§ LORD FARNHAMpresented a petition from the undersigned merchants of the borough of Southwark, on the subject of systematic murder in Ireland. The petitioners stated that they had heard with horror of the assassinations which were taking place in Ireland; that they conceived there could be no possible connexion between cold-blooded and deliberate murder and remedial measures; and they prayed their Lordships to pass such measures as would tend to put a stop to crimes of such harrowing atrocity. That until full security was given to human life in Ireland, no benefit whatever could possibly result to the social system. That nothing short of the most prompt and vigorous measures could encourage the introduction of capital into Ireland, to the benefit of its poor, and to the relief of the great body of the people in England from large and pecuniary contributions, which petitioners had hoped would have led to the suppression of crime, and a general good feeling throughout the country, but which had been followed by a (succession of crimes unparalleled in atro- 479 city, and to a systematic detail of outrages unknown in any other part of the world. The noble Lord stated that the petitioners were men of the highest respectability and wealth. He would direct their Lordships' attention in particular to that part of the petition which would separate the consideration of systematic murder from that of remedial measures and the introduction of capital into Ireland. The noble Lord then laid before their Lordships the real state of Ireland as to crime. He felt that it would be very improper in him to allude to any specific measure then in progress elsewhere, but which had not come up to their Lordships' House; but this he would say, that the most uncivilised country on the face of the globe could not present a picture of greater atrocities than Ireland exhibited. He was as much attached to his country as any one could be, and as much opposed to measures of unnecessary severity; but he felt that no measures could be sufficiently stringent, and (however unconstitutional under ordinary circumstances) no measures could be too unconstitutional, to be applied at the present moment, without delay and with energy and perseverance, with the hope of crushing the murderous system which was desolating the country, and rendering the name of Ireland a curse and a reproach to all the rest of the world. It was his firm conviction that any measures, however strong or however unconstitutional in themselves, might with perfect safety be entrusted to the noble Earl at the head of Her Majesty's Government in Ireland; whose admirable conduct had earned for him the confidence and esteem of every loyal person. And he would take that opportunity of tendering his thanks to Her Majesty's Ministers for even such a measure as they had introduced; for he felt that, however weak or ineffectual it might prove, they had still taken a step in the right direction. One of the worst features in the state of Ireland, was the sympathy which existed with the murderer, and the invariable practice of concealing him from the hands of justice. He was too fond of his fellow countrymen to attribute this to any innate badness of disposition; and he really did hope that it proceeded from fear and the spirit of intimidation which prevailed; for in Ireland a poor man must be morally certain that if he were to inform against the murderer whom he had seen to commit the deed, or were to refuse to harbour and conceal him afterwards, the in- 480 evitable consequence would be the forfeiture of his own life. He would also point out to their Lordships this fact—that no reliance could be placed upon the apparent freedom of any one part of the country from atrocious crime. In those parts supposed to be as safe and as free from murder as the most prosperous and happy districts in England, in one moment the murderer's arm might be raised, hired and employed from perhaps a distance of 100 miles—against an unsuspecting individual, whom he had never seen before, and of whom he had never heard, until he was sent forth (at the peril of his own life in case of refusal) to do the bloody behest of a secret and assassinating committee. He would now inform their Lordships who were the individuals thus marked out for slaughter, and he need not add, that this sentence of death was almost invariably followed with its execution. They were not the hardhearted, grasping, avaricious landlords, who took advantage of times of unprecedented distress to wring from a wretched starving tenantry prompt payment in the full measure of that rent, which, without any kindly assistance from him, their natural protector, was absolutely required to save them from starvation, and who in default of payment, expelled them from their homes and turned them loose upon the world. This was not the class of victims who fell beneath the bullet of the assassin. Their victim was of a far different stamp. Take the man who, by his example, his residence among his tenants, the constant and abundant employment which he gave to the labourer, the extensive relief which he afforded to the poor, his means, even beyond their limits, expended in works of charity and utility—take the man who acted upon the principle that all that he possessed was held in trust for the benefit of those over whom he was placed, and among whom he lived; and who not only supplied the wants of those over whom he was providentially placed, but of those in his neighbourhood, whose landlords either would not, or could not, discharge their duties—the man who ought to be generally beloved, because he deserved to be so, and who did not guard against the murderer's aim, because his conscience had not told him that he had aught to fear, or aught with which to reproach himself—such a man, he told their Lordships, was the victim generally selected. It was not his intention to enter into a detail of the various murders which had fixed upon his country 481 an indelible stain of blood. He would merely refer briefly to the case of the Rev. Mr. Lloyd. If he was called upon to select, out of the whole of Ireland, one person who, during the past and the present year, had been more exemplary in his conduct, and more eminently useful than another, that individual was Mr. Lloyd. As a clergyman, his character was above praise, and in his capacity as a resident gentleman, all his exertions and all his means were devoted to the welfare of those around him. And yet the Rev. Mr. Lloyd, that excellent and benevolent man, was shot dead upon the public road, on Sunday last, on his return home from his own parish church, where he had been performing divine service. If there was one circumstance more harrowing to the feelings than another connected with this infamous and atrocious murder, it was this: A few weeks since, Mr. Lloyd's brother, to whom he was greatly attached, died of fever, caught in the discharge of his humane and professional duties as physician to the Roscommon county hospital. He left a widow with a large family. The late lamented Mr. Lloyd took upon himself the maintenance and support of the widow and her children; and this poor widow was now become doubly a widow, having lost within a few weeks, not only her own husband, but that kind relative who she had justly expected would have proved a father to her children. He felt that he had too long trespassed upon their Lordships' time. He must plead as his excuse the urgency of the subject; and he should conclude his remarks by stating that it was utterly impossible for their Lordships to form the most remote conception of the dreadful state of brutal crime which prevailed in Ireland; and though he had lived himself, two years since, under "the Reign of Terror," he would boldly assert, that the English language could not furnish words sufficiently strong to convey even a faint idea of its guilt and atrocity, or of the disgust, indignation, abhorrence, and detestation with which he viewed it.