The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-13 00:00:00

went, lie felt Mosel Wised to being it before the House
as an amendment to the motion of the Noble Lord. He
could assure the House that he never felt greater pain and
anxiety than be did at being compelled to purbue this
course ; but it was the only one which was left him, in
order to do justice to himself, and to those lion. Members
who, like himself, would not have supported the Irish
Coercive Bill, had they not been assured that it was not
to be applied to the collection of tithes. He bad no other
means of doing an act of justice to his own character, and
the character of those who had supported that Bill, than
to place the circumstances fairly before the country. It
would be, no doubt, distinctly in the recollection of the
House, that at the time the Coercive Bill was introduced,

he stated that some measure was-necessaryto restore tran-

quillity to that country; but he declared, at the same
time, that no consideration on earth should make him

consent to any such Bill, so long as it was to be applied
to the enforcement of the collection of tith• s in Ire-
land. The House would recollect that the Nob'.

Lord had then given a solemn Pledge to the House, Er
rather two pledges, en the subject; and confiding on
those pledges, conceiving that they would be re-
deemed, he and others bad voted for the third reading
of the Bill.—(Hear, hear.) He had taken every pora'a
pains to have a correct account of what the Noble Lord
then said, and had collated two short reports or the Noble
Lord's speech. From these report* it appeare.l that the
Noble Lord had said—" It had been stated as another ob-
jection to the Bill, that it was only a cover to enable Mi..
Dieters to collect tithes.—(Hear.) He was anxious to be

clearly understood on this point. He mid a.sure the
House, that so far from that (the collecting of tithe,) being
. .

the object of Ministers, they. should feel that the Lord

Lieutenant of Ireland would abuse the discretion which the
Bill would invest him with, if he declared, in the exercise
of that discretion, that any district was liable to the appli-
cation of the provisions of the Bill merely because tithes
were not paid in that district.—(Hear.) To make the
refusal of tithe payments a pretext for enforcing the Bill,
would be, he repeated, acting quite contrary to the feel-
ings and intentions of its framers ; indeed, quite foreign to
their views and detertninatima.—(Hear, hear.) He wou

go further, and say, that thuugh the suppression of White-

foot offences was the main and sole object of the Bill, and
though he had reason to believe that the resistance to tithe
was, in many instances, mixed up with these offences—.
indeed one of them—yet, in order to convince the most
. .

sceptical that Ministers bad no other object in proposing
the Bill than restoring and preserving the peace of the
country, be should have no objection to the insertion of
any clause or provision which would prevent the applica-
tion of the Bill to any offence of which the resistance to
the payment of tithes was a portioa.—(Hear, hear.) He

repeated again and again, that Ministers had but one sole
object—the asserting of the authority of the law. The Bill
had no reference to the collection of tithes or any other
individual purpose, and, he would add, could or should be
applied only to the maintenance of social order." That
was the Noble Lord's speech, and relying on the per-
sonal character of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he
had brought forward an amendment which was in perfeot
unison with the language of the Noble Lord. It was, he
thought, admitted that the Bill was not to be employed
in levying the arrears of tithes, but he had also thought
that fact ought to be stated. He, therefore, did bring
forward an amendment, which he would again recall to
the House by reading it—" Provided always, and be it
hereby enacted, that it shall not be lawful for the
Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Go-
vernors of Ireland to apply the powers conferred by
this Act in any way to any county or district
merely because tithes shall not be paid in such county
or district; and be it further enacted, that the provisions
of this Act shall not be applied in any way for the
purpose of levying tithes, or enforcing the payment
thereof." He bad found, however, that objections were
made to his amendment. The Noble Lord stated that he
bad no objection to the first part, which was, indeed, in
the letter and spirit, a mere copy of the declaration of
the Noble Lord that the Act was not to be applied to the
levying of tithes. The Noble Lord stated that he did
not oppose the first part of the amendment, but that he
did not approve of the latter part. He acquiesced in the
lopping offof a part of his amendment,conceiving that what
was essential was retained, particularly as the Noble Lerd
then repeated his declaration, that—" it was intended by
Government, as be (Lord Althorp) had already stated, to
propose a plan to the House which would render it quite
impossible that this Bill could be applied to the collecting
of tithes. The plan which would be proposed by Govern-
ment would be one whereby the arrears of tithes would be
got rid of, the only thing to which this Bill, during the
time that it was likely to last, would by possibility be ap-
plied." That declaration of the Noble Lord removed every
shadow of doubt from his mind. The Noble Lord bad
repeated the declaration he had made on introducing the
Bill, and had said distinctly that it was not to be applied
to the collection of the arrears of tithes. It was said at
the time, that the declaration of the Noble Lord was un-
called for, and that it was imprudent. He had, how-
ever, never doubted that that declaration was most
necessary and most called for ; for, if the Bill had
come before them without that declaration, certainly
it would not have been possible for him—and he
believed for many others—to give their assent to it.—
(Hear.) But for that declaration he believed that the
House would have scouted the Bill ; and certainly but for
that declaration he should have considered the measure
most unjust. But how could it have been passed but for
that declaration? The House would recollect that a Bill
had been passed vesting in the Crown all the rights to the
arrears of tithes, and enabling the Crown to collect those
arrears by all the powerful means at the disposal of the
Crown, as a creditor. That Bill was a failure—(Cheers)
—a mischievous failure—(Cheers)—as had beeu foretold
by those who beat knew the state of Ireland—(Cheers)—
but those who did not know the state of Ireland were de-
termined to pass it, and it was passed. Now, would it be
supposed that any assembly of honest men would have
listened to any Minister who should have come down to
the House, and stated that " the Tithe Bill, with all the
powers it gave to the Crown, has been a failure ; but do
you give us the high-pressure engine of despotism, and we
shall succeed ; do you suspend the Constitution—enable
us to imprison men at our pleasure—try them by courts-
martial—abrogate all their rights, and we have no doubt
we shall prevent all those disturbances which have been
created by this very Tithe Bill of ours, which has been so
complete a failure ?"—(Cheers.) It was quite impossible
to suppose that, without such a declaration from the Noble
Lord, the House would hays suspended the Constitution
to support the Ministerial failure.—(Cheers.) The de-
claration of the Noble Lord, therefore, was prudent, and
even necessary. He had been warned not to place confi-
dence in that declaration ; but he had stated he should be
sorry to believe that the Bill, in spite of those pledges,
would ever be applied to tithes, when the Ministers had
also pledged themselves to bring in a plan by which the
arrears of tithes were to be got rid of.—(Hear.) He con-
fided in that pledge. He wrote immediately over to Ire-
land to all the persons in his own neighbourhood, and to
many persons living on the borders of the connty of Kil-
kenny, telling them that the Irish people might rely on
the Ministers, who meant kindly towards them, and the
Bill would surely never be applied to the collection of
tithes. He had quoted the words of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. He regretted that he had done so, but he
could not believe that the word of the Minister would not
be kept. He had succeeded to a considerable extent in
convincing the people that his own opinion was correct;
and what had been the consequence? He stated that the
Ministers had pledged their most sacred word that the Bill
should not be applied to collect the arrears of tithes, and
that pledge had been moat scandalously and most disgrace-
fully violated.—(Cheers.) It was on the 16th of Apri!,
he believed, or about the time that the county of Kilkenny
was proclaimed in the neighbourhood of New Ross, that
a party of the police gave notice to all the farmers round
that they must have the names of the inmates of their
houses written on their doors, and cautioned the farmers
to appear at their doors—for so the police said—and an-
swer to their names when called upon by the police. The
farmers did as they were directed by the police. On the
night that the Coercive Bill was enforced, the police came
in a large detachment, and went round to fifty-seven
farmers, many of whom owed money for tithes, and had
kept out of the way, but who, relying on the security,
they had been promised, bad returned. The police, how-
ever, came down upon them with a large military detach-
ment, called out these farmers, obliged them to come
down, and arrested them for arrears of tithes.
—(Hear, and cheers.) For claims made on the part of
owners of the tithes, in the dead of the night, when these
men had been gathered together by their confidence in the
Government pledges, down came the police and arrested
them. They were marched off to prison at the point of
the bayonet—(Hear, hear)—and, though some of them
were eighty years of age, they were not permitted to rest,
but were urged forward by threats and insults.—(Hear,
hear.) In another part of Kilkenny a mere outrageous
case even than this occurred. He alluded to the case of
Sergeant Shaw of the police, who arrested about thirty
persons for arrears of tithes in the night time, and most
of them for small sums. The Hon. Member mentioned
several cases. The first was of a man who was sent to
prison for an arrear of tithe amounting to Is. Bd. ; another
tor 4s. 2d. ; a third for ss. 2d. ; all of whom were
arrested and sent to the county gaol. In other cases, in
which the men owed 2s. Id., 2s. 2d., they had found the
means of payment, and Were released. These men were