As the House of Commons, on Monday night, went into
Com- mittee on the Appropriation Bill, the question of the suppression of the Ennis meeting was raised by Sir William Harcourt, who attempted, by means of a number of quotations from legal authorities, to show that there existed no right at Common Law to proclaim meetings. He had been in a great measure responsible for the Coercion Act of 1882, and so knew upon what grounds the special powers for proclaiming meetings contained in that Act were obtained. The powers in that Act were granted because, in the opinion of the Law Officers," with- out that Statute those powers did not exist." The Government were claiming to put down meetings on the hypothesis" of what it was possible the speakers might say, and what might be the possible consequences of what the speakers might possibly say." No such claim as this had ever before been advanced "by the worst men in the worst time of the history of this country." The most important of the authorities by which Sir William Harcourt declared he could prove "up to the hilt" that the action of the Government was not in accordance with the Common Law, were some telling quotations from a letter written by Lord Eldon on the Peterloo massacre. As, however, Lord Eldon's doubts were not as to the unlawfulness of the assembly, but as to the means by which it was dispersed, they were in reality foreign to the question. Had the Government contended that they had a right to fire on a mere passive unlawful assembly, Lord Eldon's words would have been a very effective answer. Since, however, they did nothing of the kind, and no weapon was used, it did not help Sir William Harcourt to show that Lord Eldon believed that the weavers at Peterloo were not committing the felony of riot which would justify the use of arms.
Previous page
