The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-13 00:00:00

forget the monster meetings that were held in that part of the
I country—meetings which were sanctioned and aided by the
clergy of the Church of Rome residing in that county, which
showed that they had either lost th influence which they
formerly poso-ssed of restraining the people, or that they must
have urged them on in their clamour for repeal. And he
would here beg to read an extract from the address of the ma.
gistrates of that county, addressed to the Lord-Lieutenant,
en the subject ef those monster meetings. They
stated that if such a state of things were to be per-
mitied they should not have any security for their lives
or property, and that as many of them as could do so would be
oblige.. to leave the country, for the most alarming demenstra-
tions had been continually made. Signal fires were frequently
to he seen b.irning on the top of the hills, and the peaceable
and loyal portion of the people might welt be alarmed. Now
it was said :hat similar outrages to those committed in Ireland
were also perpetrated in this country, but Hon. Gentlemen
who said so lorgot the circumstances that mete the outrages
in Ireland of a far more appalling character. There was a
fearful mystery connected with outrages perpetrated in Ireland ;
they were of that description of crimes which had been termed
agrarian. They were not mere party fights, they were not
sudden impulses of revengeful feelings, but they were plotted
by midnight legislators—they were the results of an organised
system of ribbon conspiracies in Ireland.—( Hear, hear.) He
solemnly believed that it was the ribbon conspiracy that pro.
duced all these frightful outrages in Ireland, that conspiracy
was at the bottom of every one of them.—(Hear.) They
might talk of the relations of landlord and-tenant, but if they
were wrung let them alter it by aproper mode of legislation...
( Hear, hear)—and not deceive the people by holding out to
them assurances as to remedial measures which they never in- -
tended to fulfil. Let them first vindicate the law—( Hear,
hear)—and then, he trusted, they would follow up their
coercive policy by the introduction of remedial measures for
Ireland—remedial measures not of a political character, which
would only be followed by fresh demands—(Cheers and .
counter-cheers)—each political concession had had that effect.
Let them look at what had been said by the Hon. Member for
Kerry, when his Noble Friend, the Secretary for Ireland,
alluded to a measure which he (Lord Bernard)
deplored, and which he had opposed in that House
—he meant the grant to Maynooth.-7(Loud cheers and •. s
laughter.) Hon. Gentlemen opposite said that didtheyeknew.
not
thank the Government for it.—( Hear, hear.) Well, b
that that was the case—he knew that nolroliiiealmeasure what"
ever would have any value whatever in Ireland. .All previous
Dcofocezheseidoanssaihda,dwousigidotahlleyy
afadiolped. The Hon. Menher for
were in the same state as Ireland a?
simßiulut ife°YuorserksihfikY:wi'Merehiritte-
that state
owtiuld not the forms of that Haase be suspended for
purpose of
thepassing with all haste such a Bill as that which
was then before the House ?—( Hear, hear. )' ' Would any fierce .
opposition be given to it ?—( Hear, hear.) Would there be
any coalition of iliaretyretoweansdoeanveousrub
jtoecutpsientjahienloivyernbromeagntht
( Hear, hear.) l
forward by the Hon. Member for Limerick, in his address to
Ihe House late on the last evening of this debate • when he
taunted the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary .at-War for
attributing to . a Member of his party the imputation
of attempting to dismember the empire. Now to that
Honourable Gentleman, or to any of the Repeal
Association, he need not fur a moment impute any but
the most perfectly loyal feelings towards the Sovereign
of this empire. But would any one connected with Ireland,
or any one who had read her former history, say that the pro-
' gress of repeal would gradually lead to the dismembering of
the empire.—( Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord then proceeded,
amidst cries of " Question, question," to complain of tartain
corporate officers in Irelaud attending in their robes tor the
purpose of paying honour to the Hon. and Learned Member
fur Cork, whilst he was undergoing a sentence pronounced
upon him by the highest judicial court in Ireland, for having
attempted to separate the two countries. He also charged
those individuals with having abused their trusts by handing
over a portion of the corporate funds to the purposes
of the Repeal Association. He then proceeded to defend
the judicial appointments of the present Government, and
particularly eulogised ire conduct of Air. Justice Jackson.
Another lion. Gentleman had alluded to the dismissal of mae
gis ' trates in Ireland; he did not believe that the administration
of justice had suffered from that consequence in Ireland.—
( Hear.) There was another question to which allusion had been
made in that House, and on which he wished to offer a few ob-
servations—viz., the Church in Ireland. He bad the evidence
of the Hon. Member of Cork, and other Members, as to the
eligibility of admitting the Catholic claims with respect to relic
gion, and this opinionwas concurredin by Lord Monteagle, when
Mr. Spring Rice. Tha Church of Ireland, they had been
told, was the great grievance in that country. He could speak
from personal knowledge, that the Protestant Church was in-
creasing in Ireland ; and the clergy, though they did not preach
politics from the altar, were fully efficient to discharge the du-
ties of their office. A great deal of blame had been very
justly thrown non the absentees of Ireland, and the ill effects
had been endeavoured to be met by laying a tax on the absen-
tees, but a greater fallacy never existed than to attempt a re-
medy by such unequal measures. There were other evils
which no law affecting the land vreuld ever remedy—namely,
the absence of thole in possession of ii3tded property. A suf-
ficient remedy might be friend, if the good feelings of those
who absented themselves from the country were appealed to.
Their patriotism would be found the best reiource,
after all.
He would ask,
" Lives there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself has said,
When coming from a foreign strand,
This is my own, my native land ;
. Whose heart has ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he has turned?"
Coercive measures would not suit the genius or the people of
Ireland. He would implore the House to develope the native
resources of that country, to cultivate the great moral maxim,
" Know thyself," and render the social soil more amenable to
a social system. He could not but hope that the day was not
far distant, when there should be only one common danger and
one common safety in that country, and that union should pre-
vail throughout.
Mr. REDINGTON wished to know what there was in the
speech of the Noble Lord which had to do with the question
before the House? He would advert to the very few points
which bore upon the question. The Noble Lord had said there
was a conspiracy throughout the land. He would maintain
that no conspiracy existed, but merely the natural desire to be
protected from oppression. He had been informed that the
Land Commission had moved for certain returns which would
show that the great majority of the crimes in Ireland were
, agrarian. He believed' it to be so ; but he did not think that
' that new idea could be justified when every little pickpocket
offence was included in the category. In his opinion,- the
Ministers were fully justified in pressing their proposed mea-
sure. The returns upon which Hon. Members were called
upon to pass the present Bill were not at all correct. (The
Honourable Member here pointed oat several dis-
crepancies.) He (Mr. Reding ton) had had a note
sent him, threatening to shout him, but subsequently
he received another offering. upon payment of the sum of 305.,
to withdraw carrying the threat into effect. He would call
the attention of the House to some of the outrages detailed in
the return. One of these outrages, called an outrage on pro-
peep, was on a house, the owner of which refused to illuminate
the house on the liberation of Mr. W. S. O'Brien.
He (Mr. Redihgton) did not know how far
the House would sympathise with such an at-
tack. It certainly was . not of the nature
to call for a Coercion Bill. He considered that the present ill
feeling which existed in Ireland between the landlord and
tenant arose from the confiscations which had originally taken
place. In the province of Ulster, for instance, there was
scarcely one landowner who was not of foreignorigin. He
thought this was a•pont worthy of observation in making a
comparison between England and that country in the relation
of these parties. To justify himself for referring to these
facts, he would take the liber y ef reading the evidence of a
Conservative gentleman with reference to agrarian outrages.
( The Hon. Member here referred to the evidence of this
gentleman, from which it appeared. that in his opinion, the
t•truggle which was going on between the tenants -and the
small proprietors for the possession of the land, added to the
cinamstance that both these parties were of different religions,
' greatly contributed to produce this unhappy result.) The
lion. Member went on to say that he thought Parliament
owed something to Ireland for allowing a continuance of such
a s3stem of things, He considered that the humane motives of
some Hon. Members could not be carried out always by the
landlord with reference to removing the occupiers of land
from one portion of his estate and locating them upon other
portions of the estate. He would not for a 'moment defend
those wholesale ejectments which had lately taken place. He
'bought it was the most difficult position for a humane person
to be placed in wbo wished to remove from his estate a number
of individuals and interests which had grown up around him.
He did not deny that much evil and crime existed in Ireland,
but he denied that any such a Coercion Bill as the present
would cure them. The law ought ,to be vigorously exerted to
meet the disease, and they ought not to be continually calling
in the aid of special measures. Mr. Valentine, the Crown
Solicitor of Munster, gave it as his opinion that the best mode
of dealing with the outrages in Ireland was by a stringent ap-
plication of the present laws. That opinion was entertained
by.every well-infermed person in Ireland? If they attempted
to enforce the provisions of the present measure. they would
find they could not succeed, and that it. would generally prove
a failure. Let them prove that the existing law was
..s.
insuffi-
cient, before having recourse to these extraordinary
s,p:mwmeron
Special Commissions had already been tried in
and elsewhere,
f found
~,c
caensisifult.heyLebtadthenmot chnefeonrceeotmhoplaeinaldtinogf, labwust
vvvigeroerougswly", and he had no doubt but they would be found au-,
ces.ful.—( Hear, hear.)
The Earl of LINCOLN wished to make an explanation le-
garding anmething that had fallen from the Hon. Member as to
w hat be (Lord Lincoln) had said the other evening respecting
him, as a member of Lord Devon's Commission. One of the
last things he should think of doing, was to imply that he or
any of the members of the Commission were actuated by a feel-
ing of partiality. What he did say was that he had a precon-
ceived opinion on the question involved in the inquiry, and
therefore leant in a particular direction in this matter.
Mr. SHAW wished to explain the vote he was about to
give, as, if the division did not take place that night, he would
not have an opportunity of speaking on another evening. He
intended to vote for the second reading of the Bill. Seeing
the disorganised state of Ireland, he was bound to take that
course. If report spoke truly, the Noble Lord who perhaps soon
would be in office, and who had been in office a short time
people Hear,
last November. Had he succeeded in forming a Ministry, he
disposed
hea wouldr.)
the Bill would he really effective --
hag
.rpthoepos'aekde aofmthaeehpeamceoreabslerianngdenwt. measure.—(
well-disposed
Ireland he must support the
.measure; still he was bound to
say he did no; think shat
he saw the Bill
was the want of a cony ,rt..nt tribunal to sit in the disturbed
(Hear, bear.) The great detect which in • .
districts, and take cognizance of cases for which the ordinary
means were not competent. He thought if the Bill.did not
pass--if it was defeated—the Government would have them.
selves to blame. It was introduced at the beginning of the
session into the Howse of Lords, where it was much diluted,
and after a very slow progress, it had art ived at its present
stage. The Government had in fact shown no desire to pule
forward the BM, else it might have been the law of the land
two months ago.—(Hear, hear.) Th- Give 'orient. instead ef
doing so had. forwarded the Corn Bill with the-greatest
possib'e speed, while this Bill had been kept in the back-
ground. The Government, in fact, had not shown any
real disposition to carry the Bill. lie did not
vote for the Bill trent any confidence in the
Ministry; he ha :no confidence in it, 1-to ti. c--use the state of
Ireland required some measure of the kind. He did not care
whether the Ministry went out upon the Bili. or the Noble
Lord the Member for the city of London came w He had DO
predilection for the Whig polic
prevail. he would much rather have still. if Whg policy was to
ve it openly from the Noble
Lord than from the present Government, which had been
elected on other principles. In the memory of living man
Ireland was never in so happy a state, and yet the Coin Bill
was carried through that House by means of the gross exaggera-
tion respecting the poverty of that country, —;Hear, heal.)
I The present Government bad the knack of making themselves
more urpopular than any Government which prec, ded them.
and he really believed that, in their Government of that
country, they had reversed the maxim, .. be j be just towards
ust and fear not
for from first to last they bad feared to
Ireland.--(Hear, hear.) They bad ruled tin the old Anglo.
Saxon principle of " divide et imperil." The Right Hon.
Baronet at the head of the Government could not satisfy
his opponents, and he pre, , ded forthwith to
introduce measures which Lad 'the effect of dissatilfting
. his friends.. The truth was, they knew vet y tele -abnuelre-
land.—( Hear, hear.) In nis opinion. they knew less a the
I
. manners, habits,
of the most
,remoteten.uistxy in
feeling.. and character of the people of that
tucotetnitzlish...(an of
earth:
ueer. inhabitants.nay
lad
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