"What shall we say," says Sir Laurence Parsons, "that we have been doing when we go back to our representatives? I ask pardon—I forgot. A majority of this House never go back to their representatives. They do not know them; they do not live among them; many of them never saw them—no, nor even the places that they represent. What a mockery is this of representation!"[1]
These statements, made in the House of Commons, were not exaggerated. At the time of the Union compensation was given to the patrons of eighty-four boroughs which were disfranchised, and which were considered in the light of private property, the owners receiving £7,500 for each seat.[2]
The differences between the English and the Irish House of Commons will be incidentally considered in the account which I propose to give of the laws of the Irish Constitution. The charge of corruption has been frequently brought against the Irish House of Commons. This charge could, with perhaps equal propriety, be levelled at the English House of Commons of the same period. The members of the Irish Legislature were, however, exposed to far greater temptations. "In England," said Mr. Flood, who was a member of both the English and the Irish House of Commons, "the Legislature has only to contend with the native power of Government, but
