Vrtratts autt rurrtiting5 fu Varliumnit

PRINCIPAL BUSINESS OF THE WEEK.

Horsx or Loans. Monday, May 12. Irish Petitions for protection against foreign Sour, presented by the Earl of Glengall—Church Buildings Act Amendment Bill, referred to a Select Committee.

Tuesday, May 13. Marriages (India) Bill, read a second time.

Thursday May 15. Chancery Reform Bill; Lord Lyndhurst on the Delay—Pro- perty-tax Bill; Blunder exposed by Lord Lyndhurst. Friday, May 16. No business of interest.

House OF ComwONS. Monday, May 12. Innovations in the Church Service; Question by Sir Benjamin Hall, answered by Lord John Russell—Ecclesiastical Titles Bill; adjourned debate on question of going into Committee continued; after divisions, debate further adjourned till Thursday—Property-tax Bill, read a third time and passed—Woods and Forests ; leave for a Bill given to Lord Seymour- Caffre War Committee; Colonel Dunne, Mr. Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Monsell added. Tuesday, May 13. No House ; only twenty-one Members being present at four o'clock.

Wednesday, May 14. The " No Rouse " on Tuesday—Landlord and Tenant Bill, read a second time—Religious Houses Bill ; second reading negatived, by 123 to 91.

Thursday, May 15. Ecclesiastical Titles Bill; Petitions presented with explana- tions consuming much time—The "No House" on Tuesday; Notice renewed of the dropped Motion and Amendment—Ecclesiastical Titles Bill; debate on going into Committee continued, and again adjourned. Friday, May 16. Resignation of the Governor of Vancouver's Island—Ecclesias- tical Titles Bill, in Committee ; Ministers communicate their intentions with regard to Mr. Walpole's Amendments; the Bill to be reprinted for diseussion—Mortmain ; Motion by Mr. John O'Connell to add three Irish Members to the Select Committee, negatived by 94 to 38—Sewers Commission; Proceedings of the Commission criti- cized by Sir Benjamin Hall.

TIME-TABLE.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 5h5h 50m Friday Bh Sh 46m

Sittings this Week, 4; Time, Se Om -- this Session, 60; — Sib 10m

Tile Commons.

Hour of Roar of

Meeting. Adjournment. 4h ..(nO 1h 46m No House. Noon .... 6h 40m 4h ..(m) 2h Om 4k 7h 45m

Sittings this Week, 4; Time. 29h 10in — this Session, 69; — 400k 62za

The Lords.

Hour of How of Meeting. Adjournment. 5h .... 7h 40m

5h 5h 46m No sitting.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Parer, Aoaluission.

The debate about going into Committee on the Ecclesiastical Tides B11I, adjourned from Friday last week, was resumed on Monday. Mr. Moons raised a technical objection to the course taken by Minis- ters in bringing in the bill : as a bill touching religious matters, it should, under the standing orders of the House, have been founded on resolutions first moved in Committee of the whole House.

This rule is considered by Mr. May, a very high authority among high authorities, to apply to bills concerning rehgion itself, and not to bills concerning the temporalities of religion. Accordingly, the Catholic Emancipation Act was founded on resolutions, while the Church Tem- poralities Act was not originated in Committee. In support of the proposition that the bill affects ordination, confirmation, and admin- istration of the sacraments, Mr. Moore quoted the opinion of Arch- bishop Murray, which on the matter of fact would be received with the respect and entire credence due to his venerable character. This clerical opinion is backed by the high legal authority of Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Mr. Brodie, and Mr. Baddeley, and of Mr. Willes. Lord John Russell him- self, in a spirit of justice which is the lingering relic of brighter days, ex- pun ed portions of the bi n this very ground. But it is to the bill in its

to

shape that the o ectton is still applicable. GEORGE GIST stated that the objection had not come by surprise upon the Government : they had fully considered it, consulted the Speaker on it, and resolved that it is of no weight. The objection is also too late. Mr. Rossini laid, that on points connected with the stand- ing orders of the House, he has great faith in the wisdom of our ances- tors ; he has seldom seen those standing orders altered with advantage. The SPEAKER, appealed to by Mr. Moore, Sir George Grey, and Mr. Roebuck,. gave his opinion on the technicality— There is no authorized definition by the House of what is meant by the terms used in the standing orders, "no bill relating to religion" ; and ,the precedents-are rare and somewhat contradictory. Reviewing the precedents, and quoting some additional ones, the Speaker said, that as far as he can collect the mterpretations given by the House, he is inclined to think that it is not necessary for any bill to go into Committee of the whole House un- less it relates to the spiritualities of religion. He was consulted by Sir George Grey. before this bill was introduced, without knowing then all the different provisions it would contain. But, having since carefully considered all its provisions, especially those clauses pointed out to him by Mr. Moore, and particularly the second, which said that " any deed or writing made, signed, or executed after the passing of this act, by or under the authority of any person, in or under any name, style, or title, which such person is by the recited act and this act, or either of them, prohibited from assuming or using, shall be void," he still adhered to the opinion he formerly expressed, that this was not a bill of a nature that required to be originated in a Com- mittee of the whole House.

Mr. MILKER GI-mon drew a distinction between the authority of the- Speaker on what are the rules and practices of the House, and his author- ity on the meaning and propriety of any bill : on the latter question his authority would not be applicable, and the House would use its own beat judgment. But the most eminent men, and even those who introduced the bill, do not understand the meaning of its clauses. He submitted, therefor; that the House should give an expression of its opinion on the character of the bill; and that a Select Committee should be instructed to examine precedents and report whether the bill should have originated in a Committee of the whole House.

After brief speeches by Mr. KEOGH and Mr. GnArraar, the adjourn-' went of the debate was moved by Mr. Mammy& The Somerroa-GENERAL then put the technical point in a new light: he argued that the standing order originally viewed, and still can only relate to, the religion of the Established Church.

Mr. &mineral believed that this view was the correct one.

He held that the pith and gist of all the prebedents before the House was that bills which injuriously affected, weakened, or diminished the securities of the Established Church, should pass through a Committee ; while bills which purport to strengthen those securities, should not be required to pane through that preliminary stage. He thought, however, that it would be just if the rule applied both ways. The question is very difficult, and the sug- gestion of a reference to a Select Committee was valuable. Mr. BRIGHT urged the morality of even greater caution in legislating- against the rights of eight or ten millions of Roman Catholics, than in legislating on matters affecting the dominant Church.

On a division, the motion for adjourning the debate was negatived by 179 to 153.

Mr. Levams moved that the House do adjourn; and Mr. GnarrAn appealed to Lord John Russell to abstain, as a matter of good feeling, from pressing the original question. Lord Joffe Ressirtn rejected the appeal : the majority included many Members in general _oppmed to him ; the House had been remarkably attentive ; he hoped Irish Mem- bers were not faltering in the resolution which he had much ad- mired, to offer no factious opposition. Mr. REYNOLDS feared that the Irish Members would disappoint Lord John in his anticipations of their political politeness : if the Select Committee were granted he would not object to the bill proceeding pad passu. Mr. ANSTEY separated himself from the obstructive Roman Catholic Members ; and was thereupon smartly criticized by Mr. Moons, The motion for adjourning the House was negatived by 145 to 36.

Mr. MORGAN Sonar O'CoxNELL nosy spoke on the general merits of the bill; which he opposed ..

Future generations would look back upon the present measure with as much sense of humiliation, and would thank God with as much fervour that they were not so prejudiced as their ancestors were, as we in 1851 look back upon our ancestors who, nearly a hundred years ago, complained of the change of style depriving them of eleven days. He regarded the present attempt to legislate on this subject as the result of an undefined and scarcely definable wish on the part of a great number of persons in this country that Parliament should do something. He did not agree with those who had re- presented it as a purely Church of England movement. On the contrary, looking at the number of liberal Churchmen and the large body of Dissenters, including the Wesleyan Methodists, who had joined the movement, he was driven to the conclusion that the public opinion which existed on this sub- ject was eminently a Protestant opinion, extending itself most widely among that portion of the Established Church which regarded its Protestant charac- ter as being rather more vital than its ecclesiastical character. Now, God forbid that, because he differed from them on points of doctrine, be should take upon himself to find fault with those persons for seeking to protect their opinions, which were no doubt as dear to them as his were to him : but what he condemned them for was this—for seeking to decide a spiritual contest by secular means, for endeavouring to cut the Gordian knot by the sword of the State. If the Pope's nominees should claim jurisdiction, power, or pre- eminence over any of them, lay or clerical,—if they should claim any tem- poral or civil authority over any of her Majesty's subjects whatever it would then be time enough for the law to interfere ; and he was sure that no loyal Roman Catholic would refuse to assist in supporting the law ; but, in the mean thne, he would let the spiritual defend itself. Attached as he is to the Roman Catholic Church, it would be more consoling to him if instead of eon- teation and strife he saw Catholics and Protestants engaged in the nobler and truly Christian rivalry of endeavouring to extend the knowledge of the Divine law and the practice of the Divine precepts among the mass of the population, who, in many of the rural and civic districts, are, he regretted to say, in a state of practical ignorance almost worse than Atheism. But the result of the present measure would be to prevent- this desirable exten- sion of Christian instruction among the mass of the people ; it would tend to make the lukewarm still more lukewarm, and the scoffer still more active against Christianity. With these views of the dangerous tendency of the measure, he would at this, and at every other stage at which a legitimate division could be taken on its merits, give the bill his firm and decided opposition.

Mr. Kamm traversed again a considerable portion of the argumenta- tive field which had been passed over at previous stages. Recurring to

the point of the encouragement given by our Government to the step of the Holy See which they now call an insult, he stated a new fact which occurred under his own eye at Rome, where he happened to be when all this mischief occurred—

He did not know whether Lord Palmerston was aware of the fact. When Cardinal Wiseman was created Archbishop of Westminster there was great rejoicing in Rome, and a general illumination. We have a Consul there, and over the doors of his mansion are the British arms. That dwelling Mr. Keogh saw brilliantly illuminated in honour of the appointment " A

British subject, the British Consul, the representative-of the British Govern- ment at Rome, illuminated his mansion in honour of the appointment of a Bishop of Westminster !" Was the See of Rome to be under the impression that nothing would be so distasteful to the British Government as that ap- pointment for which the British Consul had illuminated his mansion ?

He would warn Lord John Russell, that by this bill he may arouse again in the people of Ireland, who are just emerging from the consequences of

pestilence and famine, and perhaps Jug reaching the-shore on a frail plank,

the fanatical -spirit of sectarian animosity, and may involve them again in another twenty years' struggle. If indeed that struggle should eome, ' the

result will be, as it was before, victorious to the people of Ireland-; for never will they sheathe the sword until they deprive thosa,*ho oppressed them of the power of oppression. (Cheers.)

Lord Jona Rissszu. defended a reference made by himself to the feel-

ing,of the English people, which reference has been impugned. I did not say it was necessary to consult the Protestant feeling of the people of England. All I think it necessary to consult is the national feel-

ings of the people of England. I should have said, in the someway, that when the Pope attempted to establish his complete dominion over France, those who resisted that attempt might have said it was necessary to consult

the feelings of the people in France; for that, though the great majority of the people of that country were Roman Catholic, they were not prepared to bow the knee to a sovereign who was not their own sovereign, to bow the knee to a foreign prince." (Great cheering.)

Mr. Keogh had in strong metaphorical language threatened the House with the anger which would be excited in Ireland if the bill passed—had threatened• that it would be resented, and the sword never sheathed till they had got the better of their oppressors, " I am exceedingly sorry," said Lord John, " that Members of this House, representing, no doubt, a feeling that exists in Ireland upon this subject, should consider this bill any

violation of religioue.liberty ; but I do not think that we are bound on that account to part with a single particle of that authority which is inherent in the Crown of England—(Cheers)—or of that independence which kr inherent in the people of the United Kingdom. (Renewed cheering.) I know not what might be the consequence if we were to give way to these-notions—if we do

not preserve that sovereignty and that independence." - He dealt with the legal arguments advanced by Mr. Keogh, and answered his imputation that the Government is playing fast and loose and will never

enforce the bill as a law, by saying that if the law shall be infringed it would be the duty of thedown to enforce its penalties. Mr. Keogh had on a former occasion expressed an honourable indignation at the supposition of

any such persecution as was directed against the Minister of Sardinia on account of the part which he took in the Sardinian Parliament : "he seems now to think that he has been misled with respect to the facts : let him be sure, that if those doctrines of the See of Rome—not the doctrines of the Roman Catholic religion, not the doctrines which have ever prevailed in France, but those political doctrined which Rome has endeavoured to extend over Europe, and which are totally different from- anything belonging to the doctrines and opinions of Roman Catholics—let depend upon it that if such maxims were to prevail in this country, he, Roman Catholic as he

is, would not enjoy half the freedom, half the power of expressing his

opinion, half the liberty of coming forward in this House to argue in any cause which he thought it his duty to argue, that he now does under a Pro-

testant constitution." Lord John conclucled—" I must again aver that this is a political measure, directed against a political encroachment ; and that we will not suffer that the name of religious liberty should be prostituted for the purpose of coveting foreign aggression." (Local cheering.)

Mr. Minster recalled to mind an observation of Sir James Graham on a memorable evening, that it is a dangerous thing for a Government to be

proceeding to legislate chiefly on the idea that it is "forced to do some- thing" with regard to a particular question, but does not know exactly what to do or how to do it.

"That is the case here. Ntaumati being, in the House or out of it, has been able exactly to place his finger upon the wound which is said to have been inflicted upon this country, or to point out precisely what is the remedy for it." Lord John Russell himself to some extent commenced the fray by his celebrated letter. Within less than a week, accompanied by the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice, he sat at the festive board of the Chief Magistrate of the Municipality of London, and speeches were made exceedingly discreditable to the distinguished individuals who made them.

("Oh, oh. 1" and "Sear! ") Language was used which sedate and learned

men accustomed to administer justice should not have used, whether it were in seriousness or in joke. Mr. Bright was not at all astonished at anything that took place on this question in the Mansionhouse of London ; for it was

built out of funds extorted from Nenjurors, from Protestant Dissenters, to a large extent from members of the society of which he is a member- (Laughter)—penalties extorted between the passing of the Act of -Uniformity

and the Act of Toleration. The Earl of Burlington of that day presented to the Common Council a very admirable design for the building by an Ita-

lian architect ; but the Common Council, having a vague notion that Pal- ladio W28 an Italian name, asked if he was not a Roman Catholic, and, though he had been dead a hundred and-fifty years, rejected the best design because he was a Roman Catholic. (Laughter.) When Lord John Russell brought in the bill, he said it ought to meet the emergency and no more ; but in a few days three-fourths of it were given up. He wishes the Cumming, to beiziewed now as a question of politics, not of Protestantism ; Cumming, Stowell, being thrown over. But looking at Who question as one of polities, the Pope and Cardinal Wiseman are unscathed by this bill ; the sufferers will be the wearer of the crown, the Government, and the Roman Catholic population. The bill had widened and deepened the gulf ffetween this country. and Ireland. Another Synod of Thurles would be unanimous; the aggressive or missionary agency of the Roman Catholic Church would take fresh hope from the paroxysm of terror into which the Protestant people of this country had thrown themselves. It would be infinitely better for all parties—for the Crowns the Government,

the union between the-Three Kingdoms, and for Christianity itself—that this bill should be vfithdrawm There is nobody for the bill except the

noble Lord. None of colleagues make a, fight for it, and when they speak they give different accounts of it. Gentlemen on the opposite side of the House repudiate the bill ; they know that the noble Lord is practising a cheat on the people of England. The people clamour for something real, something stringent, not a mere pieture of a measure like this. His friend Mr. Brotherton, stepping out from that kindness and good-nature that usually distinguish him, had said that neither Mr. Bright nor his col- league spoke the sentiments or their constituents on this question. That is • a mce point to decide—he did not say whether they did or did not ; but he knew at least this, that they speak the sentiments of their own hearts, and that Mr. Brotherton now represents the opinions of men who formerly did all in their power to oppose him and the principles he maintains. The 656 Members returned to the House of Commons are considered to be the fore- most men of the country : it is their duty manfully to withstand every cry that they feel to be wrong ; and he felt strongly that the clamour which has been got up in this country, and for which the noble Lord is largely respon- sible, is one which they are bound to resist.

Mr. Scums/ moved the adjournment of the debate : it would be most desirable to hear a lucid explanation of the bill from the legal adviser of the. Crown in Ireland—Mr. Hatchell--(Grest laughter) ; and also to hear the opinion of the new learned Member, Mr. Bethell. A division took place, and the motion was negatived by 365 to 54. Mr. FLAHERTY again moved that the House do adjourn. Lord JOHN RUSSELL saw no sound reason for any further delay in going into Committee, but he would not divide again at so late an hour. The debate on the motion to go into Committee was therefore adjourned till Thursday.

At the meeting of the House on Thursday, a great number of petitions were presented against the bill, by a number of Members, Irish and English. The process occupied a very considerable time, as several Mem- bers stated the title and prayer of each petition, some of the leading facts set forth in each, and the general character of the individuals whose sig- natures were attached.

Later in the evening, but before the adjourned debate was resumed, Mr. KEOGH made an ineffectual attempt to lam if any understanding

subsisted, as was rumoured, between the Government and Mr. Walpole

on the subject of his amendments. Mr. KEOGH put the question directly, and Mr. WALPOLE rose to reply ; but marked cries of " Isle, no !" arising from a considerable portion of the House, Mr. Walpole resumed his seat without giving the expected answer. The question was then put to Lord Jona RUSSELL; who replied, amidst laughter, that he would be prepared to answer " in Committee." The adjourned debate was resumed by Mr. SCULLY ; who opposed the motion to go into Committee, as a proposal founded altogether on a wrong basis, and dangerous to the moral and social condition of his country.

The bill itself must have a disastrous effect upon the combined system of education in Ireland as at present established by the National Schools ; and it will imperil the Protestant Church itself there, in the midst of millions of

offended Moreau Catholics ; for if it pass the Roman Catholics will support nessandidate who will not pledge himself to remove the anomaly and dis- grace of maintaining a church in Ireland which is the church of the minority. Ministers will do well to remember that legislative power will be placed at the next election in the hands of a new class of voters in Ireland. Instead of an opposition of 30 or 40 Irish Members, they will have to contend with a majority of 70 or 80. But the nature of the amendments of which notice has been given is a still more werful reason for opposition to going intsit

Committee. The bill itself is enough, but those amendments may mad- den the people so as to drive them into violence and revolution. They come well from the party which proposes them, but let the noble Lord wash his

hands of them and the bill altogether, and leave it in the charge of that vio- lent, factious, and persecuting party ; for if the amendments be carried out, Mr. Scully does not see what can save his country, from a civil war.

Mr. Wsoo-Paosstn held it to be the duty of the Howie to reflect the ealiii and serious opinion of the community : any one reflecting on the

proceedings of the past six months must feel shame for his country : he must give his decided opposition to the further progress of the bill. Mr. TRELAWNY wished to support Ministers, but they have got into a wrong groove, and he must leave their : the bill is either persecuting, or name- calling and simply abusive • in neither character can he support it. Mr. Piaui, HOWARD vidicated the loyalty of the English Roman Ca- tholics, and ventured firmly but respectfully to defy the efforts of any Government which seeks to interfere in the mode in which this bill would interfere between men and their Maker.

The LORD-Anvocsin, as the subject has excited considerable interest in Scotland, though the people of that country may not have made any very strong demonstration, endeavoured succinctly to reflect their opi- nions and express his own.

If the Roman Catholics of this country, and the Pope in concert with them, had set themselves to work, as a dissenting and tolerated body should do,

courteously and quietly, with becoming humility—(A laugh, and some cries of "Oh, oh !")—with that respect at all events which they owe to the Go- vernment and the institutions of the country in which they live, to reorgan-

ize their own ecclesiastical system in the way they thought moat fitting and beet adapted to its management, he is satisfied that the Governinent and the people of England, attached as they are to the principles of toleration, would not have been inclined to inquire too particularly into the steps taken for that purpose. He did not 'mean to say that what had been done could have been legally done under any circumstances ; but he said that if they had ex- hibited on the face Of their proceedings a simple desire to organite an eccle- siastical hierarchy in this land in conformity -with its tvelisknown laws and constitution, the Howie of Commons would now have had a very different

question to deal with. He could find-nothing of that kind, howeter, in the rescript. That document is couched in the language of the conqueror of a once revolted but now vanquished province ; and, so far from shotring the tone of one hoping, and expecting, and requiring' toleration, it uses the language of one who has the will, if not the power, to be himself intolerant. Representations, have been made that the people of Scotland care little about the Papal measure. But they do not stand in very great danger of

an invasion of Popery in the North. The solid Presbyterian feeling is very little likely to yield ; and it is riot derogatory to the Scotch to say, that in the present case the demonstration they have made is not greater than the exigency requires. But gentlemen mistake grievously who suppose that if the power of the Pope were to obtain a footing, or the Legislature were found tampering with the religious feelings of that couhtty, the people

would be acquiescent The old spirit is not abated in Soalland in the- alightest degree. It has become far more tolerant, but not the less deter- mined. (Cheers.) Mr. REYNOLDS attacked with much indignation the use made by the Lord-Advocate of the worda " toleration" and "'humility" : he declared that the former phrase is nowadays "infamous," and Ought not to be used by one British subject towards another, or by one Christian towards an other; and he vowed that of humility he does not entertain the least feeling.

Lord John Russell has said that there can be no persecution in the bill, because the Catholic Emancipation Act contains its substance : but he forgets the difference between the two cases. The object of the bill of 1829 was to

emancipate ten millions of their fellow-subjects, and the 24th clause was in- serted in it to pacify the Bishops in another place : the object and animus of the present bill are to enslave those millions, not to emancipate them—it is, in fact, a bill of pains and penalties. Mr. Reynolds would tell the pro- moters of this bill, that a day of reckoning is coming ; and though it might put him and others who are called the "Irish Brigade" to inconvenience, they would willingly submit to it for the sake of seeing justice done by the constituencies throughout Ireland upon those representatives who have de- serted their cause. This Parliament will not last for ever ; they may all ex- pect to be sent about their business in a very short time, and then there would be an appeal to the Irish people. When that time comes, the watchword on the hustings will be, " Down with the 'Whigs ! Down with the violators of the act of 1829 ! Down with the men who bring in a bill to repeal the Emancipa- tion Act! Down with the men who put a penalty of 1001. on Archbishop Murray if he consecrates a priest ; who would try him with a packed jury, and send him, if they found him guilty, to a felon's gaol ! Down with those who, forgetting their old professions, are now hallooing on the dogs of war against the people !" It may be true that there has aen rather too much boasting by Irishmen at some past times—too much of " Tullagh-hill talk," as they call it in Dublin. But in reference to the insurrectionary movement of two years ago, the House should remember that it was discountenanced and trampled in the gutter by the Catholic clergy of Ireland. But one ad- vantage of this bill is that it has united all the Irish Roman Catholics as pne man. When the Government is compelled to double the army in Ire- land, to double the police posts, to make every village a garrison, and to take every step in the midst of a hostile population,—and when John Bull has to put his hands in his pockets up to the elbows to pay the expense, he will begin to think that the coercion of the Catholics is rather a costly pro- ceeding. Mr. WHITESIDE felt bound to declare himself on a question in which the constituency he represents, and the Protestant people of the province with which he is connected, take a deep interest. Accordingly, he de- voted himself at considerable length to an exposition of the Papal en- croachments in the nomination of Irish Roman Catholic Bishops and Deans; to a denunciation of the numerous illegalities which marked every ;stage of the Synod of Thurles,—some of those illegalities being acts of the Government itself ; and to a condemnation of the countenance given by Lord Clarendon (whose "prepossessing manners" and "fasci- nating conversation" were acknowledged to the illegal assumption of a titular dignity by the Roman Catholic Bishop in Clonfert, as well as by Archbishop MacRae. Mr. Whiteside closed with a reference to the me- naces of Roman Catholic anger in Ireland— If, as had been asserted, it were true, as he hoped it was not true, that the Roman Catholic people of Ireland would, because the ancient law of the land was asserted, depriving them of no right, combine against England, then he must say on the part of the Protestant people of that country, that in heart, affection, and action, they would be with this country. "In all periods of their history they have adhered to this country. They imitate your in- dustry, they admire your virtue, they profess your faith, and love your laws ;

j and if you be true to them and just to yourselves, they would rather perish with you than abandon you. I cling to the hope of the prosperity of the whole body of the people ; and, according to my political faith, a consum- mation so glorious would be accomplished if all classes of my countrymen would permit themselves to be directed by your counsels, guided by your wis- dom, and inspired by your example."

Bit LAWLESS moved the adjournment of the debate.

Mr. Moons seconded the amendment.

After the attack made on the religion of the Irish Catholics, and he might also say on their country, opportunity should be given to many who wished to address the House to notice a speech the virulence of which had only been equalled by its miserable failure. Ireland was avenged that night in the person of the honourable and learned gentleman. That reputation which was achieved in defending the liberties of his country was entirely lost in assailing them.

Lord Joins RUSSELL said, he should have been quite willing under or- dinary circumstances to assent to the adjournment of the debate ; but rathir teen nights of discussion, and more especially after the mode in

w petitions had been presented that night, he felt it necessary to take the sense of the House on the motion.

On a division, the adjournment was negatived by 359 to 46. Mr. Fox then moved the adjournment of the House. Lord JOHN Rus- s= remonstrated, but assented to the adjournment of the debate.

RELIGIous nouns.

Before Mr. Lacy moved the second reading of the Religious Houses Bill, a considerable number of petitions against it were presented by the Earl of Auurrom, and SURREY, Mr. E. B. RoCHE, Mr. CARDWELL, Sir Jews GRA.HAM, Mr. Primp Howmin, and Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT.

Mr. LACY then explained his bill, and set forth his case.

The object is to enact that all houses for ladies taking monastic vows shall be registered, that in the county in which they are registered magistrates shall be appointed at the quarter-sessions to visit them without notice; and that those magistrates shall have the power, if they find, any lady or ladies who wish to come out, to order their release. That is the sum and substance of the bill : it ie unnecessary to explain the details. The bill does not, as it is objected legalize such houses : they are already legal under the 10th George; IV. chapter 7. There are fifty-two of these religious houses in England, and one in Wales ; they are vastly on the in- crease, nineteen having been instituted in the last four years. If there are only ten inmates to each, there are 530 inmates. Now is it possible that the whole of that number can be willing to continue there all their lives? It is, however, difficult to show that there are discontented persons in these houses ; such cases are generally hushed up. A gentleman who does not give Mr. Lacy his name, but who refers him for confirmation to one of the most exalted persons in the realm, has in a letter com- municated to him the case of the daughter of an opulent tradesman. That young person has been kidnapped away from her mother, (who, it may be allowed, did not take that care of her daughter and family that most women do,) :and she now writes anonymously to her mother—'You are no longer my mother • I have a mother in heaven." The parent has made every en- deavour to trace the retreat of her daughter, but in vain. Mr. Lacy reca- pitulated the case of the young lady who " escaped" from the convent at Banbury, as we lately described it. True, Dr. Tandy writes to bins stating circumstantially that the young girl was "dismissed,' on his express direc- tions, after conversation with her : that she refused to go in any other mode; so the Superioress was obliged to take off her conventual dress and dismiss her from the door, with money to carry her home. But Mr. Lacy finds improbabilities in Dr. Tandy's account : he will not dispute that both of the parties are not very particular in what they say. Mr. Peter Hawke, a most respectable local Methodist preacher, of Wimbourne, Dorset- ithirV; /a)s connnunicated to him the case of a young Irish Catholic woman.__ He was travelling by coach from Bath to Wimbourne, and the young woman took her place : he found that she was going into the con-

vent of Stape-hill : it was a dark and tempestuous night, and she would have to walk some distance to carry out her purpose : he took her to his house, introduced her to his family, gave her shelter for the night, and instructed her as to the hardships of life in the nunnery of Steps-hill, which is of the severe order of La Trappe. She departed next day to the nunnery, and his inquiries proved fruitless to inform him of her lot there. Some months after- wards, she came to him, almost brokenhearted with the ascetic life to which she had been condemned : she wished to escape back to Ireland, to her bro- thers. He gave her money, and a letter to a friend at Bristol : he is sure she was truthful and honest ; but he has never heard of her since, and fears she was overtaken and carried back to Stape-hill.

The case of the poor girl Jane Wilbred shows what influence may be exer- cised over the human mind by undue means. Cases not unsimilar to that ease were discovered by the soldiers of the Swiss Confederation, when the Sonderbund ineffectually appealed to arms in support of the conventual system. In Turin also, the existence of similar influence has led the Chamber of Deputies to receive with applause a bill to check the nunneries. Our own law will not allow a married lady to sign a deed without an examination by a commissioner, who must be satisfied that she is free from duresse on the part of her husband : no rational objection can be made to the adoption of a similar precaution in the case of a female about to be sent into a convent.

Mr. Hums rose in the hope that he should prevent any Roman Catholic Member from answering the speech of Mr Lacy, by stating that he had listened with great pain to a quantity of details not in any way applicable to a measure for preventing the detention of females in religious houses. The measure is a proof of the evil resulting from attempts tolegislate on religious questions. He hoped the Government had now, at last, deter- mined to put an end to the bill

Sir Gsoaea GREY could not give his assent to the bill : Mr. Lacy had failed to show that the practice of foleibly detaining females exists.

Though Sir George could not deny that a dangerous control is exercised over persons in these houses, it is not physical control ; therefore this bill will not reach it. However, he was not prepared to say that it may not be necessary to take some measure—to deprive the superiors of these establishments of all motives for endeavouring to get possession of the property of persons placed under their control.

The Somenton-Gyssala, felt that no case had been made out; and that the bill is therefore a grave charge made on no proper foundation. Unless on the foundation of undoubted facts, the House could not be asked to brand with infamy the whole body of our Roman Catholic fellow subjects. Besides these influential demonstrations against the bill, opposition came from other quarters.

Mr. ROBERT PALMER asked, in respect of details, where six gentlemen in a county would be found who would undertake the task the bill would impose on them ? Lord ASHLEY felt that a strong case might be made out, but none had been made out : he suggested that Mr. Lacy should withdraw the bill ; and that, in deference to the strong feeling which really exists, the Government should look into the subject. Colonel Tacna-sox disapproved of the details of the bill, but would not refuse it a second reading : Government should inquire and legislate.

On the other side, Mr. NEWDEGATE, Mr. Prrimp•rna, Sir JOHN PAK- /NGTON, Mr. SPOONER, and Mr. FRESHETELD, urged Mr. Lacy to persist : though the bill was defective in detail, its principle was good. Mr. NEWDEGATE quoted proofs that in Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, and Russia, the law is founded in practice on the principle which this bill em- bodies—the provision of means whereby the inmates of religious houses may retract their vows and return to secular life. The Roman Catholic Members for some time acted on Mr. Hume's sug- gestion that they should not join in serious debate : at last Mr. GRATTAN rose to go into the whole case; his colleagues tugged him by the skirt so vigorously, and so interrupted him by gesticulations and exclamations, that he resumed his seat, somewhat indignant. The Earl of ARUNDEL and SuRREY moved that the bill be read a second time that day six months. The amendment was supported by Mr. KEOGH, Mr. Sergeant MUB.PHY. and Mr. ANSTEY •' by Mr. BERKELEY, because the principle of the bill might be applied to Dissenters; by Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, though he believes that monastic establishments are not only unnecessary in the present state of society, but are hostile to the spirit of our institutions. The House divided, and the bill was thrown out, by 123 to 91.

"No House" oN TUESDAY.

At four o'clock on Tuesday, when the Suffrage motion of Mr. Hume and the amendment of Mr. Duncombe were to have been discussed, there were but twenty-one Members present; and the SPEAKER adjourned the House, " amidst laughter." On Wednesday, this circumstance called forth Mr. CHRISTOPHER, with sarcastic reflections on the sincerity of the Reformers. Of the twenty- one Members present on Tuesday, only six could be called Radical. Where was Mr. Hume himself ?—taking his first ride in Kensington Gar- dens ? Where were the Members for the West Riding and for Blanches- ter ?

Mr. Huns explained, that he, and the other Members inquired after, had been busy up-stairs on important Committees.

He was attending the Army, Navy, and Ordnance Committee, which bad been sitting for three years ; and which had a most important discussion on Tuesday respecting the recommendations of their report. The moment the officer announced that the Speaker was at prayers, he said to a colleague, " I must be off to assist in making a House " ; and they got up imme- diately, and came down " post-haste" to the door, and got there just as the counting was over. Had the distance been less, they would have been pre- sent to assist in making a House. Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Gibson, were also on Committees. The question that he should have brought for- ward was one of vast importance, and he was greatly disappointed that he had lost his opportunity. He did expect that some of those who pretended or said they desired to support him would have been present. However, all that can be done now is to take care for the future : let bygones be bygones : he had not been lax or unwilling. Sir GEORGE GREY thought that Mr. Hume—whose sincerity no one would doubt—had satisfactorily explainbd why he had not been present.

Considering, however, that there were only twenty-one Members present at ten minutes after the Speaker took the chair, the inference was, that after the notice of a measure of Parliamentary reform given by the Government for next session, the House was generally indisposed, especially having been kept up to a late hour for several nights, to enter on a discussion which would have led to no practical result.

Mr. BANKRs, another Member of the Committee up-stairs, corroborated Mr. Hume,—whose word, hewevert no man could doubt on any occasion. " One of the inconveniences of this vast and overgrown building is that

in such cases it occupies four or five minutes at least to get from one cham- ber to another."

Mr. REYNOLDS observed, that it was extraordinary that all the Re- formers of England could be comprised in one or two Committees. He was there yesterday, though he had nothing to do with the question, except that he was bound to the principle of extending the Parliamentary franchise; and he saw many Reformers now present taking shelter in holes and corners in the lobby. (Cries of " Hear!") He saw them like drowned political rats there and in all the corridors, apparently to avoid being called On to aid the Nestor of Reform in forming a House. Sir Joins Paicrtserroir suggested, that it was only further waste of time to discuss the loss of an evening ; and the subject dropped.

DELAY OP THE r DAMMED CHANCERY REFORM Buz.

Hoping not to be thought importunate, Lord LYNDHURST ventured to remind the Lord Chancellor of the bill which had been promised for the reform of the Court of Chancery.

It would perhaps be recollected as matter of history, that at the close of last session Lord John Russell gave notice in the other House of Parliament that he would bring in a bill for the reform of the Court of Chancery early in the present session. It is therefore natural to suppose, that during the -recess he employed himself, in conjunction with the Law-officers of the Crown, in preparing such a bill. In the speech from the Throne at the commencement of the present session, the promise was reiterated in distinct terms. A few days after the meeting of Parliament, in consequence of a question i

put to him by Mr. John Stuart, Lord John Russell stated that he would bring in the bill in question very shortly. Very shortly !—it is per- fectly clear that he did not use those words in their ordinary sense, but, if it might be permitted to say so without offence, in a quasi-Chancery sense. For, after the expiration of three months, or of half the session, the bill in question has not yet made its appearance. Lord John Russell, as soon as he meddled with the Court of Chancery, seemed to have contracted the habit of delay for which that court was notorious —witha view, perhaps, of show- ing the inconvenience of the delay which he wished to remedy. Lord Lynd- hurst would ask whether their Lordships are to expect that bill this session ? The Lord CHANCELLOR observed, that as Lord Lyndhurst had himself presided in Chancery, with great credit to himself and benefit to the country, " he must be aware of the ease with which remedies for the in- conveniences and delays of the Court of Chancery are accomplished " ; yet he had himself done nothing, but left the task to his successors. In reference to the bill, Lord Lyndhurst forgets that Lord John Russell has already stated in the other House an outline of the bill which he intends to introduce. He then said he would "very shortly" bring in that bill. The draft was prepared, for the Lord Chancellor had seen it : but the obser- vations made by Lord Lyndhurst himself and by other learned members of the profession, and their suggestions, were too valuable to be overlooked. Lord Truro requested Lord John not to bring in his bill till the Chancellor had looked over those suggestions. He has now had a bill prepared, em- bodying such of them as he approves, but has not yet given it a final peru- sal. The subject is vast, and difficult: the Government has never lost sight of it, nor has the Lord Chancellor individually. He is not aware that there has been any change in the intention to introduce it first in the other House.

BLUNDER IN THE PROPERTY-TAX BILL.

Lord Thrivinrunsr pointed out some incomprehensible discrepancies in the phraseology of the printed bill for renewing the Property-tax.

The marginal note on the-first clause is "Rates and duties granted by re- cited act further continued for three 'years" ; while the clause itself con- tinues the duties for one year. Again, the clause continues the duty thus— "for the term of one year then next ensuing" ; but then it says, "and until the assessments made or which ought to be made for the last year of the said term, shall be completed, levied," &c. What is meant by the last year of a term of one year ? Does the print of the bill correspond with the bill as it came from the other House ?

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said, inquiry should be made : he was sure the error did not arise with their Lordships' officers. Earl GREY suggested that it was a blunder of the printer. But Lord LYNDHURST stating, that on comparison he found the print was a correct copy of the bill received from the Commons, Lord GREY said, " The blunder " must have been due to the mover of the amendment [Mr. Hume] : "barring the blundering clumsiness of the language," no inconvenience would accrue from the wording of the act.

The second reading of the bill was fixed for Monday, when the Lords are to be summoned.