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On the whole, as the measure propofed was approved by a great multitude of the people of Ireland, of the peaceable claffes; as that fyftem of military power was not intended to overwhelm the civil power, but to protect it from being overwhelm ed, he was inclined to hope that the houfe would adopt it.

Mr. Wefterna thought that martial law was neceflary in the prefent flate of Ireland. He hoped and trufted that the members from that country would be confidered as fo many witnesses who would not mifreprefent it.

Mr. Whitbread had called on the houfe to recollect that it was for the first time engaged in deliberation on the affairs of Ireland, fince the incorporation of its legiflature with that of this country, and to be cautious of beginning with a meature fo vigorous as this.

Mr. Canning, on the other hand, called on the house to recollect well before they repealed what the individual parliament of Ireland had done for its fafety; and to be cautious, left, in fpeculating on the interefts of Ireland, they should betray their own.

Mr. Trench obferved, that, if the rebellion bill was fuffered to expire, the offenders now in cuftody would be fet at large; and that, though it fhould be renewed in the courfe of a few days, after fuch expiration, irremediable mifchief might be done in the interval. The courts of law were, indeed, open, as had been ftated by the honourable baronet; but then, he contended, that juries dared not to do their duty, and that witneffes were afraid to come forward. Sir Lawrence had called for inftances: they were melancholy and notorious. He knew one

cafe, in which the conduct of a jury was fo flagrant, that the judge or dered their names to be poited up for public reprobation.

Mr. Taylor infifted that the laws neither were nor could be executed in Ireland.

Mr. Fitzgerald faid, that the com mon law of England, which required no eulogium, was founded on the principle, that every witnefs would tell, the truth, and the judge and jury do what was right. Such was, in fact, their conduct: and why? because they found they did fo with fafety, in the face of their country, without any danger to their lives, or fortune; but, by the ingenioufnefs of the men who con ducted the rebellion in Ireland, for many of them were lawyers, that which fhould be the life, was turned to the deftruction of the conftitution. The vicinage, which was originally for the protection of the juror, had become the fource of his ruin.

Mr. Beresford, as a proof of the impartial conduct of courts-martial, obferved, that the rebels of Wexford bad defired to be tried by these, and not by the civil law. The ju ries dared not give honeft verdicts. A jury, at the aflizes of Tyrone, told the judge, that they would find a man guilty, who had been tried by them for a capital offence, on the clearest evidence, if he would agree to inflict a lefs punishment than death; but the judge not complying, they brought in a verdict of acquital. Inflances of this kind were numerous; and the state of the country was now exactly the fame as when the facts to which he alluded took place. In fact, fuch was the perfecution carried on against thole who fought to main

tain the law, and carry it into effect, that a perfon, suspected of giving information to government, had been followed from Ireland, and murdered in London.

Mr. Ogle perfectly coincided with Lord Caftlereagh in his account of the ftate of Ireland. He wifhed the rebellion in Wexford had not been mentioned. However, as it had been adverted to, he would ftate its fyftem and principles. It was, to put every loyal man, and every proteftant to death. It was, to pull down church and state, and, in concert with France, to build a papal hierarchy in their place; and to effect the feparation of Ireland from England. The priefs were their generals, and infpired them with every abomination. One affemblage of 185, proteftant men, women, and children, were burned in a barn; 500 were maffacred on Vinegar-hill; and, the day before Wexford was relieved, a great number were flaughtered on the bridge of that place. Many of them were his friends, and his heart bled for them. But the honourable baronet had said that all was quiet now. He wished the honourable baronet would take a ride through the county of Wexford and fee. Perhaps the honourable baronet, after the fpeech he had made that night, might do fo in fafety: but he was certain that he, himself, could not. So far was the country from being quiet, that not even the mails could travel in fecurity. They were conftantly attacked: and that, not merely for the purpofe of robbery, but murder. Nothing but martial law could fave Ireland. The rebels, at that moment, did not hefitate to fay, that they counted on a

French invafion, and that they were ready to co-operate with it.

Mr. Macnaughton obferved, that, when fir John Davies wrote his account of Ireland, there was no fuch thing as jacobinifm in Ireland. Without martial law, the perpetrators of the moft enormous crimes in the difturbed counties of Antrim, Wexford, Wicklow, and Tyrone, could not be punished.

Mr. Somers Cox faid, that he had refided a fhort time in Ireland after the rebellion, and was fully convinced, from his experience, during that visit, that if the flate of the country was the fame now, as then, it was impoffible that there could be any order or fecurity, without martial law.

Mr. Martin obferved, that it was evident from the statements of both fides of the houfe, that there did not exift any tribunals to which rebels could be properly brought, except courts martial, or other tribunals fimilarly conftituted. Mr. Toler, now chief juftice of the common pleas, when attorney-general, affured him, that fuch was the avidity of a jury for condemnation, that, in one morning, they convicted thirty perfons, whom he was obliged to recommend to mercy. The rebel, himself, therefore, he fhould think, would exclaim against a tribunal where he had fuch little chance of lenity. A tribunal of the kind, now propofed to be continued, was only a commiffion to take evidence, and its fentence was afterwards revifed by the lord lieutenant. Mr. Martin deprecated the introduction of the catholics into a debate, at a time when their claim was not before the houfe. It had been fated that the priefts were the generals, and that

the

the rebellion was a catholic rebellion. Mr. Martin, on the contrary, contended that it was a proteftant rebellion, and that the principal leaders, in the difturbed counties, were all proteftants.

Mr. Ogle, in explanation, fail, that he did not allude to the body of catholics, but merely to the nature and state of the rebellion in one particular county.

Mr. Lee contended that Ireland was not in a fiate to be governed only by a jury. Of that fate, he would not make allertions, but give proofs. He referred to the journals of the Irith house of commons, now in that house. In them would be found an act for making the information of a witnefs, murdered before trial, evidence to go to a jury. This was a measure rendered necelfary by the frequency of cafes, where men where murdered to prevent their giving evidence against rebels. He alto referred them to the act, by which a number of perlons confpiring to murder, were held equally criminal as if they had carried their intention into effect. There was allo another ac to which he would refer the houfe: for the refraints laid by the Irish parliament were progreflive, and it was only as increafing feverity that it was exercited. The act alluded to, was that by which a man, found from home between fun fet and fun rife, and not giving a fatisfactory account of himfelf, might be fent, by the magiftrates, to lerve in the navy or army. This was rendered necetfary by the mode in which rebellion covered the land. The mode was this: ten men met at night, and fwore each other to fwear to their cause ten men more. Each of thefe

ten was fworn to fwear a like num♣ ber, and fo on: fo that fuch a lyttent might be foon diffused over any country, however populous or extenfive. It was impofiible, there fore, for the Irith parliament, to have proceeded more mildly or gently than it had done under fuch circumftances. The rebellion of Ireland was different from every other of which biftory furnished an example. It was a rebellion on the principle of the Agrarian law, fuperinduced upon poverty: in which every man was taught that he had an intereft, and that, in the event of its fuccefs, he muft get wealth and property. So far was this principle carried, that thele nocturnal rebels often met and divided the fpoil before the battle was fought. There was one infiance, in which, after having parcelled out the eftate of a very rich gentleman, they quarrelled about the mansion house. Mr. Lee then proceeded to vindicate the forms and proceeding of courts martial. A lawyer, he faid, always prefided, at leaft fince the rebellion, for during the rebellion no lawyer was to be had, and took care that due regard fhould be had to the rules of evidence. The mea

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part of the united kingdom; but ftill less now, when twenty-eight peers, and a hundred of its firft commoners, were drawn away from it. He trufted, therefore, that even the gentlemen, who oppofed the meafure propofed, would not drive the house to a divifion.

Mr. Horne Tooke thought it would not be impoffible to reconcile both fides of the houfe. He believed martial force was necellary for Ireland: but there was a great difference between martial force, and martial law. There were only four counties ftated to be in rebellion, or likely to be fo. Now it was the cuftom of this country, when any part was difturbed, and that a fair trial could not be had there, to bring the delinquents to trial in the found parts, where the juries were unprejudiced, and the witneffes protected. The motion of adjournment was negatived, and lord Caftlereagh's motion agreed to without a divifion. Lord Caftlereagh then brought up the bill, which was read a firft time.

It was not to be wondered at, that English gentlemen, but little acquainted with the real ftate of Ireland, and in the habits of canvaffing and questioning the meafures of government, fhould fet themfelves against the farther continuance of martial law in Ireland. But it was matter of aftonishment, and this was ftrongly expreffed by feveral of the Irith members, that any gentleman from Ireland fhould come forward with fo decided an oppofition to a measure-which every one must feel to be neceflary.

That a gentleman of fuch intelligence, probity, and patriotifm, as VOL. XLIII.

fir Lawrence Parfons fhould main tain fo fingular and hazardous an opinion, in oppofition to the confentient voice of all his brethren' from Ireland, in the house of commons, may be confidered as a curi ous proof how much even men of talents and virtue may be governed, in particular cafes, by their preju dices, and how apt men are to miftake their own circle of acquaintance, united generally by a fympathy of fentiments, for the nation at large, and the wide world. The fame queftion, concerning the neceflity of continuing Ireland under the authority of martial law, was farther difcuffed in the other ftages of this bill, and alfo thofe of the other, clofely connected therewith, namely, "A bill for continuing for a time to be limited, the fufpenfion of the habeas corpus act, in Ireland.” Leave having been given to bring in this bill into the houfe of commons, on the 13th of March, it was read the for first time on the 16th.

On this occafion, the order of the day being read, fir John Parnell, after declaring that nothing could be farther from his intentions than to embarrass the meafures of government; yet could not fuffer the bill to be again read, without fome remarks. It could not be denied that there exifted, in the prefent ftate of Ireland, the moft preffing neceffity for continuing that country under the authority of martial law. In fome counties the diforder was open and apparent; in others, the tranquillity that prevailed was fufpicious and uncertain. could it be trufted, that the mifchiefs which had preceded the rebellion would not be renewed, as foon as the evil intentioned fhould [M]

In none

find

find themselves free from all reftraint but that of the trial by jury. But why fhould even martial law be adminiftered in Ireland, in a manner fo much more arbitrary than that in which it was exercifed in the ordinary difcipline of the British navy? Arbitrary puniment and restraint neceffarily tended to perpetuate the very evils against which they might be employed as a temporary fafeguard. He fhould be glad to fee the prefent bill rendered as little exceptionable as might be, before it fhould be offered for a third reading.

Sir Lawrence Parfons contended, ftill, that in order to juftify the continuance of martial law in Ireland, it thould have been demonftrated to the house, beyond the poffibility of contradiction, that the trial by jury was utterly unequal to the ordinary protection of the lives and properties of the people, as well as to the fupport of the juft authority of the government. But Ireland, he faid, was not at all in that state of intef tine war which could alone juftify such a measure as was propofed to them. He defcribed the careless tranquillity that prevailed in his county, and, as he had been informed, in other counties, and among others, lord Caftlereagh's county, as the noble lord himfelf could tef tify. As the noble lord and his friends had not made out fo ftrong a cafe, as was neceflary for the adoption of martial law, he would give his hearty negative against the fecond reading of the bill before

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on a comprehenfive view of all cir cumflances, to be the wifeft policy that this country could adopt, to treat the people of Ireland like the people of England..

Mr. M. A. Taylor, on the fecond reading of the Irish martial law bill, as well as on the motion for the fecond reading of the suspenfion of habeas, then before the houfe, faid that the martial law bill granted a power of inflicting torture; that inftances of torture had been frequent under the adminiftration of both lord Camden and that of lord Cornwallis, and that he intended to move an amendment. for abolishing that power.

Lord Caftlereagh, in reply to Mr., Taylor, and for his information, not from any perfonal difrefpect, faid, that fuch a charge was wholly and abfolutely unfounded. Many cruel. ties had indeed arifen out of thẹ warfare which took place between the rebels and the loyal fubjects of his majefty; the juftification of which had been refted on the principle of felf-defence. But, as an argument in favour of the bill now before the house, he would observe, that, from the moment it had paffed in Ireland, that fpecies of individual violence had fubfided. The prefent bill was, therefore, calculated to prevent fuch cruel acts from being repeated by individuals, from an ap prehenfion of their own prefervation. For, by this, individuals were fatisfied that they had protection under the authority of government and therefore that there was no neceffity for them to take their protec tion into their own hands, which they would do, and which they would be driven to do, unless go were armed with this vernment kind of authority. For the rebels

had

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