Few persons have any notion of the value of the
patronage created by Irish Improvement Acts. The opposition to the Shannon Bill was, no doubt, diminished by Mr. Spring Rice's promise to Colonel Perceval, on going into Committee on the bill, that the Solicitor to the Board of Works should not be superseded—that he should retain the Shannon business. It was also stated that the office of the Board of Works should be appropriated to the Shannon Commissioners. But we learn from the Limerick Chronicle, that Mr. Barrington has been appointed Solicitor to the Shannon Commissioners, in the room of Mr. Stewart, Solicitor to the Board of Works, and that he is about to gpen an office in Limerick. So both the promises have been broken. line value of the business thus taken from Stewart and given to Barrington is esti- mated at from 10,000/. to 15,000/. a year; and the reason why Stewart is deprived of it is, that he is a consistent Tory, whereas Mr. Barring- ton is a noted trimmer, and at present devoted to the Whigs, because they are in power. Now, if Tory Members allowed the bill to pass in order to secure large profits to Mr. Stewart, (and it is likely enough that consideration influenced their votes,) we are not sorry thr their dis- appointment ; but the breach of faith on the part of Government is not the less gross. As for Mr. Barrington, he is indeed a fortunate person. The Whigs found him Crown prosecutor for Munster, and made him confidential solicitor to the Castle ; in which capacity, we have heard, his bill (paid out of the convenient grant for defraying the expenses of Crown prosecutions) has amounted in a troublesome year to 20,000/. Last year, Mr. Barriugton obtained the solicitorship to the Poor-law Commissioners for Munster, and this year the solicitorship to the Shannon Commissioners. The Limerick papers occasionally contain notices of a grand castle Mr. Barrington is building ; and nothing less than a castle would be a suitable residence for this prosperous attorney.
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