The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-22 00:00:00

c4vning -z,ltift,

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1845,

The House of Lords did not sit yesterday.
The House of Commons met at Four o'Clock.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, attended by two of the
Aldermen, appeared at the Bar, and presented a petition
from the Corporation, praying that the Hibernian Bank-
ing Company, and other new joint• stock-banks in Ireland,
might be included in the provisions of the new Irish
Banking Bill.
The second reading of the Malt Drawback Bill was
postponed for a week.
Capt MANGLES put a series of questions to the Go-
vernment on the subject of the occupation of Sinde, in
reply to which,
Sir R. PEEL stated that at present the government
of that territory was placed under the superintendence
of the Secret Committee, and that as soon as he could
do so without prejudice to the public service he would
give the House all the information on the subject that
it was in his power to give.
The adjourned debate on the third reading of the
Maynooth Bill was then resumed by Colonel VERNER,
who opposed the Bill, and accounted for the apparent
apathy of the Protestants of Ireland on the subject
by saying that they were deterred by appre-
hensions of danger from stating their feelings
with regard to the measure; and that they con-
sidered it useless, after seeing how petitions on
this subject had been treated, to petition the House. Ile
wished to know at once how far the Government in-
tended to go, that he might be prepared for the worst ;
for he knew that this measure, wrung as it was from the
fears of the Government, could not conciliate the repeal
party of Ireland.
Lord H. VANE asked if the Gallant Colonel wished to
govern Ireland by force ? -That system had been tried
and failed. He supported the measure because as Roman
Catholicism was the religion of the large majority of the
Irish people, it was the religion best entitled to endow-
ment, and how those gentlemen who were favourable to
religious endowments on principle could oppose this
measure he could not understand. •
Mr. CoLQUHoUN, in opposing the motion, said that it
the Conservative party wished to maintain a character
for consistenelthey should, now they were in rower,
adhere to those principles which they had maintained in
Opposition. He alluded to the state of France as
a proof cf the danger of endowing the Roman
Catholic religion. The Right Honourable Baronet
had, in 1838, adopted the views of the Right Honour.
able Member for Selkirkshire, who to his honour had
preferred principle to place, a somewhat more creditable
course than that pursued by another Hon. Member
who had preferred place to either principle or rea-
son. In 1838, the Right Hon. Baronet had expressed
his fears of that section of the Roman Catholics who
wished to render civil Government subordinate to eccle-
siastical rule, and he felt curious to know would the man
who told them in 1838 that his fears were justified, tell
them, in 1845, that those fears were groundless, unwor-
thy, and fanatical ? The Hon. Gentleman then attacked
in bitter terms, the Roman Catholic priesthood in Ire-
land, and concluded by reiterating his determination to
oppose the Bill to the utmost of his power.
Mr. F. MACKENZIE complained that his speech at the
Peebles-shire election had been misrepresented. What
he had said was, that the small grant to Maynooth had
done mischief, and that he would support the large grant
as an experiment. He had further recommended the people
of Ireland on that occasion to cherish the Union as the
people of Scotland had done, to repudiate agitation, and
to devote themselves to the cultivation of the land. This
was a slight sketch of his speech at Peebles, and such
were still his opinions.
Mr. NYSE did net recognise, in the number of the
signatures to the petitions against this grant; anything-
like an expression of the universal will of the people ol
England. Ireland contributed to the support of
English and Scotch ecclesiastical establishments. Ire-
land was taxed for the English National Debt•
The Presbyterians enjoyed the Regium Donum, and yet
when it was proposed to make this grant for the educa-
tion of the Catholic clergy, it was opposed with all the
virulence of religious fanaticism, and the Catholic
Church was charged with all sorts of fanaticism.
This was going back to the days of Lord GEORGE Goa-
DON, when all the violence of sectarian zeal was let forth,
in order to crush the freedom of religious opinion. By far
the better plan would be to sink all those differences,
and to avoid those disputes which plucked out of the
Gospel the bright gem of charity, and tended to divide
men from each other, and to excite those points of dif
ference and division which was opposed to every interes
of humanity.

The House was subsequently addressed by Mr.
DARBY, Sir J. GRAHAM, Mr. SHEIL, Mr. PLUDIPTRE,
Mr. Sergeant MURPHY, Mr. FERRAND, Captain LA-
YARD, Mr. WLEAN, Sir R. PEEL, and Lord J. RUSSELL.
after which a division took place, when the numbers
were, for the the third reading 317, against it, 184—
majority 133.

Mr. DUNCOMBE then moved that the powers of the
Bill should be limited to a period of three years, upon
which, after some discussion, the House divided, and the
proposition was rejected by a majority of 98.
The House then adjourned at Half-past Two o'clock.

The division of last night decided the fate of the
Maynooth Bill. This result is not the triumph of any
sect or faction, it is the triumph of the sacred cause of
Justice —an acknowledgment of Ireland's rights and
England's duties. We gladly receive this measure
for its own sake, but, above all, we hail it as the
harbinger of better things—as the first step in
a system of legislation, which, not based on the
shifting sands of expediency, but founded on the
solid rock of principle, shall not veer with every breeze,
and quail before every storm, but remain firm and in-
vincible as truth. It is another triumph for the cause
to find those very men who once were chiefs in the
ranks of oppression—they who were first amid the arbi-
trary and intolerant—should now be foremost in the cause
of justice—become conciliators, and messengers of peace.
They have been taught in the stern but effectual school of
experience—they have learned that right is more power-
ful than might—that tyranny may control for a time,
but that justice alone can eventually conquer. Ireland has
been the " difficulty" of every British statesman, and no
wonder—it must ever be difficult to rule a sister country
like a conquered province ; it must .be, and, thank
Heaven, it is, not only difficult but impossible to govern
a free and generous p,eople by any laws but those of
justice and equality; to say to an entire nation "our
opinions shall be your opinions, our religion shall
be your religion," and " our ways shall be your ways."
The power of conscience is the strongest feeling in the
human breast. A man that dare not worship his CREATOR
without coercion or control has lost his greatest and
noblest privilege; his actions may be free, but his spirit
is fettered—he is a slave indeed! Would that men
of all sects and all religions could concur, in the
tolerant words of Lord FRANCIS EGERTON last night,
" I believe, indeed, there is light for my guidance,
but I do not walk with sufficient confidence
to say that others, who pursue different, parallel, or
possibly widely divergent paths, are under a sad de-
lusion, or are rushing to their ruin ; our goal is a com-
mon one. I hope, I pray, I believe, that many of us
may reach it in common." Let us trust the reign of in-
tolerance is past. The Government have entered upon a
course which friends and foes must alike admire ar d
approve, they have commenced by acknowledging
officially, the just claims of Ireland ;
,they are
about to treat English and Irish, irrespec
tively, as the common subjects of a common Sove.
reign—the common worshippers of the same CREATOR

They will proclaim to the neglected and oppressed,

" Ye are brothers, ye are men,
And we govern but to save."
A distinguishing feature in this debate is the absence of
party spirit. Last evening the chief of the Govern-
ment and the leader of the Opposition both de-
clared their intention to. follow their own opinions
regardless of friend or foe. Sir ROBERT PEEL
spoke as became his proud position—he boldly
declared himself the Minister of England, not the
chief of a faction. We know not if his former promises
led his friends to think otherwise, but we are sure that
every
one must agree with him, that a Minister must do
his duty to his country without any regard to indivi-
duals. "It /media to me," he observed last night, "that
a misapprehension is entertained' in. some quarters with