The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-17 00:00:00

.1•••=.0.
it 11/ acumbent on Parliament to give adequate en-
courai ;tment to the colonists, and to allow them a rea-
sonat Jle time to make a fair trial of free labour, by the
rem' aval of all improper restrictions in the obtaining and
employment of labour; to ere-came in the colonies ihe
earns strict system of vagrant laws which are in force in
flatland, and to make them applicable equally to the
black and to the white population; and to allow the
cOloniste to reduce their establishments and fiscal charges
to the lowest amount they shall judge requisite for the
pollee and municipal services of the colony.

Mr. BATESON moved for returns of the number of
persons in each county in Ireland whose tenements are
rated to the poor at the annual value of 8/. ; of the
number rated above 81. and not exceeding 101. ; above
101. end not exceeding 121. ; above 121. and not exceed-
ing 151. ; above 151. and not exceeding 181. ; above 184
and not exceeding 201. ; above 201. and not exceeding
251. ; and above 254—Agreed to.
Mr. BRIGHT presented petitions from Heywood and
Ashton-under-Lyme, praying that some measure should
be passed to limit the sale of intoxicating liquors on
Sunday ; also a petition from a Mr. Holland, surgeon,
Manchester, praying the House not to make any impor-
tant alteration is the provisions of the Health of
Towns Bill.

Lard CASTLEREAGH presented a petition in favour
of the Sites for Churches Bill.
INDIAN MAILS.

Mr. HENLEY asked the following questions of the
Secretary of the Admiralty, respecting the conveyance
of the Indian mails :-1. Whether, in accordance with
the decided opinion expressed by the Committee of the
House of Lords, any inquiry has been instituted into
the cost of the execution of the former contracts
for conveying the mails from England to Alex•
swirls; into the manner in which the service has
ireen performed: teed into the profits resulting to the con-
Vriii;ctors. 2. By whom such inquiry has been made.
2. Whether the Government proposes, on the part of the
public, to continue to pay the present heavy charge for
such communication. 4. Whether, in any future con-
traces, the Government propose to adopt the suggestion
of the Committee of the House of Lords, that the public
shall be secured, by adequate provisions in the contracts,
participation in the profits, when they shall exceed a
certain per tentage on the capital, access to the accounts,
and a full knowledge of all the transactions of the several
companies with which agreements may be entered into.
5. Whether any department of the Government, and if
tiny; which, will be rt sponsible to Parliament that the
contracts about to be entered into shall be just and proper.
Mr. WARD stated, in reply to the first and second
questions, that he thought it was generally understood
that the Admiralty had no power, under the contracts,
to insist upon such an inquiry as that pointed
out ; but the Commissioners had consented
to admit an agent of the Admiralty to in-
spect their books, and as the Admiralty intended
to satisfy itself in the matter, Captain Ellis had been
appointed to make the requisite investigation. With
respect to the third question, he had to state that the
Admiralty had taken the best precaution they could
in-
inreducing their charges, with a view to the public
terests. With respect to the fourth query, he wa _
Eructed to state that the Admiralty . did not think it
advisable to appoint an auditor, believing that they pos-
sessed a mach more effectual check, in opening periods
tally the contracts and accepting the lowesettstetnhdeeLarat
for the proper carrying out of the contra
ralty was responsible.
THE MAURITIUS.
isoi.d G. BENI INCIi wished to ask the Hon.
Gentleman, the Under-Secretary of State for the
Colonies, if he had any objection to lay on the
table the official letter which he received on Satur-
day last from the " Mauritius Association," which
gave a very different picture of the condition
of the. colony comas ed with that drawn by the
Hon. Gentleman last evening.
Mr. HAWES had not the least objection to Inv the
memorial on the table ; in fact, he was infiebted to the
Noble Lord for calling the attention of the House to it. It
only arrived last evening. He maintained that his state-
ment was perfectly correct, and he did not wish to retract
any portion of it whatever, namely, that the acccounts
received up to the 4rti of February were more favourable
than former communications had given them reason to
anticipate. The memorial stated that in February the '
price of sugar was higher is the Mauritius
than in the home market, and attempted to de-
duce from this fact that tigrs proved the distressed
condition of the colony, and-1-4hen it was laid upon the
table the House would judge whether the statements
were worthy of credence or not.
TOBAGO.
Mr. GOULBURN wished to know from the Under-
Secretary of State for the Colonies whether any infor-
mation had been received by the Government relative to
Tobago?
Mr. HAWES said that the Government had not re-
ceived any information.
CATHEDRALS AND COLLEGIATE CHURCHES
Mr. HURSMAN then ruse to move, pursuant to
notice, that an humble address be presented to her Ma-
jesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to
direct an inquiry to be made into the state of
our cathedrals and collegiate churches, with a view
of ascertaining whether they may not be
rendered more conducive to the services of the
Church and the spiritual instructions of the people
His proposition was shortly this. These establishments
were formerly endowed for public purposes, they were
invested with large powers and large properties for en-
couraging charity and promoting education. For a
long series of years these establisments performed the
functions for which they were originally founded with
vigour and effect; but in late years they had fallen
into a state of torpor which was greatly detrimental
to the interests of the Church, and utterly opposed to
every principle of Christianity. To convince the House
of this he need only bring under the attention of Hon.
Members the present state of the see of Canterbury.
In that see there were nine members of the Chapter,
who, besides dividing amongst themselves 17,0001. a
year, derivable from lands and property attached to the
see, had in their possession the patronage of 40
livings, and were in the receipt of annual sti-
pends amounting to upwards of 8,0001. each.
The question naturally to be asked then was, what did
these functionaries do for all this money? What ad-
vantage was derived from their services or conferred
upon religion? He had made an inquiry into this ques-
tion, and it was melancholy to state that they did abso-
lutely nothing that was at all calculated to promote the
interests of religion. Bearing in mind the large provi-
sion that was wade for the comfort of the chapter, let
theca now see what the chapter did for the public. The
services performed at Canterbury—of the character of
which he should have something to say directly—were
two a day; and he had obtained a return of the number
of persons who attended these services on two of the
finest days last week. At the morning service the offici
ating parties nearly equalled the congregation, the nun
berg being 22 against 25; while in the afternoon the num-
bers were 23 as against 53: but Canterbury presented a
favourable aspect in this respect compared with othersees.
At Durham the return was so extraordinary that he had
it taken over again, and for three days, instead of one,
and he found that on the morning of the first day tin
number of official functionaries was thirty two, and the
number of the congregation four.—(Laughter.)
the'afternoon there were thirty-three functionaries pre
sent, and the congregation numbered thirty-seven; and in
the two following days the attendance was nearly the
same. Taking ths three ditits together, the number of
officials present was one-third more than that of the
congregation.—(Hear, hear.) Oxford was also remark
able ih that respect, fur the officials numbered fifteen,
and the congregation eighteen; and at Lincoln the
congregation only consisted of eight persons, whilst
the number of officials present was 24.—(Hear, hear.)
And as tar as he had been able to judge, those richly
endowed institutions which ought to give every encou-
ragement to persons to attend the services, were shunned
by the public. At Canterbury, out of a population of
15,000, the average attendance at the cathedral was only
39. Indeed, it was an universal fact that in
:o proportioe
to the richni ss of the cathedral institutionsthe poorer
were the churches in the city, and a
me-
morial which was presented by some clergymenof Canterbury to the Ecclesiastical Commission,
it appeared that the highest salary of a clergymen
there, with the exception of one, was 1401., and the lows,t
751., and that the salary of the whole clergymen did
not amount to more than the salary of one member of the
chapter. The Hon. Gentleman then called the attention
of the House to another return, showing that the attend
ance at the Established Churches at Canterbury was
5.700, and the attendance ae Dissenting Chapels 4,800.
Thus the Established Church had 8,000, and the Dis-
senters 3,700. The largest attendance at the churches
of the Established Church was 3,200 ; at those of
the Dissenters, 2,67 o—whilst the number of scholars
who attended the former was 647; that ut the
Dissenters 610,—(Hear)—so that the whole attendance
in tavuur of the Church was one seventh, and one-
fourth in favour of the Dissenters in this richly endowed
city of Canterbury. In the fifteen churches
belonging to the Church, there was service in
ten only in the morning, in the afternoon in
seven, and in the evening in five : so that
in fact one-third of the churches were shut up on Sun-
days in which morning service should be performed,
and more than two-thirds of them were closed in the
'vetting. Nuw in these fifteen churches twenty-
servioes only were performed, whilst
ulr the nine Dissenting chapels as many,
were performed, showing the great activity
of the Dissenters.—(Hear hear.) If this was the state
of the churches of the city, it could not be expected
that the chapter took greater care of those in the rural
districts, contiguouse to the town. Ten of these were
visited by ses district committee, and it was found
that in nearly the whole of them but one ser-
vice was pertortned on the Sabbath. In several
of them service was
only performed on alternate Sun-
days ; Jew had a resident
lii the
and none pos-
sessed any ' schools. thpoorest parish—Trinity
parish, in Dover—the incumbent either came himself or
sent his curate once a fortnight, and the one or the
other preached either in the morning or afternoon
but in the winter months there was nu service whatever.,
__(geal., hear.) 'hen there were several hospitals
in Canterbury unde Pthe eat offices management of the
poor of the town.
chaplere—hospitais for the decayed
The nomination at the poor men laid with canons,
and what did the House suppose was the ;course that
thatibudy ? Why,
emaci.ounnastteelCdr ooleft
nomi-
natingrvahnat,
had been adopted by
men
,ithemy
poor
r..haAdrchndi
of their own, an.
actually appointed Mr. Austin, one of the most wealthy
men of Canterbury, one of the poor brothers, and
Miss Austin one of the poor sisters.—(Hear, bear.
But that was not all, Archdeacon Croft had astall in the'
Church
cathedral of 1,900/. a year, and other
haemoluments
aulonclieg altogether t 4,3,5001., and with all that he
h d d
not
he,sitsited to adopt urse to which he a referred.
Nothing. in. his opinion, cculd justify the carelessness
that robbed the poor people of Canterburyof the benefits