His great object was to prove that the state of the Land Laws was the
cause of agrarian murders, and that Coercion Acts were not a remedy. In
the County Tipperary, where there were most ejectments, there were also
most murders, and he called the particular attention of the house to
this fact. He referred to the Land Commission report with regard to
ejectments, and showed from it, that in the year 1843 there were issued
from the Civil Bill Courts 5,244 ejectments, comprising 14,816
defendants, and from the Superior Courts 1,784 ejectments, comprising
16,503 defendants, making a total of 7,028 ejectments, and 31,319
defendants; or within the period of five years--1839 to 1843--comprised
in the return, upwards of 150,000 persons had been subjected to
ejectment process in Ireland.
He complained of the administration of justice in that country. The
government had, he said, appointed partizan judges (he named several of
them) and partizan magistrates, in whom the people had no confidence,
whilst they took away the commission of the peace from seventy-four
gentlemen, simply because they advocated a repeal of the Legislative
Union.
He came to remedies. His opinion was that the great cause of the
existing state of Ireland was the land question.
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