Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/34

 the franchise in 1792, it became the practice to create 40s. freeholders, not by tens and twenties, but by hundreds and by thousands, and to march these two-legged cattle up to the poll to support the landowner's favourite candidate, and to enable him to carry those jobs at the Castle which he might have in hand at the time. Sir R. Peel, in 1829, in moving the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, after stating the very moderate number of voters in English counties, said, 'I believe there are many counties in 'Ireland in which fourteen or fifteen thousand voters are registered, and some counties in which there are upwards of twenty thousand.'

But in the same speech Sir R. Peel recorded the result of this abuse:—

The Government of 1829 proposed to raise the freehold franchise from 40s. to 10l. Lord Duncannon,