User:Jnestorius/Coercion Acts

<Coercion Act

Table
See also Chronological Table of the Statutes 1895 edition; p.169 (1801) onwards

Leadam–O'Connor list
Following is from Both of which say merged from
 * [p.9 for brief list 1796–1825; Appendices B (pp.36–7) & C (pp.38–60) for details 1830–1880]
 * Already synopsised in
 * Slightly compressed list the same year in
 * Slightly compressed list the same year in

Repeated in



! Date !! Bill
 * 1800–1805 || Habeas Corpus Suspension. Seven Coercion Acts.
 * 1807 || 1st February, Coercion Act. Habeas Corpus Suspension. 2nd August, Insurrection Act.
 * 1808–1809 || Habeas Corpus Suspension.
 * 1814–1816 || Habeas Corpus Suspension. Insurrection Act.
 * 1817 || Habeas Corpus Suspension. One Coercion Act.
 * 1822–1830 || Habeas Corpus Suspension. Two Coercion Acts in 1822 and one in 1823.
 * 1830 || Importation of Arms Act.
 * 1831 || Whiteboy Act.
 * 1831 || Stanley's Arms Act.
 * 1832 || Arms and Gunpowder Act.
 * 1833 || Suppression of Disturbance.
 * 1833 || Change of Venue Act.
 * 1834 || Disturbances Amendment and Continuance.
 * 1834 || Arms and Gunpowder Act.
 * 1835 || Public Peace Act.
 * 1836 || Another Arms Act.
 * 1838 || Another Arms Act.
 * 1839 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1840 || Another Arms Act.
 * 1841 || Outrages Act.
 * 1841 || Another Arms Act.
 * 1843 || Another Arms Act.
 * 1843 || Acts consolidating all Previous Coercion Acts.
 * 1844 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1845 || Additional Constables near Public Works Act.
 * 1845 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1846 || Constabulary Enlargement.
 * 1847 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1848 || Treason Amendment Act.
 * 1848 || Removal of Arms Act.
 * 1848 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1848 || Another Oaths Act.
 * 1849 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1850 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1851 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1853 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1854 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1855 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1856 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1858 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1860 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1862 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1862 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1865 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1866 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act (August).
 * 1866 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1867 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1868 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1870 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1871 || Protection of Life and Property.
 * 1871 || Peace Preservation Con.
 * 1873 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1875 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1875 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1881–1882 || Peace Preservation Act (suspending Habeas Corpus).
 * 1881–1886 || Arms Act.
 * 1882–1885 || Crimes Act.
 * 1886–1887 || Arms Act.
 * }
 * 1848 || Removal of Arms Act.
 * 1848 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1848 || Another Oaths Act.
 * 1849 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1850 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1851 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1853 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1854 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1855 || Crime and Outrage Act.
 * 1856 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1858 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1860 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1862 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1862 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1865 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1866 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act (August).
 * 1866 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1867 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1868 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1870 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1871 || Protection of Life and Property.
 * 1871 || Peace Preservation Con.
 * 1873 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1875 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1875 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1881–1882 || Peace Preservation Act (suspending Habeas Corpus).
 * 1881–1886 || Arms Act.
 * 1882–1885 || Crimes Act.
 * 1886–1887 || Arms Act.
 * }
 * 1866 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act (August).
 * 1866 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1867 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1868 || Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
 * 1870 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1871 || Protection of Life and Property.
 * 1871 || Peace Preservation Con.
 * 1873 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1875 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1875 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1881–1882 || Peace Preservation Act (suspending Habeas Corpus).
 * 1881–1886 || Arms Act.
 * 1882–1885 || Crimes Act.
 * 1886–1887 || Arms Act.
 * }
 * 1875 || Peace Preservation Act.
 * 1875 || Unlawful Oaths Act.
 * 1881–1882 || Peace Preservation Act (suspending Habeas Corpus).
 * 1881–1886 || Arms Act.
 * 1882–1885 || Crimes Act.
 * 1886–1887 || Arms Act.
 * }
 * 1881–1886 || Arms Act.
 * 1882–1885 || Crimes Act.
 * 1886–1887 || Arms Act.
 * }
 * 1886–1887 || Arms Act.
 * }

(and then "The perpetual Coercion Act")

Meredyth

 * List from 1830 to 1887, noting Conservative or Liberal government.
 * Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, Selkirk, 30 June 1886: "That which is called coercion is merely the putting in force the steps which are required to ensure conviction and to carry out the ordinary law."

Richard Barry O'Brien
Richard Barry O'Brien:


 * pp.112-113 "list of Coercion Acts in force between 1800 and 1835" (Perhaps doesn't list later ones since story is of recent improvement?)

Quotes
Judith Ellen Foster begins "the long and dreary series of Irish Coercion Acts" with the statutes of Kilkenny.

Margaret Anna Cusack "Coercion! why England has been trying coercion with Ireland for 700 years, and it has not yet effected any improvement in the country."


 * in the period of 18 years from 1782 to 1800, during which the country was governed by an Independent Irish Parliament, there were passed by the same Parliament as many as 22 Acts of the character described as Coercion Acts or Peace Preservation Acts. These comprised two Habeas Corpus Suspension Acts, with one Continuance; eight Arms and Insurrection Acts; seven Acts of Indemnity for things done in suppressing the Insurrections; one Alien Act, with three Continuances; two Acts for establishing Courts Martial to suppress the Rebellion; an Act against offenders called Houghers; and the Convention Act.
 * we find that since the Fenian outbreak of 1866 there have been in force during the past 42 years (independently of Arms Acts, which were in continuous operation down to the end of 1906, and the utility of which even Mr. Birrell will now hardly dare to question) only three Habeas Corpus Suspension Acts, and two Acts extending the power of summary jurisdiction of magistrates to certain criminal offences. These five Acts were in operation for limited periods, the duration of which extended, in the aggregate, to only 20 out of the full period of 42 years that have elapsed since 1866. If we adopt as the starting point the year 1882, since when but two Crimes Acts have been passed, we find that, independently of the repealed Arms Act above referred to, "coercive" legislation has been in actual operation for only 9$3/4$ out of the full period of 26 years.
 * Prevention of Crime Act 1882 (July 82-Aug 85); Criminal Law and Procedure Act (July 87-July 92) and "Peace Preservation or Arms Act of 1881 by successive governments till 1906, when it was allowed to lapse"


 * there have been 12 acts for the suspension of habeas corpus; at least 17 peace preservation acts, whether so called or otherwise; 18 acts for limiting and controlling the possession of arms and gunpowder; 17 for the prevention of resistance to the law by means of outrages against persons and property; 25 against unlawful and dangerous societies, combinations, assemblies, and processions; 11 for the suppression of rebellions, insurrections, and disturbances; and 1 for curtailing the freedom of the press ;—at least 100 coercion acts in 80 years.

[William] Nial Osborough:
 * The related land agitation of the 1870s and 1880s caused the promulgation of the most draconian of the various nineteenth-century statutory “coercion” measures unique to Ireland, the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act of 1887, which, unusually, spawned its own set of law reports as well as Timothy Harrington's bitter survey of its administration, his Diary of Coercion (1888–1890).

Hansard indexes (number of references):
 * Coercion Act 1962
 * Coercion Bill 1033
 * Coercive Bill 46
 * Coercive Act 4
 * Irish Coercion Bill 107
 * Irish Coercion Act 30
 * Irish Coercive Bill 12

Dicey

 * 25. Two Small Grounds of Objection to them:
 * (a) As being at Variance with Moral Sentiments. "In the first place, the word Coercion means any attempt to enforce a law among people whose moral sympathies are at variance with the law itself"
 * (b) As being Dangerous to Liberty. "In the second place, Coercion means the enforcement of law by arbitrary and exceptional methods, which tend to diminish the securities for freedom possessed by ordinary citizens"
 * 26. How these Objections should be Met. "A Coercion Act should in the first place be aimed, not so much at the direct enforcement of rules opposed to popular opinion, as at the punishment of offences which, though in some degree connected with dislike to an unpopular law, or to unpopular rights, are yet deeds in themselves condemned by the human conscience"
 * 27. Permanent and General Coercion Acts would improve our Criminal Law. "The real question is, whether we can by just administration, and by just legislation, remove the source of Irish opposition to the law. If we can do so, the outcry about coercion becomes unmeaning; if we cannot, it becomes an argument of crushing power in favour, not of Home Rule, but of Separation."


 * Of all the terms which at the present moment confuse public judgment, none is more vague and misleading than the word "Coercion" when applied to every stringent attempt to enforce in Ireland obedience to the law of the land.
 * Coercion means and includes two different though closely connected ideas which the laxity of popular thought fails to distinguish.
 * First.—Coercion means any attempt to enforce a law among people whose moral sympathies are at variance with the law itself. In this sense Coercion is opposed to that enforcement of ordinary law with which we are all familiar. Thus, to punish a Ritualist for not conforming to the judgment of the Privy Council, to enforce vaccination at Leicester, to compel a Quaker to pay tithes, to eject an Irish tenant from the farm he has occupied, to drag him into Court and seize his goods if he does not pay his rent, to punish severely resistance to the Sheriff's officer, or to the bailiff who gives effect to the rights of an Irish landlord, are in popular estimation proceedings which according to the nature of the law put in force are stigmatised as persecution or Coercion. They certainly differ from the compulsion by which common debtors are compelled to pay their debts, or thieves are prevented from picking pockets or breaking into houses. The difference lies in this. Where the enforcement of the law is called "Coercion," not only does the criminal think himself in the right, or at any rate think the law a wrongful law, but also the society to which he belongs holds that the law-breaker is maintaining a moral right against an immoral law. The anti-vaccinator is deemed a martyr at Leicester, the farmer who will not pay his rent is thought a patriot at Cork. Where the enforcement of the law is not popularly deemed coercion the law-breaker does not suppose himself to be in the right, and still less do his associates think him morally praiseworthy. A thief does not in general hold any theory about the rightness of larceny, and there is no society in the United Kingdom at least who deny the moral validity of the Eighth Commandment.
 * Secondly.—Coercion means the enforcement of law by arbitrary and exceptional methods which tend to diminish the securities for freedom possessed by ordinary citizens. Thus the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the abolition of trial by jury, the introduction of peculiar rules of evidence to facilitate convictions for a particular class of crimes, a suspension (speaking generally) of what would be called in foreign countries "constitutional guarantees," in order to secure obedience to particular laws, would be called coercion.
 * It is most important, however, to note that the valid opposition to so-called Coercion Acts may and ought to be greatly mitigated by careful adherence to two maxims which are obvious, but are often neglected.
 * A Coercion Act in the first place, should be aimed, not at the direct enforcement of rules opposed to popular opinion, but at the punishment of offences which, though they may be indirectly connected with dislike of an unpopular law or with opposition to rights (for instance, of landowners) not sanctioned by popular opinion, are deeds in themselves condemned by the human conscience. Deliberate breaches of contract, insults to women and children, the murder or torture of witnesses who have given truthful evidence in support of a conviction for crime, brutal cruelty to cattle, may be methods of popular vengeance, or the sanctions which enforce an agrarian code; but one may feel certain that the man who breaks his word, who tortures or murders his neighbour or who huffs cattle, knows himself to be not only a criminal, but a sinner, and that the law, which condemns him to punishment, though it may excite temporary outcry, can rely on the ultimate sanction of the popular conscience.
 * A Coercion Act, in the second place, should as far as possible be neither a temporary nor an exceptional piece of legislation.
 * The passing of one such good Criminal Law Amendment Act would, though its discussion occupied a whole Session, save our representatives in Parliament an infinite waste of time, and would make unnecessary half-a-dozen Coercion Acts for Ireland. To enlarge the power of examining persons suspected of connection with a crime, even though no man is put upon his trial; to get rid of every difficulty in changing the venue; to give the Courts the right under certain circumstances of trying criminals without the intervention of a jury; to organise much more thoroughly than it is organised at present in England the whole system of criminal prosecutions; to enable the executive to prohibit public meetings which might provoke a breach of the peace, would in many cases be an improvement on the criminal law of England itself.

Links to check

 * EPPI Political crimes and offenses - Ireland/Public policy (Law) - Ireland
 * Page 7 summarises 1796-1825 acts, and justified Catholic Emancipation as starting point for survey. Appendix B lists 48 acts between 1830 and 1875; Appendix C summarizes these and says where repealed or not; footnotes on classification etc.
 * p.309:"Samuel Clark tells us that governments passed or renewed thirty-five coercion acts between the Union and the Famine" [cites Samuel Clark, Social origins of the Irish Land War (Princeton, 1979), pp 66-7; who cites Locker-Lampson]
 * footnotes give session chapters of acts discussed.
 * chronology has informal names in ALLCAPS of many relevant acts
 * This article traces the development of the term ‘outrages’, which by the nineteenth century was used in an almost exclusively Irish context. ... its meaning was systematized by the newly reformed Irish constabulary who surveilled particular forms of Irish violence and quantified its existence.
 * chronology has informal names in ALLCAPS of many relevant acts
 * This article traces the development of the term ‘outrages’, which by the nineteenth century was used in an almost exclusively Irish context. ... its meaning was systematized by the newly reformed Irish constabulary who surveilled particular forms of Irish violence and quantified its existence.
 * chronology has informal names in ALLCAPS of many relevant acts
 * This article traces the development of the term ‘outrages’, which by the nineteenth century was used in an almost exclusively Irish context. ... its meaning was systematized by the newly reformed Irish constabulary who surveilled particular forms of Irish violence and quantified its existence.
 * This article traces the development of the term ‘outrages’, which by the nineteenth century was used in an almost exclusively Irish context. ... its meaning was systematized by the newly reformed Irish constabulary who surveilled particular forms of Irish violence and quantified its existence.