The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-26 00:00:00

present instance, only eight d

would, howev

Tuesday upon th.

Their lordships then adjourn

HOUSE OF COMMONS

Lord PALMERS

)N, in reply to a question from Mr. Glac

said, that Colonel St&hard; who had been placed
hara, had not yet been released. It was
Want colonel that he might have been

honourable to tl
released through the intervention of the minister of a foreign
power, who happened to be at Bokhara at the time, but he
refused to avail himself of such interference, on the ground
that, as being on business for the British nation, it would
not be right to seek redress through the medium of any but

his own governs

by Lord tALMERSTON, that application had been made to
France, to the German confederation, to Prussia, and the

United Stat,

stem of inter-

national copyright, but from n

e of them had a satisfactory

of petitions were presented fo
bill for amendin

Lord MOP

the registration o

voters in Ireland

Lord STANLEY I

tion from Belfast, agreed

to at a pul

meetir
rd Morpe

at which 4,000 'persons, were present

against ......... —,... .Lne petition had in one mom,
obtained 86,000 Signatures, amongst which
havinz interest in ""d to the extent of £1,660,000.
_aord S 4 '" eccition signed by 27,000 inhL
bit.-' f whom attached the name of their

parties

Lord SANDON
ants of Liver

y prayed the house not to

sanction the re
(Hear.) The r
in five days. (

Dy Lord Morpeth,

ord Said the signatures wer

.11 obtained

RS (IRELAND) BILL

Lord MORPETH t

;econd reading of the
(Ireland) bill.

quklification
Lord STA:

NLEY oppos

I the bill in a `
most able and argu-
was loudly cheered throughout. If

le mai

.ed as reg

IT which it was

give to tt

should have

felt it to be in:

atioa a

Decting registr

r of an amend-
respect to the

retend to

government, but be

Id be satisfactory withot

ich had only been t

uestion for four years,

county. This was indeed admitting universal suffrage in the
Irish counties. The bill was also a violation of the Roman
Catholic relief act, by repealing the bill which accompanied
it, for although it did not restore the 40s freeholders, yet it
established a franchise in every way infinitely more objection-
able. He could well understand how this bill would be sup-
ported by a section of the supporters of her Majesty's go-
vernment, but he could not understand bow it could be sup-
ported by those who had always professed to consider the
reform bill as a final settlement of the elective franchise.
The hon. and learned gentleman was loudly cheered from
both sides of the house at the close of his remarkably effec-
Igmary benefits I tive sum

Mr. MACAULAY insinuated that the bill of Lord Stanley
could be considered only as a disfranchisement bill in dis-
guise, while the object of the measure of his noble friend
(Lord Morpeth) was to keep out bad voters and let in good
ones. If the former bill was intended to curtail the franchise
of Ireland it was quite worthy of the abilities of the noble
lord who introduced it ; but if it was introduced for the pur-
pose of guarding against fraud and perjury he could not find
any more proper appellation by which to designate the mea-
sure than that it was eminently childish. He denied that the
clause•relating to the franchise was a tack to the Registration
Bill, which was professedly the principal measure. On the
contrary, the definition of the franchise was, in his opinion,
the very essence of the measure under consideration.

At the conclusion of the right hon. gentleman's speech
Mr. BROTHERTON moved the adjournment of the debate
until Wednesday, which was immediately acceded to, and
the house adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS—WED?;ESDAY
The house did not sit to-night.

HOUSE OF COMMONS-WEDNESDAY

Lord STANLEY postponed the second reading of his Irish
registration bill until Friday, not with the intention of then
bringing it on, but he should by that time be prepared to say
when he would bring it forward.

The discussion upon Lord Morpeth's bill was then resumed
by Mr. BROTHERTON, who briefly contended that it would
give general satisfaction to the people of England and Ire-
land, and unite the two countries in a closer and better un-
derstanding than that which had heretofore prevailed
Mr. MILNES contended that the present bill had been
brought forward, nut with any hope or intention that it should
become law, but with some,ulterior view, of which they were
at liberty to judge. If the noble lord (Morpeth) really wished
to benefit Ireland the most efficient way of doing so would be
by the extension of that system of education which his'noble
friend Lord Stanley had conferred upon that country.
Sir Was. SOMERVILLE in reply to the argument of Lord
Stanley that if this franchise was given to Ireland, it must be
extended to England also, observed that he had never heard
it urged as an objection to an English bill that its benefits
ought not to be given to England, because they would, in
that case, be obliged to extend it to Ireland. It the argu-
ment was good for anything, why was it that the principles of
the municipal bill for England had not been extended in as
full measure to Ireland. The bill of the noble lord the mem-
ber for North Lancashire would, in effect be a total denial of
the franchise to all but the wealthier classes of society, while
that of his- noble friend Lord Morpeth would, without very
materially enlarging the franchise, give general satisfaction
He could not help remarking that the noble lord (Stanley)
upon his own showing, would enfranchise one class, because
they were at the beck of their landlords, at the

ry• momen

he Was condemning the enfranchisement of
they should be at the beck of their landlords
Mr. Sergeant JACKSON very warmly eulogised the
of Sir Wm. Follett, and said that he never was more sur
prised than at hearing it replied to by the right hon. gentle
man opposite (Mr. Macaulay), in a speech which he mus
characterise as a mere piece of empty and frothy declama
tion. He thought every man attached to a monarchical go
vernment, and who was anxious to prevent its being
swamped by the democracy of the country, was bound to
throw the bill of the noble Secretary for Ireland out of the
house upon that—its second reading.

otherclass, les

Mr. SLANEY was of opinion that the £5 franchise was
too low, but still they ought to go into committee, as the
principle was good, and, by mutual concession, they might
be enabled to adopt a proper amount of value upon which to
found their right of voting.
Mr. THESSIGER observed that, if the present bill were
defeated, it did not follow that the evils of the present sys-
tem of registration would not be corrected, for, in that
event, his noble friend (Lord Stanley) would persevere with
his measure. It would be almost impossible to remedy the
evils that must necessarily flow from the introduction of the
bill of the noble Secretary for Ireland. It -could not fail to
raise expectations which could not be gratified, and a new
pretext had been given to Ireland for continuous agitation.
Mr. C. BULLER was satisfied that, however bad as might be
the bill of the noble lord (Stanley), it possessed the re-
deeming feature of having forced the government to bring in
a good one. The hon. gentleman endeavoured to show that
Lord Stanley, by his bill, did define the Irish franchise,
though by a very roundabout and in a very highly objection-
able manner. The noble lord would leave it to the judges to
' • '

ilvent tenant" or " beneficia

:crest" qualification, it being al

ay known that ten out a

the 12 judges were in favour of the " solvent tenant" qualifi-
cation, which would give the more restricted franchise. Thus
in effect he was giving to Ireland the " the solvent tenant"
franchise through the medium of the judges, instead of re-
sorting to the more legitimate mode of defining it by an
act of parliament. He was thus also exposing the judges to
the charge, which would be invariably made against them, of
being influenced by. political bias. If, in consequence of the
defeat of the bill before the house, the government should
quit office, it would be but a very short time before a very
liberal government, indeed would be called into power. The
bill would be a banner under which t►ie people would seek
to re-establish a liberal administration. The measure of the
noble lord (Stanley), he contended, was an attempt at a re-
trograde movement—to establish, in fact, the old Orange
ascendancy in Ireland. It might be easy to pass one bill,
and to reject another, in the House of Peers ; and hon. mem-
bers on the opposition side were too, much in the habit of
imagining that the matter was to be decided in that house
by the result of a few elections, or by the balance of influence
in their favour on the night of a division ; but the fact was

led, not by