The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-21 00:00:00

REGISTRATION (IRELAND) BILL.

On the motion that the house go into committee on this
bill,

Sir C. O'LOGHLEN expressed his surprise that the bill
should be proceeded with, when it had been thought by
the Irish members that no further stops would be taken
during the present session.

Mr. SYNAN also expressed his surprise that the mea-
sure should be brought forward at the present moment.
He could only characterise it as a dodge, and an attack
from a masked battery. He appealed to the Government
not to persevere with the bill at that period of the session.
Mr. VANCE thought the bill necessary to enable the
coming elections to be conducted without the presence of
the military. He thought the fact of giving increased
polling places was a great advantage.
Sir G. BOWYER was against giving the Irish magis-
tracy the power of establishing polling places, and he
much regretted that such a provision was in the
bill. He hoped the Government would give up that
part of the measure. He never thought there was
anything in the bil' other than that of providing
for the Irish elections being taken at the same time as the
English. Many Irish members had left London under the
impression that nothing of the kind was intended, there-
fore ho hoped the Government would give up that portion
of the bill with respect to piling places.
Col. GREVILLE said the bill proposed to be a regis-
tration bill, bat it now turned out that great
changes were intended with regard to polling
places. He thought they had a right to know
why the two subjects had been mixed up in one
bill. No alteration had been made in the county franchise,
and ho wanted to know why it was proposed to alter the
polling places in Ireland under such circumstances, the
more so as they had made no athlition to the number of
electors.

The Earl of MAYO said there was an absolute neces-
sity for the clauses in tho bill. As the law stood with
respect to polling places in Ireland some improvement was
imperatively necessary. The greatest convenierce would
result from the alterations made, as the magistracy would
be enabled to give facilities for establishing an increased
number of polling places, which could not but result in
general convenience. He was a, tonished that any person
could get up in that house and oppose the 13Pl, as the
alterations had b3en made for the convenience of electors,
and certainly not for party purposes. At pre7ent voters in
some places had to take a journey of 27 miles across a
mountain to record their votes. That, he thought, highly
objectionable, and it was to remedy such inconvenience
that the bill was brought forward.
Mr. LAWSON said the whole object of the bill was to
throw the coming elections into the hands of the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland.
The conflict was renewed in committee, and prolonged
until close upon nine o'clock, but ultimately the first clause
of this part of the bill—clause thirty-four—was nega-
tived by a majority of 10-81 to 74. Upon this Lord
Mayo withdrew the other clauses, throwing on the Oppo-
sition the responsibility of the bloodshed which might
occur at the next election for want of these additional
polling places—a burden which Mr. C. Fortescue readily
accepted, believing that there would be no disturbance
unless the Irish landlords took some violent means to
support Protestant ascendancy by Roman Catholic votes.
The house then went into committee on the Metropo-
litan Foreign Cattle Market Bill, but it was nearly two
hours before the preliminary question "that the preamble
be postponed" was disposed of. Mr. Crawford appealed
to the Premier to drop the bill, seeing that there was no
chance of passing it this year, and Mr. Headlam n ads a
similar appeal, but Mr. Disraeli declined, and urged the
house, after the full discussion the principle of the bill had
undergone, to deal now practically with the clauses.
In the animated, and at times acrimonious, discussion
which followed, the arguments against the principle of the
measure were urged for the fourth or fifth time by Mr.
Ayrton, Mr. Melly, Mr. Candlish, Mr. W. E. Forster, and
others, and imputations were freely thrown out that 11,3
supporters were striving to return to the old protective
system, and that the Government was obstinately per-
sisting with it for mere electioneering purposes—to go to
the country with the reputation of "farmers' friends." On
the other hand, Mr. Henley, Mr. Kendal, Colonel North,
Mr. R. W. Duff, and others charged the Opposition with
" factious obstruction," and, treating the question as a con-
flict between " town and country," exhorted the Govern-
ment not to allow the bill to be talked down by the metro-
politan members, but to keep Parliament sitting until it
WO passed.