On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
j , ave the power io do this ; and until vou do it , in vain will you expect tranquillity or content in the country . " His lordship was pleased to lend a cou rteous attention to these opinionsand I do believe , that his own natural judg ment and good inclination would have prompted him to measures , beneficial to Ireland , and honourable to
his fame . Gentlemen , this subject brings me to a consideration of the magistracy of the country . Of these I must say , that some are over zealous — others too supine : distracted into parties , they are too often governed by their private passions , to the disgrace of public justice , and the frequent disturbance of the
country . Here let me solicit your particular attention to some of the grievous mischiefs flowing from the misconduct of certain magistrates . One is occasioned by an excessive eagerness to crowd the gaols with prisoners , and to swell the calendars with crimes . Hence the amazing
disproportion between the number of the committals and of the convictions , between accusation and evidence , between hasty suspicion and actual guilt . Committals have been too frequently made out ( in other counties ) upon light and trivial grounds , without reflecting
upon the evil consequence of wresting a peasant ( probably innocent ) from the bosom of his family—immuring him . for weeks or months in a noisome gaol , amongst vicious companions . He is afterwards acquitted or not prosecuted ; and returns a lost man , in health and
morals , to his ruined and beggared fanjily . This is a hideous , but common picture . Again , fines and forfeited recognizances are multiplied , through the misconduct of a magistrate . He binds over a prosecutor , under a heavy recognizance , to attend at a distant Assizes , where it is probable that the man's poverty or private necessities must prevent his attending . The man makes default—his recognizance is forfeited—he is committed to the county gaol upon a green wax
process—and , after long confinement , he is finally discharged at the Assizes , pursuant to the statute ; and from an industrious cottier he is degraded , from thenceforth , into a beggar and a vagrant . Other magistrates presume to make ° ut vague cormnitteds , without specify-
Untitled Article
ing the day of the offence charged , the place , or any other particular , from which the unfortunate prisoner could have notice to prepare his defence . This suppression is highly indecorous , unfeeling , and unjust : and it deserves , upon every occasion , a severe reprobation of the magistrate , who thus deprives his fellow-subject of his rightful opportunity of defence .
There are parts of Ireland , where , from the absence of the gentlemen of the county , a race of magistrates has sprung up , who ought never to have borne the King ' s Commission . The vast powers entrusted to those officers call for an upright , zealous , and conscientious discharge of their duty .
Gentlemen , as to tythes , they are generally complained of as a great grievance . Tn the time in which we live , they are a tax upon industry , upon enter prize , and upon agricultural skill . Is a man intelligent and industriousdoes he , by agriculture , reclaim a tract of land , and make it productive of corn ,
he is visited and harassed by the Tythe Proctor ; does his neighbour , through want of inclination or of skill , keep his farm in pasture and unimproved , he is exonerated from the burthen of tithes > and from the visitations of any clergy not belonging to his own church . Far
be it from me to say , that tythes are not due to the clergy . By the law of the land , they have as good a title to their tythes as any of you bave to your estates ; and I am convinced , that the clergyman does not , in any instance , exact what he is strictly entitled to . But this mode of assessment has been .
much complained of ; and it is particularly felt in this country , because the Catholic receives no spiritual comfort from his Protestant rector \ he knows him only through the Tythe Proctor , he has moreover his own pastor to pay .
This is the reason why he thinks it ft grievance ; and , 1 must admit , that although the clergyman does not receive all that he is entitled to , and although it may not be a grievance in another country , yet the tythe system 13 a painful system for Ireland .
Gentlemen , you have in your power another remedy for public commotions . 1 allude to the assessment of the presentment money upon your county , It seems that the sum of . £ 9000 is now demanded to be levied : whether , this autn is , or is not , an exorbitant ori& for
Untitled Article
Judge Fletcher ' s Charge . 655
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1814, page 655, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2445/page/67/
-