George. Second Rank-Mr. Rynd, J. G. Mr. Story, Joseph; Mr. Bushe, Richard Henry; Lendrick, James; Feinagle, Charles; Salmon, George; Gwynne, James; Sharkey, Lewis G.; Black, William Faussett; Peebles, Robert Benjamin; Clibborn, John; Moore, Ponsonby; Richardson, John; Murphy, Jeremiah; Dobbyn, Thomas.

JUNIOR FRESHMEN.

HONOURS IN SCIENCE-First Rank. Mr. Forde, Thomas; Mr. Morris, Arthur; Kirkpatrick, William; Richards, John Henry; Lee, George; Gaggin, John; Hume Abraham. Second Rank, Mr. Ryder, Michael Wood; Wilson, Hugh; North, Roger; Studdart, George; Edge, John; Corcoran, Michael E.; Smith, Henry; Boyce, James W.; Le Marchant, Robert; Bagot, Edward; Morris, Richard; Basset, William.

HONOURS IN CLASSICS.First Rank. Mr. Ryder, Michael W.; Mr. Kinahan, Daniel; Mr. Hayman, Samuel; Stackpoole, William C.; Bickmore, Charles; Porter, William; Power, Cuthbert Collingwood; Ralph, Charleton Stewart; Smith, James. Second Rank-Mr. Stannus, Thomas Robert; Mr. Foster, John V.; Hamilton, James; Basset, William; Lee, George; Walker, John ; Halpin, Nicholas John; Bagot, Ed. ward; Gaggin, John; Smith, George; Magee William; Riordan, Patrick; Bickmore, Frederick A.; King, Francis; Cangley, David.

No. XLIV.

VOL. VIII.

THE proceedings of the two houses of parliament, in reference to the Irish municipal reform bill, present a subject for consideration far too important to be passed over in silence. It is a subject upon which a great deal of declamation has been very uselessly employed; and with which a great deal of party feeling has been very unfortunately mixed up. We feel satisfied that, if men could be brought to consider the questions these proceedings involve, with the calmness and sobriety which their importance demands; if they could abstract the principles of those questions from the disturbing influence of the appeals that have been made to passion, and submit them to the ordeal of plain and sober common sense, they would infallibly arrive at the conclusion that all the violence and indignation that have been manifested, have been utterly and miserably misplaced, and that the advocates of collision and reform of the Lords, have not the shadow of a rational pretext for the course of turbulence which it appears to be their intention to pursue.

In the remarks which we mean to offer upon this subject, we shall address ourselves to men of all parties. In the belief which we have stated, that much may be effected by an appeal to the common sense of the rational portion of the community, under whatever political denomination they may be found, we shall endeavour to reason without any reference to the contests of party difference. It is too much to expect that we shall succeed in persuading men to view this matter in the coolness of an unprejudiced judgment, but we shall VOL. VIII.

do what we can to separate the discussion from every irritating topic that might call into action the passions of the partizan.

We shall first endeavour to state fairly the circumstances of that dif ference between the houses of parliament, which some men fondly call the collision;" and the demands which, upon the grounds of this difference have been very violently made.

The Commons passed a bill by which all existing corporations were abolished; and by which, in addition to this, new bodies were constituted and invested by statute, with some of the rights and privileges which had been conferred by royal charter upon the abrogated corporations; the House of Lords acceded to the first portion of the bill, by which existing corporations were abolished, but refused their assent to the establishment of any new bodies in their stead. After some attempts at a compromise, the matter ended in the bill being altogether rejected by the Commons.

Upon these proceedings a demand is made by a section of the radical party, that the House of Lords should be reformed; that is, that some measure should be adopted by which the second branch of the legislature may be brought into a general accordance with the wishes of the third.

Our readers will perceive that in this two questions are presented to our notice-first, the particular question as to the Irish corporations, and then arising out of this, the great constitutional question of reform of the Lords -that is, we have first to consider whether the incorporation of the

L2

bodies proposed by the Commons, would be really an advantage to the country; and after this a second question is forced upon our notice; whether the refusal of the Lords to sanction this measure furnishes a sufficient cause for forming a certain organic change in the constitution including, of course, in this second, the practicability and the general effects of that change.

We have already discussed at some length the provisions of the Irish municipal reform bill. We do not intend to enter again upon the full consideration of a question which perhaps is long since exhausted; but there are a few considerations which we throw out for Irishmen of all creeds and parties to reflect on before they determine whether the bill, as sent up from the Commons, was, in the present state of this country, calculated to promote the prosperity of Ireland or the happiness of her people. To determine upon the expediency of any political measure, we have generally to strike a balance between its probable advantages and disadvantages, and be guided by the result. Let any candid man pursue this method of calculation, with respect to the establishment of the new corporations; and first let him calmly reflect upon the practical and substantial good that he may reasonably expect to follow from their creation. If it can be shewn that the comforts of our population will be increased that their happiness will be augmented-that our industry will be encouraged, our labouring classes better fed or better clothed, or the resources of Ireland developed; we will admit that, for the sake of these objects, the measure should earnestly and strenuously be sought after; nay more, if we can be convinced that any such results are likely to follow from it, we will become its warmest advocates ourselves. But, until it is proved that some advantages will result from the adoption of a measure, we are not ready to consent to it merely because it may please some persons to call it a benefit to Ireland.

We are anxious to urge this point strongly upon the attention of those who honestly support this measure, because we know that, in the excitement of party feeling, men are apt to

take for granted what a very little reflection might shew them to be without foundation. Now, it certainly is not an axiom that needs no proof, that the proposed corporations would be a benefit to the country; and yet, we cannot recollect a single attempt that has been made by the advocates of their institution, to exhibit a single good that can result from it. We are aware that this plain business-like way of dealing with a question is unfashionable in this country; it is unsuited to the taste of our people; it is much easier to raise the cry of "justice to Ireland!" than to prove that that cry has any meaning; it is less troublesome to follow that cry than to examine the practical bearings of a measure. But we are rather inclined to adhere to our own method, and put in every case, the question“ What good will it do?" Now, we put this question in the spirit of candour and fairness. The ministerial measure has many able, and we sincerely believe honest advocates at the Irish press. Let the writers in the columns of the Register, the Freeman, or the Evening Post, who have done so much to excite the passions of the inflammable portion of the Irish people, just pause for a moment to satisfy the obstinate wrongheadedness of the few matter-offact Irishmen, like ourselves, who have taken up the English prejudice of thinking it necessary to have a reason for everything. There is perhaps no public journal which has displayed more knowledge of the economical statistics of Ireland, than some years ago the Morning Register, in the able articles in which it advocated repeal. Now let that journal apply some of this knowledge to the questions before us-let it be shewn how the establishment of the new corporations will promote the prosperity of our common country, and then, and not till then, we will admit that it is fair and right in our opponents, to stamp us as sectarian and antinational, because we refuse to assent to their institution.

We do not think that in this demand we ask anything that common sense does not bear us out in. We have heard much of " insult," and "injustice," and "arrogant peers ;" but all this amounts to no proof. The denial of corporations is a national

injury, but in what the injury consists we have not been informed. At most it is a question which affects only the inhabitants of towns; it cannot, by possibility influence the condition of the Connaught pauper, to have a lord mayor riding in a fine coach in Damestreet. Here then, at once, we have a large deduction from the seven millions who are wronged by the refusal; the benefits of the measure, admitting there are any, only extend to the towns that come under its operation. But we repeat our challenge to the journals that support the ministerial bill; and we ask them first to prove that the new corporations will be a benefit, and then they may declaim about the injury of refusing them. But until we are informed of the offices for the good of the country which those bodies are to discharge, we cannot at once, and without examination, pronounce their establishment a blessing.

From the man, then, of any party, or of any creed, who asks us to support the establishment of the new municipalities in Ireland, our first demand, and we cannot think it an unreasonable one, is, that he will state to us, in a plain and business-like manner, and apart from all declamation about justice to Ireland," and "equal rights, and such like fine words, what practical good he expects to follow from their creation?

When the probable good has been stated, and this, be it remembered, is still a desideratum, it will only remain to look to the other side of the question, and see if there be any evils likely to ensue; and accordingly as the good or evil preponderates, our judgment must be determined.

To us it appears that the proposed measure is attended with many and serious inconveniences. We will not say that these inconveniences are such as to outweigh any possible amount of good that may be shewn as likely to follow; but certainly, in the absence of all such shewing, they are motives for offering a strenuous opposition to the plan. We will endeavour calmly to state the inconveniences we apprehend; and here again we call on our opponents to abandon declamation and come to reasoning

Projiciant ampullæs et sesquipedalia verba

and instead of the cant of" equal rights,” let them shew to us either that our fears are not likely to be realized, or that the evils we apprehend will be more than counterbalanced by the advantages which we are as yet unable to discover.

Our great objection to the ministerial bill is, that it must tend to perpctuate and exasperate, as far as its influence extends, the religious and political dissensions which the rightminded of all parties lament as the curse of our country. To soften down the animosities which unhappily distract us, should be the first object of the patriot; it is an object for which he should sacrifice everything but principle. Let any man who knows the state of feeling in this country, who is acquainted with the bitterness of spirit that is engendered by every occurrence in which party animosities are excited, coolly consider what must be the effects upon the towns, of establishing municipal elections to be the constant and periodically returning trials of party strength; and we do not think that he will pronounce our apprehensions unreasonable when we intimate a doubt whether the legal establishment of these contests will conduce to the towns being "well and QUIETLY governed."

We do not think that there is any one Utopian enough to expect that the municipal elections would be decided without the intervention of religious and political animosities; and surely there is no one who knows Ireland who will expect that those animosities will pass away with the occasion that calls them forth. Are not the professors of different creeds sufficiently interfere to quicken our partizanship divided already? Must the legislature by establishing an arena for its regular and periodical exhibition, and offering to us the honours of a corporation as the prize for the victorious. What would be the municipal elections but scenes will be set against Catholic, and of party contests, in which Protestant Catholic against Protestant; and these, be it remembered, contests in which the bitterness of religious dissension would be aggravated by the asperities of a personal struggle for place and power. What, we ask, is this but to individualize party differences into