The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-01 00:00:00

liberal commercial policy which for the sake
of breiity was called free trade.—(Lord cries of "Hear,
hear," and cheers.) The first question was that of
free trade. On that matter between him and his Noble
Friend there was a perfect accord.—(Hear., hear.) The
odic} of free trade bad been demised to his Noble Friend
by the late Sir Robert Peel, and nobly and well laud the
present Government carried out the principle which Sir
Robert Peel had moulded for their hands. With respect
to the extension of the suffrage, he had to observe, that
he believed that he and his Noble Friend were the only
survivors of the Government of Lord Grey by
whom the Reform Bill was planned.—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) He was ready to admit that so great had
been the infusion of the democratic principle by the Re-
form Bill, that up to the present time he had been fearful
of the addition of any new power from that quarter.
He was now of a different opinion, and was quite pre-
pared to grant an extension of the franchise. The third
point respected what had had been called the late Papal
aggression. On this point he feared that he and his
Noble Friend could never agree.—(Loud cries of "Hear.")
He recommended his Noble Friend not to think of intro-
ducing such a measure; it would not only be inoperative,
but it would practically undo the policy which the coun-
try had been pursuing for the lust thirty years.—
(Cries of " Hear, hear.") The opinion which
he had formed with respect to the existing Bill
was arrived at after long and deliberate consideration,
and to his great joy and surprise ho afterwards found
that the opinion and views of Lord Aberdeen on
this subject coincided with his own.—(Hear,
hear.) Until he came to London on the
first day of the session ho had not seen or
heard from the Noble Lord, but being upon terms of
personal friendship with the Noble Lord he sought his
advice on that day, and be discovered that the Noble
Lord bad already arrived at his own conclusion. He need
hardly say, after this, that the great obstacle which
stood in the way of a junction between himself, Lord
Aberdeen, and the Noble Lord opposite, was this very
Bill. The Noble Lord opposite thought the wishes and
interests of the country demanded a Bill of this nature,
but neither he nor Lord Aberdeen took a similar
view of affairs, and although he and Lord Aber-
deen might have agreed with the Noble Lord
opposite on other subjects, this was the cardinal
point upon which they differed.—(Cheers.) He hoped the
House would do him the credit to believe that his ob-
jection to this Bill was not of recent origin, for so far
back as November it did so happen that he wrote letters
to many of his friends, stating that he thought the
assumptions of the Pope and Dr. Wiseman were
impudent and presumptuous, but he should deprecate
any legislative interference on the subject.—(Cheers.)
(The Right Hon. Baronet then proceeded to read the
following letter which he had addressed to Mr. Howard
of Greystoke, on this subject, in the month of No-
vember last :

" Netherby, November 23, 1850.
" It would give me cordial sstisfaction to co-operate with
you on any public occasion in this county. But, although
I am a sincere Protestant, and resent the haughty tone as-
sumed by the Pope in his bull, and by Cardinal Wiseman in
his pastoral letter, yet I am unwilling to join in the No-
Popery cry, or to ask for the revival of penal laws or for any
new enactment which might fetter the Roman Catholics in
the full and proper exercise of their religious discipline
within the realm. When I supported emancipation I knew
that the Roman Catholics acknowledged Papal supremacy,
and would be guided in all spiritual matters by bulls from
Rome. I knew, also, that their religion is episcopal ; and
when I fought on their side for perfect equality of civil
rights I was aware that the Pope might nominate in Eng-
land, as in Ireland, archbishops and bishops. I did not at-
tach much importance to the safeguard proposed by the Duke
of Wellington, who did not himself place much reliance on it,
that the Popish hierarchy so nominated should not assume
the title of English or Irish sees occupied by Protestant
prelates. I myself was a party to the recognition by statute
of the dignity of Roman Catholic archbishops and
bishops in Ireland; while I adhered, however, to the settle-
ment of 1829, that the enactment prohibiting the assumption
of local episcopal titles identical with Protestant sees should
be withheld, I proposed to the House of Commons, on behalf
of Sir Robert Peel's Government, the remission of the pe-
nalties which attached to receiving bulls or other similar
instruments from Rome; and out of office I supported Lord
John Russell's measure, which authorizes the renewal of di-
plomatic intercourse with the Roman Pontiff. I took these
steps deliberately, and Ido not regret them. I believe them
to have been necessary fur the good government of Ireland,
and I cannot believe that it will be possible to have one law
for England and another for Ireland with respect to Roman
Catholic discipline and worship.
" I am offended, indeed, by the arrogance and folly of the
language which the Pope and his Cardinal have thougiit
fit to employ in announcing an ecclesiastical arrangement
which I believe to be lawful, and which I do not consider
dangerous. But my displeasure will not induce me to
treat with disrespect the religion of 7,000,000 of my
countrymen, or to contemplate for one moment the
revision or the reversal of a policy which, in defiance
of the No-Popery cry, Ishave supported throughout my public
life, which I still believe to be sound, and which is indispen-
sable, unless by a melancholy necessity the vast majority of
the Irish people are still to be treated and considered as our
national enemies. I have thus written to you without re-
serve my genuine sentiments. lam aware that they are not
popular. Ido not wish to obtrude them on public attention.
The subject will in some shape probably be brought under
the notice of the House of Commons; and then, in my place
in Parliament, it may be my duty to declare the feeling.+ and
the opinions which I entertain. In the mean time I am
desirous to avoid any premature or hasty pledge in a matter
of such paramount importance. lam more anxious to ex-
tinguish them than to add fuel to the flame of religious strife
and animosity.")
Not that he blamed the Noble Lord opposite for the
letter which be wrote some time ago, for the
Nob'e Lord at that period must have been
placed in a very difficult position; indeed, the
country having just been aroused by the language of Dr.
Wiseman and other representatives of the Pope, the
Noble Lord's position demanded that he should at once
offer some remonstrance to the proceedings of the Papal
power.—(Hear, hear.) Much of that angry feeling and
excitement, however, bad now passed away, and without
desiring to say anything calculated to provoke discussion
he was constrained to add this, that if Honourable
Members would lock carefully into this much-vex. d
question, they would see that there was no necessity
fur returning to the days of Bills of pains and penalties,
in matters of religious opinion and sectarian belief.
He might have added in this letter that he was the
author of the Bequests Act, brought forward by Sir R.
Peel's Government. With these opinions on re-
cord, he could not consent to be a party
to the further progress of this Bill, or form part
of an Administration which had this measure of
legislation for one of its chief cries. He knew the
ground on which be stood, and though it was an unpo-
pular one he was quite ready to stand by it; and
when the time came for the second reading
of the Bill he should be quite ready to express his op.-
nione on the measure at greater length.
Mr. HUME expressed his satisfaction at the expla-
nation of the Right Honourable Gentleman. He was
convinced that if they valued the peace of Ireland,
they must give way on this important question. But
still he was sorry to find that all the obstacles which
had so lung prevented the formation of a Government
had narrowed themselves to this basis, and he was sure
that the people of England would ask with surprise
why the real point, that of the financial proposal of the
Government, bad never once been brought into question.
He would go further and say that no Government
coal.' hope to continue in power for the future
which did not announce its intention of extending the
franchise, and which would not express its firm
intention to maintain the free-trade policy.
The country did not care about this Catholic dispute;
and ha deplored that England had been forced, like
France, to remain so long without a Government.—
(Cries of " Hear, hear.") He therefore blamed the
Noble Lord for having resigned on so paltry
a grcund on principle, and called upon him
to throw the Papal aggression overboard, and turn his
attention to Parliamentary and financial reform.
Sir. R. H. INGLIS did not wish to prolong this dis-
cussion, because there was only a formal tech-
nical motion in the bands of the Speaker,
but he could not allow the advice of the
Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for Ripon about the
Papal aggression to pass unnoticed.—(Hear, hear.)
The events of the past few months, and the recent divi-
sion in that House, afforded tolerably con-
clusive evidence that no Administration could
live who wished to allow the Papal aggres-
sion to pass unnoticed.—(Hear, hear.) 'That
aggression was worse than anything that bad ever been
attempted in the worst days of Innocent 1., or Gregory
VII., and he was certain the sentence in the Noble
Lord's manifesto which would be hailed with most de-
light by the country was that which declared- that his
opinion on the subject was unchanged.—(Hear.)
Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL said the agitation on the
Papal affair out of doors was got up by interested
parties —by those, in fact, who had the
control of the revenues of the Established Church,
and who were alarmed for fear those revenues
should be snatched from them.—(Hear, hear.) The
Noble Lord, in the course of his speech, made some al-
lusion to the periods when he had not shrunk from diffi-
culties and enumerated the Irish famine and the state
of Ireland in 1848.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") Now,
with regard to the first of these, the Noble Lord showed
himself unequal to the occasion, and thousands upon
thousands died of starvation in consequence; while, with
regard to the last, he denied the imputation of the
Noble Lord, that a portion of the people of Ireland bad
meditated a rebellion.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. B. OSBORNE doubted much, whether it
uwc!
the result of the motion of the Hon. Member'ssortßk.enkt,
Buck-
inghamshire, or that of the Hon. Member !:
that drove the Noble Lord from offiee.—(gear,
He, for one, thought, and he believed the
people agreed with him, that the
attributable to the financial imbecility of some of
Was Noble Lord's downfall
the more it would be
his colleagues, and the sooner thtehreefomreorteheitNowboluehiLorred.
separated himself from them
dound to his credit, and
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ry
eif wouldthey tell the
any statesmen,an
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wtohueldadderfla_ntage of the choeuwnthroy.i7m(Higehaz,
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that
tax. payers o
out the Bill
of
in
England that
that Bill to Ireland they must be prepared to add
three per cent. to the income-tax, and to keep
a standing army. He rejoiced to hear the speech of the
Bight Hon. Gentleman opposite, because it told the
country that there was a man in the country who could
be called to the head of aff.tirs who would conduct the
Government in a fair and liberal spirit.
Mr. NEWDEIIATE was grieved to hear the expla-
nation of the Right Hon. Member for Ripon, because it
gave him to understand that ho himself must
be more prepared to follow the
.Noble Lord
now at the head of the Executive than that Right
Hon. Baronet. He considered his speech as likely to
I make still wider the breach between the two great divi-
sions of the party on this side of the House.
Colonel SIBTHORP thought that the Noble Lord
represented a large sheet of sticking pleleter, and lied
i got so many people sticking to him that he could not
`separate them from him. He agreed with what the
Hon. Member for Middlesex had said, that there was