at Carlisle or at Preston, than now live in some of the districts of Ireland in which burglary and murder were the nightly occupations. In point of fact, to threaten civil war was only to threaten that which was now suffered, for Ireland was in a state of civil war. And yet, to endeavour to put an end to such a disgraceful scene of anarchy and strife was, forsooth, "brutally" to coerce Ireland. He repeated that the civil war had long since begun, and, if not checked, must end in the ruin of the empire. In the course of the remarks with which he had thus troubled the House, he had avoided all allusion to those irritating topics connected with the vituperations which the hon. and learned member for Dublin had, more than once, thought it fitting to pour out against the party now in office. That party would spare itself the task of reproaching him with conduct, to say the least, savouring of ingratitude. The hon. and learned Gentleman might be assured that his abuse was not a bit more stinging to those against whom it was directed, than that which was so lavishly bestowed upon them by those who so long withheld from him and his Catholic brethren their political rights, and who were now allied with him in hostility against those very persons who were ever the earnest and uncompromising advocates of those rights. He might be assured that the high-minded men who braved the "no Popery” cry in all its fury, were not likely to be scared by a cry for the Repeal of the Union. As attached to that party known by the name of "the Whigs," it was not for him to speak of their claims upon the favour of an enlightened public. The time would come, when history would do them justice, and would show, among other things not unworthy of commendation, how much they had done and suffered for Ireland; it would show that, in 1807, they left office because they could not knock off the political fetters of their Catholic fellow-subjects; and that, for the same sacred cause, they remained upwards of twenty years out of office, though more than once it was within their grasp, braving at the same time the

frowns of the court and the hisses of the multitude. Yes, for the Catholics they renounced power and place, without obtaining in return the poor reward of a fleeting popularity. These were men, in those days of "no Popery" triumph, who might, by uttering one little word against the Catholics-nay; in some places, by merely not saying a little word in favour of them, have been returned by numerous constituencies to a seat in the Legislature; but who, sooner than utter that little word, contrary to their wellfounded convictions of right and justice, were not only excluded from Parliament, but from all those places of honour and trust which are coveted by every high-minded English gentleman! The Whigs retired from public life, but their honour was unsullied. The clamour, therefore, which the hon. and learned member for Dublin was endeavouring to excite against Earl Grey's Government could not be of much moment, compared with that which Earl Grey had already withstood in order to place the learned Gentleman where he sat. Though a comparatively young member of the Whig party, he could take it upon him to speak their sentiments on this head.

He therefore could tell the hon. and learned

Gentleman that the same spirit and moral courage which sustained the Whigs when out of office, in their conflict with bad laws, would sustain them in office in their conflict with the enemies of good laws. They were not deterred by clamour from making the learned Gentleman not less than a British subject; he might be assured they would never suffer him to be more. In saying this, he believed that he was speaking the sentiments of many thousands. He was proud to say that he stood there, for the first time, the Representative of a new, a great, and a flourishing community, who conceived that, at the present time, the service of the people was not incompatible with that of the Crown; and who had sent him there, charged (as the words of his Majesty's writ expressed it), "to do and consent to such things as should be proposed in the great council of the kingdom." In their name, therefore, he

hereby gave his full assent to that part of the Address wherein the House declared its resolution to maintain, by the help of God, the connexion between England and Ireland inviolate, and to intrust to the Sovereign such powers as might be necessary for the security of property, for the maintenance of order, and for preserving, entire, the integrity of the empire.

THE DISTURBANCES (IRELAND) BILL.*

FEB. 28, 1833.

He confessed, that the apprehensions entertained by the hon. and learned Gentleman who had just sat down [Mr. Sheil] did not appear to him to be in any degree well-grounded, nor did he think that the speech of that hon. and learned Gentleman, however much it had been cheered at that side of the House, would at all weaken the lasting impression made by the admirable address delivered by his right hon. friend (Mr. Stanley) yesterday evening. That speech had produced an impression which he was convinced would not easily be removed from the minds of those who heard it. The hon. and learned Gentleman had told them, that that speech, great as he admitted it to be, owed much of its force to the prepossessions of the majority in that House. According to the hon. and learned Gentleman, it would appear that English members were eager to find an excuse for exposing Ireland to the operation, of this measure. For himself and for those who concurred with him in opinion as to the necessity of the measure, he begged most distinctly and positively to repudiate the charge. That Englishmen were anxious for some excuse to put their fellow-subjects of Ireland out of the pale of the Constitution was, he must, in justice to himself and other English members, say, altogether unfounded. For his own part, he had never risen in that House under more painful feelings than those which now oppressed him. He had never thought, that it would have become necessary for him to stand up and defend the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act,

VOL. I.

* Hansard, 3d series, Vol. xv. p. 1326-1337.

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and the suspension of the trial by jury. But on what grounds did he defend that course? Before he went to those grounds, he would begin by saying, that he entertained no feelings with respect to the rights and liberties, and prosperity of England, which he did not hold as fully and as strongly in regard to those of Ireland. He thought there was no situation in the life of a public man more painful than that in which he found himself, under the necessity of supporting the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and even the temporary abolition of the trial by jury. These were sacred portions of our Constitution, older than Parliament itself their origin was lost in the darkness of ancient times, they were beyond the Heptarchy; they formed parts of the great charter of British liberties; they were those great bulwarks of freedom for which our ancestors had bravely and successfully struggled to preserve which kings had been deposed, dynasties had been changed-for which a noble army of martyrs had bled. He touched those sacred bulwarks with trembling and awe. Never ought they to be touched or disturbed but in case of the greatest necessity; but that necessity once made out, he would not stop to inquire, how far or how short he was to go beyond them. He would not having once admitted the principle-enter into the details, for they must be granted, in order that the application of the principle might not be in vain. He could imagine nothing worse than the enactment of a measure which, being unconstitutional, should, at the same time, be ineffectual, which, while it. went beyond the law, did not afford any security for the briefness of its own duration. In departing from the law, he would rather err on the side of vigour than of lenity. He would therefore adopt a strong measure, that its duration might be short, and that it might be less liable to be drawn into a precedent. When once, therefore, he had made up his mind that a suspension of the Habeas Corpus and of the trial by jury had become necessary, it was to him of little importance to go into discussion as to details,