The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-07 00:00:00

proceedings they were now considering. That proclama 1
tion could not have been issued without taking the 1

opinion of the law officers of the Crown upon the subject,
nor would it have been issued had there been the slightest

difference of •pinion between them. Therefore tto law
officers of 1852 differed from the law officers of 1855. It
was not for him to interpose himself in such a conflict

to bring himself within the wind of such a commotion.
Every statute was to be construed according to its gram-
matical construction, and with respect to the meaning of
the section quoted by the right rev. prelate no reasonable
man could for a moment entertain the slightest doubt. He
was himself satisfied that the prohibition was directed, not
only against the members of monastic orders, but likewise
against all Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, whether secular
or regular. No doubt that was the grammatical construc-
tion of the words to which he had referred. Did not
every one know that the ecclesiastics of this country,
and of the Roman Catholic religion, generally were di-
vided into orders distinguished from each other ; orders

which had been in existence from the time of the Apos-

ties, and were referred to in the ordination service in our
Prayer-book— those of bishops, priests, and deacons ?
Were not these words sufficient to satisfy the grammati-
cal construction of the sentence ? and if so, and there

was no inconsistency in so doing, the house were bound
to give effect to it. These orders were referred to again
and again in the canons and also in the acts of Parlia-
ment. The act of Elizebeth, for instance, stated that no
one should be promoted to the order of priest or deacon
until he had Subscribed the Articles of the Church of Eng-
land. The Irish act, which bad been referred to, and
which was made in par/ materia, strongly confirmed the
view which he was advocating ; for it was beyond a
doubt that in that act the word "orders" was applied as
well to the secular as the regular clergy of the Roman
Catholic Church. Another rule to be attended to in
construing statutes was to consider what the evil to be
obviated by them was. Now, there could be no ques-
tion that the object of the 10th Geo. IT., which was
passed at a time of great contention, was to prevent
any circumstances arising to increase that irritation ;
and it was then thought an act of wisdom and prudence
to endeavour to do this by preventing any public dis-
plays of any kind. But how imperfectly that object
would be attained if they confined the operation of the
act to the prevention of a few monks walking about in
the vestments of their order, and, on the other hand,
permitted processions of the bishops and the regular
clergy, which were described as most gorgeous in their
character He said nothing upon the policy of the
act. An act of Parliament might be very expedient
when it was passed, and yet it might be very rash and
imprudent to attempt to enforce it after a long interval.
He hoped it would not be taken that he gave any opi-
nion as to the propriety of enforcing it now, for he did
not know enough of the actual state of Ireland to en-
able him to do so. (Hear.)
Earl GRANVILLE protested against the imputa-
tions which had been cast upon the Government be-
cause they declined to act in opposition to the opinion
of their own law officers.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that it must be a
matter of extreme difficulty to any of their lordships,
and more particularly to any of the law lords, to give an
opinion on the construction of a penal clause which
might be brought judicially before them for their de-
scision. He wished to recall the recollection of their
lordships to the fact that when the subject was under
discussion on a previous occasion he did not commit
himself to any positive opinion upon it, but merely
stated the grounds on which he thought that the clause
was open to different constructions. Now, his noble
and learned friend had told them what orders generally
meant, but the real question was what it meant in that
clause. Now, the words of the clause were, " orders,
communities, and societies hereinafter mentioned,"
which were communities and societies of the Church of
Rome bound by monastic and religious vows. Nor was
it so clear as his learned friend supposed that both verbs
in the sentence must apply to both nominative cases.
On the other hand, he thought there was good ground
for contending that the clause must be construed dis-
tributively, and that it referred to priests exercising the
rites of the Church and monks wearing the habits of
their orders. It was quite clear that, if, instead of a
penalty of 501., this clause made the offence embraced in
it a felony, and punished it with death, then the courts
would hold that it must be construed strictly ; and with-
out pledging himself to a positive opinion on a question
which might hereafter come before him inhis judicial cha-
racter, he must again say that he thought there were very
strong grounds on which it might be argued that the
ordB in question only applied to the regular clergy of
the Roman Catholic Church. (Hear, hear.)
Lord ST. LEONARDS would not shrink from giving
an opinion on this question, because when he was in
office under the noble earl below him (the Earl of Derby)
he was obliged to come to a positive conclusion with re-
spect to what was the correct construction of this sta-
tute, and to stake his reputation as a lawyer and a states-
man upon the soundness of his interpretation. Nay,
more, he had been obliged to give effect to his opinion
by the issuing of the proclamation to which reference
had been made. He felt, therefore, no difficulty in
giving his opinion now as a member of their lordships'
house, nor should he feel any in correcting that opinion,
should be convinced by arguments addressed to him in
his judicial capacity, that he was mistaken in his view
of what he believed to be the law of England. Now, in
order to see whether the word " orders" could be con-
fined to the monastic orders, he would first call their at-
tention to the Irish act, the 31st Geo. 111. ; and when
they found, as was the case, that the very Nerds of that
act, about the meaning or the application of which to
the regular clergy, were transcribed into the 10th Geo.
IV., and then applied to the two classes of the regular
and •saelae alaree, noulsl not see how any man, Ca-
pable either of reasoning or of en lerstawding grammati-
cal construction, could feel any difficulty in coming to
the conclusion that these words applied to Roman Catho-
lic eccle-iastics generally, and not merely to the mem-
bers of the regular order. The policy of the law was in
conformity with that which he believed to be the sound
grammatical construction. The policy of the law before
this act was passed was to prevent any public displays that
were likely to give rise to irritation, and the policy of this
act was to enforce that prohibition, and even to carry it
further than before. And why so ? Because this country,
being determined to allow no more Jesuits or mem-
bers of any other monkish order to come over, yet re-
solved to allow those now here to remain, and this act
was intended to apply to them while they remained.
The intention of the Legislature was not to put an end
to Roman Catholic establishments, but it was desired to
exclude the monkish orders. Could it then be main-
tained that this act was only to apply to that body whom
it was intended for the time to come wholly to exclude
from the kingdom, but was not to extend to those who
were allowed to remain, and form a permanent part of
the community ! It was impossible, in his opinion, to
do so ; and he could only say, in conclusion, that,
having read the clauses over frequently, he had been
unable to bring himself to entertain the slightest doubt
that the words so often quoted referred both to the
secular and the regular priests of the Roman Catholic
Church.
The Bishop of EXETER said that after what had been
said of the inconvenience of producing the opinions of
the law officers of the Crown, and also after the speeches
which had fallen from his two noble and learned friends
(Lord Lyndhurst and Lord St. Leonard), he would not
press the former part of his motion, but would confine
himself to a motion for the pr eduction of the proclama-
tion issued by the Government of the noble earl opposite
(the Earl of Derby).
The motion, thus amended,
was agreed to, and their
lordships adjourned at eight o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—YESTERDAY.
The SPEAKER took the chair shortly before four
o'clock.

NEW MEMBERS.
Sir C. Wood, Mr. V. Smith, and Sir G. C. Lewis,
severally took the oaths and their seats on their re-elec-
tion fOr Halifax, Northamptonshire, and New Radnor

PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire and Blackburn Rail-
ways Bill was read a second time and ordered to be
committed.

PETITIONS.
Mr. MITCHELL presented a petition from a place
in Cornwall against the sale of intoxicating liquors on
Sundays.
Mr. THORNELY presented a petition from the
licensed victuallers of Wolverhamton praying for the
repeal of the Beer Act of last session.
Mr. HORSFALL presented a petition from Liver-
pool against the opening of the British Museum and
the National Gallery on Sundays.
Sir J. WALMSLEY presented a petition from Lei-
cester, against the sale of intoxicating liquors on Sun-
days.
Mr. WATSON presented a petition from the post-
masters of Hull, praying for the repeal of the mileage
duty.
Mr. COWAN presented a petition from the Scottish
Trade Protection Society, in favour of Lord Brougham's
bill for the registration of Bills of Exchange.
Sir J. TROLLOPE presented a petition from the
licensed victuallers of Lincoln, praying for the repeal of
the Beer Act of last session.
Mr. SPOONER presented a petition from the Pro-
testant Association, praying the house to insist upon the
immediate production of the Maynooth report, and pray-
ing for inquiry into the circumstances under which the
Pope's legate became possessed of the evidence taken
before the Maynooth Commission.
Mr. A. PELLATT presented a petition from the
manufacturers of Southwark and Bermondsey, complain.
ing of certain clauses in the Nuisances Removal Act,
Mr. M. GIBSON presented a petition from Man-
chester, in favour of the bill for the repeal of the
Newspaper Stamp.
Mr. LAYARD presented a petition from Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, praying fora searching inquiry into the con-
duct of the war.
Mr. PHINN presented a petition from Bath, praying
the house to extend the same measure of justice to
Poland as it had to Turkey.
NEW WRIT.

On the motion of Mr. HAYTER, a new writ was or-
dered for Portsmouth in the room of Lord Monck, who
sinoe his election had accepted the office of a Lord of
the Treasury.