The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-04 00:00:00

.

only admissible and admitted to all offices of trust, honour, and
emolument in their native country, but actually Posse" a'
larger extent of accommodation for religious worship than
provided for any class of Protestants in Great Britain.
; cToinl asitsttohreies Protestantsinth eyyear
19 of France,
amounted to
as ascertained by their
own
532,000 souls,
being about one fifty-fiftk part of the population of that coun-
try, and less than one-eleventh part of Ihe amount of the Ca-
tholic population of Ireland.
" That this enumeration comprises the Protestants of all de-
nominations in France; that they possess 345 temples, and
138 other houses of Brayer, making a total of 483 places of re-
ligious worship, of which 21 had been_ Catholic churches, be-
ing in the proportion of a place of worship for every 1,122 per-
sons of all ages of that communion throughout France.
" That since the restoration of his Most Christian Majesty.
in 1814, the Catholic Government of France has contributed
to the maintenance of the religious institutions of the Protest-
ants in that country the suns of 4,499,441 francs, in the follow-
ing manner :—For temples, 541,686 ; for pastors, 3,901.279 ;
and for occasional relief for pastors or their widows, 56,476 ;
all which aids are exclusive of the provision made by that Go-
vernment for the education of Lutheran and Calvanist Mi-
nisters, in the two faculties of theology at Strasbourg and
Montaban.
" Your petitioners most humbly submit, that no valid reason
can be given for the Protestant Government of Great Britain
not imitating the liberality of the Catholic Government of
France, even if the Irish Catholics did not possess the 'above-
mentioned peculiar claims upon the gratitude and justice of
Great Britain.
" And your petitioners respectfully urge this consideration
the more earnestly at the present moment, because it must
'be admitted that whatever may be the financial -difficul-
ties of Ireland, no part thereof has been produced by the
mismanagement of Catholic Administrators of the public
funds, or by any expenditure of those funds upOn the Ca-
tholic portion of the population, either as salaries of office
or pensions, or in aid of their institutions. On the contrary,
the only aid given to them by Parliament is the reduced an-
nual grant of 8,923/. to the seminary of Maynooth ; whereas,
if the same liberality had been extended by the Protestant Go-
vernment of Great Britain towards the Catholics of, Ireland, as
was extended within the same time by the Catholic Govern-
ment of France towards the Protestants of that country, the
contributions in the aid of the Catholic institutions of Ireland
(taking into account the ratio of the population) must have ex-
ceeded 2,062,0001. sterling.
" Your petitioners, therefore, humbly implore this Honour-
able Ilouse to consider the destitute condition of a large por-
tion of his,Majesty's Catholic subjects in Ireland, and that it
is owing to circumstances necessarily resulting from the past
system of British policy and government practised towards that
country, that the great body of her population is deprived of
places of public worship, and of the means of erecting them,
that it may, therefore, please this Hon. House to extend to
matters of religion the same liberal principles as have been lat-
terly applied to questions of commerce and revenue, and to
adopt such measures as in its wisdom may be esteemed best
calculated to provide convenient places of worship for his Ma-
jesty's Catholic subjects in Ireland.
" And your petioners will ever pray,
" JAMES EDWARD DEVEREUX.
" ENEAS MACDONNELL."
The Hon. Gentleman hoped this petition would produce a
deep impression on the-House.
Mr. D. BROWNE bore testimony to the want of Roman
Catholic Chapels iii the Diocese in which he resided.—Ordered
a) be printed.

IRISH LINEN TRADE.
Mr. Secretary PEEL presented a petition from the bleachers
of Belfast, praying for the continuance of protection to the Irish
linen trade.—Ordered to lie on the table.

THE LATE MISSIONARY SMITH.
On the dropped Order for resuming the debate on the Ad-
dress respecting the late Missionary Smith being read,
Dr. LUSHINGTON moved that the further discussion
should be Postponed till to-morrow (this day) se'nnight. The
postponement was rendered necessary, by the absence of so
many Gentlemen who had left town for the holidays.
Sir It. WILSON rose to put two questions to the Colonial
Secretary ; first, whether the printed minutes of evidence laid
on the table of the House contained the whole of the official
copy of the information sent to Government ? And, secondly,
whether he was prepared to admit or deny the authenticity of
the notes of evidence published by the Missionary Society ?
It was obvious that if there bad been any suppression of evi-
dence, a serious charge rested upon the Authorities of Deme-
rara, and that until the correctness of the notes of evidence
published by the Missionary Society was ascertained, it, was
impossible to determine the degree of misconduct that ought
to be imputed to the proceedings of the Court by which Smith
was tried.

Mr. V. HORTON said, he could inform the Hon. Member
for Southwark that the copy laid on the table was printed vet.-
?want from the copy transmitted to Government, without the
omission or addition of a single word. With respect to the
authenticity of the, copy published by the Missionary Society,
he was not in a position either to affirm or deny it.
Mr. F. BUXTON said, that as some doubt had been stated
as to whether hearsay evidence was refused in favour of Mr.
Smith, he begged to inform the House that Mr. Elliot, a Mis-
sionary, who was in the Court during the trial, could prove the
fact, that the Court would not allow Mr. Smith to pursue the
course in his defence which was followed for the prosecution.
Mr. LOCKHART asked whether it was true that a Procla-
mation had been issued by the Governor for the revocation of
martial-law ?
On the question for postponing the debate till to-morrow
sennight—
Mr. BROUGHAM said, that he felt it would have been
much more expedient only to have adjourned the debate till to-
morrow, had lie not ascertained that so many Members had left
town for the holidays, and therefore that the resumption of the
debates before their return would expose them to great incon-
venience, and to the almost inevitable risk of dividing the
House without their presence. Ile therefore very reluctantly
consented to its postponement so long.
The motion was then agreed to.
SCOTCH COURTS OF JUSTICE.
• Mr. Secretary CANNING suggested to the Learned Lord
(Advocate), who had a motion for that evening, to refer to a
Select Committee the Ninth Report of the Commissioners of
Courts of Justice in Scotland, whether, as the Report was ex-
ceedingly voluminous, it would not be advisable to postpone
the motion for the present.
After a few words from Mr. AntucitomßY and Lord A.

HAMIL T ON
The LORD ADVOCATE agreed to postpone his motion.
—He gave notice that he would bring it forward early next
Session.