The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-21 00:00:00

MEDICAL REFOII.M.

Mr. F. FRENCH asked if Meml;er for
Bridport woultt state his intentions as to Medical Reform.
Mr. WARBURTON said he had looked to the Order-
Look and found—what with existing notices—what with
race week, and what 1-..ith Whitsuntide week—(Laughter)
—no day open for his motion till the 16th of June, for
which day he wou'd give notice of a measure.
Mr. GRATTAN—WiII it effect Ireland?
Mr. WARBURTON—Yes.
Mr. WA K L EY—Will my Hon. Friend move the re-ap-
pointment of the Cm:induce.
Mr. WARBURTON—No; I mean to move for leave
to bring in a Bill ; and then move that it be referred to a
Select Committee ?

Mr. LUCAS—WiII the measure refer generally to
England, Scotland. and Ireland.
Mr. WARBURTON—Yes.
Mr. B A INE S wished to ask the Under- Secretary for the
Home Department v‘hether!he returns relative to Church
and Chapel accommodation were ready to be put kto the
hands of Hon. Members in time for the discussion, of to-
morrow I—it had a most important bearing upon the
question.
Mr. F. MA ULE said the returns were not yet ready,
and even if they were laid on the table of the House that
day, they could not be in the bands of Members by to-
morrow.

Mr. BAINES inquired whether the results of the
Returns might not he laid on the table.
Lord J. RUSSELL said mangy• complaints of inamt.
racks had been received, and he did riot think they ought
to he produced as bring relied upon.
The Orders of the Day were then fixt:d for other days,
according to arrangement.
REGISTRATION OF VOTERS' BILL (IRE-

LAND).
On the Order of the Day being read for the adjourned
(lobate,

Mr. HUME rose and said, that having last night, or
rather this morning, proposed the adjournment of this
debate, he was anxious to state to the House his reasons for
having taken that step. He had several times during the
debate endeavoured to catch the Speaker's eye, and not
having been succcsAul up to one o'clock, he was anxious
to prevent a division on the main question, knowing there
were several Irish Members anxious to express their senti-
ments, and that the Hon. Member for Dublin had not
done so, and he therefore proposed the aThurnment of the
debate. He quite agreed with the Noble Lord, as
to its being pessible that the power possessed by in-
dividuals of impeding any measure by dividing the
House, might be carried to excess.—(Hear, hear.)
But if there was an occasion which called for the exercise
of that power, he thought it was that to which tide Bill
gave rise. He did not think, therefore. thet the. Noble
Lord was warranted in throwing out reflections on those
who had endeavoured to postpone the discussion of the
question. He thought, that in every measure of great
importance, it was essential that hasty decisions should
not be come to, and that those to whom the people con-
fided their interests, as was the case with the Hon. and
Learned Member for Dublin, should not, at any rate,
be deprived of the opportunity of freely and fully
expressing their sentiments. It must be known
to Menibers on both sides of the Ilouse, that at all the
public meetings held in Ireland in reletion to the subject,
the Hon. and Learned Member for Dubin had been re-
quested to oppose the further progress of the Bill by every
meow in his power. He, therefore, considered that
he himself, and those who had acted with him, were
perfectly justified in the course they had taken, and he
could assure the Noble Lord, that if ever a question of
equal importance should arise, he would never hesitate
to have recourse to a similar proceeding. It ap-
peared to him that the question was considered on
too narrow grounds. The Noble Lord on introducing
the Bill had pretended that its object was to improve the
franchise in Ireland, and to prevent fraudulent voters from
being placed on the list; in short, gave, as he ( Mr. Hume)
understood the Noble Lord, full effect to the votes of
those who were really entitled to the franchise. It ap-
peared to him, from every report he bad received from
Ireland upon the subject that the character given of the
Hdl last night by the Hon. and Learned Member the So-
licitor.Gencral for England, was a proper and correct one.
It appeared to him to be in every sense a Bill which would
limit the suffrage in Ireland, and that it would be
impossible so to amend it in Committee as that it
could be attended with any other effect. He contended
that if there was one point on which the public voice of
Ireland had been more decidedly manifested than on an.
other, it was in their opposition to the present measure.
He would not say that in some points the feelings from
which that opposition arose might not be exaggerated,
but the Noble Lord would allow him to say,
that anything coming from him was looked upon
with great suspicion by the people of Ireland. They
could not forget that the Noble Lord had formerly intro-
duced the Coercion Bill—a measure more calculated to
estrange their confidence from him than any, perhaps, that
had ever been introduced by the Minister of any country.
The people, therefore, recollected the Noble Lord's at-
tempt to destroy the civil liberty of Ireland.—( Hear,
hear.) They ceuld not forget that, and he hoped they
never would forget it. That ei as not the only Bill which
the Noble Lord attempted to pass to destroy their • Ti-
bet tics—

An lioN. MEMBER—It was not his Bill at all.

t 1 r. HON' E—Yes ; the Noble Lord bad generally the
credit of it, and he ( Mr. Hume) believed he was the
author of it though others participated in it.—( Hoar and
a laugh.) lie ( Mr. Hume) alwas s blamed those who
were weak enough to concur in the Coercion Bill.—
( Laughter.) When the Cabinet of which the Noble Lord
was a Member was broaten up, exp:anations were given
which exonerated those who voted in the minority upon that
Bill. The Noble Lord had also introduced a Bill to de-
prive the people of Ireland of the power of possessing
arms as if they were unworthy of being intrusted
with the possession of arms..—( Hear, hear.) He was
sorry that the Hon. Member for Caithness was not in his
place—( Cheers and laughter)—for, as an oil Radical, he
did not like to see those changes in political principles
taking Placc•—(ilear, hear.) He hoped the Honour-
able Member would come in before he had done,
that he might call to his recollection some of those
sentiments which he last night professed, and at which
he ( Mr. Hume) must express his utmost wonder.
The Hon. Member was a man of good sense in some re-
spects—( A laugh)—and of great consideration, and what
he had to say he did not say " off hand, like some
others of us" —( A laugh) but he came down
prepared, and what he had to say was not to be
taken as ordinary matter or undigested observations. The
Hon. Member for Caithness, and Noble Lord the Member
for North Lancashire, said that this Bill was a boon to
the people of Ireland. He was sorry that the party who
were to receive the boon did not consider it as such.
The people of Ireland, on the contrary, regarded it as part
of the same policy which they had experienced from the
Nsble Lard before, in his Coercion Bitl and others ; and
surely no boon was ever received by any people with so
much reluctance. If ever there was a Bill against
which the sense of the peop:c of Ireland ass
strongly expressed, this was that Bill.—( Hear, hear.)
He could speak with perfect confidence so tar as regarded
the city which he had the honour to represent. Petitions
had been forwarded from every parish in the city of Kil-
kenny, and he had been requested to cffer every opposition
to its progress, consistent with the rules of the House,
It was pleasing to him to concur in the wishes of his con.
stituents, and he should endeavour so far as in him lay, to
give full t Met to them. He should be sorry to differ from
his constituents, nor did he feel himself bound to follew
their opinion on all occasions, but when 'they were
right, as he believed them to be on the present oc-
casion, he was glad to co-operate with them in resisting
an insidious attempt to interfere with the privilege to which
they were entkled. Forty years had rolled over Ireland
since the people of that country had been told that they
would have a community of interests and an equality
of laws with the English people. Instead of
that they had been trampled on and persecuted. The
Noble Lord certainly did attempt to destroy the master
grievance of the Irish people—an overgrown Church Esta-
blishment. He had reduced a portion of the useless Bishop-
rics of that country ; but to the present hour Ireland stood
in a different situation front either England or Scotland ;
and he would say that the people of Ireland ought
not, and ho trusted they never would be satisfied
until they were placed on an equal footing with the
people of England and Scotland, not only as re-
garded civil rights, but also es regarded religious
establishments. Up to the present moment the Parlia-
ment had refused to place Irishmen on the same footing as
Englishmea and Scotchnien, and in England and Scot-
laud a majority of the population belonged to the
Establishment, and therefore, he did not quarrel
with the continuance of establishments in these countries;
but be trusted the time would soon come when the people of
Iteland would no longer suffer the existence of that master
grievance, from which they derived no benefit whatever.
They were taking away
from the people of Ireland that
right to a hich, by the Union, they were entitled. They
had refused them that justice which had been °mended to
England and Scotland as regarded Municipal Corpora-
teif:s.—( Hear, hear.)
Was it possible that anything
else but discontent with the conduct of those who
thus sated in Parliament could arise in the minds
of the people of li-eland? Had they not a legitimate cause
of discontent ?—( Hear, hear.) And he would ask the
Noble Lord why he introduced this Bill to add to that
discontent, by taking from the people of Ireland the little
remnant of justice which had been done them by t I e Reform
Bill. Could the people of Ireland see with patience this
attempt of the Noble Lord to deprive them o f the little liberty
left them by the Reform Bill, to give them over into the
hands of those who had ever studied the benefits of the
few at the expense of the many, and to place them in de-
pendence again cn that party who had, until recently,
ruled Ireland with a rod of iron. He would tell the
Noble Lord that the Bill was calculated, a:.d that
its object was to reduce the number of the electors of
Ireland beyond the present scale, and to deprive the people
of that influence to which they were legitimately en-
titled,—( Hear.) The Noble Lord declared the object
of his Bill to be to clear the Irish register of improper
persons, but what said the people of Ireland as
to the effect which would be produced by the Bill
of the Noble Lord?—( Hear, hear.) Why that it would
occasion such vexation, plague, litigation, and expense
that it would not be worth while for one-half of the consti-
tuency of Ireland to take out their franchise. He would
only allude to one remark which had been made by
tho Noble Lord the Member for Northumberland last
night as that Noble Lord was not now in his place,
had he been present he should have commented on
what had fallen from him at some length, but as he
was absent he world merely make one remark. The
Noble Lord had stated that the people of Ireland were
not fit for an enlarged franchise. Now what right had the
Noble Lord to make such a remark.—( Hear, hear,
bean ) The Noble Lord had assigned no reason, for
stating
that the people of Ireland were not entitled
to equal rights with the people of England and of Scot.
' land. He denied the allegation of the Noble Lord—.