IRISH COERCION BILL.
On the 15th of February, Earl Grey introduced into the house of lords a bill for the suppression of disturbances in Ireland. In doing so, his lordship related the evils which called for such a measure, clearly showing that it was necessary. In explaining the provisions by which ministers proposed to meet the evils, he said, that the bill combined many provisions of the several laws that had been passed both in the Irish and English parliament for the repression of such outrages as he had related, with such alterations as circumstances seemed to require. Provision was made for proclaiming districts in a state of disturbance; and it was provided that courts should be appointed in which offences connected with such districts were to be tried. It was also provided that persons prosecuted under this act should be obliged to plead forthwith, as in cases of felony, and not be permitted to delay their trial. By the bill the lord-lieutenant was to be empowered, on due information, to proclaim any district to be in a disturbed state. All persons were to be warned to abstain from seditious and illegal meetings; and no one was to be absent from their houses after sunset until sunrise, unless they could give good reason for their being abroad, under the penalty of being found guilty of a misdemeanour. Another provision was, that meetings for the purpose of petitioning parliament, or for discussing grievances, should not be held without giving ten days’ notice to the lord-lieutenant, or without his sanction. It was further thought advisable that proclaimed districts should, to a certain extent, be subjected to martial law. Military courts were to be formed for the trial of all offences under this act, with power to pronounce sentence as definitively as any commission of oyer and terminer. The lord-lieutenant was to have the power for the appointment of courts-martial; and it was provided that courts-martial should not consist of more than nine gentlemen nor less than five. It was further provided, that no officer under twenty-one years of age, or who had held his commission for less than two years, should act on such courts-martial; and that the said courts-martial should not have the power of trying for any offence to which a felonious punishment was attached, except by special direction of the lord-lieutenant; and that, in that case, they should only pronounce sentence of transportation, either for seven years or for life. It was made imperative that a serjeant-at-law or a king’s counsel should sit to assist in the judgment. A clause was likewise introduced to shield officers who had. acted on courts-martial under this act from future prosecution: any complaints made against them on account of their proceedings at any court-martial were to be inquired into by a court-martial to be called for that purpose. The bill further gave power to enter houses in search of arms; and persons refusing to produce them were subjected to punishment. It was also made a misdemeanour to disperse seditious papers in a proclaimed district; with a provision that, if the persons actually dispersing them gave up his employer, the former should be discharged. Finally, it was to be enacted, that when an individual arrested under this bill sued out a writ of habeas corpus within three calendar months after his arrest, it should be a sufficient return to the writ, that the person so detained was kept in custody on a charge of offence perpetrated in a proclaimed district; at the same time it was provided that every person arrested should be brought to trial within three calendar months, or should be discharged. This bill was carried in the lords without opposition; some slight amendments being adopted in the committee with reference to the constitution, the powers, and the mode of procedure of the courts-martial. The bill, however, had to encounter a stormy course in the commons. On its appearance there on the 22nd, the first reading was postponed till the 27th, and Mr. O’Connell gave notice that he would move a call of the house for that day, and would repeat the call whenever he perceived any relaxation of its effects, so long as the bill was before them. He taunted ministers with the delay, which he insinuated was interposed to their remedial measures, and reminded them there was another house of parliament through which they might find it impossible to carry redress of grievances, whatever was the unanimity with which it enacted measures of coercion: “a house where any proposal springing from malignant hatred of Ireland was sure to pass.” Mr. Stanley denied that there was any necessity for remedial and repressive measures going on together; but at the same time he declared that if ministers found themselves unable to carry both they would resign office. On the 27th, the house having been called over, Lord Althorp moved the first reading of the bill. Ministers, he said, had waited to the last, to ascertain what order could be restored by the ordinary administration of the laws; and after relating at length the evils which afflicted Ireland—telling-many a tale of murder committed with impunity, even in broad daylight—he explained the provisions of the bill concocted to repress them. In conclusion, he asserted that the bill had no reference to the collection of tithes, as some had hinted, or any other individual purpose, except the maintenance of social order. The motion was met by an amendment from Mr. Tennyson, that the bill should be read a second time that day fortnight: his object being, as he stated, to give government an opportunity, whether in a select committee or otherwise, to satisfy the house that the dangers which had been stated really existed, and that there were no other means of effectually checking them. The amendment was supported by Messrs. Bulwer and Grote, the former of whom was averse to coercion in any shape, and contended that it would only produce mischief. Mr. Grote admitted that good grounds had been stated why the hands of justice should be strengthened, but he objected very strongly to courts-martial being employed in the administration of justice. To him it appeared that it would be much better if, instead of creating these courts-martial, the bill had granted more extensive, prompt, and efficient powers to the civil courts. Mr. Stanley, in reply to Mr. Grote, said it was true that the committee of last year had recommended a tribunal consisting of the magistrates of the neighbourhood sitting at quarter-sessions, and having power to sit by adjournment from time to time, till tranquillity was restored. He contended, however, that it would be a most objectionable thing to confide the administration of such a law to the local magistracy. The debate was continued up to the 5th of March, the Irish members threatening to have recourse to repeated motions of adjournment if any attempt was made to close the discussion prematurely. The opposition was composed of those who considered that the bill ought to be resisted altogether, as well as of those who thought that delay, as involved in the amendment, should be conceded. The members who opposed it were Messrs. O’Connell, Shiel, O’Connor, Baldwin, Barron, O’Dwyer, and Ruthven, among the Irish members; and Messrs. Romilly and Harvey, with Majors Beauclerk and Fancourt, among the English members. On the other hand, the necessity and efficacy of the bill were maintained by Lord John Russell, Sir R. Peel, and Mr. Macaulay, with other English members; and by Messrs. Carew, Tennent, and Lefroy, Lords Castlereagh and Acheson, and Sirs R. Bateson and C. Coote, among the Irish members. The opposition contended that no necessity for the bill had been made out to any extent, much less to the effect of utterly destroying the constitution over the whole of Ireland; that the “prædial agitation” had no connection with political agitation, and did not require any measure like this to put it down; and that the true cause of these disturbances was the refusal of ministers to abolish tithes, and the true object of it to prevent all expression of public sentiment in Ireland against their faithlessness and misgovernment. Those who supported the bill contended, on the other hand, that not only were the existing outrages such as to require extraordinary measures contrary to the constitution, and that when this necessity for overstepping the constitution once existed, it was safer to err on the side of vigour than to run the risk of a half-measure; but that it was likewise proved that this “prædial agitation,” as it was called by the repealers, was closely connected with the political agitation; the principle of both was intimidation. Sir Robert Peel admitted that the measure was one of intolerable severity if there was not a paramount necessity for it; but he denied that it was a suspension of the British constitution. As for the amendment proposing delay, Sir Robert said that he could not listen to it for one moment; the necessity for the measure was urgent. What could be answered to the astounding fact that in one year and in one province there had been one hundred and ninety-six murders and attempts at murder, one hundred and ninety-four burnings, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven burglaries and attacks on houses? How could the state of society be worse! and how could the people of Ireland be better off by persevering in maintaining the existing law! One hundred and ninety-six murders! Why, great battles had been fought, and great victories achieved by this country at a less expense of human blood. The battle of St. Vincent had been gained at less cost of life; the sanguinary bombardment of Algiers had caused less loss of life; and we had rolled back the impetuous tide of French exultation at the battle of Busaco with less loss of life. There was something animating in the idea of a battle; but what horrid recollections haunted the mind which had witnessed a murder! The debate was closed by Mr. O’Connell, who, smarting under the severe remarks made by some of the speakers, delivered a speech of remarkable energy. Ministers, he said, after combating at length the principles of the measures, had done their best by enforcing the tithe act; it was not their fault that the case was not worse. As for the attacks made upon himself he cared nothing for them personally; but the wrongs of his country were mixed up with them. Why, he asked, did they not pass an act to banish him? That would be fair and manly, and he would consent to it; but let them not banish the constitution from Ireland. He stood in a reformed parliament, in the midst of the representatives of the great and glorious people of England, who, disguise it as they might, were about to legislate against a single individual. What mighty work! He felt compassion for them. On a division, the first reading of the bill was carried by a majority of four hundred and sixty-six to eighty-nine. This was a preponderance which seemed to promise an easy passage through its other stages, especially as the discussion which is generally elicited at the second reading took place on the first reading. When, however, the order of the day for the second reading was moved, Mr. Hume opposed it in a violent speech, denouncing the apostasy of ministers: they had forgotten, he said, and violated the principles of which they had been the noisy advocates for twenty-five years, and to which advocacy they were wholly indebted for their political reputation and power. He warned them against “the wickedness of their proceedings,” and called on them to pause in their rash career. He moved as an amendment:—“That the house deeply laments the disturbed state of some of the districts in Ireland, and is willing to entrust to his majesty whatever powers may be necessary to control and punish the disturbers of the public peace, and the midnight violators of the law; but is of opinion that it has not been satisfactorily shown that the existing laws are not sufficient for these purposes, and it cannot, therefore, give its consent to a bill which places Ireland out of the pale of the British constitution.” Alderman Wood seconded this resolution; but, on a division which took place on the 11th, the second reading being put off on some matter of form to that day, the amendment was rejected, and the second reading carried by three hundred and sixty-three against eighty-four. But notwithstanding this overwhelming majority, the progress of the bill through the committee on the 13th, 15th, 18th, 19th, and 22nd of March was a series of conflicts. On the 13th Mr. O’Connell moved an instruction to the committee to “preserve inviolate and effectual the undoubted right of his majesty’s subjects in Ireland peaceably to propose, prepare, and present petitions for redressing grievances to his majesty, and to both houses of parliament.” This, he said, would still leave hope to his country. This proposition was rejected by one hundred and twenty-five against sixty-three; and in the committee Mr. O’Connell moved several amendments, which were likewise negatived. In the committee ministers themselves inserted a provision by which, even in proclaimed districts, offences purely political were withdrawn from the cognizance of the military tribunals, and left to be dealt with by the ordinary civil jurisdiction. Ministers, also, of their own accord, omitted, in the clause giving powers to search, arrest, and detain for trial in proclaimed districts, the provision which gave this power to “such other persons as the said lord-lieutenant shall think fit to authorize in that behalf.” Divisions took place on the clauses establishing the courts-martial, suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, and protecting those who should act under the bill: but these were all carried by large majorities. The bill finally passed on the 23rd of March, and was immediately sent back to the peers for their concurrence in the alterations which had been made in the commons. Their lordships took these into consideration on the 1st of April; and though much dissatisfaction was expressed by the peers with the amendments, and especially with a proviso inserted in one of the clauses, that no district should be proclaimed because tithes were not paid in it, the bill was finally passed. The effect of the bill was such as was desired. On the 10th of April the lord-lieutenant issued a proclamation suppressing the association of volunteers, after which he applied the provisions of the act to the county of Kilkenny with the best effect. It soon appeared, indeed, that the list of outrageous offenders against the laws decreased throughout the country. The discussions on the coercion act had produced many personal conflicts in debate between Mr. O’Connell and the Irish secretary. O’Connell seemed to regard Mr. Stanley with bitter hostility, arising partly from the vigour with which he repelled the attack of the repealers, and from the supposition that he was not disposed to give up any of the revenues of the Irish church. Mr. Stanley, however, now retired from the battle by accepting the more tranquil office of colonial secretary, which had become vacant by Viscount Goderich being made lord-privy-seal, and advanced a step in the peerage by becoming Earl of Papon. Sir John Cam Hobhouse succeeded Mr. Stanley as Irish secretary.