The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-11 00:00:00

IRELAND.

ILLNESS OF CHIEF JUSTICE PENNEFATHER.
DUBLIN, Nov. 9.—The Chief Justice has not appeared
in the Court of Queen's Bench since the second day of
term. His Lordship is suffering under severe cold and
an inflammation in the eyes. Rumours are still afloat of
judicial changes, founded upon the supposition of the
retirement of Chief Justice Pennefather.

ORANGE OUTRAGE IN TYRONE.
We have seen a letter from Dungannon, giving an ac-
count of some outrages by incendiaries. The victims
are Roman Catholics, who had taken land from which
Orangemen had been evicted. Some persons are in cus-
tody, charged on suspicion. Notices had been posted,
that " No Papist would be a llowed to take the lands."
Those outrages have occurred in the parish of Killyman,
rendered notorious by the former proceeding of the
" Killyman Wreckers."
STATE OF TIPPERARY.

Mr. Sergeant Howley, in addressing the quarter ses-
sions grand jury at Thurles, on Wednerday, thus alluded
to the recent murders in this county •—" I feel I ought
not to pass over, without remark, the crimes—the many
heavy and dreadful crimes—which have been lately per-
petrated within this riding of the county. If they do not
carry with themselves a strong persuasion to the well-
disposed portion of the community, of the necessity,
upon their part to awaken from their criminal in-
differeace—l will not say sympathy with the murderers
—and vigorously to co-operate in the detection of the
guilty delinquents, I cannot think that any means I
might employ could be more effective for that purpose.
How many are there who would themselves shrink
from the crime of murder, think it no harm to
conceal facts which might help to the de-
tection of offenders if promptly stated to the
official authorities ? Such persons may weakly imagine
that it tends to their own security not to mix themselves
up with such matters—they are as foolish as criminal in
thinking so. No man knows, if daring villians gain
confidence from impugnity, how soon the blows may
reach himself ; for every transaction of life, no matter
how trivial, may lead to such crimes, and has been in
this county a sufficient motive to the murderer to strike
his victim and carry out his sanguinary proscription.
Instances are well, known of men who have refused to
impart information they were capable of giving, falling
in their turn victims to that system of crime which, if
they had not actually promoted, they did not at least
aid in checking and putting down. It may, gentlemen,
be very desirable, with a view to prevent the continuance
of such violent crimes, to endeavour to trace the motives
which may be supposed to have produced them—to
ascertain what causes may have produced them—to see
how far those causes (if proper to be removed) should be
set aside, or be so qualified as not to stimulate to violence
and blood the passions of the people. I will not say that
those who enter upon such discussions may not be
actuated by the best intentions, and with a perfect
desire, by the modes to which they resort, to dry
up or to exhaust the springs of crime ; but I can-
not help thinking that it is not quite wise, while
the act of murder is still recent, to raise up collateral
discussions on the general causes of crime, or the par-
ticular motive that may be supposed to have produced
the offence in question. Explanations at such a moment
are too likely to be interpreted as a justification of the
dreadful act, and not only to give additional boldness and
confidence to the ill-disposed, but tend in some measure
to keep back others from aiding in the detection of the
criminal, by throwing round him the false colours of re-
tributive justice. Whilst the pursuit is hot, the only
cry should be against the murderer—and it appears to
me that clinical lectures on the exercise of rights over
the mangled remains of the unhappy victim, are, to say
the least of them, ill-timed, and may be very mis-
chievous."

FEDERALISM: LETTER FROM MR. CRAWFORD
-LOCAL LEGISLATION FOR IRELAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN EVENING POST.

Sir,—lt seems to me that the time is now arrived

when it becomes the imperative duty of those who are
of opinion that local legislation is necessary for Ireland,
openly to state their opinions and their views, and the
means by which that object can be obtained consistently
with the safety of imperial connexion : the principal of
local legislation, combined with imperial supremacy, is
that by which I conceive both these objects can be
effected. This question has never been raised before the
public mind ; but it is misunderstood by many, and
misrepresented by others, while its friends leave it in
the hands of its opponents to be tortured and twisted at
their will and pleasure, without seeming to have
the moral courage to avow their faith, or to
defend its truth. I am of opinion that those who hold
that Ireland requires the application of this principle
are doing deep injustice to their country by shrinking
at this period from its advocacy. I conceive they
ought to assume an independent position, supporting
their views with honest plainness, unfettered by any
attempt to acquire doubtful support ; but opening the
question to the adherence of all sincere friends of their
country, of every party and denomination, who can see
in it a mode of ameliorating her condition or securing
her rights. Desirous, then, to throw off from myself the
stigma of now deserting a cause which I have long ad-
vocated, I respectfully submit to the friends of Ireland
the following observations:—
I shall, as a preliminary step, refer to the practical
evils which have arisen, and which it may be appre-
hended will hereafter occur, from the existing state of
the connexion between Great Britain and Ireland. I
shall class them under the following heads :-
1. Violation and insecurity of civil rights.
2. Imperfect and ignorant legislation regarding our
local institutions and financial capabilities.
3. The danger and the probability of an assim'lation
of taxation.

4. Expenses and difficulties in seeking and obtaining
Acts for improvement.
5. Insufficiency of aid from the State for public works
in Ireland.

6. Evils of centralisation, and probable increase of
them.

7. Inadequacy of the Irish representation in the Im-
perial Parliament to express the wants and feelings of
the people of Ireland.
8. Inadequacy of the Imperial Parliament to do the
work required, under the present system of Parliamen-
tary business.
9. Difference of circumstances between England and
Ireland, rendering assimilation impracticable and inex-
pedient.
10. Proof of the foregoing, from the present condition
of Ireland.

11. Present danger to the connexion of the two
countries.

First—There is no security for civil rights. The
union was based on the theory of identification, but that
identification was not provided for by the Act of Union
—that identification does not exist—that identification
cannot exist between countries whose circumstances are
in every respect so dissimilar as those of England and
Ireland. From this cause separate legislation became
necessary; and how were we treated ? Just as every
country must expect to be treated, and I will say,
deserves to be treated, who place the power of separate
legislation in the hands of the representatives of another
country. By the means of an English majority in the
Imperial Parliament the two great measures for the ad-
vancement of popular liberty—the Parliamentary Re-
form Act and the Corporation Reform Act—were cur-
tailed in all their important provisions when framed
for Ireland, and the rights of the people of Ireland
have been incessantly violated by a succession of ar-
bitrary and unconstitutional laws, passed on various oc-
casions since the union by the same power. In proof
of this I may call to recollection the numerous Insur-
rection Acts, and Acts for the partial infliction of mar-
tial law, the Whig Coercion Act, and the other Coer-
cion Acts which afterwards succeeded it, the Arms
Acts, and more especially the last Arms Act, which I
may designate by way of distinction, the branding
Act. Disturbances have frequently occurred in Eng-
land, but never was she treated by her own representa-
tives as her representatives treated Ireland. I ask, do
not such acts and proceedings as these prove that Ireland
has no available representation against the danger of
separate legislation by the Imperial Parliament, and con-
sequently no security for her rights if England has the
will to invade them ? In such cases the representation
of Ireland in only adequate to give to England a colour-
able pretext to say—" these are the laws of an Imperial
Parliament." Thus Ireland holds her liberties at the
will of England, " and to depend on the will of another
country is the definition:of slavery—" (Grattan).

Secondly--The laws passed by the Imperial Parlia-
ment for the regulation of our local institutions' re gene-
rally full of blunders, and betray the grossest ignorance
of our requirements. I need not enter here into a parti-
cular enumeration—l give one as a specimen of all : I
shall name the Poor-law Act, and I know well that the
strongest friends of the principle of a poor-law will unite
in the assertion of the unsuitableness of its provisions to
the wants of Ireland. In cases where this law works
well, it arises not from the law itself, but from the
guardians exercising a judicious administrative authority,
which bends its austere provisions to the circumstances
of the poor.
Third—The effects of the union, and of imperial le-
gislation, are manifested no less injuriously with regard
to the financial relations of the two countries. The pro-
portion of debt and contribution to the expenditure im-
posed by the Act of Union to be paid by Ireland were
so excessively beyond her powers, that in a few years
she became bankrupt. England then consolidated the
exchequers. An act of bankruptcy cannot again occur
on the part of Ireland, separately from England ; but,
nevertheless, the drain is still going on beyond the
means of Ireland to bear. The revenue is drawn, not
from the luxuries of wealth, but from the means by
which an impoverished people support existence—not
to be spent in Ireland, to circulate and stimulate indus•
try—but to augment the riches of England ; and thus
this drain, drawn, I may say, from the blood of Ireland,
produces the most injurious effects on the ,progress of
improvement, and increases the poverty of her people.
In consequence of the poverty created by these causes,
Ireland is at present exempted from certain descriptions
of taxation imposed upon England and Scotland, more
particularly the assessed taxes and the income-tax ; but
is it to be believed, that if we continue on a system of
joint expenditure, that exemption will be allowed to ex-
exist ? Will the English and Scotch Members agree
that the establishments of Ireland should be paid out of
the imperial funds, and that she should not be sub-
jected to a like system of taxation with themselves ? Is
it just or fair-to expect it ? There is nothing but their
mercy and the mercy of the Minister to prevent it.
What could your puny Irish representation in the Im-
pe:ial Parliament do to stem the evil ? You now plead
at the bar of England in forma pauperi—your plea
is at present admitted ; but the moment Ireland
shows symptoms of rising prosperity, her progress
will be crushed by these new inflictions of taxation from
which you can only be saved by a new arrangement of
the financial relations of the two countries. I ask, are
the landed aristocracy, and the impoverished trading
interests, prepared to endure the:consequences of the
assimilation of taxation ? If you are prepared to submit

in your happy state of inaction—stifle every rising
thought about your country's rights or interests ; but,
mark, when the tax-gatherer knocks at your door, let us
hear no murmur of complaint. You will have no right
to complain. If you shall suffer evil, you will only suffer
the just recompense of your own deserts.
Fourth—The enormous expenses and other difficulties
in procuring Acts for local improvements in the Imperial
Parliament, are such as a poor country like Ireland can-
not compass—therefore, improvement, and its necessary
accompaniment, employment, is virtually stopped by this
cause alone.
Fifth— The improvements of a poor country, where
capital does not abound, would require some support
from the revenues of the State. The riches of England
enable the Imperial Parliament to refuse this aid to
England, and, consequently, it is refused to Ireland,
although the circumstances are so totally different.
Sixth—l would put it to Irishmen of all sects, can
they deny the evils which have arisen to Ireland from
the centralization system, as far as it has been carried
out, aril the increase of evil which will be produced by
its completion ? Do they not see the public boards and
public offices transferred one by one to the metropolis of
England, drawing away to that one great vortex the
whole expenditure of the country? That great evil of
Ireland, the absenteeism of its landed proprietors, has
been immeasurably increased; not only pleasure, but the
emoluments and duties of office, draw them away from
their country. The public expenditure in every depart-
ment of the state thus becomes a source of exhaustion to
Ireland. But this is not all; the centralizers will exert
every power to put down the demand of Ireland for
local institutions by increased consolidation. They know
that so long as any one separate institution remains to
distinguish Dublin from any provincial town in England,
the demand for a local legislature cannot be resisted by
argument. Your Lord Lieutenancy will be abolished—
the business of your executive will be done by some
English-Irish secretary in London—your separate courts
of law will be abolished—lreland will cease to have a
metropolis. Dublin, without the stimulent of official
expenditure—without commerce or manufacture—with-
out the means of support or employment for its popula-
tion—will sink into that state of wretchedness and de-
cline which has been the fate of many splendid cities,
whose ruins are now the only indications of their former
prosperity.
Seventh—Conservatives talk of the evils of agitation ;
they say that agitation is the bane of Ireland. I ask
them what produces agitation ? Discontent. What

produces discontent ? The feeling of suffering by the
people, and the impression that there is no effective organ
to declare their wants or wishes. Can any one say that
the representation of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament
is an effective organ for that purpose ? I may here refer
to the words of Grattan, so forcibly applicable to this
part of the subject :—" What ! when you banish Parlia-
ment, do you banish the people ? Do you extinguish
the sentiment—do you extinguish the soul ? Do you
put out the spirit of liberty when you destroy that organ,
constitutional and capacious, through which that spirit
may be safely and discreetly conveyed ? What is the
excellence of our Constitution ? It provides an organ
. . . . through which the humour of society may
pass away without preying on the vitals. Parliament is
that body where the whole intellect of the country may
be collected, and where the spirit of patriotism, of li-
berty, and of ambition, may all act under the; control
of that intellect, and under the check of publicity and
observation." I maintain this is what Ireland requires.
Can any impartial person say, that the interests of Ire-
land have been properly attended to by the Imperial
Parliament 2—and can it be denied that agitation has
produced an attention to those interests which could not
have been otherwise obtained ? I desire, then, a legiti-
mate organ of expression for the declaration of the
people's voice—l desire a local Legislature in the two
Houses of which full effect will be given to the voice of
the people, modified by the moral weight of a resident
aristocracy.
Eighth—l would ask, can it be asserted that the Im-
perial Parliament is capable of properly transacting all
the immense mass of public and private business which
is now imposed upon it, unless some new arrangement
of that business be effected ? The establishment of local
legislation for Ireland would be one of the most effective
means of diminishing the laborious duties of the Impe-
rial Parliament.
Ninth—Assimilation of laws, which is essential to
consolidation and real union, can only take place where
there is assimilation of circumstances. Are the circum-
stances of England and Ireland similar ? England, the
highest country in the world in commerce and manufac-
tures—lreland among the lowest ; the former a com-
mercial country—the latter an agricultural. Can the
identical same laws be suitable to two countries where

the difference of their condition is so great ? Can the
same system and amount of taxation be borne, which
must be the unavoidable result of a junction of expendi-
ture ? Will the same laws and institutions answer for a
country in the incipient move towards prosperity, which
apply to the matured condition of England's wealth ? It
might as well be said the same quality and quantity of
food would be fit for the infant and the adult : the food
which would be fit for the man would kill the child.
Such will be the fate of Ireland if she be not treated
with the indulgent care which her feeble advances to-
wards prosperity require, by giving her every encourage-
ment which is not inconsistent with the interests of the
empire at large, and with that perfect freedom of com-
mercial intercourses between every part and portion of
the United Kingdom which is essential to the peace and
prosperity of the whole.
Tenth—The truth of the foregoing positions will be
proved by a reference to the present condition of this
country. Ido not propose to enter into the hackneyed
line of argument with regard to the advance in trade and
manufacture, or in national rights, which have occurred
at different periods, both under the existence of the Irish
Parliament and the Imperial Parliament ; no candid
man can deny that good and evil measures have emanated
from both Parliaments, but good ones only when the
external power of the public mind has coerced assent. I
care not about statistics of commerce and manufactures
as indexes of national prosperity, unless it be proved
that the condition of the mass of the population corres-
pond with these indications. Now, what is the condi-
tion of Ireland after 43 years' existence of the union ?
We have the statement of the poor inquiry commis-
sioners, that in a population of about 8,000,000 of souls,
there is an amount of pauperised population to the ex-
tent of not less than 2,300,000. This statement may be
somewhat exaggerated in figures, but it is undoubtedly a
true description of the general condition of Ireland : our
people are unemployed whilst our extended natural re- I
sources are undeveloped—our waste lands unimproved,
and our richest lands in a state of not so much as half-
production. We are without manufactures or capital of
our own, and nothing but a scanty pittance of the super-
abundance of English capital has yet crossed the channel
which separates us, whilst it is applied with such
profuse extravagance within the limits of her own ter-
ritory. We have agrarian combination among the
small occupiers of the soil for the purpose of procuring
that justice by their own laws which the laws and insti-
tutions of the state do not afford them the means of
obtaining. We have a general spirit of discontent
against British rule, which rule is only at this moment
maintained by the power of military occupation. We
have no identification of laws, feelings, rights, or into.
rests—all the great features of condition and social rela-
tions which can form characters of distinction between
any two countries exist with relation to England and
Ireland. The sea which intervenes between us, and
which must ever check the freedom and speed of com-
munication attainable on land, still proclaims, as in the
days of Grattan, that we are not, and cannot be identified
as one country, and every reference to past and present
circumstances proves that Ireland must depend mainly
upon her own exertions and her own resources for the
advancement of her prosperity.
Eleventh—l would, in the last place, put this ques-
tion to the friends of British and Irish connexion. Is
that connexion now in a state of security, or in a con-
dition which can be beneficial to either country ? Is it
not a parchment connexion, liable to be torn asunder,
whenever it shall be the object of any foreign State,
hostile to Britain, to open the rent ? Does it not, in its
present state, render Ireland the weakness, instead of
the strength of Britain ? Is it not wasting her own re-
sources to hold Ireland in this way, instead of adding
those derivable from Ireland to her Treasury ? Is it not
necessary that some means should be taken to strengthen
the ties of friendly union, which alone can become strong
when the connexion they bind together is founded on
the basis of equal interests, and mutual benefits and con-
fidence ?

The foregoing short review of the circumstances and
condition of Ireland, will, I trust, be considered sufficient
to warrant me in the conclusion (and in calling on others
to join me in that conclusion) that some change' should
be adopted to remedy the evils complained of. What
that change should be I shall endeavour to point out in
a succeeding section of these observations.

WILLIAM SHARMAN CRAWFORD.
Crawfordsburn, Nov. 7, 1844.
CITY OF DUBLIN REGISTRY.

Yesterday the numbers admitted were—Liberals, 14 ;
Tories, 13. The Tories are still unable to recover their
lost ground.
THE NEW WHIG JUDGE.—The grimaces, the contor•
Lions, of the orange polytrashery press, on the subject of
the late Whig appointment, are most comical to witness.
They tell us they should net be surprised if Mr. Pigot
were the next judge—nor should we. We promise our
readers some amusement on this matter in the course of
the ensuing week.--Dublin Evening Post.
DINNER TO MR. O'CONNELL IN KERRY.—A letter
from the Liberator arrived in town last night, stating
that until after the provincial banquet in Limerick he
could not possibly accept the invitation.—Kerry Exami-
ner of Friday.

THE MURDER AT BARNANE.—Yesterday (Friday)
morning three men, named Martin Maher, the elder,
Martin Maher, the younger, and William Maher, were
fully committed to the gaol, at Nenagh, by John Gore
Jones, Esq., R.M., and Major Priestly, to take their
trials at the next assizes, for the wilful murder of Ti-
n. othy Cleary, near BArnane.— Tipperary Vindicator.
Lord De Mauley, Mr. Wellesley, and Mr. Drummond,
are at present enjoying the hospitality of the Earl of
Besborough at Besborough House. Mr. Norman Mac-
donald has left town for Besborough House on a visit to
the Earl of Besborough.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES'S BlRTH-
DAY.—Saturday being the third anniversary of the
birthday of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the
morning was ushered in by the ringing of a merry peal
at the different churches throughout the metropolis.
The royal standard was hoisted at the Tower, Somerset
House, St. Martin's, St. Giles's. St. Margaret's, the
Italian opera, and the usual public edifices. The el- il-
dren belonging to the Welch Schools in Gray's Inn-lane
had a holiday on the occasion of the natal day of their
Prince and were regaled with a substantial dinner of
roast beef and plum-pudding. At Windsor the day was
kept by the different tradespeople who furnish the Castle.
During the absence of her Majesty and Prince Albert
this week the state apartments at the Castle will be onpn