The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-08 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, Sept. 7.
The Lora) CHANCELLOR took his seat on theWoolsack
at Three o'Clock.

Lie Archbishop of CANTERBURY laid on the
table tho 21st Annual Report of the Commissioners for
building new churches. Ordered to be printed.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from an
individual named Winter, residing at Wilton, in Somer-
setshire, in which he set forth that he was deeply in-
terested in an action of ejectment, which was instituted
so far back as 1820, and at the present moment final
judgment had not been pronounced. The cause was
brought into that House by writ of error. It
was argued, he (Lord Broughliam) -believed at
the bar in 1832, and certain questions, were
left to the .fudges. Their Lordships required another.
argument of the case, which took place in 1839, and
again the same. questions were left to the Judges, who
had not as :-et given their Lordships the benefit of their
decision. He blamed no one, for it was a case
of the utmost difficulty, but the petitioner, who
was seventy years of age, naturally prayed
that a decision nnight be given as early as possible.
While he was acdressing their Lordships he begged to
call the attention of his Noble and Learned Friend on the
Woolsacls to another matter, which he trotted would
meet with immediate consideration ; he alluded to some
of the penal statutes which still remained on the Penal
Statute Boo's-. There were many dormant penalties
still oa the books, but it had always been found that,
wherever ach 'lnce appeaved, they were made the handles
for working oppression, either to the malice or the over
zeal of individuals. He could not give a stronger in-
stance of his meaning than what took place yesterday.
There were penalties of a very severe nature
attached to the offence of any Member of Par-
liament who should sit and vote without previously
taking certain oaths and subscribing certain declarations.
Now, if t.Nose penalties were of a moderate nature, and
of a distinct amount, say 50/. or 1001, he believed they
would be found to be perfectly stringent to ensure every
person taking the oaths before he performed any legisla-
tive act.—(Haar.) But the penalties were of such
a nature that it was found necessary to pass a Bill of
indemnity, which na‘one:wculd think of were the penal-
tics of such an amount as he had named. But they were
of a totally different nature, and were of so cruel a de-
scription that it never was thought of putting them in
force, even if the offence were wilfully committed in
place of by accident, as in the case alluded to.
It amounted in fact to this, a total, 'absolute, and
perpetual disqualification ever to hold any office or place of.
profit under the Crown ; also a total, absolute, and per-
petual disqualification from ever sitting or voting in
either House of Parliament, or of giving the proxy ;
an absolute incapacity to sue in any action either at law
or in equity, or incapacity under all circumstances
of taking any devises or bequests, or of profit-
ing by any deed of gift. In fact, the penal-
ties amounted to total, absolute, and perma-
nent' civil incapacitation, and the consequence was,
that whenever a person incurred the penalty, even if he
bad incurred it wilfully, he should think it could never
he exacted; but whenever it had been incurred, as
in a resent instance, - accidentally, a Bill of Indem-
nity was invariably passed as. a natural result,
Now that would not be the case if they altered the pe-
'nalty, and instead imposed a penalty of 50/, or 100/.
one would then think of •a Bill of Indemnity,
and the penalty would be invariably exacted. He
would noes call their Lordship's attention to
other instances, anti he wished particularly to direct
the attention of his Hon. and Learned Friend on the
Woolsack to the cases to which he was about to allude.
'Their Lordships were aware that there existed on the
statute-book Acts which had been passed in very
remote times, for the purpose of compelling
attendance at church on the Sabbath-day. There was a
statute of Elizabeth imposing a penalty of one shilling on
every individual who should- be absent from church
any one Sunday, and by a subsequent statute
passed in the same reign, by the 23d of Elizabeth,
a penalty of 201. was inflicted upon every inch:-
a-Waal who should be absent from church for four
successive Sundays, and if the absencp were
persisted in, the penalties became much more severe.
'those Acts still remained unrepealed, and he could not
tee how magistrates, when called upon to do so, could re-
fusesto infliet those penalties. He had heard magistrates
blamed_ for inflicting penalties under such circumstances,
bat the fact was, that they had no choice. That had
been done recently. Within the last three or four weeks
eleven persons had sued for the lesser penalty, and had
been convicted of one shilling. Some of these per-
soils had since paid the penalty, and others had not,
and costs, amounting in one iustaiice to 145., and in an-
either case to 223., had been run up, and were still in-
creasing in consequence of the non-payment of the pe-
nalty and costs, in one instance for sixty, and in an-
other for sixty-ono days. Now, surely the person
who was the most anxious to prevent the non-observ-
ance of the sabbath—the person who was • most
:anxious •to promote . attendance on the public
worship of the Church—would be the first to feel
that this was a most unfortunate occurrence both for the
one cause and fur the other, and that nothing
could tend more to desecrate the worship of the
Church ; and those statutes were never put
in force except in many instances by the spite, and in all
by the personal feelings and desires, of an individual.
No blame could attach to magistrates for convicting
in such instances. A- criminal information might

v,o against them if they refused to convict in instances
in which the law was so clear. He did hope that they
should soon see all such Acts erased from the statute
book, and the law left as it ought to be, and no legal
rovision made on the subject.
.COILEIG N CONSECRATION TO OFFICE OF