The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is acknowledged everywhere that the single
ground of justification for the new Irish measure is
that of an overpowering state necessity. Such was
the one great argument adduced by Earl Grey and
by the Lnrd Chancellor—such is the sole apology
that can be (or, indeed, that, according to the prac-
tiee of the British Government, ever has been) of-
-fered to the Legislature of the day for a proposal to
depart from the ways of the Constitution, and to de-
prive the subject of even the smallest safeguard of
his rights and privileges which the standing laws of
England have provided. The only question, there-
fore, upon that point is; whether his Majesty's Go-
vernment has made out a case of such extreme ne-
cessity ? Had all the statements and remarks by
which Earl Grey introduced his motion on Friday
last been before us, while we were our elves in the
act of noticing the subject for the next day's publi-
cation, we confess that our acquiescence in the
betessity of some very strong measure would have
been more decided than we at that time felt
disposed to make it. The case established by
the Prime Minister appears to us, on a careful
perusal of his whole speech, to be unanswerable.
The only effective power now existing in Ireland is
that of committing murder with impunity. What
used to be law is actually and contemptibly feeble.
It has ceased to be a restraint upon wrong-doers; it
has ceased to be a protection to the innocent and
helpless; so much the reverse, that any disposition
shown by an otherwise inoffensive individual to en-
force the maintenance of peace and property, to
place confidence in the administration of justice, or
to cling to the recognised authorities of the state for
succour, is an almost certain passport •to de-
etruction from the ministers and executioners of a
different code of laws, which have practically super-
seded the most formal enactments of King, Lords,
end Commons. The admitted inefficacy of the
actual law of the land" towards the attainment of
any one of its most important purposes is bur
anarchy under a milder name. Then, what will a
Parliament accomplish by refusing temporary though
extraordinary powers, if not those now asked by his
Majesty's Ministers, at least others of a character
more energetic than those of the existing law ?
It will leave murder paramount, and the obedient
arid loyal citizen at the mercy of the assas'sin's knife.
It will leave crime the only thing protected. If no
additional means of a repressive nature he put in
force by Parliament nn this occasion, let us ask the
opponents of the Bill, are they satisfied that the
law for the 'punishment of. outrage against life and
property in Ireland should continue to be a dead
lett,7-r ? Not one of them will have the hardihood
'to answer " Yes." Then, if not, how would they
proceed to legislate for the putting down these
atrocities ? We may be answered, by " conciliat-
ing" the " discontented body of the nation." But
who are they ? Some who complain of the Church.
Well, but the Church is at this moment under pro-
Icess of extensive, though we admit not suffi-
cient, reform. Others who complain of the " ves-
try cess." But the vestry cess is on the point
of being for ever abolished. " The Grand
Jury laws:" the Ministers have announced in
the King's speech that the power of jobbing under
the grand jury system is to be extinguished. Again,
em are told that the poor complain (and well they
tray) of being ground down by exaction and desti-
tution. Then why not give them poor laws, which
would compel the affluent to assist them ? But poor
laws, the most solid, real, and direct relief for the
miseries of the Irish poor, have been, even within
these few days, denounced by him who has levied
enormous contributions on the very poorest of his
countrymen,as a remedy which would only aggravate
the evil. What remains to he considered ? The
loudest and most audacious disturber of the peace
of Ireland—the most indefatigable and successful
stimulator of the poor man's passionsovows every-
where but in the House of Commons itself, that
he agitates, and .will agitate, until he has effect-
ed a repeal of the Union. The true, the funda-
mental, grievance in his eyes is, that the Union
has not yet been repealed. This is the extent
to which " conciliation" must be carried. As
Parliament must not legislate for the forci-
ble suppression of crime, robbery, incendiarism,
murder, attended with savage and horrible bar-
barity,— vengeance against jurors, who convict
upon their oaths,—vengeance against witnesses
and the children of witnesses who tremble at the
guilt of perjury, all sorts of desperate villainy are to
be perpetuated until it shall please Parliament to de-
stroy the empire, as the sole bribe that will prevail
'Upon the instigators of this intolerable anarchy to
make peace with the State, and to suffer some laws
besides their own to exist amongst us. Now, we
do not refer to the precise measure recommended
by Earl Grey as being, on the face of it, the best,
and wisest, and most effectual, and least exception-
able that, after long consideration, might perhaps be
suggested by statesmen. We repeat what we have
already stated, that the present Bill, of which the
outline was published on Saturday, is more severe in
some respects, and in others less adapted to its most
essential objects, than it may be rendered on mature
deliberation; all that we are bound in common
honesty to contend for is, that a crisis does exist,
not manageable apparently by any existing authority,
and that some stronger power than ordinary ought,
with a view:to the public safety, to be promptly put
in motion. The primary cause of all the mischief
is, we allow, untouched ; but time is necessary for
the 'cure of that shocking and afflicting condition to
which bad government and worse landlords have re-
duced the Irish poor. Meanwhile, violence and
murder must not stalk abroad unpunished, nor must
the proximate causes of such atrocities be permitted
to work uncontrolled.—Time:.

The Bill introduced by Earl Grey into the House
of Lords, to invest the King's Government in Ire-
land with extraordinary powers, for the coercion and
punishment of the disturbers of the public peace,
requires to be considered in a two.fold point of
View—first, as to the circumstances under which a
Bill to suspend the ordinary powers of the Consti-
tution has been introduced to Parliament—secondly,
in reference to the provisions of the Bill, supposing
the necessity of the legislatve adoption of some
measure of the sort cleatly established. When the
Bill of unqualified emancipation of the Roman Ca-
tholics wa, passed, under the auQpices of the Duke
of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, it was held forth
to the English nation, in both Houses of Rolla-
menr, as a panacea—that was the term—for the ills
of Ireland. A Noble Lord, now high in his Ma-
jesty's Councils, declared that if the political plivi-
leges then demanded by the Roman Catholics were
granted, he would answer with his head for the
tranquillity of Ireland. It was stated in Parliament,
and in the Ministerial press of the day, that the pe-
cuniary' interests of England would not be less sub-
stantially benefited by the passing of the measure
than the peace of the sister island, for it would al-
low of the immediate reduction of the army em-
ployed to overawe the popular mind of that country,
which would save the Exchequer the greater por-
tion of its annual military expenditure. In short,
the passing of the Act of unqualified emancipation
was to be, in Ireland, the commencement of a poli-
tical millennium. Public confidence and private secu-
rity were to be fixed on the firmest fr.sundations;
capital was to flow into the country through all the
rivulets of industry; the golden sources of its pros-
perity were to be opened; the swords of adverse
factions were to be converted into reaping-hooks, the
pikes into ploughshares, and the people, so long ad-
dicted to internal feuds and conflicts, were to learn
the art of civil commotion no more. Three years
have not elapsed since the carrying of that measure,
which was to give the sunshine of such halcyon days
to Ireland, when the Minister of the Crown appears
in the House of Lords and calls for the suspension
of the ordinary powers of the Constitution, and for
a legislative enactment at variance with the prin-
ciples of civil liberty, as the only means of restoring
the reign of: the laws—pr otecting life and property
from popular violence, ants society from the anarchy
that thre, etens to reduce its whole fabri6'into ruins.
The prophetic picture of social L'liPpiness and prospe-

rity was painted in glowing colours. Let us see how
the sad reality which disappoints that vision of antici-
pated glory is described by Earl Grey. " Lawless and
violent associations," he says, " by night and by
day, threaten and intimidate all loyal and peaceable
men; they are directed not to public purposes only,
but are also made the engines of private vengeance.
They have not arisen solely out of the tithe ques-
tion--though no doubt the feeling in Ireland is
strong enough against tithes, and unfortunate conse-
quences have been produced by them, which conse-
quences. had they been foreseen, might have led
sooner to salutary regulations—hut the disturbances
are directed to other objects. The disturbers pre-
scribe the terms on which land should be let, and any
who disobey their orders are subject to have their
property destroyed, and even thee. lives sacrificed.
They dictate what persons should be employed, and
by whom; forbidding labourers to work for obnox-
ious masters, and preventing masers from employ-
ing such as are obedient to their milers. They
enforce their commands by acts of cruelty and
outrage--by spoliation—by murder—by attacks on
houses, in the dead of night—by dragging the in-
mates out of their beds—by beating them sometimes
to such an extent as to cause death—by inflicting
evils scarcely inferior to death itself. This is the
extent to which the systein of outrage and violence
prevails in the disturbed districts. The distur-
bances are conducted on a principle of organization,
which is manifested by the manner in which the
people assemble, and from the combined objects
which they pursue. They assemble by sig.
nals— make concerted movements—watch the
route of the military, and, by intelligence
received, avoid them, so that they cannot he put
down by the army." Such is the picture drawn of
the social and political condition of Ireland, in the
third year of emancipation, by the Minister of the
Crown I It is worth observing that Lord Grey, in
speaking of the tithes, says, " Had the unfortunate
consequences which they have produced beet. fore-
seen, they might have led sooner to salutary regula-
tions." This is an admission that one principle
cause of the calamities of the country is the want
of foresight in the Givernment—yet Government
was long forewarned of the consequences of not
redressing the grievances of Ireland in time. Those
who affect the wisdom, and aspire to the fame of
statesmen, ought to have known that the act of
emancipation, which opened the path of political
power and privileges to the Catholic nobility, gen-
try, bar, &c., in no respect improved the moral or
social condition of the great mass of the distressed
and destitute Catholic population. Ministers, who
had foresight, and who justly estimated the value of
political measures,would not have been guilty of the
egregious credulity of believing that the Emancipa-
eon Act was a panacea to cure all the evils of the
people. Ministers, instead of doing any thing to
relieve the starving and dicontented population, gave
their sympathy and assistance to the landlords,
who rack-rented their tenantry, and drained away
as absentees, to expend in this country or in
foreign lands the money which ought to circulate
at home as the life's-blood of the State. As the
former Administration passed the Subletting Act to
elease the Irish landlords, so the present Ministers
re fused to listen to the proposition for establishing a
statutable provision for the poor in Ireland, whose
numbers were greatly augmented by the former
Act, which had the effect of turning out thousands
of families from their little tenements and bits of
land to destitution and beggary. If an approved
system of poor lazes had been established for Ireland
at the time in which Mr. Sadler proposed such a
measure, and if a legislative restraint had been laid
upon absenteeism, by imposing something like a
double rate on the land of absentees, there tvould
not have been such thousands of destitute and des-
perate poor as there now are in Ireland, ready to
become the instruments in the hands of the apostles
of mischief, and to undertake any work of outrage
and disturbance. There might have been also means
devised of giving employment to a large portion of
the idle population in a country nearly one-third of
which has never yet been brought into a state of
cultivation. But when a Government is without
foresight, it must, at intervals, make up by energy
of coercion for its neglect of the means of preven-
tion. Often indeed does it require a great deal of
force to put down evils which a little wisdom might
have averted. The evils of Ireland have
now indeed got to a head which, while it re-
quires a prompt and efficacious remedy, proves
also the incapacity of the Irish Government by
which its affairs have been conducted to this die-
estrous issue. A Viceroy, more distinguished for
the qualities of a bold dragoon than those of a
Statesman—a Chief Secretary, who has more of the
ready talent of a smart debater than the judicious
and comprehensive intellect of, a wise politician, are
not the persons to whom the government of Ireland
ought to be any longer intrus ed. Under their
auspices it is that the present storm has been raised.
To say the least of it, their government has been
hitherto most unfortunate, and it seems to be time
that Ministers should try some other charioteer of
Ireland's destinies than that daring but ill-starred
youth, who, by driving with more vehemence than
judgment, has set the political elements on fire.
Brit leaving the causes of the existing state of
things in Ireland out of the question, it is clear
t hat a necessity exists for energetic measures to
down outrage, to protect life and property, and re-
store the reign of the law. It was objected to
Lard Grey in the House that he had not prefaced
the introduction of his Bill by the production of do-
cumentary evidence. The objection we consider a
strong one, in a constitutional point of view; for,
however convinced people may be by the ac-
counts in the daily journals and private letters
that a great part of Ireland is in the state
,described by Lord Grey, yet such evidence
should be produced of it as, by appearing
hereafter on the records of Parliament, would-
,prevent the obtaining of the powers now de-
' mended from passing into a precedent except in
cases of like emergency. That a thing is morally
believed, or is notorious to the public mind through
the ordinary channels of public .nformation, will not
make it evidence in a Court of Justice, where the
life or property of a single individual is at stake, and
such public reports should not be accepted in place
of official evidence in the High Court of Parliament,
as a ground for instituting measures which are in•
tended to affect the liberties and lives, the political
rights and civil freedom; of a whole nation. It
study ought to have been as easy for Lord Grey to
produce the documentary evidence required, as to
make the oral statement which he did. Nor need
names have been published, because the documents
`might have been referred to a Select Committee,
with an understanding that the names of individuals
giving the information were to be suppressed. As
to the provisions of the Bill our observations shall
be brief. It was justly observed by the Duke of
Wellington that one of the great obstacles op-
ped to the administration of justice in Ireland
is the want of evidence,arising fro's* he systematic in-
tirnidation of witnesses, and that the institution of
courtsmartial cannot supply this defect. Courts-
martial, as well as civil courts, can come to no de-
cision without evidence. But if the intimidation of
witnesses can be prevented, so can the intimidation
of Jurors; and if witnesses and jurors are enabled
to perform their duties, without apprehension of be-
ing persecuted by the disturbers of the peace, the
great difficulties in the way of the administration of
-justice by the ordinary courts will be surmounted—
and what necessity will there be then for military
tribunals ? If the principle of military tribunals is
objectionable, so also, ►n the present instance, is
their constitution. The officers composing a court-
martial are not to exceed nine in number, nor be less
than five, and the decision of the majority will be
equally valid with the unanimous verdict of a jury in
civil cases. This provision, we trust, will never
pass into a law. In endeavouring to punish guilt
we should take care not to break down the safeguards
of innocence ; and slight indeed will be the protec-
non of innocence if the opinion of three military
officers against that of two shall be equally effective
with a verdict of guilty pronounced by twelve

unanimous jurymen. It is said by a Morning
Paper that the highest and most dangerous
crimes which prevail in Ireland at present are
not to be tried under the Bill by those courts-
martial. That appears to us to be a mistake, for the
Bill contains the foltowing provision :—" Provided
that if the offence is capital, the courtmartial shall
nor try it without the special direction of the Lord-
Lieutenant ; but the Court being so directed, may
try such offence, and sentence to transportation for
life, or for a term not less than even years." Farm
this it is evident that the courtmartial may try capital
crimes, if specially directed by the Lord Lieutenant.
Nor is there any exception as to murder and arson.
But though they may try capital offences, if so di-
rected, they are not empowered to inflict any higher
sentence than that of transportation for life—a pro-
vision of which we highly approve, if there are to
be courtsmarrial at all. According to the 27th
and 28.11 sections, any person charged with an of-
fence under this Bill, and taken to pri-on, may be
kept there (no offence under the Bill being bailable)
for the term of three months without trial, for that is
the limit to the time within which a detention under
the Bill will be a sufficient return to a writ of Habeas
Corpus. Now this appears to its a provision under
which innocent persons might be subjected to gross
irrjustice ; one of the offences under the Bill is " to
bs found from home in the proclaimed districts, at
any time, from one hour after sunset to sunrise"—
the mere fact of the person being so found
out of his house authorizes his detention arid
committal to prison to take his trial. He may
be able, when tried, completely to exculpate
himself by a lawful excuse; but as three months
may intervene before he is brought to trial,
during which he cannot be bailed, he must be kept
all that time, if it please his gaolers, shut up in a
dungeon, perhaps to the destruction of his health,
or the ruin of his affairs ! This would be mon-
s'rous oppression. The 21st section enacts, that
any person who disposes of a seditious paper in a
proclaimed district shall be deemed gull-y of a mis-
demeanor, and liable to imprisonment—for not more
than twelve months, unless he discover the person
by whom he was so employed. Now it is very
likely that a courtmartial might consider that to be
a seditious paper which no civil court would consi-
der so, and under this clause, we presume, any per-
son who disposes of a public journal or newspaper
having an obnoxious article, which a court, com-
posed of military gentlemen, may choose to consider
seditious, will be liable to twelve months' impri-
sonment. Even a person who merely lends a news
paper to another, comtainitsg an obnoxious para-
graph, may be brought within the operation of this
penal provision. As to the means laid down for
preventing public meetings, which might be turned
to purposes of agitation, they are, no doubt, a great
infringement on the constitutional rights of the
people; but it is to be hoped Parliament will take
care the restrictions upon the exercise of such rights
do not continue longer than the absolute necessity li
of the case requires.—Morning Herald.
We have inserted entire the B 11 brought in by
Lord Grey on Friday night. The liberty of meet-
ing is nearly annihilated by this Act. The Lord
Lieutenant may prohibit all meetings of "any As-
sociation, Assembly, or body of persons in Ireland,"
which he shall deem "dangerous to the public peace
or safety, or inconsistent with the due administra-
tion of the law," by his order alone. The attend-
ing any prohibited meeting is a misdemeanor. No
meetings can, therefore, be held in future which are
Not palatable to the Lord L•eutertatit. The means
prescribed for giving effect to this part of the Bill
are such that we cannot contemplate the possibility
of exasion. The proclaiming districts is unfortu-
nately not a novelty in Ireland. We take it for
granted that the conditions under which meetings
can be held in proclaimed districts are such that
none can be held. But that is a secondary matter.
The great point is, the withdrawal of the inhabi-
tants of the proclaimed districts from the ordinary
tribunals. The Act empowers the Lord Lieutenant
to appoint Commissioned officers above the age of
21, and who have been two years in she army, to
try in the proclaimed districts all persons charged
with a variety of offences prohibited by various
Acts of Parliament, and all persons who shall be
found out of their places of abode at any time '
from one hour after sun-set till sun-rise without
being able to prove satisfactorily that they were
out upon their lawful occasions, and upon conviction,
to pass sentence upon them. The courtmartial to
be composed of from 5 to 9 officers, with a Sergeant-
a -Law Counsel as Judge-Advocate; and the opi-
nions of the majority to be the decision of the Court.
There is, however, one important limitation. The
offences cognizable by the courtemartial are misde-
meanors, except the Lord Lieutenant shall direct
persons chargeable with offences punishable by death
to be tried before them; in which case the sentence
shall not exceed transportation for life, or fur a
period not less than seven years. The trial must
take place within three months after the commit-
ment, and no Habeas Corpus to be allowed duringli
that time. With regard to the securities against
abuse of the powers given under the Act, they may
be described in a few words. Actions must be
brought within three months after the commission
of the act complained of; the person sued may plead
the general issue, and if the prosecutor fail he will
be liable in treble costs. Where acts of a question-
able character take place, if it still appears to the
Judges that there was a probable cause for doing
the act complained of, the plaintiff shall not be en-
titled to more than 6d. damages, and to no costs. But
no act, matter, or thing, done in any proclaimed dis-
trict, in pursuance or execution of any power conferred
by the Act, shall be questioned in any Court of the
United Kingdom. Officers, non-commissioned
officers, and soldiers, acting under the powers con-
ferred by this Act, shall be responsible only to
courramartial. It is unnecessary to enter furtt er at
present into the consideration of the details of the
Bill. It has been observed by some of our con-
temporaries that it will not meet the peculiar cir-
cumstances urged by Earl Grey as the ground for
claiming these extraordinary powers. It is stated
that prosecutor.,, jurors, and witnesses are at present
intimidated. The officers constituting the courts-
inertial will not, of course, be intimidated; but
witnesses, it is contended, will still be intimidated.
We apprehend courtsmarttal will not be fastidious
with regard to evidence, as Juries acting under the
dread of their respective neighbourhoods. We dos
not mean to say that a majority of from five to nine
officers, aided by a Sergeant-at-Law, or other
counsel, will decide without evidence; but there is
a material difference between the evidence that
might be necessary to satisfy a jury, and the evidence
which would satisfy officers, who, being chargeable
with the peace of their respective districts, must be
in possessions of a good deal of information regarding
the characters of the individuals brought before
them. We know that during the Rebellion of 1798,
very slight evidence served to decide the fate of men
brought before courtsmartial. Sufficient allowance
also is not made for the influence of an opposite de-
scription of terror on witnesses. At present wit-
nesses dread the combinivions, but know that if they
refuse to give evidence, they may count on impunity.
But will they view the followiug procedure with
equal indifference
" And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for any such
courtmartial, or any member thereof, to summon any person
whatsoever to appear before such Court to give evidence touch-
ing any offence, matter, or thing cognizable by such Court, or
touching any person charged or accused before the same ; and
if the person so summoned shall refuse to attend in obedience
to such summons, it shall be lawful for such Court, or any
member thereof, to issue a warrant to apprehend and bring
before such Court the party so refusing ; and in case of the re.
fusel of any party to be examined or to give evidence touching
any matter to which he or she shall be interrogated by such
Court, then it shall be lawful for such Court to commit the
person so refusing to custody for any period not exceeding
three months, or until such person shall submit to be examined
and answer touching the matters before the said Court."

The witness may not unreasonably dread, if he
prove refractory, that he may, ere long, come before
the Court in a different character. At all events,
during a long confinement, much information may,
in one way or other, be extracted from him, which
may be turned to account against the prisoner.

Courtsmartial will look more to substance than
forms, and they will obtain much of their evidence
from the prisoners themselves. We take it for
granted that the proclaiming a district will effect a
sullen obedience for the time. The outrages, we
suppose, will cease till the proclamation is revoked.
But diseases like these in the social system of Ire-
land cannot be cured by courtsmartial. The mo-
ment the external pressure is removed, the outrages
will recommence with more fury than ever. Woe
to those unfortunate wretches who, tinder the delu-
sion of a deceitful calm, may have incurred the
displeasure of the peasantry, by taking farms over
the heads of their neighbours, or by aiding in any
manner, by giving evidence or otherwise, in the
execution of the law. If the courtsmartial be not
over fastidious with respect to evidence, an infuriated
peasantry will be still less fastidious. We are much
mistaken if, in all cases, the deceitful calm produced
by the operation of the Act, be not followed by out-
rages in which the arrears will be fully paid up. We
observed on Saturday that one good feature of the Bill
was, that the enormous powers given under it would be
executed by parties free from locil partialities. To
have confided the terrible powers of the Bill to ordi-
nary Magistrates, would have necessarily led to
greet abuse of them. Offieers of the British army,
especially of English and Scotch regiments, must
be, in a great measure, free from the prejudices of
local connection. The mea-ure will, if we may
judge from what we have heard from Irish gentle-
men in London, produce a strong feeling of irritation
in Ireland. It strikes down, for the time, all con-
stitutional freedom in that country. We trust,
however, that tho-e who have influence over the
public mind in Ireland will use that influence in
endeavouring to preserve tranquillity, and in cau-
tioning the peasantry against all attempts to resist
the force at the command of the powerful Govern-
ment of this country. Let us hope that measures
of severity will not be the only measures adopted
ley Ministers this session, with regard to the unfor-
tunate class against which the present Bill is chi, fly
directed--the peasantry of Ireland. A poor-rate
ought to be imposed without delay, in order to
check the competition for land, which places the
occupiers entirely at the mercy of the landlord.
There is no other country in Europe, in which the
occupiers are so completely at the mercy of the
landlords as Ireland. If the imposition of a poor-
rate should be considered as severe at present
towards landlords in Ireland, some temporary aid
should be given by the nation; but at all events a
poor-rate is imperiously called for.—Morn Chron.
The extraordinary speech of Earl Grey on Friday
last is eminently worthy of the patient attention of
the country at large, on account not only of the
facts disclosed, but the principles illustrated in its
every sentence. That speech sets the seal of the
deliberate approbation of the Noble Earl upon all
that has been said and written by the Conservative
patty during the last two perilous years. The sub-
stance of the testimony which the fatal course of
events has at length, and most reluctantly, wrung
from the Whigs, on the subject of Ireland, is this
that the miserable condition of the country is not
caused by grievances zinredressed; that it is caused by
the criminal agitation of bad men for the worst of
puzposes ; and that such agitation ought to be in-
stantly put down by the sword of retributive justice,
even at the cost of suspending the civil privileges
of the entire community. All this is undoubtedly
true, but it is only what has been constantly insisted
upon with the deepest earnestness and sincerity,
month after month, by the calumniated Conserva-
tives, who also foretold that the agitation would
be rapidly progressive if strong measures were
not taken to put it down. We submit, therefore,
that the Noble Earl's speech makes out our case,
but leaves a fearful stigma upon his own Adminis-
tration. We are now told of the dangers of agita-
tion ; but who tampered with that agitation till it
attained its present portentous strength ? Who
said," Agitate agitate, agitate," till the simple Irish,
like the Bristol rioter.,, might have thought they
were doing the King good service by agitation ? Who
bought the votes of the Irish Members for the Reform
Bill, by giving O'Connell two clear years for the con-
coction of the treason of repeal ? These things will
not soon be forgotten by the people of England, arid
they may yet have to pass through a solemn judi-
cial review. We have no wish, however, to occupy
a juncture so critical as the present with these pain-
ful retrospections, and are quite prepared to say that
the King's Government must have the powers ne-
cessary to support the ascendancy of the law. But
we have a right to ask whether the men who call
for these powers to put down agitation are not
themselves even now encouraging that agitation by
other parts of their policy. In putting this question,
we advert distinctly to certain portions of their
scheme of Irish Church Reform, which, if not exten-
sively modified, m y alienate more Protestants than
it will ever conciliate Catholics ! Martial law, po-
tent as it is, will fail to restore pesce, unless the
sound part of the-population cot diaily support the
Government. It is well to sound the war-note of de-
fiance, but the battle has yet to be fought in every
town and village in Ireland. The desired object may be
accomplished, and that without shedding a single
drop of blood, if, concurrently with the enacting of
coercive laws, Ministers appeal in a proper manner
to the patriotic and English sympathies of the Pro-
testant interest in Ireland ; but if that interest,
which is the very core of the British ascendancy,
be alienated by measures tinged with the spirit of
further Catholic concession, the task of tranquil-
lizing the country will be hopeless. There yet
exist elements in the sister kingdom (thanks to the
councils of ages gone by) which, if skillfully
brought together, and firmly grasped by a deter-
mined Government, would be more than sufficient
to secure the supremacy of England, and extinguish
the hopes of the agitators. By judicious manage-
ment the whole of the Protestant, and all the re-
spectability of the Catholic interest, might be united
in one mass against the infamy of repeal. But of
such a combination the old Protestant party must
be the principal ingredient, and it may be had on
liberal terms. The Protestant interest of England
anti Ireland (they must ever be one) will tolerate an
enlightened revision of the system of the Church ;
it will not tolerate the encouragement of Popery
by the payment of its priests. Ministers have one
more opportunity of saving Ireland by reverting to
true Conservative principles; if they neglect it, or
avail themselves of it in a partial and vacillating man-
ner, their responsibility will be as great as the conse-
quent public calamity will be overwhelming. To
conciliate the agitators is impossible; they must be
extinguished. To conciliate the Catholics, as Ca-
tholics, to a system which roust ever remain substan-
tially Protestant, is also impracticable; and that idea
must be wholly abandoned. Bit to induce the
great body of the Catholics, as nnembcrs of civil so-
ciety, to render cheerful obedience to the laws for
the sake of the benefits of protection arid social
order, is not only possible, but would be found per-
fectly easy to a Government which should be at
once liberal in its administration and inexorable in
the vindication of its own indefeasible rights. We
have some reason to believe that there are men con-
nected with the present Cabinet who take a just
view of the course which ought to be pursued in
this somewhat difficult question, but we fear that
their influence, as heretofore, is destined to be over-
borne by that of men with whom they should dis-
dain to act. We hope, however, that a sense of
party interest, apart from any higher motive, will
yet induce Ministers to pause before they connect
them-elves with any section of the Irish movement;
arid we are quite sure that if they manifested any
tendency to lake a right course they would have the
sincere and efficient support of tile Conservatives,
both in Parliament and throughout the country.—
Morning Post.
That the Bill introduced by Lord Grey into the
House of Lords on Friday last, and of the contents
of which we give an abstract elsewhere, should have
given rise to a variety of opinions, some in favour of,
and some against it—some thinking that it goes too
far, and others that it does net go tar enough—and
more especially that it should be decried by the
Irish representatives of the repeal movement as

creating a dictatorship in Ireland, and subjecting the
liberty of every subject of his Majesty to the will or
caprice of an individual---is quite natural. The
measure is one of extreme importance, of apparently
great severity, and to which, in the practice of
the Constitution of these realms, it has been but
rarely necessary to have recourse. The real question
at issue, however, between the Government and the
opponents of the measure is not whether the measure
be severe—whether it be despotic. or whether it be
unknown to the Censtitntion; but whether there
be a necessity for its adoption—whether the cir-
cumstances of Ireland do not imperatively demand
it—aed whether there be any other measure by
means of which an end might be put to disturb-
ances by which Ireland is disgraced, and the peace-
ful subject guaranteed against the violence of the
midnight marauder and the noon-day murderer. To
describe the state of Ireland, as furnishing a justi-
fication for the adoption of other measures than those
to which recourse has hitherto been had—would
be to tell a thrice-told tale—to describe' a state of
society which has not, and never had, its parallel
in any part of the world—to record plunder mere
exteasive, intimidation more awful, murders of a
more wholesale an,l atrocious character, than are to
be heard of in any other country :—the whole of
this subject is well known to our readers—the facts
are authenticated even by the Irish press itself—the
confession is universal, that the law is suspended in
Ireland—that it cannot be executed, and that no one
can bear witness, however conscientiously, age:list
his neighbour without the most manifest danger to
his life. Now we ask, is it, or is it not, the duty of
the Government to put an end to such a state of
things? or ought it to speak kindly to the assa-sin,
to entreat him to desist from his enormities, and at
the same time to leave him to perpetrate them with
impunity ? The first duty of Government is to
protect those who own its sway—the second, to
punish those who break the laws to which the ma-
jority of the people have given their allegiance.
Ott this fact—on this principle—we rest the defence
of the measure ; and severe us it may be accounted,
we see nothing unconstitutional in it. Its provi-
sions have nor hitherto been called for, and in con-
sequence the Constitution has not been tasked be-
yond its usual bearing; but does the Constitution
author'se rapine, and plunder, and murder ? Is it
not its duty to preserve the peace throughout the
realm; and if that peace cannot be preserved by the
power which has hitherto been committed to Gc-
vernment, is it not warranted in calling upon Par-
liament for an enlargement of its authority? We
pause for an answer.—Morning Advertiser.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, FEB. 16.

CHILLCOTT V. KENNETT AM) AVON CANAL COMPANY.

This was an action to recover 901., the price of
two bronze tablets, made by :he plaintiff for the
Kennett and Avon Canal Company, for the purpose
of being placed on two of :he canal bridges, to com-
memorate the services of Mr. Charles Dundas and
Mr. Thomes. The plaintiff was nonsuited.