The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-02 00:00:00

When the Blues were exhausted, his Lordship proceeded.)
We are none the worse off for having waited a short time,
Gentlemen, for the sun seems about lo shine on us ; and I dare
say we shall now proceed somewhat more comfortably.—
( Cheers and laughter.) I was about to say that the necessity
for this election has been occasioned by my having accepted
the high and important office of Secretary of State for the
Home Department. That must be my excuse for one ground
of disqualification which the gentleman who proposed my
opponent urged against me, namely, that I am not usually
resident in the county. Having important duties to perform
in the councils of my Sovereign, I cannot but admit that the
performance of those duties will keep me during the greater
part of the year resident in Loudon ; but precisely the same
thing would happen if my opponent were to be called upon by
his Sovereign to accept, and did accept the office of Secre-
tary of State.—( Cheers, and " That's very likely—you'd cut
a pretty figure in office, wouldn't you Mister Parker?") So,
Gentlemen, unless you think it a fair ground of objection to
a candidate, that he has been highly trusted by a great number
of the Members of the Commons House of Parliament, and
that he is placed high in the councils of his Sovereign, you
will not think it an objection to me that I shall be able to visit
this county but for a small portion of the year.—( Cheers. )
Gentlemen, the position which this county will occupy in the
eyes of England, and I may say in the eyes of Europe, will
not be lessened because its representative holds a high office—
because he has weight in his Majesty's Councils, or because
he takes a leading part in the deliberations of one of the
legislative branches.—( Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, the pro-
poser of my opponent told you that this was a struggle for
place and honour. This may be the understanding of the oppo-
site party certainly, but I have never so considered it—(cheers)
—I have considered it a struggle for the maintenance and pro.
motion of great principles. By the maintenance and promotion
of those principles I was content to abide when those principles
were out of fashion, and did not prevail. I was content, along
with Lord Grey, and other members of the Whig party, to re-
main for more than twenty years out of office ; and when, at last,
those principles can be promoted by my acceptance of office, I
am content, with those colleagues to accept office to effect
their promotion.—( Tremendous cheering.) Gentlemen, it
was in this way, after our acceptance of office, that we
effected the restoration to the people of the right of electing
their representatives. Gentlemen, by our present acceptance
of office, likewise, we hope to promote the great principles
of Reform. We hope to promote the restoration to the
people of the right of electing the officers of their Muni-
cipal Corporations.—( Great cheering.) We are of opinion,
that next to the abuse of individuals nominating the repre-
sentatives of the people, is the still existing abuse of the go-
verning body of our great towns naming their own suc-
cessors and colleagues apart from every election of the com-
munity which they govern or represent.—( Cheers.) There-
fore it is; Gentlemen, that I hope to see such a reform of
the Corporations, as will provide that the distribution and ex-
penditure of their funds shall be devoted to useful, and not
to private or party purposes. We know by the Report of the
Commissioners of Corporation Inquiry, that the members of
these Corporations have very often thought that the lands
which were originally given for the benefit of the community
—the lands which were given and granted for the purposes of
charity—had a perfect right to be devoted to their own par-
ticular benefit. We know in other instances that their funds
have been applied to party purposes, and we have an instance
in this very county of a Corporation, who, several years ago,
during a party contest, gave 1001. from its funds for the
support of one candidate against the other. These abuses
we wish to correct, and we have declared that the best
principle upon which, in our opinion, they can be corrected,
is the introduction of " vigilant popular controul" over
those municipal bodies.—(Loud cheers.) Now, Gentlemen,
this is one of the promises upon which I have accepted office,
and upon which I have to ask your verdict—as Sir Thomas
Acland has put it,. whether, in accepting office for such a pur-
pose, among others, I have, or have not, fairly represented my
constituents.—( Great cheering.) Now, Gentlemen, I come
to the great question at issue with respect to the Church.-.-
(Cheers.) With regard to the Church in this country, I long
ago declared my opinion that it ought to be scrupulously main-
tained, because I thought it conducive to the promotion of
religion, conducive to the good order of society, and in accord-
ance with the general wishes of the people. But, Gentlemen,
I thought at the same time that its abuses ought to be cor-
rected, and its revenues more equally distributed. Gentlemen,
this opinion of mine was by some treated as an act of heresy,
of which only an enemy of the Church could possibly be
guilty ; but I am happy to say there is now lying upon my
table as Secretary of State—there is now lying upon my table
in London, the Report of a Commission, at the head of which
stood the names of two archbishops and three bishops, in
which they recommended that the incomes of the Bishops
should be made more equal than they now are.—( Loud
cheeis.) There is then no very great difference of opinion
between the heads of the English Church and myself upon
that point, although there may be some difference in degree
and in extent. With respect to the Church of Ireland, there
has been a great and a broad difference—a difference which I
am not disposed to disguise or to palliate—a difference which
lam ready to explain. All I ask is, that the resolutions I
have proposed, and the speeches I have made, should not
be misrepresented, and that the Committee of my oppo-
nent should not put into my mouth sentiments which I
never uttered—that I be judged by what I have ac-
tually declared, not by what it may be convenient for
them to suppose I have said.—(Great cheering.) Now,
Gentlemen, the proposer of my opponent has stated
that last year I opposed a Resolution upon the subject of the
Church of Ireland, and that this year I have myself introduced
one. Now, Gentlemen, the difference between my conduct at
the two periods is this—l declared last year that I was for
applying the surplus revenues of the Church of Ireland to the
education of the people. I declared that as a Minister of the
Crown ; but I added that it was better, the Ministers of the
Crown being prepared to maintain that opinion, that they
should have the report of the ,Commission before them,
previous to introducing any measure upon the subject. Gen-
tlemen, if the Government of Sir Robert Peel had said the
same thing—if they had said—" We will judge of the report
of the Commissioners, and if that report justifies your opinion,
we will adopt it," they never would have heard of any resolu-
tion from us.—( Loud cheers.) They would have heard of
nothing but my cordial support of their line of conduct.
But, Gentlemen, so far from making any such declaration,
they distinctly said, " Whatever the Report of that Commis-
sion may be, we will lay it upon the table of the House of
Commons, but we will pay no regard to it, so far as to
divert any of the revenues of the Church from those pur-
poses which we consider strictly ecclesiastical."—(Renewed
cheering.) Seeing the start on the outset, they declared
their opposition to the principle which I wished to assert, and
seeing, moreover, that they introduced a measure on the sub-
ject of tithe, which would have closed for ever the qUestion of
Church Reform in Ireland, I did think it necessary to ask the
House of Commons to come to a definitive decision—whether
they were prepared to stand on by the principle of Sir Robert
Peel's Government, or by mine. Now, Gentlemen, let me
describe what is the present state of Church and Tithes in
Ireland, and what is the system which I propose to sub-
stitute in its place. Under the present system, there are in
many parishes large owners paid for tithes amounting to 8001.,
1,0001., and 1,500/. a year, out of which a very small sum is
paid to the Curate, the Rector being altogether absent, some-
times there being no church, and oftentimes no congregation.
Gentlemen, repeated instances of the working of this system
have been brought under my notice. One— I may say five—
Mr. Sergeant Perrin quoted in his place in the House of Com-
mons. Another was stated to me by one of the Commissioners,
another was stated in a letter which was sent to me, signed by
a Protestant Curate, who gives his name and place of abode;
another instance has been stated to me to this effect. That in
a parish in Mayo, there is a large sum, say 1,0001. a year,
paid to the Rector in tithe, that the Rector himself is never
seen, that the Curate is paid only 75/. a year, and some-
times less, and that, consequently, a very large sum is
raised from. the population, in return for which no religious
education whatever is given. Now, Gentlemen, my argu-
ment is, that the purpose—the main and sole purpose—of
this Church Establishment is to provide religious in-
struction for the people. When I see a Rector, with a
large sum devoted to his support, which ought to be ap-
plied to religious instruction, I point to that Rector, and I
say, that he is himself the surplus which some gentlemen
complain they canrot discover the existence of.—(Loud cheers
and laughter.) Gentlemen, what would I do? I would di-
vide the available funds in a different manner. I would not
only take care that there was a Protestant clergyman, but I
would give him sufficient to live upon ; I would double or tri-
ple his 751. a-year. I would take care that he was resident
and efficient ; and I. would devote the residue of the money to
the religious and moral instruction of all classes of the people,
without distinction.—(Tremendous cheers.) Well, gentle-
men, but I am told that this education which I propose to give
is an education in the errors and superstitions of the Church of
Rome. Gentlemen, that assertion is totally and entirely with-
out foundation. The education which it is proposed to give
them is an education upon which one of the heads of the Pro-
testant Church—namely, the Protestant Archbishop of Dub-
lin, in conjunction with a Catholic Archbishop--has agreed.
It consists of 'lnstruction in those principles of Christianity
in which Catholics and Protestants do not differ, and it
leaves to both Protestants and Catholics other days of the
week for receiving that special instruction which belongs
to their different modes of faith. By the introduction
of this system I do not promote the Roman Catholic faith,
but the moral and religious instruction of the people, leav-
ing it afterwards to the people of Ireland to say whether they
prefer, after acquiring religious and moral knowledge, the Pro-
testant or Roman Catholic religion, and whatever others may
say, who, under the name of religion wish to protect sinecures,
I am not the Protestant to declare that I think the cause of
the Protestant religion will be injured by the diffusion and in-
crease of knowledge—( Loud cheers)—on the contrary, I hold
that the Protestant region had its first rise in the progress of
knowledge getting the better of the errors and superstitions of
the Romish Church. I wish to increase that knowledge in
Ireland ' • and whether the people become at once Protestant
or no, which one would be too sanguine certainly to expect, I
do look forward to this result—that gross error& and supersti-
tions will fade before the light which instruction and religion
will cast upon a nation.—( Deafening cheers.) Now, Gentle-
men, I ask whether, in respect to religion—in respect to the
Protestant religion in particular—he is the best friend of it who
proposes to maintain these sinecures, to maintain rich rectors
where there are no congregations, where even the 'clerk, per-
haps, does not reside in the parish, but attends the ministry in
a church on Sunday, where there is no congregation ; or whe-
ther it is better that a sufficient sum should be granted to in-
struct all the Protestants there may be in the district, hi the
principles of the Protestant religion, and the Ipmainder
applied to the promotion of religion and raoraliiysw
purposes nearest akin to those for which the Church
Establishment was originally founded. Gentlemen, I will
quote to you an instance which was stated in the House of