The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-19 00:00:00

EV,

ING EDITION.

Committee, as this Bill would settle that question—they
Aare bound at all events to go into Committee on the
till. The twelve Committees which opened the Regis-
tries
_ had struck off no less than 1,493 votes, being an
average of 124 in each case, not one of whom had a right
tot oe on the Register at all. It might be said that these
ere the decisions of Tory Committees—if that e ere said,
11,e Would only answer that several of them seated
hie sitting Members, who were Liberals as they desired
to be called—but more, when the Noble Lord the Secre-
tary for Ireland brought in a Bill for amending the Re-
gistration in Ireland, he excluded every one of those votes
Whichieh had been struck off the registry by a Committee of
the House of Commons. Yet this Bill, which was called
s disfranchising one, actually retained them on the regis-
ter, and only subjected them to objection. The Order to
watch he had referred was issued on the 11th of June,
°33, and was amended in the year 1835, to the effect
that the Speaker should issue his warrant to the Clerk of
the Peace to strike off the register all those who were de-
tided by a Committee of the House of Commons to have
Leke,ll improperly placed thereon. In the debate which
place on that occasion the Hon. Member for Lis-
cud said the system originated in their not having an an-
nual registration in Ireland. These were also the opi-
*isms of the present Hon. Member for Kilkenny, who then
sat for Kilkenny. He believed the Attorney-General for
England expressed the very same sentiments, and he now
e,moted the vote of the Hon. and Learned Gentlemen for
*Measure which carried out that principle. If there were
*4 objectionable clauses in the present Bill, all that was
%lied was to allow the Bill to go into Committee, in
order that they might be modified or altered. In the last
debate upon the present Bill it was stated by the Ho-
ll.ourable and Learnd Member for Dublin that the num_
uer of persons entitled to vote for the county of Long-
fOrd
tk was 1,297, while the number of persons on
"ue registry was 2,731. He found also that the
&ether in the registry for Belfast was 6,000, while there
"ere only 1,900 entitled to vote. So long as the present
systemlasted these evils would be continued, because
although it was admitted on all hands that those parties
Who were disqualified or dead ought to be struck off, no
Pester existed until the period came round for revising the
registry, No less than six Bills had been introduced on
tie
present subject, all of them, with the exception of the
use under consideration, having emanated from the Go-
true:lent or its suorters. Now he had looked carefully
through these Bills pp,
and he could say, without fear of con-
tradiction that the present was identical with those sup-
Parted by the Government in species and principle. The
teat objection to the Bill, and the great difficulty in Ire.
retrained
Was said to be the question of qualification, which still
unsettled. He (Dr. Letroy) denied that, be-
ve use the twelve Judges had decided that question some
time ago, and although the Hon. and Learned Member for
thuhlio might express his dissent from that statement, yet
e House would not be influenced in its decision by his
d lleturo. Another argument against the Bill was, that
ti
ere existed such a disproportionate paucity of voters in
Ireland. But would that justify every abuse in the regis-
L system ?—( Hear, hear.) If the constituency of Ire-
'. d was to be increased, let it be fairly and honestly and
'°wedly increased, not by retaining all the vices of the
resent system•—( Hear, hear.) All the minute objec•
,h'ens, as to the form of the notice, had better be urged
Committee. The residence of the voter was necessary,
r
eser, to identify the voters, of whom there were many
()
the Same name. Unless the House were prepared to
tees_ on the registry all the glaring abuses by which votes
Were retained on the registry without the slightest ground
?1 title, he trusted that the House would be willing fairly
to consider the Bill in Committee.—( Hear.) As to the
ttitions which had been presented, those in favour of the
ill were equal in number to those against it.—( Hear,
wear.) But had the petitions against the Bill come in
eggen loads, they would not have been entitled to the
T14,1,t1 lest weight.—(Hear, _ hear, from Mr. O'Connell.)
i had been got up under a system of the grossest delu-
-1,1°4 on the people—( Hear, hear)—a system which he
z(nlid boldly expose in that House.—( Hear.) Mr. O'Con-
hell bad sent it through Ireland on his authority that
the
admitted by Lord Stanley himself that the object of
e Bill was to destroy the Irish franchise—( Hear, hear,
fru
c4n Mr. O'Connell.) Why ! did the Hon. Member per-
-44,11,t in that statement?—( Loud cheers from the Opposition. )
Re Learned Gentleman on that statement proceeded to
rouse all the people of Ireland against what he called the
plan of the most active and energetic foe of Ireland.—
Hear, hear, from Mr. O'Connell, and Cheers from the
_.o inisterialists.) He did not envy the feelings of those
wno could concur in such a resolution.—( Opposition
deers.) He trusted that the House would not now stultify
Itself, but would go into Committee.—(Hear, hear.)
Lord CLEMENTS followed, and declared that he bad
presented many petitions against the Bill, with which
Pr. O'Connell had nothing to do. The party opposite
etad given up their forty-shilling freeholders, and now
they wanted to get them back.—(Hear, hear.) When
''°„eY bad them, they regularly bred them like cattle—
lLaughter, and Hear, hear)—and drove them in herds to
the
Hear, hear.) They were sorry that they had
oat them now ; and because they had lost them, they
treated the poor people with the greatest tyranny—all on
this account, that they would not vote for their landlords.
Hear, hear.) The object of the Bill was to disfrair
chise the people, and give the franchise into the hands of
the landlords..—(Hear, hear.) The people were quite
Under the sway of their landlords in too many cases, and
that was often the secret of perjury in the Registr .Lion
Courts. A great deal was said about the Noble Lord
(Stanley's) talent ' • but this he (Lord Clements) would
lay, he wished to God the Noble Lord would take his
talent to some other place than Ireland, to " pave"
With his good intentions.—( Loud laughter.)
44Bis R. BATE SON warmly defended the Bill, and
ebttilY defended the Irish landlords fi om the
be"te of tyranny. The petitions which had
d.ll:it. got The persons up against the Bill had been got up in the
whoa igned it knew nothing of their
441Jeet, and in answer to an inquiry by a friend of his some
or the persons who had signed a petition against the Bill
said they believed it was something about Mr. O'Connell.
—(Cheers and laughter.) Of the two Belfast meetings,
the one from which the petition against the Bill had ema-
hated, had been held with closed doors, while the one at
Which the petition in its favour had been agreed to was an
?Pen meeting. The Bill of his Noble Friend was popular
to Ireland—it was approved of by the wealth, the respecta-
bility, and the intelligence of Ireland. It was certainly
not popular with the mob, with the unfortunate peasantry
Who had been driven headlong to the commission of acts
they were innocent of by bad advisers. If the Bill were
really s) disastrous, it should be opposed by argument, and
wzot by the use of language which the inhabitants of Bil-
lingsgate themselves would be ashamed of using, but
better
Which bad been used by those who ought to have known
.

Mr. H. GRATTAN rose to order, he wished to know
whether the Hon. Member was alluding to Members of
that House, he wished the Hon. Member to name those
Whom, he accused of using such language.—( Loud cries of
Order.
Sir R. B ATE SON should continue until the Speaker
t°l4 him he was out of order. He was not bound to name
the individuals to whom he alluded. If the cap fitted any
1(34. Member he could not help it.—(Cheers.) Minis-
ters of the Gospel had been assailed in the most dreadful
11leaner for the support of this Bill, and one of them, Dr.
tuart, had been called a brutal monster because he had
ared to attend the Belfast meeting, and give expression
to the feelings of his congregation, that this Bill would be
43fadvantage to Ireland. The Noble Lord himself, whose
Yihole life, pubc and rivate, bade efiance o calumny,
had been assailelid in thep most shameful manner,t but he was
sure the Noble Lord would only despise such attacks.—
(Cheers.) The cause must be bad which bad recourse to
such weapons. In fact the Bill was only opposed
by that faction which wished to enslave Ireland, and he
_trusted her Majesty's Ministers would not suffer them-
7,elves to be dragged captive at the chariot wheels of such a
esPotism. He wished to see an independent constituency
:4 Ireland, one that should go up to the hustings not voting
by Ballot, but in the face of day, boldly stating who they
voted for ; and it was because he thought the present Bill
46114161 y calculated to produce such a constituency that it
should have h:s support.—( Cheers.)
Mr. LYNCH admitted that a Bill calculated really
to get rid of the evils attending the present system of re-
gistration would be a boon, but he thought by accepting
the present Bill they would be payirg much too great a
price for that boon.--(Cheers.) The case of Belfast had
been referred to, and it had been stated that 6,000 names
Were on the register, whereas the number of really quali-
fied votes did not exceed 2,000; he had expected, after
hearing this complaint, to have found that 4,000 at least
had polled at the last election, whereas, on reference to the
report of the Committee, he found that the whole number
polled did not exceed 1,840. Again, in Longford it was
said there were 2,700 names on the register, while
the number who had a bona fide qualification amounted
only to 1,23. The number polled at the last election
did not exceed 1,200, so that the real evil was not so

very great.--( Cheers.) The duties of the registering
officer ought to be as purely ministerial as possible,
Whereas the jurisdiction was in reality left so undefined,
that Assistant-Barristers differed from each other.
'Judges differed from each other, and neither party paid
any attention to the decision of the other. The trouble
ad expense consequent upon this was enormous, but
fortunately it now only happened once in eight years ;
Whereas by the Bill of the Noble Lord it was proposed
`,4,1. make this a matter of annual occurrence.—(Cheers.)
Gentlemen opposite were continually saying that agita-
cPn was the bane of' Ireland—(Cheers)—and yet in ad-
_Won to all the other agitations they were going to add
another agitation of annual occurrence—an electoral agi-
tption.--(Cheers.) He would put it to the landlords of
Ireland whether they thought it was for their interest
rthat this should occur.—( Cheers.) Whether they
F°'4ght it would afford them increased facilities
„"r the collection of their rents, and whether it would in-
crease the value of their property, to have the whole
country agitated in this manner every year—a country in
Which political strife rages more than in any part of
crease United Kingdom. and in which its rancour is in..
"reased by religious differences ?—( Cheers.) He did not
wish to see the franchise depending on the caprice of the
landlords—he wished to see it established on a solid basis.
"ear, hear.) it should be recollected that the person
aeeking to exercise the franchise was only seeking to
Zelerelse a duty imposed upon him by the State—( Hear,
ar• hear) and therefore every facility should be afforded
t -
those duly qualified ; but so great was the anxiety of
that Noble Lord to exclude the disqualified, that he abso-
9tely forgot the other object, and threw so many obstruc-
"' in the way that he was absolutely sowing the seeds
for the annihilation of that elective franchise.—(Cheers.)
IN° quiet, retiring, independent man would ever offer him-
elf to such an ordeal as that imposed by the Noble Lord.
rhis notice of claim he would have to set forth twenty
terns. the omission of any one of which would be fatal.
he could not draw up the notice without going to the ex•
pease of legal assistance, whereas the objection need
mention no particulars whatever. Again, why compel him
to
I go to the Assistant-Barrister to give his notice ; why not
et him give his notice to the Barony Constable ?
Lord STANLEY intended to introduce a provision to
that effect.
Mr. LYNCH—The claimant would then have to ttea-
°e+'hint-sea' fur examination, and, if lequired, would :,ave
to prove that each of the tLlee lives in Ills lease were in