The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-23 00:00:00

come forward, and the same language was used then which
is now adopted. What was the answer of Lord Anglesea ?
" Gentlemen in the disturbed counties, do you perform the
duties which belong to your situation. Fly not for the threats
of idle miscreants, who say what they do, for the purpose of in-
timidation but who never will act up to w:iat they say. Do you
perform your duties fearlessly and honestly, and you shall have
the advantage of Special Commissions—l shall send down the
King's prosecutor to you. Week after week, and month after
month, you shall have Special Commissions—the law will be
exercised; but, until it is tried and found to fail, you shall
have nothing beyond it."—(Hear, hear.) What was the con-
sequence ? He (Mr. Pigott) recollected, as it were only yes-
terday, the opening of the Special Commission in Clare—he
recollected the Judge, a gentleman of great experience, saying,
that he had never known, in, the course of his experience, the
ordinary law. to be tried that they did not succeed.—(Hear.)
These laws were tried, and they had succeeded; and he (Mr.
Pigott) now pointed to Clare, where such outrages prevailed,
and which were a standing refutation to the speech of Lord
Grey, and the extraordinary powers that he sought for.—( Hear.)
Clare, too, was a complete refutation to the misrepresentations
which were sent across the Channel, and which, very possibly,
came from very doubtful and suspicious sources In the
neighbourhood of Galway the same outrages as had oc-
curred in Clare were committed, and in that place the
ordinary exercise of the law was found sufficient to sup-
press them. There was not a single instance at the Galway
Commission of persons being brought to trial for Whiteboy
offences, who were not convicted, for there the prosecutions
were managed with great discretion. He Warred to these cir-
=lnstances to show, that the powers now sought for were un-
necessary, and heidit unnecessary, he should say of them, that
th-ry were levelled not merely at freedom in the abstract, but they
struck at*he very root of social society.—(Hear.) He could not
help looking to the consequences of the frightful measures now
proposed ; he could not close his eyes to this, and if such
measures were carried, or could be carried, in an English Re-
formed Parliament, that many of those who, like him, had
been opposed to repeal, would, by such measures, be induced
to reconsider opinions which certainly had not been either
hastily or lightly formed respecting repeal, and which hitherto
they had regarded as leading to dangers and disasters greater
than it proposed to remedy.—(Hear.) It is was a perilous
thing to put the minds of men reconsidering upon such a
topic as this, and to do so especially amid the contagion arising
from the minds of many being already disposed in favour of
that question.—(Hear, and cheers.) He hoped that the Par-
liament of England, would not, in ignorance of the state of
Ireland, rush forward to the enactment of measures which
must make this country nothing but a scene of strife. Mr.
Pigott concluded amid loud cheers, by proposing a resolution,
as an amendment on the address suggested by Mr. John Walsh.
Mr. PATRICK COSTELLOE, in seconding the resolution pro-
posed by Mr. Pigott, declared that he was, like Mr. Walsh,
an avowed Repealer ; but while he said so, he would declare
that though he came there prepared to assent to the resolutions
to be submitted to the meeting, he was not at all prepared to
put his name to an address of the description submitted by Mr.
Walsh, without having time to deliberate upon it.— (Hear.)
Mr. Walsh might consider that his address had some likeness
or similarity to the celebrated American address; but did any
one there ever hear of Washington or Franklin coming into an
assembly of Americans, and proposing their address, without
consulting any one about it ? (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.)
It would, he believed, be admitted, that O'Connell was the
first and best of Irishmen, and if that great man coincided in
opinion with Mr. Walsh, he would have told the people to
have addresses and declarations, but instead of that he said to
them, " petition, petition, petition."—(Cheers.) Lord Grey

had laid as the foundation of his coercive measures, that con.

victions could not be had in Ireland, by:reason of the intimida-
tion of juries, and cited the Carrikshock trials.—(Hear.) Now
he (Mr. Costelloe) had been professionally engaged upon these
trials, and he knew well what had occurred at them. The
first man put upon his trial on that occasion was John Ken-
nedy. He was tried on Sth March, 1832, and he was trium-

phantly acquitted, after a jury had been selected from a more

numerous attendance of the panel than had been before col-
lected in Kilkenny. That jury consisted of seven Protestant
gentlemen and five Catholics. Who was it gave a character of
the prisoner on that occasion ? The son of Sir Robert Lan-
grishe, one of the Commissioners of Excise, and also Mr.
Robert Braithwaite, a respectable Protestant farmer. There
were three policeman sworn against the prisoner, none of
whom could say they ever saw him, till they supposed they

had seen him at Carrickshock, though it was distinctly
proved by others, that he was not there when the conflict
took place. The jury gave a verdict of acquittal, and
they could not conscientiously give any other. Were the
juries intimidated into that ? On the next day, Lawrence

Doolin, and four others, were convicted of a Whiteboy offence,
and three of them were subsequently executed. Who were the

jury upon that occasion ? They were mostly Catholics ; for the
Crown Officers were so busy about the Carrickshock trials that
they had not time to think of what had occurred at Castlecomer.
Five were convicted of that offence; and he would ask if that
looked like intimidation ?—(Hear, hear.) At the next assizes
John Ryan was, on the 20th of July, put upon his trial. His
jury consisted of nine Protestants and three Catholics. Before
that jury was sworn, 35 persons, and amongst them several re-
spectable Protestants, were set aside by the Crown Solicitor.
He ( Mr. C.) exercised his right of challenge, and put by 20, that
he thought he had good reason to know. Five policemen were
produced against Ryan, and a boy was brought upon the table,
who was the son of a beggarman, but who was dressed up for
the occasion like a gentleman's son from Merrion-square. He
was asked as to the nature of an oath, and it was found, though
he was under the drill of some policemen here, that he knew
nothing of the principles of religion, and Baron Foster, who is
a very sanctimonious man, desired him to begone.—(Laughter.)
Mr. Costelloe mentioned the cases then of several persons con-
victed by these jurors of Whiteboy offences, to show that there
was no intimidation; and the declaration of the Judge, who
tried these persons, declaring that the juries showed they were
prepared to maintain the peace of the county. Mr. Costelloe
concluded amid loud cheers, by supporting the resolution, and
strongly depreca•ing the declaration suggested by Mr. Walsh,
whom he called upon to withdraw it.
Mr. I. CALLAGHAN, and Mr. PLUNKETT, the barrister,
opposed the declaration of Mr. Walsh; the latter gentleman
said it would involve the safety of every man there.

Mr. WALSH rose for the purpose of withdrawing the decla-
ration proposed by him.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") As
Mr. Plunkett, with the concurrence of other lawyers, was of
opinion that it would be perilous to sign such a document, he
should withdraw it, bowing to their superior legal knowledge.
The resolution proposed by Mr. Pigott, as an amendment,
was then put and adopted unanimously, amidst loud accla-
mation.

Mr. IGNATIUS CALLAGHAN, on proposing the next resolution,
said, that the resolution was emphatic, and suitable to the emer-
gency. It declared that as ardent friends of British connection,
they deprecated the measures of Lord Grey, because they
tended to break the ties of attachment which alone could keep
the countries united.—(Cheers.)
Mr. FOGARTY rose to second the resolution. The question
at that moment was not what was the extent of their rights,
but rather should they, in a month hence, have any rights at
all.—(Loud cheers.) Even for the sake of the poor people
who were likely to be the victims of this system of coercion he
felt the deepest anguish and commiseration ; but as a
member of a free community, he regarded those measures
with indignatio9, as a dreadful blow at the constitutional
rights of the Irish people.—(Loud cheers.) He could not
shut his eyes to the fact that those measures were calculated
to produce, amongst the Irish people, a deep conviction that
their prosperity and happiness were totally incompatible with
British connection. if there were even a plausible ground to
warrant those measures, some reason might be alleged for the
suspension of the Constitution ; but h.. looked upon the state-
ments of Lord Grey as coming from contaminated and interested
sources.—(Cheers.) Taking all those statements as facts—
even if every thing his Lordship had alleged were true, still
there was nothing to warrant a suspension of constitutional
privileges in Ireland.—(Loud cheers.) So hard run was
Lord Grey, that he had to refer to a single outrage in the
county Tipperary.—(Hear, hear.) He knew the county
Tipperary well, and he could assert that during the last ten
years it had not been in so orderly and tranquil a state as at
present.—(Hear, hear.) The Tories would not have acted as i
the Whigs now propose to act. During Lord Wellesley's
government in this country under the Liverpool administra-
tion, the country was much more disturbed than at present—
the counties of Cork and Limerick were in a state of extreme
insubordination, far greater than what now prevails in any part
of Ireland, but the Tory administration did not then think of
suspending the constitution; and when Lord Liverpool moved
for the reenactment of the Insurrection Act, Lord Holland,
a member of the present Cabinet, and a party t o the Whig
measures of coercion, protested against the policy of Lord
Liverpool.—(Cheers.) There was one portion of the measure
of Lord Grey which above all others was too monstrous to bear
scrutiny. A common catch-pole was entitled to solect any place
his caprice suggested as a legal gaol.—(Hear.) Good God
what frightful consequences might result from such a reckless
power.—(Hear, hear.) The unfortunate prisoner might be
removed from his friends, and kept from all means of defence
and establishing his innocence. Even during the rebellion no-
thing so frightful or monstrous was enacted. Even if there
was nothing else, this portion of the Whig project was sufficient
to disentitle the Ministry to the slightest claim upon the con-
fidence of the public.—(Cheers.)

The resolution was passed unanimously.
Mr. M. MACDONALD proposed the next resolution, which
amounted to a solemn protest against the adoption of the mea-
sures of Lord Grey, without any Parliamentary inquiry.
Mr. O'Down seconded the resolution.
Mr. E. BERWICK said—l rise Sir, for the purpose of protesting
against the projected measures—pregnant as they are with dis-
grace and ruin—measures which are the brood of wounded
pride and baffled tyranny—measures under any circumstances
unjustifiable, under present circumstances monstrous and in-
tolerable—measures which nothing, save the firmness and pa.
tience of the people, can prevent from steeping the whole land