§ Considered in Committee.
§ [Mr. J. W. LOWTHER Cumberland, Penrith), CHAIRMAN of WATS and MEANS, in the Chair.]
§ (In the Committee.)
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. JOHN ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.I beg to move the omission of Clause 1. I would not 1436 move this Amendment if I thought it would interfere with the ambition of the hon. Member to secure to Irishmen the right to assume the prefix "O" and "Mac;" but there is really no statute, and never has been a statute, or any principle of common law, to prevent a gentleman taking the prefix "O" or "Mac" as frequently as he pleases, and shedding it when he pleases, and taking it up again.
§ Amendment agreed to, Mr. MACALEESE objecting.
§ Upon the Motion of Mr. ATKINSON, Clause 2 was omitted.
§ On Clause 3,
§ MR. ATKINSONmoved the omission of the clause, and in substitution of it the new clause—
So much of any statute as prohibits the use of 'O' or 'Mac' before any surname is hereby repealed.
§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)May I take the liberty of asking the right hon. Gentleman the Attorney General for Ireland if we have no law against the use of the prefix of "O" and "Mac"? Is he not actually proposing to repeal a law which has no existence? I think both myself and my Bill have been very badly 1437 treated. This is not a jocular matter at all, and I think the Attorney General for Ireland demeaned himself when he chimed in with the small Pressmen to make gibes and jeers at my little Bill. Even the poet Spenser, who, in his day, was a bit of a land-grabber, when he was engaged in colonising Ireland—in which, thank God, neither he nor anybody else has ever succeeded!—thought this matter serious enough to write to a friend in London as follows:
I would also wish the 'O' and the 'Mac,' which the heads of septs have taken to their names, should be utterly forbidden and extinguished, for that the same being an ordinance, as some say, first made by O'Brien for the strengthening of the Irish, the abrogation thereof will as much enfeeble them.I hold, Sir, that the attitude that has been taken up by the Attorney General for Ireland, and by those Members of the Government who are assisting him in the work he is engaged in, is an attitude to continue the enfeeblement of the Irish race. I will take upon myself the character of a prophet, and say that a great many years must elapse before the old love of the Irish people for the "O" and the "Mac" will be diminished, or be in any danger of being extinguished. Of course, the Government is behind the attitude of the Attorney General in this matter, but I do not think that he is taking upon himself a duty which will contribute in any way to—what shall I call it?—the credit or the dignity of the Tory Government in Ireland. At any rate, I have performed my part of the duty which I took upon myself, and I say it is neither to the credit of the Government nor will it be to the benefit of their rule in Ireland, to have adopted a petty and beggarly opposition to this small measure of justice.
§ On the Chairman proceeding to put the substituted clause of the Attorney General.
§ MR. MACALEESEmoved that Progress be reported.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ House resumed.