The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-24 00:00:00

alteration would take place in the penal enactments against such
persons as might be discovered out of doors after sunset.
Lord FA RN HAM trusted their Lordships would allow
him to speak on this subject, connected as he was
with one of the most disturbed districts. If he
had been asked some fourteen months ago which was the
quietest and best conducted county in Ireland, he would with
pride have referred to his own county of Cavan, but he was
now sorry to say that since that time matters were widely
different. At the commencement of the last year the outrages in
the county of Cavan were principally marked by threatening no-
tices served on the smaller farmers, or the persons in the
next class. This was followed up by attacks on the houses of
the lower orders, robbing them of tire-arms, and other out-
rages of that description, until at last they were terminated
the
by murd-r. Large bodies of men paraded the country with
fire-arms, swords, pistols, large pitchforks, and wattles. The
lightunder
of e,a
day
ant
through
ohui
gs
h t friend,he t 0 Mr.wnof Cava
Hamblin,
made to murder him. Na attempt was made •by those present
to raise the hue and cry, and he, although then not resident
abnl, ;h‘evn u
the walking in
attempt
was
in the country, felt it his duty to return home in order to
assist in suppressing the disturbances which existed.
He hoped that their Lordships would give their support to
this measure, which was calculated to give some sort of secu-
rity to those who still remained in the country. Immediately
on his arrival in the county of Cavan, the first intelligence that
was communicated to him was, that as Mr. Bell Booth was re-
turning from church the previous Sunday with his two sons, he
was brutally murdered. There were a number of persons pre-
sent, he believed, at the murder; at all events, they
were close at hand when the murder was committed.
No individual attempted to arrest the murderer, who
did not fly from the spot, but walked deliberately away.
The murderer of that gentleman had never been dis-
covered. Ile (Lord Farnham) arrived in Cavan the
day after the funeral of that honoured gentleman.
The cause of Mr. Bell Booth's death had never
been ascertained. Mr. Booth was a gentleman of small pro-
perty, and he farmed the whole of it himself. He was
a very humane man. There was no party spirit involved
in the cause of his death.—(Hear, hear.) He had assisted
him (Lord Farnham) most strenuously in recommending
the dissolution of the Orange Society in 1836, and on every oc-
casion when he recommended the discontinuance of party
processions he gave him most cordial support. Ile
(Lord Farnham) made those recommendations because
he conceived that they only tended to separate man
from man; and keep-up --that-religious animosity which was
stirred up on every such occasion. 'the funeral
of Mr. Bell Booth took place about twelve miles
from the place where he was murdered, and was
attended by thousands of armed persons, who came
from different parishes in the county. The town of Killishan-
dra was for 36 hours in the possession of armed
assassins. The local constabulary force was considerably
increased, because those anniversary processions which Orange.
men were accustomed to hold on the first of July,
were about to happen in eight days afterwards.
Forty magistrates were assembled in the town of Cavan, col-
lected from various parts of the country, and their recom-
mendation was, that none of the lodges should walk in proces-
sion. It would be satisfactory to tell their Lordships that all
the lodges obeyed the recommendation with the exception of
two. the Noble Marquis had truly stated that this
was a Bill to protect the poor. He knew himself
there were many landed proprietors in Cavan who
felt that property had its ditties as well as its rights, and there •
fore whose tenants were comparatively well attended to. But
the difference between the rich man and the poor farmer was,
that the rich man, however great the inconvenience to himself
could leave the country, but such was not the case with the
poor man. 'the farmers of Cavan were principally poor people,
occupying small portions of land. Twenty acres was consi-
dered a large farm. In order to be able to go elsewhere in case of
these outrages, they would be obliged to sell their furniture,
but in that case who would dare to purchase it ? The life of
the person would not be safe who made such a purchase. It
was his (Lord Farnham's) opinion that all the mischief arose
from the ribban societies, the object of which were not con-
fined to disputes about land, but which extended
to the carrying out of personal revenge and
everything of an annoying and criminal character
Those of their Lordships connected with Ireland well
knew the nature of ribbon societies, but perhaps many of their
Lordships did not know what their constitution was. In that
case he could not do better, in conveying a knowlege of what
this constitution was, than by reading an extract from the
speech of a Noble Friend who had great weight with
their Lordships—he meant Lord Plunkett. Lord
Plunkett, in a charge to a jury in a case involv-
ing the ribbon societies, stated that no person of consideration
or wealth belonged to these societies, but that they were com-
posed of the humbler classes—men, ignorant and uneducated,
yet nevertheless prepared to do any act to forward their own
interests, and to carry out any measure on the attainment of
which they had set their minds. (The Noble Lord here read
an extract from the speech, to this effect :—" And further that
the constitution of the ribbon societies was such that its mem-
bers would stop at nothing, however revolting in its nature, in
order to realise the objects for which they were associated.)
In conclusion, he begged to state that he should support the
measure, because he thought it was calculated to give pro-
tection to life and security to property in Ireland.—(Hear.)
'I he Marquis of CLAN RICARD E declared that he should
vote for the measure, although he differed with some
of its details. He had addressed their Lordships on
this matter, and the observations be addressed to their
Lordships had been made the subject of some very
severe remarks, and because, forsooth, he had ven-
tured to call upon the Government to protect life
and property in Ireland. He denied that there
Ins a ion between this measure and the larger and
mones which bore upon the future prosperity,
and while e regretted that any observations of his should
haie given offence to any one, he could not but support a
measure which the Government declared was absolutely neces-
sary for strengthening and maintaining the law in Ireland.
It had been said that the Irish people required equal rights,
the extension of the franchise, and religious equality, and he
might be of opinion that they ought to concede these things, but
he was at a loss to understand the necessity of introducing them
into the question before their Lordships. Nothing could be
more absurd than this species of reasoning. According to it an
Irish farmer might say, " I have not that franchise to which I
am entitled," and they might say, " We know it, and we shall
take care that you are worse off than you are at the present
moment." To which it was possible he would reply, " But
protect my property and my life;" to which they would reply,
" Because you have not the franchise, we shall leave your pro-
perty exposed and your life in danger." In his opinion some
law like that proposed by the Noble Earl was necessary in order
to afford the people of Ireland the enjoyment of those civil rights
to which they were entitled by the constitutional
Government under which they laboured. But there
were parts of the Bill to which he could not
agree. fie decidedly objected to that portion of it which
set forth that it should be permanent. In introducing it, the
Noble Earl stated, that at an early period he expected the
Government would be enabled, on account of the improved
state of Ireland, to propose its repeal.—(Hear, hear.)
But, in his opinion, it should only be passed for
a limited period, for he should despair if he thought
it was necessary always to continue such an Act,
in which the power given was undoubtedly of an arbitrary
nature, and he was against giving such a power for an inde-
finite period. Its continuance should be fixed by a clause,
and when that period expired the Legislature might ex-
tend it for a further period, if the state of the country rendered
it necessary. There was another part of the Bill to
which he objected. He agreed with those Noble Lords who
had spoken on that side of the House, that punishment
ought not to be inflicted on those who were indirectly and not
directly concerned in the commission of murder, by imposing a
tax on them and the districts in which they resided, in order
to reimburse the wives, children, and other relations
of the murdered man._( Hear.) He admitted that
this tax should be imposed on affected districts ; but they
ought to be careful of committing an injustice by not making
a proper distinction between persons convicted and not con-
victed ; for a lunatic might take away life—he might commit se-
veral murders, or other crimes of less magnitude, for which he
would be immediately convicted; but it would be extremely hard,
where no combinations, and no crimes like those pointed at in the
Bill existed, that the Lord Lieutenant should order a
pension, in the shape of compensation, to the rela-
tions of the person deprived of life.—( Hear, hear.)
He considered that if the inhabitants rose up and arrested the
man who committed a crime, they ought not to be punished
by the infliction of penalties for such crimes. It was worthy
of their Lordships' observation,that in courts of justice it had been
proved that many of those crimes were committed by strangers
from other counties, and he (Lord Clanricarde) thought
that where it could be proved that the perpetrators of crime
were brought to justice no penalty ought to be imposed.
There was another point also, which was, that he thought that
L the power of transportation for life should not be given by the
Bill, without the signature of the Lord Lieutenant being
previously obtained. With respect to the change
of venue, he thought it was very often a disad-
-1 vantage for a man to be tried in another county.
If a man was a bad character, and was convicted, he thought
it important that that conviction should takeplace in the county
where the act was committed. There ought to be, also,
a reference to the gentlemen of the county to take the
circumstances into consideration. But these were mat-

ters of detail. He rose to say he was more and more
confirmed that such a measure was necessary; from what
he had heard, the Government were tardy in doing their
duty, but he would give them his cordial support.
The Earl of WICKLOW said he was not in the least
disposed to give any opposition to the Bill, because
he thought it an exceedingly useful measure. With
respect to the observations of his Noble Friend re-
specting the permanency of the Bill, he (the Earl
of Wicklow) begged leave to observe that, as the Par-
liament met every year, it was in the power of the Govern-
ment, or any individual Member, to move the repeal of the
measure whenever desirable. He would take that opportu-
nity of giving his opinion that there are two great
objects to be attained for the prevention of crime in
that country, and it appeared to him that the Bill
was well framed for the purpose. There was another for the
purpose of bringing •to justice the perpetrators of crime.
His Noble and Learned Friend alluded to that subject. He (Lord
Clatsricarde) considered that it was quite as necessary to secure
the detection and conviction of criminals as it was to prevent the
commission of crime. Their Lordships saw the result of this in the
details which had been read to them, from which it ap-
peared
forward, that it was impossible to find witnesses to
come or jurors to convict. In other coercion
Bills which had been enacted, and in the last one,
brought in by Lord Grey, there was a provision to
secure the conviction of criminals. He did trust, therefore,
that the Government would introduce clauses to this effect into
the present Bill, or would bring in a Bill specially on the sub-
ject. He would not at this stage of the proceedings make any
objection to the Bill, but would content himself at present with
these few observations.
Lord
woulde that The Earl of CLANCARTY did not wish the discussion to
be brought to a close without making a few observations
on two of the provisions of the Act. In the first clause
of the Act it was
stated, t
have d, h
the at
power when
of
sendingmurder
do
or% s
na
ann ad-
ditional -
tempt to murder was committed in any district, the
Lieutenant
number of constables and magistrates to that locality.
He did not think that this was the most effectual mode of
meeting the case, for local knowledge was an object of greater
consequence than numbers of policemen and magistrates.
This, unless the stipendiary magistrates were to be a perpetual
burden to the country (which God forbid), the Noble Lord
considered could not be obtained by them. The local magis-
trates would feel a greater interest in the preservation of the
peace of that district. They would, and could, give more as-
sistance In such cases as these, and it would be more likely
to further the ends of justice. The police giagistr4te
had not the same local knowledge, nor does be feel the same
• interest in the well beinii of the district. If the police courts
of Ireland were placed is more immediate relation with the