HC Deb 03 July 1865 vol 180 cc1042-3
SIR THOMAS BATESON

said, he had taken the following passages from the speech of the candidate for Dungarvan on the 17th of June, as given in the Freeman's Journal. The passages were— I have learnt from my earliest youth to regard with undying hostility the arrogant and intolerant faction which so long has trampled upon and insulted my religion and my country … I regard the tenant farmer as the sole proprietor of the land, where he indutriously tills and labours upon it. He wished to ask the right hon. Baronet the Secretary for Ireland, Whether the gentleman who delivered that speech was the same Mr. Barry who held the office of Law Adviser to the Castle, and who was selected by the Government to go down to Belfast to hold a judicial investigation involving the lives of many men to whom he declares his "undying hostility"— the same Mr. Barry who was so lauded by the occupants of the Treasury Bench for his impartiality, his moderation, and his judicial qualifications? He also wished to know whether the_ right hon. Gentleman considered a person who alluded to his "undying hostility" to a great number of his fellow-countrymen, and who held the most advanced socialistic doctrines with regard to the lights of property, was a fit person to hold the office of Law Adviser to Dublin Castle?

SIR ROBERT PEEL

, in reply, said, he told the hon. Baronet on Friday night that he should be prepared to meet the Question. In the first place, he must disclaim altogether having it supposed that Mr. Barry was a Government candidate. Mr. Barry was a very eminent gentleman, and was one of the Commissioners who had been sent to Belfast, and every one acknowledged that the Report of the Commissioners was a most impartial and fair one. Mr. Barry was now candidate for Dungarvan; but in the present exciting times Mr. Barry, probably like other gentlemen, had language attributed to him which he had never made use of. He had Mr. Barry's authority for saying that he did not make use of the language attributed to him; and, moreover, Mr. Barry had, since the date of the observations referred to, issued an address to the electors of Dungarvan, on the 28th of June, in which he stated that language had been attributed to him which he had not uttered, and opinions which he never entertained. That was a satisfactory answer, he trusted, to the observations made by the hon. Baronet; and it was quite evident that the hon. Gentleman would have done better by privately asking him, whether the language attributed to Mr. Barry had been used before bringing the subject under the notice of the House?