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

there would be a large influx of Tories into these town-
councils, unless they wished to sacrifice all those things which
they charged the Reformers with endeavouring to subvert.
He had only further to state, what indeed was admitted on all
sides, that the system which prevailed under the self-elected
irresponsible Corporations, which he was loath to call Pro-
testant, must be got rid of ; but he trusted that they would
hesitate before they had recourse to such a violent remedy
as was proposed on the other side.—( Loud cheers.)
Mr. Sergeant JACK SON said, the , fourth section of the
Irish Bill contained a quantity of matter not to be found in
the corresponding section of the English Bill. Some most
important matter had here been introduced into the new Bill,
and he had not heard from any Noble or Hon. Member of
the opposite side of the House, either on this or a former occa-
sion on which the,subject was brought forward, any reasons for
such a departure in the Irish Bill from the provisions or princi-
ples of the English measure. The Hon. and Learned
Member here read the words of the fourth section of the Irish
Bill, a great part of which he said was not omitted in the_
English Act. In this clause a most remarkable word had
been introduced, for which no reason had been assigned. He
alluded to the word, trusts-•' that such bodies corporate shall
be invested with all lawful rights, trusts, &c., save only and
except those vested in the charitable trustees of such bo-
roughs," &c. Now, in the city of Cork, for instance, there
existed a trust of a considerable extent, but not of the nature
of a charity. This trust, however, by the provisions of the
Irish Bill, would be transferred to the town-council and corpo-
ration of the city. This was a departure from the principle
of the English Act, for which no reason had been given. It
would appear, however, that the framers of the present Bill
wished to proceed on a more liberal principle than in the
English Bill : that was to say, to comprehend more places in
Ireland, to set up more boroughs in that country than were
thought of in England. There was no instance in the English
Act of the revival of an extinct or defunct corporation, but in
the Irish Bill there .were several such instances. The. new

Bill, too, omitted several towns, in which on its own prin•
ciples, corporations should be constituted. There was
fur instance, the borough of Newry. with a population o
13,065 persons, with limits of from half a mile to two miles in
extent, with quarter sessions held in it twice 'a year, and petty
sessions once a week, &c. The Irish Corporation Bill of last
session included this borough in the list of places to which
Corporations should be given. The Bill of the present session
had no mention of it. Why was this omission ? Again, there
was the respectable town of Downpatrick, with a population
of 5,000 persons ; the assize town of the county, with quarter
sessions twice a year, and petty sessions once a week, having
within its precincts the county gaol, and returning one Mem-
ber to Parliament ; this town, included in the Bill of last year,
was omitted in the present Bill. Yet at the same time the
small town of Bangor was included in the present Bill. Let
the House contrast the circumstances of the respective towns.
He had stated the population of the two omitted towns of
Newry and Downpatrick ; the included borough of Bangor
bad a population of but 2,741 persons, and its limits were ex-
tremely narrow • its whole Corporation consisted of but twelve
persons, all of them of the family of Ward. Perhaps this
very circumstance, however, was that which influenced the in-
clusion of the borough in the present Bill.---(Hear, hear.)
The whole income of the borough was 601. a year. Why then
should this miserable little town be inserted, while the county
town of Down was excluded, was to him (Mr. Sergeant Jack-
son) a mystery. Then, again, there was the miserable little town
of Middleton, with 2,034 inhabitants. This, forsooth, was to
have a Corporation continued to it, though the Irish Corpora-
tion Commissioners expressly stated that they were totally at a
loss to discover any reason why .any Corporation should exist
in this borough, that it was a Corporation without privileges
and without emolument.—( Hear, hear.) This miserable
place was to have a Corporation, though the privilege was
denied to the respectable town of Mallow, county of Cork,
with a population of 4,129 persons. The English Act made
it necessary, in order to qualify persons for office in the new
Corporations, that they should have been in occupation of
certain premises within the borough for nearly three years
preceding. The corresponding section of the Irish Bill only
required occupation for about six months preceding ; yet no
reason had been assigned for this most extraordinary discre-
pancy between the two measures. The Right Hon. and
Learned. Gentleman had ingeniously stated two points, in
which he admitted there was a difference between the
measures—namely, as to aldermen, and as to a summary re-
medy in cases of malversation of corporate funds. These,
however, were far from being the only distinctions between the
Bills. To give an additional instance in a very remarkable
word inserted in the Irish Bill, but omitted in the English
Act--the` Irish Bill (6th section) stated the requisite occu-
pation to be of a " house, warehouse, counting-house, office,
or shop ;" now this word " office" was not to be found in
the English Act : why, then, had it been introduced in the
present Bill ?—( Hear, hear.) It must be obvious to the
House that if the occupation of an " office" was to confer a
qualification for the holding of municipal dignity, there would
not be a room in any borough in Ireland which would not be
dignified into an office, and as such be held as qualifying to
a municipal office. Here there was an essential difference.
—(Hear.) It was a curious thing, too, that not only was this
word " office" not to be found in the English Act, but it was
not inserted in the Irish Bill introduced last session. Another
-circumstance worthy of attention was, that while in the Eng-
lish Act the qualification was conferred with reference to the
payment of poor rate, there was no corresponding provision in
reference to qualification in the Irish Bill. It was true that
there was no poor-rate in Ireland, but what was the qualifica-
tion to depend on in that country ? The occupation in the
larger towns of a house and premises, within the prescribed
limits, of the yearly value of 10/. Now, even in so consider-
able a city as that of Cork, with a population of more than
100,000 persons, if this Bill were to pass into law, there wculd
not be a single labourer in or within seven miles of the city,
occupying a house, not worth perhaps 101. a year, but with
some bits of land about it to make up the sum Of 10/., but
would be entitled to the privileges conferred by the Bill. He
would call the attention of the House, then, to the species of
burgesses to be supplied by the operation of this measure. He
saw one of the Hon. Members for Cork opposite him, and he
could inform the House, that of the constituents who had re-
turned that Hon. Member to Parliament, not fewer than six
hundred could not write their own names.—( Hear.) Yet as
the Parliamentary electors and the corporation electors were to
be the same, these very persons who could not write their own
names, and a large portion of whom could not speak a word of
English, were to have the power of electing the new town council
and municipal officers. Nothing similar existed in the English
Act. There was another important matter. In England the lists
of electors were prepared and furnished by the overseers of the
poor. What was the arrangement of the Irish Bill in this
respect? Although in Ireland there were no overseers of the
poor, yet there were persons who held situations which would
enable them to do the duty effectually. The Irish Bill, how-
eve ir.irovided that after the first year, in which the lists were
to be prepared by the churchwardens, they should be prepared
by the town- clerk. How this task was to be performed by the
unlucky town-clerks, in addition to the other multifarious and
heavy duties imposed upon them by the Bill, he (Mr. Ser-
geant Jackson) was quite at a loss to understand. There was
another point of more importance than any he bad alluded to.
The Noble Lord said that Government was to have the ap-
pointment of the police in the boroughs, and the Bill only pro-
vided that the town-council should superintend the watching of
the respective boroughs. Now, in point of fact, this borough
" watch," according to the Bill, would be the armed police of
the municipality ; for whom the Bill provided arms and accou-
trements, and whom the Bill actually denominated police. All
Acts which gave Government the appointment of police in the
boroughs were repealed by the Bill, and it at the same time
conferred upon the town council the power virtually of appoint-
ing their own police, and of excluding from the boroughs any
police appointed by Government. This was a most formidable
provision. There was in Ireland a very large establishment of
the Roman Catholic hierarchy and clergy, comprehending
archbishops, bishops,' and the other dignitaries of the diocese,
and a body of parochial clergy amounting to upwards of
three thousand, besides various bodies of religious orders
spread throughout Ireland.__( Hear, hear.) Here was a large
body of men who made it their business to interfere in all the
elections which took place in Ireland, and that in a most in-
fluential manner indeed.—( Hear, hear,) He ( Mr. Sergeant
Jackson) would venture to say, that there had not been a
single election in any borough in Ireland in which the power
and influence of this body had not been materially brought to
bear. If, then, after abolishing the existing Corporations in
that country—and so far he would go heart and hand with the
Government—if, after abolishing them, Ministers were to re-
construct Corporations in these boroughs upon the plan of this
Bill, he ( Mr.. Sergeant Jackson) would venture to say that a
more prolific source of turmoil. confusion, bitter religious
animosity and strife, could not be devised by any human
being.—(hear, hear.) In what county of England, he would
ask, had there ever been brought up at an assizes thirty-six
persons on trial for murder ? Yet at the present assizes for the
county of Tipperary, not, fewer than that number were ar-
raigned on that frightful charge.—( Hear, hear.) Since 1829,
in the same county of Tipperary, there had not been less than
700 homicides.—( Hear, hear.) He was convinced that the
influence exercised by the body he had mentioned, was to give
considerable extent to that which brought about this ''rightful
state of things; and he was sure that there was nothing more
calculated to perpetuate that state of timings than the passing
the proposed Bill into a law. In this state of things, it
was next to madness to talk of legislating for Ireland on
precisely the same principles as for England. ( Hear,
hear.) The effect of the Bill would be to transfer the power
and influence incidental to the Corporations in Ireland, from
the hands of those who had hitherto held it, to the hands of
the Roman Catholics of that country ; and not so much to the
people in general, as to a certain portion of the people. One
great reason for apprehension, in reference to the body of
whom he (Mr. Sergeant Jackson) had spoken was, that they
were, as it were, a distinct race—unmarried, and men who had
given no hostages to the State. The Right Hon. and Learned
Member had declared that there wa.; no danger to be appre-
hended from these sinister influences at the borough elections:
'and hail said, that he recollected no instance of religious in-
fluences being brought to bear in elections. Now he (Mr.
Sergeant Jackson) had lived a good many years in Ireland,
and had seen much of eleCtions, and he could conscientiously
say that he never knew of a case where religious and political
feelings intermixed, had not very influentially intervened in
the progress of elections in that country. The Hon. and
Learned Sergeant proceeded to remark, that the Right and
Learned Attorney- General for Ireland had referred to Dungar-
von as one place, among others, where a Protestant gentleman
had been returned to Parliament by a Roman Catholic consti-
tuency in preference to a Roman Catholic, and had relied upon
this fact as a proof that the Roman Catholics acted upon no
exclusive principle. Now he ( Mr. Sergeat Jackson) would
defy the Right Hon. and Learned Gentleman to show that in
this, or any other case, a Roman Catholic constituency had
selected a Protestant candidate, unless the latter were a
pledged Repealer—( Hear, bear)—and were pledged, besides,
to all that his Roman Catholic constituency demanded of