The Sun.
London, England, 1822-02-08 00:00:00

InoteA. of rcTrnsing the mischief ? Why, then, 12 askal,
had net the t!arliament been a.sse.mbled sooner ? Bet now-
the ' Nl:inkier; 'on .thereurgeney ofe'despatchea received - fivers--
alba; called eare'r• the , House to hurry a measure like thia •,•
through all its .stages in one night !- if such , hurry was D 0..,
CaSSarY,' why did net.: Ministers adopt tharordinary,•precautio4e •
of 'having a flouse• yesterday ? He did net mean ito Say. het
it was not the duty of every Member. to attend to his-duty'ate
the peoper tithe; but it was well. known that Ministers -couldi:' -
whenever they chose, l•prevent • such an, accident as • the.: -
which had occurred Yesterday : they, therefore, lost the ..ad--
vantage -of one day's debate on this measure. He did note,
mean to'deny that a great emergencydidexist t, and 'he hOped • .
he should • not be .nnderstood as giving the slightest counte-•
nance to the-lawless and horrible outrages by which Ireland'," •
was -disgraced. On the contrary, he would be ready to arm the
Executive Government -of Ireland with all the ineans of sup-
Lressing them, and even, if it were necessary, give the present
ord. Lieutenant great dictatorial powers for that puepcse ;. but •
in the present measures he, could see nothing eacept incoa, •
• sistency and repugnance,' forthey did not go to -repose a con-- -
fidence in the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, but•went to pleee'
gonfidence in the Magistrates, and were. not confined to one -
or two districtSe butt° the whole island: and the effect would'.
be that any SA of Magistrates meeting together in any district,
might, cause the fnsurrectionleaw Co be exercised there. ho pee-; ,
aenting a memorial to the Executive Giriernment ; and the last,
measure would place the liberty, property,. And doinestie,ooni,:'
.fort of • the whole • people of the . country at the disposal,
of MagiStrates. They would have the. power • of. enterieg
houses at night; anti' of • rudely, obtruding themselves ir.t-u.
these parts that - were appropriated to- females ; cause any.
man-- wno • was absent ,at a certain hour• to be arrested,
and for no other cause than absence, such person would .• be•
liable to be sentenced to seven years' transportation by any set-
of Magistrates, and thatewithout the intervention of a Jury !
ThiS was a shocking pourer, which might be made subseriient'
_to ,the /petty Vindictive-feelings that prevailed in , such dia:.'
iricts.' This was an excessive and' monstrons authority, -• for '
which no redress- could afterwards be -obtained- front a • Joey.
of the country.. Thus was all redress shut out. 'These powers
were to be exercised by those Magistrates, Of whottes aedet
scriptien was 'given' tleat night. One Honourable Ilinelee.
'men had said, these •Magistrates were, not 'all proprietorie of
"land, but middlemen, who were known to_thc people only at
grinding scourges over thetas.. One person,- who had been a-.•
waiter at an inn, had been- invested with-Magistracy; and a.•
.raspeetehle. Member _.liqd most truly said that the,best plan
would be to abolish the Magistracy -altogether. In fact,
justice might be said to he bought and sold in Ireland, reeled'
as it wes'by such men. And were these the men,• he would 4sk,•
who ought to be intrusted with -the terrible powers proposed
by these measures? He wished to know what chancy' was
there of any conciliation • in these measures ? • And what- Tea./
•son% was-there to suppose that we shmild not be obligedtontinue,
ally. to go on in this system of terrible coercion ? The Noble
Lord said the people were in a state of actual rebellion; every.
"one lifiewthat the Clergy, with' the greatest ecclesiastical-revel
nues in the world, gest religious instruction to no more than one-
tenth 'of -the' people, that these Clergy were, generally non-
resident, and when we considered the number of- absentee
landlords, it wag' not' to be wondered at that the present evils
.existed ; but it • was astonishing,' after the long experience'
Government 'must have had of. these and numerous other
abuses, that •no steps were ever taken .to correct then'. But
such was 'the composition of .the heterogeneous body :which-
managed the' affairs of Ireland, and -so balanced were they'
,on the subject of religious exclusion, that an Irish clues-
jion falling in among them, was always like to produce an
•explosion. Therefore he' had no hope that the present Go.
vernment would - ever exercise a kind and parental superin-
tendence over the Irish people. A great deal had been-said
!'on - the subject of - tithes, and , hopes were often held our
-that something would be done to remove the - evil which
-they
produced -; but he wished to see a question of this kind
brought forward by some Member of the Government, because
there would be a chance of some remedy being- adopted.—
1 Therefore, much as his Hon. Friend -helms:bleu- (Mr. Hume)
had done in opposing the extravagance of Gus:eminent, yet
it was to be feared that any measure introduced by him
would nut bare the effect of reforming to great a mischief.—
Either Ireland was in that state described by the Noble Mar.,
qnis, or the danger was greatly exaggerated and limited irt its
existence. lf it was limited, the ordinary powers of the law
must he so fficient to pot it &two. But if the people were in
that state of rebellion described by the Noble Marquis, be did
not see how the provisions of the felsourection-Act could our
a stop to it; for Magistrates would never be chic to vi,it
every bootee ; and pothing world do bit sit increase of the
military force. Then, if such an increase of expence were to
be resorted to, why not increase the military at oece without
an •Act of this kind, and spare the attack it must make on the
Constitutioti of the country ? As to the suspension of the Ha-
beas Corpus Act, if a power of imprisonment was :o be given,
it would be wholly inapplicable to the state of the country ;
because it was only when sonic leading man might possess
aiotker, that it would be necessary to arrest him. What
necessity, then, was there fur this? He knew the only effect
would be, to make (the people tel Ireland believe that the
.• '
ineasare was intended to_ be levelled at seine persists who
were obnoxious, on acet.ant 'of the part they might haft to-
ken onsubjects connected with religion.
..
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY rose to reply. In con-
sequence of the Hoo‘itirable ;hid Learned Gentleman having
gone so much into the question, he hoped the House woold.
allow him to trouhlethem with a few observations upon what
bad fallen from hint. 'rite Noble Mat gills flirt, called the:
attention of the Hattie to the question whethee.the state il
Ireland was suet) as to require the application of the mea-
sure. If it was necessary and only remedial, all the ditti-
colty which was stated to exist was removed. The runic:Jove
Government bad shown in bringing forward the measure
ottglit be considered tin ample apology -for resting to it.
Efforts of no ordinary nature had beets made to 'raid the
introduction. The Noble Maiquis admitted all that 11141 been
said by his Right Honourable Friend, whose local lutowledge-
gave . him so mutest ad-vantage in this debate. His Majesty',
Government really waited till the last WWI) V fit, unwilling
to resort - to . these ',Bilis; but having' obtained the nest
opiniens iespectieg the necessity of the measure, they
resolved- to hare recourse to it, as the only means of '
preserving the peace and tratuptillity of Ireland. .The
House otiold see in the last dispatches from „the Mac-
' quit Wellesley,
,thast• then exigencies justified the rued,.
sure ; and if so, there could be no objection. There
were instances in which Parliament, without reference to the
Habeas Corpus Stispensioti Act, had passed measures which
did more violence.to theliberties of the Constitution than the.
bills under eonideratine. With respect to the principle of
I tic Bill, it, had beep passed before under similarcircumstanses,
1 and the House were well acquainted with its enactments. If
the measure was admissible, the minds of Honourable Mem-
hers. must be made up. He could go the length of saying',
with the Honourable and 'Learned Gentleman, that they were
11113 which every ntau Inuit feel lain in passing; but
it was impossible to a amit that the Governhostit were anxious'
to use this Act as a 'permanent measure. The Noble Mat;s
guess had stated that it was not to go to' greatextent, bitt`he
limited to the duration 'of Parliament; and litre lieliadto'
regret it hadbeen said, that so long as these Acts 'vete in
-force, • the ear of Government would be shut to all•tht
vier/niers of Ireland. . The Noble Marquis expressed hiM-se'lf
ready,to promote any 'measure for the amelioration of Irel•atid
the-Right Hon. Baronet, tie any Hon. Member might propose:
The Hon'. and Leari,ed Gentleman blamed the Cabinet -for
being divided On the Catholic Question, as if it was the only
cktoinet -which had,hetts divided on that subject. The Heil.
and Leained Gentltinan had made another discovery, chit;'
whenever a change took place in the Cabinet, some friend to
the Catholics most be appointed ; and it would either be a
'Protestant or Catholic Cabinet. It was, however, quite use-
less to occupy the attention of the House hit this subject.' Alf
.the Noble Marquis would say was this:—He would he happy,
to di.cues all questions relating to the improvement of trot
Irish' Laws; and with respect to the'CatholiC Queition; he'
was happy to see the Catholics were not disposed to offer
theinselves to the attention of Parliament during a tithe' of
tumult. They 0001 take the tinieOf peace and order; awl
they Would act-prudently. When the qtiestion came fairlyjbe-
fore the House, be should enelearitur to do his ditty. With re-
spect to the question. before the-Haute, the Hon. and l,earit-
ed 6e...tremor); and others iti the sam': school of politiei, hied'
east censure ori 'the measure because it was not' dictated by
-the Marquis Wellesley.- Hr would receive the praise of
the Nonte MatqUis, as the greatest authority, but nevi+
-Would consent ! to justify Site measure betutise the Noble
fslarqois•wai dictator. He was sure the neop'e o' this &molly
would batter live under the litSurreeijost-Ac ,th in plaCe them-
selves under a dictatorship which mtglit deprive them of tre'
seer ciseuf their Minds and'pnblic feelings. The short n'tit;s-
ti,ta, how aver, ilt this case was, whether beneftt was to be-de-
rived from the lastirreetiOn Art, as applied to the present
state of Ireland; and 'whether it con7ll be altered for the ad-
' vantage of the peopleby'alfhwitigtiial by Jury? That qiies-
' lion lead been seriously taken icon costSideration by the Lord
Lietttehant, Who had a stroog desire to Make atialteration.a
the I.l*-iii"ttrat respect. 'flue project wii long' considered,
aid the decisi .11 'was, that it trial by/Jury was introduced to
the Insucreetiim Act, it would render the law nugatory. if
the House re:tortesd to un on-constitutional law; it ~,..as neces-
sary to halve it elective Cr mit at all. He begged' kare Vs
plead to the charge against the :Magistracy of Ireland.' fhera
arght be improper conduct on the part of otte.or two Ma-
gistrates, but was the whole Magistracy`of Ireland 'there-
fore to be devaded -? It was said lostice was bought
and sold, and it was the fist time the Noble Lind ever
beard that money had purchased the hotiour of Magistrates
in that conniry. He did not think the case alluded to would
turn out to be so 134445 described, but howtver it might turn