The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-28 00:00:00

~~:,
~.p~

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

110 USE OF COMMO2VS, FEBRUARY 2'7.
IRISH COERCION BILL.—CALL OF THE HOUSE.
The excitement in the lobbies of the House of Commons
was, from an early hour, of an extraordinary character.
Every passage was literally choked sip with anxious spec-
tators. That more immediately connected with the
strangers' gayety had been far hours occupied by a far
greater number of indiv'dvale than it could by any possi-
bility contain. When the gallery was opened the rush
Was tremendous. On entering the House we found
Mr. ROCHE on his lege. charging the Ministers with
a deep laid conspiracy to gag public opinion, and, by
establishing martial law in Ireland to stop the repeal of
the Union.—(Hear, bear, from the Opposition.) The two
great aristocratic factions had joined in that House ; this
was evident from their conduct regarding the Speakership
and on the question whether military and naval sinecures
were to be given up.—(Cries of " Question," and great
uproar.) Ile stood there upon his right, and he would
Sot be past down. He demanded that evidence should be
teleete at the bar of that House to justify one of the
greatest inroads on the Constitution that history could
furnish.—(Cheers, and cries of " Question.") He would
rather have another party in power—rather have a gene-
rous enemy than a time-serving Ministry—than those who
betrayed their friends for the benefit of their enemies.—
(Great uproar—amidst which the Honourable Member
moved " for copies of all papers addressed to the Right
Honourable the Secretary for Ireland, relative to distur-
bances in that country from the 25th of February, 1830,
to the 25th of February, 1833.")
Mr. T. ATTWOOD seconded the motion.
Mr. STANLEY said he felt assured, as many Hon.
Members would, that if the Hon. Gentleman who had just
proposed his motion had studiously considered the means
of indefinitely postponing the question about to be conei-
alered, he could not have hit upon a better or more certain
plan.—(Hear, hear.) Was that Hon. Member in ear-
nest when he propounded his motion—could he be serious
in asking for these papers? He was sure he knew not
what they were—embracing, as they did, the whole offi-
cial documents for the last three years connected with the
disturbances in Ireland. He was sure that when Hon.
Members heard the statement of his Noble Friend, con-
taining, as it would do, hut a small portion of a small se-
lection of a small abstract—(Laughter and cheers)—of a
small part of these three years—when they heard
this detail, he repeated, he felt sure the motion for papers
spreading over a space of three years would carry with it
its own reputation.—(Cheers.) If the papers even for
the list six months were produced, he would venture to
say, that had they the power, it would not be consonant
with the inclinations of any three men in that House
to wade through them.—(Hear, hear.) Undoubtedly his
Majesty's Ministers had proposed a measure of a very ar-
bitrary and coercive character—(Cheers from the Oppo-
eition)—to be justified only by the extraordinary circa ne-
stances in which they found a portion of the kingdom
placed ; but they incurred the responsibility without
anxiety, because they were satisfied they would he sup-
ported by that House, by the people of England, and, in
the true sense of the word, by the people of Ireland also.
—(Loud cheers, laughter, and cries of ' No, no.") It
would be for the House to call for further information, if,
when the Government had made their statements they did
not think that statement sufficient to bear out the case on
which they were willing to rest their justification of this
Bill. If there were no ether objection to the nsotion, it
was impossible it could he acceded to on the ground of a
reference to individuals—to untried offences—to unappre-
hended offenders.—(Cheers.) ' Ministers were anxious for
their trial—(Hear, hear)—rhey were rejoiced the time had
arrived when they could be judged on a measure which
they had postponed late and adopted reluctantly—
(Cheers from both sides of the House)—and which, if
they would not vindicate, they should for ever lose their
disracters as ..--n—(Continued cheers)—their characters
rsn-"eiwi"l.2tt-: —(Here the cheering viers deafening, and was
e-ree. side to side in the most
boisterous and determined marine', , or
with no inconsiderable degree of hearty liCroTiei7, tw!cre,
hailed those cheers—he hailed them,• he repeated—(`ie-
Dewed cheering)—he accepted the challenge.—(Mr. Stan-
ley was here compelled to desist for several moments, the
shouting was so vehement. At length he resumed with
increased energy of matsner.) He repeated again that they
accepted the challenge ; they bad staked everything dear
to them as men and as Ministers ; they had staked their
situation in the country—nay, more, they had staked the
destinies of the country itself on a measure, the necessity
of which they were ready to make out that night, and to
vindicate by documents of the most clear and undeniable
character.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. T. ATTWOOD said, the Hon. Gentleman who
had just sat down had led them to imagine that there
were some documents in the hands of Ministers to justify
the extraordinary measure they were ab ut to bring for-
ward respecting Leland. Now, he was always of opinion
that inquiry ought to precede any measures of a strong
and unusual character.—(Cheere.) He hoped they would
be allowed a little delay in the matter—that Ministers
won d be induced to accede to a short postponement of
the measure—and that they would not depart from the
wholesome precedent observed on all former occasions by
that House, when the liberties of the people were to lie
infringed, of appointing a Select Committee to inquire
into the necessity of stela a proceeding.—(Hear, hear.)
He held in his hand proof upon proof, that on all former
occasions, when extraordinary measures were contemplated,
a Select Committee had been appointed to consider delibe-
rately, calmly, and fairly, of their expediency. At the pre
sent time, Ministers did not evince any discretion or pru-
dence of this kind. He held in his hand an extract from
the speech of a great and learned individual—the Right
Hon. Gentleman who filled the Woolsack in the other
House.--(Roars of laughter.) He trusted they would have
the kindness to recollect that he was sitting on the Irish
side of the House—(Cheers and laughter)—an extract,
he repeated, from the speech delivered by Lord Brougham
in March, 1817, on the subject of the suspension of the
Habeas Corpus, in which that Noble Lord said, " A more
flagitious and indecent proceeding never took place with-
in those walls than the attempt to hurry such a measure
as the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act through that
House." This was uttered at a period of great danger,
when it was said the Tower was threatened, and when
insurrection was hourly expected in the centre of England.
If inquiry was necessary then, when such great and im•
minent danger threatened the country, how much more so
was it celled for now, when he would defy any man to
show any clear and convincing grounds on which to found
this terrible enactment?—(Cheers.) He had watched for
the last two years with a c +refill eye all that had taken
place in Ireland, and he would say, confidently, that there
was not more disturbance now than there was at that
time, nor so much as there was eighteen months ago.
What then did such attempts as this mean?—(Cheers.)
Here they were met for the first time as a Reformed Par-
liament, to restore the rights and liberties of the people—
here they were met to consider the great, the dread-
ful, the insufferable distress under which the nation had
been so long and so undeservedly labouring, and not a
word was said about that distress—( Hear, hear)—but
the first proposition was to strangle liberty in the very
sanctuary where it bad taken refuge.—(l.oud cheers.)
So monstrous did he consider this proposition, that he
could not in his conscience vote for it, without a previous
full, rational, and deliberate inquiry.—(Hear, hear.) The
Hon. Member had moved for an inquiry—for some evi-
dence on which to proceed, and it ought to he granted.
There were, no doubt, disturbances in Ireland—there al-
ways had been for the last three hundred years—(Cheers)
—but the way to cure them wes not by random censure or
wanton abuse.—(Hear.) Unless there was misery, there
was never guilt—(Cheers)—and all the coercive measures
they could devise would fail, while want prevailed. What
did the Crown Solicitor for Munster recommend as a re-
medy for crime ? " Give the people employment," said
he, " and you will at once alienate them from crime—they
will have no inclination for it." Was it not monstrous,
then, when the people wanted common sustenance—when
they asked for bread—when that alone would content them
—that they should he answered by bayonets, by sabres, by
halters, gaols, and a suspension of the Constitution?
The Crown Solicitor, in another part of his evidence, said
that the laws were sufficient fur the suppression of'disturb
ance,if they were hut promptly put in force—(Hear).—
and that the people were attached to them, and did not
show hostility to them or to jurors.—(Hear.) If, then,
the people of Ireland—the ill-used, goaded, exasperated
people of Ireland—still esteemed the law, and respected
the persons of jurors, where was the rhyme or reason 'of
giving them a serpent instead of bread, and gaols in lieu of
that which they had a right to demand and to have? He
hoped the plain and simple proposition which had been
brought forward with so much propriety and good sense,
would carry weight with that House, and that no proceed-
ings would be adopted which were not founded on solid
and reasonable grounds. if the late House. of Commons
had proceeded in this course—if Castlereagh—the lamented
Castlereagh—had been sitting on the Bench opposite, be
should not have been much surprised ; hut that a Re-
formed Parliament, sent there specially to restore, confirm,
and extend the laws and liberties •of the people, should
thus proceed--that their first act should he destructive or
the inherene,eights of a portion of the nation, was to
him matter equally of astonishment and of regret. They
were then,, be it recollected, owing a great debt of gra-