The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-26 00:00:00

(LEFT SITTING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS--(THIS EVENING.)
The SPEAKER took the chair at 4 o'clock.
NEW MEMBERS.
Mr. MACKINNON took the oaths and his seat for Rye.
The following bills were read a third time and
passed :—Aberdeen Railway ; Bedale and Leyburn Rail-
way ; Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway ; Leeds and
Whitehall Roads ; Portsmouth Railway ; Scottish
Midland Junction Railway ; South Eastern Railway ;
South Shields Improvement ; Tralee and Killarney
Railway ; The Alston Roads ; and the London and
South-Western Railway.
PETITIONS.

Mr. KEATING presented several petitions, in favour
of legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister.
Mr. A. PELLATT presented a petition from the
Northern Association of the Baptist Church, against the
Education Bill.
Mr. MITCHELL presented a petition from Bridport,
praying for the abolition of church rates.
Mr. BRIGHT presented a petition agreed to at a
public meeting held in Southwark, complaining of the
conduct of the spy system in the police, and praying the
house to take steps for its abolition.
Mr. KINNAIRD presented a petition from Perth,
praying for the abolition of university tests in Scotland.
Mr. MUNDY presented a petition from the attor-
neys of Derby, against the proposed alterations in the
stamp duties on articles of clerkship, and praying:for the
abolition of the attorneys' certificate duty.
Mr. A. HA STIE presented a petition from a place in
Scotland, praying for the abolition of university tests.
Sir J. WALMSLEY presented a petition from Mal-
don, praying for the abolition of church rates.
Sir J. V. SHELLEY presented a petition from the
operative stone masons of Westminster, praying for an
alteration in the law of combinations amongst workmen.
Sir B. SMITH presented a petition from Stockwell,
praying for the opening of the Crystal Palace on Sun-
days.

Sir B. HALL presented a petition from Marylebone,
against the spy system in the police.
Mr. CROSSLEY presented a petition from Halifax,
against the Government Educational Scheme.
Mr. HUME presented a petition from Andover, pray-
ing for the total abolition of church rates.
Mr. LOWE presented a petition in favour of the Com-
bination of Workmen's Bill.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE presented a petition from the
metropolis, praying that the tolls levied upon carts pass-
ing througli, the oity might be abolished.
Mr. 11. W. WICKHAM presented a petition from
the basket and skep makers of the town of Bradford,
Yorkshire, in favour of the Combination of Workmen 's
Bill.

DURHAM ELECTION.
Mr. T. EDGERTON gave notice that when the mem-
bers chosen to serve in the Durha.m election committee
came to the table to be sworn, he should move that the
hon. member for Dundee be discharged from it.

SAVINGS BANKS.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER gave
notice that, on an early day, he should move for leave to
bring in a bill to amend the law relating to savings banks,
and also to establish regulations for making investments
in the Government securitios through the medium of
savings' banks.

MI:: MILES wished to ask the Under Secretary for
the Colonies, whether in pursuance of a dispatch (No.
169) from Sir C. A. Fitzroy, dated Sydney, the 19th
day of October 1842, upon the subject of immigration,
any act has been passed by the colonial legislature to
regulate the inducting of assisted immigrants and others
in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and their em-
ployment in the colony for a certain time after their
arrival therein.

Mr. PEEL said such an act had been recently passed
by tho Legislabive Council of Sydney, but it had not yet
been :received by the Colonial-office, and he, therefore,
could not state the nature of its details.

CORK ELECTION.
The evidence taken before the Cork election committee
was ordered to be printed.

THE KAFIR WAR.

Mr. HINDLEY wished to ask the Under Secretary
for the Colonies what the conditions upon which San-
dilli and the other hostile Kafir chiefs have obtained
peace, and if the Government was prepared to sanction
them.

Mr. F. PEEL said, in February last, Gen. Cathcart
I proposed certain terms of submission to the Kafir chiefs,
but ho had received no official intelligence of those terms
having been accepted, as the mail which would bring
the answer had not yet arrived:
Mr. HEADLAM wished to know if the noble lord
the member for the City of London, would postpone the
vote relating to the Kafir war, until the papers upon
the subject were before the house, as he wished to draw
attention to them.
, before J. RUSSELL said the papers would'be printed
the vote was proposed.
FACTORY REPORTS.
Mr. COBB I'
•
for the H Wished to ask the Secretary of State
Hie Dettaeriment whether the factory inspec-
tor's reports for
have been laid beforeallf year ended on the 25th of April
on the table of the houti,'.l' and
when they will be laid
Lord PALMERSTOofNthIid the time had not yet ar-
rived for the delivery
CORPORATION rpercortpaßTy.
In reply to Mr. HEADLAM,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXmealikeQUEß stated
poraaroposal for
that the Government intended to
extending the succession duty to or
and he should state the nature of the proposale traerty,
motion for the second reading of the Succession the
'l4.,iCal.s .0. g' . • ' MAYO ELECTION.
1,,,,,-,' I.Vr, 1! Vi ...- gave notice that on an early day he
e
'.
.4
1.7.- -., 7-e" select committee to inquire into the
lert
r a
erence practised by the priests at the
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el. 1:.:
-last elealow. r, the county
~..;- .:* -3, hi.' t.,6 1 • CHURCH RATES.
,
be postponed until
?;-:T. ;... '1-
& v . '.n of. Lord J. RUSSELL, it was agreed
1-4: • '''' ' lof the day should
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3., i, • :, .of the Lon, member for Tavistock, in
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reference to church rates, had been disposed of, agree-
ably to an understanding on a former evening.
Lord J. RUSSELL intimated, in reply to Mr.
Disraeli, that the Government would not propose going
into committee on the Income Tax Bill after 12 o'clock.
Petitions in favour of the abolition of church
rates were presented from different parts of the country
by Sir W. Clay, Mr. IlatAeld, Mr. Phillimore, and
other hon. members.

Mr. PHILLIMORE then rose to ask for leave to
bring in a bill to alter and amend the law respecting
Church rates. After explaining the difference between
his bill, and that proposed by Sir W. Clay, he said the
object of his own orris in entire accordance with the ex-
pressed opinions of the principal members of the house
who took a part in the debate on the church rates in
1851, and that it made certain alterations, which
justice and policy alike demanded. He proposed
that the church should make a large sacrifice, and it was
necessary that hon. members who represented the dis-
senting interest should appreciate its extent. No pro-
position of law was more incontrovertible than that
Every parishioner was at present bound to contribute to
the repair of the parish church, and that the rates levied
for such a purpose extended to all kinds of property within
the parish lands, stock-in-trade, and all goods. Enforcing
church rates rested on the assumption, both in law and
in fact, that the Church and State were identical. It
was now for the house to consider whether the law and
the fact remained the same, or whether they had not
undergone extensive alterations, which rendered it equit-
able and just that some relief should be extended to a
large portion of the population. There could be no
doubt that, at the time of the Reformation and sub-
sequent times, one religion was professed by the vast
majority of the population. (Hear.) Circumstances
had, however, greatly changed. A return recently laid
before the house presented an appalling aspect of the
dissent in the kingdom. It appeared from it that the
number of Dissenting places of worship registered from
1688 to 1852, includingßoman Catholic chapels, amounted
to no less than 54, 804, No doubt, considerable deductions
were to be made from that number, but it presented a
remarkable statistical fact which could not be omitted
from consideration in arriving at the conclusion
whether or not the present state of the law respecting
the payment of church rates by Dissenters was right.
It was said Dissenters purchased property under the
acknowledged obligation that it would have to bear
Church rates, but that argument could not apply
to houses which they might build upon their
estates. It was not to be wondered at that within
the memory of many members, there should have
grown up a determined opposition to church rates. He
contended that the grievances of Dissenters required a
wise and speedy adjustment. Not only were church
rates in some places practically abandoned, in order to
avoid any ill blood or bad spirit, but Dissenters were
driven to use various devices in order to evade the
payment of church rates. Those devices were of
two kinds—the first was by appointinc, a church.
warden, who was a Dissenter, and the other by
making a nominal rate. He could not admit
it was an argument against his bill that no great num-
ber of petitions were presented in its favour, and that
there was no agitation with respect to it in the country.
It was much better to mend one's house in a calm than
to be obliged to set about doing so in a storm.
[LEFT SPEAKING.]