The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-19 00:00:00

are imperiously required to put an end to a system of excitement
and violence, which, whilst it continues, is destructive of the peace
of society, and if successful, must inevitably prove fatal to the power
and safety of the United Kingdom."
Such was the opinion, not only of the highest executive an-
thority, but of one possessing the milder power of dispensing
mercy. After such testimony as this, the course pursued by
the Ministry was calculated to shake the confidence which
should be placed in official documents. Was it possible that
the Lord Lieutenant, who could not consent to the omission of
the political clauses, would now agree to their omission ? Was
his change of opinion created by communications made from
this side of the water; and was it this which made him now
consent to abandon the clauses ? The House had a right to
be acquainted with the circumstances which induced this
change of opinion. Not an absolute, but a moral right. That
there must be letters of a private nature, and written in con-
fidence, he was ready to admit ; and though the line was diffi-
cult to be drawn between what was private and what may be
disclosed, there must be a line. In his opinion, the moment
private letters were made the avowed grounds of public and
legislative proceedings, that moment they changed their cha-
racter, and became public. So it was in the present instance.
It was necessary to the character of the Lord Lieutenant that
they should be made public. It was also necessary to clear up
circumstances with regard to the Noble Lord, the late Premier;
for if it appeared that the Secretary for Ireland made sug-
gestions to the Lord Lieutenant of which the Premier was not
aware, it was not surprising that the latter had retired from
office.—( Hear, hear.) Though there was no official right to
demand these explanations, the authors were called on in
justice to explain this. The question for him ( Sir R. Peel)
now to consider was, what course lie should adopt, and though
he was anxious to rivet the connexion between the two coun-
tries, he still would not think of enforcing upon Government
more power than they themselves thought sufficient for their
purposes. He should not move the re-insertion of the clauses
intended to be omitted, but still retained his opinion, that it
was most unjust to visit the deluded poor with the severity of
the law, whilst that which affected those by whom they were
abetted was repealed. _ _

Mr. LITTLETON was sure that the House would not
consider that he was unduly trespassing upon them, in at-
tempting to follow his Right lion. Friend, deeply implicated
as he was in all the transactions to which he had alluded, and
feeling, as he honestly did feel, that he would be enabled to
oiler to the House a satisfactory justification of his conduct.
But before he adverted to what had fallen from his Right
Hon. Friend, he would, in the first place, address himself to
some of the remarks made by the Hon. and Learned Member
for the city of Dublin. And he thought he might fairly ap-
peal to his conduct since he had been in office, to prove that
he was not justly liable to the accusation of desiring the pos-
session of arbitrary or unconstitutional powers, of which, ex-
cept in a case of urgent and extreme necessity, he had always
entertained the utmost abhorrence.—( Hear.) Never in the
course of his life, had he given a vote with more entire satis-
faction, and with more complete conviction of the soundness
of the conclusions upon which he founded it, than he should
that night give his vote in favour of the motion of his Hon.
Friend. During the last session of Parliament, Hon. Mem-
bers were aware how great an outcry was raised against the
provisions of the Coercion Act; yet it was most singular, that,
during his visit to Dublin, where he spent the greater part of
the last autumn and whiter, communicating as he did with va-
rious individuals, of every variety and shade of political senti-
ment, he never once heard a single opinion unfavourable to
the provisions of the Bill, nor, indeed, ever heard them spoken
of save in terms of unqualified approbation. Even by persons
resident in the proclaimed districts was this approbation ex-
pressed, together with a hope that the principal provisions of
the Bill would be this session renewed.—( Hear, hear.) It
was also singular, that in only one instance since the passing
of the Act had there been any complaint of the manner in
which its powers were exercised.
Mr. SHE IL—Yes, the Marquis of Clanricarde objected to
its extension to parts of the county of Galway.
Mr. LITTLETON repeated what he had said, that in only
one instance had any such complaint been made, and that was
made not at the instance of the individual aggrieved. The
individual alluded to was stopped in the middle of the night,
in the county of Kilkenny, and certainly suffered some tempo-
rary inconvenience, but on reference being made to her, she
expressed her sorrow and indignation that any such complaint
should have been forwarded. It was certainly true that the
Marquis of Clanricarde, when referred to by the Lord Lieute-
nant, or rather by himself (both being in London at the time),
for his opinion, did say that he thought it unnecessary to ex-
tend the proclamation to certain baronies in Galway ; but as
the proclaiming those districts had been recommended by the
universal voice of the resident magistrates, the Noble Marquis
cautiously observed that he thought the Lord Lieutenant would
do right to follow the advice of those whose knowledge was
more local and recent than his own, however opposed to his own
individual opinion. Feeling that it would be necessary, before
the conclusion of the present session of Parliament, to take
the sense of the House as to a renewal of at least a portion of
the provisions of this Act, he thought he could not better sa-
tisfy the House with evidence as to the value and working of
the provisions of this act than by putting before them the
papers recently laid on their table. By those papers it
appeared that four districts had been proclaimed--the
county of Kilkenny, and certain baronies in King's county,
Westmeath, and Galway. On comparing the number of
offences committed in the county of Kilkenny (luring the year
prior and the year subsequent to the proclamation, it appeared
that the number of outrages during the year preceding the
10th April, 1833, was 1,519 ; and in the year following only
330. In King's county. which had been only recently pro-
claimed, the outrages for three months prior to the proclama-
tion were 113 ; for the three months since, 4. In Westmeath,
during the month prior to the proclamation, 21 ; during the
following month, only 3.—( Hear, hear.) He could not bet-
ter point out to the House the real condition of the proclaimed
districts, than by reading a passage from a letter addressed to
him by Lord Oxmantown on the 9th April last, describing the
state of King's county, but which was in reality applicable to
the whole of the disturbed districts. The Right Hon. Gen-
tleman then read the passage alluded to, in which the noble
writer described the power of the combinations as greater than
that of the law, and disobedience to the commands of the
former infinitely more frequent, though severely and certainly
punished, than any infraction of the latter. He had not had
time to compile what would have been extremely instructive,
as illustrating the actual state of society in Ireland—viz., a
comparative view of the committals in the two countries.
But he might generally say, that the result of that inves-
tigation was, that in England there were a few cases of
murder, forgery, and other heavy crimes, but that the rest
and great majority consisted of cases of larceny and robbery
of a smaller description. In Ireland these latter offences
constituted but a small portion of the calendars, which were
principally filled with cases of outrage and violence of an in-
surrectionary character, whose features were in this country
utterly unknown. Surely, then, this proved that the laws
adopted to put down, or at least restrain, certain classes of
crime in England, could not be expected to be equally power-
ful in restraining an entirely different species of crime in Ire-
land. It was anticipated at first that a great increase of ex-
pense would be the result of the Coercion Act. But this had
net been proved to be the case. On the contrary, in the county
of Kilkenny, which had been proclaimed, a considerable saving
had taken place, consequential on the restoration of tranquil-
lity ; and two chief constables, four private constables, sixty
peace-preservation officers, and one chief magistrate, had been
dispensed with.—( Hear.) The Hon. and Learned Gentle-
man, in the course of his speech, adverted to the advantages
which had resulted from sending a special commission to Clare,
and from the still greater advantages which might be ex-
pected to result from a permanent legislative measure
founded on the report of the Queen's County Committee.
With regard to the latter suggestion, he was inclined to
agree with the Hen. and Learned Gentleman, and he was
ready to admit that the issuing of a special commission to
Clare had been productive of the greatest advantage. But
the correspondence which he had had with the principal
Irish officers on the subject, together with his own experience,
had satisfied him that neither of these measures would have
been adequate to produce the comparative tranquillity which
the Coercion Act had happily effected. The Hon. and Learned
Member for Dublin had complained that, notwithstanding the
three clauses which suppressed meetings generally would be
given up, still no meetings, except under certain restrictions,
could be holden in the proclaimed districts. He did not know
whether the House had remarked the fact, but he had, and it
was made a matter of boast by the Hon. Member for that
county, that the greatest number of petitions against tithes
which had been presented this session, had been sent from the
County of Kilkenny, which was proclaimed. This, therefore, ,
clearly showed, as indeed had been admitted, that this clause
of the Bill did not operate as a bar to a legitimate and powerful
expression of the opinions of the inhabitants of the proclaimed
districts.—( Hear, hear.) The Hon. and Learned Gentleman
also adverted, in terms of great severity, to the political cha-
racter and conduct of Mr. Blackburn, the Attorney-General
for Ireland. It was possible that a strong feeling on that sub-
ject might be entertained by some Members from Ireland ; but
he should be doing great injustice to his Hon. and Learned
Friend (and he was proud to call him so), if he did not de-
clare that he entertained the highest opinion of his honour,
integrity, and firmness, and that he had ever found him give a
ready assent to the most liberal line of policy that he (Mr.
Littleton) was prepared to suggest.—( Hear, hear, hear.) It
had been also complained that the number of Catholics em-
ployed in the police was immensely disproportioned to the
number of Protestants (as we understood, 300 only in 5,000).
He certainly was not aware that such a disproportion existed ;
and he did not hesitate to say that it was most desirable for the
peace of Ireland, and to secure the sympathy of the Catholic
population in that country with the Government, that the
proportion of Catholics in the magistracy and police should
be materially increased.—( Cheers.) Having disposed of
these points, he might now be permitted to advert to what he
had before alluded to, and again to expresi the deep pain and
regret which he felt, and must ever feel, when he reflected,
that by the indiscretion of which he had been guilty, of dis-
closing the opinions of the Irish Government to any individual,
he should have caused to the country the great and irreparable
loss of Lord Grey's services. Of that Nobleman he would
say that he had never, in the course of his public life, been
connected with any individual who more powerfully attracted
him (Mr. Littleton) towards himself, not only by a similarity
of views, not only by his powerful and courageous advocacy of
liberal principles, but likewise and especially by the uniform
kindness and frankness of his conduct.:—( Hear, hear.) From
no person had he ever received more kindness--for no one liv-
ing would he make greater sacrifices—from no one living would
he more readily submit to a rebuke. He repeated, he felt the
deepest pain at the position in which he was placed.--
( Cheers.) Feeling thus strongly on the. subject, when the
present Government was in the course of being constructed by
Lord Melbourne, he took the liberty of pointing out to his
Lordship th a unnatural position in which he should feel_ him-
:elf if he who was the cause of Lord Grey's resignation
should still retain his office ; and he expressed to his Lordship