prisoners at present in confinement under the warrant of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by virtue of the power of the first-recited Act [1866], or who shall be hereafter arrested or committed to prison in pursuance of same or of this Act, shall, while in such confinement, be treated as untried prisoners."

The insertion of that section in the Act of 1868 is a damaging admission of the prior perpetration of outrageously wanton cruelties under cover of the various suspension Acts, inflicted upon untried and often wholly innocent persons. Such a section is timely, and cannot fail to mitigate the evils referred to should any similar Act become law in the future, but no such section can entirely remove the inherent vices of similar Acts of whatever name.

A

CHAPTER V.

SUPPRESSION ACTS,

CTS for the suppression of insurrection and rebellion, and generally

for the prevention of conspiracies of that kind, date from the time before 1800. Their general character is the same throughout, and they are best illustrated by the two last, strictly so called, both of which were passed in 1822. The first is dated on the 11th of February, and recites that tumultuous insurrections have from time to time existed in various parts of Ireland, principally promoted and supported by persons associated under the pretended obligation of oaths unlawfully administered.

The first section empowers any two justices of the peace for any county, town, or city in Ireland to direct the clerk of the peace to summon an extraordinary session of the peace, to be holden not less than forty-eight hours after receipt of requisition. The clerk is required forthwith to post on the door of the court-house notice of such intended special session, and as far as possible to summon every justice of such county, town, or city to attend such special session, in which summoning constables and sheriffs' bailiffs are required to assist. The majority of any seven justices of a county, or three of a town or city, attending such special session are entitled to memorialize the Lord Lieutenant to the effect that they consider their county, town, city, or part thereof, to be in a state of disturbance, or in imminent danger of becoming so, giving the grounds and reasons of such opinion, and praying the Lord Lieutenant and council to proclaim the county or district named in the memorial.

Upon receipt of such memorial the Lord Lieutenant and council are authorized to proclaim such county or district, and any part of any

adjoining county or district, to be in a state of disturbance, or in imminent danger of becoming so. A copy of such proclamation is required to be sent to the clerk of the peace of every county or district concerned, and every such clerk of the peace is required to give notice thereof to the several magistrates in the proclaimed district, and to the assistant barrister thereof, to constitute themselves into special sessions for the purposes of the proclamation, such special sessions to commence sitting within seven days after date of proclamation, and to continue so long as the proclamation shall continue in force; and the special sessions may be adjourned from time to time, and from place to place within the proclaimed district as may be convenient. the Lord Lieutenant is entitled to appoint a barrister to act as king's serjeant and to preside at every meeting of such sessions as chief judge, with power to try by jury, reserving to the Lord Lieutenant the power of suspending any judgment and detaining accused or convicted persons in custody.

And

Every such proclamation is required to include warning to the inhabitants of the proclaimed district to be and remain within their houses at all hours between sunset and sunrise; and any magistrate and any peace officer is empowered to apprehend any person found other than inside a house any time from one hour after sunset until sunrise; and upon hearing the case against any such person, such person, being unable to prove to the satisfaction of the court and jury that he or she was out of his or her house on his or her lawful occasion, such person to be deemed an idle and disorderly person.

Any justice of the peace, or any person holding a warrant thereof to that effect, is authorized at any time from one hour after sunset until sunrise to demand admission, and in case admission be refused or not obtained within a reasonable time after admission demanded, to enter by force any house from which he suspects the inhabitants, or any of them, to be absent, and search therein, so as to discover whether the inhabitants or inmates, or any of them, be absent. And if the inhabitants or inmates, or any of them, be absent between the said hours, any magistrate or peace officer may cause to be apprehended and

ADMINISTRATION OF OATHS.

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committed every person so absent, who may be brought before the court, and must be deemed idle and disorderly, unless he, she, or they can prove to the satisfaction of the court, with or without a jury, that he, she, or they were absent on his, her, or their lawful and proper occasions. It was common early in this century, when such search was made by forcible entry, and no one was found, to sack and burn down the house.

With reference to oaths, the Act provides that "every person who shall administer or tender, or take or enter into, any oath or engagement, importing to bind him or her to be of any association, brotherhood, committee, society, or confederacy whatsoever, in reality formed for seditious purposes, or to disturb the public peace, or to injure the person or property of any person or persons whatsoever, or to do, or to omit to refuse to do, any act or acts whatsoever, under whatever name, description, or pretence, such association, brotherhood, committee, society, or confederacy shall assume or pretend to be formed or constituted, or any oath or engagement importing to bind the person taking the same to obey the orders, or rules, or commands of any committee or other body of men not lawfully constituted, or of any captain, leader, or commander not appointed by or under the authority of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, or to assemble at the desire or command of any such captain, leader, commander, or committee, or of any person or persons not having lawful authority, or not to inform or give evidence against any brother associate, confederate, or other person, or not to reveal or discover any illegal act done or to be done, or not to discover any illegal oath or engagement which may be administered or tendered to him or her, or the import thereof, whether such oath shall be afterwards so administered or tendered or not, of whether he or she shall take such oath or enter into such engagement or not, not being compelled thereto by inevitable necessity, shall be deemed an idle and disorderly person: provided always, that if any person accused of taking or entering into any such unlawful oath or engagement shall have been tried for such fact before such court of special sessions of the peace, in the mode prescribed by this Act, he,

she, or they shall not be liable to be tried again or questioned for the same fact or offence before any other jurisdiction whatever.”

It was made unlawful in any proclaimed district to print, write, post, publish, circulate, send, or deliver, or cause to procure the same, any notice, letter, or message exciting or intending to excite any riot, tumultuous or unlawful meeting or assembly, combination, or confederacy, or threatening any violence, injury, or damage upon any condition or in any event, or otherwise to any person or property, or demanding any money, arms, weapon, ammunition, or other matter or thing whatsoever, and every person so offending to be deemed an idle and disorderly person.

Arms were forbidden, and any justice or person holding his warrant was authorized to search for arms, and in the event of discovering any in a proclaimed district-that is, any arms, ammunition, pike, pikehead, spear, dirk, or any other offensive weapon of any kind whatsoever, in the house or power or possession of any person whatsoever, concealed or otherwise, after the possessor had had notice to deliver up everything of the kind, then any person adjudged responsible for the possession of such arms, or other like things, was to be deemed an idle or disorderly person, unless such person could prove to the satisfaction of the court that such possession was without such person's knowledge, privity, or consent.

Persons found assembled in any proclaimed district within any public-house, licensed or unlicensed, in which malt liquors or spirituous liquors were sold, not being inmates thereof or travellers, after nine at night and before six in the morning, to be deemed idle and disorderly persons.

Assemblies in the daytime within any proclaimed district were forbidden, if the court was satisfied that such assemblies were of an unlawful or disorderly character, and every individual of any such assembly was to be deemed an idle and disorderly person.

Punishment of every one convicted of being an idle and disorderly person for any of the foregoing reasons was provided for with excessive severity, any special session in a proclaimed district being authorized