guinary religious contentions. The The two auxiliary measures, blessings of the latter period were which followed in the train of the to be attributed solely to the na- hill for the relief of the Roman ture of those laws, which granted Catholics, and were intended to toleration to all religious creeds, at facilitate its progress, require only the same time that they maintained a very brief notice. a just, a reasonable, and a moderate The one was a bill for regulating superiority in favour of the estab- the exercise of the elective franlished church. Their lordships chise in Ireland ; and it proceeded were now called upon to put Pro- upon the principle of raising the testants and Catholics on the same qualification of a voter to a freofooting; and if they consented to hold of 101. annual value. It was do this, certain he was, that the introduced by Mr. Littleton on consequence would be religious dis- the 22nd of April; and on the sension, and not religious peace. 26th of that month, it was read a The present system had the expe- second time, 233 voting for it, and rience of its good results to recom- 185 against it. Its opponents were mend it; and he preferred it, of a very mixed description : for therefore, to the experiment pro- Mr. Brougham, Mr. Denman, and posed in the present bill, or to any Mr. Lambton, with several others other that he had yet heard sug- of a similar mode of thinking, regested. sisted it as an unjustifiable disUpon a division, the numbers franchisement of a vast body of the were, Contents, present 84; proxies electors of Ireland, and on this 46—130: Not Contents, present question were found voting with 113; proxies 65—178: so that Mr. Peel and the high Tory memthere was against the bill a ma- bers; while sir Francis Burdett jority of 48. and Mr. Plunkett were seen in a List of the Majority and Minority. MAJORITY.-Present. Duke of York Aylesford Lord Chancellor Bathurst Lord Privy Seal Digby Dukes. Enniskillen Beaufort Harewood Dorset Home Newcaslla Livorpool Hichinond Longford Rutland Macclesfield Wellinglou Mayo MARQUIS8E6. O'Neil Anglesea Penı broke Aylesbury Pomfret Exeter Radnor Hertford Rochford Lothian Scarborough Northampton Shaftesbury Salisbury Stamford Thomond Strange Winchester VISCOUNTS. Baris. Beresford Abergavenny Exniouth Abingdon Lake Lorton Gifford Grantley Grey Kenyou Kinpoul Lonsdale Mansfield Meldrum (Earl Aboyne) Middleton Montagu Northwick Penshurst Powis Rodnoy Saltersford (Eari Courtoun) Sheffield Stanhope Stuart (Earl Moray) the opposite array. The bill went a niajority of 168 to 58; but the into a committee, and was there result of the discussion on the 17th debated on the 10th of May, when of May in the House of Lords, an amendment was negatived by caused it to be abandoned. 'Teynham Ely Durham Waterford Winchester MINORITY.Present. Dake of Sussex Ormond Lord President Oxford DUKES. Rosebery Rosslyn Somers Devonshire Spencer Balb and Wells St. David's Grafton St. Germain's Suffolk Paired of Tankerville LORDS. Wicklow Wilton VISCOUNTS. Conyngbam Clifden Down Lansdown Dudley and Ward Clarence Lords. Duncan Hereford Brodrick(Midloton) EARLS. Maynard Marlborough Coventry Aberdeen Melville MARQUIS. Dormer Albemarle Torrington Cholmondeley Douglas Breadalbane LORDS. Abercromby ton) Auckland Calthorpe Donegal) Cawdor Dacre Dundas Ellenborough Foley Huntley) Gage Grantham Donoughmore Holland trose) Le Despencer Essex Howard of EffingHarcourt Loftus (Marquis of Fitzwilliam bam Howe Ely) Howard of Waldon King Malmesbury Newburgh Grey Lilford Lynedoch Hardwicke Montford Napier Selsey Suffield Yarborough Bishop. Norwich Waterford) Morley Proxies. Wodehouse Winchelsea Bishops. Dokes. Somerset VISCOUNTS. Bangor Bedford MARQUISES. Arbuthnot Carlisle Hamilton Headfort The other auxiliary measure pense would be about 250,0001. was, to make a public provision per annum. The resolution was for the Catholic clergy. With carried by a majority of 205 to this view, lord Francis Leveson 162: but no ulterior proceedings Gower, on the 29th of April mov were taken upon it. ed the following resolution: " That it is expedient that a pro The frequent discussion of the vision should be made by law to- Roman Catholic question, which wards the maintenance of the secu- had been brought forward so relar Roman Catholic clergy exer- peatedly, that the public mind had cising religious functions in Ire- become comparatively insensible land." This resolution he pre- to any lively impression with refaced by a statement of the general spect to it; the dissipation of old outline of the plan which he was terrors and alarms by the support to submit to the House. The given to the principles of concesnumber of Catholic priests in Jre- sion by men in whom the nation land amounted, he said, to about had great confidence; and the prea thousand, and that of the coad- valence of certain speculative opijutors or curates was nearly the nions concerning the origin and same; making the whole estimate nature of political rights, had unof parish priests about 2,000. He doubtedly diminished both the proposed to divide these into three keenness and the numbers of the classes, and to allot to 200 of them. opponents of Catholic equalization. an annual stipend of 2001. each; In the course of the present sesto 800, a stipend of 120l. ; and to sion, however, the spirit of resist1,000, a stipend of 60l. The four ance to the Catholic Claims seemed archbishops were to have each to gain strength. to gain strength. Though many 1,500l. per annum; the 22 bishops, petitions in their favour were pre1,0001., and the 300 deans, 300l. sented, yet the petitions against each. The total amount of ex- them were much more numerous; and they increased in number, the Sligo VISCOUNTS. longer the subject occupied the Stafford Tweedale Granville public attention; and the failure Wellesley Melbourne of the proposed measure was geneEARIS, LORDS. rally acceptable both in England Belmore Alvanley and Scotland. Besborough Amherst There is one remark which apBlesington Belharen Buckinghamshire Carrington plies to sir Francis Burdett's bill, Carlisle Churchill and indeed to every other which Carysfort Clinton has been brought forward on the Cassilis same subject. The reasonings of Cornwallis Dacie the advocates of the Catholics, if De La Warc Erskine Derby Grenville good for any thing, destroy the Egremont Gwyder principle of exclusion in its full Elgin Hill extent, and raise the Catholics to Garnard Hutchinson an equality with Protestants in all Harrington Maryborough Hopeloun respects. But the details of the Saye and Sele Lucan Sondes bill speak a very different doctrine: Mulgrave BISHOP. for they exclude the Catholics Waldegrave Rochester from a few offices, while they ad Anson Crewe a mit them to all the rest. Thus to perfect equality, so that they the fundamental principle of ex- may now gain such a vantage clusion is practically admitted ; and ground, as may hereafter render then what becomes of the reasonings resistance to the utmost of their on that side of the question ?-If a demands altogether unavailing. Catholic is excluded from wearing If the apparent contradiction bethe crown, from intermarrying with tween the principles of the advothe sovereign, from being chan- cates of the Catholics and the meacellor, and from being lord lieute- sures which they propose proceeds nant of Ireland; what are the from the latter cause, the country grounds upon which it is proved, has some reason to complain. In that it is unjust not to admit him questions of such vast importance, to fill the situation of prime mi- policy ought to give way to the nister, president of the council, most complete frankness and holord chief justice, lord president of nesty; measures like this ought the court of session, or to hold any not to be brought forward partially other of the higher offices of state? or carried by piece-meal: the whole Do the Catholics admit the pro- extent of the required concession priety and justice of a limited ex- should be avowed openly and at clusion, such as that contained in For the legislature must sir Francis Burdett's bill? Or do walk in blindness and error, if it they and their friends deem it deliberates on a bill as a complete prudent not to carry as yet their and final measure and decides on principles to their full extent, but it in that view, when in truth the to soothe alarm and bribe opposition bill is merely a portion of a wider into quiescence by not laying claim scheme. once. CHA P. IV. Committee of the Lords appointed to inquire into the State of Ireland Evidence given before the Committee-Subdivision of Farms-Extreme Poverty of the Peasantry—Their want of Employment_Their absolute Dependence on their Landlords—The Operation of the Tithe System in Ireland-Abuse of legal Proceedings-Distraining the growing Crops---Civil Bill Ejectment- Abuse of the Process of Custodiam and the Civil Bill Process Miscellaneous Topics of Investigation before the Committee, Motion on the State of Ireland with respect to Religious Animosities-Misrepresentation of Lord Liverpool's Conduct~Mr. Hume's Motion against the Irish Church Establishment -State of the Irish Charter Schools. IN N the former session, a commit sustaining animal existence by a tee of the Lords had been ap- very insufficient quantity of food pointed to inquire into the state of the most wretched kind. In of those districts in Ireland, which this state of misery they were the were subject to the operation of absolute slaves of their landlords ; the Insurrection act. and their dependence, poverty, deEarly in the present session a moralization and degradation were committee was appointed, upon increased still further by the mode the motion of lord Liverpool, to in which tithes were collected, and inquire into the state of Ireland by the defective administration generally; and this committee was of justice by the local tribunals. composed of the same members as Such were the general features of that of the preceding year, with the condition of the rural populathe exception of lord Aberdeen, tion of the greater part of Ireland, who was abroad, and earl Fitz- as delineated by the best-informed william, who wished to withdraw of the witnesses. But on a topic from the labours of the investiga- of so much importance, we cannot tion. The duke of Devonshire do better than allow some of those and lord Fitzgibbon were substi- witnesses to speak for th selves. tuted for these two peers. The result of the labours of the The following is the language of committee was a very brief and Mr. Blackburn, an active and vague report ; accompanied, how- learned magistrate, who had meever, by a most voluminous mass rited the confidence and esteem of of evidence, which threw great all parties by the firmness and light upon the condition of the prudence with which he had sugeneral body of the Irish pea- perintended the operation of the santry. It showed that they lived Insurrection act in the county of in the most degraded state--with- Limerick. “ The population in out property, without the possi- Ireland has been, at least, in that bility of acquiring property, barely part of Ireland to which my testi |