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He saw no great force in the argument as to filling up the number of Members in that House, unless the electors of Clare applied to that House, and said they were unrepresented, and called on that House to issue a new writ for a new election. But they had done no such thing; and, if he mistook not, the electors of Clare had been accustomed to be unrepresented. If the doctrine of the fulness of the House rendered a new writ necessary, it was competent to a majority of that House to enforce obedience to that necessity. But such a necessity had not always been observed and obeyed. On one occasion a Gentleman, who had been appointed to a high office in the Colonies, represented that County [no, no, from the Ministerial Bench]. That Gentleman had the appointment at least [no no]; but if he was wrong in that instance, the Right Honourable Gentleman must know that the County was represented by a Right Hon. Friend of his (Mr. Rice,) who, during the same period, was an Ambassador at the Court of Stockholm. If by a Call of the House, the absence of the Honourable Member for Clare had been brought before them, it would have been their duty to notice it; if there had been a complaint made by his Constituents, then also it might fairly have been brought forward; but he (Mr. Spring Rice) objected to the proposition of the Solicitor-General, because, under the circumstances, it would, in point of fact, bring the House into contact with a single individual, and compel them to run the risk of making Mr. O'Connell a political martyr, and of again plunging Ireland into discord and distraction. Who was the Honourable Gentleman, he would ask, whom they had to deal with? That was a question which Mr. O'Connell himself asked the House, in that Address which That had produced so deep an impression upon them. Honourable Gentleman inquired, what was the House disposed to do with him? He would not repeat that question; but he would ask, who was Mr. O'Connell? How were they called on to deal with him? Was he a single individual, not connected with the sympathy of the majority of the religious

community to which he belonged? Was it merely the freeholders of the County of Clare that were interested in him as a Representative? That House would shew itself to be in a state of ignorance if it supposed, in fact, such to be the case. Mr. O'Connell, it was true, was the Representative of the county of Clare, but he was viewed as the representative of the feeling, sympathies, and interests of the whole Catholic people of Ireland, who as one man would feel whatever affected him individually. The Right Honourable Gentleman, he perceived, dissented from what he was saying; but he would ask whether there was an Irishman in the House that did not know that this question was a question of the greatest importance, and that from the highest to the lowest there was not one single Roman Catholic in Ireland who did not feel as deep an interest in it as any constituent of Mr. O'Connell? The House had heard much of the state of agitation which had prevailed in Ireland, and they had heard it suggested, as a ground for the remedial measure since adopted; and various proofs and statements, official and otherwise, had been laid before the House, to prove the evils and dangers that had arisen from that agitation. He called upon the House seriously to consider whether the step they were now called upon to take had not a direct tendency to reproduce, whether -for he would say it-it must not, and ought not to reproduce that very result which every good man wished to avoid. They had passed three Bills in the course of the present Session, to which more importance was attached, and more Parliamentary attention given, than to any measure that ever was before the House. But if they agreed to issue a new writ for the county of Clare, they would undo all advantages they had conferred. By forcing on a new election in the county of Clare, they would raise the very same scaffolding which they had taken so much pains to destroy. Instead of the Association, there would be a Committee sitting in Dublin for the return of Mr. O'Connell; and in that course they would be justified by the vote that House was asked to pass that evening. He said

again, the Roman Catholics of Ireland would be justified; for :f any of them was indifferent to the return of Mr. O'Connell again, should his seat be declared vacant, that individual could have no true feeling of gratitude to the man who had fought his battles, and by whose instrumentality the Catholics ought not perhaps to have succeeded, though they really did so succeed. He would take the liberty, on behalf of the friends of the Relief Bill, to claim that the revival of agitation should not be ascribed to the failure of that measure, but to this forced election in the county of Clare. Very different would be the result, if that election, instead of being forced on the county by the House, were brought on by a vacancy created by an act of Mr. O'Connell himself. The Bill which he should ask leave to introduce, would consist of a single clause, enacting that "the Oath to be, in all cases, taken at the Table of the House by Roman Catholic Members, shall be the oath provided in the Relief Bill and no other." He knew the Gallant Officer (General Gascoyne) had also given notice Bill, with an apparently similar object; but he did not wish to deceive him into the support of a measure to which he would not be likely to give his assent, It was said by many Hon. Gentlemen that they did not believe it was intended by the Relief Bill to exclude Mr. O'Connell. This opinion was repeated on great authority; and if it were half as general in his own country, he (Mr. S. Rice) would not propose the Bill he wished to introduce. But the people there were not so credulous or ingenuous as his Hon. Friend, the Member for Kirkcudbright, who believed that it was a matter of accident by which Mr. O'Connell was excluded; for he (Mr. S. Rice) drew his conclusion from the enactment itself, which applied to this case alone. He called on those who were disposed to vote against him to shew one inconvenience or suggest one danger which could arise from the admission of Mr. O'Connell into that House. He had shown what, in all probability, the result of a new Election in the County of Clare would be. He did not mean to say there would be any danger to the public peace. The danger he apprehended was the new excite

ment and the new agitation in Ireland. He did not like a hear Hon. Gentlemen support the proposition of the SolicitorGeneral on the ground of upholding the dignity of the House; for that was a pretext always used when all other reasons failed. A Right Honourable Gentleman opposite bad referred to what had occured in another place, when an Amendment was moved to the Relief Bill, to make it more directly applicable to the case of Mr. O'Connell. That proposition came from a quarter entitled to the highest possible respect; but he called on the House to listen to the answer which was returned by a Noble and Learned Lord, high in his Majesty's Councils: "I would ask your Lordships whether, in a measure of such immense importance, which is said on one side to shake the Constitution to its foundation, and on the other side to be calculated to ensure tranquillity and produce the permanent prosperity of Ireland, it would be advisable for your Lordships to descend from the high station in which the Legislature should stand, in order to make the Act turn against лne single individual?" The Honourable Gentleman begged the House not to let the cup of gladness he poisoned by this drop thrown into it, without necessity. He concluded by moving "for leave to bring in a Bill to amend 10th Geo. IV. cap. 7, so far as relates to the oaths to be taken by Members of the House of Commons."

This Amendment was however subsequently withdrawn, and the motion of the Solicitor-General was then agreed to without a division; and a new Writ was ordered for the county of Clare.

The Act which disfranchised the forty-shilling freeholders of Ireland, provided that a new enrolment of the freeholders who still retained a qualification, should take place as soon as possible after the commencement of the Act. This important business was proceeded in with all the dispatch which the forms of the Statute allowed; and the result was a very serious change in the lists of the electors. The notices given of an intention to register, were not so numerous as might have been anticipated, from the hosts of small freeholders wic

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used to be marched up to the poll. Even of those who gave notice, a large proportion carried the application no farther, conscious that their claims would not bear the strict scrutiny to which they were now to be subjected; and those who came forward to the scrutiny, another large proportion were, in every county, found to be wandering. In many instances, the people displayed no disposition to register, and their landlords had difficulty in bringing them into court. In Cavan 650 notices of enrolment had been given from five baronies; but only 137 claimants presented themselves; and of these only 93 were registered. It was estimated that not more than onethird, even of those who served notices, would succeed in being enrolled. The exclusion of the lower freeholders promised to alter greatly the relation in which the remaining electors would stand to those, who had hitherto commanded the representation.

The strength of the landlords had hitherto lain in the "fardies; the lowest class of freeholders now admitted they were not altogether so dependent; and a still more useful consequence seemed likely to be, that as the shoals of the forty-shilling men were now removed, even the ten-pound electors would find it difficult to beat out of the field those who were rated still higher. The mass of unthinking, obedient matter, on which the will of the landlords could operate at pleasure, was greatly diminished; what remained was of a somewhat better quality in itself, and was brought more nearly to a level, with that which might be supposed to have a will of its own. Neither did the new arrangement appear to threaten any injury to the Protestant, in so far as the number of votes was concerned; for, in general, the poorest class of freeholders had contained a much greater proportion of Catholics, than of Protestants; and the former, therefore, were in In comparison the greater losers.

While the registration was going on, Mr. O'Connell was taking measures to secure his re-election for the county of Clare, to which the vote of the House of Commons had sent

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