The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-02 00:00:00

THE DISFRANCHISEMENT BILL.

Earl GREY said, that he had two petitions to
precent to their Lordships, on the subject of the
cfsfranehisement of the forty-shilling freeholders in

Ireland. The first petition came from the under-
signed subscribers, natives of Ireland, residing in
London, and was signed by Lord Killeen and several
other gentlemen of gnat respectability. The other
was from the parishes of St. Mary, St. Thomas,
and St. George, Dublin. The petitioners state the
gratitude which they feel to his Majesty's Govern-
ment, for introducing. the Bill for their relief, which

was then in the other House of Parliament, and
which was now at last come into their Lordships'
House. They accompany the expression of their sa-
tisfaction at that Bill with an expression of their
regret that it should be accompanied by another
Bill, disfranchising at one fell swoop so many as
.200,000 or 300,000 of their fellow-subjects. They
state many grounds of objection to such a measure.
He did not mtan to anticipate now what would
more regularly take place on Friday night, when
this Bill would be brought under the discussion of
their Lordships, further than by stating that he re•
gretted exceedingly that it should have been thought
necessary to accompany the Bill of relief with an-
other Bill, to which he had upon principle many
serious objections. He should proceed to the Di,-
franchisement Bill, with a disposition to be relieved,
if possible, from the objections which he felt to it :
hut he could not conceal, either from himself, or
from others, that to its principle there were consi-
derable objections, and that as a precedent it vio-
lated all the principles on which the security of pri-

. . _
vate property rested. He waited, like the Noble
Earl who had spoken last night, to be convinced of
its necessity,—feeling that the abuses of the system
of the forty-shilling freeholders required correction,
bur not seeing that it was necessary to connect the
reform of these abuses with the Roman Catholic
Relief Bill, nor being satisfied that the abuses of
the system cannot be removed except by one general
destruction of the franchise.
The Earl of AJALMESBURY said, that as be
had been personally referred to by the Noble Earl,
he would take that opportunity to say a few words
on the subject. His sentiments fully coincided with
those of the Noble Earl, so far as regarded his ina-
bility to discover how far either of the two Bills
then before Parliament could be'considered as a co-
rollary to the other. He was one of those who had
always objected upon principle to reform, but this
Bill was as sweeping, a reforming Bill as ever he had
heard of. He would rather that it had stood upon
its own merits than upon its connection with any
other measure. If abuses were so common in Ire-
land as to the manufacturing of votes, it was an

abuse which required to be -investigated, and into
such an investigation he should enter with pleasure.
To the Disfranchisement Bill, however, he should

cbject upon all occasions, unless he could learn that
there was no bona fide forty-shilling freeholder dis-
franchised brit. He supposed that there were some
such persons in Ireland, and he should wish for
some information on the subject before they went
through this Bill. As he had risen to address their
Lordships, he would take the liberty to ask his
Noble Friend near him, as a member of his Majesty's
Government, a question as to the mode of their pro.
erecting to-morrow. The Noble Duke at the head
of the Government had last night stated, that in
ease of the prints being before their Lordships this
morning, he should propose to have the Catholic
Relief Bill read a second time to-morrow. But no
order had been made as to the making the second
reading of that Bill an Order of the Day. He knew
that, in point of form, the House was summoned
for to-morrow ; but it was not said upon what
question. He knew that the point which he was
raising was not very material; but as a matter of
form it would be more regular.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH, in compliance with
the suggestion of the Noble Earl, made the usual
motion for making the second reading of the Catho-
lic Relief Bill anOrder of the Day for to-morrow.—
Ordered accordingly.
The House adjourned at a quarter before Six
o'clock,

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-,-;r4ST NIGHT.)
At Four o'clock, there behig only 15 Members
present, the -Speaker adjourned until to-morrow.

in Alsace, a peasant lately brought a charge
against his neighbour, of haying threatened to cut off his
head. The Magistrates ieclarcl justice could not interfere
until the act had been cominittei.

We understand that it is the intention of the
Government, after the passing of the Catholic Bill, to
bring forward a measure to compel half-pay officers, and
other State pensioners, to reside in England, or to be sub-
jected to a heavy tax. It is well known that -a
great
number of these persons are now resident in France, and
other parts of the Continent, where they, of course, spend
the money given them by the nation to the injury of their
own country and to the benefit of foreigners. Every
farthing, in fact, which is thus spent in France, for in-
stance, may be considered as detrimental to us—as if we
paid it to the French King by way of tribute. In Pi us-ia,
and, we believe, in the ether Continental states, a law
like the one alluded to has existed for some time. Such
regntatinns are very proper, and we hope and trust that
our Govinmsent will adopt a similar one. England re-
' numerates her halt-pay officers much more liberally,
taking into consideration the-difference in the expense of
living, than any of the Continental natinno4. and it is ant
too much to require them to spend their incomes amung.t,
the people by whom they are granted...Jinn:iv Paper.