The Honourable and Learned Gentleman has alluded to the evils of absenteeism, and the miseries which it had inflicted upon Ireland; but he does not surely mean us to infer that absenteeism is an evil which has had its growth since the Union. He must surely be aware that centuries had elapsed since it was denounced as the curse of Ireland. He must certainly remember that it was computed by Prior to drain off nearly one million-and-a-half of her specie, so long since as the middle of the 17th century; and that nearly a century later it was proposed by Lord Hardwicke to the Irish Parliament, in 1773, to restrict it by an onerous tax. All this was before the Union, before the Parliament was removed from Dublin to England. But has the residence of the Parliament in this country exempted England from absenteeism? Has a local Parliament had the effect of detaining in this country the hundreds of thousands of Englishmen who swarm through every continental city, from the Rhine to the Tiber? And will there be any magical attraction in an Irish Parliament, when even the allurements of a British Court have failed to arrest the fugitives? It is not the absence of a domestic Parliament, but the absence of domestic peace, which has increased the band of Irish absentees;-[great cheering]—and it is the restoration of tranquillity, and not the restoration of her legislature, to which we are to look for their return. He would trust that his Majesty's Ministers will not rest content with the mere issue of this discussion, in exhibiting the delusions, and demonstrating the impracticability of repeal; but, in pursuance of the suggestions contained in the petition which he had last evening presented" that they would adopt such legislative enactments as would put a speedy and a final termination to its agitation-an agitation which is alike dangerous to the prerogative of the Crown-to the influence and authority of Parliament and to the peace, prosperity, and greatness of the empire." [Hear.] It was an observation of Cowley, as applied to Cromwell, that when the ALMIGHTY, in his vengeance, saw fit to visit Egypt with his wrath, he sent not upon her the lion or the tiger, the fierce and lordly monarchs of the forest, but the toad, the reptile, the fly, and the creeping thing. [Loud cheering.] The inference applied with less force to Cromwell than it does to Ireland at the present day, when HEAVEN, in its anger, has cast upon her a worse than Egyptian plague; it has selected as its scourges, as the instruments of its chastisements, not the noble and the illustrious, but the base and the indigent of the land. [Great cheering.] They are not the men of rank and of intelligence, the opulent or the influential, who, at the bidding of the Honourable and Learned Gentleman and his associates, disturb the tranquillity and retard the improvement of every Irish hamlet; but the needy, the adventurous, the turbulent, and the unprincipled, who had all to hope for and nothing to risk by agitation and tumult. How long, then, were those petty despots to be permitted to reign and to riot unrestrained? Have not the Irish people a right to look to this Parliament for protection from their outrages, and a release from this domination? [Hear, hear.]

Whilst he (Mr. E. Tennent) felt that he had trespassed longer, much longer, than he had any pretensions to do on the attention of the House, and whilst he was unable adequately to thank them for the patient hearing which they had vouchsafed to him, he could not but feel regret that, after having said so much, he had still been compelled to leave so much unsaid. He should conclude, however, with the forcible and im

pressive declaration of the ill-fated Lord Kilwarden on the same subject "That he regarded the Union with Great Britain on the terms of equal laws and equal commerce, of mutual trade on equal principles, and taxation proportioned to the abilities of both countries, as essential to the stability of the empire, the preservation of the religion, the independence and the tranquillity of Ireland. He was on the point of giving his vote upon this momentous question, and he did most solemnly declare that he thought the vote he gave was for the preservation of his country, its laws, and its religion, and for the peace, the happiness, and the prosperity of all its inhabitants; and were it the last word he was to utter, he would say-content." [The Honourable Member sat down amidst loud and continued cheering from all parts of the House.]

:

The Amendment was then read from the Chair, and was as follows:"We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commoners in Parliament assembled, feel it our duty humbly to approach your Majesty's throne, to record in the most solemn manner our fixed determination to maintain unimpaired and undisturbed the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, which we consider to be essential to the strength and stability of the empire, to the continuance of the connexion between the two countries, and to the peace, security, and happiness of all classes of your Majesty's subjects.

"We feel this our determination to be as much justified by our views of the general interests of the State, as by our conviction that to no other portion of your Majesty's subjects is the maintenance of the Legislative Union more important than to the inhabitants of Ireland themselves.

"We humbly represent to your Majesty that the Imperial Parliament have taken the affairs of Ireland into their most serious consideration, and that various salutary laws have been enacted since the Union for the advancement of the most important interests of Ireland, and of the empire at large.

"In expressing to your Majesty our resolution to maintain the Legislative Union inviolate, we humbly beg leave to assure your Majesty, that we shall persevere in applying our best attention to the removal of all just causes of complaint, and to the promotion of all well-considered measures of improvement.”

Mr. F. O'CONNOR fext rose to address the House. He began by observing that if the Honourable Gentleman (Mr. S. Rice), with all his great knowledge and experience in that House, felt it necessary to throw himself on the indulgence of the House, and to solicit their patient attention, how much more was it necessary for him (Mr. O'Connor), who was a very young Member, and had little of Parliamentary experience to guide him! He did not think that under these circumstances he was asking too much of the House to grant him their utmost measure of indulgence on this occasion. This was the more necessary when he considered the vast, the vital importance of the question before them -a question which those who brought it forward did not hesitate to admit was one which involved a most arduous responsibility. [Hear, hear.] The question was, whether Ireland should be an independent kingdom, the right arm of England, or whether she should be degraded

and debased, a shame to her representatives, a drag-chain on the resources of England, and a beggar at her gates? [Hear, hear.] He admitted that there were difficulties about the question, but they would have been greater if England had dealt with fairness and liberality to Ireland. She had acted otherwise, and the conviction of the fact was deeply impressed on the minds of the Irish people. They would never forget them, nor would they cease to urge their claims upon British justice until Ireland was again a great nation. [Hear, hear.]

In the observations which he should feel it necessary to make on this subject, it was not his intention to follow the Honourable Gentleman through the history of Ireland during a period of seven centuries of misery. He could not forget that he had a country, as the Honourable Gentleman had done. ["Hear, hear," from several Irish Members.] It was not his intention to follow the Honourable Gentleman through his cold-blooded arithmetical calculations, nor would he, like him, seek to make the transfer of some pounds, shillings, and pence from one customs or excise department to another a set-off against the misery which had spread over a whole nation. In what he should have to say it was not his intention to use one word which could give offence. He would not imitate the example of the Honourable Gentleman who had last addressed the House, who had spoken of the "filth and eloquence with which he expected to be assailed. He was glad that the lot had fallen on such a Seconder of the Amendment (cheers from some Irish Members), but it was to be regretted that the Mover and Seconder had not taken the opportunity of comparing notes together, which would have prevented many of the discrepancies which were apparent in their statements; but this inconvenience was probably an unavoidable consequence of the Honourable Seconder's speech having been written before that of the Mover of the Amendment was delivered. [" Hear," and a laugh.] The Honourable and Learned Gentleman, after noticing some alleged inconsistencies between the speeches of the Mover and Seconder of the Amendment, and contending that the opinions expressed by the latter on the present were at variance with those which he publicly delivered on a former occasion, went on to say that though the assertion might appear presumptuous in him, yet he would stake his character in showing that the Honourable Gentleman's conclusions were not borne out by the naked facts which he had urged. He would ask the House to consider how they had been addressed, and what was demanded of them in agreeing to the Amendment. That Amendment, he would contend, was arbitrary and despotic. It was an appeal to the House of Commons to surrender up their judgment and feeling to the discretion of His Majesty's Ministers-to say, in fact, that they would not even enter into the consideration of this most important question. But that question had taken too deep root in the minds of the people of Ireland to be easily given up. There was no man or set of men in Ireland who possessed the power to dissuade the people from continuing to pursue it with eagerness.

The Honourable Gentleman had alluded to the Committee on the state of Ireland in 1825, which he said had paved the way for carrying the question of Emancipation. The evidence before that Committee had tended to remove the prejudices in England by showing them what was the actual state of things in Ireland. That was the advantage of inquiry. Were the House now prepared to go with the amendment,

and to say that inquiry should be stifled? [Hear, hear.] The Hon. Gentleman had dwelt much on the money expended in the erection of gaols and bride wells in Ireland. Were these erections to be taken as proofs of the prosperity of the country? Was this the way in which the public money should be spent-in erecting prisons, or in building bridges to enrich the aristocracy? [Laughter.] The question did not turn on such minute points as those; it was whether or not the Union had been for the benefit of the two countries, and whether its continuance would be fair and just to Ireland. He would show that it had injured and would continue to injure, Ireland. But one remark in passing. The Honourable Gentleman had made allusion to the law of sticks, and to the kind of influence which would be probably used to overawe the proceedings of an Irish local legislature. The Honourable Gentleman should not talk of club-law; he and his associates had at one time admitted the law to be very influential, and had not been unwilling to avail themselves of its support. [Hear, hear.]

But passing that, he would proceed to inquire if Ireland had thriven or prospered since the Union; and if not, whether that prosperity had arisen from the Union? The Hon. Gentleman had argued that Ireland had increased in prosperity since she had been united with this country. He had dwelt at some length on the increase of her exports and imports. The chief exports of Ireland were food, and her importations were in great part of those articles which the decline of her own manufactures had rendered her unable to produce. The people of Ireland had some little money at the period of the Union, but it had been since drained from them by the rapacity of their landlords. Much of their exports of cattle would be explained by the change of pasture to arable land, which made it necessary to get rid of the live stock. But if Ireland had prospered-if her manufactures had thriven, instead of being obliged to export such vast quantities of the necessaries of life, she would have kept them for her own consumption. So far was this from being the case, that it could be shown that half the quantity of butchers' meat was not now consumed in Ireland that was consumed before the Union. But the Hon. Gentleman, in his calculations of increased imports and exports, had wholly left out of view the increase of the population. It was of course clear that a population of 800,000,000 must consume more than one of 4,000,000, and that the number of houses built for the latter would be found insufficient for the former. But the Hon. Gentleman had asked, if he was not to go to returns of customs and excise, to exports and imports, and to increased consumption, to show proofs of increased prosperity, where should he look for them? He would tell the Honourable Gentleman where he should not go to look for such proofs. He should not seek for them in the number of starving manufacturers, whose trade had been annihilated-he should not go to the weak and emaciated form of the agriculturist, whose hard toils from morn till night were insufficient to provide him and his family with a supply of the commonest necessaries of life-he should not go to the long lists of absentee proprietors of the soil, whose places in Ireland had been usurped and ill-supplied by the half-ruined squires-he should not go to those extensive districts where want and misery were to be met at every turn he should avoid all those, for in them he would not find any proofs of Ireland's prosperity, though they did afford some evidence of the results of the Union with England. Instead of holding up columns of figures as proofs of prosperity, he

might be met with numerous instances of splendid misery and Right Honourable poverty. But it was true "that what the eye did not see the heart did not grieve at." These scenes were not witnessed by the absentee proprietor. They were not known in England, and being seen in Ireland only for the most part by the sufferers themselves, they were left unrelieved. In England the case was different. There a resident proprietary were the witnesses of the condition of the people amongst whom they lived. He was not going to give to the English aristocracy a greater triumph than circumstances admitted. They were not, he agreed, indifferent to the condition of the poor, for he would say that they dared not walk abroad amongst the people and see them suffering without doing something for their relief. In Ireland, the landed gentry were not on the spot, and the misery not being seen, was left without relief or mitigation. [Hear, hear.]

What had they succeeded Had the value of land in

They had been told that since the Union there had been 61 committees and 114 commissions appointed to inquire into Irish affairs, but the result of all these had not been related. in doing for the actual relief of Ireland? creased in Ireland? He denied that it had. It was not now at more than one-third of the value of what it was at the Union, taking the difference of the currency. When the Honourable Gentleman was so loud in his enumerations of increased prosperity, did it occur to him to ask whether the petitions from all quarters in Ireland for the repeal of the Union were a proof that it was considered a benefit to Ireland? With singular inconsistency, the Honourable Gentleman spoke of the general destitution of the people, whilst he was boasting of the prosperity of the country. The Honourable Gentleman was right—the people of Ireland were destitute-they were in a wretched condition, and therefore they were dissatisfied. No mischief-maker, let his talents be ever so great, could persuade people who were in a state of comfort, that they were miserable. But, said the Honourable Gentleman, you had petitions before the Union, complaining of the falling off of trade and general distress. In reply to that, he (Mr. O'Connor) would ask whether now, in 1834, and in the second Session of a reformed Parliament, similar petitions were not presented from various parts of England? It was absurd to say that without the Union, Ireland would not have progressed in prosperity and happiness, and yet that was the amount of the Honourable Gentleman's argument.

The Honourable Gentleman said, that if the present motion should be carried, the Honourable and Learned Member for Dublin would endeavour to establish a Catholic ascendency. He defied the Honourable Gentleman to prove his assertion. He (Mr. O'Connor) was himself a Protestant, and, if necessary, he would take up arms to resist any such attempt on the part of the Honourable Member for Dublin. As a proof that there was no exclusive feeling on the part of the Catholic population of Ireland, he might mention that generally they had, when the choice was offered them, selected Protestants instead of Catholics to represent them in Parliament. The Irish were an impoverished people, but they would give their last farthing for the promise of better days, and they had nothing to which they could look forward with hope but the repeal of the Union. [Hear.] To attempt to reason them out of the views which they entertained on this subject, was vain.

The Hon. and Learned Member then proceeded to assert that there was no truth in the statement that the Catholics of Ireland had desired