violated the condition, and for that reason the contract or compact was at an end; they were induced to support the present bill on the ground that the interest of the church had been secured by the Tithe bill, and the individual who possessed more power than any other man had ever possessed in Ireland, told them that this interest of the church should not be secure. The bill being a virtual transfer of the power then possessed by the Protestants into the hands of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, he should move as an amendment that the bill be read a second time that day six months.

Mr. Litton seconded the amend ment. He said it was generally believed that a compact either implied or understood had existed between the government and the conservative party, the object of which was to bring about a satis factory settlement of those Irish questions, the continuel agitation of which was fraught with so much mischief. The hon. member then contended that if there was such a compact, the govern ment by their conduct had broken it, and that therefore this conservative party were in honour and justice relieved from the observation of its conditions any longer.

Mr. Shaw said, that he intended to vote for the second reading without pledging himself as to any of the details of the bill. He felt bound, both by consistency and good faith, to take that course, because he saw the good effects of the Irish Tithe bill, in the increas ed security of the Irish church, and the improved condition of society in Ireland. The Poor-law was, he believed, notwithstanding some drawbacks and difficulties coming into useful operation; at

all events it supplied a safe criterion of franchise. He had not heard any of his hon. friends contend that the Irish corporations could be retained in their present form: for his own part, considering the altered laws and circumstances of Ireland, he thought that object was not possible nor desirable, and from first to last in all the discussions of the subject, he had never either there or elsewhere given a different opinion. It was his positive conviction that the continuance of the Irish corporations in their present decayed and declining state, was rather an injury than a service to the conservative party. He should, therefore, vote for the second reading of the bill, and endeavour in the committee to make considerable amendments in the details to many of which in their present shape he objected.

Mr. Sergeant Jackson said, that he would vote for the second reading, but he would oppose the bill in every subsequent stage unless it were se altered as to satisfy him that it would not convert the municipal corporations in Ireland from Protestant communities into exclusively Roman Catholic institutions.

Mr. O'Connell made a short speech in favour of the bill, in the course of which he said, that if the meaning of the bill were to take power from a Protestant because he was a Protestant, and to give that power to a Catholic because he was a Catholic, he (Mr. O'Connell would oppose it most strenuously, but the complaint under the present system was, that the Roman Catholic did not get that power and privilege which he was justly entitled to. He would instance the city of

Dublin, where for forty-seven years Roman Catholics were eligible to be admitted to the corporation, and notwithstanding that the law permitted their admission, and that there were numbers of Roman Catholics amongst the gentry and merchants and the shopocracy as they were called, and persons connected with the law, yet during those forty-seven years not one of them had been admitted. Let him be shown any provision in that bill which gave a prefer ence in civil rights to a man because he was a Catholic, and no one could be more ready to expunge it.

Sir Robert Peel spoke in favour of the second reading, and said with respect to the fulfilment of the pledge which he had made, for he would not call it a compact, he declared that if there had been a satisfactory Tithe bill passed, and a franchise established on the voting of the Poor-law bill, in that case they could apply themselves to the settlement of the corporation question in a form which would be satisfactory. He had no disposition to say, that the agitation with respect to the Tithe bill released him from that. The right hon. baronet then observed, that he doubted the policy of making the hon. and learned gentleman opposite (Mr. O'Connell) of so much importance, and so far as the operation of the Tithe bill was concerned, he would not so far compliment the hon. gentleman as to say that he had such power over the Catholics of Ireland that they would consent to unsettle the Tithe bill at his suggestion. He (sir Robert Peel) would state why he had adopted a different course with respect to the corporation bill from that which he pursued on a

former occasion. He entertained the opinion that it would be better for Ireland if the people of that country would generally consent to the abolition of corporations, when he found that that course was not satisfactory, and that it was felt as a humiliation and a degradation that there should be any difference between the mode of treating the corporations in Ireland from that which has been adopted in England; he saw that those feelings of dissatisfaction entered as an important element into the question. He had proposed that the existing corporations should be abolished in Ireland, and that no other similar bodies should be established in lieu of them, for he conceived it impossible to proceed with the principle of self election in Ireland after the corporations had been abolished.

The right hon. baronet then proceeded to show that he had on two occasions attempted to establish this principle, but had on both been. left in small minorities. On the motion for the abolition of the corporations in 1836, he and those who agreed with him on the subject were in a minority of 64, and in 1837, when they repeated it, they were in a minority of 88. His conviction was, that he was better consulting the public interests and the Protestant interests of Ireland by assenting to this bill, than if he were to refuse concession to any attempt to settle this question. He doubted whether the establishment of municipal corporations would add much to the political influence of the Catholics. The right hon. baronet then instanced eleven towns which at that time had corporations, and of those eleven towns there was only one that then returned a con

servative member, namely the town of Belfast. He could take all the boroughs which at present return members to Parliament. There were altogether thirty-three borough towns, having corporations which returned members to that town. Now out of these thirty-three towns there were only nine which returned conservative members. He thought, however, that the result arose, not so much from the existence of those corporations as from the extent to which in many of those places the political franchise was in the hands of the Roman Catholics.

Sir Robert Peel then said, "We might by refusing to read this bill a second time give encouragement to agitation, but I think we ought to consent to the second reading of the bill, as we have failed to persuade the people of Ireland that it would be for their interest, for a time at least, that they should be free from those municipal election contests which would go far with social harmony, and interfere with good fellowship amongst the inha bitants of many towns in Ireland. I shall, therefore, vote for the second reading of this bill, and shall enter into the committce with the same feeling with which I give my vote to-night; and with a disposition to use my best exertions to bring this long agitated question to an amicable, a satisfactory, and a final settlement."

Lord John Russell briefly supported the bill, and the house divided on the original question, when the Ayes were 149; Noes 14. Thus the second reading was carried by a majority of 135. Afterwards on the 24th of February the house went into committee on the bill, when several amendments were proposed by Mr. Shaw, Mr. Serjeant Jackson

and others, but they were all negatived.

On the 9th of March viscount Morpeth moved the third reading of the Irish municipal corporation bill, when sir George Sinclair opposed it in a forcible speech, on the ground of a fixed determination on his part, not to strengthen by any act of his the hands of the Roman Catholic faction in Ireland, who, he said, he was persuaded, were unanimous in their wish, and unchangeable in their design to overthrow the edifice of the Protestant established church, for the purpose of building up a Popish fabric on its ruins. In the course of his speech, the hon. baronet said, with reference to the act of Catholic emancipation, that for the sake of contributing as he fondly thought, to the welfare and happiness of Ireland, he forfeited the good-will of an anti-Catholic cabinet, and gave up all hopes of personal advantage by voting in favour of Mr. Grattan's motion in the spring of 1812. But he was compelled to acknowledge with deep humiliation and regret, that many of his predictions had been fulfilled, nor one of his expectations realised. Sir George Sinclair concluded by moving, that the bill be read a third time that day six months.

Mr. E. Tennent seconded the motion and said, that the grounds on which he had, from the very first, resisted the introduction of the measure, and on which he was still as strongly as ever opposed to it, were its practical working, its turmoil excitement and expense, all which were points so objectionable in a mercantile community; and its cumbrous inapplicability at the present day to the objects which it was designed to accomplish and

which could be far more satisfactorily accomplished by simple, cheaper, and more rational arrangements. The hon. Member contended, that the forms of municipal government, however they might have been useful and necessary during the middle ages, had in fact become obsolete and incongruous at the present day, when the functions of municipal government were confined exclusively to those arrangements which essential to the health, the cleanliness and the comfort of the municipal communities. He thought also, that the power enjoyed in these corporations, available for no useful purpose, would not fail to be perverted to political mischief; and the augmenting of that which but too loudly called for diminution, the bitterness of religious and political asperity and contention in Ireland.

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In the course of his speech, the hon. member was proceeding to read an extract which he had cut from a newspaper, when the speaker said, that it was not competent to any hon. member to read a newspaper in the house.

This gave rise to some discussion, when lord J. Russell said, that he must say, that he had seen the reading of such extracts allowed, though it certainly was contrary to the strict rules of the house. If an hon. member made an extract, whether printed or written, whether from a news paper or from a book a part of his speech, be this strict rule what it might, the practice had of late been to leave such a matter to his own discretion. The extract accordingly was read.

Mr. Shaw said, that he should vote for the third reading, both on account of the kind of pledge or

engagement which he conceived had been given by the leaders of the Conservative party; and even if he were free from this, he should say upon the intrinsic merits of the question itself, that he should regard it as more conducive to the public good, and the welfare of Ireland, that the question should be settled on the principles that had been agreed upon by both houses of parliament, than that it should remain any longer in its present unsettled and most unsatisfactory condition. He was free to admit, that he did not approve of the bill in its present shape; and if the question was, whether or not it should in that shape pass into a law, he should vote against it; but the practical question which would be decided that evening, was whether or not the bill should be sent to the house of lords for the purpose of being amended there, and then amended passed in the present session.

SO

The house divided on the original motion, when there appeared, ayes 182; Noes 34: majority in favour of the third reading 148.

On the 4th of May, viscount Melbourne moved the second reading of the Irish Municipal Corporations bill in the house of lords. The noble lord said, that the qualification in the present bill was, that which had been adopted on a former occasion; namely, a 107. rating in those boroughs, which were in schedule A, and 87. in the other boroughs. That rating was to continue for three years, and then the same qualification was to be established as in the English Municipal Corporations bill. He would state, that the general ground for passing this measure was, that they should not refuse to Ireland,