The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-10 00:00:00

THE stJ4,__LONpON,

case of Mr. O'Connell. The Right Hun. Gentle:
man had, doubtless, felt that it tetnild be a great
injustice if, slit months hence, it should be announced by
the Judges that the imprisonment of Mr. O'Connell had
been illegal—that he would have been illegally impri-
soned for this long period. It seemed to him to follow
as an irresistible inference, that though the injustice
might be less, it would still be most signal, if his impri-
sonment should have continued fot tree months from
the 30th of last May, and it should appear that the ver-
dict had been unfairly obtained from a jury both sectarian
and hostile. Under these circumstances he ventured to
submit to the consideration of the Right Hon. Gentle-
man whether, as he had himself admitted that the
matter was one of great importance, and must be treated
as one of no ordinary doubt and of some difficulty—it
would not be the best policy, at all events whether it
would not show more generosity and wisdom, instead of
waiting to ascertain whether the lawyers should have
succeeded in picking the lock of the Richmsnd Peniten-
tiary, at once to unbar the prison doors and give
back Mr. O'Connell to the Irish people ? Convicted
as he had been by a sectarian jury, he thought
the matter called for consideration. The Right
Honourable Baronet had introduced an Act for re-
gulating the management of Roman Catholic charitable
bequests and donations. He thought the measure a
great improvement on the old system ; it substituted a
much better board of management for the old one ; it
mitigated the old principle of ascendancy. But mark !
the Right Hon. Baronet had introduced into that board
five Roman Catholics, and he had done so on the special
grounds that a mixed jury of Catholics and Protestants
ought to administer the charitable bequests in Ireland.
Did it not appear to follow from hence, that in all ques-
tions where the feelings of Catholics and Protestants
were concerned, the jury should be a mixed one ?
(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord, the Member for the
City of London, had solemnly declared, in his place as
leader of the Opposition, that the trial of Mr. O'Connell
was an unfair one—a declaration from which he had
never receded. That ho thought a reason why the subject
should be considered. The Right Hon. Bart. appreciated
fame ; he was sensible of the value of true renown, he
passed every day the statue of Canning, and
looked upon Westminster Abbey, and he must know
that a time would come when his merit in the great
transactions in which he bore so conspicuous a part
would be tried, not by the Members of the old lobby or
the new one, bat by a different test—when it should be
said that his great political antagonist, the great leader
of the Catholic people of Ireland, was convicted by a
jury exclusively composed of Protestants, under circum-
stances the most suspicious—when it should be said
that he still by force kept him in gaol, notwithstand-
ing those circumstances. Whatever other materials
the commentator or historian might find in the conduct
of the Right Hon. Baronet for commendation, history in
this particular part of his eonduct would pronounce him
guilty of a great contradiction. But he s ill had it in
his power to furnish history with a lesson of generosity
and magnanimity, by throwing aside all feelings of vin-
dictiveness, and healing the wound with the same weapon
with which itwas made. What had they gained by Daniel
O'Connell's imprisonment? The proclamation suppressed
the monster meetings : after the verdict the repeal rent
fell ; but from the moment sentence was pronounced the
rent rose, and that great national contribution increased
almost every day in amount. They had put three editors
of newspapers in prison, and at the present moment the
press was more exciting than ever. The Nation newspaper,
whose editor was imprisoned, circulated eleven thousand
copies ; that paper was written with distinguished ability,
appealing, perhaps, rather too strongly to the spirit
of nationality in the Irish people ; and the Catholic
clergy, those great representatives of the feelings of the
Catholic people, were, almost to a man, against them.
Ireland was said to be tranquil, but he, who know the
people of Ireland, who was well acquainted, by a pain-
ful experience with their wretched condition, he, who was
interested in the maintenance of the public peace, and
who took no sort of share, direct or indirect, in the agi-
tation pervading Ireland, told them that the state of the
country was not safe ; that there prevailed a deep anti-
pathy towards this country—an antipathy which at all
times was to be deprecated. But they were now placed
in a position which made it matter, he would not say of
alarm, but, at all events, of deep and meditative forecast,
how they should act towards Ireland. They had taken
a position which he- for one commended, which became
them as a great nation to take—which proved
they were determined that England should hold
the noble position she ought to occupy; but he told them
that, possessed of the affections of Ireland, with Ireland
united and reconciled, they would have a far better
muniment than the Martello towers round her coast.
Mr. WYSE said he begged to add a few words to
the energetic appeal made by his Right Hon. Friend to
the House, and through the House to the country. Mr.
O'Connell had not appealed either to the Government or
to that House by petition for the slightest remission of
his sentence; nor had any of the other prisoners; but
the people of Ireland were deeply impressed with the
belief that the trial had not been one calculated to vindi-
cate the majesty of the law, or to give a fair and just
means of ascertaining either their guilt or innocence.
The people of Ireland would not forget that
they ,had been convicted by a jury of twelve
Protestants. But to that House an appeal was
made to investigate: the facts connected with that trial,
which the judges on the bench had declared were at least
liable to suspicion, and that appeal was refused by a
majority of that House. He entreated of them, what-
ever their politics or their religion might be, not to allow
the impression to go abroad that all justice was to be
denied them. He begged of them to be wise in time,
because the people of Ireland had not worn out their
patience. They came not to that House in the voice of
supplication. They were slier t, but they waited only
the time when they could wound England in the hour of
her dbaress. He implored them not in the language of
terror, but in the voice of advice and warning, that they
would think of the words which they heard from the
representatives of Ireland before they returned to their
homes. He beseeched of them, not with feelings of
anger, but in the spirit of kindness, if they intended to
do anything in the way of conciliation, to do it in time.
Lord J. RUSSELL said that, during the time the late
Administration were in office, it was the custom to dis-
perse throughout the country in the summer and autumn,
a pamphlet purporting to be a speech of Lord Lyndhurst
—(Laughter)—pointing out in what manner the various
Bills had been introduced into Parliament, when they
were adjourned, how often they were postponed, and
which of them had•not arrived at the consummation of
becoming Acts of Parliament. He never had considered
that course a just or a fair one. He did not consider it
so in the first place, because the Houses of Parliament
themselves, however well they might be disposed to
consider measures, yet in the course of discussion inter-
posed so many obstacles to their becoming law, that an
Administration could not be justly chargeable with all
the legislative measures which might occur during the
session. He thought it an unfair course, because it was
notorious that one of the Houses of Parliament was
chiefly composed of Members belonging to one political
party. It was notorious that that party, having been in
power during a long period of years, had placed in that
House of Parliament about two hundred Members of
their own party ; and of the four hundred Members
of which that House consisted, about two hundred had
been placed there by the advice of the Ministers of that
party during those years. It was natural that those
who entertained those politics, who had entered into
Parliament with strong prejudices of that kind, should
be adverse to the Ministers of a different political party.
It was not difficulteetherefore, for persons who had
authority with that Parliament, to secure the rejection
of Bills, however useful, which were promoted by a
Ministry with whom they did not concur. But no
doubt that mode of proceeding made its impression: It
was considered by many persons that the Ministry
must have failed in its duty when so many of its Bills
had not obtained the sanction of the Legislature.
That course he (Lord J. Russell) had never followed ;
it was not a course which he was then about to follow.
If he were about tt do so, he thought that he should
have far more reason to object to the Ministry then in
power. In the first place it was notorious, and had been
proclaimed by themselves, that the present Ministry had
a majority having confidence in their administration in
both Houses of Parliament ; in the next place,
the present Ministry had had the greatest
difficulty placed in the way of their legislation. But he
did not see any public advantage which could be derived
from tracing the history of the different Bills, and point-
ing out that many of them had failed.—(Hear, hear.)
But he had, at the close of another session, called the
attention of the House when it was about to separate, to
the existing state of the country.
The Usher of the Black Rod here summoned the
House to hear the Royal assent given to certain Bills
('or which see Lords' report.)
On the return of the SPEAKER,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL resumed—He said he had
already stated that he thought it might not be without
its use, at the close of the session, to consider what was
the present state of the country, and how they might be
enabled to consult its welfare when they were next
called by her Majesty to meet for the dispatch of busi-
ness. In speaking last year of the affairs of the coun-
try, he had entered at considerable length into the state
of Ireland. His Right Hon. Friend, who had spoken
on that occasion had alluded to part of that great sub-
ject. The Right Hon. Gentleman, when, in 1839, he
was speaking of the formation of a Government under
his auspices, stated, or rather confessed, that his chief
difficulty was Ireland. He was surprised that with the
exception of one circumstance to which he then alluded
—a circumstance that he considered so trifling, that he
should not then advert to it—the present Government
after that announcement by their head, had never taken

seriously into their consideration the state of Ireland,
with a view to its amelioration. It was true, that when

last year they were considering this subject, there were
meetings held, and that those meetings no longer took
place ; it was true, that there was language of menace
used by some of the principal speakers, and that they
did not hear that language at present. But they would
be very much mistaken indeed if they supposed
the affections of Ireland had been won by the
proceedings which had since taken place. In his view
of the circumstances as they stood last year, he thought
that the Government would have been justified in issuing
a proclamation at the commencement of those meetings
forbidding any further assemblages of the same kind,
and in following up that announcement by a declaration
of their intention to take all the grievances and com-
plaiats of Ireland into consideration, with a view
to their adjustment. That Mr. O'Connell would
have obeyed such a proclamation he thought
tl.ey could not doubt, for on the very first occasion on
which the advisers- of the Lord Lieutenant thought he
should declare that a meeting; was illegal, the declaration
was followed not merely by instant obedience, nor by
sullen acquiesence, but by the most active measures for
the prevention of a. meeting which had been announced.
He thought, therefc ire, it was impossible to doubt that if
at the commencemi,nt of those meetings a similar course
had been taken, a similar obedience would have
been paid. He catnfessed that the stoppage of these
meetings, by itself; would have beau almost a useless