ACoercion Act was anAct of Parliament that gave a legal basis for increased state powers to suppress popular discontent and disorder. The label was applied, especially inIreland, to acts passed from the 18th to the early 20th century by theIrish,British, andNorthern Irish parliaments.
In December 1816, amass meeting took place at Spa Fields nearLondon. TheCoercion Act 1817 was anact of Parliament that suspendedhabeas corpus and extended existing laws against seditious gatherings in Britain. The Coercion Act 1817 was the result of this mass meeting.
The total number of "Coercion Acts" relating to Ireland is a matter of definition, including whether to count separately an act which continues an expiring act.Michael Farrell in 1986 put the total from 1801 to 1921 at 105.[1]John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer said in the House of Lords that 87 such acts had been passed between theActs of Union 1801 and 1887, a rate of one per year.[2] The figure was repeated byJohn Redmond, whereas a writer in aUnion Defence League pamphlet put the figure at 76 between 1801 and 1908, plus 22 duringGrattan's Parliament (1782–1800).[3]
Some of the more notable Irish Coercion Acts were theLocal Disturbances, etc. (Ireland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 4), theProtection of Life and Property in Certain Parts of Ireland Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 25), and theProtection of Person and Property Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 4).
An Irish Coercion Bill was proposed bySir Robert Peel on 15 May 1846 in order to calm the increasingly difficult situation in Ireland as a result of theongoing famine there. The bill was blocked, and this led, in part, to Peel's resignation as Prime Minister.
From 1874, attempts to introduce other Irish coercion acts were blocked by the filibustering ofJoseph Biggar.
TheProtection of Persons and Property (Ireland) Act 1881 allowed for internment without trial of those suspected of involvement in the Land War in Ireland. A total of 953 people were detained under the act.[4] Many of them were active in theIrish National Land League; this was sufficient for the "reasonable suspicion" required by the act. On 13 October 1881, IPP leaderCharles Stewart Parnell was arrested under the act after his newspaper, theUnited Ireland, had attacked theLand Law (Ireland) Act 1881.[5]
As a response to thePlan of Campaign of the mid-1880s the newChief Secretary for IrelandArthur Balfour secured theCriminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act 1887 or "Perpetual Crimes Act", a Coercion Act aimed at the prevention ofboycotting,intimidation,unlawful assembly and the organisation of conspiracies against the payment of agreed rents. The act resulted in the imprisonment of hundreds of people including over twenty MPs. The act was condemned by theCatholic hierarchy since it was to become a permanent part of the law and did not have to be renewed annually by Parliament, but PopeLeo XIII issued the bullSaepe Nos in 1888 which was uncritical of the acts.Trial by jury was abolished. An influential[citation needed] analysis of the pros and cons of the Act was published in 1888 byWilliam Henry Hurlbert, a Catholic Irish-American author.[6]
Many hundreds were imprisoned at times under the acts, including many prominent politicians and agrarian agitators,[7][failed verification]Joseph Biggar,Alexander Blane,Michael Davitt,John Dillon,James Gilhooly,Patrick Guiney,Matthew Harris,John Hayden,John Hooper,J. E. Kenny,Andrew Kettle,Denis Kilbride,Pat O'Brien,William O'Brien,James O'Kelly,Charles Stewart Parnell,Douglas Pyne,Willie Redmond, andTimothy Sullivan.
The act was the first ofover a hundred such acts applied toIreland under the Union.[8] It was strongly opposed by theIrish Parliamentary Party (IPP), whichfilibustered thesecond reading for 41 hours. Eventually, theSpeaker of the House of Commons,Henry Brand, resorted to ignoring IPP members of Parliament who requested the right of speech and put the question, a controversial move that allowed Prime MinisterWilliam Gladstone to pass the act.[9]
I believe that in 87 years there have been 87 Coercion Acts or renewal of Coercion Acts in that country