The Sun.
London, England, 1834-02-14 00:00:00

IRISH TOBACCO.

Mr. O'CONNELL begged to ask the Right Hon.
Gentleman (Mr. Spring Rice) what the precise sum was
which had been paid by the Government for the Irish to.
hac-•o that had been bought up and consumed. He un-
derstood that no less a sum than 800,0001. had been paid
for it.

111 r. SPRING RICE said if the report had not been
so absurd as almost to contradict itself he would have
noticed the matter before. He now thanked the Hon.
and Learned Gentleman for having put the question, as it
enabled him to state what had been actually done. By
the Bill which had been brought in, prohibiting the
growth of Irish tobacco, persons then holding it could
derive no advantage from it, after a certain period.
It was then proposed that the Govi-rrnent should
buy up all the tobacco on hand at a sum not exceed-
ing 2e. per pound. The Government were subsequently
enabled to buy it up at Is. and a fraction per pound.
It was state) that this had amounted to no I,ss a sum
than 800,0001. In reality, the tobacco purchased had
weighed 800,000 lbs. weight, and it was in this way the
mistake bad originated. The Government had been attacked
for purchasing and destroying tobacco, the only fault of
which was that it was Irish. This charge was also
unfounded, I,r it had been done to benefit the holders
of the tobacco. 50,0001. was the whole of the suns which
bad been thus spent.
Lord MORPETH moved for some returns, the purport
of which we were unable to catch from the noise pre-
vailing in the House.

Mr._ R. WALLACE moved for certain returns to be laid
on the table and printed.

BARON SMITH.

Mr. O'CONNELL rose to bring forward the case of
Mr. Baron Smith. In doing so, he stated that he was
not presumptuous enough to imagine the question would
engage much of the attention of gentlemen in that House,
not immediately connected with Irel Ind. It was purely
an Irish question. It related to the liberties and lives of
the people of Ireland, and was one of those questions which
he was afraid people here would consider beneath the dignity
of that House It was a question which, if it related to
an English or Scotch judge, would not take up much time,
for no Minister would feel himself justified in interfering
between an inquiry and one of those judges, if such a case
as he had now to submit was made against one of them. There
was not a greater misfortune to Ireland than that theGovetn-
ment of this country did not understand its situation. If
in an English court of justice a barrister were to get up
and address a special jury in these terms—" It is my
duty to state this case to you as one very complicated in
fact, and important in law ; it is therefore a
case that ought to require very much of the
assistance of the Learned Judge, but both you and I
perceive it is impossible you can get any assistance from
that Judge, because, if lie interferes at all, he will only
interfere to disturb the course of justice"—if any bar-
rister so expressed himself in a court of law here, be
would instantly and properly be committed for contempt.
But he (Mr. O'Connell) had stated that to a special jury
in a court of justice in Ireland—and what was his an-
swer? Why the judge said he was a comical fellow.—
(Laughter.) He replied to the judge, that he was more
in melancholy than in merriment at that moment, and that
if he had been incorrect, his (the Judge's) duty would
have been to have sent him to gaol. But he could not
do that, because he felt lie had not uttered one word
unauthorised by his duty to his client, and that lie was
hound to warn the Jury against what fell from the Court.
That very Judge had actually remained three years on the
Bench after he (Mr. O'Connell) had made that statement
to him and the jury. From that it must appear that the
people here knew nothing of the judici stile of Ireland.
Hu was one who asked the people to respect the law,
and wished to see the law respected ; but then
he was anxious that the law should be properly ad•
ministered. The case he had to bring forward against
Mr. Baron Smith was of a double description : first, the
grossest neglect of his duty as a judge; and next,
his making compensation for that gross neglect of
his duty by becoming a very violent politician—
his politics being the only consolation he gave the people
of Ireland for the neglect of his judicial services. In
bringing forward this sullect, he was satisfied it would
he impossible to impute to him any motives of partisan-
ship. It was merely a strict sense of duty that com-
pelled him thus to act, at a period, too, when a
strong attempt was making to raise religious dis-
cussions in Ireland, and to aggravate the feeling on
that subject; at the same time he was bound. to do this
Judge the justice to say, that wh-n in Ireland, some
30 or 40 years ago, he had the opportunity of voting in
Parliament in favour of the Catholic question, he certainly
did so, which would show the mere clearly the present
motion originated in him merely from a sense of
propriety.—(Hear, hear.) lie was the more anxious