The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-24 00:00:00

eact er, and that, too, from a high dignitary in the
Bo can Catholic Church. He alluded to the speech of
gr chdeacon Laffan, in which the people of England
eve re stigma'ased as " Saxon scoundrels, who, if men
-es ough, wo- ald, when suffering the same privations as the
;t%sh,
stand on one side, and shoot every man who had a
)event e ,oat on his back." There were four Members of
arli Anent present when that speech was made—among
tithe -,,exit the Hon. and Learned Member for Kilkenny—
sr4 west one of them had thought fit to make a reproving
-eolors:vation.—(Hear, hear.) Assassination had been the
rresult of such harangues. According to the returns of
itbe Poor-law Commissioners the rateable rental of that
country amounted to fourteen millions—he believed that
twenty was nearer the mark—and until that had been
.filly taxed he would not consent to any more subsidies
from England.—(Hear, hear.) He thought that in the
present state of things full powers should be given to the
Lord-Lieutenant, and he for one was prepared to grant
those powers.— (Hear.)
Mr. M. O'CONNELL said that the speech the House
had just-beard was exactly such a one as was calculated
to excite to frenzy the already inflamed people ot Ire-
land. The Hon. Baronet had been particularly face-
tious on the subject of certain Irish Members dying on
the floor of the House. He (Mr. O'Connell) believed
that the necessity for such an extremity would not occur,
because the Irish Members could, as they had done
before, defeat any Coercion Bill that might be brought
forward. The Hon. Baronet had alluded to a certain
speech made by Archdeacon Laffan, but he had only
quoted the commencement of that speech, omitting the
conclusion, which denounced crime, and exhorted the
people to peace and order.—(Hear, hear.) It should be
recollected also that the commencement of the speech,
however ill-advised it might be under other circum-
stances, had been provoked by the constant calumnies
and abuse of certain English newspapers. He would
ask that House, did they think that if the people of
England suffered one-tenth of the oppression under
which the Irish laboured, they would have remained
quiet under it ? The Honourable Baronet had alluded
to the address of 1762. Why, the people of Ireland
bad preserved the peace ever since that time.—(A
laugh.) As to the grant of eight or ten millions, he
could assure the House that not more than one-fifth of
that sum had reached the people, and even of that a
large portion was absorbed in paying the army of 15,000
officials. The Hon. Baronet had asked what had certain
Members of that House done for Ireland ? He had last
year remained in Ireland to endeavour to mitigate the
sufferings of the poor in his own neighbourhood, and he
was glad to say that his exertions had been so far suc-
cessful that no district in the county was more peaceful.
But in that district it was proved that there was now re-
maining surplus of the last harvest not food sufficient to
supply the people for two months. The majority of the
people there spoke Irish, not understanding a word of
English ; yet they sought to improve the condition of
those people by sending a man to teach them agriculture
who could not speak a word of Irish. Let the House
wait until the returns of the amount of distress existing
and the quantity of food remaining in the several pa-
rishes of Ireland were sent in, and then say whether
they thought the poor-law would be a sufficient depend-
ence for the Irish poor until the next harvest, and
whether some further assistance would not be needed.
Mr. S. CRAWFORD, but for the allusion which had
been made to the landlord and tenant question, would
not have addressed the House on the present occasion.
The Right Hon. Secretary for the Home Department
had stated that a measure on this subject was shortly to
be brought forward by the Government. But that de-
claration was not satisfactory to him, for during the last
session the then Secretary for Ireland had told them the
same thing. Over and over again they had been told in
the previous session that the subject was under conside-
ration by the Government, and that a measure would be
speedily submitted to Parliament. Yet nothing was
done, and he was apprehensive that unless the Govern-
ment were forced on by the exertions of others, the
present session would pass over without any legislation
in reference to it. For twenty years past it had stood
upon the records of Parliament, that the existing rela-
tions of landlord and tenant were the cause of many of
the evils under which Ireland laboured. Ile referred to
the reports of the various Committees in proof of this.
It was his conviction that had a satisfactory measure
been carried during the last session for the settlement of
the landlord and tenant question, those murders by which
the country had been of late disgraced would never have
occurred. English tenants received compensation, but
Irish none; and when they neglected to secure the rights
of labour, how could they expect the rights of propery to
be respected? English gentlemen had scarcely an idea of
the state of the Irish tenants. During the Government
of Sir R. Peel two Bills were brought forward for the
settlement of the landlord and tenant question, one of
which was still before the House when the Right Hon.
Baronet left office; when subsequently that measure was
abandoned the Noble Lord (J. Russell) stated that the
question would be considered early in the next session.
The Noble Lord was therefore doubly pledged in this
matter. The tenants now looked upon their landlords
as tyrants, and when they looked to the machinery of
landlordism, with its ejectment processes and its bailiffs,
it was not surprising. It was all very well to talk to the
people about the advantages of self-reliance ; but how
could the Irish tenantry have any self-reliance when
they had not six months' secure possession of their
land, but on the contrary were almost certain of being
dispossessed it, in the exercise of their self-reliance, they
endeavoured to improve their holdings and better their
condition? In all cases where tenant-right was given
(as in the county of Down) there was no want of
confidence between the tenant and his landlord, nor was
there any difficulty of providing for the poor. Ie
the north of Ireland tenant-right had been established
by legal decision, as against third parties in the case of
property required by the Irish railways. A simple
measure giving the same right as against the landlords
throughtout the country was all that was required. In
some parts of Ireland it was the custom to give the
tenants notice every ;ix mouths, in order that the)
might always be in the power of the landlord. As no
private Member had any chance of carrying such a ince
sure, he hoped the Government would redeem their
pledge by passing an efficient measure of tenant-right
without further procrastination. It was useless to send
lecturers to improve the knowledge of agriculture
amongst Irish farmers until they gave them security of
tenure. He did not expect that any measure would have
the effect of immediately or very rapidly improving the
condition of Ireland, but the landlord and tenant mea-
sure was necessary as a groundwork for any improvement.
There was no one more ready to give the Government
the powers necessary to put down assassination than
himself, but he would not delude the House or the Govern-
ment with the idea that it could be put, down by coer-
cion alone. If remedial measures went ha:.d in hand with
coercive, he would give the Government the powers
they required to repress outrage, but not without. He
could not consent to a measure for drawing from the
labour ot this country the funds which ought to be pro-
vided by Irish property, as the resources of Ireland
were sufficient to maintain the poor of that country; but
if the Government and Legislature would not do that
which was necessary to enable the people of Ireland to
support themselves, the English House of Commons and
the Eoglish people must pay for the neglect.—(Hear.)
Mr. MEAGHER said a few words in defence of the
conduct of Archdeacon Laffan, and stated that on all
occasions he had exhorted the people to obey the law.
He had, in more than one in,tance, assisted him (Mr.
Meagher) in apprehending persons who had infringed
the law; and, on one occasion, eight men had bee-n
apprehended, brought to trial, and convicted through
his means.
Sir W. SOMERVILLE could not see in the speeches
of the Hon. Members for Meath and Cork any justifica-
tion of the present amendment, and he had hoped that
after the speech of his Right Hon. Friend the Secretary
of State for the Home Department, it would have been
withdrawn. He regretted he could not say that the
picture which had been drawn of Ireland's distress and
crime was exaggerated; but, as regarded crime, it was at
least satisfactory to think that it was quite local—being
confined to part of the King's County, Limerick, Clare,
Roscommon, and Tipperary. Crime now, he must ob-
serve, differed in its character from that of former years.
At the close of 1846, though outrages were frequent,
they were mostly connected with distress, and exhibited
themselves in plundering of provisions and slaughtering
of cattle—but they now arose from a spirit of resistance
to the payment of rent, and were committed principally
by armed men. The lion. Member for Kilkenny said
that the existing law had not been put in force; but he
(Sir W. Somerville) knew not upon what authority
his Honourable Friend made that assertion, be-
cause he believed that the law had never been
enforced with greater rigour than by the present
Lord-Lieutenant. (Hear, hear, the Hon. Member
for Kilkenny observing " Special commission.") If cir-
cumstances arose to justify a special commission, he had
no doubt that the Lord-Lieutenant would immediately
direct one; but his Hon. Friend must recollect that as
regarded the murderers of Mr. Roe, Mr. Lucas, Major
Mahon, and Mr. Bayley, the murderers had not yet been
discovered, and a special commission in this case would
1),.! a nullity.—(gear, hear.) His Hon. Friend was also
zreng in supposing that it was in the power of the Lord-
Lieutenant to increase his constabulary foroe ab libitum;
and before he charged the Government with introducing
measures of hardship, he thought he ought to wait and
see whet those
Somerville' measures were, because in his (Sir W.
opwirizn they would be found calculated to
suppress crime
predilections of any liloinfringing upon the constitutional
by
theei.Gentleman in that House. The
course adopted
parties engaged in the cor*Lieutenant of protecting
in the collection, but of meting of rents, not of aiding
Protecting those so en-
gaged tram violence, hadrleaeve attended with the best
effects. As he had observed, el'
Wit"evnenot happened
that prevailing cause of that r
measures
the distress
that where crime was
sthintended to
was not the greatest. The
be introduced would have the best effejte.
featly novel, and would teach those mis they were per-
who had the means and the
thatpow ec
theyt e
w dischargeet. egnuoit7oh epeople
t
crimesthe
debts, and would not do 80,
hotwheever,
law of the country at defiance. While,
in-
dignation of Englishmen was raised by he
had alluded to, let them not forget that the people in the
western districts were not stained with. these atrocious
perpetrations, but. were still suffering from the severest
affliction with which any nation was ever wituessed.—
(Hear, hear.) The honourable Baronet then proceeded
in one week in July,
• after which he detailed
to praise the Ration Act, by which
2,559,966 persons had been fed;
the peculiar circumstances In three-fourths of the of distress under which the
poor-law came into operation.
country it would, however, be successful, and he con-
sidered that a great deal was achieved _ when three-
fourths of Ireland were made self-dependent. It had
been said that several boards of guardians had thrown
up their offices, but that was not the case. Several
had
been dissolved on account of other circumstances, which
rendered it necessary; and Ballinrobe, Castlebar, Kan-
turk, and several others were managed by paid guardians.
The Government had endeavoured to carry out the
pool-law in such a way as to conciliate the people, not