In doing so,
his lordship related the evils which called for such a measure, clearly
showing that it was necessary. In explaining the provisions by which
ministers proposed to meet the evils, he said, that the bill combined
many provisions of the several laws that had been passed both in the
Irish and English parliament for the repression of such outrages as he
had related, with such alterations as circumstances seemed to require.
Provision was made for proclaiming districts in a state of disturbance;
and it was provided that courts should be appointed in which offences
connected with such districts were to be tried. It was also provided
that persons prosecuted under this act should be obliged to plead
forthwith, as in cases of felony, and not be permitted to delay their
trial. By the bill the lord-lieutenant was to be empowered, on due
information, to proclaim any district to be in a disturbed state.
All persons were to be warned to abstain from seditious and illegal
meetings; and no one was to be absent from their houses after sunset
until sunrise, unless they could give good reason for their being
abroad, under the penalty of being found guilty of a misdemeanour.
Another provision was, that meetings for the purpose of petitioning
parliament, or for discussing grievances, should not be held without
giving ten days' notice to the lord-lieutenant, or without his sanction.
It was further thought advisable that proclaimed districts should, to a
certain extent, be subjected to martial law. Military courts were to
be formed for the trial of all offences under this act, with power
to pronounce sentence as definitively as any commission of oyer and
terminer. The lord-lieutenant was to have the power for the appointment
of courts-martial; and it was provided that courts-martial should not
consist of more than nine gentlemen nor less than five. It was further
provided, that no officer under twenty-one years of age, or who had
held his commission for less than two years, should act on such
courts-martial; and that the said courts-martial should not have the
power of trying for any offence to which a felonious punishment was
attached, except by special direction of the lord-lieutenant; and that,
in that case, they should only pronounce sentence of transportation,
either for seven years or for life. It was made imperative that
a serjeant-at-law or a king's counsel should sit to assist in the
judgment. A clause was likewise introdu