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EXCERPTA

FROM

DEBATES OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT,

DURING THE SUMMER OF 1816.

STATE OF IRELAND.

SIR JOHN NEWPORT.

sion of this ruinous course, by that monstrous act which, remitting penalties incurred to highly offending districts, sanctioned that shocking principle, that in the enormous extent of his offences the delinquent should find his best

IT will naturally be asked by an
impartial inquirer, why Ireland
has not been infinitely more im-
proved by its long connexion dur-
ing six centuries with England?-security.
why it still has to complain of evils
which were the subject of animad-
version in the early period of that
connexion? The answer is obvious
-the inference irresistible-it
has been misgoverned. No other
cause can been assigned. History
does not afford a single instance
of any two countries, so long uni-
ted under the same government,
which are not assimilated in man-
ners, customs, and habits. Ireland
is the solitary and melancholy ex-
ception to this general rule.

Illicit distillation is a source of much evil to Ireland, demoralizing her people, and encroaching on her scanty resources of taxation. It is, as I fear, too much protected by individuals of rank and power, and largely practised by the professors of exclusive loyalty. No man, however high in station, should be allowed to protect his dependents in a course of disobedience to law, nor should alleged loyalty secure any class of the community from sharing the burthens of the state. Parliament has indeed contributed to the exten

I am astonished that the ministers who have, by the disturbed state of Ireland, justified their claim for extended military force, do not themselves propose remedial measures: one and one only, has been adverted to education. Of its superior efficacy, no man can think more highly than I do, as providing largely for future amelioration. But can we look to this as a remedy for existing evils? I may be permitted, too, to say, that if by education be intended the capacity of reading and writing, I believe the Irish are not an uneducated people: certainly not as compared with the people of England: the reports before the house prove this. Mr. Newham, in a work containing much useful information, states, from actual inquiry, that in a district comprising about one half of the county of Cork, there were upwards of 300 unendowed schools, educating not less than 22,000 children.

Education can however be no cure for the political evils of Ireland, unless accompanied by radi

cal reform of the present vicious system; it has grown out of the accumulated misgovernment of many centuries, and it is the bounden duty of parliament to institute exact inquiry into the causes and effects of that system -to search it to the bottom, and neither to be allured nor deterred from the path of duty by prejudice or power.

Sir J. Newport dwelt upon the litigation, difficulty, and delay attending Irish elections, especially where the returning officer had any bias. The difficulty and delay he instanced in his own case, where the election was extended to 15 days, although there were only 900 voters to poll. But when he had to petition against the return, the scrutiny continued no less than 76 days in Ireland, and 16 days before the committee of that house, before his claim was established. Such a system was, the house must feel, calculated to weary out any candidate; and as the evils belonging to the system were imposed upon the Irish representatives, by the union, it was peculiarly the duty of the imperial parliament to remove them.

MR. PEEL, Chief Secretary for Ireland.

When the information which he (Mr. Peel) intended to move for, should be produced, it would then be competent for the house to decide what course ought to be pursued. He did not wish to discourage all expectation of its being possible to apply some remedy to the evils which afflicted Ireland. But, if he believed with the right honourable baronet, that the present state of tumult and disorder had grown out of the abuses and errors of six hundred years of mismanagement; if by quotations

from the writings of Dean Swift, he were to attempt to show the poverty, wretchedness, and cowardice of the Irish: if he undertook to prove from the operation of i laws enacted before the reign of James I., that the affections, of the people had been incessantly and violently alienated; if he undertook to show all those calamities, then, indeed, he could not much encour age the hopes of the right honourable baronet. Without, however, going so far as that, he was still inclined to think that the difficulties and evils which encompassed Ireland, formed a Gordian knot which could not be cut, and which only the gradual lapse of time could unravel.

Before he followed the right honourable baronet through all the details into which he had entered, the house would probably expect from him a statement of what was the present condition of Ireland. Generally speaking, the north of Ireland was tranquil. No disturbances prevailed there, except what arose from distillation, and the consequent opposition to the revenue laws in certain districts. Those, however, were neither serious nor alarming. The extreme west of Ireland, also the counties of Mayo, Galway, and Carlow, were comparatively tranquil. The same might be said of the south of Ireland, of Cork, Wexford, &c. The east of Ireland was likewise generally tranquil. He meant that in those counties no applications had been made to government for extraordinary police. The counties in which disturbances actually prevailed were Tipperary, King's county, Westmeath, and Limerick. The magistrates of King's county had requested the application of the insurrection act: but they had since petitioned for its

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removal, asserting that tranquillity | racter of the lower orders. In dif

was perfectly restored. In Westmeath and Limerick, a considerable improvement had taken place, but the insurrection act was still in force. Since he last addressed the house, the magistrates of the county of Louth and county of Cavan, had petitioned the government of Ireland for the application, not of the insurrection act, but of the extraordinary police act. Such was the general state of Ireland at the present moment. There was nothing more difficult than to give the house a character of the precise nature of the disturbances which now agitated Ireland. In former periods of the history of that country, tumults and outrage had subsisted, but they were ge nerally to be traced to small and comparatively unimportant causes. Particular and local grievances, personal animosities, or hereditary feuds, constituted the principal sources of them. At other times, grievances of a more distinct and positive nature were alleged, such as the high price of land, for example, and the professed object of the combinations was to lower it. But the disturbances which now prevailed had no precise or definite cause. They seemed to be the effect of a general confederacy in crime-a comprehensive conspiracy in guilt-a systematic opposition to all laws. and municipal institutions. The records of the courts of justice would show such a settled and uniform system of guilt, such monstrous and horrible perjuries, as could not, he believed, be found in the annals of any country on the face of the globe, whether civilized or uncivilized. He was far from meaning to say that those dreadful offences arose from the generally malignant or depraved cha

ferent counties different appearances were presented. He had himself been in some, and it was impossible to find any where men more tractable, more obedient to the laws, or more disposed to pay all due deference to their superiors. He was ready to declare that it was impossible to see them without admiring many of their qualities. He believed, indeed, that the character of the Irish people had been variously misrepresented, in general, not from any deliberate design, but because, in fact, they were often presented under different and singular aspects. From his observation of them, he believed, they possessed great fidelity; in their dealings with each other great honesty; from their early marriages, they were in general very chaste; and be it told to their honour, that certain crimes which disgrace and degrade more civilised countries were utterly unknown to them. He was even told that the Irish language did not possess a name by which they could be designated. But in those parts of Ireland, especially in the county of Tipperary, their depravity was shocking. If any one should urge that he overstated it, he was prepared to confute him by irrefragable documents. He did not speak from vague and ambiguous rumours. What said the records of the courts of justice in that county? What would be the evidence of the twelve men impanelled to try midnight murderers of an invaluable magistrate belonging to that county? If he required proof for what he had asserted, he need go no farther. If any one would take the trouble to peruse the minutes of that trial, they would be able to form a thorough idea of the character of

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and resembling the magistrate (Mr. Baker) in person, narrowly escaped from falling a sacrifice. Information was conveyed by signals from one party to another. The gentleman to whom he alluded saw several persons on the tops of the houses and hay-ricks, waiting for the fatal catastrophe. When the shot was fired, loud cheers were uttered by those who were thus waiting, and then they all retreated. The plan, therefore, had evidently been determined

the people. They would see their extraordinary fidelity to each other in a bad cause the facilities they afforded to escape punishment the readiness they manifested to redress the injuries offered to any of their party-the difficulty of bringing home conviction to the guilty, and the detestation in which every one was held who at all contributed, or was instrumental in giving effect to the laws against them. With respect to the murder of that magistrate, he was afraid it was too clearly establish-upon months before it was put in ed, from the records of the court of justice, that it had been planned several weeks before it was carried into execution. The magistrate upon whom the foul deed was committed, was a most amiable man. He spoke from the opinions of others, as he had not the least knowledge of him personally. He was kind, indulgent, and a ready friend to the poor; but at the same time he was a most determined enemy to that terrible system of combination which prevailed. In the neighbourhood of his dwelling, a house had been burned down, because the inhabitant of that house had taken land at higher rent than was thought a proper equivalent by those misguided men. The magistrate in consequence, exerted himself to discover the offenders, and by his indefatigable efforts six of them were apprehended. Upon this, the remainder determined to murder him. On the day fixed for the atrocious act, there were no less than four different parties stationed on different roads waiting for his approach. The murder was committed at some distance from Cashel, and the particulars which he related were derived from a gentleman who happened to be travelling that road at that time,

execution: and although no less than 13,000l. were offered as a reward for apprehending the murderers, by the government and by the resident gentry in the county, he believed no evidence whatever was obtained as the result of that offer: such was their fidelity in a bad cause, and such was the abominable system of confederacy upon which they acted. Not a person was found to come forward and make a voluntary disclosure. He would mention one conclusive proof of the feelings by which they were actuated. One of the murderers who was apprehended, and afterwards hanged for his crime, when in prison, expressed a desire to disclose some particulars. His life was offered as the promised reward for his confession. He accordingly communicated a part; but he afterwards retracted, at the instigation of his wife, who went on her knees to him in the prison, and implored him to be executed rather than divulge the secret. (A laugh, and hear, hear!) The house might probably smile at the conjugal affection of the woman, but he could assure them, there was as much attachment between the husband and the wife as could possibly exist between two persons, and the concern which she felt

was, lest her husband should for feit his character and respecta bility by betraying his friends. He actually retracted, in consequence of the persuasions of his wife, and was accordingly executed.

MR. PLUNKET.

| he thought it would be a most material benefit conferred upon the people of Ireland, to extend the jurisdiction of the assistant barrister from cases of 20% to 50%.: he certainly should be happy to cooperate in any measure for that purpose.

MR. GRATTAN.

With regard to the financial distress of Ireland, it was undenia

From the highest authority it had been stated, that within the last fifty years the commerce of Ireland had doubled, her agricultural produce had increased four-ble that it was almost beyond confold, and her population had tre- ception. Her expenditure had outbled. Thus it appeared that she shot her means, for she had a debt was capable of becoming the of one hundred and fifty millions, dangerous rival, or the powerful burthened with an interest of seven friend of England: a gigantic form millions, while her revenue did' was rising at the side of Great not exceed six millions; so that for Britain, and the question now was, the maintenance of her establishwhether it should be converted in- ments she had absolutely nothing. to a friend or an enemy. Difficult as this situation was, he did not despair of its being relieved. He would suggest, therefore, such a financial arrangement between the two countries as would enable both to contribute to their mutual relief. Thirdly, with regard to the commercial distresses of Ireland, he acknowledged they were great, but he considered them as resulting from the sudden and violent change from war to peace. On that head, therefore, he was not inclined to despond. As the most effectual means of relieving those distresses, Ireland should receive a constant preference over foreigners in the British market. Thus it appeared to him that all the three branches of difficulty which he had spoken of might in time be removed. With respect to the agitation which existed in Ireland, by a good administration of the government it might unquestionably be cured. It was of a temporary not of a permanent nature. It was disgraceful, but it was an eruption of the skin, and did not proceed from the blood. It

MR. VESEY FITZGERALD. There was one circumstance which had frequently struck him as a grievance pressing upon the lower classes of the farmers in Ireland, and that was the difficulty which they experienced in recovering the debts due to them. By an act passed in 1796, a power was given to the assistant barristers to try by civil bill, cases of debt to the amount of 201. Great advantages had resulted from it.-Nothing fell more severely upon the lower orders of farmers than the difficulty of thus obtaining justice, the expenses of which before the superior tribunals, were beyond their reach. There could not be a stronger proof of this, than that the number of actions brought amounted to above 30,000, and that the number tried did not exceed 800: the great expense deterred people from prosecuting them. The expense of prosecuting a suit before the assistant barrister did not exceed a few shillings, and

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