MUNICIPAL REFORM AND THE IRISH CHURCH.
When the new ministers explained what they intended to do this session, it was found that the only measures which they meant to bring forward were a bill for the reform of municipal corporations, and a bill founded on the late resolutions of the commons regarding tithes. Changes in the mode of electing municipal authorities and in the general government of boroughs had become inevitable from, and after the passing of the reform bill. A commission had been appointed, in 1833, to inquire into the state of corporations in England and Wales; and on more than one occasion his majesty had alluded, in his royal speeches, to the objects of the commission. The report of the commissioners had not been made when Sir Robert Peel went out of office, but soon after they framed a general report, besides separate reports on individual corporations. The former, and several of the latter, were presented in May, and the general report thus concluded:—“In conclusion, we report to your majesty, that there prevails amongst the inhabitants of a great majority of the incorporated towns a general, and in our opinion a just, dissatisfaction with their municipal institutions; a distrust of the self-elected municipal councils, whose powers are subject to no popular control, and whose acts and proceedings, being secret, are unchecked by the influence of public opinion; a distrust of the municipal magistracy, tainting with suspicion the local administration of justice, and often accompanied with contempt of the persons by whom the law is administered; a discontent under the burdens of local taxation, while revenues that ought to be applied for the public advantage are diverted from their legitimate use, and are sometimes wastefully bestowed for the benefit of individuals—sometimes squandered for purposes injurious to the character and morals of the people. We therefore feel it to be our duty to represent to your majesty that the existing municipal corporations of England and Wales neither possess nor deserve the confidence or respect of your majesty’s subjects, and that a thorough reform must be effected before they can become what we humbly submit to your majesty they ought to be—useful and efficient instruments of local government.” Lord John Russell, proceeding on this recommendation, on the 5th of June detailed the plan of municipal government which ministers intended to provide for one hundred and eighty-three corporations. After detailing the many abuses which existed, he said that, instead of the present irregular government of corporations, it was proposed that there should be one uniform system of government—one uniform franchise for the purpose of election: and the like description of officers, with the exception of some of the larger places, in which it might be desirable to have a recorder, or some other magistrates different from the other smaller boroughs. In regard to the qualification of electors, he said it had been determined not to adhere to the parliamentary franchise. By the proposed bill they would be obliged to pay the borough rates, and accord to the established practice of the English government, and the acknowledged and recognised principles of the British constitution. He thought it fair that they should have a voice in the election of those by whom the rates were made, and by whom the corporate funds were expended. As, however, the electors ought to be the fixed inhabitants of the town, known to contribute to the rates, it was proposed that they should be persons who had been rated for three years, and had regularly paid those rates. Provision was also made in the bill for the case of those individuals who might have omitted to pay their rates. In regard to the governing body, there was to be one only—a mayor and common-council. The common-council would consist of various numbers, generally regulated by the population of the different places; their numbers would vary from fifteen in the smallest places to ninety in the largest. It was proposed that the largest towns, of which there were only twenty, should be divided into wards, and a certain proportion, which would be regulated by the schedules to the bill, of common-councillors should be chosen in each ward. In all the rest of the boroughs it was proposed that the whole common-council should be elected for three years. They were to be elected for three years; but one-third were to go out of office every year, thus taking care that two-thirds of the common-council should have experience in the transaction of town business. The mayor was to be elected annually, and he was to be, during the time of his mayoralty, a justice of peace for the borough and likewise for the county. The town-council was to have the power of appointing a town-clerk and treasurer, and it was left to their option whether they would retain their present town-clerks in their office. If, however, another was chosen, and the dismissal of the present town-clerk was attended with any pecuniary loss to the individual, he was to receive compensation. All the old modes of acquiring the freedom of a corporation, such as birth and apprenticeship, were to be abolished; but all pecuniary rights, such as rights of common, exemption from tolls, &c., would be preserved to the persons now enjoying them, during their lives; in future, however, no person should be a burgess, or admitted into the corporations, except in consequence of the permanent occupancy of a house, and the payment of the borough rates. All exclusive rights of trade were to be abolished, due regard being paid to the pecuniary interests of existing individuals. It was proposed, touching the pecuniary affairs of corporations, that town-councils should have the power to appoint committees in order to manage their financial matters; that their accounts should be regularly audited; and that they should no longer be secret accounts, but regularly brought before the public. Town-councils were further to become the trustees of charitable funds, appointing a committee, if they thought proper, to manage them. For the management of these funds a separate secretary and treasurer was to be appointed, and provision was made for auditing them in a different manner from the general accounts of the borough. The number of persons chosen for the management of these charitable estates were not to be less than fifteen, and they were to be chosen from among the general body of burgesses. The police, as far as regarded the watching of the towns, were to be placed under the control of the town-council. The power of granting alehouse licences was also to be left to town-councils, or to a committee chosen by them from their own numbers, to grant these licences. It was proposed to divide the one hundred and eighty-three boroughs into two schedules; the greater part of these, one hundred and twenty-nine, were to be placed in schedule A, and would have a commission of the peace granted them. The remaining fifty-four might also, if they chose, have a commission of the peace on application to the crown. With respect to those in schedule A, the town-councils were to have the power of recommending to the crown certain persons whom they thought proper to receive the commission of the peace within the borough; but they were not to have the power of electing magistrates in such sense as that the assent of the crown should not be necessary to perfect the election. These magistrates were not to have the power of sitting in quarter-sessions; but the bill enacted that, on a town-council applying to the crown for the establishment of a court of quarter-sessions, and stating that they were willing to continue the salary paid to the recorder, the recorder should be retained if a barrister of five years’ standing. With respect to other towns desiring to have quarter-sessions, but which either had no recorder, or where the recorder was not a barrister of five years’ standing, it was intended that the crown should in future have the nomination of that officer. Sir Robert Peel said that he would present no impediment to the introduction of the bill, but would reserve all consideration of its details, every one of which deserved a separate discussion, to a future stage of proceedings. The bill was read a second time, without debate and without opposition, on the 15th of June, and the committee began on tire 22nd of the same month. The first disputed point regarded the fixing of the boundaries of those boroughs whose limits had not been defined in the act passed for that purpose in reference to the reform bill. The bill provided, “That they should be, and remain the same as they are now taken to be, until such time as his majesty shall have been pleased to issue his letters-patent under the great seal, that he may be certified concerning the fit metes and bounds to be allotted unto the same respectively, and until such further time as it shall please his majesty, by advice of his privy-council, upon inspection of the return thereof made by the commissioners unto whom such letters-patent shall have been directed, to declare fit metes and bounds of the said last-named boroughs, and the metes and bounds of the said last-named boroughs thenceforward, for the purposes of this act, shall be the same so declared as last aforesaid.” This was objected to by several members, as placing a dangerous power where it ought not to be placed. Sir Robert Peel said, he would consent that the boundaries of the existing boroughs should continue as they were until they should be otherwise settled by parliament: and Lord Stuart Dudley, although a friend of the ministry, moved an amendment to that effect. He was supported by Sir James Graham, Mr. Goulburn, and other members, who argued, that the clause gave the crown a power which the crown ought not to possess, and devolved upon the executive, duties which clearly belonged to the legislature. Lord John Russell said, he had no objection to add words to the effect that his majesty having appointed a commission to settle the boundaries, the report of that commission should be laid before parliament at its meeting, and the boundaries therein named should be and remain the boundaries of these boroughs, unless parliament should otherwise decide. Lord Dudley Stuart, however, pressed his motion to a division; but it was lost by a majority of two hundred and fifty-nine against one hundred and ninety-two. A more important discussion took place on the clause which affected the rights of existing freemen, and the future modes of acquiring freedom in corporations. The bill enacted, “That after the passing of this act no person shall be elected, admitted, or enrolled a citizen, freeman, liveryman, or burgess, of any borough, or by any name, a member of any body corporate in respect of any right or title other than by occupancy and payment of rates within such borough, according to the meaning and provisions of the act.” Sir William Follett opposed this sacrifice of freemen; and he moved an amendment to the effect of preserving their rights without interfering with the municipal government of corporate bodies. Government vehemently opposed this amendment; but various members accustomed to go with ministers declared their intention to vote for it. Sir James Graham thought it would simplify the question if the amendments were limited to the rights of freemen under the reform bill, because the question of inchoate rights would arise more properly under another clause. Sir William Follett acceded to this suggestion; but Lord John Russell still maintained that the provision contained in the clause was a necessary consequence of adopting this new municipal franchise; and, if so, ministers were not proposing it for the sake of altering the reform bill, but for the sake of amending the municipal corporations. The amendment said that the clause must not affect either the rights of property or the privileges to which the freemen were at present entitled. Many of these rights and privileges were of a description hurtful to the inhabitants of towns generally; many of them consisted in a monopoly of trades; and many in an exemption of tolls to which the inhabitants generally were liable. Lord Stanley supported the amendment: he could not see how the clause came to appear in a bill which professed to be a measure to provide for the regulation of the municipal corporations in England and Wales. On a division the clause was carried by a majority of two hundred and seventy-eight against two hundred and thirty-two.
The question, however, was again raised by Mr. Praed, who moved the following amendment:—“Provided always, and be it enacted, that in every borough, whether the same be a county of itself or not, where the right to vote in the election of members or a member to serve in parliament for such borough, is, according to the laws now in force, enjoyed by persons entitled to vote in virtue of some corporate right, nothing whatsoever in this act contained shall in anywise hinder or prevent any person or persons who now enjoy, or who hereafter, according to the laws now in force, might have acquired such corporate right, from enjoying or acquiring such corporate right for the purpose of voting in such elections.” In opposing this amendment, Lord John Russell denied that he was interfering by this municipal bill with the parliamentary franchise: he was not enacting that there should be no freemen; and, therefore, though there would no longer be freemen voting for members of parliament, that was only an incidental consequence of the principle of the bill, which principle was again brought into action, not with a view to parliamentary franchise, but solely with a view to municipal government. The amendment was lost by a majority of two hundred and thirty-four against two hundred and sixty-two. Another amendment, moved by Mr. Ponsonby, for the purpose of protecting inchoate rights of freemen, was equally unsuccessful, being negatived by a majority of two hundred and thirty-four to two hundred and three. The bill arranged all the boroughs into two classes, according to their population, the larger boroughs being divided into wards. In all these boroughs the bill required no qualification in the common-councilmen, except that of being rate-payers. Sir Robert Peel moved as an amendment, “Provided such members of council who shall be elected in boroughs divided into wards shall, at the time of their election, be seized or possessed of personal property of the clear value of £1000, or that they shall be rated on a rental of not less than £40 a-year: and also, provided that all such members elected in towns not divided into wards shall, at the time of their election, be seized or possessed of property, real or personal, of the clear value of £500, or be rated to the relief of the poor on a rental of not less than £20.” Sir Robert founded his amendment on what had been the usual practice in enactments regarding corporate towns. It was true that, according to ancient practice, no pecuniary qualifications were required for members of corporations; but the spirit of the charter was, that persons fit for their respective offices should be appointed; and he apprehended that, even in those self-elected corporations, whatever might be their defects in other respects, care was taken to elect persons of wealth and respectability. In opposing the amendment, Lord John Russell, Sir J. C. Hobhouse, Mr. Blackburne, and other members, argued, that it was in contradiction to the spirit of the bill, not agreeable to the provisions of the original charters, incapable of being generally and fitly applied, and not productive of any practical benefit. It was lost by a majority of two hundred and sixty-seven against two hundred and four. On the same day Lord Stanley moved an amendment on the clause which fixed the periods of election, which he proposed should take place only every second year; but this also was lost by a majority of two hundred and twenty against one hundred and seventy-six. Mr. Grote attempted to engraft on this part of the bill a modification of his favourite measure of vote by ballot; but the amendment was withdrawn. A division took place on the clause of the bill which declared that the town-clerk should be removable at pleasure; but it was retained by a majority of sixty. Sir James Graham was also unsuccessful in an amendment on the clause which gave to the set of men who should once get into office a formidable instrument for maintaining their predominance, by vesting in the council the power of granting or refusing all licences within the limits of the borough; the original clause was retained by a majority of forty-five. The labours of the committee were finished, and the report received on the 17th of July; and on the 20th the bill was read a third time without a division, the opponents of the bill leaving it to the house of lords to accomplish those ameliorations in its enactments which they deemed requisite.
The day fixed for the second reading of the municipal bill in the house of lords was the 28th of July. On that day petitions were presented against it from Coventry, Doncaster, Lancaster, Worcester, Lincoln, and other corporations, praying to be heard against the bill by counsel; and from Bristol and Liverpool, praying to be heard against it by their respective recorders. It was moved, that the petitioners should be heard by counsel, which Lord Melbourne opposed. The Duke of Wellington and other peers contended that it would be a denial of justice to refuse to hear parties against a measure which affected their character as well as their interests. Lord Brougham also said that there would be no objection to counsel being heard, provided the matter was so arranged as to prevent that hearing from becoming interminable. He suggested that two counsel should state all that was to be stated for the whole of the corporations. In this suggestion Lord Melbourne concurred, and it was agreed to by the whole house, after which the bill was read a second time pro forma. The hearing of the counsel commenced on the 30th of July, and was continued up to the 1st of August. The two gentlemen who appeared for the corporations were Sir Charles Wetherell and Mr. Knight, who insisted largely on the general character of the bill, as putting an end to all rights enjoyed under any corporate charter in the kingdom; and attacked the reports made by the commission regarding the different boroughs. They claimed a right to tender evidence in order to prove the ignorance and partiality with which the corporations had been treated. After the counsel had concluded their argument, Lord Melbourne gave notice that he would oppose any motion for allowing evidence to be adduced in defence of any corporation. Notwithstanding this notice, however, on the 3rd of August, after his lordship had moved that the house should go into committee on the bill, the Earl of Carnarvon moved, as an amendment, that evidence should now be taken at the bar of the house in support of the allegations of the several petitions. After a long debate on this counter-motion, which was strenuously opposed by the ministers and their party, the house determined in its favour by a majority of one hundred and twenty-four to fifty-four.
Evidence was now heard at the bar, which occupied the house from the 5th to the 8th of August. Witnesses were examined in relation to about thirty boroughs; and the evidence went to show that the commissioners had acted like attorneys employed to get up a case, and with but little prudence, since they chiefly derived their information from partizans of their own opinions. The evidence having been finished, the house went into committee on the bill on the 12th of August, when the Duke of Newcastle proposed the rejection of the bill, by moving that the committee should be taken that day’six months. He did not, however, press his motion to a division, the conservative peers having resolved to pass the bill, in so far as they thought it might do good, after stripping it of those provisions which seemed to be most operative for evil. Lord Lyndhurst proposed the first alteration; He moved a clause preserving to all freemen, to every person who might be a freeman but for this measure, and to their widows and children, or the husband of their daughters or widows, the same rights in the property of the boroughs as would have belonged to them by its laws and customs if this act had not been passed. He did not refer, he said, to general corporate property, but to individual and specific rights of property enjoyed by freemen in many boroughs—rights of commons and others. Lord Melbourne opposed the motion. He would not be disinclined, he said, to consider a proposal for extending the period during which these rights should be preserved further than it was now fixed by the bill; but he could not consent to preserve in perpetuity rights which he believed to be prejudicial both to the freemen themselves and to the whole community. The Earls of Haddington and Ripon supported the amendment, while Lords Plunkett and Brougham, and the Marquis of Lansdowne opposed it, contending that the rights to which the bill put an end were not rights of property. On a division the amendment was carried by one hundred and thirty against thirty-seven; and, thus victorious, Lord Lyndhurst immediately moved another, to preserve the freemen their parliamentary franchise as secured by the reform bill. Lord Melbourne was hostile to this amendment; but as there was no hope of success, he did not call for a division, and it was adopted. Another amendment, moved by Lord Lyndhurst, which required a certain qualification in the town councillors, after stern opposition from the ministers, was carried by a majority of one hundred and twenty to thirty-nine. The next alteration proposed by the opposition peers was an amendment which provided that a fixed proportion of the town-council should hold office for life. This was described by the supporters of the bill as being more glaringly inconsistent with the principle of the bill than any of those which had been adopted. To agree to it, they said, was to lose the bill; but it was carried by one hundred and twenty-six against thirty-nine. Further amendments proposed by the conservative peers were agreed to without much discussion, and without any division. The provisions which declared that persons who were at present justices of the peace under borough charters should cease to be so in future, were struck out, as were the clauses which took from the county magistrates, and gave to the new town-councils the power of granting licenses. The ecclesiastical patronage of the town-council was further limited to the members of the church of England; and it was decided that town-clerks should hold their offices during good behaviour. All towns containing six thousand inhabitants instead of twelve thousand were to be divided into wards; and the number of councillors allotted to each was to be fixed by a compound ratio of members and property. Finally, instead of the power of dividing boroughs into wards, and fixing the number of councillors which each ward should return, being left to the king in council, who could only act through commissioners, it was given to the revising barristers; and instead of the determination of the boundaries of the burgal territory being left to the government of the new councils, the peers retained it in the hands of parliament. The bill, as amended, was passed by the house of lords on the 28th of August, and the amendments were brought before the commons on the 31st. Lord John Russell in bringing them before the house, said that the lords, by their mode of proceeding, had caused their own amendments to be viewed in a more unfavourable light than would have belonged to them, if they had merely been the result of calm deliberation. The question, however, for the house was, whether the bill even as altered, might not be moulded into an efficient instrument of good municipal government. He would not recommend the adoption of the amendments by which town-clerks were made irremovable, and by which borough magistrates who were now justices by virtue of their offices, should continue to be so. Neither was he favourable to the provision inserted by the lords, that a certain number of councillors, under the name of aldermen, should be elected for life; he would rather propose that the same number of members of the town-council as the lords proposed should be elected for life, should be chosen for a period of six years, and that one half should always be made at ‘the expiration of three years. Another amendment, from which he did not intend to dissent altogether, regarded the divisions of towns into wards; he proposed that instead of six thousand inhabitants there should be nine thousand in any borough so divided. As regards the lords’ amendment, which gave the crown the power of nominating justices, he proposed that the house should not agree with the alteration. In most of the other amendments he concurred; but he would not ask the house to accede to the provision which limited the exercise of ecclesiastical patronage to such members of the town-councils as might belong to the church of England, or to that clause which perpetuated the exemption from toll enjoyed by freemen in certain boroughs. The radical section of the commons blamed ministers for conceding too much, and indulged in violent language against the house of lords. Mr. Roebuck asked why the real representatives of the people should bear the insults of the lords, when they had the power to crush them? He was an advocate for democracy, and the sooner they brought the matter to an issue the better. It was necessary to stir up the people upon this subject to something like a revolution. On the part of the conservative members of the house there was, also, a difference of opinion; some thought that the amendments of the lords should be preserved in all their integrity, while others were of opinion that the modifications proposed by ministers should be adopted.
Sir Robert Peel, after entering at length into the merits of the amendments adopted by the lords, in which he generally concurred, proposed an additional and alternative qualification for voters—namely, the being rated in £30 in the larger, and £15 in the smaller boroughs. Ministers acceded to this. But there was a greater difficulty encountered in dealing with the exercise of ecclesiastical patronage. Lord John Russell proposed the rejection of the amendment of the lords on this subject; but Mr. Spring Rice proposed an expedient, which was ultimately adopted, to insert a clause directing the ecclesiastical patronage belonging to boroughs to be sold, and the price to be invested for the purpose of being applied to the public good of the boroughs. The amendments of the commons were taken into consideration by the lords on the 4th of September, and were agreed to with few exceptions. They still retained, however, their original amendments providing that justices should be named by the crown, and that the division into wards should begin with boroughs containing a population of six thousand. On the 7th of September the commons agreed to the bill as it had been returned to them from the house of lords, and in that shape it finally passed.
In the meantime, while the lords were occupied in the consideration of the municipal bill, the commons were occupied with the Irish church bill. Lord Morpeth brought this measure forward on the 26th of June, and in doing so, he stated that, in conformity with the bill of last year, and of that which the late government had contemplated, he proposed to convert the existing composition into an annual rent-charge, payable by the owners of the first estate of inheritance, or such other equivalent estate as would be defined by the bill, equal to seven-tenths of the amount of composition, or £70 for every £100, charging the cost of collection, to the amount of sixpence in the pound, on the tithe-owners. He thought it advisable to make a distinction not only between existing and future clerical incumbents, but also between clergymen and lay impropriators; and he proposed that the existing clerical incumbent should receive £73 8s. for every £100 of composition, the additional five per cent, being charged upon the perpetuity purchase-fund. As the machinery of the bill, he said, was similar to that of last year, he did not feel called upon to enter into any of the details respecting the real charges payable to the crown, and the investments which would be placed under the management of the commissioners of land revenue. The bill would authorise a revision and revaluation of benefices for the tithe composition; and it was likewise proposed to extend the provisions of Lord Tenterden’s act for the limitation of suits to Ireland, in the same way as it was included in the bill of last year. By the report of the commissioners of public instruction, the members of the established church amounted to 853,064, the presbyterians to 642,356, and other dissenters to 21,808 persons; tire number of Roman Catholics was 6,427,712, in other words, the members of the established church amounted to 853,064, and the number of those who dissented was 7,091,876. The distribution of the members of the established church, also, was as disproportionate as their total amount; in the diocese of Dromore, there were 264 members for every 1000 acres; in the diocese of Glogher 26 to every 1000 acres, and in the diocese of Tuam there were only 8 to every 1000 acres. It was proposed, therefore, to suspend the presentation to every benefice in Ireland where the number of Protestants did not exceed fifty. In the case of a suspended parish, in which there was any number of members of the establishment from one to fifty, the ecclesiastical commissioners would be empowered, subject to the approbation and consent of the lord-lieutenant in council, either to assign the cure of souls in that parish to the care of the neighbouring minister, or else to appoint a separate curate. It would further be enacted, that, in all parishes where there now existed a church and a resident officiating minister, a separate curate should be appointed. When the cure of souls was committed to a neighbouring minister, the amount of stipend to be given was not to be less than £10, or more than £50 per annum; and where a separate curate was appointed, the salary was not to exceed £75 per annum, with permission to live in the glebe-house, if he undertook to keep it in repair. In every parish where the cure of souls was committed to a neighbouring minister, or a separate curate, provision was to be made for the erection of suitable places of worship, fit to accommodate the probable number of the different congregations. These places of worship were to be built at a cost not exceeding £100, or rented at a cost not exceeding £15 per annum. In making all these provisions the archbishop of the province and the bishops of the diocesses were to be associated with the ecclesiastical commissioners. With respect to other parishes, if it should appear, after deducting thirty per cent, from the existing tithe-composition and the payment of that tax on ecclesiastical benefices, that the income of any parish should exceed £300 per annum, the commissioners would be required to report the circumstance on the voidance of the benefice to the lord-lieutenant, who would be empowered to make any reduction he might deem proper. The incomes, however, were in no case to be reduced below £300 per annum. In cases of livings in the gift of the crown and the bishops, he thought that it would be acknowledged there should be no delay in carrying these provisions into effect; but power would be given to indemnify the owners of lay advowsons, and to charge that indemnification on the fund which would be created from the various sources which he had mentioned, and which it was proposed to call “the reserved fund;” a fund which would be applicable to pay the salaries of the neighbouring ministers or separate curates—to pay all charges which might accrue on the suspended parishes, and to pay for the erection of places of public worship. These purposes having been satisfied, the surplus fund accruing from year to year was to be applied by the commissioners of national education in Ireland to the religious and moral instruction of all classes of the people, without reference to creeds or sects. The total number of parishes, he continued, that would come under the operation of the bill, would be eight hundred and sixty. He had computed the salaries of the curates at £65 each, and after the existing interests were provided for, there would accrue to the reserved fund, 47,898, to which there was to be added, on account of indemnified patronage, £10,178, making the whole amount £58,076. Lord Morpeth added, that in the report of the committee on public instruction, it was stated that the Protestants of the church of England were on the increase. Government was not inattentive to this; and it was proposed that where it should appear to the ecclesiastical commissioners that the number of the members of the established church in any of the suspended parishes had increased to such a degree as to make the provisions of the bill inadequate to the religious wants of the place, they would be required to report the circumstance to the lord-lieutenant, and to submit a proposition to meet the exigency. If the lord-lieutenant approved of it, the report and the proposition were to be laid on the tables of both houses of parliament; and the ecclesiastical commissioners, after the expiration of six months, would be empowered to carry the proposition into effect, if parliament should not otherwise direct.
The bill was brought in and read a first time. It contained two distinct sets of provisions—some relating solely to the mode of collecting tithe, and others which established a new distribution of the church funds, so as to create a surplus to be applied to other purposes. Sir Robert Peel gave notice on the 7th of July, that, on the motion for committing the bill, he would move an instruction to the committee to divide it into two bills, that he might have an opportunity of rejecting altogether those parts of the bill which suppressed the Protestant churches of eight hundred and sixty parishes, appropriating their revenues to purposes not immediately in connection with the interests of the established church, and of supporting those provisions in which he could concur. The bill was read a second time pro forma on the 13th of July, and the motion to commit it was made on the 21st. Sir Robert Peel moved the instruction of which he had given notice. Mr. Spring Rice answered Sir Robert Peel. The debate was continued by adjournment on the 22nd and 23rd of July, the leading speakers in support of the motion being Sirs R. H. Inglis and J. Graham, Lord Stanley, and Messrs. Lefroy and Jackson; while the ministerial side of the question was maintained by Lords Howick, Morpeth, and J. Russell, and Messrs. Hume, Shiel, and O’Connell. On a division ministers had a majority of three hundred and nineteen against two hundred and eighty-two, a majority which secured the success of the bill in the commons. It passed, in fact, without any further opposition, the minority declining to discuss details which, in their opinion, could not be amended except by omitting them. Ministers, however, seem to have been convinced that Sir Robert Peel was correct in stating that they would have no surplus, for they introduced a clause providing that the consolidated fund should immediately begin to make an annual payment of £50,000, for the purposes of general education in Ireland, on the faith of the anticipated surplus, from which it was to be repaid.
The bill passed the commons on the 12th of August, and the second reading took place in the house of lords on the 20th. No opposition was made to the second reading; but it was intimated that the opposition intended in committee to strike out of the bill all the clauses containing the new scheme of appropriation, and the machinery by which it was to be worked. The house went into committee on the 24th of August, and agreed to all the clauses forming the first part of the measure, with the exception of the provisions for opening compositions and for taking a new average, both of which were expunged. When the house arrived at the first of the clauses which formed the new system of appropriation, the Earl of Haddington moved that they should be omitted. The bill was defended by the Marquises of Lansdowne, Glarincarde, and Conyngham, and Lords Plunkett, Brougham, and Glenelg. Lord Melbourne announced that if the motion were carried he would abandon the bill; he would not be a party to sending it back to the house of commons in a shape, both as to form and principle, which would compel that house to reject it entirely. On a division, the motion to omit all the appropriation clauses was carried by one hundred and thirty-eight against forty-one. Ministers now abandoned the bill, being in such a position, by the Catholic majority in the commons, as rendered honourable retreat impossible. On the 29th of August the chancellor of the exchequer brought in a bill empowering the government, on application from the clergy, and on satisfactory proof being given that the parties were not in a condition to pay, to suspend the claim for the instalment which was due from the Irish clergy to the 5th of April, 1846. This bill passed both houses without opposition.