The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-17 00:00:00

the Protestant Mayor of Wexford heading a procession to the
mass-house. He (Mr. D'lsraeli) mentioned that to show that
the position that was always assumed in that House, viz., that
the present state of feeling in Ireland was the consequence of
the Protestant connection, was one of error. It was not so, but
it was the consequence of Puritanism—it was the consequence
of that system which had been destroyed in this country, and
which the people had been all bonded together to support.
With respect to the rebellion of 1641, which was a rebellion
not against the Monarch but against the Parliament, it led to
the establishment of the Government upon an essentially na-
tional character—it led to the formation of the Convention of
Kilkenny, which was in the habit of entering into
treaties with the King of England. One of those trea-
ties, that for the settlement of the Government of
Ireland, was executed with that Convention by Lord
Glamorgan, afterwards the celebrated Marquis of Worcester.
The secret articles of the treaty were, that the Roman
Catholics should enjoy the same privileges which they had
enjoyed at the beginning of the war, and both churches
should be recognised as being perfectly equal. Those were
the secret articles of the treaty of Glamorgan, which was
ratified by Charles I. It was not, therefore, a necessary
quality of Toryism that the Tory party should entertain feel-
ings of towards Ireland.—( Hear, hear.) The Tory
party did not invent the penal code. It was necessat yto keep
this in view. Hon. Gentlemen on his side of the House
should not consider that a feeling of antipathy to Ireland was
an heir-loom in their political creed.—( Hear, hear.) The
party opposite could be as little considered the favourers of
free trade as the natural allies of the Irish people.—( A laugh. )
The Noble Lord (Palmerston) laughed, but he begged to
remind him it was not the Tory party who introduced the
penal code, nor what was called puritanical episcopacy into
that country.—( Hear, hear.) From the moment that was in-
troduced the pure Protestant Church lost all influence over
the island.—( Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentleman then re-
ferred to the vote he gave last session, and acknowledged that
he was a party man, and considered it the duty of a
Member of that House to become a party man ; but
one of the conditions of becoming a party mart
was that they should have a leader, and a leader who was pre-
pared to lead.—(Cheers from the Opposition.) He had a
sincere respect for the Right Hon. Baronet, which he believed,
he would acknowledge, and he should be sorry to make any
animadversions upon him; but when the Right Hon. Gentle-
man used that celebrated aphorism, that Ireland would be his
chief difficulty, he was one who had no alarm that it would
prove so. He did not believe that Ireland would be the chief
difficulty of the Right Hon. Gentleman, because he believed
that a Minister having great power, and possessing a large
majority, would use them to settle the Irish question.—
( Cheers from the Opposition.) There was a silence, which
ho rejoiced at, for two years with regard to that question, and
he was glad they were not called on to give any opinion upon
it ; but when the question was breed upon their attention, and
1N hen the Right Hon. Gentleman took no part in leading pub-
lic opinion, he could not help thinking that the force of cir-
cumstances had dissolved the party tie on the question of Ire-
land.--a( Hear, hear.) One of the greatest admissions ever
made ia his time was that Ireland was not a party question.—
( Hear, hear.) Ireland was in a state of turbulence and com-
motion, and his impression was, that it was the duty of the
Minister to repress turbulence and to apply his mind to put an
end to the causes which produced it.—( Hear, hear.) It was
said that it was impossible to repress it sooner, that
they should wait till a certain quantity of sedition
was realised—(Loud laughter)—and if the Government
had remained quiet for nineteen months, he should be silent.
He now came to the question, and all he wanted to do was to
place his own con luct in an intelligible light; in doing so he
felt he should be fighting the battle of every Member of the
House. He had been taunted with manifesting a new-born
real for Ireland. The imputation was not a very heavy one ;
seal of any kind was such a rare quality, that in this age and
country, the imputation of feeling a new-born zeal was not an
overwhelming one. He wished the Right Hon. Baronet was
equally regenerated.—( Laughter.) He heard much of the
evil of not giving Ireland identical institutions with England.
Now he always thought that the great cause of the misery of
that country was its having identical institutions with Ireland
forced upon it. What good had Ireland derived from this
juries, the benches of magistrates, like those of England, that
had been forced upon it? The Governmeut in Ireland ought
to he centralised, with a strong administration. He had never
changed his principles on this or any other subject ; they were
the natural principles of the democracy of this country.—
( Hear, hear, and cries of " On, oh.") They were not the
principles which would have supported the despotism of
Cromwell, bet they were the principles described in the
writings of great, and practised by eminent, men.
The Honourable Gentlemen opposite also had principles ;
their principles were distinct and intelligible. Ile gave the
Whigs credit for entertaining them—their principles had pro-
duced great men, and perhaps great deeds—they were the
principles of the landed aristocracy. Whether there was not
some happy via media between W higgism and Toryism, he
did not know ; hut he had no idea of the 'Tory party being
pointed out as the tyrants and confiscators of Ireland—as the
men who had invented the penal code; when, on the contrary,
it was the leader of the -Tories who, when the Parliament
obliged the people to take the oath of supremacy to the King,
allowed any Irishman to be recusant. Could they have a better
guarantee for justice to Ireland than that granted by Charles
1., and supported by the sanction and advice of Arch-
bishop Laud? If they could only forget two centuries of
political conduct for which the Tory party was not
responsible, they might settle the Irish question with kindness
to the irish people. Mr. Pitt—the Tory Minister—
proposed measures which, had they been carried, would have
saved them from the miserable position they now occupied.
The Catholic Church question vveuld have been settled long
ere this; and lie believed it would still be settled at a very
early period on principles analagous to those conceived by the
great statesmen of 1636. He believed that no ene specific
measure would do any good for Ireland ; they must reconstruct
the social system of that country; they must begin by organis-
ing a complete and strong executive. If the Noble Lord came
forward with such a comprehensive plan he would sup-
port him at any sacrifice, though he might have to place
' his seat again at the disposal of his constituents.
He remembered that he represented the oldest Tory consti-
tuency in the kingdom, and that he inherited good Tory prin-
ciples, and last year, when he supported the tariff of the
Right Hon. Baronet, he went down and explained English
history to his constituency—(Great laughter)—and lie could
assure the House they took the most enlightened views of the
subject. In 1832, when the Right Hon. Baronet's party was
smashed—when it was said that he could never revive—that
he was a doomed man—nothing could have been more difficult
than to re-construct his party. He had not only to do that,
but to remove the prejudices of many eminent persons ; and
there he sat, with the Right Hon. Secretaries of State at his
side—who were among those whose prejudices he had to re-
move—( Loud cheers from the Opposition, and laughter)—and
he succeeded in removing them._( Laughter.) They were
colleagues, of whom he might be proud ; and it was an encou-
raging example. He thought it was not more difficult to settle
Ireland than to re-construct the Tory party after a revolution.
It was not more difficult to remove the prejudices of those who
had thought but little on the question, than to remove the pre-
judices of those who had thought a great deal.—( Hear, hear.)
He must protest against. the new system of government, which
seemed to be the substitution of the mere fulfilment of the
duties of office for true administration. What were all these
Reform Associations—Anti-Corn-law Leagues—Repeal Asso-
ciations? They were merely the consequence of the people
taking the Government of the country into their own
Government would not lead the people, the people
than her Majesty's Ministers. He wished to
e
I
that the Irish question should be settled.
coalesced
ffea
oen d,tt s.
e fdn(t,
ohe d very often carried their crude opinions into
Ha en a .r
one
in authority took the lead of them—they
, hear.) The public• mind, among a free
p
would drive the Government.—(Cheers.) lie could not vote
for the motion of the Noble Lord, because he did not see that
hhee prro
Ile had been told that this was a physical question—and again
that it was a spiritual question. There was great distress among
the people, great distress among the middle classes, and some-
timesasommiseed man
mast
say
there was a talk of foreign interference among the
Papists. The only way in which you can inform yourselves
upon these matters, and come to a seise opinion upon them, is
to look around you upon the great features of society, anti see
upon what principles Government is established. And having
clone this—having cast your eyes over other countries and
formed an honest opinion upon them—then bring to
Ireland the same unimpassioned spirit as you have
done to the well of another country.—( Cheers.)
Then see the population of Ireland, and compare it
it with what itself receives from the soil, and you shall find
that country more thickly peopled in proportion than is China
at the present day.. Such is the quantity of food which this
country affords to its own population, and that too of a quality
the lowest that can be conceived.—(Cheers.) So that the
Irish population has not what every other population of the
lobe—not excepting even the Poles have, he meant a resort
globe—not
the case of famine.—( Hear, hear.) And in the midst of
this dense population, thus left to misery and want, there is a
Church which does not belong to the people, and a territorial
aristocracy, the major part of which is resident in Paris—and
to remedy all these the weakest Executive in the world.-
-( Hear, hear.) What would they say of any other country
in which there were such things as these'?—( Cheers.) They
might say that did such things as these exist in another
country there could only be one remedy, and that snust be
found in revolution. But they could not indulge in revolution in
Ireland, and why ? Because of their connection with a more
powerful neighbour. England then, by its connection, was put
in this odious position that an English Ministry has to do all
peaceably and quietly for that country, which in any other
country could only be hoped for by a revolution. It was quite
evident that they must have an Executive in Ireland, which
bore an imediate relation to the aristocracy. But that Execu-
tive could not improve Ireland by mere Acts of Parliament.
'The moment they had an equality in the two Churches, then
they might hope for order in Ireland, and when order came,
famine would gradually disappear, and prosperity gradually
come. But this would not be rapid. V. mattered that ?
Fifty years was nothing in the history of a country. The Right
Hon. Baronet, Sir Robert Peel, might do much to lay the
foundation of this, and he hoped would do so. But he did
not think the effect would 'be created by the Hon. Member for
Belfast (Mr. E. Tennant), or, as he supposed on a former
occasion, by the King of France. He looked for this to a
power much more influential. He looked to that power which
was not only more intelligent, but more benignant.—( Cries of
" Young England.") No, he did not meanyoung
that Englandany ;
( Laughter)—but he meant that power which stated
question that could not bear discussion was doomed.—(Hear.)
Mr. WARD then rose to addres the House. Some parts of
's speech he would not attempt
of the Honourable Gentleman
to discuss.—(Hear, bear.) He would not attempt to touch
that which was unintelligible.—( Hear.) lie could not, for
the life of him, see how the Hon. Member could expect the
settlement of this Irish question, after the speeches that had
been made on the subject, without some conciliation.—( Hear
hear.) The Hon. Member had talked much of the course
that had been pursued in Ireland. He had attempted to de-
scribe much of its history, and had talked of rebellion
there ; why he ought to have known that that rebellion to
)rovinces Her
which he referred related only to I'
inet re?
thrown a)
back , on
He was thrown back necessarily, vita
Nothing would be done, for
the motion of his Noble Friend.
on. Gentleman obtained the
from the moment the Right 1-1
however good the motion
support of his agricultural friends,
arguments, however great the
might be, however strong the argu
grievance, there was a foregone conclusion, a result perfectly
d. A ormal
certain, as as far as that House was concerne
nd delivered. byf which they
pact had been signed, sealed,
(the Opposition) had been a
delivered over to the Government
for two or three years. But Host. Members roust not shrink
e they were unpopular.
from avowing their opinions beeaT
1 üblic o
There was another and a higher tri u
sn aof theP pinion, and
it was the duty of the representative ofParliament.—(Hear,
people to keep
these things continually before the eyes .
fact in the present debate
hear.) It was a very remarkable ,
B ron said), and if they
that if words were things (as Lord
could credit the one-half of what Hon. Members on the other
side of the House said, there was har}l
dly
ouse. any difference
Hon. et
em -
en
the An M
non. Members on both sides of
ber who spoke early in the debate, and the lion. Member for
the University of Dublinjully concurred with the Hon. Member
for Waterford, on the necessity of restoring tranquillity to
Ireland, and pursuing a mild and conciliatory course of policy
towards Ireland. The Right Honourable Baronet the
Secretary of State for the Home Department ex-
pressed Isis disapprobation of holding Ireland by mi-
litary occupation, and said.n3 he should prefer governing
ti
the people through their affeco •
But he (Mr. Ward) had
muon rather deal with parties than phrases ; and when he
looked to the present state of things in that country, and when
he remembered the declarations of the Hight lion. Baronet,
lie was induced to believe that Ireland was destined, for a pe-
riod undefined, as long as the present party continued in