be sufficient to show to what kind of abuse and licentiousness the press of Ireland was perverted.

"He would now advert to one other topic which he conceived ought to be considered as a part of the causes which had tended to place Ireland in her present condition. He alluded to the actual state of the elective franchises. The manner in which they were exercised by the Catholic freeholders was most injurious. It was far from his intention to urge any thing against the wisdom or policy of the act of 1793, by which these franchises were extended to the Catholics. He did not think that either the dangers or the benefits which were predicted at that period had been realized; but at the same time he did not think that it had invested the Catholic democracy with any substantial power or advantage. The real advantage which had been derived was not by those who possessed the freehold, but those who possessed the freehold

er.

In registering the freehold property, he had been told the greatest abuses existed. Perjury was frequently committed. Leases were made out merely for the occasion, and persons swore to the possession of property which they never saw. If it were asked, why such persons were not proceeded against, the answer would be, that if they were committed, they would be immediately bailed out, and never found afterwards. He certainly thought, therefore, that the manner in which the elective franchise was now exercised, required some legislative regulation.

"With respect to Catholic emancipation, he would not say more than that the opinions which he had formerly entertained and expressed on that subject, had been confirmed by every observation which he had since been enabled to make, and that he was

persuaded no advantage would result to Ireland from its adoption. He was persuaded that such a measure would by no means operate beneficially on the existing state of things in that country. If he were asked to declare from what measure he imagined the greatest benefit to Ireland would accrue, he would say, without hesitation, that any measure calculated to induce, or if that were not sufficient, to compel those individuals to reside in Ireland, who now spent the money which they derived from that country elsewhere, would be more immediately felt in its advantageous operation than any other proposition which could be made by any party. He firmly believed that Ireland was precisely in that state in which the benefits of residence on the part of her gentry would be most sensibly felt. The opinion of the lower orders of the Irish, with respect to their government, was too loose and undefined. It was a machine too large for their comprehension; it was a machine too distant for effective operation, and the influence of resident landlords would do more to prevent disturbances, and to effect all the legitimate objects of a wise government, than could be accomplished in any other manner whatever. In support of this opinion he would appeal to all those who had been in those parts of Ireland in which the gentry did reside, to testify the inestimable advantages which arose from the practice.

"The right hon. baronet had somewhat misunderstood his sentiments on the subject of education in Ireland. He had never asserted that from a more general system of education any immediate advantages were to be expected. He had never asserted that education was the only way by which the people of Ireland could be rendered tranquil and industrious. He had

always said that the only mode by which that people, as well as any other people, could be rendered industrious, was, by adopting such measures as would make it their interest to be so. But while he would encourage all those measures which were calculated to produce so excellent an effect on the existing generation, he would not neglect to afford that general instruction from which so much future good was to be justly anticipated. It was the peculiar duty of a government that felt the inconveniences that arose from the ignorance of the present generation, to sow the seeds of knowledge in the generation that was to succeed. It was, because he felt strongly the many excellent qualities of the Irish character; it was, because he saw even in the midst of the extravagancies and errors which were to be deplored, qualities of the highest descriptioncapacity for great exertion, and aptitude for great virtue-that he entertained on this subject an anxiety which he could not describe. The attachment to that country, which the many excellent qualities of its inhabitants had created in him, would long survive any political connexion that he might have with it."

The full abstract which we have given of these speeches, will entirely preclude the necessity of any commentary from us on the subjects discussed in them. Intimately connected with them is the great question of Catholic emancipation, which was this year again brought before both Houses of Parliament, by the usual method of petitions. One petition from the Catholics of Dublin, was presented to the Lower House by Sir Henry Parnell; another, from a still more extensive portion of the same body, by Mr Grattan. Mr William Elliot presented, about the same time, a petition signed by almost all the Catholic nobi

lity, gentry, and clergy of England. The subject of these petitions was discussed at great length, but without any introduction of new arguments; 80 that were we to enter into any narrative of the debates, we should only be repeating what we have already given in several of our preceding volumes. It is sufficient to mention, that the general question was again lost by a large majority in both Houses, although, in the House of Commons, Lord Castlereagh still separated himself, in regard to this great question, from the great body of ministers, and was found once more in the minority. Very near the close of the session, Sir John Coxe Hippesley brought up the report of the committee appointed in the preceding session to enquire into the customs of foreign nations, in regard to the privileges allowed to bodies of their subjects professing a religious persuasion different from that of the majority. The documents brought forward on this occasion presented, it must be allowed, a very pleasing spectacle of the liberal manner in which, throughout Germany, the members of the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed churches mutually extend to each other a free share in all the honours and privileges of the states in which they severally compose the majority. Mr Canning, too, who had lately returned from the continent, stated to the House many pleasing anecdotes, illustrative of the good understanding of which the catholics and protestants in the south of France, (more particularly of the department of the Gironde,) were now living among each other. The manly manner in which this great statesman expressed his own leaning towards the cause of his catholic fellow subjects, awoke, in the usual champions of that cause, the expectation that, through his influence, it might in the next session of parliament be in

vestigated at still greater length, and with more happy success. In the meantime it is not to be denied, that, in general, throughout the body of

the protestant people of Britain, the continued prejudices against their ca tholic brethren were gradually but distinctly giving way.

AMONG the most interesting subjects which came this year under the attention of the House of Commons, were those investigated in the two several committees, on the mendicity and vagrancy, and on the police of the metropolis. A committee on the former of these subjects had sat during a considerable part of the last session, under the direction of Mr Rose, and this year the same branch of enquiry was conducted with equal diligence. The committee on the police, where Mr Bennet presided, were no less indefatigable, and, although in neither case did any immediate legislative enactments ensue, yet the body of information collected was quite sufficient to shew the propriety, or rather the necessity, of some such measures. To what conclusion the legislature may come after a more ample consideration both of evils and of remedies, we cannot pretend to guess; but the minutes of the evidence led before the committees, contain many very curious facts, well worthy in the meantime of being recorded, were it only by reason of the light which they throw upon the manners of several numerous classes

of the inhabitants of the British metropolis.

From the evidence of a great num. ber of intelligent magistrates, clergymen, and church-wardens, who, in virtue of their offices, had seen and known much of the indigent in their respective neighbourhoods, it was very clearly proved, that of that immense number of mendicants wherewith the streets of the metropolis are at all times infested, a very small proportion indeed, consists of persons reduced by calamity to the last state of penury, or willing to escape from it by the honest labour of their hands. The beggars in London (consisting on the most moderate computation of from 15 to 20,000 persons) are in general, according to this testimony, of the most abandoned character, indolent, vicious, profligate, who prefer their own degraded life to every other, because they consider it as a more lucra tive, lazy, and luxurious one than they could otherwise easily command. These voluntary outcasts are not, however, without some laws of society and social compact among themselves. The streets of the metropolis are portion.

ed out in fragments to the different members of the community, who exchange their stations for the sake of varying the deception, or dispose of them for money as if they were free holds. The profits of their base traffic are such as to furnish no mean temptation to the lowest of the people. The reward of ordinary labour is despised by them, because it would appear they are accustomed to make five, six, ten, or twelve shillings a-day, and yet not suppose themselves possessed of any extraordinary good fortune. The system of lies and tricks, and feigned diseases, both bodily and mental, by which these persons practise so power fully upon the minds of the respectable inhabitants, opens up a view of wickedness not more novel than disgusting. Parents let out their children for hire, to be carried about in the arms of others, for the purpose of exciting compassion; *others send forth children more advanced in growth to beg by themselves, and in order to enhance the violence of their importunities, punish them at night with stripes and hunger, if they dare to return without the two or three shillings which it is supposed possible for them to gain during the day. Old women hold schools in the night to teach these young creatures the arts of cursing and reviling, the "language of the streets." The more skilful proficients in this shameful trade earn profits which it is difficult for us to believe possible; one violent man, a lame sailor, possess ed of a pension from Greenwich Hospital, whose station is St Paul's Churchyard, confessed that thirty shillings aday are with him no unusual gain. And it is asserted that another artful beggar, a Negro, who had for many years infested Finsbury Square, retired at

last to the West Indies with a fortune of 1500l.

Gains so easily won are not often, however, so carefully preserved. The mode of living common amongst the mendicants, presents the strangest mixture of misery and extravagance that can well be imagined. Persons who spend the whole day in the cold, smarting under voluntary wounds, and shivering from voluntary nakedness, are sure to prepare themselves for these hardships by "a breakfast of beafsteaks and oyster sauce," and a "glass or two of heated spirits." One man confesses, that he never takes the trouble to pocket copper, but always spends that as it comes in the ginshop." In the evening after their labours are concluded, the beggars assemble in public houses, some of these of no mean appearance, chiefly or exclusively frequented by persons of their profession. A parish officer of Whitechapel mentions, that he has been present at the banquets with which they regale themselves in a house in that parish known by the name of the Beggar's Opera. Hams and beef are their usual fare; its inmates never touch broken victuals, but throw away whatever is given them, or sell it to the dealers in dogs-meat. On great occasions their table is graced by a goose roasted with sausages, which in their cant is called "an alderman hung in chains ;" and the evening uniformly closes in a scene of drunkenness and uproar. Some of the mendicants are provided with comfortable lodgings, but the greater part are less careful as to this, than as to their diet. Their general fashion is to sleep in houses set apart for their use, where a bundle of straw is retained for a penny by the night. In these habitations they are crowded

"and