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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
The repeated use of special legislation to suppress popular disorder in Ireland and the failure to provide any permanent remedy has been a recurrent theme of Irish history. Introducing the Catholic relief bill in 1829, Robert Peel stressed the ‘melancholy fact’ that ‘for scarcely one year, during the period that has elapsed since the Union, has Ireland been governed by the ordinary course of the law’. Catholic emancipation proved no more of a panacea than the Union before it. Ireland, as J.L. Hammond once observed, was ruled under the ordinary law for only five years of the first half of the nineteenth century. Approaching the subject from a slightly different angle, Samuel Clark tells us that governments passed or renewed thirty-five coercion acts between the Union and the Famine. But although this state of affairs has occasioned much comment from historians it has been subjected to little systematic analysis. There has, for example, been no attempt to emulate for the earlier part of the century Townshend’s examination of British policy in response to political violence after 1848. Such a project cannot be attempted in a single article but it is hoped that a brief survey of repressive legislation in the years from 1821 to 1841, and a more detailed look at that aimed at agrarian disturbances will help to fill this historical lacuna.
1 Hansard 2, xx, 741–2 (5 Mar. 1829).
2 Hammond, J.L., Gladstone and the Irish nation (London, 1938), p. 16 Google Scholar, quoted in Townshend, Charles, Political violence in Ireland (Oxford, 1983), p. 55 Google Scholar; Clark, Samuel, Social origins of the Irish Land War (Princeton, 1979), pp 66-7Google Scholar.
3 Townshend, Political violence.
4 3 Geo. IV, c.1; 1 & 2 Will. IV, c.44.
5 4 Geo. IV, c.87; 2 & 3 Will. IV, c. 118.
6 6 Geo. IV, c.4; 10 Geo. IV, c. 1.
7 3 & 4 Geo. IV, c.4.
8 Hansard 2, xx, 197 (10 Feb. 1829).
9 Melbourne to Wellesley, 4 May 1834 (B.L., Wellesley papers, Add. MS 37307, f. 282).
10 Peel to Wellesley, 22 Feb. 1823 (B.L., Peel papers, Add. MS 40324, f. 101); Wellesley to Peel, 1 Mar. 1823 (B.L., Peel papers, Add. MS 40324, f. 127); Goulburn to Wellesley, 23 Feb. 1823 (B.L., Wellesley papers, Add. MS 37300, f. 282).
11 Hansard 2, viii, 460 (5 Mar. 1823).
12 Melbourne to Wellesley, 19 Sept. 1833 (B.L., Wellesley papers, Add. MS 37306, f. 104); Russell to Mulgrave, 11 June 1835 (Mulgrave Castle, North Yorkshire, Normanby papers, M 782).
13 Hansard 3, xiii, 717 (14 June 1832); col. 1037 (25 June 1832).
14 Blackburne to Wellesley, n.d. [July 1834], quoted in Blackburne, Edward, Life of the Rt Hon. Francis Blackburne (London, 1874), pp 156-61Google Scholar.
15 Daily journal of the constabulary post at Raphoe, Co. Donegal, 1834–5 (P.R.O.N.I., T 3711, p. 57).
16 Broeker, Galen, Rural disorder and police reform in Ireland, 1812–36 (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Palmer, S.H., Police and protest in England and Ireland, 1780–1850 (Cambridge, 1988)Google Scholar.
17 Peel to Gower, 9 Jan. 1830 (P.R.O., HO 79/9, f. 1).
18 Harvey to Anglesey, 15 Sept. 1833 (P.R.O.N.I., Anglesey papers, D 619/32 X, f. 93).
19 Peel to Gower, 19 Nov. 1829 (B.L., Peel papers, Add. MS 40337, f. 257).
20 Wellesley to Littleton, 7 Aug. 1834 (N.L.I., Wellesley letter books, MS 323).
21 Melbourne to Stanley, 18 Nov. 1832 (Liverpool Record Office, Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 117/7).
22 Goulburn to Sidmouth, 2 Jan. 1822 (P.R.O., HO 100/203, f. 1).
23 Wellesley to Peel, 31 Jan. 1822 (ibid., f. 192).
24 The provisions of the act are described in McDowell, R.B., Ireland in the age of imperialism and revolution, 1760–1801 (Oxford, 1979), pp 552-3Google Scholar.
25 47 Geo. III, sess. 2, c. 13.
26 54 Geo. III, c. 180.
27 Townshend to Gregory, 20 Feb. 1822 (Surrey Record Office, Goulburn papers, Ac 319/69/Feb.-Mar. 1822, f. 4).
28 Goulburn memoirs, c.1840 with additions c.1850 (Surrey R.O., Ac 319/68).
29 Peel to Whitworth, 7, 9 July 1814 (Kent Archives Office, Sackville papers, U269/0225/8).
30 Peel to Goulburn, 24 Jan. 1822 (B.L., Peel papers, Add. MS 40328, f. 12).
31 Peel to Goulburn, 2 Feb. 1822 (Surrey R.O., Goulburn papers, Ac 319/36); Goulburn to Peel, 30 Jan. 1822 (B.L., Peel papers, Add. MS 40328, f. 18).
32 Hansard 2, vi, 104–12 (7 Feb. 1822). As an Irish peer Londonderry remained an M.P.
33 Ibid., cols 117, 131 (Burdett); col. 143 (Brougham).
34 Hansard 2, vii, 1547 (8 July 1822).
35 Hansard 2, xi, 683–8 (11 May 1824).
36 5 Geo. IV, c. 105.
37 Returns from the clerks of the crown of persons tried under the Insurrection Act, pp 1–9, H.C. 1823 (311), xvi, 687; Commitments and convictions under the Insurrection Act, pp 1–69, H.C. 1824 (174), xxii, 189.
38 First report from the select committee appointed to examine into the nature and extent of the disturbances which have prevailed in those districts of Ireland which are now subject to the Insurrection Act,p.16, H.C. 1824 (372), viii, 16.
39 Hansard 2, xi, 1327–8 (14 June 1824).
40 Stanley to Anglesey, 22 Mar. 1831 (P.R.O.N.I., Anglesey papers, D 619/31 S, f.31).
41 Anglesey to Stanley, 24 Mar. 1831 (ibid., D 619/31 T, f. 24).
42 Anglesey to Stanley, 21 Apr. 1831 (ibid., D 619/31 T, f. 32); Stanley to Grey, 20 Apr., 14 Mar. 1831 (Liverpool R.O., Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 167/1, ff 237,260).
43 Grey to Stanley, 18 May 1831 (Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 117/5).
44 Stanley to Melbourne, 6 June 1831 (P.R.O., HO 100/239, f. 229); Barrington to Stanley, 2, 5 June 1831 (Liverpool R.O., Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 125/4). The proceedings of the commission are recorded in Gorman, Peter, Report of the proceedings under a special commission of oyer and terminer in the counties of Limerick and Clare in the months of May and June 1831 (Limerick, 1831)Google Scholar.
45 Anglesey to Grey, 8,11 June 1831 (P.R.O.N.I., Anglesey papers, D 619/28 C, ff 125, 128); Stanley to Melbourne, 6 June 1831 (P.R.O., HO 100/239, f. 229).
46 Leveson Gower to Joy, 15 Apr. 1829 (P.R.O.I., Leveson Gower letter-books, MS 736, p. 43).
47 3 Geo. IV, c.4; Hansard 2, xxiii, 1264 (2 Apr. 1830), xxv, 944 (3 July 1830); 1 Will. IV, c.44.
48 Stanley to Melbourne, 27 May 1831 (Liverpool R.O., Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 167/1, f. 291).
49 Hansard 3, iv, 618 (2 July 1831).
50 Grey to Anglesey, 19 July 1831 (P.R.O.N.I., Anglesey papers, D 619/28 B, f. 109).
51 Stanley to Anglesey, 19 July 1831 (ibid., D 619/31 S, f. 42).
52 Stanley to Barrington, 9 Sept. 1831 (Liverpool R.O., Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 168, f. 49).
53 Hansard 3, vii, 488 (22 Sept. 1831); 1 & 2 Will. IV, c.44.
54 Anglesey to Grey, 24 Dec. 1831 (P.R.O.N.I., Anglesey papers, D 619/28 C, f. 209).
55 Anglesey to Plunket, 31 Dec 1831 (ibid., D 619/32 G, f. 179).
56 Gosset to Melbourne, 16 June 1832 (P.R.O., HO 100/241, f. 424).
57 Vivian to Somerset, 5 Nov. 1832 (N.L.I., Kilmainham papers, MS 1236, p. 443).
58 Stanley to Blackburne, 14 Jan. 1833 (Liverpool R.O., Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 169, f. 289).
59 Hansard 3, xv, 727 (15 Feb. 1833).
60 Anglesey to Stanley, 22 Feb. 1833 (P.R.O.N.I., Anglesey papers, D 619/31 V, f. 37).
61 ‘Ireland (Disturbances) Bill, Petitions against’, in Commons’ jn., lxxxviii (1833), indexGoogle Scholar.
62 Aspinall, Arthur, Three early nineteenth-century diaries (London, 1952), p. 308 Google Scholar.
63 Anglesey to Grey, 1, 2 Mar. 1833 (P.R.O.N.I., Anglesey papers, D 619/28 D, ff 39, 41).
64 Stanley to Anglesey, 6 Mar. 1833 (ibid., D 619/31 S, f. 100).
65 Anglesey to Grey, 30 Aug. 1833 (ibid., D 619/28 D, f. 81).
66 Littleton to Gosset, 12 Apr. 1834 (Staffordshire Record Office, Hatherton papers, D 260/M/01/3, f. 89).
67 Grey to Wellesley, 12 July 1834 (B.L., Wellesley papers, Add. MS 37307, f. 114).
68 Duncannon to Littleton, 22 Sept. 1834 (Staffs R.O., Hatherton papers, D 260/M/01/14, f. 65).
69 5 & 6 Will. IV, c.48.
70 Hansard 3, lxxxv, 551–2 (30 Mar. 1846).
71 11 & 12 Vict., c.2.
72 34 & 35 Vict., c.25.
73 44 Vict., c.4.
