)30 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



whifli I have, within these five 

 ye;irs, visited, I thouu^ht it espeHi- 

 ent, openly from this place, to state 

 this opinion ; hoping that my judg- 

 ment being founded not upon se- 

 cret whisperings or private com- 

 munications, but upon the solem- 

 nity of public trials and the authen- 

 ticity of criminal records, may have 

 some weight towards suggesting 

 the expediency of resorting to other 

 means of tranquillizing Ireland, 

 than those hitherto resorted to — 

 banishment, the rope, and the gib- 

 bet. These expedients have been 

 repeatedly tried ; and have, by the 

 acknowledgment of those who 

 have used them, hitherto proved 

 ineffectual. And here I must in- 

 treat, that I may not wilfully be 

 mistaken and purposely misunder- 

 stood by any man or class of men. 

 I mean not to question in the 

 slightest degree, the prudence of 

 the Irish government in introduc- 

 ing, or the wisdom of the legisla- 

 ture in enacting, tho'^e laws ; they 

 may be suitable (for any thing I 

 know to the rontraryj to the exist- 

 ing state of things in some of these 

 counties, where the discharge of 

 my public duty has not yet called 

 me. In others, although it may 

 not be iminediatel}' necessary to 

 put them into active operation, the 

 notoriety of their existence in the 

 Statute Book may be a wholesome 

 warning to the turbulent and au- 

 dacious. But having, in address- 

 ing you, taken occasion to give you 

 mv opinions upon different subjects 

 (the statement of which, however 

 erroneous those opinions should ap- 

 pear to be, may produce some 

 pood, by soliciting the attention of 

 the enlishtened men in both coun- 

 tries to the same subjects), I feel 

 myself more especially called upon 



by a sense of public duty, to say a 

 few words to you upon the scope 

 and objects of these Bills — I say 

 more especially called upon, by 

 reason of those important, though 

 contradictory publications, in the 

 Wexford .Tournals now laid before 

 me, and to which I have already 

 adverted. Whence that contradic- 

 tion of sentiment could originate, 

 between persons resident in the 

 same county, and having (one 

 would imagine) equal opportuni- 

 ties of information, it is not for me 

 to conjecture ; butits indisputable 

 existence in the months of March 

 and April last (subsequently to your 

 last Assizes), calls upon me briefly 

 to explain to you the purport of 

 those Acts, which some of you may 

 deem it expedient to call into ac- 

 tive operation. With one of those 

 Acts you have had a former ac- 

 quaintance. It is the old insurrec- 

 tion Act, which, after having pe- 

 rished, is now revived and re-enacf- 

 ed for Ireland. The other is called 

 the Peace Preservation Bill. The 

 Insurrection Act consists, as you 

 all know, of a complete suspension 

 of the English Constitution — of 

 English law- of the Trial by Jury. I 

 Under these new laws, take'p to- 1 

 gether, any seven magistrates may 

 meet, and recommend the county 

 or district to be proclaimed by the 

 Lord Lieutenant as being in a state 

 of disturbance. When the Procla- 

 mation has once issued, everj- per- 

 son must stay at home after a cer- 

 tain hour. You are to have the 

 assistance of a learned Serjeant from 

 town, who may send abroad of- 

 fenders in a summary way. 



Gentlemen, I have seen times, 

 when persons, who thinking the 

 lives named in their tenants' leases 

 were lasting somewhat too longt 



