the care he had taken to exclude all persons politically differing with him from all offices, even from such as that of sheriff.

Mr. W. S. O'Brien contended that his countrymen were entitled to bear arms, since at the recent funeral of Governor Hobson, in New Zealand, Lord Stanley had allowed the natives to have muskets in their hands. The only alternative he could now discern was that of a rebellion or justice to Ireland. He animadverted on the practice of clearing estates by the wholesale ejection of the tenants, and desired to know whether it was true, as an Irish newspaper reported, that Lord Haywarden, a nobleman holding office in the present Government, had turned out almost two hundred families. The present Bill was not a mere continuation; it contained many vexatious novelties, the Branding' clause itself was a new one. After some comments on particular clauses, he expressed his conviction that the Bill would fail to effect its own object, but would not fail to irritate the feelings of the people. Mr. Biancorri, (the great car proprietor) who had theretofore been no Repealer, had been induced, by the perusal of. this Bill, to send a subscription to the Repeal Association. He conjured the Government to retrace their steps, and gave notice that he would divide against this Bill in every stage and on every clause.

Mr. C. Buller said, that though many members near him had assented to measures resembling the present when they were to be administered by a Government possessing the confidence of the Irish people, they were under no obli

administered by a Government whose principles that people detested. The effect of the present Bill would be just this-that the assailants would still have arms themselves, but would find their victims unarmed. As to Repeal, he was decidedly adverse to it, but if the mind of Ireland was diseased on that subject, it was not to be cured in this way, but by the redress of her grievances. There was not in Europe a nation whose physical condition was so bad as hers, and that was the opinion which all Europe entertained, as was proved by its literature both permanent and periodical. The Poor Law Reports, as compared with the testimony of Arthur Young, established that, while all other nations had been advancing in their comforts, the food of the Irish, their potatoes, had been deteriorating, both in quantity and in quality. What leaders had they to keep them within the law? In many places there were no resident gentry, but there was a Church imposed upon the people by force. You kept up your ascendancy only by arms, and by Arms Bills. The present Government had adopted the Orange party, for he could find no difference between the Orange and the Tory party, and what must be the feelings of the Irish people to see promoted to the Bench men known to them mainly by their religious bigotry and national animosity, which they had evinced in Parliament. He was not personally acquainted with Ireland, but he had seen in Canada feelings of not less heat instantly allayed by a conciliatory policy. There a Ministry had been appointed consisting of men of all

of the necessity of some such measure as the present Bill.

Sir J. Graham admitted that the privilege of having arms was a constitutional right of great value, but unhappily the proportion of homicidal crimes, as between England and Ireland, with reference to their respective populations, had so increased, as to make it necessary that this right should be placed under regulation. He would not now discuss the removals of the magistrates; he should be prepared to do that on a fitter occasion. He would now notice some remarkable admissions made in this debate. Why had it been suggested by Mr. Sheil, that in Tipperary the higher classes should be summoned to serve upon the petty juries? The answer was furnished by Mr. Sheil's own acknowledgment, that witnesses could not be procured to prove a case of assassination, without a special protection, and a provision for life in a distant country. Lord John Russell had admitted that these murders were constantly occurring, not by reason of the policy of any particular Government, but by reason of the general state of Irish society. These were strong admissions as to the necessity of such a Bill for Ireland. The two questions before the House were, shall the constitutional privilege be just now subjected to restraints, and if yes, then shall those restraints be made effectual for their objects? The latter question would be discussed most fitly in Committee; it was to the former he should chiefly address himself. This restraint, let it be remembered, was first imposed by a domestic Legislature, the Irish Parliament of 1796. In speaking of

ants of the constabulary, he would acknowledge the truth of the general proposition, that the possession of power increases the desire for it; but, surely, on such a subject, the counsels of the constabulary, concurring with those of the magistrates, deserved attention. This was not, as it was represented to be, a Bill for disarming the Irish people, but a Bill for regulating their possession of arms. Objec tions had been made to the late judicial appointments. The religion of an individual ought not to be a consideration in his advancement to the Bench, yet with reference to the present circumstances of Ireland, it would be necessary on the reasoning of the Opposition, to select judges because they were Roman Catholics. He stated the meritsand claims of Mr. Lefroy and of Mr. Jackson, and showed that it would have been impossible to pass them over without a mean dereliction of principle. He vindicated the minor appointments, and then, taking credit for the impartial line which the Government had adopted on the subject of national education, adverted to Mr. Shaw's Speech of the preceding night, as evidence that they had hazarded and incurred the displeasure of their natural allies, the Protestant party. It had formerly been promised, that if the Roman Catholic Relief Bill were once carried, the priests neither would nor could further exercise a political influence over the people. That measure granted, and so was Reform, and both of them within three years, but so little did all this conciliation succeed, that immediately afterwards the Ministry, a Whig Ministry, found it necessary to

was

by Earl Grey in the other House, and by Lord Althorp in this. Earl Grey being succeeded by Lord Melbourne, conciliation took a fresh start; the Church Temporalities Act, another great concession, having first been passed, then followed the Irish Municipal Act, and this series of concessions, large beyond example, brought him to 1838; in which year, notwithstanding so many conciliatory measures, Lord Morpeth found it necessary to bring in that Arms Bill, which was the basis of the present. Individuals too had been soothed; Mr. Sheil was made Vice-President of the Board of Trade, the Chief Barony of the Irish Exchequer was offered to Mr. O'Connell, and yet, after all this, the Arms Bill of 1838 had been held indispensable. Then came Lord Normanby's Government-that perfect sample of conciliation and yet Lord Fortescue, when he succeeded to Lord Normanby, found the cry of Repeal so rife throughout Ireland, that he was obliged to announce that no part of the Ministerial patronage would be extended to any one who should join in it. Mr. C. Buller had represented the condition of the Irish people as in progress of deterioration, but the reports of Parliamentary committees proved the very contrary; for instance, of late years more wheat had been grown in Ireland and less exported from it than ever before. We had heard of the duty of conceding to well-expressed popular opinion. How was that opinion to be estimated when the Duke of Wellington, with whose fame it had been truly said by Mr. Sheil, that the world was filled, had been described at a late Irish meeting, as

Sepoy, amid the cheers of a vast mob? Such was well-expressed popular opinion! Many years ago it had been said by Sir S. Romilly, that it would be madness to pass a Bill like this. At a juncture like the present it would be madness and cowardice to refuse it.

Mr. Roebuck said, that the present Ministers were only carrying out the principle on which Ireland had been governed for centuries, and which he was now about to impugn. What he had to regret was, that Sir R. Peel had not been wise enough to transcend the liberality of his predecessors. There were four parties to this discussion

the Government-Mr. O'Connell, who threw himself upon the masses of the people-a party in that House, who complained that patronage was not well distributed

and a party who took an independent survey of the question how Ireland ought to be governed. To the last party he himself belonged, and in that view he would look at the several acts on which the Arms Bill was founded. The first of those Acts was passed by the domestic Legislature: the poison, though reptiles will not live in Ireland, was generated there. This Bill hardly differed from its predecessors, and here was the great error of the Government, that they had made their Bill thus similar to those, and had hazarded all this turmoil for such a trifle. But if a Whig Adminis tration, with their conciliatory policy, and with the quiet which they took credit for having thereby produced, found it necessary to have an Arms Bill, then, according to them, it must be wanted, à fortiori, in a state of less tranquil

of the necessity of some such measure as the present Bill.

Sir J. Graham admitted that the privilege of having arms was a constitutional right of great value, but unhappily the proportion of homicidal crimes, as between England and Ireland, with reference to their respective populations, had so increased, as to make it necessary that this right should be placed under regulation. He would not now discuss the removals of the magistrates; he should be prepared to do that on a fitter occasion. He would now notice some remarkable admissions made in this debate. Why had it been suggested by Mr. Sheil, that in Tipperary the higher classes should be summoned to serve upon the petty juries? The answer was furnished by Mr. Sheil's own acknowledgment, that witnesses could not be procured to prove a case of assassination, without a special protection, and a provision for life in a distant country. Lord John Russell had admitted that these murders were constantly occurring, not by reason of the policy of any particular Government, but by reason of the general state of Irish society. These were strong admissions as to the necessity of such a Bill for Ireland. The two questions before the House were, shall the constitutional privilege be just now subjected to restraints, and if yes, then shall those restraints be made effectual for their objects? The latter question would be discussed most fitly in Committee; it was to the former he should chiefly address himself. This restraint, let it be remembered, was first imposed by a domestic Legislature, the Irish Parliament of 1796. In speaking of

ants of the constabulary, he would acknowledge the truth of the general proposition, that the possession of power increases the desire for it; but, surely, on such a subject, the counsels of the consta❤ bulary, concurring with those of the magistrates, deserved attention. This was not, as it was represented to be, a Bill for disarming the Irish people, but a Bill for regulating their possession of arms. Objec tions had been made to the late judicial appointments. The religion of an individual ought not to be a consideration in his advancement to the Bench, yet with reference to the present circumstances of Ireland, it would be necessary on the reasoning of the Opposition, to select judges because they were Roman Catholics. He stated the meritsand claims of Mr. Lefroy and of Mr. Jackson, and showed that it would have been impossible to pass them over without a mean dereliction of principle. He vindicated the minor appointments, and then, taking credit for the impartial line which the Government had adopted on the subject of national education, adverted to Mr. Shaw's Speech of the preceding night, as evidence that they had hazarded and incurred the displeasure of their natural allies, the Protestant party. It had formerly been promised, that if the Roman Catholic Relief Bill

were

was

once carried, the priests neither would nor could further exercise a political influence over the people. That measure granted, and so was Reform, and both of them within three years, but so little did all this conciliation succeed, that immediately afterwards the Ministry, a Whig Ministry, found it necessary to