stating, that the situation of the three parcels of land which he had mentioned, had for many years produced great inconvenience. He had seen a bill which had been framed with reference to this very subject, by lord-chancellor Hyde, who had resided for some time in the parish of Swallowfield. The bill was drawn up with great accuracy, it enumerated every parish, tithing, and village within the three parcels of land before-mentioned, as well as all the evils which had arisen, or were likely to arise, from their locality, and the remedy which it proposed was, that those three parcels of land should be annexed, for all purposes whatever, to the county of Berks; that all power and jurisdiction over them should be taken from the lord-lieutenant and the magistrates of Wiltshire, and vested in those of Berkshire, with full authority to raise all dues and subsidies, all tenths and fifteenths, and all taxes whatever. The bill also contained a saving clause, guarding the right of every man's inheritance. He would not enter into an inquiry as to whether the divisions of the kingdom were effected under the reign of Alfred-or under that of Offa, or whether the division by tithings or by counties, was of the greatest antiquity; but he must say a few words on the constitution of shires, as he thought he could make it appear, that the establishment of those isolated spots in particular counties, which created so much inconvenience, must have been the effect of some overpowering influence, in direct violation of the principle which led to the establishment of county courts, itinerant magistrates, and of the office of high sheriff. He found, ⚫ from several authorities, that there were three objects proposed to be attained by the constitution of shires. The first was to suit the ease and convenience of the people, because all justice being at that time immediately in the Crown, and administered only where the king was personally present, the increase of population rendered this mode of dispensing justice troublesome. It was therefore ordered, that every shire should have justice administered within itself, by county courts holden monthly to settle disputes between parties, and by sheriffs' courts holden half-yearly, to take cognizance of criminal cases. The second object of the constitution of shires was the more easy conservation of the peace; because the sheriff, being constantly resident in the county, and at a convenient distance

from all parts, could without difficulty suppress all tumults, and execute all process. The third was the more easy defence of the country, and to facilitate the raising of subsidies, and all kinds of taxes. These being the objects proposed to be gained by the constitution of shires, it remained for him to show by what influence these isolated spots which he had before described, could have been established in almost every county of England. He was of opinion, that they were established by the influence of men of great rank and power, and of the church. Dugdale, in his Warwickshire, speaks of a spot of ground which interfered with his survey, and which he found to belong to the county of Worcester. He ascertained, that this piece of land belonged to the church of Worcester, which, upon the general division of land throughout the kingdom, had influence enough to preserve it, and, ever after, it continued to be taxed as part of that county. Sometimes those isolated parcels of land had been retained in counties, because they were attached to the seigniories of great noblemen. In Devonshire was a parcel of earldom land which had always been taxed as belonging to the county of Cornwall. In Berks was a piece of land called Twyford, which belonged to Wiltshire, although it was twenty miles from that county: the reason was, that it constituted part of the possessions of the abbey of Amesbury, in Wiltshire. He knew that the House would be likely to object to any thing like innovation, and therefore he would show a precedent for the measure which he proposed. In 1698, the counties of Ross and Cromarty were, by an act of session, united for all purposes, and have since been considered as one county by almost every act of parliament which had been passed relative to them. In 1740, many changes took place in the geographical situation of the county of Dorset; and a variety of changes had, at different times, been made in counties, by forming several small hundreds into one large hundred, and by dividing large parishes, in order to collect the poor's-rate more easily. There was one precedent which he could not omit to mention, because it would have weight with the House as being one of its own measures; he alluded to the act of the 41st of George 3rd, which was passed for the purpose of annexing Malta to the map of Europe.

He trusted that the House would not object to the introduction of the bill.

Mr. Secretary Peel had no intention of opposing the motion; on the contrary, he would give the bill every consideration, although he could not at present pledge himself to support it. As it struck him, there would be some difficulty as to the detail of the measure. The hon. gentleman, for instance, had not stated what he intended to do as to the elective franchise. Again, what arrangement was to be made with respect to county rates, assessed for works which were already completed, but not paid for? The bill, further, only proposed to give the power of exchange to counties; it was not provided what a county should do which desired to take, and had nothing to offer in return.

Mr. F. Palmer said, that with respect to the elective franchise, it would be impossible to make any new arrangement at the eve of a dissolution of parliament. His view was, that no alteration should take place until one year after the next general election. For the matter of county-rate, the sum at stake would be so trivial that it might be easily disposed of.

Leave was given to bring in the bill.

PARISH VESTRIES IN IRELAND BILL.] Sir John Newport moved for leave to bring in a bill, amending the law with respect to Parish Vestries and Assessments in Ireland. To induce the House to countenance the introduction of this measure, it would be necessary for him to show that the existing mode of regulating parish business in Ireland was objectionable. It was most objectionable, upon two grounds; first, there was no control as to the levy of the rate; and next, there was no sufficient responsibility as to the disposal of the money when collected. A great deal of difficulty as to all church matters must no doubt continue to exist in Ireland, so long as the religious parties of that country remained in their present anomalous situation. He knew that he should have to meet this plea; and also to contend with gentlemen, whose opinions upon the general question of Catholic rights were opposed to those which he supported; but he still believed that he should produce some facts, of a description so entirely conclusive, as that all parties must concur in the necessity of immediate investigation and reform. In the days of king William, and of queen Ann, the Catholics of Ireland, as well as the Protestants, had

still the power of voting in vestries. It was not until the reign of George 1st, that that power had been taken away. One of the last acts of the expiring parliament of Ireland had been to unite a variety of parishes, on different pretences, one to another. The extent of some had been so increased by that arrangement, as to exceed sometimes twenty, or even fiveand-twenty miles: and one crying evil arising out of that course had been, that people residing at one end of a parish were constantly compelled to pay for works or repairs done to a church at another; while, to that very building, which was raised at their cost, it was impossible, in the nature of things, that they could ever have access. It might be recollected, that in the last session he had moved for returns generally, of churchrates levied in Ireland within the last ten years. Those returns were extremely voluminous. A very few items selected from the account would be sufficient to show, that even the statute law made to regulate the conduct of vestries in Ireland was every day evaded, or openly set at defiance. One statute had fixed the salary of parish clerks, and had declared that in no instance it should exceed a given amount. That same law made a distinction between the payment at churches where the service was weekly only, and those at which it took place every day. Now, he would show at once, not merely that the salary fixed for daily duty had been given where the duty was only done on Sunday, but that even the utmost amount allowed for daily duty had, in many instances, been exceeded. For example, the parish of Thuries, in the county of Tipperary; in the accounts of that parish he found one item of between 351. and 401. for ornamental hangings within the church. Now, this was a work of decoration, not of necessity; and nine-tenths of the rate for it, let the House observe, was paid by Catholics, who had no interest in, nor any access to, the church at all [hear, hear]. In the county of Wexford, again, two parishes, ten miles distant from each other, had been united: here he found, among other curious items, "Sexton and Beadle's salary," 10., raised, in the year 1814, to 20%.; and a note affixed, stating that this increase had been given "because the practice of ringing funeral bells was discontinued, owing to the church having no bell." In the very next line of his list, he found "salary to parish clerk," so

good deal by a special act of parliament; but in that parish, the burthen of the rates was producing the most serious mischief. Houses, in consequence of the assessments on them, remained without tenants; and as the dues went on all this while accumulating, when a house had been two or three years unoccupied, the amount of the back rate made it impossible to take it. Now, in St. George's parish, the building of the church, which had been estimated at 16,000l., had been swelled to 57,000l. A great part of that sum had been raised upon interest, which was now a heavy burthen upon the parishioners, and the trustees for the building had contrived to be exempt from any audit of their accounts. The necessity for a change must be obvious to every man. His wish was, that where vestries were held for building or repairing churches, or for choosing parish officers, they should not have power to go into any other matter; and that, at all vestries held for purposes of a general description, Catholics as well as Protestants should be entitled to assist.

Mr. Goulburn felt no disposition to oppose the bill; for, to satisfy all parties, the readiest course was investigation. The established church must be maintained in Ireland; and maintained, as to all expenses that were necessary, by the population; but, as far as the correction of abuse could go, if abuse existed, the present measure should have his best assistance. With respect to the particular instances, he was not prepared to go into them; but he had already looked through the returns, and, before any further discussion took place, would endeavour to attend to them more fully.

Leave was given to bring in the bill.

the excess of the numbers of the people, above the funds that existed for giving them employment. The consequence of this state of things was, that the wages of labour were much too low to admit the lower orders to provide for more than their bare subsistence, when provisions were plenty; and that they were exposed to all the horrors of actual famine, the moment the prices of provision advanced beyond the ordinary lowest prices. Whatever variety of opinion might prevail respecting the depression or improvement of the condition of the lower orders of society, this principle was undeniably certain, that their misery or comfort depended wholly upon the wages the labouring class could earn. If wages were as low as they are in Ireland, it was with the greatest difficulty that human existence could be sustained, there existed nothing like enjoyment or comfort; on the contrary, in a county where wages were high, there the labouring class were not only able to live on good food, but, to purchase many of the smaller luxuries and conveniences of life. Now, in regard to Ireland, it had been shewn by several intelligent witnesses, before the committee now sitting, that if the whole sum paid in the course of one year, was divided among all the labouring class, it would not make a higher average per man, per day, throughout the year, than four-pence. Many persons considered this too high an average: but, taking it at the rate of four-pence, the House would at once see in what an extreme state of depression the lower orders of Ireland exist. In order to improve their condition, and to place them in such a state as human beings ought to live in, the rate of wages should not be less than one shilling a day, which was one third less than the rate in England. But, to accomplish this ob

all those persons who were in the habit of confining their plans for improving the condition of the people of Ireland to the augmentation of capital, that they wholly overlooked the fact that while capital was increasing, the population of Ireland was also increasing. They ought, there

fore, to extend their views, and do all in their power to promote those measures which might be fit for the retarding of the progress of this increasing population. But the population was not only increasing, but, according to all past experience, and the authority of all writers upon the subject of population, it was, no doubt, increasing more rapidly than capital was increasing. The principle universally laid down and acknowledged to be correct was, that the tendency of population to increase, was greater than the tendency of capital to increase, and therefore that there existed the greatest difficulty to bring the ratio that capital bears to population to that point which will secure a steady demand for labour, and consequently a sufficient rate of wages. For these reasons, besides doing all that can be done to increase capital, every effort should be made to produce some change in those habits of Ireland, which were so much calculated to increase the existing population, and in this way to increase the wants and misery of the people. Among those habits none had been more productive of the present distressing condition of the lower orders, than the facility with which farms were divided and subdivided, without any consideration of the means by which the families reared upon these small tenements were to be employed. This had been very much owing to the practical difficulty that landlords had found in enforcing the clause against alienation that was commonly in serted in their leases; not that the law was against the landlord, but because there prevailed a great prejudice in the courts of law, both on the part of the judges and the juries, against the enforcing of the law. Mr. Blacker in his evidence before the select committee in Ireland, said, "Very great difficulty arises in preventing alienation, not in the law, but in carrying the law into effect; juries are always against any case of forfeiture, and indeed the courts also." What the exact alteration of the system was that was wanting, the hon. member said he would not now undertake to say, but it must not be any thing short of giving to the landlord a simple and effectual power absolutely to prevent sub-letting, contrary to the covenant of the lease. If the House gave him leave to bring in a bill, he would wait, before he presented it, to hear what further evidence on the subject might be given to the committee now sitting on the state of Ireland, and frame his bill ac

cording to the plan that appeared to be best suited to his object. He should also provide for relieving under-tenants from being distrained by the head landlord, and also for some remedy for the great abuses that were now practised under the laws for taking distress for arrears of rent. He hoped the House would think favourably of this attempt to put a stop to the practice of subdividing farms; for there was no circumstance in Ireland that led to so much poverty and misery, and contributed so much to obstruct internal improvement, as this universal practice of sub-letting, in defiance of the rights and interest of the landlords. He then moved, for leave to bring in a bill "to amend the law of Ireland, respecting the sub-letting of Tenements.'

Mr. Hume feared, that the proposition would go to the extent of compromising the principle laid down by the House, of not interfering with the disposal of property. If he understood the hon. baronet, his object was, to limit the landlord and tenant as to the disposal of their property.

Sir J. Newport said, his hon. friend was quite mistaken. The object was, to enforce the performance of contracts between landlord and tenant, which had been hitherto frustrated by courts of law and juries. In support of the necessity of the projected measure, he could mention instances wherein land leased out twentyfive years ago had been infinitely deteriorated, in consequence of the transmission through various branches of families.

Leave was given to bring in the bill.

JUSTICES OF PEACE IN IRELAND.] Sir H. Parnell rose to submit another motion, of which he had given notice, to move for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the office of Justice of Peace in Ireland. He did not intend to enter, on this occasion, into any detail as to the conduct of the magistracy of that country, but he thought that some measure was necessary to follow up and enforce the excellent regulations respecting the magistrates which had been introduced by the marquis Wellesley. One of the great evils which that noble lord had tried to remedy was, that of magistrates acting in their private houses, instead of holding courts of pettysessions; a practice from which the most injurious consequences had proceeded. Independently of this, he thought it necessary that the number of magistrates