Government to preserve the peace of the country, and to meet all misfortunes and consequences which may result from the violence of the passions of those men who unfortunately guide the multitude in Ireland. (Loud cheers.) My Lords, I do not dispute the extent of the conspiracy; I do not dispute the dangers resulting from organization in that country; I have stated it publicly on more than one occasion-I do not deny -it is notorious, it is avowed, it is published in every paper all over the world-I do not deny the assistance received from foreigners -not from foreign Governments, I have no right to say so, but from foreigners of nearly all nations-for there are disturbed and disturbing spirits everywhere (A laugh.)-who are anxious to have an opportunity of injuring and deteriorating the great prosperity of this country. I don't deny all this; but still I say, I feel confident that the measures adopted by the Government have been such that they will be enabled to resist all, and ultimately to preserve the peace of the country. (Loud cheers.) And if it should turn out that that is the case, I believe it is best that we should persevere in the course in which we are proceeding, and not attempt to adopt other measures until it becomes absolutely necessary to take them."

The Earl of Winchilsea supported the prayer of the petition. The Earl of Wicklow approved the conduct of the Government, in not introducing new coercive measures. He thought that the Processions Act ought not to be renewed, on its expiration the following Session. He expressed

Catholic hierarchy associating themselves with the Repeal agitation, which made him anxious to see the Government adopt some measure for raising the character of the Roman Catholic Priesthood!

The Marquis of Clanricarde concurred in Lord Wicklow's satisfaction that there had been no measures of coercion, and in the opinions expressed that there would be no civil war; but he wished to hear from the Government what, in their view, would be the end of the present state of things in Ireland, and what prospect they had of amelioration. The only measures brought forward by the Government were the Irish Arms Bill, and the Poor-law Amend. ment Bill. There was no prospect of any measures for the relief of the poor, or of any plan of emigration, or of any improvement of the Grand Jury Law.

Lord Brougham entered into the subject of the existing agitation at great length. He descanted on the difficulty of determining what should be done to check the mischief. Lord Clanricarde had said, that the only remedy would be to find employment for the people. But this was a remedy which could only work by degrees and in course of time, while the evil was pressing and immediate. It had been said again, that one reason why Ireland did not prosper was, that no capital flowed into the country. This was very true ; but no one could be surprised at it, considering the alarming and threatening aspect of affairs in that country. The capitalist naturally objected to send his capital to a country where he does not know that there

may not be an outbreak before he

"There is also this other thing which alarms capitalists. They hear these friends of the Irish people boasting of their meetings, and of their being able to command their hundreds of thousands of men. They see the power which they thus boast of used for the purpose of conveying the most vehement attacks on the Government, and the most violent abuse of the nation to which those capitalists themselves belong. The Celtic capital being little, and the poverty excessive, and the demand of the Celt for the capital of the Saxon being extreme-the wise Celt having for his object to lessen that excessive poverty, and draw some portion of the Saxon capital to supply the Celtic wants-this wise and judicious friend of Ireland, in order to effect his object, deals, from one end of the year to the other, in the most gross and unrestrained abuse of every thing Saxon, and proclaims Saxon England as the determined enemy of Celtic Ireland. This is the Irish way of inducing English capitalists to send over their money to Ireland. Now, your capitalist likes large masses of produce, of gold or silver, but not large masses of people-large masses of people, too, who are collected together under a pretence which he knows must necessarily be false.

For

when a man tells me of his ad

dressing 200,000 men, I find it impossible to believe him. When he tells me that the 200,000 men whom he proposes to address meet calmly to discuss a great national question, I at once turn with contempt, scorn, and disgust from such a statement, because I know it to be physically impossible that at a meeting composed of such

very

discussion can take place. well know what that object is, but the capitalist thinks it is for the purpose of breaking the peace. I do not myself believe so. I think that so long as the agitators can hold the issue of those meetings in their hands, they will be the last to risk their own safety. But this system of intimidation is not without its effects. It deters the lawful and well-disposed from coming forward and doing their duty to the country and rallying round the Government. It prevents them from raising their voice, as they would do, against Repeal." Lord Brougham referred to some means now no longer in existence for repressing such meetings; an Act which gave the Government power to change the venue, and to try such offences in Dublin, had expired in 1840. Why should it not be renewed ? He deprecated the expedient of calling out the Yeomanry, as tending to collision between the loyal inhabitants of the north, and the misguided inhabitants of other districts. He thought, if he might hazard a prediction, that the storm would blow over, and that coercive measures would only tend to keep alive an expiring flame. Alluding to foreign sympathy, he said, that Louis Philippe, his ministers, and the mass of good society in the French capital, were only moved to pity at the late demonstration in favour of Repeal. In America, such sympathy was almost confined to emigrants; and as to the part taken by Mr. Robert Tyler, said to be a relation of the President, no one was answerable for the excessive fooleries any of his family might commit. Repeal was an

cross the Channel; but "fixity of tenure"-that is, confiscation of land-was as likely to spread in England as in Ireland. Let all England beware of it. "I should not have said so much on this point, if I had not understood that something has been said in the other House of Parliament-which, coming from the quarter whence it proceeded, did, I confess, astonish me not a little-about fixity of tenure being, if not a thing to be adopted, at least a subject for consideration. A subject for consideration! Ah, my Lords, it is, for alarmed consideration. It strikes at the root of society; it strikes at the root of all government; and if it be not at once put down with a firm hand and a strong and unhesitating judgment, it will outstrip all the efforts of all the enemies of our native land, in working the ruin and destruction of the empire." (Cheers.) The Earl of Glengall supported Lord Brougham's view as to the necessity of retaining to the Government a power of changing the venue; and he referred to some remarkable instances of acquittals of notorious murderers, where the victim had been some person offending against the agrarian laws of the disaffected.

While these discussions were going on in the Upper House, and the Irish Arms Bill still struggling on in the House of Commons, Mr. Smith O'Brien made a fresh attempt to involve the Legislature in the discussion of Irish affairs, on the most extensive scale. On the 4th July he moved in the House of Commons, "That this House will resolve itself into a Committee, for the purpose of taking into consideration

present prevailing in Ireland, with a view to the redress of grievances, and to the establishment of a system of just and impartial government in that part of the United Kingdom."

The debate which took place on this Motion occupied five nights. It afforded, however, in some important respects, an exception to the general tenor of parliamentary discussions upon Irish affairs. The controversy, which usually has excited so much irritation, and bitterness of spirit, was carried on in a more calm, practical, and dispassionate temper than on former occasions. The speech of the mover, no doubt, had a share in communicating this much to be desired tone to the discussion; it directed the attention of the House to facts, to the actual working of the laws, and to the definite causes of complaint; and the suggestion of practical remedies, and measures of amelioration, became the aim and purport of the majority of those who followed in the debate. The House, in reality, though not in form, acceded to the Motion, and became a Committee for the consideration of the causes of discontent, and the redress of grievances. It cannot, indeed, be asserted, that much novelty was elicited, or any very striking suggestions thrown out for the improvement of the country; but the tone and spirit in which the discussion was carried on was earnest and conciliatory, and displayed a real anxiety on all sides to entertain the painful subject of the woes of Ireland, with a compassionate and respectful attention.

Mr. O'Brien commenced his speech by pointing to the late events, as proving the necessity for

mense multitudes at eight-andforty hours' notice, the rising of the Repeal rent from 500l. to 3,000% weekly, the junction of the middle classes, of the Roman Catholic clergy, and even of members of the aristocracy. All this agitation could not be the work of one man, as some superficial inquirers supposed. He read a pas sage from a letter by Dr. Kinsella, Titular Bishop of Ossory, a prelate most moderate in his political sentiments, who, in declining to attend a Repeal meeting, admitted that he saw no hope of relief for Ireland except from a domestic Legislature. That feeling had been engendered in Ireland by the manner in which, the country had been governed by a British Parliament. Mr. O'Brien took a retrospect of Irish history, to illustrate the position that the feeling was caused by no recent act of Government. Before the Union, Ireland was distracted by internal disputes fostered by England. Then came the penal code of William and Mary. During the American war, Ireland obtained all the points at issue between the two countries, and relapsed into apathy. The rebellion, fomented by England, was followed by the Union-when England's debt of 446,000,000l., (the annual charge of which was 16,500,000l.,) and Ireland's of 28,000,000l., (the annual charge of which was 1,194,000l.,) were converted into a joint burden; a difference which no subsequent remission of taxation for Ireland bad counterbalanced. Another effect of the Union was to increase absenteeism; which the Irish people expected to be cured by the attractions of a separate Parlia

Another consequence was the consolidation of public establishments, of which he did not question the propriety, but some compensation might have been made to Ireland: why should not Ireland have some of the finest barbours in the world? England had nine dockyards, Ireland not one.

Of the 6,500,0007. for Navy estimates this year, he calculated that only 10,000l. was spent in Ireland. There was, indeed, an Army expenditure in Ireland; but he never heard that it was intended by way of compensation. The Irish Exchequer now remitted to England 25,000,000/. or 26,000,000l. yearly; the English Exchequer to Ireland, 8,000,000l. The Roman Catholic Relief Bill was ceded to Ireland in the dread of civil war for six years it was practi❤ cally inoperative; for, with one or two exceptions, Roman Catholics were as much excluded from office as before, until Lord Normanby's proclamation of equality for all classes. The Roman Catholics formed fourfifths of the population of Ireland; he calculated (for returns were refused to him), that twenty-three Protestants had been promoted to office in Ireland by the present Government, and three Roman Catholics; against which must be set off the causeless dismissal of two Roman Catholics. Other grievances were inflicted by the Irish Reform Bill: Ireland ought to have 125 to 170 representatives, in order to have a proportionate share in the representation; in England the electors were as 1 to 24 of the population, in Ireland as 1 to 100. The Irish had been exasperated by the Spottiswode conspiracy, and by Lord Stanley's Registration Bill, which the Tories used in turning the

ing, that the subject would not brook delay though they had been two years in office without doing anything! While a Church Establishment was maintained for one-tenth of the population, the Roman Catholic clergy were not even provided with residences; and the miserable grant to Maynooth met with insulting opposition. If he were a Roman Catholic, he should not hesitate for one moment to become a Repealer. They did not want ascendancy-they wanted only equality. The principal question, if the Union were repealed, would be, whether it was desirable to have endowments for all churches, or no endow ment for any. The present Government, when they were out of power, promised they would take all these subjects into their anxious consideration, and not lose an hour without reforming the abuses of the Church. But two years had they been in office without doing it. He was rather in favour of endowing the clergy of all religious persuasions. Lord Lyndhurst's declaration of alienage rankled in the minds of the people. They claimed equal Corporate reform with England. The management of the Poor-law had been overbearing; and of the Commissioners, six were English, and four Irish. Government called upon Parliament to pass an obsolete Arms Bill, with new enactments, protested against by the majority of Irish Members. What had Parliament done for Ireland's local government? what for railways? Lord Morpeth had proposed to guarantee a portion of capital for railways in Ireland; but the proposition was rejected by the House. For Canada, which

a loan of 1,500,000 for public works; and 240,000l. was spent in steam-navigation to the West Indies. The course taken with respect to national education in Ireland had been unproductive of good, for it had disgusted the Protestants of Ireland. Sir Edward Sugden had crushed a proposition for providing a better legal education for the Bar in Ireland. A grant for a national museum in Ireland had been recommended and refused. There was no compensation in English appointments for the exclusive nature of Irish appointments. Of the Cabinet, ten were English, and three Scotch; and in the subordinate appointments under the British Government, he calculated the Englishmen and Scotchmen to be as 491 to ten Irishmen. Sir Robert Peel had missed the opportunity of conciliating Ireland without conceding a principle. Of the goodness of Lord De Grey's and Lord Eliot's intentions, he did not doubt; but somehow, they had not the power to give them effect. Mr. O'Brien contrasted the government of Ireland, in spite of the majority, with that of Canada by the majority. To other causes of discontent must be added that of general distress, and the influences which tend to the consolidation of farms. He contended that the cry for Repeal, though he did not concur in its policy, was not treasonable; it was merely the expression of despair of obtaining good government. Ministers had given their ultimatum; they had declared that they would force forward their Arms Bill, but that conciliation had gone to its full extent; and Sir Robert Peel had said that he