Mr. Tuite (N. Westmeath) on Wednesday carried, by 174 to
56, the second reading of a most extraordinary Bill. It is intended to reduce election expenses, but incidentally compels candidates who do not receive half as many votes as the suc- cessful candidate to pay the whole expenses of the election. The object-of the Bill, which was quite plainly avowed, was to fine- Loyalists is counties where they are few for putting Nationalists to the expense of a contest, and is, in fact, a plan for stereotyping the majority. The proposal will, we do not doubt, be carried in the first Session of an Irish Parliament, and will be the first of a series of measures intended to impose disabilities on the minority. We regret to see-that Mr. Morley, though he disliked the clause, did not condemn it as it de- served ; but we think we can trust the ordinary sense of the House to reject the Bill with contumely.
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