The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.


It will be seen- that- Ministers have announced
their wil'ingness to admit certain modifications of
the Irish Coercive Bill, and believing, as we do,
that they act conscientiously, both in what they
insist upon, and what they relax in, our only regret
is that Lord Althorp, as their organ, has not been
able to give assurance to Parliament of concessions
still more extensive. With regard to courtsmartial,
our objections attach to the inevitable composition,
character, spirit, and proceedings of such courts,
shape them how you will,—to the altered relations
which must take place between the peasantry of
Ireland and the army, so soon as the latter shall have
entered on the united though ill-assorted office of
policemen and judges, without appeal, for the trial
of those with whom they are engaged in nightly
warfare; and, finally, to the obvious eril of esta-
blishing a precedent so wide of all constitutional
principle or practice. We are far from being in-
Oined to undervalue the alterations in the court-
martial clause proposed by Lord Althorp, which are
its folio

All officers below" the rank of Captain are to be
exckotied from sitting in such courts.
2. When the court consists of more than seven mem-
berg, then seven must agree in the verdict.
3. In a court composed of seven members, five must
agree. _ _

- 4. A court of five most be unanimous.
Every one must concur in the proposed Mini-
sterial alteration which excepts from the jurisdic-
tion of the courtsmartial all offences of a purely po-
litical nature) and leaves them to be dealt with in
the ordinary cause of the law, even though core-
imitted in proclaimed districts. In respect of do-
- imitiliary visits, if the parties- summoned answer to
their laames, the house shall not be entered. Our
bi,V-11 wish was, that on no answer being returned
the party should be deemed absent, and therefore,
ander the proclamation, liable to be prosecuted as
qelinqnent—thus, in either case, avoiding a prac-
iirb so full of obloquy, and so pregnant with abuse,
as that of erecting a forcible entrance into private
habitations after nightfall. A motive for autho-
rizing this measure of domiciliary search has, in-
deed) been mentioned, more serious than that of
Merely ascertaining the presence or absence of one
or two individuals of a family. The art, now a
ripe one, of Irish massacre, ordains that blood shall
not be shed by inhabitants of the immediate vici-
nage. As.assins, it is stated are borrowed by
brie district from another, perhaps fifty miles
apart) to execute the behests of the local
'cottnnittee of murder. As murders multiply
rend spread through the whole country, a tolerably
fair barter of remorseless cut-throats may thus
be carried on between several counties or parishes,
each paying its creditor in current banditti on de-
mand. These villains are said to be lodged by night
in cabins near the spot marked out as the scene of
butchery; and k is for the detection of such gangs
of miscreants that the right of search, on reasonable
suspicion, has been required, full as much as for that
of individuals absent from the visited habitation.
The suspicion, however, ought to be well grounded.
We are happy to find that on further reflection Mi-
nisters have judged it wise to abandon the clause
Ivhith authorizes imprisonment in private houses, or
anywhere, at the discretion of the captors,—a power
from which the most grievous, acts of tyranny and
cruelty must have been inseparable. The return to
the habeas corpus ought to specify in what public
prison the party is detained. The postponement of
the courtmartial clause in the Committee leads us
to entertain some hope that it may yet be got rid of
altogether : it is a clause every way obnoxious, and
can effect no object which is not quite as attainable
by more constitutional means.—Tinges.
As we anticipated, the warfare on the Irish Coer-
cive Bill turns out to be chiefly in the Committee.
If the progress be not more rapid hereafter than it
was last night, it will be slow indeed. On moving
that the Speaker leave the Chair, Lord Althorp
announced, that in consequence of the representa-
tions to Ministers by those who were generally re-
solved to support the Bill, •it had been determined
to make two alterations. Ministers, he said, were
ready to provide that no person should be permitted
to sit upon a, courtmartial under the rank of Cap-
tain in the army ; that when the number of Mem-
bers of a courtmartial should not exceed five, the
Verdict must be unanimous ; when the number
should not exceed seven, at least five must concur
in the decision; and-when it exceeded seven, seven
members must agree before punishment could be in-
flicted. This is a very important modification,
securing, as it does, to the prisoner, the benefit of
trial by experienced officers in all cases; for though
there are instances of rather too rapid promotion in
the English army, they are the exceptions rather
than the rule. The other alteration announced by
his Lordship related to domiciliary visits. It should
be sufficient, if, when the names of the residents
were called over, they answered and showed them-
selves; when this was done the visiting party should
not have the power to enter the house. An important
explanation was afterwards given by his Lordship,
in consequence of an objection taken to the Bill by
Mr. O'Connell, on moving " that it be an instrue-
tiou to the Committee to preserve inviolate and
effectual the iandoubtecl right of the King's subjects
in Ireland peaceably to propose, prepare, and present
petitions for redressing grievances to his Majesty
and to both Houses of Parliament." " The first
clause of the Bill (said Mr. O'C.) sought to tram-
ple the right of petitioning under foot, by giving the
Lord-Lieutenant the power of prohibiting and dis-
persing any meeting held for the purpose of peti-
tioning, or under the pretence of it. It endowed
the Lord-Lieutenant with political infallibility." In
answer to this Lord Althorp contended, that" there
never was an assertion made that embraced a grosser
exaggeration than this. The first clause of the Bill,
according to the anticipation of the Honourable
and Learned Gentleman, destroys the right of pe-
titioning, when in fact it only says that it may be
lawful for the Lord Lieutenant, or other chief Go-
vernor or Governors of Ireland, to prohibit or sup-
press any meeting which he or they shall deem to
be dangerous to the public peace or safety, or incon-
sistent with the due administration of the law. There
were certainly other clauses of the Bill by which the
assent of the Lord Lieutenant was required for as-
semblages in proclaimed and disturbed districts ; but
the arguments of the Hon. and Learned Gentleman
applied equally to all the clauses. By some of those
clauses one of the modes of petitioning (i. e. meet-
ings to petition) was taken away in proclaimed dis-
tricts, but nothing more Of the chief right was taken
away even in them." It will be observed, from the
firing last night, that the parts of the Bill that ap-
peared most severe to Englishmen are not really the
parts which chiefly render the measure unpopular
with the Opposition. In arguing the principle of
the Bill, the murders and outrages, and the intimi-
dation of witnesses were chiefly dwelt on ; and, to
superficial listeners, it might have appeared that the
hardship of confining the peasantry to their houses
by night was the chief ground of objection. But
the Irish are naturally quicker of discernment than
the English—they at once saw that though the mea-
sure protected property in general, yet one descrip-
tion of property, tithes, was chiefly endangered by
meetings; anti that though really all properly came
under the Act, yet only one kind could receive effi-
cient protection from the measure. Some curious
revelations were made on this subject last night.
It was contended by the Irish Members, that the
provisions of the Bill could not prevent murder or
robbery under cloud ef night,—but that it could
prevent meetings by day. By and by, as the Com-
mittee proceeds, the nature of the contest will be
better understood. This day we shall have the
same subject presented in another point of view,—
the opponents of the Coercive Bill will change
places with the keenest of its supporters,—Morning
Chronicle.
While our Ministers are sacrificing the commer-
cial interests of this country. to assist the Belgic
Viceroy of-Louis Philip in the apparently inter-
minable dispute with his Dutch antagonist, no re-
monstrance from any quarter-.-no sense of justice
—no feeling for the interests of humanity—no