character for the prevention of such outrages, somewhat similar in character to measures that had in former years been enacted, under both Whig and Conservative Governments, for a like object. The initiation of the present Bill took place in the House of Lords, the second reading being moved by the Earl of St. Germans, on the 24th of February. The noble lord commenced his speech on this occasion by remarking that nothing but necessity could justify the Government in proposing such a measure or the House in adopting it. It would be his duty to make out his case by producing documentary evidence of the state of Ireland, as he had no right to take for granted that their lordships were possessed of any knowledge on the subject. From the returns in the possession of the Government it appeared that in 1844 there were in Ireland 144 homicides in the last year only 136; offences of firing houses in 1844, 104-in 1845, 138; aggravated assaults in 1844, 504-in the present year, 544; common assaults last year, 251-the present year, 242. Passing over of fences against property, which are comparatively rare in Ireland, he would refer to offences against the public peace. Last year there were robberies of arms, 159-in the present year, 551; appearing in arms last year, 79-in the present year, 89; administering unlawful oaths last year, 59in the present year, 223; sending threatening letters or notices last year, 662-which had increased to the fearful extent of 1,944 in the present year; houses attacked, 254 last year-in the present year, 483; firing into dwellinghouses last year, 77-the present

year, 138. The total amount of these crimes was last year, 1,495

which has risen to 3,462 in the present year. The grand total of offences against the person, property, and the public peace, was last year, 3,102-in the present year, 5,281. One consolatory circumstance might be mentioned: in eighteen counties in Ireland crime has diminished in the last two years, in four counties it had been stationary, and it was only in ten that it had increased. These are-Cavan, Fermanagh, King's County, Longford, Westmeath, Clare, Roscommon, Limerick, Tipperary, and Leitrim. In addition to such official returns, Lord St. Germans read a number of statements, and detailed reports of the more remarkable homicides and outrages that had occurred, the authorities being justices of the peace and other trustworthy persons. In connection with these details he remarked, that of the many outrages which had occurred-137 homicides and many aggravated assaults-the House would be surprised to learn that there were only five which had been committed on the persons of gentlemen. The dwellings of the upper ranks were comparatively safe, as the inmates were armed and could defend themselves; but the position of the small farmer or cottier was different. If he complies with a threatening notice and leaves his small holding, he becomes an outcast and a wanderer; and if regard for his family induces him to brave the danger and remain, what is the consequence? In the dead of the night his door, which cannot resist the smallest pressure, is forced open; a band of armed and disguised ruffians

break in; they drag him from his bed, and either murder or maim and mutilate him in presence of his wife and children.

Lord St. Germans was prepared to show that the Government had put in force the existing law so far as was practicable. In the disturbed districts the constabulary had been increased. In Cavan county, in 1836, there were only 179 policemen, but now 400; and in other counties large augmentations had taken place. This increase was independent of military parties. There had also been an increase in the number of stipendiary magistrates, but he regretted to say that all had proved ineffectual.

An outline of the proposed measure was next submitted. It provided for the proclaiming a district in which murders or attempts to murder had been committed, and enabled the lord-lieutenant to station in that locality an additional force of constabulary, the expense to be wholly borne by the district. There was also a provision of great importance, founded on the fact that many of the murders were concocted in public-houses at night, and executed during darkness. To meet this, a power was to be conferred on the Executive Government of forbidding persons to be out of their dwellings between sunset and sunrise. The Bill enabled the lord-lieutenant to award to a person maimed, or to the representatives of a person murdered, a reasonable compensation," though, perhaps, it could hardly be called compensation." [Lord Campbell suggested the word "Solatium."] The power of withdrawing the proclamation was to be conferred also on the lord-lieutenant. Offences against the Act were to be treated

But he would

as misdemeanours. not go into all the details now, as ample opportunities would be subsequently presented.

As to the cause of crime, he could not coincide in the opinion that it arose from defective political institutions. He had shown that crime had actually diminished in many counties where the political circumstances were the same as those which existed in the disturbed districts. Neither were the outrages directed against the existing authorities, but were universally perpetrated on individuals who had incurred on private grounds the vengeance of the perpetrators. It was true that many of the outrages partook of an agrarian character, but he was bound to say that the great cause of the evils which prevailed in Ireland was to be found in the existence of secret and illegal associations. It was necessary to meet the existing evil; and when the object was attained, and a feeling of " security" extended to every peasant in Ireland, then the country might look forward to satisfactory results from the measures on which the Government were at that moment engaged, and those which Parliament had already adopted.

The Marquis of Lansdowne could not think of offering the least opposition to a Bill so imperatively called for as the present; but hoped the Government would not think itself relieved from the necessity of bringing forward other measures for the amelioration of Ireland, which would be calculated to give more universal satisfaction in that country.

Lord Brougham thought the Bill ought to be passed with the least possible delay, but regretted that

it did not contain one provision, which he had before advocated, to the effect that trials should not take place in a part of the country where the jurors would be exposed to the shot of the assassin.

Lord Farnham gave a sketch of the disturbances in Cavan, which, from being the most peaceful country in Ireland, had become in fourteen months the seat of

desparate outrages. The origin of these crimes might be traced to the Riband Societies-associations of the most dangerous description. The noble lord concluded by giving his most cordial support to the proposed measure.

The Marquis of Clanricarde defended himself against the attacks of a portion of the Irish press, which had assailed him for adhering to the proposed coercive measures, which seemed to him to stand alone, and to be unconnected with any other projects for the benefit of Ireland. He did not, however, concur in all the details of the Bill, which he thought should be limited as to its duration, and which was defective in the degrees of punishment apportioned to certain offences.

The Earl of Wicklow gave his hearty assent to the Ministerial plan.

The Earl of Clancarty objected to a clause in the Bill giving the lord-lieutenant power to send down into a disturbed district any number of resident magistrates or any additional police force he might think proper, and recommended communication with the local magistracy as likely to be more ef

ficient.

Lord Campbell protested against the proposition of Lord Brougham, that power should be given to the

Executive to choose another place of trial. His noble and learned friend had said such a power was sanctioned by the law of England, but the House might rest assured it was not, and that it would be an encroachment on the liberty of the subject.

After a few words in explanation from Lord Brougham, Earl Grey said, that though some of the provisions in the Bill were repugnant to his feelings, he thought a case had been made out for arming the Government with additional powers. He could not, however, consider the present measure as disconnected with other plans for the amelioration of Ireland, and he thought the House should record, by a solemn vote, its opinion of the necessity of coupling this coercive Bill with others of a more comprehensive and statesmanlike nature. So strong was his opinion on this point, that if no other noble lord came forward, he should feel it his duty to move, on the third reading of the Bill, a resolution for an Address to Her Majesty, pledging their lordships not to rest satisfied with this measure alone.

After a few words from Lord Westmeath, the Bill was read a second time. Upon its going into Committee, Lord St. Germans proposed several amendments which the Government desired to introduce. They were principally these -to give the Bill a retrospective effect, by enabling the lord-lieutenant to charge on a district, already proclaimed under the existing law, the expenses of the supernumerary police employed there; to subject tea and coffee-shops to the visits of the police; to enact that all offences under the Act should be tried at assizes of oyer and terminer or general gaol de

livery. He assigned reasons for objecting to the proposition of Lord Brougham for changing the venue, recommending that that provision should be introduced into a general measure. [To this Lord Brougham assented.] Earl Grey strongly objected to the clause which authorized the infliction of fifteen years' transportation for being found out of doors during the prescribed hours; and moved that one year's imprisonment, with or without hard labour, be the maximum punishment. It was stated in reply, that seven years' transportation was the maximum penalty now proposed, and that there was nothing to prevent the infliction of a fine of a few shillings or a short imprisonment, at the discretion of the court, in place of the larger punishment. În reference to the offence of being found out of doors, it was agreed to add the words"under suspicious circumstances. On a division, Earl Grey's amendment was rejected by a majority of 38 to 7. Lord St. Germans agreed to limit the duration of the Bill to the 1st of October, 1849, instead of "five years and to the end of the then next Session of Parliament." The other clauses were agreed to; and the Bill, with some few more alterations, passed through Committee, and was read a third time without opposition.

In the House of Commons it experienced from its first introduction the most determined opposition. A great struggle was made to prevent its being read even a first time. On the 30th of March, Sir James Graham having moved that the other orders of the days be postponed, in order that he might bring on his motion for the first reading of the Protection of Life (Ireland) Bill, Sir W. Somerville

moved a direct negative of Sir J. Graham's motion. Referring to the measures then in progress for the alteration of the Corn Laws, he said that great inconvenience would arise, not only from the postponement of the great measure, on which the hopes of England, Ireland, and the empire at large were set, but also from bringing on an exciting and exasperating debate on another measure, which the Government intended to postpone to a future day, even if it succeeded in carrying it at present. As Her Majesty had called the attention of Parliament to the state of Ireland on the 22nd of January, and as this Bill had not been introduced into the House of Lords until the 13th of February, nor passed until the 13th of March, he could not help asking why the House was to be compelled to interpose it now between the early accomplishment of the wishes of the people of Great Britain and Ireland on the subject of the Corn Importation Bill? He called on the Government, before it proceeded with this Bill, to lay on the table of the House those other Irish measures-for instance, the Irish Landlord and Tenant Bill, the Irish Franchise Bill, and the Bill for the Amendment of the Municipal Corporations-which had been already stated to be in preparation.

Mr. Smith O'Brien seconded the appeal of Sir W. Somerville, and reminded Sir James Graham that he was then entering upon a contest which must of necessity last for months, for the Irish members were determined to use every form which the constitution afforded to oppose the Bill.

Sir James Graham said, that

by ordinary courtesy, and almost invariable usage, bills sent down from the House of Lords were read a first time as a matter of course. After explaining the causes which had led to some delay in the proceedings upon this Bill, he declared that Government was perfectly sincere in its efforts to press it forward with all reasonable speed. The Corn Importation Bill was, in the opinion of Government, the measure of primary importance, and its next stage would be forwarded with the least possible delay. If, however, the House, by a combination of parties, should determine not to entertain this Bill, he should tremble for the fate of Ireland; for no course more fatal to the maintenance of peace and order could be imagined. As to the threats of Mr. S. O'Brien, that he would use every form of the House to obstruct the progress of this Bill, he should be unworthy of public confidence if he yielded to

them for a moment.

Mr. Shaw observed, that if the Government had administered the existing law with temper and firmness, it would have been sufficient to meet the present emergencies. But ever since their failure on the indictment against Mr. O'Connell and his party, they had been trading on the generosity of their friends, and on the meanness of their enemies, and so they were left without a party in Ireland. He then proceeded to retort, in terms of much severity, upon Sir James Graham, on account of an attack which the latter had made upon him in a former debate. This led to a rejoinder from Sir James Graham, and much personal recrimination.

Mr. O'Connell complained that Sir James Graham had begun his present combat with the people of

Ireland by an attempt to deprive them of the benefit of the sessional order. Sir James Graham had talked loudly of the moral effect to be produced in Ireland by the decision of the House on this question. Now the people of Ireland were accustomed to have majorities of that House against them; but they were not accustomed to have the Standing Orders of the House violated to enable Ministers to introduce coercion bills against them without notice. The Government would gain nothing by the present motion; and he, therefore, hoped that Sir Robert Peel would withdraw it. The Bill itself was entitled to receive the most decided opposition of Irish members.

Lord George Bentinck observed, that he had no right to consider himself as the leader of the party around him; but as that party did sometimes wish him to express its feelings to the House, he would inform

Sir W. Somerville that that party, however friendly it was to the principle of protection, would not allow protection to be extended to the broad-day murderer and to the midnight assassin. He condemned, as much as any man could do, the dilatory proceedings of Her Majesty's Government in bringing in this measure, after all they had said in Her Majesty's Speech of the very frequent instances in which the crime of deliberate assassination had been of late committed in Ireland. No Corn or Customs Act could ever compete in urgency with the necessity of pressing forward this measure for the preservation of life and property in Ireland. Having stated several cases in which women had been murdered in open daylight in Ireland, he added, that the Protection party would give its