The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-24 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

ROUSE O. LORDS, July 22.

The House sat this afternoon, shortly after Four
o'clock, for the purpose of giving the Royal Assent to
the following 70 public and private Bills:
Consolidated Fund.
Poor Removal.
Commons Inclosure.
Game Certificate for Killing Hares.
Certificate for Killing Hares (Scotland).
Imprisonment for Debt (Ireland).
County Cess (Ireland)
Appeal in Civil Cases (Dublin).
Truro Turnpike Roads.
Dundee and Perth Railway (Dundee Junction).
Drumpeller Railway.
Arbroath and Forfar Railway (Additional Capital).
York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway (Deviation, and
Abandonment of part of the Thirsk and Mahon Branch).
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Branch from Melmerby to
Nortballerton, and Junction with the York and New-
castle Railway).
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Alteration of Level of Leeds
and Hartlepool Railway on Eaglescliffe, Stockton,

and Preston).
Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway.
Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway (In-
crease of Capital—No. 1).
Whitehaven Junction Railway.
Waterford and Kilkenny Railway Act Amendment.
East Lincolnshire Railway.
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Junc-
tion with the Midland: Railway, via Barnsley, and
Branches therefrom).
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Station
Approach at Manchester).
South Yorkshire, Doncaster, and Goole Railway Amend-
ment (Extension to Pennistone and Alteration of Dod-
worth Branch).
North Staffordshire Railway (Deviation at Wellington).
Aberdeen Railway (Additional Capital).
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Harrogate and Pateley
Branch).
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Cross-
ing of Sheffield-street in Manchester).
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (No. I—Amendment
of Acts and Branches).
Leeds Central Railway Station.
Scottish Midland Junction Railway (Amendment and

Branches to Birnam).
Caledonian Railway (Branches connecting the Clydes•
dale Junction and Wishaw and Coltness Railway).

Great Western Railway (Extension of the Berks' and
Hants Railway from Hungerford to Westbury, with

Branch to Devizes.)
Windsor and Staines and South-Western Railway Act
(No. 1, 1847—Deviations).
MiCand Great Western Railway of Ireland-(Devia-
tions on the Line from Mullingar to Athlone).
Bristol and Exeter Railway (Branch from Bleadon to
Wilts, Glastonbury, and Street).
Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock Railway (Amendment

and Branches).
Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway (Relinquishment
of Line between Omagh and Enniskillen).
Whitehaven Junction Railway (Extension, Alteration,
and Branches).
York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway (Great North
of England, Clarence, and Hartlepool Junction).
Bristol and Exeter Railway (Taunton and Castle Cary

Branch).
North Staffordshire Railway (Ashbourne Branch).
Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (Ref

sion of Maximum of Tolls).
Exeter, Yeovil, and Dorchester Railway, and Branches.
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (Ashton

Canal Purchase).
Salisbury and Yeovil Railway, Midland Railway
(Branch to Ripley).
London and South-Western Railway Company, and
Southampton and Dorchester Railway Company
Amalgamation.
Lo-don and Blackwall Railway (Improvements and
Bra.lches to the St. Katherine and London Docks).
Chester and Holyhead Railway (Power to Purchase).
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway.
Humber Ferries Improvement at Hull and New Holland.
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Sta-
tion at Sheffield and Branches to Sheffield Canal).
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Shef-
field Canal Purchase).
Plymouth Great Western Dock Act Amendment.
Mersey Navigation (Amendment of Acts).
Dover Harbour.
Bnrntisland Harbour Improvement.
Hemsdale, Little Ferry, and Leek Roble Harbour.
Chester Cemetery.
Manchester Water Works Amendment.
Leeds Improvement Act Amendment.
Patent Galvanized Iron Company.
Middle Level Drainage Act Amendment.
Lowe's Patent.
Scottish Provident Institution.
Dublin and Mullingar Turnpike Road.
Tadcastgr and Halton Deal Road.
Philanthropic Society Charity Estate.
Esdaile Orphan Working School Charity.
Rawlin's Estate and Herrick's Estate.
The Lords Commissioners were the Earl of Shaftes-
bury, Lord Campbell, and Earl Granville.

the conclusion of the Commission several Bills
were brought from the Commons, the Bills on the table
were forwarded a stage, and the House adjourned
shortly before five o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, July 22.
STATE OF IRELAND.
(Continued frost our Afternoon Edition of Saturday.)
Lord J RUSSELL—The confederate clubs have
been making great progress in forming; they are in
fact secret, and no person is admitted who is not a
member of these clubs. The general object which has
been held out to them is that they are to overturn the
Government—that they are to procure arms for that
purpose—that nothing is wanting but the day and the
hour to be fixed by their leaders in order to carry into
effect that fatal and dreadful revolution.—(Hear, hear.)
In the beginning of a letter which I have received from
the Lord-Lieutenant to-day, he says,"he has nothing satis -
factory to say; the accounts from the country are as
bad as they can be, short of open rebellion; everybody
concurs in saying that an immense change has
taken place within the last few weeks in the
opinions of the Irish people upon the subject
of repeal." What was not formidable two months ago
has now become formidable, and I agree with the gentle-
man whom letter I have read, that we may put down
these people in the end, but before that could be effected
much life and property would be sacrificed, and we
shall have cause to reproach ourselves if we take not
some measures in order, if possible, to prevent an outbreak
from taking place, and preventing the leaders from taking
means for the purpose of opposing the authorities. Sir,
I come now to the measure which I think it my duty to
propose in order to meet this state of things. The Lord-
lieutenant of Ireland, in concert with the Lord Chan-
cellor, has pointed out the dangerous character of the
clubs, and we may think it necessary to introduce a measure
for the purpose of meeting the organization of these
clubs, but it is to be remembered that the organization is
directed, and the whole proceedings carried on by per-
sons who are well acquainted with the law, and if a new
law were passed, they would not be found unsuccessful
in their endeavours to evade its provisions. At
all events, they have shown themselves to be skilful
hands in evading the provisions of the present law,
and again, I repeat, it may be necessary to introduce
another measure besides this one.—(Loud cries of
" Hear, hear.") I have received to-day a further letter
from the Lord Chancellor of Ireland with respect to the
mode in which the law has been hitherto evaded, but
with respect to the clubs there is no doubt, he
says, that they are in themselves unlawful. Clubs
established for the purpose of procuring arms,
and raising resistance against the Crown and
against the law, are clearly illegal.—(Hear, hear.) But
when the law officers of the Crown came to advise the
Government!as to the means of putting down these clubs,
it was found that although their general object, as the pub-
lic well knew, although it is well known to every Member
of this House, and to all people who read the news-
papers in this realm, yet the means of procuring evi-
dence as to what passed in their clubs, in con-
sequence
of the secret nature of their deliberations,
as to enable the Government with
are not such
any facility to put down those clubs. I say with
any facility, because, though a measure might be adapted
oe
towards that end, yet we should soon find that by some
means the law would be evaded—some new form
proceeding would be adopted,
wilic; the , though tora pn
it
legally
would
of
violate the law, would not la
to punishment, and these clubs would continue in greater
force and in as powerful a state of organisation as ever.
With respect to marching
d
they who have read the accounts drilling clubs, I think
of what recently
hap-
pened at Cork and elsewhere, must be of opinion that
the law was evaded, and that it could not be made ap-
plicable, owing to the policy the parties adopted, to the
punishment of such marching and drilling. But with
respect to that, again, there is this difficultymrnand:
everything tike a military word of command,:
and all that is mentioned by the law as constituting
an
offence, is carefully avoided. In order to obtain their ob
ject these conspirators have acted in a way which would.
not render them amenable to the law ; but Sir, I think,
after what I have stated, and after that information which
the House has heard—the open notoriety of the fact—
there can be no doubt that there is an association in Ire-
land which intends to subvert the authority of the law,
and of the Crown of this country, and which
means .to effect its object by force of arms.—
(Loud cheers.) If such is the case, then I know no
remedy so straightforward, so direct in its object, so
clear in its purpose, as that of securing the persons of
those who are at the head of this movement, without in
any manner endangering the persons or of even putting
the innocent to inconvenience, by what is commonly
known as the suspension of the Act of Habeas Corpus.
—(Prolonged cheering.) Whatever other measures we
may pray for—and measures may be necessary to meet
particular events in the special shape which they may
assume from time to time—l say the remedy which is
above all necessary at this time is a Bill to enable the
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland to secure the persons of
those who are suspected of high treason.—(Loud
cheers.) I come forward, then, to ask this House of
Parliament to grant the Executive Government this
Bill.—(Loud cheers.) I ask it now. I feel
that I might hare been justified in asking
for it at an earlier period.—(Loud cheers.) But Sir
in weighing that question as I have anxiously weighed
it during the last few months that have passed--(Cheers)
—it has seemed to mo that any extraordinary law, sus.
podding tile liberties of part of the people of the United
Kingdom, passed merely by a majority of the Members
of this House, and without a very general concur.
rence passed amid conflicting debates by many
who would doubtless oppose it would lose more
than half* its value and importance, and would be
felt in Ireland as merely an expression of feeling