The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-14 00:00:00

AUG UST 14, 1850,

EVENING,

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, August 13.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Wool-
sack at Five o'clock.

Lord BEAUMONT presented several petitions in
favour of the Friendly Societies Bill from different parts
of the country.
PORTLAND HARBOUR AND BREAKWATER

two individuals, he must say that, having heard choir
statements, he was unable to extract the slightest excuse
or explanation of what they had done. In these cir-
cumstances, he was under the painful necessity of mov-
ing that each be committed to custody for one fortnight.
He then moved that Charles Gream and Michael Alex.
ander Gage be committed to the custody of the black
rod, and to be by him transmitted to the gaol of New-
gate, and there imprisoned for one fortnight.
The motion wAs agreed to unanimously.
Mr. Gream and Mr. Gage were then removed in
custody.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION—IRELAND.

The Earl of RODEN had, he said, to propose a ques-
tion to the Noble Ma!quis of which he had given notice,
and with respect to which he was anxious to elicit an
answer from the Noble Marquis. He was about to pro-
pose that question in no hostile spirit, for he was the
last person in that House who would propose to place
any embarrassment in the way of those eh() now pre-
sided over the affairs of Ireland. Having passed a long
1 fe in the sister kingdom, and having mixed with all
classes of society in that country, he believed ho was
well acquaints d with the opinionS of his countrymen, and
had received from them—he might say from all of them
—marks of great kindness, and. therefore, was most
anxious upon any subject in which they were interested.
He wished he could say that it was his ,opinion that
any amelioration had taken place in the situation of
Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) When they came to look back
at the circumstances that had taken place in that part
of Ireland—when they came ter fleet upon all the
scenes of blood that had taken place, and that had
occurred month after month—then he said they had
no reason to suppose that any change for the better had
taken place either in the social or moral condition of
Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) And here he must beg leave to
say that he did nut think that any change, such as they
must all desire, could be effected so long as the system
of national education was deemed to be the right one,
and the only system to be supported by the Government.
—(Hear, hear.) He could not help thinking that to
deny the Holy Scriptures to the people, which was part
of the present system of education, and to reuse to give
any part of the public funds to a scriptural education,
was doing that which must leave the people in a state of
ignorance and misery such as they were known to be.
He referred to these facts because they had much to do
with this question.—(Hear, hear.) The unhappy events
that had occurred—the murders of individuals which
had been alluded to, and which they must all deplore,
could not but engage the anxious attention of her Ma-
jesty's Government.—(Hear, hear.) He now begged to
state some facts to their Lordships. Some years ago,
in many parts of the south and west of Ireland, a large
portion of the Roman Catholic inhabitants had left the
Church of Rome and gone to the Church of England;
ha alluded particularly to the district of Dingle, in
Kerry, and to a place (as we understood) in the county
of Limerick. A short time since—about a year ago—
very serious affrays had taken place between the two
parties; and now he had to state the tyrannical course
that bad been pursued, not only against poor indivi-
duals who from conviction had joined the Church of
England, but also against the Protestant minister who
administered to those individuals.—(Hear.) The first
statement he had to make was with regard to Dingle.
The clergyman who superintended that flock had left the
Church of Rome. He was a man of excellent character,
and died about a year and a half ago. He was succeeded
by the Rev. Mr. Lewis, a gentleman, it was to be ob-
served, who had nothing to do with bringing individuals
from the Church of Rome to the Church of England.
This gentleman for the last year had been subjected to
most tyrannical proceedings. He begged leave to read
an account of those proceedings, as sworn to in a court of
justice, in a trial that took place at the last assizes, and
before that eminent judge the Lord Chief Justice Black-
burne. -Mr. Lewis's statement was, that on his
return in October last, he found that both the parish
priests had died, and the Roman Catholic bishop
`ad selected as their successors three priests that
had already distinguished themselves by their
persecption of those who had exercised their right
in changing their religion. These persons had
intimated their intention to give him a warm reception.
—(Hear, bear.) Mr. Lewis had directed emplbyment to
be given to all persons without distinction--(Hear,
hear.) He farther stated that these violent and riotous
proceedings had been sworn to in open court at the
Dingle sessions by the most unimpeachable witnesses;
that it was proved that he had been followed by a riot-
ous mob of upwards of 300 persons, who pursued him as
if he were a mad dog; that the persecution had con-
tinued for the last four months, and that his servant had
been so terried by this violence as to be thrown into a
fever, which resulted in the loss of his reason. When
be (the Earl of Roden) heard in Dublin of these pro-
ceedings, he thought that the facts connected with them
had been overstated. He accordingly sent down a
friend to Dingle, to ascertain by personal inspection what
the real state of the case was. The answer which be
received from this gentleman corroborated to the letter
what had been stated, and in addition said that the mob
had been gradually increasing in number, and that by
their groaning and hissing they had frt quently succeeded
in putting a stop to the service in the church—that the
police had looked on at this outrageous behaviour on
the part of the mob without attempting to interfere or
to arrest the rioters. How different (observed the
Noble Earl) was the conduct of the Protestants of the
north to their dissenting brethren. The only offence
committed by this gentleman was that he was a Protes-
tant minister ; for, as to his great benevolence and
Christian-like temper, he had before him the strongest
evidence to show that the Rev. Gentleman was charac-
terised by both.—(Here the Noble Earl read letters
from two eminent lawyers in testimony of that fact.) It
appeared that in March. or April last, upon a Sunday,
while this clergyman was engaged in the performance
of his duties, he was interrupted by the most violent
yells and hootings from the mob that had assembled
round his church. He sent a policeman out to arrest
some of these disorderly persons; two persons were ac-
cordingly arrested, and were tried before Chief Justice
Blackburne. They were found guilty ; the Chief Jus-
tice sentenced them to six months' imprisonment, ob-
serving that their crime was a serious one, but would
have bees much more serious, only that the Rev. Mr.
Lewis had acted with great leniency by charging them
with the minor offence of conspiracy instead of that of
interrupting Divine worship, which would render
them liable to transportation.—(Hear, hear.) There
was a similar state of things at Croom, where the
Protestant clergyman was assailed by a ruffianly
mob in a like manner. Application was made to the
Irish Government on the subject, to which no attention
was paid. Another application was made in a few days
aftewards, when Sir Thomas Redington wrote to say
that instructions had been given to the police to arrest
all persons that were found guilty of violating the law,
and that one person had been arrested for taking part in
the proceedings referred to. Since then there had been
no petty sessions, for the magistrates had failed to attend.
Now (said the Earl of Roden) we know that a great
many persons had left the Protestant Church and had
joined the Roman Catholic Church, but we never knew
them to be assailed by Protestants in the manner de-
scribed. If he did not believe the facts to be exactly as
he had stated he would never have brought the case for-
ward. He thought that the Government ought to send
stipendiary magistrates to the neighbourhood of angle.
He wished to ask whether these circumstances, to which
he had referred, had been brought under the considera-
tion of the Government, and whether they had taken
any means to preserve the public peace-4o protect their
Protestant ministers from such violence and insult, and
thereby to secure the maintenance of that civil and
religious liberty which was the right of every British
subject?
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE thought that the sub-
ject referred to by the Noble Eerl was one of a serious and
important character, involving as it did much religious
dissension amongst her Majesty's subjects, and produc-
ing a feeling of irritation extending from the highest to
the lowest members of the community. There was no-
thing that the Government could do that it had not done,
and would not do, to put down such a state of things.
But the origin of these unfortunate occurrences was to
be found in the conduct of certain parties, who, though
no doubt actuated by a pious zeal and by motives just in
themselves, yet their conduct partook of what was called
an -aggressive character. These persons, it appeared,
had introduced religious discussions into places where
the great majority of the people were of a totally dif-
ferent persuasion. These discussions and appeals, ad-
dressed to the whole people, had the effect of provoking
a demeanour on the part of the people which it was im-
possible to justify. It was, however, found to be almost
impossible to put an end to dissensions that extended
throughout the whole body of the population. There
were many annoyances experienced by Protestant clergy-
men, not only in Dingle and Croom, but, in many other
places in 'Mend where a system of proselytism was still
carried on. It had been alleged that this system had
been carried on in a form that looked like acts of bribery
—namely, administering food and clothing to poor crea-
tures on condition that they would become Protestants.
Such a system was highly improper and extremely well
calculated to excite irritation, more especially at a time of
extreme suffering and privation. But he did not rise to
justify these proceedings complained of. Oa the con-
trary, he could assure the Noble Earl that the Govern-
ment, and Lord Clarendon particularly, bad made every
effort to put a stop to them. Anndthife hadpthaterrtesoef
the beencases,sthat
p anyen.
reluctance
ee
wasto arrest individuals
accounted
for, a in all he
diary magistrates and the police, by the fact of the ex-
istence of a great deal of excitement, which would have
been greatly aggravated by such an interference. He
believed that the most effectual way of quelling these
disturbances was by the exercise of great forbearance on
the part of these clergymen as well as by the authori-
ties. The magistrates were, however, bound to admi-
nister justice to all parties. They had, however, con-
vincing evidence that the magistrates were not capable
of meeting all the evils that grew up around them. He
bhyadthneo
Noble
et bEuatrtlhawtetrhaearr a everheingdhgeanaidlenlen alluded to
rr ttoaech able
character, but it was stated that they haldiep h
in
cw LI em-
ploymentemres vaenrcyepersonsobnoxiousi
t was
a s so afi
said,
mostleit
people
arimmoralto ia c
re character,generally.as tandir h
ebiTrrhiiteawteiiorno-
that existed. He wished the Noble Earleto
of this fact, that her Majesty's Government
and the
Lord-Lieutenant were by no means indifferent to this
matter, and it' the Noble Ii irl would move for the pro-
duction of such extracts from the police reports as bore
upon this subject, he would have no objection to laying
them on the table of the House.
Lord REDESDALE said it appeared to him that the
magistrates and police took a totally different view of
their duty in Ireland to what they did in England.
Why did not the police arrest a few of the leaders of the
mob in all these cases, and have them summarily con-
victed ? If they had done so, there was very little doubt
but the matter would have been soon put an end to.
The Earl of RODEN having moved for the production
of the papers suggested by the Marquis of Lansdowne,
The Bishop of CHICHESTER wished to have the
opinion of the Lord Chancellor as to whether the per-
sons thus assembled were guilty of a misdemeanour