WHAT HAS THE LAW DONE FOR IRELAND?

LETTER 'IL TO TILE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR,

Dublin, 21st December 1847. Sul—A third result of the failure in the " thorough enforcement of every law" in Ireland has been, the development of a disposition in the masses of the people to seek out for themselves substitutes for the ordinary law, such as, according to

their rude notions, might piovide a counterbalance for which they generally and correctly believe—namely, tha

rich and another for the poor in the land. Under the , ..j2,1„..esc., , k . ■ of the endeavour to effect this object, rich and poor are , . '; 'T? . ,1 t . - tent that has.required that most necessary intervention of the Legislature which is in course of accomplishment; but I sincerely believe that neither cause nor con- sequence would have had existence had the law been thoroughly enfereeco ul le,e'n' centuries ago, to borrow the words of Sir John Davies, written more than tw ago, " oppression' on the one side or impunity on the other. For," I fully concur with that able man, " there is no nation of people under the sun that doth love equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish; or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves, so as they may have the protection and benefit of the law, when upon just Cause they do desire it." I fear this may not be the opinion at present generally entertained either in England or Ireland; and I cannot deny that we have far to seek for the causes of existing disorders, if we look for them in any good dispositions , inherent in the authors of those abominable outrages that now overwhelm the minds of the best men in both kingdoms with indignation and despair. Nevertheless, as the state has now practically declared its intention to hold no yarley with the assassin, it seems to me that the occasion is suitable for a abortynajuiry into the beginnings and true nature of the system under which he ti: 3 believe that it is a griev- gmin

ous mistake to suppose that the barbarous a ' ations which disgrace Irish

records from time immemorial, and which h' ' latterly so fearfully multiplied, have their origin either in a natural thirst for blood, or in a desire of personal vengeance, or even, generally, in a wish id remove an individual froin,the way of the murderer. They are, in my opiniorti the work of one form of ,those maxi- forcemeat has called into existencethe consummation of a quasi itlaid. SCR- 'MRCSS in substitution of the ordinarriaw, which the failure of its therp7h en- forcement of which the assassin is inhis own estimation, and in that of a M Ititude

of his fellows, the morally justifiable executioner. Nay, etrenge as the perversion of the meted sense implied in the fact may appear, it is yet an unquestionable truth that this feeling as to the peculiar and as it were ,judicial nature of those atro- cious acts is to some extent shared in by all classes ot society in Ireland; and in it is to be found the true explanation of the levity with which those crimes are spoken of, and of the absence in relation to them of that horror with which a solitary murder for gain or vengeance would by the same persons be regarded. I have scarcely ever heard the shooting of a landlord, agent, parson, or farmer, made the subject of conversation, without a discussion arising as to bow far the victim

- deserved his doom; and the gravity of the most dignified meetings held expressly for the condemnation of such offeuees is not unfrequently disturbed by scurvy jests and uncontrollable bursts of laughter. On the other hand, murders of the ordinary kind (which happily are rare among us) are heard and spoken of in a very different manner. No one who mixed in the society of this city at the period of the murder and robbery of a pear Italian organ-boy, a few years since, will for- get the emotion which that event excited among people of all ranks: upon that occasion, it is my firm persuasion, that not even one of the foolish Lords whose jokes, as we are informed by the local journals, excited "loud and repeated laugh- ter" at the meeting of Tipperary Magistrates held upon the assassination of Mr. Roe, would have felt inclined, or, if he did, would have ventured to broach similar witticisms, in the most select drawingroom or in the lowest Nthouse of Dublin. In a word, I venture to affirm that the cases would in any Irish assembly of peo- ple of any rank be felt to be essentially different; and the existence of this feeling of difference is, I think, explicable only in the way I have suggested. It will be, no doubt, difficult for an English mind, reflecting only upon recent manifestations of the state of Irish society, to comprehend the existence of such a-condition in a _couutry- so near to civilization as Ireland: but, perhaps, the difficulty may in. some degree be lessened by adducing an instance of the working of this supple- mental judicature of the, people, less abhorrent to humanity than its lute bloody results in Tipperary and Roscommon.

Those who are familiar with that portion of the North-west of Ireland which

lies between Lough Foyle and Donegal Bay will admit that sanguinary outrages are there of extreme rarity; yet they must also be aware that a proem, in sub- stitution of the ordinary law, known by the name of a "Glen Swilly decree,' is constantly in use, and all but recognized as a le,r loci—at least it HAS Mt, BORIC ten or fifteen years since. An example or two of the application of this process will illustrate its nature better than a lengthened description. In a town in the district referred to, containing about three thousand inhabitants, a young man, the son of a respectable shopkeeper, set up business as a watchmaker, about the period to which I have alluded, and was largely patronized by the townspeople in honour of his parents. The use he made of this encouragement was to run away with some three or four dozen of watches which had been intrusted to him for the purpose of being repaired. Among the plundered happened to be my own ser- vant; and, as it was the first introduction of the local law to my knowledge, I well remember the air of triumph with which John entered my room one.mora- ing, about a week after the absconding of the watchmaker, and told rne that all was right about his watch: that two cows and a horse had been taken out a —'eatable the night before, under a "Glen Swilly decree." His statement was- quite correct: the premises of the father of the runaway, situated in dui centre of the town, had been quietly entered during the night, and the cattle driven off without let or hinderance, and in all probability with the knowledge of a majority of the neighbours. The result was, that the father raised his friends in pursuit of his guilty son, and found him in Londonderry, with the watches in his possession, and on the point of embarking for America. In this case right was substantially done; and I don't think any person in that community doubted that justice was- wrought more effectually and usefully by the Glen Swilly decree than by the halting course of the ordinary law. A dangerous lesson of distrust in the law and its enforcement, and of confidence in their own substitute, was here practically taught to the people.

I will mention another instance in which the inc loci was put into execution to

the great satisfaction of the neighbouring public. A gentleman of fortune and station, who resided within a mile of the same town, found a countryman crossing his demesne by a footpath, with a keg of poteen whisky upon his back. Carried away by his zeal for the revenue, the gentleman seized the keg, and, staving in its head with a stone, spilled the contents. The smuggler looked on very quietly during the transaction, making no resistance whatsoever; but the next day he appeared before his honour with 'a bit of an account," in which the items of' Ids loss, in time keg, and five gallons of "two and one," were duly set forth, to the amount of two or three pounds. He was driven off, with many threats; but OR the third morning after, it was discovered that a valuable heifer had disappeared from the demesne, and during the day an intimation was received that she woeld be held under a Glen Swilly decree until the bill of Shane M'Dade should be &Vili- fied. This was done, and the heifer was punctually returned uninjured; the owner being heartily laughed at by every one, gentle and simple, in the country.

I could easily add to the number of these stories, from my own recollection; but

I have adduced sufficient proof of the existence of a strong disposition among the Irish to invent and to countenance substitutes for the ordinary law, and also, I hope, of the soundness of my conclusion, that this disposition 111L13 had its origin in a failure of "a thorough enforcement of every law." If this position could be established in the minds of Government and people, much would, I believe, be done towards the regeneration of Ireland: and, with your permission I will at a future opportunity offer an humble contribution towards the public stock of know- ledge of the means of effecting this good work. Before making this attempt, however, I trust you will allow me, in another letter, to call public attention to "what the law has done for Ireland" by its dealings with the staple of Irish in-

Abe,

dastry. . H. M,