The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-13 00:00:00

ROMAN CATHOLIC MARRIAGES.

Lord MORPETH next presented a petition from the
churchwardens and overseers of the poor at Leeds, praying
that marriages between Roman Catholics celebrated in this
co.ntry might be legalised.—Ordered to be printed.
Mr. JONES presented two petitions in favour of the
annual grant to the Kildare-street Society.
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HOUSE.

Colonel TRENCH brought forward the subject of en-
larging, ventilating, and otherwise improving the interior
of the House of Commons. He said the extreme heat
and want of air when the House was full, attended by
Members, was generally admitted to arise from the bad
construction of the House. Under these circumstances
he had turned his attention to the means of well airing
and enlarging the interior of the House without its being
attended with any great expense. He consulted an archi-
tect, and found it could be done for about 3,0001. The Hon.
Member gave a general outline of his plan, which had been
approved of by the Committee as a means not only of af-
fording better accommodation, but of enabling Members
in every part of the House to hear more distinctly
than at present. The Hon. Member concluded by moving
that two other Members be added to the Committee.

Lord MORPETH said that it was expedient to refrain
from discussing this subject until the Committee made their
report.

To a question from an HoN. MEMBER,
Colonel TRENCH said his plan would give increased
aecommodatiun to strange's.

Mr. BUNT agreed in the proposed plan.
The two ➢Members being added to the Committee, the
subject was dropped for the present.
Lord KILLEEN presented a petitio❑ from certain Ito.
man Catholic,: against the Parliamentary grant to the Kil-
dare-street Society.

Captain GORDON would take that opportunity to set
himself right with the House in reference to one of the
most atrocious breaches of privilege and libels upon
any Honourable Member he had ever heard of.
It was not his intention to follbw up his notice of the sub-
ject by any specific motion, but he could not avoid a re-
ference to the subject in consistency with the duties he owed
to himself, to the House, and to the public. In a
public print of the lowest and most scurrilous description
(we do not mention its name, lest it should attract unde-
served public notice), there was a reference to what he
had said upon the subject of blasphemous, seditious,
and infamous publications on a former occasion in that
House, and after commenting upon it the writer concluded
by asserting that he (Captain Gordon), who had com-
plained of the blasphemous publications, was the foster-
parentof those libels—a contributor to those publications—
a go-between of the Tories," &c., and then gave two letters,
which were gross forgeries, purporting to he addressed by him
(Captain Gordon) to the editor of that low and worthless
penny publication. It bad also designated Mr. Hunt (and
he would call the attention of that Hon. Member to the
language) by several very opprobtious epithets. He would
take a more effectual method of justifying himself from
those libelous charges than by any motion on the subject.

Mr. HUNT would assure the Hon. Member for Dundalk
and the House, that be was quite regardless of what
tie Press said about him—and nineteen-twentieths of the
people of the country were of the same opinion—it was a
promulgator of falsehoods. Whoever had attended to the
progress of the Reform Bill could not but be aware of that ;
he bad, therefore, become quite regardless of its a•per-
sions. If his Majesty'. Ministers, however, had been
°resent. he would have taken that opportunity of telling
them how much blame they had incurred in having fallen
under the displeasure of the editor of the Times.
Mr. RU I'HVEN deprecated any allusion to such prints
as that to which the Hon. Member for Dundalk had celled
the attention of the House. It did not at all accomplish
the object of Hon. Members, while the attention of the
public was thereby called to what was alike discreditable
and injurious.
Lord KILLEEN moved for a return of the names
of all stipendiary Magistrates in Ireland, with the dates of
their appointment, the names of the counties in which they
serve, specifying the amount of their salaries and their other
emoluments, and the sources from which these ptt inents
were made. The Nob!e Lord also moved for a return of
the amount of all superannuations granted to the consta-
hulsry police in Ireland.
Sir G. CLERK brought up the Bill for amending the
turnpike roads in Scotland.
Mr. DICKSON said two clauses had been introduced in
Committee, the principle and operation of which would
he extremely injurious in respect to ateam-carriages, and
therefore he would object to its reception.
Sir G. CLERK said the clauses had been introduced
at the suggestion of Mr. Gurney, the inventor of steam
carriages, and the toll imposed was quite equitable.—

-auk) was, indeed, a Committee sitting of enquiry
on the subject of steam car-lieges ; but their, how-
ever, had gone to such an extent with their in..
vestigations, that it might not be improper to wait
for the result to which they might come. He would move
that the Bill be reprinted for the information of the House
: as to ir
jr,
o'newly inserted clau'os, and that it should be re-
cetror led on Friday next.
Af .
,s;;KSON explained, and after some further obser-
vations Sir George Clerk's motion was agreed to.
Sir G. CLERK, E 4 Chairman of the Committee that
had been appointed to trY the petition against the return
fof Mr. titesvart for the Jjedhurgi. district of royal burghs,
! stated that the Committee found ata; there had bt-en a
gross disturbance in tht- burgh of Lauder, Cram which one
of the town councillors preferred a charge against one of
the individnals connected with this - outrage. He hail
inter:Jed to have brought it before the House, but he had
heard it was the intention of the Lord Advocate to in-
stitute a promention. He wished now to ingaire cf
the Lord Advocate if the indictments had been postponed.

The LORD ADVOCATE said indictments had been
preferred against four or five individuals concerned in this
transaction ; their trials had been appointed for the 2d or
3d or this month, but in consequence of the unavoidable
absence of snore p,.rsons they had beenpottponed.
Sir G. CLERK said, that under those circumstanecs,
he should refrain from pressing the subject u;ion the atten-
tion of the Housa.

Sir R. MUSGRAVE presented several petitions ,relating
:o education in Ireland.

Mr. SINCLAIR presented a petition from the General
Synod o' Sutherland, for the abolition of slavery in the
West Indies,

Afr. GLUON presented a petition from the inhabitants
of the royal buret' of Linlithgow, praying the House to
pass the Reform Bill with as much despatch as the forms
1 of the House would permit.
The SPEAKER, uiron looking over the petition, asked
if the Member could account for the erasures in it?
Mr. OII.LON felt it his dory in add that there had
been certain lines in the petition which he conceived to be
of too strong a nature, aael not being cognisant of the
farms of the House, he bad consulted other Hon.
Members who informed him that it was not unparliamen
tary to strike out the lines.---(Loud laughter.)
The SPEAKER said the Hon. Member would, under
those circumstances, perceive that it was not the petition
of the parties. If it had been couched in proper language,
It was the duty of the Hon. Member to pr..sent it ; but it
was not competent to him to alter the language, or
erase any part of it.
Mr. GILLON said as it could not now be called the
petition of the parties, lie would withdraw it.—(Hear,
hear.) At the same time be begged to state that from
his daily communication from various parts of Scot-
land, he knew that very numerous petitions would be
sent upon this subject. He stated this in order to remove
the impression arising from the assertion that there was a
lckewarmnesa in Scotland upon the Reform question.—
That assertion only corresponded with the other assertion,
that Minister" had adopted unconstitutional measures.—
(Cties of " Hear, hear," and " Order.") They were
wholly frivolous ; for he could state that the strongest
feeling prevailed in the country upon this question.
The SPEAKER interrupted the Hon. Member, ob-
serving that there was no question before the House.
The petition was then withdrawn.
Sir W. W. WYNNE presented a petition from the
High Sheriff and Grand Jury of the coun'y of Denbigh,
against the use of molasses in distilleries, which the peti-
tioners said would be highly detrimental to the agricultu-
ral interests.

Ordered to lie on the table, and to be referred to the
Committee.

Mr. CALVERT presented a petition from the maltsturs
of Ware to the same effect.
CORN LAWS.

Mr. HUNT had three petitions to present for the re-
peal of the corn laws, but he scarcely knew whether he
should present them, or not, until he had ascertained whe-
ther the Noble Lord opposite would, or would not, object
to their being received.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) One
of the petitions stated, that the petitioners were of opinion
that it was high time to repeal an Act that disgraced the
statute book—an Act called by those who suffered by it,
" the Starvation Act"—politely called the Corn Bill—aßill
passed at the point of the bayonet, in 1815, and which
enabled the landowner to extort extravagant rents front the
tanner. This, the Hon. Member thought was strong
language, but not tyrannical. His own opinion was, that the
Act was most unjust and inhuman. There was no
doubt of its having been passed at the point of the bay-
onet, for when passed London was tilkd with military,
and those who voted in its favour were escorted by soldiers
to the Rouse. The petition was signed by three or four
thousand of his constituent, awl he felt himself bound to
present it.
Sir R. INGLIS considered that the Hon. Member was
doing his utmost to degrade the institutions of the country.
No ether inference could be drawn from his conduct in pre-
senting a petition like the present. lie had introduced peti-
tions into the House containing much more disgraceful
language than any Hon. Member who bad ever sat in it,
and he would ask the Noble Lord opposite, whether per-
mitting a petition now to be brought forward, stating that
a certain Act had been passed at the point of the
bayonet, would be consulting the dignity of the House.
Mr. CRIPPS was of opinion, that presenting such a
petition was highly objectionable. He agreed with the Hon.
Member for Oxford, that it was time to notice petitions like
that present, and to mark them with disapprobation. Had
the Hun. Member been in the House when the Corn Bill
was passed, be would have known that it received ever y
possible attention at every stage, and that it was discussed
almost as much as the Reform Bill.

Sir M. W. RIDLEY thought the petition improperly
and absurdly worded, but still not s.) disrespectfully as that
the House ought to reject it. His object in rising was to
call attention to the delay and inconvenience which must
necessarily attend the presenting of such petitions, and
debates taking place at this particular period.
Lord ALTHURP did not object to the petition, but did
not agree with the Honourable Member for Preston that
he had read the strongest part of the petition. The
Noble Lord read certain passages which complained of the
inhumanity of the House, conjured it not to refuse
to take their complaint into consideration, and
avowing that the British lion was reused, and that the
productive classes neither could nor would submit quietly
longer to be treated as they had been. He would leave it
to the House to sty whether the petition ought to be
received or not.

Mr. HUNT said he should certainly persist in present-
ing the petition; he regretted that his colleague was nut
in the House to second it. If it fell to the ground in con-
sequence of there being no one to second it, it would not
be Isis fault.

An IloN. Mitatises. (whose name we could not learn)
felt it his duty to rise to second the motion, to bring up
the petition.
.Ur. MABERLY objected to the terms of the petition.
He did not mean to say the petitioners ought not to be
heard if they had any cause of complain', hut then it was
imperative that in approaching it they should use re-
spectful language. Ile considered th, oirespeet shewn to the
[louse by the presenting of such petitions as this as resting
not so much in the petitioners as in the lion. Members
who took upon themselves to, present such petitions, ne-
cessarily knowing whit language they contained.
Tl.e pllery wits then cleared, when there appeared,
that the petition be brought up--

Ayes V 6
Noes
Majority against the petition
FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

On the motion by Lord ALTIIORP, that Mr. Speaker
leave the chair previous to the House resolving itself into
Committee on the Reform Bill,
Mr. CHOKER rose, and said it was his intention to
move an amendment to the motion of the Noble Lord.
He hoped, however, that eventually this proceeding would
be found not to have occasioned any very great delay. Ile
might have yesterday availed himself of his Noble Friend's
request to the Hon. Member for Oakhampton (Sir R.
Vyvyan) to postpone his motion, and have brought the
matter forward, but this might have appeared ungracious ;
and even now he would consent to postpone hi. a:, end-
hainPtun
circumstances,'e motion,
njustice i f
h e
end-
ment to the same period with the lion. Mea,ber for Oak-
fhtrelle:
eipashuslut
to did
the
nnf
geteaen lus,uponthat d
the
under all the
ation in
bject on
ed
stssEghoulitivebii
eo:iicp:attretpa'y,rcoltlifid—honrgeensiyet:treitoniol,pitu. could
:dhtohi
erinwudHonhotttiioute,ay.
eshv.entuhfimpeod country
postponed
eer oi
;tie: foet ieandng
for
one
er
eaads,
noticeolrness hod
beenohni
which
ha
in
he fully acquiesced. But the object he had in view, he was
convinced even his Noble Friend (Lord Palmerston) would
agree with him, was attended with no risk to the publicinte-
rests. He was not about to expati.ite upon matters of general
policy,
ton nor
egttioopnrsestb fu
Lenr disclosurespending.
which
.il,
oTei g h(tj o
call .or aui:
answer to a thing wli:ch ought to be forthwith examinrd
and explained. Un.hr other circumstances, tie would ba
happy to postpone his motion. and he woulli be the
ready, and the wore bnsious to do
because
he was
r,
aware of the unavoidable snit
.le absence of the
Right thin. Member for am-011h (Sir R. Peel), to
which he would take occasion to allude more particularly