Among the Irish documents...
Among the Irish documents published by order of the House of Commons, is a table representing, under one view, the whole judicial operation of the Insurrection Act throughout those eight unfortunate counties where re- course has been had to that unprecedented law as an en- gine for pacifying and reforming the people. The sum of the matter is, that thsere have been 1,707 men imprisoned, 271 convicted; and of the convicted, not more than 75 ac- tually punished-that is, punished in consequence of their conviction; for before trial, all-the 1,436 innocent men, as well as the few, in comparison, who were guilty- underwent the severe punishment of arbitrary seizure by the police, removal from the scene of their daily labours, separation from their destitute families, and imprisonment for diverse periods in the common gaol. WVe ask any humane or considerate being to think for one moment on transac- tions and sufferings liketthose whichare thus officially record- ed. Hereareabove 1,700British subjects carriedoff to prisoi, almost without exception for the crime of being out of doors between sunset and sunrise! Of these, the ;Magistrates living near the spot, ant therefore not wholly free from im- pressions unfavourable to the prisoners as a body, could find grounds for convicting only 271-less than one-sixth of the whole number. But of the convicted parties, the Govern- ment itself, after well deliberating on the merits of each case, could not in conscience condemn to actual punish. ment more than 75. Oat of Fnore than 1,700 persons dragged to prison, and a large majority of them forced by incessant labour to find food for more, perhaps, than three thousand others, desolate women and helpless infants, only 75 werejudged by the LOBD-LIEUTENANT to deserve the visitation of the law. That one offender, therefore, might be brought to justice, 22 guiltless men (for that is the pro- portion) bave suffered the loss of liberty, and their wretched families the last extreme of want: nor is this a single in- stance, but an extensive average throughout an entire pro- vince of Ireland! We say, then, that a law which cannot be executed withoutsoprodigal awaste of libertyand property- without an invasion of the innocent so sweeping and unsparing, must be utterly intolerable to any commu- nity on earth. Tbhis horrible Insuirrection Act must be abolished, or it will exterminate everv other law but itself: for how can peace or pablic order exist where a power is lodged in vulgar hands-the hands of hired constables-open to every abuse that caprice or ven- geance, or party hatred, or systematic indifference to the obligations of mercy, humanity, and temperate policy, would engender ? The Government, we acknowledge, has not abused the act: but what a powerful argument is that for its repeal, when the lenity and temper with which all men acknowledge that it has been administered so far as the LOat-LIEUTENANT is concerned, have proved themselves insufficient to avert the miseries inhlerent in its nature !