Mr Peel in introducing the bill, "was lost in the obscurity CHAP. of forgotten time." XX. 1824. 30. on the This question of the Alien Act is generally the object of fierce contest in Parliament, because its exercise may Reflections occasion the removal of popular or royalist leaders in Alien Act. other countries, who have become refugees in this, and whose fate naturally excites commiseration and interest with persons of the same opinions on this side of the Channel. Yet is the true principle which should regulate the matter noways difficult of discovery, and, as usual in such cases, it is to be found in the mean equally distant from the extremes on either side. On the one hand, it is perfectly true, as contended by the opponents of the bill, that it is of the utmost moment that some asylum should exist in Europe for persons who have been stranded in the stormy sea of politics, and with whom such a retreat is an exchange for imprisonment or the scaffold; and so various now are the mutations of fortune, that it is hard to say which of the parties that now divide the world has most interest in the maintenance of such an asylum. On the other hand, it is equally clear that the refugees who obtain the benefit of such an asylum are bound not to abuse the privileges conferred upon them, and, above all, not to convert the resting-place they have acquired into a workshop for exciting sedition and revolution in this and adjoining states. When the exiles who approach our shores, whether royalist or republican, forget this, their first obligation, and make London the centre from which firebrands and bombs are scattered in every direction, they cannot be surprised, and have no right to complain, if they are removed from the asylum, the obligations of which they have so entirely forgotten. And as long as free discussion in Parliament and a free press exist in this country, there is little danger of the powers conferred upon Government to check such an evil being abused. CHAP. XX. 1824. 31. formity of measures. 1 5 Geo. IV. c. 74. Among the important Acts of this session of Parliament must not be omitted one for establishing a uniformity of weights and measures over the whole empire, Act for uni- which passed both Houses and received the royal assent.1 weights and The old denominations were retained, but they were reduced to uniformity by being all fixed on one standard, and to some degree of certainty by being based on natural divisions. There can be no doubt that this was a very great improvement, although the tenacity of the people, especially in rural districts, to the old measures has prevented the imperial measure, even to this day, coming into universal use. It is only to be regretted that the same simplicity has not been extended to the current coin of the realm by the adoption of the decimal division-a change of all others the most easy to be effected, since it requires nothing but withdrawing the half-crowns from circulation and substituting in their room the new florin, and dividing the shilling into ten pennies instead of twelve: no very arduous undertaking, and attended with obvious benefit in money transactions and the simplification of accounts. 32. reform. A matter of much importance in the internal legislaChancery tion of England was brought before Parliament this year, in regard to which Government wisely conceded a committee of inquiry. This was the administration of justice in the Court of Chancery, in regard to which the most serious charges of delay, expense, and endless multiplicity of proceedings were alleged. There can be no doubt that these complaints were too well founded; and the fact is, that the evils existing in this department were so enormous that the only surprising thing is that they were so long tolerated. Probably this was owing to the usual disposition of party men to make use of existing abuses as an engine of attack against obnoxious individuals, rather than set about their removal with a sincere desire for the public good. The prominent position which Lord Eldon had held for nearly a quarter of XX. 1825. a century in the Government, and the lead he had CHAP. always taken in opposing Catholic emancipation and the chief liberal measures of the day, had rendered him in an especial manner the object of obloquy and attack. Thus all the delays which existed in the Court of Chancery and the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords, of which the Chancellor was the head, which were certainly very great, were ascribed to his indecision and want of vigour in the despatch of cases, when, in fact, it arose from the enormous increase of business in every department during the period that he held the seals, which had more than tripled. A parliamentary committee at once 1 Ann. Reg. ascertained this to be the case, and collected much valu- 71. able information in regard to this supreme court.1* 1824, 67, 33. press the The eminently prosperous state of the country in every branch of industry during the first three quarters of 1825 Bill to supleft the Opposition no ground for complaint or debate in Catholic Great Britain, and the whole attention of Parliament Association. was fixed on Ireland, which afforded in every department a fruitful field for discussion. The Catholic Association presented the first object of attack, for it had grown up with a rapidity quite unexampled, and had now assumed the most gigantic proportions. It was justly deemed inconsistent with anything like government, for it had come to assume the functions both of the Legislature and the Executive, and even exercised a dangerous, and, in many instances, most pernicious influence over the verdicts of The parliamentary committee collected very curious and valuable statistical information in regard to the progress of business in the Court of Chancery and House of Lords during the preceding half-century. -Parliamentary Report, March 6, 1825; Ann. Reg., 1824, pp. 67, 68. VOL. IV. C XX. 1825. CHAP. juries and the decisions of the courts of law. Mr Goulburn, early in the next session of Parliament, brought forward a bill for its suppression, which was supported by Government, and resisted by the whole strength of the united Whig and Roman Catholic party. It gave rise to animated debates in both Houses, interesting from the ability displayed on both sides, and valuable from the information they afforded, and the light they threw on Irish affairs at this important crisis of their history. 34. On the part of Administration, who brought forward Argument the bill, it was contended by Mr Goulburn, Mr Peel, against the Mr North, and Mr Canning: "This Association is Association, really and bond fide acting as the representative of the of Ministers Catholic pays Irish people, and as such it is enacting rules, promul- XX. 1825. ings, infinitely more serious than anything which is done CHAP. in Dublin itself. The objects and measures of the Association are continually changing; no man can say what they are or will be but be they what they may, they are implicitly followed out by the whole agitators. Their language becomes more violent every day it is the nature of such associations to generate vehemence. They cannot remain stationary. Non progredi est regredi. 35. "Is it possible that any man, looking at the Catholic Association at the means, the power, and the influence of Continued. which it is acknowledged to be in possession; at the vast authority with which it is armed, and the acts it has done, and is doing-can seriously think of giving stability and permanence to its existence? Self-elected, self-controlled, self-assembled, self-adjourned, acknowledging no superior, tolerating no equal, interfering in all stages with the administration of justice, denouncing individuals publicly before trial, re-judging and condemning those whom the law has absolved, menacing the independent press with punishment, and openly announcing its intention to corrupt that part of it which it cannot intimidate, and for these and other purposes levying contributions on the whole people of Ireland,-is this an Association which, from its mere form and attributes, independent of any religious question, the legislature can tolerate? 36. "Ireland is sharing the general prosperity. The indications of that prosperity, and the extension of it to Continued. Ireland, are known to every person throughout the country. But does that circumstance disprove the malignity of an evil which retards the increase of that prosperity, by rendering its continuance doubtful?-which puts to hazard present tranquillity, and disheartens confidence for the future?—which, by setting neighbour against neighbour, and arousing the prejudices of one class of the inhabitants against the other, diverts the minds of both from profitable occupations, and discourages agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and all the arts of peace-every |