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law makes in case of intestacy remains unaltered; and the landlord, at least in new leases, by giving no express authority in the lease to sub-let, can thus always secure himself against a testamentary distribution of his lands among a number of sons, or other relations, who, each following the same plan in regard to his own family, so long as the term of years is to run, or renewals can be obtained, at last cover the estate with a race of paupers.

Among the recommendations of the select committee of 1825 was one to apply some remedy to the evils produced in Ireland by levying certain tolls and customs upon fairs and markets in Ireland, which had been granted to particular individuals and corporations; and, on February 16, Mr. Spring Rice moved an Address to his Majesty, praying him to order a commission to issue to inquire into "the tolls and customs collected in fairs, markets, and sea-ports, in Ireland." The motion was opposed both on the general merits of the measure, and on the inefficacy of the particular mode of inquiry proposed. Mr. Goulburn said, he had no doubt that abuses, such as it was the object of this motion to reform, did exist; and did not mean to deny that they ought to be speedily remedied, if a practicable remedy could be discovered. The levying of tolls in a fair or market, to any extent, was undoubtedly a restraint laid upon the trade which might there be carried on ; but the motion could not stand upon this principle; for that objection would be equally applicable to every part of the United Kingdom as to Ireland, there being scarcely an ancient fair in existence in which tolls of this kind were not payable; and the trades-people who frequented

Covent-garden market had as much right to come to parliament, as the old clothesmen who paid 2d. upon the sale of a wig, or 6d. upon the sale of a pair of breeches, at the fair of Skibbereen. So far, therefore, as these tolls had been legally imposed, and were legally exacted, there was no reason for viewing Ireland in a different light from any other part of the country. If, again, illegal extortions were practised by those having right to tolls, on the one hand, or if the collecting of legitimate tolls were illegally resisted by those who were bound to pay them, on the other, and if scenes of tumult and violence and bad humour were thus occasionally produced, all this furnished no reason for the interference of parliament, unless it could be shown that the existing law, duly resorted to, was insufficient to compel both parties to keep within the boundaries of their respective rights. The existing act of parliament on this subject provided the party complainant with a remedy, in the shape of an appeal to a sitting magistrate. To secure expedition in granting redress, and impartiality in deciding, this act, in the first place, imposed a heavy fme upon any magistrate declining summarily to interfere upon due cause shewn; and, in the next place, provided, that the cause might be removed out of the jurisdiction of any corporate body interested in the levy of such tolls and customs. If the Irish gentlemen resident in such parts of Ireland as happened to be in the neighbourhood of any place where illegal extortions took place, would lend their assistance to those who were the victims of such extortion and to those whose legal rights were violently resisted, by pointing out, in either case, the

proper steps to be taken for obtaining legitimate redress, one or two examples would suffice to prove to all parties concerned, the illegality of the courses pursued by them; and the law, as it at present stood, being strong enough to punish any such illegal practices, would soon prevent the levy of tolls which were either illegal or improper. It was of importance that the people of Ireland should be encouraged in a disposition to act under the sanction of the law, rather than to resort to any extraordinary modes of obtaining redress; and nothing could be more easy than to prove to them that the legal tribunals were open to the consideration of even their slightest interests, and entirely disposed to afford them redress for every injury of which they justly complained. Again, as these tolls were perfectly legal rights, and recognized as such, they could not be taken away without compensation being made to the parties, who should, by compulsion, be deprived of them. Their yearly value might amount in Ireland to about 500,000l.; and it could not be expected that their proprietors would sell them under twenty years purchase: but to burthen the country with such an annuity for so unnecessary an object, would be most improvident in any state of the Exchequer.

In regard to the particular mode of inquiry proposed, it was asked, would the commission moved for produce any more information (it called for a statement of " the tolls and customs collected in fairs, markets, and sea-ports in Ireland") than the House already possessed in the returns and tables of these matters already made out in most of such towns and places in Ireland, and supported by the authority of the

clerk of the peace of the district. Besides, how could a commission adequately accomplish the objects of the motion? If any one commissioner were to live to the age of Nestor himself, he could scarcely inspect and report upon more than two thousand patents for levying tolls and customs that existed in Ireland, and extended to a great variety of articles, few of them to less than fifty or sixty articles, and many of them to still more. What commissioner would undertake the Herculean labour that the terms of this proposition would impose upon him? If the hon. mover, said Mr. Plunket, will point out the abuses, I shall take upon myself the labour of remedying them, for there are no cases which the law is not already sufficient to meet ; but an inquiry like that proposed would never terminate. There were in Ireland two thousand and sixteen franchises, and each of these franchises had from fifteen to twenty different tolls; SO that there would be about forty thousand rights of toll to investigate, besides the many minor points which sprang out of them.

Sir John Newport, Mr. Fitzgerald, and Mr. Martin, in supporting the motion, rested chiefly upon the hardship and the hopelessness of the peasantry being driven to defend themselves by a lawsuit against a corporate body, or an opulent individual, and urged the necessity, if the commission should be refused, of furnishing to the poor man a more speedy, cheap, and effectual, remedy than the law at present afforded. The motion was withdrawn, on an understanding that the matter should be sent for inquiry to a committee, the private rights of parties re

maining untouched. Accordingly, on the 21st February, a select committee was appointed to take into consideration the returns of tolls and customs at sea-ports, fairs, and markets in Ireland, and to in

quire how far the existing laws on the subject were capable of being consolidated and amended, and a remedy afforded for the grievances at present complained of.

CHAP. VI.

COLONIES.-Slave Trade-Motion regarding the Trials of Slaves in Jamaica-Resolutions of the Commons on the Slave Trade adopted by the Lords-Motion by Lord Suffield to disqualify Proprietors of Slaves from being public Functionaries-Motion to the same effect made in the Commons by Mr. Smith- Petitions from the Council and House of Assembly of Antigua, and the West-India Merchants-Mr. Brougham's Motion on the Conduct of the Colonies-INDIA.-Jury Bill-Education of Writers-Petition of Mr. Buckingham complaining of the Indian Government referred to a Committee-CANADA.Naturalization Act.-FOREIGN RELATIONS.-The Alien Act. PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.

THE foreign dependencies of a strong recommendation to their

the empire presented little matter to occupy the attention of parliament, with the exception of the repeated discussions connected with the Slave Trade. The House of Commons, on the 15th May, 1823, had passed resolutions expressive of the expediency of adopting effectual measures to ameliorate the condition of the slave population. These resolutions had been immediately transmitted to the colonies by government, accompanied by an urgent exhortation to cause them to be executed, feeling it to be desirable that the colonial assemblies and governments should themselves be the parties to carry them into effect. Disappointed in this hope, government had, in 1824, embodied in an order in council those measures which seemed most immediately necessary for the amelioration of the condition of the negroes; and had sent that order both to the colonies in which, from the absence of local legislatures, the crown had power to command, and also to the other colonies, with

legislatures to adopt its principles. Nearly three years had now elapsed since the sense of parliament, and the wishes of government, had been officially notified to the colonial legislatures; and the supporters of emancipation maintained, that their hopes had been deceived; for that, during those three years, the planters had taken no measures for the improvement of the slave system, but had given a decisive confirmation of what their opponents had always asserted-of the vanity of looking for any thing like amelioration from the very persons who were interested, or thought they were interested, in the continuance of every evil which existed. Now, therefore, they said, that the order of government had been trifled with, and the voice of the House of Commons had been contemned, it was time for the authorities at home to interfere; and nothing remained but to introduce into the islands by compulsion, a sense of justice and humanity, which neither good feeling nor common prudence had

yet been able to teach the colonists. In conformity with these views, petitions were gotten up in incredible numbers; seldom had the tables of both Houses been covered at one time with so many applications on the same subject. Their general tenor was agreeable to that of the common council of London, which expressed abhorrence at the continuance of the traffic, and regret that its abolition, notwithstanding the declared opinion of parliament, should have experienced resistance in another quarter; and declared the willingness of the petitioners to join in bearing any burthen which might be rendered necessary by indemnifying the slave-proprietors for the losses which they might sustain. At the same time, the meetings which were encouraged, and the publications which were issued, by the Anti-slavery Society and its agents, sought to excite public feeling by details of individual acts of injustice and oppression, not always accompanied with every thing necessary to their proper understanding, and often leading to dangerous generalization, and crude and indefinite propositions. Mr. Hume mentioned, in the House of Commons (1st March), as an instance of the unfair means adopted by the friends of abolition to excite popular prejudice, and obscure the actual state of the question, that a print had been sent to him (and he doubted not to many other members) representing the impalement of a female slave which had taken place in the year 1782.

In the end of 1823, and the earlier part of 1824, a plan for an insurrection among the slaves on certain plantations in Jamaica had been discovered, and eight negroes

had been executed, having been convicted upon trial of being concerned in the conspiracy. The papers connected with these trials had been laid on the table of the House during the session of 1825, but no motion had hitherto been founded upon them. Mr. Denman now brought the legality and justice of these proceedings under discussion, by moving a resolution to the effect, that the House, having taken into consideration the trials which took place at Jamaica for rebellion, conspiracy, and other offences, in the years 1823 and 1824, deem it their duty to express their sorrow and regret at the violation of law which took place upon the said trials; that they deeply lament the precipitate manner in which the sentence of death was passed and executed; and recommend some alteration in the mode of administering the code of criminal justice, affecting the slaves in the said colony.

The motion was prefaced by a speech analysing the evidence upon which the accused had been convicted, demonstrating its contradictions, its insufficiency, its absurdity, and arriving at the conclusion that such atrocities, perpetrated under the mask of justice, and the law of evidence which permitted them, required the abólition of a system which placed a negro for trial before interested masters for his judges and jury, and, in giving him an appeal to the council, merely gave him an appeal to another body of masters equally prejudiced. The first trials took place in the parish of St. Mary's; and, it appeared, said Mr. Denman, from the papers, that on the 16th of December, 1823, a person of the name of Roberts, who resided in Kingston,

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