The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-06 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, Oct. 5.
The SPEAKER entered the House a Quarter .before
Four o'Clock, and shortly after prayers had been read,
Sir Augustus Clifford, the Usher of the Blrek Rod, ap-
peared at the table and summoned the House to the
House of Lords, to hear the Royal Assent given to seve-
ral public and private Bills.
The SPEAKER returned at a few minutes after Four,
and informed the House that the Royal Assent had been
given by Commission to several Bills—..(for which see
Lords' report).
Dr. BOWRING presented a petition, agreed to at a
public meeting in Dublin, complaining that the slave-
trade had of late greatly increased, especially in the
Brazils and Cuba, and stating that branches of English
companies furnished the funds for workin the mines in
those countries. The petitioners' prayed the House to
take the subject into its consideration.
Mr. 'THORNILY presented a petition from an indi-
vidual riamed.James Hardy, of Liverpool, against the
sliding duty on foreign corn.
Mr. W. ELLIS presented a petition from the Leices-
ter Working Alens' Anti-Corn-law Association,
complaining of the distress occasioned by the present
Corn-laws, and praying for their repeal. .
Mr. HINDLEY presented a petition from the borough
of Warrington, complaining of .the coercion and intimi-
dation practised at elections for the borough, and praying
for the adoption of the ballot as the only remedy for the

Mr. HAWES presented a petition from the congrep-
tion of Protestant Dissenters of Dunstable, complaining
of the present system of Corn-laws, and preying for
their immediate repeal. The Hon. Member also pre-
sented; on behalf of his Hon. Friend the Member for
Northampton (Mr. R. Currie), two petitions from, the
county of Northampton, and a petition from 'a Baptist
congregation in Northampton, to the same effect.
Mr. FERRAND presented a petition from an indivi-
dual named Thomas Smith, of Hampstead, in favour of
the present Corn-laws.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE presented several petitions from'
Leeds, Sheffield, and other places in,Yorkshire, praying
for the abolition of the silent system in workouses. Also
a petition from a Mr. Clerk of Bath, in favour of the
Charter ; and several other petitions to the same effect
from Nottingham, Manchester, and Leeds. Also a petition
from a Mr. William Ransall, of Essex, in favour of
Universal Suffrage ; also a petition from Pershore, in
Worcestershire, praying for the liberation of political
prisoners ; also petitions from several 'districts of the
metropolis, complaining of the traffic-in human bones,
and praying for inquiry into the same. •
Mr. P. STEWART presented a petition from Paisley
against the prorogation of Parliament.
Mr. YORKE presented a petition from a place in
Yorkshire, praying the House to institute an inquiry
into the laws regulating relief to the poor.
Mr. BROTHERTON presented a petition from the
Rev. John William Norris, Minister of Winslow Chapel,
Cheshire, praying for a Committee of Inquiry into the
merits of an invention in machinery having a power
equal to that of 1,000,000 horses.
Mr. LYALL presented a petition from a town in New
Brunswick against any alteration in the timber duties,
and praying for the continuation of the protection they
hitherto enjoyed.
Mr.COBDEN presented a petition from Sunday-schools
connected with the parish of Eccles, against the Corn-
law. The Hon. Gentleman presented several other
petitions to the same effect.
Mr. CRESSWELL presented .% petition from Liver-
pool, praying that no further expense might be incurred
in the transmission of the Indian mails.
Mr. M. J. O'CONNELL presented a petition from T.
Steele, Esq., an Irish Protestant Gentleman, calling
the attention of the House to the remarks of the editor
of a French newspaper, upon the obligation of her Ma-
jesty at her coronation to declare the Invocation of
Saints and the ceremonies of the Mass to be idolatrous,
and praying the House would pass an Act to• abolish
such declaration as being preposterous in metaphysics,
inconsistent in ethics, and contrary to common sense; that
it.was opposed to the principles of the Church of Eng-
land .to say that the invocation—not the worship of
saints—was idolatrous ; and that it was accusing
Catholics of an excess of faith, as Mr. Erskine declared
that Warren Hastings was not accused of those crimes
which he was permitted by England to commit, but fur
the excess which he committed beyond that permission.
The following is the petition :
" To the Honourable the Commons of the United
Kingdom in Parliament , assembled, the petition of
Thomas Steele, Esq.. of Lough O'Connell, in the county
Of Clare, a Protestant of the Church of England, re-
spectfully showeth—
" That in the month of November, 1837, the editor
of a Paris newspaper in an editorial article, commenting
on the declaration required by the existing law to be
made by the Sovereigns of this realm after their acces-
sion to the throne, wrote to the following effect :
I 'hat Queen Victoria, by being constrained by the
institutions of England, to make from the throne in the
House of Lords, the solemn declaration that the invo-
cation of saints and the sacrifice of the mass were super-
stitious, idolatrous, and damnable, was compelled to
wreak an outrage on the religious feelings of her Catho-
lic kindred, of her Catholic subjects, of her Catholic
allies, and of the Catholics all over the world. •
" The French editor furthermore animadverted on
the violatiOn of all the courtesies and decencies of so-
ciety••which the Royal Lady was compelled to- commit,
henAtia_. mos Lilts& ting-.
from the throne, in the presence of her own Earl Mar-
shal, the Catholic Duke of Norfolk, and of O'Connell.
" Petitioner respectfully prays that your honourable
House will, without any delay, pass an Act for the aboli-
tion of those absurd and iniquitous oaths and declara-
tions—preposterous in metaphysics, iniquitous in ethics,
arrogant blasphemy in religion, and counnon ruffianism
with respect to the usages of good society.
" If Deists or Atheists, and as such treating with
derision all belief as matter of mere religious faith in
any doctrine without intuition or demonstration, were to
make this declaration, such Deists or Atheists would not
be guilty either of iniquity or absurdity, they would be
only consistent with their own principles. But your
Honourable House will, as petitioner confidently hopes,
admit that the Protestant, who himself believes as matter
of mere religious faith in the sanctified and incompre-
hensible mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation,
has no right, according to the principles of metaphysical
reasoning, to brand as superstitious, and idolatrous,
and damnable, the belief, as matter qf faith, of his Ca-
tholic sisters and Catholic brothers (all mysteries being
alike incomprehensible) in the incomprehensible mystery
of the Real Presence—the .mvstery,Of transubstantiation.
" Petitioner, a Protestant of the Church of England,
respectfully affirms, that as a Protestant he does not
possess the right, according to the principles of religion,
to brand in such terms of arrogant and blasphemous con-
tumely the invocation' (not the worship), for the inter-
cession of the saints in heaven.
" Petitioner prays leave to state to your Honourable
House, in illustration of his argument, that Mr. Erskine,
afterwards Lord Erskine, observed in one of his speeches
that England, sanctioning as she did enormous iniquity
in the government of India and of her other foreign de-
pendencies, had no right to place herself in the moral
chair, and to impeach Warren Hastings—impeaching
him, as she did, not for the actual gross amount of the
wickedness which he committed in his government of
India, but for the EXCESS of the wickedness which he
committed there, above the quantity of wickedness which
England herself gave him her sanction to perpetrate.
" Now, petitioner boldly affirms that Protestants have
no right to revile and devote to damnation Catholics, re-
viling and devoting them, not for • the whole faith which
they hold in mysterious incompreliensibilities, but for
.the EXCESS of their faith, above the faith of Protest-
ants themselves, in utterly incomprehensible mysteries.
" And your petitioner will ever pray."
BRIGHTON RAILWAY.
Mr.WAKLEY presented a petition from an individual
calling the attention of the House to the accident on the
Brighton Railway, and complaining of the inefficient
state of the engines.
A petition was read by the Clerk against the return
of the present sitting Member for Sunderland.
Mr. HAWES gave notice that in the course of the
next Session of Parliament, he should call the attention
of the House to the report of the Commissioners on the
Ecclesiastical Courts; also that to-morrow he should
move for a return of the highest prices of wheat during
each year since the passing of the present Corn-law.
in the cities of Paris and London. He should also put
on the paper for to-morrow a notice of motion for certain
returns relating to the importation of. sugar. That
motion, however, he did not intend to press to-morrow,
but he should make a motion on the subject next Session.
Major BERESFORD moved for copies of certain cor-
respondence which had passed between the Lords of the
Treasury, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and
the Board of Ordnance, relating to the leasing of certain
Crown lands in the borough of Athlone (as we under-
stood).—Agreed to.
NEWSPAPER STAMPS.
Dr. BOWRING moved for returns of the number of
stamps issued to the different Newspapers in the months
of July, August, and September ; and an account of the
amount of advertisement duty paid by each; in continua-
tion of former returns.—Ordered.
Lord GRANVILLE SOMERSET moved for certain
returns relating to the management of lunatic asylums.
—Ordered.

Lord ASHLEY moved fora return of the commissions
of lunacy front 1835 to 1841.—Agreed to.
Lord DUDLEY STUART moved for copies of all
the correspondence which had taken place with the
Board o Controul and the Foreign-office, relative to
British trade with Java.—Agreed to.
Mr. HAWES presented a petition from the Commit-
tee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,
expressing their deep regret at the continued existence
of slavery, and praying the House to take immediate
steps for its entire extinction.

MR. 11PLEOD.
Sir C. NAPIER wished to know from the Right Hon.
Baronet at the head of the Government with respect to
the liberation of Mr. M'Leod. He understood that con-
siderable excitement existed in America on the subject,
and he thought it therefore extremely important that
steps should be taken for protecting Mr. M'Lood in the
event of his release.

Sir R. PEEL said he was sure the Gallant Officer
would see that it would not be possible to give any in-
formation of that kind without great inconvenience.—
(Hear, hear.) He hoped that he would not press the
question.

On the moticn of Lord G. SOMERSET, the Amend-
ments of the Standinf, Orders relating to Private fills,
recommended by the Committee which sat last Session,
were agreed to.

PROROG-ATION OF PARLIAMENT.
Mr. BROTHERT.ON inquired whether it was the
intention of the Right Hon. Baronet to take any steps
with regard to the Addresses and Petitions which had
hem adopted recently at several meetings, praying
het: Majesty not to prorogue Parliament without