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

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF LORDS, April 18.
Their Lordships met at Five o'clock.
The Duke of BRANDON presented several petitions from
the 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 Soeiety, 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 Maynooth, and a petition in favour of tem.
perance.
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 Earl of CLEVELAND, and the Earl of WiceLow, also
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 Bangor,
but after the second reading, under the advice of
friends, he had withdrawn it, in consequence of an
intimation that her Majesty's Government would oppose
its further 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
from passing?
The Duke of WELLINGTON, in answer to the question of
ti.e 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 POW IS 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
just heard, to what he had intended, but on Monday he should
to able to state what he thought it best to do. In the mean-
time 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 I
Bill of the Noble Lord.

MAYNOOTH.
Petitions were presented against the grant to Maynooth by
the Marquis cf BREA DA LBA NE from Glasgow and several other
towns in Scotland, 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 RICHMOND
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 for 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 directors and
companies, to state a case of gross recklessnese 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 estate had been bequeathed
to a very learned and excellent lawyer as a trustee. The
railway possessed the power of constructing wo:lis,and entering
upon lands with 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 make 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
deviation. But these persons who gave their consent were
merely tenants for life, and they had nn power to give it.
The land was vested in the learned person I have named, who
was the trustee of certain infants, and he consequently could not
consent without an Act of Parliament. The company
enght 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 corn-
udtted 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 front 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
bearing upon this subject before the other House of Parliament;
if sueliwere the ease, he thought he would be better doing his
duty 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-
jeet was-one 01 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.
lie 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 his motion for the present.
THE 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 residing 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
weuld 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 Coroners, 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 power to compel his attend-
ance, and to make him pay his expenses. There were
many abuses in the system of Coroners, and he thonght 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 he 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 DENNIAN and the
Marquis of LA NSDOWNE took part,
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL stated that his object was
to bring the circumstances of the case under the notice of
their Lordships.
The Marquis of NORMANBY suggested, that the notice
which had then been taken of the matter would be sufficent
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
be (Lord NVharncliffe) would in the meantime communicate
with the Secretary of State, and ascertain what the facts of
[Le ease really were.
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL would assent to the propo-
sition of his Noble Friend.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE thought that this session
enuld not pass without some alteration of the poor-law in
Ireland.