The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-23 00:00:00

TIIE CONQUEST OF SIN 1)E•

....., ,

G4neral William Napier has commenced a history
°-, this important acquisition, which is so full: e)f in-
tfrest, n1:,1 lays op.sn eo many mysteries, tat "le
brief notice could not render it any justice_ We
}lase already called the attention of the public to the
Fork, but only in a very summary manner, simply
stating from the documents produced that Lc rd El-
lenborough and Sir Charles Napier (the brot her of
the author) were fully justified in their course of
policy towards the Ameers, and that we had from
the beginning taken the same view of a quo .stion
which has been so ably illustrated by the historian of
the Peninsular campaigns. Much more, however, is
required to place the policy of the Government, the
diplomacy of Lord Ellenborough, and the deeds of
the hero of Meanee in a proper light. When intel-
ligence
reached this country that Sinde had been in-
vaded, that Hyderabad had been taken and plundered
of its treasures, that the "unfortunate" Ameers had
been dispossessed of their domains, and Sinde had
been annexed to the British Empire in India, loud
were the complaints heard from nearly all quarters of
the injustice of the proceedings; of the grasping po-
licy of the new Governor-General, and of the san-
guinary battles brought on by a General, whose only
delight was in repeating the scenes of warfare like
those which he witnessed in Spain. Several meetings
were held on the invasion of Sinde, and the resolu-
tions were all adverse to the measures adopted, but
What appeared the most singular feature in
these marks of opposition to this noble and valuable
acquisition, was the loud outcry made by that part of
the press which supported the Whig Government, and
denounced the invasion of Sinde as a wanton act of
cruelty and rapacity on the part of the Governor-
General, Lord Ellenborough. Any one who had
Paid attention to the subject knew well that the occu-
pation of Sinde had been contemplated by Lord
Auckland—nay more, that he had seized on four of
the most important stations on the Indus, and had he
remained longer in power, that he would have adopted
the course pursued by his successor, though the result
Would have been probably of a very different
character. Sir John Keane, famous for the disasters
in Affghanistan, for the helpless condition in which
lie left the troops at Caubul, and his hasty retreat from
the scene of action, when the real difficulties com-
menced, would, we fear, hare made but a poor figure
at the battle of Meanee. But, leaving these points
out of the question, we come to the main charge
against Lord Ellenborough. The friends of Lord
Auckland—we ought rather to call them his enemies
denounced his successor for invading Sinde, and
under vain pretences expelling the harmless Ameers,
and annexing the country to British India. General
Napier, however, has shown in a way which
can leave no possible doubt that Lord Auck-
land himself, assisted by Sir henry Pottinger,
Was the real aggressor, that he had made inroads on
the country, inveigled the Ameers into treaties, de-
ceived
them by false promises, and only waited for
the termination of the Affghanistan war to drive them
°ill of the country. The following is a specimen of
the policy of Lord Auckland, who, from some strange
hallucination in the public mind, is believed as inno-
cent of the invasion of Sinde as of the fall of Adam

4` Shame being now laid aside, and occasion rife, Lord
Auckland, pretending a virtuous indignation at the
duplicity of the Ameers—their unwarrantable enmity
113,d jealousy of the British I moved with pity also for
the distracted state of their government, a state which
18 Envoy was expressly instructed to foment, declared
that five thousand troops should instantly seize Shikar-
Pore, and such other parts of Siude as might be deemed
eligible to facilitate the invasion of Afghanistan, and to
Qlve effect to the tripartite treaty. Not only the Ameers
N/"0 were inimical to the British, but those who had dis-
el°sed any unwillingness to aid the invasion of the
(4.l.ffghans, with whom they had no quarrel, were to be
isplaced from power; and this violence was offered to
Independent governments, over which no rights had
L en established, save by treaties granted not s.pught for
/ them, and both in letter and spirit opposed to these
5 ggressions ! But to make amends, the Ameers were
li
ra'ured, that the seizure of their territories by a British
41.41 weaned nothing injurious to their interests ! You
tie to die by my hands,' said the executioner to the son
Y,the Spanish Philip ; ' you are to die Struggle not !
ur father orders it for your good.'"
qtr Henry Pottinger, now so celebrated, was the
hi tlkht-hand man of ILord Auckland, and assisted
111 these schemes for trampling on the Ameers.
the following extract from'ethe work will show with
what
tact he supported the views of the Governor-
General :_

"His vehement declarations of the good faith and
moderation of political acts which the most subtil sophis-
try cannot palliate, much less justify ; the deference he
inculcated for the tyrannical pleasures of the Ameers
whose real rights he had by his treaties just taken away,
are somewhat curious specimens of reasoning. Speaking
of their Shikargahs' or hunting preserves, which he
acknowledged they had formed by turning, within a few
Years, one-fourth of the fertile and peopled land into a
wilderness ; and they were still marching onwards in
that devastating career, one of them having recently
destroyed two large villages to form a future Shikargah'
for his child, then only eight years old; and the whole of
them declared that their hunting grounds were dearer
to them than their wives and children ; he yet desired
that they might be respected, because the ancient forest
laws of the Normans in England were equally pernicious!
And while thus recurring to the worst, the most cruel
oPpression of the worst periods of English history as a
guide for British policy in the nineteenth century, and
411 excuse for the Ameers of Sinde, with singular incon-
81ateney he recommended a conciliating and protecting
Policy towards the people !"
After describing in his usual strong language the
"Pensive, ruinous, and uncalled for expedition to
Caubul, and the deceitful policy adopted towards the
Nara of Sinde, General Napier thus sums up the
leading features of Lord Auckland's government in
india

" 131,1 t a new era was now commencing for Sinde. Lord
Auckland quitted India, leaving it in all the confusion,
the terror and the danger, necessarily flowing from the
t°laical immorality and astounding incapacity which
ad marked his mischievous career. And if any man,
f
from vehement factious feelings and not blinded by
Pally prejudices, shall doubt the correctness of the pic-
ture of Whig oppression and folly painted in the fore-
Suing pages, let him read and compare attentively, and
Ith a desire to reach the truth, all the Parliamentary
l'aPPrs on the subject, and he will doubt no longer. Out
of their own mouths they are condemned."

The next subject is the policy of his successor, and
the vile accusations brought against him by the mer-
cenary press of India, among which the Bombay
Zraes, conducted by a Scotchman of the name of
Luist stands pre-eminent. Shortly after Lord El-
Icoborough's arrival in India a large army of reserve
Ills collected on the frontiers of the Punjaub to pro-
tect the remains of the Caubul troops on their return
to the Sutledge. The paid agents of certain parties
raised an outcry against Lord El!enborough from this
arrangement and had nearly inflicted the greatest
calamity on the country from purely mercenary mo-
tiveg. General Napier thus points out the danger
Nused by these hirelings :

"And here it is fitting to notice the true objects of
!tsembling that army of reserve, so ridiculed at the time
11 the Indian press. It is fitting to do so as throwing a
'lZht upon Lord Ellenborough's prudence ; but more so,
as showing the infamous and dangerous nature of that
natliari press, whose efforts have been for several years
'_unstantly directed to the support of peculation, the
depression of the military spirit, the calumniating of
‘l.'t'y man of patriotic feeling and useful talent, and the
melting and teaching the foreign enemies of the Anglo-
49diaa Government how and when to assail the armies
with the greatest advantage, even urging the Sepoys at
es to mutiny. Let the people of England judge the
fumes
sample of their wanton iniquity, their mischief-
-'sking falsehood.
" When Lord Ellenborough arrived in India, there
were 30,000 Seik troops at Peshawar, and there were
hospital! 4,000 British troops there, whom 1,800 were in
The presence of these Seiks was a matter of
treat anxiety; and when 5,000 of them advanced, un-
asked and unwished-for as auxiliaries to Jellalsbad, Lord
his
directed General Pollock, and through
13 agency succeeded, to persuade these half hostile,
turbulent
men, to pass to the left bank of the Caubul
Trer, to leave all the resources of the right bank to the
itish, and to clear their rear as far as Peshawar. But
rv, when the army was returning from Caubul, 20,000
these Seiks followed the troops, and the army of re-
"serve was most prudently and wisely assembled on the
nutledge, to keep them in awe, and to support the autho-
4of Shere Sing, who was friendly, against the power
"4la wishes of most of his sirdars, and more especially
against the Sindhawalla family, by whom he was after-
wards assassinated. Mien Sing, his minister, actually
Proposed to attack the British while traversing the Pun-
ton their return from Caubul; and he proposed this,
%use he had been deluded by the infamous Indian
Press into the belief that the British meant to attack
f~
Seiks Shere Sing, however, relied on British
; and supported by the presence of the army of re-
-erYe, resisted successfully. Ile afterwards strongly
represented to the foreign secretary, who visited him
att. Lahore after the armies had passed the Sutledge,
the sztreme embarrassment which the assertions of
,
Ang:6_Teelian press, that the English designed to
attack him, had e7"atesl in all his dealings with his own
ehiels and army g
On Lord Ellenborou h's ar, -ivAl at Ferazapore he
changed the whole system of diplomacy in Sinde,
d is
penning with the services of Major Outratn and
-44nY Other political agents, and gave the whole power

to Sir Charles Napier. His general instructions
were of the most cautious and prudent character.
He thus writes to Sir Charles Napier in St•ptem-
her, ISV:—

" Should any Arrwer, or ebiel, with whom we have
treaty of alliance and frivndship, have evinced hostile
designs against us, during the late events, which may
have induced them to doubt the continuance of our
power, it is the present intention of the Governor-Ge-
neral to inflict upon the treachery of such ally and friend
so signal a punishment as shall effectually deter other:
from similar conduct ; but the Governor-General would
not proceed in this course without the most complete
and convincing evidence of guilt in the person accused.
The Governor-General relies entirely on your sense
of justice, and is convinced that whatever reports you
may make upon the subject, after full investigation, will
be such as he may safely act upon."
Sir Charles acted according to instructions, and
never were more glaring breaches of treaties com-
mitted than those, produced on the most
unexceptionable authority, committed by the
,kineers of Sinde. They had levied toll
coi-itrary to treaty—expelled the English from the
bazaars, fired on British subjects, and formed a con_
spira•^y after the disasters of Caubul for destroying
the w hole English army in Sinde. These are facts
which cannot be disputed, and fully warranted Lord
Ellenborough in taking possession of the country.
We keep the question of humanity out of view—the
miserable condition of the people, the sottish habits of
the Ameers, their tyranny and oppression, and the
anxious and expressed wish of the people to be placed
under English protection. We merely reason on ad-
mitted principles—the rulers of Sinde had entered into
certain conditions with the Indian Government—they
were ten times warned of the consequences of a breach
of these conditions—they wilfully broke them and took
the consequences. They are now exiles and pri-
soners ; but imprisonment is not necessary, they are
hated by the people, they were in fact rude and un-
principled conquerors, and established themselves in
Sinde under the protection of the rulers of Caubul,
whom they betrayed. 'We conclude these extracts
with an affectionate tribute of brotherly affection
from the historian of the Peninsular war to the pre-
sent Governor of Sinde

" The sword had been taken from the Ameers of
Upper Sinde, as it were by sleight, but they fled to the
desert and to Lower Sinde, there to raise in conjunction
with their cousins of Hyderabad the standard of battle.
They trusted in their sandy wastes, their strong and
numerous fortresses, their deadly sun, in the numbers,
courage, strength, and fierceness of their wild Belochee
swordsmen. and braver barbarians never gave themselves
to slaughter. In these things they trusted, and not
without reason ; but they were opposed to what they
could not understand, having no previous experience of
his like—a man of fiery but vigilant valour, skilled in
war and resolute to win ; daring as the boldest chieftain
of their hills and stern in tight : they found him so when
their thousands went down before the bayonets of his
valiant soldiers wallowing in blood, but never cruel or
ferocious, for he loves peace and justice with a true
heart, and strove hard to avoid the clash of arms. The
Ameers would not have it so, and when the shock did
come they were broken like potsherds. It was not the
English General but the Sindian Princes who sought the
contest. No Etruscan fecial ever cast his spear across a
boundary, invoking his gods to attest the justice of a
war, with a purer conscience than Charles Napier
marched to battle ; and now it shall be my task to show
how victoriously he bore the banner of England across
the bloody fields of Meeanee mid Dubba ; how widely
he has since spread England's fame for justice and gen-
tleness by his administration : the Beloochs reverence
and the Sindians bless him, though the Ameers mourn."

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
SENTENCES.

Sub;oined are the principal sentences which were
passed upon the prisoners convicted in the three Courts
at the late session :
Banishment.—The undernaraed were sentenced to be
transported beyond the sea for the terms named—
For Seven Years—Mary Davison, J. Prastly, J. James,
C. Heath, T. James, J. Sandfoul, G. T. Sanders, G.
Haines, T. Maile, J. Barnes, G. Sweeny (19), T. Brown.
Ten Years—T. Lucas alias W. Tupping, G. Welch,T.
M'Phon, Sarah Diprose, E. Edwards, T. Abney, A. Wil-
son, C. Drake, W. Telford, H. Barrett, T. G. Batley.
Fourteen Years—W. Hill.
Fifteen Years—G. Palmer.
Life—W. Burgess, for the Bank robbery.
Imprisonment.—The following convicts were ordered
to be imprisoned in the Houses of Correction for the
counties in which their offences were committed, with
the adjunct of hard labour.
Two Years—J. Greenhall, E. Elbury.
One Year—L. Manyon, T. Kemp, Leah Mary Roper,
Charlotte Kemp, G. Molloy, H. Hiller, W. Trudge, T.
Turner, T. Leech, G. Reeves, W. Cox, G. Ryan, M.
Noon, B. Ewen, W. Key.
Nine Months—W. Contrell, E. Challis.

HER LATE ROYAL HIGHNESS TIIE PRINCESS SOPHIA
MATILDA OF GLOUCESTER.—The establishment of her
late Royal Highness the Princess Sophia Matilda of
Gloucester, at the Ranger's-house, Blackheath, and also
at her residence in Curzon-street, are to be broken up
on the 6th of the ensuing month, until after which period
the vacancy in the Rangership of Greenwich Park will,
it is understood, not be filled up. Lady Alicia Gordon
and Miss Cotes, Ladies in Waiting on the late Princess,
are still at the Ranger's-house, Blackheath.

STATE OF TRIDE.—The news from the West
se
districtsw e
of
sßoirdri3n,gt
to cont osnatym, ut
he sa
to ffrao
me h
teheer i
hn go s
ine aryt u raen sci nl
aocte are
Nottinghamshire ; and in Lancashire, the intelligence of
the complete closing of the Elbe by ice has put a sudden
stop to purchases of yarn for Germany. The accounts
from India, too, not being considered favourable, the
yarn market at Manchester has become exceedingly
dull, though, as yet, without any material change in
prices. The same market for manufactured goods is also
inactive, for which the season may sufficiently account.
Reverting to Yorkshire, the demand for winter clothes
at Leeds is active, and prices have undergone no change.
At Bradford we have much pleasure in stating that a
great number of woolcombers who had been on
" stint," and others who were entirely out of work, have
received orders to resume their labour. On the whole,
there is a more encouraging prospect for the operatives
during the winter months than was previously antici-
pated. On Thursday there was a very good attendance
of merchants, and their purchases were more extensive
than on any market day for some weeks past. Fur
yarns there was a fair demand, and as the spinners have
resolutely kept down the supply by diminishing their
hours of labour, prices were firm. The wool market
presented no new feature, late prices being fully obtained,
with a steady though limited demand. At the last
Halifax market there was a large attendance of buyers,
and a good deal of business done in the heavier fabrics,
especially lastings, damasks, and moreens. Both comb.
ing and blanket wool was in request, and prices firm.
There still continues at Wakefield an animated demand
for all deep combing wools, and the turn is in favour of
the seller, and this has imparted more confidence to the
buyers of the better description of combing wools, as
well as to those of short wools. This is the bright side
of the picture ; at Nottingham, however, the distress in
the machine-knitting manufactures is so far from de-
creasing that, upon the whole, the hands are worse than
they have been for some months past. The drawer and
pantaloon branch, which is the largest carried on in '
Nottingham and the suburbs, is still in a most depressed
state, the frames being scarcely half employed. The
cotton glove branch is in the best condition of any in the
hosiery trade ; still it is much and seriously depressed.
The silk hosiery trade has not, nor is it imagined that
it is likely, to recover from its present depressed state.
The bobbin-net lace trade has become so seriously de-
pressed that a perfect panic has taken place amongst the
manufacturers, some of whom, it is asserted, contemplate
a cessation of business for a period.—Hull Packet.
THE LATE SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE Snow.—lt
may be interesting to many of our readers to know the
exact weight of the old-improved short-horned steer
bred by Mr. Robert Smith, of Burley-on-the-Hill, near
Oakam, in Rutlandshire. and purchased at the show by
Mr. Minton, of Windsor, purveyor of meatY,to her Majesty,
which gained the first prize in class 1 of 201., and the
silver medal. Its weight, by many celebrated judges at
the show, was estimated to be from 200 to 210 stone.
Upon the carcass being weighed on Saturday the result
was as follows:—Each hind quarter weighed 601 stone,
and each fore quarter 50 stone, making in the aggregate
221 stone, or 1,76111b5. In addition to this, the loose fat
weighed 24 stone (1921 b.), and the hide 12 stone (961 b.)
The short-horned cow, one of Lord Spencer's stock,
bred by Mr. Beasley, near Northampton, which gained
the first prize of 20t in class 7, and killed by Mr. Al-
derman Bonister, of Windsor, weighed 156 stone, ex-
clusive of 20 stone of loose fat.
DEATH OF A MISER.—On Thursday, the sth inst.,
died Miss Murton, of Trumpington-street, in this town,
aged seventy-one, a person of most eccentric habits. She
was possessed of property to the amount of 50 000/., but
lived in a most wretched state, in a house entirely by
herself. She was is the habit of sitting on the ground,
surrounded by filth of all descriptions, and two starved
black cats on each side of her. She would have perished
through cold and want, or been eaten up with filth, but
for the kind attention of her relatives. She has left the
bulk of her property (excepting only a few trifling lega-
cies) to the family of Mr. Tomson, the stone mason.
All her houses are left to Mr. Christopher Pemberton.
—Cambridge Independent.
LOBSTER FisuiNci.—Within the last few years the
attention of the fishermen belonging to the Hebrides, but
more particularly to the islands of Mull and Islay, has
been directed to the fishing of lobsters, with which the
coasts of the Western Isles abound. A good number of
individuals have embarked in that kind of fishing, and
have been, up to the present year, abundantly remune-
rated for their labour by exporting the produce of the
fishings from this port by the steamers to Liverpool.
This year, however, the lobsters have increased on the
hands of the fishermen ; and the Liverpool fishmongers,
taking advantage of the supply being only once a fort-
night from Scotland, have reduced the price, and sub-
jected the fishermen to other deductions, which bid fair
to cripple, if not altogether to destroy, this branch of
employment for the inhabitants of the Western Isles. On
Saturday evening upwards of 20 large boxes, crammed
full of lobsters, from Mull alone, were sent by the
steamer from this to Liverpool.—Greenock Advertiser.
DARTMOUTH ELECTION.—The nomination for this
election is fixed for Thursday, and the polling for
I Friday next

IRELAND.

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS BILL.

DUBLIN, DEC. 21. e have been enabled to obtain
a copy of the " Pastoral Address to the Roman
Catholic Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Dublin,
by Daniel Murray, D.D., Sc.c." This very important
document, which we subjoin, will be published in the
form of a pamphlet, next week, by Mr. Coyne, of
Chapel-street, publisher to the Roman Catholic Bishops
of Ireland :

" TO TUE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY ♦ND LAITY OF
THE DIOCESE OF DUBLIN.
"Beloved Brethren—The time has at length ar-
rived when I deem it right to address you, on a sub-
ject which has given rise to much angry discussion,
the recent Act for the more effectual application of
Charitable Donations and Bequests in Ireland.
"The machinery for carrying that Act into opera-
tion is now formed. A share in the execution of it
has been assigned by her Most Gracious Majesty to
file. And as much misapprehension regarding it
appears to prevail, it becomes my duty to place it,
by a plain statement of facts, in its true light before
you.
" It is to me a source of inexpressible pain, that
the deep convictions of my mind compel me to adopt,
on this subject, a course of proceeding at variance
with that which some of my most respected and
beloved brethren would recommend. But conscience
is a stubborn monitor. It is unsafe to despise its
admonitions. And it warns me, with a voice which
penetrates my inmost soul, that it would be in me a
gross dereliction of pastoral duty to fling away,
through any human respect, the opportunity which
this Act, imperfect as it is, places within my reach, of
guarding in safety the treasury of the poor, and of
securing for the service of the Church whatever pro-
perty benevolent individuals may choose to vest in
the new Board, to be permanently dedicated to that
purpose. This is the duty, and the whole duty, which
will devolve upon those whose office it will be to carry
this Act into effect. It is a duty worthy of religion,
and dear to God ; a duty, in the faithful discharge of
which his minister should think it well worth hi►
while to encounter any share of unjust obloquy which
the mistaken zeal of his opponents might move them
to cast upon him.
Few Catholics, perhaps will believe that this Act
is anything like a perfect measure. It has defects
which I deplore ; they are defects, however, which
leave it still a measure of substantial value. And
although even these may be removed or lessened when
Parliament shall assemble, we should remember, that
before that time shall arrive the Act must, of neces-
sity, come into operation in its present state. The
law requires that this Act shall commence from and
after the Ist day of January, 1845,' and of course
that the Board of Management must be then ready
to carry the provisions of it into effect. Ten com-
missioners must have been previously named, of whom
five should ' be persons professing the Roman Catholic
religion.' It will be the peculiar duty of those five
to watch over the due application of Catholic chari-
ties, whether intended for the poor or for the Church.
And if her Majesty, for the want of accurate infor-
mation to be derived from the heads of the Catholic
religion, should be forced to appoint to that duty
professing Catholics, at random, how could we ever
afterwards complain, how could we render with
confidence an account of our stewardship to God,
if, through our fault, an unfortunate choice should be
made, and those important interests be confided to
unworthy or incompetent hands ? Blessed be God,
we have not to answer for that crime. Appointments
have been made which, as far as human vigilance can
avail, will render those interests secure.
" But were not our charities safe hitherto ? And
who called for any new Act on the subject?
" In answer to these questions, permit me to place
before you the following document. It is a memo-
rial adopted by the Roman Catholic Archbishops and
Bishops of Ireland, at their annual meeting, held in
Marlborough-street, on the 15th of February, 1840,
and addressed to Lord Viscount Morpeth, then Cnief
Secretary for Ireland :

" THE MEMORIAL OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCH-
BISHOPS AND BISHOPS OF IRELAND.
" Sheweth,—That memorialists having every confi-
dence in the present Administration, and entertaining, as
they gratefully do, a deep conviction that existing abuses
in Government departments need only be proved to be
pstraotme
dp tmlye• formed,erte ing a
inDublin, va hmteoastetlervaest,o ft
ht hrioso
gtheir
), generalou,
the
attention of her Majesty's Cabinet to the following cir-
circumstances, in immediate relation to the embarrass-
ments by which the Roman Catholic charities of Ireland
have beet, and are still, surrounded.
" That, in the year 1763, an Act, the 3d Geo. 111.,
s. 18, was passed, requiring returns of all charitable be-
aq
tui
de s
bt s ihn Ireland
ea
et be
ho
diocese tothe
at
th e i Protestant () tes
annualta n t
Primate
visitation,
and subsequently, a committee of charity, of the Irish
House of Lords, was appointed, under an order of that
House, bearing date the 15th day of March, 1792.
" That, by the Act of Union, the said committee
of charity necessarily ceased ; and by the Act of the
the 40th Geo. 111., c. 75, which has never since been.
either altered or amended, the present Commissioners of
charitable donations and bequests were incorporated,.
of Ireland, the Dean of St. Patrick's, the e
Judges.fhe latter,
b
and consist of the Protestant Archbishopsloaeundmbßeinshtsopsof
all the parishes in Dublin, and the
it is managed exclusivelynever
tebnydeddigtnhietaroiaesrd
a;
ncdo consequently
of the Protestant Church.n
" That by the Act referred o
archbishop or bishop should attend
board, which clause gives an exclusive c_
ti t
every is i m pme reaettiivneg that
of that
thaent
' a
proceedings.
that
oAnneomthpeorwoebri
objection-
able ctiothne
board, on its recovering-
a , charities, that should it be
poptlyththee
dsoanmoers,actchoernditnhe Com-
missioners
g tothe
onfdthite s w
sa hmol ee t
is
t ebrl
e t o
pit r t aProtestant chara
powered to apply the funds to such
eno
e mpieoits uses as they shall judge most con-
Ipedtieatins to a
trrr in
he intentions of the donor or donors. ' In-
xpeecimermdatiionns cols a word both vague and indefinite, and
ecfddohierrate bad
ebl
e l io ate
leads many Roman Catholics to think that their bequests
for the purposes of education or other general charitable
uses might be transferred to institutions or purposes the
very reverse of their benevolent intentions.
"'That during the last session the House of Com-
mons printed copies of the minutes of the Lords of the
Treasury, calling upon the Irish Government to intro-
duce measures tending to divest the board in question of
its exclusively religious constitution.
" That that board, on its foundation in the year
1800, was substituted for the Committee of the Irish
House of Lords, which House was then exclusively Pro-
testant ; but as Roman Catholics are now eligible to
seats in both Houses of Parliament, no just objection can
be supposed to exist why that public department should
not be promptly remodelled and bear the same resem-
blance to the existing Legislature. As the great ma-
jority of the people of Ireland are of the Roman Catholic
religion, it is not unreasonable to expect that that
religion and its charities should be represented in such
a commission, particularly as its expenses are defrayed
by Parliament.
" That your memorialists and their clergymen are
trustees of very considerable funds and property for
charitable uses, and the legacies to them for charities
have been, and still are, increasing to a very great extent.
" "rhat, as such a department must be supposed to
have much influence and control over charities Intended
for Roman Catholic purposes, it is but natural that
your memorialists should feel that, whilst it remains
constituted as it is, the apprehensions of its utility will
not only be doubted by them, but by those of their re-
ligion.
" Your memorialists, therefore, entreat. that the
Board of Irish Charities may be rendered more gene-
rally useful and popular, by the introduction to it of
Roman Catholic Commissioners, or by some other mea-
sure which may have a tendency to place their charities
upon the same footing as those of their Protestant
faow-countrymen.'
" Thus spoke the assembled prelates of your
Church in 1840. Their prayer could not then be
heard ; but the recent Act appears to have been in-
tended to grans all that we then sought. It admits
to the Board of Charitable Donations and Bequests
Roman Catholic Commissioners in sufficient number
to check any adverse influence which might be
attempted regarding the application of Catholic
charities ; and it takes away the dangerous power
enjoyed by the former board of alienating, under
certain circumstances, Catholic bequests from the
known objects contemplated by the testator, and of
applying them to purposes which, if living, he would
abhor. So far our prayer has been granted. The
state of insecurity in which our charities were placed
has been removed, and had the Act stopped there, we
could not, without the greatest inconsistency, utter
one word of complaint against it.
" But the Act had a second object, namely, to
enable us to invest property in perpetual security,
for the purpose of prosmring glebes for our clergy,
and building and maintaining churches for the due
celebration of Catholic worship. Let us now turn
our attention to that second object. Towards the close
of the session the most distinguished member of the
Catholic body introduced into Parliament a Bill
which, had it passed into a law, would have .been
effectual for that purpose. It was a Bill to enable
Roman Catholic archbishops, bishops, and priests, to
take grants or conveyances to them and their succes-
sors, without the intervention of trustees. This
would have been a perfect measure. It would secure
to the Roman Catholic bishops and parochial clergy
respectively the direct conveyance of whatever grants
should be intended for the permanent benefit of them-
selves and their successors, and it also supplied the
means of removing all doubts as to the bishop or
priest for whom such grant would be intended. It is
unfortunate that this Bill did not pass into a law.
Afflicting circumstances, howevears,siwnhgicbheyaornedbitustfitrosot
well known, prevented it from p
stage ; and the Charitable Bequests Act became a
very important substitute for it. When the latter
Act was first introduced into Parliament, on the 18th
of June, it contained a clause by which it was pro-
posed to grant a power of vesting property, not in
archbishops, bishops, and parochial clergy for them-