The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-21 00:00:00

BILL.

On the motion for the second reading of this bill, the de-
bate, which had been adjourned from Aprill6, was resumed
by

Mr. WHITESIDE, who begged the house, before pass-
ing the bill, to take into consideration its size. It related
to the whole kingdom of Ireland, and not only to the land,
but to all charges upon the land in that kingdom. He be-
lieved the Parliament of Ireland had passed the bill of the
7th of Queen Anne because they understood what they were
doing. They had passed a bill which had worked well in
the kingdom for the general registration of assurances, and
shown sense and discrimination when they passed the law
which the house was now called upon to subvert. The
complaint he had against the present bill was that it revo-
lutionised a state of things which had existed in Ireland for
a century and a half. The Act of the Irish Parliament pro-
vided in the clearest manner f r the registration of memo-
rials of deeds, and moreover required the registrar to give a
very large security against negligence. Why those excel-
lent regulations were to be abolished he could not under-
stand. The right hon. gentleman then went through the
several acts that had been passed since the Union, and de-
clared the bill objectionable on two grounds—first, that it
was a bill to create Government patronage; and, secondly,
that it would enable a " black list" to be drawn up by any
parties so disposed, in the same way as lists of judgments,
&c., were published in England. The hon. and learned
gentleman referred to the passing of the Act of the 11th of
Victoria, which had proved to be fatally futile, inasmuch as
nobody ever resorted to it. In Ireland people had snore
reliance on a search made at their own request, and for
which they paid, than one which had been made in past
times. It was upon this mode of registration that a system
of jurisdiction was built up in Ireland which had existed for
upwards of a century. Every ward of the statute of Queen
Anne had been expounded by the ablest men who had sat
upon the Irish bench, and it had been expounded in the old
Irish House of Lords. His great objection then to this bill
was that where they had a law settled, ascertained, and adju-
dicated upon by the very highest authorities, it was unwise
and impolitic, unless there was an overpowering necessity
for it, to change the law that was thoroughly understood
and well paid for by the gentlemen of Ireland. In defence
of the Registry Office, the hon. and learned gentleman
challenged the Chief Secretary for Ireland and the Solici-
tor-General to state a single authenticated instance of irre-
gularity or neglect on the part of that office. He admitted
there were delays in consequence of the vast mass of busi-
ness cast upon it, but this was all that could be said against
it. The hon. gentleman never made a more unfortunate
misstatement than when he said the office was in a state of
confusion, On the contrary, the care, precision, and accu-
racy with which the business was conducted was beyond all
praise, and the only man who had imposed on the court by
the committal of forgery was the late John Sadlier. The
court had arranged one million of memorials with so much
care and precision, that any one of them might be found in
a very short space of time. The other work was kept up
close, and the arrears was a myth, and he considered it was
impossible to construct an office that would do the work
more safe, secure, and perfect than the one in existence.
The right hon. gentleman, alter certain lengthened intro-
ductory remarks upon what might be termed the history of
the
case, proceeded to state seriatim his objections to the
bill, which were very numerous. He objected to what he
described as the patronage clause, under which the nomi-
nation to some sixty appointments in the new registry office
would be vested in the Lord Lieutenant, instead of in the
Treasury, and then to the superintendence and management
of all the departments being devolved upon the judges of
the Landed Estates Gourt. He also refused to assent to
the appointment of some thirty or forty temporary clerks

being given to the judges of the Landed Estates
Court, and likewise to the power of dismissing the
registrar and assistant-registrar conferred upon them.
The right hon. gentleman went into a most minute exami-
nation of the plan according to which registration was to
be effected, and pronouncing it dangerous, illusory, and
impracticable, called upon the house to reject it. The
right hon. gentleman then referrel at some length to the
injury that might arise from an erroneous registration of
the name of the townland in which mortgaged property
was situated. The mortgagee would lose all his money
and the attorney might be tried for misdemeanour, and no
remedy whatever was provided. Considering that in Ire.
land there were many towns of the same name (in one in-
stance 13), such mistakes were very likely to occur.
The house divided, the numbers being—
For the third reading
Against it
Majority

Sir E. GROGAN gave notice that, when the bill went
into committee, he should move that it be referred to a
select committee.

After some observations against the bill by Colonel
Dunne, Mr. Whiteside, Colonel Dickson, and Mr. V.
Scully, and in its favour by the Solicitor-General and Sir
G. Grey, the motion for committing the bill on Monday was
agreed to.
GARDENS IN TOWNS PROTECTION BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
CHURCH BUILDINGS ACT.

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL obtained leave to intro-
duce a bill to consolidate and amend the Church Building
and New Parishes Acts, and the bill was subsequently read
a first time.

I were broken, owing to their delicate construction
and my attention being drawn from them, yet,
strange to say, two large glass vessels of air, col-
lected at the highest point for Professor Tyndall,
remained uninjured, as did some bottles of lemon-
ade which Mr. Coxwell had placed in the car.
We descended the last two miles in four minutes;
and had we had done so less rapidly, the land
would have been missed altogether, and we must
have fallen into the sea. The descent was within
half a mile of the railway station at Newhaven.
Mr. Coxwell's decision and expertness were put
to as severe a test as it is possible to imagine, and
certainly he is entitled to my best acknowledg-
ments.—l am, &C., JAMES GLAISHER.
Blackheath, April 20.