HC Deb 20 May 1845 vol 80 c599
Mr. Ferrand

wished to put a question to Her Majesty's Government, of which he had not given them any notice, because he found that the right hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for the Home Department was aware of the matter which he was about to bring forward, and if they required notice he would give it for to-morrow. He referred to a meeting which was to take place on the hill of Tara, a programme of which appeared in the Dublin Freeman's Journal of the 17th of May. It stated that the meeting was to take place on Thursday next, on the hill of Tara, on which occasion the county of Meath would demonstrate to the Ministers and to England that in 1845 the same spirit and the same determination pervaded its population which pervaded them in 1843, when a million of men assembled together. The question he wished to ask was, whether, in 1845, Her Majesty's Government would assert the majesty of the law as they had done in 1843, and prevent those monster meetings from taking place; or whether they meant tacitly to allow Mr. O'Connell and the people of Ireland to trample the law under their feet?

Sir J. Graham

said, that the hon. Gentleman had given him no notice of the question he had just put; but he would nevertheless answer that he certainly was aware of the probability of a numerous assembly of the people of Ireland on the occasion to which the hon. Gentleman referred, and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland had received directions from Her Majesty's Government that the peace of Ireland should be preserved according to the laws which existed at present.