Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

meetings to baton and shoot down the people.' That is the next step. The Irish Government has been invited by the noble Lord the Member for South Paddington (Lord Randolph Churchill) to commit murder, because, as he said, the Irish Government is omnipotent. It is omnipotent, like any other murderer, because it is able to do it; and even the noble Lord has to admit that the Government can be put on its trial like any other murderer. That is the situation in Ireland. That is the situation which the Government have deliberately constructed. That is the position as the winter approaches, and it will take a bold man to declare the issue. Now, I wish to turn the attention of the House for a moment to the question of the affair at Mitchelstown. The Government pleaded that it was necessary for them to have a shorthand writer at the meeting. I do not traverse that necessity-it is one of the necessities of your system of governing Ireland that you are compelled to have a Government shorthand writer at all public meetings in that country. From the commencement of the Land Movement in 1879 I have never objected to the presence of a shorthand writer at them, and the promoters of all public meetings in Ireland have offered every accommodation to such shorthand writers, and it has grown into an established custom, where the presence of a shorthand writer is desired by the Government, that the Local Authorities should give notice to the promoters of the meeting, that such was the case, and in that case every accommodation has always been afforded. Now, the right hon. Gentleman when he was asked why he did not carry out the system which was always carried out by his Predecessors in this respect, said it was not for the Government of the day to go hat in hand to persons whom they suspected were about to commit crimes in their speeches and ask them to protect the Government reporter. It is not a question of protecting the Government reporter, because no Government reporter has ever been molested in the discharge of his duty at any of the thousand and odd meetings held in that country.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR: What I said was that I regarded it as a monstrous proposition that it should be considered to be a necessary preliminary for the

Government reporter to be present at a meeting, that the leave of the promoters of the meeting, whose conduct might subsequently form the subject of judicial inquiry, should be asked.

MR. PARNELL: But it was not a necessary precedent that the leave of the promoters should be asked. What has been the universal custom-under the administration of the right hon. Gentleman, too-up to the time of the Mitchelstown affair, has been that the Local Authorities have given notice to the promoters of the meeting that they desired the attendance of a Government reporter on the platform. That is a very different thing from asking permission of the promoters of the meeting; and what reason has the right hon. Gentleman put forward for that departure from the ordinary track, which has resulted in the tragic occurrence at Mitchelstown? He has put forward no reason at all. In the first place, we have a custom sanctioned by precedent-by universal usage-not only by the right hon. Gentleman himself, but by his Predecessors in Office also, and that is that the promoters of a meeting should be notified that the Government desire the attendance of a Government reporter on the platform. Well, in this case that was neglected. But, having neglected this step, they sent the Government reporter to the platform be fore the meeting commenced. The right hon. Gentleman says there was no platform-that the platform consisted of waggonettes, which might have been drawn away. But the platform was there. The waggonettes, having had the horses taken out of them, were the platform, and it was known that around these waggonettes the meeting would be held, That step was also neglected on the part of the Government. They did not apply, as is the usual case, that accommodation should be given on the platform to the Government reporter; neither did they secure that the Govern ment reporter should be in the neighbourhood of the platform in time. They waited until the meeting was assembled, and they sent their reporter, surrounded by police, in order to force a way through the closely packed crowd. This was a task which it was physically impossible to accomplish without the employment of a great force. The consequence was that there was great pushing

[ocr errors]

and shoving. A third course was open to | Act to be read, and without waiting for them-they failed to ask for accommo- the orders of their officers. The right dation on the platform-they failed to hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary has send their reporter in time, but they attempted to show that the police fired might have gone round to the rear of the to cover the retreat of their wounded meeting or to the side. Why did they comrades. The only account of wounded choose the densest and thickest part of comrades that can be given relates to the crowd for the entrance of the Go one constable who crawled in some time vernment reporter? Why was this par- after the main body of constables had ticular part of the crowd, surrounded as escaped from the people. If this one it was by horses and carriages, chosen wounded constable was able to crawl to for the way of the Government reporter? the barracks through a furious mob," When they found they could not get I think it pretty clear proof that there through, what was the next step? In- was no "furious mob" at all. We stead of sending word even at the have asked that there should be a sworn eleventh hour to the chairman of the inquiry into this matter, and the request meeting, which might easily have been has been refused. The Government are done, that they desired that a way might determined to cloak the oonduct of the be made for the reporter, they sent a Constabulary just as they are determined large force of men to push their way to ill-treat their political opponents, to through the meeting. Of course, the torture them, to starve them, to kill people resisted being pushed by rifles and them off. to murder them; so they are batons, and resisted, most properly, in my determined that their police shall be alopinion. It would have been more than lowed to murder the people assembled you could have expected from ordinary in lawful meetings. Not only that, but humanity, when they were attacked by the police are to be incited by the manthe rude thrusting of rifles and bayonets ner and matter of their defence set up into their faces, and the blows of batons in the House of Commons by responthat they should not have struck back with sible Government Ministers to repeat the switches and sticks in their hands. these atrocious acts. And so the reign Then came the retreat of the police, who of murder is to be installed-the reign showed themselves to be the cowards of torture in the prisons and the reign they are. [Cries of "Oh, oh!"] Yes, I of murder outside. Instead of consay cowards-[Opposition cheers]-yes, ceding to Ireland the right to manage I repeat, cowards as they are. It was her own affairs you have taken her by cowardly for 50 trained and disciplined the throat, and you are going to try to policemen to fly from the same number strangle her. I wish the right hon. of peasants. These are the cowards Gentleman well through his job. I whom you get to serve you in Ireland confess I should not like to be in the by giving them treble the amount of shoes of the man who has entered upon ordinary wage that they would earn by this work with a light heart. He may honest labour to do your dirty work. have a big majority behind him These men did show themselves wretched in this House, but it is difficult to cowards. I should like to see 50 London continue coercion against a nation. policemen running away from 50 civi- If you (the Government) had any lians, or from 500, or from 5,000. I large portion of the people of Iresuppose the Tipperary peasants are not land on your side, if you were able to so very much superior to the London say that the people were in the wrong people in physical strength as to account and that you were in the right, it might for the discrepancy. But your Royal be different. But you got elected under Irish Constabulary did run away. They false pretences, by false representations ran away and got into the barracks; to the constituencies. You came to Ireand what happened after the police got land, and you find the people peaceinside their barracks has been graphi- able and law-abiding. What are you cally described by the hon. Member for going to do? You are doing your best East Mayo. They rushed for their to drive her to despair, to prevent and rifles, and fired out of the windows in render useless the exertions of those men their panic upon persons who had not who have been continually preaching to been taking any part in the riot at all. the Irish people the necessity and the They fired without waiting for the Riot duty of self-restraint and obedience to

MR. BROOKFIELD (Sussex, Rye) said, he wished to call the attention of the Government to the desirability of establishing a Ministry of Agriculture.

MR. SPEAKER: I do not think that the hon. Gentleman can connect the subject of a Minister of Agriculture in any way with the Appropriation Bill.

MR. BROOKFIELD said, he understood that the discussion of almost any subject was allowable as long as it was connected with a Vote included in this Bill. He thought that the salary of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster was included.

the law. [Cries of "Oh, oh!"] Who | being newly born in them by the extensays "Oh ?" Do those hon. Gentlemen sion of the suffrage to the masses of know what they are talking about? I Ireland will be fully justified by the say, Sir, that the Government are doing results. In a very short time the right their best to render useless the exertions hon. Gentleman the Member for Mid of those who have been continually ex- Lothian (Mr. W. E. Gladstone) will be horting the Irish people to obedience to able, at the head of a majority of British the law so as to avoid throwing any stain Members, to do justice to Ireland by upon their splendid prospects. It is, of giving them that power and right of course, to your interest that the Irish doing justice for themselves to thempeople should break the law; but I hope selves in a Legislature elected by Irishand trust from the bottom of my heart men and of making just laws for her that they will disregard these incite- people. ments. If there is anything that gives me uneasiness at the present moment it is not the belief that your cruel system of coercion will have any effect upon the hearts and minds of the Irish peopleit is not that I believe that this Government will effect any lodgment as a real Government in Ireland in a matter where their Predecessors have so often failed before them, but it is because I fear that some misguided men either in Ireland or in America may be so excited and exasperated by the cruelties and sufferings inflicted on the Irish people that they may be carried away into rebellion by a spirit of retaliation and a spirit of revenge. If that should happen, Mr. Speaker, I believe it would put back and I desire to take this opportunity of expressing my opinion-the cause of Ireland for many years, perhaps for longer than the lives of many of us present and nothing could so help the Government as returning the same coin to them as they dealt out to us. Nothing can so advance the Irish cause in my judgment as patient endurance of wrong and suffering and injustice. The people of Ireland believe that they may have to endure only for a little while-that this Government will not always exist, perhaps not for many days. It will soon come to an end, as other bad Governments have done. The Irish people will, depend upon it, be richly rewarded for their patient endurance in this matter; and if there be any Irishmen into whose minds the spirit of revenge is entering, spurred on by the incitements of the Government, I would earnestly ask them to give us a trial-to give the present Constitutional movement of the Irish people a trial-for a few years, and I am convinced that the result of that trial will be to show that the confidence of the great majority of the Irish people in Constitutional action which is

MR. SPEAKER: The remarks of the hon. Gentleman have not any connection with any Department.

MR. BROOKFIELD said, that, under the circumstances, he would defer his remarks until some other occasion.

MR. T. P. GILL (Louth, S.) said, he desired to invite the House to once more direct its attention to the recent occur rences at Mitchelstown. He thought sufficient stress had not been laid on the fact that every independent non-Irish witness-English and Scotch-of the proceedings at Mitchelstown agreed in corroborating in substance, the statements laid before the House by the hon. Member for East Mayo (Mr. Dillon), to the accuracy of which he (Mr. T. P. Gill) could testify from personal observation. He had himself seen the police attack the mounted men on the outskirts of the meeting, and deliberately hammer them with their batons. This was the commencement of the engagement between the people and the Constabulary. The three English ladies who had witnessed the whole affair had signed a statement, in which they expressed their belief that if the police had not exceeded their duty in an unwarrantable manner-having regard to the peaceableness and goodwill of the

people-the terrible consequences which resulted would not have ensued. The statements of the police, which had been repeated in that House, were lies and perjuries; but he would not appeal to the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland to grant an inquiry into the matter, because he should consider it insulting to himself to do so in view of the want of humanity and want of recognition of the common principles of justice shown by the right hon. Gentleman throughout the debate.

MR. C. W. GRAY (Essex, Maldon) said, it was absolutely necessary that before the House again voted money for carrying on the administration of the country, something should be done in reference to the present condition of agriculture.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, order! Earlier in the day I was asked whether it would be regular to discuss the question of agriculture on the Appropriation Bill, and I ruled that that question was outside the scope of that Bill.

MR. C. W. GRAY said, he was not going to raise the question of agriculture. He merely wished to express his opinion that, until circumstances very much altered, the landed interest could not possibly afford to pay the large sums of money it had been paying in the past.

those events.

MR. T. E. ELLIS (Merionethshire) said, he rose to appeal to the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland to grant a judicial inquiry into the deplorable events which had taken place at Mitchelstown. He also wished to endorse the evidence given on the previous night by the hon. Member for East Mayo (Mr. Dillon) with regard to When the hon. Member for East Mayo was addressing that meeting he was addressing as orderly a meeting as he himself had ever seen in England or Wales, until the police marched up and batoned the horses of the farmers. The actions and words of the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary and of the Irish Government were not such as were likely to tend in the direction of making the two nations a united people, but were more likely to burn into the minds of the people of Ireland the conviction that they could get neither truth, justice, nor fair play from the English Government.

MR. TUITE (Westmeath, N.) said, he desired to call attention to the prosecution of 17 persons in Westmeath under the Crimes Act. He observed that the summonses had been served without any consultation with Dublin Castle, and on the same evening the right hon. and learned Attorney General for Ireland (Mr. Gibson) had known nothing about it in that House. For his own part, he considered that that was a reckless way of administering a Coercion Act, and contrary to the promises which they had received from the Government with regard to it. These men were convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment on most insufficient evidence. There were no stones thrown and no violence towards the police, and Mr. Mr. Hayden-the brother of the hon. Member for South Leitrim-one of those who had been sentenced to imprisonment, busied himself greatly to quiet the people. The prosecution was a most despotic one. He felt bound to denounce the conduct of the Resident Magistrates and the Constabulary, and expressed a hope that in future prosecutions under the Crimes Act, no proceedings should be taken against accused or suspected persons unless with the direct sanction and approval of the Attorney General for Ireland.

MR. HAYDEN (Leitrim, S.) said, that the defendants had been sentenced to three months' imprisonment for what was described as resisting the police at an eviction. It was admitted that there was no disturbance; and if so heavy a sentence was passed in so trifling a case, what would be done when some really serious offence was committed under the Coercion Act? That, however, was not everything, for the defendants would not have been convicted at all if the magistrates had not disregarded the only unbiased evidence, and acted on that of perjured witnesses. The law would be brought into still greater contempt and disrespect by the despotic action of the Government. It would make the people stand more closely and firmly together in defence of their rights and liberties, and landlords would have greater difficulty in securing their rack rents.

MR. HANDEL COSSHAM (Bristol, E.) said, he wished to protest against the dangerous doctrines laid down by

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill considered in Committee, and reported, with an Amendment; as amended, considered; read the third time, and passed.

the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Se- | to proceed with that provision at the precretary for Ireland and the noble Lord sent time, before the Local Authorities the Member for South Paddington (Lord had had time to consider the question. Randolph Churchill) on the previous evening with reference to the powers of the Executive Government, and that the people existed for the Government and not the Government for the people. He feared it would turn out that the police were the cause of the riots at Mitchelstown. The firing upon the people could not be justified, and the responsibility for loss of blood must rest upon the Irish Government. Great injustice was often done in the name of law, and although he did not care about introducing sacred subjects into the discussion of the House, he reminded them that the founder of Christianity was murdered in the name of the law.

ADJOURNMENT.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House, at its rising, do adjourn till Friday next at a quarter to Two o'clock."-(Mr. W. H. Smith.)

COLONEL NOLAN (Galway, N.) said, that he misunderstood the right hon. Gentleman's Motion. Anyhow, it was now too late for him (Colonel Nolan) to proceed with his Tram and Claremorris Railway Bill. Between the Government and his hon. Friend (Mr. Biggar) they had destroyed his Bill, and he was now compelled to give way.

Question put, and agreed to.

House at its rising to adjourn till

Friday. govern

MR. J. F. X. O'BRIEN (Mayo, S.) said, he thought there was no doubt that the object of the police at Mitchelstown was to provoke and exasperate the people. If the people were brutally treated by the police he feared there would be reprisals on the part of the people. He supposed this was the beginning of that 20 years of firm ment which Lord Salisbury thought all that was required. Of course the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland might have made up his mind to carry out that 20 years of firm government, but he doubted whether the people of this country would give the right hon. Gentleman rope enough to do so.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill read the third time, and passed.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES (EXPENSES)
BILL. BILL 361.]

(Mr. Ritchie, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Long.)

COMMITTEE.

Order for Committee read.

Motion made, and Question, "That this House do now adjourn,"-(Mr. Jackson)-put, and agreed to.

House adjourned at twenty minutes after Eight o'clock till Friday.

HOUSE OF LORDS, Wednesday, 14th September, 1887.

MINUTES.]-PUBLIC BILLS-Second Reading-
Committee negatived - Third Reading -Con
solidated Fund (Appropriation); Local
Authorities (Expenses) (270), and passed.

Motion made, and Question proposed, CRIME AND OUTRAGE (IRELAND)— "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."-(Mr. Ritchie.)

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RITCHIE) (Tower Hamlets, St. George's) said, that in Committee, he proposed to move to strike out that part of the Bill which referred to the expenses of the Inspectors in connection with local inquiries. He did not think that it would be wise

FATAL CONFLICT WITH MOON-
LIGHTERS NEAR ENNIS - MURDER
OF HEAD CONSTABLE WHELEHAN,

QUESTION. OBSERVATIONS.

LORD FITZGERALD, pursuant to Notice, rose to ask Her Majesty's Government, Whether they will take into consideration the claims on the nation of the widow and children of Head Constable Whelehan, who so recently met

« PreviousContinue »