Page:Abolition of the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.djvu/10

6, but if delayed, would at least leave the field open to any weightier authority, and might thereby give the matter a better chance of successful acceptance—a point of infinitely greater moment to myself, as well as to all other parties concerned, than any gratification of individual vanity.

But the Bill for the abolition of the Lord-Lieutenancy is now before Parliament and the public. It was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on the 17th of May; and as, up to the present middle of the month of June, I have perceived no movement for a modification of its plan; have heard no utterance of public opinion upon its details, beyond an almost unanimous assent to the expediency of such modification from all to whom it has been individually suggested; I trust I may now, without any possible charge of presumption, venture to lay before the public views which appear to me to be at least deserving of the deliberate and impartial consideration of all those interested in the subject.

To whom then could I with more propriety, and with more effect, address any such suggestions than to yourself; one of the leading members of that House of Commons, before which the Bill has been laid, and with which its discussion must in the first instance rest?

Without for the present entering into the formal provisions of the Bill itself, it will suffice, and will be more practically to the purpose, if we look to the