ho held offices; and, though it was impossible to
estimate the possible number of place-holders with precision, he thought
what would he most fair for him to propose would be, that "no more than
twenty of the Irish members should hold places, and that if it should
happen that a greater number did hold places during pleasure, then those
who had last accepted them should vacate their seats."

In the House of Peers he proposed that twenty-eight lords temporal of
Ireland should have seats in the united Parliament, who should be
elected for life by the Peers of Ireland--an arrangement which differed
from that which, at the beginning of the century, had been adopted for
the representative Peers of Scotland; but he argued, and surely with
great reason, that "the choice of Peers to represent the Irish nobility
for life was a mode that was more congenial to the general spirit and
system of a Peerage than that of their being septennially elected, as
the nobility of Scotland were." Of the spiritual Peers, four were to sit
in rotation; to the lay Peers a farther privilege was given, which the
minister regarded as of considerable, and even constitutional
importance. By the articles of the Scotch Union, a Peer, if not chosen
as a representative of the Peerage, was not eligible as a candidate for
the House of Commons in either England or Scotland. But this bill
"reserved a right to the Peers of Ireland who should not be elected to
represent their own Peerage, to be elected members of the House of
Commons of the united Parliament of Great Britain;" and Pitt urged that
this was "a far better mode of treatment than had been adopted for the
nobility of Scotland; so that a nobleman of Ireland, if not representing
his own order, might be chosen as a legislator by a class of inferior
rank, which he was so far from regarding as improper, that he deemed it
in a high degree advantageous to the empire, analogous to the practice
as well as friendly to the spirit of the British constitution." And he
enforced his argument by pointing out with honest pride the advantage
which in that respect the spirit and practice of our constitution gave
to our nobility over the nobles of other countries. "We know full well,"
he continued, "the advantage we have experienced from having in this
House those who, in the course of descent, as well as in hopes of merit,
have had a prospect of sitting in our House of Peers. Those, therefore,
who object to this part of th