GENERAL HISTORY. 



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suspending in Ireland a material 

 part of the British Constitution. 

 Mr. Peele made a repl)"^, and the 

 bill was read a second time. 



The report of the bill being 

 brought up on Nov. 25th, Mr. 

 Ponsonby rose and said, that it was 

 bis confirmed opinion, that never 

 was there a statement more exag- 

 gerated, or less founded in fact, 

 than that made last session by the 

 right hon. gentleman with respect 

 to the disturbances in Ireland. He 

 was sure that the misrepresenta- 

 tion was not wilful, but thought it 

 had been made upon very insuffi- 

 cient inquiry. He had since been 

 in Ireland, and the result of his 

 inquiries was, that never had there 

 been a period when the temper of 

 the country was less disposed to 

 tumult than the present. He 

 knew the right hon. gentleman 

 attributed this to his bill, but the 

 state of things was precisely the 

 same before that measure had 

 passed into a law. He doubted 

 not that the right hon. gentleman 

 had been deceived by the interested 

 representations of persons in that 

 country, of which he himself had 

 the opportunity of seeing too 

 much when he held the great 

 ■seal of Ireland in 1806. The go- 

 vernmeot then resolutely refused 

 to receive such statements, be- 

 cause they knew the motives 

 whence they originated. He gave 

 credit, however, to the principle 

 of the Bill, as excluding persons 

 from making use of local influ- 

 -ence, and from exercising the office 

 of magistrates or peace-officers in 

 -the places of their own residence, 

 and was happy that it had not been 

 converted into a source of pa- 

 tronage. On the whole, he did 



not mean to- oppose the motion of 

 the right hon. gentleman, but he 

 considered the measure as quite 

 unnecessary, if the magistrates did 

 their duty. 



Mr. Peele affirmed, that he had 

 never said, that there was a general 

 spirit of insubordinatioa in Ire- 

 land, but that there were parts of 

 the country the condition of which 

 called for a measure of this kind. 

 That this was the c&se, he had 

 various documents to prove — to 

 which he now referred ; and his 

 statement had received the appro- 

 bation of most of the Irish mem- 

 bers. In the present bill he had 

 prepared a clause to obviate an ob- 

 jection made to the former provi- 

 sion imposing a fine on the dis- 

 turbed district. 



After some members had ex- 

 pressed their satisfaction with the 

 moderate spirit of the bill, the re- 

 port was agreed to. 



On the motion for the third 

 reading of the bill in the House of 

 Lords, Nov. 29th, the Earl of 

 Donoughmore repeated theopii.ioD 

 he had before given, that the act 

 of which this was an amendment 

 was altogether an inefficient mea- 

 sure, and not in any degree calcu- 

 lated to restore peace in any dis- 

 trict where disturbances existed. 

 It was a bill of patronage, though 

 he did not mean to say, that go- 

 vernment had made use of it for 

 that purpose. It had not produced 

 the effects ascribed to it, and the 

 statement* made in its favour were 

 greatly overcharged. He did not, 

 however, mean to oppose it. 



The Earl of Liverpool made 



some observations to invalidate the 



objections of the noble lord, after 



which the bill was read a third 



[P3] 



