Lord Carberypresented, pursuant to notice, a petition from the county of Cork, complaining of the present repeal agitation, and of the dangerous meetings which were daily held for the ostensible purpose of petitioning Parliament for the repeal of the act of legislative union. He would be cautious and not exaggerate the alarm and the danger consequent on the proceedings of which the petition complained; but his duty constrained him to declare that those proceedings were fraught not only with alarm but with peril to the loyal and peaceable portion of the Irish community. Up to the last month, the agitation had been somewhat confined in its operations—meetings had been held only in the smaller towns, and the people had congregated in comparatively smaller numbers. But those minor meetings were only preparatory to more alarming demonstrations. Within the county from which this petition emanated, there had been recently held, independently of several smaller meetings, two great district meetings, to which the population at large had thronged in immense multitudes. He was 471 not disposed to give credence to statements plainly exaggerated, nor would he now inquire whether the multitudes so congregated numbered hundreds of thousands or not. One thing was clear, they were sufficiently large to create intense anxiety and alarm; and their effect, in conjunction with the language used, the objects sought, and the sentiments inspired, had been to compel numbers of peaceable and loyal well-disposed persons to leave the country and either throng into the large towns, or remove to a greater distance from the scenes of excitement. About a month ago a new feature had developed itself in this agitation, and had greatly augmented the excitement. Before that period the Roman Catholic bishops generally had stood aloof, or had at least taken no active part in the agitation. But about the time referred to, the greater number of those bishops had given in their adhesion to the repeal association. Since that adhesion by letter, by the delivery of speeches, and by the subscription of their names, on the part of the Roman Catholic bishops, the parish priests, before sufficiently so disposed, had become more active in their support of the agitation. They had marshalled their flocks in thousands, marched them in regular order, to great public meetings, and had collected money from them for the purposes contemplated by the repeal association. Nay, what was infinitely more to be regretted, the priests had threatened, with curses, all those who should not attend the meetings. True, as yet the public peace had not been broken; but if these things were permitted, who could answer for the continued peace of the country? About the time that the Roman Catholic bishops generally had thrown themselves into the ranks of repeal, the association in Dublin issued an address to the people of Ireland. It was signed by Mr. O'Connell, as chairman of a committee, and was dated the 6th of June. It stated as their objects: —1st, restoration of a separate and local parliament for Ireland; 2nd, the restoration of the judicial independence of Ireland; next, the remodelling of the House of Commons, household suffrage, vote by ballot, and the severance of all connexion between the church and the state. And then came the fixity of tenure, which noble Lords must be convinced was only another name for agrarian dominion—Absenteeism and the public debt formed 472 two other objects of contemplated alteration. And the address concluded with those words—
The time is come when Irishmen can make Ireland their own. Where is the man with an Irish heart who will not join in the glorious struggle for the rights, the liberties, the prosperity of his native land? Away, then, with idle fears, with vain jealousies, with causeless apprehensions, with anti-religious animosities. Irishmen, one and all, Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, Dissenter—rally for the land of your birth—your fatherland.On those exciting topics, speeches the most inflammatory were addressed to assembled thousands. The petition which he had presented prayed their Lordships to pass some law to repress those proceedings. As to the great and avowed object, the repeal of the union, there were, he thought, only two ways of accomplishing it—either by coming to Parliament and obtaining a law for the purpose, or by force and civil war. He felt justified in saying that to the latter mode alone the conduct of the repeal leaders pointed. The two hon. Members for his own county, the county of Cork, did not think it right to come to Parliament; they would not even petition Parliament on the subject; they thought it better to harangue the people in the most exciting manner. Among the evil effects of this agitation was, that it effectually prevented the introduction of English capital into the country. That was a matter of fact, an instance of which had come within his own knowledge, where a large capital was about to be embarked in an enterprise in his own vicinity; but, in consequence of the alarming state of the country, the enterprise was suspended, if not wholly abandoned. He would ask their Lordships how long was this to continue? The country was endangered—the confidence of the loyal, the peaceable, and well-disposed was shaken, and disaffection was widely spreading. He would conclude by expressing his deep and earnest conviction that her Majesty's Government was bound to take some prompt and decisive steps, with the view of putting an end to a state of things so alarming.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.