The Express.
London, England, 1847-07-17 00:00:00

.

that compact, guaranteeing its maintenance, to which,
at the time of the legislative union, the parliaments
of the two kingdoms were consenting parties," Sir It.
Peel proceeds :
-It was with reference to the state of Ireland, and with
reference to such considerations as those to which Mr. Burke
adverted, that the government with which I was connected
brought forward measures which constitute so precedent
for any other part of the United Kingdom, bet are specially
applicable to the peculiar condition and strictures( society
in Ireland.
" Some of those melanins encountered a vehement apposi-
tion ; the more formidable, because it was offered mush ler
from party or purely political considerations than from sin-
cere conscientious scruples. But, redesign. I em bound to
avow, that I look bath with cordial satisfaction to the part
which I took in supporter those measures, and to the spirit in
which they were conceived. It was a spirit ofjeNtiee sad kind-
ness towards our Roman Catholic fellow subjects in Ireland, •
spirit, which will, I trust, animate our future legislation
with reference to that country. It is strongly recommended
to us by many powerful considerations—by painful recollec-
tion of oar relations with Ireland in early periods of our his-
tory—by sympathy with her present sufferings—by the ur-
gent necessity, not more for her welfare Aso our own, to
improve the condition, moral and 'Aisles', of her people.
" I will not be deterred, by the risk of provoking new, or
reviving dormant hostility, from recalling to your recollec-
tion the general character and object of the measures to
which I have adverted.
.

" In the first place we altered the law in respect to cha-
ritable donations and bequests in Ireland. • • •
" We enabled her Majesty to endow new colleges for the
advancement of learning in Ireland. • • • •
We increased the grant for the College of Maynooth.
That grant was originally made in the reign of George 111.,
and by the advice of Mr. Pitt, at a period of grant national
peril, • when, to guard this empire, and Imlsail fa rex-
ticular, from le enterprises of a dangerous and Bann
power, and to protect all civilised society from the biennia
of anarchy, the king found it necessary to avail Male" of
every rational aid, foreign and domestic, and to call openers
skill, courage, and experience of all hie subjects, winnitiknalt
dispersed.
" It was se such a crisis, and imam such .
that en Itch pulienient,
exchieicilp
rooter, established the College—WM , an »oe red
front the throne congratulations on having laid a wise
foundation for educating at home the Roman Catholic clergy.'
" Fifty years had elapsed in 1845 since those congratula-
tions were offered. For fifty years a grant of public money
had been annually continued for the avowed purpose of aids!.g
the education of Roman Catholic youth in Roman Catholic'
doctrines, and fitting them for holy orders in the church of
Rome. We considered that there was, at any rate, no new
violation of religious principle in making that grant le.s in-
adequate to the purpose for which it was destined, and in
giving to iteadyowedcluhlathatrer of
.pT.rotanar w
half ahich it
turyd .aargier thopurAttithisya ywiserpartd Zosrendignified course
for the House of Commons to pursue than to exhibit an-
nually their surly acquiescence in a niggardly vote, which
was equally open to any just objection on the ground of vio-
lated principle, and which effected no good and excited no
gratitude.
" In the course of the diecussioes which took place on the
Maynooth Bill two questions were put to me—the first,
whether the increased grant to Maynooth was part of a sys-
tematic arrangement, which contemplated ultimately the
endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland; the
second, whether I would give a pledge, on the ground of
conscientious objection, against the entertainment, at say
•--meal for -

future time, of ipropoillor such endowment.
" To the first question I returned an answer on the part
of the government collectively. I stated explicitly, that the
increased grant to Maynooth was proposed as a single and
separate measure, cot intended to facilitate, in the slightest
degree, the endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy. I
knew, indeed, that members of the government, not adverse
to the grant to Maynooth, would offer the most decided op-
position to any proposal for endowment.
" In answering the second question I spoke then, as I am
speaking now, for myself exclusively. I said, in sublimer,
that I would not give the pledge required from me; that I
foresaw, indeed, very great practical difficulties in the way
of endowment—great difficulties, as well from the declared
objections to such a measure on the part of the Roman
Catholic laity and Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland, as from
the strong repugnance to it in the public mind of this
country; that I bad no plan for solving those difficulties ;
but that I would not fetter my discretion as a legislator by
a positive pledge to refuse even the consideration of any such
plan at all times and under all circumstances.
"The occasions are very rare on which it is consistent
with the proper discharge of parliamentary functions to
enter into specific engagements of this nature.
" They might, perhaps. in this ens., be entered into justi-
fiably, by those who, after extended inquiry and mature de-
liberation, have come to the conclusion, that by allowing a
decent stipend to a Roman Catholic priest, instead of leas-
ing him dependent for the means of sultsatence on an im-
poverished flock, of which he is the spiritual, and, in truth,
also the temporal guide, we should be confirming an influ-
ence already too great, and obstructing the diffusion of a
purer faith-still more justifiably by those whose conscien-
tious conviction it is, that by pa& as sat we are sanctioning
and adopting error, and el alft eillswliag Almighty God by
consenting to the endowment dma who deny and reject
Mrino truth.
" But I cannot give my meat to either of these con-
clusions.
" I feel, with regard to the first, that nothing can be less
successful in weakening the influence of the Roman Catholic
religion in Ireland than the enure we have hitherto taken,—
that we have made no advance towards that object, either
by penal laws or civil disabilities, or by a system of complete
alienation from the ministers of that religion.
" With regard to the second, I cannot admit that in
payment, with the sanction of parliament, of a given MI is
the minister of a religious creed not being that of thimble,
is tantamount to the adoption or sanction by the state Olin
doctrines which that minister may teeth, and is supervising,
the principle of an established church. If it be so, we oaths
to rescind many acts of the crown and of parliament, whin
are open substantially to the same objection. Year after
year (frequently without one dissenting voice) we have vote*
the sum required for the support of Presbyterian maid..
fa Ireland, there being included among the nuedier EMI
professing and teaching Unitarian doctrines. We hen poe.
sided, by act of Parliament, fixed allowances, peill den a
public fund, to Roman Catholic chaplains, in anoint** On
prisons and en workhouses. In order to facilitate Or aillmair
mon, and to retain quiet pommies af imajarbril WOWS% we
have not hesitated to guarantee, met air lis aullimmok of
Roman Catholic priests, but the etediamed eatshilftwaent el
the Roman Catholic religion.
"If, on the ground of conscientious scruples, we are
bound to refuse even the consideration of any proposal tar
alloting a -4 to Roman esthetic priests in Ireland
' "- the sanction of

.sag a stipend to Roman
by entertaining such a proposal, we imply
Roman Catholic errors, and juatiy incur Divine punishment
for our apostasy, is it safe to maintain our connexion with
Canada and Malta, and continue parties, not merely to the
payment of Roman Catholic priests, but to the establish-
ers, at of Roman Catholic religion, is dependencies of the
British crown ? Considerations, political or constitutional,
may no doubt forbid that to be done is Ireland which is
pormiesable in Canada; but can that which is prohibited in
one part of the queen's dominions, on purely conscientious
and religious grounds, be consistently tolerated and encou-
raged in another?
' I, for one, cannot undertake, on those grounds, to fetter
my discretion for all time to come on the subject to which I
have been referring.
"I have thus addressed you, certainly without any intim-
ated reserve, on the domestic questions which, from their
menexien with religion, are of pro-ondoost importance. I
=lh those (the next in pertMitellest) which have
ncee to our financial and.ums patty.
When the late government sneseeded to power, there I
had been for each of some year. pending a deficiency in
the amount of revenue, as compared with the expenditure.
The amount of that deficiency in there 16111 was not lees
then 2,100,0001. An attempt had bees made in the year
1840 to supply that deficiency by an addition of 10 per cent.
to the assessed taxes, and of 6 per cent. to the revenues of
Customs and Excise. The increase thus made to the wale
of the unwed taxes answered the expectation with which
it was imposed. But the far greater part of the amount
expected to be raised was to have been supplied by the ad-
dition made to the duties of Customs and Exam—that is to
say, by increased taxation upon articles of general consump-
tion, and upon the raw materials of domestic manufacture.
The estimated produce of these additional duties wee
1,910,0001. The actually reliant, on the most favourable
supposition, not more than 760,0001., falling short, therefore,
of the estimate by no lees a sum than 1,160,0001.
" Under these circumstances, it became my duty, as the
chief minister of finance, to advise the adoption of effectual
measures for supplying the deficit between the public revenue
and the charge upon it.
"As the organ of the government, I proposed a tax upon
all incomes above a certain amount. I accompanied the
proposal of that tax with a partial reformation of the com-
mercial code, reducing many duties onerous to the trade and
commercial enterprise of the country. The principal of re-
formation adopted in 1842 comprehended the abolition of
prohibitions, and the ahatement et duties of a prohibitory
character ; the reassess id elks en nu materials to an
amount not exoseg pur met. eieshrus, and on ar-
ticles partially manamenred,ned selendlitely manufactured,
to an amount not exceeding 12 owl 2) par cent. respectively
" Notvrithstandidg these reductions, the ordinary
of the United Kingdom, that is, the revenue derived from
the Customs, Excise, Stamps and Taxes and Post-office,
Ac., amounted in the year 1841 to 47,917,0001., in 1844 to
48,126,0001.
" In taking the revenue of the latter year, I have, of
course, excluded altogether the receipts from the property-
tax and alsothe receipts from casual sources of revenue,
such as the payment of China money in reimbursement of
.he expenses of the war.
" The period of three years, for which the income-tax sou
originally passed, expired on the sth of April, 1845. En-
couraged by the experience of the past, the government pro-
to parliament the renewal of the income-tax for a
retitle period of three years, and the extended application
of those principles of commercial reform which had been
previously acted upon.
" The duties on raw modern's used in manufactures, on
dye stuffs, on oils, as well as on various articles producing
little or no revenue, were altogether repealed. The manu-
facture of glass was relieved from the duties of excise, and
from the supervision and interference of excise-officers. The
amount of the duties remitted in 1845 was not lees than
4,611,0001.
" In 1816 duties were 'pin remitted to the extent of
1,161,000/.
" The total amount of taxation remitted between the rout-
soonoement of the session of 1842 and the resignation of the
late government in 1846 was 7,625,0001.
" The ordinary revenue of 1841 was 47,917,0001.
" That of 1846 (again deducting the receipts from pro.
party. tax and cal revenue) was 47654,0001.
" A portion, however, of the receipts of this latter year,