in this respect, it certainly could be for too great attention to economy. He entreated the hon. gentleman opposite, not to be so very severe on the subject, merely because they fancied they had found some flaw in the management. Did they imagine, that it was possible to reduce all the preparations for such a purpose to estimates? It was impossible. As to the naval part of the preparations, he confessed, he did not see much merit in them, until, on riding into the park, he there observed, that they had drawn together an assemblage of beauty and civilization, of which no other metropolis could boast, a circumstance which compelled him to acknowledge their value. The Resolution was then agreed to; as was also one for granting 100,000l. towards defraying the extraordinary charges of the Civil List, for 1814. On the resolution, That the sum of 10,074l. 13s. 5d. be granted to his Majesty, to discharge, in the year 1814, the bills due to the several tradesmen, for works done at the Houses of parliament, and the Speaker's house, from the 6th of January, 1812, to the 5th of January, 1814, Mr. Serjeant Onslow took the opportunity of recommending, that the salary of the Speaker should be increased. It was, at present, only what it had been for 24 years; and when the great diminution that had taken place in the value of money, since that period, was considered, it must appear to every one, to be an inadequate remuneration. The Resolution was agreed to. IRISH PRESERVATION OF THE PEACE BILL.] The House having resolved itself into a committee on the Bill to provide for the preserving and restoring of peace in such parts of Ireland as may, at any time, be disturbed by seditious persons, or by persons entering into unlawful combinations or conspiracies, Sir H. Parnell rose to call the attention of the committee to the Bill, as one of the greatest importance, under the present circumstances of Ireland. He had not opposed the Speaker's leaving the chair, because he believed that some legislative measure was necessary to restore the peace of that country; but, in respect to the Bill, the only part which he could approve of was the preamble, which stated this necessity to exist. The various enactments of it were not, in his opinion, either justifiable by any sound principle of legislation, or by the state of things in Ireland. For this reason, he was sorry a committee had not been appointed to examine into the question, as the result must have been a very different proceeding from that they were now called on to agree to. By the assistance of such an enquiry, the committee would have been able to understand exactly what was the state of Ireland, which they could not do from the information given to it by the right hon. secretary. Though he had mentioned a great many outrages, and proved a considerable extent of disturbance to prevail, he had not explained the system on which the several illegal associations, which existed in Ireland, were formed, their various ways of extending themselves, or the objects they had in view; neither had he told the House how many there were of these associations. The right hon. gentleman has described the Thrashers, Carders, and Caravats, which infest the central parts of the country; but he has said nothing of the continual disturbance of the peace, the riots, battles, and loss of lives, which are almost daily occurring in the province of Ulster; or of the association of Orange-men, to which this state of the north is to be attributed. In speaking of the Orange-men, it was necessary to draw a distinction between those who were called so because they were Protestants, who were hostile to Catholic emancipation, and those who were associated in lodges, and, by a secret oath, for the purpose, as they hold out, of maintaining the Protestant ascendency; the former did no more than exercise that freedom of opinion, which every one was entitled to enjoy, and were a body of men, very conspicuous for their loyalty, and high independent principles; the latter, though equally loyal, were influenced by the strongest feelings of persecution, in all their thoughts, and actions, in regard to their Catholic countrymen. They were organized under a most perfect system of secret association. Their lodges were governed by masters, and committees, secretaries, and treasurers. A certain number of masters of lodges, elected masters of districts; these masters of districts, elected masters of counties, and cities, and these formed the grand lodge, whose authority, every Orangeman was sworn to obey. Each Orangeman paid, annually, a sum of money to a general und; and, on admis T sion, took an oath, binding himself to | to require from his Majesty's ministers, obey the rules and orders of the grand on this occasion, to renew the declaration lodge, and not to divulge the secret rules which was made in the last session, and of the association. By their processions, to pledge themselves to act upon it, and on certain days in each year, their reso restore the peace of the province of lutions at their meetings, and their general Ulster. But this association of Orangeconduct towards the Catholics, they pro- men, was the cause of still greater evil voked a constant effort, on their part, to than that already described; it had lead vengeance and retaliation; and thus it hap- to the formation of a counter association pened, that, without being the actual ag- of persons calling themselves Ribbon men. gressors, no large meeting of the people, on This was planned exactly upon the same public occasions hardly ever took place in principles of lodges, and secret oaths, and the north of Ireland, without a desperate it appears to have consisted of 20,000 battle ensuing, and the loss of many lives. persons, according to a statement of Mr. This being unquestionably the state of the O'Connell in the month of June, of last north of Ireland, it became the right hon. year. If then, the right hon. gentleman gentleman to bring it under the notice of had given an accurate statement to the. the House, when he called upon it to adopt House of the extent to which the system a measure for preserving the peace of of illegal association was carried in IreIreland he should have proved himself land, he would have shown that there an impartial public servant, and ready to were no less than five different bodies, suppress illegal associations of all kinds, each of them organized by secret oaths, whether he found them in the south, as and under a distinct plan of government, Caravats; or, in the north, as Orange-men. in the whole, covering a great portion of It might not, perhaps, have been neces- the kingdom, and keeping it in a state of sary for him to introduce any particular continual disturbance. As a remedy for clause in his bill directly applicable to this evil, he calls upon the House to adopt this association, because the law, as it now a measure, which is to enable the magisstands, is sufficient to enable the executive trates, at sessions, to transport all persons government to proceed against it; but he found out of their houses between sunshould, at least, have spoken of it in such set and sun-rise, and without a trial by terms as would have left it beyond all jury! Whereas, instead of a measure so doubt, that the Irish government would unconstitutional, and so very liable to be prefer enforcing the laws with strict im- abused, and to be attended with great partiality, to giving countenance to a vexation and cruelty, he ought to have system, which was destructive of the proposed one which should have been public peace and subversive of all law. consistent with the ordinary usage of the It was the more necessary that he should constitution, and directly calculated to have taken this course, in consequence of punish, with facility and certainty, all the failure of the declared sentiments of those various offences, which particularly this House, in the last session, to discourage distinguish the character of these several it. The noble lord opposite, (Castlereagh) illegal associations which have usurped had scarcely declared, that the govern- the dominion of the country, and supment would enforce the laws against this planted the laws of the land. In order to association, when a meeting of the Grand obtain such measure, in place of that Lodge was held in Dublin, on the 12th which was proposed, the hon. baronet said, of July, and a counter declaration was he should move to leave out the words in published, calling upon all Orange-men to the 7th clause, " without any grand jury, persevere, and not to submit to the at- and without any bill found, and without tempts that were made to put them down. the verdict of any petit jury." He said, On the very day on which this declara- he had heard no good reason urged to tion was published in Dublin, a riot took show the necessity of laying aside the place in Belfast, originating in a proces- trial by jury; that, in respect to the sion of Orange-men, in which three per- county he represented, he was sure the sons were killed. In the course of the juries would discharge their duty without year, various other riots had occurred at being influenced by any fear of injury Kilkeel, at Shercock, and other places; for so doing; and, if it should be otherand no less than twenty or thirty lives wise in other counties, a remedy might were lost in these several affrays. Under easily be found, in moving the place of these circumstances, it was not too much trial to some neighbouring county.. favour of Catholic emancipation. So far from feeling myself exposed to censure, I tell the right hon gentleman, that, if that board was existing, I would readily comply with any other application they might make to me, similar to that which they made last year. But the right hon. gentleman has not only attempted to take away from the weight of my observations upon the Orange association, by endeavouring to connect them with the Catholic board, but from the credit of the petitions against it, which I have presented this session, by saying, that they were the petitions of this board. This fact, I posi Mr. Peel said, the Bill,was in all respects, a literal transcript of that of 1807, and those clauses, to which the hon. baronet objected, formed part of it. The right hon. gentleman, entered upon a vindication of the Orange societies, from the unjust aspersions which had been cast upon them; he stated, that they had existed for more than twenty years; that they had been grossly calumniated by the disaffected, who had dared to respresent their views to be nothing less than to destroy the Catholics, burn their chapels, and exterminate their religion. But so far from these societies being liable to the imputations cast upon them, it was buttively deny-they are the petitions of a justice to declare, that there only fault was an exuberance of loyalty. Their oath only bound them to support, by lawful means, the Protestant ascendancy, and the government of his Majesty, George the third, and never to join with united Irishmen. Adverting to the remarks of the hon. baronet, respecting the riot at Castletown, the right hon. gentleman justified the calling out of the militia, and read the verdict of the coroner's inquest, which stated, that the person who was killed had met his death by a random shot, from soldiers who were obliged to fire in their own defence. Sir H. Parnell rose again, and spoke as follows: What has fallen from the right hon. gentleman, renders it necessary for me to trouble the Committee a second time. The right hon. gentleman has stated, that the petitions which have been presented against the Orange associations, were the work of the Catholic board; and he has preferred a charge against me, for being the organ of that board. The Catholic board did certainly apply to me to bring the conduct of the Orange societies under the consideration of the House, and I willingly consented to do so, because this board was virtually the representative body of the whole Catholic population; and because I knew the grievance complained of was one which called for investigation and relief. In complying with their request, I did no more than what it is the duty of every member of parliament to do when called upon, by any great portion of the constituent body, to advocate their cause against injustice and persecution. I did no more than what has so frequently been done by the right hon. gentleman, the member for Dublin, when he has proposed motions to the House in great number of the most respectable inhitants of the principal towns in the province of Ulster, and owe their origin to the distracted state of society in that province, and not to the advice or exertions of the Catholic board. In respect to the attempt of the right hon. gentleman to diminish the credit of these petitions by his statement, that no Protestant of the town of Newry has signed them, and that in one petitition several names appear to be in the same handwriting; the commit. tee, I hope, will feel, that these petitions should be judged upon only according to the truth of the allegations that are contained in them. To these allegations, the right hon. gentleman has made no reply; he could not do so, because he knows they are true, and that every thing that appears in them can be, if necessary, supported by evidence. In regard to the origin of the Orange societies, and of the cause of the hostility that exists between them and the Catholics, a history of which the right hon. gentleman has been pleased to give the Committee, I have no hesitation in saying, it is incorrect. On this point, there is evidence which places the matter beyond all dispute the address of lord Gosfort to the magistrates of the county of Armagh in the year 1795. He says, "It is no secret, that a persecution, accompanied with all the circumstances of ferocious cruelty, which have, in all ages, distinguished that dreadful calamity, is now raging in this county. Neither age, nor even acknowledged innocence as to the late disturbances, is sufficient to excite mercy, much less afford protection. The only crime which the wretched objects of this merciless persecution are charged with, is a crime of easy proof-it is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith. A lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this species of delinquency; and the sentence they pronounce is equally concise and terrible-it is nothing less than confiscation of all property, and immediate banishment.”. This is the recorded history of the first Orange-men, in the words of one of the most upright and respectable men that ever lived; and they fully prove, that the original cause of the hostility between Catholics and Orange-men is not, as it has been said by the right hon. gentleman, the treason of Catholics and the loyalty of Orange-men, but a principle of persecution more violent and more dreadful than ever existed in any other country. I do not, by any means, impute to the Orange-men of the present day the same excessive spirit of persecution; I consider them as a very different order of men, and I am willing to allow them all the merit they assume for loyalty to the King and attachment to the constitution. I am also ready to allow, that in most of the recent riots which have taken place, they have not been the aggressors, and that what is blameable in their conduct, is owing more to a mistaken view of what is their duty as loyal subjects and good citizens, than to any innate or cruel disposition to injure and destroy their Catholic fellow countrymen. I have no desire to see the government adopt any harsh or vindictive measures, in attempting to suppress their association; all I wish and think necessary for government to do, is to have it distinctly understood that they consider the association illegal, and that they will take measures to prevent the laws from being violated, without prejudice or partiality to any description of persons. This, I trust, will yet be done, as the right hon. gentleman certainly deserves credit for the latter part of his speech, whatever the errors may have been that distinguished the beginning of it, wherein he said that he would not encourage the association, that he would use his utmost endeavours to controul it, and that every step should be taken, on the part of government, to prevent irritation, and the recurrence of those scenes which has repeatedly disgraced the north of Ireland in the course of the last year. I wish, Sir, before I sit down, to allow that the statement, which the right hon. gentleman has made concerning the riot at Castletown, appear to me, to place it in a very different point of view to that in which it was represented to me; and it appeared to me, when I called the attention of the House to it. It is very satisfactory to me to find, that no charge is imputable to the magistrates of any abuse of their authority; and that their conduct was intended for the best, and was governed clearly by no other motive than that of discharging their duty in the manner that appeared to them the most conducive to the public peace. From my acquaintance with them, I am perfectly able to bear testimony to the spirit, justice, and moderation, with which their proceedings, as magistrates, have always been distinguished. Mr. Horner said, that the account of the affair of Castletown, given by the right hon. secretary, did not contradict the information which he had received, and had submitted to the House for the purpose of exciting enquiry. It was not the military who had been represented to him as having been to blame, but the magistrates who had improvidently and unwarrantably called them in. By the present act, he did not see how the petty jury were to be constituted, or how they could act. The House then divided, on sir H. Parnell's amendment, when there were-For the amendment, 6-Against it, 66-Majority against it, 60. HOUSE OF LORDS. BRISTOL GAOL.] Earl Stanhope said, he had a Petition to present, which would astonish their lordships when they became acquainted with its contents. The House would recollect he presented, on a former day, a Petition from a person in Gloucester gaol, complaining of the illegal practice of opening and intercepting letters, passing between prisoners and their law-advisers; and he now had to present a Petition complaining of a similar practice in a gaol at Bristol. There had been two persons confined, and for an offence which he would state to their lordships. When the late rejoicings were going on for that peace to which a noble duke opposite (the duke of Wellington) had so much contributed, these two men fired pistols on the occasion. This might be deemed their utmost offence, for which they were immured in dark cells for a month, and their letters stopped and opened. Now, he happened to know, that the servants of more than one of the bishops were firing pistols about the same thing, and yet they were not punished; neither was he disposed, for such an of-ing the innocent for the guilty; but he fence, to hang either the servants or their wished particularly to draw the attention masters. On trial, however, they were of the House to the case of Scotland, not found even guilty of this offence, and which, previous to the Union, was unacwere acquitted. It was not his intention quainted with the law of corruption of to make any motion, after the Petition was blood in any case, although the law of forlaid on the table, but to recommend the feiture was one which had anciently presame course which had been pursued res- vailed over all parts of the United Kingpecting the Gloucester Petition. The dom. He quoted the authority of Burnet, noble viscount (Sidmouth) had trans to prove that, at the time of the Union, the mitted a letter to Gloucester, on the sub- law establishing corruption of blood, in ject, and he had seen the letter, requiring cases of high treason, had been adopted that these illegal practices might be dis- as a compromise between the parties, alcontinued, which reflected high honour though strongly resisted by the parliament. on the noble viscount in the discharge of In 1744, the year before the rebellion, at his duty as secretary of state for the home the time when danger was apprehended, department. He should now only re- the law had been continued during the commend it to that noble secretary, to lives of the sons of the Pretender, but the pursue the same conduct upon the present necessity had ceased upon the death of occasion. the late cardinal de York. Under these circumstances, it was but an act of justice to restore, at least, Scotland to the situation she held before the Union, if it were not deemed expedient to abolish the law of corruption of blood in all parts of the United Kingdom. It was impolitic, because it rather promoted than discouraged treason, and must lead to continual animosities. He should, therefore, move as an amendment, the omission of the words The Earl of Liverpool said, he believed" save and except in all cases of high it was not likely that any communication on the subject, mentioned by the noble lord, would be made to that House, before the end of the session. As to the islands alluded to, they were still in discussion with the government of Holland, and it was not probable, that he should have it in command to make any communication to the House in the present session. The Petition was ordered to lie on the table. DUTCH ISLANDS.] Lord Holland, seeing a noble earl at the head of the Treasury in his place, was desirous of knowing if it was likely that, before the end of the session, any communication would be made as to the islands agreed upon to be delivered up to Holland? Lord Holland wished also to understand, whether the final disposal of the islands he referred to, would be left solely to the adjustment of this country and Holland, or whether they would come under the consideration of Congress? The Earl of Liverpool observed, that the subject was wholly for the consideration of this country and Holland, and not to be referred to the deliberations of Congress. CORRUPTION OF BLOOD BILL.] Lord Erskine moved the third reading of the Corruption of Blood Bill. treason, petty treason, or murder, or of the abettors of the same." If, however, the House should reject this general motion, he would propose, that the exemption in its present shape should only extend to England and Ireland. The Duke of Norfolk opposed the amendment; arguing, that by the law as it now stood, many individuals would be dedeterred from the crime of high treason, by the consequences which attended it to their posterity. The amendment was negatived; as were also another amendment, moved by lord Holland, to insert after the exception the words, "in those parts of the United Kingdom called England and Ireland;" and a subsequent one, likewise moved by his lordship, for leaving out of the exception the words " petit treason and murder." The Bill was then read a third time and passed. Lord Holland rose for the purpose of FREEHOLD ESTATES BILL.] Lord Erskine proposing an amendment, which justice, moved the third reading of the Bill for policy, and good faith required. The old rendering the freehold estates of persons law, the alteration of which was now sug-dying indebted, liable to the payment of gested, was founded upon gross injustice, their simple contract debts. His lordship proceeding upon the principle of punish- observed, that common honesty required |