The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-08 00:00:00

fora repeal of the Union, which in his opinion would be
equivalent to a dismemberment of the empire. There was the
greatest possible difference between the principle as applied to
England and to Ireland. In the former it was the diffusion
of a most valuable principle, in the latter it was a concentra-
tion of power in hands by which it was sure to be used for the
most dangerous purpose!. The course which the Government
were about to adopt with respect to the Irish Corporations was
precisely that which James the Second was anxious to carry
into effect in his plea of remodelling the Corporations. The
p'an rccomuicnded in the motion which he had the honour of
s:conding, provided amply for the admiaistratiou of justice,
for an adequate police, local courts, paving, watching, &c.
_( Hear, hear.) He denied that the Corporations of Ireland
were obnoxious to the charge so frequently brought against
them, of abuse of the public property. True, they had—as in-
dividuals had done—squandered their own property ; but, in
the lengthened investigation that took place into all the abuses
from 1310 -to the present time, comprising a period of five
centuries, he could discover only two eases (those of Lime-
rick and Gelivay)—and the Report did not pretend to say
there were more—in which there had been what could be
called a direct breach of trust.—( Hear.) On the
other hand, he begged to refer the House to the case of
Tuam—as reported by the Commissioners—for an example of
the manner in which this " only immaculate" corporation had
managed its funds. They would there find that a property
yielding 40011 a year was let by the Catholic corporation for
2501., and 501. given as a donation towards the building of the
Catholic chapel.—(Hear, hear -) But this part of the ques-
tion was not confined to the use or abuse of corporation pro-
perty; for it should be borne in mind by the House, that they
were to have the power of taxing to a very great extent ; and
what limits did the House suppose :a corporation, 'composed
exclusively of one sect, would put upon this power ?—( Hear.)
The power of assessment would be placed in the hands of the
a householders—while the 10/. householders, almost exclu-
sively Protestants, would have to pay them. On what prin-
ciple did Government act when they proposed to give the
power of taxation to a body as exclusive on the one side as that
now holding the coiporations was on the other ?—( Hear.) Or
the thirteen places to which he had alluded as having been
omitted from this Bill, eight were places in which there would
be a preponderance of Protestants. No man who had the
peace of Ireland at heart could contemplate without dread the
carrying into operation such a measure as the present.
Lord MO RPETH said that one thing did not seem to him
to be very clearly made out, but which had struck hi:n since
the introduction of this Bill into the House—namely, that his
Noble and Right Hon. predecessors in the office which he had
then the honour of filling—that the Right Hon. Baronet the
Member for Tamworth and the Noble Members for North
and South Lancashire, must have gained from their official re-
sidences in Ireland, such an insight into the whole consetitu-
tion of these Irish corporations, that they remained satisfied
that nothing less would be sufficient than their entire destruc-
tion, and that the Legislature should obliterate every record
and trace of them from the land which they had so long en-
cumbered and disgraced.—(Cheers.) With reference to
to the observations made, he would say, that the Bill had been
more sharply attacked than attentively considered. The Bill,
however, before the House, as well as the amendment, pos-
sessed this common excellence—namely, that both proposed
to sweey away that mass of mischief which existed in the
Irish corporations, and which, for so long a period, had pro-
duced such discord and unseemly results in that country. True,
these plans proposed to go to work by different modes, but
in both it was proposed that there sln be a rigorous use
of the pruning hook for what was bad ; but the Government,
in their plan, considered what. was Conservative, and pro-
posed to introduce a more happy system in the place of the
present one—a plan free from that imputation which gentle-.
men opposite were most anxious to disclaim, but which they
had themselves neglected, for they proposed to lay the axe to
root and branch, and sweep away the whole of the corpora-
rations in truth and earnestnesss.—( Loud cheers.) This was
the distinct and narrow ground of difference between the Go-
vernment and their opponents. The difference which gave
rise to the amendment seemed to arise from the mode of ap-
pointing sheriffs for counties of cities and towns. This, he
admitted, was a very fair subject for consideration. It had
been the object of those who framed the Bill—he believed in
the 54th clause—to subject the appointment of sheriffs to the
control of the Crown, and when the proper time arrived the
provisions of the clause would be open to examination, as to
whether they had made it sufficiently clear and direct to affect
the end in view. Another difference between the supporters
and opponents of the Bill was, whether the chief functionaries
of these corporations, who were elected by the town councils,
which councils were themselves chosen by the entire consti-
tuency of the town, were to be allowed to act as magistrates
in their corporate towns. Another difference arose as to the
management of the public property of these corporations, for
which the Government proposed, that the town councils should
have the control and management of the property of the several
towns. ' The Noble Lord proposed that it should be entrusted
to commissioners appointed by the Crown. He confessed that
he heard this novel proposal to grant confidence to his Majesty's
Government, with some satisfaction ; for although the Noble
Lord merely proposed that the commissioners appointed by the
Treasury should have the temporal control of these funds, he
(Lord Morpeth) saw that the proposition did not betray, on the
part of gentlemen opposite, that want of confidence in the
Government which some of their supporters would have it be-
lieved existed. It would be recollected that all the purposes of
paving, lighting, watching, and cleaning the corporate towns
were provided for by an existing Act, and the Noble Lord
proposed to leave to an elected body, chosen by a class of per-
sons possessed of the lowest qualification stated in the Bill,
the control of the funds raised for those purposes.—( Hear,
hear.) When the Noble Lord talked of the evils of allowing
a.town council to appoint, an armed police, he seemed to have
indulged in some exaggerations, and not to have attended to
what was proposed in the Bill. The police force in these
towns, to be appointed by the town councils, was only similar
to the nomination of watchmen and constables in the English
Corporations. The Noble Lord was pleased to call this an
armed police in Ireland, and to look with some degree of
alarm at their appointment; but he (Lord Morpeth) begged
to inform the Noble Lord, that the town councils would have
nothing to do with the armed police. This was never in-
tended by the Government ; for he had laid a Bill on the
table giving the Lord Lieutenant a greater control than ha
ever had over that force; and enabling him to issup regula-
tions for the government of that force in counties, or coun-
ties of cities, arid towns. He also perceived another diffi-
culty in the two schemes which he bad passed over, and which
had also been passed over by the Noble Lord, namely, the
mode of dealing with the freemen: ln conformity with the
shape in which the English Bill stood, and in conformity
with the expressed wishes of Gentlemen opposite on former
occasions, it was proposed that the said freemen of the cor-
porate towns in Ireland should stand on the same footing as
the freemen of the English Coeporations.—(Hear, hear.)
Whatever the Noble Lord might propose to do with the
freemen, he knew not, but the Government proposed that
the present freemen should be continued in the possession
of the right they now enjoyed. The Noble Lord did not state
how the present freemen were to be dealt with, nor did he say
how he and those with whom he acted proposed to deal with
the inchoate privileges and rights of freemen yet unborn, about
which they had heard so much last session when the English
Bill was before the House.—(Hear, hear.) He should be
glad to hear some explanation from the Noble Lord on this
part of the subject. Before lie proceeded further, he wished
to observe on this point that he was glad to see the Right
Hon. and Learned Recorder of the city of Dublin in the
House, because it had been stated on a former occasion that
his Majesty's Ministers, because they knew that they should
be safe from the terror of the talents of that Hon. Gentleman,
had contrived to postpone the second reading of the Bill._
*( Hear, hear, and laughter.) In reference to this subject the
Learned Gentleman, on presenting the Lord Mayor of Dublin
elect for the last year, addressed the following observations to
the Lord Lieutenant :—" Neither, my Lord, am I EO unrea-
sonable as to contend that where any great organic alteration
has been made in the constitution there should not be a gra-
dual and harmonious adaptation of all its parts and members
to the existing condition of that country.. I do, however,
earnestly deprecate intrusion under the guise of reformation,
upon the part of the corporation, while I am of opinion that
they should allow and cheerfully submit to any change in their
form and constitution which was reasonable, and calculated to
give general satisfaction, provided always that it preserves the
substance and the essential influence of their ancient charter.
I do at the same time feel aware in approaching the defects of
such a body, that a reverence is due to their great antiquity,
their deeds, their courage, and faithful services, which have
shed a lustre round the memory of their predecessors." The
freemen, then, who were here so highly eulogized, were as
strongly condemned by his Right Hon. Friend the Member
for North Lancashire ( Lord Stanley), who was ever their per-
severing foe—( Loud cheers)—and who proposed to disfran-
chise them in the Irish Reform Bill, as he now recommended
that they should be deprived of their corporate freedom.—
( Hear, hear.) When the Irish Reform Bill was before Par-
liament, the Hon. Recorder for Dublin then said, " In the
city of Dublin there are no less than 4,000 or 5,000 freemen,
whose rights must merge in the constituency of 10,090 which
it is proposed to establish. Of that increase I do not complain.
What I complain of is, that in England the rights of the free-
men have been preserved in perpetuity—in Ireland they are to
cease with the existence of those persons who now possess
them. This injury will offer a direct insult to the people of
Ireland. It is an insult not merely to the freemen of Dublin,
but in all parts of Ireland." The Hon. and Learned Gentle-
man, in a subsequent part of his speech, stated that the pro-
position was a stigma cast on the party of the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman, and that it would lead to their supporting the re-
peal of the Union. Ile said, " That party has constantly op-
posed the repeal of the Union, but I now tell the Right Hon.
Geatlemhn that all his measures tend to forward a serious change
of opinion which is taking place upon that subject. I verily be-
lieve that before long almost the whole Protestant population
will call out for a repeal of the Union."--( Cheers.) He (Lord
Morpeth) was of opinion that neither Catholic nor Protestant
would be anxious for the attainment of repeal, if they were
sure of equal civil rights and privileges, without regard to
religious distinctions.—(Loud cheers.) In remarking on the
two schemes before the House, he wished to guard Hon.
Gentlemen against being misled by any distorted views of the
Bill, which, with great skill and ingenuity had been conjured
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the truth, but he had mixed up different clauses of the Bill,
and had suffered one part to glide into another in a manner
calculated to lead to erroneous views, as had been clearly
shown by his Right Hon. Friend the Chancellor -of the Ex-
chequer a few days since.—( Hear, hear.) He would not
go back to• former details, but he wished to remind the House
that the towns and cities of Ireland, to which it was proposed
in the Bill to give a separate commission of the peace, and
which were to be nlled by judges appointed by the Crown,
were only eleVen in number. The counties. of cities and bo-
roughs, in which, sheriffs were authorised to summon jtu'ies,