The Earl of Rodenpresented petitions from a number of members of different guilds, constituting the corporation of the city of Dublin, against the Irish Corporation Reform Bill. The noble Earl said, that having been prevented from being present when this bill was recently before their Lordships, and as, perhaps, he should not be able to attend when the measure would be next discussed, he should take the present opportunity of again, as he had formerly done, warning their Lordships against the bill which was now on their table. Connected with Ireland, and knowing the state of feeling which prevailed in that country, he would say decidedly that this bill was not called for, except by those whose object was agitation, and whose desire it was to overthrow and destroy the Protestant institutions of the country. If the bill, which the noble Viscount had postponed for very good reasons, had come on, as was originally intended, to-night, he certainly should have felt it to be his duty, to take the sense of the House on the principle of the measure. Their Lordships had heard counsel at the Bar against this most important bill, and he thought that the corporation of Dublin, in their mode of opposition, had acted most honestly end most wisely—honestly, because they had shown their deep anxiety to protect their 494 udoubted rights, interests, and privileges; and wisely in choosing for their advocates those gentlemen who had appeared at their Lordships' bar. One of those Gentlemen was selected from the Irish bar, and he was sure that the impression made by his speech could not easily be forgotten by those who heard it delivered. He would advise those who had not heard it, to read and study l he substance of that address, which, he believed, had been printed. The corporation were wise in selecting such an advocate, because he was a man of high character in his private station, and much esteemed by all who knew him; and the speech which he had made on this subject showed that he was a man of talent, and worthy of undertaking the important duty which had been intrusted to him by the corporation of Dublin. Of the bill then before their Lordships he would say, whether it were passed as it now lay on their Lordships' table, or amended, and made to take the form of the last bill on this subject, that it was calculated to bring ruin on Ireland, to create discord in every town throughout the country, and to produce an incalculable increase of wretchedness and misery. He, therefore, felt, that he should be guilty of a gross dereliction of the duty which he owed to the great mass of the gentry of Ireland, if he did not raise his voice against this pernicious measure, and now take the only opportunity of which, perhaps, he could avail himself, to call on their Lordships to pause before they passed a bill that must inevitably bring misery and distress on Ireland. The petition which he now presented came from men of humble station in life, but they were not, therefore, the less worthy of being heard, when they came forward in defence of those rights and privileges of which they were about to be deprived, without any act being alleged against them, that could justify so severe a visitation.
§ Petitions laid on the Table.