Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/35

 on the second reading, observed that but for the constitutional exercise of their privileges by the 40s. freeholders of Louth, Waterford, and Clare this bill would never have been heard of. But the abuse was flagrant, and some remedy was required. The remedy proposed indeed restricted the elective franchise within very narrow limits. But in 1850 a measure was carried through Parliament granting the franchise to occupiers rated at twelve pounds a year.

Still the fight—the fight for life and death—continued. Mr. Shiel described it dramatically somewhat in this fashion:—

And if he does not remember it, and votes as the priest bids him, he is ejected from his rude dwelling, and loses all the produce of the ten or fifteen acres, which in a course of years he has cultivated with patient industry, and whereby alone he procures sustenance for his wife and children.

This is a subject which requires the application of sound general principles, but likewise, let me add, of sound common sense. For instance, let us suppose for a minute that all the difficulties of converting tenants into landlords were overcome, and then consider what would be the practical consequences of establishing in England and Ireland some legal and