The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-06-19 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

1,7-.T‘ :
.'47: UP
4.,"":7-',
4,\1.2,q.41 e. 'l.
• ,t":- 'P I 't il_
"40 ..4 `<rdel.sAr.l- t
I <)::'
,'*-. 41.4,,i5!t .II
', \ \ -

~'" ~'
-: /O,

MUNICIPAL REFORM—THE TEN POUND
QUALIFICATION.
(From itlus Dublin Evening Mail.)

In a second edition of the Mail or Wednesday we an-
nounce that Lord John Russell had carried his motion
for fixing the rate of franchise in Ireland at five pounds ;
and we gave for the benefit of our town readers a❑ ad
mirable synopsis of the debate from the Times of Tues-
day. . .

Mr. O'Connell,. when in the year 1325 was playing
the game-of conciliation, and worming himself and his
party into the unsuspecting confidence of Protestant
Britain, stated—as his reason for recommending the cur-
tailment of the popular franchise—the necessity of so
doing " for the purpose of securing the established re,
ligion in Ireland; and I would further recommend," he
emphatically adds, " that no concession whatever be
made to the Roman Catholics unless the establishment
in Ireland be rendered inviolable."

But in 1835, when the conservatives are anxious to
pass a measure which he himself demands as " an instal-
ment of justice to Ireland"—and when-they seek to re..
concile the concession of privileges to Roman Catholics
with security for Protestants and the Established Church,
by limiting the municipal privilege within a bona- fide
£lO qualification—Mr. O'Connell turns upon his heel,
and atfec:•: to think and persuade others, that there is no
connection between the popular franchise in Ireland and
the security of the Established Church !
His new doctrine is best answered by a reference to
his old.

He takes a further objection to the value and mode of
rating proposed by Sir Robert; and it has been argued
by him and others, in the House of Commons, against
the adoption of a £lO corporate franchise in Ireland,
founded on the valuation to be made under the Irish poor
law, that the rent value under that enactment n'ust be
considerably less than the actual value, as it is to be made
on the assumption that all " rates, taxes, and public
charges, if any, except tithes, and the probable average
annual cost of the repairs, insurance, and other expenses,
if any, necessary to maintain the hered►taments in their
-actual state," are to be paid by the tenant. .

Now we undertake Co show that this mode of rating
and ascertaining value is the best'and safest towards the
interests of all parties concerned that could be devised;
for these'reasons, viz.:—

This liability of the tenant must lessen the valuation,
instead of increasing it. If the landlord keep a house in
repair, insure it, and pay taxes on it, it is clearly worth
moie.to the tenant than if the tenant had to make all
these disbursements.

The meaning of the clause (56) in the Irish poor law,
is, that in valuing premises, the actual annual rent value
should be ascertained, without reference to taxes and
contingencies; and the latter have been very erroneously
-toed in the Commons: they ought not have been spoken
of as tending to increase value unless assumed to be
charges on the landlord; while they are to be treated as
tenant's charges they abate rent value, and thus a 1.:5
tent value (now proposed to be adopted) will enfranchise
the occupiers of tenements of a very low kind—the class
of tenants whose landlords usually pay taxes and. cost of
repairs, and whose rents therefore exceed the actual rent
ralne more (proportionably) than those of_any higher
order of tenants.

The poor law valuation must become the best crite-
rion of value, and will, in most cases, be nearly equal to
the actual rent, because the landlord being made liable to
the poor rates jointly with the tenant, and their share
being increased beyond one-half on every shilling of
rent over the rent value, they will take care to have the.
valuation as high as circumstances will permit.
In clause 65, it is provided that the tenant may deduct
" for each pound of the rent he shall be liable so to pay,
one, half of the sun: which he shall have paid as rate in
respect of each pound of the net annual value. Sup-
pose the net annual value to be £lO, and the rate to he
Bd. in the pound, there should then be deducted 4d. for
every pound of the actual rent ; therefore, if the latter
were to be £2O, the whole rate of 6s. Bd. would fall on
the landlord; it is thus manifestly the landlord's interest
to keep the rent value up to the actual rent, if possible,
otherwise he would always have to pay more than half
the poor-rate. On the other hand, the tenant has a di-
rect advantage in keeping down the valuation.
The poor law valuation will thus become the best cri-
terion of value ever adopted; but this renders it the
more dangerous to fix on a low rate of value for the cor-
porate franchise; one of £5 will admit the occupiers of
the very lowest cabins in the suburbs of our towns.
But that which to us forms a valid objection is to Mr.
'O'Connell the chief recommendation of a low rate. He
complains vehemently, and has laboured to impress on
the house, that if Sir Robert Peel's amendment be car-
ried, and the franchise be a ten pound one, the constitu-
ency in Dublin would be so narrowed that it would be a
farce. See, sai4.l he, what a constituency your reform
bill has given us; Dublin, with a population of 300,000
souls, has only a household constituency of 2,500. N'AV,
according to Sherraril's valuation, made in 1830, there
are 14,113 houses of upwards of ten pounds value in
Dublin, and there are therefore (except where females
are the owners) that number of persons at the least qua-
lified to register—the barristers having decided that
lodgers are entitled to register. Unless, therefore, Mr.
O'Connell introduces a claus,. to compel parties to re
Oster whether they like it or not, we don't see what can
be done.

Another crux may arise from the unwillingness of the
favoured towns to accept a corporation at all. There is
now a requisition published in the Galway papers, call-
ing on the inhabitants to meet for the purpose of consi-
dering the project of municipal reform—and we under-
stand, from credible authority, that the intention of the
inhabitants is to reject the extention to them of munici-
pal privileges altogether. Now Galway is one of the
eleven towns named in the schedule. It contains a po-
pulation of 22,000 souls, almost exclusively Roman Ca-
tholics—and if they do not desire a corporation at tzil, it
is pretty evident Sir Robett's proposition cannot be con-
sidered as an insult to the Roman Catholics. There are
not three hundred Protestants in the whole town.

That the ten pound qualification—tested by some un-
erring rate—will finally be carried, we have no more
doubt than that the appropriation of tithes has been
abandoned as hopeless.

POPERY.
(From a Correspondent of the Carlisle Patriot.)
As the Patriot, a few weeks since, contained an arti-
cle exposing the iniquity of Popery at the present day,
'published by a recent convert from that faith, perhaps
you will not object to receive a slight insight into the
mysteries of the soul-degrading system, from a book
published by a convert in former times. On looking
over my books the other day E happened to find a work
published in London in the year 1674, which contains
some curious particulars respecting- Popery, a few of
• which it may be profitable to extract at the present mo-
ment. The work is entitled " The Book of Rates now
used in the Sin Custom-house of the Church and Court
..of -Rome, containing the bulls, dispensations, and par-
dons, for all manner of villanies and wickednesses, with
the several sums of monies given and to be paid for
-therm Published by Anthony Egane, 8.D., late Con-
'fessor General of the Kingdom of Ireland, and now,
through the mercy of God, minister of the Gospel ac.
cording to the reformed religion." [t is evident that,
from the office which he held, there could be no better
authority upon the subject than the author. He says, in
his address to the reader—
I hope you will be so charitable as to believe it is neither gain
nor advantage bath invited me to lay open this warehouse, and
thus to publish the merchandise of the popish market, nor any
hope thereby of supporting my own interest, (since I know well
enough havinsany enemies a work of this nature will make me
among some men,) it being only to let the world see that the
abuses that were long since discovered in the Pope's dispensa-
tions. are yet still in being; as is visible enough by the rules
and imposts of their chancery, being neither imaginary, nor yet
forged upon the anvil of malice as some persons will be ready to
persuade those poor souls, who never had any knowledge of the
etroartrz; tions of the court of Rome, nor of the nature of its
a great part of these papers I cannot command at pre-
sent, by reason of my absence from my native country, or else
wld have inserted them all which would have farther laid
"AlloPh•ir abominable practices, though
perhapsthis may be
too much sonauseous subject
-1,..1:-P1 doubt, will disown it, and say that tii.i)s is a mere pae

fiction, and that such things are not practised in their church,
but. I am ready to prove by tw..tmwo knowledge and experience,
all t linre allege to be true, and able to make good, that all the
arts of man could not have invented more gross or .villainnus
sins than the Popish clergy do put to sale, so that none but these
shrinemakers which maintain their worldly pomp and greatness
by such handicrafts, could have invented such a way of wiping,
out sins so deitructive to a good life, and the main design of
the christian religion, so that if you will but examine, and.seri-
ously consider the particulars, you will easily be convinced
that none but themselves could be the authors of it. I can
safely say that there are hundreds even of the ordinary priests,
that know not what it means, because that these Arcata Imperil
are always kept close from them and reserved on purpose for
certain persons called Apostolic Penitentiaries, to whom- the
absolution of particular and heinous sins is .committed, (as it
was to myself in Ireland within these four years,) and of such
persons there may be one or two in every city or diocese which
before they received that power, must take an oath of secrecy
never to reveal the mysteries of their church, and to keep them
from the -knowled,e, not only of the laity, but also of the ordi-
nary priests and friars, and especially from any man that is sus-
pected to be of so acute parts, or of,so much learning or honesty
as might make him scruple their authority.

The following are a few of the long list of offences
contained in the hook, with the price of absolution
marked against each :

If a married man attempts to kill his wife, and
effects it not, and that he hath not promised mar-
riage to another, he may have a dispensation to
marry another after the death of the first, for £92 2 6
Ile that wounds an abbot, or principal person of
any order, must pay
If a bishop, it shill•be
But if one lay-man wounds another, he is par-
doned for 0 0 6

A murderer having taken his first orders, can
have a dispensation for •holding one simple bene-
fice, and ir that be not sufficient, he may have two

or three, hiring his pardon for murder he fi,ith
committed for l2 5 6

But if he will have the privilege of the clergy he
roust pay
zilf it be with the inhibitory clause it will cost 30 7 6
Dispensations and pardons for bishops or abbots
or such prelates, for wilful murders, are 5O 12 6
Foe priests and ordinary clergymen
For an -ordinary man which hath•committed mur-
der Is. rated at will, according to the circumstances
of the place and time, and as the prelates shall
think fit —

11 any person killed or murdered his own wife, it
shall be rated as that of patricide, viz. 4 1 8
And if he who hath murdered his own wife, and
married' another, his dispensation is 8 2 9
The dispensation of an oath, or contract being
fiven to the end one may not be driven or expelled
rom his occasions or employments, will be had for 72 3
A licence for abbess, and three or foul' of her nuns
together with so many jocund friars to go abroad in
the country, to 'see some lands'and tenements, be-
.

ongin„,,, to the mother abbess, and there to recreate
:hemselves for a week or two, will cost 24 6 0

A precious system, truly.