The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-07-27 00:00:00

UNHAPPY EFFECTS OF THE MULGRAVE

GOVERNMENT.

( From the Dublin Evening Mail.)

Our editorial columns present to-day the extraordinary and
calamitous aspect of being occupied almost exclusively with
the statements of crime in its various phases, as it has now
overrun this unhappy country, and is multiplying its accursed
brood with a rapidity and prolificness unparalleled in the
history of mankind.
Popery and the semi-barbarous state in which it holds its
slaves are the fruitful parents of this hideous and portentous
state of things. Time was, and not very long ago, when a
wise and vigorous administration of the law, by a firm but
merciful government, held this criminal fecundity in check,
and kept. down the growth of those desperate evils which have
tainted the moral atmosphere of the country, and reduced it
to a state much worse and more intolerable than that of the
wildest original barbarity. But that time has past ; and
Whig policy, in open adultery with popish depravity and am-
bition, has generated a pernicious brood of crime, which,
multiplying with the accelerated pace of venomous and rep-
tile life, overspreads the region, devouring and destroying
every thing that is good and wholesome, and pampering into
unbridled license and vigour, every outrage at which huma-
nity shudders. I tis to the mai-administration of public affairs
—and we care not what cer.s,?uences to ourselves may follow
from this denunciation—it in to the present system that are to
be attributed the murders, the assassin; ions, the house burn-
ings, the robberies, the tapes, the perjuries, the violence of
every description connected with political causes; and not
only with the bare facts of actual commission, but with the
monstrous and rapid increase of crime from the commence-
ment of the present viceroyalty, and the moral tendency (if

moral be the proper word) towards an increase still more
rapid and general—which now evidently pervades the con-
dition of the country.
We speak not in this manner without authority and proof.
We should shrink from promulgating such an awful impeach-
ment could we not demonstrate the charge by documentary
evidence—evidence beyond suspicion, because furnished by
the accused —extracted from papers recently laid before par.
liatnent, forwarded from the government offices and authen-
ticated by the signature of Colonel Shaw Kennedy, late at
the head of the constabulary department.
The general results are as follow:

CRIMES.

Increase.

Murders 219 228 19
Filing at the person 6B 91 23
Attacking houses
Committals
Con victions e-7,581

520
9

CRIMINAL PROCLAMATIONS.
T'Pwards offered in 1836-1837.
Lto claimed, do. do.

nclaimed

501

It appears, then, from these returns-
-Ist. That crimes of the most heinous nature, and arising
from political disturbances, are increasing at a rate much
beyond 10 per cent. per annum.
2d. That whilst committals are also increasing at an equal
ratio, convictions are diminishing at such a rate as to prove
the general and powerful organisation which intimidates
witnesses from attending, and jurymen from discharging
' their duty; while, in many instances, the Crown prosecutors
permit the kinsmen of the accused—in some the participators
in his guilt—to be amongst those whose verdict is to decide
his fate. This also is demonstrated by the unclaimed rewards
of the Gazette—and we believe that a more awful or dangerous
phenomenon was never exhibited in any country than the
increase of crime through unbridled licentiousness, and its
impunity through intimidation. Yet such are the fruits of
nearly three years and a half of O'Mulgrave government.
We must now apply ourselves, without any change of sub-
ject, to THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY, as that state is exhi-
bited in THE GAZETTE and PROVINCIAL JOURNALS.
In the former (dated the 24th inst.) we find but a single
proclamation for a desperate assault, committed, we suppose,
in a party scuffle on the 12th instant. The latter present a
series of horrors, in which murder, arson, housebreaking,
plunder of arms, and other insurrectionary violences, dis-
play the unruly and desperate temper of the conspiracy in
which the Popish peasantry are universally engaged. The
state of Tipperary demands the most serious attention, and
by and bye, when we shall address ourselves to the subject
of Mr. Justice Moore's late charge to the grand jury of that
county, we shall refer more particularly to its condition.
Meanwhile, to prepare our readers for the charge, we shall
here subjoin our usual extracts from the Gazette, and from
the provincial journals :
(From the Dublin Gazette of Tuesday.)
" DUBLIN CASTLE, JULY 20, 1838.—0 n Thursday, the
12th instant, a man named James Custley, of Tamlaght,
parish of Annarnullan, in the county of Monaghan, was
assaulted and wounded with a sharp instrument in the body
and thigh, by a man named— Luckey, assisted by William
White and William Gordon.—Fifty pounds, &c.—By his
Excellency's command, "'T. DRUMMOND."

letter, saying that if he did not turn from his employment an
overseer named Little (a Protestant,) that every tool on the
entire line of the canal would be broken. An investigation
took place before John Johnston, Esq., J. P., Thorn-hill„and
it is to be regretted that no clue to the perpetration of this
wanton act could be discovered. Mr. Darragin has very pro-
perly retainer! Little in his employment, as no charge could
be substantiated against him.
ARREST FOR MURDER.—Committed to Monaghan-gaol by
John Johnston, Esq., ofThorn-hill, Michael Dailey, of Camla,
who stands charged with the murder of Patrick Conly, of
Nahil, parish of Drumsnatt, in December 1836. Two others
are charged with said murder, who are supposed to have left
the country.—Newry Telegraph.