The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-07 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS,

(From the Potts and Proceedings of the Howe of Commons.,
wzDNESDAY, MARCH 6.
MARRIAGES BILL.
Order read for resuming adjourned Debate on Amend-
ment proposed to be made to the Question (27th February),
"That the Bill be now read a second time;" and which
Amendment was to leave out the word " now," and at the
end of the Question to add the words " upon this day six
months :"—Question again proposed, " That the word 'now'
stand part of the Question." The House divided :

.MAJORITY—AYES, 182.
Adair, Hugh E. Grenfell, Charles W. Parker, John
Adair, R. Shafto Grey, Sir G, Pechell, Sir G.
Aglionby, H. A. Grey, R. W. Pelham, D."A
Anderson, Arthur Grosvenor, Earl Peto, SarnuellM.
Anson, Colonel Harcourt, G. G. Pilkington, James
Ansley, T. C. Hardeastle, J, A. Power, Nicholas
Armstrong, R. B. Harris, Richard Price, Sir H
Arundel, Earl of Nestle, Alexander Rawdon, Colonel
Bagshaw, John Hatchell, John Rendlesham, Lord
Baines, 31. T. Hawes, B. Repton, G. W. J.
Baring, Thomas Hayter, W. G. Ricardo, J. L.
Barnard, E. G. Headlam, Thomas Ricardo, Osman
Barrington, Lord Heald, James Rice, E. R.
Bellew, R. M. Heathcoat, John Rich, Henry
Berkeley, Henry F. Heneage, Edward Romilly, Colonel
Birch, sir Thomas Henry, Alexander Romilly, Sir John
Blair, Stephen Herbert, 11. A. Rumbold, C. E.
Blake, Martin J. Herbert, Sidney . Russell, F. C.
Blandford, Marquis Heywood, James Rutherfurd, A.
Bright, John Hill, Lord M. Salwey, Colonel
Brocklehurat, John Hobhouse, T. B. Sandars, George
Brockman, E. D. Holland, Robert Scholefield, W.
Brotherton, J. Howard, Lord E. Scrope, G. P.
Bruce, Lord E. Howard, C. W. Shafto, R. D.
Btmbury, E. H. Hume, Joseph Sidney, Alderman
Busfeild, W. Hutt, William Smith, J. A.
Buxton, Sir E. Jackson, William Smyth, J. G.
Cardwell, Edward Jervis, Sir John simythe, George
Carter, John B. Kespel, G. T. Somerset, Captain
Caulfeild, J. M. Ker,:Richarfl Somerville, Sir W.
Chaplin, W. J. Kershaw, James Spooner, Richard
Childers, J. W. Kildare, Marquis of Stansfleld, W. R.
Christy, Samuel King, P. J. Strickland, Sir G.
Clay, James Labouchere, Henry Stuart,,Lord J.
Clay, Sir W. Lascelles, W. S. Talbot, J. H.
Clifford,:lfenry K. Lemon, Sir Charles Tancred, H. W.
Cobden, Richard Lennard, T. B. Tennent, R. J.
Cockburn, A. J. 7 Lewis, Sir T. Thicknesse, Ralph
Colebrooke, Sir T. Lewis, George C: Thompson, Colonel
Currie, Raikes Littleton; 8.R.: Thornely, Thomas
Dawson, T. V. Locke, Joseph Tollemache, F. J.
D'Eyncourt, C. T. Lushington, Charles Tollemache, John
Dodd, George Mackinnon, W. A. Townshend. Captain
Duncan, Viscount Mangles. R. D. Trelawny;.J. S.
Dundas, Admiral Marshall, J. G. Tuthell, H.
Ebrington, Viscount Marshall, William Villiers, Charles
Ellice, Edward. Martin,:John Waddington, H. S.
Elliot, John Martin,lC. W. Wakley, T.
Enfield, Lord Martin, Samuel Wall, C. B.
Evans, John Masterman, J. Walmsley, Sill.T.
Evans, William Matheson, A. Watkins, Colonel
Evart, William Matheson, Colonel Wawn, J. T.
Fagan, William Me!gaud. Viscount Willcox, Brodie
Ferguson, Sir R. Milner, W. M. Williams, John
Foley, J. H. Mines, R. If. Williamson, Sir 11.
Forster, M. Milton, Viscount Wilson, Matthew
Fox, W. J. Mitchell, T. A. 'Wrightson, W. B.
Freestun, Colonel Moleswerth, Sir W. Wyvill, Marraaduke
Frewen, C. 11. Moody, C. A.
Gibson, T. K. Morris, David TELLEZII.
Glyn, G. C. Mulgrave, Earl Wortley, S.
Grenfell, C. Pascoe Ogle, S. C. Denison, Edmund

MINORITY-NOES, 130.
Acland, Sir T. Forbes, Williaml Packe, C. W.
Arbuthaott, Hugh Fordyce, A. D. Palmer, Robert
Arkwright, G. Fuller, A. E. Palmer, Bounden
Baillie, H. J. Gladstone, W. E. Patten, W.
Bateson, Thomas Gordon, Admiral Peel, Sir Robert
Bonnet, P. Goulburn, Henry Peel, Frederick
Beresiord, William Graham, Sir James Plowden,,W. H.
Berkeley, C. L. G. Grogan, Edward Plumptre, J. P.
Boldcro, H. G. Guernsey, Lord Portal, Melville
Bowles, Admiral Hall, Sir B. Pusey, P.
Bramston, T. W. Halsey, T. P. Raphael, Alexander
Brisco, M. llamilton, J. H. Reid. Colonel
Broadley, 11. Heneage, G. H. Richards, Richard
Brooke, Lord Henley, J. W. Rushout, Captain
Buck, L. W. Hildyard, R. C. Seyraer, H. K. _
Buller, Sir Y. Hildyard, T. B. Shell, R. L.
Burrell, Sir C. Hogg, Sir J. W. Bibtherp, Colonel
Cabbell, B. B. Hood, Sir A. Simeon, John
Campbell, W. F. Hope, A. Smollett, A.
Carew, W. P. Ilornby John Sotheron, T. H. 8.
Cayley, Edward 8. Hotham, Lord Spearman, H. J.
Chatterton, Colonel Inglis, Sir It. Stafford, Augustus
Clerk Sir George Jones, Captain Stanley, Edward
Clive, R. H., Keating, Robert Stanton, W. S.
Clive, Henry B. Law, C. E. Stuart, J.
Cocks, T. W. Legh, G. C. Sturt, 11. G.
Cole, Hon. H. A. Lindsay, Colonel Sullivan, Michael
Coles, li. R. Lockhart, W. Taylor, T. E.
Compton, 11. C. Lopes, Sir Ralph Tenison, E. K.
Currie, Henry Mackenzie, W. F. Thornhill, G.
Deedes, W. Mahon, Lord '1 ownlcy, it. G.
Dick, Quintin Manners, Lord J. Trevor, G.
Douglas, Sir C. lifaule, Fox Turner, George
Divett, E., ?deux, Sir H. Tyrcll, Sir J.
Duff, George S. Miles, P. W. S. Verney, Sir I/.
Drummond, Home Itillos,:IV. Walpole, S. II
Duckworth, Sir J. Monsell. William Wegg-Prosser, F.
Duncombe, A. . Morgan, 0. West, P. R.
Duncembe, 0. Mullings, J. R. Willoughby, Sir li.
Dundas, G. Mundy, William Wodehouse, Edmund
Dundas, Sir David blure, Colonel
Du Pre, C. G. Naas, Lord TELLNES.
East, Sir J. B. Newry, Viscount Thesiger, Sir F.
Edwards, 11. O'Flaherty, Anthony Wood, W. I'.
Fitzpatrick, J W. Oswald, Alexander

ABOLITION OF THE VICE-REGAL

COURT IN IRELAND.
(From the Times.)
The passage of the first railway train through the
tubular bridge across the Menai Straits would seem
to have suggested the propriety of at length disclosing
a " secret" which has been long known to everybody
—that the days of the miniature Court of the Lord-
Lieutenant in Ireland are numbered. The commu-
nication between London and Dublin for passengers
is now reduced to an easy day's journey. In any
cases where a more speedy method of intercourse be-
tween the two cities becomes desirable, we have in
the electric telegraph a very simple machinery at
hand to convey orders and intelligence—at any rate
as far as Holyhead—almost with the speed of thought.
For any useful purpose the little pageant in Dublin
Castle has now become a mere burlesque—a cere-
mony without a meaning, an expense without a
result.

It would be idle to waste words in showing the
propriety of the change we are now announcing.
The only reason for commissioning a subject to re-
present the Sovereign in any district or colony
of the empire is, its being so ,far removed
from the central seat of Government that
its affairs cannot be conveniently administered
without the borrowed " majesty of a petty
Court. Such a substitution is a makeshift, not a
privilege—a memento of subjection rather than a
symbol of independence. We do not place a series of
Governors in the great towns of England. Liver-
pool, Manchester, Birmingham, York, Northampton,
and Plymouth, are very well preserved from disorder
by the local machinery of municipalities and magis-
trates, supported, in case of necessity, by the power
of the Lord-Lieutenants and Sheriffs of counties, with
an ultimate appeal to head-quarters. But, take the
stronger case of Scotland—a case not analegous, but
identical with that of Ireland. Can any one doubt
that the presence of a mimic Court, which should rather
ape the petty intrigues than imitate the grander
features of its prototype, would be a curse, not a
blessing to the Scottish people ? Edinburgh, and
Glasgow, and Paisley remain tranquil, although
the threads by which they are governed are
drawn from the centre of the empire. From
Caithness to the Land's-end all is consolidated,
without any approrch to that system of cen-
tralization which has been so just a subject of
reproach to the Continental Governments. With
them the element of municipal independence was
wanting. The very meaning of our centralization is,
the removal, not the imposition of constraint. No-
thing but actual necessity, arising from physical
causes, could justify the continuance of a restraint
upon Ireland from which the provincial districts of
England, and Wales, and Scotland were exempt.
The time has arrived for placing Ireland upon the
same footing as Great Britain, and removing an invi-
dious distinction that was only justified by the diffi-
culties of dilatory and doubtful communication.
There is one consideration only which could have
made us hesitate as to the propriety of the abolition of
the Lord. Lieutenancy. Had any strong feeling existed
amongst the Irish themselves in favour of the retention
of the pageant, certainly their feeling on the subject
would have been entitled to respect. But upon care-
ful inquiry the very reverse of this turns out to be the
case. It is the earnest wish of the great majority of
Irishmen to see every focus of political intrigue ex-
tinguished, and although the Lord-Lieutenant's
office in Ireland was to discountenance seditious
movements by: all the means at his disposal, yet
whether he vvould or not, the " Castle" was turned
into a centre of heart-burning and discontent. Men
who live in the full tide of human af.rairs, and
whose lot it has never been to be mixed up with
the petty intrigues of provincial majesty, can form
but a slender idea of the ridiculous pretensions of
the aspirants after the favour Of the Castle."
Immortal wrath would be engendered in a moment
of time IT some imagined affront, whilst the re-
presentative of his Sovereign vainly imagined that
his anxious exertions to please everybody had been
crowned with something like success. The pen of
the novelist, rather than of the political writer, would
be requisite to portray what Ben Jonson would
have called the " Humours " of the Castle and
its Courtiers, even before it had ceased to be a
necessary institution. Not all the cordiality and
dignity of Ireland's last Lord-Lieutenant could
have much longer saved his little Court from falling
before the force of pure ridicule, when the country
had WICO recovered from the combined e(fec4 Of

famine and agitation. Besides, all question of the
ludicrous apart, the presence of a Viceroy in Dublin
actually ministers to agitation. So long as an arena
is open to them, the representatives of Orangeism
and Ribandism will rush there to boast their influ-
ence, and struggle for a worthless triumph. A mare's
nest will never be wanting to the Orangemen of the
North so long as an unhappy Viceroy is forth-
coming, on whom they can fasten the conceits of their
own addled brains. Dr. M'llale is of course too
happy to have a vice-regal correspondent whenever his
temper gets the better of his reason, and he is
pleased to concoct one of those marvellous communi-
cations in which he connects the prevalence of
easterly winds in March with the Rate-in-Aid.
What is a Lord-Lieutenant to do ? If he is not
guilty of discourtesy to a Roman Catholic prelate,
the Ulster men take fire—if he turn the cold shoulder
to the higher clergy of the great mass of the people,
the affront passes like a galvanic shock through three
of the four provinces of which Ireland is composed.
We mention but one out of a thousand difficulties
which a Lord-Lieutenant must confront at every
turn. Surely in such a case it is better to avoid all
cause of offence by abolishing the office altogether
which is the innocent cause of so much theo:ogical
and political animosity.
It would ill-become us, however, to announce such
a change as this, and to speak in terms somewhat de-
preciatory of an office once the most important that
could be held by a subject, without adding a few
short words in commendation of that nobleman to
whose lot it has fallen to be Ireland's last Viceroy.
Lord Clarendon has discharged an important trust
with singular success, in the face of great difficulties,
and of a very enigmatic future. We are writing in
1850, when the danger is past, and we are fully
aware of the character of the opponents, and the value
of the opposition with which he had to contend. But
when thrones were crumbling round us in every
European country, and the Irish demagogues were
busily engaged in working upon the passions of a sus-
ceptible people, then peculiarly exasperated by almost
unprecedented suffering, it was a very different matter.
In the face of thesedifficulties, however, Lord Clarendon
did preserve the public peace, and brought the offenders
to justice in the way most calculated to nullify the
efforts of their disciples for the future. And this
was done by a simple and most sparing use of the
public force, without bloodshed, and without arming
one sectiom of the country against the other, as he
was repeatedly advised to do. Abased by a press in
many instances lamentably unscrupulous, denounced
by the Protestant bigot on one side, and the Popish
priest on the other, it was no fair-weather duty that
Lord Clarendon had to discharge. Whether the re-
sult must be attributed to the wisdom of the states-
man or the good fortune of the man, it is new a mat-
ter of history that he has completed his task with
the most perfect success. Emergencies may possibly
again arise in which the presence on the spot of an
able and resolute man might
.be desirable, and no
doubt such an one will be always forthcoming. But
we will not anticipate such an event. Let us rather
hope that the change will act in every way benefi-
cially on the interests of our Irish fellow-subjects,
and that they may hare no cause to regret the cessa
tion of viceregal rule and the splendours of the vice
regal Court.