The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-07 00:00:00

THE SUN,

to many serious privations ? The painful facts can-
not be controverted or denied ; and as they have
been deliberately excluded from the benefit of the
grant, it is plain that the Cuffe-street depositors
must have some peculiarly strong feature in their
case to soften the obdurate heart that remained
steeled against the complaints of the sufferers at
Tralee and Killarney ; that, in fact, they must
have some legal or equitable demand on the national
Exchequer.
But this supposition is as difficult to be sustained
as the former. The sum granted is but 30,0001.,
while the losses are nearly 64,7001., the liabilities
when the bank stopped payment in 1848 amounting
to 64,7441. 3i. 6d., and the assets to the ridiculously
small sum of 901. 16s. 6d. There will, therefore, be
only sufficient to pay about 9s. in the pound, less than
half of the actual demands; and we cannot conceive
how the Government of a mighty nation, which prides
itself on the scrupulous observance of public faith,
should enter into a composition with those whom it
admits to have some description of claim upon the
national Exchequer. By the inconsistent course
adopted by Sir CHARLES Woon, the Government of
which he is a member is involved in this
disagreeable dilemma : it is either an act of charity
or an act of justice. If the former, the depositors in
the Banks of Tralee and Killarney should participate,

if the latter, 203. in the pound should be paid to the
Cuffe-street depositors, and nut a paltry and beggarly
composition, such as might be realised from a bankrupt
estate, but not what could be expected from the
wealthiest nation in the world. In either case Minis-
ters have been deceived by their colleague, and in-
duced to adopt a very undignified and impolitic
course.

The facts elicited in the inquiry before the

Committee with respect to the Cuffe-street Saving!

! Bank, and which are briefly set forth in the report of
that Committee, are such as to render the Govern-
ment clearly responsible. It should not be forgotten
that the investigation which was so loudly demanded
by the injured parties was strenuously resisted by the
Government, and it was not until they had twice been
left in decisive minorities that the inquiry was con-
ceded, and even then, contrary to the usual practice,
the nomination of the Committee was taken out of
the hands of the Honourable Member who had suc-
ceeded in his motion, and usurped by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer notwithstand-
ing his defeat. The course adopted before
the Committee was, if we are to credit one of its
most active and intelligent Members, the Honourable
Representative for Kerry, worthy of the commence-
ment. Mr. HENRY HERBERT declared that " the
whole course of the Government was to screen indi-
viduals from the punishment which ought to have
been meted out to them for the worst of all frauds—

frauds committed against the poor." Notwithstand-
ing this conduct on the part of Ministers, some
startling facts were elicited which clearly and dis
tinctl y established, if not the legal liability of the
national Exchequer, at least so strong and equitable
a claim that we cannot conceive how it could be for a
mOmen t disputed.
It appears, then, that the insolvency of the Cuffe-
street Savings Bank is not of very recent date.
Nineteen years ago, in 1831, a large deficiency was
discovered arising from the fraudulent conduct of the
registrar, a Mr. DeNNE, who absconded in the early
part of that year. The question of the bank was then
brought under the notice of the Commissioners for

the Reduction of the National Debt. It does not ap-
pear, however, that any very energetic course was
adopted, or the stringent and searching inquiry
instituted which the importance of the
case required. Mr. TIDD PRATT was sent
over to Dublin, and that Learned Gentleman
adjudicated on certain cases brought under his notice,
and pronounced in favour of certain claims to the
extent of 7,5891. Bs., which he directed to be paid
forthwith, and against others to the amount of 4,2741.,
which, however, he recommended to be paid out of
any future surplus that might accumulate in the
funds of the bank. He did not, however, fully byes.
tigate the affairs of the bank, and, placing confidence
in the integrity of the trustees, a confidence which un-
fortunately was altogether misplaced, he recommended
that the bank should be kept open.

This unfortunate decision enabled the then trus-
tees, many of whom were perfectly solvent, to evade
the liabilities for which they were held responsible.
They did not pay any portion of the 7,5891. Bs., but
satisfied these claims, as well as the 4,2741. (pro-
nounced to be illegal), out of the new deposits, and
even considerable sums that were subsequently
brought to light, which had been plundered by Mr.
DUNNE out of the new deposits. All this time the
Commissioners of the National Debt took no notice
of the continually increasing deficiency, until, in
1838, when it appeared that there was no less
than 25,3711. 12s. 2d. unaccounted for, when
the Commissioners recommended a thorough
investigation of the accounts, which the trustees
refused to allow, and the Commissioners at once
yielded. In 1845 the state of the bank was again
brought under the notice of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, who recommended that the bank should
be closed ; but again the trustees refused to obey,
and the Government at once yielded, being, as it is
alleged, " unwilling to run the risk of creating
a run of these institutions." How do these un-

questionable facts speak in favour of the Govern-
ment audit that is demanded for railways ? Let
shareholders see the value of such au audit in the
case of the savings banks, and be satisfied with
guarding their own interests, without inviting
an extraneous interference, that will only lull their
own vigilance. But, revenons a nous moutons, in
1848 the crash that was long inevitable arrived ; the
bank closed with liabilities to the extent of 64,7741.,
and assets 901. There had been 1,9501. in hand, but
the excellent, worthy trustees (!) paid the entire to
their own friends, who had not given notice of with-
drawal, while those who had served the necessary
notices were altogether refused. In the interval all
the solvent trustees had withdrawn, and none re-

mained but men of straw, not worth powder and
shot, and utterly unable to satisfy deficiencies fur
which they might be held liable.
This simple statement requires little comment.
The public can judge for themselves whether Minis-
ters acted worthily in offering the sufferers a com-
position of les3 than 10s. in the pound.

Under the British Constitution, as well as all other
systems of civil polity not strictly despotic, true
liberty consists in doing freely whatever the laws
allow. The property and person of every subject of
these realms are under the guardianship of those laws
which have been framed for the benefit of all, and
in the preservation of which every good citizen
should feel deep interest. Rules of civil policy
based on the sacred principle of " the greatest hap-
piness of the greatest number" should be sur-
rounded with every safeguard consistent with ra-
tional liberty. And we might go farther and say,
that should any sudden emergency arise, for which the
ordinary laws are insufficient, it is no violation of the
Constitution to grant to the executive of a free state
extraordinary powers to meet extraordinary occa-
sions, taking care that these powers should be li-
mited as to time and extent, and that they should not
survive the occasion which called them forth, or, at
the utmost, that period up to which there could be
entertained any reasonable fears of its recurrence.
These remarks have been suggested by the propo-
sition submitted to the House of Commons on Fri-
day by the Government to continue to the Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland certain extraordinary power&
granted to him by a Bill passed—" The Crime and
Outrage Bill"—in the last session of Parliament,
during the disturbances in the sister country. On
reading the intention of Ministers to ask for a
continuance of this Bill, our first impression was to
cry out "Volumes leges Anglia mutare ;" we were
disposed to think that in the present comparatively
tranquil state of Ireland the ordinary laws would be
sufficient, and we were most unwilling to give our
assent to any measure granting powers beyond those
which the ancient laws and the Constitution con
(erred, and which perchance, in the hands of a bad.
Minister, may injuriously affect the rights and liber-
ties of a large portion of our fellow-subjects.

If some monarch like the first CHARLES, whose
vacillating and unconstitutional conduct led at once
to the less of his head and Crown, wielded the sceptre
of England,—if the monarch were represented in
Ireland by a Minister as unscrupulous, and unprin-

LONDON,

those who composed the " Cabal" of CHARLES the
Second,—if popular liberty were but a name, and
public opinion powerless, then indeed might
such a measure be dangerous to the rights
and liberties of the people, and under
such circumstances should receive no assent
from us. But when this empire is ruled by a con-
stitutional SOVEREIGN, who reigns in the hearts of her
subjects, when she is represented in Ireland by a
statesman who has so fully proved his wisdom and
trustworthiness, and when that wise statesman is
aided by an able Chief Secretary, in whom the people
have confidence as an honest and straightforward
Irishman, we entertain no fears in conferring upon
Lord CLARENDON the powers sought for by this Bill.
We believe this Bill will lie as much a dead letter as
any remnant of the penal code which still disgraces
the statute-book, unless some pressing exigency shall
arise to call for its exercise, and that even then it
will be used, as it has been hitherto, with prudence,
moderation, and wisdom.

The objections mide to the introduction of this
Bill would rather lead us to the conclusion that some
such Bill may become necessary before the next
meeting of Parliament. Those gentlemen who op-
pose this measure say, " You raised the hopes of the
Irish people, you promised that you would redress
their many grievances, you led them to believe that
you would settle the land question by an adjust-
ment of the relations between landlords
and tenants. True, the country is now
tranquil, but you have disappointed the just hopes of
the people, you have sown the seeds of discontent
by allowing another session to pass without settling
that question which has been the cause of so much
crime and blood."

Now the leaving unsettled this and other questions
affecting the interests of Ireland form, in our opinion,
strong grounds for the necessity of this measure.
Irish discontent frequently leads to turbulence and
crime, and the social elements in that unfortunate
country have not as yet settled down to such a state
of quiescence as would warrant the refusal to the
Chief Governor of Ireland of the powers conferred
by this Bill, powers which his greatest enemies can-
not say he has abused, but, on the contrary, which
he has used with prudence and wisdom.
Through the instrumentality of this Bill th e
country has been brought from a state of disorder
and turbulence to one of comparative peace and
order, at least it was one of the chief instruments in
enforcing obedience to the laws ; and it has one
quality of great importance in our eyes; it
not only has the power to punish, bity
to serve as a preventive. And, after all,
what are the powers granted lay this Bill ?
What class of her MAJESTY'S subjects will be affected
by the exercise of them? Which is of greater im-
portance—the violation of what is called a consti-
tutional principle, or the peace and happiness of
Ireland ?

The Bill now before the House is not one for the
suppression of public discussion ; it is neither an
Algerine nor an Insurrection Act. It is not a Bill
indiscriminately to affect the innocent and the guilty.
The peaceful and orderly portions of the country will
be entirely free from its operation. It can wily be
put in execution where crime and outrage prevail
the honest, the peaceful, the orderly will not be
affected by it. The reckless incendiary, the mid-
night assassin, the evildoers alone need have any
dread of its operation. Under these circumstances,
we conceive the opposition to this Bill on constitu-
tional grounds untenable, and on social grounds
unwarrantable, and we trust the Government will not
be deterred from going •on with this Bill, as
we conceive it necessary for the well-being and peace
of Ireland, at least till the land question be settled—

as we sincerely trust it will be in the next session of
Parliament—and some remedial measures be applied
to the many other social and political evils of that
country. The discontinuance of the Arms Bill was
productive of much mischief, the discontinuance of the
Party Processions Act led to the murders at Dollys
Brae; we trust then the Government will take a
lesson from the past, and not allow the session to pass
without arming the Lord-Lieutenant with the powers
he requires to prevent or punish crime and outrage in
Ireland.