IRELAND—FENIANISM.—PETITION. (Hansard, 3 May 1867)

MR. BRIGHT
Sir, I rise to present a petition to the House which is of a very peculiar character, and if the House will give me their attention I will state its purport. It is signed by twelve or thirteen gentlemen, who are well known to many Members of this House, and who are persons of first-class education and in good position. The petition has reference to the state of things in Ireland. It begins by condemning secret associations, and the violence which has followed, and expresses a hope that order may be restored to Ireland by the judicious use of power by the English Government. It states that the petitioners remember that the history of Ireland has been the history, first, of imperfect conquest and long neglect; next, of war and the dispossession of the Irish people; then of legal injustice and harsh repression of the disturbances caused by the said injustice. They go on to state their disapprobation of certain things which exist in Ireland at this moment, as, for example, the Irish Church Establishment and the enforcement of a system of land law at variance with the traditions and feelings of the Irish people. They declare that the Government of Ireland is a Government in the interest, not of Ireland, but of the State Church and the territorial aristocracy of England; that by the present distribution of political power the Irish nation is unable to make its wishes adequately felt by the stronger country to which it is bound; that in consequence of the apparent hopelessness of a remedy for the evils which press upon their country——

§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANE
I rise to order. I wish, Sir, to know whether 1930 the hon. Gentleman is entitled to make a speech on the Irish question under colour of presenting a petition?

§ MR. SPEAKER
The hon. Member is in order. He states that the petition contains such and such allegations. In doing so he is perfectly in order.

MR. BRIGHT
They state that in consequence of the apparent hopelessness of a remedy for the evils which press upon their country, honourable Irishmen may, however erroneously, feel justified in resorting to force—that, in a word, there is a legitimate ground for the chronic discontent of which Fenianism is the expression; and therefore some palliation for the errors of Fenianism—

§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITH
I rise to order. I think, Sir, you decided some short time ago that an hon. Gentleman who attributed a participation in the opinions of Fenians to Gentlemen in this House was out of order. I therefore ask you, Sir, whether the hon. Member is in order in giving currency to a petition and taking advantage of the privileges of the House to read at length a petition which, in fact, justifies Fenianism, which has been condemned by judicial authority and by the highest authority in this House—namely, Sir, yourself.

§ MR. SPEAKER
The other day, when a Member of this House stated that other Members of the House were Fenians or approvers of Fenianism, I made the observations I then used with regard to one Member of the House attributing such opinions to other Members of the House; but I did not undertake or pretend to prescribe exactly what the language of a petition should be.

MR. BRIGHT
I will now read the prayer of the petition— Your Petitioners, therefore, pray your honourable House that it may take such measures as it shall judge fit, Firstly, To secure the revision of the sentences already passed on Fenians, sentences of great, and in the judgment of your Petitioners generally, excessive and irritating severity. I ought to state that this refers to the sentences not of this week, but to those passed previously. Secondly, To provide in any case that prisoners suffering as Fenians or for a political offence shall not during the execution of their sentence be confined in common with prisoners suffering for offences against the ordinary criminal laws of their country. Thirdly, Your Petitioners, justly alarmed by their recollection of the atrocities perpetrated by the English troops in Ireland in 1931 1798, as also by their recollection of the conduct of the English army and its officers in India and Jamaica; lastly, by the suggestions of the public press and the general tone of the wealthy classes with regard to the suppression of rebellion, pray your honourable House to provide that the utmost moderation and strict adherence to the laws of fair and humane warfare may be inculcated on the army now serving in Ireland. Lastly, Your Petitioners pray that the prisoners taken may be well treated before trial, and judged and sentenced with as much leniency as is consistent with the preservation of order, and that in the punishments awarded there may be none of a degrading nature, as said punishment seem to your Petitioners inapplicable to men whose cause and whose offence are alike free from dishonour"——

COLONEL STUART KNOX
I rise to order. I beg, Sir, to ask whether the hon. Member is in order now?

§ MR. SPEAKER
The hon. Member is entitled, in presenting a petition, to read the prayer of that petition.

COLONEL STUART KNOX
Whether loyal or disloyal?

MR. BRIGHT
"However misguided they may be as to the special end they have in view, or as to the means they have adopted to attain that end." The signatures, perhaps, I may read— Richard Congreve, Southfields, Wandsworth; E. Truelove, 256, Holborn; Edward Spencer Beesly, University Hall, Gordon Square; Frederick Harrison, Lincoln's Inn; T. H. Bridges, Bradford, Yorkshire; H. Crompton, 23, Westbourne Terrace; S. H. Reynolds, Brasenose College, Oxford; C. A. Cookson, Inner Temple; F. B. Barton, 29, Lamb's Conduit Street; John Maughan, 1, Pleasant Row, Canonbury; S. D. Williams, jun., Birmingham. In the general spirit of that petition I entirely agree.

§ MR. SPEAKER
The question is that the petition lie on the table.

COLONEL STUART KNOX
I beg to move that this petition be not allowed to be laid upon the table of the House.

MR. PEEL DAWSON
I beg to second that Motion.

§ MR. NEWDEGATE
I oppose the Motion of the hon. and gallant Member, because I see nothing disrespectful to the House in the language of the petition. However we may reprobate the undertaking for which these men are now under trial, still, I think, that when a petition of this kind is brought before this House, praying for a fair trial, and for fair consideration by the prisoners or their friends, it would be most unbecoming of the dignity of the House and most impolitic for us to reject it.

§ MR. WHALLEY
Sir, there is one paragraph in the petition to which I should wish to call attention, as I think it is worthy of the consideration of the House whether it does not of itself justify the Motion that has been made. That paragraph asks that the troops shall be directed to conduct themselves according to the laws of fair and humane warfare. I would ask the House to bear in mind what I have established, or have offered to establish—namely, that the late Fenian movement had a deliberate purpose. This was that the Fenians should act in connection with the like party in America, so as to afford grounds for demanding from the President of the American Union a declaration that the Fenians were a belligerent Power. In this case, I am enabled to state upon undoubted authority, very large sums are ready to be embarked in the enterprize of sending out privateers. If the House accepts this petition to which their attention is thus formally called, in which our troops are described as being engaged in a state of warfare, instead of in putting down a lot of freebooters and scoundrels of every kind—indeed, every origin except the real one has been attributed to them—I ask whether this fact will not be of very material importance in any future communication which the brethren of these Fenians may think fit to make to the President of the United States.

MR. ESMONDE
said, he trusted that the hon. and gallant Member would withdraw his Motion.

§ MR. SPEAKER
said, that the only Motion before the House was that the petition do lie upon the table. If any hon. Member objected to that Motion he might vote against it.

MR. ESMONDE
hoped that the hon. and gallant Member would not divide the House. He was as much opposed to Fenianism as was the hon. Member; but he thought that to reject this petition would be particularly unfortunate at the present time. It would be playing into the hands of the friends of Fenianism, and would give force to their endeavours to persuade the people that there was no use in resorting to Parliamentary action in behalf of Ireland, because this House would turn a deaf ear to their complaints. The hon. Member for Honiton (Mr. Baillie Cochrane), who had raised this question, had been previously known as an admirer of tornadoes; but in this instance he had only raised a storm in a teapot.

COLONEL STUART KNOX
said, that his object having been attained in thus formally drawing the attention of the House to the fact of the petition which had been presented to them being a disloyal one, he would not divide the House upon the question.