CAPTAIN MORRIS AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY OF CASHEL. (Hansard, 25 November 1847)

§ MR. MAHER

rose, pursuant to notice, to move— 215 For Copies of Correspondence between the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Clergy of the Diocese of Cashel, relative to Reports made by Captain Morris, a Government Inspector under the Board of Works in Ireland, reflecting upon the Character of certain of the Catholic Clergy of that Diocese. Having been chairman of the Thurles and Moycarty relief committees in the county of Tipperary, he had an opportunity of witnessing the excellent conduct of the Roman Catholic clergy and their zeal in the discharge of their onerous duties. They were at the commencement ably assisted by the Protestant clergy, with whom they co-operated in the most friendly spirit, It unfortunately happened, however, that Captain Morris, the Government inspector, acting under some unfounded notion, and believing the assertion of some insidious person, succeeded in separating those bodies of clergymen by means of a report to the Commissioners, an extract from which he begged leave to read to the House. It was as follows:— The leading members of many of the committees are priests; they have no landed property, and, consequently, have no interest in keeping down taxation; but, on the contrary, have an interest in enabling their flocks to pay them their dues. Some of the resident gentry, from disgust at their proceedings, rarely attend the committee: and others who do are afraid to perform their duty; for if they object to improper persons being put upon the list, the small farmers, who are also found upon the committees, and who are only one degree removed from those employed on public works, soon let it be known out of doors who were the members of the committee who prevented their friends being returned. He believed that to be a libel, and the best proof that it was a libel was that the committee met in a body, and that they memorialised the Lord Lieutenant to inquire into the assertions made by Captain Morris. They asked the Government to send down a Queen's Counsel, or desire Mr. Gore Jones, the resident magistrate in the town of Thurles, to investigate the matter, and to call on Captain Morris to prove the assertions he had made. That request on the part of the committee was refused. That libel was recorded on the journals of that House; and as it was competent for any Member of the House to have recourse to those records, and therefore to charge the Roman Catholic clergy with the improper conduct imputed to them, he required that the other side of the case should be also upon their records, that the bane should be accompanied by the antidote, and that the denial of the clergy of the crime laid to their charge, and their 216 demand for an investigation, should be laid upon the table of the House. With this view he begged to submit the Motion which he had read.

§ MR. LABOUCHERE

said, as he had the honour of holding the situation of Secretary for Ireland at the time the correspondence which had been moved for took place, perhaps he might be excused for troubling the House with a few observations on the subject. The facts of the case had been stated clearly and correctly by his hon. Friend who had just sat down. Captain Morris was one of the officers sent down to superintend the distribution of relief in the county of Tipperary. In the discharge of that duty he made a report to the Government of Ireland, and that report was inserted in one of the blue books which had been laid upon the table of the House. He had no hesitation in saying, that owing to the great mass of documents included in those books, expressions had found their way into some of those reports which, whilst he thought it perfectly justifiable for the officers making those reports to send them to the Lord Lieutenant, it would have been better on the whole not to have made public. He had no hesitation in making that avowal. There was a phrase in the report of Captain Morris which implied that some of the Catholic clergy of the county of Tipperary had not done their duty in assisting the Government to check abuses in the distribution of relief. That report was complained of by the Roman Catholic clergy. The House must remember, however, that the charge was made in general terms—no individual charge was preferred. What the Roman Catholic clergy required in their memorial was, that an inquiry should be made, and that the particular clergyman alluded to should be made known. The Government of Ireland believed that no good would result from such an inquiry; and he concurred in that view. At the same time Captain Morris was written to. He stated in reply that nothing was further from his intention than to bring a general charge against the Roman Catholic clergy—on the contrary, that they had acted in a proper manner in supporting the views of the Government; but he added, that in any large class of persons it was almost always the case that some might be guilty of improper conduct, and he said that there were individual clergy of whose conduct he could not approve. Now be asked the House, he asked his hon. Friend, 217 whether a case of that description should be gone into officially by the Government. He was sure those hon. Members who sat on the Committee last Session, when the name of Captain Wynne was mentioned, would agree with him that no advantage would result from inquiry into every particular case of this description. He assured his hon. Friend that nothing was further from the intentions of the Government than to cast any slight upon the Roman Catholic clergy generally, or on those of Tipperary in particular. On the contrary, from the Roman Catholic clergy as a body, the Government did receive the most valuable assistance, both in relieving the distress of the people, and in preserving the peace of the country. No cases of individual misconduct should ever prevent him stating in the strongest manner his opinion of the admirable conduct generally of the Roman Catholic clergy. They might blame individuals, but he should never forget, and he trusted that the House and the country never would forget, what they owed to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland as a body, under circumstances of the most trying and difficult description. He had no objection to lay the correspondence on the table of the House.