The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-23 00:00:00

IRISH GRAND JURY BILL.

The Earl of WICKLOW, seeing the Noble Viscount at
the head of his Majesty's Government in hii place, would take
that opportunity of asking him a question relative to this Bill.
Previously, however, to doing so, he would explain to their
Lordships the reason which induced him to adopt that course.
Their Lordships would recollect that in the latter part of the
last Session of Parliament a bill was brought up from
the other House called the Irish Grand Jury Act ; at
the period when the Noble Viscount moved the second
reading of that Bill, he proposed to their Lordships to postpone.
its further consideration, believing that there were'many pro-
visions in it which required more attention than could be given
to it at that late period of the session. Another reason
which induced him to make that suggestion was, that
the Bill was not to come into operation until the
month of May in the present year, upon the understanding
that a new Bill was to be introduced in the .course of the, pre-
sent session. The Noble Viscount thought it right, how -
ever, that the Bill should pass a second reading, and in the
Committee he proposed amendments which his Majesty's Go-
vernment ultimately agreed to adopt, by which many of the
serious evils that would have resulted from the Bill hid been
got over ; still many grievances were felt from what he might
call the democratic principle of the Bill, especially that part
of it which related to cess payers, most of whom had abstained
from attending the Session altogether, the consequence of
which was, that no money could be levied for the purpose of
carrying on the county business, especially that which related
to public roads ; and the poor persons employed on such public
works were in consequence thrown out of employment. Under
such circumstances he trusted his Majesty's Government would
not allow. the present Session to pass without sore provision
being made for those evils. He wished, therefore, to know
whether it was the , intention of his Majesty's Government to
recommend during the present session any measure for the
purpose of remedying the grievances he had adverted to ?
Viscount MELBOURNE thought that the Bill as yet had
not had a fair trial, and that it would be much better to see
how it would work before a new measure was introduced.
The Earl of WICKLOW said it was as evil that would
not be cured by time ; for the cess payers were the very per-
sons who were most anxious to avoid paying anything at all
in the shape of cess, and they were acute enough to know that
there was no better plan than by their staying away altogether,
by which the proceedings of the Grand Juries were rendered
invalid.

Lord DUNCANNON was aware that considerable
difficulty had been felt in many counties from the
non-attendance of cess-payers, but as only two of
that class were rendered necessary to give validity to
the Jury's Act, he did not see but that by the next Session the
Bill would work well enough. If, however, the same difficulty
should occur in the January Sessions, it would then certainly
be time to introduce a short measure upon the subject—
( Hear, hear.) He trusted the promise that Government
would give their best attention to the subject in the Recess,
would in the meantime be satisfactory.
The Duke of RICHMOND said there was a Bill in the
other House which empowered the making of such roads as
were necessary for the Post-office, the expense to be paid out of
the Consolidated Fund, to be afterwards recovered from
the Grand Juries of the respective counties—that might pro-
bably give a temporary relief. The Noble Duke then presented
the Report of the Committee upon post-roads. He would then
only remark that the Committee strongly recommended that some
measures should be taken for rendering the parochial police
more effective—that was the second committee which had so
reported, and unless he heard that the Government would
take up the question, he would in a short time bring the sub-
ject again before the House. The report was ordered to be
printed.