers should cease. In
stating the grounds on which the Government
had arrived at that conclusion, and on which be should
ask Parliament to assent to their proposal, he at oar, .
admitted that the circumstances under which he
.In_
made this proposal as respected Ireland were widely
different from • those under which the C_ie
- "of this
the rembetythesctthi
asked to carry out the temporary misPe"tio°nstate that
Act in July last. He was not there
sow in
place in Ireland, and that there
.wer _ parties
un_
d. They
any recent insurrection—immediately rneceownt—
arms against their Sovereign p 2 Ire
in, July last
had been told the insurrecnonaad
that the
was a mock insurrection,ve had taken
Grnment to suppress
measures taken by the
thetihnec" 4 siprarelitaTodf
ovfaluthabelesuecconsesstabouflathrye
natiastteony
It might have been a °Wear, hear)—he did not pretend
those who got it up--(
part
movementece
nhitnanaenthatloyalty
country, for it would
teooanr
to state that in any _
it were unnecessarily cli,iizorifienteohLetiveeol
there was
of the people of that
have been
and by the
country, eforce in Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) Although success
might have attended the combined loyalty of the sub-
jects of her Majesty in Ireland, and the soldiery,and
the constabulary force there, it was frightful to think of
put down
the horrors through which the inhabitants of that
country might have passed before that insurrection was
entirely suppressed ; and he must say that the reproach
which rather attached to the Government in July
last was that they had.been tardy in coming to that
House to ask for those extraordinory powers was to
some extent merited. The House could not have forgotten -
the exhibition of violent and threatening language
which occurred in the papers for many months-1-4y
after day coming from persons in Ireland inciting the peo-
ple to take up arms against their Sovereign, and endea-
vouring to seduce her troops and the constabulary force
from their allegiance, nor the details which appeared in
those papers, showing how the people might defeat and de-
stroy those soldiers; and that constabulary force, in the
execution of their duty. It was not right to
treat that insurrection as a contemptible affair
because it had failed. In June and July last
he could not enter that House without gentlemen
putting into his hands letters from persons in that corm- .
cry, detailing the extremities to which the ineurree:
tionary spirit was carried, and how, in some cases, gen
their
tlemen had had the lead torn off the roofs ()f
bels.
houses, to be fused into bullets for the rebels.
nose were the circumstances under which the Govern-
ment.
.eased
had comp to Parliament last July for
powers, and those circumstances have been proved to have
~xisted by every day's experience since. He really felt he
idle House by refer..
should be almost wasting the time 0- then d ~
000UX70 , mit
ring further to the circumstances that
...
19 felt bused CO
au
there was one ,or two doeliPe° -