The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-01 00:00:00

IRELAND.

An evening ministerial paper, which has for some time
been addicted to liberalism, contained, on Saturday last,
the following admirable illustration of whig policy and
the working of the conciliatory system in Ireland:—

" It is with very great pain that we learn that serious appre-
hensions are entertained that it will be very difficult to assem-
ble juries to attend at the approaching assizes in Ireland, and
in the county of Kilkenn), impossible. The intimidation car-
ried on is to such an extent as to, amount to a suspension of the
operation of the criminal laws. The gaol at Kilkenny, we un-
derstand, is crowded with prisoners wasting for trial, and charged
with the commission of those offences which for some time past
have astonished, disgusted, and horrified the country. What
is to be done ?

Ay t what is to be done ? When a fool, who has.been
amusing himself with combustibles, at length sets fire to
his house, he cries out What is to be done Y Why, the
first thing to be done is to extinguish the fire as fast as
possible. This is precisely the case with Ireland. Our
reforming quacks, by tolerating other quacks, have set
Ireland in a blaze from one end to the other ; and yet,
like so many maniacs, they gaze vacantly on the flames,
utterly lost to all sense, of duty, and despairingly exclaim, '
What shall we do for. Ireland
. We reply, do what the firemen or watermen would do
in the other case, and extinguish the flames. Send for
the engines, open the main, work the pumps and play
upon the "devouring element,': till not a spark of fire is
to be seen.
But the fire-is the work of incendiaries, say some of
our opponents, and they, therefore, contend that the only
way to prevent such devastation for the future is to con,
ciliate the authors of the devastation ! The meaning of
,this is, it is better to bribe the murderer than to hang
him,—better to surrender our property to the burner than
run the risk of the last corn-rick being consumed. The
people who talk in this way, without being parties inte-
rested in the projects of the Irish agitators, are mere.
blockheads. These persons assume either that the Irish
incendiaries are justified in their proceedings, and that
ministers connive at these proceedings, or that the Bri-
tish Government is so feeble as to be utterly unable to
enforce the laws. We give them the benefit of the alter-
native. The government is either desirous but unable
to suppress insurrection in Ireland, or it is able but un-
willing.
, In counselling ministers to vindicate the laws, and
coerce those who openly set them at defiance, we have
no wish to trench upon the rights or liberty of the sub-
ject. But we contend that the conduct of the agitators
is not only illegal and unconstitutional, but a positive
violation of law and liberty, subversive of all government,
and leading to anarchy and tyranny. When a country
is exposed to a sort of compulsory benevolence by priests
and demagogues —a tax levied upon the poor for an il-
legal object,—when associations are formed and distin-
guished by a military title,—when members of the Im-
perial Parliament form themselves into a sort of provin-
cial House of Commons, receive petitions, and hear evi-
dence on various subjects of alleged grievance, and par-
ticularly when one of the objects of the combination is to
accomplish a repeal of the union, and the revival of the
Irish Parliament,—when all this is done, in open day in
the city of Dublin, with perfect impunity, we should like
to know upon what ground Ireland can be called a.depend-
ency of the British crown, or any part or fraction of the
British empire. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to
assemble juries, says our contemporary, and the criminal
laws are suspended while the gaols are full. Whose
fault is this ? Is it O'Connell's ? Is it caused by the
priests or the volunteers ?. We answer No. The whole
blaMe rests with his Majesty's ministers. They are the
real agitators after all; forthey alone are responsible for
the execution of the laws, and they are alone culpable, .
inasmuch as they have the power but not the inclination
to enforce, the laws. Will any man 'believe that if the
government were disposed they could not silence every
demagogue in Ireland in eight-and-forty hours ? Tithes
may be trouhlesome, and taxes oppressive, and corpora-
tions
nuisances, and the people who think so have a right
to. express this opinion ; but when men conspire to resist
'the payment of tithes, and despoil the clergyman of his
rights, either by intimidation or by force of arms, as is
done daily, this is not simply an expression of opinion—
it is robbery, conspiracy,, and. rebellion. The abolition
of tithes by law is one thing, but a combination to resist
their payment in defiance of the law is as much an act of
rebellion as if the inhabitants of Ireland were in arms
against the crown, and had issued a declaration of inde-
pendence.
But perhaps we shall be told that it •is difficult to de7
tect and convict the offending parties. Pshavvl--this is
sheer silliness. It is difficult to convict where juries are
afraid to meet; but what occasion is there for juries at
all ? Have we not forty thousand soldiers in Ireland?
Are they afraid to meet ? What is the use of them, if
their officers cannot be constituted into military commis-
sions,. and every incendiary, every man foUnd with arms
in his possession, and every priest preaching sedition,
lodged in the nearest gaol ? Why not shut up the cha-
pels in the disturbed districts,.and close the public houses,
and allow no ten men to meet . together, under any cir-
cumstances whatever, for the next three years? These
would be called harsh proceedings—and so they are.
There would be, plenty of cant expended on all sides,
and perhaps a few small creatures, such as Lord
,John
Russell, would whine about "military tyranny," as Hob-
house used to do about flogging in the army. Harsh,