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 de scribed, could have been estab lished in almost every county of England. He was of opinion that they were established by the in fluence of men of great rank and power, and of the church. Dugdale, in his work on Warwick, speaks of a spot of ground which interfered with his survey, and which he found to belong to the county of Worcester. In giving an account of it to his readers, he said, that it was "one of those parcels of land which are so frequently to be found severed from the county to which they belong." 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 1825,

preserve it, and ever after it continued to be taxed as part of the county of Worcester. Sometimes those isolated parcels of land had been retained in counties, because they were attached to the seigniories of great noblemen. In Devonshire, on the hitherside of the river Tamar, was a parcel of earldom land which had always been taxed as belonging to the county of Cornwall. In the county of Berks was a piece of land called Twyford, which belonged to Wiltshire, although it was 20 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 poors'-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 III. which was passed for the purpose of annexing Malta to the map of Europe. He trusted, that having made out something like a case of precedent, the house

would not object to the introduction of the bill. The honourable gentleman concluded by moving for leave to bring in the bill.

Mr. Peel had no intention whatever of opposing the measure: 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 honourable 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.

Sir S. B. Morland expressed himself in favour of the measure.

Mr. F. Palmer suggested that it would, perhaps, be more convenient to give the power of transfer, than that merely of exchange. Mr. C. Calvert thought that, as it was mere matter of local convenience, the power of transfer would be more eligible.

Leave was then given to bring in a bill to that effect.

A

Sir John Newport moved for leave to bring in a bill, amending the law as it stood with respect to parish vestries in Ireland, and providing for the more effectual control, as well as due expenditure, of Irish parochial rates. 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; for 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. 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, and, as he considered it, improper 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 in the house must concur in the necessity of immediate investigation and reform. In the days of king William, the house would remember, 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 I. that that power had been taken away; and by the same parliament, then, which had declared it felony for any catholic priest to marry either a protestant

to

to a papist, or two protestants to one another. 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 cry ing 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, perhaps, that in the last session he had moved for returns generally, of church-rates levied in Ireland within the last ten years. Those returns were now before the house: they were extremely voluminous; but he would not go farther in them than was absolutely necessary for his present purpose. A very few items selected of the account would be sufficient to show hon. gentlemen 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 Thurles, 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. In the county of Wexford, again, two parishes, ten miles distant from each other, had been united: here he found, among other curious arrangements, "Sexton and Beadle's salary," 107.; raised, in the year 1814, to 201.; and a note affixed, stating that this increase had been given" because the practice of ringing funeral bells was discontinued" ("Hear," and laughter), owing-let hon. gentlemen hear what the rise was owing to

owing to the church having no bell." (Much laughter.) This was not a singular case by any means; such items of " compensation" were very common. In the very next line of his list, he found "salary to parish-clerk," so much— and so much more, compensation to the former clerk for having been removed." In another instance, he found the charge of "201. a year for an organist:" he knew of no rights the vestry had to tax that parish for such a purpose. This very charge of 201. stood afterwards, in the year 1805, increased to 501. " in consequence of the corporation having withdrawn its 30l. a year subscription, for want of funds." The thing did not stop there; the principle

had begun; in the very next year, there came a new item-" for winding up the clock:" that expense, as well as the pay of the organist, having got transferred from the corporation to the parish. But these measures, so far, had been moderate; the really doubtful ones were yet to come. Castle Comber, in the county of Kilkenny. Among the charges against that parish, he found the following:"To William Taylor, carpenter, for work done at the parish clerk's house, and at the schoolhouse, 221." Now, who did the house think this William Taylor was? He was actually, himself, both parish clerk and schoolmaster, receiving a salary of 101. in the one capacity, and of 21., with a gratuity of 61., in another. In this same parish, in the same year, there was a charge of 371. 8s. for church robes-this to be paid by a population, nineteen-twentieths of which, at least, were catholic. In another case, the parish of Timmoul, in Queen's county, a subscription appeared, and an honourable one, towards repairing the church, of 201. from the rector, and 501. from the Marquis of Lansdown. With respect to the parish of Tuam, where the cathedral church was also the parish church, it would be necessary for him once more to refer to the directions of the law. The statute which authorized the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, in some cases, to unite a parish church with a cathedral church, had been, as regarded the union at Tuam, entirely abused. The law said, "that whereas in certain dioceses of Ireland, the cathedral churches were so inconveniently situated that they could not be frequented for divine ser

vice, and were therefore suffered to fall into ruin and decay." Now this was an extraordinary kind of statement. It could not apply to Tuam, which stood not "inconveniently," but in the middle of a town; but even where it did apply, he had very little doubt, that while the cathedrals went to decay, the dignitaries connected with them found means to collect and enjoy all the dues of their benefices. But the statute went on to say, that where this decay existed, and there seemed to be no probability of repair for want of funds, there the union with the parish church might take place, half all expense of repair to be defrayed by the economy fund of the cathedral, and the other half by the parish. Now, he repeated, the condition of Tuam cathedral could not justify this union at all; but still more, the expense of repair was now defrayed, not the half, but the whole of it, by the parish. It might be worth while to consider hereafter of the treatment to which the persons who had petitioned against this measure had been subjected; but at present he would go on to the expenses charged against that parish, almost every item of which was in violation of the statute. To begin: the salary of the parish clerk was 20 guineas, 201. being the highest rate, in any case, allowed by law. There was a sexton at 10l. with an addition to that allowance in 1818. But the most curious charge was the next: "For 12 quarto prayer-books for the church, 12 guineas. For two, bound in morocco, for the communion," so much. eight smaller ones," so much more. There was scarcely a protestant

"For

went

went into the church, but had a prayer-book at the cost of the parish! With respect to the collection of the assessment, a Romancatholic gentleman had offered to collect it for 201. This proposal had been rejected, and it had been given to some one else at 30%. The effect of all this was, that the parish rate, which had in the year 1812 been two-pence farthing in the pound, was now increased nearly three times over; it was seven-pence. Then, could any man doubt that there was a necessity for control over proceedings like these, when four or five protestants, the only people of that class in a parish, were taxing the whole parish just in any way they pleased? One more rate, as to another parish, into which, by itself alone, all possible sins and violations of law seemed to be collected. Against the parish of St. Peter, Drogheda, there was charged," An organist, 50l. a year;" "A boy to assist the organist, 5l. a year;" "To the tuner of the organ, 107." The parish clerk was paid 201., ten more than was allowed by the statute; the sexton had 24l., raised in 1818 to 31. Then, for rebuilding the house of the parish clerk and sexton-this was in the year 1815 -4291. 9s. Had any body ever heard before of a parish building houses for a clerk and sexton? And at such a cost as 4291.? And this was not all, for actually, in the year 1823, there was, improving the clerk's house," a charge of 331. A further item of 167. 11s. appeared for wax candles.

"for

And for wine for the sacrament, from the year 1812 to the present time, from 21. to 36l. annually. It was under these cir

cumstances

for he would not

trouble the house farther with details-that he had thought it his duty to bring forward the present measure. The cases which he had cited were perhaps the more prominent ones; but the returns were full of instances of a similar de

scription. Against one parish there was a charge for "wine for the communion "-in one year, two dozen, 57. 18s. In the following year there were two dozen more; and for this there was charged 71. 2s. Why, every gentleman who knew the price of wine in Ireland, must be perfectly well aware that no wine of the first order at least no port winecould cost any such sum as this. The truth was, that no check whatever existed, neither upon the price paid for the wine, nor on its diposal. The parish of St. George, in Dublin, had been regulated a good deal by a special act of parliament; but here, as in many other cases, the papers called for had been so long kept back, as to prevent the possibility of any inquiry last session as to its affairs. This course, indeed, was understood, and followed pretty generally: whenever papers were called for which were to illustrate any grievance, the return of those papers was so delayed, as to make any measure for the current session quite impracticable. But, in St. George's parish, the burden 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