The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-05 00:00:00

SECOND EDITION.
SUN OITICE, Seven o' Clock.

13113E11"AL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS.

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY, as Depute Speaker,
opened the House at half-past three, and prayers having
been read by the Bishop of Carlisle, Lord Skelmersdale
(late. Bootle Wilbraham, Esq.) was formally introduced
by Lords \Vliarncliffe and Colchester. The House then
adjourned, and met again at five o'clock.
The order for the Committee of Privilege to-morrow at
ten o'clock was discharged, it being agreed that the Com-
mittee should meet at two. No other business was done,
the House having adjourned immediateiy.
`"e►y few Members were in attendance. The Lord
Chancellor was waiting on his Majesty at Windsor. •

HODS EOF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at four o'clock.
Mr. TaRNEY took the oath and his seat.

:Ur. Crafer, from the Treasury, presented the Fifteenth
Report of the Commissioners appointed under the sth
George IV.

CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.
Mr. ALEXANDER LAWSON, in presenting several
petitions from parishes in the counties of Louth and West-
meath, said that the petitioners asked for Emancipation on
the grounds that the withholding it was a gross violation of
the Treaty of Limerick, and because it was the right of every
subject of every kingdom to worship God according to the
dictates of his cm n conscience—he in common with n
others regretted that neither in the Speech from the Throne
or in the Address from that Housa, was any uotiee taken of
the situation of Ireland, although the people of that country
were in a state of distraction. This omission of any allusion
to Ireland was accounted in this way ; Ministers pretend
that in the most important of our domestic ralations nothing
of the slightest interest had occurred since the last Session
of Parliament. But events of the greatest importance to
our domestic security had in fact occcurred. What could
be of more sterling importance in our domestic situation,
than that, with one accord, on the same day, four or five
millions of Irish Catholics, should have assembled
for the purpose of asserting their rights. If any thing
was of importance to the British Statesman, it was
that so large a portion of our empire should press their
demand for the privileges of freemen, smarting under
the sense- that they have been long and unjustly deprived
of them. He earnestly recommended his Majesty's Mini-
sters not to slumber on the subject under the foolish i►n-
pression that all was tranquillity and peace—peace could
it be called, when four millions were so assembled, and
of that four millions, oue million at least were capable of
eating arms, and men of respectability and property. Let
England have for its premier a field marshallet every
Minister in the Cabinet be a field marshal—and the
country would be less respectable abroad and less trail..

qui! at home, than it our domestic dissatisfaction were
illayed. If the House looked at our situation, they would
Lind the Protestant Dissenters acting as one mane in pres-
,ing for relief from their disabilities. Here, then, were the
Protestant Dissenters in England, and the Catholic Dis-
senters of Ireland, both urging their claims on the same
principle, and on the very same ground which made the
Protestants originally separate from the Church of Rome,
namely, that it was the right of every man to worship
God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and
of exercising their own private judgment. This was the
feeling which our forefathers breathed when they insisted
that all had a right to think and act upon religious subjects,
without the infliction of civil disqualifications. It was idle
to talk of peace in the Royal speech, and of the in-
tention of his Majesty to preserve the ine,tinaable
bless-
ings of peace, when all must know that the true and
the only way to insist on peace from foreign countries,
was to have unity and peace at home, and a Treasury
full of money. How are we now situated? We have an
rzhausted treasury, and a country not harmonized. Could'
we, in such a state of things, speak to foreign countries, as

he and every independent Member of that House must
always wish ? The Hon. Member then presented several

petitions, which were ordered to be printed.

Mr. GEORGE LAMB presented a similar petition; from
Dungarvan, county Waterford. The Honotuable Member
confessed he felt somewhat discouraged when he recollected
that a Right' Hon. Gentleman,. now_ ilk office, declared
when withdrawing from a late Government, that he could
not continue a Member of any Gevern►nent, in which the
Protestant interest was not secured by having a Minister
unfavourable to the Catholic Claims at the head of the Go-
vernmcnt. However, be (Mr. Lamb) was convinced that
though Catholich Emancipation might be delayed,.it could
not be prevented.—(Hear.)
Mr. VILLIERS STUART presented similar petitions

from several parishes in the county of Waterford. The
Hen. Member tookileave shortly to declare his opinion on
the change which had taken place in his Majesty's Govern-
went. His opinion of any Government must depend on
the measures which they would pursue with respect to the
Catholic Question. Were they the best financiers and
diplomatists in the world--were they perfect in
every thing else, and hostile to the Catholic Claims,
he should give such a Cabinet his decided opposition.
If he did not act so, he should disgrace himself, and de-
ceivehis constituents. There were seven Ministers in the
Cabinet out of thirteen said to be In favour of the Catholic

claims ;. but these may have been placed there ac decoys, to
seduce the friends of the Catholics to vote with the Minis-
try. It was only yonng birds, however, that could be
caught with such chaff. For his part, he had changed
places twice in the short time he was in the House, but he
had never changed sides ; nor he never would vote with a
Ministry composed of enemies to the Catholics, as he pre-
sumed the present Ministry was, or else the Right Hon.
Secretary for the Home Department would not hold a cm at
in the Cabinet.

Mr. DANIEL WHITTLE HARVEY said the Hon.
Members who represented Ireland always spoke with an
eloquence peculiarly their own on the affairs of that un-
happy country, but he conceived the cause which they in-
tended to serve, by putting forward Catholic Emancipation
on every occasion as the panacea for all the ills and distresses
of Ireland. No doubt Ireland was in a very distressed state ;
such was the report of every one who visited that country,
and of every writer on it ; but it was too much to say that if
Catholic Emancipation was gransed, all would be harmony
and peace and happiness in that unfortunate country. Ile
(Mr. Harvey) was opposed to Catholic Emancipation on
principle; but if it would remove half the evils contemplated,

by the Irish Members, it should have his most strenuous
support. He would say, grant the Catholics Emancipation.
by all means, but he believed, that when Irish Members
spoke of the paramount importance of Catholic Emanci-
pation they exaggerated the importance of the question,
and of the effects which a settlement of it should produce
and in thisrespect they did an injury to the cause they advo-
cated. The Hon. Gentleman who just sat down considered the
Catholic Question of such importance that he set no value
on any effort which the Ministry should mai,s towards
financial retrenchment. Now, it there was one subject
which he (Mr. Harvey) considered of paramount import-
ance ; it was the subject of our financial embarrassments,
and if the Ministry sincerely set about the work of retrench-
ment, he would vote for them not on this subjec talons, but
in every other early state. It mattered not from
what men or from what ministry the blessing came, he
would accept it joyfully, an-I he was convinced the people
of England were much more interested on this subject than
on that of Catholic Emancipation, or indeed on any other
subject whatever.

Mr. SPRING RICE would not hear the observations
made by the Hon. Gentleman who had just sat down in
silence. If the Irish Members wanted a mouth-piece they
would net select the Member for Colchester. They stated