The Sun.
London, England, 1836-04-27 00:00:00

thanked the House for its attention, and begged to move,
" That the attendance of the Bishops in the Parliament was
inimical to the interests of religion."

Mr. GILLON had had the honour of seconding that mo-
tion upon a former occasion, and he would be most hapny to
do so now. He had done so upon two grounds—political and
religious. Upon political grounds, because the removal of the
Bishops would be a partial reform of the other House which was
rendered so necessary by the Reform which had taken place
in that House—it would be a means of bringing the two
Houses more in unison than they now were. He had found
them always ready to vote against the liberties of the people—
for the imposition of taxes, and any gagging Bill brought in.
Hefeditary legislation had proved noxious in practice, and
absurd in principle. The question had been been brought
forward on relieious, and not on political grounds, and there-
fore it should have his strenuous support. He begged leave
to second the motion.—( Cries of " Question.")
Mr. A. TREVOR rose amidst loud cries of " Question,"
" Divide," which continued almost without intermission during
the time the Hon. Member continued to address the house.
He differed totally from the view of the question taken by the
Hon. Member for Gateshead; and so far from thinking it pre-
judicial to religion he thought it most advantageous to it.
Mr. L WSON suggested that the Hon. Member should
add to his motion that in any new appointments provision
should be made for the residence of Bishops in their dio-
ceses, and that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishop of London alone should have seats in the House
of Lords, and should receive the proxies of the other
Bishops.—(The remainder of the Hon. Member's words were-
lost in the loud and general laughter that followed.)
Lord JOHN RUSSELL was of opinion that no practical
end would result from the motion, and that neither the House
nor the country were disposed to entertain the proposition.
He merely rose for the purpose of assuring the Hon. Gentleman
that he was convinced the reasons he had stated were genuine
and sincere, but still he should not enter into a discussion of
the question then, and the Hon. Gentleman would not suppose
because he did not wish to venture into the discussion, that he
did not think there were grave and sufficient reasons for voting
against the motion.
Mr. C. LUSHINGTON protested against a Minister of
the Crown for a second time interfering for the purpose of
quashing a question so important to the interests of the
Established' Church, and so essential to the interests of the
Christian religion.—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. RI PPON—If the Noble Lord, or any other gentleman
of this House, think they will put me_ down in this sort of
way they are much mistaken ; for if I have the honour of a seat
in this House the next Session of Parliament, I shall un-
doubtedly have the pleasure of proposing this question again
to the House.
The Gallery was then cleared for a divisors.

For the motion,
Against it .lBO
Majority against the motion
SELECT VgSTRIES (BRISTOL.)
Mr. LEADER presented a petition from Bristol, praying
for inquiry into the select vestries of that city. We under-
stood the Hon. Member to complain that these If estrymen
were elected for life—were political partisans, interfering in
all the elections of the city, acting as canvassers and com-
mitteemen—imposing higher rates on their political opponents
than on their friends, and illegally appropriating to political
purposes the parish funds. The Hon. Member at some length
dwelt on these points, but in a very indistinct tone.
Sir R. VYVYAN said that if all these complaints against
the vestries in every town in the kingdom were to bc enter-
tained by the House, there would be no end to these petty un-
founded charges, such as the present was, and the House
would be excluded from all possibility of attending to other
more serious and better founded matters of complaint. The
city of Bristol, if it found fault with these vestries, might,
under the late Act, apply for new vestries. their not having
done so was a proof of their having been satisfied with them.
As one proof out of many that these vestries, who were unjustly
represented as having an ascendancy in election matters, were
not united in political opinion, he would say, that for the last
60 years, until within two years ago, the representatives of the
town were of opposite principles. The Hon. Member quoted
from a counter petition which he presented a number of attested
facts to disprove entirely all the allegatiens of the former,pe-
titian.

Mr. HUME thought it the abuses complained of. which he
denied, did really exist, and the late Corporation Bill did not
furnish a remedy, the House was called on to devise one.
Open vestries were the best.
Mr. MILES was unde►stood to oppose the petition.
Lord J. RUSSELL did not consider that the petitioners
had made out such a case as would call for the interference of
his Majesty's Government, because if the rate payers of Bristol
felt themselves aggrieved they had the remedy in thCir own
hands. lie did not mean to say that abuses did not exist under
the select vestry system, not only as regarded Bristol but
other places, but while the law affurded redress the question
was not one in which the Government was called upon to in-
terpose.
Mr. LEADER observed that as his motion was opposed by
the Noble Lord it would be useless for him to preSs it ally
further. He admitted that the similar petition to which the
Hon. Baronet (Sir R. Vyvyan) had referred was most re-
spectably signed ; but notwithstanding, the fact could not be
disputed that the majority of the householders of Bristol were
strongly opposed to the present system. All he asked was
that the select vestry should be made responsible for their acts
to the rate-payers in general. The Hon. Gentleman then
withdrew his motion.

Sir R. V YVYAN then presented a petition from certain
inhabitants of the city of Bristol (as we undcrstocd), in favour
of the select vestry.
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA.

Mr. ROEBUCK postponed the motion of v.hich he had
given notice, to call the attention of the House to the embar-
rassments now existing in the Government of Upper and
Lower Canada.
REPEAL OF THE TAX ON WINDOW GLASS.
Mr. W. S. 0 BRIEN moved, pursuant to notice, for the
repeal of the duty on window glass. The Hon. Member
observed that, however inconvenient it might be. to bruin-
forward motions of this description before the Chancellor of
the Exchequer had made his financial statement, yet he con-
sidered that it was perfectly justifiable for a Member of that
House to adopt such a course, particularly as regariled a tax
which affected the interests of a large portion of the poomr
classes of the country. He had no hesitation in stating that
he had been induesed to bring forward the present motion chiefly
en behalf of the peasantry of Ireland, but in doing:so he begged
to say that he did not consider it as an Irish question.
An HON. MEMBER. here moved that the House be counted,
but there being more than forty Members present no adjourn-
ment took place, and on our return to the gallery we found—
Mr. O'BRIEN complaining of the interruption he had ex-
perienced. The Hon. Member then said that in the present
state of the House, and seeing that the question he had
brought forward was not likely to meet with a favourable
reception, he should withdraw his motion for the present,
in the hope, however, that the subject would be fairly dis-
cussed when an opportunity should arise of introducing it
again.
The motion was then withdrawn.
NOVA SCOTIA:

Mr. HUME moved for copies of the addresses from Nova
Scotia to his Majesty in the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, re-
specting the foreign trade of that province, and the customs'
establishment. Ile believed that no objection would be made
to the motion, his object being that an inquiry should be set
on foot to obtain information with regard to the trade of the
colony, and the mode in which the customs duties were ma-
naged. The annual amount of those duties did not exceed
14,0001., while the sum of no less than 10,0001. a year was
expended in paying the officers and maintaining the customs'
establishment of that :colony, and his complaint was that due
attention had not been made to the remonstrances of those
who had addressed his Majesty on the subject, and who justly
felt aggrieved that the Government had so long neglected to
attend to their earnest prayers for inquiry. The Hon. Mem-
ber, after adverting to ,the high salaries of the custom-house
officers in Nova Scotia, was proceeding to other topics con-
nected with the subject, when
Mr. A. TILE VOR moved that the House be counted but
the motion was again unsuccessful, there being 43 Members
present.
Mr. HUME concluded by moving for a return of the pa-
pers in question.
After a few words from Mr. ROBINSON and Mr. F.
BARING, the motion was agreed to.
Mr. HUME then moved for a copy of the address of the
Muse of
.Assembly of Upper Canada, in Committee of the
whole House, on the 11th of February, 1836, to his Majesty,
respecting the commerce and trade of that province ; and also
for copies of the several resolutions respecting commerce
agreed to by the same Committee on the same day.
Mr. A. TREVOR again moved that the House be counted,
but the motion met with no better success than those by
which it was preceded, there being still more than 40 Mem-
bersyresent.

When the gallery was opened,
Mr. HUAIE was observing that he could not understand
the motive of the Hon. Member (Mr. A. Trevor) in his en-
deavours to count out the House, when so much public busi-
ness remained to be disposed of. The Hon. Member con-
cluded by moving for the returns in question.—Agreed to.
LOAN FUNDS (IRELAND.)
Mr. FINCH obtained leave to bring in a Bill to amend the
law relating to loan funds in Ireland. _ _

BISHOPRIC OF DURHAM BILL.
The House went into Committee pn this Bill, when seve-
ral postponed amendments of Lord John Russell were
agreed to.
Mr. P. THOMSON presented a petition from the Cham-
ber of Commerce at Manchester, praying for the abolition of
the duty on marine insurances.
The House then adjourned, at Twenty Minutes past Eight
o'Cloch.