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THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF INTIMIDATION; 
 
 OR, 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ELECTIYE FEANCHISE, 
 
 ITS DEFECTS AND REMEDIES. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. WILLIAM BROWN, A.M., 
 
 TOBERMOKE. 
 
 His spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 
 
 Paul. 
 
 BELFAST :— SHEPHERD AKD AITCHISON. 
 
 LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. EDINBUEGH : SHEPHERD AND ELLIOT. 
 DUBLIN: W. ROBEETSON. 
 
 1856. 
 
To be invested with power without a will, is as great an 
 insult to the understanding, as it is an injury to the interests 
 of mankind. Nothing can more effectually tend to induce 
 the people to abandon their claims to the first privileges of 
 nature and society with disgust." — Oldfield. 
 
 Among the best laws of recent days, are those which have 
 annulled the legislation of former times." — Lord Clarendon^s 
 Reply to the Corporation of Dublin, 
 
to 
 
 o 
 
 ^ PEEFACE. 
 
 The design of this Work is to exhibit the cause 
 of the feature inci(Jent to the social condition of 
 Ireland, that the tenant must vote as the landlord 
 orders ; and to point out the remedy for this 
 painful state. 
 
 The cause is — the dependant condition of the 
 Irish tenant. 
 
 The sure remedy would be such a modification 
 of the feudal laws bearing on land as would 
 introduce free trade in land. Free trade in land 
 would soon cause large portions of that property, 
 now in hands of a few great proprietors, to flow 
 into the hands of the many. These having what 
 they could call their own, would soon think and 
 act independently. 
 
 When feudalism became established in Ireland, 
 
 487594 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 that grim power addressed landlords and agents, 
 saying— 
 
 And the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall 
 be upon every cottier tenant, and every tenant at 
 will that moveth upon the earth ; into your hand 
 they are delivered, that you may use them on 
 occasion of elections to advance the interests of 
 your families and friends ; into your hand they 
 are delivered. 
 
 You in Ulster will recognise tenant-right. The 
 recognition of that right will entitle you to the 
 votes of your tenants. Having done them much 
 good by recognising the tenant-right, you will draw 
 them towards you with chords of love, and the 
 bands of a man. Forget not to recognise tenant- 
 right. The moment you break the compact the 
 tenants will then be free to vote as they please. 
 Viewing you as covenant-breakers and false, they 
 will no longer on their shoulders carry you into 
 Parliament; but will be longing for the oppor- 
 tunity to vote against you, and to return men good 
 and true. 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 Whilst thus, by means of feudalism, the land- 
 lord in Ireland can control the tenant in the 
 matter of his vote, it is pleasing to observe there 
 are many landlords who do not avail themselves 
 of their privilege, but allow their tenants to vote 
 as they please. Instances of this nature, however, 
 are the exceptions to the law of constraint which 
 is the rule. 
 
 May the Lord grant unto om' nobles more 
 enlightened views of their duty as landlords, and 
 to our Parliament wisdom to devise, and power to 
 execute a measure calculated to restore to the 
 electors of Ireland that free and unhindered 
 exercise of the franchise, which is their birthright, 
 but of which they have been hindered hitherto. 
 
• 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Introduction— Elective Franchise — Qualifications of an Elector—Of a 
 Eepresentative — The British Parliament, 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Francliise in England from the earliest period to the time of the 
 Saxons, 10 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 The Franchise under the Saxons, 13 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Franchise from the Norman Conquest to the Signing of Magna Charta, 19 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 From Magna Charta to the Decapitation of Charles I., ... 25 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 4 
 
 From the death of Charles I. to the Eevolution of 1688, 33 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 State of the Franchise from the Eevolution to the Eeform Bill, 37 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 State of the Franchise from the Eeform Bill to the General Elf^tion of 
 1852. 45 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 The Elections of 1852 distinguished by intimidation in divers Counties in 
 Ulster, 83 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Apology for the Resistance offered by the Tenants in Ulster to the Will of 
 the Landlords and Agents at the Election of 1852, 97 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Parliamentary Measures to prevent Intimidation, 126 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Alleged Eemedy for Intimidation and Bribery—The Vote by Ballot, ... 131 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Real Remedy for Removal of Intimidation from the Heart of Ireland, 146 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Remarks on Lord John Russell's New Reform Bill, 167 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 On the ideal ofthe British Constitution, 174 
 
 APPE2!fDIX, 
 
 181 
 
CHAPTER T. 
 
 INTRODUCTION — ELECTIVE FRANCHISE — QUALIFICA- 
 TIONS OF AN ELECTOR — OF A REPRESENTATIVE — 
 THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. 
 
 The Franchise we regard as a machine imperfect, and 
 unscientific, if you will — for the attainment of a two- 
 fold purpose; first, for the selection of 658 reasonably 
 competent legislators ; secondly, for securing that the 
 aggregate of these 658 chosen men shall fairly, and in 
 due proportion, reflect and understand all those interests, 
 feelings, and opinions, and classes of character which 
 constitute the permanent elements of the nation. 
 
 This privilege is not attached to mere residence in a 
 place or country, or derived from descent; for the 
 question always recurs, how did the original possessor 
 obtain it ? It is a privilege conferred in a legal manner 
 by the aid of the State. Sometimes it ^ms been greatly 
 extended by a revolution in the Government, as by 
 Cleisthenes, when the tyrants were expelled from 
 Athens ; and in that, and similar instances, it admits of 
 doubt, whether it was rightly or wrongly extended to 
 so many strangers and persons in a servile condition ; 
 but the fact remained, and those on whom power was 
 then conferred retained it. 
 
 An elector should be intelligent, and possess some 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 knowledge of political economy. Hitherto this matter 
 has not been sufficiently attended to by the rulers 
 of nations recognising the elective franchise. 
 
 The importance of this qualification in an elector is 
 well set forth by a distinguished foreigner in the follow- 
 ing letter : — 
 
 I have endeavoured on all occasions to disprove the 
 notion, that the labouring classes are unfit depositaries 
 of political power. I owe it, however, to truth to say, 
 that I believe the elective franchise is extended too far 
 in this country. No man, I think, should be entrusted 
 with this high privilege, who has not been instructed in 
 the principles of our Government, and in the duties of 
 a good citizen, and who cannot afibrd evidence of 
 respectability. One of the principal objects of our 
 public schools should be to train up the young of all 
 conditions for the duties of good citizens ; to furnish 
 them with the necessary knowledge of principles for the 
 judicious use of political power ; the admission of the 
 young to the privilege of voting should be the most 
 solemn public act — the grand national festival : it should 
 be preceded by an examination of the candidate ; it 
 should be accompanied by the most imposing forms 
 fitted to impress the young and the whole community 
 wdth the great responsibility and accountableness of 
 this trust. 
 
 " None of us seem adequately to understand, that, to 
 confer the elective franchise, is to admit a man to a 
 participation of the sovereignty of the supreme power. 
 The levity with which this dignity is conferred, the 
 thoughtlessness with which it had been extended, 
 
3 
 
 constitutes one of the great political dangers. Were 
 the proper qualifications for it required, they would not 
 exclude one class rather than another. The aim should 
 be to exclude the unworthy of all classes. A com- 
 munity is bound to provide for itself the best possible 
 form of Government, and this implies the obligation to 
 withhold political power from those who are disqualified, 
 by gross ignorance or by profligacy, for comprehending 
 or consulting the general welfare — who cannot exercise 
 the sovereignty without injuring the commonwealth. 
 
 " I am fully aware of the obstacles which the violence 
 of party spirit would throw in the way of the system 
 now proposed, and I cannot but fear that the incon- 
 siderateness with which the highest political power has 
 been squandered in this country has gone too far for 
 remedy ; still it is useful to hold up to a people what it 
 owes to itself. At least these remarks will prevent my 
 fellow-citizens from considering me as an advocate for 
 universal sufirage in the present state of society. I 
 think, however, that a system of education should be 
 established in a republic, for the purpose of making 
 sufirage universal — that is, for the purpose of qualifying 
 every man to be a voter; but in the case of those who 
 will not avail themselves of the natural means of improve- 
 ment, political power should be withheld." — Memoirs 
 of Dr, Charming, p. 258, Vol. III. 
 
 Parliament should ordain that lessons on political 
 economy would be given in the National Schools, after 
 the manner in which the young are instructed in 
 grammar, geography, &c. 
 
 Piety is an essential qualification to an elector. The 
 
4 
 
 foundations of real piety are — Christ in the head — 
 Christ in the heart. Piety implies the mind and heart 
 imbued with religious and moral sentiments. " Till I 
 die, I will not remove mine integrity from me/' The 
 professor of the religious mind and spirit, when tempted 
 to sin, is prepared to say — " How can I do this great 
 wickedness and sin against my God/' 
 
 Every elector should be free in the exercise of the 
 franchise. Every Christian is free. ^* If the son there- 
 fore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed/' Every 
 Christian considers the franchise a trust, for the proper 
 use of which he must give an account to God ; he uses 
 it accordingly, to his best judgment, in the way that 
 glorifies God, even by the endeavour to promote the 
 good of the nation. In Ireland the elector is not free ; 
 there the agent can calculate to certainty the influence 
 he can make to bear on the election. 
 
 By our laws a certain amount of property is neces- 
 sary to an elector. 
 
 The true reason of requiring any qualification, with 
 regard to property, in voters, is, to exclude such persons 
 as are in so mean a situation that they are esteemed to 
 have no will of their own. If these persons had votes, 
 they would be tempted to dispose of them under some 
 undue influence or other. This would give a great, an 
 artful, or a wealthy man, a larger share in elections 
 than is consistent with general liberty. If it were 
 probable that every man would give his vote freely, 
 and without influence of any kind, then, upon the true 
 theory, and general principles of liberty, every member 
 of the community, however poor, should have a vote in 
 
5 
 
 electing those delegates, to whose charge is committed 
 the disposal of his property, his liberty, and his lite. 
 But since that can hardly be expected in persons of 
 indigent fortunes, or such as are under the immediate 
 dominion of others, all popular States have been obliged 
 to establish certain qualifications, whereby some who 
 are suspected to have no will of their own are excluded 
 from voting, in order to set other individuals, whose 
 wills may be supposed independent, more thoroughly 
 upon a level with each other. 
 
 And this constitution of suffrages is framed upon a 
 wiser principle than either of the methods of voting by 
 centuries, or by tribes, among the ancient Romans. In 
 the method by centuries, instituted by Servius Tullius, 
 it was principally property, and not numbers, that 
 turned the scale; in the method by tribes, gradually 
 introduced by the tribunes of the people, numbers 
 only were regarded, and property entirely overlooked. 
 Hence the laws passed by the former method had 
 usually too great a tendency to aggrandise the patricians 
 or rich nobles ; and those by the latter had too much of 
 a levelling tendency. 
 
 There are requirements in the elected, the persons 
 chosen to represent the constituencies in Parliament. 
 
 Knowledge is necessary, an understanding of all the 
 great questions which may come before the Parliament. 
 
 Integrity is an essential qualification in a legislator — 
 one, too, more wanted than might be supposed. A member 
 of Parliament is one that has incessantly to decide in 
 causes in which he himself is interested. Most of the 
 questions of the day, somehow or other, touch the 
 
 B 2 
 
6 
 
 political prejudices, opinions, or religious belief of those 
 who legislate on them. For, as we have before seen, 
 they never become great questions, or excite much 
 attention, unless they do affect the passions or interests 
 of society. Even secondary questions too frequently 
 have the same tendency; and if there is a position 
 demanding the most determined exercise of the highest 
 moral powers, and of the deepest intellectual discern- 
 ment in combination, it is that of a man sitting as a 
 judge in his own cause. The common law of England, 
 and that of all other civilised countries, does not even 
 trust a man in such a position. The slightest scintilla of 
 pecuniary interests in the cause, de facto, incapacitates 
 a judge from acting ; and it is too mean and narrow 
 a view of human nature, to suppose that the pecuniary 
 are the only interests which exercise an undue influence 
 on men's minds. Political influences — party prejudices 
 — as they are of a less impure nature, so are they of a 
 more constant operation, and therefore more dangerous 
 to truth in the mind of the judge. A member of the 
 House of Commons, too, is a judge at the will of a 
 master. Asa candidate, he may refuse to pledge himself 
 on the hustings, and, as representative, decline the 
 invitation of his constituency to explain his vote or 
 resign ; but he never can escape the prospect of the 
 coming election — he is always more or less the Scylla 
 or Charybdis of interest and duty. To judge ingenu- 
 ously on a matter in which our prejudices, opinions, 
 and selfish interests are deeply concerned, is difficult ; 
 but in the exercise of the functions of our legislators 
 both these concur ; and that too in a matter in which 
 
7 • 
 
 the greatest of all interests, that of society, is at stake. 
 — Political Elements, hy J, Moreley, Esq,,B.C»L., 1852. 
 
 Patriotism should distinguish the representative. 
 
 There are times when the views and wishes of the 
 representative and his constituents must give place to 
 the promotion of great public interests. Patriotism 
 qualifies to act in such circumstances. Conduct of this 
 kind was manifested by the distinguished men, who, 
 though representing great agricultural constituencies, 
 yet voted for abolition of the Corn Laws. 
 
 Piety is essential to a representative. 
 
 This is of more importance to a legislator than all 
 the other qualifications combined. The fear of the Lord 
 is the instruction of wisdom. The men of piety are the 
 ordained instruments for exalting the commonwealth. 
 Righteousness exalteth a nation. 
 
 The constituent parts of Parliament are — The Queen's 
 Majesty, sitting there in her royal political capacity, and 
 the three estates of the realm, the Lords Spiritual, the 
 Lords Temporal (who sit together with the Queen in 
 one house), and the Commons, who sit by themselves in 
 another. 
 
 The supreme executive power of these kingdoms is 
 vested by our laws in a single person, the King or 
 Queen ; for it matters not to which sex the crown 
 descends ; but the person entitled to it, whether male 
 or female, is immediately invested with all the ensigns, 
 rights, and prerogatives of sovereign power. The royal 
 rights and authority are — L With regard to her title. 
 2. Her royal family. 3. Her councils. 4. Her duties, 
 o. Her prerogative. 6. Her revenue. 
 
8 
 
 The next order are the spiritual Lords, and the 
 Lords temporal. 
 
 A body of nobility is peculiarly necessary, in order to 
 support the rights of both the crown and the people, 
 by forming a barrier to withstand the encroachments 
 of both. 
 
 The Commons consist of all such men of any property 
 in the kingdom as have not seats in the House of Lords, 
 every one of which has a voice in Parliament, either 
 personally or by his representatives. 
 
 These are the constituent parts of a Parliament — the 
 Queen, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the 
 Commons. Parts, of which each is so necesssry, that 
 the consent of all three is required to make any new 
 law that shall bind the subject. 
 
 In the Legislature, the people are a check upon the 
 nobility, and the nobility a check upon the people, by 
 the mutual privilege of rejecting what the other has 
 resolved ; while the queen is a check upon both, which 
 preserves the executive power from encroachment. 
 And this very executive power is again checked and 
 kept within due bounds by the two houses through 
 the privilege they have of inquiring into, impeaching 
 and punishing the conduct, not indeed of the queen, 
 which would destroy her constitutional independence, 
 but, which is more beneficial to the public, of her evil 
 and pernicious counsellors. Thus every branch of our 
 civil polity supports and is supported, regulates and is 
 regulated by the rest ; for the two houses, naturally 
 drawing in two directions of opposite interest, and the 
 prerogative in another still different from them both, they 
 
9 
 
 mutually keep each other ^rom exceeding their proper 
 limits, while the whole is prevented from separation, 
 and artificially connected together by the mixed nature 
 of the crown, which is a part of the legislature and the 
 sole executive magistrate. Like three distinct powers 
 in mechanics, they jointly impel the machine of Govern- 
 ment in a direction different from what either acting 
 by themselves would have done ; but, at the same time, 
 in a direction partaking of each, and forming out of all 
 a direction which constitutes the true line of the liberty 
 and happiness of the community. — BlacJcsfone. 
 
 Parliaments are of ancient institution. In England 
 this general council hath been held immemorially under 
 the several names of michel-synoth, or great council, 
 michel-gemote, or great meeting, and more frequently 
 ^Yitten?L-gemote, or the meeting of wise men. 
 
10 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE FRANCHISE IN ENGLAND FROM THE EARLIEST 
 PERIOD TO THE TIME OF THE SAXONS. 
 
 The primary state of England, like that of all other 
 ancient nations, is involved in much obscurity. At the 
 invasion of Julius Csesar it was governed by several 
 petty kings. 
 
 No nation appears to have entertained a stronger 
 sense of natural rights, even in the earliest times, than 
 the Britons. 
 
 There were three privileged high seats, in the original 
 British language, Gorsedds. The first was that of the 
 bards ; the second of a king, or lord of the common- 
 wealth, with his verdict men (jury) and his judges, and 
 his barons (cymri) possessed of lands for holding courts 
 and pleading in law ; the third is the Gorsedd of federal 
 convention, that is to say, a Gorsedd of a country, and 
 to this appertains the homage of two other high seats, 
 being older from necessity and nature, under the 
 discretion (sense) of the nation, for ordering and 
 strengthening right, protection, and defence of the 
 country, and its particular interests with respect to 
 the loyal men of the commonwealth. 
 
 Authors of other countries bear sufficient testimony 
 that the Britons enjoyed a state of freedom. They had 
 their commune consilium" or parliament, called in 
 their language Cyfr-y-then, from their laws being framed 
 
11 
 
 in and by an assembly of the people. When Lucius, 
 one of the kings of Britain, sent to Eleutherius the 
 pope for the code of Eoman laws, he, not ignorant of 
 the British institutions, answered, " thou hast almost 
 every page of them in thy kingdom ; from them, by 
 the grace of God, by the council of thy kingdom, take 
 the law, and by that power of God rule thy kingdom 
 of Britain." 
 
 Such was the strong sense the Britons entertained 
 of their natural rights, and authority over those to whom 
 they delegated the power of governing, that even four 
 hundred and eighty years' intercourse with the Komans 
 could not obliterate the practice of electing their kings. 
 The Eomans had no sooner abandoned South Britain, 
 and absolved the inhabitants from their allegiance, than, 
 agreeably to ancient custom, they proceeded to elect or 
 dethrone such governors as were found favourable or 
 inimical to the common interest. Yortigern, sole 
 monarch of South Britain, could not execute any affairs 
 without a general concurrence. The Britons, sensible 
 that kings were only chosen to render service to, and 
 not injure the people, by imbecility, indolence, or 
 tyranny, deposed them and chose others, when they 
 found themselves in danger from such evils. No rank, 
 however elevated, could with them sanction any conduct 
 that endangered the welfare of the community. Vorti- 
 gern, when incapable of protecting them, was forced to 
 resign his regal honours to his son Vortimer, supposed 
 more capable. Thus were paternal and filial attach- 
 ments merged in the popular good; hence it is 
 evident that the early Britons enjoyed liberty in its 
 
12 
 
 most unlimited sense. They were their own legislators, 
 and removed for cause their executive, well knowing 
 that laws framed in wisdom should not be administered 
 by imbecility or wickedness — a right inherent to man- 
 kind in general which cannot be alienated. 
 
13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FRANCHISE UNDER THE SAxONS. 
 
 VoRTiGERN having invited Saxon auxiliaries to defend 
 the kingdom against the depredations of the Scots and 
 Piets, where they came to assist, they remained as con- 
 querors. During a struggle of fifty years, the sword sup- 
 plied the place of law. Conquest being completed, and 
 becoming possessors of the lands, they thought of legis- 
 lation to preserve themselves and their newly acquired 
 property. Then was the word kyfr-y-then changed for 
 the Saxon-British word wittena-gemote, formed, as some 
 assert, of both languages, from the German wita — a 
 wise man, and the British gemote, or comot, a council. 
 Hence, its compound implied a council of wise men, 
 and the assembly of the people at large was called the 
 mickle-gemote. 
 
 During the Heptarchy every kingdom had its wittena- 
 gemote, where laws were made for the use of each ; and 
 when such were remarkably wise and good, the rest of 
 the kingdoms received them as general laws ; such were 
 those of Ethelbert, King of Kent, Ina, of the West 
 Saxons, and of the Mercians ; as this mode shortened 
 much the work of the Legislature, and when Athelwerd 
 became " Anglorum rex potentissimus,'* the other kings 
 of the Heptarchy sent some of their wittas to his 
 wittena-gemote when new laws were to be made. 
 
 c 
 
14 
 
 The following passages from ancient authors illustrate 
 the constituency of these Parliaments : — 
 
 Ego, Ina, occiduorum Saxonum Rex, cum consilio et 
 cum doctrina Cenredse patri mei, et Heddse, episcopi 
 mei, et Erkenwoldae, episcopi mei, et cum omnibus meis 
 senatorihus, et senioribus sapientibus populi mei, et multa 
 etiam societate ministrorum Dei, consultabam de salute 
 animse nostrse, et de fundamento nostri regni, et justcB 
 leges, et justa statuta, per ditionem nostram stabilita, et 
 constitutaessent, &c." — Ina, King of the West Saxons, 
 with the advice of Cenred, my father, Heddes, my 
 bishop, and Erkenwold, my bishop, with all my senators 
 and oldest and wisest of my people, and many of the 
 society of the ministers of God, did consult for the 
 health of our soul, and for the government of our 
 kingdom, and just laws and statutes were by our folk 
 established and appointed, &c." Hence, by " senioribus 
 sapientibus populi," must be understood the deputies or 
 representatives of the people. The Saxon constitution 
 therefore required, not only the presence, but the 
 approbation of the people, to enact laws. 
 
 In the year 712, Ina assembled a great council or 
 Parliament, wherein he made ecclesiastiqal laws con- 
 cerning marriages, &c., and did other things to 
 promote the public peace by his wittena-gemote, and 
 with the assent of all the bishops, thanes, and eldermen, 
 and of all the wise old men and people of the whole 
 kingdom." — Ad concordiam publicam promo vendam, per 
 commune concilium, et assensum omnium episcoporum, 
 et principuum procerum comitum, et omnium sapien- 
 tium seniorum et populorum totius regni. 
 
15 
 
 And we find that the grand league and union between 
 the Britons, Saxons, and Piets, was concluded and 
 confirmed, per commune concilium et assensum omnium 
 episcoporum procerum, comitum et omnium sapientium 
 seniorum et populorum, et per preceptum Regis In?e — 
 by the wittena-gemote and assent of all the bishops, &/C., 
 and of the people, and by the precepts of King Ina. 
 
 In the year 855, Ethelpholf, King of the West 
 Saxons, gave the tythe of his kingdom to the Church, 
 in the preamble to this Act, " cum concilio episcoporum, 
 et principium presentibus et subscribentibus archiepis- 
 copis et episcopis Angliae universis, necnon et Beorredo, 
 R. Mercise, et Edmundo, Est Anglorum, R., abbatum, et 
 abbatissarum, ducum, comitum, procerumque, totius 
 aliorumqui fidelium infinita multitudine, qui omnes 
 regis chirographum laudaverunt dignitates vero sub- 
 scripserunt." 
 
 " With the advice of the bishops and chief men (the 
 archbishops and bishops of all England being present 
 and subscribing thereto, as also Beorred King of Mercia, 
 and Edmund King of the East Angles), and of the 
 abbots, abbesses, thanes, eldermen, and great men of the 
 kingdom, and an infinite number of other faithful people, 
 who all applauded this act of the King, &c." — The 
 words aliorumque fidelium infinita multitudine must, and 
 can imply nothing but an unlimited number of the 
 community. 
 
 In the year 905, Plegmundus, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, together with King Edward the Elder, *^ concilium 
 magnum episcoporum, abbatum, fidelium procerum 
 et populorum in provincia Genrissorum convocant*' — 
 
16 
 
 called a great council of the bishops, &c., and of the 
 people in the province of Wessex/' when several laws, 
 both ecclesiastical and civil, were made and put in 
 force. The late Sir John Fortescue Aland, one of the 
 justices of the King's Bench, a man learned in the 
 Saxon language and legal antiquities, in his preface to 
 the book of Chancellor Fortescue, and on the difference 
 between an absolute and limited monarchy, says — that 
 whoever carefully and skilfully reads the Saxon laws, 
 and the prefaces or preambles to them, will find that 
 the Commons of England always, in the Saxon times, 
 made a part of that august assembly. 
 
 Henry of Huntingdon, concerning the deposition of 
 Sigebert, King of the West Saxons, has this remarkable 
 passage : — " Sigebertus Eex, inprincipio secundi anni 
 regni, cum incorrigibitis superbise et nequitise esset, 
 congregati sunt proceres et populus totius regni, et 
 provida deliberatione et unanimi consensu omnium 
 expulsus est a regno J* ' Kinewolf vero juvenis egregius, 
 de regia stirpe secundus, electus est in regem." 
 
 When King Sigebert, in the beginning of the second 
 year of his reign, became incorrigible from his pride 
 and wickedness, the chief men and people of the whole 
 kingdom assembled together, and he was, on due de- 
 liberation, and with unanimous consent, expelled the 
 throne. Kinnewolf, a noble youth, descended from the 
 royal stock, was elected king. By this the Saxon 
 people concurred with the nobility in deposing one 
 king and electing another, and this not in a tumul- 
 tuous manner, but with a Parliamentary deliberation 
 and consent. 
 
17 
 
 Tacitus says — " That in Germany a word compre- 
 hending all the countries from whence the Saxons and 
 Angli originally came, ' de minorihus rebus principes 
 consultant de majoribus omnes; ita tamen, ut ea quoque, 
 quorum apud plehem arbitrium est, apud principes in- 
 tractentur." Small matters were decided by the chiefs, 
 but in affairs of greater importance it is necessary that 
 the people should be united with them; the word 
 plehem importing the community. See Tacitus de mor 
 Germ. 
 
 William of Malmesbury thus defines the Saxon 
 wittena-gemote : — " Generalis senatus et populi con- 
 ventus et edictum," a general assembly and ordinance 
 of the senators and people. 
 
 Sir Henry Spelman describes it — " Convenire regni 
 principes tarn episcopi quam magistratus, liherique ho- 
 mines, consulitur de commune salute, de pace et bello, 
 et de utilitate publica promevenda an assemblage of 
 the chiefs of the kingdom, bishops, as well as magis- 
 trates, and the free men, to consult on the common 
 safety, in peace and war, and to promote the public 
 welfare. 
 
 Such was the constitution of mickle-gemote during 
 the Saxon heptarchy, till Alfred ordained the assembly 
 of the people by representation, when the term of 
 wittena-gemote superseded that of mickle-gemote, in 
 all laws, as more applicable to a select number of 
 representatives, and to distinguish it from the latter, 
 which was still assembled upon very urgent occasions. 
 
 Alfred was a most virtuous and patriotic king. He 
 ever retained the most sacred regard for the liberties 
 
 c 2 
 
18 
 
 of the people, and in his will is found the memorable 
 sentiment, " That it is just the English should for ever 
 remain as free as their own thoughts/' 
 
 The property of land was possessed by every indi- 
 vidual — per me and per tout ; by self and by all. The 
 interests of the lands thus acquired were allodial. It 
 was possessed free from all those services and encum- 
 brances which afterwards distinguished feudal tenures. 
 
19 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE FRANCHISE FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE 
 SIGNING OF MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 The battle of Hastings secured the throne to William 
 the Norman. He entirely changed the state of the 
 franchise in England by the introduction of the feudal 
 system. 
 
 Sir H. Spelman does not scruple to call it the law of 
 nations in our western world. 
 
 Feudalism prevailed universally throughout Europe 
 upwards of twelve centuries. 
 
 The constitution of feuds had its origin from the 
 military policy of the northern nations — the Goths, 
 the Huns, the Franks, the Vandals, and the Lombards, 
 who poured themselves into all the nations of Europe 
 at the decline of the Eoman empire. Feuds, fiefs or 
 fees, in northern languages, signifies a conditional stipend 
 or reward. The conquering general allotted large dis- 
 tricts of land to the superior officers of the army, and 
 these were dealt out again in smaller parcels to the 
 inferior officers and most deserving soldiers. The 
 condition annexed to these holdings was, that the 
 possessor should do service faithfully, both at home 
 and in the wars, to him by whom they were given. 
 Every receiver of lands was, therefore, bound, when 
 called upon by his benefactor, to do all in his power 
 to defend him. Such benefactor or lord was likewise 
 
20 
 
 subordinate to, and under the command of the imme- 
 diate benefactor, and so upwards to the prince or 
 general himself. 
 
 Feudalism established a military subjection, and feudal 
 armies were mutually prepared to muster, not only in 
 defence of each other, but also in defence of every part 
 of this newly acquired property. The fundamental 
 maxim of all feudal tenure is this, that all lands were 
 originally granted out by the sovereign, and are, there- 
 fore, holden either mediately or immediately of the 
 crown. The grantor was called the proprietor or lord ; 
 being he who retained the dominion or ultimate 
 property of the feud or fee, and the grantee was called 
 the vassal, which was only another word for the tenant 
 or holder of the lands ; though on account of the 
 prejudices we have justly conceived against the doctrines 
 that were afterwards grafted in this system, we now 
 use the word vassal opprobriously, as synonymous to 
 slave or bondman. 
 
 Besides an oath of fealty, or profession of faith to the 
 lord, which was the parent of our oath of allegiance, 
 the vassal did usually homage to his lord, openly and 
 humbly kneeling, being ungirt, uncovered, and holding 
 up his hands both together between those of the lord, 
 who sat before him, and there professing that " he did 
 become his man, from that day forth of life, and limb, 
 and earthly, by honour." And then he received a kiss 
 from his lord. 
 
 The introduction of feudalism by William the Con- 
 queror into England deprived the people of the elective 
 franchise — the franchise, the right of the people, was 
 
21 
 
 taken into the hands of the kings and the nobles. The 
 people were treated by the kings and the nobles as of 
 no account. And from this period to the Reform Bill^ 
 the history of England exhibits only the strivings of a 
 great people for the recovery of their lost rights — the 
 right to send persons into Parliament of their own will, 
 and the right to tax themselves. 
 
 History records four great eras, each of which tended 
 more or less to the recovery of the lost rights, that of 
 Magna Charta, the death of Charles, the Revolution, 
 and the Reform Bill. 
 
 William introduced into England the feudal law, as 
 established in France and Normandy. In consequence 
 of this change, it became a fundamental maxim and 
 necessary principle, though in reality a mere fiction of 
 our English tenures — " that the king is the universal 
 lord and original proprietor of all the lands in his king- 
 dom, and that no man doth or can possess any part of 
 it, but what has mediately or immediately been derived 
 as a gift from him, to be held upon feudal services. 
 
 In virtue of his right as feudal King of England, 
 William divided all the lands of England, with few 
 exceptions, besides the royal demesnes, into baronies ; 
 and these, with the reservation of stated services and 
 payments, he conferred on the most considerable of his 
 adventurers. Those barons who held immediately of 
 the crown portioned out a great part of these lands to 
 other foreigners, denominated knights or vassals, and 
 who paid their lord the same services he himself owed 
 to his sovereign. The whole kingdom was divided 
 into seven hundred chief tenants, and sixty thousand 
 
22 
 
 two hundred and fifteen knights' fees. As none of the 
 English were admitted into the first rank, the few who 
 retained their landed property were glad to be received 
 into the second, under the protection of some powerful 
 Norman, to load themselves with this grievous burthen 
 for estates which they had received from their ancestors. 
 
 Such were the first fruits of a Government established 
 by a king in contempt of the people. A monarch who 
 could make so free with the property of his subjects 
 would not be very tenacious of their liberties. William 
 directed that the Norman proprietors should compose 
 the national council, and likewise officiate as magistrates 
 upon their estates, with absolute power over their 
 vassals. The Saxon constitution and the liberties of 
 the people were then annihilated, and the wittena- 
 gemote or representation of the people sunk under the 
 accumulated tyranny of the feudal system. 
 
 Among the grievances complained of in the reign of 
 William the First, none gave more dissatisfaction than the 
 oppressive severity of his forest laws. He was not 
 content with the vast tracts of forest that he found in 
 this kingdom, but he made a new one in Hampshire by 
 laying waste a country of sixty miles in extent, dispers- 
 ing the inhabitants, destroying their dwellings, and, 
 much as he affected regard for religion, not even sparing 
 the churches. One of the Norman historians speaks 
 with horror of these acts of cruelty. A hundred 
 thousand men, women, and children, perished by 
 famine in the counties that were depopulated by the 
 merciless Norman. Where large and flourishing towns 
 had existed — where had been hamlets of peaceful 
 
23 
 
 industry, nothing was seen but immense tracts of 
 uncultivated land. Even his amusements were pleas 
 for the most grievous oppression and cruelty. Whoever 
 took a buck or doe in his forests was punished with the 
 loss of sight. Henry the First punished such trespassers 
 in his forests with castration and loss of sight. It would 
 be endless to enumerate the variety of grievances the 
 people endured. 
 
 Although William increased the severity of his 
 government to acts of oppression, and almost crushed 
 the spirit of the nation beneath the power he assumed, 
 yet we find that general councils or parliaments were 
 held in his reign; but, in these we see the commence- 
 ment of a representative system different from that of 
 his Saxon predecessors. These assemblies were com- 
 posed of ambitious churchmen, intriguing nobility, and 
 dependent knights, citizens, and burgesses, who, holding 
 their tenures immediately under the king himself, or 
 some baron in his interest, were obliged to consult 
 royal pleasure more than their own welfare. National 
 prosperity was, therefore, sacrificed to the convenience 
 of the monarch. Thus was the Saxon wittena- gemote, 
 which was once the source and protection of national 
 prosperity, changed to councils that were only assem- 
 bled for the purpose of giving sanction to Norman 
 oppression. The cities and boroughs were totally 
 omitted. 
 
 Every act of William's was, even according to his 
 own system of government, an usurpation of power, 
 and a subversion of national liberty. All his petty grants 
 of privilege were but partial and voluntary recognitions 
 
24 
 
 of that nation's freedom he had endeavoured to destroy. 
 The wise and equally-tempered government of the 
 Saxons secured its principle from violence and conten- 
 tion ; but all laws that were, and have since been 
 bounded on the arbitrary government of the Norman 
 tyrant, are encroachments on the rights and privileges 
 of the people, for which thej have a just appeal to 
 their constitution for redress. 
 
 The Norman kings having made perpetual encroach- 
 ments on the barons, whom they had raised to power and 
 possession on the wreck of English property, were 
 obliged at last to agree to a limitation of their tyranny ; 
 the confirmation of the liberties of the people by Henry 
 the First, Stephen, and Henry the Second, being 
 violated by each respective sovereign, the barons had 
 the best pretence for restraining the despotism of their 
 reigns. By his weakness and wickedness, his tyranny 
 and cruelty, John had filled the country with wretch- 
 edness, and with contempt and detestation of himself. 
 All parties were eager to put a stop to his ruinous 
 career, and the only means were to compel him to 
 acknowledge the rights which had been recognised in 
 the successive charters of Canute, Edward the Con- 
 fessor, Henry the First, Stephen, and Henry the Second. 
 The barons took arms — the crisis was favourable to 
 them — the great charter was obtained from King J ohn 
 at Eunemede. 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 FROM MAGNA CHARTA TO THE DECAPITATION OF 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 It is agreed by all our historians that the great charter 
 of King John was for the most part compiled from the 
 ancient customs of the realm, or the laws of King 
 Edward the Confessor; by which they usually mean 
 the old common law, which was established under our 
 Saxon princes, before the rigours of the feudal tenure 
 and other hardships were imported from the continent 
 by the kings of the Norman line. This famous charter 
 was cancelled two years after its confirmation, by 
 Henry the Third. In the furious conflicts between 
 Henry and the barons, the barons prevailed — the 
 people had no other concern in the deadly feuds 
 between the king and the barons, but being compelled 
 to shed their blood in the quarrels of those whose 
 slaves they had the misfortune to be. 
 
 The king made several attempts to regain his 
 authority, but, after the battle of Lewes, in which the 
 king's party was totally defeated, the barons were 
 obliged to call a parliament, and, to give it a greater 
 air of authority, they made him sign an order to sum- 
 mon four knights to represent each county, and four 
 for the cities of London, York, and Lincoln, being 
 counties within themselves ; Chester and Durham had 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 then parliaments of their own, and Monmouth was 
 incorporated with Wales. These representatives were 
 chosen by universal suffrage of the householders, and, 
 although the king regained his authority by the subse- 
 quent defeat of the barons, two representatives for 
 each county continued to be elected to the eighth of 
 Henry the Sixth. 
 
 The parliaments of this kingdom from this period 
 reassume their original constitutional nature, and the 
 people begin to enjoy that liberty which had been 
 wrested from them by the Norman violence. Their 
 ancient imprescriptible rights were never forgotten, and 
 they ever asserted those rights on every favourable 
 opportunity. 
 
 Under the reign of Edward the First, the free 
 exercise of the franchise was greatly hindered. He 
 has been styled by several historians, the Justinian of 
 England. Under the reign of this king, the right of 
 voting and electing was exercised by the whole com- 
 munity — that is, by all the householders in the counties. 
 This right was greatly hindered by this, that the 
 sheriffs were allowed to summon to the election only 
 those counties and boroughs known to be favourable to 
 the wishes of the king. 
 
 In the Saxon times, each borough sent one deputy ; 
 yet the number of deputies was considerable, for every 
 tow^n or village that chose to send a deputy, did so. 
 This corrupt influence of the crown at length gave 
 umbrage to the great barons, who took care that the 
 boroughs dependent on them should send deputies. 
 The deputies introduced by the barons were, notwith- 
 
27 
 
 standijig the farce of choosing them in the boroughs, 
 always named by the lord. These commons did not 
 assume the name of representatives — in ancient writs 
 they are named deputies, 
 
 Hume tells us — " He (Edward the First) issued writs 
 to the sheriffs to send to parliament two deputies from 
 each borough within their county, provided with suffi- 
 cient powers to consent in their name to what he and his 
 council should require of them. As what concerns 
 all should be approved of hy alV A noble principle, 
 which may seem to indicate a liberal mind, if it had 
 been honestly adhered to. 
 
 There are instances recorded that when new matter 
 was proposed by the king, the deputies replied, tliat 
 they could not consider the subject without returning 
 to the county to receive fresh instructions. It was 
 not until much later times, and when they had mani- 
 fested themselves worthy of no trust whatever, that 
 tJiey assumed the name and arrogated the powers of 
 representatives. Although the constituents were far 
 less enlightened than they are at this time, no evil was 
 ever found to arise from attending to their instructions. 
 
 Edward the First explained, and excellently enforced 
 Magna Charta, yet he was inclined to tax the nation 
 by his prerogative without consent of parliament, and 
 was prevented only by the power of the barons. 
 
 The parliament of the twenty-third of this reign was 
 the first which assembled in two houses ; the knights of 
 the respective shires, in the preceding reign of Henry 
 the Third, sat in the same house with the barons, and 
 continued so to do till they found the growing power 
 
28 
 
 of representatives for cities and boroughs, and the exclu- 
 sive right they maintained of granting money, establish 
 a consequence of much higher importance than what 
 was possessed by the barons. 
 
 The rights of the people were little regarded by 
 Edward the Second. Influenced by the advice of his 
 favourites, he cancelled Magna Charta. The miscon- 
 duct of the king raised the whole nation to a sense of 
 what they owed to themselves, and exerting a prin- 
 ciple which belonged to the sovereignty of the people, 
 the parliament of Westminster, in 1326, assumed their 
 constitutional right, by unanimous consent proceeded 
 to deposition, and elected his son in his stead. 
 
 Edward the Third, at the age of fourteen, was, by 
 the estates of the kingdom, elected, and declared king. 
 
 Under the reign of this king, no circumstance of any 
 importance, either to the dignity of the crown, or the 
 welfare of the subject, was suffered to pass without the 
 knowledge and assent of the commons in parliament. 
 Nor did Edward end his parliament until all petitions 
 were presented and considered. 
 
 Under the reign of Eichard the Second the people 
 were prevented the free exercise of the franchise. 
 This king, intending to call a parliament in the twenty- 
 first year of his reign, first summoned the several 
 sheriffs, and gave them a charge to suffer none to be 
 elected and returned members to the parliament who 
 would not promise to agree to the king's measures. On 
 conduct of this nature. Bishop Burnet particularly 
 observes, " that nothing can so effectually ruin this 
 nation as a bad choice of parliament men ; therefore 
 
29 
 
 it is the character of a good ministry, who design 
 nothing but the welfare and happiness of the nation, to 
 leave all men to a due freedom in all their elections. 
 So it is the constant distinction of a bad ministry, that 
 have wicked designs, to try all methods of practising 
 corruption possible to carry such an election, that the 
 nation being ill represented by a bad choice, it may be 
 easy to impose anything on a body of vicious, ignorant, 
 and ill-principled men, who may find their own mer- 
 cenary account in selling and betraying their country." 
 
 The liberties of England can never be in danger 
 from a free parliament made by the choice of the people, 
 without the interposition of the king or his ministers. 
 
 At this period the scale of the people was not 
 weighty enough to form a proper counterpoise to the 
 royal or aristocratical power. This king, by his arbi- 
 trary measures forfeited his right to rule. He was 
 solemnly deposed. 
 
 In the reign of Henry the Fourth the franchise was 
 as little respected as under that of his predecessor. 
 This king used many unconstitutional methods to have 
 such members chosen to sit in parliament as were 
 devoted to his will. The people complained, and much 
 good ensued, in wholesome laws then made, which 
 direct and regulate the form of county elections. By 
 representatives being chosen through the influence of a 
 corrupt ministry, liberty receives an incurable wound, 
 and the constitutional rights of the people are perverted 
 and destroyed ; while electors are found who sell their 
 votes to representatives, these representatives again sell 
 the liberties of the people to reimburse themselves. 
 
 D 2 
 
so 
 
 In the reign of Henry the Fifth, royal prerogative 
 and parliamentary privileges were inviolably preserved. 
 Under this reign the Lords and Commons enjoyed their 
 united privileges vrithout any interruption. In those 
 days extraordinary care was taken to prevent undue 
 elections, and divers laws w^ere made favourable to the 
 right exercise of the elective franchise. 
 
 Henry the Sixth, at the age of nine, succeeded his 
 father on the 31st of August, 1422, and held the Par- 
 liament on the 9th of November following, where it 
 w^as declared as usual, and continued by statute, that 
 all estates should enjoy their liberties, without the word 
 " concedimus," or " we grant,'' being inserted in the 
 confirmation. 
 
 The statute of the seventh of Henry the Sixth 
 regulates the form of the county elections; it ordered 
 that in the full county they shall proceed to the election 
 freely and indifferently^ notwithstanding any request or 
 commandment to the contrary. 
 
 All the householders were electors from the earliest 
 times. 
 
 The act of the eighth of Henry the Sixth limits the 
 number of electors. It enacts that " the knights shall 
 be chosen in every county, by people dwelling and 
 resident in the same county, whereof every one of them 
 shall have land or tenement to the value of forty shillings 
 by the year, at the least, over and above all charges 
 which is explained by a subsequent act of the tenth of 
 the same king, to mean freeholds of that value loithin 
 the county for which the election is to be made. 
 
 The statute of the eighth of Henry the Sixth, on 
 
31 
 
 which all the subsequent acts regarding elections have 
 been founded, destroyed that indispensable right which 
 had ever belonged to the people. It disfranchised at 
 once, on false pretexts, by far the greatest part of the 
 English nation, by robbing them of their birthright, the 
 privilege of voting for members of the great national 
 council, without which they cannot properly be esteemed 
 freemen ; because, by the laws, their birthright may be 
 changed, suspended, or entirely withdrawn without 
 their consent. 
 
 Reflecting on the turbulent conduct of the nobility 
 in former reigns, Henry the Seventh thought of lessen- 
 ing the power of the Lords, and increasing that of the 
 Commons. 
 
 Under Queen Mary the free exercise of the franchise 
 was greatly hindered. The representatives were very 
 unconstitutionally elected in many places ; in some 
 by force and threats, and in others, many voters were 
 prevented by court influence from going to the places 
 of election. False returns were made, and several 
 duly elected w^ere dispossessed of their seats in the house 
 by violence. 
 
 By King Charles the First, the franchise was com- 
 pletely destroyed. Having dissolved the Parliament, 
 he never summoned another for the space of twelve 
 years. 
 
 A Parliament was again called by Charles to meet 
 in the thirteenth year of his reign, a.d. 1640. The 
 members, recollecting with how much precipitancy the 
 king had almost always dissolved foi'mer Parliaments, 
 without allowing them time to complete any measure 
 
32 
 
 that might tend either to their own honour, or to the 
 advantage of their country, were determined, if possible, 
 upon the present occasion, to prevent their being 
 exposed to the like inconvenience. They therefore 
 persuaded, or rather compelled the king, to declare 
 them perpetual; or at least that they should not be 
 dissolved without their own consent. 
 
 The power of the Commons was now become 
 extremely formidable. The sovereign power was 
 changed from a monarchy, almost absolutely despotic, 
 to a pure democracy. In the conflicts with the king, 
 the power of the Parliament became so great, that a 
 resolution was made of bringing the king to trial. 
 The Commons established a high court of justice; 
 Charles would not acknowledge the authority of this 
 court, nor of those who composed it, and having refused 
 to plead before them, they proceeded to pass sentence 
 on him, the 27th of January, 1649, and on the 30th he 
 was decapitated. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLES I. TO THE REVOLUTION 
 OF 1688. 
 
 The Commonwealth was not long able to maintain 
 its authority. 
 
 The mode by which the affair of elections was 
 conducted was favourable to liberty. The exercise of 
 the franchise was free and unhindered. Cromwell 
 deprived all the small boroughs of the right of election, 
 places the most exposed to influence and corruption. Of 
 four hundred members which then represented England, 
 two hundred and seventy were chosen by counties ; 
 the remainder were elected by London and other 
 considerable corporations. The lower populace were 
 excluded from the elections, and an estate of £200 
 value was necessary to entitle any one to vote. The 
 elections of the Parliament of September, 1654, were 
 conducted with perfect freedom, and, excepting the 
 exclusion of those, who, with their sons, had carried 
 arms against the Parliament, a more fair representation 
 of the people could not be desired or expected. Thirty 
 members were returned for Ireland ; as many from 
 Scotland. 
 
 The free exercise of the franchise which distinguished 
 the commonwealth was greatly impaired by Charles 
 the Second. Charles, addicted to pleasure, and a 
 
34 
 
 prodigal, considered the Government of the State 
 merely as the means of procuring money to satisfy his 
 prodigality. He and his Parliaments were mutually 
 jealous of each other. He had recourse to means to 
 mar their purity by influencing the elections. He 
 influenced the electipns in two ways — by the endeavour 
 to have representatives in his interest for the counties, 
 and by placing the boroughs under his sole control. 
 The Court interested itself in a high degree in the 
 choice of the national representatives. But the efforts 
 of corruption were fruitless in opposition to the pre- 
 judices which prevailed. It was at this period that the 
 abuse originated of splitting freeholds, in order to 
 multiply the votes and electors, and which since has 
 been carried to great excess. 
 
 In this reign, a project was formed to give the 
 king uncontrolled influence in all the corporations of 
 England. This gave the legal constitution the greatest 
 wound which had ever yet been inflicted. Considerable 
 sums were exacted for restoring the corporations, and 
 all oflices of power and profit were left at the disposal 
 of the Crown. In these circumstances, the franchise 
 became an instrument in the hands of the king and his 
 ministers, which he and they turned whithersoever 
 they listed. 
 
 The extent to which the free exercise of the fran- 
 chise was hindered under James, is illustrated by two 
 facts. The one, that William would not acknowledge 
 the representatives elected in the days of James as 
 freely elected ; the other, that a clause securing to the 
 people the free exercise of the franchise forms one of 
 
35 
 
 the clauses of the Bill of Rights, the recognition of 
 which was required of William by the nation. 
 
 In order to obtain a full and explicit declaration of 
 the consent of the nation ta his becoming king, 
 William employed a judicious expedient for that pur- 
 pose. All the members who had sat in the House of 
 Commons during any Parliament of Charles the Second, 
 the only Parliaments whose electors were regarded as 
 free, were invited to meet, and to them, the Mayor, 
 Aldermen, and fifty of the common council of London 
 were joined. This was considered as the most proper 
 representation of the people. 
 
 One of the clauses in the Bill of Eights protects 
 freedom of election — " That the election of members of 
 Parliament ought to be free." 
 
 The Revolution of 1689 is the third grand era in 
 the history of the constitution of England. The great 
 charter had marked out the limits within which the 
 royal authority ought to be confined. Some outworks 
 were raised in the reign of Edward the Eirst ; but it 
 was at the Revolution that the circumvallation was 
 completed. It was at this era that the true principles 
 ^of civil society were fully established by the expulsion 
 of a king who had violated his oath. The doctrine of 
 resistance, that ultimate resource of an oppressed 
 people, was confirmed beyond doubt. By the exclusion 
 of a family, hereditarily despotic, it was fully deter- 
 mined that nations are not the property of kings. The 
 principle of passive obedience, the divine and inde- 
 feasible right of kings, in a word, the whole 
 scaffolding of false and superstitious notions, by which 
 
36 
 
 the royal authority had till then been supported, fell 
 to the ground ; and, in the room of it, were substituted 
 the more solid and durable foundations of the love of 
 order, and the sense of the necessity of civil Govern- 
 ment among mankind. 
 
37 
 
 OHAPTEK VII. 
 
 STATE OF THE FRANCHISE FROM THE REVOLUTION 
 TO THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 Soon after the Eevolution, the freedom of the elective 
 franchise became limited in divers respects. First, in 
 respect of the time of exercising the privilege, and, 
 second, in respect of the object of choice. The annual 
 exercise of the franchise was the primary state; the 
 exercise of the franchise was first limited by triennial, 
 and again by septennial Parliaments. The annual 
 exercise of the franchise cherished the dependence 
 of the representatives on the electors, and kept alive 
 in the electors the spirit of liberty. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Anne, the Parliament made a 
 law, for a landed qualification of the members of the 
 House of Commons, by which it was enacted that every 
 member for a county should be possessed of an estate 
 in land of £600 a-year, and every member for a 
 borough should have an estate in land of £300 a-year. 
 
 Our ancient Parliaments were composed of the wise 
 men of England; but, since the enacting these two 
 laws, they have been changed into the rich men of 
 England, which changes have made vast difference in 
 the spirit of laws that have proceeded from thence. 
 
 Thus the House of Commons, from being deputies 
 in the State, formed upon the common rights of man- 
 
 E 
 
38 
 
 kind, were now become principals, and controlled the 
 power from whence they derived their authority, which 
 was acting upon the very same principle by which the 
 ancient Eomans lost their liberty, when the consuls 
 who were in their constitution annually elected, con- 
 tinued themselves however by their own authority, 
 and consequently made the people slaves. 
 
 The House of Commons was entrusted to a set of ' 
 sturdy janitors, named counties and boroughs. But the 
 counties were in reality the sworn slaves of the aris- 
 tocracy, and the boroughs were grown old and de- 
 crepit, and superannuated. Like most old men, they 
 had become dreadfully avaricious, and, bribed by the 
 aristocracy, they feigned deafness ; and John, on his 
 return, found himself shut out of doors. 
 
 It was found that, though the nominal franchise lay 
 in the people, the real one had become vested in . 
 counties, and old decaying and decayed boroughs, the 
 property of the aristocracy. 
 
 EXCERPTS FROM OLDFIELD's PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, 
 WRITTEN BEFORE THE PASSING OF THE REFORM 
 BILL. 
 
 Cambridgeshire. — Political Character, 
 
 The aristocratic interest prevailing in this county 
 is that of the Duke of Eutland and Earl of Hard wick 
 conjointly. Their relations or friends have succeeded 
 in every election so long, that it intimidates every 
 person who might be otherwise disposed to offer himself 
 as candidate against this formidable influence. It must 
 
39 
 
 be, however, observed that the Duke of Bedford, having 
 great property in this county, has considerable inte- 
 rest. Should a contest, however, arise, from this cir- 
 cumstance, instead of restoring the independence of 
 the freeholders, it would only be a struggle for the pre- 
 eminence of aristocracy. Thus the freedom of choice 
 inherent in the people must be ever overwhelmed, 
 while the exercise of the elective franchise is transferred 
 from person to property. 
 
 Essex, — Political Character, 
 Since the expensive contest of the late Mr. Luther 
 for the representation of this county, the opulent 
 gentlemen among the Whigs and Tories have con- 
 tented themselves, in order to avoid the ruinous ex- 
 penses of -a county contest, with each sending one 
 member. Essex, like three-fourths of the English 
 counties, is, by this compulsory coalition, deprived, de 
 facto, of any representation ; for upon every political 
 division, the members, by dividing against each other, 
 preserve so nice a balance as to give the whole 
 weight to the nominal representatives of the immaculate 
 boroughs. But when it is considered that all the 
 counties of England send but eighty representatives, 
 and the decayed boroughs upwards of four hundred, 
 they could give no effectual support to the cause of 
 the people they represent, were their elections ever so 
 pure, or their union ever so complete. 
 
40 
 
 ENGLISH BOROUGHS. 
 
 Wallingford. 
 
 This borough is not under the influence of a patron, 
 but corruption has long obtained in it a systematic 
 establishment. The price of a vote is forty guineas ; 
 and the character, or the political principles of a can- 
 didate are never very severely scrutinised where such a 
 custom prevails. We are sorry that our duty obliges 
 us to say that this kind of election traffic is not con- 
 fined to this place, but notoriously extends to the 
 major part of the boroughs throughout Great Britain, 
 and has been acknowledged by a Cabinet Minister in 
 the House of Commons to* be as glaring as the sun at 
 noon-day ! — a practice which, the Speaker of the House 
 of Commons observed, would have appalled our an- 
 cestors with horror. 
 
 Grampound, 
 
 This borough is part of Manor Tybestre, belonging 
 to the Duchy of Cornwall, of w^hich the corporation 
 holds its charter, on paying a fee farm-rent of £12 lis. 
 4d. a-year. It is, in the true sense of the word, a 
 Cornish borough, where the electors, who are forty -two 
 in number, dispose of their suffrages as they are directed 
 by their patron, without having the least knowledge of 
 the representative they send to Parliament, his character, 
 or qualification. Nor is his name ever communicated to 
 those Cornish tenants till the curtain is drawn up for the 
 attorney to perform the farce of election. 
 
41 
 
 The freemen of this borough have been known to 
 boast of receiving three hundred guineas a man for 
 their votes at an election. 
 
 COUNTIES AND BOROUGHS OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 Before the Keform Bill the counties and boroughs 
 of Scotland sent forty-five members to the Imperial 
 Parliament. 
 
 The representation of this kingdom, though contain- 
 ing two millions of inhabitants, was confined to the 
 tenants of the Crown in the several counties, who had an 
 exact resemblance to the burgage tenures of England. 
 In the city of Edinburgh, three individuals elected 
 the members, and sixty-five delegates from the same 
 number of self-elected corporations of the royal burghs 
 of Scotland. A similar servile state and character 
 distinguished the legislature of Ireland." 
 
 It is not to be supposed that this course of crime 
 has been run without remonstrance, that no voice has 
 been raised in defence of the constitution. For a 
 hundred years, from the first motion of Mr. Bromley, 
 of Norwich, and Sir John Aubyn, for reform, the 
 demand for reform was continued at successive periods 
 by such men as Carew, Giynne, Sawbridge, Sheridan, 
 Lambkin, Grey, Fitzgerald, Millbank, Eussel, Tierney, 
 Whitbread, Erskine, CartwTight, Smith, of Norwich, 
 Lord Durham, the Marquis of Bedford, Burdett, 
 Brougham, Denman, Althorp, but in vain. During 
 the headlong period of war and domestic despotism, 
 the Scotch reformers, Muir, Margarott, Skirving, and 
 
 E 2 
 
42 
 
 Palmer were prosecuted and transported ; Mr. Winter- 
 botham, an American minister, was imprisoned two 
 years for preaching liberal sermons ; Horne Tooke, 
 Hardy, and Tbelwall were committed to Tower, but 
 acquitted on their trial ; Sir Francis Burdett shared a 
 similar fate. In the course of the Parliamentary 
 struggle for the restoration of the representation, it 
 was shown by Lord Grrey, in the address of the Society 
 of the " Friends of the People," that less than 15,000 
 electors returned the whole house, instead of the adult 
 males of 30,000,000 of the people ; that the franchise 
 was totally out of joint, Cornwall and Wiltshire re- 
 turning more boroughs than Yorkshire, Lancashire, and 
 Somersetshire united ; and that a single county re- 
 turned, within one, as many members as the w^hole of 
 Scotland ; that seventy members wxre returned where 
 there were no voters at all, except hogs or owls could 
 be counted such ; ninety others were returned by 
 forty-six places, in none of which the voters exceeded 
 fifty, and so on. 
 
 Mr. Byng, in 1788, had shown that the Tower 
 Hamlets paid £34,000 land tax, and yet were unrepre- 
 sented, that the county of Cornwall paid £20,000 less, 
 and yet was represented by forty-two members. Corn- 
 w^all, in fact, was the stronghold of rotten boroughs. 
 Nay, P. M. himself declared "that this was no re- 
 presentation, or anything like it, but a party of men 
 employed by ministers and foreigners, under the mask 
 and character of members of that house." He pro- 
 tested that it was a cabal more to be dreaded than 
 any other." 
 
43 
 
 But this cabal, more dangerous than any other, 
 ruled, with P. M. himself at its head, for many years, 
 and amply justified P. M. s declaration. Never did a 
 cabal abuse to such an awful extent a great nation ; 
 never did any other heap on its native land such a 
 mountain of debts, crimes, difficulties, and miseries, in 
 full store, for coming years. That w^ar ended, and the 
 whole of Europe reduced again by our arms and money 
 to arbitrary subjection, there remained but one thing 
 for our aristocratical Government to attempt, and that 
 was to put out the last spark of freedom amongst us at 
 home. They made that attempt and failed. In 1818 
 the whole people of England were groaning under the 
 intolerable results to do that for France, for which 
 France did not thank them. Distress everywhere 
 prevailed ; riots were frequent from the high price of 
 food, and the stopping of the works in the manufactur- 
 ing districts ; the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended ; 
 Mr. Hunt was addressing vast crowds in Spitalfields 
 and other places, to petition for reform ; and a bill was 
 soon passed to put down these meetings. In 1819 
 distress and tyranny seemed to have reached their acme. 
 There was to be no cry of distress — that last consolation 
 of the wretched. The power to complain was denied 
 at the point of the bayonet ; and had the spirit of 
 Englishmen then been one iota less than English, the 
 triumph of the great scheme of the aristocracy had 
 been complete ; the ruin of England had been consum- 
 mated for ever, and all its long-earned glories laid in 
 their grave. In vain would Alfred and WicMiffe, Milton 
 and Marvel, Shakespeare and Bacon, Cromwell and 
 
44 
 
 Pym, Hampden and Fairsax, Newton and Locke, and 
 all our radiant firmament of great souls and great names 
 have lived and acted for us. They would have become 
 solitary stars in other hemispheres, lighting up other 
 nations when that for which they fought and toiled was 
 wrapped in actual darkness ; and the Stuarts and 
 Straffords, Lauds and the like, would have done their 
 work, and would have plunged us down into the herd 
 of myriad slaves that vegetate on the face of the 
 violated earth — not men, but the weeds which the 
 armed heel of tyranny stamps into basest mire. 
 
 C — , S — , and L — , did their worst. The Govern- 
 ment was become thoroughly odious by its restrictions 
 on the press, and on all constitutional freedom. By its 
 employment of Oliver and other spies to excite the 
 sufferers to riot, so that they might be cut down by the 
 soldiery, and furnish plausible reasons for fresh enact- 
 ments of a tyrannous nature; by the Manchester 
 massacre, and the prosecution of the Radicals all over 
 the kingdom, amongst whom were Hone, Hunt, 
 Cobbet, Sir Charles Woolsey, and many others, most 
 of whom were immured in dififerent prisons, they 
 brought the popular indignation to a crisis ; the popular 
 wrath arose, the aristocratic despotism affrighted shrank 
 back, and under the guidance of the Whigs came forth 
 the Reform Bill. 
 
45 
 
 OHAPTEE VIIT. 
 
 STATE OF THE FRANCHISE FROM THE REFORM BILL 
 TO THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1852. 
 
 The Reform Bill amended the defects incident to the 
 former State, with the exception of Intimidation and 
 Bribery. These have increased in virulence since the 
 Eeform Bill. 
 
 The Eeform Bill cut off the rotten boroughs — it 
 enlarged the franchise — also, the number of represen- 
 tatives, but intimidation and bribery remain with all 
 their sore evils. 
 
 excerpts from an abridgment of the EVIDENCE 
 GIVEN BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE APPOINTED 
 IN 1835, TO CONSIDER THE MOST EFFECTUAL MEANS 
 OF PREVENTING BRIBERY, CORRUPTION, AND INTIMI- 
 DATION, IN THE ELECTION OF MEMBERS TO SERVE 
 IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 Mr, James Terrel, 
 
 2694. You reside in Exeter ? I do. 
 
 2695. Have you been conversant with the Devon- 
 shire and Exeter elections ? I have been engaged in 
 the w^hole of the elections for the county of Devon 
 since 1816, and in 1830, and since have had the prin- 
 cipal management. 
 
46 
 
 2696. Have you, since the last election, compiled 
 any papers illustrative of the course which the votes 
 took under the different influences ? I have prepared 
 an analysis of them; there are seven districts in the 
 south of Devon ; I have extracted the votes from the 
 poll-books and the check-books, and compared them 
 with the registry, and have divided them into free- 
 holders and leaseholders, and have then divided them 
 as to those who voted for Lord John Russell and those 
 who voted for Mr. Parker : — 
 
 DISTRICTS. 
 
 Freeholders. 
 
 Leaseholders. 
 
 Russell. 
 
 Parker. 
 
 Russell. 
 
 Parker. 
 
 
 217 
 
 411 
 
 189 
 
 510 
 
 Oakhampton, ^ . — 
 
 112 
 
 90 
 
 98 
 
 71 
 
 
 251 
 
 299 
 
 168 
 
 279 
 
 
 517 
 
 528 ^ 
 
 312 
 
 404 
 
 
 133 
 
 31 
 
 180 
 
 66 
 
 
 340 
 
 246 
 
 102 
 
 208 
 
 Kingsbridge, ^ 
 
 324 
 
 292 
 
 185 
 
 302 
 
 
 1894 
 
 1897 
 
 1234 
 
 1840 
 
 1234 
 
 Mr. Parker's majority of Leaseholders, , 603 
 
 2698. What do you mean by the word " Lease- 
 holders ? " I mean those who hold leases for ninety- 
 nine years, or £50 renters. In Devonshire, it is the 
 case with a great many of the landlords, that their 
 tenancies go on without any fresh lease being given — 
 there is a perfect understanding on which they proceed. 
 
 2699. Have you, in preparing this, made any note 
 of the different properties ? I have, in pencil. 
 
 2700. Have you the means of showing, from your 
 
47 
 
 knowledge of the county, any of those districts in 
 which a considerable number of persons voted on rights 
 other than freehold, in whose hands the freehold is ? 
 I can do it in almost every case. 
 
 2701. Can you specify any particular parishes or 
 divisions in the last election, where the vote of the 
 tenant following that of the landlord was particularly 
 remarkable ? Yes, in a great number of cases. 
 
 2702. Have the goodness to point them out ? One 
 case I would more particularly call the attention of the 
 Committee to, arises in the Newton district ; here are 
 three parishes immediately adjoining each other, the 
 parishes of Kattery, Staverton, and Broadhempstone. 
 In the parish of Eattery, there were twenty -one votes 
 polled at this election ; only one was a freeholder, the 
 other twenty were leaseholders, or £50 renters. 
 
 2703. Do you mean ten ants-at- will ? It is a tenancy 
 from year to year. 
 
 2704. The merf may be put out at the mercy of 
 their landlords ? Yes, or they may have leases for seven 
 years ; I cannot say how that is. 
 
 2705. Are any of the persons those who hold leases 
 for lives ? I believe not in Eattery ; they are ordinary 
 renting tenants, I conceive. 
 
 2706. Voting under the £50 clause ? I apprehend 
 so ; in the election of 1832 those voters all voted for 
 Mr. Bulteel, the reform candidate. 
 
 2707. Are they all under the same landlord ? Yes, 
 the whole. 
 
 2708. How did the landlord vote at that election ? 
 He voted with Mr. Bulteel. In the last election, they 
 
48 
 
 all, with the exception of one, voted for Mr. Pcarker, 
 the conservative candidate. 
 
 2709. How did the landlord vote? The landlord 
 voted for Mr. Parker. 
 
 2710. Was there any peculiarity about the exception 
 of one ? No, I am not aware of any peculiarity. 
 
 2711. To whom does that parish belong ? To Sir 
 Walter Carew. The next parish to which I would 
 call the attention of the Committee is the parish of 
 Staverton, which is adjoining the parish of Eattery ; 
 forty-one votes were polled — three freeholders and 
 twenty-four leaseholders for Lord John Eussell, and 
 five freeholders and nine leaseholders for Mr. Parker. 
 The land in that parish belongs to the Dean and 
 Chapter of Exeter, who have the great tithes ; their 
 leases are granted for twenty-one years, which leases 
 are renewed every seven years ; persons holding such 
 leases consider their tenure very good, because Deans 
 and Chapters never refuse to renew at the end of 
 seven years, then they grant a fresh lease for twenty- 
 one. 
 
 2712. Do they consider themselves dependent upon 
 the Dean and Chapter ? Very little, with the exception 
 of the influence which the tithes would have upon the 
 parish, for they always find the Dean and Chapters 
 very ready to renew. 
 
 2713. Are those tenants the same class of persons 
 as the tenants in the other parish ? I would observe 
 that in the three parishes I have adverted to, they are 
 the same class of yeomen. In Staverton, the number 
 that voted for Mr. Parker were, five freeholders and 
 
49 
 
 nine leaseholders, and for Lord John Russell, there 
 freeholders and twenty-four leaseholders ; the nine and 
 five include the Chapter Clerk of Exeter and their 
 Surveyor. 
 
 2714. You stated that the two individuals of those 
 who voted for Mr. Parker held offices, from which you 
 would draw the inference that those were influenced 
 by their offices ; do you know of any who voted for 
 Lord John Russell were thus influenced ? I believe 
 not ; I would state that they are as intelligent and re- 
 spectable a set of yeomen as any in the county of 
 Devon. In the parish of Broadhempstone, the voters 
 are nearly al] freeholders ; there are twenty-nine free- 
 holders in that parish who voted for Lord John Russell, 
 and four leaseholders ; five freeholders voted for Mr, 
 Parker, and one leaseholder ; of those six who voted 
 for Mr. Parker, three reside out of the parish at a 
 distance, and of the other three, one was a clergyman. 
 
 2715. How many of Lord John's freeholders reside 
 out of the parish ? Only three. 
 
 2716. Are the bulk of those twenty-nine freeholders 
 of the same class of voters as the persons in Staverton 
 and Rattery ? I should say, taking the three parishes 
 together they are, and they are a very intelligent set of 
 men. 
 
 2717. Who is the owner of the parish of Broad- 
 hempstone, principally ? There is no great owner of 
 that parish, they are all freeholders. 
 
 2718. Do you consider that the bulk of the free- 
 holders in Staverton and Broadhempstone are indepen- 
 dent of any influence ? In Broadhempstone, most 
 
 F 
 
50 
 
 decidedly ; in Staverton, a very slight influence ; the 
 influence of the landlord being that of the Dean and 
 Chapter, for the reason I have before stated, I think is 
 not a very powerful one in respect of the leases ; the 
 influence of the tithes being in their hands, perhaps 
 might have some weight. 
 
 2719. Are the tithes let on lease? They are leased 
 by the Dean and Chapters for twenty-one years to a 
 middle-man who holds them ; I rather believe it is their 
 own surveyor. 
 
 2720. Were you acquainted before the election with 
 the political sentiments of the voters in those three 
 parishes ? I have been in the habit of associating with 
 the yeomen of that neighbourhood a good deal within 
 the last few years. 
 
 2721. Are you of opinion that the same opinions in 
 politics existed amongst those persons as among the 
 others of which you have already spoken ? I am. 
 
 2722. Does that circumstance of your knowledge of 
 their political opinions give rise to the supposition in 
 your mind that the change which took place in the 
 Eattery votes took place in consequence of the change 
 of opinion of the landlord ? It does. 
 
 2723. Had you any conversation with any of them 
 on the subject? I do not know particularly ; I have 
 had a good deal of conversation with the yeomen in 
 that neighbourhood by frequently meeting them. 
 
 2724. Is there any other parish or district to which 
 you wish to refer as illustrative of the general principle 
 you have stated? In the district immediately round 
 Exeter, those voters who poll at Exeter, there were 189 
 
51 
 
 only of the leaseholders and 50 renters who voted for 
 Lord John Eussell, while 510 voted for Mr. Parker; 
 it will be seen from the list of the Exeter district, that 
 in many parishes Lord John Eussell had not a single 
 voter of the leaseholders. I might instance some of 
 the more prominent cases of Colaton Raleigh — there 
 were 22 leaseholders voted for Mr. Parker, not one for 
 Lord John ; in the parish of Dunsford, 24 leaseholders 
 for Mr. Parker, and one for Lord John. 
 
 2725. To whom does that parish belong ? To 
 
 principally. 
 
 2726. Are you sufficiently acquainted with those 
 parishes to say, by reference to your poll-book, how the 
 same class of persons voted when they voted in respect 
 of their freehold qualifications ? There are but nine 
 freeholders in the parish of Dunsford, they also voted 
 for Mr. Parker. 
 
 2727. Are they the same description of persons ? 
 Yes, they are small freeholders, who also probably rent 
 lands. 
 
 2728. Have you any freeholders in Colaton Ealeigh ? 
 There are seven. 
 
 2729. How did they vote ? For Mr. Parker. 
 
 2730. Are you sufficiently acquainted with those 
 places to say whether the freeholders of those parishes 
 are the same class, or of a class above or below the 
 renters who voted ? I should say about the same ; in 
 the parish of Exminster there were 24 leaseholders for 
 Mr. Parker, and one for Lord John Eussell; freeholders, 
 13 for Mr. Parker, and one for Lord John. 
 
 2731. One leaseholder and one freeholder? Yes; 
 
52 
 
 in the parish of Kenn, 13 leaseholders and 21 free- 
 holders voted for Mr. Parker, and only one freeholder 
 for Lord John, and I believe he lives out of the 
 parish. 
 
 2732. In the course of your communication with the 
 voters in the county, are you aware of any instances of 
 persons who have voted contrary to their inclinations, 
 in consequence of any superior influence exercised over 
 them ? I know many cases ; some of the tenants have 
 told me of it, and told me the circumstances, but they 
 have told it me in confidence, because they say if it was 
 known that they had repeated it, they should lose their 
 interest with their landlords, and that would be 'almost 
 as bad for them as if they had voted against their 
 landlords' interest ; I can mention one, but I am not 
 allowed to give names, which is a very prominent case. 
 A yeoman who, ever since 1816, has been a most active 
 man on our side, and has canvassed on our side of the 
 question, and taken a very active interest, attended the 
 nomination ; on his return he received a letter from his 
 landlord, requesting that he should not oppose Mr. 
 Parker ; I have seen him since, and he told me he 
 thought he might then have been allowed to be quiet, 
 but on the Sunday his landlord called on him, and 
 compelled him, though, as he told me, with tears in his 
 eyes, to go to the poll and vote for Mr. Parker. 
 
 2733. What do you mean by compelled him ? By 
 the influence which was used, 
 
 2734. What do you mean by influence ? I do not mean 
 by threats, but he had no lease, and his capital being 
 embarked in his farm, and he having a family, he was 
 
53 
 
 afraid that if he offended his landlord he should not get 
 his lease promised him, that it would be ruinous to 
 him. 
 
 2735. He did not say that his landlord threatened 
 that it would be the worse for him if he did not vote 
 for Mr. Parker ? He did not state to me the words 
 used, but that the influence was so used as to afford 
 that presumption. 
 
 2736. You think that the tears in his eyes afforded 
 an indication of the state of his mind ? Yes. 
 
 2737. He had the prospect of obtaining a great 
 benefit from the landlord? I have no idea that the 
 landlord would have turned him out, but he felt himself 
 under that obligation to the landlord, and the fear of 
 offending him, that induced him to vote against his 
 conscience. 
 
 2738. Do you think the influence on his mind was 
 fear of loss or wish for advantage ? Not hope of advan- 
 tage, for as to the lease, I understand the landlord is 
 too respectable a man to have inflicted any injury upon 
 him, even if he had voted for Lord John Russell — but 
 still he felt the importance of keeping the good- will of 
 the landlord. 
 
 2739. You say you had been previously well 
 acquainted with this man, and knew his political senti- 
 ments ? For the last nineteen years. 
 
 2740. Having known him well, do you attribute the 
 change in his vote to any change in his political senti- 
 ments ? Certainly not ; he has been with me since the 
 election to explain it, he said he was anxious that his 
 political reputation should stand well. 
 
 f2 
 
54 
 
 2741. Have you any influence over him in any way 
 in the way of business ? Not the least. 
 
 2742. Or any of your clients ? Not the least ; he 
 is a man very respectable in his station, a man of strong 
 mind and good property. 
 
 2743. Can you mention any other? Yes, in the 
 next case I might, without any breach of confidence, 
 mention the names, for the voter came to our com- 
 mittee-room, and stated the circumstance in public. 
 There were two members of Parliament, I think, Mr. 
 
 Divett and Mr. Charles Buller, present. Mr. , 
 
 who rents a very large farm under ; he and his 
 
 brother have always been very active partisans on our 
 side in politics, and up to the Saturday previous to the 
 election, which was on the Monday, he was very actively 
 canvassing for Lord John Kussell, and was at our 
 committee-room, I believe, on the Friday, the market- 
 day. On the Sunday, the day before the election, 
 
 w^ent to him, and requested him to vote for Mr. 
 
 Parker ; he told us he had refused to do so, but that 
 intimidation was used to the extent upon him, that he 
 was prevented from voting at all, and he did not vote. 
 
 2744. Did he state the nature of the intimidation ? 
 
 He said that had influenced him ; I do not know 
 
 that he had threatened , but that he had used that 
 
 sort of influence upon hhn, which it was impossible for 
 him to resist. 
 
 2745. There is a difference between influence and 
 intimidation ? It certainly went beyond due influence 
 
 in the case of a man of Mr. ^s station as a yeoman, 
 
 and his well-known feelings as a politician. 
 
 / 
 
55 
 
 2746. Did he state what had stated to him ? 
 
 I cannot state the words Mr. used, but he gave 
 
 us to understand that influence and intimidation had 
 been used, which prevented his voting. 
 
 2747. He reported that that which had been said 
 to him had alarmed him as to the consequences which 
 might ensue to himself if he gave a vote against Mr. 
 Parker ? Certainly. 
 
 2748. Can you state distinctly that he was alarmed 
 as to what would occur to him if he voted against Mr. 
 Parker ? I cannot state the words, but I think that 
 the influence which was used towards him prevented 
 him coming to the poll ; he very strongly resisted the 
 application to vote for Mr. Parker. • 
 
 2749. Is he still in the occupation of his land ? Yes, 
 
 2750. In other cases, of which you say many have 
 come before you in this way, where persons have stated 
 that intimidation has been used, has the conversation 
 which you have had with those persons upon whom 
 it has been so used, led you to believe that threats have 
 been actually used, or that a sort of hurt or intimidation 
 has been given which was quite enough to impress upon 
 the mind of the person what the consequences would 
 be ? In some cases there have been direct threats, but 
 more generally influence of a strong nature, perhaps 
 not justifying the term intimidation. 
 
 2751. Do you think any law which prohibited 
 persons from making a direct threat, or punished any 
 person making a direct threat, w^ould have any influence 
 in preventing that sort of indirect intimidation or hint ? 
 No, I do not think the influence used is such as would 
 
56 
 
 enable a prosecutor to make out a case. The landlords 
 would invite all their tenantry to breakfast on the day 
 of election, and the thing would be understood. 
 
 2752. Is the hint ever conveyed in an intimation 
 that the rent-day will occur soon after, or that there 
 are certain covenants which have not been performed ? 
 No, I rather think not ; but the general understanding 
 is sufficiently operative upon their minds. 
 
 2753. Do you think that when the agent or steward 
 of the landowner calls upon a tenant and asks him for 
 his vote, and presses him more or less for it, it is under- 
 stood by the tenant that bad consequences will ensue 
 if he does not give his vote in a particular way ? I 
 rather think in those parishes where the influence of 
 the landlord is very strong, though the terms may not 
 be very distinct, the voters generally understand that 
 they must go with the landlord ; I will instance the 
 parish of Broadclist, belonging to Sir Thomas Acland ; 
 one freeholder only and five leaseholders voted for 
 Lord John, and nineteen freeholders (most of whom, I 
 believe, are leaseholders also), and thirty-three lease- 
 holders voted for Mr. Parker, making fifty-two against 
 six ; now, in 1832, all those men voted for Mr. Bulteel, 
 the Keform candidate ; in 1835, they voted for Mr. 
 Parker, the Conservative candidate. 
 
 2754. Had they changed their landlord in the mean- 
 time ? No, Sir Thomas Acland in one instance 
 supported Mr. Bulteel, and in 1835, he supported Mr. 
 Parker. 
 
 2755. Did Sir Thomas Acland vote himself in 
 1832 ? I think he did ; those votes were not canvassed 
 
57 
 
 I apprehend strongly, but they understood that Sir 
 Thomas Acland supported a particular candidate, and 
 they went with him ; Sir Thomas Acland has a great 
 moral influence over his tenantry, being a very excellent 
 man. 
 
 2756. Independent of that moral influence which 
 Sir Thomas Acland ever has been known to possess 
 over all persons connected with him, supposing that 
 parish to be in the hands of a landlord who did not 
 even reside in the country, and of whose merits they 
 knew nothing, do you apprehend the same course would 
 be pursued ? No ; I think if they were let alone, and 
 there was no influence of the landlord over them, a 
 great part of them, with, the yeomanry generally of the 
 County of Devon, would vote as strongly almost as they 
 did in Broadhempstone. 
 
 2757. Do you think that if there was the vote by 
 ballot, the influence of so good a man as Sir Thomas 
 Acland would so w^eigh with them that they would 
 comply with his wishes, though he had no means of 
 enforcing that compliance ? I think that Sir Thomas 
 Acland's legitimate influence over them in his own 
 neighbourhood is very considerable, but I. think that a 
 large proportion of those persons would have voted for 
 Lord John Russell if they could have done it privately. 
 
 2758. That the moral influence of Sir Thos. Acland 
 would have been destroyed ? I have not said that ; I 
 think a very considerable portion of them, if they could 
 have voted secretly, would have voted for Lord John. 
 
 2759. You think that the vote by ballot w^ould 
 impair the eflect of the moral influence ? No, 
 
58 
 
 2760. Do you consider that a moral influence which 
 induces a man to vote against his conscience ? No ; 
 what I mean by moral influence is, that if Sir Thomas 
 Acland called his tenants together and reasoned with 
 them on politics, his persuasion would induce many 
 to vote with him, even if the ballot existed ; but I 
 think that a great many would vote, if they could 
 privately, against his present political opinions. 
 
 2761. They would retain their own opinions in 
 spite of the opinion of Sir Thomas Acland ? I think 
 they would ; a very large number of voters in the 
 county of Devon w^ho are on the registry did not come 
 to the poll, because if they had, they would have 
 off'ended their landlords in not voting as they wished 
 them, and a very large number are not on the registry, 
 fearing that by voting they would affect their interests. 
 
 2762. The intimidation in the county of Devon, then, 
 does not go to the extent of forcing the voters to vote, 
 but when their opinions are adverse to those of their 
 landlords they remain neuter ? Not exactly so ; I think 
 the influence in Devonshire varies in different districts. 
 
 2763. You say a large portion of the voters in the 
 county did not vote, in consequence of wishing to vote 
 differently from the line their landlords wished them 
 to adopt, and that in consequence of that they were 
 not forced to vote, but remained neutral? In many 
 instances ; but in a very great number of cases they 
 were led to poll against their own wishes ; a great 
 many had promised to vote for Lord John Eussell, and 
 were afterwards kept from the poll ; for instance, in the 
 parish of Alphington there are twelve who did not poll. 
 
59 
 
 2764. Are they leaseholders or freeholders? Lease- 
 holders for lives, mostly holding houses with more than 
 £10 a-year renewable on lives ; I believe a very large 
 portion of those twelve had promised Lord John, but 
 
 on the Sunday, the day previous to the election, 
 
 canvassed the parish, and they were kept from the poll. 
 
 2765. What is the whole number of the constituency 
 and the number polled ? I think there were 6,865 
 polled ; there are more than 8,000 on the registry. 
 
 2766. Without going into the detail, do you know 
 
 of many cases similar to that of Mr. where a 
 
 similar influence has been used over the tenants? I 
 know many other cases, but I feel restrained from 
 giving the particulars of them, from the injury that it 
 would cause to the parties. 
 
 2767. Have you reason, from a previous knowledge 
 of the parties and their assurances, to believe that their 
 votes being given on the other side, or withheld from 
 your side, was not from the moral influence of the 
 landlord, or from any party-spirit voting with the 
 landlord, or from any change of political sentiments, 
 but from a fear of the consequences ? I believe that 
 such influence, amounting in many cases to intimidation, 
 operated very powerfully on a large portion of the 
 electors of Devon, of the leaseholders particularly ; a 
 very large number of freeholders are also leaseholders 
 with a quantity of land which they rent in addition to 
 their freehold. 
 
 2768. Upon those who are registered as freeholders 
 there is still frequently the same species of influence in 
 respect of that fact ? Yes. 
 
60 
 
 2769. So that if a man votes for one farm, the 
 influence exerted over him may be in respect of another 
 farm ? A man may be a 40s. freeholder perhaps, and 
 yet he rents a farm of £100 or £200 a-year. 
 
 2770. Have you many freeholders in Devonshire who 
 hold under two landlords ? Yes, but not very frequently. 
 
 2771. Do you know of any who hold under land- 
 lords of opposite politics ? I have heard of some cases 
 of that sort, 
 
 2772. Do you know what course persons so situate 
 pursued ? "Whichever interest predominated, I suppose, 
 would prevail ; it might very often happen that the 
 influence has been used on one side and not on the 
 other — I have known many instances where gentlemen 
 have not chosen to use that influence. 
 
 2773. Do you know of any case of persons so situate 
 who have refrained from voting at all ? Yes, there are 
 many such cases no doubt ; that would be the position 
 in which the voter w^ould endeavour to put himself if 
 he could. 
 
 2774. So that in the case of landlords having opposite 
 wills, the tenant is reduced to that alternative ? Yes, 
 certainly. 
 
 2775. Have you known any other class of persons 
 who exercise influence in a pecuniary way over voters 
 besides the landlords ? Yes ; I have one case of a gen- 
 tleman, a magistrate for the county of Devon, who had 
 leased some houses to a man some years ago, who laid 
 out a good deal of money upon them ; he owes this 
 gentlemen £500 on mortgage ; the magistrate called 
 upon him previous to the election and asked him for 
 
61 
 
 his vote for Mr. Parker; this voter had always been 
 very marked in his politics for a great many years, in 
 fact, I believe always as a reformer, and he refused to 
 vote for Mr. Parker ; he was asked to be neutral, which 
 he also refused ; on the day of the election he was 
 going to the Castle to vote, and in the Castle-yard this 
 gentleman, the mortgagee, in the presence of a large 
 concourse of people, called out and asked him how he 
 was going to vote ; he said he w^as going to vote for 
 Lord John Russell ; he then said, " then I insist upon 
 your paying me that £500 you owe me upon mortgage;" 
 the voter went up and voted for Lord John, and the 
 next day this gentleman went to the tenants (he has 
 eight or ten tenants of the property), and inquired what 
 rents they paid ; he has demanded payment of his 
 money, and a transfer of his mortgage is now making, 
 which, I suppose, will put this voter to an expense of 
 between £10 and £20. 
 
 2776. Will he get the money on any better terms in 
 consequence of the transfer ? No, certainly not. 
 
 2777. Do you give this as an instance of the species 
 of influence which is exercised by creditors over debtors, 
 or do you merely give it as a solitary fact ? I do not 
 think that in Devonshire the influence of a creditor 
 over his debtor would operate to a very great extent, 
 except in the case of landlords, who are generally 
 very large creditors of their tenants from the state of 
 agriculture ; the tenants are not in a situation to pay 
 their rents well up, and, therefore, the influence of the 
 landlords upon them is, particularly at the present 
 time, very powerful. 
 
 a 
 
62 
 
 2778. Do you think that, as a class of professional 
 men, the attorneys who have pecuniary transactions 
 with their clients exercise any influence over them ? 
 Their influence is certainly rather powerful, but I should 
 think respectable attorneys would be very cautious in 
 exercising it to any extent ; I know one instance myself 
 where a man, who is a freeholder, whose property is 
 mortgaged very deeply to a client of mine, came to me 
 a few days before the election; I knew the man's 
 political principles were strongly marked on our side ; 
 he had in former elections voted with us ; he came to 
 me and said that influence had been used to induce 
 him to vote for Mr. Parker ; I asked him if his interest 
 was likely to be aflected if he voted for Lord John 
 Kussell ; he said it would, for that after he had voted 
 for Lord John Kussell in 1832, he suffered in his 
 business ; he is a carpenter, and keeps a public house ; 
 1 told him if his interest was likely to be affected by it, 
 he had better not vote at all, though I knew that in 
 voting for Lord John Kussell he would vote according 
 to his conscience ; he told me he would not vote at all ; 
 but on the second day of the election, I found he had 
 been brought in and voted for Mr. Parker; he left 
 word at my oflace, that influence had been used upon 
 him to that extent he could not resist ; that he had 
 confidence in me that it would not injure him in respect 
 of his mortgage, but that he should have suffered from 
 the other party if he had not voted for them. 
 
 2779. That is a case, in which the excuse he alleged, 
 of having had influence used over him, might have been 
 suggested by his apprehension of what the consequences 
 
63 
 
 might have been if he had voted for Mr. Parker without 
 such influence ? Yes. 
 
 2780. Does not that circumstance distinguish the 
 case from the others you have stated, where you had no 
 influence "Over the parties? I rather state that as a 
 proof that the attorneys do not always use the influence 
 which they possess ; this man was in a situation, with 
 a long arrear of interest, that I might have seriously 
 injured him; he lives in a parish where every voter 
 except one voted against us, and that person not a 
 resident in the parish. 
 
 2781. Do you know any case in which any individual 
 who has voted for Lord John Eussell has been injured 
 by his landlord for so doing ? The time is very short, 
 but I think not ; but I believe the principle of Lord 
 John Russell's friends has generally been not to influence 
 one to vote against his conscience. 
 
 2782. Do you know of any such case ? I do not. 
 
 2783. You say your party have abstained from using 
 that influence ? There were, I know, many instances of 
 gentlemen who have had their tenants vote against them. 
 
 2784. You know many persons who have vored 
 against the wishes of their landlord ? Where influence 
 has been used upon them, or their political bias was 
 very strong on the one side, and the landlord on the 
 other has not pressed his influence over the tenant so 
 as to compel him to vote with him. 
 
 2785. Do you think he could have done it ? Yes ; 
 the interest of a landlord over his tenant of land is such 
 as to be almost irresistible. 
 
 2786. Do you know of instances where persons have 
 
64 
 
 come to you and told you that their landlords had 
 pressed them to vote, but that they were determined to 
 vote according to their consciences, and who have so 
 
 voted ? Yes, I mentioned the name of Mr. , the 
 
 brother of Mr. , who is a tenant of , was 
 
 pressed in the same way, but he was a man of stern 
 independence and of independent property, and he voted 
 for us. 
 
 2787. He has not been injured for having so voted ? 
 There was no time gone by to speak upon that subject ; 
 I should think he would not be. 
 
 2788. Is he a man who, from his property, is to be 
 considered a very good tenant, whom in these times a 
 landlord would not like to lose ? He is a very good tenant. 
 
 2789. A rent day has not elapsed since the election ? 
 No. 
 
 2790. Your party, you say, abstained entirely from 
 using such influence ? I will not say entirely, because 
 I cannot be answerable for every one. 
 
 2791. Lord John Russell had a very large majority, 
 as well of leaseholders as of freeholders, in the district 
 of Tavistock, do you attribute that entirely to their 
 reforming principle, or the influence exercised ? Tavi- 
 stock is at some distance from me, and I do not know 
 so much of that district, but I should think the influence 
 used there on Lord John Russell's side was powerful ; 
 from what I know of the people of Tavistock and that 
 neighbourhood, I believe they are very zealous partisans 
 of the cause of reform ; certainly they are in the town 
 of Tavistock. 
 
 2792. Are you aware of the diiference of voters in 
 
65 
 
 that district between 1832 and 1835 ? I am not aware 
 of any great difference ; they voted in 1835 generally 
 as they voted in 1832. There is one property of Sir 
 Ralph Lopes, who in 1832 supported Lord John ; in 
 1835 the influence has been the other way ; I was 
 looking yesterday with a gentlemen of Devonport, which 
 is nearer to Sir Ralph Lopes' property, he told me that 
 Sir Ralph had used his influence in favour of Mr. 
 Parker, but it appeared that his tenants were rather 
 obstinate, and that they did not all follow his washes. 
 
 2793. Is Sir Ralph Lopes' property within the Tavi- 
 stock district ? Part in Tavistock and part in Plymouth. 
 There is one parish, of Buckland Monachorum, which 
 which is the property of Sir Ralph Lopes ; there 
 thirteen freeholders voted for Lord John, and only one 
 for Mr. Parker ; and six leaseholders for Lord John, 
 and only one for Mr. Parker, which astonished me very 
 much. I heard that the parish all belonged to Sir 
 Ralph Lopes ; that goes to a certain extent to illustrate 
 what I have stated, that I believe in the neighbourhood 
 of Tavistock they are all essentially reformers, that they 
 have a strong political feeling. 
 
 2794. Sir Ralph Lopes' influence succeeded in some 
 instances and failed in many others ? Yes. 
 
 2795. 6. There has been no change in that part of 
 the Tavistock district where the Bedford property exists? 
 I am not aware that there has been a change— the fact 
 is, we polled 313 against 91. 
 
 2797. Did any of Sir Ralph Lopes' tenants vote in 
 conformity with his wishes ? I believe some of them 
 did in the parish of Bickleigh, five against four. 
 
 G 2 
 
66 
 
 2798. Although in some instances Sir Ralph Lopes 
 failed in influencing his tenants, in others he succeeded ? 
 That is asking me perhaps to speak upon the individual 
 voters ; I cannot speak positively, it is a long distance 
 from me. 
 
 2799. Do you know, in the election of 1832, for 
 which candidate Sir Ralph Lopes' tenants voted ? Yes 
 generally for Lord John and Mr. Bulteel. 
 
 2800. Were they at the late election equally divided, 
 or nearly so ? No, we had the most of them ; I per- 
 ceive we had nineteen to two in Buckland Monachorum, 
 which belongs to him. 
 
 2801. Do you know whether Sir Ralph Lopes used 
 any menace or intimidation ? I do not think that he 
 did ; the public spirit, I have heard, was excited against 
 him a good deal at Plymouth. 
 
 2802. Do you think he has, since that, taken any steps 
 against them who voted against him ? I do notthink he 
 has — I think Sir Ralph Lopes too good a man to do so. 
 
 2803. You know that he was, at the time of the 
 passing of the Reform Bill, an advocate for the Bill ? 
 He was ; I perceive that in the parish of Tamerton 
 FoUiott, thirty-four against seven ; a part of that parish, 
 I understand, belongs to Sir Ralph Lopes, but the other 
 part, I understand, to Mr. Radcliffe, his brother-in-law. 
 
 2804. Did Mr. RadclifFe also change his opinion ? 
 No, I believe he was opposed to Lord John in the 
 election of 1832. 
 
 2805. Do you know the district of Oakhampton ? I 
 know something of it. 
 
 2806. What is the condition of property there ? In 
 
67 
 
 some part of it the voters are a low class of yeomanry. 
 Oakham pton is twenty-two miles from Exeter; in the part 
 nearer to Exeter they are more enlightened, but in the 
 western and north-western part they are an inferior class. 
 
 2807. In the hands of which party is the property ? 
 There are two gentlemen there, of the names of Mr. 
 Hamlyn and Mr. Newton, who have very considerable 
 influence, who are with us, and Mr. Arundel, of Lifton, 
 who has considerable influence on the other side. In 
 south Tawton there are a considerable number ; there 
 are a good many freeholders and not many leaseholders ; 
 there are but few ; Mr. Acland (not Sir Thomas), but the 
 principal proprietor, is with us ; in this parish we polled 
 thirty-one freeholders to ten, and twelve leaseholders to 
 three. 
 
 2808. Are these small freeholders to whom you 
 allude persons influenced to employment as labourers 1 
 Some of them are. In parishes like that of Alphington, 
 near Exeter, we have a good many small leaseholders 
 holding small cottages at £10 a-year and upwards, for 
 ninety-nine years, determinable on three lives ; they are 
 under considerable influence from the landlord ; for, if 
 a life dies, it is of importance to get a renewal, and I 
 
 have heard of an instance where intimated to a 
 
 voter, if he did not vote for Mr. Parker, he might want 
 another life on his house by-and-by. 
 
 2809. Are many of them labourers ? I should think 
 none, or very few, so low as that ; some of them shoe- 
 makers, and tailors, blacksmiths, and carpenters, and 
 so on. 
 
 2810. You have stated that certain landlords have 
 
68 
 
 changed their opinions, you have not alluded to any 
 possibility of their tenants having changed their opinions 
 also ; do not you think it possible that the changes of 
 political feeling may extend to others besides landlords ? 
 Yes, I think there might be among so large a consti- 
 tuency many instances of change of feeling, but I think 
 the change of feeling has been most generally from the 
 conservative to reform party among the mass of 
 yeomanry. 
 
 2820. You think that out of a constituency of 2,000 
 voters, the number influenced by the ^' No Popery" 
 cry, has not been more than 150? I conjecture that 
 among the mass of the people, of the lower orders in 
 particular, where the influence has been much attempted, 
 it might perhaps amount to a couple of hundred, but 
 I speak speculatively as to the number. 
 
 2821. If you conceive that the change of opinion 
 among the yeomanry has been rather to reform than 
 against it, how do you account for the diflerent result 
 of those two contests ? Since the election in 1832, the 
 conservatives have been very active in their registra- 
 tion ; they have been very vigilant — the other party 
 certainly have not been ; the difference between the 
 registration of 1832 and the registration of 1834 
 amounts to 760, of whom, I believe not less than 600 
 are of our opponents ; and I believe that the influence 
 has been carried out much stronger by the landowners 
 upon their tenants than ever has been before. 
 
 2822. You have stated that there was a change of 
 opinion amongst the yeomanry, rather from the opinions 
 of the conservatives to these of reformers ; can you tell 
 
69 
 
 the committee, whether or not, amongst the great 
 interests of the landowners, there has or has not been 
 any change the other way ? I should, in explanation, 
 state that there were two or three of the landowners 
 who voted for Mr. Bulteel ; perhaps from personal feeling 
 rather than private opinion ; I think I might venture 
 to say so of Sir Thomas Acland and Sir Walter 
 Carew ; that influence is now thrown wholly upon Mr. 
 Parker ; while it was thrown on Mr. Bulteel only, the 
 conservative party gained nothing and we lost nothing, 
 but now it is a loss of so much. 
 
 2823. Are you not of opinion the change you have 
 spoken of in the opinions of the yeomanry has been 
 more than counterbalanced by the change of opinion 
 and of conduct on the part of the great landlords ? I 
 think it has. 
 
 2824. There is one source of influence which you 
 have not adverted to, which is the influence of tithe- 
 owners ; has that any effect, or has it been used in any 
 way ? I believe the influence of the clergy is very 
 powerful against us ; though we have from 200 to 300 
 parishes, there were not above six clergymen who 
 voted for Lord John, and of these only three or four 
 were beneficed in the division, and I believe the 
 influence of the large body of the clergy, which was in 
 every part excited against us, both in reference to their 
 tithes, and their being in many cases magistrates, also 
 operated very powerfully at the late election. 
 
 2825. Are you acquainted with any instances where 
 the voters, whose opinions you were previously ac- 
 quainted with, were induced to vote contrary to what you 
 
70 
 
 conceived to have been their inclination, by any appre- 
 hension from the tithe-owner of the parish, whether lay 
 or ecclesiastic ? I have no particular evidence to refer 
 to of any direct intimidation of that sort ; their influence 
 is very powerful in some districts, in others it is not ; 
 and in some instances where the clergyman is very 
 hostile to his parishioners, his attempt at influence 
 sometimes leads to a counteraction. 
 
 2826. Have the goodness to explain in what way the 
 influence of the clergy having the tithes operates ? 
 The clergyman in most parishes compounds with his 
 parishioners ; if he would wish to influence by his 
 tithes, he would intimate something about taking tithes 
 in kind, which is a considerable cause of terror to the 
 yeomanry ; rather than submit to that, which is a great 
 loss to them as well as the clergyman, they would be 
 induced to concede their own opinion. 
 
 2827. Do not you think that the clergyman suffers 
 more from drawing his tithes than the farmer ? In- 
 telligent men say that the clergyman and the farmer 
 each lose a quarter, and that one-half is really sacrificed 
 by the system of taking tithes in kind ; but a farmer 
 would dread the operation of his corn being taken in 
 kind, he would rather make a sacrifice than submit to 
 the loss and inconvenience. 
 
 2828. Is it any compensation to the tenant for his 
 loss that the clergyman will lose one-fourth in addition ? 
 No, certainly not; but he will make a sacrifice in one 
 case to attain his object in others. 
 
 2830. Are there any instances of that going on in 
 Devonshire ? We hear of it every now and then. 
 
71 
 
 2831. With a view to election purposes ? I have 
 not said that, but that a clergyman will thereby keep 
 up his power over his parishioners. 
 
 2832. Can clergymen, under such 'circumstances as 
 that of a sudden election or an acceptance of office, 
 effect a change by the tithe influence which may affect 
 the votes ? I have said that by the tithe system there 
 is a power by which the rector or vicar might maintain 
 a general influence over his parishioners, and that that 
 influence might be used for election purposes. 
 
 2833. Do not you think that the anxiety to exert 
 that influence operates to keep up an hostility to clergy 
 men ? Yes, I say it does ; and in many instances where 
 the clergyman is a very excellent man, and takes 
 moderate tithes, he possesses a considerable influence in 
 that way. 
 
 2834. Do you think that the influence exercised of 
 late on the part of clergymen as it regards tithe, has 
 had a great influence in turning the election against 
 Lord John Russell ? I have not gone quite to that 
 extent, but I state that the general influence may be, 
 and I believe has been used by the clergyman on his 
 parishioners for election purposes, and there is another 
 great influence the clergyman has where he is a magis- 
 trate, and we have a great many clerical magistrates in 
 Devonshire. 
 
 2835. You say that the loss to the clergyman is no 
 compensation to the farmer ; do you not think that the 
 loss to the clergyman is a pretty good security against 
 its being carried to any extent ? No, for he would 
 take the tithe in kind of only one or two farmers at a 
 
72 
 
 time, till he has drawn them to a higher system of 
 composition ; I do not mean to speak of clergymen 
 generally. 
 
 28 'i 6. Have the goodness to specify any case in 
 which you know of this description of influence having 
 been used ? I have stated before that I gave evidence 
 of no particular case, but I speak of the general effect. 
 
 2837. May not a clergyman compound with one 
 and refuse to compound with another ? Yes, certainly. 
 
 2838. So that a clergyman has it in his power to 
 select one or two individuals in his parish upon whom 
 he may inflict his resentment? Certainly. 
 
 2839. And thus do them a great injury, while to 
 himself the damage is comparatively small ? Just so. 
 
 2840. Although you do not know any instance 
 where a clergyman has used any menaces, or carried 
 any menace into execution, do not you think that 
 the knowledge among the parishioners that the power 
 is vested in the clergyman, coupled also with the 
 knowledge of his particular bias, must give him a 
 powerful influence over his parish ? Yes. 
 
 2841. Do you conceive that the clergy of Devon- 
 shire have exercised a great influence through their 
 tithes over their parishioners ? Certainly, the influence 
 of the nature I have mentioned ; when the question was 
 put in the marked way, whether I knew of any parti- 
 cular cases, I say I do not give evidence of any ; if 
 I am asked whether that sort of influence does exist, 
 and whether it had been used generally, whether 
 expressly or implied, I should say yes. 
 
 2871. Did not the clergy associate Lord John 
 
73 
 
 Russell with the cry which is designated as that of 
 - No Popery?" Certainly.— (pp. 150, 155, 166.) 
 
 Bohert Mullen, Esq,, M.D, 
 
 8246. Where do you reside ? At Dunshaughlin, in 
 the County of Meath. 
 
 8247. I believe you are a member of the Meath 
 Club ? I am secretary to the Meath Club, and have 
 been since 1830. 
 
 8248. What is the Meath Club ? It is a political 
 association for the registration of voters, and to secure 
 the return of popular members. 
 
 8249. How long have you been in that capacity ? 
 Since 1830. 
 
 8250. How many elections have there been since ? 
 Five, three of them were contested; and at two 
 elections the unsuccessful candidate retired on the day 
 of nomination. 
 
 8251. Have you taken a part at these elections ? I 
 have taken a very active part. 
 
 8252. Are you aware of any threats having been 
 employed by landlords, in order to induce their tenants 
 to vote according to the wishes of the landlords ? I 
 am aware of several instances in which threats have 
 been employed in order to induce tenants to vote 
 according to the wishes of the landlords, and against 
 the wishes of the tenants. I have seen a letter from 
 a noble lord, directed to his agent, for the purpose of 
 being shown to his tenants. 
 
 8253. Have you an extract of that letter ? I have. 
 
 H 
 
74 
 
 The following letter was put in and read : — 
 
 " I shall make it a point to know from you (if there are any) the names of 
 all such of my tenants who do not wish to oblige me with their interest, and 
 will not goto vote. Some may come when they may want me to oblige them. 
 We may then fairly toss up our pretensions and strike the balance. If there 
 are any who have refused to oblige me by going, through a pretence of fear, 
 I beg you will ask them again from me, and let me know their answer ?" 
 
 8254. Can you produce the original of that letter ? 
 I can. 
 
 8255. Who is the nobleman ? 
 
 8256. Can you refer to any other written document, 
 for the purpose of establishing intimidation on the part 
 of the landlords ? Yes, ejectments have been served 
 on tenants during the election, some of which I have in 
 my possession. 
 
 8257. Can you refer to any other letters by which 
 intimidation on the part of the landlord can be estab- 
 lished? I have three letters written by a landlord 
 since the last election. 
 
 8258. Have the goodness to produce them ; are 
 these the originals ? These are the originals addressed 
 to the tenants. 
 
 The following letter was then put in and read, 
 addressed to Mr. : — 
 
 " March 25, 1835. 
 
 " , I give you notice, that I require payment from you on my next 
 
 day of receiving the year's rent of your holding, due me on Tuesday. I have 
 given you my reasons already for this. — Yours, — — — ." 
 
 He was always in the habit of taking half-a-year's 
 rent when the year's rent was due ; he then called for 
 the whole year's rent. 
 
75 
 
 S259. What is the date of that letter ? The 25th 
 March, 1835. The usual time of receiving the rent 
 was the first week in June, and he usually received the 
 half-year's rent due the preceding September in that 
 week. There is a letter from the same gentleman 
 directed to Mr. , of , 
 
 The following letter was then put in and read, 
 addressed to Mr. : — 
 
 " March 25, 1835. 
 
 " , In such times of agitation as these, it is not safe to leave a 
 
 landlord's arrears of rent uncollected. I therefore give you notice, that I 
 shall require, at the usual day for my rents being paid, your year's rent 
 fully, due this day. — Yours truly, 
 
 The following letter was then put in and read, 
 addressed to Mr. : — 
 
 " March 25, 1835. 
 
 Dear , As I before told you, I shall require of you, at the next day 
 
 for paying your rents, to pay me one year's rent due this day. In such times 
 of agitation landlords must get in their arrears.— Yours truly, ." 
 
 8260. Were the persons to whom these letters were 
 addressed electors of the county? They were, and 
 they voted at the last election. 
 
 8261. How did they vote? For the present sitting 
 members, Mr. Grattan and Mr. Morgan O'Connell. 
 
 8262. Are you aware of tenants being threatened 
 with the service of ejectments if they did not vote as 
 their landlords desired ? Yes, I heard so from the 
 tenants themselves, and I have an ejectment that was 
 served during the canvass at the last election. 
 
 8263. Have you any doubt the serving of ejectments 
 was threatened by landlords ? I have not. 
 
76 
 
 8264. And that ejectments were served in conse- 
 quence ? I have not. 
 
 8271. Who were the candidates at the second elec- 
 tion that you aUuded to, where the police were 
 employed ? At the first election, the Hon. Mr. Bligh 
 and Mr. Grattan were the candidates ; at the last elec- 
 tion, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Morgan O'Connell, the Hon. 
 Mr. Plunkett, and Mr. Lambert. 
 
 8272. Have you, during the election, seen the land- 
 lords and their agents in attendance upon the booths 
 while their tenants were voting ? I have. 
 
 8273. Do you believe that the landlords and agents 
 attended for the purpose of influencing the tenants to 
 vote as the landlords desired ? That is my conviction, 
 
 8274. Have you any doubt about it ? I have not. 
 
 8275. Were any tenants upon the estate of , 
 
 and of , dispossessed and distrained in consequence 
 
 of their voting against the wishes of their landlords 2 
 There were. 
 
 8276. Were penalties enforced against their refrac- 
 tory tenants which otherwise would not have been 
 insisted on ? There were. 
 
 8277. What were these penalties ? There was a man 
 
 the name of ; he was bound to slate his house 
 
 under a penalty of £50 ; he never did it for many 
 years, and after the election he was sued for the penalty, 
 ^nd was obliged to pay it. 
 
 8278. Might the penalty have been recovered on 
 any previous occasion ? It might, as I understood. 
 
 8279. Do you believe that in any instance the 
 electors have been induced by the popular party to 
 
77 
 
 vote against their real sentiments and feelings ? I have 
 never known an instance. 
 
 8280. Have you known many tenants who have 
 declined voting for the popular party from fear of 
 incurring the displeasure of their landlords ? I have. 
 
 8281. Do you know of landlords preventing their 
 tenants from registering, lest they should act against 
 the wishes of their landlords ? I have seen it very 
 generally practised at the registration after the Eeform 
 Bill. 
 
 8282. In what manner was that done ? Some of 
 the tenants told me the facts ; I saw myself a landlord 
 come into open court to oppose the registering of a 
 tenant (who had already been registered) as a £20 voter. 
 This landlord had polled the same tenant a twelve- 
 month before as a £50 voter, and the tenant took the 
 qualification oath in his presence ; he procured the will 
 of the tenant's late father from the executor, and 
 endeavoured to disqualify, as a £20 voter, the very 
 tenant who had, at his own instance, taken the oath of 
 quahfication as a £50 voter the year before. 
 
 8283. Was the man disqualified ? He was not ; he 
 established his qualification. 
 
 8284. Do you believe that any Protestant electors 
 have been prevented by popular intimidation from voting- 
 according to their wishes ? I do not think there w^ere ; 
 there were seventeen Protestant electors voted for Mr. 
 Grattan and Mr. O'Connell at the last election, eight 
 of them resided out of the county, and of course could 
 not be affected by any agitation in it. Most of the 
 others were £50 freeholders, and they are a class upon 
 
78 
 
 whom intimidation very seldom operates ; seven of them 
 were £50 freeholders, and a £20 freeholder, and the 
 other a £10 freeholder. 
 
 8285. Of what religious persuasion are you? A 
 Roman Catholic. 
 
 8287. Do you know of having gone at night 
 
 to the houses of his tenants, and having taken them to 
 
 his for the purpose of preventing them from 
 
 voting ? Yes, I have heard of it. 
 
 8288. Do you believe it ? I believe it ; it was the 
 same of whom I spoke before. 
 
 8289. Is he a Roman Catholic ? He is. 
 
 8290. Who did support, the popular candi- 
 dates, or the unpopuljir candidates ? He supported 
 Mr. Bligh the unpopular candidate. As I have men- 
 tioned 's name, it is due to him to state that he 
 
 has never since interfered in the elections, and has 
 allowed his tenants to vote as they wish, nor has he 
 persecuted any of his tenants who voted against his 
 wishes in 1831. (pp. 471—473). 
 
 BRIBERY. 
 
 Mr. John James, of Herford, 
 853. Believes bribery to have existed at Herford, 
 since the passing of the Reform Bill, to a much more 
 considerable extent than before. 
 
 855. To what do you attribute its existing to a more 
 alarming extent since the passing of the Reform Bill ? 
 To the great desire the conservatives had to secure the 
 election of their political friend. 
 
 856. Do you allude to the two last elections ? Yes. 
 
79 
 
 857. Has the bribery you speak of been direct or 
 iadirect, or both ? Direct and indirect, both. 
 
 858. In what mode has the direct bribery been 
 carried on so as to evade the statute? I must beg 
 leave to decline answering the question. 
 
 859. Do you mean that direct bribery has been done 
 to a voter previous to the election, in order to induce 
 him to vote for a particular candidate ? Yes ; I appre- 
 hend so. 
 
 860. Do you mean that money has been paid previous 
 to the election ? Certainly. 
 
 861. Has it been in the form of gift or loan ? Both ; 
 on one side only by way of loan. 
 
 862. Was it the political partisans that generally 
 advanced the money on loan ? Yes ; I believe a banker 
 was the person who furnished the money. 
 
 863. Were those loans ever repaid ? I cannot speak 
 as to all, but some certainly were not. 
 
 864. Were promissory notes or bonds given for the 
 amount ? Promissory notes were given. 
 
 865. Have you known payment demanded? Yes; 
 and the parties arrested. 
 
 866. In those instances in which you have known 
 the payment demanded and the parties arrested, have 
 the parties receiving the loan, and were called upon to 
 repay, voted for that particular candidate or not ? No ; 
 he has voted against the candidate. 
 
 867. Have you known the payment of a loan de- 
 manded in any case where the party receiving the loan 
 voted for the candidate in whose behalf he received it ? 
 No ; I knew nothing of the kind. 
 
80 
 
 868. Then was not the promissory note a security 
 for the vote ? Yes ; it must have been considered as 
 sure security. 
 
 869. In those cases where the parties have been 
 arrested in the way you mention, were the parties by 
 whom the loans were advanced the bankers of the 
 place? The notes were given to the solicitor who 
 conducted the election, but I have stated that sums of 
 money were considered to come from a banker. 
 
 870. Can you state anything as to the amount of 
 
 those loans ? One cheque brought to a week 
 
 before the election was to the amount of £33. 
 
 871. What class of voters was it who received these 
 
 loans ? The man that received the cheque, , who 
 
 lived in a £10 house, and who was a little trades- 
 man. 
 
 872. Did he receive the cheque, and give his note 
 of hand for the sum ? He did. 
 
 876. Has the system of bribery by loans been general ? 
 On one side to a considerable extent. 
 
 877. Has the bribery, at the places within your 
 knowledge, on behalf of the particular candidates, been 
 conducted by one individual as agent for that purpose ? 
 Certainly not ; many persons are employed. 
 
 878. Is that with a view of rendering detection more 
 difficult ? Not exactly. 
 
 879. What is the object of employing more persons 
 than one ? There are several reasons why several are 
 employed ; a certain class of persons are more acceptable 
 to one than another. 
 
 880. Has the system prevailed of paying money after 
 
81 
 
 the election for the votes given ? To a very small 
 amount. 
 
 881. Before the passing of the Reform Bill, was it 
 the practice of giving so much money for each vote 
 given ? It was scarcely known what bribery was before 
 the passing of the Reform Bill in one of the places of 
 which I have spoken. 
 
 959. Have you seen the bribery oath refused by 
 those to whom it has been rendered ? Never ; I believe 
 the man who takes the money will always take the 
 oath. (pp. 50, 51, 54). 
 
 John Cavaher, Esq. 
 
 7389. What is your profession ? A merchant. 
 
 7390. Do you reside in Newry ? T do. 
 
 7391. Have you been acquainted with the proceedings 
 of the Newry elections ? Yes ; I have. 
 
 7450. What are the number of votes at Newry ? I 
 really forget. 
 
 7451. About ? About 850. 
 
 7452. Is there much desire among the voters to have 
 the ballot? Yes, there is; at the election of 1832, 
 when Lord Marcus Hill stood, bribery was carried to 
 such an extent at the election that we desired any 
 relief we could get as to it. (pp. 431 — 435). 
 
 Scotland has been comparatively free from the dis- 
 grace of the open bribery and coercion practised at the 
 English elections since the passing of the Reform Act. 
 But there is reason to fear much from fradulent votes 
 and secret influences in that country. In Ireland the 
 
82 
 
 domineering faction continue their unfeeling warfaring 
 against the people with an open and reckless spirit of 
 oppression that has scarcely been surpassed in the 
 history of persecution. If the readers of these pages 
 wish to have further evidence on this subject, let them 
 read the statement, noticed in page 129 of " The Perse- 
 cutions of certain Tory Landlords in the County of 
 Carlow, referred to in a Petition of N. A. Vigers, Esq., 
 M.P., presented 15th February, 1836/' They will read 
 the most heart-rending details, vouched for by affidavits 
 of known witnesses which have never been impeached, 
 showing how, where, when, and by whom, nearly two 
 thousand individuals were driven from the lands which 
 they and their forefathers had occupied for ages and 
 paid in general high rents for, the expulsions being 
 proved to have originated (in nine cases out of ten) in 
 party and political feelings ; they were almost wholly 
 Catholics, who had been guilty of voting for what they 
 honestly regarded the cause of their country and their 
 religion. There is a small twopenny pamphlet, also, 
 well worth perusal at the present crisis, entitled, " A 
 Letter to the Coerced Electors of Great Britain." — By 
 B, F, Knowles, published hy Eidgway (§r Sons. 
 
83 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE ELECTIONS OF 1852 DISTINGUISHED BY INTIMIDA- 
 TION IN DIVERS COUNTIES IN ULSTER. 
 
 The following letters from a gentleman resident in one 
 of these counties will enable the reader to understand 
 as to the amount of intimidation made to bear there on 
 the occasion : — 
 
 " February 14, 1854. 
 Dear Sir, — In reply to your letter, I am sorry to say that I cannot give 
 you any specific information in reference to the election in this county, 
 farther than that it was carried by intimidation. Landlords, agents, baili£fs, 
 tax-gatherers, constables, and all in place under the authority of such, were 
 combined as one man, and every exertion, satanic and human, was made to 
 carry the day. Many who had promised their votes to the tenant-right 
 candidate, and even those who had acted as members of tenant-right com- 
 mittees, were so terrified by threats and curses as to vote for his opponents. 
 
 *' Had it not been for the extraordinary eff'orts of landlords,; Mr. 
 
 would have carried the election, some P n ministers having, from 
 
 selfish motives, also drawn back in the day of battle. 
 
 " Several landlords, and especially agents, have manifested a great deal of 
 tyranny since the election, supposed to be from vindictiveness, others are 
 somewhat more lenient. 
 
 " Those of the ministers, in this presbytery, who came out on the side of 
 tenant-right, have all suffered except myself, and I have no doubt I would have 
 been victimised if in their power. — I am, dear sir, very truly yours, ." , 
 
 [from the same.] 
 
 "March 31, 1854. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — Tt is out of my power to describe from ocular demon- 
 stration any of the scenes of the late election, inasmuch as I was requested 
 
84 
 
 to sit in one of the booths, and as far as possible prevent personation or false 
 voting. 
 
 " I saw none of the dragoonery or terrorism exercised by landlords and 
 agents, of which there was abundance. 
 
 " We were almost sure of success up to the day of nomination. No 
 movement of a public kind was made by landlords prior to that time, but all 
 at once, as by a preconcerted signal, the foregoing gentry were out scouring, 
 ' canvassing, cajoling. And many poor fellows.,who had promised us their 
 votes, and acted with us all along, were compelled, contrary to conscience 
 and feeling, to give their votes for their landlord's nominees ; and so humbled 
 and self-degraded do they feel, that some of them have never been seen at a 
 house of worship since that day, and seldom in any place of public resort. 
 
 " This is one awful effect of landlord tyranny. Those of strong feeling 
 and of firm resolve, who would have faced the bayonet or the cannon, were 
 forced to quail before a landlord or petty agent, rather than subject their 
 wives and children to ' the tender mercies of those enraged gentry;' and I 
 could not think less of the man with a large family, without lease, and 
 entirely in the power of his oppressor, if even he gave his vote, in such 
 circumstances, contrary to his mind, as it was a vote to preserve the lives and 
 liberties of those most dear to him on earth. — Truly yours, ." 
 
 On this painful portion of our subject I would present 
 the reader views illustrative of intimidation in another 
 county. 
 
 Informant writes — " Yes ; there was monstrous, 
 brutal, diabolic coercion exercised on poor men in 
 county 
 
 Missives, almost a fac-simile of the following, went 
 through the county from end to end : — 
 
 '* Sir,— I have learned with pain and astonishment that your agent has 
 
 permitted your tenants in the townland of , in this barony, up to this 
 
 time, to act without any restraint whatever, and, accordingly, they have 
 pledged to vote for . Their example is very injurious in this neigh- 
 bourhood. I am surprised how they dared to pledge themselves without your 
 
 permission. Use your influence, for heaven's sake, promptly, for . 
 
 The spirit of the people, I regret to say, is against us, and we must 
 certainly be defeated, to the evident danger of the rights of property, unless 
 
85 
 
 every energy is put forth. You will place us under undying obligations by 
 immediately putting a restraint on these turbulent people.— I have the honour 
 to be, faithfully yours, ." 
 
 The tenants of the same lands complied, of course, 
 voluntarily, and wrote their names on the registry as 
 
 pledged supporters of ■ , and this act of theirs 
 
 was done a short time before the nomination. The 
 above sent the following to the agent : — 
 
 " Sir,— You should have known from the position I have taken against 
 
 and his supporters in this country, that I could not permit my 
 
 tenants, or those under my care, or in , to go on unadvisedly. You 
 
 will at once inform the tenants on my property that if they vote for the 
 tenant candidate they may expect no favour or pity from me and my" family. 
 I expect them to support both the old representatives, and to use theif influence 
 on their behalf. — I am, yours, ." 
 
 Such missives as the following produced an effect in 
 the towns : — 
 
 " You will hint to Mr. that if he is seen any more at the tenant- 
 right committee he will forfeit my esteem, and the custom of the tenants of 
 my estate. 
 
 " You will remind of his arrears, his vote or the arrears will be 
 
 expected from him by the office. 
 
 " Remind that he has timber and slates not paid for," 
 
 Even bankers canvassed by private notes, and con- 
 tractors and road officers of the county, and all other 
 officials were let loose on the unfortunate constituency. 
 It was evident that diabolic oppression was in its death 
 throes and put forth all its powers. For days this 
 harrowing oppression proceeded, and the effect was 
 produced. 
 
 Of the electors who had solemnly pledged to vote 
 
 I 
 
86 
 
 for the tenant candidate above 1000 were made to 
 break their pledges. Only about 1000 voted for him 
 instead of upwards of 2000. 
 
 The electors of this county were the clay in the 
 hands of the potter ! 
 
 In another county the address of the tenant-right 
 candidate was published. Meanwhile the late members 
 liad again entered the field, and with the aid of most of 
 the resident gentry, and of the agents, &c., of the 
 principal estates in the county, were making a vigorous 
 and rapid canvass. Forthwith local committees were 
 formed, and canvassers on both sides took the field. 
 
 The leading gentry of the county seemed now at 
 last to understand the imminent danger to w^hich they 
 were exposed, of being defeated by their own tenants, 
 a disgrace which they could not previously bring 
 themselves to contemplate as possible, and which, in 
 the North at least, would have been unprecedented. 
 For a week or two before the election, nothing could 
 exceed the energy and desperation of many landlords 
 and agents. Landlords were brought hundreds of 
 miles to influence and overawe their tenants. 
 
 At this time the excitement was intense. A land- 
 lord declared to a tenant of his, that he would be " his 
 enemy for life,'' if he should dare to keep his promise 
 to vote for the tenant-right candidate. 
 
 On an estate where there was no one legitimately 
 entitled to use the influence of landlord, by the influence 
 of a temporary agent, between sixty and seventy electors 
 were compelled to vote against their conscience, and 
 
87 
 
 transferred, like so many white slaves, from one side of 
 the polling booth to the other. 
 
 In the same neighbourhood, a gentleman, by a 
 similar active and energetic influence, coerced several 
 of his tenants to break their promises, and vote for the 
 landlord candidates. 
 
 In the vicinity of a large town, an agent, by a well- 
 timed circular despatched by his bailiff, and made to the 
 several tenants who had votes, prevented a considerable 
 number from declaring themselves for the tenant-right 
 candidate, and deterred, through fear, some others 
 from voting. 
 
 In another town the same game was played. Several 
 voters, who came there determined to vote for the 
 tenant-right candidate, were met by their landlord, who 
 laid hold of them, and by sheer intimidation forced them 
 to vote for his opponents. 
 
 A small proprietor, resident not far from this place, 
 had an intelligent schoolmaster on his property, a 
 Presbyterian elder, who had only been prevented by 
 the rules of the National Board from being a member 
 of the local committee, who was so keenly set upon by 
 his zealous landlord, that he declined voting altogether ; 
 but such half measures would not do, and the poor 
 man was soon after obliged to give up school, farm and 
 all ; he went with his family to some place in another 
 county. 
 
 A saddler in a town in this county henceforth lost 
 the custom of certain gentlemen, for the avowed reason, 
 that his father had not voted for their friends. 
 
 On the polling days, in every part of the county, 
 
88 
 
 the greatest quiet and good humour prevailed, notwith- 
 standing the immense crowds that were assembled. 
 Indeed, the chief interruption to the harmony consisted 
 in the efforts but too often successfullj made by agents 
 or some of their abettors, to carry off some electors, 
 and compel them to vote against their conscience and 
 their repeated pledges. 
 
 On a small property in another county, at the time of 
 the late election, there were tenants who had the right 
 to vote. A short time before the election, these were 
 canvassed in favour of the tenant-right candidate, and 
 they all agreed to vote for him. About the time this 
 canvass was made, a letter came to the bailiff from the 
 landlord, expressing his wish that the tenants should 
 vote for another candidate. After hearing the mind of 
 the landlord, these tenants met to deliberate on what 
 they should do. They agreed to stand by their 
 expressed purpose. On the first day of the election, 
 they were met by the landlord, at the town where they 
 were to poll. He inquired why they would not vote 
 according to his desire. Then one told him they had 
 resolved to vote for the tenant-right candidate. The 
 landlord then insisted that they should vote as he 
 desired. Then one of the electors said, if they 
 should please him, they would vote against their 
 conscience, and it would be a disgrace to them and 
 their children. He replied, that there was no conscience 
 in the matter, it would be a greater disgrace to him 
 that when he met with gentlemen whose tenants voted 
 as they wished, and his not voting as he wished. A 
 
89 
 
 person standing by said to this landlord, it was a 
 great shame for him to prevent the tenants exercising 
 according to their conscience the franchise given them 
 by the constitution. The landlord then said, you have 
 no right to interfere with my tenants. Upon this the 
 person said, if they are your tenants, they are not 
 " your slaves." Another person came forward and said, 
 is this gentleman coercing the tenants. A tenant spoke 
 out and said, he is coercing us, and wants us to vote 
 against our conscience. He then said, if he attempt to 
 coerce you I will take a note and represent it to the 
 authorities. A man came forward, and the landlord 
 said to him, will you support me ; he said he would. 
 Some of the tenants went across to the court-house, 
 and, when going up into the booth, the landlord followed 
 after them, and caught hold of one. He then lifted up 
 his stick to strike another. That person caught hold of 
 the stick and twisted it out of his hand. The man 
 who said he would help the landlord then drew his 
 large whip, and said, I will split the man to the belt 
 that comes near him. Bludgeon-men then came for- 
 ward, and assisted him powerfully. The result was — 
 these voters, through fear and intimidation, did not 
 vote. 
 
 On another estate the tenants were, with a few 
 exceptions, enthusiastic for the tenant-right candidate. 
 They were nearly all pledged to vote for him, but a 
 good number were induced to break their pledges, 
 under the following circumstances — 
 
 Several respectable tenants, men in independent 
 circumstances, who should have been above the like, 
 
 I 2 
 
90 
 
 were selected by the authorities to canvass their brother 
 electors on the estate. These gentlemen during their 
 canvass threatened their poorer neighbours who were 
 recusant with " reporting them to the office/* Their 
 mission, however, was unsuccessful — the electors con- 
 tinued firm. 
 
 They were then canvassed by persons near relations 
 of the landlord. The canvass of these was such as to 
 induce a large number of the electors to break their 
 pledges to vote for the tenant-right candidate. 
 
 The electors were told if they did not vote for the 
 landlord candidates, they need expect no compliments 
 from the landlord, that they might pay up their rents, 
 as they would be made " English tenants." The agent 
 generally concluded his conversation with a tenant 
 elector, saying, Mind, I am not threatening." How- 
 ever, all the tenants considered these conversations 
 threatening enough. 
 
 A bailiff was employed in canvassing, he called upon 
 a tenant who made his " conscience" an excuse for not 
 voting as the bailiff desired. The pious canvasser, 
 however, replied with the emphasis of indignation — 
 Oh, I would not give a d — n for conscience. 
 
 The proprietor, of this estate having canvassed a 
 tenant without effect, said to him significantly, 
 remember, if anything happen to you, you need not 
 be surprised. 
 
 Next day, through the activity of the bailiff, a larger 
 meeting was assembled. The landlord called two of 
 the most respectable tenants aside and canvassed them 
 privately. They refused. A gentleman present ad- 
 
91 
 
 dressed one of these tenants, saying — " Mr. there 
 
 is a year's rent due, and if you be independent in one 
 thing, you must be independent in all/' The other was 
 advised as a friend not to go against his landlord. 
 The landlord finding these men incorrigible sent them 
 about their business, and commenced operations on the 
 more dependent. 
 
 They were canvassed " en masse" and consoled with 
 hints of " English tenants." 
 
 The landlord appeared to take it as a matter of 
 course that they would vote as he wished. He then 
 desired " those who wished for cars to go into the office 
 and their names would be taken down.'' Several of the 
 tenants replied with one voice, "they did not want 
 cars and, all assuming the meeting at an end, made 
 a movement to leave the apartment, which had the 
 appearance of a general rush. The landlord shouted, 
 and the tenants ran, but the bailiff succeeded in closing 
 the outer door, and locked up a number of the unfor- 
 tunates. A few, however, escaped through a window. 
 The landlord was very wroth at the treatment he had 
 thus received, and, it is said, threatened very much. 
 He insisted on those who were detained giving in their 
 names to vote as he desired, and a number succumbed 
 to him, and those who were resolute were informed 
 that they might consider themselves " English tenants 
 that is, they would have to pay up rent to the last gale- 
 day, thus doing away with the " dead half-year" 
 custom. 
 
 It was quite in character that this landlord took his 
 voters to the poll on cars surrounded by dragoons ; 
 
92 
 
 also, that his labourers were transformed into bludgeon- 
 men. 
 
 The following matters took place on this estate since 
 the election : — 
 
 The agent has been heard to say that he had many 
 names on the black list, that he would make every man 
 of them "English tenants," and persons who voted 
 contrary to his will have been called upon to pay up 
 their rents to first of May, 1852. 
 
 The landlord caused notice of objection, signed by 
 him, to be served on a number of refractory tenants, 
 with reference to the registration of electors for the year 
 ending December, 1853, for the purpose of putting them 
 to the proof of qualification, and thus bring them into 
 still greater collision, or to weary them out with intimi- 
 dation. 
 
 The agent has said to many of the tenants that he 
 has received letters, since the election, from the land- 
 lord, in which he expresses himself very angry with the 
 tenants who voted against his side. A tenant who had 
 thus voted, in paying after the election a term's rent, 
 was spoken to by the agent in strong terms. He was 
 weak enough to express sorrow. The agent then 
 inquired " why he did so," and the reply was he acted 
 according to his conscience. " Pshaw ! — conscience/' 
 was the contemptuous rejoinder. He kindly informed 
 another tenant he would never get a compliment at the 
 office, would never be forgiven. 
 
 The ancient feudal service of cutting down the land- 
 lord's crops without remuneration was exacted on this 
 estate of those tenants who had disobeyed their landlord 
 
93 
 
 in the matter of voting. The independent voters were 
 summoned by the bailiff to do this work, who slightingly 
 called them independent men, and produced a list, 
 supplied him at the office, containing only their names, 
 to show they were singled out, the tenants who voted 
 as the landlord wished not being called on as usual. 
 
 " Of the amount of intimidation and undue influence 
 of every sort which was practised at late elections, it is 
 probably impossible to form an exaggerated estimate. 
 Landlords, customers, and employers, have held worldly 
 suffering over the heads of the unhappy electors, while 
 priests have brandished spiritual terrors in their face^ 
 for voting according to their own judgment ; that is, 
 for doing their clear and imperative duty, they have 
 been threatened by the first with poverty, and by the 
 last with damnation. They have been told that if they 
 acted like honest men their farms would be taken from 
 them, or the sacrament would be refused them. They 
 have thus been compelled either to flinch from their 
 duty, or to do it under the peril of earthly destitution, 
 or of eternal punishment. This is the mode in which 
 our citizens have been educated in their civic duties ; 
 nor does the guilt of this enormous wickedness lie 
 altogether at the door of those who practise it ; it must 
 be divided in a far more equal measure than is commonly 
 allowed between the actual perpetrators and the nation, 
 which, year after year, in spite of warning, remonstrance, 
 and entreaty, has yet persisted in leaving its perpetra- 
 tion possible. 
 
 " Let us look a little more closely at the mode in which 
 intimidation operates. The voter is an humble tenant- 
 
94 
 
 farmer, an honest shop-keeper, an industrious artisan. 
 He has wife and children whom he brought up well. 
 After years of patient toil he has begun to prosper in 
 the world, to enjoy in the present, and see in the future, 
 the natural recompence of his frugality and diligence. 
 He is now about to vote for a candidate whose principles 
 he approves, and on whose character he places a just 
 reliance. But his landlord, his chief customers, or liis 
 employers, favour the rival candidate, and scruple at 
 no means of coercion to obtain the victory. They 
 respect no man's conscience, and care for no man's ruin. 
 They exercise their power without delicacy, and without 
 mercy. They insist upon the elector voting, not as 
 he himself thinks, but as they think. If he yields to 
 the tyrannical, and consents to purchase safety and 
 worldly comfort by the sacrifice of his integrity, it is 
 not for us, who have first conferred the franchise upon 
 him, and then neglected to secure to him its unfettered 
 exercise, to judge him severely, or to blame him harshly. 
 But his peace of mind is ruined, his self-respect is gone ; 
 he feels himself a degraded and dishonoured man^ and 
 either his life is one of ceaseless reproach, or (as is more 
 probable) his first sin paves the way for future one^, 
 ,and the declivity becomes easier and sharper with every 
 temptation and every failure. But suppose that he 
 stands to his colours, holds fast his integrity, and per- 
 forms his promise. He is turned out of doors, and his 
 family, perhaps, reduced to want. The fruit of long 
 years of honest and persevering industry is lost. He 
 is flung back to the bottom of the hill up which he has 
 been climbing so manfully, with slow and painful steps. 
 
95 
 
 ever since his youth ; he must leave his garden or his 
 farm ; he must sell his shop ; he must seek out another 
 house and a new employer ; and all this because he has 
 done conscientiously what his country called upon him 
 to do, and was bound to protect in doing. We declare 
 that we scarcely know which most excite our amazement 
 and reprobation — the robber and oppressors who inflict 
 these sufferings, the candidates who can bear, year after 
 year, to call on their supporters for such sacrifices, or 
 the statesmen who have been cognisant of such enor- 
 mities for half a lifetime, yet have made no gigantic 
 or decisive effort to suppress them ; we do not under- 
 stand how, parliament after parliament, they can ask 
 poor struggling electors to go through this fiery furnace 
 of affliction and persecution, in order to carry them 
 into power, or to sustain them there ; or how they can 
 enjoy power so purchased and so cemented. 
 
 ** Of the many iniquities practised at a general elec- 
 tion — all needing only a juster view of civic duty, and 
 of civic rights, and a purer and more natural standard 
 of public duty, to sweep them away like chaff — we have 
 left ourselves no room to speak. But when we sum up 
 the whole — the brutal drunkenness, &)c.; the low in- 
 trigues ; the wholesale corruption ; the barbarous 
 intimidation; the integrity of candidates warped and 
 stained ; the honest electors who are ruined ; the 
 publicans who are suborned and dishonoured ; the lies, 
 the stratagems, the slanders, which stalk abroad in the 
 daylight, naked and^ not ashamed ; the desecration of 
 holy words ; the soiling of noble names — we stand 
 aghast at the holocaust victims of destroyed bodies and 
 
96 
 
 lost souls, on whose funeral pile every new parliament 
 is reared. And if we believed, which we do not, that 
 these things are inherent and incorrigible in our repre- 
 sentative system, we should think it high time to sit 
 down gravely and to count its cost." — Edinburgh Re- 
 view. No, 196, p. 507. 
 
CHAPIVEE X. 
 
 APOLOGY FOR THE RESISTANCE OFFERED BY THE 
 TENANTS IN ULSTER TO THE WILL OF THE LAND- 
 LORDS AND AGENTS AT THE ELECTION OF 1852. 
 
 When a landlord or agent in Ulster withdraws, or tries 
 to withdraw from the tenant, the feudal privilege — 
 tenant-right, in these circumstances what more natural 
 and proper than that the tenant should cease to feel 
 and to be influenced by the feudal obligation — the 
 obligation to vote at the dictation of the landlord or 
 agent. 
 
 The Ulster tenants have reason to consider them- 
 selves about to be spoiled of the Ulster tenant-right. 
 Tenant-right is the only right in property enjoyed b}^ 
 the majority of tenants in Ulster. In these circum- 
 stances what more natural and proper than to act as the 
 Ulster tenants did at the election of 1852, to try to send 
 members to parliament who would have secured the 
 tenant-right. 
 
 It has been observed that a peculiar privilege is inci- 
 dent to the state of farmers in Ulster, designated " the 
 Ulster Tenant-right" — this privilege has been, to a 
 large extent, recognised, and is considered one great 
 cause of the superior advantages enjoyed in Ulster when 
 compared with the other provinces. 
 
 K 
 
98 
 
 The custom of tenant-right originated, under the reign 
 of James I., at the time of tie great plantation. Mr. J. 
 Hancock, in his examination before the Lord Devon 
 Commissioners, accounts for its origin as follows: — 
 
 "It is a system which has more or less prevailed 
 since the settlement of Tlster by James I., when the 
 ancestors of many of the present landlords got grants 
 on conditions of bringing over a certain number of 
 sturdy yeomen and their families as settlers. It is not 
 likely that the patentees were wealthy, we may there- 
 fore fairly presume that the settlers built their own 
 houses, and made their improvements, at their own 
 expense, contrary to the English practice. This, to- 
 gether with the fact of their being Protestants, with 
 their arms in their hands, gave them strong claims on 
 their landlords and leader, and in this way it is probable — 
 but it is a matter of speculation — tenant-right may have 
 first originated ; and^ the Protestant settlers obtaining 
 it in this way, it has gradually extended itself to the 
 whole rural population of Ulster."' 
 
 Dr. M^Knight sees the foundation of tenant-right in 
 the principles of the Ulster Plantation Settlement. 
 
 The principles embodied in the Ulster Plantation 
 Settlement were manifestly the following, viz. : — 
 
 1. A permanent interest in the soil of the country 
 was reserved to the Crown for the benefit of the tenant 
 settlers. 
 
 2. This permanent interest was accompanied with a 
 definite Jiicity of tenure^ rendering the occupiers of the 
 soil, during their several tenancies, independent of the 
 mere will of their landlords. 
 
99 
 
 3. The owners of the soil were not at liberty to 
 charge exorbitant rents, but as they themselves inherited 
 from the Crown, on beneficial terms, they were bound 
 to share with their dependents the royal munificence 
 in this respect. And 
 
 4, The Crown constituted itself the guardian of the 
 Plantation, in order, when necessary, to compel the 
 Ulster landlords to fulfil their stipulated duties. 
 
 The volumes published by the Record Commissioners 
 show the extent to which the royal prerogative was, on 
 this account, frequently exercised. 
 
 The practice which, in Ulster, has grown out of the 
 regulations described is simply this — " Tenant-right is 
 considered to be the claim of the tenant and his heirs, 
 to continue in undisturbed possession of the farm so 
 long as the rent is paid ; and in case of ejectment, or 
 in the event of a change of occupancy, whether at the 
 wish of the landlord or tenant, it is the sum of money 
 which the new occupier must pay to the old one for the 
 peaceable enjoyment of his holding." 
 
 The rights of tenant, which are thus recognised by 
 custom, are : — 
 
 1. The right of the tenant to continue in possession 
 of the farm until for non-payment of rent, or some other 
 reason, the landlord has a good and sufficient cause to 
 eject him. 
 
 2. The right of the outgoing tenant to receive a sum 
 of money from the incoming tenant, on a change of 
 tenancy. 
 
 3. The right of the tenant, subject to the approbation 
 of his landlord, to transfer to his assignee, or to leave 
 
100 
 
 to his personal representatives or heirs, all the interest 
 in his -farm which is recognised by custom to be in 
 him. 
 
 The want of a legal recognition of this system is very 
 remarkable, as I find a similar custom is recognised by 
 common law in the north of England. 
 
 As to the proportion which the sum for which the 
 tenant-right sells bears to the rent, there was a great 
 deal of evidence taken before the Landlord and Tenant 
 Commissioners, but as this proportion m.ust vary in each 
 particular case, there is no use in dwelling on the point. 
 The Commissioners state the general result of their 
 inquiries in the following passage : — 
 
 "We found that in various parts of Ulster, sums 
 equal to ten, twelve, or fifteen years* purchase upon the 
 rent are commonly given for the tenant-right, and this 
 not only where the rent is considered low, but where 
 it is fully equal to the value.'' 
 
 As the landlord's interest in Ulster sells at from 
 twenty to thirty years' purchase, this statement would 
 show the Ulster tenants' interest to be on an average 
 with half the landlord's interest. 
 
 There are two rules of the tenant-right custom very 
 favourable to the landlord ; the one gives him the power 
 of selecting the new tenant on a change of tenancy, and 
 the other secures to him the arrears of rent given for 
 tenant-right.^ — The Tenant-right of Ulster Considered 
 Economically, hy W, Neilson Hancock, Esq., Barrister- 
 at-Law, and Professor of Political Economy, Queen's 
 College, Belfast. 
 
101 
 
 EVIDENCE OF THE EFFECTS OF TENANT-RIGHT. 
 
 Mr. Blacker, agent to Lord Gosford, states — "BJ^ 
 means of tenant-right, I do not think there is a loss of 
 £5 in twenty years/' 
 
 Mr. Kinmouth, in the county Armagh, says — " I 
 think it gives the tenant an interest in the land, and it 
 encourages him to improve." 
 
 Mr. M^Cartan, agent to Dean Waring, in county 
 Down, says — " I think it would also add to the pros- 
 perity of the country and the tranquillity of it, if the 
 tenant-right I have been speaking about so much was 
 regulated and secured to the tenant by law." 
 
 Mr. John Johnstone, county Tyrone, says — " I think 
 tenant-right has a good effect, if it were not for that 
 there would be no improvement at all.'' 
 
 Mr. Stephenson, agent for estates in Antrim and 
 Down, to the extent of £40,000 a-year, says — " The 
 tenant-right is very advantageous ; it is impossible to 
 work an estate to advantage unless the landlord 
 recognises it. Tenant-right has no effect upon rent to 
 the landlord. It has no tendency to cause an outcry 
 against rent. It does not cut against the landlord.'' 
 
 On Ulster tenant-right the Lord Devon Commis- 
 sioners say — " From this state of things a feeling of 
 proprietorship appears to have sprung up in the tenant 
 which continues in a great degree to the present day ; 
 and the extent to which it prevails may be seen by 
 reference to various parts of the evidence taken in the 
 province of Ulster. 
 
 "Under the influence of this custom, the tenant 
 
 K 2 
 
102 
 
 claims, and generally exercises a right to dispose of 
 his holding for a valuable consideration, although he 
 may be himself a tenant-at-will, and although he may 
 have expended nothing in permanent improvements." — 
 Report, page 14. 
 
 They add — " It must be admitted that the district 
 in which it prevails has thriven and improved, in com- 
 parison with other parts of the country.'" 
 
 Besides the Ulster tenant-right, there is a claim of 
 tenant-right in Ireland on the ground of improvements, 
 as set forth in the following passage from Report of the 
 Lord Devon Commissioners : — 
 
 "It is well known that in England and Scotland 
 before a landlord offers a farm for letting, he finds it 
 necessary to provide a suitable farm-house, with neces- 
 sary farm buildings, for the proper management of the 
 farm. He puts the gates and fences into good order, 
 and he also takes upon himself a great part of the 
 burden of keeping the buildings in repair during the 
 term ; and the rent is fixed with reference to this state 
 of things. Such at least is generally the case, although 
 special contracts may occasionally be made varying the 
 arrangement between landlord and tenant. 
 
 " In Ireland the case is wholly different. The small- 
 ness of the farms as they are usually let, together with 
 other circumstances, to which it is not necessary to 
 advert, render the introduction of the English system 
 extremely difficult, and in many cases extremely im- 
 practicable. 
 
 " It is admitted on all hands that, according to the 
 general practice in Ireland, the landlord builds neither 
 
103 
 
 dwelling-house nor farm offices, nor puts fences, gate, 
 &e., into good order, before he lets his land to a tenant. 
 
 " The cases in which a landlord does any of these 
 things are the exceptions. The system, however, of 
 giving aid in these matters is becoming more prevalent. 
 
 "In most cases whatever is done in the way of 
 building or fencing is done by the tenant ; and in the 
 ordinary language of the country, dwelling-houses, 
 farm buildings, and even the making of fences, are 
 described by the general word improvements, which is 
 thus employed to denote the necessary adjuncts to a 
 farm, without which, in England or Scotland, no tenant 
 would be found to rent it. 
 
 "Under the same common term of improvements 
 are also included various agricultural operations, such 
 as draining, deep trenching, and even manuring, which 
 ought to stand on a very different footing from build- 
 ing." — Beport, p. 16. 
 
 Hence there arises, besides tenant-right so called, the 
 right on the ground of improvements made by the 
 tenant. 
 
 Of late years such has been the tendency on the 
 part of many landlords to deny tenant-bright, that it 
 became necessary to obtain a law for its protection. 
 
 Again and again the tenants had failed in gaining 
 what they conceived a fair law of tenant-right. What 
 more natural in these circumstances than to try, as they 
 did at election of 1852, to return members favourable 
 to the enactment of a suitable law of tenant-right. 
 
 The following extracts from the evidence taken by 
 the Lord Devon Commissioners illustrate the great 
 
104 
 
 tendency there is on the part of many landlords and 
 agents to abolish tenant-right. 
 
 James Sinclair, Esq,, Holy Hill, Strahane, 
 
 Is there any trace how tenant-right originated in 
 this country ? The notion is that it originated in the 
 manner in which the settlement of Ulster was made. 
 The settlement here was quite a feudal settlement. 
 The tenants in capite got a certain portion of land, on 
 condition that they were to sublet to under-tenants 
 a portion for three lives and twenty-one years, on strictly 
 feudal terms, to be ready with arms to defend the place ; 
 and it appears to me that we can trace, from all that I 
 see about the matter, the present indefeasible tenant- 
 right up to that: for those who were settled by the 
 original patentees were in some sort fosterers or kindred, 
 and were then engaged in defence of the country, and 
 became rather a kind of friendly tenant, than a tenant 
 for money; and I think, from that time to this, the 
 tenant-right has been continued, and in no way altered 
 by law, but by custom. 
 
 H. L. Prentice, Esq,, Caledon, County Tyrone, — p. 840. 
 
 Does tenant-right prevail in the district, and is it 
 recognised by the landlords ? It does prevail, and is 
 recognised. 
 
 What is your opinion of the effect of that custom ? It 
 has its advantages and disadvantages ; but it has now 
 become so very general a custom, that it would be 
 difficult to abolish it. I think it very just to pay a man 
 
105 
 
 for his improvements, and to give him something for 
 his tenant-right. 
 
 What is the effect of the payment being made by the 
 incoming tenant ? Generally speaking, very bad ; so 
 much so, that I have opposed it on Lord Caledon's 
 estate. 
 
 Mr. J. M, Eeid, Gortin, Tyrone. — p. 818. 
 
 Have you known of tenants who have improved being 
 turned out without any compensation ? Yes. 
 
 Were they in heavy arrears ? No arrears at all. It 
 has come to my knowledge, in the last month or two, 
 that a highly respectable man, whose family had been 
 on the farm for 200 years, was turned out without any 
 remuneratio^i. 
 
 Was he allowed to sell his tenant-right ? No, there, 
 was no sale at all ; he was turned out. 
 
 Do you think that the practice is sufficiently frequent 
 to require the interference of the legislature to prevent 
 the tenant being deprived of that compensation which 
 you think he is entitled to in these cases ? Yes, I do 
 indeed think it necessary. 
 
 Mr, James Davison and 3Ir, John Martin. — p. 5»33. 
 Mr. Davison, where do you reside ? Ballymackin, in 
 the parish of Holywood, in the County of Down. Mr. 
 Martin ? Grlenvue, near Belfast, in the County Down. 
 With respect to permanent improvements, are they 
 effected by the landlord or tenant, or jointly? Mr. 
 Martin — By the tenant in our district. Mr. Davison — 
 Entirely. 
 
 Is the landlord in the habit, in any manner, of 
 
106 
 
 assisting ? Not that I am aware of ; there are some 
 now beginning to allow a little for draining, but not in 
 the neighbourhood I reside in. Mr. Martin — There 
 may be particular eases, but few, where they get 
 assistance. I have known of some instances. The 
 landlords in the neighbourhood of Belfast have allowed 
 a little towards building, but it was not generally 
 adopted. 
 
 Is the tenant-right prevalent in your district, and to 
 Whom is the purchase-money paid ? If it is the purchase- 
 money, it is given to the outgoing tenant, of course, 
 after all arrears of rent are paid. Mr. Davison — Yes. 
 
 Is that recognised by the landlord, and what, in your 
 opinion, are the effects of it ? It has generally hitherto 
 been recognised, but I understand some of them are 
 beginning to question it a little. 
 
 What do you consider the effect of tenant-right in 
 the district? Mr. Martin — For my part, I would 
 consider it had a good effect. 
 
 In what way ? Upon the tenants improving their 
 holdings, giving them encouragement to lay out capital 
 upon them. Mr. Davison — Certainly. 
 
 In what way do the landlords discountenance it ? 
 Some of the landlords have turned out tenants without 
 allowing them anything whatever. Mr. Martin — In 
 such cases it destroys the value of it. 
 
 Could you state the circumstances of any case ? Mr. 
 Davison — Yes, several cases could be stated. I was 
 just making myself acquainted with a case not long 
 since. There was a widow woman that had been turned 
 out. She was allowed to get ten pounds, but that was 
 
107 
 
 nothing to the value of the place. The place was worth 
 £100 for the improvements that she had made upon it. 
 
 Do you mean, if the landlord had not interfered, and 
 it was sold in the public market, that she would have 
 got £100? Yes. 
 
 What was the size of the farm she held ? It was a 
 small piece of ten acres ; there was a nice slated house 
 and offices upon it. 
 
 In your opinion her tenant-right in that case would 
 have sold in open market at £100 ? Yes. 
 
 Did she owe any arrears ? No, she had paid up. It 
 was to make room for another man that had been put 
 out of his place to accommodate the landlord, to accom- 
 modate him in his own demesne ; he gave him this place 
 as a recompense. 
 
 Mr. M. Lowry and Mr, G, Orr, 
 
 Mr. Lowry, Close Park, Killinchy, in the County of 
 Down. Mr. Orr, on townland of Granshaw, in parish 
 of Comber, in the County of Down. With reference 
 to the tenant-right, is that prevalent in the district, and 
 to whom is the purchase-money paid ? Landlords now 
 do not admit any tenant-right in my neighbourhood ; 
 they are generally refusing to acknowledge it, in 
 restricting the tenant very much in the disposal of it. 
 Mr. Cleland does recognise it ; Mr. Sharman Crawford 
 is also an exception. 
 
 Is there any great extent of estates in that neigh- 
 bourhood upon which the tenant-right is not allowed ? 
 I should say there are, generally. The tenant-right is 
 not admitted in the district of which I speak. 
 
108 
 
 Does that create much dissatisfaction among the 
 tenants? Very great dissatisfaction, indeed. The 
 tenants have ceased to improve as they should have done, 
 and they have not the means of raising money upon 
 leases as they formerly could have done. That is one 
 reason of their applying to the usurers. 
 
 How long is it since the system has grown up of not 
 allowing the tenant-right ? Four or five years. 
 
 What is the general feeling in the country with 
 respect to the alteration of the old custom? The 
 general feeling is very much opposed to it. It is creating 
 a very considerable excitement, and it operates as a 
 check to improvement. 
 
 Do you think it likely to cause a bad feeling between 
 landlord and tenant ? I think so ; it creates distrust, 
 but when it is acted upon the tenant removes from the 
 country, and there is little more said about it. 
 
 Rev, Eohert Gray, County Donegal, 
 
 Is the tenant-right prevalent in the district, and to 
 whom is the purchase-money paid? It was always 
 prevalent, so far as I could learn, throughout the North 
 of Ireland, and it was always prevalent upon this estate 
 until Mr. Kennedy interfered with it in several cases. 
 
 What was the nature of the interference with tenant- 
 right by Mr. Kennedy to which you refer ? Taking a 
 farm without remuneration. I know a case where a 
 tenant at will was allowed to sell his tenant-right ; and 
 I know cases upon the same estate where tenants at will 
 w^ere refused permission to sell their tenant-right ; and 
 also a case where a party who had paid a large sum for 
 
109 
 
 a lease was refused permission to sell his tenant-right, 
 while one of the tenants, who got a portion of that same 
 holding, was allowed to sell his interest in the land. 
 
 Rev. E. M'Ginn. 
 
 Where do you reside ? I am parish priest of Bun- 
 crana and the Union of Fahans and Dysartigney, in the 
 County of Donegal. 
 
 Is the tenant-right or sale of the good-will prevalent 
 in the district, and to whom is the purchase-money paid ? 
 It has been prevalent, but it has been much restricted 
 lately. 
 
 Is it equally allowed to tenants at will as to persons 
 having leases ? Yes ; I think it was more so in some 
 cases to tenants holding from year to year than to 
 persons having leases which have expired. I have some 
 cases which I can show illustrative of that fact. 
 
 Have you known cases of eviction of tenants at will, 
 without compensation for their tenant-right ? Yes, I 
 have ; I have heard it, and believe it, having inquired 
 into the facts. Upon one townland twelve persons 
 were served with ejectment process, in order to compel 
 them to pay a sum of money to set up in business a son 
 of the proprietor, who had lately married. The pro- 
 prietor was a middleman. In one case this sum 
 amounted to £40, and the person was absolutely turned 
 out by ejectment until he complied with the demand, 
 and then he was restored his farm again, paying the 
 same rent as before. In another case, where a double 
 rent was demanded at the expiration of the lease, the 
 goods were seized, and no less than fourteen keepers, 
 
 L 
 
110 
 
 at 2s. 6d. a-day, were put on the house and farm and 
 upon the ground. A horse had been seized, which was 
 cheap at £8 ; it was sold, but the poor man was only 
 paid £1, the rest having gone in the costs of the 
 distress. 
 
 In what year did that take place ? This occurred 
 about 1831. 
 
 Has the system been continued ? Yes, it has ; and 
 fourteen families, consisting of seventy-six individuals, 
 have been ejected within the last fourteen years, without 
 any compensation, on one townland, and two of them 
 were obliged to pay the law expenses. That is the 
 statement I have received. Four of these eases have 
 occurred lately, and some of them had paid as much as 
 from £60 to £100 originally for the tenant-right. 
 They were not allowed to sell it. They did not get 
 one penny of compensation, and the stones of one 
 person s dwelling, when thrown down, were afterwards 
 sold to the contractor for four guineas. 
 
 Eev» John Brown, D,D, — p, 708, 
 
 With respect to the tenant-right, is that prevalent in 
 the district, and to whom is the purchase-money paid ? 
 It has hitherto been prevalent, but of late, I must say, 
 with deep regret, that many efforts have been made to 
 deprive the tenant of that right, and some parties have 
 complained that its effects have been injurious, and that 
 it ought to be abolished. So far as I understand the 
 subject, I am decidedly of opinion that the landlords 
 are doing themselves serious injury by denying the 
 tenant his right, and I wish to define what I mean by 
 
Ill 
 
 tenant-right — It is the interest the tenant should have 
 in the capital he has expended, in money and labour, in 
 building houses and making permanent improvements. 
 In England and Scotland those houses are built by the 
 landlord and at his expense, and the landlord very fairly 
 charges the interest of that money ; but it does appear 
 to be very unjust that in Ireland, where the tenant 
 makes these improvements at his own expense, that the 
 landlord should mulct him for his own improvements. 
 This is the case where the tenant-right is denied. 
 
 Henry Wiggins, Esq,, Joint Agent, Grocers' Company. 
 
 Is the tenant-right or sale of good-will prevalent upon 
 the estate and recognised by the landlords ? It is not 
 recognised by the landlords, but the sale of it is allowed 
 on the estate by the agent in certain cases. Very few 
 sales have taken place since I have been in care of the pro- 
 perty ; and there were the cases of families emigrating, 
 and in these cases some arrears due to the Company 
 were forgiven, and some compensation — not more than 
 two years' rent — was also given by the parties getting 
 the land. 
 
 A. S d, Esq, 
 
 In your opinion, what is the effect of the sale of 
 tenant-right ? I think it has been carried to too great 
 an extent, and I think it rather injurious. I have been 
 endeavouring to check it as far as possible, and recom- 
 mending the proprietors not to allow them to get sucli 
 an extravagant price. — p. 667. 
 
112 
 
 jR. ilf— — r, Esq. 
 
 Is there any restriction put upon the rate of purchase 
 of the tenant-right ? In a few cases, we do not often 
 interfere ; but by degrees we are checking the immense 
 sums given for the tenant-right ; but anything like a 
 radical reform would cause considerable poverty, and 
 perhaps confusion. 
 
 Mr. J— S tL 
 
 Is the tenant-right or sale of good-will prevalent in 
 the district, and is it recognised by the landlords ? It 
 is recognised so far that the tenant gets the benefit of 
 it. 
 
 How is that purchase regulated ; do the Company fix 
 the sum ? It is managed by auction and sale. 
 
 Is that allowed by the proprietors ? It was carried 
 
 to too great an extent ; and some time back Mr. M- r, 
 
 and I think viery properly, in my opinion^ demurred, and 
 put a fair value upon land which was offering for sale. 
 
 The Eev. F. Blahely. 
 
 Is the tenant-right or sale of good-will prevalent in 
 the district, and is it recognised by the landlord ? It 
 is still recognised by landlords, but not in the same way 
 that it was thirty years ago. 
 
 How does it differ from the state of tenant-right 
 thirty years ago ? Thirty years ago the tenant was 
 allowed to sell to the best bidder, as we express it, 
 provided he was a peaceable and honest man ; but now 
 several landlords fix the sum to be paid at £10 an acre. 
 
113 
 
 and will not allow the outgoing tenant to get more, 
 with a view that the incoming tenant may be more able 
 to pay his rent. 
 
 Is not the sale of the tenant-right open to fair 
 competition amongst different persons ? It cannot be 
 said to be open to fair competition when an acreable 
 sum is fixed. 
 
 What should you say is the amount allowed for the 
 purchase of the tenant-right? It is £5, £10, or £lo ; 
 but I recollect when the same land would get £30 an 
 acre for the tenant-right, in proportion to the dwelling- 
 house, offices, fencing, planting, and so on. I gave £40 
 an acre thirty-two years ago where there was a lease, 
 and now I should not get more than half the money, 
 notwithstanding the extensive improvements I made ; 
 a wilderness comparatively has been made into a garden, 
 
 John Gahan, 
 
 Have you any suggestion to make which, in your 
 opinion, is w^orthy of our consideration, with a view to 
 an alteration of the present state of things with regard 
 to the holding of land in Ireland ? I have to state, 
 that originally, thirty years ago, there was no control 
 upon the tenant selling his land from £10 to £20 an 
 acre as his personal property. Now they are controlled 
 by the landlords, for they would wish them to have no 
 property, and the tenants considered themselves robbed. 
 
 Have you any remedy to suggest ? The reason that 
 makes the tenant think it is his hereditary right is, that 
 he is encouraged by the landlords to build, to quick, 
 f and to fence, and to expend his own money. The 
 
 L 2 
 
114 
 
 landlord will come upon our ground, and if you do not 
 repair he will disinherit you ; and after you have made 
 such improvements, at the termination of four, or five, or 
 six years, the landlord will send 'you an ejectment 
 process. You are tenant at will, you have no title, and 
 you have no redress, after all your labour, and money, 
 and toil. In Scotland and England it is not so ; all 
 those things are done, and the improvements made at 
 the expense of the landlords. 
 
 EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS, 
 APRIL 26, 1844. 
 
 P. Mathews, Esq. 
 
 Where the tenants have been removed, have they 
 received any compensation? Scarcely ever have I 
 known an instance in my neighbourhood. There is 
 one in particular, where the father and grandfather of 
 the present man lived upon the farm, and held about 
 two hundred acres. They built, as I have heard and 
 believe, and planted a great deal upon it. The lease 
 ended with the life. The life dropped in about the 
 month of April, and the tenant would not then be 
 allowed to sow the barley he had unsown, and for 
 which he had bought the seeds. He was turned out, 
 and got no compensation, but had to commence a law- 
 suit to get compensation for the planting which was on 
 the farm, but nothing for the buildings, which were 
 very considerable. 
 
 How long had he had the possession of the farm ? 
 The man that was in it was born in it. 
 
115 
 
 By whom were the buildings made ? By the father 
 and grandfather of the present man entirely. 
 
 Do you think, considering the length of time his 
 family had continued there, he might be considered as 
 repaid by the occupation? Certainly not. His lease 
 was determined by the life ; and immediately upon the 
 life dropping, the landlord seized and took possession of 
 all his improvements, and even that which the law gave 
 him protection for — the planting. His landlord liti- 
 gated with him ; and I think that fact itself occurring in 
 the country has been decidedly the means of preventing 
 other tenants improving who would have improved. 
 
 Was it long since that circumstance occurred ? Within 
 these three years this instance occurred. There was no 
 complaint of his being a bad tenant, and no complaint 
 of his having dilapidated any part of the premises. On 
 the contrary, he was a respectable tenant compared to 
 those who occupied them afterwards. 
 
 What was done with the land ? The landlord took it 
 into his own hands, and then set it to one of his sons. 
 
 Rev. Z>. Boylauy April 24:, 1844. 
 
 Do the tenants generally hold at will or by lease ? 
 Very generally at will. 
 
 What effect has the mode of tenure upon the con- 
 dition of the tenants or upon the improvements or 
 subdivision of the farms ? The want of tenure deprives 
 the tenants of the confidence they would have, and of 
 the inclination to improve. They feel that if they laid 
 out much either of their industry or whatever capital 
 they have, they could be charged by-and-by for the 
 
116 
 
 improvements they made. I think the want of tenure 
 is a very great discouragement to the improvement of 
 the farms. 
 
 Has anything occurred in the country which would 
 warrant that impression ? The rents have been raised 
 during my own time. I have been a landholder on 
 the estate since the year 1821, and the rent has been 
 raised during that time three times, and in some in- 
 stances very considerably raised. Now, the last time 
 the rent was raised there was a valuation of the land 
 generally, and then farms best cultivated and improved 
 w^ere thought to be charged more in consequence of 
 being so. 
 
 DROGHEDA. 
 
 Mr, N, Markay, April 26, 1844. 
 Do the tenants hold generally at will or by lease ? 
 All at will. 
 
 What effect has the mode of tenure upon the 
 condition of the tenants, or on the improvement or 
 subdivision of their farms ? It is what I have before 
 described ; it is a matter of perfect indifference. If 
 they make out the rent they never think of improving 
 under that tenure. 
 
 By whom are permanent improvements effected, by 
 the landlord or tenant, or jointly? By the tenants 
 only. The landlords in our neighbourhood seldom 
 take any pains with us at all. I have laid out the fee- 
 simple value of the farm very nearly; and several of 
 my friends have laid out a good deal of money only 
 upon terminable leases. There are a few persons who 
 
117 
 
 have made a little money by sheer industry in this 
 district; if you ask them why they do not improve 
 their farms, they reply by saying, " If we improve we 
 do not know how soon we may be turned out, if we 
 happen to vote as our conscience dictates. 
 
 Is the sale of the tenant-right or good-will prevalent 
 in the district ? ISTo, not with us, never with us scarcely. 
 
 Mr, Peter Hoey, April 24, 1844. 
 
 Do the tenants hold generally at will or by lease? 
 Generally at will. 
 
 AVhat effect has the mode of tenure upon the condi- 
 tion of the tenants, or on the improvement or subdivision 
 of their farms in your opinion ? I think it has a bad 
 effect on improvements. If they had long leases they 
 would improve, and have more encouragement to im- 
 prove. For instance, I had a garden on the Shirley 
 estate, and, at the expiration of the lease, the garden 
 was taken from me, after laying out about £150 upon 
 it, because I thought proper to vote for a certain member 
 of parliament. They had nothing else against me. I 
 differ in opinion from them, and they took the garden 
 from me, and kept it away four years, and then gave it 
 me back. They could not get any person to take it. 
 
 How do you know that it was taken from you for 
 that reason ? I have every reason to believe so ; the 
 gentleman told me that I should not have done so. 
 And that shows that those who improve as tenants at 
 will are likely to lose their property. 
 
 Was there any remuneration *given you for your 
 improvements upon that garden? None at all. I 
 
118 
 
 asked him why they took it from me, and he would not * 
 tell me. 
 
 How many years ago did this occur ? About five 
 years ago ; and he thought proper to return it to me 
 last year. 
 
 Did he return it at the same rent ? No ; I had 
 paid only two guineas rent, and he charged me three 
 guineas, when he gave it me back, for one rood of 
 ground. 
 
 The following description by a landlord of landlord- 
 ism in Ulster will convince the reader how necessary it 
 is that the tenants in Ulster should use all lawful 
 means to have their tenant-right secured and condition 
 amended : — 
 
 "I consent the more readily to give those views 
 publicity, because I have repeatedly, for the last twenty 
 years, sympathised for the suffering, oppressed, down- 
 trodden, and, I may say, plundered tenant-farmers in 
 Ulster. Yet, although I gave them my fullest sym- 
 pathy, and often wished it had been in my power to 
 remedy their oppressions, I never, until last Winter, 
 could see my way clearly, or understand how far it was 
 my place or duty, as a minister of the everlasting 
 Gospel, to mingle in politics, never, during the course 
 of my ministration, having stood upon any political 
 platform, or attended even one political meeting of any 
 kind. The suffering of the tenant-farmers in Ulster 
 have, however, risen to such a height, that silence any 
 longer upon my part would, I feel, be sin. Never, in 
 the history of the lifting of rents in Ireland, has rent 
 
119 
 
 been exacted with more rigour and severity than lias 
 the dead half-year's rent, including even the very rent- 
 charge thereon, been enforced upon various estates in 
 Ulster during the last Winter. I have talked to the 
 man who has handled the process served upon parties 
 to attend at the January sessions, to answer for the 
 dead half-year's rent due the November preceding ; 
 I have talked with the man who, in the first few months 
 of this year, has seen the surveyor's chain laid upon the 
 poor tenant-farmer's fields, to apportion them, field by 
 field, over to his more prosperous neighbours, as they 
 respectively lay in to such neighbour, w^here only the 
 dead half-year's rent to the November preceding w^as 
 due. And w^hen 
 
 " He, though now ascended upon high. 
 Yet bends on earth a brother's eye," 
 
 put it into the heart of a by-stander, a witness to the 
 cries, tears, and agonies of that wTctched family, to 
 advance them the dead half-year's rent, he w^as forced 
 to do so in secret, lest he should have been made to 
 suffer for his aid and sympathy towards them. Yes, I 
 have seen upon some of those estates the tears drop 
 down the cheeks of the able-bodied tenant-farmer, as 
 he related how grateful to God he was that, early in 
 November last, he had got his year's rent made up ; 
 while he cried bitterly as he told how he was obliged, 
 in December, to sell his last pair of pigs, and his last 
 pickle of seed oats, to make up the dead half-year's 
 rent, sooner than let legal expense be put upon him. 
 And yet these are the doings of the age in which we 
 
120 
 
 live ; done by the most bland and apparently gentle- 
 manly of men. Shame ! shame ! shame ! upon such 
 conduct ; tell it not upon the shores of Britain ; pro- 
 claim it not in the streets of London, lest the daughters 
 of our nobles be humbled, and the daughters of our 
 earls stand abashed. 
 
 I have known one of our most pious, worthy, and 
 efficient ministers, who, under struggling circumstances, 
 purchased a farm, and wlio, with the approbation and 
 sanction of the landlord, with the money advanced to 
 him from the agency-office, made great improvements 
 upon that farm. He was a man in comfortable circum- 
 stances, and in a few years, if let alone, would have 
 cleared off that money, together w^tli interest, every 
 penny of which was expended upon the landlord's own 
 land, yet they chose to pounce upon him for that 
 money ; and I knew and conversed with the gentleman 
 who purchased the horse that minister for many years 
 rode through his congregation, whilst discharging his 
 pastoral duties; that horse was sold by him as a last 
 alternative, to meet those demands now called upon 
 by the landlord. The gentleman told me he never 
 felt so much in his life, as when paying that minister 
 for his favourite horse — his companion and friend, as it 
 were, in his travels. I question if there was, in the 
 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Ireland, a man more universally beloved, respected, and 
 esteemed, than that minister was ; and I am not aware 
 that he ever, in a single instance, took part at a political 
 meeting. Such was the depression which took pos- 
 session of his mind, in consequence of these persecutions, 
 
121 
 
 that he sunk under them, and in a few months was 
 gathered unto his fathers, and I trust in peace. His 
 unrelenting creditor was then a young man, only lately 
 entered upon the possession of his inheritance. His 
 father, in his own day, was looked upon as a very 
 Solomon ; but in severity the son turned out a very 
 Rehoboam. In a few* years he also died; and now 
 their disembodied spirits are in those places to which a 
 righteous Judge has for ever assigned them. From 
 their well-known lives, and by their fruits, says Christ, 
 ye shall know them. I might well compare the unre- 
 lenting creditor and the suffering pastor to the rich 
 man and Lazarus in the parable — the one, through 
 riotous living and ruined constitution, falling prema- 
 turely into an early and unhonoured grave ; the other, 
 though broken with worldly cares, dying in the fear 
 and love of God, amidst the sighs and lamentations of 
 all who knew him. 
 
 The diligence which those agents use in forcing the 
 dead half-year's rent, and the boast which they make 
 of the success which has accompanied their exertions in 
 tightening home the screw, leads me to believe that they 
 are endeavouring to outrival one another in unenviable 
 celebrity, and are brisk candidates for each other's shoes. 
 Never, in the warmest contested election of 1852, when 
 most heated rancour seemed to have been infused into 
 the constituencies and candidates, did a greater rivalry 
 or a greater contest exist than does now, among many 
 of those agents, for each other's places. I fully expect 
 the next announcement from those rent-offices to the 
 tenant-farmers will be, that a year's rent must be p»id 
 
 M 
 
122 
 
 in advance before the plougli is put in ; and that it will 
 be enforced with such rigour, and become so generally 
 the order of the day, that the tenant-farmer who refuses 
 iraphcitly to obey it, will be served with law process. 
 
 The fearful injustice done to the tenant-farmers in 
 Ireland has long been a terrible blot upon her 
 escutcheon. The tenants have had no other alternative, 
 but either to live unhoused upon the bare green sod, or 
 make their own building improvements ; the landlord 
 would neither build or give a title to those who wanted 
 to improve, and thus has the land lain comparatively 
 desolate and barren, to the great detriment of the 
 revenue and w^ealth of the country. While some of 
 those who did improve, having no durable tenure in 
 their holdings, or no court of justice to which to appeal 
 to, to secure to them these improvements, have, through 
 real or fancied wn^ong, wildly taken into their own 
 hands the unholy law of vengeance ; and, as a conse- 
 quence thereof, the blood of a Powel, a Mauleverer, a 
 Bateson, and too many others, has unhappily stained 
 our land. I am clearly of opinion that the majesty of 
 the law ought to be vindicated and enforced, and that 
 no man ought to be permitted to break that law in the 
 doing of personal violence to his fellow-man, and that 
 whoso sheddeth man's blood by man ought his blood to 
 be shed. It is a terrible calamity to a nation when the 
 framework of society is broken up, and when every man 
 does that which seemeth right in his own eyes. The 
 Government should see that the laws which they are 
 called to administer are fair, just, and equal-handed, 
 amd they should in every instance enforce their obser- 
 
123 
 
 vance and punish their breach. But when, oh Ireland ! 
 Ireland ! Ireland ! will thy landlords learn to do equal- 
 handed justice to their tenant-farmers, and refrain from 
 provoking their poor, unprotected serfs from resorting to 
 wrath and vengeance, by learning to do justly by them, 
 practising mercy towards them, and walking humbly 
 with them before God. Oh, oppressed and down- 
 trodden tenantry ! when shall the timie to favour thee, 
 yea, the set time, be come ? When will thine oppressors 
 reflect upon the blood of those culprits who on the 
 scalfold have publicly atoned for their guilt, or consider 
 how much their injustice may have provoked that guilt, 
 and perhaps have maddened their victims into crime, 
 and think upon the miseries entailed upon their families 
 by those terrible and heartrending executions V — See 
 Address to the British Public, by Rev. A, G, Boss, A.M., 
 Minister of the First Presbyterian Church, Markethill, 
 April 23, 1856. 
 
 Besides that interference with the Ulster tenant-right 
 referred to in the preceding statements, and which 
 requires to be legislated upon, the following are the 
 causes which disturb the relation between landlords and 
 tenants in Ireland ; — 
 
 "That the competition for land has enabled the 
 landlords to exact exorbitant rents, and that rents 
 are generally so high as to be incompatible with the 
 comfort of tenantry, and to deprive them even of the 
 means of subsistence. That the tenant has no security 
 for the possession of his farm. That his lease, even if 
 he have a lease, is liable to be declared void in con^ 
 
124 
 
 sequence of some flaw of which a person in his condition 
 could not possibly have been aware, and that when he 
 is evicted, or his lease expires, not only the land itself 
 but all the improvements which he may have made in 
 it become the absolute property of the landlord, and 
 that without the obligation of making any compensation 
 to the tenant for improvements which may have doubled 
 the value of the 'land, and exhausted the entire capital 
 of the tenant." — The Dublin University Magazine, No. 
 218, Feh,, 1850, p, 159. 
 
 Let any one consider the aforesaid statements, and 
 then say, were the Ulster tenants wrong in striving to 
 return members of Parliament friendly to their tenant- 
 right. 
 
 Countrymen, the root of all this evil is the imperfect 
 tenure by which you hold, and the want of a sufficient 
 one. Hear on this subject the Lord Devon Com- 
 missioners — 
 
 Speaking generally with respect to the occupation 
 of land in Ireland, w^e find that it is usually held under 
 terminable leases for various terms, or by tenants from 
 year to year. ' 
 
 A 'person having a lease for ever is more commonly 
 to be found in the class of landlords than of occupants." 
 — Report, p. 15. 
 
 At the election of 1852, had the majority of the 
 electors in Ulster acted as the minority did, tenant- 
 right now would not be that contemptible thing which 
 it is — a matter fit only to be laughed at, and unworthy 
 the consideration of statesmen. (See Mr. Horsman's 
 late speech on the subject, so full of contempt and scorn). 
 
125 
 
 Let the electors of Ulster prepare for the next combat 
 by buckling on their arijjiour, and let the heart of Ulster 
 drive into the old veing.. of the House of Commons a 
 large portion of fresh Presbyterian blood ; the issue will 
 be glorious, even restoration of the friendly relation 
 between landlord and tenant. 
 
 We are perplexed, but \not in despair ; cast down, 
 but not destroyed. ^ 
 
 And here let me give n^y countrymen the advice 
 which was given to a deputation sent from Ireland to 
 one of the London Companiei in the famine year. 
 
 "If," said an important officer of that Company, 
 addressing the deputation, " you fail now, repeat your 
 visit, if you fail a second time 6ome again, only let your 
 cause be good ; in the end you will succeed ; Imye 
 bodies move slowly,'^ - 
 
 If any man go back, my soul shall have no pleasure 
 in him, saith the Lord, God is always ready to help 
 them who are willing to help themselves. Be strong, 
 and quit yourselves like men. The Lord bless thee, 
 and keep thee : The Lord make His face shine upon 
 thee, and be gracious unto thee : The Lord lift up His 
 countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. 
 
 M 2 
 
126 
 
 CHAPTEK XL 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY MEASURES TO PREVENT INTIMIDATION. 
 
 Laws Securing Freedom of Elections, 
 
 " Because elections ought to be free, the king com- 
 mandethj upon great forfeiture, that no man by force 
 of arms or menacing shall disturb any to make free 
 election/'— 31, E. F., c. 5. 
 
 By the declaration of rights, " All elections of 
 members of Parliament ought to be free." — W. & M., 
 session 2., c. 2. 
 
 " By the ancient common law of England all elec- 
 tions ought to be free," and forasmuch as the freedom 
 of election of members to serve in Parliament is of the 
 utmost consequence to the preservation of the riglits 
 and liberties of this kingdom, any infringement of that 
 freedom by violence voids the election. — 2 Gr. II., 
 c. 30, s. 1. 
 
 With a view of still farther preserving the freedom 
 of elections, the House of Commons have passed the 
 following resolutions : — 
 
 By a resolution of the House (passed at the com- 
 mencement of every session), It is a high infringement 
 of the liberties and privileges of the Commons for any 
 Lord of Parliament, or any Lord Lieutenant of any 
 
127 
 
 county to concern himself in the election of members 
 of Parliament. " 
 
 By another resolution, 17, Journal 507: — It is 
 highly criminal in any minister or servant of the 
 Crown, directly or indirectly, to use the powers of 
 office in the election of representatives to serve in 
 Parliament ; and an attempt of such influence will at all 
 times be resented by this House, as aimed at its own 
 honour, dignity, and independence, as an infringement 
 of the dearest rights of every subject throughout the 
 empire, and tending to sap the basis of this free and 
 happy constitution/' 
 
 By another resolution also, 9, Journal 191, " The 
 sending of warrants or letters to high constables, or 
 constables, or other officers, to be communicated to 
 freeholders, or other electors, when a knight of the 
 shire or other member is to be chosen to serve in 
 Parliament, or threatening the electors, is unparlia- 
 memtary, and a violation of the rights of election." 
 
 But all this protection by statute law has been 
 rendered null and void by the law of custom or ancient 
 usage, according to which landlords command their 
 tenants, and thus prevent the free exercise of the 
 elective franchise. 
 
 2m Feb,, 1854. llth Vic, 
 
 A BILL TO CONSOLIDATE AND AMEND THE LAWS RELATING 
 TO BRIBERY, TREATING, AND UNDUE INFLUENCE AT 
 ELECTIONS OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 " Whereas the laws in "force for preventing corrupt 
 practices in the election of members to serve in Parlia- 
 
128 
 
 ment have been found insufficient ; and whereas it is 
 expedient to consolidate and amend such laws, and to 
 make further provision for securing the freedom of 
 such elections: be it enacted by the Queen's most 
 excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent 
 of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in 
 this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority 
 of the same, as follows/' 
 
 The bill consists of two parts ; the one part is 
 designed to counteract the great tendency there has 
 been to practise bribery in the affair of elections — the 
 other to prevent intimidation. 
 
 On the consideration of the part having respect to 
 bribery, we do not purpose to enter. It is not neces- 
 sary to ply this expedient in Ireland. The cheaper and 
 more sure agency — intimidation — can always be made 
 to bear there. England is the field where bribery has 
 prevailed. Fines have been devised as the remedy for 
 this evil. In our judgment, for deliverance from 
 bribery, more reliance is to be placed on moral or inner 
 than on outer agencies. In Scotland, a highly culti- 
 vated country, we see little bribery ; in England, less 
 cultivated, it prevails largely. 
 
 Scotland, as we have before stated, has been com- 
 paratively free from the disgrace of the open bribery 
 and coercion practised at the English elections since 
 passing of the Keform Act." — See Abridgement of the 
 Evidence given before the Select Committee appointed^ 
 in 1835. 
 
 The following is the late law to prevent intimi- 
 dation : — 
 
129 
 
 " IX. Every person who shall, by himself or by any 
 other person on his behalf, make use of, or threaten 
 to make use of, any force, violence, or restraint, or inflict, 
 or threaten to inflict, any injury, damage, harm, or loss, 
 personal or pecuniary, or in any other manner practise 
 intimidation upon or against any person on account 
 of such person having voted or refrained from voting, 
 or in order to induce or compel such person to 
 vote or refrain from voting, at any election, shall be 
 deemed to have committed the oflenceof undue influence, 
 and shall forfeit the sum of fifty pounds to any person 
 who shall sue for the same, together with full costs of 
 suit." 
 
 The condition of Ireland is peculiarly favourable to 
 intimidation. The circumstances there are — the depen- 
 dent condition of the farming interest and their com- 
 parative poverty considered as a class. The majority 
 of the Irish farmers are tenants at will. The tenant 
 at will holds his farm at the will of " his landlord. 
 Any one will see this state is, in the strict sense of the 
 word, a dependent one. Because of his entire depen- 
 dence on the landlord, the Irish tenant feels it to be 
 hazardous to him to gainsay the will of his landlord. 
 Fear, naturally and necessarily, rises in the mind of the 
 Irish tenant, particularly when he feels inclined to take 
 an opposite course at an election from that taken by his 
 landlord. 
 
 The legislation, in the aforesaid circumstances, should 
 have been of such nature as to counteract the existing 
 evil — the abolition or a wise modification of the feudal 
 laws bearing on land in Ireland. 
 
130 
 
 Never was legislation more deficient than that which 
 has been made on this important subject, so much 
 requiring efficient legislation. Ireland groans under 
 the load of intimidation. 
 
 Late legislation leaves the unhappy social condition 
 untouched, and would prevent intimidation only by 
 means of the penalty of fifty pounds. 
 
 Notwithstanding this law, in Ireland matters will 
 continue as they have done hitherto. On election 
 occasions, landlords will try to exercise their power in 
 such a way as not to incur the penalty ; but should 
 they, at any time, incur the penalty, in their circum- 
 stances it will be quite safe. Where is the tenant who 
 would venture to cast himself on the buckler of an 
 enraged landlord or agent ? By prosecuting, the tenant 
 would forfeit far more than he could gain. Add to 
 this the danger of a non-suit. 
 
 The axe has not yet been laid to the root of the tree. 
 
131 
 
 CHAPTEK XIL 
 
 ALLEGED REMEDY FOR INTIMIDATION AND BRIBERY. 
 
 The Vote hy Ballot, 
 
 The qualification of the elector being ascertained, the 
 vote is given either openly, or by ballot— when openly, 
 the voter having produced his authority to vote, is 
 called upon to declare the candidate for which he votes. 
 This he does in the polling-booth before all present. 
 
 The following letter from an American statesman 
 will enable the reader to understand how the vote by 
 ballot is given : — 
 
 London, March 21, 1853, 
 Dear Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 
 of the l7th March, and to reply to the inquiries it contains. 
 
 1 . The name of the voter- is not affixed to the paper, which is placed in 
 the ballot box. The form is pretty much as follows : — 
 
 CONGRESS. 
 " A. B." 
 
 The name of the candidate (A. B.), is folded over, so as to let the word 
 Congress" appear, and in that condition it is handed in. The ticket or 
 paper for any other office is of the same general form, with an appropriate 
 heading, as " Sheriff," or "Mayor," " Common Council," &c., as the case 
 may be, 
 
 2. There are always judges of the election present during the time the 
 polls are open, and at the time the state of the poll is ascertained. These 
 are for the most part friends of each of the candidates. Some friends of the 
 respective candidates (political friends) are also generally admitted besides. 
 
132 
 
 3. A register is kept in most places of the persons entitled to vote. This 
 is made up a certain number of days before the election. A list is always on 
 the table where the votes are received, Votes are given at a window 
 generally. On the outside the friends of the candidates are ready to chal- 
 lenge a doubtful voter's right to vote, and the vote is rejected or received as 
 the judges may decide. The criterion is made up of citizenship— residence 
 in the particular ward or district ; that is, of the qualifications required by 
 law. — I am, your faithful obedient servant, 
 
 J, B. Ingersoll. 
 
 Rev. W. Brown, Tobermore. 
 
 Many consider the ballot a sure protection from 
 intimidation and bribery. 
 
 Let us examine the ballot, first in its power to 
 protect from intimidation — then bribery. 
 
 Secret ballot" has recently been adopted at the 
 State elections in Boston, America. The alleged 
 motive was protection from intimidation ; but to see 
 how little calculated this is to effect the object or end, 
 it is only necessary to consider the way the elections 
 are conducted there. 
 
 I went (says a gentleman who lately witnessed one 
 of the elections at Boston), to two of the polling places 
 to see the process. Persons were in attendance dis- 
 tributing lists of the candidates of the three competing 
 parties. The voter took which list he pleased, put it 
 into an envelope, and handed it to persons sitting in a 
 portion of the room parted off, who were appointed to 
 receive it. I saw no attempt at concealment or mystery ; 
 the voting which I witnessed was as open as if no 
 envelope had been used. It was, indeed, in the power 
 of any one to have taken all the three lists and an 
 envelope, and, stepping aside, to have put into the 
 envelope secretly the list he preferred ; but, as was 
 
133 
 
 argued by one of the speakers at the meeting above 
 referred to — a manufacturer, and a large employer of 
 labour, it would have been most easy for any one 
 wishing to influence votes, to cause the voters, whom 
 he could not trust, to put the proper list into the 
 envelope in the presence of an agent attending for that 
 purpose. 
 
 The particular mode adopted, therefore, would not 
 have ensured a protection from intimidation, if any 
 powerful parties had been determined to exercise it. — 
 See Notes on Public Subjects, by N. S. Tremenheere, 
 Esq., 1852. 
 
 We would ask the reader, then, where is the protection 
 the ballot gives from the control of the agent ? The 
 agent would be present with his lists, and woe to the 
 man who would not put into the envelope at his bidding. 
 
 But it has been said only let the ballot be established, 
 the landlord will give up in despair all hope of com-, 
 manding the votes of his tenants ; [but they know little 
 of human nature who speak thus. 
 
 A landlord who would be disposed to compel would 
 not change his purpose because of the attempt to out- 
 wit him by the invention of the ballot ; he would become 
 on the contrary doubly vigilant, inquisitive, and severe. 
 
 Suppose the ballot substituted for open voting, the 
 landlord as now would try to pledge his tenants, and 
 what could hinder him to cause all the tenants that were 
 pledged to move up to the poll under his banner. 
 
 Not only would the tenant under the ballot be con- 
 stantly exposed to the suspicions of the landlord, but 
 the landlord would be exposed to the constant suspicions 
 
 N 
 
134 
 
 and the unjust misrepresentations of the tenant. Every 
 tenant who was dismissed for a fair and a just cause 
 would presume he was suspected, would attribute his 
 dismissal to political motives, and endeavour to make 
 himself a martyr with the public ; and in this way violent 
 hatred would by the ballot be disseminated among classes 
 of men in whose agreement the order and happiness of 
 the country depends. All objections to ballot which 
 are important in England apply with much greater 
 force to Ireland, a country of intense agitation, fierce 
 passions, and quick movements. 
 
 It has been maintained the ballot would put an end 
 to bribery. It would have the very opposite influence. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM " THE MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR 
 OF NEW YORK TO TPIE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY," 
 FOR THE YEAR 1850: — 
 
 The alarming increase of bribery in our popular 
 elections demands your serious attention. The pre- 
 servation of our liberties depends on the purity of the 
 elective franchise and its independent exercise by the 
 citizen ; and I trust you will adopt such measures as 
 shall effectually protect the ballot from all corrupting 
 influences/' — New York Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 
 8, 1850. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM "THE MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR 
 OF NEW YORK TO THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY," 
 FOR THE YEAR 1851: — 
 
 " The increase of corrupt practices in our elections 
 has become a subject of general and just complaint. 
 
135 
 
 It is represented that in some localities the suffrages of 
 considerable numbers have been openly purchased with 
 money. We owe it to ourselves and to posterity, and 
 to the free institutions which w^e have inherited, to 
 crush the hateful evil in its infancy, before it attains 
 sufficient growth to endanger our political system. 
 The honest and independent exercise of the right of 
 suffrage is a vital principle in the theory of represen- 
 tative government. Not only should the law punish 
 every violation of this principle as a crime against the 
 integrity of the State, but any person concerned in 
 giving or receiving any pecuniary consideration for a 
 vote should, upon challenge, be deprived of the privilege 
 of voting. I submit the subject to your consideration, 
 in the hope that additional remedies may be presented 
 and enforced." 
 
 From New York Herald, May 20, 1852. 
 
 THE CORRUPTION OF THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 " The Whig primary elections that have been carried 
 on during the past week and the present in this city 
 exhibit more than the ordinary amount of bribery, cor- 
 ruption, and fraud of every description. The way in 
 which the primary elections both of Whigs and Demo- 
 crats have been managed for several years past in this 
 city is a subject of comment and complaint among all 
 classes ; but no remedy appears to have been devised 
 for the evil, and respectable citizens, instead of going to 
 those elections and taking such a part in them as would 
 keep the rowdies and politicians in abeyance, have sur- 
 
136 
 
 rendered their rights into their hands, and for the most 
 part have kept aloof from the contest, preferring to mind 
 their own private business, rather than be exposed to col- 
 lision with bullies in minding the business of the public, 
 which is everybody's business now-a-days. The result 
 is that corruption prevails to an alarming extent in 
 these primary party elections, which rule and control 
 the legal elections of the people. The nominees of the 
 rum and rowdy delegates, no matter how unfit for 
 office, carrying all before them, according to the usages 
 of party in voting for what they call ' regular nomina- 
 tions,' but which ought to be called irregular, disorderly, 
 and mob-nominations. For instance, look at proceedings 
 on Thursday last in the nineteenth ward — voters carried 
 to the ballot-box in scores of waggons from various 
 localities ; and in other wards hundreds of Democrats 
 voting for Scott and Fillmore, men ignorant and steeped 
 in crime, picked up in all the purlieus of the city, and 
 purchased at a dollar a head ; and some, it is said, as 
 low as fifty cents., to deposit in the ballot-box a vote 
 they had never seen. This demoralising process is 
 playing fearful havoc with our institutions, rendering 
 them to a vast extent not only a nullity, but perverting 
 them to mischief, to bad and corrupt legislation, and to 
 the maladministration of public justice. The judicious 
 grieve at these results, but what can they do to arrest 
 the progress of the evil ? What are the remedies ? In 
 the first place, honest men ought to attend the primary 
 elections, and not leave them in the hands of rowdies 
 and scheming politicians, and they ought always to vote 
 for the best men. In the second place, there ought to 
 
137 
 
 be a registration established, by which no man could 
 sail under false colours, or deposit a vote at a primary 
 election, unless he belongs to the ward, and belonged to 
 the 2)arty to which he professed to belo7ig. And the 
 inspectors of the election ought to have the power to 
 administer an oath to every voter; and perjury in such 
 oases ought to be made as much a criminal offence as it 
 would be in any legal proceeding." 
 
 It appears, then, from the above, that one of the 
 principal remedies against corruption in a State whose 
 revised statutes of 1845-6 nominally enact the secret 
 ballot, is now considered to be open voting ! 
 
 A distinguished person tlius describes the debasing 
 tendency of the ballot : — 
 
 " What a flood of deceit and villany comes in with 
 the ballot ! I admit there are great moral faults under 
 the present system. It is a serious violation of duty to 
 vote for A, w^ien you think B the more worthy repre- 
 sentative ; but the open voter, acting under the influence 
 of his landlord, commits only this one fault, great as it 
 is : — If he vote for his candidate, the landlord is satisfied, 
 and asks no other sacrifice of truth and opinion ; but 
 if the tenant vote against his landlord under the ballot, 
 he is practising every day some fraud to conceal his first 
 deviation from truth. The present method may produce 
 a vicious act, but the ballot establishes a vicious 
 habit, and then it is of some consequence that the 
 law should not range itself on the side of vice. In 
 the open voting the law leaves you fairly to choose 
 between the dangers of giving an honest vote ; but the 
 ballot law opens a booth and asylum for fraud, calling 
 
 n2 
 
138 
 
 upon all men to lie bj beat of drum, forbidding open 
 honesty, promising impunity for the most scandalous 
 deceit, and encouraging men to take no other view of 
 virtue than whether it pays or does not pay ; for it 
 must always be remembered, and often repeated, and 
 said and sung to Mr. Grote, that it is to the degraded 
 liar only that the box will be useful. The man who 
 performs what he promises needs no box. The man 
 who refuses to do what he is asked to do despises the 
 box. The liar, who says he will do what he never 
 means to do, is the only man to whom the box is useful, 
 and for whom this leaf of the punic-handeds is to be 
 inserted in our statute-book. The other vices will begin 
 to look up, and to think themselves neglected if false- 
 hood obtain such flattering distinction, and is thus 
 defended by the solemn enactments of law. 
 
 Old John Brandolph, the American orator, was 
 asked one day, at a dinner party in London, whether 
 the ballot prevailed in his State of Virginia ? ' I 
 scarcely believe,' he said, ^we have such a fool in 
 all Virginia as to mention even the vote by ballot ; and 
 I do not hesitate to say that the adoption of the ballot 
 would make any nation a nation of scoundrels, if it did 
 not find them so.' John Brandolph was right ; he felt that 
 it was not necessary that a people should be false in order 
 to be free. Universal hypocrisy would be the consequence 
 of ballot. We should soon say, on deliberation, what 
 David only asserted in his haste — that ^ All men are 
 liars.' " 
 
 From the preceding, the reader will see with what 
 justice it has been said of the vote by ballot that it is 
 
139 
 
 an unmanly and un-English mode of exercising the 
 franchise, and that it would encourage duplicity, false- 
 hood, and treachery, and thus corrupt and destroy the 
 moral character of the elector. 
 
 Vereor ne procedente tempore ex ipso remedio vitia 
 nascantur. Est enim periculum ne tacitis sufFragiis 
 impudentia irrepat. ISTam quotocuique eadem honestatis 
 cura secreto, quae palam ? C. Plinii. Ep., Lib. 3. xx. 
 
 Scripseram tibi verendum esse ne ex tacitis suffragiis 
 vitium aliquod existeret ; factum est. . . . Tantum 
 licentise pravis in geniis adjicit ilia fiducia, Quis enim 
 sciet ? Poposcit tabellas, stylum accepit, demisit caput, 
 neminem veretur, se contemnit. — Lib. 4. xxv. 
 
 Ballot, if adopted in this country, would destroy the 
 legitimate influence of property, and lead to com- 
 munism — would dissever natural connexions, and anni- 
 hilate the sacred obligations of gratitude such as ought 
 to subsist between landlord and tenant. The design 
 of all right government is to preserve the rights of all 
 sections of the commonwealth. Then what more 
 natural and proper than that they who appoint men to 
 make laws to preserve property should have property. 
 Such will be the most likely to send forth Conservative 
 members. 
 
 It holds that in proportion to the extent of the pro- 
 perty is the influence which the proprietor can exercise 
 on elections. Landowners accordingly have not only 
 a personal but also an indirect influence by means of 
 their tenants. This influence incident to property 
 may be put forth in two ways — either by controlling 
 the tenants, or leaving them to the freedom of their 
 
140 
 
 own will. The former is the more common ; the latter 
 way is rarely observed, though the more excellent way, 
 and, when followed, the most excellent sentiments are 
 called forth in the tenant's heart tow^ard the landlord, 
 even love, gratitude, esteem. The prevalence of the 
 former mode of dealing with tenants, the compulsory, 
 has led to the cry to do away with the landlord- 
 influence altogether; and the ballot is the alleged 
 remedy. And assuredly a law of this kind w^ould put 
 an end to the influence of property. Let a law be 
 made introducing vote by ballot, and the influence 
 of property ceases. It is the publicity of the vote 
 which secures the influence of the landlord. Make 
 the vote secret, and the landlord's influence ceases. 
 But is it to be desired that the influence of property 
 should cease to operate in the affair of elections ? By 
 no means. By such a measure there would be an escape 
 from the alleged tyranny of landlords and agents, but 
 there would ensue far worse tyranny — that of the mob. 
 Introduce the ballot, and you have by consequence 
 universal suffrage, communism, revolution, the loss of 
 all our ancient and time-honoured institutions. The 
 ballot and universal suffrage are never mentioned by 
 the Radicals without being coupled together. Nobody 
 ever thinks of separating them. Any person who 
 attempted to separate them, at torchlight or sunlight, 
 would be hooted down. It is professedly avowed that 
 ballot is only wanted for ulterior purposes ; and no one 
 makes a secret of what these ulterior purposes are. Not 
 only would the gift of ballot, if universal suffrage were 
 refused, not be received wdth gratitude, but it would 
 
141 
 
 be received with furious indignation and contempt, and 
 universal suffrage be speedily extorted from you. 
 
 *'It is hardly necessary to say anything about universal 
 suffrage, as there is no act of folly or madness which it 
 may not in the beginning produce. There would be 
 the greatest risk that the monarchy as at present consti- 
 tuted, the funded debt, the Established Church titles, 
 and hereditary peerage, would give way before it. 
 Many really honest men wish for these changes. I 
 know, or at least believe, that wheat and barley would 
 grow if there were no Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
 domestic fowls would breed if our Viscount Melbourne 
 was again called Mr. Lamb ; but they have stronger 
 nerves than I have who would venture to bring these 
 changes about. So few nations have been free, it is so 
 difficult to guard freedom from kings, and mobs, and 
 patriotic gentlemen, and we are in such a very tolerable 
 state of happiness in England, that I think such changes 
 would be very rash ; and I have an utter mistrust in 
 the loyalty and penetration of political reasoners, who 
 pretend to foresee all the consequences to which they 
 would give birth. "When I speak of the tolerable state 
 of happiness in which we live in England, I do not 
 speak merely of nobles, squires, and canons of St. Paul's, 
 but of drivers of coaches, clerks in offices, carpenters, 
 blacksmiths, butchers, and bakers, and most men who 
 do not marry upon nothing, and become burdened with 
 large families, before they have arrived at years of 
 maturity. The earth is not sufficiently fertile for them. 
 Difficilem victum fundit durissima tellus. After all, 
 the great art in politics and war is to choose a good 
 
142 
 
 position for making a stand. The Duke of Wellington 
 examined and fortified the lines of Torres Yedras a 
 year before he had any occasion to make use of them, 
 and he had previously marked out Waterloo as the 
 probable scene of some future exploit. The people 
 seem to be hurrying on through all the well-known 
 steps to anarchy. They must be stopped at some pass 
 or another. The first is the best and the most easily 
 defended. The people have right to ballot or to any- 
 thing else that will make them happy, and they have a 
 right to nothing which will make them unhappy. They 
 are the best judges of their immediate gratifications, and 
 the worst judges of what would best conduce to their 
 interests for a series of years. Most earnestly and 
 conscientiously wishing their gopd, I say no ballot." — 
 Sydney Smith. 
 
 The ballot, considered as a matter of civil policy, is 
 incompatible with the nature of the franchise ; also, it 
 has incident to it a certain great defect — the impos- 
 sibility it renders to the detection of frauds ; besides, 
 it is more favourable to an usurper than the, other 
 mode. 
 
 An elector holds the franchise as the trustee of the 
 people, not as his property ; for their use, not for his ; 
 as a public officer, not in a private right. The public, 
 accordingly, have the right to put the following ques- 
 tions : — Who brought that mischievous, profligate villain 
 into Parliament? Let us see the names of his real 
 supporters? Who stood out against the strong and 
 uplifted arm of power ? Who opposed the man whom 
 we all knew to be one of the best men in the country ? 
 
143 
 
 These questions are compatible with a social state dis- 
 tinguished by the open vote. Are these fair and useful 
 questions to be veiled hereafter in impenetrable mystery? 
 But this must be the case, if the ballot comes. 
 
 The publicity of the vote incites to proper, and 
 dissuades from improper, conduct. 
 
 Is this sort of publicity of no good as a restraint ? 
 Is it of no good as an incitement to, and a reward for, 
 exertions ? Is not public opinion formed by such 
 feelings ; and is it not a dark and demoralising system 
 to draw this veil over human actions, to say to the 
 mass — Be base, and you will not be despised; be virtuous, 
 and you will not be honoured. 
 
 But the ballot is defective, because it does not admit 
 of scrutiny ; this is compatible only with the open vote. 
 
 If there be a ballot, there can be no scrutiny ; the 
 controlling power of Parliament is lost, and the members 
 are entirely in the hands of relieving officers. 
 
 The ballot is a more convenient instrument in the 
 hands of an usurper, for the establishment of military 
 despotism, than the open way is. Let the officials only 
 of the despot be entrusted with the guarding of the 
 ballot-boxes ; let the printers be menaced if they granted 
 tickets subscribed with " No let the authorities furnish 
 only those marked with " Yes f let the keeping of the 
 boxes be in the hands of the police ; let no scrutineers 
 be chosen, or permitted to see and check proceedings. 
 All this must render it impossible to tell to what extent 
 the popular expression may have been falsified. 
 
 The ballot is a nose of wax, which the usurper may 
 turn whithersoever he listeth. 
 
144 
 
 The following weighty objections stand against the 
 ballot : — 
 
 1. Because the franchise is only enjoyed by the 
 minority; and while the majority are excluded, the 
 minority elect the law-makers ; therefore, the majority 
 ought to know what the minority are doing. 
 
 2. Because the evils of corruption and intimidation 
 would not be effectually prevented by the ballot. Seeing 
 that corruption could be conducted on a large scale, as 
 in the Shoreham case, by bribing large bodies in a mass, 
 under the name of benevolent societies, let St. John 
 and Judas Iscariot be the candidates; the agent of 
 Judas intimates to the leaders of the corrupt portion of 
 the constituency that £5,000 or £1,000 shall be given 
 if Judas be elected. Will not the Iscariot win ? 
 
 3. Because it would have the effect of repressing 
 public opinion, by inducing men to conceal their opinions 
 from each other. 
 
 4. Because the sacrifice of public and private virtue 
 would be a much greater evil than any good that could 
 be derived from party and political advantages. If a 
 voter can conceal his vote from his landlord's customer, 
 he cannot conceal his promises from his family, and thus 
 he will practically educate his children in lying, deceit, 
 and treachery. 
 
 5. Because the ballot is a degradation to which no 
 good citizen should be subjected. Every man ought 
 to have honour and respect for doing his duty to his 
 country, of which honour and respect the ballot would 
 deprive him. 
 
 6. Because darkness is always unfavourable to virtue, 
 
145 
 
 on the principle that men love darkness rather than 
 light, because their deeds are evil. 
 
 7. Because enthusiasm is the handmaid of liberty, 
 and the ballot would repress enthusiasm. 
 
 8. Because the ballot is the refuge of the coward, 
 who will only be a patriot when on the sunny side of 
 the hedge. 
 
 9. Because a better plan may be adopted for getting 
 rid of bribery and intimidation. 
 
 10. Because the people of England are habitually 
 frank and truth-loving. The ballot would establish a 
 vast change in these their highest attributes, and the 
 various classes of society would be estranged by sus- 
 picion, apprehension, and hostility. 
 
 11. Because the unrepresented classes would speedily 
 become envenomed and embittered against those who 
 are represented, and would thunder at the gates of the 
 Constitution, to be let in, before they are educated, or 
 had any sensible notion of what they were asking. 
 
 o 
 
146 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE REAL REMEDY FOR REMOVAL OF INTIMIDATION 
 FROM THE HEART OP IRELAND. 
 
 The remedy would be a measure to place the tenants 
 in an independent, whereas now they are in a most 
 dependant and servile condition. 
 
 The following are the features of this condition : — 
 
 In the counties the franchise is in the hands of a 
 few great proprietors — only a nominal franchise in the 
 hands of the tenants. The nature of land tenure is a 
 most dependant state. 
 
 The reality of the franchise is in the landlord. 
 
 This is nearly the case in all the counties. Take 
 one example — county Derry. 
 
 At present the Beresford family have on lease 
 three of these properties, which enables them to 
 return one member. The Earl of Londonderry, and 
 his brother, Mr. A. Stewart, possess two more, and 
 have hitherto succeeded in returning the other ; but a 
 Mr. Ogilby has created a great number of freeholders 
 on a lease granted him by the Skinners Company, that, 
 combined with the interest he can procure from the 
 Ponsonby family, who hold another of these pro- 
 
147 
 
 portions, and from Sir William Rowley, he will succeed 
 most probably in the representation of the county. 
 Patrons, Marquis of Waterford, Earl of Londonderry, 
 and Mr. Ogilby.* — See Oldjield's Parliamentary History. 
 
 THE COTTIER TENANTS OF IRELAND PLEDGED TO VOTE 
 AT THE BIDDING OF THE LANDLORDS. 
 
 " In regard to Irish tenants, the highest bidder, as 
 I have already said, is always preferred, and it is 
 invariably stipulated that he must give the proprietor 
 his vote in elections. On this head the tenants are 
 exceedingly tractable. They have no notion of sup- 
 porting a candidate from any other motive than interest ; 
 and when solicited for a vote, their answer always is, 
 ^ Why, to be sure, and do you think now that I would 
 vote against my landlord.' " — See Account of Ireland by 
 E, Wak^Jield, Vol I. p. 304. 
 
 STATE OP LAND TENURE IN IRELAND. 
 
 "Looking generally through Ireland," say the Lord 
 Devon Commissioners, " we believe that the large pro- 
 portion of the land is occupied by tenants at will." 
 
 Mr. Mill says — " Nearly the whole agricultural popu- 
 lation of Ireland may be said to be cottier-tenants, 
 except so far as the Ulster tenant-right constitutes an 
 exception. In its final acceptation the word cottier 
 designates a class of sub-tenants, who rent a cottage 
 and acre or two of land from the small farmers. But 
 
 * Since the above was written, some of the estates have fallen into the 
 hands of the Companies. 
 
148 
 
 the usage of the writers has long since stretched the 
 term to those small farmers themselves, and generally 
 all peasants and farmers whose rents are determined by 
 competition." — Principles of Political Economy^ hy J. 
 S. Mill, Vol. I., p. 368. 
 
 The same distinguished person states — " The principal 
 European example of this tenure is Ireland, and it is 
 from that country that the term cottier is derived. In 
 Austria the contracts between landlords arid tenants 
 are irrevocable.'' Mr. Sumnef, a late traveller in 
 Central Eussia, says, he w^ould much rather be a 
 Eussian slave than an Irish peasant. In Persia the 
 right of the proprietor or landlord is only to one tenth 
 of the value of the land. The laws there were origi- 
 nally made for the benefit of the peasant, and his rights 
 are carefully preserved. In Turkey the small pro- 
 prietors hold from the lords at a fixed rent. 
 
 Every reader will see the aforesaid is a most servile 
 and dependant condition, and its causes have been 
 the confiscations and the feudal laws. 
 
 The tendency of the feudal laws is to make property 
 flow into the hands of a few proprietors, and to prevent 
 it from falling into the hands of the many. 
 
 Abolish or modify these laws, it will flow in the 
 direction of the many. 
 
 Let Parliament modify the feudal laws, and property 
 will soon flow into the hands of the many. 
 
 " If," says Mr. Kay, ^' the system of landed tenures 
 in Ireland were altered, the Irish farmers, w^ho now 
 send over their savings to the English saving banks, 
 or hide them among rafters of their barns in Ireland, 
 
149 
 
 would soon buy land. A great class of small yeomanry, 
 like those who, in the olden time, existed in England, 
 would rapidly spring up. Every man who spent £100 
 in a plot of land would laugh at the demagogue," and 
 lie might have added, at the landlord or agent who 
 would control his vote. 
 
 In the existing state of the franchise, the real fran- 
 chise is in the landlord, the nominal in the tenant, 
 which makes the Irish voter hold no higher position 
 than that of a white slave. If the tenant dare to vote 
 contrary to the will of the landlord or agent, he exposes 
 himself to the vengeance of the office ; he becomes liable 
 to pay his rent at the most inconvenient season, or to 
 be thrown out a fit subject soon for the poor-house, or 
 to famish and die by the way-side. All this and much 
 more results from the present degraded and debasing 
 state of Ireland. 
 
 How, the reader will say, does the landlord hold this 
 undivided sway ? In all cottier tenancy there is the 
 implied if not expressed compact with the landlord that 
 the tenant will vote at his bidding. How much all this 
 savours of unchanged feudalism. 
 
 Under the existing state the Irish voter is a cottier, 
 and liable to fear of the landlord. Let parliament 
 modify the feudal law, he will become a proprietor, 
 and thereby be placed in circumstances not to be afraid. 
 
 Fear is necessarily incident to the present condition, 
 and how easy it is for the landlord to practice intimida- 
 tion. 
 
 Place the tenant in the opposite circumstances and 
 he will be exempt from fear. Placed as he would 
 
 o 2 
 
150 
 
 be by this new order of things in circumstances to be 
 independent of any man, he would think, and feel, and 
 act independently. " A proprietor of Western Europe 
 is in a far more independent position than even an 
 English farmer. does not depend for the possession 
 of his property upon the will of any man. His farm is 
 his own ; and until he chooses to sell it no man can 
 deprive him of it. It is not, therefore, necessary for 
 him to flatter or to cringe to some rich proprietor, in 
 order to secure his position. The consciousness of the 
 thorough independence of his position gives the pro- 
 prietor a feeling and an air of dignity. This con- 
 sciousness is in itself an education of the highest ordei*. 
 It renovates the man." Thus electoral independence 
 naturally and necessarily results from the condition of 
 proprietor. — Kay, 
 
 In the existing state of the franchise, how low, in a 
 moral point of view, the tenant elector becomes. He 
 is learned to act wholly from interest ; he is brought 
 back to the old pagan principle, thinking only about 
 what he should eat, and what he should drink, and 
 wherewithal he should be clothed ; and all this degra- 
 dation he must take upon him, to serve a man who is 
 mightily served by him. The landlord, by returning 
 that member, may obtain a place perhaps in some of 
 the embassies for his son or brother ; and yet this man, 
 served as he is by the tenant, by his agent is continually 
 crying give, give. Too often in Ireland the landlord has 
 forgotten the favourite maxim of every good landlord, 
 live and let live ; but let Parliament modify the feudal 
 law which thus chains down the elector to the chariot- 
 
151 
 
 Avheel of the landlord, and let these men become what 
 the men have become in all the countries where these 
 laws have been abolished, and the man who had not a 
 thought above the meat that perisheth will acquire not 
 only a taste for knowledge, wdiich has almost become 
 extinct in Ireland, but will appreciate that saying, In 
 honour preferring one another," and that other senti- 
 ment, ''If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right 
 hand forget her cunning." Yes, the new order of 
 things would make men patriots.. " This position of in- 
 dependence of others and of dependence on himself 
 alone, and this consciousness that his own success is 
 unimpeded by any restriction, ennoble the peasant in 
 his own eyes, and give him an exhilirating resolution 
 to succeed, which increases his virtue and manliness as 
 much as it ensures his prosperity. The fact too that 
 he h^s, or soon will have, a share in the landed property 
 of the country, gives him a much greater interest in the 
 national glory and prosperity. He feels that he himself 
 is individually concerned in the stability and honour of 
 the government, in the preservation of public order, and 
 in the improvement of himself and the people around. 
 He thus becomes a real patriot, "—-ffaj/. Vol, I., p. 293. 
 
 It might be said here, a good measure of tenant- 
 right would ensure the necessary independence, and 
 supersede any further interference with the feudal laws. 
 
 Tenant-right, if recognised by statute law, w^ould be 
 a great boon for Ireland, and w^ould promote the 
 independence of the people. 
 
 Such a measure, how^ever, would not secure electoral 
 independence. In the most perfect form of tenant- 
 
152 
 
 right, when enjoyed by the tenant,* there is implied such 
 a measure of dependence on the will of the landlord as 
 renders the State not the remedy for electoral inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Electoral independence is a situation of the elector 
 which implies absolute power on the part of the voter 
 to act independently of the will of another. Now, 
 this only consists in peasant proprietorship. 
 
 It will be said the feudal laws have been modified by 
 the Encumbered Courts' Act. Assuredly they have, 
 but not enough. 
 
 " This statute is a good one, so far as it will affect 
 the sale of land property in Ireland, but its effect will 
 be a very limited one. It leaves the powers of entailing 
 and settling lands untouched ; it does not create any 
 system of registration ; it does not attempt to simplify 
 the conveyance of land, except in . a few cases, ^nd it 
 will not, therefore, enable the shopkeepers, or the 
 farmers, or the peasants of Ireland to purchase land. 
 It will not create a class of yeomanry farmers, or a class 
 of peasant proprietors. It will not tend to render the 
 lower classes of Ireland either more prosperous or more 
 conservative in their tendencies. The only effect it 
 can have will be to change the proprietors of some of 
 the more heavily burdened Irish estates. This will be 
 certainly an advantage so far as it goes, inasmuch as it 
 will transfer some of the land from careless, poor, and 
 ignorant men, to persons having capital and intelligence 
 to improve it. But it is but a drop in the ocean com- 
 pared to what Ireland requires. Ireland requires a class 
 of yeomanry who would be naturally interested in the 
 
153 
 
 presefvation of ordel*, in the impfovement of the 
 cultivation of the soilj and in reclaiming the millions of 
 acres of rich land which now lie waste and uncultivated. 
 Ireland requires a law which would enable the peasants, 
 by industry, prudence, and economy, to acquire land^ 
 which would thus interest the peasantry in the support 
 of the . government and in the preservation of social 
 tranquillity, which would dissipate that hopelessness and 
 despair which now drive the fine peasantry of that noble 
 island into disaffection and rebellion, which would make 
 the Irish peasant as active and successful in Ireland as 
 he is throughout our colonies and the United States^ 
 which would induce him to settle on the waste lands at 
 homCj in order to cultivate them, instead of escaping to 
 distant woods to effect there what is so much wanted at 
 home, and which would offer him the same inducements 
 to exert himself, and to practice sobriety, economy, 
 self-denial, and industry, as present themselves to him as 
 soon as he lands in North America ; and we want a law 
 which would bring capital to the land and land to the 
 capitalist. 
 
 " Until we can find an Irish Stein or an Irish 
 Hardenburg, who will grant the Irish people a free 
 trade in land, by preventing its being tied up in settle- 
 ments, and who will interest the peasants and farmers 
 of Ireland in preserving the public tranquillity, and in 
 improving the agriculture of the country, by enabling 
 them to purchase land, we shall have done nothing, 
 positively nothing, for Ireland." — Kai/, Vol. I. p. 320. 
 
 But the objector will say, this doctrine you hold forth 
 is Communism. Instead of this, its tendency, if carried 
 into effect in Ireland, agreeably to the suggestion of the 
 
154 
 
 Lord Devon Commissioners, and in consideration of the 
 wants of Ireland, would be conservative. 
 
 " I was," says Mr. Kay, " constantly told in Germany, 
 prior to the outbreak of 1848, that if political clianges 
 were ever effected, they would originate with the people 
 of the large towns, and not with the peasantry. I 
 remember particularly a very intelligent man at Elber- 
 feld, in Rhenish Prussia, saying to me, ' The peasants 
 are so adverse to political commotion, and so interested 
 in public tranquillity, on account of their being the 
 owners of the land, that they will never endeavour to 
 effect any political changes, however much they may 
 dislike the present thraldom. They feel that they are 
 well and cheaply governed ; that they have no social 
 advantage to gain by a change ; that they have property 
 which might be considerably injured by public riots, 
 and that they might themselves lose some of that 
 freedom of labour which they now enjoy. 
 
 This opinion has been remarkably verified by the 
 conduct of the peasants during the political riots and 
 struggles which have taken place in the great towns of 
 Germany. Nowhere have the town rioters felt much 
 confidence in the support given them by the peasants. 
 In the late barricade riots, in the manufacturing district 
 and town of Elberfeld, the peasants kept aloof ; and 
 when the rioters forsook their barricades, and attempted 
 to make their way in a body across the Rhine provinces, 
 in order to form the republicans of the towns of South 
 Germany, the peasant proprietors armed, pursued, 
 attacked them, took them prisoners, and delivered them 
 all into the hands of justice. 
 
 *^ Since the revolution, however, the peasant proprietors 
 
155 
 
 have uniformly shown themselves the friends of order. 
 In the insurrection of 1842, which I witnessed myself, 
 the peasant proprietors flocked to Paris by thousands, 
 and shed their blood in the support of Cavignac, and 
 for the sake of public tranquillity. 
 
 " M. Michelet happily and forcibly represented the 
 tranquil and firm attitude of the peasants of France, 
 when he said that the whole of the country districts of 
 France, with their millions of peasant proprietors, 
 formed, so to speak, the Mount Ararat of the Kevo- 
 lution." — Kay, 
 
 OPINIONS OF DISTINGUISHED PERSON'S ON THE PROPER 
 MODE FOR INTRODUCING TO IRELAND THE SOCIAL 
 STATE CONDUCIVE OF ELECTORAL FREEDOM. 
 
 The following are the sentiments on this subject of 
 P. F. Reichensperger : — The condition of Ireland affords 
 practical proof that not the free trade in land, but rather 
 the improbability of obtaining property in land, with 
 the gradual appropriation of it in a few hands, have pro- 
 duced the poverty, the over population, the pauperism, 
 and the mass of labourers w^hich prevail there; and 
 that by the heaping together the property of land into 
 a few hands has been produced an institution similar 
 to the great manufactories, with this distinction, that 
 such institutes, different from the land, are free from 
 all prohibitary laws. 
 
 It is the exact but dreadful form of the present Irish 
 condition — it is the categorical declared doom of the 
 shackled, unfree occupancy of land ; perhaps it is not 
 to be removed without a revolution, and the question 
 
156 
 
 is if it is to be a peaceful or violent revolution. There 
 is much consolation in observing that all over England 
 the conviction is gradually becoming more and more 
 established that something decided must be done to 
 arrest the threatening storm. The most important 
 organ of the press, the Times, October 21, 1846, has 
 apprehended the matter rightly : — " Already the main- 
 tenance of the whole population has been upon the 
 State, The lower class as a whole must be considered 
 as on this foundation. The State, in a certain consti- 
 tutional sense, must take the whole of the land into its 
 hands, and parcel it out anew to the occupants of the 
 land. The millions who are famishing demand this; 
 the common weal demands it, and the great mass of the 
 owners of the land admit the necessity for it. Such a 
 new legislation in relation to land which again produces 
 property to those who possess it is not to be avoided. 
 The State can and must furnish the means in order to 
 this just as it has already furnished the twenty-four 
 millions for the abolition of slavery." — See 364 Die 
 Agrarfrage von Peter Franz Eeichensperger. 
 
 J. S. Mill, in his great work on the Principles of 
 Political Economy, with some of their applications to 
 social philosophy, and on peasant proprietorship, as a 
 means of doing away with cottier tenantry, writes as 
 follows : — 
 
 Let us examine, then, what means are afforded by 
 the economical circumstances of Ireland for carrying 
 this change into effect on a sufficiently large scale, to 
 accomplish the complete abolition of cottier tenancy. 
 The mode which first suggests itself is the obvious and 
 
157 
 
 direct one of doing the thing outright by Act of Par- 
 liament, making the whole land of Ireland the property 
 of the tenants, subject to the rents now really paid (not 
 the nominal rents) as a fixed rent-charge. This, under 
 the name of fixity of tenure," was one of the demands 
 of the Eepeal Association during the most successful 
 period of their agitation, and was better expressed by 
 Mr. Connor, its earliest, most enthusiastic, and most 
 indefatigable apostle, by the words " a valuation and a 
 perpetuity.'* In this measure there would not, strictly 
 speaking, be any injustice, provided the landowners 
 were compensated for the present value of the chances 
 of increase which they would be prospectively required 
 to forego. The rupture of existing social relations 
 would hardly be more violent than that effected by 
 the ministers Stein and Hardenberg, when by a series 
 of edicts in the early part of the present century they 
 revolutionised the state of landed property in the 
 Prussian monarchy, and left their names to posterity 
 among the greatest benefactors of their country. To 
 enlightened foreigners visiting Ireland, Yon Eaumer 
 and Gustavo de Beaumont, a remedy of this kind seems 
 so exactly and obviously what the disease requires, 
 that they have some difficulty in comprehending how 
 it is that the thing is not yet done. 
 
 But, though this measure is not beyond the com- 
 petence of a just legislature, and would be no infringe- 
 ment of property, if the landlords had the option allowed 
 them of giving their lands at the full value, reckoned at 
 the ordinary number of years' purchase, it is only fit 
 to be adopted if the nature of the case admitted of no 
 
 p 
 
158 
 
 milder remedy. In the first place, it is a complete 
 eviction of the higher classes, which, if there is any 
 truth in the principles which we have laid down, would 
 be perfectly warrantable, but only if it were the sole 
 means of effecting a great public good. In the second 
 place, that there should be none but peasant proprietors 
 is in itself far from desirable. Large farms, cultivated 
 by large capitalists, and owned by persons of the best 
 education which the country can give ; persons qualified 
 by instruction to appreciate scientific discoveries, and 
 able to bear the delay and risk of costly experiments, 
 are an important part of a good agricultural system. 
 Many such there are even in Ireland, and it would 
 be a public misfortune to drive .them from their post. 
 Other objections might be added — a large portion of 
 the present buildings are too small to try the pro- 
 prietary system under the greatest advantages, nor are 
 the tenants always the persons one would desire to 
 select as the first occupants of the peasant properties. 
 There are numbers of them on whom it would have a 
 more beneficial efiect to give them the hope of acquiring 
 a landed property by industry and frugality than the 
 property itself in immediate possession. — Vol. I., p. 390. 
 
 This is the measure recommended in the report of the 
 Lord Devon Commissioners : — 
 
 "It now rarely happens that land in Ireland is 
 brought into market for sale in lots of moderate or a 
 small size. Estates are so generally encumbered by 
 family settlements or otherwise, that the expense, delay, 
 and difiiculty which would attend the dividing of them, 
 so as to sell separate or detached portions, deter a 
 
159 
 
 proprietor from taking this course, although a larger 
 sum might be raised by it on the whole. 
 
 " We believe that there is a large number of persons 
 in Ireland possessing a small amount of capital, which 
 they would gladly employ in the purchase or cultivation 
 of land ; and a still larger number, now resident in 
 different parts of the country, and holding land for 
 certain or limited terms, at a rent, who would most 
 cheerfully embrace the opportunity of becoming pro- 
 prietors. The gradual introduction of such a class of 
 men would be a great improvement in the social con- 
 dition of Ireland. A much larger proportion of the 
 population than at present would become personally 
 interested in the preservation of the peace and good 
 order ; and the prospect of gaining admission into this 
 class of small landowners would often stimulate the 
 tenant-farmer to increased exertion and persevering 
 industry. 
 
 " We think that some facilities may safely be given 
 towards making out title-deeds to land, so as to lessen 
 delay and expense, particularly with reference to the 
 securities necessary under the system of registry now 
 established in Ireland. It has also been suggested that 
 expense would ultimately be saved in the transfer of 
 property, if the memorial would contain a full copy of 
 the deed registered ; and it certainly appears to us that, 
 even if this suggestion should not be adopted to its full 
 extent, it* is necessary, with a view to prevent fraud and 
 litigation, that all the powers given, or restrictions 
 imposed, by settlements or trust-deeds, should be fully 
 suggested. Every suggestion, however, for the attain- 
 
I 
 
 160 
 
 ment of these objects will require consideration by 
 persons of the highest professional eminence, before any 
 attempt shall be made to carry it into effect. 
 
 " Eepeal all the laws which prevent the sale of landed 
 property in Ireland, and which keep the whole country 
 in the hands of a few men, who are most of them in 
 debt, and have not capital enough to cultivate their 
 estates; enable landlords in all cases to sell their land out 
 and out; enable the farmers and peasants by those 
 means to purchase, and prevent henceforward any 
 settlement of landed property which would prevent its 
 being sold after the death of those who settled it, and 
 you would soon change the face of things there, as the 
 great statesmen of Prussia, Stein and Hardenberg, by 
 similar acts, renovated the face of Prussia. 
 
 " The Irish, who make such good colonists when they 
 emigrate, would, with the system of free trade in land, 
 make equally good citizens at home. The enormous 
 tracts of waste lands would soon be brought into 
 cultivation, as the mountain sides of Switzerland, as the 
 sandy plains of Prussia, as the low lands of Holland, 
 have, under the invigorating system. Capital would 
 make its appearance in Ireland from a thousand 
 unexpected sources ; a good class of yeomanry would 
 grow up there, as in Germany, Holland, Belgium, 
 Denmark, Switzerland, and France ; while, as has been 
 the case in these countries since the subdivision of land 
 among the peasants, the habits, manners, dress, appear- 
 ance, and industry of the people would all revive and 
 improve under the invigorating influence of a sense of 
 ownership, and of the consciousness in the labourer's 
 
161 
 
 mind that he may be prosperous and happy, if he choose 
 to be patient, self-denying, and industrious, If Stein 
 and Hardenberg had been Ministers of England, depend 
 upon it they would have endeavoured long ago to 
 introduce into Ireland at least that system which has 
 raised the Prussian, Saxon, and Swiss peasantry from a 
 social condition analagous to that of the Irish poor, to 
 one which renders them worthy of being recorded as 
 examples for the consideration of the world/' — The 
 Social Condition and Education of the People of England 
 and Europe, by J. Kay, Esq., Vol. I. p. 224. 1850. 
 
 Landlords should be ready to encourage the required 
 legislation, because a measure of this kind would not 
 infringe in the least degree on the landlord's rights of 
 property. 
 
 But the absence of entail by no means implies the 
 sale, or dismemberment of estates. Many old families 
 in England, as Mr. Pim has remarked,* have retained 
 estates for generations without their being entailed. — 
 See Condition of Ireland, by W. E. Hearn, LL.B. 
 
 The value of property would be much enhanced by 
 such legislation. Where a landlord would be disposed 
 to sell, property would bring a much higher price than 
 under the existing law. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the power of alienation 
 greatly affects the value of property. " The French 
 peasant," says a writer in the Edinburgh Review, " as 
 soon as he has agreed with his neighbour for the 
 purchase of half an acre, goes with him to the notaire, and 
 
 * Condition and Prospects of Ireland, page 294. 
 
162 
 
 has it transferred into his name ; if he wishes to sell, 
 he can part with it as easily as he obtained it. * * * * 
 We once bought a small freehold as a qualification; 
 the price was £40 ; the expenses were £30. Hence, 
 although France is a poorer country, and presents less 
 advantageous opportunities for the investment of capital 
 than England, the land sells for one-third more. Forty- 
 five years' purchase is as common in France, as thirty 
 years' is with us." 
 
 " In France small estates held in perpetuity readily 
 fetch forty years' purchase ; and along the Rhine 
 the peasants do not hesitate to give £120 and £150 
 an acre for land in a country far poorer than ours." — 
 The Irish Land Question, by V. Scully, Esq., Q.C., 
 p. 240. 
 
 What an advantage the introduction of this state of 
 matters into Ireland would be to great landed pro- 
 prietors disposed to sell. 
 
 In their report the Lord Devon Commissioners 
 express themselves thus : — 
 
 The most general, and, indeed, almost universal 
 topic of complaint before us in every part of Ireland, 
 was the " want of tenure," to use the expression most 
 commonly employed by the witnesses. 
 
 It is well known that the want of fixity of tenure 
 has, for some time past, been sedulously put forward as 
 one of the most prominent grievances of the Irish tenant. 
 
 Some few of the witnesses before us have given to 
 that term a meaning wholly inconsistent with any 
 regard for the most generally admitted rights of the 
 proprietors of the soil ; but this is not common, most of 
 
163 
 
 them have referred to this subject in much more 
 moderate and reasonable language. 
 
 The uncertainty of tenure is, however, constantly 
 referred to as a pressing grievance by all classes of 
 tenants. It is said to paralyse all exertion, and to place 
 a fatal impediment in the way of improvement. 
 
 We have no doubt that this is the case in many 
 instances. In some, probably, the complaint is put 
 forward as an excuse for indolence and neglect. — 
 Report, page 16. 
 
 Of late years legislation has done much for the good 
 of Ireland. 
 
 The measures in operation for the improvement of 
 the country consist — 
 
 1st — Of the improvements effected in the Board of 
 Public Works. 
 
 2d — The schools under the management of the Com- 
 missioners of National Education, including also Agri- 
 cultural Schools, Model Farm Schools, Workhouse 
 Schools, and Schools of Industry. 
 
 3d — The statistical returns of agricultural produce, 
 collected by the constabulary. 
 
 4th — The appointment of practical agricultural in- 
 structors in different districts, under Lord Clarendon's 
 letter. 
 
 The public works under the charge of the Board 
 comprise — 
 
 Inland Navigation, New Colleges, Belfast, Cork, 
 
 Roads and Bridges, and Galway, 
 
 Piers and Harbours, Drainage, 
 
 Public Buildings, Land Property Improvements, 
 
 Lunatic Asylums, Fisheries. 
 
 Maynooth College, 
 
164 
 
 The great, the grand, prime right of all is still 
 withheld — Land ! Land ! ! — something to call their own 
 — where they can dig for themselves, and not beg from 
 those who withhold from them their just and moral 
 rights. 
 
 According to received theories, Ireland ought to be 
 very prosperous. She is a very large and eminently 
 fertile island, in a temperate latitude. She has safe and 
 capacious harbours, noble rivers, immense water power. 
 She possesses great mineral wealth of every description. 
 In spite of calumnious assertions to the contrary, her 
 poor, when employed and fed, are the most laborious of 
 mankind. Is Irish human nature different from other 
 human nature ? Are not the most laborious of all 
 labourers in London and New York Irishmen ? Are 
 Irishmen inferior in understanding ? We Englishmen 
 who have partially known Irishmen in the army, at the 
 bar, in the Church, at college, know that there is no 
 better head than a disciplined Irish one. 
 
 But what is the condition of Ireland ? No descrip- 
 tion can describe it. No parallel exists or has ever 
 existed to illustrate it. No province of the Roman 
 Empire ever presented half the wretchedness of Ireland. 
 At this day the mutilated Fellah of Egypt, the savage 
 Hottentot and New Zealander, the Negro slave, the live 
 chattel of Carolina or Cuba, enjoy a paradise in com- 
 parison with the condition of the Irish peasant — that is 
 to say, of the bulk of the Irish nation. 
 
 Who is responsible ? Common sense says, and all 
 Europe and America repeat it : Those who have governed 
 Ireland are responsible. 
 
165 
 
 The misery of Ireland is not from the human nature 
 that grows there. It is from England's perverse legis- 
 lation, past and present. 
 
 The truth is, that, except in the imperfect way that 
 the peace has been kept, Ireland has not been governed 
 at all. — Land and People of Ireland, by V. Scully, 
 Esq., Q.C. 
 
 Would the people of Ireland expect to obtain electoral 
 independence, a movement for a modification of the 
 feudal laws must be commenced soon, and pursued 
 vigorously. Until such a modification shall have been 
 obtained, all other means will be comparatively power- 
 less and inefficient, even the Presbyterian Kepresentation 
 Society. In nine cases out of ten the power of feudalism 
 will triumph over and conquer that of Presbyterianism. 
 A league should be formed for Ireland, w^hose province 
 would be to form committees, to have petitions for- 
 warded, and which should take care that funds would be 
 raised to meet incidental expenses. 
 
 At last O'Connell was elected. 1,500,000 people 
 met in different parishes at the same hour, January 21, 
 1828, and petitioned Parliameht. All was peace, and 
 ended in a favourable manner. Their host was too 
 numerous, too well organised, and their claims too just 
 to be rejected.'' 
 
 Only let Irishmen of the different denominations 
 think less on the points whereon they differ, and more 
 on those whereon they agree. They should know, 
 though they differ on important points, that is no 
 reason they should not love one another. Let them 
 demolish the common altar around which they have 
 
166 
 
 too long worshipped, the altar of that god who accepts 
 only of human sacrifices, and let them build an altar 
 to the true God, that God they all may worship and 
 adore — the God of love ; let them worship there, and 
 unite in a long and strong pull for the social condition 
 of their common country. Ireland will become — 
 
 " Great, glorious, and free, 
 First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea." 
 
 Happy homes and altars free ! And the poor Irishman, 
 who too long has been restrained in that march of pro- 
 gress which distinguishes the nations, will be able to 
 sing— 
 
 Ut cernis ille permisit meas errare boves, 
 Et me ludere quae vellem calamo agresti. 
 
 " Loose him and let him go/' 
 
167 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 REMARKS ON LORD JOHN RUSSELL's NEW REFORM BILL. 
 
 16^;^ Feh,, 1854. VJth Vic. 
 
 A BILL TO EXTEND THE RIGHT OF VOTING FOR MEMBERS 
 OF PARLIAMENT, AND TO AMEND THE LAWS RELATING 
 TO THE REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE IN ENG- 
 LAND AND WALES. 
 
 This bill would accomplish the following objects : make 
 changes in certain boroughs and counties. Thus it 
 ^ould enact — Certain boroughs to cease to send mem- 
 bers to Parliament ; certain boroughs to return one 
 member only ; certain counties and divisions of counties 
 to return three knights instead of two. 
 
 Another feature of this bill is the influence it would 
 give in the representation to persons having money and 
 not land; also the place it would give to learning. 
 Hitherto learning is imperfectly represented. Lord 
 John would enlarge this influence by giving the 
 franchise to the Inns of Court ; also a representative 
 for the London University. This is in the right direc- 
 tion, and we could wish to see Lord John go much 
 
168 
 
 farther, and embrace all the suggestions thrown out by 
 A. Gr. Stapleton, Esq., in his able work, " Suggestions 
 for a Conservative and Popular Reform in the Commons 
 House of Parliament. London, 1850." 
 
 This gentleman would give representatives to the 
 different bodies in the empire distinguished by learning. 
 
 In the law, for instance, there are four Inns of Court ; 
 also the Law Association. Let each of these five bodies 
 return two members. The College of Physicians, the 
 College of Surgeons, and the Company of Apothecaries ; 
 let each of these have the power of returning two 
 members. Let art and science also have their repre- 
 sentatives. Give two members to the Royal Societ}'', 
 and two also to the Royal Academy, combined with the 
 Chartered Society of the British Artists, the Chartered 
 British Institution, and the Royal Institute of British 
 Architects. ' 
 
 Enlarge likewise the present University representation, 
 without, however, interfering with existing privileges ; 
 give to every layman who has taken a degree at either, 
 and who has not a vote under the present system, the 
 right to vote for two representatives — two for Cambridge 
 and two for Oxford. Give likewise to graduates of the 
 London University, composed of University College 
 and King's College, the right of electing two ; to 
 Durham, one ; to the Scotch Universities, Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow, one each ; to Aberdeen and St. Andrew's, 
 united, one ; and to the Welsh University of St. David, 
 one. 
 
 The clergy of the Church of England have a claim 
 to be represented by members returned exclusively by 
 
169 
 
 themselves. Let ministers of Church of Scotland return 
 four members ; give two members to the ministers of 
 the Free Church. Should the bill be presented again, 
 pass into a law and extend to Ireland, like privilege 
 should be given there as in England and Wales. 
 
 This gentleman would recommend special repre- 
 sentatives of the poor. 
 
 To prevent the too great increase of members this 
 would occasion in the House of Commons, it would be 
 well in every instance to substitute one of the aforesaid 
 elected in place of the proposed third member for 
 counties. 
 
 In the present state of the franchise, the additional 
 member would only add to the power of the aristocracy. 
 
 It is surely no unreasonable proposal that the learning 
 and education of the country should have a real share 
 in the representation of the House of Commons. So 
 reasonable is it, that Lord John Eussell assumes it as 
 one requiring no proof. I trust," said the noble 
 lord, " it will be granted to me that the knowledge and 
 intelligence of those most remarkable for knowledge 
 and intelligence ought to be represented." Would 
 that he only would carry out effectively the principle 
 w^hich he thus distinctly propounds ! 
 
 The other important measure proposed is the lowering 
 the franchise to £o. 
 
 From her Majesty's speech, delivered at the opening 
 of Parliament in February, 1852, it would seem that it 
 would take but one step more to bring us to universal 
 suffrage. 
 
 "It appears to me that this is a fitting time for 
 
 Q 
 
170 
 
 calmly considering whether it may not be advisable to 
 make such amendments in the Act of the late reign, 
 relating to the representation of the Commons in Par- 
 liament, as may be deemed calculated to carry into 
 more complete effect the principles upon which that 
 law is founded." 
 
 The principles of the Eeform Bill of 1852 were the 
 re-adjustment of the right to return members and of 
 the mode of voting ; but chiefly the extension of the 
 franchise by the creation of the ten pound household 
 suffrage for the cities and boroughs, and the fifty pound 
 tenancy for the counties. The " carrying into more 
 complete effect" of this latter principle, as appears from 
 the Bill of 1852, as subsequently introduced, was made 
 to consist in extending the suffrage to five pound house- 
 renters, for cities and boroughs, and to twenty pound 
 renters for the counties ; and the words her Majesty 
 was there made to express relative to the proposed 
 measures, the appellation of them as " such amend- 
 ments as may be deemed calculated to carry into more 
 complete effect the principles upon which that law (the 
 Reform Bill) was founded," show that the extension of 
 the suffrage then proposed was only part of a system 
 prospective as well as retrospective. The idea of the 
 new extension, being a finality, was carefully excluded 
 by the measure being designated as one calculated to 
 carry into more complete effect the former one. It is 
 manifest that, had it been viewed as a finality, or other- 
 wise than as a part of an uncompleted system, the word 
 " more" would not have been used. The use of a com- 
 parative in this way, while it excludes, never fails to 
 
171 
 
 suggest, a superlative. It is clear that the proposed 
 extension was offered as, and to be taken as, part of an 
 unfinished system ; and since, by this one step, the 
 property qualification was to be diminished one-half — 
 from a ten pound to a five pound rent for cities and 
 boroughs, and from a fifty to a twenty pound rent for 
 the counties — it would seem that it would want but 
 one more step in the same direction, on the same ratio 
 of progression, to bring us to universal suffrage. — Page 
 237, Political Elements, by J. Moseley, Esq., B.C.L. 
 
 Should this Bill be again offered and pass into law, 
 before the next step, universal suffrage, care must be 
 taken to have made the lower classes able to obtain 
 titles in land. Free trade in land has made the peasants 
 in other countries conservative. They must have 
 obtained also enlightenment in which, at present, the 
 lower classes in England are much wanting. 
 
 In the present state of land tenure and enlighten- 
 ment of the popular mind, it is much to be feared 
 universal suffrage would only prove the harbinger to 
 revolution. 
 
 " What, I would ask, has induced the Governments 
 of Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, and indeed of all the 
 German countries, as well as those of Switzerland and 
 Sardinia, to grant universal suffrage so willingly to their 
 people ? Simply this : that these Governments knew 
 that the whole of the peasants were strongly conser- 
 vative by interest and disposition ; that they were the 
 steadiest of all the supporters of public order and of a 
 firm Government ; that the people of the towns were 
 the most democratic ; and that to grant the suffrage to 
 
 I 
 
172 
 
 them, and not' to the peasants, would be to put them- 
 selves in the hands of the anarchists, and to deprive 
 themselves of the powerful and certain support of the 
 body of the peasant proprietors. 
 
 Urged by these views, these Governments have not 
 attempted to limit the number of the electors by 
 adopting a property qualification, but have admitted the 
 whole people to the electoral privileges. They could 
 not have adopted a more conservative policy ; for they 
 have, by this means, enabled the peasants to swell the 
 members of the Conservative party in the Chambers, 
 by sending thither representatives of their ov/n feelings 
 and principles. 
 
 All the substratum of society, in most of the rural 
 districts of these countries, is conservative. It is the 
 minority only who are interested in political change. 
 The English order of things is inverted. In England 
 it is the peasants and operatives who fancy they have 
 nothing to lose and much to gain by a revolution- of 
 society. It is the majority with us who think they are 
 deeply interested in an upturning of society. It is 
 the majority who hope to gain some share of the vast 
 territorial domains of the nobles, or at least to get some 
 part of those great tracts of waste land which they 
 observe lying uncultivated by any one, or who, without 
 having any specific views whatever, say. We cannot 
 lose, for we have nothing to lose ; we cannot be poorer 
 than we are, or more wretched than we are ; we may 
 possibly gain by the change, but, if not, it is clear 
 we cannot lose. 
 
 There are vast masses, not only of our town operatives^ 
 
173 
 
 but also of our country peasants, who, in times of com- 
 motion, reason in this manner, and are at the back of 
 the first demagogue who arouses their slumberiug 
 feelings. 
 
 Symptoms of this under-current of passion are now 
 and then vouchsafed us, like the warnings of a volcano. 
 Sometimes we have Eebecca riots, sometimes Chartist 
 risings, sometimes actual insurrections, sometimes wide- 
 spread incendiary fires ; and in Ireland constant rebel- 
 lion. The more intelligence spreads among the poor 
 of our country, the more will all this increase, unless 
 we alter the laws which tend to prevent the peasants 
 acquiring property. The classes who are deprived of 
 the natural means of improving their social condition 
 will rise more and more fiercely against the obstacles 
 which beset them, the more clearly they perceive those 
 obstacles. If it be necessary or expedient that the 
 present landed system should be continued, it would 
 be wisest to get rid of every school in the country.— 
 Kay, Vol.L, p. 217. 
 
174 
 
 OHAPTEE XV. 
 
 ON THE IDEAL OF THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Our Parliament should try to realise the ideal of the 
 British Constitution, and for the following reasons 
 Nations are improved in proportion as they are under 
 improved institutions. The British is the best form of 
 government, and therefore worthy to be improved to 
 the utmost. The nations of the Continent now groan- 
 ing under military despotism, and tired of Eepubliean 
 institutions, will be looking to Great Britain for a model 
 form of Government. How important they should see 
 our institutions exhibited in their best form. 
 
 Nations become improved and happy in proportion as 
 they have been favoured with improved institutions. 
 
 " The examination of foreign countries and of history 
 clearly shows that the moral, intellectual, and physical 
 condition of any people, no matter what their race, is 
 almost entirely the result of the laws and institutions 
 under which they live, and that this condition is capable 
 of indefinite improvement by an improvement of their 
 laws and institutions. 
 
 There is no better or more remarkable illustration of 
 this remark, nor any which is more frequently quoted 
 in foreign countries, than the difference between the 
 
175 
 
 character and habits of Irishmen in their own land and 
 their character and habits in the United States, in the 
 British colonies, and in the British army. In his own 
 country, exposed to the wretched under-lessee system 
 and under-agent system of Ireland ; to the discontented 
 / spirit of a priesthood, which we have treated as if we 
 desired to render it inimical to our Government ; to the 
 galling sense of foreign rule suggested by the presence 
 of English soldiers ; and to the irritating thought that 
 his rent goes to aggrandise the splendour of a distant 
 capital, and that the hall of the landlord is deserted ; 
 the Irishman becomes discontented, idle, and criminal. 
 Send him to Australia, to the States, or to any English 
 colony where he can make himself by his industry a 
 proprietor of land, and where he is not shackled by 
 middle-age legislation, and he becomes immediately the 
 most energetic and conservative of colonists. He there 
 acquires faster than any one else ; he effects more in a 
 day than any one else ; and he forces his rulers to write 
 home to England, as the Governor of South Australia 
 did a few years ago, that the Irish are the most enter- 
 prising, successful, and orderly of all the colonists of 
 these distant lands. Put the Irishman in the English 
 army, or in the manufacturing districts of England, and 
 similar results invariably follow. In the army he makes 
 a first-rate soldier, while in Lancashire, where he is 
 sure to earn as much as his day's labour is worth, 
 where the galling misgovernment of his own country 
 does not affect him, and where he is put on a level with 
 the English labourer, he at once becomes a formidable 
 rival of the Englishman under every respect, and one 
 
176 
 
 of the most successful of the operatives. On the rail- 
 way works of England the same result is visible, all 
 showing that, as far as the Irish are concerned^ they 
 ought to be made, and would certainly become, the 
 best citizens, if they had only the best of institutions 
 under which to live/' — Kay, Vol. L, p. 9. 
 
 The religious institutions under which nations live 
 influence their happiness. 
 
 Great Britain is the most enviable of empires, the 
 most Protestant of nations. She has made her power 
 the greatest, with the smallest expenditure of life, and 
 has secured the purest government and the most pious 
 creed. Scotland, where that creed is the simplest and 
 the least imaginative, is still more moral and enligh- 
 tened and domestic happiness more general. Ireland, 
 the leastf pious, is the least happy portion of the 
 realm. — Vol. I., p. 133, by K. Chenevix, Esq., on 
 National Character. 
 
 That the British is the best form of government is 
 attested to by ancient and modern wisdom. 
 
 Cicero (De Eepublica Lib. I,) after having established 
 that there are three kinds of governments — regal, aristo- 
 cratic, and the popular — and that each is apt to degene- 
 rate and to bring on great convulsions, has the following 
 words, which nobody in our days will read without 
 serious i^eflection : — 
 
 There remains the last species of government wiiich 
 is the best of all, namely, that which is moderated in its 
 actions, and steadied in its course by the due admixture 
 , of all the the three simple forms of monarchy, aristocracy, 
 and popular power." 
 
177 
 
 So authority, I believe, could be quoted in support 
 of this assertion which would carry more weight with 
 it than that of the late Sir James Mackintosh, filled, as 
 he was, with an ardent love of rational liberty, and 
 gifted with the most Baconian mind since Bacon. In 
 his admirable " Discourse on the Law of Nature and 
 Nations," after stigmatizing those theories of govern- 
 ment, such as that of Locke, resting upon "supposed 
 compacts, which are all chimerical, which must be ad- 
 mitted to be false in fact, which, if they are considered 
 as fictions, will be found to serve no purpose of just 
 reasoning, and to be equally the foundation of a system of 
 universal despotism in Hobbes, and of universal anarchy 
 in Eousseau/' He proceeds to say that in the " mixed 
 forms of government, as the right of legislation is vested 
 in one individual, or in one order, it is obvious that the 
 legislative power may shake off all the restraints which 
 the laws have imposed on it. All such governments, 
 therefore, tend towards despotism, and the securities 
 which they admit against misgovernment are extremely 
 feeble and precarious." He then states what is in his 
 opinion the best form of government. 
 
 The best security which human wisdom can devise 
 seems to be the distribution of political authority among 
 different individuals and bodies, with separate interests 
 and separate characters, corresponding to the variety 
 of classes of which civil society is composed, each in- 
 terested to guard their own order from oppression by 
 the rest ; each also interested to prevent any of the 
 others from seizing an exclusive, and therefore despotic 
 power; and all having a common interest to co-operate 
 
178 
 
 in carrying on the ordinary and necessary administra- 
 tion of government. 
 
 Such are our own institutions, " aOfording to all, ac- 
 cording to his own admirable definition of true liberty — 
 protection against wrong, both from their rulers and 
 their fellows allowing all classes and conditions of men 
 to be undisturbed in the exercise of their natural 
 powers,'' offering the freest opportunity for the full 
 development of the powers and capacities of each. 
 " Such Governments,'^ he adds, " are with justice, 
 peculiarly and emphatically, called /r^e ; and in ascribing 
 that liberty to the skilful combination of mutual depen- 
 dence and mutual check, I feel my own conviction 
 greatly strengthened by calling to mind that, in this 
 opinion, I agree with all the wise men who have ever 
 deeply considered the principles of politics — with Aris- 
 totle and Polybius, with Cicero and Tacitus, with Bacon 
 and Macheval, with Montesquieu and Hume/' To 
 this he subjoins in a note — " To the weight of these 
 great names let me add the opinion of two illustrious 
 men of the present age, as both their opinions are com- 
 bined by one of them in the following passage : — ' He 
 (Mr. Fox) thought any of the simple, unbalanced 
 Governments bad — simple monarchy, simple aristocracy, 
 simple democracy ; he held them all imperfect and 
 vicious ; all were bad by themselves ; the composition 
 alone was good. These had been always his principles, 
 in which he agreed with his friend Mr. Burke.' " 
 
 Parliament should exhibit the ideal of the British 
 Constitution, because the nations of the Continent, 
 groaning under military rule, and tired of Republican- 
 
179 
 
 isra^ will be looking to Great Britain for a model on 
 which to form their institutions. 
 
 " Certain it is that, at this moment (February, 1852), 
 representative institutions are, with a few trifling excep- 
 tions, virtually extinguished on the Continent, and the 
 despotic power of sovereigns re-established and sup- 
 ported by 1,500,000 armed men. 
 
 " The representative system, as now understood by 
 the popular party all over the world, consists in the 
 representation of mere numbers — in investing supreme 
 power in the delegates of a simple majority of the whole 
 population. The result of this view has been, on the 
 Continent, the military despotism that now reigns 
 there, and in South America the disastrous revolutions 
 w^hich have long prevailed there. The revolutions of 
 1842 unchained the passions of the multitude ; so, by 
 the natural effects of the general concussions of 1842, 
 the armies of the Continental States have been pro- 
 digiously augmented, and such are the dangers of their 
 respective positions, from the turbulent dispositions of 
 their own subjects, that they cannot be materially 
 reduced. In France there are 420,000 ; in Eussia, 
 600,000 ; in Austria, 420,000 ; in Prussia, 200,000. 
 Fifteen hundred thousand regular soldiers are arrayed on 
 the Continent ready for mutual slaughter. Such have 
 been the results of the French Kevolution of 1842, and 
 the rise of ' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity' in the 
 centre of European civilization ; and in South America, 
 where Royalty has been everywhere abolished, and Re- 
 public established in its stead, the consequences have 
 been so dreadful that population has generally declined 
 
180 
 
 a third, in some places a half, during the last thirty 
 years ; and a series of revolutions have succeeded each 
 other so rapid, and destructive, that history in despair 
 has ceased to record their thread." — See Alison's His- 
 tory. , 
 
 In these circumstances, how important it is that our 
 institutions should be presented* in the least exception- 
 able form. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Fro a the Author of the " Social Condition of 
 Europe — 
 
 Inner Temple, London, OcL 14, 1850. 
 Deai^ Sir, — Your last letter found me rambling in the 
 North of England, where in reality I am now writing this 
 note to yon. 
 
 Peasant proprietorship does not at all necessarily supersede 
 payment of rent. Peasant proprietorship, when existing 
 under a wisely regulated system of land laws, simply means a 
 system, by means of which an owner of land cannot tie up 
 the land by his settlement or will, so as to prevent it being 
 sold after his own death. 
 
 Under such a system, there are certain to be estates of all 
 sizes, from the greatest down to mere garden plots. There is 
 nothing under such a system to prevent land dividing or 
 accumulating.* There are certain to be estates of all sizes, 
 
 * Objection has been made against modification of the feudal laws, on 
 the ground that such interference with the existing law would do away with 
 the aristocracy of the land ; but this objection is answered by the fact, that 
 in the countries where these are abolished, and free trade in land has ensued 
 as a consequence, the accumulating tendency is the prevailing. Such 
 modification removes from the state what is evil, and, at the same time, 
 leaves the valuable part— the condition apart from its defects. " In France 
 and Norway," says Professor Hearn, " where, by an exactly opposite error to 
 ours, the land is compulsorily divided among the children, and the father 
 
182 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 little and big, in all parts of the country, subject to such a 
 system. The great advantage of such a system is, that it 
 secures the existence of a fair proportion of small estates, and 
 consequently makes it possible for the peasants to acquire land 
 in all parts of the country, and thus offers the peasant an 
 incentive to industry, economy, and foresight. But on the 
 •large estates,* which are always found existing under such a 
 system, the relation of landlord and tenant goes on pretty 
 much as under any other system, with this exception, that 
 the tenant is better able to obtain a lease on good terms from 
 his landlord, as the competition for leasehold farms under such 
 a system is not quite so great as under a system like our 
 present one. 
 
 Under such a system as the one I advocate, tithe could be 
 rp'.sed just as at present, from both large and small estates. 
 \\ le tithe returns would become considerably increased, how- 
 e - er, as the returns of land cultivation would be necessarily 
 iiagmented. 
 
 This is one of the great advantages to be acquired by such 
 a system. 
 
 Some of the countries in which the lands are very much 
 
 thus deprived, in a great degree, of the power of bequest, the consequences 
 are by no means such as might have been anticipated. There appears in 
 those countries a decided tendency to accumulate, and in no instance do we 
 find that excessive subdivision which we should naturally apprehend. It 
 seems as if the centripetal tendencies were sufficiently powerful to counteract 
 the evil results of the centrifugal. — See the Cassell Prize Essay on the 
 Condition of Ireland, by W. E. Hearn, LL.B., Professor of Greek, Queen's 
 College, Galway, p, 93. 
 
 * The reader will say here— After abolition, or modification of the feudal 
 laws, large estates would continue. On these properties the relation of 
 landlord and tenant would continue. The tenant on election occasions will 
 be controlled as at present. This objection is not valid; because, under the 
 improved system, the terms would be better, and hence restraint less than 
 under the present system of land laws. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 183 
 
 divided have poor houses, as, for instance, Holland and some 
 parts of Switzerland. 
 
 I think the present agitation in Ireland is aiming to effect 
 an impossible and useless result. It is impossible to force* the 
 relations of landlord and tenant. 
 
 I hope that these few remarks will answer your principal 
 objections. — Believe me, dear sir, very sincerely yours, 
 
 Joseph Kay. 
 
 The Rev. Wm. Brown. 
 Written on Circuit : — 
 
 II. 
 
 6, Pump Court, Temple, Dec. 1, 1852 
 
 Dear Sir, — Nothing has been done in England, since .iie 
 publication of my book, to facilitate the sale of land, 1 he 
 first chapter of my first volume explains the exact state of the 
 law relating to the conveyance of land in this country. I do 
 not think I could say anything to farther explain the subject. 
 
 It is impossible to render the sale of land much simpler, 
 until the power of the landowner over the ownership of his 
 land, after his own death, is lessened, and until a system of 
 general registration is established, by means of which a buyer 
 
 * The advocates of tenant-right do not design to force the relations of 
 landlord and tenant, but U) obtain protection for certain tenant-rights which 
 are not respected by the men whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw- 
 teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from 
 among men. These men have severed the friendly relation which heretofore 
 existed between landlord and tenant. It rests with the Parliament, by wise 
 legislation, to unite them again. Any modification of the feudal laws 
 introducing free trade in land would be deficient, unless there would be 
 combined therewith a protective law of tenant-right for Ireland in general, 
 and Ulster in particular. 
 
184 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 of land may, at the expense of one shilling, * find out the exact 
 state of the title to, and the incumbrances on, property. — 
 Believe me ever, deai* sir, very truly yours, 
 
 Joseph Kay. 
 
 Eev. W. Brown. 
 
 III. 
 
 Sketch on the Feudal Land Laws. 
 
 In Great Britain and Ireland, in Russia, and in some 
 parts of Austria alone, as many of my readers are aware, the 
 land is still divided, and, so to speak, tied up, in few hands 
 and immense estates ; and in these countries alone the old 
 laws relating to landed property, which emanated from the 
 feudal system, and which tend to prevent the sub-division of 
 estates, still continue in force. These laws effect this by means 
 of extraordinary powers which they confer upon owners of 
 land. They enable an owner of land to prevent the sale of 
 the land by himself during his own life, by his creditors, and 
 by any successor, or other person, for many years after his 
 own death. 
 
 ^^They enable an owner of an estate in Fee Simple (that is, 
 of an estate which the owner can sell, so as to give the pur- 
 chaser full powers of selling it to whomsoever he pleases), not 
 only to dispose of his land during his own lifetime, and to 
 leave the whole estate in it to any one he pleases after his 
 death, but to do very much more. They enable him, if he 
 has not been prevented by the settlemeftt or will of a former 
 proprietor, to grant by his settlement, or to leave by his will, 
 different interest in his land to a number of persons, and so 
 to arrange the succession to the ownership of the property by 
 his settlement or will, that no person or persons shall be able 
 
 * A few years ago a friend of mine sold a small property at about £700. 
 The searches necessary cost fifty-five pounds. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 185 
 
 to sell any portion of the land, until some person, who was an 
 infant at the time of making the settlement, or at the death 
 of the person having made the will, has grown up, married, 
 and had a son, and until the son has attained the age of 
 twenty-one years, and not even then, so as to confer a right 
 to the immediate possessors of it, unless all those who have 
 any interest in the land, prior to that of the last mentioned 
 son, are dead, or join in the sale." 
 
 The reader who desires to know the Land Laws of 
 Ireland, besides the first volume of Mr. Kay's Work, will re- 
 quire to consult the Work of Blackstone, Burtin's Keal 
 Property, and Stephen's Commentaries. 
 
 Now that war has ceased, the occasion would be most 
 favourable for considering the laws bearing on our social 
 condition. May we not hope, in the next Session of Parlia- 
 ment, a Commission will be appointed to consider the Land 
 Laws, with a view to a wise modification. 
 
 Such a measure would only be the counterpart to the Lord 
 Devon Commission. 
 
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