gust
before the Irish arms bill reached its final stage in the house of
commons. On that day Lord Eliot moved that it should be read a third
time, which motion was met by an amendment by Lord Clements, that it be
read a third time that day six months. Another warm discussion followed,
but the bill was carried by a majority of one hundred and twenty-five
against fifty-nine. In the house of lords two nights' discussion took
place upon the bill; but it met with a much easier passage in that
house, and towards the close of August it passed into law.

In the meantime discussions of a different nature took place in
both houses of parliament on Irish affairs. On the 14th of July Lord
Clanricarde moved resolutions declaring the dismissal of certain
magistrates by the Lord Chancellor, for taking part in the movement
in favour of repeal, unconstitutional, unjust, and inexpedient.
Their dismissal, he said, had given a great impulse to the prevailing
agitation, manifested by the rise in the repeal-rent; and he imputed
the state of Ireland, bordering on anarchy, to the policy of the present
government. The Duke of Wellington met these resolutions by a direct
negative, and contended that repeal agitation originated in the time
of the later ministers; the acts impugned were forced upon the present
administration. A long discussion ensued; but on a division the
resolutions were negatived by a majority of ninety-one against
twenty-nine. The state of Ireland again came under discussion in the
house of lords on the 8th of August, when Lord Rod en presented a
petition from upwards of five thousand of her majesty's Protestant loyal
subjects residing in the county of Down, praying for measures to repress
the rebellious spirit in Ireland, and expressing surprise at seeing
the marked difference made between Protestants and Roman Catholics in
respect of the enforcement of the law against processions.

In the house of commons, on the 4th of July, Mr. Smith O'Brien moved,
"That this house will resolve into a committee for the purpose of taking
into consideration the causes of the discontent prevailing in Ireland,
with a view to the redress of grievances, and to the establishment of
a system of just and impartial government in that part of the United
Kingdom." The debate which this motion gave rise to occupied five
nights, and, unlike the other debates on Irish affairs, it was conducted
in a calm, practical, and dispassionate temper. The chief sp