The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Es.—The debate in the House of Lords on
the continuance of the Habeas Corpus Suspension
Act in Ireland, deserves notice on account of the
opinions expressed by the two chief speakers, Lord
Derby, the head of her Majesty's Government, and
Lord Kimberley, the Lord-Lieutenant who recom-
mended and put in force the Act which is to be re-
newed. Lord Derby could not add to the force of
the reasons which have convinced every prudent
man that it is absolutely necessary to maintain the
present powers of the Executive. A conspiracy
born and nourished in a foreign country, and at this
very time receiving new encouragement from the
Federal Legislature in the relaxation of the neu-
trality laws, has for more than a year past filled
Irish society with disquiet, and checked the rising
prosperity of the country. Those who are best ac-
quainted with it agree in the opinion that, though
it does not extend to so high a grade of society as
the treason of 1848, it is, or has been, more deter-
mined, vindictive, and dangerous. The impulsive
people, whose only inducement to join these half-
alien agitators is a traditional hostility to England,
arc likely to be kept in a ferment so long as they
see the apostles of treason coming and going and
plotting at will in the island ; when the Government
shows itself resolute in dealing with such people
they who would be their followers subside into tran-
quillity, and perhaps inwardly rejoice that they are
not called upon to act as well as to talk and threaten.
Lord Derby avows his sense of the responsibility
that weighs on a Government which assumes the
power of imprisoning without trial, and we may be
sure the Act will only be enforced with the same
good sense and moderation as heretofore. Lord
Kimberley has in the judgment of men of all par-
ties acted with singular discretion ; he watched the
conspiracy throughout the winter ; in spite of
the uneasiness which it caused him and
every one connected with the Irish Administra-
tion, in spite of the panic among the gentry
and the pressure of those who desired an
earlier and more summary action, he would not
depart from the ordinary course of law, Or give an
occasion for disaffection by conduct that dema-
gogues might denounce as arbitrary. The
.most
audacious of the leaders were apprehended, com-
mitted for trial, and sent before a Special Commis-
sion, but it was not until the middle of February, at
a time when from trustworthy information it was
known that the Fenians contemplated an actual
outbreak, and when arms were being daily brought
into the country, that he urged upon the Ministry
the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in the
case of persons arrested for treasonable practices.
Since-that time a large number of persons have been
imprisoned ; but more than half have been re-
leased, and the whole might have been set at liberty
if they would give any reasonable pledge that they
would live quietly and abandon the conspiracy.
The moderation of these measures will no doubt be
strictly imitated by the present Ministers. Lord
Derby said, " It is the earnest desire of the present
Government to extend that system, and to allow the
dismissal from prison of all persons who can give
any security, and who can hold out any prospect
that they will act for the future as loyal subjects of
the Crown." The most scrupulous Constitutionalist
need have no fear that the public liberty will suffer
by the continuance of the Act. Any man now in
confinement may walk out of prison on a simple un-
dertaking that he will cease to be a member of a
conspiracy for murder and pillage. That more than
three hundred desperadoes actually refuse to make
such a promise is sufficient proof that further secu-
rity for the public safety is necessary during the Par-
liamentary recess. The most important part of the
debate, however, did not regard the continuance of
the Act, about which there could be no serious dif-
ference of opinion. Lord Kimberley made a frank
exposition of his views, and there is no reason
to suppose that lie spoke under the influence of
party feeling, or that any prejudices acquired in
the land he has been governing blind his judgment.
In the first place, the late Viceroy fully confirms
all that has been said of the dangerous character of
,the conspiracy. It had not people of property and
gentlemen at its head, like the rebellion of 1798 or
the noisy movement of 1848 ; but all the other
classes of Irishmen were more or less represented in
it. " The persons who.were most active in pro-
moting the conspiracy," says Lord Kimberley,
" were not the poorer and more ignorant classes,
but persons I can best describe as belonging to
the artisan and small tradesmen classes." "As
regards the farming classes, of whom I have
frequently seen it asserted that they did not
sympathise with this sedition, I regret that in its
full extent I cannot repeat that statement." In the
south and west of Ireland the farmers, though they
did not take part in the conspiracy, would, in Lord
Kimberley's opinion, have been perfectly ready to
join a rebellion if it had proved successful. There is
oth ing unreasonable in this view, and it is confirmed
by the course events have taken. The active Fenians
may be few in number, and as long as the Govern-
ment can deal with them the country may be quiet.
But there is a large class of society ready to take ad-
vantage of any reverse that may befall British rule,
and a still larger class, probably amounting to a ma-
jority of Irishmen, who would acquiesce, not unwil-
lingly, in any authority which might contrive to over-
throw it. Let us, then, for a moment suppose that the
Irish populationis alienated from its allegiance, and
would gladly, or, at any rate, without resistance,
see th 3 political connection of the two islands at an
end. It is an extreme supposition, but it is better
to look at the worst boldly, and to consider what is
to be done with a people who, living under the same
Government, are so unfriendly to us. If they could
unmoor their island and float two thousand miles
to the westward, the question would be soon set-
tled, and they might become a State of the Ameri-
can Union, or an independent Republic, one and in-
divisible, withouthindrance from us. But they are on
our coasts, and the political union between the two
countries must at all costs be maintained. There are
only two means of effecting this—coercion or con-
ciliation. There are thoughtless or unscrupulous
speakers who assert that British policy has exclu-
sively used the former means ; but such assertions
are hardly worthy of refutation. The removal of
all the grievances which were urged by the orators
of the last generation is a sufficient answer to such
an assertion. The wish of men of all parties in
England—we intentionally except Irish Tories—
is to do justice to every class and creed in Ireland,
and to remove every real cause of discontent.
The difficulty is to find the cause of the admitted
disorder. Irish politicians have each their remedy,
and, whereas a few years since the complaint was
that Irish laws were not assimilated to those of
England, we arc now told that it is an absurdity
to talk of " identical institutions" for the two
countries. We may put aside as trifling the ques-
tions of the Lord-Lieutenancy and the pay :nent
by the nation of the creditors of insolvent Irish
railways ; but there is a large agreement of opinion
to the effect that the reform of the Irish Church,
and some legislation on the tenure of land which
shall protect the more defenceless tenants, would
conciliate the Irish people. On the merits of the
Irish Establishment we presume there cannot be
two opinions among impartial men. The Church
of 700,000 people, established amid a population
of 5,500,000, is an anomaly which no one on
this side of St. George's Channel attempts to
defend. But, strange to say, it has always
been more keenly felt by Englishmen than in
Ireland, and the Fenians professed an equal hos-
tility to the Ministers of both religions. The land
question is more difficult, and we doubt whether
any legislation will effect a solution which will
be just both for landlord and tenant. The real
evil of Ireland is the excessive competition for
land, arising from the existence of a large popu-
lation which lives exclusively by agriculture. So
long as there arc half-a-dozen bidders for every
farm, landlords will be able to make their own terms,
and it is not in human nature that those terms
should be other than hard. The peasantry must
have land at any price, and if one will not consent'
to the landlord's conditions, another will. The real
reform in the tenure of land will come when emi-
gration or new employments have allowed the oc-
cupier to drive a better bargain for himself. But,
undoubtedly, this question deserves all the conside-
ration Parliament can give it. We are bound as a
nation to do all that may be justly and reasonably
done to content the Irish people ; if they then still
continue hostile, we shall know that their antipathy
is beyond any legislative remedy.
HERALD.—A public execution is one of those
scenes which society only bears from a conviction of
its necessity, and which it would very unwillingly
see heightened by the addition of unaccustomed
horrors. Sad and solemn as is the sight at all times
it is especially so when the culprit is in the prime of
life, respectable in position, and, up to the time
when he committed a capital crime, of fair character
and conduct, belonging to a class of society which
furnishes but few perpetrators of offences against
the person, and having taken upon himself those
social responsibilities which generally tend to deve-
lope the qualities of the peace-loving and law-ob-
serving citizen. Humanity shrinks from the thought
of putting a fellow-man to a violent death, except in
cases of the sternest necessity; and even when that
necessity has been demonstrated, it desires to make
the mortal struggle as brief and as painless as possi-
ble. The unfortunate incident which took place at
Stafford yesterday is therefore one especially to be
regretted by those who regard the infliction of the
death penalty in certain cases as a duty which
society owes to its peaceful and well-conducted
members. IVilliam Collier, convicted at the last
assizes of the murder of Mr. Thomas Smith, was
brought out to suffer his deserved doom. The
fatal noose was adjusted, the drop fell, and of