1831.] Parliamentary Reform. 35f 



The state of the representation in Scotland and Ireland deserved to 

 draw the strongest attention. Taking Edinburgh as an instance. To 

 return the member there were now just thirty-three constituents ; the 

 present bill would turn this constituency into 12,000. The thirty- 

 three were now represented by one person, who received more of the 

 public money than any representative of 120,000 people that had ever 

 sat in that House. He would back the honourable member for Edin- 

 burgh against any other representative of the people for doing nothing 

 but receiving money and signing receipts. (Laughter and cheers). The 

 majority of the voters of Scotland had neither land nor income, and 

 possessed their franchise only by virtue of a strip of parchment. 



The mode in which Ireland would be affected was next brought under 

 review, and he contended that the representation should be enlarged : 



" Out of the twenty-eight counties in England, to which it was proposed 

 to give two additional members each, fifteen of them possessed a population 

 less than that of the county of Antrim ; nineteen of them less than that of 

 Down ; twenty-two of them less than that of Tipperary ; and there was not 

 any one of them, with the exception of Lancashire and Yorkshire, that had 

 any thing like the population of the county of Cork." 



Proceeding on the principle of population, the " seven millions of the 

 finest peasantry under the sun" would undoubtedly make a formidable 

 figure in the muster of their representatives ; though we might have some 

 doubt of their taking any very striking interest in the matter, or of their 

 being exactly the best judges of the qualifications of a member of par- 

 liament. But Mr. O'Connell desired on this principle to see, " out of 

 the sixty-two members that remained in bank, two additional to eight 

 populous counties which he named. He would draw the line with 

 regard to a population under 200,000; those counties which had a 

 larger number of people ought to have two more members but the 

 great working of the measure would be upon England, where it would 

 be most important : 



<e As related to England, it had a double operation upon counties, and 

 Upon boroughs. As to the first, it not only continued the forty-shilling free- 

 holders in their present right of voting, but it extended the franchise to copy- 

 holders of 101. a year a most substantial advantage. It was most just that 

 copyholders should have a voice, for although they held by the Court Roll, 

 their property was as valuable and as saleable as if it were freehold. But the 

 measure did not stop there, and wisely ; what lawyers called chattel interests, 

 were allowed to be represented, for hitherto a man might have a lease of a 

 thousand acres for a thousand years, but he could not vote, although his next 

 neighbour, who owned, perhaps, a single acre upon an old life, was permitted 

 to exercise his suffrage. The bill would thus add two numerous and 

 influential classes to the elective -body ; and, in this respect, was highly bene- 

 ficial. It was a mere cavil, on the part of those who complained, that the 

 Privy Council ought not to have the power to divide counties, and it was an 

 objection that had never been urged in Ireland. The experiment was not 

 novel, or if it were it would be harmless." 



He contended that the measure was so far from revolutionary that it 

 would be the direct antidote to a revolution, if such were contemplated. 

 It would bring a vast number of the middle classes into political in- 

 fluence, and in them was the virtue of the community, and would be 

 the stability of the state. The enlargement of the constituency for the 

 counties and towns must be salutary, but he rejoiced at the knife being 



