The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-02 00:00:00

one. It was one set on foot hy the example of those who
said they had grievances to redress, and a right to resist
certain measures of Government. So far this agitating
iitsrl a politieal con action. The Whitefeet imitated the
example set them by the political agitators. Such hei g
the actual state of things at present in Ireland, his Nobie
Friend the Chancellor of the Exch. r, and his Rielit
Hen. Friend the Secretary for Ireland, had given to the
House the details of the measure v hich they intended
to remedy that state of things. Of course the chief qms.
Lion was how to effectually prevent outrage. The Hon.
and Learned Member for Tipp- rary was anxious that
c iurtsmartial should not be invested with the powers pro-
posed to be granted to them. The Hon. and Learned
Gentleman's anxiety proceeded no doubt fromea feeling of
humanity, and lie (Lord J. Russell) applauded that
humanity; but whilst he did so, he did not think it very
generous, nor very just, to reserve all cutup tssion for
true authors of those outrages, and none for the victims
of them. Having made these remarks, he would now
come more immediately to the Bill itself. It did not, as
war repeatedly asserted, put down all meetings, and forbid
the right of petitioning. 'What it did was, that it granted
es the Lori Lieutenant the [Kamer of not authorizing, in
disturbed districts, certain meetings and petitions. It cer-
tainly did prevent generally meetings which the Lord
Lieutenant should consider dangerous to the public peace,
and it give him the power of preventing tte boldest: of
such meetings. There were two provisions in the Bill
which chiefly met with the objections of its opponents.
The first of those provisions was that which gave the
power cut trying offences to Military Courts. With re-
seect to those objections, and to that protesion, he
begged to ask in whom could they better place such powers
than in the hands of military officers ?_.(Heir, hear.) It
tad been suggested that it would be better to place such
powers in the hands of King's Counsel and Sergeants at-
Law, assisted by the gentry of the country as special jurors.
He did not think the ••114geStion good, arid entirely agreed
with his Hon. and Learned Friend the Member far Leeds,
that when it was found necessary to depart trent the Con-
stitution the new measures adopted should bear little or
no resemblance to that Constitution. It %vas a bad ,!ring,
et endeavouring to preserve the- shadow of an inetitutiaArs
t • lose the substance of it.—(Hear ) With respect to the
suspension of the Habeas Corpu• Act, he would say. bat if
tnose who first felt titemseives c tiled upon to atespeiel it had
time
otes ui p stinietl enjoyed
nicoem.
betinuetfi.tistte. attempted u
steo
itt basil
t 11a with
it and fritter it away, they would not be at the jetieseasi
m
teen
suspended, and that full power had been given to the King
to seize and to arrest, without limit or control, whom-
soever he pleased—because, he repeated, this had been
done, they could now boast of possessing that Act entire,
both in name and in reality: It was for that reason that
he recommended a tribunal in the present instance that
should bear no resemblance to the ordinary ones. Milt-
,otr,:ihaifft
terayatynt:t
jtomarson, eeelfdynylorixffi;w.v:
cie:baoureunmelrddtsma.ib
ecivfecnhicueT:sigtmimaiinetimeiragmeeushi
wesiti
en,
aitd:osviht
aaitt)iodrinisytosnoibuei,
jffiicdtue.
heiccr);etssistaaooin:
species
urtefiictiam.)harif.eloi:e.tsgubhtofe::Bgtitlalolei
ha pen
etaph:",i
enogisnde-e.
it had been stipulated that their age was not t be under
21,1 it was supposed that the majority of courts would be
composed of officers of that age, just its if that assembly
was composed of a majority of burgesses of 21 years of age,
and possessing 3001. a year. With respect to the clause
that stipulated that they should have been two years in the
army, he thought it a very proper one ; for were it not for
it, officers of three weeks' service only, provided they were
21 years old, might sit as Judges. He flaw no reason
whatever why persons of that age, and educated as they
were, should not make as good and as impartial Judges
as any Jury of the country. The other provision
objected to referred to domiciliary visits. lie also
had objections to them, but they were partly done
away with when he saw the almost universal consent
that the Hon. Members, natives of Ireland, gave to those
measures, or to ones nearly similar. What erre the pt ovi-
-ions of the Irish Committee which sat last year? The Hon.
Member for Tipperary might say that they did not recoin-
mend domiciliary visits. They recommended something very
like them, when they thought that if a person was not
absent more than once he might be held to bail, but if
found absent from his home after nightfall a second time,
he should be liable to imprisonment. Even, if on fii• first
.bsence he could not find bail before the quarter sessions,
ice was liable to be committed. The warrant was to be
executed by magistrates, and if the court was not satisfied
it to the cause of absence it would convict. Constato aitly
there was no question of jury, and the Committee were of
ipetion that persons absent from their houses a second
ime, were liable to the punishment of the court. This
was the crime proposed to be panelled by the present I lay.
The Hun. and Learned Member for Tipperary hail aduded
to certain changes that had taken place in the opinions, of
Ministers, and the Hon. and Learned Member for Col-
chester had said with a taunt that if such a measure had
'alien proposed when they were out of office by an opoosite
eirty, they would have risen in file to oppose it. Now,
let such assertions be contradic ed by facts. In 1823,
the then existing Governtnint Caine emcees,' at the very
beginning of the session, and proposed the t•usp.,nsion of
the Habeas Corpus Act, and the enactment of the Itisur-
rectiou Act. That ALnistry did so just in the sauce way
.s the present. Trey instituted no inquir%, tit:y consulted
no committees; but they proceeded in the right way when
such laws es the present were to be passed. They took,
Is they ought to do, all respensibility upon their own
,cads. On the filet reading of the Bi 1 a division took
.dace, the result of which was a very ionall minority, and
Lod Lonaooderry wished that it should be read a second
cod a third time that very evening, in order to be able to
send it to the Loris nest day, and obtain his Mijesty's
,ssent on the Saturday following. It was not rend a se-
cond and a third time that day ; but within a week both
'wasters were passed and sent to Leland. New if the
Administration of the day met with the opposition that
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman who last addressed the
House had stated it bad met, it could not have passed
.hose Bills within the short space of a week. It must be
the opinion of all, that such Acts were passed only when
the absolute necessity of the case was made out. When
the necessity was such, he thought that if such measures
vere proposed in Committee, even the Hon. and I,..Ntrned
Member far Dublin himself would not have opposed them.
That lion. and Learned Member had admitted that the
greatest sufferers were not the Protestants, but that the Ca-
tholics suffered equally as much; and he also admitted that
those who were found out by night ought to be considered
suilty of misdemeanor, or something very like it. He
maintained that no argument could be adduced to prove
the inconsistency of the present Government with respect
ro those ineasuies. This was a case in which every one
bad to judge for himself, and to determine whether the
severe measures proposed were necessary or not. If they
were not, let the laws remain as they were; but if those
measures were thought necessary, no Hon. Aletnber that
-bought theta so should shrink from his duty and hesitate
voting for them.—(Hear.) The House might be assured
that whatever ameliorations were intended for Ireland,
they could not be put into practice until property was ,e-
-cured and life rendered safe. This measure proposed to
lo that, and was therefore the first step towards ameliora-
tion. It was in vain to talk of employment for the poor,
whilst the inland trade of the country was interrupted by
winds of reckless ruffians ; it was folly to hope that the
Englishman, or any other man, would risk his capital in
speculating in Ireland, when he might every hour expect
see the improvements he had made destroyed, and the
persons he employed to conduct his business murdered at
loon-day. If they wished to impr ive the condition of
Ireland, they would not be doing their duty if they con-
sented to have property insecure and life time sport of every
ruffian. By passing these measures, they would put an
-rid to the outrages that afflicted a whole country, and
preserve intact the imperial laws of the United Kingdom.
He confessed himself one of those, though reluctantly,
who supported those measures; and he considered all
those who did support them to be the best and steadiest
riends of the peace, prosperity, and liberty of Ireland.
Mr. 11. GRATTAN agreed with the Noble Lord op-
posite, that Whiteboyism ought to be put down, but dif-
fered from the Noble Lord, in thinking that the Constitution
ought to be put down also. Whitefeet could be put down
wtr tohordu i
nt
ar
y puttingif t w h
edyo
conu
ltdh e Constitution.
not;and tti Itecons w t
ituotui
ol he x
trans-
omitted to them by the Noble Lord's ancestors would be of
little value indeed, if it could be broken through by a few
iniserab'e Whitefeet. How weak must the fabric of that
Constitution be, if it permitted a few wretches to baffle
she Government, and destroy the laws of the Alipistii He
had heard much of the necessity of these meastitn; but he
would ask one question—he would ask whether, at the
time of the invasion of Ireland by a foreign foe—whether,
at the time that country was in open rebellion, there was
me instance of measures like the present having been prof-
posed ?—(llear.) He would challenge the Treasury Bench
o find, in the library of that House, a single book in which
such a gross infringement of the Constitution wasures
Yet this
refi
.ae :t it yh the
subunit ifla
men-
tioned. Why, the Noble Mover of these measures
Pol''nwias made when 500 men,
attack upon constitutiotnhael
country, could do away with the
sided by the gentry. of
If the gentry of the country had
ust
c
ws
i
outrages complained of. h
Member
ioe
ttnhhkee i rpl
irrii,eosshue.
nna
nttArlieyne
pof
rbao
01: refs tahoedoixenteuigr eohlit r ea!
gyhie,e
ed"
as
4t,,en t
havefae risen to the
Wexford had given, these outrages would not
frightful height they were at no T. The