The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-12 00:00:00

LONDON :
FRIDAY EVENING. OCTOBER 12. 1838,

The Dublin Papers of Wednesday contain a re-
port of the proceedings at a public meeting of the
landed proprietors of the county of Galway, held at
Ballinasloe on Monday last, for the purpose of peti-
tioning for the total extinction of the Irish Church
Tithe impost. The meeting was attended by the Hon.
THOMAS FFRENCH, Sir M. D. BELLEW, Sir F.
INPDONNELL, and most of the large landed proprie •
tors of Galway and the counties adjacent. We can-
not better express the sense of this meeting than by
quoting the following resolutions, which were proposed
amid loud acclamations, and carried unanimously :

" Resolved—That we view with disappointment and re-
gret the present Tithe all, deeming it to be a moat unsa-
tisfactory and fruitless attempt to settle that question.
"'Resolved—That thet:e can he no effectual remedy for
the effeets of that Bill, except the immediate repeal
of a measure so inimical to the interests of Inland.
" Resolved—That a •Petition should be prepared to the
Legislature for the immediate repeal of the measure, and
for-substituting in its place an equitable Appropriation of
Tithes.

" Resolved—That we in common rNith the rest of the
people of Ireland, entertain the most unbounded confidence
in, and attachment to,. Daniel O'Connell, and that we hare
heard with great satisfaction his expressed intention of giv-
ing his able assi-tance to obtain the repeal of the present
Tithe Bill ; we also tender to him our grateful thanks for
his able support of the .prPsent Government, by which he
has:prevented the return of the Tories to power."

Thus, as Mr. O'CONNELL predicted, the agitation
against Tithes is only transferred by the Tithe BM
from the wearers of frieze coats to the wearers of
broad-cloth. The landlord is substituted for the pea-
sant ; and thus the Tithe question is in as
unsettled a state as it was four years ago.
The tinkering system must be given up ; for it
is evident that we ought not, and cannot, com-
pel the Catholics of Ireland to contribute to a
Church which has been a curse, instead of being a
bleising, to them and to their country. Catholic Ire-
land will not, and ought not, to support a sinecure
Protestant Church—now that she is powerful enouJi
to 'assert her right to an equality of religious liberty and
independence with England and Scotland.

The little regard which the country has been able
to bestow upon any questions but such as relate to the
Corn Laws, the Extension of the SufKage, and the
operation of the Poor. Laws, since the prorogation of
Parliament, has prevented us from earlier adverting to
a subject which has frequently been made the object
of comment and inquiry in our columns—namely, the
necessity of an early Reform in our Legislative eco-
nomy. Men of all parties, who know anything of the
internal constitution of the Houses of Lords and
Commons, are agreed that nothing can be conceived
more cumbrous and inefficient than their present forms
of carrying on business. The very freedom of our ,
Constitution, conjoined with the, nature of the
qualification which entitles the 'National Repre--
sentative to participate in the highest functions of.
Legislation, tend to aggravate an evil
.for Which ,
the State, singularly enough, has never thought of pro-
viding a remedy. For while a knowledge of existing
laws forms no part of the qualification of a Member of
Parliament—while it is notorious that to arrive at such
a knowledge, even imperfectly, would occupy a man of
the greatest industry the greater part of an ordinary
life—it is known to every body that each Member may,
with the permission of the House, bring in any Bill
he chooses, and if he be a good Parliamentary tactician,
and not over scrupulous, pass it too, though contain-
ing clauses subversive of the rights and privileges of
Parliament itself. The natural consequence of this is
that our Statute Book presents the legal inquirer with
a mass of repetitions of one Act in numerous dill-rent
forms---with laws made and unmade in a single
Session, without so much as an intention on the part
of the Legislature either to pass or to repeal
such enactments—with long rigmarole Bills, so stufft:d
with the jargon of the bar as to be wholly unin-
telligible even to the framers—and with Acts so
trivial in themselves, and so restricted in their ap-
plication, that one is surprised to think how they
could have so much as interested the Town Council of
a petty Corporation. These anomalies in our Legisla-
tive system have long been felt by Parliament itself ;
and several distinguished individuals out of doors sug-
gested remedies which attracted attention for the mo-
ment,but which, unfortunately, disappeared in the vortex
of the business-confusion which they were designed to
Among the more elaborate treatises upon
remedy.
which have come under this question our notice,
by far the most conclusive is one entitled " An
Argument for More of the Division of Labour
in Civil Life," which we remember having
4een made the subject of an Article in the Edinburgh
Review. It was published in 1829, but almost every
statement contained in it are as applicable to the busi-
ness defects of the present House of Commons, as
they were to that which adopted the Catholic Relief
Bill. More business is attempted to be got through
by the House of Commons in one Session, than any
well organized deliberate assembly could carefully in-
vestigate in five years. The time of a Session, spent
without food, sleep, or exercise, would not enable any
Member of the Legislature to peruse the mass of
printed documents submitted to it—much less to
make the information thence acquired of any real uti-
lity in the process of legislation. With the hest in-
tentions in the world, one-third of the Members of
the House of Commons setreely know what they are

doing. Returned to Parliament, for the first time,
they are ignorant of all the forms of the House ; and
if unacquainted with the laW as a profession, they dread
the ridicule of encountering lawyers upon the legal
merits of any Bill Which comes before them. There
is no office at which they can apply for such informa-
tion as they may require, and hence it is that many
Members, otherwise most solicitous to promote the
interests of their constituents, do nothing, be-
cause they know not how to proceed without
provoking the ridicule or the indignation of their
Honourable Colleagues. Before the re-assembling of
Parliament we shall take frequent opportunities of en-
tering more into the details of this question, with a
view to force it upon the attention of the electoral
body ; and, in the meantime, we beg to direct attention
to the following propositions, which were submitted, in
a less perfect shape, to a Committee of the House of
Commons, as remedies for the more glaring defects in
our Legislative economy. They were drawn up by
Mr. WILLIAM WicKENs, the author of the work
above referred to—a gentleman who has devoted
several years to inquiries connected with the defective
constitution of the business department of the Legis-
lature :

The following propositions are with deference submitted
.o the Committee of the House of Commons at present

sitting, upon " the business of the House." They have been
suggested by a long and attentive observation of the deplor-
able confusion and defectiveness which mark our legisla-
tive operations ; and, if reduced to practice, they will, it is
conceived, go far towards correcting a state of things,
which, it is not too much to say, every considerate Merabvr
of Parliament must blush to witness.

It is proposed, first of all, that a classification or assort-
ment be effected of the principal subject: which it is cus-
tomary for Parliament to be occupied with.
It is proposed, further, that bureaus or offices he esta-
blished, as an integral part of the two Houses of Parlia-
ment, answering to the several heads or divisions of busi-
ness that may thus be agreed upon.
Th”e heads or divisions will, it is presumed, prove to be
something like the following :—The constitution, economy,
privileges, &c. of Parliament ; the public revenue ; the
public expenditure ; the public service—civil, military, and
naval ; public works ; internal communications ; agricul-
ture, fisheries, trade, and manufactures ; currency and
banking ; bankruptcy and insolvents ; pauperism, and pro-
%idea institutions ; marriage ; lunatics ; ecclesiastical af-
fairs ; education, and public charities ; science, the arts,
the press, and the drama ; justice—civil and criminal ; in-
ternal organization, economy, and police of the country ;
foreign possessions, and colonies ; private bills—althoueh it
is hoped the time is net distant when the great bul of this
description of business will be altogether withdrawn from
out of the jurisdiction of Parliament.
Further it is proposed, that the bureaus or offices thus
suggested be constituted so as to serve as vigilant and
faithful depositories of all facts or information of im-
portance, germane to their several subjects :—the more ex-
press or immediate business of each office at the same tine
being the collecting and keeping on view of every actual
enactment or regulation of our oan authorities, which in like
manner pertains to or ranges under the head of the office ;
together with the laws, regulations, &c. that correspond
thereto of other countries.
Again it is proposed that a certain number of barristers
of taleat and experience (say three or five) be appointed'
as permanent adjuncts to the two Houses of Parliament ;
the duties or liabilities of these functionaries to comprise
the sup-rintetidenee and control of the bureaus to he insti-
tuted ; the framing, or the being consulted as to the framing,
of Whatever Bills it may be wished to introdtice into either
House of Parliament, and the acting as assessors to elec-
tion or other Committees.
Finally, it is proposed that it be a requisite indispensable
to all attempted improvements, changes, air alterations of
the law without exception, that Members tnakieg such at-
tempts shall have previously placed theMselves in full coin-
mueiescion with the bureau implicated or concerned upon
the. occasion, and with the principal of the bureau ; the
puipoies of this etipula6in of course beieg, that Honour-
able Members may proceed in their various legislative pro-
jects, thoroughly cognizant of the state of the law as ac-
Nally -existing ; possesing a perfect knowledge of the whole
circumstances of the case which they ri gard as calling for
their into ; in the enjoyment, moreover, of every
possible light or aid that is derivable from collateral sources,
and throughout having at command professional counsel or
co-operation, to the utmost extent to which they may need
or desire it.

What is most wanted in the first instance, is an
able, indefatigable, sturdy Member of Parliament, who
• will devote himself to the effecting of the Reforms here
suggested, and so identify himself with the necessity
of an improved system. It will not do to leave an
affair of this kind to the discretion of the whole House
Let onlV one clever Member take it up manfully, and
adhere to it closely against all opposition, and we will
answer for his success. Mr. HuAtE's long experience

and perfect acquaintance with the routine of Par-

liamentary business eminently qualify him for
a task, in the accomplishment of which all his energy
and perseverance will be requisite to bear down, not
the opposition, but the lukewartmnss of the House.
But more of this in a day or two, when we expect to
have an opportunity of returning to the subject.

We regret that we cannot find room for the Report
of a very important meeting, held at Cashel on the
23 inst., for the, purpose of taking into consideration
the recommendations of the Irish Railway Commis-
sioners with reference- to-the establishment of a Main
Trunk
.Line of Railway frOM. Dublin to Cork, [trough
Monntiath, Thurlesr Holy Cross,,Cashel, &c. The
meeting was numerously and most respectably-attended.
The Chair was taken. by Mr. OT*Aie CAVE,' M.P4
and the assembly addressed at great length by 'Mr.
QulN-, who ably expounded the views and suggestions
of .the Commissioners: After a long and animated
discussion, the following resolutions were cordially and
unani►nously adopted :
Moved by JAMES Roa, Esq. ; seconded by W. NICE..