INEQUALITY IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAW—PETITION OF ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND. (Hansard, 25 June 1823)

Mr. Broughman

said, that he held in his hand a petition signed by 2,000 Roman Catholics of Ireland, which complained of the general oppression in which that class of his majesty's subjects to which they belonged were holden, not only by the inequality of the laws as far as regarded them, but also by the unequal administration of the laws as they at present existed. That complaint, though it was stated with no less accuracy than force of language, contained nothing in it that was, in the slightest degree, disrespectful towards the House. As he intended to ground a proceeding upon this petition, it was unnecessary for him to state any thing further regarding its contents, than that the foundation of them was, firstly, the inequality, and, secondly, the unequal administration of the laws, as respected Roman Catholics. The petition was signed by many of the most respectable Catholic inhabitants of Dublin, and would have been signed by as many thousands as it now had hundreds, had not the petitioners thought it neces- 1204 sary to send it with all speed to London, in order that it might be in his hands before the Irish members had left town.

The Petition was then brought up and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioners approach the House with the deep respect which is due to its legislative character and authority, and appeal to it for protection and redress; the adminstration of justice is, in Ireland, corrupted to its source; a faction, deriving its power from the inequality of the law, has sprung out of the system by which that unfortunate country has been, and continues to be governed; from its ferocious antipathies the public tribunals do not afford them refuge; the subjects of an absolute government are less exposed than they are to the violation of personal right; a simple despotism weighs with an equality of pressure upon every class of the community; but where a faction is invested with exclusive privileges and sway, the machinery of corruption is much more complicated, and its operation more extensive; a system of helotism is established, the sense of masterdom intermingles itself in the ordinary familiarities of life, tyranny meets its object at every step, it assumes a character, of much more immediate individuality, and is multiplied and varied into an infinitely greater diversity of shape; when the penal code was in its full operation, the people of Ireland were the victims of an oppression the most degrading which it was possible for the malignant ingenuity of persecution to devise, or for the patience of debased humanity to endure; the House has seen the effects of that revolting system exemplified by too many melancholy illustrations, to require that the petitioners should enter into a detail of the calamities to which it has given birth; look at Ireland, and behold the result of its legislation! it is true, that the penal laws have been greatly modified, the chain has been in part struck off, but many a heavy link still hangs upon them, and the impression of the fetters remains behind; their existing disqualifications are marked with the visible traces of their origin; the character of the oppressive code is still found among its unholy relics, which are preserved with such a superstitious reverence in the sanctuaries, of the constitution; although the spirit of domination has been allayed, it is not yet extin- 1205 guished, and it daily exhibits itself in consequences the most disastrous to national happiness and concord; the impolicy and injustice of so fatal a perseverance in this system of degradation and of division are every where apparent, and are more peculiarly exemplified in the dispensation of justice; it would be difficult, indeed, that when so much inequality exists in the law itself, there should not be partiality in its administration; where the professors of the favoured Creed are arrayed in exclusive emolument and honour, it is natural that a selfish sense of interest should bring them into coalition, and that in the defence of their monopoly, they should be firmly and deeply marshalled against the men, from whose degradation their hollow and artificial importance is derived, and from whose industry their official wealth is wrung; the passions which arise from sectarian hatred, inflamed by the fears of endangered avarice, are of the fiercest kind, and naturally lead to a frightful excess; the sacred writings are tortured into a profane instrumentality, the bible is resorted to for the suggestions of massacre, and the injunctions of murder are drawn out of the very word of God; conscious of the guilt of their sanguinary affiliations, they fly from the light, their league against their country is veiled in a sacrilegious darkness, and their impious fidelity secured by a blasphemous appeal to the sanction of an oath; the members of such an association are naturally inflamed by animosities which infect the whole frame of society, and banish all regard for justice from the minds of those who might otherwise approve themselves impartial and honourable men; it follows as an inevitable consequence, that when they are intrusted with the administration of the law, it should be perverted into the means of conferring impunity upon one party, and of inflicting oppression upon the other; thus the spirit of faction ascends the public tribunals; when those, to whom the discharge of a sacred duty is confided, participate in the passions, and often in the guilt, of the culprit, it is not in human nature that they should not lend themselves to an impure and vitiating bias; of this melancholy fact the most flagrant examples perpetually occur; the petitioners appeal to the authority of the judges of the land, who from their seats on the bench have proclaimed their 1206 sense of this intolerable grievance; the late Mr. Justice Fletcher, in the exercise of his judicial functions, denounced the Orange confederacy as one of the chief sources of the calamities of Ireland; 'of this,' said that learned and upright man, 'I am certain, that so long as these associations are permitted to act in the lawless manner they do, there will be no tranquillity in this country, and particularly in the north of Ireland; there those disturbers of the public peace, who assume the name of Orange yeomen, frequent the fairs and markets with arms in their hands, under the pretence of self-defence, or of protecting the public peace, but with the lurking view of inviting attacks from the Ribbon-men, confident that, armed as they are, the must overcome their defenceless opponents, and put them down; murders have been repeatedly perpetrated upon such occasions, and though legal prosecutions have ensued, yet, such has been the baneful consequence of those factious associations, that, under their influence, petty juries have declined to do their duty; it was sufficient to say, such a man displayed such a colour, to produce an utter disbelief of his testimony; and when another has stood with his hand at the bar, the display of his party badge has mitigated the murder into manslaughter. I do repeat, that such are my sentiments, not merely as an individual, but as a man discharging his official duty, I hope, with firmness and integrity. With these Orange associations I connect all commemorations and processions, producing embittering recollections, and inflicting wounds upon the feelings of others. And I do emphatically state it as my settled opinion, that until those associations are effectually put down, and the arms taken from their hands, in vain will the north of Ireland expect tranquillity or peace. These are the words of that eminent judge, delivered from the bench during the summer assizes of the year 1814; and the petitioners trust, that the House will recur to his impartial testimony, confirmed by the evidence of others filling the judicial station, rather than to the unsupported allegations of any individual; who, feeling his own character at stake, may assert, that under his auspices, the administration of justice was pure in Ireland; such a witness, swayed by his personal and official interests, is not only not credible, but incompetent; it is, in- 1207 deed, a matter of surprise, that men who are in, some measure the medium of communication between the subject and the throne, should, at the moment when the evils of the Orange system are most fully disclosed, intimate an implied approbation of, this confederacy against the people of Ireland; it is a palpable affectation to express a scrupulous disrelish for the oaths by which Orange-men are leagued, and yet to sustain the principles of oppression upon which they are associated together; how idle it is to declare the criminality of the Orange oath, while the Orange spirit is still fostered by the law; a religious character will be still impressed upon the administration of justice, and religious antipathies will necessarily obey the suggestions of the law, and start out of every party question; the judges, the officers of the court, the king's, counsel and the sheriffs who impanel the jury, will still be Protestant; thus will the administration of justice be stamped, as it were, with sect; under such circumstances it is not likely that justice will be pure, while there can be no doubt that it will be suspected; and in the minds of men, rendered jealous and susceptible by the continued infliction of wrong, suspicion will work almost all the ills which actual depravity could beget; it follows, that until the Penal Code is entirely abolished, the administration of the law must be exposed to abuse; the petitioners do not, however, consider it impossible that some alleviation should be afforded, even if the legislature should persevere in withholding their civil rights from six millions of the Irish people; and it would become the men who affect an anxiety to render their yoke less galling, while they insist upon its continuance, to suggest the adoption of such measures, of even partial and modified relief, as they may; think;, consistent with the permanence of monopoly; the nomination of the sheriffs, of counties is now vested in the judges, and although they are compelled to make their selection among the professors of the favoured creed, yet their high station affords a ground to hope, that they are placed beyond the reach of any vile and ignominious prejudice, and is calculated to inspire a confidence in their impartiality; but a directly opposite feeling must prevail in corporate cities, where the appointment of sheriffs depends upon associations of men who are peculiarly influenced by the fierceness or sectarian 1208 hate; almost all cases of political moment are tried in the city of Dublin, whose sheriffs are selected from their own body by the corporation; of its members in their individual capacity, the petitioners do not mean to speak; many amongst them are highly commendable in the relations of private life; but it cannot be controverted, that the corporation itself is disgraced by the foulest corruption, and has been convicted of the most flagitious fraud; the city of Dublin has been robbed of upwards of a million of money by these abandoned peculators; they live upon the spoliation of their fellow citizens; and to prevent any intrusion upon their privileges of plunder, and to secure an undisputed division of spoil among their own families and kindred, they guard themselves against any infusion of more liberal sentiment, and partly from religious rancour, and partly from pecuniary baseness, exclude all Roman Catholics from the freedom of the city; as they are generally drawn from a class of society in which religious antipathy is not mitigated by the softening influences of education, they accordingly exhibit a more than ordinary virulence against their Catholic fellow subjects, and yet, it is to such men, that human life and property is entrusted; under such auspices, can the administration of justice be any thing but partial, vindictive, and unjust? the borough of Grampound has been disfranchised for corruption, which vanishes in any comparison with the delinquencies of the corporation of Dublin; how far their manifold peculations may be redeemed by their profitable loyalty, the petitioners will not presume to anticipate; but they humbly hope the House will rescue the administration of the law from such a diseased and polluting contract Justice should be drawn out of pure fountains, and how can it fail to be stained and foul when it is derived from such a corrupt and fetid source? as long as the sheriffs are appointed by men who derive their livelihood from their religion, it will be a mere mockery to tell the people of Ireland, that the law is equally dispensed; the petitioners, therefore, humbly implore the House to adopt such measures as may be calculated to remove the evils of which the House must be deeply sensible, and of which they trust that they shall not vainly continue to complain; the petitioners supplicate the House for redress, on behalf of six 1209 millions of the population of Ireland, for whose sufferings so much commiseration has been so often expressed, but or whose relief so little has been done."