The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-08 00:00:00

DISTURBANCES' (IRELAND) SUPPRESSION BILL.-ADJOURNED

DEBATE.

The order of the day having been moved for the resuming
the debate on this bilk,
Dr. BA LnwiN (the order of the day having been read) said.
that he had entered that house under the persuasion that he
should have no occasion to dissent from ministers except on the
repeal question, and that, on the contrary, he should' have the
pleasure of supporting an administration of which the noble'
Chancellor of the Exchequer was .a member. ,But that impres-
sion had been removed by the measure now 'before them—a-
measure which was a direct violation of the rights of man, (he
did not %use the term " rights of man" in a revolutionary, but
'in a constitutional sense,) and which no liberal ministry could
propose. What a lesson would that infamous measure engrave
deep in the minds and hearts of the Irish people ! It would
teach them that for Irish grievances there was no remedy,—for-
Irish complaints no redress, save brute force, as wielded by a
court-martial. 11l did such a measure emanate from a man
who had brought in the English Reform Bill, because it was
necessary to silence the complaints of the people of England.
A military tribunal was his mode of silencing the complaints of
the people of Ireland. 'He knew the feelings of the Irish peo-
ple ; and he would undertake to declare, that if this bill passed,
they would consider allegiance to the Crown no longer as a
matter of moral or political duty, but as a matter of mere ex-
pediency. Their court-martial system 'might compel the peo-
ple to pay up their arrears of tithe, but it never could compel
them to plough the soil and carry on the harvest. They would
only raise the potatoe for their own subsistence, and leave the
absentee landlords to cultivate oats, barley, and wheat, in the
best way they could. (Ifear, hear.) It waS proposed to give
the power of transporting the people to these courts-martial;
but he would" ask this simple question,—could they send a whole
nation to Botany-bay ? Would the English consent to pay 60
guineas a-man for the transportation of the Irish; and if they
did, would not the consequence be the entire destruction of the
trade they now carried on with Ireland? (Hear.) He warned
the government of the evils which must result from this mea-
sure. The people would not submit to it; and one of their first
acts, they all knew, would be-to rush to the Bank for gold. If
the government was determined to oppress the people, they
would have to pay the penalty of their oppression. (Hear.)
Lord C ASTLEREAGH said, that strong and appalling reasons
had been adduced for the proposal of this measure ; and he
believed that every person who had heard the speech of the
right hon. baronet, the member for Tamworth 'must be con-
vinced of its necessity. It could not be denied, that so long as
those fearful outrages which had prevailed so long in Ireland
were allowed to continue, the British constitution could not
be said to exist in that unhappy country. (Hear, hear.) He
had long been of opinion that much of the evils of Ireland
spruns from agitation, (hear, hear,) whether proceeding from
the Corm:Exchange or from the Castle. The house should
-bear in mind, that the ministers had told them that reform
would make the people quiet and peaceable. The contrary
-had, however, turned out to be the fact ; for an hon. member,
with whom the noble lord opposite had corresponded, as the
head.of a celebrated political union, had told the house that the
people were not contented, and had no confidence in them.
The noble lord concluded by repeating that he should vote,
though with sorrow, for the bill before the house.
Major FANCOURT could not, consistently with his own feel-
ings and convictions, give a silent vote on this question, when,
in his opinion, a deathblow was levelled at the very principle
of constitutional freedom. (near, hear.) But at the same
time he begged to assure his Majesty's government that he was
actuated by no disposition to join a factious opposition, against
them. As far as he could learn, no such opposition existed;
at all events, such an opposition against any government he
never would condescend to join. It was simply in the charac-
ter of an independent Euglish member of that house that he
stood forward to resist the utter abolition of the spirit of inde-
pendence in Ireland. But for the Irish members in the last
Parliament would the present Parliament be now sitting con-
stituted as it is ? (Cheers from the Irish members.) -Those
who had set their heart on the reform owed muchto Ireland in
the persons of 'her representatives. And what had Ireland
gained by the reform ? She had gained nothing. She gave
unlimited .confidence, unqualified support, and 'for what?—it
would appear, to lose the little she had before. (Cheers.) As
he would resist it for England, so would he resist it for Ireland.
He did so because he wished to guard the constitution of the
united empire from invasion; he did so because, on his solemn
conviction, he felt that if, instead of making atonement for all
the wrongs and'rnisgovernmeiat inflicted by England upon Ire-
land since the destinies of Ireland had been in her hands, she
were to go on increasing in rigour, coercion, and despotic
oppression, as was proposed by this bill, such measures must
inevitably one day fall on herself with terrible retribution,
unless, in addition to man's oblivion of humanity, Heaven
itself should have forgotten to be just. (Loud'cheers froth the
Opposition benches.)
Colonel CHICiIESTER said that, though he was ass sincerely
attached as his hon. and gallant friend to the principles of ra-
tional liberty; he differed widely from him on the present ques-
tion. None of the speakers on the other side of the house had
dared as yet to cqnt;avert the statements made by the noble lord
and the right hon. secretary below ,him. (Loud cries of hear,
fmol the opposition.) Which of the gentlemen who now
cheered so loudly had dared to deny that the murders of which
they had recounted' ,so frightful a list had been committed ?
(Hears, from the niiiaistehal benches.) He repeated .that he
was as great a friend as his hon. and. gallant colleague to the
liberty of the subject; and to preserve that liberty in•unim-
paired vigour he'was now prepared to vote for the first reading
of this bill. 'lid thought that the bill was necessary for the,pa-
cification of Ireland—thatdeluded, misguided, and misgoverned
country. He repeated that the evils produced'by agitation in.
Ireland were so terrifies as to justify him and other friends of li-
berty in exclaiming, in the language of the poet,

" That, half a patriot, half a coward grown,
I fly from petty tyrants to the thwne."
'He concluded by. expressitig, a hope that the, passing of this
measure would restore Ireland to a proper state, of feeling,, and
would put an end to the reign.of terror, which for some months
had been prevailing in that country.
Sir H. BATASPN said, that there were some, gentlemen in that
house who. arrogated to themselves the title of the representa-
tives of Ireland, and who in that character aspired to dictate to
the people of Ireland the sentiments by which they. ought to be
influenced. Now,: he took upon himself to assert, in opposition
to those gentlemen, that All the property, intelligence, and mo-
ral worth in .ulster was in favour of the proposition for in-
trusting ministers with.strong, powers to put an end to the hor-
rible state of things now .existing in Ireland. (Hear, hear.)
He should vote for, the ant reading of, this bill, as be admitted
the necessity for, its enactment, and approved of the principle
applied to meet it. As to the, details of the bill, he should wait
till they were. under the consideration of the house before he
gave an opinion
,upon them. ,He considered Ireland to be in
the situation of a ,vessel which had run upon the, reeks. He
would not stay to inquire whether the pilot had,acted.wisely or
not in running the Nesselnpon the rocks, but he wotild strain
every nerve W save the yessel.from destruction, tly cutting away
her nia.sts, and throwing her cargo overboard. (Laughter from
the opposition, benches.) In the course of this, debate he had
heard a great_deal about the, liberty of the subject, and the ty-
ranny tliatwio going to be exercised in Ireland. Now, it was
to, get rid of _the most odious tyranny.which had ever existed,
that ilia was prepared to intrust strong measures, to the govern-
ment of Ireland.. Ireland was at present in the state of a ma-
niac, andyou, rapt put a strait-waistcoat upon . her to restore
her to sanity. He believed that many of the representatives of
that country came to that house not as freemen, but as slaves.
(Cries of c' Hear" and ``No.") They were the representatives
of'the mob (outcry),-r:they were the representatives of a bi-
goted priesthood.
Mr. FINN rose to order. In the whole course of his life he
had never in any political assembly heard ,such imputations as
those which the hon. baronet, with singular bad taste, had just
cast upon the people of Ireland, upon its priesthood.
The SPEAKER
.iutimated•that the hon. member must draw a
distinctionbetween.what he considered to be matter of good
taste and _what -the house considered to be. matter of order.
(Hear, hear.)
Sir IL. BATZSON said that, in the observations which he had
just offered to.the house,.he had no intention to offer offence to
any man. He had onlysupposed the case of members having
taken pledges to.support certain measures in the full knowledge
that, if they had- refused such pledges, their return would have
been impossible. Those pledges had been framed by the mob-
leaders, and if hon, gontlemen would identify themselves with
such persons, it.was a misfortune of which. they must some-
; times be compelled to hear. He repeated that the language
! which he had just used was but a faint expression of the senti-
ments which were entertained by his large and intelligent con-
stituency. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. 'BARnON rose, as he said, under considerable excite-
ment, to declare that 'a more unwarranted imputation bad
never been cast upon the•merabers for Ireland than that which
had fallen front the dips of the hon. baronet. (Opposition
cheers.) He threw that imputation back upon the hon. baronet
with' the utmost disgust. (Hear, hear.) He told the hon.
baronet that he had been sent to this reformed Parliament by his
constituents to represent their feelings honestly and intrepidly.
They knew his opinions on the question of repeal, and that he
had not taken them up to serve the fleeting purpose of the
hour. They originated in the feeling that Irish interests were
not sufficiently attended to in that house; but-he was most