their dying lips-and that all these atrocities were perpetrated under the excitement created by that base cabal, of which Ashley Cooper, who had been Lord Chancellor (an Atheist, affecting to be a bigot), played so prominent a part---when I bear in mind, that again at a period less remote, when the first repeal of the worst part of the penal code was proposed, the same base cry was raised, and an association called the "Protestant" was formed, which Edmund Burke represents to have been composed of as unprincipled impostors as ever in the degraded name of religion trafficked on the credulity of mankind; when I remember, that, at a period more proximate, in the memory of most of us, in 1807, when the Whigs proposed that your Catholic fellow-countrymen should be eligible to places of honour in the naval and military professions, again, for factious purposes, that same cry was raised-that, when there was no Lord Normanby-when there was in Ireland no political agitation-when of O'Connell nothing had been heard-yet, upon Ireland, and the religion of her people, and the ministers of that religion, the same odious calumnies were cast, and we were held up, as a nation of idolators, of blasphemers, and of perjurers, to the execration of the English people and that all this was done by the very party who, in eight years afterwards, themselves proposed and carried the very measure which has been made the instrument of all this abominable excitement; how, when I remember all this, can I feel surprise that for the same bad purposes, men should be found capable of resorting to the same base expedients; and that, to the same execrable passions, they should address the same infernal invocation? And what was the state of England, when, to recover possession of office, the Tories of 1807 raised their "No Popery" cry ? You stood upon the verge of a tremendous peril: the great conqueror was in his full career of victory; and, had he landed an army on the Irish shore, little short of miracle could have saved us. But now, we are at profound peace; now, nothing is to be apprehended; now, the Orangemen of Ireland can trample on us with impunity, and on the neck of the Irish people the foot of Rodenism may with impunity be planted. Ha! be not too sure of that! And, that you may not be too sure of it, let us, for a moment, consider who are the Irish people. The noble lord the member for Stroud, on the first night of this debate, read a passage from Edmund Burke, in which it is stated, that the Irish Catholics had been reduced to a mere populace, without property, education, or power. And, if we were still what we once were, then, indeed, to our old Orange masters we might again with impunity be given up. But a prodigious change has befallen in our condition-a change

greater, perhaps, than any of which in the annals of any people any example can be found. Who, then, are the Irish people? They are those mighty masses, who, gradually recovering and emerging from the effects of conquest, of rapine, and of oppression, brought to bear against a tyranny, once deemed as irresistible as it was remorseless, the resources, which nothing but a cause just beyond all others in the sight of Heaven, and the deepest consciousness of the heart of man, could supply; and after a struggle, of which the fame should be as imperishable as the results are everlasting, by dint of indefatigable energy, of indissoluble union, and of undaunted and indomitable determination, won from their antagonists their irrevocable freedom; who, following up that noble event in a spirit not unworthy of it, became the auxiliaries of their British fellow-citizens, in another great achievement and now, demanding equality or its only alternative, and putting in for that equality a justly imperative requisition, stand before you in one vast array, in which, with increasing numbers, increasing wealth, increasing intelligence, and increasing and consolidated power, are associated, and offer to your most solemn thoughts, a series of reflections, which should teach you to beware of collision with the Irish people. You talk to us of collision with the Lords; of collision with millions of your fellow-citizens beware; beware of collision with those millions, to whom a power has been imparted, which in your hearts you know you can never recal. If the member for Tamworth, on the first night of this debate, cautioned us with any truth to beware of "entrance in a quarrel," with how much more justice should he himself be warned to avoid a contention with those of whose prowess he has already had an experience so instructive! Such a contention would not be wise. What do I say, wise? it would not be safe, and its consequences might be disastrous beyond what it may be prudential to point out. It is not to Ireland alone that those consequences would be confined; they would extend far beyond her; and every British interest would be affected by them. "We are at war," exclaims the Duke of Wellington, "in America and in Asia.” If we are at war in America, this is not the time to hand Ireland over to the rule of that party, who, between Catholics and Protestants, between Irishmen and Englishmen, would draw "the boundary line.” We are indeed at war in Asia, and disclosures have recently been made respecting the views and feelings of Russia in regard to this country, which must convince us that the peace of Europe is more than insecure. With respect to France, is it not manifest that, if the Tories had been in office two months ago, and had acted on the principles which they profess in opposition, we should have been

hurried into a war with France by the blockade of Mexico? Algiers remains as a ground of difference; and, independently of these considerations, France itself is in a state so volcanic-a concussion, and an eruption are so probable--that upon any permanent alliance with that country it would be rashness to rely.

This, then, is not the time-this is not the befitting time-in the heart of the British empire, amidst two-thirds of the population of these islands—in place of that sentiment of impassioned allegiance which Lord Normanby succeeded in creating, to substitute a feeling of deep, resentful, and perilous discontent; to convert Ireland into a source of your weakness, from a bulwark of your strength; to make her an item in the calculations of your antagonists, and to the external risks by which we are encompassed, to superadd this fearful domestic hazard. These are reflections which will not be lightly dismissed by you, if to the modern name, by which your party desires to be designated, you have any claim; if, to the real interests of this country, to the integrity of this vast dominion, and to the safety of Ireland, a principle truly Conservative is to be applied: but if it shall be otherwise—if, blinded by party-if, of everything, except the gratification of factious passions, and of antipathies national and religious, you shall be regardless, and you shall give no heed to the dangers consequent upon their indulgence-it only remains for me to pray (and in the deepest sincerity of my heart that prayer is offered up) that you may not live to lament, that to the admonitory intimations given you, by the events which are passing around you, you were insensible, when your regrets will be embittered by the consciousness, that repentance will have become useless, and remorse will be without avail.

LORD STANLEY'S IRISH REGISTRATION BILL.

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, JUNE 10, 1840.

THE argument of the noble lord is at variance with the statement with which he commenced his speech. He began by stating, that the first clause in his bill would not operate as a disfranchisement of voters already registered, but he afterwards proceeded to advocate the principle of disfranchisement, from the consciousness that the first clause was founded upon it. He insisted, that a multitude of claimants had found their way by illegitimate means upon the registry, and that by a process of re-investigation, introduced into this bill, those claimants ought to be deprived of the privilege which the registry had conferred. This is disfranchisement to all intents and purposes. The clause proposed by my noble friend, the Secretary for Ireland, is, I admit, at utter variance with the clause so strenuously supported by the noble lord, and which, indeed, constitutes the essence of his bill. The noble lord disfranchises upon grounds antecedent to the registry, while the Secretary for Ireland confines the revision to matter which has arisen subsequent to the registry. For the imperfections incidental to the Irish system of registration-and to what system of registration are not imperfections incidental? the amendment proposed by the Secretary for Ireland affords a commensurate remedy. Vested rights—— rights obtained through the means provided by the law for their acquisition, and which are therefore vested, are secured by the amendment, while, at the same time, care is taken, that where those rights in point of fact have ceased to exist, the loss of the qualification shall operate as a defeasance, and of the mere form of registry no fraudulent use shall be made. The names of those who have died or become insolvent, or who have parted with their interest, are to be struck off the registry, and as outstanding certificates may be employed as the means of personation, the whole system of certificates is to be abolished. The noble lord calls, by way of retort, the abolition of the certificates a disfranchisement. Certificates are but the evidence of the title to vote. The title itself is not affected by the change of the evidence, and the Solicitor-General's proposition does no more than substitute a different proof less liable to exception, by which, however, the right to be proved is not in the slightest degree affected. This misrepresentation upon the part of the noble lord is very inconsistent with those professions of fairness in which the noble lord so frequently and so strenuously indulges, from a consciousness, I fear, that those professions are not

wholly uncalled for upon the part of the noble lord. The clearance of the registry of all those who have forfeited their title since the registry by means of an annual revision, ought to satisfy those who do not look for anything beyond the correction of the abuses which we ought to be solicitous to remove. But it is urged by the noble lord, that crowds, who never possessed the qualification have found admission to the registry. If this were true-if their allegations were well founded who to the abuses of the Irish registry are so sensitively alive, but who to the fabrication of fictitious votes, who to the profligacy, the corruption, the bribery, the debauch, the perjury, and its more infamous subornation which prevail at your own elections, are philosophically insensible, and give to Ireland the exclusive advantage of their virtuous, but not wholly disinterested indignation-if, I say, their allegations were well founded, and practices so corrupt had been employed for the purpose of giving an undue preponderance to the popular party, it is obvious that the constituency would be enormous. The country

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would swarm with spurious voters, and herds of wretched serfs would be driven at every election to the hustings under the terror of what the noble lord, with his usual happiness of conciliatory phrase, was pleased to designate as excommunication." But what is the state of the constituency of Ireland, and how do the statistical returns laid upon the table of this house sustain the statements of the noble lord, who, not contented with revision, insists upon re-investigation, insists upon an appeal to the judge of assize, and all those complicated impediments to the extension of the elective franchise, which, in the spirit of consistent" obstruction," the noble lord, with an ingenuity so perverse, has so elaborately devised? The noble lord is a proprietor in the county of Tipperary. He corresponds with the agents of Conservative clubs in that county, and he has been entrusted with several petitions, not indeed very numerously signed, from the county which I have the honour to represent, in which it was stated, that "thousands" had been improperly admitted upon the registry. What then is the constituency of the county of Tipperary? That county is of great extent, remarkable for its fertility; it is studded with large and thriving towns, and its population exceeds 400,000. You will say, you will of course conjecture, that under such circumstances the constituency of the county Tipperary must amount to 10,000. No. Well, to 8000? No. To 6000? No. To 5000? Not 5000? To 4000 ? Not to 4000. Well, then, to 3000? With the aid of sacerdotal anathemas, and secular imprecation, we must needs have, at all events, raised our practical voting constituency. At the last general election, the contest lasted for five days in the county of Tipperary. The county