Chapter XLIV: {william IV. 1834} (1)

_Meeting of Parliament..... Mr. O’Connell’s Motion for the
Repeal of the Union..... Divisions in the Cabinet.....
Commission issued to inquire into the state of the Irish
Church..... Irish Tithe Question..... Renewal of Irish
Coercion Bill..... Resignation of Earl Grey, etc......
Rejection of the Irish Tithe Bill by the Peers..... State
of Ecclesiastical Questions, and the Claims of
Dissenters..... Poor Laws Amendment Act..... The Corn-Law
Question..... Financial Statements, etc...... Bill for the
Removal of the Civil Disabilities of the Jews, etc......
Disputes with France regarding the Newfoundland Fisheries,
etc...... Steam Navigation..... Prorogation of
Parliament..... Dissolution of the Cabinet..... Sir Robert
Peel appointed Prime-Minister..... Dissolution of
Parliament..... The Act abolishing Slavery in the West
Indies carried into effect..... The Affairs of Ireland.....
State of the Continent, etc._

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

{A.D. 1834}

On the 4th of February the session was opened by the king in person. In his speech his majesty alluded to the slavery abolition bill introduced last year, stating that the manner in which that beneficent measure had been received throughout the colonies, and the progress made in carrying it into effect by the legislature of Jamaica, afforded just grounds for anticipating the happiest results. Among the various important subjects still calling for consideration, his majesty enumerated reports from the commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of municipal corporations, into the administration of the poor laws, and into the ecclesiastical revenues of England and Wales. His majesty also recommended the early consideration of such a final adjustment of the tithes in Ireland as might extinguish all just causes of complaint, without injury to the rights and property of any class of his subjects, or to any institution in church or state. Concerning the state of Ireland, his majesty remarked that the public tranquillity had been generally observed, and that the state of Ireland presented a more favourable appearance than at any period during the last year. The speech then reverted to the agitations in Ireland for the repeal of the legislative union, which it denounced in the strongest terms. The chief point in our foreign policy noticed by the king related to the government of Spain. He remarked:—“Upon the death of the late King of Spain, I did not hesitate to recognise the succession of his infant daughter; and I shall watch with the greatest solicitude the progress of events which may affect a government, the peaceable settlement of which is of the utmost importance to this country, as well as to the general tranquillity of Europe.” On the motion for an address in the house of lords, the whole policy of government, both domestic and foreign, was vehemently attacked by the Duke of Wellington, but no amendment was moved. In the commons, Mr. Hume, in opposition to the address said, that although there was a great deal in the speech about the independence of Turkey, and something about Portugal, &c., yet there was not one word about poor tax-ridden England. He moved an amendment to the effect, that the house would pledge itself to take into its immediate and serious consideration the state of the established church, as regarded its temporalities and the maintenance of the clergy, and also with a view to the removal of complaints which arose out of the mode in which tithe and church-rates were levied, in order to accomplish such changes as might give effectual relief both to churchmen and dissenters. This amendment was negatived by a large majority; and another, altering the paragraph in the address to his majesty, expressive of the satisfaction of the house at the “uninterrupted enjoyment of the blessings of peace,” shared the same fate. Mr. O’Connell moved that the clause referring to the agitation for the repeal of the union should be omitted; but this was also negatived by an overwhelming majority. On the bringing up of the report on the address, an incidental discussion arose on the coercion bill of last session, which gave rise to an extraordinary scene, and to the committal of Lord Althorp and Mr. Shiel to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms. A charge had been made by Mr. Hill, one of the members for Hull, that one of the Irish members who had voted against the coercion bill, went secretly to one of the ministers, urging him not to bate a single jot of that bill, or it would be impossible for any man to live in Ireland. Mr. O’Connell referred to this charge, and he put two questions to the chancellor of the exchequer respecting it—namely, whether he, or any other member of the cabinet, had ever stated that an Irish member had acted in such a manner, and whether any Irish member ever went to the noble lord, or any other minister, and made the statement which had been imputed to him. Lord Althorp replied in the negative to both these questions; but, he added, that he should not act a manly part, if he did not declare that he had good reason to believe that more than one Irish member who voted and spoke against the bill, did in private conversation use very different language. A scene of confusion and crimination then ensued, in which Lord Althorp charged Mr. Shiel with being one of the gentlemen who had so acted, which Mr. Shiel denied in terms which left the house under the impression that a duel between those two members would ensue. Upon the motion of Sir Francis Burdett, both were placed under arrest until assurances were given that the matter should not lead to the apprehended results. Subsequently a committee of privileges was appointed to examine into this affair, and it appearing to the committee that there was no evidence to establish the charge, they made their report in favour of Mr. Shiel. Mr. Hill himself, finding that he had been deceived, acknowleged his error; and Lord Althorp said, that if Mr. Shiel would distinctly say that he had not done what his lordship had stated he had done, he should be bound to believe his assertion. Mr. Shiel readily made this statement, and thus ended this ridiculous interlude. Many believe that the subject was obtruded upon the house as much from a hope of embarrassing a rival in the work of agitation, as from a desire to vindicate the character of a friend. The public in general, however, looked on the matter with indifference.

MR. O’CONNELL’S MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE UNION.

Mr. O’Connell had long made his boast in Ireland, that he would bring forward the question of the repeal of the union in the British parliament. His courage, from his non-performance of this promise, began to be doubted; and to save his credit, he was obliged to bring himself to trial. On the first day of the sessions he had given notices of two motions: one that the house should take the act of union into consideration, with a view to its repeal; the other for the appointment of a “select committee to inquire and report on the means by which the dissolution of parliament was effected—on the effects of that measure upon Ireland, and upon the labourers in husbandry, and the manufacturers in England—and on the probable consequences of continuing the legislative union between both countries.” He proceeded only with the last of the two motions, and he brought that forward on the 22nd of April. He commenced by declaring that there had never existed a greater mistake than to suppose that England possessed any right of dominion over the former country. He then entered at great length into the incompetency of parliament to pass the act of union; and having detailed the means by which it was accomplished, he proceeded to prove that the financial and legislative terms on which the great question had been settled were in their very nature fraudulent and unjust. Looking at these circumstances, he said, he dreaded the probable consequences of a continuance of the union. Ireland felt strongly on the subject; and he demanded that the bitter recollection of the past should be for ever effaced by the restoration of her people to their inalienable rights. Mr. O’Connell was answered at great length by Mr. Spring Rice, who enumerated the manifold advantages gained by Ireland from the union. He moved, therefore, that an address be presented to his majesty, expressive of the fixed and steady determination of the commons to maintain inviolate the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland—a determination to be justified, not only on general grounds, but by reasons of special application to Ireland itself; declaring also, that while the house endeavoured to remove all just causes of complaint alleged by the Irish people, it would promote every well-considered measure of rational liberty. The debate on the subject was continued by adjournment for several days. The members who took part in it were—for the original motion, Messrs. O’Connor, Barron, Ruthven, Shiel, and others; and for the amendment, Messrs. Tennent, Littleton, Sandford, Lambert, and Sir Robert Peel, and others. Perhaps the most effective speech was that which was delivered by Sir Robert Peel, who said, he believed that no array of official documents, and no force of argument, could strengthen the conviction of the great majority of the house—a conviction that lay deeper than any argument could reach—that they would on no account consent to dismember the British empire. There were convictions connected with the feelings of the heart as well as with the faculties of the mind. Mr. Canning had said, “Repeal the union! re-enact the heptarchy!” The security of the empire depended on the maintenance of that union; without it England would be reduced to the condition of a fourth-rate power in Europe, and Ireland to the desolation of a wilderness. On a division the amendment was carried by the triumphant majority of five hundred and twenty-three against thirty-eight; the minority, with one exception only, consisting of Irish members. On the 30th of April the commons, in a conference, communicated their address to the lords, who, in one spirit, unanimously concurred in its sentiments, and ordered the blank, which was purposely left, to be filled up with the words, “lords spiritual and temporal.” It was then presented to the king as the joint address of both houses; and his majesty, in reply, expressed the great satisfaction with which he had received the solemn and united declaration of both houses to maintain the union inviolate.

DIVISIONS IN THE CABINET.

In opposing the repeal of the union, ministers carried along with them the sense and feeling of the people; that was a question on which no man differed from them except O’Connell and his followers. Questions, however, connected with the Irish church stood in a different light.

The agitators supported the repeal as a measure tending not more to perpetuate their own domination, than to secure the ruin of the Protestant establishment. Many, also, who resisted repeal, still demanded changes and curtailments in that establishment, they considering it the principal cause of all the turbulence and misery afflicting Ireland. There were others again who disliked it, not because it was a Protestant, but because it was a religious establishment; and such men inveighed against what they termed an unhallowed connection between church and state, and the practical injustice of compelling persons of one belief to support the institutions of a different creed. This party was ready to attack, not only the revenues, but the very existence of the Irish church, as the first step towards the destruction of that of England. Union in the cabinet, coupled with a determination not to be driven further than themselves were inclined to go, might have rendered ministers sufficiently strong to defy such destructive reformers. Unfortunately, however, on this question, the cabinet itself was divided. One portion of the ministers, numerically the strongest, seemed inclined to admit the principle of appropriation, which they had repudiated in the bill of last session, by withdrawing the clause in which it was contained. On the other hand, the minority, however willing to remove striking and useless inequalities in the distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue, and to adopt measures which would prevent irritating collisions in its collection, resisted on principle any transfer of it to other purposes; and they especially refused to acquiesce in proposals for making the Protestant establishment depend on the comparative strength or weakness of the Romish church. This discordance of opinion would have prevented ministers from starting the subject; but it was forced on them by a numerous party, which made up in fury and zeal what was lacking in knowledge and discretion. On the 27th of May, Mr. Ward, one of the members for St. Albans, moved a resolution for reducing the temporalities of the Irish church, as exceeding the spiritual wants of the Protestant establishment. This motion gave rise to a division in the cabinet. In supporting his proposition, Mr. Ward contended that vital and extensive changes in the church of Ireland had now become unavoidable on the grounds of mere expediency. The tithe system, he said, was the source of all the disorganisation that prevailed in Ireland. Resistance to it was almost universal, comprehending both Catholics and Protestants. Commutation, he argued, would do no good; a new appropriation of church property alone could produce even a momentary calm. Mr. Ward’s motion was seconded by Mr. Grote, who said that the means of relief must be suggested from a higher quarter when once the principle was recognised. Lord Althorp here arose to request the house to adjourn, in consequence of circumstances which had come to his knowledge since he had entered the house. He could not at present, he said, state the nature of these circumstances; but the house would doubtless believe that he would not make such a proposition without being convinced of its propriety. The house adjourned, according to Lord Althorp’s request; and it appeared that the circumstances to which he had alluded, and which had been communicated to him while Mr. Ward was speaking, was the resignation of those ministers who would not consent to the principle which his motion involved. Those who resigned were Mr. Stanley, colonial secretary; Sir James Graham, first lord of the admiralty; the Duke of Richmond, postmaster-general; and the Earl of Ripon, lord privy-seal. These vacant offices were soon filled up: the Marquis of Conyngham became postmaster-general; the Earl of Carlisle accepted the privy-seal; Lord Auckland became the first lord of the admiralty; and the colonial office was filled up by Mr. Spring Rice. Lord Althorp stated afterwards that he was not aware of the necessity of these changes till after he had entered the house on the 27th; and the adjournment seems to have arisen from the fear that the retirement of these ministers would bring along with it the resignation of the whole. An address was got up and presented to Earl Grey by a great number of the ministerial adherents in the commons, entreating his lordship to retain his place; but though, in reply he announced his intention of making every personal sacrifice that might be required of him in support of the principles of the administration, he admitted that much embarrassment, as well as mischief, was produced by the reckless desire of innovation. The embarrassment of ministers was rendered still greater by the king himself, who, in reply to an address presented to him by the Irish bishops on the 28th of May, on behalf of the Irish church, remarked with peculiar emphasis:—“I now remember you have a right to require of me to be resolute in defence of the church. I have been, by the circumstances of my life and by conviction, led to support toleration to the utmost extent of which it is justly capable; but toleration must not be suffered to go into licentiousness: it has its bounds, which it is my duty, and which I am resolved to maintain. I am, from the deepest conviction, attached to the pure Protestant faith, which this church, of which I am the temporal head, is the human means of diffusing and preserving in this land. I cannot forget what was the course of events that placed my family on the throne which I now fill. These events were consummated in a revolution, which was rendered necessary, and which was effected, not, as has sometimes been most erroneously stated, merely for the sake of the temporal liberties of the people, but for the preservation of their religion. It was for the defence of the religion of the country that the settlement of the crown was made which has placed me in the situation which I now fill; and that religion, and the church of England and Ireland, the prelates of which are now before me, it is my fixed purpose, determination, and resolution to maintain. The present bishops, I am quite satisfied, have never been excelled at any period of the history of our church by any of their predecessors in learning, piety, or zeal in the discharge of their high duties. If there are any of the inferior arrangements in the discipline of the church—which, however, I greatly doubt—that require amendment, I have no distrust of the readiness and ability of the prelates now before me to correct such things; and to you, I trust, they will be left to correct, with your authority unimpaired and unshackled.”

COMMISSION ISSUED TO INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF THE IRISH CHURCH.

On the 2nd of June, when the house reassembled, Lord Althorp stated that Mr. Ward’s motion had compelled ministers to take up the question of the Irish church; and he informed the house that his majesty had appointed a commission of inquiry into the state of church property and church affairs generally in Ireland. This commission, he said, was to be a lay commission; and it was to visit the different parishes and districts throughout Ireland; to inquire on the spot into the number of Protestants in each parish; whether that number was stationary, increasing, or declining; whether it was a benefice, or if a parish forming part of a union; the distance and number of churches and chapels; the situation of the clergyman, how paid, and whether resident or non-resident; the times which divine service was or had been performed; the number of Protestants attending such service; and whether that attendance was stationary, on the increase, or declining. Similar inquiries were to be made in each parish and district with respect to Roman Catholics, and to Dissenters of every description, as well as to the number and the nature of schools in each parish. The commissioners were further to make minute inquiries in all parishes, touching other matters connected with the Irish church or church property, and to report thereupon. Lord Althorp, after making these statements, said that Mr. Ward’s motion went to pledge the house that the amount of church property in Ireland was beyond the wants of that establishment; and next, that parliament had a right to regulate the distribution of church property, and to determine upon the reduction of the Irish church revenues as now established by law. He was of opinion that the house should legislate deliberately upon so grave a question, and he trusted that Mr. Ward would withdraw his motion, and feel satisfied with what government had done. Mr. Ward, however, refused to withdraw his motion: he must press, he said, for a recognition of the principle, because, from what was passing around him, he was afraid that the present ministers would not long continue in office. Lord Althorp then moved the previous question, principally on the ground that, of all questions, this was one which most required much previous inquiry and detailed information. Mr. Hume, and Colonels Davies and Evans supported the original resolution, declaring that the shuffling mode of proceeding adopted by government in regard to this question, rendered it impossible to repose confidence in ministers. After a long debate the amendment, however, was carried by a majority of three hundred and ninety-six against one hundred and twenty. The majority would have been still larger, had not a considerable number of conservative members, unwilling to wear even the appearance of tampering with the question, left the house before the division. The subject was brought before the lords on the 6th of June, by the Earl of Wicklow, who moved an address to his majesty for a copy of the commission, a motion which Earl Grey said he would not oppose. Many of the peers embraced this opportunity of stating their objections to the commission, contending that the measures on which ministers appeared to have resolved would end in the ruin of the church. Concession, it was said, could not stop here; it must go on from step to step, till nothing was left to be conceded. Earl Grey denied that he and his colleagues looked forward to anything that could be justly called spoliation of the church; they contemplated a great alteration, but nothing more.

IRISH TITHE QUESTION.

In the meantime ministers had been proceeding with a bill for the amendment of the tithe system in Ireland, founded on principles which should extinguish tithe altogether as a payment to be demanded in kind, and should lay the burden, directly at least, on a different class of payers. The provisions of the intended measure were explained on the 20th of February, by Mr. Littleton, the Irish secretary, in a committee of the whole house, met for the purpose of considering the portion of the king’s speech relating to this subject. Government, he said, proposed in the first place, that from and after the month of November next, composition for tithe should cease in Ireland, and in lieu thereof a land-tax should be imposed, payable to the crown, and to be collected and managed by the commissioners of woods and forests, of the same amount as the tithe-payment now exigible, and to be paid by the same parties who at present were liable. In the second place, he said, ministers proposed that this land-tax should be redeemable at the end of five years, by all who had a substantive interest in the estate. Thirdly, they proposed, he said, that so much of the land-tax as remained unredeemed on the 1st of November, 1839, should be converted into a real charge, equal to four-fifths of the land-tax, and payable by the owner of the first estate of inheritance in the land, who should be entitled to recover the whole amount over against his tenantry; these rent-charges would be redeemable or saleable for the best price to be had, not being less than the consideration for redemption of land-tax. In the fourth place, ministers proposed that the tithe-owners should be paid by warrants issued by the ecclesiastical commissioners for Ireland, and addressed to the commissioners of woods and forests: such payments to be of the amount of the compositions to which the tithe-owners might be severally entitled, subject to a deduction for the trouble, loss, and expense of collection. Finally, ministers proposed that on redemption of the land-tax or sale of rent-charges taking place, the payments by warrants were to cease; and that the redemption or purchase-money should be paid over to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, and to yield an interest of 2 ¼d. per diem. The money was to be drawn out from time to time, and invested in land, for the benefit of the tithe-owner entitled to the principal money. The great object of the measure, Mr. Littleton explained, was, if possible, to invest the produce of the land-tax and rent-charge in land, so as to give the tithe-owner £80 in land for every £100 tithe to which he had a claim. Where clergymen had already agreed to compositions, they would get tax to the same amount, redeemable on the same terms as in other cases; clergymen would, indeed, he said, be probably gainers of five per cent, by the change. Mr. Littleton concluded with moving the following resolution:—“That it is the opinion of this committee, that composition for tithes in Ireland ought to be abolished on and after the 1st day of November in the present year, in consideration of an annual land-tax to be granted to his majesty, payable by the persons who would have been liable to such composition for tithes, and of equal amount; that such tax shall be redeemable; and that out of the produce provision be made in land or money for the indemnification of the persons entitled to such composition.” The moderate members reserved their opinions until the details of the measure should be more fully before the house; but Messrs. O’Connell, O’Conner, Shiel, Grattan, and others of the same class, attacked it with unmeasured violence. The bill did not abolish tithe, and therefore it was not a bill to suit their notions. Of all the delusions which had ever been practised, they said, this was the most gross. Did ministers, they asked, think so meanly of the people of Ireland as to imagine that a change of name would be mistaken for a change of the thing, or that tithes would become less odious by being called a land-tax or an annuity? The people of Ireland objected not merely to the amount of tithes paid, but to the application of the funds thence arising: the objection to tithes was double, and now that objection would mix itself with rents. The landlords of Ireland must now look to themselves, for the principle upon which opposition to tithes had hitherto been conducted would forthwith be applied to rents: the Irish people would not regard the present measure as the smallest alleviation of their misery. Mr. O’Connell proposed that two-thirds of the existing tithes should be abolished, the remaining third being left as a quit-rent on the land; and after providing for the life-interest of present incumbents, he said, he would apply the produce to relieving the landlord from grand-jury assessments, to the support of charities, and to other public purposes. Mr. Barron proposed that the tithe levied, to which he did not object, should be restored in part to the poor, they originally having had an interest in it. Mr. Grattan proposed a third scheme: he wished parliament to recognise the liability of property in Ireland to contribute to a fund for the support of religion and charity, but he wished also that such a fund should be different in collection and lighter in its amount than that now raised by the system of tithes. Lord John Russell characterised Mr. O’Connel’s plan as one of direct robbery and spoliation, which would be advantageous to none but landowners. On a division the original motion was carried by a majority of two hundred and nineteen against forty-two. A bill founded upon it was then brought in; and on moving the second reading on the 2nd of May, Mr. Littleton mentioned certain alterations which had been introduced into the measure, evidently for the purpose of conciliating Irish members. The principal changes were that instead of a varying rate of deduction on account of the trouble and expense of collecting, there should be one uniform deduction of fifteen per cent, to tithe-owners, to be increased two and a half in cases where landlords had already taken upon themselves the payment of compositions; and that when leases of tithes had been made to the possessors of lands, the rent reserved on such leases or the composition, whichever was the smaller in amount, should be the measure of the land-tax; but the incumbent lessee was to receive the amount of the rent, subject to a reasonable charge for deficiency, the deficiency being made good out of the funds arising from the deductions. But no change could conciliate the Irish members: their opposition continued not only unrelaxed, but it even increased in violence. No plan, indeed, would have been acceptable to them which did not recognise the principle of despoiling the Protestant church. The new bill, they contended, would be as inefficient to tranquillise Ireland as its predecessors had been; and that a new insurrection act and an additional army would be necessary. The second reading, from the hostility of the Irish members, was not carried without long debates and various manouvres; and even the conservative members aided in delaying the measure. Their objection to it was not that it left too much to the clergy, but that it took too much from them. They deemed it necessary, however, to support ministers, in order to prevent worse measures from being brought forward. It was their belief that the money to be secured by the present measure was to be applied exclusively to the purposes of the church. This belief was somewhat shaken by Lord John Russell, who stated that he understood the bill to be one for securing a certain fund appropriated to religious and charitable purposes; and if parliament found it was not so applied, it would be its duty to consider of a new appropriation. His own opinion was, he said, that the revenues of the church of Ireland were too large for the religious and moral instruction of the persons belonging to that church, and for the safety of the church itself. When, therefore, this property was once successfully vindicated against those who unjustly withheld it, he would be prepared to do justice to Ireland, for if ever a people had reason to complain of a grievance it was the people of Ireland, in relation to the present appropriation of tithes. These sentiments were hailed by some of the Irish members as announcing an approaching concession of all their demands, while others who thought differently complained that, if such were the intentions of government, they had been induced by a false belief to receive the bill with favour, even at the sacrifice of some of their own convictions. On a division, the second reading of the bill was carried by a majority of two hundred and fifty against fifty-four, the greater part of the minority being Irish members.

When the bill went into committee, lengthy debates ensued, and several important alterations were introduced into it from the opposition encountered. Thus the enemies of the Protestant church had loudly declaimed against the provision by which the redeemed land-tax was to be vested in land, and the land vested in the tithe-owner; and in consequence of this opposition that part of the bill which invested the revenues of the church in land, and consequently the redemption clauses were dropped. The composition was to be converted into a land-tax payable to the crown by the same parties who were now liable for the composition. The amount so collected was to be paid to the tithe-owners, subject to a deduction of three per cent. This state of things was to continue five years, at the end of which period four-fifths of the land-tax was to be converted into a rent-charge to be imposed on the owners of estates of inheritance, who should have the power of recovering it from their tenants, and all others who were primarily liable under the existing composition laws. The amount of these rent-charges was to be received by the crown, and to be paid by the crown to the tithe-owners, subject to a further reduction of two and a half per cent. for the expense of collection. Another objection to the bill had been that under the composition-acts, the tithe had been valued too high, and the payers determined to pay no tithe, and had even failed to attend the commissions by whom the composition had been struck. Effect was now given to this objection by the insertion of a provision conferring a power of appeal against the valuation of the amount of tithe-composition in certain cases and under certain restrictions. All the concessions made, however, failed to conciliate the Irish members. What was required by them was, a legislative declaration to the effect that the tithe should be diverted from Protestant religious purposes. On the 23rd of June, Mr. O’Connell moved as an instruction to the committee, “that after any funds which should be raised in Ireland in lieu of tithes had been so appropriated as to provide suitably, considering vested interests and spiritual wants, for the Protestants of the established church of Ireland, the surplus which remained should be appropriated to purposes of public utility.” This motion was seconded by Mr. Hume, and it led to another long debate, in which all the usual topics were again urged on both sides. This resolution, however, was lost by a majority of three hundred and sixty to ninety, and on the 30th of June the order of the day was moved for going into committee. This step was prefaced by the announcement of new and extensive alterations in the bill. It was now proposed to offer an inducement to the imposition of voluntary rent charges, by exacting that, in any case where the owner of the first perpetual estate in the land should be willing to subject his estate to a rent-charge in lieu of land-tax, and should declare his intention to that effect before the 1st of November, 1836, the land-tax should then cease, and his property should become liable to a rent-charge, which should be a sum equal to the interest at three and a half per cent, on the amount of the land-tax multiplied by four-fifths of the number of years’ purchase which the land might be fairly worth. Mr. Littleton said he thought that the landowners should be subject to no greater interest than three and a half per cent, on the amount of the land-tax thus determined by the proportion of years’ purchase of the land, but that the difference between the amount of the rent-charge and the amount of the land-tax should not be less than twenty per cent, or more than forty per cent, on the amount of such land-tax. The difference, he continued, between the bonus given to the landlord and the deduction made from the tithe-owner, which deduction was to remain as originally proposed, would produce a considerable deficiency in the funds accruing to the commissioners of land revenue. It was proposed at first to make up this deficiency in the first instance from the consolidated fund, and to repay it from the perpetuity purchase-fund in the hands of the ecclesiastical commissioners under the act of last session. Finally, in all cases where a rent-charge should not have been voluntarily created before the expiry of five years, a rent-charge equal to four-fifths of the land-tax would be compulsorily imposed. Mr. O’Connell taunted ministers with weak and vacillating conduct, and insisted that the bill should not go into committee till it had been printed with the new clauses. The bill, he argued, was no longer the same: it had been altered again and again; eight additional clauses not originally contained in it, had already been inserted, and now came a fresh quantity of matter. Familiar as he was with the subject, he was not sure that he understood the new alterations, and he was quite sure that nine-tenths of the members did not understand them. Messrs, Stanley and Shaw joined Mr. O’Connell in thinking that some postponement was reasonable and necessary. Mr. Stanley said that it would be more decent to give time for the great alterations in view, and the deviations from the principles formerly adopted to be deliberately considered, after the bill should be again printed and put into the hands of members. The objection to proceeding with the bill was so forcible that Mr. Stanley’s proposal was acceded to, and the committee was postponed. On the 4th of July, the house having gone into committee on another bill connected with the Irish church, Mr. Littleton explained more in detail the mode of fixing the bonus to be given to the landlords who submitted to voluntary rent-charges and the financial effects of it on the consolidated fund. He moved “that for any deficit which might arise in the sums accruing to the commissioners of woods and forests out of the land-tax or rent-charges, payable for the composition of ecclesiastical tithes in Ireland, to the payment of which the consolidated fund was pledged, that fund should be indemnified from the revenues in the hands of the ecclesiastical commissioners, and out of the perpetuity purchase-fund, placed at their disposal by the act of last session, entitled the Irish church temporalities act.” After a few words from Messrs. O’Connell and Hume, and some other members, Mr. Stanley attacked the measure and the proceedings of his former colleagues in a vehement harangue. He opposed the resolution, he said, because it was both impolitic and dishonest; because it was at variance with the great principle, which for the last three or four years it had been the object of government to abolish, namely, the final extinction of tithes in Ireland by means of redemption; and because it seemed to him to be the commencement of a new system of plunder, and that too by a system of plunder not characterised by the straightforward course which bold offenders followed, but marked with that timidity, that want of dexterity, which led to the failure of the unpractised shoplifter. He believed that government was committing great injustice, and would yet fail in its aim; that the country was against this injustice, and that Ireland after it had been perpetrated would not be more tranquil; and therefore he would take the sense of the committee on the resolution now proposed. Lord Althorp replied to Mr. Stanley, and vindicated the resolution from the charge of spoliation. He did not see, he said, how it could be spoliation to take property not from a corporation, but from a mass of different corporations, and apply it to other purposes, if, in doing this, he was giving security to the church. Mr. Hume said he believed in his conscience that ministers were afraid of their late colleague, and intimated his intention of acting with him. He moved an amendment the effect of which would be to re-enact the 147th clause of the act of last session, by substituting for the original resolution the following:—“That the surplus monies to the credit of the ecclesiastical commissioners in the perpetuity purchase-fund, to be kept by the said ecclesiastical commissioners pursuant to an act of last session of parliament, should be applicable to such purposes, for the adjustment and settlement of tithes in Ireland, as by an act of parliament of this session should be provided.” This amendment gave rise to a lengthy and sharp debate, but it was thrown out by a large majority, and the ministerial resolution was then carried by two hundred and thirty-five votes against one hundred and seventy-one. At this stage, however, the progress of the bill was arrested for a time by circumstances to which it becomes necessary to advert, those circumstances being calculated by their moral and political effects on the composition of government, and on the relations of parties, to exercise a great influence on the spirit of all subsequent measures.

RENEWAL OF THE IRISH COERCION BILL.

{WILLIAM IV. 1834}

In the preceding session it had been found necessary to pass what was termed the coercion bill—a bill intended to put down that insurrectionary violence and combination which filled Ireland with crime and confusion. This act was to expire in August; and ministers, acting upon information received from various parts of Ireland, had determined to propose its renewal, omitting those parts that related to the trial of offenders, in certain cases, by courts-martial. There were, however, other provisions in the bill which the agitators of Ireland viewed with still greater dislike, they interfering with their own influence, by preventing those meetings which enabled them to work on the ignorance and passions of the misguided multitude. To escape from these restrictions was to Mr. O’Connell and his followers an object of greater importance than that the multitude whom they misled should be tried only by the regular tribunals of the country—that the peasant should have the benefit of the jury, or of an investigation by the civil magistrate. The lord-lieutenant of Ireland had recommended that the whole act should be renewed, with the exception of the clause relative to courts-martial; but on the 23rd of June, Earl Grey received a communication from him, stating that the provision against public meetings might also be omitted. What influence had been used with the Marquis Wellesley subsequently became the subject of much discussion. It appeared that certain members of the cabinet had been corresponding with him without the knowledge of Earl Grey, and that the object of their correspondence had been, not to insure more tranquillity in Ireland, but to smooth the way of ministers by making concessions to O’Connell and his adherents. On discovering this, Earl Grey, who dissented from such views, immediately wrote to the lord-lieutenant to reconsider the subject, taking nothing into account but what was fitting for Ireland. Lord Wellesley, however, still adhered to his recommendation, more especially if, by means of such omission, an extension of the term for the act could be obtained. The subject was now brought before the cabinet, and its members were found to be divided in opinion thereon. The minority, consisting of Lord Althorp, and Messrs. Grant, Rice, Ellice, and Abercromby, objected to a renewal of the clauses in question, though they acquiesced in the determination of the majority, that the bill should be proposed in the form desired by the premier. On the second reading of the bill, Lord Durham objected to the clauses regarding public meetings, when Earl Grey declared his dissent from him to be absolute; if he could not have proposed the bill with these clauses, he would not have proposed it at all. Without them, he said, the bill would be ineffectual, impolitic, and cruel: it would punish the miserable victims of delusion, and let those escape who supplied to Ireland the fuel of agitation and disturbance. In these sentiments the lord-chancellor coincided; the clauses, he said, were as necessary as any others. Attention must be paid to the cause of excitement, as well as to the parties excited; the clauses regarding public meetings no doubt were a suspension of rights; but so were all the other clauses of the bill, to which no objection had been raised. The second reading of the bill was carried without any serious opposition, and the committee was fixed for the 7th of July; but in the meantime disclosures were made in the commons, which stopped the progress of the bill in its present shape, and which led to the resignation of Earl Grey.

RESIGNATION OF EARL GREY, ETC.

Instead of meeting O’Connell with bold defiance, Mr. Littleton, the Irish secretary, had committed the fatal error of secretly negotiating with him, soothing him, and even entrusting him with the views and determinations of the cabinet, giving him assurances, or encouraging expectations, for which he had no authority. He seems to have expected some communication from the lord-lieutenant regarding the omission of the clauses; and he resolved, before the ministers or the cabinet had made any decision known to him, to communicate to O’Connell, under the seal of secrecy and confidence, the sentiments of the Irish government, and to communicate it as ensuring a similar determination on the part of government. He spoke of the propriety of acting thus to Lord Althorp, who said that he saw no harm in it; but, at the same time, entreated him to use extreme caution in his communication, and by no means to commit himself in what he said. Under these circumstances Mr. Littleton sent for Mr. O’Connell on the 20th of June, and made the desired communication, with an assurance that only a short measure for repressing agrarian disturbances would be proposed: and, also, that if the coercion bill was again thought necessary, he would not introduce it. In consequence of this interview, Mr. O’Connell promised his assistance in putting down disturbances; and he actually withdrew the repeal candidate whom he had started for the county of Wexford. To the dismay of Mr. Littleton, however, the premier and majority of the cabinet determined to retain the clause respecting public meetings, and he was compelled to belie his confidential communication. He had told Mr. O’Connell that he would not be the person to introduce the bill in that shape: and yet he did not resign when it was determined that the bill should be introduced in that shape alone. At the same time he communicated to Mr. O’Connell that his hopes could not be realised; but begged him to take no public notice of this until he should have seen Earl Grey’s speech introducing the bill. Mr. O’Connell replied to him, that if he did not resign, he would be guilty of deception; and Mr. Littleton answered, “Say nothing of that to-day,” or, “Wait till to-morrow.” But with regard to the fact, whether such an answer was or was not given, both O’Connell and Mr. Littleton averred that what the other stated was not consistent with truth. Be this as it may, O’Connell thought he was not bound to secrecy; and on the 3rd of July, two days after the bill had been introduced in the lords, he asked Mr. Littleton whether it was true that the renewal of the coercion bill in its present shape had been advised and called for by the Irish government? Mr. Littleton answered that this was an unusual inquiry to make respecting a bill not before the house; but he would say that the introduction of the bill had the entire sanction of the Irish government. Mr. O’Connell again put his question, as to whether the bill had been called for by the Irish government? and not obtaining a more direct answer, he said, “I now ask the Irish secretary if it his intention to bring the bill forward in this house?” Mr. Littleton replied, “It will be for the government to decide as to its introduction here when the proper time arrives; but, whoever may bring in the bill, I shall vote for it.” Mr. O’Connell then said, “Then I have been exceedingly deceived by him;” and the Irish secretary was driven to the necessity of stating the whole matter, and an angry discussion ensued. Two days afterwards Mr. Littleton tendered his resignation; but it was refused, his colleagues, as Lord Althorp stated in the house, valuing his services too highly to dispense with them on such grounds. The coercion bill passed through committee in the lords on the 7th of July, and on the same evening, in the house of commons, Lord Althorp, for the purpose of announcing its approach, presented papers relative to the state of Ireland, which he moved should be printed. This led to a discussion on the sentiments of the cabinet, and the change of opinion manifested by the Marquis Wellesley. Mr. O’Connell moved an amendment, that the papers should be referred to a select committee; and this being rejected by a large majority, he gave notice for the production of so much of the lord-lieutenant’s correspondence as would explain the reason why he opposed a renewal of the coercion act on or about the 20th of June. Hitherto there had been no symptoms of change in the ministry, however unfortunate might be the figure which they had been compelled to make. They had even refused to accept the resignation of Mr. Littleton, whose indiscreet negotiations had been the source of all their embarrassments. Lord Althorp, however, seems now to have come to the conclusion that ministers would not be able to carry the bill through in its original form, for, on the very night of this discussion, he sent in his resignation, and persisted in retiring from office. The resignation of the chancellor of the exchequer involved that of Earl Grey. The prime minister, convinced that it was impossible for him to proceed when deprived of Lord Althorp’s assistance, gave in his own resignation, which his majesty accepted. By the retirement of the head of the cabinet, the cabinet itself was dissolved; but no other resignation followed. The members of the old cabinet, indeed, resolved to remain together, and selected a new head; and Lord Melbourne, the home-secretary, was elevated to this post, and kissed hands on the 16th of July as first lord of the treasury. Lord Melbourne’s first act was to inform the house that ministers did not intend to proceed with the coercion bill now before it, but that another bill, omitting certain clauses contained in the former, would immediately be brought into the house of commons. This announcement produced a vehement discussion, in which the conduct of government and some of its individual members was assailed by the Dukes of Wellington and Buckingham, and several other peers, who maintained, that since the Revolution, no instance had occurred of such inconsistency and tergiversation. A modified coercion bill, however, was introduced on the 18th of July; and having been rapidly carried through the commons, passed the lords on the 29th, under a strong protest, signed by the Dukes of Cumberland and Wellington, with twenty-one other peers. This modified bill re-enacted only those parts of the former which referred to the proclamation of districts. The lord-lieutenant was to have power to proclaim any district which he thought necessary, and in these districts any meeting, not convened by the high sheriff of the county, was to be held illegal. No person was to leave his house between sunset and sunrise, except on lawful business; and constables were to have power to make people show themselves at any hour of the night when they might call at their houses. The operations of the bill were to cease on the 1st of August, 1835.

REJECTION OF THE IRISH TITHE QUESTION BY THE PEERS.

Ministers having thus provided for the tranquillity of Ireland, by what they considered enactments of sufficient energy and severity, now returned to their tithe bill, which, according to them, was to be the great recompense of the temporary submission to a strained power of the law. Accordingly, on the 29th of July, the order of the day was read for the house resolving itself into a committee on the tithe bill. Mr. O’Connell moved as an amendment that the house should resolve itself into a committee that day six months. He did so, he said, on the ground that it was preposterous to go into a committee on a bill containing one hundred and twenty-two clauses at that period of the session, on the ground of the demerits of the bill itself, and on the ground that it would be time enough to legislate after the report of the commission which had been issued should have been received, a regular plan arranged and submitted, with all its details, and all necessary information, to a select committee composed of men of all parties. This amendment, however, obtained only fourteen votes in its favour, though others were carried in committee, which went to alter the operation and consequences of the bill. Thus Mr. O’Connell moved an amendment, the object of which was to relieve the tithe-payer immediately to the extent of forty per cent.; and in consequence of the accommodating language and coy resistance of ministers, it was carried by a majority of eighty-two to thirty-three. Additional concessions were also made in the committee; and even Mr. Shiel remarked that Ireland ought to be grateful. Such, indeed, was the departure from the original principles and arrangements of the bill that one hundred and eleven out of one hundred and seventy-two clauses were expunged. Thus altered, the bill was read a third time, and passed on the 5th of August.