XX.

1823.

20.

country.

ment led to no more satisfactory result than those in the CHAP. courts of law; and both tended only to inflame the violence of party spirit in Ireland, and unfold the calamitous extent to which its excesses prevailed and the administration of justice was tampered with in that unhappy country. These judicial and parliamentary proceedings had the effect of renewing the party riots and agrarian disturb- Disturbed ances which, in the beginning of the year, from the rise state of the in the price of agricultural produce, had begun sensibly to diminish. The violence of religious and political animosity disturbed the tranquillity even of those districts where life and property had hitherto been most secure. The whole peasantry sided with one or other of the great parties which divided the State; most of them were members of Orange or Ribbon lodges, where mutual animosity was fostered, and implicit obedience to chiefs inculcated; and whenever they met in any considerable numbers, insults were exchanged, and not unfrequently wounds and death were the consequence. The power of the law was shattered against these vast associations, for they led to the intimidation of witnesses to such a degree that evidence could seldom be obtained; and if it was, the course of justice was not unfrequently stopped by a refractory jury man, who belonged to the same religious party as the accused, and positively refused to convict on the clearest proof. To such a length did the disturbances proceed, that murders, arsons, and burglaries were of daily occurrence; policemen were murdered on the public streets or roads; and the Grand Jury of the county of Cork presented a petition to the Lord-Lieutenant, in which they stated that, within the last six months, a hundred cases had come before them of houses burnt, cattle houghed, and the like, by armed bands, who compelled Ann. Reg. the unhappy owners to stand by and witness the destruc- 63. tion of their property.

1

In these disastrous circumstances, Government, on the application of the Lord-Lieutenant, proposed the renewal

1

1823, 62,

XX.

1823.

21.

the Insur

sition for

tithes.

c. 19.

CHAP. of the Insurrection Act, which was so obviously called for by necessity that it met with very little opposition in Parliament, and passed, almost unnoticed, into a law. It Renewal of never failed, for a time, to apply a rude but effective rection Act, remedy to the disorders of the country, chiefly by withand compo- drawing the cognisance of offences from juries, in whose hands justice was so effectually obstructed, and vesting it in the magistrates, by whom it was sternly but effectively applied. This, however, was only a palliative; it left the real sources of evil untouched. A step, however, was in the same season made in the right direction, by a bill introduced by Mr Goulburn, and which became law, 14 Geo. IV. for the legalising of compositions for tithes. This act was only permissive; it established a form by which tithes might, for a period not exceeding twenty-one years, be compounded for, with the consent of the landlord and incumbent, but gave no power of forcing a composition on either. As the bill was originally introduced, there was a clause compelling the incumbent to accept of a composition; but this was so violently opposed that Government were compelled to consent to its being withdrawn. The relief afforded was thus partial and local only; but still it was considerable; for the collection of tithes in kind was not only a very vexatious and irritating process, which often led to collision and bloodshed, but it imposed a direct additional burden, often of a very heavy amount, on the cultivator. This was not the case in England, where the tenant previously calculated the amount of the tithes, and deducted it from his offer for rent, so that it fell directly on the owner of the soil; nor in Scotland, where the wisdom of its native Parliament had, two hundred years before, established a universal and compulsory process for the composition and sale of tithes over the whole country. But in Ireland, such was Ann. Reg. the competition for possessions that the peasants bid against each other, till they offered more than the entire worth of the land to their landlords alone ;2 leaving the

1823, 63,

65.

XX.

chapter of accidents to provide for the parson, armed with CHAP. the power of distraining, and the priest, wielding the thunder of excommunication.

1824.

22.

Irish corrup

Catholic

A beneficial act was passed in this session of Parliament, which restrained all right of voting at elections Debates on under a tenement held in common with others, if the tion and yearly value was together under £20. A great many emancipadebates also took place on the alleged malversations of tion. those intrusted with the administration of justice and choice of juries in Ireland. But the motions for inquiry were resisted by the Government, and led to no practical result, except disclosing the deep-seated corruptions which pervaded the country, and withdrawing the attention of all parties from the real maladies by which it was afflicted. The question of Catholic Emancipation was brought on on 17th April, in the course of which Mr April 17. Brougham pronounced a warm eulogium on the political consistency of Mr Peel, who had "always pursued a uniform and straightforward course upon the question ;" contrasting it with the inconsistency of Mr Canning, who had exhibited "the most incredible specimen of monstrous truckling for the purpose of obtaining office that the whole history of tergiversation could furnish." Mr Canning declared that this was "false," which led to a most violent scene, in the course of which it was proposed that both gentlemen should be committed to the serjeant-at-arms. At length Mr Canning agreed to make a conditional apology, and Mr Brougham did the same. Thus ended this personal affair, which made a great noise at the time, but had no other effect than withdrawing the attention of the country from the real cause of Irish distress, and rendering its discussion the signal only for party contests and personal recriminations. The bad effects of this were soon apparent. The Catholic question was got quit of by a side-wind in the Commons, on a motion for Ann. Reg. an adjournment, by a majority of 313 to 111;1 and a 81. bill for extending the right of voting to English Catholics,

1

1823, 79,

XX.

CHAP. the same as was enjoyed by their brethren in Ireland, though carried in the Commons by a majority of 89 to 30, was rejected in the Lords by 80 to 73.

1824.

23.

ment of the

country in

1824.

As the great cause of the extreme distress which had, Improve during the three preceding years, prevailed in Ireland, was the ruinous depreciation of the price of all kinds of agricultural produce to the extent of a half, which had taken place from the operation of the contraction of the currency in 1819; so, when prices were raised by the opposite effects of the extension of the currency by the Bill of 1822, an entirely different set of effects appeared. During the greater part of 1823, indeed, the distress induced by the ruinous fall of the three preceding years kept the country in a constant ferment; but as prices rapidly rose towards the close of the year, and continued. comparatively high during the whole of 1824, the distress of the peasantry, and with it the agrarian disturbances, declined. The Insurrection Act was renewed by a majority of 112 to 23, experience having proved that it was the most effectual of all restraints on the violence of the people, and that none, with so small an amount of punishment or suffering, had so surprising an effect in stilling the waves of public discontent.* But the rise of prices produced a gradual but fixed amelioration in the condition of the people; and though the Insurrection Act 1 Ann. Reg. was renewed, few districts were proclaimed by the LordLieutenant preparatory to its being put in force, and it practically became, from the rise of prices, a dead letter.1 An Irish barrister of ability, Mr North, introduced into *The Parliamentary Returns showed a very small number brought to trial in comparison with those apprehended under the Act. A few weeks' imprisonment answered the purpose of pacifying the country, without ulterior proceedings. They stood thus :

1824, 26,

29.

The evils

The pea

CHAP.

XX.

1824.

24.

description

miseries.

the Commons by Mr Canning, gave, in the course of one of these debates, a graphic and veracious account of the condition and miseries of Ireland. "In Ireland," said he, "the people have for a series of years suffered every Mr North's variety of misery. They have proceeded from one afflic- of Irish tion to another. Each season brought its peculiar May 11. horror. In one, it was famine; in the next, it was fever; in the third, it was murder. These sad events seemed to form a perpetual cycle, the parts of which were of regular and mournful recurrence. which all felt, all ascribed to different causes. sant attributed them to the rapacity of the landlord, the landlord to the bigotry of the clergy. In truth, however, the most conspicuous source of evil was the magnitude of the unemployed population. By no state policy or secret of government is it possible to reconcile tranquillity with idleness. To an energetic people especially, employment is an absolute want. When such a people are left without employment, they become wild, untamable, and ferocious. Disguise it as you will, such people are in a savage state, and will ever fluctuate, as the Irish people have done, between hopeless indolence and desperate mischief. Placed at the very bottom of the scale of human beings, the Irish peasant never looked upwards. He was excited by no emulation, inspired by no hope. He remained fixed on the spot where he first drew breath, without the wish, and, still more, without the power of motion. He saw himself surrounded by men of a religion different from his own, whose interests were at variance with his, and whose chief or sole business he supposed to be, by the force of the sword and the law, to keep him quiet and poor. He saw in the violation of the law no culpability, in its chastisement no retribution. He went to the scaffold surrounded by admiring multitudes, with the spirit of a patriot, the resignation of a Ann. Reg. martyr, not the repentance of a criminal.1 His courage 31. was converted into ferocity, his intelligence into fraud;

1

1824, 30,