The Sun.
London, England, 1837-06-09 00:00:00

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.

Lord J. RUSSELL moved the appointment of a Select
Committee to consider whether and how far the public busi-
ness might be conducted with improved regularity and de-
spatch, and also to consider what improVements might be
adopted in conducting the private business of the House.
After a short conversation, the motion was agreed to,
and the following Committee appointed :—.Lord John Rus-
sell, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Poulett Thomson, Sir James
Graham, Sir Robert Inglis, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Shaw
Lefevre, Lord Stanley, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Loch, Mr. C.
Wynn, Mr. Aglionby, Lord Granville Somerset, Sir John
Wrottcsley, Mr. Charles Buller.
The other Orders of the Day were then disposed or,
and the House adjourned, at Half-past One o'Clock.

ROUSE OF LORDS, eluxE 8.

The LORD CHANCELLOR, the Archbishop of CANTER-
BURY, and Lord DUNCANNON, as Commissioners, gave the
Royal Assent to the Exchequer Bills Bill, Indemnity Bill,
Penitentiary (11Plhank) Bill, Newark Crown Estate Bill,
Trial by Jury (Scotland) Bill, Glasgow Police Bill, Go:-
bals Police Bill, • London and Greenwich Railway Bid,
Trinity North Leith Harbour and -Docks Bill, Swansea
Waterworks Bill, Stourbridgc Canal Bill, Holme Reser-
voirs Bill, ,Wakefield Waterworks Bill, Greenwich Pier
Bill, ormegay (Norfolk) Drainage Bill, Worcester Cattle
Market Bill, Dundee Improvement Bill, Mertoun Bridge
Wat,rford County Rates Bill, Roborough Hundred
(Devon) Small Debts Bill, Sun Life Assuranc,! Company
13111, Elland Bridget Road Bill, Ashborne and Leak Road
Bill, Butterbouse Green and Gorton Road Bill, Manches-
ter and Oldham Roads Bill, Leeds and Otley Road Bill,
Belfast and Lisburn Roads Bill, Antrim and Coleraine
Roads Bill, Glasgow Roads Bill, Darlaston and Shelton
Road Bill, Biddulph Roads Bill, Roxburgh Roads Bill,
Clapton (Somerset) Inclosure Bill, Clun Forest (Salop)
Inclosure Bill, Banff Glebe Lands Bill, Angerstein's Es-
tate Bill, Hale'a,Naturalization Bill.
Mr. BROTHERTON, from the House of Commonq, brought
up the Argall Estate Bill, and several private Bills, which
were severally read a first time.
On the motion of Viscount DUNCANNON, the Dub-
lin Police Bill was read a third time.

E.irl FITZ WILLIAM prescinted a petition from the
congrFgation, of a chapel in Southwark, praying for the
abolition of Church-rates.
Petitions for the abolition of Church-rates were presented
by Lard Brougham from Brighton ; from Saint 1113ryle-
bane, signed by seven hundred persons, with their resi-
dences attached ; from Bilptit Dissenters of Southerton,
Lincolnshire ; Cock-Tivell, in Durham, and by the Earl of
Burlington.

Lord BROUGHAM gave notice that on Thursday
next he should move the second reading of the Bill provi-
ding for education and the administration of charities in
this country.

.The• Bishop of WINCHESTER presented a petition
from the Magistrates of Surrey, against the opening of
Vauxhall Gardens on every night in the week, and particu-
larly against the probable desecration of the Sabbath by their
being open on Saturday nights.
The Earl of WICKLOW complained that in the copy
of the letter of Mr. Nicholls to Lord John Russell, laid on
the table of the House, several material paragraphs had
-been omitted.

Viscount DUN CANNON was not aware of the circum-
stance, but he would inquire into it.
Tha Bishop of LONDON presented a petition from
Raworth, in Surrey, for the better observance of the Sab-

bath ; also a petition to the same effect from tl.e parish of
St. George, Worcester.

The:Marquis of L ANSDOWN presented a petition
from the guardians of the poor of Walmeslcy, Wilts, pra!--
ing that the rating of cottages may be on the owners and
rot on the occupiers ; also another petition to the same
effect. The Noble Marquis likewise hid on the table the
Order in Council, dated February -19, 187, approOng of
the scheme prepared by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
On the motion of the same Noble Marquis, the Public
Works (Ireland) Bill was read a second time, and ordered
to be • committed on Monday next. . . _

The Duke of RICHMOND presented a petition from
a place in Norfolk, approving of the operation of the
new Poor Law Amendment Act,

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY brought up the report
of the Vestries Notices Bill. _ _ _

After a conversation in which the Bishop of London,
the Earl of Maltnesbury, and Lord Godolphin took part,
The Bishop of LINCOLN rose for the purpose of
moving a clause. The effect of it would be to put an
end to a custom prevailing at Caistor, in Lincolnshire,
which led to a desecration of a place of religions worship.
It was, that the lord of the manor of Broughton, on a
certain day in each year, was require'd (or presumed to
require), as the condition of his tenure, to hold a leathern
whip over the reading desk of the Clergyman. This it was
proposed to do away with entirely, and to substitute fur
it an annual payment of a trifling sum in money.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that the custom
was doubtless most indecorous, but he doubted whether to

introduce into a public Bill a clause that might materially
affect private rights vas the course most in accordance with
the practice of the House.
The Bishop of LINCOLN had come forward at the
request of the lord of the manor himself, who desired to
discontinue the custom, but feared to deprive himself by so
doing of his rights. He would, howeiter, withdraw the
clause, if not in accordance with the practice of the House.
Lord DU NCA NNON, adverting to the observations of
the Noble Earl (Wicklow) on the letter of Mr. Nicholls,
said that the copy of which the Noble Lord complained
should be withdrawn, and a correct one substituted, the
same as that presented to the House of Commons.
The Earl of WICKLOW called the attention of the
House to the inconvenience of the practice now sought to
be passed over in silence. His Majesty had commanded
that the letter should be communicated to both Houses,
but in the copy laid on their Lordship's table the writer
had thought fit to alter it in respect of some of the most
important paragraphs, and to foist an incorrect copy on the
House. _ _

-------
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said the Noble Earl
did not seem to be sufficiently alive to the fact that the let-
ter in question was originally a private letter, for which
Parliament could not have thought of calling but with the
consent of the writer. As a desire had now been expressed
to have the whole, and as there did not seem to be any
objection to their being communicated, the omitted para-
graphs should certainly be laid on the table.
The Earl of WICKLOW begged to assure the Noble
Marquis and the House, that the paragraphs in question, so
far from being irrelevant, were really, or at least one of them,
the most important in the whole (atm'. He need only call
the attention of the House to the fact, that one.of them
went so far as to say, that all attempts to improve the moral
and political condition of the Irish poor would be useless,
unless the Roman Catholic priesthood were educated in a
manner to conduce to that end. The Noble Earl con.
eluded by reading the paragraph in question, but in a low
tone. As far as we could undrstand, it went to recommene,
indirectly, the education of the Roman Catholic clergy.at
the expense of the State.
Lord BROUGHAM could not tell what charge the
Noble Lord opposite meant. It could not be intended to
conceal the two paragraphs from the House or country,-be •
cause, if it were, anything more impossible to carry into
effect could not easily be contemplated. It appeared that,
long before the publication took place, the charge made was
this, that his Majesty sent down the letter which contained
the two paragraphs to be printed. The Noble. Baron then
moved for the production of the letter, and then came the
letter without the two paragraphs, and this the Noble Lord
opposite construed into an intention to conceal those para-
graphs.• Anything more impossible to effect, he repeated,
could not easily be conceived.
Lord WYNFORD said, that though the letter was
printed, the case was not exactly as the Noble Lord stated.
A very few of the letters were in circulation, and as soon
as it was discovered that they contained the two paragraphs
their circulation was suspended.
Lord DUNCANNON admitted that the paragraphs

were of importance. He was asked by the Noble Earl
opposite whether he had any objection to their production,
and on being told that they had been printed by the House
of Commons, he replied that he certainly had none. The
gentleman who wrote the letters, upon seeing the notice of
the Noble Lord, thought it advisable to omit the para-
graphs, and he accordingly struck them out in the proofs.
This baring been done by the gentleman himself; the House
would at °lice see that there could hare been no intention
of concealing the paragraphs in question, because, by the
Noble Earl's own showing, at the time he asked for the
letter it was then'in circulation. _ _

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE hoped that the
qu9stion would be discussed without any reference to party

feeling.
Earl FITZWILLIAM thought that both Houses,of
Parliament of late years had been too much in the habit of
calling for individual opinions. That practice appeared,to
him to argue an extraordinary degree of diffidence on the
part of Parliament. This had been the case with re-
spect to this document, which bad been presented to
both Houses, and which was intended to fora the
groundwork of one of the most important changes that
was ever effected in the social relations of a people.
He asked his Noble Friend the other day if he had
any objection to communicate to the House those facts
—facts which were to form the groundwork of the pro-
posed measure. Since then he (Earl Fitzwilliam) had had
communication with the gentleman who wrote the letter,
and by him he was informed that he had no documents which
he could present to the House. Finding this to
.be the
case, he thought it better not to proceed with his motion,
although he could have obtained a list of the individuals,
with their names, additions, and residences. -
Viscount MELBOURNE vtirely agreed with his
Noble Friend as to the importance attached to this mea-
sure, and as to the importance of the House being in pos-
session of all the grounds on which it was founded and re-
commended to Parliainent. He thought that his Noble
Friend had stated-the question narrowly when he said that
they were called to legislate'upon that report. They were
called upon to legislate certainly, in some degree, upon that
report, but they also had before them the whole previous
examination on the subject, and the very minute inquiry
and investigation before the Poor Law Commissioners.
They were, therefore, called upon to legislate upon their
general knowledge of the case, and upon the knOwledge
and information which they themselves possessed with re-
ference to the state of Ireland. The gentleman whose name
had been mentioned was sent to Ireland in consequence of his
peculiar knowledge of the working of the Poor-law Act in this
country, in order to ascertain whether the same pr:neiples
could be applied to Ireland. But it did-not follow that that
Gentleman had not made observations of his own--it did
not follow that he had not obtained information—because

he had not presented those-observations and that informa-
tion in a digested form to that House ; but he (Visw:ount
Malhourne) would beg to observe that it was quite unze-
cessAry for Hon. Gentlemen to enter into any detail
of the subject, because he had before him all the facts
which could be collected—all the knowledge which could
be gathered in the inquiries which had been made under
the authority of the Poor Law Comm6sionus. That

gentleman .was sent to inquire whether from the facts so
collected, and whether upon his own peculiar knowledge,
a plan could be recommended as applicable fur that country.
On that account the Gentleman was sent to Ireland,
and he •begged to observe that no imputation could rest
upon him or upon the Government for proposing to Parlia-
ment a measure, the grounds for which were already before
the House.
The Earl of WICKLOW viewed the present course of
proceeding as a frightful experiment. He would not, how-
ever, take upon himself the responsibility of opposing- it.
Lord MELBOURNE said that Mr. Nicholls did not
differ with the Commissioners as to the facts, but merely .as
to the conclusions which they drew in their report.
Here the conversation dropped.
The LORD CHANCELLOR moved the second
reading of the Small Debts (Scotland) Bill.
Lord MELBOURNE, at a future stage, would move
that the Bill be referred to a Select 33ommittee up stairs.
After a few words from the Marquis of BUTE and Lord
BROUGHAM, the Bill was read a second time.
The House then adjourned.

In the course of Wednesday evening Mr. Hes:oth
Fleetwood paired off with Mr. Loch, the former in favour of,
the latter against, the second reading of the Lord's-day Bill.

In addition to the liberal subscriptions of the Duke
and Duchess of Cleveland for the Spitalfields weavers, their
Graces have given an order for a quantity of silk damask fur-
niture of Spitallields manufacture.
The custom of rid ng the Stan-2; is of immemorial
date, and was, in the olden time, a kind of Lynch law in cur
villages, by which dd.:utters were judged and punished ; and
perhaps in the remoter periods the civil authorities were
scarcely, if ever, sought for this purpose. Its institution wa
for the punishment of the grosser description cf conjugal
squabbles, such,
,for instance, as the husband bestowing sum-
mary chastisement on his beloved spouse, and vice versa ; also
for the more heinous offences against the marriage vows. A
scene of this kind occurred iu a neighbouring town a few
nights ago. where the majesty of blackguardism rode trium.
phant.—Kendal Mercury.