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

Tally those of their own class. Amongst seven murders com-.
mitted at. one period in Clare, only one was perpetrated on a
person not belonging to the humbler class. He was ready to
go every length in any measure which would have the effect of
putting down prmdial outrages ; and in proof of this he would
state, that it was he who suggested the list of the inmates in
the disturbed districts, by which it could be ascertained whether
or not any of them were absent from their dwellings during
prohibited hours. He would repeat, that he was favourable to
every constitutional means of putting down these outrages, and
was ready to follow them up where committed with prompt in-
quiry and immediate punishment ; but then, let the means
adopted be such as the Constitution would sanction, and as the
delinquents themselves should acknowledge to be just.—
( Cheers.) Though he should agree to the measure, he still
did not feel the less anguish when he considered the misery
and destitution by which that state of things was created,
which compelled its necessity. His countrymen were looked
upon as persons peculiarly characterised by recklessness and
crime ; but the crimes of which they were - guilty were those
incident to warfare, and to a nation placed in an unnatural
position. As regarded the crimes which show themselves in a
well-constituted society, he challenged Europe to show a country
more free from them ; out of the population in Dublin for one
year there had been but two capital convictions. Take any county
in Ireland, take even Tipperary, and compare the crimes not
of this character with those committed in the smallest county
in England, and the latter will be found to exceed by three to
one. In all the social and moral virtues, he challenged a
comparison for his countrymen with those of any other : in
fidelity to the marriage bed, the natural affections, the ties
which bound father to child, and the other reciprocal duties of
man to man, they were not to be equalled. Was it not curious
that a people such as this should be thus characterized ?
Whence sprung the crime ? Ireland had been under the go-
vernment of England for seven hundred years, and during that
time she had been governed by factions for factions.---( Loud
cheers.) This was the cause of her misery. Before the dis-
tinctions of religion were known, others were acted on.
There was the English party within the pale, the English
party without the pale, and the Irish enemy:--( Hear.) There
succeeded to those another distinction, the Protestant aristo-
crat and the Papist paria. Was it not time to put an end to
this ?—( Cheers.) Even in 1782 it was the faction and not
the people who carried the independence of Ireland, and the
independence which they thus won they were unwilling to
share. Since the Union, did not every Administration go
upon the Church and State principle, and—he asked the
question not in reproach, but in sorrow—had not the Re-
formed Government proceeded in the same spirit in the
agency by which they governed Ireland ?—( Hear.) Whom
did they choose as Sheriffs ? whom did they choose
as lieutenants ? who as magistrates ? and who as the police ?
The population of the country was Catholic ; and yet in this
latter force the Catholics were so few, that they were only to
he found in an inverse ratio to their majority in the population.
Was this the way to conciliate the people of Ireland, and re-
move the causes of irritation which rendered necessary the
adoption of harsh measures ? To such measures as necessity
called for, he would not object. He would protect the sanc-
tity of the night, even from those who would themselves be
sufferers by the violation. He was rejoiced that the Govern-
ment of the country had at length discovered that those who
contended to procure advantages for Ireland, so far from stir-
ring up disturbances, were most anxious, as he (so help him
God) was to adopt the only means which woulcrbe efficacious
to repress them. He had himself, at periods of disturbances
published addresses to the people, which were successful in their
effects. It was not the interest of these who espoused the cause
of Ireland to create outrage; on the contrary, outrage only im-
peded their exertions. It was the faction who wished to sec
disturbance increase, as their power increased with it. It gave
authority to petty tyrants, and supplied them with pretexts for
putting the yeomanry in employment, and calling the police
into action. It was to these, and such as these, that outrage
gave pleasure. This was a sort of traffic for power which had
too long existed. It was wise to put down that state of things
by which it was supported, and as long as constitutional means,
and law founded on justice, were resorted to for this purpose,
he would not withhold his support.
Sir ROBERT PEEL said that the question before the
House was, whether the Bill which had been passed last ses-
sion, and which a great majority of the House had considered
essential to the protection of life and property in Ireland,
should now be re-enacted with certain modifications, which
leave the law standing in all its severities, levelled against the
inferior instruments of outrage, and omitting the clauses
whose operation contemplated those who were by their syste-
matic system of agitation the proximate cause of the outrages.
He would rejoice as much as any person, at any opportunity
which might occur of restoring the ordinary.course of law, the
departures from which, he in most cases locked upon as stimu.
!ants of the evils they were intended to col-tea ; and he would
be excused in referring to his own conduct on the occasion,
when it unfortunately became necessary to pass the Inspec-
tion Act. When that Act was in operation, he was very un-
willing to put it in force on many occasions on which it
had been called for, because he was of opinion that too fre-
quent or unnecessary application of it would have the effect
of paralysing the ordinary law, and at the same time
render the act itself less effective. The question to
which he would call the attention of the House was,
whether nocturnal outrages were or were not connected
with agitation. If it appeared that they were not, then
there was good reason why the clauses proposed to be
omitted should be left out. But if it appeared that
agitation and outrage stood to each other in the relation of cause
and effect ; if the connection of outrage with agitation were
made manifest, the House would not be justified in tying the
knot about the neck of the inferior delinquent, and permit
those who advocated and excited to those outrages to escape.
—( Cheers.) It was his own most decided conviction that
there was the most intimate connection between outrage and
agitation ? The Hon. and Learned Gentleman said that it was
wrong to attribute( I will not call them prmdial outrages) these
atrocious crimes to agitation ; he says more, and insists that
the greater the agitation the greater is the security against
these crimes ; and referred to his own letters as being effective
in the suppression of local disturbances. He ( Sir R. Peel)
did not doubt but the Hon. and Learned Gentleman might be
able to effect a temporary cessation of disturbance ; but should
agitation be allowed to continue, to enable him to exercise a
practical control over rioters ?—( Cheers.) It was not to be
denied that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman did possess the
power of repressing outrage ; but what would be the eventual
consequence of his assuming such control as that by the posses-
sion of which he boasted to have carried the Relief Bill for the
Roman Catholics ? If allowed to possess such control as the
power of continual agitation would afford him, might he not
equally rely upon it as a means of procuring the other measure
of which he was the advocate, namely, Repeal of the Union ?
—(Loud cheers.) Would it be wise to purchase such a
temporary suppression of outrage at such an expense as that of
granting the exercise of a power which might ultimately, by a
physical force, compel a separation.—( Hear, hear, and cheers. )
Such, in his opinion, would be the result; and he was led to
the conclusion as well by his experience of Ireland, as by the
deductions of his reason in considering the subject, which de-
ductions he further found fortified by facts. Ministers proposed
to pass the present measure with the omissions, and supported
their proposition by certain documents. He referred to those
documents, and found their contents to be conclusive for the
extension of the clauses which referred to political agitation.
From the lowest to the highest, from the constable to the Mo-
narch, all the evidence tended that way. They all concurred
in the necessity of extending those clauses, and it would be
injustice in the last degree to visit the poor instruments with
punishment and not include the nobler and more powerful au-
thors of the evil. He would only ask the House to hear him
with patience for a few moments, and he would undertake to
show, from the documents on the table, as well as from other
sources, that the information contained in them was as conclu-
sive for extending the Bill to political agitation as to agrarian
outrage.—( Hear, hear.) The first authority he would refer
to was the various reports of the police officers, and these re-
ports bore him out. The next in order was the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Secretary for Ireland, who, on the first (second)
day of the Session, in answer to a question, "whether he con-
sidered the excitement created by the repeal question was the
cause of the disturbances complained of," replied that " he had
no hesitation in saying that the speeches made at political meet-
ings, and especially the strong language used, held out an
encouragent to commit a breach of the laws, and, to a certain
extent, contributed to the outrages which prevailed in some
districts." If such was the 'result of the language used at
these meetings, why should the agitation be permitted, whilst
the outrage of which it was the moving cause was punished ?
The next document which he should produce would be the
testimony of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ; and in order to
put these records in a connected form, he would read the
opinion of that Nobleman, as given in the papers laid before
the House. The document was dated 15th April, 1834, and
contained the following passage :
" These disturbances have been, in every instance, excited and
inflamed by the agitation of the combined projects for the abolition
of tithes and the destruction of the Union with' Great Britain. I
cannot employ words of sufficient strength to elpreSs my solicitude
that his 'Majesty's Government should fix the deepest attention on
the intimate connection marked by the strongest characters in all
these transactions between the system of agitation, and its inevi-
table consequences, the system of combination leading to violence
and outrage. They are inseparably cause and effect ; nor can I
•(after the most attentive consideration of the dreadful scenes pass-
ing under my view) by any effort of my understanding, separate
one from the other in that unbroken chain of indissoluble connec-
tion."--(Loud cheers).
These were the opinions of members of Government ; and he
thought they were sufficient evidence to bear him out in his
conviction. In addition to these, he had other authority. He
had the authority of eight out of thirteen persons in the Admi-
nistration, who were all of opinion that the enactments with
regard to political agitation should be renewed. He did not
ask who the five in the Administration were, who were dis-
sentient from the general opinion. The Noble Lord had vo-
lunteered to name them ; but still there were eight who thought
the law ought to pass in its original form. The opinion that
it should be thus, arose from the humblest to the very highest
functionaries, until it proceeded to the very top of the pillar,
and was sanctioned by the very highest authority—no higher
could be, except that of the King; he alluded to the authority
of the late Premier, who proved by his resignation that he still
held the opinion. Nay, there was still higher authority, that
of the King himself. In the speech uttered from the Throne
at the opening of the present session, the connection between
the agitation and outrage was most distinctly pointed out. The
words were as follows

To the practices which have been used to produce disaffection
to the State, and mutual distrust and animosity between the people
of the two countries, is chiefly to be attributed the spirit of in-
subordination, which though for the present in a great degree con-
trolled by the power of the law, has been but too perceptible in
many instances.

".To none more than to the deluded instruments of the agitation
thus perniciously excited is the continuance of such a spirit produc-
tive of the melt ruinous consequences ; and the united and vigorous
exertions of the loyal and well-affected in aid of the Government,