The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-22 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Parliament, to be styled—The Parliament of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland."
ARTICLE FOURTH.—" That it be the fourth article of Union,
that four Lords Spiritual of Ireland by rotation of Sessions,
and twenty-eight Lords Temporal of Ireland elected for life
by the peers of Ireland, shall -be the number to sit and vote
on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords of the Parlia-
ment of the United Kingdom • and 100 Commoners, (two for
each county of Ireland, two For the city of Dublin, two for
the city of Cork, one for the University of Trinity College,
and one for each of the 31 most considerable cities, towns,-
and boroughs,) be the number to sit and vote on the part of
Ireland, in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom :
" That such act as shall be passed in the Parliament-of Ireland
previous to the Union, to regulate the mode by which the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, to serve in the Par-
liament of the United Kingdom on the part of Ireland, shall
be summoned and returned to the said Parliament, shall be
considered as forming part of the Treaty of Union and shall be
incorporated in the Acts of the respective Parliaments by which
the said Union shall be rutyied and established.
"That all questions touching the rotation or election of
Lords Spiritual and Temporal of Ireland to sit in the Parlia-
ment of the United Kingdom, shall be decided by the house
of Lords thereof."
- - -

[Tile remainder of this article refers to the form of
ballot in case of equality of votes in the election of tem-
poral peers—to the right of other' Irish peers of being
elected to sit in the House of Commons—to creations
and promotions in the peerage after the Union—to
peerages extinct or in abeyance—to the elections of Mem-
bers to the Houie of Commons, and their qualiticationS.—
to the holding of the first parliament—and to the rank and
precedency of the Irish Lords spiritual and temporal.]

ARTICLE FIFTH.—"That it be the. fifth article of Union, that
'the churches of England and Ireland, as now by-law esta-
blished, be united into one Protestant episcopal church, to be
called The United Church of England and Ireland; and that
the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the said
United Church shall be, and shall remain in fullforce for ever,
as the same are now by law established for the Church of
England; and that the continuance and preservation of the
said United Church, as the established Church of England and
Ireland, shall be deemed and taken to be an essential and fiznda-
mental part If the Union; and that in like manner the doc-
trine, worship, discipline, and government of the Church of
Scotland, shall remain and be preserved as the same are now
established by law, and by the acts for the Union of the two
Kingdoms of England and Scotland."
ARTICLE SlXTH—regulates the commercial intercourse between
the two countries under countervailing duties, for limited pe-
riods, all which have long since elapsed. To this article are
attached two Schedules of the Duties which were payable re-
spectively in Great Britain and Ireland.
ARTICLE SEVENTH—regulates the interest and sinking fund of
the public debt separately for each Kingdom—and the future
expenditure of the United Kingdom.
ARTICLE Eloirn—retains the Laws and Courts of justice in
each Kingdom as before the Union.

Then follow the three supplementary articles.
FIRST ARTICLE.—" And whereas the said articles having, by
address of the respective Houses of Parliament in Great BIT-.
tain and Ireland, been huiriblY laid before Isis Majesty, his
Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve the same;
and to recommend it to his two Houses of Parliament in
' Great Britain and Ireland to consider of such measures as
may be necessary for giving effect to the said articles : in
order, therefore, to give full effect and validity to the same,
be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and tempo-
ral, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and
by the authority of the same, That the said foregoing recited
articles, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM, according to the true
import and tenor thereof; be ratified, confirmed, and approved,
and be, and they are hereby declared to be, the Articles ql the
Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and he same shall be in
force and have effect FOR EVER, from the first day of January
which shall be in the year of our Lord ICjl, provided that
before that period an act shall have been passed by the Par-
liament of Ireland, for carrying into effect, in the like man-
ner, the said foregoing recited articles."
SECOND ARTlCLE.—[Reciting the required Act of the Itish
Parliament.]—" And whereas an Act, intituled, An Act to
regulate the mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Tempo-
ral, and the Commons, to serve in' the Parliament of the
United Kingdom on the part of Ireland, shall be summoned
• and returned to the said Parliament, has been past by the
Parliament of Ireland ; the tenor whereof is as follows :
" The Lords. Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons
to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the
part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said
Parliament. Whereas it is agreed by the -fourth article of
the Union, that four Lords Spiritual of Ireland, by rotation
of .Sessions, and twenty-eight Lords Temporal of Ireland,
elected for life by the Peers of Ireland, shall be the number
to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom ; and one hundred
Commoners (two for each county of Ireland, two for the city
of Dublin,.two for. the City of Cork, .otie for the College of
the Holy Trinity of Dublin, and one for each of the thirty-
one most considerable cities, towns, and boroughsl_be the
number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of
Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom ;_ be. it
enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with
the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by
authority of the same, -That the -said four Lords Spiritual
shall be taken from among the Lords Spiritual of Ireland in
the manner following; •th'at is to say, That one of the four
Archbishops of Ireland, and three of the eighteen Bishops of
Ireland shall sit in the House of Lords of the United Parlia •
meat in each Session thereof; the said right of sitting being
regulated as between the said Archbishops respectively by a
rotation among the archi-episcopal sees from session to
session, and in like manner that of the Bishops by a like
rotation among the episcopal sees.: That the primate of all
Ireland for the. time being shall sit in the first Session of
the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Archbishop of
Dublin for the time being in the second, the Archbishop of
Cashel for the time being in the third, the Archbishop- of
Tuam for the time being in the fourth, and so by rotation of
Sessions for ever; such rotation to proceed regularly and
without interruption from session to session, notwithstanding
any dissolution or expiration of Parliament: that three suf-
fragan Bishops shall in like manner sit according to rotation
of their sees from session to session in the following order;"

[The act then, at some length gives the following as
the arrangement for the eighteen Bishops:—

•
Bishops cfAKieadtahr,e • ,
ro sit in the
,• • First Session.
and-Derry.
ltaphoe, , )
. .
Limerick, C Second SesSion.
and Droinore.. ).. . •
Eiphin,
Down, Third Session.
and Waterford. •
Leighliui
• • Cloyne, i Fourth Session.
and Cork, )
•
. . Kilmore, Fifth Session.
and Ciogher,
. .
Ossoi y,
• Killaia, Sixth Session.
and Cionfert,
The remainder of this act relates to the temporal peers
.d .
an other niattitrs immaterial to this question.]

. .
Be it enacted, that the said act" (the required act of the.
Irish l'ariiament), "so herein recited, be taken as a part of
this act," (the act of uulon,) "and to be deemed to all in-
tents alai purposes incorpOrated within the same."
Tit Ili u A!..i.icta:—cinpowefs the King to continue the great seal
and privy council of Ireland, if he shall think fit.

Such is the Act of Union, which it is now sought by
some parties to repeal. Now, if we understand the mat-
ter at issue between His Majesty's Government and the
great "Agitator" it amounts to this. Mr. O'Connell

says--1 want a repeal of the Union. Not that I have
any desire to dissever the interests of the two countries,
or to deprive the King of the allegiance of his Irish sub-
jects—all that I want is to turn the people of the Bank
.of Ireland out of their quarters in College Green, and to
apply the building to its original purpose of a 'Parlia-
ment House,' where I can be Viceroy over the King.
But this I cannot do without a Repeal of the Union; be-

cause the third article declares that there shall only be
one parliament and that must sit in London." To all
which the King's Ministers say—" No—To this project
of yours we will not consent. No act shall be done by
which the Union may be violated—and "—(to use the
words of the Right Honourable Secretary for Ireland,—)
" such an attempt shall be resisted to the death."
This was on Tuesday the sth day of the present month
of February. On that very day week, Tuesday the 12th
of February, the Chancellor of the Exchequer rises in
his place and moves "That leave be given to bring in a
Bill to alter and amend the Laws relating to the Tempo-
ralities of the Church in Ireland."

We refer our readers back to the fourth and fifth
articles, together with the two supplementary arti-
cles given above—and we then recommend them to
turn to the plan of the noble lord, so far as it was
developed in.the course of the debate upon his motion.
Having directed their attention to these points, and
reminding them that this plan has the full sanction of
Mr. Stanley, we are free to confess—whatever may be
their opinions—that our capacities are not equal t o the
comprehension of the English language, and to the or-
dinary plain meaning of words and sentences, if Lord
Althorp's proposition be not, in its nature, the most
direct and flagrant violation of the Act of Union, which
it is in the power of man to devise.

That Mr. O'Connell and the abettors of revolution who
act with him should have heard the communication with
boundless and extravagant joy---4 joy that is well de-
scribed by one who was present on the occasion, as " ex-
pressed by sounds resembling much more the hideous
cries of demons than the occasional exclamations of a
body of human beings assembled for the discharge of
solemn dnties "—that the announcement should have
been so received by those persons is, we say, in no way
surprising. Had that arch enemy of his country's peace,
Mr. O'Connell been blessed with the gift of foresight,
how effectually could he have relieved himself, his mis-
chievous coAdjutors, and the numerous miserable victims
of his accursed ambition from the stigma which attaches
—justly so, % e admit—to him and to them; and from
the punishme t which now overhangs them, in common
with the enti e population of that ill-fated country, in
the coercive measures directed against it by the Minis-
ters of the Crowii.

Had the learned gentleman conceived it possible that
any set of men, acting as the Ministers of a British King,
could have advanced doctrines and proposed legislative
acts such as he heard on that occasion, we strongly sus-
pect—however little prepared for discretion in his acts
—that the odium which is now equally divided between.
him and them, might, with his consent, have been exclu-
sively borne by the Ministers.
We can hardly suppose it to be the direct intention of
the Ministry to play O'Connell's game; but, in any case,
they are doing so, much more effectually than he could
ever have contemplated as the result of his own acts in
the wildest moment of his life, however supported by his
myriads of slavish followers. The difference between
them is this. He acts either in direct violation, or by,
subtle evasion of the law—they propose to screen them-
selves under its enactments; he openly (if not honestly)
avows his object—they, too cowardly to avow, or too
blind to discover the consequences of their proceedings,
avail themselves of the opportunity of one of the popu-
lar, or mouvement cries of the day to give a vital stab to
the religion which they are sworn to protect; he, for
aught we know to the contrary, may have already passed
the Rubicon—they, in one more step, will have done so
too. Before that step be taken, let, them seriously re-
flect on the force and trnth of that well-known expression
of Virgil,

Facilis descensus Averui ;
Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras,
Mc labor, hoc opus est.

It is needless for us to give the oaths taken by the
Ministers of the Crown, either as members of the senate
or in the character of Privy Councillors. They are well
known to the world. There is another oath, however,
which, although perhaps as well known as theirs, will
here bear repetition ; we mean the solemn oath of their
Royal Master administered at his coronation.

" Archbishop. Will you, to the utmpst of your power, maintain
the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel, and the
Protestant reformed religion established by -law? And will
you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the
churches committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges
as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them'?"
" King. All this I promise to do. After this the King, laying
his hand upon the holy gospels, shall say, The things which
I have here before promised, I will perform and keep: So help
me God.' And then shall kiss the book." •

Whether the Ministers of the Crown are or are not
prepared to violate their own oaths, the future alone can
tell us; we Sincerely hope for the negative of this posi-
tion. But we would intreat them, by all that is due to
their fellow-subjects and to the Crown, to pause before
they incur tilt awful responsibility of placing their
Sovereign in a situation with the sole alternative before
him of violating his oath—that solemn compact between
his God, himself, and his people—or of being again sub-
jected to the revolutionary assaults of "Political Union"
rabbles:

MINISTERIAL TACTlCS.—Pettifogging, we fear, is still
the order of the day. In watching the operations of the
Government, it is impossible not to be struck with the
different aspect which it assumes on different occasions.
Never was an administration bolder, or more dignified,
to all appearance, than that of Lord Grey, when it as-
sailed O'Connell two years agO. But ' never was one
more base or degraded than that same Cabinet when it
fomented the ire and nursed the strength of the English
Political Unions.

It has been a consequence of this imbecile and dis-
honourable vaf_illation, that we have now reached a point
at which it has been found necessary to resortto measures
far more severe than any which the Tories ever felt
themselves called upon td'. propose. We do not blame-
the Government for this severity : we hold it, at the
time, wholesome and just : but we blame them for the
antecedent weakness' arid dishonesty of conduct which
has, at length, made thi§ severity indispensable.

At the same time, however, with their measures of
coercion, and by way, we suppose, of rendering them