The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-16 00:00:00

IRISH UNIONS.

Mr. MONSELL presented a petition from Sceriff
in favour of reducing the area of taxation.

TENANT RIGHT.

Mr. CRAWFORD presented a petition in favour
of extending the custom of tenant-right practised in
Ulster to the whole of Ireland.
THE SEE OF MANCHESTER.

Mr. FREIVEN inquired it it was intended to
transfer the patronage exercised by the late Arch-
bishop of Canterbury in the see of Manchester to the
newly-appointed Bishop.
Lord J. RUSSELL replied that the matter was
under the consideration of the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners.

EXCHEQUER LOANS (IRELAND).
In reply to Major BLACKALL,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said that he should, on
Friday, state the intentions of the Government with
respect to the Exchequer loans to Ireland.
ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL.

On the order of the day for going into Committee
on this Bill,

Mr. LAW rose to move that the House should go
into Committee upon the Bill this day six months.
The Bill divided itself into two portions—one of
wbich was the repealing, and the other the enacting
portions of the Bill. The Bill appeared to have been
framed in such a manner as to insure the largest num-
ber of votes upon going into Committee upon the Bill,
because there were many Hon. Members who were of
opinion that there were many more obsolete Acts
which ought to be removed from the statute-book.
Now the Hon. Member for Midhurst (Mr. Walpole)
had most ably argued, and his arguments had not
been answered, that all these obnoxious Acts were
already repealed by recent statutes passed for that
purpo!,e. He (Mr. Law) would not, therefore, detain
the House by going into any discussion upon that
point. He felt fully convinced that all those statutes
were repealed, and he could not, therefore, consent to
go into Committee for the purpose of repealing
statutes which were already repealed by former
statutes.—(Hear.) The next question, then, to be
considered was, whether he would consent to go into
Committee for the purpose of reviewing the Emanci-
pation Act of 1829, and the effects of that measure
upon the country, and the nature of the securities
which accompanied that Act. He felt the greatest
respect for his Catholic fellow.countrymen, but he
would not consent to repeal the securities of that
measure without the repeal of the entire Act. He
deprecated re-opening the agitation of that question.
Would the consent of the Legislature ever have been
obtained to the Act of Emancipation unless some
sureties were proposed, and the assertion that the
measure should be a final settlement of the question ?
It was now too bad to be told at the end of eighteen
years that those securities should be repealed.—
(Hear, hear.) The present was a most unfortunate
moment, and he would rather that his Catholic
brethren had rallied round the Protestant Church
for the support of Christianity, than have used their
endeavours, as some of them bad done, to introduce
into the Legislature persons the most opposed to
Christianity itself.—(Hear, hear.) Not only was
the time most inopportune for the discussion of the
question, but the agitation of the question would
prove most baneful to the best interests of the
country.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. 11. DRUMMOND freely confessed that he
had done everything in his power to exclude Roman
Catholics from seats in that House, but it was per-
fectly absurd for some Hon. Members who belonged
to his own party to suppose that the House could be
induced to retrace its steps on this subject. Unless
this and the other Bill, to which reference had been
made by the Hon. and Learned Member who had
just resumed his seat, could be resisted on principle,
they could not be refused on the ground of expe-
diency. The Hun. and Learned Member had there-
fore recalled reminiscences of the past that would
have been setter let alone ; and rather than revive old
animosities Hon. Members on that side of the House
ought to adopt language within those walls which
would be listened to and tolerated out of doors.
Upon These grounds and many others he thought it
desirable to go at once into Committee upon this Bill.
Sir R. H. INGLIS could not supporr the position
which had been taken up by his Honourable Friend
who had just sat down. It appeared to him that his
Hon. Friend's speech had nothing whatever to do
with the Bill under discussion. This Bill in no way
related to the power of Roman Catholics to hold
offices in the State. It repealed no less than eight Acts
that had already been specifically struck off the statute-
book, and therefore it was his opinion, that while this
Bill was professedly brought forward to relieve the
statute-book of some of its cumbersome Acts, it was
a pretext to revive certain assumed grievances which
the Roman Catholics laboured under, with
the view of striking another blow at the
Protestantism of this country. The Pope of Rome,
he would venture to assert, was doing in this country
what he dare not do in France. The Pope knew
full well that he no more dare to establish a bishopric
in France or Austria with the sanction of the So-
vereign than he dare raise an army to invade these
countries. The Pope, however, relying upon the
support he should receive from the Roman Catholics
of this country, had dared to do as much in England,
and some of her colonies, and he maintained that,
instead of repealing Acts which were necessary for
the protection of the established Protestant Church,
they ought to take steps to resist the usurpation
of the Bishop of Rome, which was the only
title the Pontiff could legally claim in this
country.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") The Roman
Catholics of this country were endeavouring to
abolish the securities which the Emancipation Act
raised against encroachments upon Protestantism.
This Bill, however, did not propose to give the
Roman Catholics any office to which they were justly
entitled,
and he felt it would be establishing a dan-
gerous precedent' if the House adopted it. Inci-
dentallyhe might notice a Bill which had been intro-
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