The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-13 00:00:00

STATE OF IRELAND.

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said he rose, in
pursuance of a notice given by a Noble Friend of his
relative to the state of Ireland. He (the Noble Lord)
conceived that much injury would result to that country
by interfering in that House, while other measures were
being considered. It was for the Executive
Government to administer the law of the land.
He thought that Government was much to blame
for their neglect of du'y in that respect. He
would simply call the attention of their Lordships to
the notorious fact of the increase of crime in Ireland.
The infection had extended"to a degree, he was going to
say quite, but he believed almost unprecedented. The
return given would nut show any great number of
crimes with reference to former years, but they would
show that a system of combined outrage existed
to as great an extent] in every phiee of note
in Ireland as ever was known within the
memory of man. It was principally in the
central parts of Ireland that these outrages were com-
mitted. The system increased gradually but rapidly,
and he accused the Government of hreat neglect, be-
cause even if they had no better means of intelli-
gence that that possessed by the public, they ought
to have been aware of the state of things that
now existed. He had had the honour of
presenting a petition last session, setting fortlt the state
of Ireland, end asking the interference of the Ministry
on the subject. The state of crime having increased
greatly, it was the duty of the Ministry to take acme
steps to prevent that increase. The fault must either
lie in the law or in the mode of its administration.
The law ought to be able to put down crime, and a fford
protection to the honest man, and it would do so, un-
dt.ubtedly, if it were put in force ; but he was afraid
that it was not put in force. If the law was not suffi-
cit nt, it behoved the Ministry to make such an alteration
iu it as would suffice for the protection of life and pro-
perty, or to avail themselves of some temporary Act,
No such thing had been done, for instead of encourag-
ing the honest man, and suppressing the bad one, they had
encouraged the evildoer, and discourage I the honest mar,
who had had the manliness to come forward and withstand
outrage. The present petition pray( d for an imprevo-
naent in the criminal law. In his opinion in casts
of outrage or murder a fine should be at once inflicted on
the district in which it took place; and further, the
locality should be bound to provide for the person injured,
or for his family in case of murder. Such a course would
have in a great measure the effect of preventing thege
Crinees,which it seetned the present law could not prevent
At the beginning of the session her .Majesty's speech
intimated that some attention would be paid to the sub-
ject, anl the language held out was such as to assure them
that steps would he taken to repress the er:tne which
the state of that country presented. Her Majesty
was made to say too, that she observed with regret
the assassinations which had *ken place, and sai4, in
the very next paragraph, she hoped that measures would
be devised to protect life in that part of the kingdom.
That intimated a doubt of the sufficiency of the present
laws to do so. He was of opinion that it was not life alone
to which their attention should be directed, but aho
the outrages that were committed on property. Now
three weeks had claptrd since Parliament had met, and
no notice had as yet been given on the part of the
Government of any improvements to be made in the
existing laws. After the communications which
had been made to the Government in re-
ference to the occurrences to which he alluded,
and after the notoriety a hich had been given t•) them, it
was the duty of the Government to take some measures
—some energetic steps—in reference to th ma. There
were secret associations aed combinations existing which
had engaged the attention of the Repeal Association as
well as that of the Government, and it could not be
denied that a great part of the country was in a state of
insurrection. Immense masses of people had met in
different places, and in the county of Limerick a meeting
had lately assembled in open revolt in mid-day. Another
outrage of a most daring kind occurred wi.hin a mile of
Roscommon, where a policeman was taken off his horse,
which was immediately shot, and a threat expressed
that a similar fate would happen to himself.
A police barrack also had been demolished
within sight of another police-station. He had
not, however, heard any instance in which the
Lord Lieutenant had not paid immediate attention to
the applications which were made to him at the Castle,
to afford the applicants protection from the dangers
with which they were threatened ; but then he could
not properly attend to every case, or avert all the
dangers, of which the parties complained. Dute,
ing the spring, summer, and winter of the
past year these outrages had increased to an almost un•
pantie:led extent. Lasts, ssion the Noble Lord who was
then at the head of the Colonial department, but who
Lad since resigned that office (Lord Stanley), said in re-
ply to a question which he (the Marquis of Clanricarde)
epouetrtcoiohnip.
swhlotuhldregbaered.toercthiseedsttaotepouttlarneleanndd,tothtahte ‘o‘unto.
.t; Faensrioefa
rhwdeeh)hi which
di complainedehmaenotvetdo
sayfor
thatw were
eb
the
rehe
set
ehn(nttehe
de
hAtahfdea
they
luv arrivediosulodf
lonweecsetsscalaryss.---wp(hHo
returnsl
sll oewn thate coercion
ricti owna s s‘th'aes
sufferers and who were least possessed of the means
er
ne
a ttehos the
oerfr)et ht
defence or flight. Could they
selected when the property wonderpossessed then that he was
was not pro-
perly protected by those whose ty t w
that he was obliged to succumb to the
wills to
i do so, and
those who
could do him injury, and who consequently
great influence over him? They could noi.Tarrcised
the
position of affairs in that country, unless they adopted
an elementary system of legislation with respect to
They might talk of devising means to improve the agri.
culture of the country, but he held that it would- be