The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-23 00:00:00

land had ever produced. (Hear, hear.) It was a policy
which had been adopted by the far-seeing, to their own
honour and to the advantage of their country ; but if they
looked back upon history they would find that it was a
policy which had been forced upon the bigotted and near-
sighted in hours of difficulty and emergency. The lan-
guage of the hon. member was such as to lead to the con-
clusion that he was not indisposed to persecute Roman
Catholics if he could. It was fortunately not in the
power of the hon. member to shut up any one in prison
for promulgating his opinions, but it would seem that he
was not wanting in the will to do so. (Hear, hear.) It
was not in his power to prevent Sir R. Kane from oc-
cupying the honourable position of head of a college, or
Chief Baron Pigot from being an ornament of the bench ;
but he was disposed to go as far as he could, and denied to
the clergy whom those men respected. that stipend which
appeared indispensable for providing them with a suitable
education ; and so far he insulted the feelings of the
educated and wealthy Roman Catholics of Ireland. (Hear.)
And now let it be supposed for a moment that this grant
were repealed. What followed ? Why should not the
cases which the hon. member had produced of miscon-
duct on the part of Roman Catholic clergy tell with tenfold
force against the paid chaplains of gaols and work-
houses, ' and regiments ? Was the hon. member going
to put as end to this grant, and then to stop short ?
Of course not. This was but the beginning of a retrograde
policy—(hear, hear)—a policy which experience had
long since condemned ; for if ever in the annals of the
world there was a policy which bore upon it the stamp of
discomfiture and defeat, it was that policy which had ex-
isted in Ireland during the greater part of the last century,
which was the cause, as he verily believed, of the greater
part of the evils which now afflicted that unhappy land,
and which the hon. member now sought to restore. (Hear,
hear, and cheers.) It was undoubtedly right and natural
that in countries where representative government pre-
vailed, the opinion of the majority should preponderate
over that of the minority : but it was not consistent with
justice that the majority should in all cases repudiate all
regard for the opinions of the minority ; and yet that was
what the hon. member wanted the house to do. As the
Roman Catholics were the minority and the Protestants
the majority, the latter, according to the hon. member,
were justified in disregarding the opinions and convictions
of the former. (Hear, hear.) He (Sir J. Young) would
only refer, in conclusion, to words uttered in the House of
Lords in 1846 by one whom every man in that house would
admit to be one of the greatest warriors and wisest states-
men that ever adorned this country. The Duke of Wel-
lington, who certainly could not be charged with being
deficient in loyalty, had used these words in the House of
Lords when advocating the endowment of Maynooth
" There is a great religious principle involved in this mea-
sure, namely, the principle of abstaining from persecution.
My lords, you are strong ; abstain from persecuting the
weak. tis your duty to give effect to this Christian
principle, and to abstain from even the appearance of per-
secution." Such were the words of the Duke of ' Wel-
lington when enforcing the increase of the grant to May-
nooth. He (Sir 3. Young) would appeal to the Protestant
representatives of this empire. Protestants were irre-
sistible in wealth and in intelligence. Let them not
forget their own strength and the weakness of others.
It might be that past concessions had not been received
with the gratitude which they had a right to expect ;
but let them go forward in their own strength, walking in
the glorious light of their pure faith. Let them adopt the
principle of toleration, not as a mere profession, not as a
lip service, but in truth and in practice, and let them avoid
even the appearance of persecution, by rejecting, as he
trusted that a large majority of the house would reject,
the unworthy and ungracious motion of the honourable
member. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Mr. STANHOPE said that in the course of the argu-
ments which had been brought forward upon this question
in 1845, it had been contended that if once the principle
of maintaining this college were allowed, it was bad
economy to maintain it in a parsimonious manner, and
they had been told that, under a more liberal system, the
Roman Catholic priests would change their previous policy.
Now, he would ask what had been their course of proceed-
ing during the eight years' experience which we had had
of Sir R. Peel's measure up to the present time ? We had
given with a liberality which the Roman Catholics them-
selves had been highly gratified with. But he would ask,
had that liberality been received with gratitude ? (Hear,
hear.) He would not dwell on the conduct of those rev-
erend gentlemen during the late elections, but he must
say that he thought it unfortunate that the accusations
which were known, not only in this country but all over
Europe, should have been so totally disregarded as to in-
duce every one in this country to believe that they must
be true. The Secretary for Ireland had not denied their
truth, but he had said that considerable allowance must
be made. He (Mr. Stanhope) was unwilling to take any
of these cases, occurring in a period of excitement and in
the tumult of elections, as proving the case against
the Roman Catholic priests ; but he did say that if
they found these reverend gentlemen, contrary to the
rules of their sacred calling, exciting a mob at the
polling booths, and that that conduct was not noticed
and repudiated by their superiors, these exceptional
cases must no longer remain on their own merits, but be-
come a strong ground of accusation. You could not take
up an Irish newspaper without seeing in it a letter from
some of these rev. gentlemen, to the effect that there could
be no hope for Ireland until the Established Church were
swept away. It had been said that if this grant were
withdrawn the College of Maynooth would still continue ;
but his answer to that was, that with the existence of the
college, provided it was endowed from Roman Catholic
funds, they had nothing as Protestants to do. At all
events, objecting to the grant, as the majority of the peo-
ple of this country did, upon religious grounds, and as
having failed in accomplishing the objects for which it was
originally instituted, and seeing that of late years attempts
had been made to strengthen the influence of Rome over
the Catholics of Ireland, and also to set up a similar influ-
ence in England, he thought the Protestant public ought
no longer to be called upon to support an institution
wrong in principle and founded upon error.
Mr. FAGAN then (12 o'clock) moved the adjournment
of the debate, which, after some cries of " Divide," was
agreed to, and the debate was understood to stand ad-
journed till this day (Wednesday).
PUBLIC-HOUSES (SCOTLAND) BILL.
_ _

Mr. MACKENZIE moved for and obfained leave to
bring in a bill for the better regulation of public•houses in
Scotland.

REPORT OF SUPPLY.

Mr. WILSON PATTEN brought up the report of the
committee of supply, which was received.

OFFICE OF EXAMINER (COURT OF CHANCERY;

BILL.

The house then went into committee on this bill.

On clause 3 being proposed,
Mr. MILLINGS said that this bill professed to be a
reforming bill, and one for saving expense to suitors ; but
he believed in its present state it would most seriously
increase expense, and create additional inconvenience by
requiring witnesses to travel from great distances. He
proposed several amendments in the third clause, for the
purpose of restricting the retiring pension to the case of
examiners already appointed, and for allowing compensa-
tion only in case of removal to such examiners as should
be hereafter appointed.
rtochandiarymisayionnitr,sepoobrtjecptr.o.
gr opposedemssr Ba
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dhGet
Gha amendments meeor
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ens
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The SOLICITOR-GENERAL defended the bill, and
tending
goe
but none
took place.
On the gallery being re-opened,
Mr. BAGGE protested against the attempt to force on
this bill at so late an hour, and moved that the house ad-
journ. He appealed to the hon. member for Salford to be
consistent, and not to desert his duties on the accession of
a new Government.
Mr. BROTHERTON affirmed that he had never relaxed
in his endeavours to secure early adjournments. He had
been in the house now for twelve hours, whereas the hon.
mover of the amendment had but just come in.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL thought it must be quite evi-
dent that, however the honourable member for Salford
might have persevered in his efforts, under several different
administrations, he had not succeeded in his favourite ob-
ject. (A laugh.)
The motion was then withdrawn.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL moved that the blank in
the portion of the clause fixing the number of years' ser-
vice which should entitle the examiners to claim pension
should be filled up with "twenty.,,
-
Mr. BUTT moved, as an amendment, the insertion of
the word " thirty."
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL pointed out that this was
only an enabling clause, and that if the amendment were
carried it would make the examiners an exception toect all
the other officers of the Court of Chancery, in resp to
the number of years' service required to give them a claim
to a pension.
Mr. HENLEY could see nory reasonoun why a en gentleman who
a pension after only twenty years' service.
yg siould be
might be appointed when ve
The committee then divided, when there were
37
For the original motion
20
Forthe amendment ...........................

--
Maj0rity............................. 17
" Twenty years" were acco.rdingly inserted.
The house resumed, and immediately afterwards (at
half-past one o'clock) adjourned.
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