at least the first reading of a bill, which I freely admit to be most
unconstitutional in itself.'

Noticing a speech made in the course of the evening by Lord Morpeth,
who had himself once been chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
Lord George thought it discreet to remind the House of the unequivocal
support given to this bill by the Whig leaders in another place: 'Sir, I
think when we see all the great leaders of the Whig party supporting the
measure elsewhere, we cannot be justly impugned for doing as they do.'
Lord Morpeth had referred to 'remedial measures which he thinks
should be introduced for Ireland: to measures for the extension of the
municipal, and also of the parliamentary, franchise of that country; and
he expressed his desire to see those franchises put on the same footing
as the franchises of England.' 'For the life of me,' exclaimed Lord
George, 'I confess, I cannot see in what way the extension of political
franchises of any description in Ireland would afford a remedy for
the evils which this measure aims to suppress. I think, sir, it is
impossible not to perceive that there is a connection between agrarian
outrage and the poverty of the people.'

After noticing the inadequate poor-law which then existed in Ireland,
he added: 'There is also another point immediately connected with
this subject to which I must refer. I allude, sir, to the system of
absenteeism. I cannot disguise from myself the conviction, that many
of the evils of Ireland arise from the system of receiving rents by
absentee landlords who spend them in other countries. I am well aware
that, in holding this doctrine, I am not subscribing to the creed of
political economists. I am well aware that Messrs. Senior and M'Culloch
hold that it makes no difference whether the Irish landlord spends his
rents in Dublin, on his Irish estates, in London, in Bath, or elsewhere.
I profess, sir, I cannot understand that theory. I believe that the
first ingredient in the happiness of a people is, that the gentry should
reside on their native soil, and spend their rents among those from whom
they receive them. I cannot help expressing a wish that some arrangement
may be made connected with the levying of the poor-rate in Ireland, by
which absentee landlords may be made to contribute in something like a
fair proportion to the wants of the poor in the district in which they
ought to reside. There is an arrangement in the hop-growing districts in
Engl