The Sun.
London, England, 1829-05-05 00:00:00

which such a course *ould encounter at this
ment."
To the Secretary for Ireland " I expressed my
anxiety that a fund for making roads through the
mountain fastnesses of Glencaoo should be granted,
and that police stations should be established, with
the view of impressing upon the minds of the tur-
bulent of Tipperary, where the Assizes had so suc-
cessfully terminated, that the Government was de-

.....
termined to put a stop to all further agitation there.
I say, I am convinced that peace, and any thing
like comfort in this country, can never be felt until the

great question is settled.' Yet, as-tI;;;;sof
making roads and erecting police barracks—the
true means of effecting good in lrelAnd, is to give
security to resident proprietors, and thus to induce
others to return and become residents.' " Again
on the 7th of May, I explained my views and those
of the Attorney-General about factories to the
Chief Secretary; but I put it to him, what are we
to do with this immense population, unless we find
employment for them ? lam confident the making
roads through the at present inaccessible districts,
would have a very favorable effect." In the same
spirit, I addressed Mr. Peel on the 14th of May,
and said, " I pursue the subject, and show that
prompt measures will have the best effect, by show-
ing a determination to eradicate the evil." In con-
sequence of these representations, 10,0001. was
granted for the employment of the poor in making
of roads in the distressed, then disturbed, districts,
and as a consequence the evil was destroyed. But
I was not unmindful of another main source of the
discontents of the people of Ireland. On the 16th
and 21st of May, I expressed my opinion, by letter,
to the Chief Secretary, that " No attempt should
be made this Session to push on the Catholic ques-
tion. Let time be given to reconcile the public
mind to the Dissenters' case." " It is," I remarked,

" the system of exclusion and of suspicion that
drives:the Catholic leaders mad. I know, beyond.
all doubt, 'that many are not violent, and wish the
qnestion, to tie settled with every consideration for,
even the prejudices of the Protestants."
I explained my views also to the Attorney-.
General, and asked him what he supposed we could.

do to employ such an immense population ? In
May following Mr. Peel announced his determina-
tion to concede my request, and shortly afterwards.
10,0001. were granted towards making roads.
To the Chief Secretary I wrote on April 21st :
" I shall see Sir Harcourt Lees. He is taking
unnecessary alarm. My conviction is, there will not.
be simultaneous meetings."
On the 21st of June I wrote as follows to the
Secretary for the Home Department :
" The Association is becoming very troublesome
again. There is much irritation. I have caused a
strong muster of the constabulary at Ennis. The
Orangemen in the north are getting violent. Sir
H. Lees has promised to exert himself to keep them.
quiet. There is great irritation and violence, of lan-
guage at Clare. Tht system of intimide.lion is car-
ried to a great height. I cannot, however, discover
any revolutionary feeling; it is merely the sheet of
a new election in a Catholic country."
And again I write—
. " There is ample force in Clare to keep the peace.

I am sorry to observe that the Catholic Thshops,
(many of whom are acting with such moderation,
discretion, and good-will), have less iuflueuce than,
I had imagined."—And also,
" I really believe the agitators are anxious to re-,
serve order, and that they have the power ati well as
the inclination to accomplish it."
On April 21st I wrote to. Lord Lrveson Gower—
" I believe the final success of the Catholics is:
inevitable—that no power antler Heaven can avert
its progress. There may be rebellion—you may put
to death thousands—you may suppress it : but it

will only be to put oft the day of compromi,e ; and
in the mean time the country is more impoverished.
the people are still more alienated, and ruinous ex-.
pence is entailed upon the empire. Things are bad ;.
they must get worse ; and I see no possible means
of improving them, but by taking Messrs: O'Con-
nell and Shiel from the Association, an4hicing
them in the House of Commons.—(Cheers.)—But

supposing the whole evil was concentrated in the
Association, where is the man who can tell me how
to suppress it ? Many cry out that the Government
is supine; but all are mute when asked how we are
to get rid of the nuisance."
Again, on July 4, I wrote to him—" There is a
reasonable hope that the peace may be preserved.—
This is satisfactory. But the power that is exhi-
bited in effecting the object shows the danger that
is to be apprehended in leaving things as they are."
I quote these passages to sho‘‘ to your Lordships
the anxiety I felt to put his Majesty's Government
in possession of all possible information, and to con-
vince them how necessary it was to bring the great
question to issue which agitated the country, in
order to prevent any material injury. And again,
to the Secretary of State for the Home Department
on July 11, I wrote :
" I continue to feel confident that tranquillity will
not be disturbed. You will have time to deliberate,
but I repeat that we must not long attempt to re-
main as we are. I have already watched the pro-
ceedings of the agitators; it is very daring and in-
sulting. I have often appealed to the law autho-
rities as to the practicability and policy of prosecu-
tion, for acts committed or for words spoken, but I
have always been assured that nothing had occurred
that could be laid hold of. I took the opportunity of
the presence of Mr. Fitzgerald to have the opinion of
the Attorney-General upon all these points, and he
then repeated what he had said before."
Again, on July 16, I wrote to him :—" I have no
desire, on the contrary I should object, to be armed,
with any power beyond that the Government already
possesses.
" lam desirous that the whole of my letter to
Lord F. L. G. of the 11th inst. should be seen
by your colleagues, because it expressed mr
sentiments upon the state of Ireland, as far as it
is affected by the Catholic question; the ntischiefs
with which it is threatened, and the only means that
have occurred to me of averting them. I am desi-
rous of this, because, when the King and the Minis-
ters of his Majesty become gnus fully acquainted
with my opinion, they would judge of my fitness to
carry into effect the measures they might decide
upon adopting.
" The sum, I believe, of what I have written from
time to time on this subject amounts to this : ThP,,t I
do not apprehend the tranquillity of the country will
be immediately endangered. That there is 110 ne-
cessity for new laws to strengthen the arm of Go-
vernment. That no coercive legislate-ie measures will
get rid of existing evils,
unace°mP:anied by concession.
" That such an attempt would produce infinite
irritation, and might
create a crisis, the actual
existene° of wb;'...l-.4 would alone justify their adoption.
" 1111.. at if the rebellion were to break out there is
I"..Acient force to meet its first attempts, and pro-
bably to quell it. That then, and not till then,.
coercive laws might be called for; and if called for,
nothing short of the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act would put down the Association, and
curb the power of the Priests. That such a mea-
sure would only produce temporary tranquillity.
• " T hat at this moment there is no ground tojus-
tify an application for a coercive law ; and that if it
existed, I could not use it. That the King's ser-
vants may depend upon my being watchful and
ready to make full, vigorous, yet prudent use of
the power I now posses, if unfortunately tiler.,
should occur any tangible infringement of the laws,"
lam afraid, however, that I troublesome to
your Lordships.—(Hear, and "go on.")—Again,utr
July 20, I wrote to Mr. Peel—
" I have placed your letter, together with that
you wrote to the Attorney and Solicitor-Generak
of England, in the hands of the Attorney and Soli-
citor-Generals of Ireland, desiring their opinion.
inclose it. My attention has been already called
to the speeches delivered at the Catholic Associa-
tion of the' 12th, and in a letter I wrote to Lord F.
L. G. on the 14th, I desired that he would read a
particular speech. It struck me as being clever, in-
genious, and remarkably mischiei ous, lint that the
speaker had artfully guarded himself against prose-