The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-04 00:00:00

y zem. He thought it wns for the S.:, eaker to decide whether it
was a questiwof privilege, and if he should decide it wus
not, lie had a iightto bring it forward at,the present moment.
The SPEAKER addressed the House, but was quite in,
in the.:ll.eportee3 Gallery.

Mr. RiJIIIN sto N said he should certainly bring the qucs-
ticn forward on :Mouilav next.
An Hon. MEimEa, whose' name was unknown in the gallery,-
nsented a petition relatingto the working of the Reform Act
reference ,to, 101. householders and joint-tenants, praying
for inquiry theneinto, which was referred to the Committee
for Election purposes.
Mr. H. WILSON presented two petitions from parishes
in Sunik, i tcavour of the better observance of the Sabbath.
• INDIA COMPENSATION.

Mr. CAkiWTHERS. presented a petition from certain
o' leers of the,,Eat India Company's servieo, relative to the
Compensation Bill. The prayer of the petition was that the
House should
.not alter the resolution as to compensation which
bail passed the Court of Directors and the Cc,urt of Pro-
prietors. Whatever the House might do to reward officers
exempted from that resolution, the petitioners prayed the
11,use not to touch that award.
Mr. ROBINSON said the petitions which he_ had the ho-
n'.ur of presenting did not propose to disturb other officers.
The petitions in that case merely prayed for redress of their
0%..n grievances:
ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS BILL.
Mr. HUTT presented a petition from the Solicitors of
Hull, praying that no alteration may be made in the system of
ret!istration, as contemplated by the Ecclesiastical Courts
Nil. Laid on the table.
GRANT TO THE CLERGY OF IRLAND.
Sir H. HARDINGE had made enquiries respecting the
re:urns moved for by the Hon. Member for Southwark re-
spectinn• the distribution of the million lent to the Clergy of
Ireland; he had made calculations Ly which it appeared that the
bole of the returns could not be made at an expense of less
than 2000/. He hoped, therefore, there would be
Lo objection to the discharge of the order for the return.
Mr. D. W. HA RVE Y.—The returns had been ordered by
that House, and he saw no reason why they should not be
illade. It was important that the House and the country
should know how this million bad been distributed, and to
Nvhom.—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. LITTLETON: did not think that the expense would
Le so great as the Right Hon. Bart. had calculated.
Sir H. HARDINGE said that the Government had not the
slightest objection to the returns. The only objection to them
vas the extreme expense that would attend them being laid
on the table of the House. The subject then dropped.
DROGHEDA ELECTION.

The CHAIRMAN of the Drogheda Election appeared at the
bar, and informed the House that in consequence of the ab-
sence of Sir Roger Gresley the Committee sat for an hour,
and then adjourned.
Lord HOTHAM (the Chairman) said, that as the Corn.
mittee had received no information of the cause of the absence
of the Hon. Member, or the least intimation that he would be
absent, they had been put to serious inconvenience. He trusted
the House would give the Hon. Member, who was absent, an
opportunity of accounting for that absence. ( Here Sir S. Gresley
entered the House amidst great laughter. The Hon. Member
walked very deliberately up to the table, and bowed to the
Chair, apparently unconscious that he had caused the laughter
of the House. Upon the Hon. Member taking his seat by
Sir H. Hardinge, the Right Hon. Baronet intimated to him
what had taken place.)
Sir R. GRESLEY most humbly apologized to the House
for his absence from the. Committee, but the truth was, he did
not leave the House till nearly half-past four this morning,and the
heat was so oppressive—(Great laughter)—and he was in a
such a state of perspiration when he left it—(lncreased
laughter)—that it brought on a severe shivering fit—(Re-
viewed laughter)—the effect of which totally incapacitated him
from attending any Committee.—( Laughter.)
Sir R. PEEL—Great inconvenience must arise from the
loss of time and delay which the non-attendance of Ho-
nourable Members at Meetings of Committees cannot fail to
occasion.—( Hear.) On the present occasion the question was
whether they should receive the excuse of his Hon. Friend at
once without further notice, or whether they should direct him
to attend at the next meeting of the Committee. They would
also have to consider whether or not, if they adopted the first
of those two courses, they would be laying down an improper
precedent. It was quite clear that no public inconvenience
would arise from dispensing with the strict and literal mean-
ing of the law—the rule went upon the assumption that the
Member was not present.
The SPEAKER stated, as we understood, that he believed
it would be quite incompetent for a Member who had been
charged with absence from a Committee, if present in the
House, to make his excuse himself personally ; as if he were
absent from illness, he conveyed that excuse through the
medium of his Physician.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said it appeared to him
the case which had actually occurred was not provided for, be-
cause by the rule it was assumed that the Member was contuma-
ciously absent, and did not present himself without being sum-
rnoned.!He conceived that the Hon. Gentleman coming in without
any order having been made out, the House could not deal with
it as if Ile had been in the custody of the Serjeant-at-arms.
Lr. LUSHINGTON apprehended that in construing the
meaning of the Act, they must endeavour to find out what
was its original intent, and not any studied meaning it might
bear. He agreed with the Hon. Bart. that it was competent
for the House to receive the excuse of the Hon. Gentleman,
provided the excuse was a proper one. The Act specified
that it was so, provided he made his appearance at the next
sitting of the House, and pleaded his excuse verified
upon oath. ' • He was of opinion that the excuse of the Right
Hon. Gent might be rec,:ived, but must be made upon oath.
Sir R. PEEL quoted two cases in which the excuse for
the absence of lion. Members had been received. These two
precedents he thought were sufficient to enable the House to
decide the present case.
Mr. GO ULBURN contended that the previsions of the
Act were that no Member could absent himself without leave
of the House, or without an excuse allowed by the House.
Mr. HUME thought the declaration of the Hon. Member
would be quite sufficient without requirir,g him to take au oath.
On the Motion of an Hon. Member„ the Minutes of the
House were referred to, and it appeared, that in the case of
Lord Viscount Cole having absented himself from a Corn-
naittee, he had tendered an excuse, and had verified the same
upon oath.---( Heat.)
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL agreed in the view of the
case taken by the Hon. Member for Middlesex. He thought
the declaration of an Hon. Member was equivalent to his oath.
After a few words from Sir R. PEEL and Lord JOHN Ros-
:SELL, who said the Act was imperative,
Sir R. GRESLEY was sworn to the truth of his state-
ment. He trusted that the House would excuse him on the
ground of his being a young Member.—(Cheers.)
IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL having moved the order of the
day for a Committee of the whole House on the Izish. Church,
Sir ROBERT PEEL rose and said that he should
riot throw the slightest objection in the way of the
motion of the Noble Lord—( Heal-, hear, hear)—but the
exigencies of the State renderedait necessary that the Navy
Estimates and the Mutiny Act should come under the earliest
consideration of the House, and therefore he proposed last night
that the debate should be adjourned till Monday, that the public
service might not be put to inconvenience. if the debate
:•hould go over till Monday, he should suggest that at five
o'clock the Mutiny Act should be proposed, and he thought
7he House would see the importance of agreeing with that
proposition.
The House then resolved itself into Committee.

Mr. FINCH then rose, and immediately the Members from
both sides of the House made a rush to the door. Such was
the number that got to the passage leading to the door of the
llouse, that five minutes elapsed before anything- approachino-
to order was restored. In the interval the Chairman frequently
called upon the Sergeant-at-Arms, and desired gentlemen to
take their plaers. All was unavailabbs!, and it was not until
).ot more than forty members were left in the House, that the
lon. Methbcr was able to proceed. Mr. F. then proceeded—
" :'e understood him to charaetcr;ze the Noble Lord's resolu-
tion as one of the most extraordinary and repugnant to com-
mon sense that had ever been proposed within the walls of that
liouse. The Hon. Gentleman thon went into the history of
i he Irish Church for the last 700 years, and connected it with
the history of this country up to the period of the last thirty
five years., Ile asserted that 10,000 Irish Protestants had
migrated. within the last twenty-live years unable to endure
The state of things that agitation had produced in that country.
He said that the lion. Member for Dublin indulged in sneers
about the nerve necessary for a clergyman in that distracted
eauntry. He could tell him that it was a fit subject to call forth
tire nerve and determination of any man. He then related the
effects of one of the feremoSt of the agrarian disturbers be-
. oming a convert to Protestantism. In spite of every caution in
the open day he had had his house pulled down, and had been
compelled to leave the country. It was said that the present
measure was calculated to conciliate. Ile referred to the
career of conciliation - pursued by Earl Grey, and inquired if
its effocts had not been directly the reverse of those antici-
pated ? The Tithe Bill when passed the Hon. and Learned
.dember for Dublin had declared, nay promised, should put
vat end to bloodshed, at least for that, year. Shortly after-
wards the Administration was dissolved. The Hon. and
Learned Member then published a letter to the people of Ire-
land, expressing his, strong dissatisfaction of that Bill ; and,
instead of its proving a panacea, as he said, for Ireltunl's woes,
it was like casting among her population a hundred firebranciw.
The Hon. Gentleman then went on to deprecate tire opinion
'.fiat the appropriation of a surplus could prove any remedy
to such manifold evils. He considered that in the annals of
the world so simple a scheme was never imagined, and that
re.) man worthy the name of a statesman could ever have
brought forward so wild a project.—( Hearelrear.) Instead
Sit conciliation being its effect, it would rouse a spirit of dis-
cord and civil strife from one end of Ireland to the other. If
he sacred character of the Church property. were to be in-
fringed on under the idea of appropriating an imaginary sur-
plus, there would be no safety for any description of property
whatever. He would have Honourable Gentlemen pause
before they committed the act involved in the resolution of
the Noble Lord.
,Put even if they should be deaf to the
'yarning or blind to the consequences, he could not conceive that
there was any chance of the resolution being effective for the
yurposes intended by it, as he was firmly convinced that the'
ether branch or the Legislature would never consent to the
spoliation of the Church of her property. He, in common
Ivith the country, had heard with gratitude the declaration of
Vole Right HO, Baronet the Secretary. for Ireland, that it
'mu sot his inlintion to throw the shield of protection over any
abuses which might exist ht tire Irish Church Establishment,
and that the present Government were prepared to abolish
pluralities and sinecures, as well as to distribute more equally
its revere Viz. Was not that declaration sufficient to satisfy all.
teasouabl k en ? The whole proceeding of the Hon. Members-
cpposite, regarded the Irish Church, was a solemn mockery.