measure was beneficial, but
was not sufficiently sweeping in its powers, and failed to produce all
the good that a better concerted scheme might have worked out.

_Measures for Repressing Insurrection in Ireland_.--On other pages
a minute account of Irish suffering and sedition has been given, and
references were then made to the proceedings in parliament which had
reference to these transactions. On the 21st of July, Lord John Russell,
amidst the cheers of the house, gave notice of motion to enable the
lord-lieutenant of Ireland to arrest and detain persons suspected of
treasonable designs against her majesty's throne and government. The
same night the Earl of Glengall brought under the notice of the peers
the existence of treasonable clubs, the manufacture of pikes and the
importation of fire-arms, the treasonable correspondence with France and
America, the denunciations made by the rebel press and rebel orators,
and the atrocious anti-social doctrines propounded--among others, the
right and duty of exterminating the eight thousand Protestant landlords.
Lord Brougham startled the house by reading a private letter, written to
a friend by Daniel O'Connell a short time before his death, in which he
declared it necessary for Ireland that coercion should be employed, and
that the suspension of the habeas corpus was, in his opinion, the best
and least oppressive way of putting down Irish disturbance. The publicly
expressed opinions of the agitator had been so very adverse to those
conveyed in this private communication, that its perusal caused a great
sensation in the house. As O'Connell's writing was well known to Lord
Brougham, and most of the noble lords who sat around him, there could be
neither misapprehension nor imposition. The government measures were
opposed by some Irish members, but their opposition was deficient in
dignity and good sense. Mr. Fergus O'Connor so nearly approached treason
in one of his speeches, that the premier was obliged to interfere
formally, as did Sir Robert Peel on another occasion. Mr. Sharman
Crawford, with excellent temper, but substantially with absurdity and
impracticability, rivalled Mr. O'Connor in the earnestness of his
opposition. The measure of the ministry was carried, much to the
satisfaction of the country.

_Bill for the better Security of the Crown and Government_--This
measure was introduced by Sir George Grey, for the double purpose of
quelling Irish insurrection, and repr