The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-19 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF LORDS, April 18.

_
1 Lordships met at Five o'clock.
Tle Earl of BANDON presented several petitions from
t he county of Cork against the Maynooth grant and the
system of education in Ireland.
The Duke of RUTLAND presented a petition from the
farmers of the county of Leicester, praying to be relieved from
the present agricultural distress. The Noble Duke also pre-
sented a petition from the Malvern Agricultural Society, pray-
ing for a repeal of the malt-tax, and several petitions from the
county of Leicester against any further grant to Maynooth.
Lord CAMPBELL presented several petitions against any
further grant to Mayncoth, and a petition in favour of tem.

perince.
The Bishop of DURHAM presented several petitions
against the grant to Maynooth. The Right Rev. Prelate
said he did not share in the apprehensions expressed by the
petitioners. He did not think the petitioners understood the
correct bearing of the question, but he was satisfied great credit
was due to the Government for introducing this measure.
The Duke of CLEVELAND, and the Earl of Weext.ow, aiao
presented similar petitions against the grant.
SEES OF ST. ASAPH AND BANGOR.
Earl POWIS said that last year he had introduced a Bill
for preventing the union between St. Asaph and Bang r,
bet after the second reading, under the advice of
friends, he had withdrawn it, in consequence of an
intimation that her Maiesty's Governnsent would oppose
its farther progress. He had this year introduced another Bill
for the same purpose, and it stood for the second reading on
Tuesday, the 29th. The question he wished to ask was, whe-
ther it was the intention of her Majesty's Government to inter-
pose, by preventing her Majesty's assent, and hinder the Bill
fri m passing?
The Duke of WELLINGTON, in answer to the question of
the Noble Lord, said that Ministers had not received
her Majesty's permission to state that she would give her con-
sent to this Bill.
Earl POWIS said that on Monday he would state what
course he intended to pursue. His course would be different,
in consequence of the intimation which their Lordships had
.jost heard, to what he had intended, but on Monday he should
be able to state what he thought it best to do. In the mean-
tens he would remind their Lordships that the second reading
stood for Tuesday, the 29th.
The Duke of RICHMOND presented several petitions
against the union of the Sees of St. Asaph and Bangor, and
expressed his regret that Ministers were opposed to the
Bill of the Noble Lord.
MAYN'OOTEI.
Petitions were presented against the grant to Mavnooth by
the Marquis of BNEA DA LBA NE from Glasgow and several other
towns in :lecithin& and also from a great number of the con-
gregations of the Free Church in that country. Petitions were
also presented against the grant by the Duke of Mete 0105111.
from Elgin, Matlock, Inverness, and several other places.
IMPROVEMENT OF LAND IN IRELAND.
The Duke of RICHMOND moved for a return of the num-
ber of applications that had been made to the Court of Chan-
cery in Ireland for grants tor the improvement of lands under
the 3d and 4th of Victoria.—The return was granted.
BANKING SYSTEM OF SCOTLAND.
The Duke of RICHMOND presented several petitions
against any alteration in the present system.
RAILWAYS.
Lord BROUGHAM, in moving the printing of the standing
orders which he had brought under the notice of the house,
said that he wished, as a warning to railway director and
cempanies, to state a case of gross recklessnes-, with which,
after they had obtained their Bill, the directors of a company
had ruined their own project, and lost the money of their
shareholders. He should state neither names or places. The
railway was connected with one of the largest railways in Eng-
land, and the facts were these. An eieate had been bequeathed
to a very learned and excellent lawyer as a trustee. Th,.
railway possessed the power of constructing works, and entering
upon lands wish very inadequate compensation to the
owners in all the parishes named in the schedules.
They thought proper to make a deviation into another parish,
which was not in the schedule. As the works proceeded, it
was thought necessary to mike a deviation into another parish
that was not named in the schedule. The agents of the com-
pany went to the occupiers of the land, and, offering them
four times its value, induced them to give their consent to the
ee,viation. But those persons who gave their consent were
merely tenants-- for life, and they had ne power to give it.
The land was vested in the learned person I have named, who
was the trustee or certain infants, and he consequently could not
consent without an Act of Parliament. The company
ought to have stopped for another year, but it would not snit
them, and they went on and finished the railway. Now he
need not remind their Lordships of the situation in which the
poor shareholders were placed by .the act of their Board of
Directors. They had invested their capital in this railway,
never dreaming that such an act of plunder would be com-
mitted by the directors, mere especially as those directors had
the assistance, no doubt, of a solicitor and standing counsel.
This was a new form of risk which railway speculators did not
anticipate, and he trusted this warning would prevent private
individuals, who scraped together a little money, from risking
it in these gambling speculations.
NEW ZEALAND.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE wished to put a question
to his Noble Friend the Secretary for the Colonies, relative to
a petition of which he had given notice yesterday. The peti-
tion was from the Legislative Council of New South Wales,
and complained of certain grievances with respect to the dis-
posal of land in that colony. He understood that it was the
intention of her Majesty's Government to lay some papers
hearing upon this subject before the other House of Parliament;
if such were the case, he thought he would be better doing his
deity to the petitioners to delay presenting the petition until
those papers were before the country.
Lord STANLEY had no hesitation in saying that the sub-
ject was one of great importance. He had received informa-
tion upon it from the Governor of the Colony of New Zea-
land, and in a few days it would be laid before the other House.
He thought it would be advisable that if they were to have any
discussion on the subject it had, better be delayed until that in-
formation was before their Lordships.
Lord CLANRICARDE said that under those circumstances
he would withdraw hie motion for the present.
THI-7. FRANCHISE.
Lord CLANRICARDE brought in a Bill for extending the
elective franchise to persons who paid the income-tax. The
object of the Bill was to extend it to annuitants, retired trades-
men, professional men, and others rending in furnished
lodgings. The provisions of the Bill would be extended alike
to cities, boroughs, and counties. He thought it would be
better to reserve the discussion to the second stage, and he
would simply move that the Bill be now read a first time.
Lord STANLEY had no objection to allow the Bill to be
read a first time, and concurred with the Noble Marquis in
the delaying of the discussion for the present. He hoped,
however, that his consenting to the first reading as a matter of
course, would not lead the Noble Marquis to imagine that he
assented to its novel principle. Perhaps the Noble Lord would
say whether he intended the Bill to be permanent or not.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said he did not, if the
income-tax would be discontinued hereafter. He had, however,
a conviction in his mind that the income-tax was intended to
be a permanent measure.
The Bill was then read a first time.
CORONERS' INQUESTS.
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL moved for a return of the
number of inquests which had been held upon children within
the last twelve months ; and complained that the returns for
the last eleven years were very defective, and in one case the
Coroner had refused to make any return at all.
The Duke of RICHMOND thought his Noble Friend was
alluding to Irish Coroner!, but he might apply to the Clerk
of the Peace for the county for the return. The Noble Lord
had better move for a return from the Coroner himself, and
if he refused, their Lordships would let the gentleman know
that they possessed plenty of lower to compel his attend-
ance, and to make him pay his expenses. There were
many abuses in the system of Coroners, and he thought that it.
would be better to revise it altogether. With respect to the
Coroners of England generally, he thought them a very
highly respectable body.
Lord CAMPBELL thought the House was bound to take
this case into consideration, and he would suggest to the Noble
Lord that he should move that the Coroner should forthwith
make a return.
The Earl of WICKLOW concurred in the suggestion of
the Noble Lord.
Lord DENISON thought that they had better not enter
into any censure of this gentleman until they were in posses-
sion of the facts of the case.
Lord CAMPBELL thought that this gentleman had al-
ready refused, and that he should be at once called upon by
the House.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that the rule when a
return was ordered by the House of Lords was, to send to
the Secretary of State, and he applied to the person who,
in his judgment, ought to make it.
After a conversation, in which Lord DENMAN and the
Marquis of LANSDOWNE took part,
The Earl of MOUNTCA sLi EL stated that his object was
to bring the circumstances of the case under the notice of
their Lordships.
The Marquis of NORM ANBY suggested, that the notice
which had then been taken of the matter would be sufficient
for the purpose.
Lord WHARNCLIFFE suggested, that the Noble Earl
(the Earl of Mountcashel) should give notice, that he would
call the attention of the House to the matter on Monday, and
he (Lord Wharncliffe) would in the meantime communicate
with the Secretary of State, and ascertain what the facts of
the case really were.
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL would assent to the propo-
sition of hi! Noble Friend.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE thought that this session
could not pass without some alteration of the poor-law in
Ireland.

BASTARDY BILL.
11th Bill was read a third time and passed.
RAILWAY CLAUSES CONSOLIDATION BILL

The report on this Bill was brought up, when
The Earl of DALHOUSIE proposed several clauses as
riders to the Bill, for regulating the appropriation of private
roar's, and for apportioning the compensation to he made for
the appropriation of them by railway companies, which were
adopted.
The same clauses were also adopted in the Bill for Scotland.
On the motion of the Earl of DALHOUSIE, those Bills
were ordered to be printed and read a third time on Tuesday
neat.

RELIGIOUS GRANTS IN THE COLONIES,
Lard MON TEAGLE moved for a return of all the grants
nhich had been made for religious purposes in the colonies,
during the years 1840, 1841, and 1842, and the different sects
to which they had been made.

The return was granted, and the House then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 18
The SYZAg ER took the Chair at Four o'clock.
Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE moved that the agents for the
t-rrrey and Sussex Roads (Sunday toll) Bill be allowed to de.
posit a filled-up Bill, signed by them in the Private Bill-office;
that the Committee on such Bill be revived, and have leave to
sit and proceed on Monday next,—Agreed to.
Mr. TUFNELL moved that the Committee for the Man-
chester and Salford Waterworks be allowed to sit on Monday
next.—Agreed to.

WEST YORKSHIRE RAILWAY.
Mr. M. AIILNES, and other Hon. Members, presented pe-
titions against the West Yorkshire Railway.
The following Bills were severally read a second time and
ordered to be printed. Oxford Mileways, St. Matthew
( Bethnal-green) Rectory, Splad (Clun), Inclosure,
Castle Hill (Wexford) Docks, Lyme Regis Improvement,
Market, and Waterworks, Dublin Pipe Water, Claughton cum
Grange (St. Andrew's) Church, Claughton cum Grange (St.
John the Baptist's) Church, Kendal Reervoir,
AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF