The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-10 00:00:00

G, APRIL 10, 1848.

tution of its people; the necessity of cdoptipg means
for the employment of the people, to
.assist co!oni-
zition to limited extent; that the medical chari-
ties of the country might be placed upon
a different basis, and an adjustment of the clairni upon
the counties for the re-payment of the moneys ativanced
to Ireland during the lat.t two years; and also the ex-
pediency of making a State provision for the Catholic
clergy of

'MANUFACTURE OF PIRES(IRELAND).
Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL gave notice that he would
renew his question, upon Thursday next, upon the pike
affairs in Dublin.--(Laughter.)
HEALTH OF TOWNS BILL.
In reply to Mr. URQI.THART,
Lord MORPETH stated that he feared he would be
unable to bring in this Bill on Friday, in consequence
of the an an,_!ements that had been made for that day.
GOVERNMENT COERCION BILL.
Mr. Una presented a petition against this Bill.
MARINE MUTINY BILL.
This Bill was read a third time.
MUTINY BILL.
This Bill was also read a third time.

CROWN AND GOVERNMENT SECURITY BILL.
On the order of the day for the second reading of this
Bill being read,
Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN said he did not rise for the
purpose of entering at length into a discussion on the
details of the Bill, because he cared very little about
them, and because he saw in it a desire to
meet the claims of Ireland rather by coercion
than by concession. (Cries of " No, no.") It was
on account of that, and not of the technical for-
mation of the Bill, that he was there in his place
to oppose it. He could assure the House, in all
solemnity, that this attempt which they were making
to coerce the people would prove utterly futile
—it was an attempt to indict a whole nation, but it
would prove, as he had said, ineffectual.—(Cries
of " No, no.") Ho had a duty to perform,
and he should perform it. In 1843, before
he joined the Repeal Association, he felt it his duty to
make one last appeal to the House for what was then
termed justice to Irelaud—namely, a series of measures
which were calculated to give satisfaction to the
Irish people consistently, at the same time, with the
maintenance of the union between the two countries.
The House refused that appeal. They had now
an opportunity of meeting that demand by
granting a separate Legislature—Queen, Lords, and
Commons for:lreland. I am here to tell:you, said the Hon.
Gentleman with marked emphasis, that if you do not
concede the rights for which the people of Ireland ask,
you will have, in the course of the present year, a
republic established in Ireland.—(Great surprise and
cries of " Oh, oh," and "Order.") Unlike all the Govern-
ments of Europe, the liberal Government of England
meet the just demands of a country intimately connected
with this—by coercion and prosecution—(Cheers)
—and this, too, at a moment when;the Foreign Minister
was countenancing the efforts of every other people
to obtain their freedom. He asked for no other example
than that of Sicilly, which presented a parallel to Ireland.
Ani what had the Noble Lord said, but that Sicilly was
justified in what she had done? Charges had been
brought against him, and those with whom he acted in
his absence; he was there to answer them on their behalf
and on his own—on behalf of his companions in the
glorious struggle now going on.--(Roars of laughter.)
Ho was proud to say that their motives were disinter-
ested.—(Cheers.) Now, with respect to himself, he had
been called traitor.—(lmmense and continued cheering.)
He was not disloyal to the Queen, but be was disloyal
to that House; and if that was treason he was guilty of
the offence. As long as he lived it should
be his study to overthrow the dominion of
this House in Ireland. He unhesitatingly avowed that
to be his intention. (The Attorney-General here turned
towards Sir G. Grey and Lord John Russell, and
entered into animated conversation with them connected
apparently with the words of the Hon. Gentleman.)
With respect to himself he might undertake to say
that no man in Ireland bore a higher public cha-
racter than he did.—(Cheers and laughter.) Ile
did not deny that there were many entitled to
far greater respect, but he believed he was
justified in making the statement he had ; but since his
election for Limerick he had never any but sincere
votes. He challenged any man to state the con-
trary ; and now that he was to be arraigned as a
criminal, he declared to that House that he would
glory to receive the most ignominious death that could
be inflicted upon him rather than see his country sub-
jected to the treatment he had seen during the last thirty
years of his ilfe. He had not gone to France
to seek aid; but if he had wished, he believed he should
have come back with a tolerably large muster of troops.
—(Laughter.) He only wished they had been in
France when he was there.—(Laughter.) No, the
freedom of Ireland must be won by the courage of her
own sons—by Irish courage. It was not his intention to
place his country under the protection of foreign bayonets.
He went to France, at the request of a large body of his
countrymen, as their delegate, to congratulate the Pro-
visional Government upon the reeent overthrow of a
Throne which had long forfeited all claim to the respect
of the people. He went there for the purpose of offer-
ing the Provisional Government the congratulations
of the people of Ireland for having set an example
to Europe which the world had already seen
with what effect.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") He
had no hesitation in declaring that a great amount of
sympathy for the people of Ireland prevailed in France,
and it should be the business of those with whom ho was
about t ) act to encourage that sympathy to the utmost
degree, but that sympathy was not confined
to France, but it extended itself to every nation
and to every enlightened statesman and citizen in
Europe. Every enlightened man in the civilised world
looked upon Ireland as England looked upon Poland.
Every enlightened man in Europe looked upon the con-
dition of England, in reference to Ireland, as analogous
to that of Russia in reference to Poland.—(Hear, hear.)
Could the House wonder, then, that Ireland
excited so much sympathy in the minds of free and
enlightened individuals.—(Hear, hear.) He was happy
to think that a very large amount of aympathy was
evinced towards Ireland by the people of this country,
and he was not ashamed to declare, although he did not
agree with many of the views of the Honourable
Member for Nottingham, that it gave him great
satisfaction that the majority of the Chartist
body felt for the sufferings and were most anxious to
aid the cause of the people of Ireland.—(llear,
hear.) The Chartists, litre Ireland, felt that they
had been unjustly dealt with by the Parliament of
this country, and he was not at all surprised of their
availing themselves of a time when Government was
involved with Ireland to press their complaints upon
that House.—(Hear, hear.) But whether their sym-
pathy resulted from policy, or from their generous
feelings, he freely accepted it on the part of Ireland.—
(Hear, hear.) Now he owned—whether the senti-
ment be considered legal or not he did not know—that
he had been instrumental in asking his country to
arm.—(Sensation, and cries of " Order, order.") He
conceived that under present circumstances of all coun-
tries of Europe, it was the duty of every man to obtain
possession of arms.—(Oh, oh.) There was scarcely a
nation in Europe which did not make it part of its duty
to instruct its citizens in the practice of arms, and he con•
ceived it to be the peculiar duty of the people of Ireland
to obtain arms, when itwas openly announced by the
Government that they intended to crush them, not by
arguments, but with the aid of brute force.—(Laughter)
Let him remind the Hon. Gentleman of what
took place in 1782. It was no crime then for
them thus to arm for the protection of their own
liberty, and :why, llet him ask, should
they not be p -rmittcd to do so now ? Was ,it moreover
not necessary that they should be in possession of arms
to enable them to preserve order.—(Laughter.) The
intentions, however, of the people of Ireland were mis-
understood, and in order to convince the House of this
ho would just read the last resolution come to by
those with whom he acted.—(Hear, hear.) The
resolution was to the effect that the Narionrl Repeal
Association of Ireland denounced as gross calumny the
vituperation which lied been thrown upon them by the
Noble Lord at the Head of the Government as the
object of the association was only to procure a repara-
tion from the English Parliament and they
thereby declared that they were determined to
obtain their national independence if possible.
without civil war.—(Laughter.) A national council of
300 representatives was about to assemble in Dublin for
the purpose of carrying out the spirit of these resolu-
tions, and he would recommend the Noble Lord to put
himself in communication with that body as soon as possi-
ble. The Government relied upon what ? Why upon the
assistance of spies.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord
has been asked by the Honourable Member for Limerick
a question upon the subject of manufacturing spikes.
—(1-Tear.) Were the Government, he would ask, serious
in thinking that they could govern Ireland by a system
detective police.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble 'lord relied
upon packed juries in Ireland, because if he had a fair
one he could not get a verdict.—(A laugh.) The Noble
Lord little knew the spirit that was abroad in Ireland if
he thought he could put down the exertions of the Irish
people for their rights by sending men to prison for en-
deavouring to serve their country.—(Hear, hear.) Did
he not know that by the adoption of such a course he
would increase the number of converts to the cause of
the people, and against the Government. It was true
that if some means or other 280,000 persons had been
induced to place a sort of qualified reliance on the Go-
vernment, but such was tha state of things in Ireland at
the present moment, that the Government would be in a
great difficulty to save themselves even if their
bayonets.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) He believed
that the principal Nobles in Ireland who supported the
Government of the Noble Lord would not get a
single relation or friend of theirs to support
their views. If these matters were to be
settled by resort to the most extreme measures
which he trusted would never be the case. He felt no
no doubt that the Irish gentry, to a man,
would protect
themselves and their property, and rare little what
became of the Government.—(Cries of " Oh, oh.")
Could it be supposed that the Irish people
could have much affection for a Government
that was about to deprive them of their inheritance
and their means of subsistence.—(hear, hear.) The
Government relied upon the orangemen arid the police
force of Leland. Ile believed that- in doing so they
would find themselbes in the wrong, for it was his firm be-
lief that the greater portion of the orangemen in Ireland
were in favour of the Irish confederation.—Ccries
of "Oh, oh.") The Government next relied upon the
army—the army at the present moment in Ireland was
but an insignificant part of the whole popula-
tion of that countay, and under these circumstances
was it to be supposed, if they came to a struggle, that
30,000 men would or could offer much opposition to the
attempt of the Irish people for freedom. It was utterly
impossible for the cavalry to act in Ireland, and there
could be no just reliance placed on the military there.
Re believed tbey could not rely upon the army in Ire-

land.—(Oh, oh !) If there were to be a strw.,gle to-
morrow, he believed that the army would refuse to act
against the people in Ireland.—(Loud cries of " Oh,
oh '.") The object of my engagement, said the
Honourable Member, has been ths need not
say that I treat w ith the most utter di, lain the attempts
of the Government to put one down by their prevention.
—(Laughter.) My object has been this, to show that
if ever it is possible for these two great countries to come
into collision the result would be extremely uncertain
and could not he other;N ise than disastrous. It England
were to fail she would henceforth stand alone; and it
may not be unadvisable to consider what would be the
condition of England with an independent Republic ,
upon one side for independent Republic upon '
upon the other side of her. (" Hear," and laugh-
ter.) If England were to be victorious, they would make
a desolation, they would desolate the country which you
have for a long period made discontented, and you are
disgraced in the eyes of all mankind. Now, under
those circumstanees, I do implore the House, be-
fore it is too late—before those ominous
woord " too late," which have such porten-
tious meaninc, in other countries—has struck the
knell of English power in Ireland, I do beg of the Crown
to reflect and concede to the people of Ireland their
national rights, those rights which they are resolved to
possess, and which by every title human and divine they
are entitled to claim. I have spoke hitherto without
reserve, and as I did so at the beginning I shall not
fail to do so at the end (Laughter.) When the Noble
Lord tel:s me that I am a traitor to the Crown, I not
only repel the charge but retort it.—(Laughter.) I say
that if in the present position of Europe he attempts in
regard to his own fellow-countrymen of this country,
to crush all the efforts upon the part of the democracy
of this country, to obtain those rigk is which the demo-
cracies of other countries are obtaining—if with respect
to my country he refuses their demands for self-
government —if he plays towards this country
the part of Guizot or Metternich in their
respective countries, then I tell him that it is not
me and mine, but he and his colleagues, who are traitors
to the country. The Hon. Membr resumed his scut
amid marks of dissatisfaction from all parts of the House.
Sir G. GREY, who upon rising, was loudly cheered,
said, Sir, after the long absence of the Hon. Gentleman
from his place—(Cheers)—and now rising in his place
upon the moment that the second reading of the Bill is
now before the House, I certainly entertained some
hope, albeit a faint one, that he had risen to disavow
with indignation—(Cheers)—that indignation which all
loyal subjects of this realm must feel at the imputations
which have bi.:en upon his loyalty—(Cheers)—not only
in that House, but by every newspaper circulated
throughout this realm for some weeks past, and that he
would, with that fervid eloquence which characterises

his harangues elsewhere, if nut in this House.—
(Cheers and laughter)—to disavow those sentiments and
profess that, by virtue, ij of no better feelings, of that
oath of allegiance—(Tremendous cheering)— which the
Hon. Member has repeatedly taken—(Renewed cheer-
ing)—to the Sovereign of these realms, that
he cast off the imputations which have been so
frequently cast upon his name.—(Loud cheers.) What,
then, was my astonishment, nay, what were my feel-
ings of pain and regret—feelings shared, I will
venture to say, by every Honourable Member in
this house—(Tremendous cheering)—when, with
the miserable pretence of still pofessing loyalty
a fain) shadow of loyalty to his Sovereign, not without
that boldness and daring—(Loud cheers)—which has
characterized his speeches elsewhere, repeating the sen-
timents which he has elsewhere uttered, and charging
my Noble Friend in defending the constitution of the
country with charges similar to those made against
himself, viz., that of treason.—(llear, hear, and cheers.)
The Hun. Member said that in is absence he had been
called a traitor, perhaps the Hon. ;!ember will allow
me to say, that I am not in the least degree responsible
for the absence of the Hon. Member.—(Cheers.) The
cause of that absence no doubt the Honourable
Member is the best able to explain.—(Laughter.)
(LEFT SPEAKING.)