The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-18 00:00:00

vation which it introduced was that it made those com-
/
munications plain, open, and honourable, which here-
tofore were neither plain, open, nor honourable. The
Right Reverend Prelate, has ing paid a tribute of praise
to the eminent qualities of the present Pope, went on to
argue that there was nothing in the religious aspect of
the Bill which should prevent their Lordships from
passing it. He did not pay much regard to the argu-
ment derived from the mode of describing the Bishop of
Rome in the Bill as the ":Sovereign Pontiff." That was
a familiar and common mode of describing him, and
even Protestant ecclesiastical writers constantly and re-
gularly styled him the " Pontiff," or, the " Sovereign
Pontiff." However, he supposed the Government would
alter those words without hesitation.—(Hear, hear.)
With respect to that part of the measure which related
to the accrediting of a minister from Rome here, it
might be right to;introduce a modifying clause, requiring
that the person accredited should not be an ecclesiastic,
or:possessed of an ecclesiastical character. That was a
concession which he thought fairly due to the feelings of
the people of this country. As a whole, he looked on
the measure as cne required by the circumstances of
the times ; it was essential to the political interests of
the country—it was one attended with no shadow of
danger to the established religion, and therefore he
hoped and trusted that no doubt as to the question of
law wculd prevent their Lordships from assenting to
it in substance.—(Hear.)
The Bishop of EXETER emphatically denied that
the words " Sovereign Pontiff" were habitually used by
Protestant writers in reference to the Bishop of Rome.
The summus pontifez was, according to the canon law,
1 the head of the Church; he was above all patriarchs,
metropolitans, and bishops. But he denied that the
Bishop of Rome was the Sovereign Pontiff. He re-
claimed against the principle laid down by the Right
Reverend Prelate, and which he believed had for the
first time been announced by a Protestant Prelate in a
British Senate.—(Hear, hear.) There were so many
blots in the present measure that he thought it should
not be allowed to be sent before a Committee. The
plain and safe course which might be adopted by the
Government was, to call the Judges together and take
their opinion on the state of the law. But, instead of
that, they brought in a Bill, and asked for the decision
of the Legislature, which he though an unwise course.
He was strongly opposed to that part of the Bill which
referred to the accrediting of an Ambassador from
the Court of Rome. Other Protestant countries sent
envoys to Rome, and they arranged their diplomatic
business there. Prussia adopted that course, but Prus-
sia did not receive an envoy from Rome. Was London
alone to have the high distinction of being blessed with
a nuncio? Was Rome to raise her scarlet head again
at St. James's? Was that the course of policy which
the Noble Marquis advised the House to adopt? The
time might come when the utmost danger would arise
from having an accredited minister of Rome in Loudon.
His person, by the law of nations, was sacred, and plots
the most mischievous and dangerous to the peace and
safety of the realm might be hatched under his auspices.
They heard a great deal of additional national defences,
and a very great addition to their national defences
would be required if the policy now proposed were
adopted. In Ireland the majority of the people were
ready to join any foreign power who would oppose this
country. He looked upon the present policy, therefore,
as nothing short of treason against the Protestant crown
and the Protestant Church, and would strenuously op-
pose it.—(Hear, hear.)
The Duke of WELLINGTON said that her Majesty's
Government desired, in the circumstances of Italy, to
increase and facilitate the means of communication with
the Roman states, and they called on that House to
give a second reading to the Bill. He confessed, when
he first heard of the measure, he considered of it with
some degree of anxiety,,for he had upon all occasions in
which he had to make propositions to their Lordships in
relation to the Roman Catholics of this country con-
sidered it his duty to take the utmost care not to touch
on any of the provisions of those laws upon which the
Reformation in this country and the Established Church
depended. It certainly was the intention of those laws
that there should be no communication whatever, poli-
tical or otherwise, between this country and the Sove-
reign of the states of Rome, and these laws remained in
operation at the present time.—(Hear, hear.) A 'great
alteration was made, however, by the law in-
troduced by the Noble and Learned Lord (Lord
Lyndhurst), , called the 9th and 10th Vie, c. 58,
by which the penalties incurred for violating them were
mitigated and sin some cases entirely repealed. All the
Noble and Learned Lords who addressed the House on
that occasion stated that the enactments of the law re-
mained the same, but that some of the Acts prohibited
remained misdemeanours at common law. He was satis-
fied with those assurances; but he confessed he felt
anxious about the effect of this measure on those parti-
cular laws. He therefore intended to give notice of a
proviso ensuring the supremacy of the Crown in all
matters spiritual and temporal, and that this should be
always considered inviolable. He considered that such
a proviso would be satisfactory to the country--(Hear,
hear)—and extremely useful in any measures that might
have been adopted under the law as it stood. It had been
suggested to him that it would probably be more expe-
dient to move an additional clause to the Bill, stating
that nothing therein contained should affect the law
which ensured the supremacy of the Crown in all affairs
ecclesiastical and civil. This he would move in the
Committee on the Bill.—(Hear.) He conceived that the
Government, being desirous to have clear and accurate
information as to the events in Italy, and knowing the
convenience and advantage to be derived from a regular
diplomatic communication with the Roman States, had
brought forward this measure with a view to remove the
obstacles which the existing laws might present to such
a regular diplomatic communication, it being desifable
that that communication should be carried on in a re-
gular and official form.— (Hear, hear.) If no other ad-
vantage were derived from it, there would be that of
being certain that true intellivpnro ,•-as receive 9 11:002.a
seepuusinie agent, and that alone was highly desirable in
a country where her Majesty's subjects had not such pri-
vileges as they have in some others.—(Hear, hear.)
Under those circumstances he recommended their
_Lordships to gie e the Bill a second reading ;
and in the Committee he would move a pro-
viso or an additional clause, providing for the con-
tinued existence of those laws which he thought it
important to maintain inviolate.—(Hear.) That clause
would be to the following effect: —" That whereas it had
been enacted and declared, in the provisions of various
ancient laws of this realm, that the Sovereign thereof
had, by and with the advice and under the authority of
both Houses of Parliament, the full and supreme autho-
rity and government in all matters ecclesiastical and
civil within these realms; that whereas those Acts con-
tained provisions having reference to the relations of this
realm with foreign powers; that whereas it was expe-
dient, for the welfare of this realm, that the said provi-
sions with reference to the Crown and government
thereof should be inviolably maintained, and it was
expedient, nevertheless, •to remove any doubts that
might exist as to the competency of her Majesty to enter
into diplomatic relations with the Sovereigns of the
Roman States; that therefore it should be enacted ;"&c.—
(Hear.) If their Lordships were of opinion that it would
be more advisable to introduce an enacting clause pro-
viding the same, he should have no objection to move
such a clause.

Lord STANLEY said he had never entertained any
doubt of the uniform sincerity and uprightness of pur-
pose of the Noble Duke who had last spoken.—(flear,
hear.) But it he believed that the rights of the people
of this country, or the rights and privileges of the mo-
narch, were afflicted by this Bill, or that the pretensions
of the Pope to spiritual pre-eminence and temporary
authority might be thereby strengthened, no considera-
tion could induce him to consent to the second reading.
But he did not believe that it involved any violation of
the principle on which the Bill of Rights was founded.
—(Rear.) Still, it being well known that for the last
two hundred-years intercourse with the Court of Rome
had been prohibited by a strong moral feeling—or, it
might be, by the prejudices of this Protestant nation—
no measure, hastily introduced as this had been, ought to
be hastily carried, or without due consideration by the
country at large.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Marquis
himself, on the part of the Government, had declared,
by the introduction of this Bill, that grave doubts had
existed as to the interpretation of the statutes
alluded to ; and as the practice had, for the last 180
years, been contrary to what this Bill went to sanction,
it was clear that the- measure was, to all intents, an
enacting Bill, empowering her Majesty to do what she
could not do as the law previously stood. The Noble
Marquis had assumed that all the current of history
and of opinion was in favour of intercourse with Rome,
prior to the Acts in question ; but this was not so, as
was evinced by the course taken by the Duke of Somer-
set in the case referred to by the Noble Marquis. Then,
as to the policy of the measure, if it were deemed neces-
sary by Government that her Majesty should be freed
from the existing restrictions, the proper and most dig-
nified course wonld have been to have introduced the sub-
ject in the speech from the throne; or, if the necessity was
not then foreseen, at least to have made it the subject
of a special formal message to the House. Instead
of that, the Noble Marquis had risen, after a debate on
the West India question, and had laid the Bill on the
table Ewith the same nonchalance as if it had been
nothing more than a turnpike trust Bill.—(Hear, hear.)
Surely that was not the mode in which a great measure
like this should be dealt with; and he hoped their Lord-
ships would not allow it to be hastily slurred over.—
(Hear.)
Even, in the interest of the Bill itself, the fullest
opportunity ought to he given for its thorough con-
sideration. The Noble Marquis might at least have
I made some communication as to the late proceedings at
the Court of Rome, and have informed their Lordships
what was the result of the intercourse which had taken
place between Lord Minto and that Court. It might be
said that that intercourse was unofficial; and if there were
really any impediment to this intercourse in existing
Acts of Parliament, Earl Minto, and the Noble Lord at
the head of foreign affairs had -tlaced themselves in a
very difficult position. For in a dispatch dated in Octo-
ber last the Noble Earl was requested by Lord Palmer-
ston
to press on the Court of Rome the removal of the
Jesuits from Switaerland, with the view of preventing
war in that country. Earl Minto, in his reply, stated
that he had had some conversation on the sub-
ject with the Cardinal Secretary of State, and said he
should continue to press for the Pope's interposition in
the matter. It might be said this was mere conversa-
tion; but, in the lace of a law which was presumed to
prohibit diplomatic intercourse, here was an eflicial in-
struction from the Foreign Secretary to Lord Minto to
undertake a certain negotiation, and a regular official
report from that Noble Lord as to:the:result of his repre-
sentations. This correspondence had been
.officially laid
on the tables of both Houses; and if this intercourse
were not penal under existing Acts, he was at a 1063 to
know what kind of diplomatic intercourse could be so.—
(dear, hear.) It could not be said that this intercourse
was private and confidential; for the Government had
themselves furnished official copies thereof. Bence, as
it was not to be presumed that the Noble Marquis and
his colleagues had knowingly incurred the penalties of