Laws.

HOUSE of Commons, Mar. 1.

Dr. Phillimore brought up the report of the committee on the election for Peterborough, which stated that they had found the allegation of the petitioner, Mr. Samuel Wells-that the right of election was vested in all the inhabitants of that borough paying scot and lot-to be incorrect; and that, on the contrary, such right was vested in the mayor and burgesses, being members of the corporation. They therefore reported that James Stuart, Esq. was duly elected; and further, that neither the petition of Mr. Wells, nor the opposition to it, was frivolous or vexatious.

Mr. F. Buxton presented three petitions in favour of the London water-works bill.

On the motion of Mr. Buxton that the above bill be read a second time,

Mr. W. Williams objected to it, on the ground of its not being necessary, and that no statement had been made to the house which should induce it to add to the existing water companies.

He concluded by moving that the bill be read a second time that day six months.

Mr. Freemantle said, he had been the chairman of a committee formerly appointed on the subject of water companies. His opinion previous to his attending that committee had been, that the divisions which these companies had made of the metropolis was an unjustifiable monopoly, and that their profits were far too great. Upon inquiry, he was, however, induced to change that opinion altogether, and all the prejudices which he had before entertained against them were removed. He was far from thinking that competition was a desirable thing in these companies, and he hoped that the house would pause before they permitted new companies to be formed, the consequence of which must be the ruin of themselves or others. In none of the companies, he believed, had the proprietors. received 5 per cent. on the amount of their capital.

Mr. F. Buxton said that he should prefer stating facts to offering arguments in favour of this bill. In the year 1810, it had been found that the augmentation of buildings in particular districts rendered a larger supply of water necessary than could be afforded

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by the New River Company, and therefore other companies were allowed to be established. The same reason was to be urged in favour of the measure now before the house. The increase of population and of buildings in that part of the metropolis which it was proposed to supply with water by this company rendered it absolutely necessary. There was no such thing as competition amongst these water-companies, and he could not conceive why competition should not exist as well with respect to that article as to every other. In 1815, the companies entered into an agreement with each other, by means of which all competition was effectually prevented. They decided on what price they should demand. If they pleased, they might refuse to supply any individual with water; and if a person quitted one company for the purpose of procuring a supply from another, he might be disappointed, since they had agreed not to interfere with each other's establishments. The hon. gent. (Mr. W. Williams) said, that competition was good with respect to every article but one, and that was water. It was strange that competition would not be beneficial, where an actual necessary of life was concerned. In 1810, when there was a competition, the price of water fell 25 per cent.; but in 1815, when competition was put an end to, it immediately rose 25 per cent. To understand the imposition, he begged to call the attention of the house to the case of a schoolmaster residing at Stratford. One of the companies agreed to supply him with water at 18s. a year. At the end of the year, they told him that they must

raise the rate 100 per cent. They did so. In the following year, they advanced it 100 per cent. more; and last year they informed him they must add another 100 per cent. He thought proper to remonstrate; and what was the consequence? Why, they actually raised the rate by 200 per cent. last year.

The house divided, when there appeared, for the second reading, 69; against it, 30; majority, 39.

Mr. Brownlow said, that he held in his hand a petition which he felt bound to present to the house on that evening. The petition had come into his hands at the end of the last session of parliament. He then knew nothing about the facts which it contained, and be therefore postponed the presentation of it until he had made some inquiry on the subject. He had made that inquiry, as he had obtained the testimony of a gentleman upon whose word he could place the most unqualified reliance, as to the truth of every fact stated in the petition. The petitioner, John Kinby, stated that he had for 14 years kept a school in a parish (the name of which we could not catch) in Kerry. On account, however, of the badness of the times, the parents of the children whom he taught were unable to pay for their instruction, and the school consequently was obliged to be given up. The petitioner then thought of changing his residence, in order to obtain a livelihood; and as a preliminary to the proceeding he applied to the parish priest to give him a character. The priest certified that the petitioner "had for many years kept a school, and conducted himself in an exem

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plary manner." It happened, however, that about this time (it was last February) an agent of the Hibernian School Society came to the petitioner's parish, for the purpose of establishing a school there. The school was established, and the petitioner was, on account of his excellent character, appointed to be the schoolmaster. The school had not been opened many months before it was attended by upwards of 100 children. It was now that the coadjutor of the parish priest, the Reverend John Quin, a Romancatholic, called on the petitioner and told him that he must desist from teaching the children, because the education they received might tend to make them become protestants. It was necessary to inquire what was the nature of the education which these children received. They were merely taught to read the Bible, but no catechism, and the attendance of the Roman-catholic priests was always solicited. The petitioner told the priest that he had no intention of making converts from the Roman-catholic faith, and asserted that he ought to be allowed to get his livelihood as he pleased, so long as he did so honestly. The priest thereupon became enraged, and after dealing out some invective, went away vowing vengeance. On the next Lord's day the petitioner was publicly pointed out in the house of the Lord by the priest, who exhorted his fellow parishioners to hold no intercourse with him, and excommunication was denounced against those who should continue to send their children to the school. About 50 children, however, still continued to attend the school. But

soon after came the time when the priests were in the habit of receiving confession, and then they took the opportunity of warning the children not to attend the school, and curses were pronounced from the altar on them who might thenceforth continue to do so. Under this continued opposition of the Roman-catholic priests, the school sunk to the ground, and the petitioner was compelled, by the threats of the priests, and the disrespect with which he was treated in consequence of those threats, to leave his parish, and go to other parts of the country. Wherever he went, however, he found that the influence of the priests had preceded him; and he found that those who were formerly disposed to befriend him, now denied him all friendly assistance. To crown all, the petitioner was cruelly assaulted, knocked down, and nearly deprived of life by five men, for daring to speak against the conduct of the catholic priests. This was only one instance; but he (Mr. Brownlow) could quote many instances of the violence which Roman-catholic priests had exercised towards schoolmasters in Ireland. In many instances they had incited the populace under them to commit acts of violence against those useful men. He moved that the petition be brought up.

The petition was brought up, and ordered to lie on the table.

Mr. Bright said, he had a petition to present, which related to the subject about to be discussed from a large number of the merchants, bankers, and traders of Bristol. The petitioners prayed that persons of all religious sects

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should be put on the same footing with respect to civil rights. Perhaps some gentlemen might imagine that the petitioners were better qualified to form an opinion than he was, when he stated, that he could go all the length of that prayer. He was perfectly willing to place all bodies of Dissenters on an equality with respect to civil rights; but he was not disposed to grant the same ir dulgence to the Roman-catholics, when he considered the principles on which our revolution was effected, and the bad effect which the catholic religion had produced in every country where it had prevailed; in proof of which he might instance the present state of all the Roman-catholic countries in the world.

Sir Francis Burdett rose and said, that he held in his hand a petition, signed by a greater number of the Roman-catholics of Ireland, than had ever, he believed, before affixed their names to any document of a similar description. For the present he should content himself merely to perform the duty of presenting it; and should reserve the few observations he had to make until it was laid upon the table.

The petition, which formed a roll of parchment apparently more than a hundred feet in length, was then read by the clerk, and ordered to lie on the table.

Sir Francis Burdett, in moving that the petition should be printed, declared that he rose to address the house under circumstances of great difficulty and anxiety. If he always felt considerable apprehension when called upon to address the house on any important subject, never had he experienced

that emotion in the degree with which it operated upon him at the then moment. A task was now devolving upon him, which he had little power to do justice to, or to perform-a task which he would have declined, but for the fear of seeming to avoid his duty, or to fail in that zeal for the catholic cause, in which no gentleman in the country should ever go beyond him. Still when he called to mind the phalanx of talent which in times past had been exercised on the present questionwhen he recollected the eminent names which, for a century, had been marshalled in support of it; and considered that the brightest faculties of the present day would, within a very few hours, perhaps, be drawn forth in the same cause; when he thought of all these things, it became impossible for him not, even in the midst of all his uneasiness, to feel some consolation-not to believe that his own feebleness would be more than compensated by the power of those who surrounded and would support him; and that his cause-the cause of the catholics of Ireland, of itself alone strong enough to keep up the weakest advocate-would be brought, and on the night on which he spoke, to a favourable issue. It was still farther a matter of great comfort to him, that in casting his eye round the house, he saw on every side men the most enlightened, and of the best information, as anxious on this question as himself; and perhaps yet more, that, on looking opposite, he found that those brilliant talents which were most frequently exerted against his efforts, were upon this occasion to strengthen his arguments, to repair any defects

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that he might be guilty of. The petition which he had the honour of presenting, large as it was in appearance, and numerously signed, that petition did not set forth so much as a trifling part-it showed but an atom, the least atom-of that immense body of interests which it represented; and of which the full figure, if brought forward, would seem so tall and gigantic, that even the roof of the English house of parliament might scarce be lofty enough to contain it. It would be injustice to the greatness of that petition to view it as involving the cause of the catholicsunjust and weak to treat it as involving the cause of the whole people of Ireland. The question to which it applied was one which affected no partial interests, but the safety and happiness of the British community at large. And when he thought of this, he really found the subject of such magnitude, that he almost shrunk from the attempt to advocate it, and should still be inclined to do so, but for the resources and assistance to which he already had adverted. The grounds on which the petitioners came forward were so strong, so irresistible, that he could not frame to himself any principle on which it could be objected to. Upon every principle of honour, justice, policy, and good faith, it appeared to him that the petitioners had a claim to which no answer could be given. His great desire, at the present moment, was to avoid recurrence to any of those topics which had lately been before the house. He wished to touch upon no topic upon no point—which could excite angry feeling in the mind of any man. He looked to the exercise of 1825.

gentlemen's coolest judgment for the advancement of that object which he was endeavouring to support; and he did implore those around him, of whatever party, to merge for a moment every other feeling in anxiety for the public interest, and to consider only by what course the strength and resources of the empire were most likely to be served and to be consolidated. With that purpose, he should cautiously avoid every thing in the shape of a retrospective view. He would not, with an unhallowed hand, tear open the wounds under which the people of Ireland had been suffering; but would endeavour, by conciliating those people, and the persons who were opposed to them, to shew that they were interested in putting an end to the existing state of things. It was a state of things under which some moments of calm had, perhaps, lately been obtained, owing to the prevalence of something like a liberal system in the latter administration of the country, but in which no object which was really valuable, no prosperity to endure, could ever be brought about. Those advan. tages could never be expected, but from the entire change in the policy of England towards Ireland, and from the accession to those demands, which honour and her own interest equally called upon him to admit. For, of the catholic claims he would venture to assert, that at the time when England had been in her greatest danger-he meant at the time of the Revolution-such an unworthy jealousy of those claims had never been shown as at the present day, At the time immediately following that event, with a new government, unorganized and unsettled-a king