The Sun.
London, England, 1825-02-11 00:00:00

14/1

ak..ep-1

FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 11, 1,825

with which lie should conclude should therefore stand thus :
•"that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the
state of Ireland; more particularly with respect to those circuin-
stances which may have led to disturbances in that part of the
.United kingdom." This, be repeated was done for the pur-
pose of directing, not for that.of limiting inquiry. It might
be asked whether it should embrace the Catholic question ? To
this he should answer, that he would consider it improper to
refer that question to,any Meet Committee. It was one of too
much importance and magnitude- not to be decided by the
House itself, and not to receive the free vote and opinion of
every Peey. -.He therefore did not intend to refer the Catholic
question to the Committee for an opinion or judgment, and id-
deed it' it were to give one is would prove useless, for it would
not induce any Noble Lord to give up the right of judging for
himself. He did not mean however, to prevent examinations
being taken in the Committee as to opinions and facts bearing
upon that question. If any facts appeared to any NoWe Lord
calculated to throw light upon, it, he should be at full liberty to
make them objects of examination, As to the course which he
proposed to follow, he thoughtthak the most correct one would
be to name the same Illembera. of the Committee as last year,
with the exception of tleuee weo.owere absent,,or who might be
desirous that their ;mles should be withdrawn. As his Noble.
Friend, the
_Earl of Aberdeen, was on the Continent, and not
likely to be able to attend ens, part of the inquiry, he should
propose that Lord" Fitzgibbon be appointed in his stead ;
and in lieu of Earl Fitzwilliame whose wish it was to with.
draw, he should propose the Duke of Devonshire. The Noble
Earl Concluded by moving the appointment of the Committee.
Earl DA RNI,Er reminded the House of the motion which.
he had made twelve months ago, for a general inquiry into the
state of Ireland, in which, however, he had .only had the sup-
port of sixteen of their Lordship:‘ It was not his intention to
oppose the present motion, as he approved of its object, -nei-
ther would he Claim it as," his thunder." He would leave that
thunder in the hands of Jupiter himself, and only hope that he
would make a good use of it. Notwithstanding the assurances
of the Noble Earl' that he would not narrow inquiry ; if the
Committee were not to possess themselves of facts bearing on
the Catholic Question by the examination of persons best
able
to give information, they would badly perform the tisk 'im-
posed upon them. He had' last year made that question the
most prominent part of his motion, whereas the Noble Earl had
left it out entirely. In all times it bad formed the principal
point for consideration in the affairs of Ireland, and now it had
become an indispensable one. The examination of the last
year, as far as it had gone, had certainly thrown new light
upon the propriety of granting the Catholic claims; and the
.more they examined the subject, the more would their Lord-
ships be conyincEil that Ireland would never be tranquil until
those claims were satisfied. To refuse much longer must be-
come impossible; and it would be wiser to.take the earliest
opportunity of and voluntarily meeting the subject,
than to wait till it grew a matter of necessity. As to the
opinion which he had expressed of the superior convenience,
of the course adopted by the Noble Earl over that which he
(Earl Darnley) had recommended, it proceeded f,ont this :
that had his motion for a general inquiry been supported by
the House, the Noble Earl might probably have found means
from the power which he possessed, to narrow its sphere, whilst
that Noble Earl, after moving for- a narrow inquiry, had libe-
rally ex tended.it,heyond its on gMal limits.
Th'e•37quis.of •,LA NS W DON did not rise to oppose the
e3l
;, ,
motion. :tin the cOntrary, opposition would' come from any
bOkratrier than from him, as the subject of inquiry was not
connected. with any: measure .before the House. He also felt
that investigation would take place under better auspices
in' the preaerat :Circumstances of the country, and he trusted
that it would not. be ,narrowed too much by any limitations
whiCh that Noble Earl might put upon it. His object in ris-
ing was to ask whether the .Report of the Commissioners of
Inquiry into the state of Education in Ireland was nearly
ready to be laid before the House, as the question. had acquir-
ed still greatyr importance sire they had commenced their in-
quiry. It had been referred by the other House to those Com-
missioners last Session ; and he understood they had.been en-
gaged all
.summer in the investigation. He was anxious to
have their Report, as it Would spare the Committee much time.
If the Noble Earl were not prepared to answer the question
this evening, hewould perhap.s.be able to give a reply the. next ,
day of wetting..
ee•
The Earl of LIVERPOOL was willing to give the Noble•
Marquis all the satisfaction in his power. The Commissioners
had carried on the inqUiry with the greatest industry and per-
severance during the whole summer, but were not at this nio-
ment, he understood, quite. prepared to make their Report.
By the Easter holidaya, however, they were of opinion that
they, could Produce it. He should be able to give the Noble
Marquis more certain inilmnation perhaps in the course of a
few hours. Ile admitted the importance that the Report should
be made ; but, on a subject of such magnitude and interest, he'
lied not thought proper to hurry the Commissioners. Great and
valuable progress had been made in the inquiry ; and he re-
peated, the ComMiasioners expected to be able to report about
Easter.

Lord HOLLAND found it impossible to join in the unani-
mous vote of the House, without expressing his surprise at the
time at which the Noble Earl opposite had become a convert
to the necessity of-a general inquiry into the state of Ireland.
He also complained that the Noble Earl had only said what
should nut be, and not what should be the grounds of inquiry.
All general investigations had hitherto been uniformly rejected..
When last Session some districts of Ireland were disturbed, the
inquiry was confined to them ' • but now that the country were
told tliere were no disturbed districts the narrow ground for
a seneral inquiry was running from under the
Noble Earl. file Catholic question, which formed the prin-
cipal feature in the state of Ireland, might be thought a good
subject for investigation. Oh no, said the Noble Earl,. inquiry
on that you shall have none ; the Committee shall have nothing
to do with that. Then what was it to examine? Perhaps the
extraordinary laws which excluded so large a body of men
from the privileges of the Constitution.. No; you must not
look at them, said again the Noble Earl. Infatuated as
Mark Antony- with his love,
he would say like him, allow
your tongues free license to discuss my faults, but, say not a
word about Cleopatra. The Catholic Question was his Cleo-
patra. Ile was ready to acquiesce in the motion, because all
inquiry of any kind whatever was useful to Ireland, and be-
cause no inquiry could take place without information being
elicited respecting the Catholic Question, which must tend to
its final settlement. In point of policy and Parliamentary
regularity, however, the Noble Earl had chosen ,the very
worst time he possibly could for recommending the, present
inquiry., A great man of antiquity bad said, that the whole
art of war consisted in being in time. So ought it to be in
policy. Had this been attended to, how much irritation and
difficulty might not have been avoided ! It.had been said of a
predecessor of the Noble Lord, who was always in a state
of useless bustle, that he had lost half- an hour in the morn-
ing and was losing the whole day in looking after it. So in
the morning of their administration had his Majesty's Go-
vernment not neglected the opportunities which -offered them-
selves, they would not now be losing time in trying to recover
them. But to conciliate and to bring the present difficulties
to a termination, ninth more was now required than, merely
being in time. Had it been attempted after the return of
peace, it would then Lave been easy for this country to quiet
Ireland.

_ -
The Earl of HA RROWBY could not allow the observations
of the Noble Baron to pass. without remarking that he hadmis-
understcod, for he could no suppose that he would misrepresent
what had fallen from his Noble Friend. General inquiries had
been refused on former occasions on the ground that they were
less likely to be attended with useful results than more limited
ones. Last year when it was proposed to renew the Insurrec-
tion Act; an inquiry was also proposed to show its necessity.
So far from an inclination being displayed by any Member of
his Majesty's Government to check investigation, the greatest
disposition was evinced to remove as far as possible,. even
the limitations put upon it by that House, and not to keep
or at least to interpret
tiitiewmitliinintietstngoetior
caopoiliii,rceaillenbsrvendoslnner,
There was scarcely
any topic connected with Ireland which would not be !blind in
the minutes of the Committee.' Was there any thing inconsist-
ent, therefore, whilst proposing a renewal of the inquiry, to
abstain from affixing limits to its operations ? In fact the
Commissioners had stated in their report last year, that there
were many points on which they had not perfected their en-
quiries, and they recommended to the House to renew the Com-
tuittee. It was therefore their recommendation, strengthened
by the higher authority of the Speech from the
Throne, which
formed the ground for the present revival. As to keeping the
Catholic question out of sight, the Noble Baron ought to have
recollectedthat his Noble Friend (the Earl of Liverpool) had
idisthat he s
that hould have no objection to inquire
uponquestion and into the opi.
nions of individuals upon that subject, for in such a case ppi-
ntotin all tatty
were fact,,.a
Cht. Noble Ilaron not a warmer or tnore
settaste Wllich bpre