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.'[1]
But in the same speech Sir R. Peel recorded the result of this abuse:—
It is in vain to deny or to conceal the truth in respect to that franchise. It was until a late period the instrument through which the landed aristocracy, the resident and the absentee proprietor, maintained their local influence—through which property had its weight, its legitimate weight, in the national representation. The landlord has been disarmed by the priest; and the fear of spiritual denunciations, acting in unison with the passions and feelings of the multitude, has already severed in some cases, and will sever in others, unless we interfere to prevent it, every tie between the Protestant proprietor and the lower class of his Roman Catholic tenantry. That weapon which he has forged with so much care, and has heretofore wielded with so much success, has broken short in his hand.[2]
The Government of 1829 proposed to raise the freehold franchise from 40s. to 10l. Lord Duncannon,
