The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-29 00:00:00

nimous effort of the people, and a declaration, We have I
not justice, we are determined to obtain justice, and it is
now proved to us it is not to be had of the Parliament
of England.' I say, let the House beware of supplying
such an argument as that. If you wish to maintain the
union—if you wish to improve the union, to make the
union a source of happiness, a source of increased
rights, a source of blessing to Ireland es well as
England, a source of increased strength to the United
Empire, beware lest you in any way weaken the link
which connects the two countries. Do not set so far
apart the governor and the governed. Do not let the
people of Ireland believe that you have no sympathy
with their afflictions—no care for their wrongs; that
you are intent only upon other measures in which they
have no interest." He did not desire to give offence to
the Noble Lord by repeating these words. He thought
they contained noble sentiments, and he could not bring
himself to consider that the Noble Lord would not act
upon them. He trusted that he would efficiently act
upon them, and that he would not deprive his poor
countrymen of their last hope.—(Hear, hear.) He was
often asked what were the measures which he would
propose for Ireland, and he would not be under the re-
proach of refusing to enumerate them. One of the first
would be a Bill to give Ireland her due proportion of
Members.—(Hear.) Another would he to put her cor-
porations more upon a footing of equality with those of
England. He would propose a new registration Bill in order
to confer a proper and more extended franchise. Also a
Bill to alter the appropriation of Church revenues. A
grand jury Bill. A Bill to enable the tenant in entail
to make improvements, and to charge the inheritance
with them. A Bill for the improvement of waste lands.
—(Hear, hear.) A Bill for the taxation of absentees.—
(Hear, hear.) A Bill for promoting emigration within
reasonable limits, and a Bill for public works. These
were the measures which he desired for Ireland. The
consequences of their neglect of Ireland were fatal, they
constituted the landlords masters over the people. They
made the latter a slave class, and this
.broke down their
minds and bent their spirits. Industry was discouraged,
and a hatred of the English people was engendered in
the minds of the people of Ireland. You cannot treat
the people of Ireland thus, and centralize them. Hence
the cry for repeal, and that demand had taken another
turn, and had added the one for separation. He was
most anxious to maintain the connexion between
the two countries, and he was of opinion that could
he best obtained by a local Legislature, properly
constituted, legislating upon local affairs.—(Hear,
hear.) It appeared to him that there were only
two courses to be pursued. They must either remedy
the social grievances of Ireland by the adoption of re-
medial measures or they must be content to hold it by
military force. If they adopted the latter alternative,
it would require the presence of one-third part of the
whole army. They might hold the towns. But was
there not danger that instead of a civil commotion, it
would turn into a servile war?—(Hear, hear.) Before
the union Ireland maintained her own civil and military
establishment; but since it she had been a drain upon
England, instead of being to her a support. England
would be kept down by her connexion with Ireland to
the level of Ireland. She would be sinking in her
means and her respectability. He was then discharging
his duty as an English Member to his constituents when
ho advocated the cause of his countrymen. The late Act
which they bad passed was an absolute declaration of
war, and if Ireland was reconquered, she should be held
by the sword. He wished to abstain from saying anything
offensive, but he would ask this question Why
had not remedial measures been pressed forward? If he
was told that they had not time, he would answer in
reply. 'way had they time for measures of coercion ? If
the Noble Lord was not able to carry out his principles,
those principles which he had so often declared, why
then he should surrender his power into the hands of
those who were prepared to undertake to govern Ireland
by coercion. He ought not to take the responsibility
and the consequences of governing Ireland in a manner
which was repugnant and adverse to his principles. It'
the Noble Lord said that he was obstructed by a large
English majority, would not that be a decided argument
in favour or the repeal of the union ? The Noble Lord
advised the return of Irish gentlemen to Ireland. He
wanted to have a message of peace.—(Hear, hear.) He
wanted, before he left t hat House, to hear something
which would enable him to say to the people of Ireland
you have some hopes.—(Hear, hear.) If he could go
home to Ireland and carry that intelligence, he would
go borne with a light heart. Bat if he could not give
them this assurance, he would go home with sorrow.
No man repudiated more than he did the principles of
those who were now agitating in Ireland. Had the
moral power in Ireland been rightly exercised, ho be-
lieved a very different state of things would have been
the result. If the Irish Members of Parliament had
worked more together, they would have obtained some
more beneficial measures. He must say that the position
in which England placed the Irish landlords over the
people formed a very great excuse for their conduct.
They made them slave-masters, without :nuking them
interested in the welfare of the slave. He had brought
this great question before the House, and he trusted that
he had not used language calculated to aggravate or
annoy. He did not wish to do so.—(Hear, hear.) He
was grateful for the attention with which he was heard,
and he would conclude by moving—" That the present
distracted state of Ireland demands the instant attention
of Parliament, with a view to the speedy enactment of
such measures as may be necessary to improve the con-
dition, redress the grievances, and establish the just
rights of the Irish people, and thereby promote the good
order and prosperity of that portion of the United
Kingdom, and give increased security to her Majesty's
Crown and Government."
Lord JOHN RUSSELL Mr. Speakers Sir, the
Honourable Gentleman who has brought forward this
motion has done so in language so little tinged with
party feeling, so conciliatory, and so straightforward,
that I prefer following him immediately, instead of
waiting until the course of the debate may provoke
Warmer language, which no doubt the interest of the
tubject is likely to excite.—(Hear, hear.) I cannot say
that I agree with the Hon. Member in all the opinions
tvhich he has just put forward ; in some of those
opinions I do agree, and I am ready to state to the
House the views which I take of a great portion of the
subject which he has placed under our attention.—
(Hear, hear.) In considering the conduct of this Im-
perial Parliament—(Hear, hear)—which he has brought
before the House, it is not entirely just to say that
certain measures have been long delayed, that they
have been brought before the House many years
ago, and that the House has not finally legis-
lated upon them, and to impute that the House, there-
fore, showed an unwillingness to debate Irish subjects,
or to remedy Irish grievances—(Bear, hear)—whether
it be owing to the complicated form of our government—
whether it be owing to the length of debate which pre-
vails in Parliament and throughout the country—and
there is scarcely any measure of great public importance
whether it relates to the United Kingdom or any por-
tion of the United:Kingdom. which is not subject to very
considerable delay, which has not been rejected at one
time and triumphant at another, protracted at one period
and not carried until after long debate. There are
questions which entirely relate to this country, such as
Parliamentary reform, which took thirty years for the
discussion of. There is, again, the abolition of the slave-
trade, which took nearly thirty years in the discussion;
and thero are various other instances in which it is ob-
vious that from some of the causes which I have men-
tioned that which was a just and fair case for legislation
did not produce the effect of obtaining the measures
which were asked until after a long period of time.—
(Hear, hear.) Now it ought not to be said
when we are speaking of Irish matters, that the
delay in certain measures is owing to unwillingness
to discuss Irish grievances, or to any desire
to withhold that remedy which a portion, but only a
portion, of the Irish Members think a fit one to be ap-
plied.—(Hear, hear.) Sir, the Hon. Gentleman, like
others, has described the state in which Ireland at pre-
sent finds itself; but I must ask the attention of the
Hon. Member, and the House to a description of the
state of Ireland as it formerly existed—a description of
it, written in 1796 or 1797, by an adversary of the Go-
vernment of that day.—(The Noble Lord proceeded to
read an extract, to the effect that at the time in ques-
tion the Irish were worse fed, clothed, and lodged, than
were the subjects of the greatest despot in Europe, and
that they laboured under the worst practical govern-
ment in the world.) Now, Sir (continued the Noble
Lord), that at least shows that in the opinion of the
writer the misery of Ireland is not a creation of the
Imperial Parliament or of the British Government, and
that it is not merely since the union that the people of
Ireland are ill fed, ill clad, and ill lodged. Sir, the
heritage which the Imperial Parliament derived from
the Parliament before the union, was a people in the
unfortunate and miserable condition which I have de-
scribed.—(Hear, hear.) But it may be said that there
is one grievance at least which is caused entirely by
the existence of the Imperial Government. Why,
Sir, that is the grievance to which the writer whom I
have already quoted alludes, in the following sentence.
—(The Noble Lord proceeded to read another ex-
tract, to the following effect:—" Did the produce of the
• land of Ireland go to support. the people of Ireland?
No. Its beeves, its sheep, its dairy productions, its ma-
nufactures, indeed all its superfluities, or rather the
commodities which in any better social condition would
not be superfluities, all these were exported to pay the
rents of Irish landlords, who did not think the country
worthy of their residence, and was thus as much lost to
the people of Ireland as though they had been thrown
intothe sea.") The Noble Lord continued—So far,
then, it appears that these grievances are not grievances
of our generation; . that they are of long endurance—that
they are rooted deeply in Irish society, and all that the
Honourable Gentleman or any one else' can say of the
present generation is, that they oughtr to do as much as
they can patiently and resolutely ig:iply a remedy.—
(Hear, hear.) And let me say, t t
j,lea :thee blame may
be imputed to the Governments
of f '
former times, or of th arliaments
ineeLthat alter the
condition of the people ha become such as it
has been represented to be before the union—
thstt then the habits, the wishes, and the inclinations
of the people themselves tend to maintain and
foster that wretched state of society which I have to
de-
scribed.—(Hear, hear.) For instance, I consider that it
is one of the great mistortuntie of Ireland that the popu-
lation has gone on increasing without a proportionate in-
crease in the means of subsistence and employment.
Then, Sir, there is a habit much to be deplored—the
early marriages of the peasants of Ireland. Satisfied as
they are with miserable hovels and plots of potato
groundefurnishing a scanty and precarious subsistence
tur each.current year—without looking for any increase
of comfort, without thinking . of the postponement of
marriage until there be a sufficiency accumulated for the
sure and comfortable subsistence of a married couple.
Sir, I thinl c that such a state of society is of itself a mis-
fortune with which it is difficult, if not impossible, for
any Governinent to deal. lam not saying whence the