The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-07 00:00:00

LO/4 DUN, TUESDA Y EViisTING, DECEMBER 7, 1847.

the Right Hon. Secretary .for the Home Department
that he (Mr. O'Connor) would oppose this Bill from
the preamble to the last clause; he was determined to
divide on every possible opportunity ; and, as a rea-
son for not passing the measure, he begged to call the
attention of English Members to the position of the
Hon. Member for Rochdale (Mr. S. Crawford).
That Hon. Gentleman, who had divided against this
Bill, was one of the largest and best landlords in
Ireland ; he sought for no coercion Bill to secure
}Ain against his tenants' wrath ; he could walk over
his estate by night and by day in safety, for which he
fairly required his rent—he also performed his duty.
If he (Mr. O'Connor) conscientiously believed that
this Bill, or even one of a more severe character,
would have the effect of repressing crime in Ireland,
he would readily give it his support ; but it was be-
cause he understood the character, the condition, and
the constitution of his countrymen better than the
Right Hon. Home Secretary, that he had determined
that this insidious measure should not go to the coun-
try—at least with the stamp of his (Mr. :)*Connor's)
approval. He was determined to perform his duty ;
but he begged to say, that if the Right Hon. Baronet
(Sir G. Grey) thought proper to introduce efficient
remedial measures with regard to Ireland, he (Mr.
O'Connor) would have great pleasure in giving them
that support to which he might consider they were
entitled.

Mr. D. BROWNE should support the second
reading of this Bill, because it did not go too far,
because the circumstances of the country required it,
because it would affect only guilty parties in certain
districts, and afford protection to respectable persons
in the midst of a reign of terror. He also supported
it because he believed it would be administered by
the Lord-Lieutenant in a spirit of moderation and
humanity. He supported it because ho believed that
the majority of the people of Ireland had no sympathy
with those crimes. He believed the majority of the
people and the priesthood were anxious that these
murders should be put an end to. He believed that
the murderers were outcasts and traders in blood,
and were not connected with the predial diffe-
rences between landlord and tenant. The murder
of the Rev. Mr. Lloyd was a brutal, dastardly, and
barbarous murder, and such atrocious murderers were
a disgrace to Ireland ; and as he wished that the
law should be vindicated he gave his vote for this
measure. It might be said that this was an uncon-
stitutional Act; but it was more unconstitutional to
leave the country at the mercy of a set of lawless
marauders. He would give his vote for this Bill
without reference to remedial measures, lest it should
seem that he had the slightest sympathy with such
crimes. The administration of the law in Ireland
was most inefficiently carried on. The Crown pro-
secutors were often incapacitated from performing
their duties by reason of age and infirmity. In
Connaught the senior prosecutor had been ten years
superannuated as an assistant barrister, and yet he
continued Crown prosecutor. The late Mr. Ellis had
been five years superannuated as Crown prosecutor,
and yet continued an assistant barrister. In Con-
naught the Crown solicitor was so incapacitated by
age and infirmity that he had not gone the last five
circuits. Such was the inefficient manner in which
the law was administered. He felt confident that, in
trusting the powers contained in this measure to the
Government, they would not abuse it.
Mr. M. O'CONNELL said he held in his hand a
book, entitled " An Account of the Debate on the
Bill for the Protection of Life in Ireland, in 1846,"
edited by R. Dillon Browne, M.P. (The Hon. Gen.
tleman then read extracts from the speeches of Mr.
Dillon Browne on that debate, in opposition to that
measure, and in which be advised that coercion should
he given up and remedial measures tried.) The Hon.
Member for Meath (Mr. H. Grattan), too, who had
been one of the most strenuous opponents of the
Coercion Bill of 1846, he regretted to find amongst
the advocates of the present measure. Disguise it as
they would, this Bill was as much an infringement of
the constitution as that proposed by the Right Hon.
Baronet, and which the Noble Lord now at the head
of the Government said he would never consent to,
unless it was accompanied by remedial measures.
On the same ground put forward by the Noble Lord
in 1846, as against the Arms Bill of the Right Hon.
Baronet—the absence of remedial measures—did he
(Mr. M. O'Connell) oppose the Bill now before the
House. It was all very well to refer to the condi-
tion of society in Ireland, and point to the calendar
of crime as a justification for such a Bill ; but how
did they expect human nature to endure patiently,
the tyranny to which the Irish tenantry were sub-
ject, driven from their holdings, without food or
shelter, prevented from reaping the crops they had
sown, and deprived of all the advantages of their
outlay and labour ? Try the experiment in England,
and see what would be the consequence.—(Hear,
hear.) He gathered from the reply of the Right
lion. the Home Secretary to the suggestion of the
Right Hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel), that a detective
police was about to be organized in Ireland. What
was this but a return to the old spy system, with all
its attendant horrors, its perjuries, robberies, and
murders ? How many instances were there in former
days of innocent men being entrapped into the com-
mission of crime, and then informed against for the
sake of the blood-money ? In no country save Ire-
land would such a system be tolerated. It had been
practised in 1798 under the notorious Major Sirr,
aided by the infamous Terry O'Brien, and yet in
these days it was sought to legalise perjury by Act or
Parliament. Notwithstanding the determination ex-
pressed by some Irish Members to support this Bill,
he for one should give it the most determined opposi•
tion in every stage of its progress. He had been as
earnest and as anxious as any man in denouncing
ever revere laid
crime, and he had not only preached but practised
obedience to the law. He had endeavoured to
ehnefomrcuest maxima
adnodw n
venerate,
by one
enemy of Ireland was the man who violated
the law. He would
not parley with the murderer,
but he would strain
the ordinary law of the land, in
that whose
the m e
worstory
order to secure his punishment ; but he protested
against arming irresponsible parties with extraordi-
nary powers to do that which might .be done by the
smallest particle of resolution and courage on the
part of the resident landlords in the counties which
were said to be disturbed, and _which would be put
down by the tenantry if the landlords gave them the
slightest encouragement so to do. But he found
fault with this Bill on another ground, namely, that
it was entirely and exclusevel a landlord's Bill.—
(Hear.) Bill It was not a Y for the protection of the
lives and property of the people, but for the protec-
tion of magistrates, who would not do their duty,
and to enable the landlords to collect their rents.
He had expected after the numerous commissions of
inquiry which had been issued by various Govern-
ments, that at the commencement of this session the
present Ministry would at least be prepared with
some remedial measures for Ireland. lie understood
that the Landlord and Tenant Bill was :ictually in
print, and, being
so' it ought now to be on the
table of the House. It was, however, kept back,
and not a word of explanation as to its provisions
had yet been stated to the House. In fact,
nothing whatever had been done to carry out any
of the recommendations contained in the report under
Lord Devon's Commission.—(Cries of " Divide.")
One of those recommendations was, to lessen the
burdens on the land, and yet, by the operations of
this Bill those burdens would e increased by fixing
on the land the charge of the extra police employed
at the will and pleasure of the Lord. Lieutenant.
Hon. Members opposite had spoken of certain state-
ments alleged to have been by made Roman Catholic
clergymen from the altar, but the Attorney-General
had very properly told them that wherever such
charges could be authenticated prosecution would
follow. With respect to the denunciation of Major
Mahon, the clergyman implicated had himself denied
in print that he had ever mentioned that gentleman's
name or that he knew anything about him. What
would the House think of an English landlord, who,
coming into a property, should commence with a
small village at his park gate, and take from the in-
habitants their little gardens, from which they had
obtained their winter's subsistence ? The Honourable
Member proceeded to detail other instances of Major
Alahon's conduct towards his tenants, but was con-
tinually interrupted by loud cries of " Question."
He complained that the deceased gentleman had sent
a number of his tenants on board ship, bound to
America, but the vessel being wrecked, the people
were obliged to return, when, sick, starving, and
shipwrecked as they were, they were left on the road
without shelter to perish. Until the Noble Lord at
the head of the Government had laid his remedial
measures on the table, the House might expect that
he (Mr. O'Connell) would give this Coercion Bill
every opposition in his power.
Mr. GARDNER gave a reluctant support to the
Bill. He was not one of those who would vindicate
murder, or who did not wish to see it punished, but
he could not help having some compunctious visitings
when he remembered the gross ill-usage which Ire-
land had experienced at the hands of this country._
(Hear, hear.) He regretted, therefore, that the Right
Hon. Gentleman while proposing coercion had not
more clearly indicated the remedial measures he
proposed to introduce for the benefit of the sister
country. Ile was not one of those who thought that
Providence had endowed one race more than another
with instincts of crime and indolence. He was will-
ing to admit the defects of the Irish character, but he
was inclined to attribute them, not to the providence of
God, but to the misgovernment and tyranny of man._
(Hear, hear.)
That country had for 600 years been
under the dominion of what an eminent foreign
aristocracy. publicist had called a bad Pure
manufacturers, blood, no mill-owners or m to grind
the people, no
thing but lords, squires, and serfs.
added; an alien priesthood
To these England had
and in her superstition had shut out every avenue
of advancement from the great body of the people.
f all this oppression—
The outward and visible sign o
the Protestant Estabhihed Church—Still (Suited in