The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-03 00:00:00

Honourable Gentlemen who thought the measure did
no go far enough, would consider .the formidable
opposition with which the Government bad to con-
tend, and not refrain from giving their support to
what was proposed because it did not go far enough.
The Government had shown what their disposition was
by their determination to make an Order in Council
with respect to Ceylon and Australia ; and he trusted
that Hos. Gentlemen would give them credit for their
intentions —( Hear, hear.) He hoped that these ques-
tions would ere long be considered, not with reference
to any particular body, but to the interests of the
whole empire.—(Hear.)
Mr. O'CONNELL would not infringe the agree-
ment which seemed to have been Coale to by the
House, riot to discuss this measure at length on that
occasion ; but he begged to say that on Monday next
he would call the attention of the House to the neces-
sity of preventing commerce in rum slave-produced,
and to the violation of that part of the Act which re-
lated to the mitigation of slavery in the East Indies.
Dr. LUSHINGTON said he quite agreed with the
Hen: Member!or Dublin as to the absolute necessity of
excluding from theequalisation of duty any produce which
might be the produce of slave labour. Not only did he
concur in that opinion, but he must say that he went
further ; because, attached as he was to the great prin-
ciples of the motion of his Right Hon. Friend the Pre•
sident of the Board of Trade, yet he thought they
could not, either with justice to the W.- st Indies, Cr
with due regard to the great principle; laid down in that
House from time to time, allow the East Indian produce
to he placed upon the same looting with the produce of
the West Indies, unless the whole system of slavery
existing in the Eest Indies were altogether extinguished.
—( Hear, hear.) It was not extinguished—it was not
extirpated— it continued to fieurish, not rm!y ns a do-
ineetie system of slavery, hut 6v the import of Slave
up to that very hour. Le 1833 his Noble Frical Lird
Gloneig, when ho brought in the Bill respecting the
Company's Cheater, introduced a clause putting an end
to all slavery in the East and that clause passed
the house, he bt_.heved, without a sin le d.s3,mtient.
Nor was it then hastily or rashly deteriaia;7;l upon ; the
mos.t eminent men connected with the subject were
consulted, and the Neble Lard was informed that it
would be perfectly safe, therefore the clause was car-
ried. It was true that the Lords threw it out, but they
did not do so upon principle, they wanted to have
fu:ther evidence on the subject. It was his intention
to lade the Right Heneureble President of the Board
of Control to produce all the pipers on the
subject in order to know what steps the Company
hed tak.et to carry out the intentions of that
House, or whether they had done anything after
obtaining a fug knowledge of the proceedings of that
House. He thought the House would never consent
to allow, in the face of all its most solemn declarations
upon the subject of slavery--t never would allow those
principles to he set at nought in our Extern dominions.
Ile would say put the East Indies on the same footing
with the West Indies in respect to slavery—jet slavery
be extirpated, and he would go fatthe than his Right
Hon Friend, and say, give justice to the East Indies
not oily in the articles of sugar and of rum, but in
every other production. Ho would ask those papers
of his Right Hon. Friend, and on them he woald be
prepared to ground a motion for the total abolition of
slavery.
Mr. BROCK HURST said British interests hid
not been alluded to either in the Report of the Lords'
Committee or in the discussion that night, but he trusted
they would be taken care of as welt as those of the
people of the East Indies.

the motion was then agreed to—the Committee to
sit on .MondAy.

REGISTRATION (IRELAND).
Lord STANLEY rose for the purpose of moving
for leave to bring in a Bill for emendine the L for
the Registration of Voters in Ireland. lie was relieved
from trespassing on the House at any length, because
the subject was not only not new, but even too fa-
miliar to those. whom be had the honour to address ;
also he could not believe that the House would re-
fuse in the present Session permission to bring in a
Bill which he had been allowed to do last- year with-
out difficulty or division, and one, the second reading of
which he had obtained by a majority, and on which he
was almost warranted in saying, but for the difficulties and
unprecedented delays which hail been thrown in its way,
would now have been the law of the lend.—(Cheers.)
He wou:sl only shortly remind the House of the main
provisions which he had proposed for the purpose of re-
medying those abuses wh'eh were admitted to exist by
all parties, for it had been admitted on all hands there
was an universal and unanimous conviction that the
abuses which had been stated over and over again as
arising out of that system of registration now existing,
was so unbearable as to render legislation upon the sub-
ject absolutely necessary.—(Hear, hear.) The first
point he proposed to effect by the Bill, which obtained
such universal assent last S!elion. was to abolish alto-
gether the system of eseeLmeates in regard to the right
of voting ; and he proposed that, because he thought
that that system was the main spring and source of the
mischief. In lieu of that. system he wished
to introduce no new and untried plan ; his object
was to introduce the English system into Ireland, by
which a register made up by certain speed:: public offi-
cers would be formed, and that that should give, with-
out further dispute and cavil, the right of voting to all
who were upon such register. He proposed also to
transfer another portion of the English system to Ire-
land, namely, that the claimant in Ireland should give
a public notice of the same length of time, and with an
equal degree of publicity, as the claimant in England
was obliged to give, so that all persons intending
to dispute the claim might have the same public
opportunity of contesting such claim. So also
he wished, as in England, that the registration
should not be carried on in the Quarter Sessions, but
be considered as an object of primary importance. He
therefore proposed that the registration should be an-
nual. He did not propose to alter the Judge, but that
the Assistant Barrister should make the registration
specific business at a separate circuit ; therefore, not
altering the authority, but changing the time and sav-
ing time, by including in the circuits several towns
where his Courts should be held, for the purpose of
considering any objections that might be made to a
claimant nearer his own home than the assize
town. But there was another portion of his
Bill to which much cavil had been made.
Without casting any imputations upon the Assistant
Barristers, he thought it was impossible that the whole
registration—that the rejection or admission of a claim
should rest wholly upon one individual. Such was the
law at present, and what was the remedy which was
opened to aggrieved parties ? They had none but the
most inconvenient, expensive, and uncertain remedy of
an appeal to a Committee of the House of Commons,
upon a petition respecting a contested election. Now,
every side of the House—all parties agreed—that it was
extremely desirable that an end should be put to this
most vexatious system. But if that system were with-
drawn, some substitute must be found of a more
impartial, more learned, and more certain na-
ture ; that was universally acknowledged.—(Hear.)
In many Bills which he had seen upon this sub-
ject, productions of the various members of the
Government, he had found a provision, that upon any
rejection of a claim the party aggrieved should have a
right to go before the Judge of Assize in order to ob-
tain redresi. When this matter was discussed in the
course of last Session, many arguments had been thrown
out to which he was not insensible, suggesting that if
the enactments of his Bill were carried the appeals to
the Judge would be numerous and common. He bad
anxiously tried to find a course which would be equally
free from such an objection, and yet give the desired
effect, but h a search had been in vain, nor bad
he yet heard from any quarter even to suggestion
for any Court to be substituted for the Judge
of Assize, which would be free from the inconveniences
which were alleged against the present system. lie
proposed, therefore, that the claimant and the objector
should have a mutual appeal to the Judge of Assize,
but undoubtedly he was anxious to give some protec-
tion against frivolous and vexatious appeal, and he had
proposed in his Bill that the Judge of Assize should
have the power to give limited costs in any case of a
!r.volous appeal or objection. Great objections were
taken lest session to the power given to the Judge of
Assize to award costs against a person claiming the
franchise, and having been placed ueon the register by
the Assistant Barrister, but he could not see any good
reason why both parties should not be put on the
same footing, in order that not only the claimant but
the public might be rescued from being swamped by
fictitious votes ; and if any costs were to be giver. at
all, they ought to be
given equally and fairly. Last
Session, however, he was very much struck by one
point which had been urged, viz. that the persons who
were, by the sanction of the Assistant Barrister, placed
upon the register, ought not to be visited with costs.
Now that point had not escaped his attention ; his an-
swer was, whereas the costs were only to he given iu
trivoloue and vexatious cases, no Judge would give costs
against any party coming forward with the positive fact
of the decision of a Judge in his favour.—(A laugh.)
However, that there might be no difficulty on this
point, he was
perfectly prepared to insert a provision
that the party, he he who he might, who came forward
with the decision of the Judge of the Court below in
his favour, should not be visited with costs in a higher
Court. He believed the provision unnecessary, but if
it removed a difficulty or was considered to remove any
hardship, or provided against any inconvenience, he
was most anxious that it should be adopted.
They did not now stand upon toe same foot-
ing as last year, because he must call their
attention to a Society containiog the names
of a great number of noblemen and gentlemen for
whom he entertained great respect, and lOr whom ho
felt a high personal esteem and friendship—a Society
which included in its numbers the names of the Earl of
Charlemont, the Earl of Gosford, the Noble Lord the
mover of the address to her Majesty on the first day of
the sessien. Lord .Heedfort, Sherman Crawlf)td,
and matey ()tees nee, a- s . :e Seeicey ceiling I
iieeil the Litoeral A.sossestiers et Loter, rind r hid] 11:4(i I
been formed for the express purpose of euteriog into I I