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the statute. Such was the decision of pointing representatives of Ireland an Irish High Sheriff. I may be pere in the British Parliament! The facimitted to doubt whether it would lity of making freeholders of this de have been so decided by a British one. scription, increased the number of As none but Protestants could then these respectable and independent elecvote, there was added to their crimes tors to an exorbitant amount. It was the perjury of passing for Protestants. discovered, it seems, by sages learned Heretics they might safely have sworn in the laws, that stamped leases or themselves.

powers of any sort were wholly unneThe act for registering freeholders, cessary, and that any kind of docunone of whom can vote unless regis- ment intimating the landlord's consent tered six months previous to the day to add a life to the tenant's lease, if it of election, certainly precludes fraud had no life before, or to give the oce and perjury of this nature, but by cupier of house, garden, or land, no opening a door for the admission of matter how small, provided he was voters, neither more respectable, nor willing to swear his interest therein more conscientious, contributes, I fear, worth forty shillings, the said premises very little to the honesty and purity during the life of some person specie of elections. The great landed pro- fied, generally an old man or woman, prietors themselves must of course be was perfectly sufficient to entitle him regarded as scrupulously averse to ad- to be registered as a freeholder. When mitting any to be enrolled among their it is considered what number of this forty-shilling freeholders, whose inte. description of inhabitants abound in rest in the premises was not in reality all parts of Ireland, how little scruof that amount. Of their estates, how- pulous they are about so trifling a ever, no inconsiderable portion is lease matter as an oath when anything is to ed to middlemen, who, adopting the be got by taking it, you will no longer ruinous system of letting land in small wonder at the immense overflow of divisions, in order to get the most they perjury and pauperism to be found can out of it during the continuance in the great body of Irish electors ! of their leases, have at length filled I have been frequently present at the country with a dense population, sessions held for the purpose of rewhich, in default of manufacturing gistering freeholders, as well as at conemployment, increases in pauperism as tested county elections, at both of it advances in numbers. Among these which, and particularly the latter, the middlemen-of whom many areRoman modes of proceeding were at once farCatholics—as well as among thegeneral cical and disgusting. At the former, classes of country gentlemen, there na- the forty-shilling freeholder swears, turally exists a desire of enhancing their agreeable to a printed form, that he importance, and exhibiting their politie has a freehold worth forty shillings, cal weight and respectability by the (describing the place where it is situnumber of voters they are able to bring ated) that

he is a bona fide occupier, into the field. A man who can command either by grazing, or tilling, or both; a score or two of forty-shilling mili- and that he has it by virtue of the tants, armed with the election fran- title then produced in Court. On the ehise, and ready to march as their paper so produced, the clerk of the leader shall direct, is a champion of crown writes his name, and the date no mean consequence in a close con- of the registry, then enters it into his test for the representation of a county. catalogue, receives a small fee, and At first they were pretty securely the business of the registry is com. reckoned upon by their natural com- pleted. The fees of these time-serving manders; but since the priests have electors, that is to say, of nineteen in taken the field, and brought the thune every score of forty-shilling freeder of the Church to bear against whate holders, are paid by their landlords, or, ever side they choose to oppose, the as they might have been too often callelective warfare has entirely changed ed, their drivers, who settle the busiits nature, and those spiritual generalsness with the clerk of the crown, and who lately disclaimed all political med- who get sessions held, each in his own dlings, and solicited only the uninter- district, for no other purpose than rupted exercise of their holy functions, registering their voters. The nature have taken upon themselves the su. of the system obliges even the respecte preme, if not exclusive right, of ap- able landed proprietor to act in some

measure on the obnoxious part of it, if he is anxious to maintain a county interest, because otherwise he will be beat out of the field by persons far below him indeed in wealth and respectability. The abuses to which it is carried are too numerous for detail; they may easily be inferred from this very statement, especially when it is considered, that on the day of election no cross-examination is allowed to take place; it is enough that the person's name is entered in the regis trator's schedule. The bribery oath may indeed be put, but this is rarely done, because the only result would be delay-no forty-shilling hero ever stumbling over that molehill. Now it must often happen that the tenure which was really worth forty shillings at the time of registry, may not be worth ten on the day of an election taking place three, four, or five years after. But no question can be put-it was sworn to five years before,-ergo,—by Hibernian logic-it must be true still. My British readers will hardly believe that two or three have often been known to register out of one house and acreone tilled it, another grazed it, and a third did both. It was in some sort true, for all lived in the same house, all had one or more pigs for grazing, and all raised potatoes; but the real value of the holding, after deduction of the rent, could not amount to more than five shillings per man. These, you will say, were pretty electors, yet truth obliges me to say, that of the droves I have seen brought to the registry sessions by land and by water, there were multitudes with even less pretensions, fellows furnished with documents from those who had no freehold to give-fellows who had scarce a cabin to live in, and whose only title lay in a tongue ready to swear, and a conscience wide enough to swallow any pill the master thought fit to prescribe. Surely the candidate who was honoured with such support, had ample reason to exclaim with Coriolanus, (Shakspeare furnishes matter for every thing,)

"Most sweet voices!"

But I come to the day of the election, and a grand day it is. Then appear the different squadrons, under the conduct of their several centurions, whose business it is to provide food and lodging; to keep them, if possible,

sober; to watch against the intrusion of emissaries from the enemy's camp, and to keep his ragged regiment from straggling. This is a task of some difficulty, particularly towards the close of election, and when the return is closely contested; for then every possible artifice is resorted to, and with most ardour on the weaker side, to turn the scale in favour of the hard run candidate. There are, however, two circumstances in the registry plan favourable to the friends of public peace, because they tend to shorten contests. One is, that there is a voting room for every barony, so that many votes are received at the same time; and another, that no lawyers can speak in Court. There is yet a third, which is, that, by previously examining the registry, any person well acquainted with county interests can easily ascer tain which of the parties has the strongest support. I should indeed rather say that it has been an advantage conducive to general tranquillity; for, as it is, the fact is quite otherwise. No landlord, however lenient, however generous, and however beloved, can reckon upon the support of his own tenantry, being Roman Catholics, even though he be himself the candidate, unless he is approved by the holy Roman Catholic Church; for into her hands the power of returning representatives is now committed, who, however qualified she may be to make saints, is not the best possible maker of senators in a Popish empire, much less in a Protestant one. France, I believe, would not easily submit to be governed by senators of her choice.Spain does, but her example is not among the most encouraging. Mr Plunket himself will certainly not deny her present overbearing influence in this land of saints, because it is so fully borne out by facts; but he is happily possessed of a secret to neus tralize these facts-nay, even to prevent their future recurrence. The divines of the holy Roman Church only want to be established in the pleasing enjoyment of power, ecclesiastical for themselves, and political for their followers! Well, what remedy can be more simple? Give them all they ask, says Mr Plunket, and they will complain no more! I like simple remedies, and if there be a more simple than this, I certainly don't know where to look for it.

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In the county of Cork, as well as in Parliament relative to oaths, and too several other Irish counties, there is often on the principles of Hudibrastic among these forty-shilling voters, a logic. very large proportion of sweet voices,' I was present when a batch of thirty totally ignorant of any language but or forty single-tongued freeholders aptheir own native dialect. All these of peared before the clerk of the crown, course belong to the Pope's regiment, to consummate the forms of legal quaand know nothing of Christianity save lification. He, not understanding & what comes through the medium of word of their language, and supposing the priest. The legislature has pre- that they knew at least something of scribed two oaths necessary to be taken his, had them duly arranged in front by Roman Catholics previous to their of his chair, and produced his long being admitted to exercise a civil pri- scroll. vilege so important as that of the elec- To the first man, who happened to tive franchise. These are to be ta- know a few English words, but withken in open court, and the names or out ability to hold conversation, he marks of the persons taking them, are began thus—“You, sir, and the rest of entered in a roll kept by the clerk of these gentlemen, must first declare your the crown. Without a certificate un- respective names, and afterwards reder his hand, that this indispensabic peat after me the contents of this papreliminary has been complied with, per, which, after you have sworn to, all the other preparations are nugatory. must be signed with the name or mark One of these is the oath of allegiance of every individual. Do you now, sir, to the King, not containing many sen- begin by repeating your name.” The tences—the other may be called that person addressed looked round for reof allegiance to the State, abjuring and lief, and was informed by a friend (in renouncing the Pope's temporal au- Irish) that he must say after the clerk thority and so forth ! This is pretty every word that the clerk should read long, and the tenor and phraseology to him out of the paper. Thus emof it not very accordant with the un- boldened, he requested his friend to cultivated comprehension of poor Pad. bid the clerk begin again--this was dy. Many, therefore, who know enough accordingly done.~(Question) Repeat of English to repeat it after the clerk, your name.-(Answer) Repate your do in reality pronounce words and name.—(Clerk) What answer is that, sentences, of a great part of which they man?-(Freeholder) What answer is know not the meaning. But the great that, man?-At this there was a laugh difficulty is to manage with those who in court, and the clerk of the crown can not speak English. The Act pre- got angry, thinking perhaps that Pada scribes the oath to be taken Anglice dy was disposed to pass a joke upon totidem verbis ; and if it had said that him. An explanation, however, on it shall be availing to none who cannot the part of the leader of the band soon really and bona fide so take it, the be- set matters to rights, and the first part nefit would have been considerable in of the business was pretty well got another point of view, by promoting over, each man successively repeating the use of the English tongue. This his name. But the sequel baffles all advantage would be enhanced still description. The quickest ear, and more by a condition, indispensable, in the most flippant tongue, found it not my opinion, to the qualification of an only difficult, but impossible, except elector, namely, that he should be after frequent repetitions, to catch the able not only to speak English, but sounds of an unknown language, and to read it. The Act not having pro- to repeat its words and sentences invided for interpretation, and having telligibly. What then must have been specified a certain form of words with the confusion of tongues in such a out express license to substitute any Babel as was here presented ! Had the others for them, may not unreasonably rustics been even moderately acquaintseem to have precluded all who could ed with English, still the meaning not repeat, and did not understand would have been for the most part the words of the statute. But if our shut out, being so much above the ore State directors want first to remove dinary reach of their ideas; as it was, mountains, they are in no want of ca. they were just as unable to pronounce suistical abilities to manage at their their lesson as to comprehend it. The pleasure the construction of Acts of oath might have been as well admi. VOL. XXII.

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nistered in Greek. Sometimes an in- ignorance, and servility, is the printerpreter was employed, who, being out ciple on which the right of yoting was of the common stamp, and unskilled originally established, and by which in the written Irish, was unable to it should be regulated still. Will the give anything like a just translation. patriotic advocates for the continuance He did, however, give a paraphrastical of this blessed system in Ireland, find clue to the meaning, the result of precedent or justification for it in the which was to make it much less pala- pages of that Magna Charta to which table. What they did not understand they are so fond of recurring? They they had no objection to sign, when know they will not. All I ask is a required to do so by their masters ; recurrence to the principle and the and my poor countrymen have a no- practice of their own great æra of potion, that if the book be not actually litical liberty. An equivalent for the kissed, the conscience is quite safe. rate of that period cannot be fixed Now there are two modes of evading on a lower scale than twenty pounds, perjury according to their spiritual lo- and by such freeholders alone should gic-one is to approach the book to county representative ever be returnthe mouth, but not touch it with the ed. lips-the other to kiss the thumb. But I will do more towards enlarHence nothing is more common in our ging and extending the elective franCourts of Law, than to hear attorneys chise than those senators are probareprimand a witness for similar eva- bly aware of, for though Ireland is sion. “Kiss the book, sir-not your ever in their mouths, they are still thumb! My lord, that fellow is eva- strangers to her true interests and her ding the oath!” In the particular case real situation. In the present system, here recorded, as it was nobody's bu- exclusive of what I have already obsiness to make objections—and the served, anomalies exist of a nature not clerk of the crown or his deputy had less unjust than preposterous. Save too much business on his hands to and except the possessor of an estate lengthen it by unnecessary scruples, in fee simple, no man can vote who the boys were allowed to kiss as they has not one or more lives in the lease pleased.

by which he holds his land. Thus Can it be necessary to do more than A. B., possessed of an interest in lands state this too faithful account of forty- of five hundred pounds per annum, shilling electorships in Ireland? Would under a lease of 99, or (as is often the it not be an insult on intelligence and case here) of 999 years, is not entitled integrity to employ words in proving to vote for a representative; while C. what is so obvious a truth, that the D., the petty occupier of a cabin and measure was conceived in folly, born a single acre, though utterly ignorant in ignorance, nursed in selfishness, and of the language spoken in the senate, has grown up in iniquity? Al, it is and though not worth one shilling over true, are not involved in the same sink and above his lawful debts, shall of reproach ; but that too many are, march into an election-court, and have he knows little of Ireland who will not as eficient a voice as a gentleman of a amply testify. Theory, I am aware, thousand a-year fee simple estate !! will never want sounding periods, and And why? because he has produced specious sophisms, to vindicate any at the registry sessions a scrap of paper measure whose plausible tendency is intimating that his landlord has given to give power to The People; but prac- him a forty-shilling freehold, during tice is the test of theory, and without the life of Joan Carthy, widow, aged the imprimatur of experience, her pro- 77 years!! You will say, perhaps, jects are but the baseless fabrics of a that this is impossible; and truly, I vision, with this difference, that they should say the same thing, but that I are not quite so harmless.

know it to be true. A gentleman in One would think that the road to a this neighbourhood holds property in just and fair representation of the land to the amount of 1700 acres, on landed interest of Ireland lay open to which, though there are numerous inevery moderate understanding. Ac- habitants, and some of them respecte tual possession of a competent portion able, there is not a single freeholder, of land, implying at once an indepen- because it is held by a very old lease dence of condition, and a degree of in- of 999 years! These things surely telligence above the ranks of plebeian ought not to be so. I think no person should be excluded from voting who questionably be changed. With an has real property in land to the amount humble hope of suggesting some userequired, and whose lease secures him ful hints, I have been at the trouble a reasonable duration, say of 15 or 20 of drawing up the foregoing statement years. It is rather a firmer hold than “if it be true, it surely deserves the that of the above-mentioned forty- attention of the Legislature, however shillinger, whose old lady's life could humble the writer. My knowledge not be valued at more than two or and experience assure me that it is, three years' purchase.

and you, sir, I believe, will vouch that If the legislature wish, as no doubt I am not in the habit of communicathey do, to put the elective franchise ting fabricated intelligence. into hands of something like respecta

Senex. bility, the present system must un- CORK, June 1, 1827.

ON THE Scots LAW OF MARRIAGE.

To the Editor. Edin. June 12, 1827. may legally be constituted by facts SIR,_The following observations and circumstances, as by the parties on some particulars relative to the living together, and acknowledging Scotch Law of Marriage, were written each other as man and wife. It is in April last, in consequence of the the unquestionable evidence of condiscussion which took place on the sent, in whatever form given, that is subject, in the course of the trial of essential to the constitution of the Mr Wakefield at Lancaster. The evie contract ; and it is merely because, in dence which was then given, as to marriages which are performed by what the law of Marriage in Scotland clergymen in presence of their conis, by the respectable counsel who was gregations, there is the most undoubte examined for Mr Wakefield, and the ed proof of that consent which the views which have since been express- law requires, that they are held to be ed on the subject in an article in your beyond all question valid and effectual. Magazine for May, as well as the Copula, or carnal knowledge, is not doctrine which has still more recently, required to constitute marriage ; that in the course of the discussion in both is only the consummation of it. The Houses of Parliament, been assumed legal maxim is, Consensus, non concuto be law in Scotland, appear to me to bitus, facit matrimonium. be contrary, both to the legal principles but though this, the most solemn and authorities of our law; and there- of all contracts, is perfected solely by fore, though my observations were not consent, and may thus easily be enterwritten with a view to publication in ed into, it will be observed that the any shape, I now send them to you,

consent which the law requires, imthat you may, if you think proper, plies the existence of some essential give them a place in your columns. qualities, and the absence of other qua

In Scotland, marriage is regarded lities, in order to render the marriage merely as a civil contract, which is binding. constituted by the interposition of the In the first place, the law requires consent of parties. Consent is the that the parties be capable of consentessential and indispensable quality of ing; for one who cannot consent cannot the contract; and if the parties are marry; and therefore idiots, furious capable of contracting marriage, and persons, and pupils, are incapable of there is sufficient evidence of the in- marrying. The age of pupilarity in terposition of that consent, that is Scotland is twelve in females, and quite enough to constitute a marriage. fourteen in males, after the attainment It does not require the sanction of the of which, the sexes are respectively church, or any civil ceremony, to give presumed to be capable of entering it validity ; nor is it requisite that into the married state, and that, too, the consent should be adhibited in any even without the consent of parents or set form of words. The contract may guardians. legally be entered into by the parties In the second place, the consent must exchanging missive letters, whereby be true and genuine, not nominal and they explicitly acknowledge having apparent only. An idiot may give an taken each other for husband and wife apparent consent; but if in truth he is -or the consent may be interchanged incapable of giving a real and genuine

nort to any contract, it

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