he commons, and the amendments of their lordships
having been agreed to on the following day without any discussion
regarding their merits, the royal assent was given to the bill by
commission on the 7th of June.

IRISH AND SCOTCH REFORM BILLS PASSED.

It was easy to foresee that the English reform bill having passed,
those relating to Scotland and Ireland would be equally triumphant.
Deliberation was, in point of fact, at an end. Both bills had been read
a first time, and had awaited on the table of the house of commons the
fate of the English bill in the house of lords. The bill relating to
Scotland was read in the commons on the 21st of May, the day on which
the restored ministry resumed the committee in the lords on the English
bill. No resistance was made to the second reading, the opposition
knowing that it was hopeless, and feeling assured that this measure
must follow as part of the general scheme, all the elements of which
had triumphed in regard to England. Various amendments were moved in the
committee, but they were all rejected by large majorities, and it passed
the third reading unmutilated. In the house of lords also, as in the
commons, no opposition was made to the second reading, and it passed
that house on the 13th of July, The Irish bill called forth more
resistance than that of Scotland, though its triumph from the first
was equally certain. Mr. Lefroy moved, on its re-introduction, that it
should be read that day six months. He said, that if a reform bill
was to be passed at all, the present measure, in so far as the country
representation was concerned, was not very objectionable; but he
could discover no advantage to be derived from it in respect to the
alterations in the boroughs. Seven of these boroughs had sent reformers
to parliament, and eight possessed an open constituency. In the others
the constituency varied from twelve to ninety-four, and none of them
could be called decayed boroughs; on the contrary, they were more
flourishing than at the time when they received the franchise. Of the
one hundred Irish members, eighty-three were popularly returned. Where
then, he asked, was the necessity or expediency of the measure? Would
any rational man have deemed a reform bill necessary in England under
such circumstances? And while the bill was unnecessary, he continued,
it was also dangerous--dangerous not merely to the Protestant church of
Ireland, but to the sister church of England, and