XXXVIII. CHAP. were compelled to assess and levy the damages, which was done by an execution in the Hansards' premises, on 12th November. 1840. 22. of the She riffs for breach of privilege. Jan. 17. The Sheriffs, anxious to gain time in the hope that some Committal mode of escaping the dilemma in which they were placed might be discovered, delayed, after the execution, paying the money to the Messrs Stockdale. Upon this the Court of Queen's Bench granted a rule calling on the Sheriffs to show cause why they did not pay the money to the Messrs Stockdale, and at the same time the House of Commons ordered them to the bar of the house to answer for breach of privilege in not paying back the money to the Messrs Hansard. The Sheriffs then could not avoid either commitment by the Court of Queen's Bench for disobedience of its orders, or by the House of Commons for breach of privilege. They preferred, like intrepid men, doing the duty to which they were sworn as executors of the law; and having appeared in their Jan. 20. scarlet robes of office at the bar of the house, and declined saying anything in defence of their performance of their duty as officers of the Court of Queen's Bench, they were, on the motion of Lord John Russell, committed for contempt of court. When taken, under a writ of Habeas Corpus, a few days after, to the Court of Queen's Bench, they were loudly cheered in the Court, the whole bar standing; and while they remained in custody, they were visited by a large and not the least respectable portion of both houses of Parliament. The sensation in the country was very great, and the press generally applauded the courageous conduct of the officers who asserted the supremacy of law against what was almost universally con1 Parl. Deb. sidered an unconstitutional stretch of the House of Comliii. 288, mons. They remained in custody till April 15, when 1132; Ann. they were discharged, by order of the house, in conse20, 40, 57. quence of a bill having become law adjusting this delicate and painful matter in future.1 lii. 1026, 294, 1081, Reg. 1840, 1 * * Mr Sheriff Wheelton had been previously discharged on account of illhealth. Ann. Reg. 1840, p. 46: XXXVIII. on this sub In this distressing collision between the legislature CHAP. and the highest court of law in the kingdom, it would 1840. appear that the House of Commons was right in the 23. main point for which they contended, and wrong in the Reflections mode of attaining it which they adopted. As freedom ject. of debate is indispensable to a legislative assembly, so the same immunity must be extended to all its reports and proceedings; and if the house itself enjoys that privilege, it is impossible to hold that their publication can be made the foundation of punishment or damages; for of what value in a free community is free discussion in the legislature, if its publication is prevented to the country? On this account, without questioning the decision of the Queen's Bench in point of law, it may well be doubted whether it had either justice, reason, or expedience for its support. In the object for which they contended, therefore, the House of Commons was clearly in the right, and it was an object essential to the utility and due discharge of its functions by a legislative and deliberative assembly. But, on the other hand, they seem to have been equally wrong in the mode in which they attempted to enforce it, especially against the Sheriffs. The Court of Queen's Bench having determined that the privilege of Parliament was no defence against the publication of a libel, neither the plaintiff, in an action founded on such publication, nor the Sheriffs who carried the judgment for damages into execution, were the fit objects of the censure or punishment of the House of Commons. 24. In particular, to proceed against the Sheriffs, who merely did their duty as executors of the law they were Continued. sworn to obey, and for disobedience of which they were liable to commitment, was a stretch of power clearly contrary to justice, and which, it is to be hoped, will never be repeated. If any party was liable, it was Lord Denman and the judges of the Queen's Bench, who pronounced the judgment which the Sheriffs only executed as officers of the law. The remedy, without trenching on private right, was in their own hands, and consisted in yielding CHAP. obedience to the decision of the law in the mean time, and XXXVIII. passing an act which should render such invasion of the 1840. privilege of Parliament impossible in future. This accordingly was done by an act brought in by Lord John Russell, which received the royal assent on 14th April April 14, 1840, whereby all actions founded on proceedings in Parliament printed by order of either House of Parliament, were protected from prosecution. This bill put the matter on its right footing, which, it is to be hoped, will never again be disturbed. And without imputing any improper or tyrannical motives to the majority in the House of Commons which supported Ministers in these proceedings, it may without hesitation be affirmed that their end was right, but their means were wrong, and that Mr Evans and Mr Wheelton, who, in such trying circumstances, asserted the supremacy of the law, deserve a place in the glorious pantheon of British patriots. 25. Lord Nor bury, and crime in Ireland. Jan. 1, 1839. Ireland, during the years 1839 and 1840, remained Murder of in the same state, as to agrarian outrage, in which it had so long been, although, from the alliance which had now been contracted between the Romish leaders and the Government, it was no longer directed to political objects. The former began with an ominous event; for on the 1st January 1839, Lord Norbury was mortally wounded by the ball of an assassin, within sight almost of his own home, and not more than a few hundred yards from the churchyard of Durrow, where thirty or forty persons were attending a funeral, who, as usual, made no attempt either to arrest or pursue the criminal. The earl lingered till the 3d in extreme agony, when he expired, leaving behind him the regrets of every one who knew him, for a more kind-hearted benevolent man, both in private life and as a landlord, never existed. This tragic incident produced, as well it might, a great sensation throughout 1 Ann. Reg. the United Kingdom, and led to motions for production of papers relative to Irish crime, and animated debates in both Houses of Parliament on the subject, 1839, 38, 41. which threw great light on the social state of that ill-CHAP. starred country. XXXVIII. 1839. 26. Irish crime and '39. From the facts elicited in these debates, it appeared that agrarian outrages had considerably increased in the Statistics of course of the years 1836 and 1837.* In 1836 and in 1837, 38, 1837, no less than 519 rewards for murders were published, but only nineteen were claimed. In 1836 the whole police of Ireland were put under the direction of the central office in Dublin; and the effects of this improved system appeared in a great increase in the number of convictions, both for serious crimes and minor offences; but the returns exhibited an awful picture of the extent to which violence and bloodshed had come to pervade the rural districts of the country. In 1825, the committals for serious crimes in all Ireland were 15,515;+ in 1838 they had risen to 25,443, though the inhabit According to the returns of the Clerk of the Peace and Crown, the Police returns for the years 1836 and 1837 were 14,804 and 15,723 respectively, which was an obvious mistake, from the police, who in these years made the returns, then for the first time introduced, not understanding the English system. Lord Morpeth, in the debate on Irish crime in the House of Commons (Parl. Deb. xlvii. 322, 7th March 1839), quoted the Clerk of the Peace's returns as the true ones. The difference, which sorely perplexed the members of both houses who spoke on the subject, is easily explained without supposing inaccuracy in either return, and is quite apparent to any one practically acquainted with the subject. It arises from the different class of cases included in the returns, whether they include any of the summary convictions or not. The Irish police, in 1837 and 1838, excluded many of the committals reported by the Clerks of the Peace from their returns, from regarding them as police cases, though reported by the Clerks of the Peace as grave offences tried at the assizes, which was erroneous, contrary to the practice in England and Scotland, and avoided in subsequent years. XXXVIII. 1839. CHAP. ants, during the same period, had not increased more than a fifth. The convictions for minor offences had increased in a similar proportion, and at the close of the period still more rapidly; in the last eighteen months prior to December 1838, they were no less than 86,000!* But the most melancholy fact was one brought forward by Mr Stanley, that in the year 1838, in eleven counties of Ireland, exclusive of Tipperary, there were 277 committals for murder, and only three convictions! Among so many deplorable and melancholy facts, it was consolatory to find that there were some gleams of reviving prosperity, indicating what might be anticipated if a suitable system of government were permanently established in the coun1 Ann. Reg. try. The proportion of convictions to committals had steadily increased of late years, and came to be about 71 Progress of per cent of the whole-being nearly the same proportion tation, as in England; and the price of land had risen in most Deb. xxxvi. counties from twenty to twenty-three, and even twentyfive years' purchase-being nearly as high as in England or Scotland.1 1839, 45, 47, 81; Porter's the 668; Parl. 340, xxxix. 262, 263. 27. the Govern O'Connell. But though the rural districts were thus disturbed and Alliance of stained with blood, the violence of the people was not ment with directed against the Government, and this constituted an essential difference between the agitation at this time and what it had been on previous occasions. The Precursor Association, which had been set on foot by Mr O'Connell on the proclaiming down of the Catholic Association by the Lord-Lieutenant, had now, since the alliance of Lord Melbourne's Administration and the Roman Catholics, come to be entirely devoted to the support of Government, and was, in fact, their main-stay against the increasing hostility of the English county members. On March 6, 1839, Mr O'Connell said, at a meeting of the Precur *SUMMARY CONVICTIONS. July to December 1837, January to June 1838, June to December 1838, -Ann. Reg. 1839, p. 42. 74,336 74,539 86,615 |