The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-03 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF LORDS.—TetrasnaT, Anal. 2.
IN the Horse of Lonns, yesterday, the Mutiny
Bill was read a second time, after a short discus- ;
sion on the omission of the clause authorising the I
infliction of corporal punishment, in the course
of which the puke of CAMBRIDOZ pointed out
that no substitntory punishment had been pro.
vided.
The Marine Mutiny Bill was also read a second
time.
On the motion of Earl Rressu a select com-
mittee was appointed to which all petitions ex-
cept those on private bills should be referred,
withinstructions to report whether any of those
petitions ought to be printed for the use of the
house.
The Earl of mALIMBURY moved a series of re-
solutions relating to the conduct of business in
the house. The first provided that notice of an
intention to ask a question should be given in the
minutes, except in cases which would admit of no
deA
la lengthened discussion ensued, and ultimately
an amendment, proposed by the Lord Chancellor—
" That it is desirable, where it is intended to raise
a discussion on asking a question, that notice
should be given in the minutes and orders of the
day"— was adopted.
The other resolutions, which provided for the
attendance of peers on select committees, and for
the form in which certain minutes should be en-
tered in the journals of the house, were also
agreed to.
Several bills were forwarded a Maze and the
house adjourned at 20 minutes past 7 O'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY, Aram 2.
IN the HOUSE of Coaiwoxs, Sir S. Noftrecor
replying to a question from Mr. Fawcett, stated
that in about three weeks the budget will be
brought forward, and he hoped that by that time
tke Chancellor of the Exchequer would be able to
give a tolerable estimate of the cost of the Abys-
sinian expedition. He added that Sir Robert
Napier expected to be at Theodore's camp by the
end of March ; and he trusted that when the house
met again after the holidays he should be able to
announce that the expedition was on its return.
Lord Sraza.eir stated, in reply to Mr. Yorke,
that Await not his intention to withdraw the amend-
ment of which he had given notice on Mr. Glad-
stone's resolutions, nor would any change or
modification be made in the course of proceeding
that had been announced.
Mr. Wifsm.Ar asked Mr. Gladstone whether the
carrying of his resolutions involved the withdrawal
of the Maynooth grant.
Mr. GLADSTONE replied that his plan involved
the entire relief of the consolidated fund from all
charges for religious purposes.
The adjourned debate on the Irish church was
resumed by
Mr. Roeauee, who said he should vote for the
resolutions. He believed that a church establish-
ment was a bad instrument for the teaching of
religion. He denied that the established church
was a badge of conquest in Ireland. The penal
laws having been repealed, there remained no
grievance in Ireland except the established church.
he quarrel between Ireland and England was not
a quarrel of religion ; it was a quarrel of race, a
(;uarrel of conquest. We had no quarrel with
Scotland because we did not conquer Scotland.
What the Irish wanted was separation. He
denied that the Irish church was a tax upon
Roman catholics. The tithe belonged to the
state. There was one class in Ireland who were
bound up with us, the Irish protestants, who
thought their church did them good. He thought
they were mistaken, and he told the catholics he
thought the same thing of their church too. He
warned Mr. Gladstone not to repeat the conduct
of Earl Russell, who obtained power by carrying
the appropriation clause, and then took no further
steps but to be reedy with his bill to carry the re-
solutions into effect. He was an imperial English-
man, and his voice should ever be raised against
the disconnection of the two committees.
Mr. HENLEY denounced the resolutions as
calculated to carry out the designs of the Fenians.
Every word that was said in favour of these reso-
lutions went against the disestablishment of all
state churches. If he were to vote for these reso-
lutions he should feel that he was a traitor to his
sovereign, his country, and his God.
General PEEL regretted that Mr. Gladstone, in
order to induce the rabble" to follow him into
the lobby, had thought it necessary to ask the
house to disestablish the protestant church in Ire-
land, and to set aside the coronation oath. If this
measure were carried the inevitable consequence
would be the separation of the church and state in
this country, and the repeal of the union with Ire-
land. It was difficult to know what the amendment
meant. It might mean anything. The way he
read it was, that the cabinet was hardly converted
yet, and that the party behind them was not yet
sufficiently educated. He, however, entirely agreed
with the speech of the Home Secretikry, and as long
as the right hon. gentleman sat on the Treasury
bench should feel perfectly secure. It was possible
that the carrying of these resolutions might bring
the liberals into power, but he appealed to the con-
servatives not to be afraid of that.

—..—.—
Mr. Lows said if they took a hundred average
Irishmen it would be found that 78 were Roman
catholics, 11 belonged to the protestant endowed
church, 10 to the presbyterian, and the remaining
one belonged to the waifs and strays. These figures
were more eloquent than any words he could use.
He asked what Englishman would do if the Roman
catholic church were established in this country.
He denied altogether the validity of the argument
that they were incapacitated by the Act of Union
from dealing with this question. He referred to ,
the letter from Mr. Disraeli to Lord Dartmouth,
in which be said the right hon. gentleman out-
Heroded Herod in the way in which he upheld the
establishment, and yet on the evening of the same
day as that on which that letter was published
Lord Stanley gave notice of his amendment,
which virtually gave up the principle
of the establishment. And as if this were
not enough, the government put up the'
noble lord to make a speech in which he led the
house to believe that the government would be
ready on a future occasion to make an alteration
in the status of the church, and the following even-
ing they put up the Home Secretary to contradict
everything the noble lord had said. It was a ten-
tative process, and when the government saw that
a thing did not take it was withdrawn. Now,
the House of Commons had endured a good deal
of this kind of thing. They had all been lowered
by it ; the government had been lowered, and the
estimation of public men in the country had been
irretrievably lowered by it. He rose to-night to
denounce it. He reminded hon. members who at-
tempted to link together the Irish and the English
church of • tyrant who bound a dead body to a
living one. The corruption of the dead body killed
the living body--and so would the Irish church
kill the English church. The Irish church, he said,
was like a tree transplated into an uncongenial
climate. It yielded no blossom, bore no fruit—
" Out it down, why cumbereth it the ground."
Mr. HOBBPALL called on the government to make
a stand for the Irish church, and to go to the
country upon it.
Mr. Mil/0Y contended that the resolutions were
unconstitutional, unjust, and calculated to do mis-
chief to the united church in Ireland.

Sir J. GRAY pointed out some glaring anomalies
in the Irish church.

Viscount Hi/arrow denied that the protestants
were so few in number as had been stated, and
put the episoopaliano alone at a million. It was
always acknowledged that there were anoma-
lies ►n the Irish church which needed correct-
ing ; but a commission bad been appointed for that
purpose. He stoutly maintained the necessity of
continuing the protestant establishment in Ireland.
Mr. B. Oosoairi denied that the liberal party
bad ever been indifferent to this question, but their
leaders had left the liberal party in the lurch
In the matter. There were two questions—dis-
establishment and diaendowment, and they were
totally apart. The question of diaandowment
Its put aside as of secondary importance.