ng;" and he even went the length of
declaring, that he would have suppressed one of the most atrocious cases
in the whole catalogue, "only that it had been previously alluded to by
Lord George Bentinck." Of a verity, "the convicted conspirator" and the
denounced "renegade" seem now to have a perfect understanding. But if
the mild manner of the Home Secretary on the introduction of the bill is
calculated to excite distrust in the minds of those who really wish for
the establishment of tranquillity in Ireland, the speech of the
Secretary at War is sufficient to convince them, that the government do
not care to go the necessary length for accomplishing that object, for
fear of coming in violent contact with the really guilty. Mr O'Connell
twitted them with the obvious fact, that they gave no protection under
their bill by day, although it was notorious that almost all the
assassinations were then perpetrated. Mr Sidney Herbert is reported,
with great naivete, and innocently enough, to have offered the following
reasons for the omission:--"He could show from proofs before him, that
the murders which were committed in broad day were, generally speaking,
murders perpetrated against persons in the higher ranks of life; and
that, on the other hand, the night murders were committed on the poor
and defenceless; and for this reason,--the rich man lived in a house
carefully secured, with his servants well armed, his windows barricaded,
and every thing about it capable of standing a siege; _and when such a
man was murdered it was usually in the open day; perhaps fired at from a
hedge when he was returning from the quarter sessions, or some other
duty_. But the poor man, who lived in a wretched thatched cottage, with
the door and window ill secured--that man was attacked at night, shots
were fired into his house, and incendiarism was almost solely confined
to him, because he was poor and defenceless--he had no servants to repel
the invasion of what ought to be his castle; and, therefore, he
maintained that an obvious distinction must be made between the night
class of murders, which especially required their interference, and
those that were committed in broad day. The one class of victims
called much more loudly for protection than did the other."--(Hear.)
Here we have it unreservedly stated, that no restriction is sought to be
imposed upon the evil-disposed by day--merely because none are then
murdered but landlords, who cannot with