The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-05 00:00:00

that point that he had mainly risen; bat he would, with
the permission of the House, make one observation upon
that interesting subject with which the Noble Lord bad
closed. The Noble Lord had made that night what he (Mr.
Disraeli) would, though not in vulgar language, call an
apology for that letter, a copy of which he and almost every
Member, no doubt, possessed. He (Mr. Disraeli) con-
fessed that the observations of the Noble Lord did not
seem entirely consistent with what had transpired. That
letter he (Mr. Disraeli) considered as the manifesto of the
Cabinet.—( Hear, hear.) He took the paragraph in the
Queen's Speech in connexion with this letter ; and b e looked
upon it as the manifesto—the matured manifesto—of the Ca-
binet. He could not do otherwise, because he felt convinced
that no individual occupying the most eminent position
in this country could, in a moment Of levity, sign his
name to a document of such surpassing interest, and of such
awful responsibility. The Noble Lord was of coarse per-
fectly acquainted with the feelings and opinions of all his
colleagues upon this great subject, even if they were not at
his elbow when he signed his name to the letter. He (Mr.
Disraeli) said" this great subject," because he could not
bring himself, he would not say to believe, but to compre-
hend that the appointment of Dr. Wiseman to a pseudo or
titular archbishopric of England could have produced the
convulsion which that letter occasioned. He said that be-
cause he remembered that not at a very remote period the
Noble Lord gratuitously and uncalled for informed Parlia-
ment that he, for the life of him, saw no reason why a
Roman Catholic priest should not be called by an episcopal
title taken from any city or town in the kingdom. That, of
course, was a matured opinion. He could not imagine that
the Noble Lord would have made a haphazard statement
upon such a topic without the subject having previously en-
gaged a long, full, and matured consideration. That opinion
was declared two years ago; he (Mr. Disraeli) could not,
therefore, bring himself to contemplate how the appoint-
ment of Dr. Wiseman to a titular archbishopric could have
been the sole cause for that letter. The letter stated that
the late aggression of the Pope was insolent and insidious.
Now, he (Mr. Disraeli) was bound to state, as he had stated
elsewhere, that he did not think the aggression of the Pope
was at any rate insidious. He thought it was a frank ag-
gression— frank almost to indiscretion.—(Laughter.) He
never knew a proceeding more free from any appearance of
subtlety or covin. Every step which the Pope took was
daily expected. He (Mr. Disraeli) did not, therefore, think
it was either insolent or insidious for the Pope to do that
which the First Minister of the Crown had only a little
while before said he saw no harm in the Pope's doing. When
the Noble Lord wrote that letter, he (Mr. Disraeli) thought
that the Noble Lord meant a great deal more, and meant to
do a great deal more, than merely prevent Dr. Wiseman
from being called Archbishop of Westminster. For this
was the tone and these were the terms in which the Noble
Lord described what had occurred or was occurring in
this country through the agency of the Court of Rome:—
" There is an assumption of power in all the documents
which have come from Rome, a pretension to supremacy of
the realm of England, and a claim to sole and undivided
sway, which is inconsistent with the Queen's supremacy,
with the rights of our bishops and def'', and with
the spiritual independence of the nation." That was a
great subject to deal with; and he (Mr. Disraeli) did not
believe that when the Noble Lord had to deal with any-
thing so important as that he was merely thinking of a Ro-
man Catholic priest, who in England did that which Roman
Catholic priests were daily doing in Ireland with the consent
and with the honours paid to them by the Government of
the Noble Lord himself. Ne ; the Noble Lord thought that
the time had arrived, from information which no doubt had
reaehed his ear—a thought which had long occupied his
mind—that a very great change was perhaps taking place
between the relations which must hereafter subsist between
the Crown of England and the Court of Rome; and the
Noble Lord took advantage (he used the word with perfect
courtesy)—he took occasion of this last drop in the cup to
adopt the policy which he had probably long medidated.
Tha Noble Lord had proposed to solve the most difficult of
political problems. He and his Government were going to
reconcile a due observance of the civil and religious liberties
of the Roman Catholic subjects of the Queen, which civil
and religious liberties he (Mr. Disraeli), for one, trusted
would not be impugned ; the Noble Lord was about to
solve this problem, whether as a statesman he could
reconcile a due observance and respect of those civil
and religious liberties with the Queen's supremacy, with the
rights of our bishops and clergy, and with the spiritual
independence of the nation ; a problem, perhaps, which
/night not be incapable of solution, but which would tax
the Noble Lord's power of statesmanship to the utmost.—
( Hem, hear.) Less than that he could not suppose the
Noble Lord contemplated. The Noble Lord could not be
about to bring in a Bill merely to prevent a Roman
Catholig priest styling himself a bishop or archbishop of any
town or city in England.—(Hear, hear.) He could not be
about to bring in only such a measure, because then the
Noble Lord would not have been justified in stirring up
the passions of a mighty people, in exciting their highest
and holiest feelings, and in raising in this country an
angry controversy, and polemical disputes which recalled
the days of the Stuarts, and of which none of those
he was then addressing might live to witness the termi-
nation. The Noble Lord, as a wise and sagacious man,
had no doubt weighed the consequences of his intended
measure as one likely to be productive of good against the
vast evils which it was intended to remove, and which his
own course had hitherto alone produced. Such was the
kind of measure which he (Mr. Disraeli), for one, expected
the Noble Lord to introduce. If the Noble Lord was going
to produce merely such an insignificant project as that to
which he (Mr. Disraeli) bad reterrcd, then he would say
that it would be better to do nothing—(Hear, hear)—and
even at this last hour to endeavour, by doing nothing, to do
something to appease the excitement existing in the
country.—(Hear, hear.) But if the Noble Lord was pre-
pared to do a great deal; if he was prepared to solve
that great political problem which might not be incapable
of solution, but which no Minister had yet suc-
ceeded in solving, then, indeed, he might be justified in
the course he bad taken; then, indeed, he might lay
claim to the reputation and character of a great Mi-
nister. But such was the measure which he must bring its
to authorise the course he had taken. Such was the measure
which he (Mr. Disraeli), for one, would humbly support;
and such, he believed, was the measure which the country
expected ; and if the country did not receive it he believed
that the verdict, both of Protestants and Roman Catholics,
would be upon one point unanimous —that the conduct of the
Noble Lord could not be justified.— ( Hear hear.)
The motion tbat an humble Address be presented to her
Majesty was then agreed to, and a Committee was appointed
to prepare the Address.
A new writ was ordered for the election of a Member for
the borough of Dungannon, in the room of Lord Northland,
who has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.
The House adjourned at 12 o'clock, until 4 o'clock this
day (Wednesday).

HOUSE OF LORDS, Feb. 4.
Their Lordships resumed shortly after Five o'clock.