the Irish nobility for life was a mode that was more congenial to the general spirit and system of a Peerage than that of their being septennially elected, as the nobility of Scotland were.”  Of the spiritual Peers, four were to sit in rotation; to the lay Peers a farther privilege was given, which the minister regarded as of considerable, and even constitutional importance.  By the articles of the Scotch Union, a Peer, if not chosen as a representative of the Peerage, was not eligible as a candidate for the House of Commons in either England or Scotland.  But this bill “reserved a right to the Peers of Ireland who should not be elected to represent their own Peerage, to be elected members of the House of Commons of the united Parliament of Great Britain;” and Pitt urged that this was “a far better mode of treatment than had been adopted for the nobility of Scotland; so that a nobleman of Ireland, if not representing his own order, might be chosen as a legislator by a class of inferior rank, which he was so far from regarding as improper, that he deemed it in a high degree advantageous to the empire, analogous to the practice as well as friendly to the spirit of the British constitution.”  And he enforced his argument by pointing out with honest pride the advantage which in that respect the spirit and practice of our constitution gave to our nobility over the nobles of other countries.  “We know full well,” he continued, “the advantage we have experienced from having in this House those who, in the course of descent, as well as in hopes of merit, have had a prospect of sitting in our House of Peers.  Those, therefore, who object to this part of the arrangement” (for, as he had previously mentioned, it had been made a subject not only of objection, but of ridicule) “can only do so from the want of due attention to the true character of our constitution, one of the great leading advantages of which is, that a person may for a long time be a member of one branch of the Legislature, and have it in view to become a member of another branch of it.  This it is which constitutes the leading difference between the nobility of Great Britain and those of other countries.  With us they are permitted to have legislative power before they arrive at their higher stations; and as they are, like all the rest of mankind, to be improved by experience in the science of legislation as well as in every other science, our constitution affords them that opportunity by their being eligible to seats in this House from the time of their majority.  This is one of those circumstances which arise frequently in practice, but the advantages of which do not appear in theory till chance happens to cast them before us, and makes them subjects of discussion.  These are the shades of the British constitution in which its latent beauties consist;” and he affirmed his conviction that this privilege would prove “an advantage to the nobility of Ireland, and an improvement in the system of representation in the House.”