The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-12 00:00:00

GLASGOW WATERWORKS BILL.

Mr. 7 ‘‘GREGOR moved that a petition of the chair-
man of a meeting of landowners and house factors of
Glasgo, e and its suburbs, against the Glasgow Water-
works .A ,cts Amendment Bill (presented 11th February),
should i ia referred to the Committee oa the Bill.
After a few words from Sir W. HEATHCOTE, who
opposed it. the motion was withdrawn.
SECURITY TO THE CROWN AND GOVERN-

MENT.
Mr. < VOOD gave notice that he should propose, as an
amendrr rent to the 3d clause of this Bill, tho insertion of
the foil awing words:—" If such public speaking should
occur w' ithin two years after the_p-tssing of the Act."

SMALL DEBTS.
Mr. 13. COCHRANE gave notice that he should move
for leas e to bring in a )3ili to repeal the Small Debts Act.

BEWDLEY.
Capt tin RUSHOUT moved that the Speaker do issue
his war rant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a
new w iat for the election of a burgess to serve in this
present Parliament for the borough of Bewdley, in the
room of Thomas James Ireland, Esq., whose election
has be an declared void.
Sir X. HANMER moved, as an amendment, that the
return -thr Bewdley having been declared void fur bri-
bery e aed corrupt treating, and other corrupt practices,
stated to have prevailed there, it is necessary to consider
the cc edition of the elective franchise in that place, with
a view: to its reform, and in the mean time to suspend the
writ. He said that the Legislature, after what had takes
place at some of the elections, ought to adopt some
course isy which corruption might be obviated, as such
proce set egs brought the House into contempt and dis-
satisfeed. the people, as they were led to conceive, with
some show of truth, that they were not fairly represented.
He (1:31 not wish to deprive the House of its discretion,
but lee was anxious that the House should he compelled
to act according to its discretion. lie thought that
some steps ought to be taken before they issued a new
writ :for Bewdley in order to see if something could
not so done to place the constituency of that
homage upon a more sound and honest foundation.
It wets seldom that these cases of bribery were properly
sifted. -to the bottom, for it invariably happened, that
when, enough had been proved to unseat the sitting
Mersbe.r, the agent abandoned the further prosecution of
the inquiry. With regard, however, to treating, he
thoroglet the House was rather too prudish
upoit that point. Members ought to be unseated
for :deeply exercising the ordinary customs of hospitality.
In this case, however, a bad practice existed of treatieg
the voters to an extravagant extent, and con-
siderit-g the limited number of the constituency of
the bcreeugh of Bewdley they could not well look over
these .abuses.—(Hear, hear.) He moved this amend-
ment from no party motives whatever, but from
a desire to have the evils which existed in
the b&srough of Bewdley remedied. His motion did not
speciey any plan by which that end could be accom-
piiehesd, but simply proposed that the writ should be de-
layed till some improvement could be made in the fran-
chises of Bewdley.
Mae HUME seconded the motien. He bad upon a
previous occasion brought forward a motion having for
its object the delay of the issue of all new writs in
cases where the Members had been unseated for
bribery or corruption until a general committee had been
appointed to inquire into the circumstances connected
with the cases of every such city, borough, or county.
With respect to the borough of Bewdley, it appeared
to him that a most serious amount of demoralisation had
taken place, and he should, therefore, give his most
cordial support to the amendment of his Right Hon.
Friend. He, hoped that the Noble Lord at the head of
the Government, who pr posed to bring in a Bill with
respect to the borough of Horsham, would include the
borough of Bewdley in the same measure.
Mr. BLACKSTONE said, as the House had con-
sented to issue a new writ for Harwich, after the bri
bery that had been proved to have been practised at
the. last election, he saw no reason why they should not
accede to the motion for issuing a new writ.
Sir J. HANMEIt explained.
Mr. C. WY NN was understood to support the suspen-
sion of the writ for a short time.

Mr. EWART thought if any step were taken that
should emanate from the Government.

Lord CASTLEREAGH said, as he was the only
member of the Committee who underwent the
penance of sitting fourteen days upon the inquiry,
he would merely state that, as evidence of bribery
and treating at the last election had been ad-
duced before them, the representation of that borough
should be placed upon an improved footing. He
thought that strong ground, had been brought for-
ward for the House to consider well before they issued
a new writ for the borough of Bess dley. He thought,
however, the same measure of justice should be meted
out to Bcw•dley that had been granted to linrwich.
Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, and the
House divided, when there appeared—
For issuing the writ
Against it ... • 3B
Majority in favour of issuing the writ —42
The writ was, therefore, ordered to issue.
REPEAL OF THE UNION.

Mr. J. O'CONNELL after presenting a petition from
a place in Roscommon, praying for a repeal of the legis-
lative union, moved that it should be read by the Clerk
at the table. This being done, the Hon. Member said
the petition contained the whole case for the repeal of
the union. Its statements had often been put forward
by the Irish people, and they were convincing reasons
why the House ought to take the subject into considera-
tion. He was aware the subject presented itself under
great difficulties; the House was already exhausted with
the discussion of the new Coercion Bill; but he felt
bound to proceed with his motion. Other difficulties
were, the feebleness of the advocate, the prepossession
of many Hon. Members against the motion, the love of
domination,-and the feeling of self-interest. He would
Dot attribute all, the opposition to the motion to the
two latter feelings; the probability was that its, oppo-
nents were actuated by a fear of injuring the welfare of
the United Kingdom by any change. Self-interest doubt-
less actuated many, who feared that their particular in-
terests might be weakened. Recent proceedings in
Ireland had strengthened the aversion of the house to
consider this matter, and no one deplored, on this ac-
count, more than himself the wild language and dange-
rous doctrines which had been promulgated in Ireland.
He had always told the people that their appeal ought
to be to this House, and was now prepared to lay their
claims before it. He was convinced that repeal would
not only benefit Ireland but England also, otherwise he
would not support it. Many lion. Members, he under-
stood, were more disposed to entertain this subject than
they were a year ago; and he hoped the recent proceed
ings in Ireland would not deprive him of the support of
these Members. While 'deprecating the menaces that
had been thrown out, ho could not but feel that if he
were prevented from simply bringing in this Bill, with
the view to its further consideration after Easter, the
effect would be most disastrous; the minds of the people
would be inflamed, and the influence of those who sought
to keep them peaceable would be greatly diminished.
He trusted he was not mistaken in hoping that he should
be allowed to introduce the Bill. That repeal was the
demand of the people of Ireland themselves, few persons
would be disposed to deny. Even when battling for
Catholic Emancipation, the late Mr. O'Connell had been
frequently urged to postpone that question to that of an
Irish Parliament; but he thought that, until an equality
of civil rights was gained, there was little chance of ob-
taining a repeal of the union. When emancipation was
granted, he could not forego the struggle for repeal,
without abandoning his duty and his appointed mission
on earth. Had he done so, the people would have
tthemionf
for
rn
at on violentinde p
e nde
ntmeasures.legt, l a
tEarinre inad 1833,atta i n tehde
gone on without him, and other leaders might have led
question flonrwalrBd34i
met by
granted, full
a pledge
height as to attract thethe noticeLe Legislature;
is l
aotfu
rteh;e
bAul it n
he
set ehr sa
dsoaufg:ittehanea-
n
promptly conceded.
Crown,
jtuti,ce that though repeal , Mr. O'Connell had brought the
Act of the Legislature, for it was concurrecdouilnd
i Housesgy fora and
xl3
years,y the Monarchte
ir.irev.ery other particular should be
sacrifice of confidebynobtotbhe
on the throne. Accord-
agitation ceased, at consider-
ablehis pledge had all the force of an
affected him to the last hourne° in
Mr.
°
___in of his life. In 1840, the
'Connell, which
agitation was renewed 1843, those sublime demon-
strations were made, whic astonished the world, and
thus the people irreversibly recorded their determina-
tionth etmtofuhl anvaelp.rme
calamity of
aThoughst
year,
a circumstances, including
delayedpienol)ll:437—as(anseaPro,wehrerauriniotsTthreiui:
vt_hocurfeeolinrgespeoeflthaes
e npoevrti
de-
termination was not to be repressed byh.)ean)h,
had that
;
Posed to introduce
thenitighdtispprleasyeendtedi.tseTlfheinßillh
was one " the better to enable her Majesty to summon
her Parliament in Irelend," which had been
prepared by the late Mr. O'Connell. The preamble
asserted the necessity of repeal of the union, on account
of its injurious effects. The first clause enacted the
repeal; the second secured the succession; the third
related to the regency; the f
• ourth to the House of Lords;
and the remaining clauses allocated the 300 representa-
tives to be given to Ireland to the different towns and
districts. I
'This was in substance the whole of the mea-
sure. He was aware that technical objections might be
raised as to the relative contributions of the two coun-
tries to the expenses of the state, the terms of commercial