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against it express, that it is only a step towards putting all the courts in India upon one and the same system, which, of course, may be either a vast improvement, or might make India uninhabitable for freemen.

The Minutes are

1. A Minute by the Honourable T. B, Macaulay, Esq., dated

2. Minute of the Honourable H. Shakespear, Esq., 15th March, 1836.

3. Minute of the Honourable T. B. Macaulay, Esq., 9th May, 1836.

4. Extract Legislative Consultation, 3d October, 1836, comprising—

a. Minute signed "H. Shakespear," 8th July, 1836.

b. Minute by the Governor-General, signed "Auckland," 13th August, 1836.

c. Minute signed "A. Ross," 26th August, 1836.

d. Minute by the Honourable LieutenantColonel W. Morison, C.B., 26th August, 1836.

e. Minute by the Honourable T. B. Macaulay, Esq., dated the

5. Extract Legislative Consultations, 28th December, 1835, comprising

a. Extract from a Minute of Mr. Macaulay, as President of the Law Commission, dated 17th October, 1835.

b. Extract from a Minute by Mr. Cameron, dated 20th October, 1835.

c. Extract from Mr. Macleod's Minute, dated 31st October, 1835.

d. Extract from Mr. Anderson's Minute, dated 11th November, 1835.

The most striking of these minutes are those of Mr. Macaulay, who filled the office both of fourth ordinary member of council, specially appointed with the approbation of the crown, and the office also of President of the Law Commission. As Mr. Macaulay is understood to be on his way home, it will be the fairest course to postpone, until his arrival, any discussion of his minutes. In the mean time, it is in some degree satisfactory to observe, that Lord Auckland has perceived that "it might have "been wished, had circumstances been such as to admit "of that course being followed, that some new formation "of the superior courts had been accomplished before the "law of appeal was altered." Mr. Henry Shakespear is an able and experienced servant of the Company, and for a considerable time was secretary in the judicial department; an office which, as to all the interior of the country, answers much more nearly to the functions of the Lord Chancellor in the British cabinet than the office of legislative councillor does. As it is of the highest importance that British persons going to India should have some general notion of the securities for property and for personal liberty which they are to enjoy, they will find it worth while to read these minutes. Lord Auckland says of Mr. Shakespear's, of the 8th July, 1836, that “the "council cannot but be grateful to Mr. Shakespear for having, with so much industry and clearness, stated the grounds upon which, in his opinion, it was just and expedient to pass the Act repealing the 107th section of "the 53d Geo. III."

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VI.

IRISH AFFAIRS.

THERE is at last a prospect of settling the three great questions of Irish Tithe, Irish Corporations, and Irish Poor Laws, upon a basis of approximation to the law in England. The Duke of Wellington opened the way to this arrangement by a few powerful words, uttered in his place in parliament after the death of William the Fourth, and at the close of the last parliament. The whole Conservative party found that they had made a grand mistake, in supposing that Lord Lyndhurst's plan of abolishing the Irish Municipalities would be acceptable to the great towns in Ireland; and in these circumstances Sir Robert Peel, with the full concurrence of the party at the head of which he stands, has turned all the currents of opinion. into one channel, by the broad and sweeping declaration made on Tuesday, 29th May, that an identity of political institutions for England and for Ireland is the landingplace towards which all ought to steer their way out of this sea of troubles. Two indications threaten a disturbance of this course. Mr. Ward has expressed a determination to make the House of Commons express anew its opinion, whether, if there should be a surplus of the revenues of the Established Church in Ireland beyond what is required for the spiritual care of its congregations, that surplus shall be applied to general purposes of edu

cation; and Mr. O'Connel has signified his opinion that it would be unjust that any rent-charges substituted for tithes should issue out of the lands in which Catholics have the first general estate of inheritance; and he appears to think that, to complete the political assimilation of Ireland to England, it would be necessary to make the Catholic Church the established and principal church in Ireland.

Mr. Ward's motion could not at present have any other than a mischievous effect; and, besides the inconvenience and embarassments which are consequent upon all needless "resolutions" of any one party where three must agree in their conclusions before any thing can be done, it would be open to all the additional objections which apply to hypothetical resolutions. It is still strenuously denied that there is any surplus; and Mr. Ward himself does not pretend to have ascertained its amount. Why not wait for the reports of those Commissioners who are engaged in an inquiry, of which one of the proper and main objects is to ascertain and declare the relations which the revenues of the Established Church in Ireland bear to its congregations?

Mr. O'Connell's notion of assimilation is certainly a different one from that which is entertained by Sir Robert Peel; and it is to be hoped that the United Kingdom will not lose the benefit which is now almost within our grasp, of identical laws and institutions for England and Ireland, by a departure from that basis on which it has been understood that all parties might meet, if one of them could be prevailed upon to advance to it.

In the House of Lords, a large majority has sanctioned the application to Ireland of the principle of relief to the able-bodied labourer, when in a state of destitution; and, without this, there would be a constant overflow of Irish labour into England, which would drive the English

labourers into the workhouse, to be supported by English landlords.

Lord John Russell has consented to withhold, for the present, any measures relating to tithe in Ireland, except a provision for the commutation of compositions into rentcharges, which will not very materially differ from the commutation of tithes in England, except that the amount of the rent-charges will not fluctuate annually with the price of corn.

In the matter of the Irish Municipalities, Lord John Russell proposed that the qualification of the burgesses of the seven largest towns should be the occupation or ownership of tenements, of the full and clear yearly value of ten pounds a-year; and the qualification for forty smaller towns should be five pounds. On Friday, the first of June, Sir Robert Peel proposed that, to prevent fictitious qualifications, there should not merely be an occupation or ownership, but that, in the eleven largest towns, the parties should be rated for tenements of ten pounds yearly value to the new poor-rate which is likely to be established. This amount was negatived by a division in the Committee of the whole House, but is likely to be again. debated upon bringing up the report, which is fixed for Thursday the 7th of June, when the bill will have to be recommitted. Lord John Russell's proposal, by way of compromise with the Conservative party is, that instead of giving corporations absolutely, and at once, to fortyseven towns, the bill shall give them only to the eleven largest, but that the Crown shall have the power of granting charters of incorporation to towns in Ireland, as it does in England, upon the petition of the inhabitants; that the qualification for the eleven towns shall be ascertained by the parties being rated to the new poor's-rate, but that the annual value, for which it shall be necessary that they shall be so rated, shall be five pounds instead of ten.

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