were cases much more infamous and scandalous, and that, unless these were a all put into the same boat with the abuse in question, and gotten rid of at the same time, they could not, for the sake of consistency, consent to grant the redress required. were degree, hee No Let the House consider whether, taking the case as applied to Scotland only, she had been exposed to disadvantages in this respect, when compared with her more wealthy neighbour. Had it been shown that there had been any deficiency? Scotland flourished; had she not kept pace with England? man, either by ocular inspection, or other means, could be ignorant of the rapid advances towards prosperity which had been made in that country since the Union. With respect, therefore, to the representation of Scotland, she made good her hold. Notwithstanding all her grievances, the Southerns had made no impression upon her. Once, indeed, Mr. Fox, when banished from Westminster, took refuge at Kirkwall, and became a Southern invader. The present motion,on the other hand, came from a gentleman of that country, who had nestled himself in an English borough. And the nature of the amendment which he (Mr. Canning) should be inclined to propose was, that leave be given to bring in a bill to the effect proposed by the hon. gentleman; but, instead of Edinburgh, to insert the borough of Calne. It was true there were but thirty-three electors for Edinburgh; but for the borough which the hon. gentleman represented the number was much smaller. That, however, was no argument with him; he only thought the hon. gentleman might as well have looked at home instead of going abroad. It was quite manifest, that, if the mere fact of paucity of electors was to be construed into inefficiency, gentlemen might often bring forward similar motions. He could mention many persons who were members for boroughs, to which the same reasonings might be ap Mr. Canning said, he had often been accused of pertinacity in asserting that parliamentary reform was not necessary; and in resist ing it, not only as being transitory and evanescent, but as hazarding a greater evil than we at present endure. So far, however, from viewing this measure as only extending to parliamentary reform, he an advocate for such reform, b should consent to pass it With more zeal, because he could not possibly conceive any thing more mischievous. To a certain the truth of the noble lord's argument. If he thought the great and sweeping measure of parliamentary reform necessary, ary, then, if the articles of Union were to be set up to defeat an important and universal measure, he would scout the attempt; for these articles could not in justice be set up against the benefit of the whole. If they y were speaking of the parhament of Scotland only, there would be some force in the objection drawn from the articles of Union; but a parliament constituted like that of Scotland would be unfit for this great country, in which so many classes of persons, of things, of sentiment, required legislation; yet an infusion of that representation, and its commixture, had proved beneficial, and had completely answered all the purposes of a national representation; and he would not consent to alter it for the sake of adopting what some might deem an improvement, were filled with the names of non-resident freemen, and he considered it to be an abuse, that such should still continue to be the case in cities which swarmed, like Belfast, or Newry, or Dundalk, with protestant inhabitants, intelligent and wealthy. As the cause which produced the act of Geo. 2nd had long since ceased to operate, the act itself ought to be removed from the statute-book. He, therefore, moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal it. Mr. Plunkett, in opposition to the motion, said, that the question was not as between the act of Geo, 2nd and the charters, but as be plied; but number alone was by no means conclusive. There never had been a motion brought forward in that House to disfranchise a place, merely on account of the number of its electors being small, without any other imputation. His objection to the present motion was, its application as a single instance of reform in a borough, for the benefit and advantage of being applied to the general question of parliamentary reform. It certainly was not unusual to bring forward an attack on a single borough, by an allegation of the prevalence of abuses; but it was quite new to institute a charge against it, between the 10th of Henry 7th and cause its elective was not in proportion to its actual population. This principle, if once admitted, would let in the great question of reform, which would lead to endless squabbles. He hoped, however, that the motion would be repeated annually, for the innocent gratification of the noble lord, and those who advocated it; but thinking, at present, that no assignable good was likely to result from it, he should dissent from it. 3 On a division the motion was lost Sir John Newport endeavoured to procure an alteration in the state of the elective franchise in Ireland, by a repeal of the Irish act 21 Geo. 2nd c. 10. By that statute it had been enacted that, in consequence of the difficulty of finding a sufficient number of resident protestant freemen, sufficiently wealthy and sufficiently educated to exercise the elective franchise, nonresident freemen should be entitled to vote. The lists of freemen, sir John Newport rt stated, in most of the corporate towns of Ireland the 21st of Geo, 2nd. The charters required residence, the latter act dispensed with it. The legislature, in passing that act, did away with the inconvenient and unconstitutional restrictions, which, at an earlier period, had been imposed; and the House, he trusted, would see that the necessary effect of the present proposition would be, not the enlargement of the elective franchise, but its restraint. Many of these corporations were established in the reign of James 1st; and it was well known that they were established on principles by no means favourable to public liberty, or at all in accordance with the spirit of the constitution. The effect of this the legislature in the reign of Geo. 2nd thought fit to remove, and he certainly could not concur in any measure tending to repeal that act, The country had gone on for seventy years with the principle of non-residence applied to boroughs and corporate towns. Now, after such a period as this, the effect of the measure of the right hon. baronet would be not only prospective but retrospective, for it would affect vested rights, and disturb persons actually in possession. If that act were repealed, the election of every existing officer of a corporation would be impeachable. Under all the considerations which suggested themselves, the House should pause before it assented to such a proposition on the eve of a general election-a proposition, the effects of which, upon existing rights, could not be measured. Many gentlemen, relying upon the support of non-residents, looked forward to their elections with confidence; and, if the present proposition were adopted, nothing but uncertainty and disappointment would ensue. There was another point to which he felt it necessary to direct the attention of the House. It was, that the principle of non-residence had been acted upon for forty years before the Union of the English and Irish parliaments. At the time of the Union, a selection had been made of those boroughs which were supposed to be most fit to send representatives to parliament, in addition to the county members. They were selected on the ground of the number of electors which they contained; and in the estimate of the number of electors, the non-residents were taken into account, as well as those who were resident. It was evident, then, that the measure now proposed went to disturb the arrangements made at the Union. The motion was negatived by 76 votes to 38. The passion for establishing Joint-stock companies, which had raged like an epidemical disease in 1825, had overflowed the table of the House of Commons, during that session, with petitions for private bills. The multifarious and competing interests, all animated by the keen love of gain, which were involved in these bills, insured much discontent with any decision which the committees, to whom they were referred, might pronounce upon them; and, unfortunately, the conduct of committees themselves furnished grounds of complaint much more substantial than the irritation of losing parties, or the disappointment of designing speculators. Loud accusations were heard against them of carelessness and partiality; private solicitation was said to have become scandalous and unblushing; members who had not heard a word of evidence, and understood not any part of the merits of the subject, were brought down upon the committee at its final decision to support private interests; and injustice was per petrated at the expense to the parties of a grievous loss in time and money. The attention of the House had been drawn to these complaints during the last session; but, though the necessity of some alteration in the mode of doing this part of the business of the House had been generally admitted, and a committee had been appointed to take the matter into consideration, no efficient remedy had yet been devised. Mr. Littleton, member for Staffordshire, now brought forward (19th April) a series of resolutions for the better regulation of such committees. He did not believe, he said, notwithstanding the complaints which had been made, that the instances in which they were well founded had been numerous but it was certain that the present constitution of committees rendered improper conduct perfectly possible, and this the plan committee of appeal. His scheme was embodied in the following re solutions: TIL A ן. N "2. That with a view more nearly to equalize numbers, and to correct too strong a prevalence of local interests on committees on private bills, it is expedient that a new distribution of counties should be made, containing in each list, as nearly as may be, 120 members, one-half only, or thereabouts, tou be taken from the county imme diately connected with the object of the bill, and the adjoining counties; and the other half from other more distant counties of Great Britain and Ireland; and that the members serving for such counties, and the places within such counties should constitute the committee on each bill. which he had in view would tend to prevent. It had been proposed, during the last session, to choose the members, to whom a private bill 1. That the present distri was to be referred, by ballot; but bution of counties in the several this had not been considered an lists, for the purpose of forming eligible mode, on account of the committees on petitions for private occasional and unavoidable absence bills, and on private bills, prepared! of commercial and other gentle under the direction of the Speaker men from the House. Another some years ago, has, from the greats plan had been suggested, certainly inequality of the numbers of mem more practicable, though less con- bers contained in such lists respec stitutional, viz., to refer the bill to tively, and from other causes, been a commission of inquiry; but he found not to answer the object for strongly objected to such a depar- which it was framed. ture from old established regulations and practice. The safer and more practicable course would be, to adhere to the present custom; but, should any case of decided abuse be alleged to have occurred in a committee, then an investigation might take place. Under such a system irregularities might occur: yet he conceived that one great cause of complaint would be entirely obviated; and the advantage resulting from this plan would be, that it would render it unnecessary, in the case of a number of private bills, to have recourse to select committees at all. It unquestionably was most desirable that some alteration should be made in the present system; for, under the existing regulations, a committee on a bill from Wiltshire required no fewer than 194 members; while from Cardiff no more than seven were necessary; for the county of Somerset the number was 176; and for Hampshire 266. He proposed to remodel the list for the counties, to secure impartiality by taking only one half of the committee from the county in which the bill origi nated, to make attendance compulsory, and to prevent the chance of abuse by creating a standing 1 "3. That Mr. Speaker be request ed to direct a new distribution of counties to be prepared, in such manner as shall be approved of by him conformably to the principle of the foregoing resolution. "4. That every committee on a private bill be required to report to the House the bill referred to it, with the evidence and minutes of the proceedings.bw pens "5. That a committee be appoint ed, to be called, The Committee: of Appeals upon Private Bills, which committee shall consist of all the knights of the shire, all the members for cities, and such other members as may be named therein; so that the whole number appointed to serve one such committee shall amount to 200 at least to a 6.That where any party inter estedi in rat private bill, who shall have appeared in support of his petition, by himself, his counsel or agent, in the committee upon such bill, or where the promoters of a private bill shall be dissatisfied with any vote of the committee upon such bill, and shall petition the House, setting forth the particular vote or votes objected to, and praying that they may be heard, by themselves, their counsel, oreagent, against such vote or votes, such petition shall, together with the report of the committee upon the bill, and the minutes and evidence taken before such committee, be referred to a select committee of seven members of the House, to be chosen by ballot from the Committee of Appeals upon Private Bills, which select committee shall hear the arguments of the parties complaining of, and also of the parties supporting, such vote or votes, and shall report their opinion thereon to the House. "7. That whenever a petition shall be presented, complaining of any vote of a committee upon a private bill, the House shall fix a day whereon to ballot for a select committee, to which such petition shall be referred; upon which day, at a quarter past four o'clock, or as near thereto as the question which may be then before the House will permit, the Speaker shall order the doors of the House to be locked, and the names of the members composing the Committee of Appeals upon private bills being written upon separate pieces of paper, and put into the glass, the clerk shall draw there from the names, until seven mem-t bers of such committee who shall be then present, and who shall not have voted in the committee upon the private bill to which the petition refers, shall have answered to their names; which seven memo bers shall be the Select Committee to whom such petition shall be rea ferred, and such Select Committee shall meet for business the follow ing day at eleven o'clock, and con tinue to sit, de die in diem, until they shall have reported upon the same, and that only one counsel or agent shall be heard in support of the petition of any one party. ɔvom "8. That no member of such Select Committee shall absent him self therefrom during its sitting." ds The resolutions were adopted with the general approbation of the House; the only one, on whiche a division took place, being that which provided that every petition complaining of the decision of a private committee should immedi-1 ately be referred to a committee of appeal. Mr. Calcraft, who, with lord Milton and Mr. H. Bankes, doubted the necessity and utility of the resolutions altogether, op posed this one on the ground that the real business of the House would be incessantly interrupted by the hearing of these petitions, and the appointment of these com mittees; but the resolution was carried by 44 votes against 32. On the same day, Mr. Pelham, member for Shropshire, brought forward the most extraordinary proposal that ever was made within the walls of St. Stephen's. Ada verting to the great increase of wealth and population in the prind cipal towns of the kingdom, their distance from the seat of legisla tion, and the expense of sending |