The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-30 00:00:00

SUPPLY.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of
Supply; Mr. BERNAL in the chair.
Mr. HUME inquired whether it was the intention
of her Majesty's Government to propose the ap-
pointment of a Committee to consider the subject
of the general taxation of the country in all its
branches, with the view of ascertaining if the taxes
could not be raised in a manner that should be less
troublesome and less expensive to the country than
under the present system.
Lord J. RUSSELL replied, that it was not the
intention to propose any Committee, either on the
general taxation of the country, or in relation to the
whole expenditure of the country.
The House then went through Committee pro
forma, and the House resumed.
CRIME IN IRELAND.

Sir GEORGE GREY—after the passage in her
Majesty's Speech relating to Ireland had been read
from the Chair— said it was with deep regret that in
accordance with the recommendation contained in that
passage of her Majesty's Speech which had just been
read, and in discharge of an imperative duty, that he
rose to ask the House for permission to lay upon the
table of the House a Bill for the better prevention
of crime and outrage in certain districts of
Ireland. The attention of Parliament had re-
cently been largely directed to the affairs
of that portion of the United Kingdom through a
visitation of Providence, which, perhaps, was unprece-
dented in its severity and extent, for while it inflicted

TUESDAY

severe privations on the inhabitants of most countries
of Europe, it fell with puliar intenseness
and severity on the people of Ireland, on
account of the unfortunate dependence of the
great majority of the people on that article of food,
which, from causes which hitherb had baffled all the
resources of science, was almost totally destroyed.
In consequence of the intense severity of this calamity
successive Governments—the Right Hon. Baronet
opposite in the first instance, asel his Noble Friend
afterwards—felt it to be their duty to propose to
Parliament measures for the relief of the sister
kingdom ; and he had, until recently, been in hopes that
this dreadful visitation would at least have drawn the
people of the two kingdoms in boa's of good-will, which
would have inflicted upon all the important lesson of
the advantages, if not the indispensable necessity, of
the mutual co-operation of all classes of society in
discharging those functions which• devolved upon the
highest and the lowest, for the maintenance of
the laws of the land.—(Hear, hear.) He regret-
ted, however, to state that in this respect he
had been greatly disappointed, though he was not yet
prepared to abandon the expectation that Ireland
might be restored to a state of peace and prosperity,
in which all classes of society should be united in
denouncing the criminal, and promoting the general
prosperity of the country. The crimes and offences
to which he should have to make reference, he was
glad to say, only applied to a small portion Ireland,
and he was glad to take that opportunity of repeating
what he said on the first night of the session, that in
the greater part of Ireland crime had diminished,
while the crimes which existed in other por-
tions were held in the highest detestation
and abhorrence by the great mass of the
people. He was happy to state that the general re-
sults of the tabular statement of the statistics of crime
which were transmitted from time to time from the
constabulary force of Ireland showed a great
diminution in the extent of the whole crime of Ireland
as compared with corresponding periods in the last year.
In October, 184 G, the amount of crime was 1,483 (as
we understood), but in Januiry, 1847, this remark-
able fact presented itself—the amount of *rime was
2,885, whilst in October, 1847, it had been re-
duced to 1,035. He wished at the outset to state
that the proposition which he now rose to submit was
not an indictment Bill against the people of Ireleni,
as the Government had been taunted with. He did not
come there, as the Hon. Member for Cork had taunted
him, to propose a measure as if "the whole country
was looked upon as a country of assassins."
Those who knew the details of Ireland would at once
admit that such an imputation was quite unfounded,
because he was prepared to show that there
were districts in which there was, so to
speak, a concentration of crime, and that the
crime which had broken out within the
last few years was of a peculiar character, and quite
appalling. The reports which he had received
showed that secret associations and secret conspiracies
against large and small holders abounded in certain
districts. That men were impugned for merely acting on
their ordinary rights, and murdered whilst exercising
those rights with wonderful forbearance. Was it a
wonder, then, that the crimes which had been perpe-
trated had spread terror through certain districts, and
though these crimes were not numerically great, com-
pared with former periods of Ireland's history, yet
their confinement within narrow limits, and their
dastardly nature, had spread dismay amongst all the
peaceable inhabitants of these districts. He thought,
therefore, he had a right to call upon Irish Members to
support the Government in the determination to which
they had come. The character of themselves and of
their constituents were implicated ; other nations
looked on in wonder, and he therefore called upon
them to assist him in arresting the hand of the
assassin, and of giving that protection to life
which the peaceable and well-disposed subjects
of her Majesty had a right to claim at the hands of
the Government.—(Hear, hear.) The crime of
which he spoke had not, he was glad to say, extended
to those districts which were still suffering from
famine. This fact was stated by the Secretary for Ire-
land on the first night of the session. The perpetratcrs
of the outrages to which he was adverting could not
set up the excuse that they were driven to desperation
and madness by the pressure of poverty and want—
(Hear, hear)—because these assassinations were
committed in districts in which there was both money
and food, as when pressed by the strong arm of the
law money for holdings had been forthcoming, and
no pretence set up that the funds had been raised
with difficulty. Attempting to enforce those rights
had led to much of the crime which had
taken place. He might be taunted by some
Hon. Members with attempting to enforce
the oft-tried expedient of coercion, whilst the evils
under which Ireland laboured were left untouched.—
(" Hear, hear," from Mr. F. O'Connor.) It would
be for the Hon. Member to show that it would be
unjust to deal out a measure of coercion to Ireland ;
but if he could not show that such a
measure would be unjust, he should claim his vote in
support of the proposition he now rose to submit. No
doubt the Hon. Member wished as much as any man
to prevent bloodshed by the assassin lurking behind a
wall; whilst the unhappy object of his aim was uncon-
scious that be had given offence he in a moment was
laid low on the highway by the hand of the ruth-
less assassin. He did not pretend to propose
this measure as a cure for the evils which
had existed from year to year in Ireland.—(Hear,
hear.) It would be short-sighted policy on the part
of the Government if it were to think that the re-
pression of crime was the only measure they should
devise. On the part of the Government, he
disclaimed that this short, this limited Bill,
would be any panacea to the evils of Ireland; they
believed that they should discharge their duty to the
inhabitants of that country by passing such a mea-
sure.—(llear.) It was the duty of a wise Govern-
ment and Legislature to look to the causes of the
evils, but they could not wait, they could not dis-
regard the symptoms which had manifested them-
selves. Crime and outrage must be repressed, and
the encumbered estates, the grand jury, and other pro-
positions, must come under future consideration. They
must meet the present emergency. It was not in the
power of Parliament to do all for Ireland that had
been said, but he trusted it would be able to place
the relations of the landlord and tenant upon
a better footing ; but he disclaimed the
Utopian idea of those who thought that the land
should be held in perpetuity by those on whom no
more than a tenant's right descended. Neither could
he agree with the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. F. O'Connor)
that they " should take the idlers off the land." He
did not think the House would confer a land-
lord's right upon the tenants: —(Hear, hear.)
But, while the Government called upon gentlemen to
discharge their duties upon boards of guardians, to
carry out the laws passed for the relief of the desti-
tute poor, it called upon all men to co-operate with the
Government in their endeavours to discharge the
duties of their position. Those persons had a
right to call upon the Government, if they
were willing to discharge their duties, for
ample protection against the hand of the
assassin, and for security of life, so as to enable
them to remain resident upon their property, for
the purpose of co-operating with the Government in
carrying out those laws which might be passed by
the Legislature for the common good of all.—(Hear,
hear.) With respect to crime, there were four
classes which, he regretted to say, had within the
last six months considerably increased. Those
four crimes were homicide, attempts upon life by
firing at the person, robberies of arms, and firing into
dwelling-houses. A great increase had taken place
in the amount of those crimes. He found that, in the
six months ending Oct., 1845, the returns were as
follow :
Homicides

Attempts upon life by firing at the person 55
Robberies of arms
Firing into dwelling• houses

For the. six months en—ding October, 1847, the num
bers increased to—
Homicides ...
Attempts upon life by firing at the person
Robberies of arms
Firing into dwelling-houses
It would thus be seen that there was a fearful increase
in the amount of these four classes of crime. The whole
of Ireland was implicated in the shame and disgrace
consequent upon this large increase of crime.
Looking at the police returns for the month of
October (for from that period it was that those crimes
commenced to increase at such a fearful rate), he
found the following results for the whole of Ireland :
Homicides
Firing at the person
Firing into dwelling-houses
Robberies of arms ..

Making a total of
Looking at the districts in which these crimes were
committed he found that the total number of all those
crimes committed in three of the counties of Ireland,
I. e., Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary, was to the
whole of Ireland as 139 to 175, or that 71 per cent.
of the whole amount of crime was committed in those

three counties, which did not include more than 13
per cent. of all Ireland. Looking to these three
counties, he found the number of crimes committed in
them to be as follows :

Clare. Limerick. Tipperary.
Homicides ... ... 3 5 2
Firing at the person ... 9 5 6
k iring intodwelling houses 1 9 10
Robberies of arms ... 20 50 19
From which it would be seen, that in those three
counties the homcides had amounted to 10 out of
19 cases of the whole of Ireland ; firing at the
person 20 out of 32 ; firing into-dwelling-houtestO
out of 26 ; robberies of arms 89 out of 118. It ap-
peared that 42 per cent of the crime was committed
in the county of Limerick, with a proportion of only
4 per cent. with respect to the whole of Ireland. ,