Lord Dunalleybegged to ask the noble Lord (Lord Wharncliffe) whether it were true that two terrible murders had recently been committed, and whether any measures had been taken to preserve the peace in that county.
§ Lord Wharncliffesaid, that there had been two murders recently committed, of a very atrocious nature in the county of Tipperary, and that many other outrages had also been committed in the northern part of that county. This he admitted, but he could assure the noble Lord that no general system of offence was to be apprehended, for the Government and the local authorities had made every preparation to guard against any general breach of the peace. The strength of the police force in that district had been increased from 800 to 900 men, besides whom there were 1,700 regular troops stationed in that part of the county, and no less than seven stipendiary magistrates. This, he conceived, was a strength quite sufficient to guard against any extensive outbreak on the part of the turbulent and less peaceably-disposed part of the population. With regard to the two cases of murder which bad occurred, it was some mitigation of the feelings such occurrences were calculated to excite, that they had not arisen out of any organised system of hostility either to the Government or to the general peace of society, but they had resulted from private and family disputes. Outrages of this description were such as the police could not prevent. The only remedy for such evils must be found in the altered feelings of the people, or by some comprehensive legislative enactment. When he sat upon the committee which was appointed two or three years ago to inquire into the state of Ireland, he was happy to observe, that a better feeling prevailed among the landed gentry of Ireland towards their humbler neighbours, and that they were more disposed to treat their tenants with kindness. The happiest results had ensued from this commendable change. There, however, unhappily still remained evil dispositions productive of crime, that were the growth of former bad feeling and wicked misleadings, 883 and which nothing but a continuance o. generous treatment and conciliatory conduct on the part of those who possessed influence could effectually remove. And, while admitting that a very beneficial change had taken place generally in the feelings of the landlords, yet he was compelled to confess that there were some who exercised the rights of property in that country in a manner which could not be justified. Those parties were not confined to any one class of political opinions; there were amongst them not only Tories, but Liberals— at least, Liberals in speech, whatever they might be in practice. The system generally, however, was much mitigated, and with respect to the outrages that had recently been committed he could only repeat that they arose from no hostile feelings against the Government, but from personal enmities and revenge.
§ Subject at an end.