The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-19 00:00:00

To pat.= end to such airmail' frauds, Lord Stanley
proposed lin annual revision of the- registry, instead of
allowing all the names once placed upon the list to remain
there without any opportunity of a rectifying revision for
eight years. On this point Lord Stanley proposes to trans-
fer to Ireland the system now in operation in England. You
know what that system is, and that no practical inconveni-
ence is found to arise from the annual liability to revision of
every name on the list. The names of those who are known
to be the same persons, and to have the same qualifications,
remain unmolested, on the simple payment of a shilling an-
nually, which is charged regularly by the collector of taxes,
and the honest bona fide voter has no trouble whatever. The
The names of those who have died, or whose qualification
has in any way lapsed, in the course of the year, are removed
from the list, while the event is of recent occurrence, and
matter of notoriety among the attendant listeners and wit-
nesses in the revising barrister's court. This is an ordeal
through which dishonesty on a large scale cannot live.
Michael may pass for Tom at an election, after three or four
years have passed, without inquiry, but Michael can never
successfully pass for Tom, if there be a rectifying scrutiny
once a year, and of course within a year after Tom's death.
(Loud cheers.)
Approving of the straightforward, honest, and as we think
effectual proposal of Lord. Stanley, we petitioned last year
in favour of it ; and we had the gratification of seeing it
supported and affirmed by a majority of the House of Com-
mons. You are all aware of the species of opposition which
has retarded it from becoming the law of the land. (Hear.)
And now we have the bill introduced by Lord Morpeth, who
said when introducing it—
" As to the periods of revision, he was willing to let it be
once a-year, as in this country, and as the noble lord (Stan-
ley) has proposed in his bill."
So far well. Here is the ministerial adoption, in name at
least, of one of the important provisions of Lord Stanley's
bill—an annual revision—but we are compelled by what fol-
lows to declare that theadoption is in name only and not in sub-
stance ; because the limitation which Lord Morpeth proceeds
to propose would go fur towards neutralizing the benefit.
His lordship says—" When a voter was once on the registry,
he (Lord Morpeth) proposed to have his claim reviewed for
any change made in his tenure or his franchise ; but if no-
thing occurred to disturb that—if it remained the same as
when he registered—he would not make his right to vote sub-
ject to any further disturbance. He did not go with his noble
friend (Lord Stanley) in rendering the voter liable to be dis-
turbed, year after year, upon a point which had been already
decided and settled, and thus to go on to the end of all re-
corded time."
The limitation here described leaves an open door for frau-
dulent personation. Lord Morpeth proposes an annual revi-
sion where there has been an)t change in the qualification;
but where the qualification remains the same, he refuses an
annual revision of the persons claiming to vote upon that
qualification. He refuses to subject the living Michael to
the annual embarrassment of passing himself for the dead
Tom. The qualification upon which Tom voted remains
the same, but Tom himself is dead, or gone to Australia
for life. Michael calls himself Tom, and claims to
vote on the same qualification, and where the qualifica-
tion is the same Lord Morpeth refuses to allow the vo-
ters to be liable to be disturbed from year to year, by
an inconvenient secretary. Here is a fruitful source of
fraud ! The tenure is the same, and the noble secretary's
bill contains no provision to give security that the voter shall
be the same. Certificates are not necessary for personation.
Personal identity is a thing easily manufactured in foro
ecclesice. Lord Morpeth's bill leaves the platform for the
puppets untouched; the secret wires and springs of the
priesthood unbroken. Hence, the Agitator calls it a bless-
ing to Ireland. But Lord Stanley, by opening the whole
list annually, and making the persons liable to be disturbed,
if they turned out not to be the same persons, aims a deadly
blow at the craft. Hence the rage and fury of the dema-
gogue, who, after all, is but the puppet of the hierarchy on a
more elevated stage. Hence his pent-up venom gathering a
characteristic title from within, and applying it in the reck-
lessness of a seared conscience, to the intrepid adversary
whose skill has pierced the core of the corruption. The
monster of Romish usurpation and tyranny is stung, and,
therefore, the champion of British liberty and independence
is Scorpion Stanley. (Loud cheers.)
The next point deserving attention, and the gravamen of
the ministerial bill, is the proposed change of the qualifica-
tion from a £lO to a £5 franchise. This would add amazingly
to the number of the puppets, and greatly facilitate the manu-
facture of personal identity. This is much too serious a
matter to be slipped in, under the fair title of defining the
franchise. To define how £lO should be understood as en-
titling to the franchise, is one thing ; and to change it into
£5 is quite another thing. True, it is accompanied by a de-
scription of how the --05 is to be understood—namely, as the
value on which a rating to the poor law is to be paid ; but
this instead of supplying any compensation for the sweeping
change from £lO to L 5, deteriorates the qualification below,
much below, otherwise understood. It extends the fran-
chise to a class lower, much lower, than the old disfranchised
forty shilling freeholders. (Hesr, hear.)
At the risk of being tedious, I wish to give you a slight
sketck of how this would work.
Michael. Cassidy lives in as neat a little cabin as ever was
hollowed out of a bog. Three sides of it are the original bog
faced with fuege bushes, the fourth is made of sods piled one
over another, and pressed together with a few large stones
at the top. The roof is of screws. The apartment is six
feet by four, and contains a bed or shakedown of heather,
two stools, and a fair sized potatoe pot. (Hear, hear.)
Michael has the use of the surrounding mountain, i. e. he
has liberty to run about upon it, and his fine family of chil-
dren have liberty to play upon it ; but all that he can call his
own is a little potatoe garden about three times as big as his
house. (Cheers.)
Soon after the passing of Lord Morpeth's bill, the priest
pays Michael a visit. " Well Michael, have you heard that
the law is changed ?" "Is it, your reverence ?" " Yes—
Have the poor-law valuators been here ?" " No, your re-
verence." '• Well, take care that they shall pay you a
visit. You consider this holding of yours worth £5. don't
you, Michael ?" " Five pound, your reverence ! Och, it's
myself wouldn't give it for fifty, for what would I do without
it ?" " Well, Michael, you are very right to set a high value
on fatherland, and to speak your mind freely to me ; but you
must not speak so free to the poor-law valuators. All you
need to tell them is. that your place is worth five pound—
leave the rest to me." Michael, with a knowing shrug and
wink, says—" I take, your reverence may depend upon me."
In due time the poor-law valuators visit Michael, who then
feels all his itnportanceas a negociator to carry out the priest's
plan, which he supposes he understands. (Hear.)
" Well, friend, you seem to have but a small place here."
" Yes, your honour, she's small ; but she's good." " What
do you consider this place worth ?'.' " 0 then, is it a poor
man like me that your,honour would ask the value, you that
is paid for taking values ?" " I suppose, friend, that you
consider this place worth five pound?' Michael looks know-
ing and considerate, and then says—" Your honour's a real
judge—five pound is just the value. No one with his eyes
open could say it wasn't worth five pound, if he saw me and
my wife and the four weans lying flown to sleep in it ; and I
am sure no one that considers the oppressions of the poor, as
I am sure your honour does, would put more upon it."
(Hear.)
I will not venture to say whether Michael's eloquence, or
the priest's influence, or both together, or some other in-
fluence connected with the personal interests of the valuators,
have prevailed ; but I will venture so say that in nine such
cases out of ten, the name of the mountaineer would be
entered on the list, and rated to the poor-law. But how is
the rate to be levied ? It is a small matter to be sure. At
sixpence in the pound, it would amount to half-a•crown a
year. But every thing is comparative, and he would be a
clever fellow that would get half-a-crown out of Michael.
He and hundreds like him would be troublesome customers
in the county goal, and all his goods and chattles would not
cover the expence of selling them. What is to be done ?
His name is on the list rated to the poor-law. There are
no payments entered opposite his name, and thus matters
stand when the time for registration comes. Then comes
another visit from the indefatigable Maynooth man :
" Michael, why but you go down and register your name as
a voter for your church and country ? Meet me to-morrow
at the court." " I will your reverence." Down comes
Michael and claims the franchise. The priest is the asses-
sor's assessor, and against any demur arising from Michael's
appearance, his reverence points significantly at the poor-
law list. Here he is rated to the poor-law, and therefore
fully entitled to the franchise. In vain a conservative
attorney urges that Michael has never paid a rate. He is
referred to the act of parliament, which only requires that
the man shall be rated, dnd does not throw such vexatious
difficulties in the way of the franchise, as to require that the
rate should be paid. To do so would be a very great hard-
ship, and could not possibly have been the intention of an
enlightened, liberal, and paternal legislature. (Loud cheers.)
Michael is registered upon the potatoe garden and hut in
the mountain (the name is Clogheen-top) ; and so long as
the qualification remains the same, he is not to be liable to
be disturbed year after year. Michael Cassidy, of Clogheen-
top, is a standing qualification. Clogheen-top remains the
same tenure. in compliance with the requirements of Lord
Morpeth's bill, and we have already seen that the priest is
not absolutely confined to one and the same Michael Cassidy.
No man, with a moderate knowledge of Irish affairs in de-
tail, can doubt that the measure proposed by Lord Morpeth
amounts to a new reform bill. It is a repeal of a measure
substantially a part of the emancipation bill. It is an open-
ing up of the Roman Catholic question. It is a formal re-
moval of some of the securities to the institutions of the
country enacted in 1829. (Hear.)
In that fatal year the King's speech upon the opening of
parliament, aft..r recommending a review of the laws which
imposed civil disabilities on his Majesty's Roman Catholic
subjects, contained these words :
" You will consider whether the removal of those disabili-
ties can be effected consistently with the full and permanent
security of our establishments in church and state, with the
maintenance of the reformed religion established by law,
and of the rights and privileges of the bishops and of the
clergy of this realm, and of the churches committed to their
charge

" these are institutions which must ever be held sacred
in this Protestant kingdom, and which it is the duty and the
determination of his Majesty to preserve inviolate." (Cheers.)
Of course, for the attainment of this desirable end, some
securities were to be taken, in compensation for the conces-
sions made. I will not trouble you with the oath required
as a security from Roman Catholic members of parliament,
and which is likely to redound to the credit of the sagacity
of British legislation about as much as the trial of the Earl
of Cardigan will redound to the credit of the gravity and
solemnity of the highest court of British jurisprudence. The
oath was no security whatever. In point of fact, the only
real practical security taken, and that which has retarded
the progress of Romish domination, was the disfranchise-
ment of the 40s. freeholders. Sir Robert Peel opened the
intended measure, as part of the general plan which the go-
vernment had formed for the renovation of Ireland, in the
same speech in which he introduced the emancipation bill.
The two measures were to support each other. The minister

told the house, that he would .not ask for disfranchisement,
uniess emancipation were granted; and that if emancipation
were granted, then he could not dispense with disfranchise-
ment. He developed in detail the object and the necessity
of the measure. He shewed that from the period when the
franchise was granted to Roman Catholics in 1793, 40s. free-
holders had been manufactured to such an unnatural amount

as clearly proved they were not the fruit of any constitutional
growth. (Hear, hear.) He compared the number of votes
polled at the contested elections of 1820, in different coun-
ties of England and Ireland :
" In the county of Bedford, 1,000 voters ; in Berkshire,
2,270 ; Devonshire, 6,296 ; Durham, about 3,800 ; Glamor-
ganshire, 1,264; Middlesex, 10,000; Sussex, 5,500; and
W est m orelan d , about 4,370. In many of the Irish counties
there were polled from 10,000 to 18,000. Never was such a
concurrent body of testimony brought to bear upon one point
as was given before the committees of both houses in 1825,
respecting the evils arising from the state of the franchise in
Ireland, by every man who was examined, Catholic or Pro-
testant. 1 .yrnaa or ecclesiastic. The general opinion of the
witnesses so examined had been in favour of raising the fran-
chise to £2O ; but so great a rise he would consider too vio-
lent an alteration, and was inclined to be satisfied with £lO,
as affording a reasonable presumption that the character of
the voters would be raised. It would he necessary to deter-
mine upon some specific mode of ascertaining who were £lO
freeholders,—some tangible method of ascertaining the real
character of the freehold. For this purpose it was proposed,
that after the passing of the bill a day should be fixed in every
county in Ireland, for opening a bond fide registration of £lO
freeholds."

The avowed spirit of this bill was to place the elections
beyond the control of the Romish priests, and it is obvious
that without this bill the emancipation could not have been
passed. Surely, then, if these two bills passed together, as
prts and parcels of the same measure, and if they have
hitherto stood together, it is no more than fair play to de-
mand that they shall still either stand or fall together.
(Loud cheers.)