He, on that occasion, detailed eleven measures
which he required them to pass during the current session. They
consisted of three Acts for enlarging the franchise, and simplifying the
registration of voters; an Act for a full and effective municipal
reform; an Act to secure the perfect freedom of education for all
persuasions in Ireland; one for tenant right; one for giving
compensation for all valuable improvements; one for taking away in
certain cases the power to distrain for rent; one for the abolition of
the fiscal powers of grand juries, substituting instead a County
Board;[104] and finally an Act to tax absentees twenty per cent. The
whole of these could not be even introduced during the remnant of the
session which remained, it being now July. It is noteworthy that the
abolition of the Established Church in Ireland was not called for by
O'Connell on this occasion. Lord John Russell was known to be opposed to
such a measure. As to Repeal, he said, even if he got those eleven
measures, he would not give it up. But the advanced Repealers took a
different view, and believed he was either about to relinquish Repeal,
or at least to put it in abeyance to avoid embarrassing the new
Government.
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