The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-04 00:00:00

whole history of that country. I will not now occupy that
length of time which even a glance at some of the principal
topics would require, but I wish to keep in mind the main con-
sideration. The attachment and affection of the people of Ire-
land ought to be preserved, by your showing the utmost care—
that you are not disposed to neglect their interest—that you are
not disposed to punish crime in that country by a different mea-
sure from what you would punish it in England, and that you are
willing to take into your serious consideration the , many
grievances of the Irish people; and here, although I do not
wish to enter into a party discussion, I cannot but express my
regret at the course of the present Government. Even when
they had the best intentions, it had not been such as to inspire
inlreland confidence in your justice and respect to your policy.
The time when tranquillity prevailed had been allowed to go
by. When the present Government came into office, they
found contentment and tranquillity prevailing in Ireland, but
they waited until agitation arose—until complaints and remon-
strances were made to them, before they proposed to redress
some of the grievances which pressed upon that country. But
I hope, throwing aside the &sire to conciliate the Catholic
clergy on the one I and, or to terminate agitation on the other,
they will seriously consider what were the promises made
by this and the other houses of Parliament at the
time of the union adopted by Mr. Pitt, and acquiesced
in by both Houses of Parliament ; that they will look to and
see wherever these promises have been kept, and if they have
not been kept, fulfil them at once, not in the way of conces-
sions, but simply as the fulfilment of an act of justice.
Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT spoke a few words across the
table in explanation, which did not reach the gallery.
Mr. H. BRIDGEMAN contradicted the statement thatikad

been made with respect to a Mr. Wilson.
Mr. KELLY said he could not give a silent vote against a
measure which cast so much indignity upon his native land. '
Within the last few nights he had heard from Hon. Members
on the other side of the House ekpressiOns of sympathy and con-
dolence with the state of their native country, caused by the
diaeaee, he might say almost by the total decay, of that root
which constituted the food of the majority of his fellow-coun-
trymen. He had heard so many speeches from all sides
of the House, but more particularly from the Right
Honourable Baronet the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, and the Right Hon. Gentleman the First Lord
of the Treasury, advocating the necessity of giving employ-
ment to his suffering fellow-countrymen, that he had been in-
duced to put a question to himself, and to ask, can the charge
which he had so frequently heard, that these parties were im-
bued with a hostile spirit towards his country, be true ? Could
this be the House of Commons which he had se frequently
heard charged with a total inattention to Irish interests and
Irish measures? Could tl.is be that portion of the Imperial
Legislature which he• had heard was deaf to the cry of suffer-
ing humanity ? Surely, be said to himself, the individuals
who
made these charges must have been labouring under some mis-
take. But when the Right Hon. Gentleman. the Secretary
of State, introducecd this Bill, he found that he had not been
deceived by his informers. It would have been better had the
Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, aad the Right Honourahle Gentleman the First
Lord of the Treasury, dalayed expressing their sympathy
and condolence with Ireland till after the first read-
ing of this Bill, which insulted and branded this
country with the charge of being assassins and murderers.
He found that in exchange for the abundant supply of corn
and other agricultural produce which England received from
Ireland, the Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for
the Home Department. was about to give the people of his
native country muskets, carbines, and cartridges—(Hear,
hear)—and that he was also about to give them an armed
soldiery, a licentious and insolent police force.—(Hear, hear.)
Those were the means by which the Right lion. Baronet
was anxious to promote confidence between the two countries.
—( Hear, hear.) This measure was one of those by which
that Right lion. Gentleman expected to prop up that totter-
ing fabric the legislative Act of Union—( Hear, hear)—but
he would tell that Right Hon. Gentleman that he was very
much mistaken—( Hear, hear)—and that this measure would
only have the effect of destroying that ruinous fabric at a
more speedy rate.—`, Hear, hear.) He must say that he was
very much surprised that when this measure was first introduced
the whole of the English Members did not rise up in a body
and protest against it--( Hear, hear)—as being calculated to
militate against their sense of justice, and their notion of free
institutions.—(Herr, hear)—lie objected to this Bill, because
if it were carried into a law it would completely subvert and
destroy all constitutional law in Ireland.—( Hear, hear.) He
also objected to it because, in his opinion—and he was sure in
the opinion of every man who surrounded him—the Right Hon.
Baronet had not made out a sufficient case to authorise that
House to pass such an unconstitutional measure.—( Hear. )
He objected to it on the same ground that Hon. Gentlemen
would do to a similar Bill introduced by the Right
Hon. Baronet for the purpose of outlawing the people of
England.—(Hear, hear.) But he would not bring forward
such a measure for England on such grounds as he had adduced
on the introduction for this oppressive measure towards Ireland,
because the Hon. Members of that House would meet it with
one shout of execration —( Cheers)—and he knew very well
that the Irish Members would be amongst the first to join in
that shout.—(Cheers.) He objected to this measure because
it had not been sufficiently proved by the Right lion. Baronet
or his colleagues that the laws at present in force in Ireland,
if carried out with justice, were not sufficient to meet the
present emergency.—( Hear, hear.) He regr •tted that he
was obliged to admit some of the statements that had beerimade
as to the present state of crime in Ireland were something like
the truth, but the great majority of the statements had been
greatly exaggerated.--(Hear, hear.) What would the Right
Sion. Baronet or the House say of that law which permitted
the late dreadful tragedy at Mullingar ? An individual was
put upon his trial ; the jury on that trial disagreed
and what was the course pursued by the Government? Why,
that unfortunate individual, after having been once discharged,
was again put upon his trial for the same offence, under the
same commission.—( lkar, hear.) In empanuelling the jury
who tried that unfortunate individual, thus put upon his second
trial, the officers of the Crown challenged and struck off three
of the most respectable men in that district.—( Cheers.) One
of them, lie would fearlessly say, was the most respectable
man in that part of the country.—( Hear, hear.) And what
abjection had the officers of the Crown against, the three gen-
tlemen whom they had thus struck off the jury list ? Merely
this, that they were Members of the Roman Catholic religion.
—( Hear, hear.) Gracious God ! Were they living in the
nineteenth century, or in the bloody days of Elizabeth and
Mary ?—( Hear, hear.) Was the Right lion. Baronet and
his colleagues about to renew the dismal scenes of religious
tyranny and persecution ?—( Cheers.) If this Bill were passed
into a law, he would net be in the slightest degree surprised if
the Right Hon. Baronet and his colleagues were to have posted
on every jury box in Ireland such a placard as had been posted
on the gates of Bandon—" Turk, Jew, or Atheist may enter
here, but not a Papist."—( Hear, hear.) He objected to this
Bill, because there had not been sufficient proofs adduced by
the Right Hon. Baronet of the alleged crime iu Ireland to
justify such an unconstitutional measure. If proper commis-
sions had been instituted in the counties that were disturbed,
they would have been sufficient to suppress crime to a great
degree. To justify the Right Hon. Baronet in bringing for-
ward such a measure, he ought to have made out a stronger
case. He objected to this measure, because it had been
brought forward without any accompanying remedial mea-
sures.—( Hear, hear.) It would also give an arbitrary power
to the underlings of the Government. The Right lion.
' Baronet had come forward, and stated a long list of crimes and
outrages which had occurred in Ireland, but the conduct of the
Government on previous occasions had afforded an evil example
to the people of Ireland. The Government themselves had,
on a recent memorable occasion, themselves violated the law,

and how could they expect the people to be punctual in the
observance of them ? Yes, in spite of what had been
said by the Right Honourable Baronet in reference
to the Law Lords, every honest man must say that the Hon.
and Learned Member for Cork bad not had a fair trial.—
( Cheers.) Why did not the Right Hon. Baronet, instead of
bringing forward the present measure, restore to the commis •
sion of the peace those magistrates whom he had superseded,
merely because they made themselves conspicuous in the agita-
tion for the repeal of a certain Act of Parliament ?—(Hear,
hear.) The Irish Members should oppose the measure, be.
eause it would destroy even the little tranquillity that yet re-
mained in Ireland. Those Hon. Members who opposed this
measure were, of course, quite as anxious as the Right Hon.
Baronet could be to preserve the peace of Ireland.—( Hear,
hear.) Their affections, their families, their properties, and
their nearest and dearest ties were connected with the green

isle.—( Cheers.) And they, of course, could not for their own
interests' sake be the men to oppose any measure that might
have a tendency to further the peace and prosperity of their
native land._-.( Hear, hear.) Under all these circumstances he
would most cheerfully support the amendment of the Hon. and
Learned Member for Cork.—( Cheers. )
Mr. K. SEYMOUR challenged the Hon. Member who had
just sat down, to quote a county in England were murders were
committed in the noonday as they were in Ireland ; and if he
could do so, he (Mr. Seymour) would not have the slightest
objection to a 13111 being introduced for the better protection of
lite in England.—( Hear, hear.) Of 180 persons that had
been charged with the horrid crime of murder in Ireland
during the last year, only eight suffered the extreme penalty
of the law, which showed that there must be something wrong
in the carrying out of the law relating to murder in Ireland.
The great difficulties in Ireland are the large amount
of crime, and the indisposition of juries to convict. He
thought it might be as well to suspend the trial by jury in
the disturbed districts. The Hon. Member then referred to
the case of Bryan Seery, and commented upon the conduct
of a certain Roman Catholic clergyman, who had sent a letter
to one of the Irish rapers, to the effect that he was
innocent. He then proceeded to read an account
of the burial of Bryan Seery, which appeared
in the Freeman's Journal—a journal edited by Dr. Gray, and
headed the " !Hollinger Tragedy." He considered that the
Conduct of the repealers was a strange anomaly. Their society,
was called a " le3al" one—their hall, a " Conciliation Hall ;'
and it was in this hall that the orators of the loyal association
harangued the people into a state of discontent and hostility,
and then deputed an officer, called the " Head Pacificator," to
allay the disturbances. The Hon. Gentleman concluded by
expressing a hope that he had not been offensive to any gentle.
man in giving utterance to his opinions.
Mr. P. S. BUTLER said that he should occupy the atten-
tion of the House but a very few moments, whilst he would
lay before them a few observations which occurred to him
during the course of this debate, and he should endeavour to
adhere to the sound principles of common sense, which he
had ever found to have some influence with a British audience,
and he would say that any opposition which he would feel
himself called upon to give the present Bill, would not be
grounded on the fact that the proposed measure was opposed
to the first principles of the constitution, and was unfilisndly to
those principles of liberty to which they were all attached.—
( Hear, hear.) He had no hesitation in declaring that if it
was proposed to suspend the habeas corpus Act, and institute
domiciliary visits—that, if he considered such a violation
of the constitution likely to produce a diminution of
crime, such a proposition would have his cordial suirrt.
He would relate an anecdote to the House which would illus-
trate the treatment which the peasantry often received. There
was a Nobleman, whom it was not necessary to name, who had
a large property in the county cf Kilkenny. That property
fell out of lease, and the lease was dependent on a single life,
after which the property reverted to a nephew. The tenants
were comfortable and happy—occupying a station much higher
there, and being of a superior class to those whose case was
brought under the notice of the House by the Hon. Member
for Limerick. The tenants were resolved to go over
to London ko see their landlord, who was then residing
there, but an agent residing in the neighbourhbod
desired them to entrust their case with him. He
went over got the lease for himself came home and
turned out the tenantry. That gentleman was murdered
soon after as he was returning home one night.
Six men were found guilty, and were executed for that mur-
der. Now, what was the result of that grand display ? Within
three months of that occasion, the nephew of that person was
murdered within a quarter of a mile of the place of execntion.
He (Mr. B.) round that the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, in a speech very different in its tone
Gof v"ernment
was usually made by any member of the
the measure
with regard to Ireland, said thait
was brought forward with the best p
°s'ibe former measures—
Right Hon. Gentleman also al'uded tonsx e intentions. The
to the Maynooth grant, to the Arn; n to the Colleges Bill,
g these, he totally forgot
and other measures—but when detailing
forgot to mention what the '
the other side of the question.
Government had omitted to do. Ho forgot to mention that 74
magistrates had been dismissed
m cfrioennltt,lie commission of the peace,
em
and the most abl of te
the most popular, the ostuo
(Mr. Butler) himself was amonhg
magistracy of Ireland.
the number, and
he regretted this summary and unconsl-
tutional proceeding, for to the want of their efficient exertions,
and to the want of confidence in the administration of justice