The Marquess of Westmeathrose, to call the attention of the House to a matter with which, being merely personal to himself, he should not occupy their attention for more than a very few minutes. He had to complain of a misrepresentation published on Tuesday last, of what fell from him on Monday in that House, on the occasion of his giving a notice that he should, as to-morrow, call the attention of the House to the mode in which the Poor-law guardians were elected in Ireland. What he had said upon that occasion was this:—"That the interference of the Roman Catholic clergy in those elections was such a nuisance, that the time had arrived when it must be abated." The Morning Chronicle, in taking notice of that, had put upon it an interpretation the most unjust. If what he had said in that House was not worth calling attention to, it was perhaps not worth reporting; but if his observations were reported, nothing could be more unfair than to impute to him words and sentiments entirely different from those which he felt and expressed. He was reported as having said, that in Ireland the "priests were making themselves quite nuisances." There was no doubt that he had more than once spoken of the Irish priests as restless and intriguing, and as men whose conduct at all times proved that they were inimical to civil liberty. The history of all times in which popery existed, fully bore him 88 out in attributing to them those qualities. He had been represented as saying that they had made themselves nuisances; that language, he was sure, had been imputed to him for the purpose of making it appear that he was intolerant. He felt convinced that it was done with that view; it was unjust and malicious. In looking at the reports which appeared in the other newspapers, he did not find that any one of them had put the same interpretation upon what he had said. Of the facetiousness in which a newspaper might indulge, he did not feel at all disposed to complain. There was usually great latitude enjoyed in that respect, and in this free country it was not to be made a matter of complaint; but perhaps he might be permitted to say, that in a recent case it had been indulged without sufficient foundation. It would be remembered, that in the last Session of Parliament there had been an inquiry instituted, after which he presumed that no man who was not a knave or a fool, could think of denying that an extensive Riband conspiracy existed in Ireland. He had noticed the fact, that the assizes at Tipperary had proved a maiden assizes—that is, there had been no capital conviction, upon which a paper, understood to be the organ of Government, observed that he ought to hang himself. Of that, however, he made no complaint; but he contended that the occurrence at Tipperary afforded no proof of the non-existence of a Riband conspiracy, since very recently two executions had taken place at Mullingar for a murder, committed in consequence of engagements arising out of Riband conspiracies.
§ Subject at an end.