THE " SPECTATOR " ON COERCION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Six,—Nobody here, so far as I know, has yet asserted that "rent can be collected in permanence by imprisoning all who publicly preach that it is much too heavy." That is an idle phantom, raised by the writer of your last article, apparently for the sole pleasure of laying it again. What many of us do assert is that the immediate suspension of Habeas Corpus would be a means both "justifiable and expedient," (since that is to be the new formula), of making" life and property secure."
We do not think it well that, while the State trials "drag their slow length along," assassination should be preached with impunity. We do not think it well that agrarian orators should go before an armed and excitable people, and inform them,. in the words of a speaker last Sunday, that "if the tenant- farmers of Ireland shot down landlords, as partridges are shot down in September (cheers), Harris" (the speaker), "never would say one word against it. (Cheers.)" We even think the public use of such language a sign that in the districts where it is employed civil government has ceased, in any true sense, to exist. Some, indeed, go the length of boldly declaring that security of life and property is so essential to the common- wealth, that any means necessary to curb their assailants become ipso facto "justifiable and expedient." But these are Whigs, and their old-world prejudice will no doubt fade ere long in the blaze of Radical enlightenment,—I am, Sir, Sze., J. WOULFE FLANAGAN.
Previous page
