The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-01 00:00:00

trintin

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1846,

FAMINE RIOTS IN IRELAND.
PEASANTRY SHOT DEAD BY
THE MILITARY.
Unhappily the patience of the unfortunate Irish is
at length exhausted. We have now before us that
most appalling spectacle of national agony—a people
driven to desperation by the pangs of hunger, and
braving a violent death rather than endure the bitter
torments of a more lingering dissolution ! After
sustaining the direst woes of starvation with a most
noble fortitude, after pining in their hovels under an
accumulation of all human miseries, penury, inanition,
neglect, and despair, and after bearing these extreme
sufferings with a meekness and a tranquillity beyond
all praise, the labourers of Ireland have been tasked to
the uttermost limits of endurence, and have now risen
against their more affluent neighbours. Towards the
conclusion of last week a slight glimmer of the ap-
proaching insurrection was observable in the vicinity
of "Crookhaven, where a vast concourse of the
emaciated peasantry assembled together in the village
of Golen, to proclaim that their wretchedness was no
longer endurable. The sullen anguish depicted on
every one of those melancholy faces is described by
an eye-witness to have attested sufficiently the ex-
tremity of their distress. " A more appalling spec-
tacle could not be witnessed," writes one
correspondent. Want and despair were the
pervading characteristics of the multitude.
That dark prom iie of violence and in-
subordination has been fulfilled. At the very com-
mencement of this week, namely, on Monday morning,
the peasantry at Dungarvan assumed such a threaten-
ing aspect, and congregated together in such danger-
ous numbers, that the military were called out—
several shots were fired upon the mob—many of the
starving rioters were wounded, and on Tuesday two
of them died from their mutilation ! By the context
of this miserable intelligence from Waterford, we are
informed that brickbats and other missiles were hurled
at the dragoons ; and that notwithstanding the
recent discharge of musketry, a dwelling-house at
Cappa was assailed, and that knots of the insurgents
were scattered over the country intervening between
that locality and Cork. Reading these awful tidings,
and conscious that the evil is spreading momentarily,
both in extent and intensity, we can only turn with
greater submission and supplication to that OMNIPO-
TENCE, " at whose bidding," in the simple and affect-
ing language of the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, "the
earth bath withholden the wonted provision of food,
and turned abundance into scarcity." The rage of
famine has now goaded on the wretched peasantry of
Ireland to an outbreak, characterised by so much vio-
lence, that it cannot fail to increase their own suffer-
ngs tenfold. Seeing this, we would hereby conjure
he Government, in Gov's name, to stir themselves
betimes, or the consequences will be more calamitous
than the most morbid imagination would dare to COll
jecture !

If we remember how many and how grievous have
been the afflictions of the Irish population, if we
consider within ourselves the awful details of that
national privation the dreadful whole of which has
alone reached the public observation, we shall be
compelled to confess to ourselves that we cannot re-
gard this deathful disturbance at Dungarvan with
anything like sentiments of indignation. Sorrow
and commiseration are the only feelings aroused by
a spectacle which might otherwise be only charac-
terised by the attributes of brutality and lawlessness.
%Vhat is this insurrection but the struggle for self-
preservation ? What is it but the outgushing of
the domestic affections—of that awful and enduring
love which is stronger than death ? The peasant has
experienced the pangs of inanition himself, yet he has
valour enough to continue peaceable and uncom-
plaining. His household is one nest of misery and
destitution—his potato-field is a waste of corruption,
poisoning the very atmosphere he inhales—his swine
are sold to satisfy immediate cravings—his future is
all poverty—his present existence is one of intense
desolation ;—still he submits with an admirable forti-
tude, and remains silent and impassive while his very
heart-strings are breaking with grief. When, however,
he sees his children and his wife grown haggard with
the duration of their penury, and finds no probability
of allaying their sufferings by remaining inactive
and " biding his time," his mind is impervious to
reason, his heart is hardened against justice, and his
arm is nerved by the potency of despair. Factors are
hoarding up wheat and barley in their cellars, with
the diabolical hope of extorting famine prices in the
market—farmers and cattle dealers have their stalls
filled with oxen—pigs and poultry are not unplentiful
in certain localities, otherwise visited by the scarcity
—the provision stores are plentifully furnished-_a
resolute heart and a strong hand are alone necessary to
feed the starving creatures at home, and the peasantry
rush out together into the streets and byeways to
seize by violence what they cannot in any other
manner obtain. While endeavouring to save them.
selves and those endeared to them by nature and as.
sociation they are repulsed by the soldiery and sho
like malefactors.

We are ready to acknowledge that nothing but
some strenuous interposition from the armed servants
of the law can ever save a population under such cir-
cumstances from incalculable miseries. The calling
out of the dragoons is one of those vigorous but
deadly remedies which can alone preserve the com-
munity from still greater wretchedness. It is losing
a limb to retain life ; endangering an unit to
save a million. Nevertheless, the very conscious-
ness of the necessity of resorting to such a mortal
remedy is only an additional inducement to eradicate
the causes which have led to its requirement. Let
the Legislature proceed upon its measures of allevia-
tion with the utmost alacrity, for, morally, Ireland is
on the verge of a precipice.

A subject so important as a contested election for
the civic chair of the greatest city in the world can-
not be permitted to pass without comment from the
press. The circumstances of the case are peculiar.
They are also so well known that we need but glance
at them here.

For several years Alderman THOMAS WooD
has been declared by the Livery of London to be the
man whom they would delight to honour. Being
senior Alderman, the custom of the city of London
would entitle him to the civic chair. But as has been
shown, by the non-election of Alderman WOOD,
during the five years his name has been at the head
of those who have not passed the chair, the Livery
have only a nominal power in the choice of their
chief magistrate. The custom of the Corporation
is that the names of two aldermen shall be returned
by the Livery to the Court of Aldermen, and the
practice of that Court, as shown by their re-
jection of the most popular man, has been
to set aside the decision of the Livery,
and return, as Lord Mayor, the second person—how-
ever unpopular with the Livery. Thus, year after
year, have the Court of Aldermen put their veto on
the popular choice. Thus have they made the elec-

tion by show of hands a mere nullity. Thus—we say.
..q) with considekation and deep regret—have they de-
prived a worthy man and an excellent magistrate of a
distinction to which he is most fully entitled. 'Thus have
they been the means of preventing the city of Lon-
non from the presidency of a gentleman in every re-
,pect qualified to sustain its privileges and administer
justice in the best manner.

Two years ago we expressed ourselves warmly
upon this subject. The opinions we then expressed
we still entertain. Indeed, the silent track of time
has brought round many corroborations. The impu-
tations to which Alderman IVooD has been subjected
have gradually passed away before the sun of Truth,

even as the snow-ball melts before the noon-tide
beams.

Nothing is easier than to
" Accumulate the slander, heap the lie,
And raise the pyramid of calumny "
against a public man ; nothing more difficult than
for even the most virtuous character to vindicate
himself against such attacks. One by one, however,
the imputations against Alderman WOOD have " va-
nished into thin air." Some have been abandoned as
utterly untenable, from their evident improbability—
some have been dismissed, on proof of their untruth—
and the decision of the supreme court of law in
Ireland, pronounced by Chief Justice PENNEFATHER,
has recently placed all the rest hors de combat.
The charges against Alderman WOOD have sub-
sided into a residuum nearly as fine as the thin muslin
which the Parisian modestes poetically called "woven
air." All that is now said against him amounts to
this (and to no more), that some years ago
he was connected with a joint-stock company for
procuring coals in Wales, and that ,by that connexion
he lost money—an indication that he was "rather
sinned against than sinning." Had he gained money
it is doubtful if any complaint would have been made.
Two years ago (long before the additional proof had
been supplied by the important judicial decision in
Ireland, to which we have referred,) it was agreed,
on the motion of Mr. ANDERTON, then Under-
Sheriff, that the charges against the alderman in
connexion with the company in question were
"groundless and unfounded," and that they had been
"most fully and satisfactorily refuted." At that
time Mr. ANDERTON said, in his usual fearless
manner, that "there was not a single advertisement
for a bubble company in which they would not find
an alderman's name." Since then how many aldermen
have been connected with railway and other public
" bubbles," and to what extent ? Yet, Alderman WOOD
is condemned, maligned, and persecuted, because he
had connexion with a single public company, and
that one not of the " bubble species," for we believe it
is a paying concern in the hands of the present
owners. This is the mote and the beam with a
vengeance!

Had Alderman Woo been a wealthy man, we dare
say he would have been in the civic chair years ago.
But it is considered unlikely that he will trench upon
his private resources, derived from his professional
exertions, in order to spend more in the Mansion-
house than the very liberal sum allowed by the City.
Already, during the eleven years he has discharged
the high and responsible duties of magistrate, he has
given to the public a great portion of his time, besides
affording his colleagues on the bench the advantage
of his excellent judgment and his matured experience.
If none but millionaires are to enjoy the highest civic
honours, there will be an end, at once and for ever, to
the honourable ambition of the men best qualified to
serve the public.

Is it to punish Alderman WOOD'S want of wealth
that, on the present occasion, a poll was demanded in
Guildhall? This involves an expensive and trouble-
some contest, which must continue for eight days.
The appeal to the Livery, however, is being honour-
ably responded to. There is every chance that the
majority obtained by Alderman WOOD will continue
and increase, so as to show, once more, unequivocally,
that the popular feeling is in his favour.
It is understood, that if the election terminate in
the return of Alderman WOOD, the Court of Alder-
men, respecting the wishes of the Livery, will also
select the worthy Alderman to fill the high office of
Lord Mayor of London during the ensuing year.

It is the privilege of the State at any time to re-
quire any of its subjects to come forward, and fully
and explicitly to declare, under the obligation of an
oath, all they may know respecting any matter that
may be submitted to investigation, in which the State
itself, or any of its citizens are interested. Every
private individual has a similar right to demand the
benefit of the testimony of his fellow-subjects, no
matter what inconvenience that other may be sub-
jected to by the loss of time he may sustain in attend-
ing on, and waiting for, his examination before the
competent tribunal. In return therefor it is the first
duty of the nation to afford full protection to the
persons thus called upon to see that he shall sustain
no unnecessary damage or injury for the evidence be
has thus given, if he has answered truly the several
questions demanded of him ; and if he has not done
so, there is a specific punishment decreed by the law
of the land for any wilful violation of truth. It is
perfectly manifest that any other description of
punishment than that thus recognized and sanctioned
by the authorities is in the highest degree objection-
able and unconstitutional, and more especially so
when the witness has not been brought to any public
trial, or been convicted by the judgment of his peers,
or of any other body within the jurisdiction of which
he may, by reason of his peculiar position in society,
be placed. Great expenses have from time to time been
incurred in affording that protection to crown wit-
nesses, when, in consequence of any disturbance in
the country, they may be supposed liable to any
peculiar danger on account of the testimony they have
given. In Ireland particularly we find that the ex-
penses of the emigration of such witnesses, or of
their removal to other localities, and the placing them
in at least as good a position as that they had pre-
viously occupied, has constantly been defrayed by tl e
country. If such steps are taken (and most properly)
to defend the -witnesses from illegal violence, it is
doubly incumbent on the Executive to guard in the
most effectual manner against any advantage of
authority, derived from itself, being made use of to
crush, injure, or deteriorate the condition, or make
more uncomfortable the position, of any person of
inferior rank in its service on account of the evidence
he has given, to prevent the superior from ex-
ercising his power in a harsh, oppressive, or tyrannical
manner.

On Monday our columns contained a statement of
a district court-martial having been ordered upon
private THOMAS MATTMEWSON, of the 7th Hussars,
for alleged insubordination to Sergeant-Major ROBERT
O'DONNELL, his superior officer, while on duty at
Hampton Court on Sunday, the 20th September.
This court-martial was held on Tuesday, the 29th
ult., and, although its result is not as yet publicly
known, the finding and sentence (in case of convic-
tion) having to be submitted to the Commander-in-
Chief for his approval and confirmation before it is
promulgated, sufficient appears on the evidence offered
in support of the charge to make it manifest that the
'unfortunate young man has been subjected to petty
persecutions and annoyances sufficient to worry and
tease an ardent, perhaps an impatient, spirit into the
commission of an offence that would bring him within
the letter of the law, and subject him to severe punish-
ment. Even before the termination of the inquest sitting
on the body of poor WHITE, the victim of military
severity, of the atrocious and abominable system of
corporal punishment, complaints were made of wit-
nesses who had been examined during the course of
the investigation having been reprimanded for the
evidence they had conscientiously given. One of the
persons so treated was COOK, a private in the regi-
ment, who deposed on oath before the Coroner--
" That while on parade, the Colonel (Whyte) had
ordered him to stop, and called him before the ranks;
that in the presence of his comrades he told him that
what he had stated in his evidence was not the fact, in
which he was immediately corroborated by his obsequious
Adjutant, and that on his (Cook) stating the grounds on
which he had made the statement, viz., that the Ist
Dragoon Guards flogged by trumpeters, and that he had
heard that other regiments did the same, the Colonel
said that such was not the case, and that he (Cook) had
been as near committing perjury as damage, and,
afterwards, that he could plainly see that Cook had
endeavoured to throw misconception over the whole
affair."

Such a course at that time, pending the inquiry, and
in the presence of other persons, who might possibly
still be examined, we consider, a most improper and
unjustifiable proceeding, calculated to impede the
administration of justice, and to prevent the men from
freely discharging the duty they might be called on to
Perform, from giving their unbi2ssed and disinterested
vidence. The unfortunate man MATT lIEWSON was also
honoured by an interview with his commanding
officer. It appeared that he was privately called into
the august preser.ce, and spoken to respecting his
evidence. What took place on that occasion we shall
not refer to, as a distinct and unequivocal contradic-
tion took place between Colonel WHYTE and MAT-
TIIEWSON as to what had occurred ; we shall merely
say that MATTIIEWSON'S statement was made under
the sanction of an oath, while the Colonel's was a mere
simple, uncorroborated assertion. We shall not, how-
ever, nor do we intend to impeach his veracity. It is