The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-23 00:00:00

Prussia ; but not one of those efforts had led to al;
s atisfactory result.
Lord ELIOT begged to ask the Noble Lord whoa
Cher be was aware of a document lately publishe,`
in a newspaper purporting to be a communicatiori
from the Austrian Minister to the Diet of Switzerland,'
respecting the suppression of convents in the lattes.
country.
Lord PALMERSTON would not undertake td
pledge himself to the accuracy of any documents which
might appear in a newspaper, but he had reason to bea
lieve that a note had passed between the authoritiett
named by the Noble Lord.
REGISTRATION OF VOTERS (IRELAND)'
Lord MORPETH presented petitions in favour o.s
the Bill introduced by his Lordship, and against that:
brought in by Lord Stanley, from Dunderry, in the'
county of Antrim; from Arderry, in the county Down ;
from Balcurrv, in the same, and from several other
places in the counties of Antrim, Down, London-
derry, and the greater portion of the counties in Ind inst.
Lord STANLEY preserted petitions in favour of
the Bill brought in by his Lordship Item places in Ire,-
land, and said that he took that opportunity of statinta
that one of the petitions which he then presented in
favour of the Bill which be had the houour to
introduce into that House was signed in conse-
quence of a public meeting held in the town of Bel-
fast about a month ago. Teat meeting was at-
tended by 40,000 persons convened by a requisition,
signed by 1,607 individuals, which 1,607 individuals,
he was instructed to state, represented the comm:reW
and landed proprietary of that part of the country to
the amount of one million one hundred and sixty thou-
sand pounds.
Lord MORPETH thee moved the Order of the
Day for the second reading of the Registration of
Voters (Ireland)
Mr. Sergeant JACKSON said he would defer a
question to the Attorsicy-General for Ireland, of which
he had given notice, until tomorrow.
Lord STANLEY then rose ansi said—Sir, if the
objections which we on this side of the House e..testeio
to the 1311 which has been introduced by the
Noble Lord the Secretary for Ireland, were confined
to matters of risme detail, if agreeing in the main ob.
jest; to be sought for, and in ti e principles with which
these objects were to be feliowed, we differed al to the
machinery by which those principles ss ere to be carrietl
into effect, or the subordinate provisions by which theA,
were accompanied, Ii should_ on my Own part, however
wide the difference letwleen us, or however importanie
the points on which we differed, have been well content
to have given to the 1111 of the Noble Lord a more fair
consir!eration than was given to my 811 last
Sess'on, and, reserving all discussions for a subsequent
stage of the proceedings, have offered no opposition
to the second reading of the Bid, bat have
reserved the opposition which I felt it my duty to
make, and to have discusser! seriatim and tem-
perately the different amendments I fols disposed.
to suggest in Curninirtee.—(Cries of " hear, hear.")
But the course the Noble Lord has pursued ha; ren-
dered it impossible for those who feel with rne, and I
should have thought would Lase rendered it impossible
for many of those who habitually act with the Noble
Lord—(Hear, hear, on the Opposition benches)--
to assent to the second reading (if a Bill which tacks
to the Registration—a subject important enough in
itself—which tacks t) that, by way of .postscript,
a subject of infinitely more importance than even the
system of registration, which tends to alter the whole
principles on which the representative system of these
countries was based so lately as the year 1532—(Op-
position cheers)—which does not aim at any slight
modification or alteration in the machinery of the
Reform 1311, but which, with regard to Ireland, and
Ireland alone, of all parts of the empire,
applies a principle altogether new, at variance with
that which we have applied to ether portions of this
great empire.—( Hear, hear.) Sir, with regard to the
details of the Registration Bill, the points on which the
N °Lie Lord and inytelf differ, I mean the material
points, are not very numerous. They are of more or
less importance ; but 1 see with ss tisfaction that though
there is still a considerable difference between us,
the Noble Lord in his Bill of this year has approxi-
mated in no inconsiderable degree to those principles
which I introduced last year, and which were made the
subject of so much vituperation against me on the other
side of the House.. Sir, in the course of last year
the leading objection taken by the Right Hon. Gentle-
man, the then Solicitor-General for Ireland, was stated
by him to be, that he frankly and plainly objected to an
amended revision at all. The Noble Lord, however,
has consented, in the course of this year, to introduce
an annual revision of voters ; but, at the same time, the
Noble Lord has coupled with that annual revision,
which I propose to associate with an annual registration.
The Noble Lord proposes to couple that an-
nu:l revision, considerably restricted also, with
it provision not her an annual but for a quarterly re-
gistration. Tne Nolle Lord thus, instead of applying
the system pursued in England and Scotland to Ire-
land, while he allows the annual opportunity of purging
the register of claimants who may have ceased to
have any right of vote, keeps up a quarterly machinery
of registration, and renders it impossible that any per-
fect registration as a test and criterion of votes should
exist from year to year, mixing up the business of the
registry in a most inconvenient manner with the or-
dinary business of the Quarter Sessions in Ireland,—
(Hear, hear,)—and by the introduction of perpetual'
notices of cheats and notices of objections, and attain:l.i
once to substantiate claims, and attendance to substan-
tial objections, in point of fact makes the whole year,
from the commencement to the end, one continued
scene of registration and election, leaving no single
month, and hardly a single week, of breathing time
from Session to Session, keeping the whole country
perpetually engaged in election conflicts and disputes.
The Noble Lord has consented to annual revision, but
he has clogged it with restrictions which will open It
wide door for fraudulent and fictitious voters. Because
the Noble Lord tells you he will admit annual re-
vision, yet if a voter shall at any time, or under
any circumstances, succeed in getting his name
placed on the registry, it shall not be sufficient
for the registrer to show that he has no qualification
at all, but he is bound to prove that the man had that
qualification when he was placed on the registry, but
circumstances had taken place since by which he had
lost it. The consequence therefore is this, to give a per•
petual immunity to fraud,where a party has had his name
once placed upon the registry.—(Great cheering.)
Now I proposed last year that an appeal should be
given as against the claimant who might be admitted,
and also as against the claimants who might be re-
jected. But this was decreed a great hardship. It want'
said it was inconsistent with the franchise, and that
it was throwing obstacles in the way of the political`
rights of parties ; and yet notwithstanding all this, its
the present year that principle has been adopted, for
by the Bill of the Noble Lord an appeal will lib,
to the Appellant Tribunal in favour of the admisd
sion to the franchise, as well as against it. The
appellant tribunal which the Noble Lord proposes, dif-
fers, however, from that which I have suggested.
confided in the Judges of the land, but the Noble Lord
thinks itexpedient to take the power away from the Judges
and give it to three Barristers of the Irish Bar, whose de•
cision is to be checked only by the Speaker of this House.
Now, Sir, the great respect which I bear for your per-
sonal character, and the manner in which you have per-
formed your duties—(Great cheering)—in the situa-
tion to which you were elected by the votes on one
side of the House, but in nhich you have suc-
ceeded by your diguifi-d conduct in gaining
thin esteem of both sides of the House, impose upon
me the duty, if possible, of taking away from you that
arduous duty.—(Great cheers.) The more I think
upon this subject, the more strong are the objections
which I entertain to impose upon you a duty which
almost subjects you to misconstruction, misapprehension,
and suspicion of the feelings of parties, because however
impartially you may act, you will he subject to. that
species of suspicion which 1 should be most
a very lling
t o.
in
iNhwhichy.ouir a
b
proposed
(liir;il
great objection seas taken to the provision_ of which I
os" last year
station
suggested the introduction, with regard to the costs to
be given by the appellate tribunal, as well against the
person seeking to substantiate as against, person
seeking to overthrow
so much the
of objection rtliryos fraTerlrtn wasbsioe. There
taken
hereeoritss
nothing to which
to that provision, and I rocs-Peet well the Right Hon.
and Learned Gentleman the Vice-President of the
Board of Trade, having represented upon one ocsasion
that the appelate tribunal was bound to !give costs as
against the party claiming the franchise, being corrected
from this side of the House, and being told that
it was only left to his discretion to do so in certain
cases-1 recollect the Right Hon. end Learned Gen.
tleinan taking up that answer, aid saying, o 0 yes,"
that is to say, you are to confide it to the dis-
cretion, or " pardon me for sa}ing," added the
Learned Gentleman, " the caprice of the Judge,
whoever he may be whether he will or will not im-
pose costs." Sir, I believe tie Right Honourable and
Learned Gentleman is not in his eslace.—( Hear, hear,
from the Ministerial Benches.) Well, thee, I hope the
Right Hon. Gentleman has turned his attention to the
two c,lauses upon that subject in tine Bill of the Noble
Lord the Secretary for Ireland, because if he has, ho
will find that whereas in the appellate tribunal I re-
stricted the costs to the amount of ten pounds,
whereas I restricted it to tire amount of costs
which tile party might actually have incur-
red, whereas I imposed tire obligation upon the
Judges only to gise costs where the petition should
manifestly appear to hove been of a frivolous character—
the Bil! of the Noble Lord follows up this year the
same principle which last yeti- he so much repudiated—
(Lnughter from the Oppositions benches)—he adopts
my practice of giving costs to the respondent against
tire appellant, whether that appellant be the
claimant of the franchise, or the successful
objector to the franchise ; but he removes all
those restrictions as to amount which I bad
imposed upon the granting of costs by an appellants
tribunal, and the Noble Lord, after specifying
iu the 60th clause that tho Assistant-Barrister