Mr. Pim writes:--"A numerous tenantry having the right to vote, and
practically obliged to exercise that right at the dictation of their
landlord, was highly prized.... When the Emancipation Act was passed in
1829, the forty-shilling freeholders were disfranchised, and, being no
longer of use to their landlords, every means has since been employed to
get rid of them."--_The Condition and Prospects of Ireland, by Jonathan
Pim_, late M.P. for Dublin City.
"It is in vain to deny or to conceal the truth in respect to that
franchise [the forty-shilling 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.... that
weapon which [the landlord] has forged with so much care, and has
heretofore wielded with such success, has broken short in his
hand."--_Mr. Peel's Speech in the House of Commons, 5th March, 1829,
introducing the Catholic Relief Bill_.
Leaving out the "_legitimate weight_" of landed proprietors, as
exercised through the forty-shilling freeholders, the above statement,
besides being a remarkable one from such a cautious Minister, is not far
from being correct.
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