A MINISTER'S PROMISE.
No one can have forgotten, that numbers were induced to sup.. port the Irish Suppression Bill, and to view its arbitrary provisions without alarm, by the perfect confidence which they placed in the integrity of the Whig Ministers, who had emphatically and re peatedly pledged themselves that its powers should not be abused to enforce the collection of tithe. A special clause was inserted in the Act to prevent its application to that purpose ; and Lord AL- THORP, moreover, promised to introduce a supplementary measure which should render it absolutely impossible to collect tithes under it. Now how has this pledge been redeemed ? Let the following statement, which was made in the House of Commons on Wed- nesday by Mr. LAMBERT, a supporter of the bill, answer the question.
" On the night that the Coercive Bill was enforced, the Police came in a large de- tachment and went round to fifty-seven farmers, many of whom owed money for tithes and had kept out of the way, but who relying on the security they had been promised, had returned ; the Police, however, came down upon them with a large military detachment, called out these farmers, obliged them to come down, and arrested them for arrears of tithes. For claims made on the part of owners of the tithes, in the dead of the night, when these men had been gathered to- gether by their confidence in the Government pledges, down came the Police and arrested them. They were marched off to prison at the point of the bayo. net ; and though some of them were eighty years of age, they were not per- mitted to rest, but were urged forward by threats and insults."
It will be replied, that Government did not sanction these pro- ceedings; on the contrary, they disapproved of, and put a stop to them. We question whether they are yet put a stop to, and we very much doubt the disapproval : because Lord ALTHORP ad- mitted that lie had received information from Mr. LAMBERT, that the Government subalterns were violating the pledges given by their superiors, as long ago as the 15th May, and yet that no orders were transmitted for the discontinuance of such practices till about ten days since. Here is nice honour, and anxiety to re- deem solemn pledges ! The most shameless and disgraceful vio- lation of these pledges is connived at for at least a fortnight, by those who, the very next day after receiving authentic informa- tion on the subject, should have despatched orders for the dis- missal of those officers who had so openly disobeyed their instruc- tions, and for the prevention of such misconduct in future.
After the disclosures and admissions of Wednesday night, we shall not be surprised at any thing that may occur in Ireland.
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