1833. CHAP. out previous notice ten days before to the Lord-LieutenXXXI. ant, and his sanction obtained. Proclaimed districts are, to a certain extent, to be subjected to martial law, and the courts-martial composed of officers, not less than five ; and all holding commissions not less than two years, and above twenty-one years of age, are to be empowered to try all offences, except felonies. Any complaint or prosecution against the members of these courts-martial are to be competent only before another court-martial, called for that special purpose. Power is to be given to officers of justice and military on duty to enter houses in search of arms, and persons refusing to produce them are to be subjected to the penalties of a misdemeanour ; and the writ of Habeas Corpus is to be suspended for three months after arrest in any proclaimed district. 35. "In vain have Government waited in the anxious Concluded. hope that the returning good sense of the nation would put a period to these atrocities; they have waited to no purpose. This is admitted by the Catholics themselves. The Rev. Nicholas O'Connor, parish priest of Maryborough, said, in a letter to Lord de Vesci, In vain have we waited in hope of the returning good sense of the deluded, and have found, on the contrary, the welldisposed compelled by intimidation to join the disaffected, the cries of your dying father; I shall certainly be the next victim. When XXXI. 1833. or murdered, or terrified out of the country.' Can the CHAP. House conceive three lines more pregnant with horror? To the same purpose Dr Doyle, the Roman Catholic bishop of Kildare, says, in a pastoral letter to the clergy of his diocese,For several months past we have witnessed, with the deepest affliction of spirit, the progress of illegal combinations under the name of Blackfeet and Whitefeet within certain portions of these dioceses. Murders, blasphemies, rash swearing, perjuries, robberies, assaults on persons and property, the usurpation of the powers of the State and of the rights of the peacable and well-disposed, are multiplied, and every day perpetrated, at the instigation of the devil, by the wicked and deluded men. engaged in these confederacies.' Such is the state of the country, such the powerless condition of the law, that peaceable and well-disposed individuals are obliged to join illegal societies, or forfeit their lives, or abandon their country. Can this state of things be called the British constitution? Strong measures are indispensable before 1 Parl. Deb. that constitution has a chance even of being established; Feb. 15, and stringent as the measure proposed is, it is not more 1833; Ann. so than the overwhelming magnitude of the evils to be 38, 59, combated demands." 1 March 17, Reg. 1833, 36. of the Ro st lics against the bill. On the other hand, it was argued by Mr O'Connell, Mr Sheil, and Mr Hume: "No necessity whatever has Argument been shown for any bill of the kind now proposed, much man Catholess for one which goes at one fell swoop to destroy the constitution over the whole of Ireland. The 'predial agitation,' as it is called, in which all the disorders complained of originate, has no connection with political agitation, and does not require any measure like this to put it down. The true cause of all these disturbances is the refusal of Ministers to abolish tithes, and its real object is to prevent all expression of public sentiment in Ireland against their faithlessness and misgovernment. The bill is unnecessary, for all respectable evidence was against either its efficacy or necessity. No reliance can XXXI. J833. CHAP. be placed on the ex parte information communicated to the Irish government by its subordinates; but what says Sir H. Vivian, the commander of the forces in Ireland, when examined before the committee last year? The combination is directed against tithes at present, and if you could satisfactorily arrange the tithe question, you would, I should think, have Ireland pretty quiet. Get rid of the first cause of excitement, and you will tranquillise Ireland in spite of agitation.' It was stated in the 37. evidence of Mr Barrington, the crown-solicitor, that the ordinary law is adequate to every purpose; and the chiefjustice's address crowns the whole, in which he expresses his conviction that the actual law is sufficient. The attorneygeneral, too, threw in his attestation, by declaring that a conviction had taken place in thirty-eight cases out of thirty-nine. The Government had admitted, too, in this very debate, that not a single juror had been injured, and that every jury but one had done its duty. Was this a reason for abolishing all juries? The committee on the state of Ireland reported in August last, but this report contained not one word on the unfairness of juries. There were trials for combinations against tithes in Dublin, Clonmell, Kerry, and Cork, and in every one case convictions were obtained. Summon the gentry of the country to attend the assizes, fine them if they do not, and you will soon have the tribunals thronged. Provide your witnesses with due protection; let them emigrate if needful, and you will have nothing to dread. "The supporters of the bill have given the evidence Continued. Only on one side. They have harrowed the feelings of the House by the recital of the most frightful murders, and they have carefully kept out of sight the provocations which led to these atrocities. The evidence before the committee contains the details of the gross acts of tyranny which had been perpetrated on the peasantry during the last three years, and which have at last goaded them on to the perpetration of these lamentable atrocities. Was it to be wondered at that three poor uneducated menuneducated owing to your bad laws-should follow the example of injustice and oppression which you had set them? They had heard of the torture to which your aristocracy had subjected their ancestors, is it surprising that they in their turn should practise your inhumanity? You recount the outrages committed by a few lawless ruffians, and with these you mix up the great mass of the people of Ireland, who are wholly innocent. Why put the whole people of Ireland under the provisions of this monstrous bill, when, even on the showing of Government, only a few districts required its application? Galway, Clare, Limerick, for example, are admitted to be tranquil,-why should they suffer for the misdeeds of Kilkenny, Queen's County, or Carlow? The Government, not satisfied with establishing courts-martial amidst the scenes of outrage and horror, have erected them in the capital, where they have juries at their command, and not very stubborn judges, and where a conviction is as easy as an accusation. CHAP. 1833. 38. "Have outrages been confined to Ireland? Have not Nottingham and Bristol been the scene of the most Continued. lawless devastations? Have the Government on that account resorted to the same coercive measures in England? No; and why? Because the system of devastation was local and partial. Why not apply the same principle to Ireland? If insurrection exists, by all means strengthen the hands of Government to put it down, but let not them put the whole country out of the pale of the law for the outrages of a comparatively few. To secure the unjust and ruinous policy of Government respecting tithes is at the bottom of the whole. In vain is it asserted that the special powers conferred by this act are not to be exerted in support of the collection of tithes. The obstructing a clergyman in the collection of tithe is made a crime by it, and all crimes under felonies are to be tried by courts-martial. The army is already employed VOL. V. 2 A XXXI. 1833. CHAP. in the collection of tithes; it is now to adjudicate upon them. The act will thus have the effect of extorting an abominable impost by means of martial law, and the officer of the army who has been employed one day in levying tithes is to try the wretched peasantry the next, for an offence in which his own feelings are so deeply engaged. 39. "It is said this bill is for the protection of the orderly Continued. people of Ireland. Supposing it is so, is it not reasonable to inquire whether those orderly people do not consider the remedy worse than the disease-whether they do not regard this rather a high price to pay for protection? May they not think that the authorised breaking open houses by the police is as bad as the unauthorised breaking of houses by midnight assassins? Let the Whitefeet be put down, but let not the constitution be put down with them. This bill will only multiply the causes of discontent. If passed into a law, allegiauce will thenceforth become, in the eyes of the Irish people, not a sentiment of duty, but a mere consideration of expediency. The people of Ireland have the strongest aversion to courts-martial; no modification of such tribunals can lessen this detestation; they remind them of 1798. What a fearful power do the nightly domiciliary visits put in the power of the police or their confederated supporters, and what odious outrages may be committed under colour of it! The persons taken on occasion of these visits are not to be put merely in the public jails, but they may be confined anywhere! They may be thrust into dungeons or confined in cellars, where they may rot away unknown and unpitied! What a triumph does this act give to the Tories over the Whigs! When did the Tories ever bring in such an act? One of the worst things in this act is, that if an anti-Liberal or Tory Government should hereafter wish to have recourse to strong measures, they would only have to stop a little short of this precedent, and could then claim credit for not going the utmost length of Whig atrocity. |