The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-18 00:00:00

The se specimens may suffice. Let us now deal with
one or two frauds which are attempted to be practised
upon us.
1. We are told that not all these houses will be en-
titled to confer the franchise, for that frequently houses
are not rated as of 5/. value except they are really
worth 7.1.

We &newer, that we do not believe that there are in
Liverpool, Birmingham, or Leeds, or any other of the
great towns, many cottages letting for less than 71. per
annum, or rateable at less than Si. Hence we believe
that most of these " house rated" will qualify their occu-
pants to be on the register.
2. Next we are assured that the number that will
pay their rates and qualify will be only a small propor-
tion of the whole. We believe that this will be the
case at first. But there is nothing to prevent future
overseeve from screwing up the rating, or from collect-
ing the' rates sharply, and in this way 64,212 rated
houses in the borough of Liverpool might soon be made
to yield 50,000 votes.
The process, we know will be gradual. We may see
how it has worked in the city of London. There are in
the city of London 16,031 rated houses. As the whole
ground. has long since been built over, there were,
doubtless, as many in 1832, when the first register was
made up, under the Reform Bill of that year. Well, in
1832, out of all these 16,031 houses, only 2,057 electors
were q ualified. And we have no doubt that a similar fall-
ing short would now be perceived, if the new Bill were
passed and a registration taken upon it.
But let us proceed a little farther. Although it is
true that in 1832 little more than half the householders

in London were placed upon the register, it is equally
true tlicit they have been increasing year by year ever
since; ;and now the number registered is no fewer than
13,525, or about six out of every seven.
The same tendency will be found in all other places,
and we have no doubt that the result will be generally

the same. Place a privilege within reach, and it will
naturally be grasped at. Let us not, then, be deluded
now with the vain assurance, that although we nominally
enfranchise the 51. occupiers, not half of them will avail
themselves of the privilege.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, Feb. 17.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Wool-
sack at Five o'clock.

DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.

The Earl of RODEN then rose to put a question to
the Government on the subject of the outrages in Ire-
land. Since he last had the honour of addressing their
Lordships on this subject additional threatening notices
had been sent to some of the landed gentry in his neigh-
bourhood, and he was very much afraid the failure of
the Special Commission would have the effect of aggra-
vating the evils. A meeting of landed proprietors
and agriculturists had been held in the county of Louth.
and they had passed a resolution expressive of their
opinion that it was the duty of the Government to take
immediate steps to suppress the secret societies existing
in Ireland, and thus arrest some of those agrarian crimes
which some members of those societies had in contem-
plation.—(Hear, hear.) Many of those societies had
other objects besides agrarian; they were, in fact,
dangerous political societies, and it was hope-
less to expect peace or prosperity in Ireland
while they were allowed to carry on their proceedings
with impunity.—(Hear, hear.) It was not for him,
or those who urged him on this matter to suggest the
means by which these societies could be suppressed and
the terrible crime prevented, because it was the duty of
those who undertook the government of the country
to be prepared of their own accord to meet the
emergency.—(Hear, hear.) It was a lamentable
fact that crime of every description, but more
especially that of murder, was rapidly on the increase,
and the peaceably-disposed portion of the community
had a right to look to the Government for immediate
protection and redress.—(Hear, hear.) Justice was
defied in many parts of Ireland, for those who made
any attempt to maintain or enforce the law went in tear
of their lives; and already, as. the returns on the
table showed, a worthy and humane gentleman
had been barbarously murdered for having done his
duty as a magistrate.—(Bear, hear.) Now Govern-
ment, instead of taking measures to remove this shock-
ing state of things, were lukewarm in the discharge of
their duty to the state, and no later ago than last Tues-
day two policemen were fined 10s., or ordered to be im-
prisoned as many days, for stopping people on the high-
way whom they suspected as being in possession of arms.
It turned out, however, when they came to search one
of them that, instead of a blunderbuss, it was a bottle of
whisky the man had under his coat. The policemen,
however, erred in the right direction, and they were,
therefore, not deserving of any punishment.—(Hear.)
Ile trusted this and all other similar cases would be in-
quired into, and that care would be taken to protect the
police under all circumstances in the execution of their
duty.—(hear, hear.) He concluded by moving for cer-
tain returns connected with the state of the counties of
Louth and Armagh, and relating to the crimes of
murder and other outrages committed in those counties
since the Ist of January.
audible in the gallery, was understood to say, that Go-
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE, who was scarcely,
vernment was fully alive to the evils which existed in
Ireland, and the importance of applying a remedy to
them as speedily as possible.—(Hear, hear.) Govern-
ment had done all in their power to discover the perpe-
trators of these murders, and he was not aware that any
of the police force had been ever blamed for exercising
an undue vigilance in the discharge of their duties.—
(Hear, hear.) There would be no objection to make the
return which the Noble Earl called for.—(Hear, hear.)
The Earl of WICKLOW hoped the Government would
not lose sight of the fact that many of the evils could be
removed by legislation.
The Earl of GLENGALL blamed the Govern-
ment for having appointed the recent Special Com-
mission; it would have been much better had
the law been allowed to follow the usual course, and
there might have been a chance of insuring a con-
viction of the offenders. As it was, the Special Com-
mission had only had the effect of increasing the alarm
which prevailed in Ireland, for while some of the jury
were for a conviction, only three were for an acquittal,
and as those three would not give way, an im-
pression had got abroad that this might
be the result of the trials in other cases.
and thus neither property nor life was safe in the
country. The criminal law of Ireland required amend-
ment, and.he hoped the present session would not be al-
lowed to close without an effort being made to effect that
amendment.—(Hear, hear.)
Lord LYNDHURST postponed a motion of which he
had given notice on this subject until after the trials at
the approaching assizes.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE thought it would be
desirable that their Lordships should see the shorthand-
writer's notes of the trials of the special commission at
Monaghan.
Lord BROUGHAM thought the suggestion to change
the venue was very important. It was net a novelty, for
the practice existed in Scotland; but he could not say
that he gave his assent to it.
Lord ABINGER believed the proceedings had origi-
nated under the Crime and Outrage Act, which authorised
a search for weapons, so that the matter was the more
unexplainable.
The returns were then ordered.
VOLUNTEER RIFLE CORPS.
Lord COLCHESTER gave notice of moving for re-
turns relative to the formation of volunteer corps.
THE SIEGE OF LAGOS.
Viscount CANNING, seeing the Noble Earl the Se-
cretary for Foreign Affairs in his place, wished to ask
him if be had any objection to lay on the table any
reasonably papers relative to the events which had taken place at
Lagos? Their Lordships would have seen a copy of
the official reports of the commodore of the squadron
yreoaltaim loss
to
on the coast, from which it appeared that there
had been a
nabgl
Their Lordships
might
ofh lit
eavelurthr information.
on the subject, as in the first paragraph of the report
allusion was made to instructions which had been re-
ceived from the Admiralty. He did not ask this ques-
tion from any feeling of opposition to the great cause of
the suppression of the slave trade. It had been the
practice to father on the slave trade much expense and
loss of life; but he thought they might gather in this
instance, from the statement which had already ap-
peared, that the present loss of life was not entirely de-
pendent on the slave trade. Whether the attack on
Lagos had been consequent on a desire on our part to
protect our commerce, or to depose one King and set
up another, he could not say; but he thought the expe-
rience which his Noble Friend had had from being ex
officio protector of one black King on the Mosquito
shore would not induce him to take upon himself a
similar office with reference to another on the other side
of the Atlantic. If his Noble Friend consented to lay
the papers he had moved for on the table, he would ask
him also to cause to be extracted from any preceding
blue books such dispatches as would tend to throw light
on the instructions which had been given to the naval
officers on the west coast of Africa.
Earl GRANVILLE would lay the informatioe-
quired on the table at the earliest possible opportunity.
bee
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH should liken atissuet the
d
same time to know whether any order had
t of Africa
from the Admiralty to the officers on the coaso
perations
not to fight on Christmas-day 2—(A• laugh.)ilay, and bad
had been commenced two days before that
,elay
he be-
then been suspended for 24 hours, to tanneta
half the men
lieved might be attributed the loss
nonfe
to the mortality
who had been killed. With referebe
thought
great im.
generally on board African_ships,_
'Wing them our. Some
provement might be made in
board a ship at Ply-
awning on
years ago he saw an d be was astonished to
Africa, an
mouth about to sail to
it would neither keep off the
find its wretched stet:
consequently ordered a new one
rain nor sun ; and htn
~d be fitted to the ship. Some time
properly constructs informed him that it answered
afterwards the ca hat
it was the envy of all the other
most admirably; - so coast, and tended greatly t
a on the Milo 0 pre-
ship-health of the crew. The awning was so
serve the con-
trivedsave all the water which fell it, and it
as to _
avantage and comfort to the crew. He
as a great d
wwished the Megsera had been fitted with one of the same
character:
COUNTY COURTS FURTHER EXTENSION
BILL.

The House went into Committee on this Bill.
The LORD CHANCELLOR objected to the clause
empowering barristers to act with attorneys, and said
there were two points for the consideration of the House,
namely, how far it would be desirable to allow barris-
ters to practise without the intervention of attorneys'
and how far it was likely that a new order in the profes-
sion would arise from attorneys associating themselves
with barristf-rs and practising as advocsieg. He had
hoard porsoLa from America speak ci trio ,uperior order
maiutaiiied in our courts to that which existed iu Laose
of the United States; and they attributed it to the fact
of barristers there being allowed to perform the folic"
of attorneys. Ha objected to barristers acting as MS"