The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-06 00:00:00

the assertion will not be contradicted—that all who ate
governed by your laws, have a right to complain of those
who, in making those laws, do nut act upon sound prin-
ciples. Formerly the publication of the votes was com-
plained of, and it was attempted to put it down ; but
the votes are now published ; and, unquestionably,
every man in the country has a right to know how
every Member of that House voted, although he has
no right to impute to him improper motives for his
vote. I had a clear right, therefore, to state what I
stated ; and I will continue to make such statements until
we have ; nothcm gagging Bill. Sir, I have wearied the
House, an. I have exhausted myself ; but I have far from
exhausted the subject. I say that no case has been made
out which any dispassionate and impartial man will lay his
hand on his breas', and will say is a justification of this
measure. It has been assert d that the disturbances in
Ireland are attributable to agitation. On inquiry, directly
the reverse will be shown to be the fact. Is not Ireland
sufficiently distressed—has she not sufficient grievances to
account for those disturbances? But you promise relief.
Yes, you promise a measure for the regulation of some of
the abuses of the Church. But are you quite sure that
that Bill will pass elsewhere ? Will it not be prudent at
least to delay the present measure until we see the recep-
tion of the measure for relief such as it is, elsewhere ? Will
it not he wise to adopt my Hon. Friend's amendment,
and to keep your hand on this Bill until you ascertain the
fate of the other? But 1 am not making any compromise.
I require relief for distressed Ireland, without adverting to
any ulterior consideration. I ask you, while you propose
the measure under our consideration, what is to become of
the poor, of the distressed Irish people ? For their evils
you appear to have no remedy. I alone offer a remedy;
and that remedy is a domestic legislation.—(Hear, hear,
hear.) How can you alone show that the Legislature
of the United Empire is better for Ireland? By antici-
pating me? By proving that an Imperial Parliament
can redress the grievances of Ireland ? Instead of that,
you turn away from Ireland the loolj of kindness,
and you assume towards her the frown of severity.
You leave her to be ground to the dust, to be stretched
on the rack, to be broken on the wheel. You leave every
evil and grievance of which she complains unnoticed and
uncured. The Irish people ask you for bread, and you
give them a stone. You must be feared before you are
loved. I deny all your statements. I deny that you have
made out any case whatever. I deny that witnesses have
been intimidated. I deny that jurors have been injured.
I deny that agitation has occasioned the existing distur-
bances. I deny that those disturbances are other than pre-
dial in their character—the disturbances of the last forty
year.. I will willingly trust despotic power in the hands
of no man ; still less willingly will I trust it in the hands
of Statesmen, who have mixed up miserable personal feel-
ings with their public conduct. Ii you would conciliate
the people of Ireland, you would act on principles directly
the reverse. But you have never conferred one single
blessing on that unhappy country. You have never taken
any step towards her which has not increased her woes.
You have never visited her but with your anger. You
have invariably waved over her the sword of desolation.
You have violated the treaties which you have made with
. .

her. You have broken the compacts which you had

entered into with her. You hive neglected to fulfil
the promises that you have lavished upon her. True,
you granted the Catholics' Emancipation : but you did
not do so until nine-and-twenty years after you bad pledged
yourselves to do it—you did not do so until five-and-
twenty years after the Parliament of Ireland must have

done so, if you had allowed the Parliament of Ire'and
to continue to exist. You are now going to pass an
_ _

Act, subjecting the people of Ireland to courtsmartial,

. .
and depriving them of the right of Habeas Corpus ;
and you tell us that it is to put down agitation and the
endeavour to repeal the Union. Do what else you may ;
but until you do justice, never can you expect to obtain
your object. The present generation may perish. Indi-
viduals may be singled out and destroyed. But the soul
of Ireland is indestructible. One hope lately beamed on
the people of Ireland. Seeing a Reformed PaHiament—
knowing that all the Members of wt ich it consisted had
constituents—and believing that they would act as the ge-
nuine representatives of the people, we hoped that you
would give us a redress of our grievances—but you have
given us a Bill for their perpetuation and increase.—(The
Hon. and Learned Gentleman sat down amidst loud cheers.)
Mr. COBBETr —I move the adjournment of the de-
bate.—(No, no, no.) We have heard a great deal from
the other side of the House of midnight murders and as-

sassinations. If this Bill pass, it will be the murder of the
Constitution. If we must murder it, at least let us mur-
der it by daylight.
The motion for adjournment was seconded by ►wo Hon.
Members, but we could not see who they were.
Lord ALTHORP said it was clearly understood last
night, as far as such a matter could be made one of ar-
rangement, that the House were to sit, however late, and
endeavour to finish the discussion to-night. How was it
possible that his Majesty's Ministers could conduct the busi-
ness of the country, if, after such an understanding, the
debate were to be again adjourned ? He should certainly
say that after the long discussion, and after the speech of
the Hon. and Learned Member for Dublin, the sense of
the House might be advantageously taken at once. But he
had no right to sand in the way of any Hon. Gentleman
who wished to address the House ; and he and his friends
were quite ready to perform their part of the understand-
ing of yesterday evening, and listen to any further argu-
ments that miAt be adduced on the subjeet.
Mr. COBBETT said he had no wish to be obstinate.
He was not present when the sort of engagement was made
to which the Noble Lord had alluded; but if the seconders
of his motion acquiesced in his withdrawing it, he had no
objection to withdraw it.
The seconders having intimated their acquiescence, the
motion for adjourning the debate was withdrawn.
Lord ALTHORP ►hen rose to reply, but there pre-
vailed at the moment much noise and confusion in the
House, many Hon. Members crying out, " Hear, hear,"
and " Order, order." He assured the House that he
should detain them only for a few minutes; that he
should use his best endeavours to make himself heard, but

he begged to suggest that repeated demands for silence
was not the most effectual mode of obtaining it. One of
the first topics to which he should endeavour to address
himself, was one on which he felt no small solicitude—
which arose from an anxiety to remove a suspicion that
appeared to be entertained of his not being so favourable
to the adoption of the present measure, and therefore not
so cordial in recommending it as the other Members of
his Majesty's Government. He could assure the House
that, however much lie mi3ht regret the necessity for such
a proceeding—and none regretted more deeply than he
did the condition of society which made such a step in-
dispensable—none more sincerely deplored the extent of
severity which had become unavoidable—but at the same
time, seeing that necessity, and admitting its pressure,
none more heartily or cordially united with the other Mem-
bers of the King's Government in framing the measure
which circumstances demanded, and in laying it before
Parliament—no one could more sincerely or earnestly urge

its adoption.—(Hear.) The Hon. and Learned Gentleman,
the Member for Dublin, in giving an account of the state
of Ireland, and in setting the number, the extent, and the
atrocity of the outrages committed by the native Irish in
the time of Queen Elizabeth, appeared to him to be doing
nothing more than detailing an amount of crime and of
suffering about equal to that which was inflicted by the
lawless insurgents who now wielded an almost despotic
power in Ireland—a power which rendered life and pro.
perty insecure to a degree of which past history afforded
scarcely a similar instance, even in Ireland. It was not
to be disputed that the state of things in Ireland was such
that no man dared to give an opinion adverse to the views
of the dominant party—that no man ventured to utter a
sentiment that might by possibility be opposed to any thing
which the lawless miscreants who ruled in some parts of

Ireland, adopted as the principles of their assumed govern-
merit. Was such a state of things to be met by mild
and gentle measures, or was it not, on the contrary, to
be encountered by that which, he was willing to admit,
bore the character of a despotic measure? He felt that in
dealing with a question of that nature involving as it did so
many details, and coming to it at the end of so long a debate
he could not proceed through all the details, still less could
he take up the several topics in anything like a regular
order; and, therefore, it only remained for him to notice
them as they presented themselves to his mind, confining
himself to those which appeared of the most importance
and inquiry. It had been said that illegal notices had
been served by persons who desired to get into the po-
lice, and those Members who had not paid much atten-
tion to the affairs of Ireland, might imagine that the ser-
vice of illegal notices was a matter of no such very great
importance; but it was a very great mistake to suppose
that they were matters of such trifling moment, or that
any person, even suspected of such an offence, could, for a
moment, hope to be employed upon the police establish-
ment. The service of illegal notices was, in Ireland, a
very serious matter ; and, as must be in the recollection
of many Hon. Members, notices were served upon Mr.
Houston three months before the threatened murder was
committed.—(Hear, hear, hear.) There had been a good
derl of quotation from the charges of the Learned Judges
who had presided at the several special commissions; but
what said the Chief Justice at the special commission for
the Queen's County, that the humble individual who
served the most common process of the law was treated
as a felon ; that the witness who gave testimony, from
whatever motives, was treated as a common informer of