HC Deb 15 June 1846 vol 87 cc480-1
MR. ROSS

took occasion to allude to a matter connected with the debate on Friday night. He had to complain that the right hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) had unintentionally misrepresented what had fallen from him in the course of that debate. The right hon. Baronet, in assuming to quote his words, had put into his mouth what he had never uttered. He had attributed to him this monstrous proposition, the absurdity of which must strike every one, that when a statesman once do-parted from the paths of the Constitution, the farther he diverged from it the better. He had never said anything of the kind. What he had said was, that when a statesman once found himself called upon to depart from the path of the Constitution, he ought not to falter until the object for sake of which he had left it had been attained.

SIR R. PEEL

was not conscious of having misrepresented the hon. Member; but if the fact were otherwise, he could only say be regretted it. He remembered having asked the hon. Member whether he was prepared to deny the allegation, that the state of Ireland was such as to require some extraordinary measure such as the Bill under consideration? and when the hon. Member replied that he was prepared to deny the proposition, he asked the hon. Member if he had not expressed some such sentiment as this, that if the adjustment of the landlord and tenant question were not to prove highly beneficial to Ireland in pacifying that country, and if, despite of such a measure, outrages were to be of as frequent recurrence in the winter of 1846 as in 1845 and 1844, he would advocate severe enactments, and would not even think the suspension of the Habeas Corpus too strong a measure? It was certainly his impression that the hon. Member had made a manifesto of opinion to this effect. He also understood the hon. Member to say, that if they were to violate the Constitution, they ought at least to take care that the violation would secure the object they had in view. That was his construction of what had fallen from the hon. Member, and if he had mistaken him he was sorry for it.