394 STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, 



to be productive of much harm. Now, however, that the House of 

 Lords have, by a large majority, proclaimed the same thing, the 

 matter assumes a very different and more serious asjiect. The one 

 act of their Lordships which refuses to Ireland a boon similar to that 

 which has been so promptly conferred on England and Scotland, will 

 have more influence in promoting among the Irish a disaffection to- 

 wards this country, and a consequent determination to sever the con- 

 nection between the two parts of the empire, — than all the speeches 

 which the Agitator has made on the subject. 



We are not of those who deem Municipal Corporations essential to 

 the importance or prosperity of a town. We see Birmingham, 

 Manchester, Leeds, and other large and populous places, rising ra- 

 pidly into affluence and importance without them ; while we see other 

 places which possess them gradually retrograding, until they can 

 hardly furnish a sufficient number of persons of tolerable respecta- 

 bility, to fill the requisite number of corporate offices. 



In so far, therefore, as the mere question of abstract advantage is 

 concerned, it would, to our minds, have been a matter of secondary 

 consequence whether Ireland was to have Corporations or not ; but, 

 when the question is viewed in relation to the pi-inciple involved, it 

 assumes a very different aspect. England and Scotland have had 

 their Municipal Corporation Bills — why should Ireland be denied a 

 similar boon l 



This is the way in which the people of Ireland reason on the sub- 

 ject, and none can question its fairness. Lord Lyndhurst may deal 

 in his sophistries, and Lord Winchelsea in his declamation, but nei- 

 ther of these noble Lords, nor any Peer on their side of the house, can 

 alter this state of the case. 



By the course the Peers have determined to adopt, they have placed 

 themselves in a rather awkward position. They claim to themselves 

 the title of Conservatives ! How far they are entitled to the appella- 

 tion let their conduct in this case decide. Instead of Conservatives, 

 they are now, practically at least, ultra-destructives. They propose 

 by one fell stroke to destroy all the Irish Corporations ! Such a pro- 

 position, coming from such a quarter, is assuredly somewhat start- 

 lino-. The most reckless of the Radicals never dreamt of any thing 

 of the kind; though we all know the extent to which some of their 

 wislied-for reforms go. Ministers propose to restore the decayed 



