ced to shield officers who had.
acted on courts-martial under this act from future prosecution: any
complaints made against them on account of their proceedings at any
court-martial were to be inquired into by a court-martial to be called
for that purpose. The bill further gave power to enter houses in
search of arms; and persons refusing to produce them were subjected to
punishment. It was also made a misdemeanour to disperse seditious papers
in a proclaimed district; with a provision that, if the persons actually
dispersing them gave up his employer, the former should be discharged.
Finally, it was to be enacted, that when an individual arrested under
this bill sued out a writ of _habeas corpus_ within three calendar
months after his arrest, it should be a sufficient return to the writ,
that the person so detained was kept in custody on a charge of offence
perpetrated in a proclaimed district; at the same time it was provided
that every person arrested should be brought to trial within three
calendar months, or should be discharged. This bill was carried in the
lords without opposition; some slight amendments being adopted in the
committee with reference to the constitution, the powers, and the mode
of procedure of the courts-martial. The bill, however, had to encounter
a stormy course in the commons. On its appearance there on the 22nd, the
first reading was postponed till the 27th, and Mr. O'Connell gave notice
that he would move a call of the house for that day, and would repeat
the call whenever he perceived any relaxation of its effects, so long as
the bill was before them. He taunted ministers with the delay, which he
insinuated was interposed to their remedial measures, and reminded them
there was another house of parliament through which they might find it
impossible to carry redress of grievances, whatever was the unanimity
with which it enacted measures of coercion: "a house where any proposal
springing from malignant hatred of Ireland was sure to pass." Mr.
Stanley denied that there was any necessity for remedial and repressive
measures going on together; but at the same time he declared that
if ministers found themselves unable to carry both they would resign
office. On the 27th, the house having been called over, Lord Althorp
moved the first reading of the bill. Ministers, he said, had waited
to the last, to ascertain what order could be restored by the ordinary
administration of the laws; and after relatin