When the "proclamation" of the city of Kilkenny was dis-
cussed in the House of Commons on Wednesday last, it was urged by Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE and Mr. SPRING RICE, in defence of the proceeding, that if the city, as well as the county, were not in- cluded in the proclaimed district, the Whitefeet ruffians would find an asylum in it from the pursuit of justice. What are we to un- derstand from this ?—that previously to the 10th of April mur- derers and robbers might escape the horrors of hanging and trans- portation, if they could only effect an entrance into that blessed sanctuary the city of Kilkenny, where the vengeance of the law slept, and felony reared its head in triumph and security ? If the arguments of Ministers mean any thing, they mean this—that the Whitefeet are safe from punishment in the unproclaimed districts. Why then is not the whole of Ireland proclaimed at once ? It is as easy to escape into the adjoining county as into the capital city. If the Government were consistent in its proceedings, and every place which may become an asylum were to be proclaimed, whe- ther it were disturbed itself or not, the whole empire would be subjected to martial law.
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