The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 1845.

The House of Lords did not sit last evening.

The Rouse of Commons met at Four o'clock.

A new writ was ordered for the borough of Wood
stock, in the room of the Marquis of BLANDIFORD, who
has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.
In the early part of the evening, in answer to a ques-
tion from Lord ASIILEY,

Sir R. Prx.z, made the following important announce-
--" That it is the intention of her Megrarri6

Government to propose further measures with
regard to academical education in Ireland."
The Right Hon. Baronet further stated that some out-
line of those measures should be givrn to the House,
either by himself or by some other member of the Go-
vernment, before the third reading of the Maynooth
Bill came on.

The order of the day for the House going into Com•
mittee on the Maynooth Bill having been read,
On the motion that the SPEAKER do leave the chair,

Mr. WARD rose to move the resolution of which
he had given notice, to the effect that the funds
for providing for the endowment of Maynooth
should be taken, not from the Consolidated Fund,
but from the revenue devoted to ecclesiastical purposes in
Ireland. At the commencement of his speech the Hon.
Member expressly stated that he did not bring forward
this motion out of any hostility to the Government plan,
of which he much approved, but he thoughtit right to put
on record his opinion as to the source from which
this revenue ought to be derived. In the coarse
of his speech the Hon. Member strongly animadverted
on the spirit of bigotry which had been displayed by
many of the opponents of the grant to Maynooth, and
quoted largely from published speeches and pamphlets, in
support of his position. He also went at length into the ge-
neral question of Ecclesiastical endowments, and urged the
Government, as they had adopted a new course of policy
with regard to Ireland, to adopt the right course at once-
The Hon. Gentleman concluded by moving his resolu-
tion.

Captain BERKELEY seconded the motion.
Sir T. FREMANTLE, allowing the sincerity of the Hon.
Gentleman's motives, deprecated the introduction of
the question at this moment, when he would have other
opportunities of discussing it.

Sir W. JAMES opposed the resolution, but supported
the Government measure. Era long he felt that the
present state of the Protestant Church in Ireland must
be amended by the House.
Sir J. B. WALSH would vote against the motion.
Mr. MACAULAY, in a most eloquent speech. supported
the resolution, and denounced the Established Church in
Ireland as the most pernicious; and absurd institution
that had ever disgraced any country.
Sir J. GRAHAM considered that the grant would be
still more unpopular if the funds were to
be derived from the spoliation of the Irish
Church. He was, as he always had been, oppcsed
to any measure like that proposed by the Hon. Member
for Sheffield.

Mr. ROEBUCK supported the motion. It was clear
that the Maynooth Grant had been extorted from the
fears of the Government, and not from their sense of

lustice.

Sir R. PEEL protested against the manner in which
what he had said on Friday had been misrepresented. The
grant had not been extorted by the fears of the Govern-
ment. It had been tendered as a token of kindly feel
ing to Ireland, and had been accepted as such. The
Right Hon. Gentleman defended the conduct of the Go-
vernment at great length, and said that he was bound to
oppose the proposition of the Hon. Member for
Sheffield.

Lord J. RUSSELL supported Mr. WARD'S motion, and
contrasted the present course of the Government with
that which they had pursued from 1836 to 1843.
On the motion of Mr. COLQUHOUN, the debate was
adjourned, and the House rose at One o'clock.

Mr. WARD'S motion, though involving many topics
adverted to in the debate which lasted the whole of last
week, contains others of the very first importance to the
peace and integrity of the united empire. All men
whose views are not obscured by religious intolerance,
or what is next in obstinacy and intensity, political
bigotry, admit that the main cause of the prevailing dis-
content in Ireland, is that absurd, anomalous, and we re-
gret to say, mischievous institution, the Irish Established
Church. While that exists unimpaired—while the State
religious institutions are Protestant—while the entire

funds intended for the maintenance of the Catholic clergy
and the education of the Catholic people are diverted
from their purpose, and grasped by a Church which
numbers among its worshippers not one•tenth of the
population—while the poor peasants are forced
to maintain out of their scanty means, barely sufficient
for existence, their own clergymen, and behold around
them churches without hearers, parsons without any

'unctions, and at the same time know that the Parlia-
ment of England robbed them of their rightful inheri-
tance—while these things continue to exist, no rational
being can imagine for a moment that seven millions of
Catholics will submit patiently to the dominion
of England. We have been all along disposed to
look with great favour on the proposed grant
to Mayreoth as a measure of wise and
equitable policy. We quite concur, indeed, with those
who think it no more than the concession of a right to
that people, seven-eighths of whom are of that religion,
for the better instruction and education of whose teachers
this grant is especially to provide ; the remaining one-
eighth net being of such religion, but of another which
has hitherto, notwithstanding, been the dominant church
in that country. But we are not solicitous to dis
cuss the exact definition of the class under
which the measure should be arranged, whilst
we can rejoice in the fact that it has been
organised, and (as we trust) is destined to take effect.
Its great merit is, perhaps, more relative than positive.
It is the more welcome to us now, because it has been so
long and so foolishly delayed. Better that justice be
done tardily than not at all. A late repentance is surely
more desirable than the unbroken and unchanging con-
tumacy of an offender. Besides, we cannot help be-
lieving that to give this grant to Maynooth will
very speedily put us in the right road to the
permanent conciliation of Ireland. What if this
road is only to be reached by bridging over
the way to it with the recognition of such a prin-
ciple as that propounded by Mr. WARD'S amendment ?
So much the better. It will but be one step further in
the direction of acting justly, to which we have begun in
earnest to turn, by making provision for the establish-
ment at Maynooth.
In this view of the case we own that we have felt a de-
cided sympathy with the Premier's objects, as he has an-
nounced them, in adventuring upon the bold, intelligible,
and honest course he has adopted in the matter. lie has
perilled much to himself—(as the loss of friends,supporters,
connexions, influence)—in order to achieve much more for
the United Kingdom. He plays for no less a stake
than the permanent consolidation of its strength and
unity, too long convulsed and shaken, as these have
been, by the internal disease of Irish discontent—a dis-
ease aggravated, from day to day, by the suicidal
follies of political bigotry, and threatening the
most fatal consequences if the action of eccle-
siastical and sectarian intolerance on that dis-
content cannot be stopped. We do, however,
and at the same time, cordially advocate, and would
humbly press upon Parliament its adoption of the excel-
lent amendment moved last night by Mr. WARD:—" That
the several sums proposed to be payable to the College
of Maynooth shall not be charged upon, or be payable
by, the Commissioners of her MAJESTY'S Treasury out
of the Consolidated Fund," but, " out of funds
already applicable to ecclesiastical purposes in
Ireland. That is to say, out of the revenues
of the Established Protestant Church of Ireland.
And why not ? If it be equitable and fair to make a
grant to Maynooth, it is of strict and simple justice that
the English people, professing Protestantism, should not
bear the burden of that grant in addition to the burden
of tbis their own Establishment. If to withhold
the equivalent of the intended grant to Maynooth be
a grievous injustice, that injustice is not to be cured by
throwing the extra charge of the grant on the Protestant
laity. Their own Establishment is onerous enough,
Heaven knows, already. To make them bear the cost
of upholding a large portion of the staff of anctier—
whilst their own is in the enjoyment of revenues ade-
quate to what it would require were it the
Church of the vast majority—of seven-eighths,
instead of being, as it is, that of the fractional
minority of one-eighth of the Irish people,—this does
seem to be the most Irish of all the processes of rectifica-
tion that were ever devised ! We are of those who hold
that two wrongs cannot make one right. But let the
Established Church in Ireland pay out of its maximbm
revenues this minimum demand, on behalf of the clergy of
the minority, and yon will do two acts of right. You
will make that just and necessary provision in aid of the
latter which common sense and public policy, as well as
all moral considerations, demand ; and you will clap the
burden of the provision on the right shoulders.
It is, therefore, with deep regret that we observe boa
little of fair and candid support the Premier (with whom
we have, ourselves, so many grounds of political diffee
rence, onviotalppqouneesnttisonws,htoo,o)atrecotehievrest,imonest,hcsaitsrre oencauou.p,
msly
fromth
those
advocate the principles he is now manfully
ryi
into execution. For it is surely little like supPwntg in
crisis like this, to taunt and twit the Minister tahae
spirit manifested by Mr. ROEBUCK last night,. He broadly
imputes this wise concession to the "fears" of Sir R.
PEEL of the "agitation" of Mr. O'ComsELL, on the
one•hand, and of the possible coincidence of war with
America and a rebellion in Ireland, on the other. We
can better understand, though we deprecate, considering
it ill-timed, the argumeat of Mr. MACAULAY'S noble
speech. That Right Hon. Gentleman also attributed the
grant
to Maynooth to the influence of a similar intimi-
dation ; but he did so, hypothetically rather, and as the
fair inference from that fatal system of delay in granting