The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-12 00:00:00

hood.—(Hear, hear.) I contend that it' Would be not
only unjust but impolitic to do so; because you would
thereby inflict an injury upon yourselves; you would aggra-
vate the very evil, one of the circumstances connected
with which is the cause of the anger which is at present felt
in many parts of the country,—(Hear, hear.) I must say
that this motion appears to me a motion of vengeance—
(Cheers)—and as a motion of vengeance I think it impolitic,
(Hear, bear.) And it is not only because it is a yin-.
dictive motion that I think it an impolitic motion, but be-
cause it is at variance with all those principles of sound na-
tional policy upon which the Government and Parliament of
this country has hitherto acted in regard to this question. 'lt
is upon that ground =that broad and general ground—that
I sin prepared to resist the motion which is now about to VC
proposed to the House. My view of the question is not
altered by the very proper and honourable offer which has
been made by the Catholic Members of this House on the
part of the Catholic priesthood of Ireland, to lay the institu-
tion open to the fullest and freest inquiry. No ground, in
my opinion, bag been laid for an inquiry at all at this parti-
cular moment. I don't dispute the right of the House to in-
quire. Any institution which is supported in any degree
by public money must submit to inquiry, if sufficient ground
is laid for making the inquiry. There may be. ground in
this ca-:e, or not •I am not able to spell( as to that. All I
contend for is, that' no ground for it has been laid in any-
thing which has been stated in the course of the present de-
PIT; r Buie if inquiry . be thought to be necessary, a Right
ricnd of mine has pointed out'that there exists an-
other authority under Government capable of making it;
and
I my
say that in my humble opinion there is no ma-
chinery for nickinginquiry of this kind to utterly oh,
jeetionahle as a Committee of the tiorse of Commons.
(Hear, hear.)
lv
Why. we shod have fif.een gentlemen
sitting uj f,tairs,
.., summoning
officers of Illaynoo.n before them the different
and examining them according
spirit t h
eof i
nctiuniqr3u,
each member of the Committee. Either
to the varying fancy and
be conducted with all that
respectful abstinence which
becomes an inquiry si) deeply and intimately co inquiry
youoldf
connected with
the religious opinions of men differing probably
from their examiners, and, if so, you would not'getn creed
e ehde
results which the promoters of the motion wish in attain ;
or it would be conducted upon a' different' principle, aaliand
then the result would be that you would have theological
inquiries, which must be highly offensive not only to the
persons examined but to those who belonged to the same
faith in Ireland ; and I must say that in either case it
would be most unwise and most inexpedient that the
inquiry should be proceeded with.--(Hear, hear.) But
the people of Ireland will not believe that the mere motive
and object and effect of the motion, if carried, will be to
inquire into the College of Maynool.—(Hear, hear.) They
will look upon it as the yielding of the House of Commons to
what, if it were sot disrespectful so to call the prevalence of
sincere opinion, I would describe as a fanatical cry.—(Hear.)
Bat the people of Ireland are clearsighted enough to see
that were the House of Commons to adopt this motion
they would be merely yielding to a popular feeling
created by the circumstances of the moment, and if they are
charitable enough not to think that the Members of this
House have yielded to that cry, or that many persons who
are going to vote for this motion have not been much moved
thereto by considerations of the approaching election, they
will be giving them greater credit than in my conscience I
think they desorve.—(Cheers and laughter.) I again say
that if any Members of this House shall call for a division
on this motion, I shall think it my duty to vote against it,
and that I earnestly hope, in spite of the handsome offer on
the part of the Catholic. Members to submit the institution
to the fullest inquiry, the House will either resist the motion
altogether, or, if an inquiry be thought expedient, that that
inquiry will be conducted by the Commissioners appointed by
Government, because it is obvious that a subject of such a
delicate nature, involving questions so deeply affecting the
interests of a large portion of the community, is not a ebb-
ject suited to the rough handling of the Members of a Select
Committe of this House.—(Cheers.)
Mr. Sergeant MURPHY moved the adjournment of the
debate.

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to
him that it had one remarkable characteristic, and that was
that almost every speaker had been of the same opinion,
and, therefore, it seemed to him extremely advisable to
conclude the debate that night, if possible.—(Hear, hear,
and cries of "Adjourn I")
Mr. M. J. O'CONNELL had some strong objections to
urge against the motion, and hoped the debate would be ad-
journed to afford him the opportunity of doing so.—(Hear.)
Mr. REYNOLDS said he was anxious, on a great and
important question like that, to hear from the Chief Se-
cretary for Ireland, or in his absence the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman the Irish Attorney-General, some explanation of
the speech which had that night been delivered by the
Secretary of State for the Home Department. He wished
to know whether or not the opinions of the organ of the
Irish Government in that House harmonised with the " No-
Popery" speech of the Home Secretary, because, after having
listened to that speech with attention and pain, he could not
help coinciding with the noble Lord (Palmerston); in
thinking that the spirit of ancient and the worst times of
bigotry and intolerance had been revived in this discussion.
In conclusion, Mr. Reynolds said he should support the ad-
journment of the debate, and challenged the Hon. Member
for North Warwickshire (Mr. Spooner) to fix an early day
for resuming it.
Mr. DRUMMOND also supported the adjournment of the
debate. He was one of the few persons in that House who
had served an apprenticeship to the dulness and the endu-
rance of Dr. Duigenan; but when this debate should be re-
sumed he would prove that a bigotry more fierce than Dr.
Duigenan's was now in full operation in Ireland—the fiercest
that ever Hildebrand delighted in, or the blackest times of
Popery had ever put in action.—(sear, hear.)
Mr. KEOGH, after some observations in favour of the
adjournment of the debate, said that, as he had understood
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in what had fallen from
him at an earlier period of the evening, intended to repudiate
the sentiments which his Hon. Friend ( Mr. Osborne) had
attributed to him, in order that there might be no mistake on
the subject, he would read to the House the passage in the
Right Hon. Gentleman's speech to which his Hon. Friend
alluded. The Right Hon. Gentleman was speaking on the
case of Ireland, upon a motion which was brought forward
by the Noble Lord the Member for London (LordJ. Russell).
The Right Hon. Gentleman stated that they had heard a
great deal of Catholic associations, and anti-corn-law le.igues,
and political unions; but those things were tLe consequence
of the people putting the government of the country into the
hands of those who did not know how to wield it; and then,
alluding to the Catholic question, observed—one said it was
a physical question, and another that it was spiritual. Now
it was the absence of an aristocracy, and then the absence of
railroads—it was the Pope one day, the potatoes the next.
But they had a starving population—an absentee aristocracy ;
and what would the stern supporters of the Establishment
say, when the Right Hon. Gentleman added, an alien
church, in addition to the weakest of execwives in the
world? Any one reading of a country in that position, ob-
served the Right Hon. Gentleman, would say at once that
the remedy was revolution. But Ireland, he said, could
not have a revolution, and why ? Because it was connected
with another and a more powerful country—her connexien
with England prevented revolution; and as revolution was
the only remedy, England was placed in the odious posi-
tion of being the cause of all that misery. What, then, he
asked, was the duty of an English Minister? The Right
Hon. Gentleman was then engaged in the duty of hunting
down the man who was then a great English Minister—
(Opposition cheers)--and was talking of Parliamentary
middle-men, who bamboozled one party and plundered the
other, and called upon the House to put an end to Parlia-
mentary hypocrisy. Now, if the House still maintained the
inclination to put an end to a Parliamentary hypocrisy, they
would permit him (Hr. Keogh) to put au end to the repre-
sentation that the Hon. and Gallant Member had misrepre-
sented the Right Hon. Gentleman. But he would proceed—
" What was the duty -of an English Minister? To effect by
his policy all those changes.which revolution would effect by
force)—(Hear, hear.)
The debate was then adjourned till Wednesday, the 19th
of May.
The Property and Income-tax Bill was further considered
in Committee, and ordered to be read a third time on Friday.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
House adjourned at Half-past- Twelve o'clock.