Star.
London, England, 1831-09-30 00:00:00

salary W bias Naked upon intim OS the tame
ciple that bed bow sdepeed with ot era.
• Mr. NORTH did Set consider that a high Salary grit
necetairy for the failliesent of ogee. He would opro„
modal. He was well assured that augmented salariwill
cot produced augmented attention to dike.
Mr. S. WORTLEY replied.
Lord ALTHORP moved the previous question.
The SPEAKER put the previous question, and it
negatived without a division.
A message from the Lords announced that their
ships had passed the Oame Laws Amendment Bill.
Captain GORDON postponed his motion resprc ,
repression of blisphetny.

1155 K GIIAND JURIES.
Mr. STANLEY, in rising to move for leave to 1.1:n2 in
a bill to amend the Irish grand jury system, said, the atic:.
tints of the legislature had been for a considerable Cnle
called to the state of the grand juries : several econtwit:cts
had been appointed on the subject between 1815 and 11:22
and in the report of the Committee of 1822 it was declatti
that there could exist no difference of opinion with reenter to
the necessity of putting the grand juries on a more satisfar.
tory basis. This report, however, had until now remained
unfulfilled. He (Mr. Stanley) did not attach much weight
to the argument brought forward against the grand juri,s,
of the large augmentation in the internal taxation of Ire-
land. (now amounting to 700,0001.) as that single fact
might indicate, instead of an increase of pressure, (hear.)
merely an increase of prosperity, and of the means of the
inhabitants. But a simple exposition of the Irish Grand
Jury system was sufficient to show how defective it must ne•
cessarily be. The English members must not imagine that
the Irish Grand Juries bore any resemblance to those of I:n.
gland; that they were entrusted merely with the criminal
proceedings, but they also regulated and controuled the whol,
of the internal taxation of Ireland; that they taxed th.
country, though they were not composed of the persons who
paid the taxes ; that they determined en the nature of the
works to be performed, chose the workmen, and fixed the
price at which they were to work, and that they uid all
this in secret, without responsibility and within the
short period of three or four days. ender such a systen..
how was it possible, however well the jury might he consti.
toted, that they could perform their duties justly and bene-
ficially, or if they did, bow was it possible that the country
could believe it ? (Hear.) Taking six counties at hazar,i,
he found that the number of presentments and of bills of in.
diet:runt equalled 5,969, while the average of days was either
three or four, leaving a total average of 244 presentments
and indictments to be performed in one slay. Owing to this
shortness of time, the administration of one part of a county
was left to the individual best acquainted with it, and his
decisions were acquiesced in by the portal meeting of the
jurors without examination. The leaded proprietors com-
posing the Grand Juries were frespendy absentees, whose
duties were pethmued by agents end persons of a veer
inferior description. (Hear, bee; hear.) The burden,
Imposed did not fall upon the landlords, who were those who
imposed them • but upon the Want. The grand
juries of Ireland had, in feet, nest infonnatiso. nor
check. Hence a systein of serration expeoliture, of fa.
vouritism in the choice of contractors, of in the
performance of the works, and in de on the
works to be undertaken, the habit of consulting set the public
Interest but private advantage. The Bill which he proposed
to bring in would repeal and coosolidate no less than 65 dif.
ferent acts of Parliament, serving as a kind of manual to the
Grand Juror. Its principal features were these : the civil
proceedings to be apart from the criminal; the Grad Jury
to give notice to the Magistrates of the day on which the
spMal sessions are proposed to be Lid; the whole of
presentments to be taken into consideration on the
first day; the meeting to have the power of adjourning to
the different baronies ; the Magistrates to have the power of
negativing the works of which they disapprove; the Grand
Jury not to pass presentments judged unnecessary by the
Special Sessions ; the time in which the Grand Jury performs
its duties to be lengthened; the qualification of the grand
juror to be the same as at present, but the Sheriff to select as
far as possible persons from each Barony ; one or more fur.
rigors chosen, and paid by a board of engineses at Dublin, to
bc attached to the different counties, and to be removable
on complaint of the Grand Jury ; the Grand Jury to hold
Its sitting in open court • all works to be entered on
contraet, and the lowest tender to beaccepted; the offices
of supervisors and of ovetseers to be done away with,
and their powers to be vested in the contractors and sur.
veyors ,• the mode of accounting for the performance of works
by affidavit to be abolished. He did not propose to make
the grand juries elective : he apprehended, that as the money
in the hands of the juries was expended in the immediate
!telethon/had, the elective system would lead to as many
gobs as at pr sea (Hear.) But he proposed that
the occupying tenant should have the power of deducting the
county ass from the rent be paid his landlord, with the ex-
ception of the penal presentments, the burden of which he
was still to retain. Such was the outlive of his measure. He
trusted it might form the groundwork of a general system of
improvement in Ireland. (Cheers.) He would now move
i for leave to bring in a bill to amend the grand jury system
I in Ireland.

Mr. WYBE considered the only remedy for the defects
of the grand jury system was election.
Mr. HUNT said that far the last five and twenty years
be bad beard the Irish grand jury laws complained of,
and yet the right boo. gentleman talked of its defects as
if it were a new discovery that it had any ; and the bill
on the table was only calculated to let the abominable
system down easy. He should, however, support the bill.
Mr. JOHN BROWN thought the grand jury system
so defective, that be should be glad to sees mote sweep.
log measure intrainend I bat such es the present measure
was, I: should ban bis
Sir R. werssom 2r h: had never witnessed each
abuses as the light bum leenury had mentioned, in any of
the grand juries be bad mslaided sddl=b* "Mit"
the sysm sapeised impepeamme, bs k was pa.
reedy moos}tilde simshini impassammt, width
would be snub beam tbsa dee shimmery reject wbisb was
entemehmil by seams at overthrowing the era= sitthely•
The rate payees did net eleasst to mem, levhd foe reads
sod beids44aut tbsy did migkot Iss the high salmi* of the
county and the impasse ef the eshambaisty ems.
blishment, ought ale by govertansent,. When
the Bill skald be folly nadir the emedieradon
die house, he should give le beet oonsideradan, and he
hopedevils under it was the ammensmemat at a remedy for many of
tbe Oki adisd.

Mr. GRATTAN greatly a ____ve lof making the land-
lords of Ireland pay the rates ivatNued of the occupying te-
nants.
Mr. LEADER said the Gond Jury sytem in Ireland had
bees abused to a frightful extent. It was made a source of
hereditarypatronage of a Mud Meet burdensome to the
essuiry. If there was not scenunty in the Grand Jury nei-
ther rent or tithes would be peaks bid.
Mr. BLACKNEY bad beau a OMNI' Juror of the county
he had the beam to remain (Ceelowitsithad witnessed
the genet osempties. srldeb was as rooted In the
system, that he believed It mild bo wag to reform
001,...tir1i
it. He thole& A their pr 'amid be before the
pubik I no hale and noun work. would be dope
well laibitionado of band wWiout ty.
Ia'AItALI.T.OVDT said. she ample wA=l op...mina
esenosmg sew.gment viand Jury vacua a gross op-
pernioni, foi whisk the ban remedy wooed be exposing the
pehlelalle lie the Owed Jury to the public cm
Lewes_ was given to being in the Bill.
Mr. MEAL Ira s& up the report of the Committee
atiLtigya_fer granting 113,0001. far Windsor Castle and
House.—Agreed to.
Thlic Works (Ireland) Bill was rood a third tine,
and passed.
TU Chorkka Inquiry BID was read a third time, and
pausal.
On the motion of Mr. CAMPBELL, the Interpleader
Bill was rood a snood time, and ordered to be committed
on Tuesday.
The other orders of the day were disposed of, and the
House adjourned at half pest twelve.

Three contested elections at this time sgita.e
large masses of the perdition—that between Al-
derman Key and Aldermen Laurie for the civic
chair next year, that between Mr. Ponsonby and'
Lord Ashley for the iof Dorset, and that
for the county of Pembroke, the candidates fur
which hart not yet been publicly announced,
though it is supposed they will be the same as in
the last contest. Mr. Greville was a great fa-
vourite through the county, and lost the election
by a few votes, owing to circumstances which have
been fully exposed before the committee of the
Moose of Commons. The next great contests will
probably be for Dublin and Liverpool.