The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-26 00:00:00

(LEFT SITTING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at Four o'clock.
WHITTLE DEAN WATERWORKT.
This Bill was read a third time.
YORK AND SCARBOROUGH RAILWAY DEVIA

TION BILL. ---
This Bill was also read a third time.
CORNWALL RAILWAY.
Mr. PENDARVES presented petitions from landowners
and others in the county of Cornwall against the proposed
Cornwall Railway.

-WATERFORD UNION.
Sir W. H. BARRON presented a petition from the guardians
of the Waterford Union praying the House to equalise the poor
rates in all the different parishes.

BANK OF IRELAND.
Sir H. W. BARRON presented a petition from the Rev.
Dr. Clay (as we understood) against the National Bank of Ire-
land 13111.

RAILWAY BILLS.
Mr. STEWART WORTLEY moved the order of the day
for the adjourned debrte on Railway Bills.
Mr. W. PATTEN said since the debate had been ad-
journed he had considered this subject fully, and he was
in doubt as to whether they ought not to adopt
the resolution altogether as it how stood. At the
same time they ought to look that on framing these regu-
lations they threw no discouragement in the way of rail-
way Companies. The House should recollect that they bad in
a former session passed certain regulations which at the time
were considered as not imposing any restrictions np(.n
railway Companies,- but were afterwards found to
prevent many useful schemes from coming before the
House. The House, he again repeated, should take care
that they enacted that which was calculated in the smallest
degree to discourage the extension of these projects.
Mr. HAWES said that the commission had proposed that
in any Railway Bill brought into the House which recited any
Railway Act already passed this clause, should be in-
troduced. Therefore they must consider this clause
as extending to all Railway Bills which had
passed since the first Railway Bill had !Dern
introduced into that House. The Hon. Member for the West
Riding went as far as that—but the Noble Lord went much
. .

furthe-r. The Noble Lord further required that every Railway
Bill reciting any preceding Railway Act should be subject to
revision and alteration, as regarded the rates of fines. Now if the
House intended to revise the rates of charges of all railway com-
panies, let the House distinctly decide that it intended to revise
the rates and charges of all railway companies, after due notice
given, and after the parties objecting had had an op-
portunity of being heard. It had been said that the
charges were high—but the returns which had been made
it had been shown that for thirty-eight millions of capital in-
vested in railways the average return had not been more than
five per cent. Thus it did not appear that such an enormous
rofit had been made on the capital invested in railways
as ought to induce the House to interfere. It had
been said that the charges in foreign railways were
lower. Undoubtedly they were ; but it should be recollected
that in foreign railways a portion of the capital had been fur-
nished by the State, while here the whole had been subscrib d
by private individuals. And in foreign railways, if there was
not a certain return for the capital invested, taxation was
imposed upon the people to secure the required amount.
1 herefore, the resolution in its present state, ought not to be
passed, but, at all events, he could not consent to it unless he
heard some explanation of the words which provided—that if
any future Bill should recite a former Act, such Act should be
subject to the decision of Parliament. Such a resolution
he repeated, ought not to be passed by the House, but before
the House did pass it, he hoped Government would favour them
with their opinion upon the subject, because the resolution in
itself affected great masses of property, and was looked to with
great interest by the public.
Mr. BARING said the House, by its previous legislation,
never intended to sanction the monopolies which were exercised
by some of the existing railway companies. If the House re-
ferred to the reports of former Committees, they would
see that, so far from this being the case, a
clause was introduced in almost all the Bills to
prevent such monopolies, but that clause had since
proved to be defective ; but, nevertheless, it was evident every
Committee appeared desirous of establishing such a
system of competition as would avert the existence
of monopoly. He was, therefore, inclined to think
the House had already the power to make additions and
alterations in the Acts of companies, who should come to them
for extended powers ; but, in his opinion, they had no right to
make these alterations until the companies did come to Par-
liament. He hoped, before the approach of the next session,
of Parliament, Government would take the whole subject of
railway legislation into their consideration, and see if something
could be done to improve the present system. It was evident
such a system could not last ; and he thought Government
could, if they liked, place railway legislation upon a more firm,
settled, and satisfactory footing.
Sir R. PEEL thought the resolutions contemplated two
distinct things. In the first place it contemplated subjecting
every Railway Company, whether new or old, when they ap-
proached Paniament for new or extended powers, to such
restrictions and additional legislation as the House
might think desirable. The second resolution sub-
jected any railway which might hereafter come to
Parliament to a resolution affecting the tolls and farms which
might be charged on such railway, and he must confess the two
resolutions appeared to him to be anything but objectionable.
They (the House) had not time then to consider all these ob.
jections, but they said to the promoters of railway schemes—
" We should be prejudicing your interests were we to postpone
the passing of your Bill until we had time to give the subject
due consideration. We shall consent to pass your
Bills generally, without inserting this resolution ;
Lut we shall reserve to ourselves the power of
subjecting your tolls to such further control as we may see
proper." That was to say, they would not exercise an arbi-
trary right on the subject of tolls generally, but they should
deem it their duty to see that passengers were protected, and,
holding these opinions, he should support the motion of the
Hon. Member.

(LEFT SITTING.)

rHE MAYNOOTB. BILL.

requested u s t
The Committee of the Anti-Alayanboothh
th
Dissenters
Conference have
to publish
We pub-
lish many things follow-
ing address to the Catholicsof
course of which we do not
approve, and this isone, h
of
eitasadziltiri document
issuing from a body of religionists,
v
le g
iN
possibly
u
an impressi.on on others of a different
t • that hat chance is there, however, ic
hope
aosfiannia.kinlgy
nslumake the slightest impression ? Thy Catholics
are naturally highly indignant at the hostility dis-
played against their religion by the English Dis-
senters, and will look upon this admonition as only
adding mockery to insult. They have approved o'f
the Maynooth Bill to a man, they regard it as a proof
that a Tory Government means to consult Irish in-
terests. The only trill opposition made to it is by men
who denounce their religion as damnable and idol-
atrous, and though the party that recognises Juhn
Burnet as a leader may di,claim such vile accusations,
they are too much mixed up with the enemies °Ore-
land to be regarded as impartial monitors:—
ADDRESS TO THE ROMAN CATITOLICS
OF IRELAND,
nom THE CONFERENCE OF PROTESTANT DISSENTERS
HELD IN CROSBY-HALL, LONDON, ON MAY THE 20TH
AND 215,T, 1545.
Fellow Subjects.,—There are crises which occasionally
occur in national higory so momentous as to rar.r,fitiiteal
departure from all the Qrdinary methods or
intercourse; wad to justify an appeal, not to individuals,

hbwever distinguished, nor to any isolated bodies of men,
bnt to a nation at large; such a crisis, in our deliberate
judgment, has now arrived, and we therefore feel that in
embracing it no further apology is necessary.
You are placed by circumstances, the origin and
growth of which it is unnecessary to trace, in a position
so conspicuous and so critical as to attract towards you
the anxious attention of all patriotic men in these realms,
and of the liberal and thoughtful throtighout the civilised
world. On your conduct at the present juncture, the
mightiest and most sacred interests are suspended, and
with you, tinder divine Providence, rest those issues
which are destined to give a complexion, for an indefinite
period, to the history of this empire. Your fidelity to
the great principles of justice must inevitably promote
its peace, prosperity, and freedom ; your betrayal of
them will necessarily be the omen, at least, of their tem-
porary disaster and defeat.
You will not suppose that, professing as we do the
principles of civil and religious freedom, we are instiga-
ted in our present appeal by a desire to cajole you into
any intermission of your efforts ire the great cause of
justice to Ireland. We highly appreciate her resources ;
we deeply sympathise with her wrongs. We have ever
advocated her claims, and we have long admired the pa-
triotic zeal of her people to achieve,*by peaceful mans,
the restoration of her unquestionable rights. You need
not to be reminded that the Dissenters of England
were among the warmest supperters of the Catholic
Relief Bill ; that they heartily advocated the equal ex-
tension of political privileges to the Irish as to the Eng-
lish people ; that they support:A the chimers of your
country to an equal share in the benefits of Municipal
Reform; that they rejoiced in the abolition of your
Vestry Cess ; and that they viewed with strong indig-
nation the recent attempts of your Government to strain
the powers of the law in the tyrannical suppression of
public opinion. They have ever fought side by side with
you in all 3 our conflicts for social and political equality,
nor will any misconstruction which may have been pat
on their conduct prevail to diminish the earnestness of
their efforts in your defence. Still yc.o cannot expect
them to surrender, on this very account, the principles
which, even on the occasions referred to, have regulated
their public conduct.
We have ever held that, of all the grievances under
which yeur country has laboured, the establishment of
the Anglican church in Ireland is the most unjustifiable
and oppressive, and we pledge ourselves never to remit
our etibrts to remove from you this intolerable
burden. We deem it a fundamentel maxim, even of the
commonest political justice—and ip this opinion we are
fortified by that of some of the most eminent members
of the Roman Catholic church—that no compulsory
payments can be rightfully demanded for the support of
any religious system whatever. In this simple but
vital principle lies involved the whole philosophy of
Nonconformity. The slightest deviation fee m this
ground would virtually amount to a surrender of our
consistency, and vvoulj obviously expose us to the
merited derision of all discerning men.
Now it will be plain to you that the preposel mew.
sure for the permanent endowment of the College of
Mayneoth involves the most direct invasion of this prin-
ciple. It places your dissenting know-subjects in the
very position from which they are striving to rescue you.
It violates their consciences as offensively as the Pro-
testant establishment, in its tyrannical exactions,
violates yours. It re-enacts the obnoxious rtinciple, it
is an extension of the very system, which you, in com-
mon with ourselves, have long been labauring to over-
throw. To tolerate this measure, is distinctly to sanction
and assert that principle.
It is impossible, moreover, to mistake the design of
this measure. If it could be regarded as a legitimate,
though scanty instalment of the heavy debt of justice
which England owes to your country, we should be the
first to hail it; but, were there no other consideration,
the quarter from which it comes forbids this supposition.
If, as your justly indignant feelings lead you sometimes
to suppose, you have natural enemies in this country, it
is with them that this measure originates. Defeated in
their attempts to overawe you by the terrors of law and
the array of military force, an oligarchy, notoriously
hostile to popular feeling, addicted by their ordinary
policy to measures of coercion, yet vacillating in all their
courses, and open to the influence of the meanest me-

Lives, now insult your public virtue by the cif, r of
a paltry bribe. We have greatly miscalculated
the high feeling of the Irish people, whose modern
history furnishes the most demonstrative vindica-
tion of the voluntary principle—who, oppressed by an
opulent and alien hierarchy, drained of their resources
by aristocratic absentees, crippled in their com-
merce by selfish restrictions, and, with sill their un-
equal local capaLilities turned to the condition of a
desert, have borne up the &brie of a religion on the
sinews of poverty, and maintained their worship by the
mites of indigence thrown into the treasury—we haves
we repeat, greatly misealeu'ated the high fc, ling of the
Irish people, if they are to be seduced from their lsfty
position by such fawning blandishments and transpa-
mit arts as these—if, like the ill famed heroine of uu-
tiquity, they will surrender the citadel they have so
nobly defended, in consideration of the worth', ss erna.
meats which bedizen the arms of their foes. No !
fellow-countrymen, let it never be said that 3-ou, who,
in your majestic course, hate braved the terrors fd phy-
sical coercion, and who have ris• n unharmed front the
tires of legal prosecution, have yielded to the first mere-
tricious smile of those who, from the highest seats of
power, have denounced you " aliens in blood, aliens in
language, aliens in religion."
The boon thus gratuitously effercd by the liovern-
ment has no relation whatever to the real grievances

of your country. It is manifestly designed ►s a diver-
sion, to relax your interest and to %% ithdra re your at-
tention from the substantial evils which oppress you. had
her Majesty's Government been possessed with a tineere

desire to serve you, they might have found innu►nepable
opportunities of doing co without violating cur conscience
or compromising your independence. They might have
conceded to you a proportionate share in the national
representation ; they might have thrown open to you
the advantages of your metropolitan university ; above
all, they might have relieved 3 ou from the incubus of the
Protestant Church. From the attainment of these and
similar essential reforms, which the Government are un-
willing to concede, it is, in our judgment, the purrose of
this insidious measure to beguile you ; and should they
succeed, they will have thrown back indefinitely the
cause of justice to Ireland, and have rendered one of
the most imposing movements for national freedom, the
object of lasting and of justly merited derision. It is
for you, fellow-subjects, whose characteristic sagacity
cannot fail to detect this ill-concealed design, to avert,
by a timely and resolute opposition, so fatal and dis-
graceful a result.

If, again, this grant is to be regarded for a moment in
the light of restitution, the meanness of the proposal
sufficiently indicates that it is intended merely as preli-
minary. It is too absurd to suppose that the wealthiest
and most powerful Government in the world, should
look upon the insignificant pittance of about 26,0001. a
year, as a compensation for the urgent claims ( f a
great people. But if this measure is preliminary, vie
beg you to consider what is that system which it is de-
signed to introduce. The cautious and characteristic
silence of the Government has been generally, and, we
believe, correctly interpreted, both wiihin and without
the walls of Parliament, as a virtual admission of their
desire eventually to take the whole hody of your priest-
hood into the pay of the State. Can it be necessary
to suggest to you the consequences of such a scheme ?
It would violate the consciences, not only of the
class who already suffer a scarcely tolerable indignity
on this account, but of the entire Christian commu-
nity in these realms. Dissenters, who already groan
under the exactions of one establishment, will rise with
a more resolute determination against the endowment of
a second. The recognised leaders of
.th. the Irish Catholic;
ahna vaerragain
arrangement
again;lvin
io the pronounced
Anglican dec decisively against
list either
h
arenpde
ntlicYe
galooi tds afratiitchl.e s onre
ga
icorni fis caene.unv eorsyn7el claim
rtro
vce•robnisai
most bitter that agitate the breasts of men, would be
exacerbated to an incalculable degree ; while, as State
support and State control arc invariably correlative, the
most earnest of your religious teachers would be placed
under a dictation unbearably galling to all save those
whom it may seduce to the compromise of all that is dear
to high-minded and conscientious men. In a word, such
a measure would reduce to a mere name all public virtue
and consistency, and stain with ineffable disgrace the
sacred cause of Christianity itself.
The opposition of the Dissenting body to the Govern-
ment measure has, by some thoughtless and impetuous
men, been indiscriminately condemned us fanatical and
bigoted. We indignantly repudiate the charge as
applied to the great Nonconforming body. Let us newt.
hear it repeated. We are ready to contend by your side
for the attainment of an equal participation of all rights,
ecclesiastical, political, and social ; but we will not
sacrifice our consciences to the success of a State trick,
nor will we patiently submit to be taxed for a bribe to
you, which we would spurn with contempt, were it
offired to ourselves.

With all the earnestness, then, which a concern for
the highest interests of our fellow men can excite, we
conjure you, by your self-respect as British subjects—by
the lofty position you occupy, as the peaceful but reso •
lute defenders of your national freedom—by the claim
of ordinary consistency, as political agents—and, above
all, by the solemn requirements of religious fidelity, to
reject the unhallowed bribe offered at your very altars
by secular and hostile hands; and, turning your back upon
the temporary and crafty homage of a faetirn, to throw
yourself on themight of those resources, by which the reli-
gion of Christ survived, at its origin, the persecution of
a world ; and in the strength of which it is, as we trust,
destined hereafter to bless the universal family of man.
Signed on behalf of the Conference,

Jc~IIN BURN

CIIARING-CROS,IIIOsPITAL.--Yestelday morning
a sermon, on ht half of
as
preached at St. Paul's
ovent
18
indigent swk persons ,he
vencrr.hle 11. 1.. gtrthh.ehie.:insl(c..inAnbitn;.irN.:cAi
h. of eagietniaoarstitt
garden,
snutesiacib,rin).o.9.
Chiches-
ter. lie ICS-
ed en
liiilc.fr,aatti(c:.ntcso,st of 2.4311. 15s. 24d. ; of these, 1,056 were
and 8,462 were out. patients (many of whom
were visited at their own homes, and the greater part
were restored to the blessings of henl,h and to their
occupations for the ftipport of their families). These,
with the casts reported in former annual statements,
make a total of 102,776 sick find needy individuals who
have partaken of the hem fits of the Institution, from
its commencement, in 1818, to the 31st December, 1844.
After a very energetic appeal on behalf of the peculiar
claims which this useful charity has upon the feelings of
the wealthy and benevolent, the sum collected amounted
to 40/.105., and an additional annual subscription of five
guineas from a biewavolent supporter of the hospital.
.
ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY,
re added to the society :
.Aft
Da
umeeting oi
cf fellows,e.p
resehneLd
tent
the
ee
eghte,nn
the following ladies and gentlemen were the Honourable William
The Venerable Archdeacon CliveisCaAlmer
Chapman.
Esq., H. J.
IhGaSa:Frtd'Szi: ti,l;tteeeß,isalz
Gordon, 11. Drummond,
myth, 4e. tcir.anlita,rErissqpn,,R.mwrz
Bpriaagnrd:',";t:."iTayEldon:,;(B.ll''Tell.:;rll.s.c.',EE::.c. Whately, En., Q.C.
Commeril , q.,