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ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



gentlemen (Mr. Windham and Mr. 

 Elliot,) the one of whom had been so 

 instrumental in the first bringing in 

 the habcan corpus suspension aft in 

 Great-Britain, and the other in Ire- 

 land, witliout any report of seleft 

 committees, but upon the ground 

 «r obvious necessity, should now 

 sieem to think it absolutely necessa- 

 ry to have a report of a secret com- 

 mittee, to prove the necessity of 

 ihe measure proposed. The state- 

 ment in his majesty's speech, that 

 tranquillity was restored in Ireland, 

 ■was pcrffeiftly correft, but it was 

 only to be preserved by the same 

 precautionary measures by which it 

 •was attained. The insurreftion of 

 the 23d of July, without magnify- 

 ing it into a business of such im- 

 portance as the right honourable 

 gentleman (Mr. Windham) had de- 

 scribed it, was certainly a symptom 

 of such a disposition, as must be 

 "watched and guarded against by.- 

 every measure of precaution. Before 

 the 23d of July, many persons of 

 great authority and information, 

 among others the lord chancellor 

 of Ireland, thought such measures, 

 as are now proposed, were necessa- 

 ry ; but, after the 23d of July, no 

 body could doubt the necessity. 

 This was not now denied, but the 

 gentlemen, on the other side, wish- 

 ed for the form<ili(y of evidence to 

 prove it. To all such objections he 

 T*"OHld answer, that public noto- 

 riety, combined with the prepara- 

 tions the enemy were making, and 

 their avowed objects, did aflord 

 abundant grounds for calling for 

 ^hc present measure. The objections 

 to it, he considered not tenable, 

 upon sound principles of reasoning, 

 nor from the melancholy experience 

 of the last ten years. 



Dr. Lawrence vindicated his right 

 4 



honourable friend (Mr. Windham) 

 from the charge of inconsistency, 

 imputed to him by the chancellor of 

 the exchequer. The suspension of 

 the hahea.i corpus was but an a6l of 

 precaution, but the martial-law bill 

 gives extraordinary powers of pu- 

 nishment. So that his right ho- 

 nourable friend might, with perfect 

 consistency, approve of one and not 

 of the other. The court of martial 

 law, established, was the worst of 

 all that bear the name. Under the 

 mutiny bill, there were required thir- 

 teen officers to form a court-martial ; 

 and in no part of the empire, ex- 

 cept Botany Bay, or the slave coast, 

 was so small a number of officers 

 required to compose a court-martial, 

 as in Ireland. The impolicy of 

 continuing martial law longer than 

 it was necessary, was this: in the 

 common opinion of mankind, no 

 disgrace attached to those who fell 

 in war, whereas those who suffered 

 by the regularcourse of justice, w^ere 

 supposed to have an ignominy at- 

 tached to their death. Emmet, the 

 rebel leader, was a proof of the 

 prevalence of this idea ; when he 

 was hurt, at the time of arrest, he 

 said it was nothing, for all was fair 

 in war ; but w hen he was condemn- 

 ed to die, by a jury of his country, 

 men, he begged that nobody would 

 attempt to write his epitaph. 



General Loftus approved highly 

 of the measure. 



The Attorney General insisted, 

 that instead of being a violation of 

 the common law, martial law was 

 only an auxiliary of the common 

 law, when it was confined to such 

 distrifts, and exercised at such times, 

 as would prevent the due execution 

 of the common law. He then ani- 

 madverted, pointedly, to the cou- 

 dutl: and to the language of Mr. 



Windhanij 



