NATURALIZATION ACT, ETC.
During this session the law of naturalization was extended in Canada. By the act, 179 no person could be summoned to the legislative council, or elect, or be elected, to the legislative assembly of these provinces, unless he was either a natural born subject of Great Britain, or a subject become so by the conquest and cession of the Canadas, or had been naturalized by an act of the British parliament. A bill was now passed giving to a naturalizing act of the Canadian legislature the same effect as to one of the legislature in England; providing, however, that such act should be null and void, unless ratified by his majesty within two years after being presented to him for that purpose. The only other measure regarding our relations with foreign states, besides these already noticed, which occupied the attention of parliament, was the expiry of the Alien Act. This session it died a natural death; and a milder set of regulations, conferring no power of sending aliens out of the country, were adopted in its stead. In relinquishing that power, Mr. Peel said that he had the gratifying consciousness that in no instance had it been abused. The only case in which it had been used was one which had not the slightest shade of a political aspect attached to it. It was that of a person who had menaced a foreign ambassador, and who, it was believed, would have carried his threats into execution had he not been brought before the privy-council and dealt with according to that act.
PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.
The session of parliament was shortened by the approach of its dissolution. The session was terminated on the 31st of May by commission. The speech, which was delivered by the lord chancellor, mentioned his majesty’s intention of dissolving the present parliament, and directing the issue of writs for the calling of a new one. A leading topic in the speech was the success of the British arms in the Burmese empire, success which had led to the signature on honourable terms of a preliminary treaty with the Burmese monarch, which his majesty had every reason to expect would be the foundation of a secure and permanent peace. Parliament was dissolved on the 2nd of June; and writs were issued for a new election, which were to be returnable on the 25th of July.
GENERAL ELECTION.
The elections which followed immediately the dissolution of parliament presented several scenes of active and vigorous individual combat; but they did not possess the interest which attaches to them when their issue is to decide the fate of contending parties. The chief topics on which candidates were tested were the corn-laws and Catholic emancipation. As the lower classes were under the impression that bread was high, because of the corn-laws, and that they existed to enrich the landholders, an expressed opinion in favour of their abolition was sure to gain cheers at a popular election. But the most prominent question on the hustings, even in England, was Catholic emancipation. The Duke of York’s speech, and the violence exhibited in Ireland, had created a strong feeling against the Catholics; and as it was known that their claims would be one of the earliest subjects of discussion in the new parliament, the success of a candidate generally depended as to whether he was, or was not in favour of Catholic emancipation. It was in Ireland, however, that the giving or refusing of a vote mostly depended on the answer received to the question, Will you vote for emancipation? The demagogues of the Catholic Association gave themselves up to the carrying of this one point; and they were aided by that powerful band of agitators, the Irish priests. The contest on the Irish hustings was, indeed, converted into an award of eternal damnation: the consolations of the church here, and the joys of heaven hereafter, were promised those who voted for an emancipation candidate; but the darkness of excommunication in this life, and the gloom of purgatory first, and then the pains of hell, were denounced against those who voted for an anti-Catholic. The associated barrister and the political priest travelled the country together in order to propagate the common creed; the one by threats of damnation, and the other by the more temporal considerations of civil and religious power; and this tyrannical sway of the artful and designing was irresistible among the forty-shilling freeholders—it procured the large majority pledged to support the claims of Catholic emancipation. The great influence which the priests had over the ignorant multitude was seen in a remarkable manner by the issue of the election for the county of Waterford. Mr. O’Connell and the Rev. Mr. Sheehan traversed that county to rouse it against the family of Beresford; and every tie of respect and civil influence which had hitherto united the Catholic tenant to his Protestant landlord gave way before the power of the church, The electors were wielded by the priesthood; and Lord George Beresford was compelled by his own tenantry to give tip the contest. At a meeting held in Clonmel to celebrate this triumph, Mr. Sheehan, the priest, remarked, “We said to the people, ‘Here are the natural enemies of your country, and here are your priests who wait on the bed of your sickness, and are your friends alike in prosperity or in woe: follow us or them.’” Such an appeal to the feelings of a superstitious multitude was sure to prevail: there is more might in superstition than in any of the lawful weapons in argument which man can use.