The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1845.

The royal assent was given by Commission to several
Bills.

Several petitions were presented on the subject of the
Maynooth grant; and
Lord BROUGHAM took the opportunity of contradicting
a statement which had been made, that an attack on the
measure, which had appeared in one of the French
papers, had been written by a member of the French
Government.

There was a short conversation between the Marquis
of NORMANDY and Lord STANLEY, on the subject of the
Irish Constabulary, which led to no result.
The Earl of Powis brought in a Bill for repealing the
Act uniting the bishoprics of St. Asaph and Bangor, and
for empowering her Majesty to appoint a Bishop of
Manchester. The second reading of this Bill was fixed
for the 2d of May, and Lord MONTEACLE gave notice
that he should move for the appropriation of the reve-
nues of the suppressed Welsh Bishoprics to the parochial
clergy, instead of to the Ecclesiastical Fund.
Lord WHARNCLIFIE brought in the London Orphan
Asylum Bill, which was read a first time, and their
Lordships adjourned.
The House of Commons met at four o'clock.
At the time of private business, Lord GRANVILLE
SOMERSET moved a resolution to the effect, that it be an
instruction to every Committee on a Railway Bill, to fix
the tolls and maximum rate of charges for the conveyance
of passengers and goods, and that if they omit to do so,
they should set forth the grounds of such omission in a
special report.
After a short discussion the motion was agreed to.

Mr. HUTT gave notice, for Thursday week, of a motion
for the admission of Australian Flour on the same terms
as Canadian.

Sir R. PEEL said the Whitsun holidays would not ex
tend longer than from Friday to Wednesday or Thurs
day.

Mr. LIDDELL brought in the Dog Stealing Bill, which
was read a first time.

Among the numerous petitions presented on the sub-
ject of the Maynooth grant, was one by Mr. M. MILNF.S,
from the Bachelors and Undergraduates of the Uni-
versity of Cambridge, in favour of the grant. The pe-
tition was laid upon the table amidst loud cheering.
The adjourned debate on the subject of the motion of
Mr. WARD was then resumed.

Mr. COLQUHOUN, who was equally opposed to the
motion of the Hon. Member for Sheffield and to
the Government measure—said, the Government mea-
sure was merely a prelude to the establishment of
the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, and within
rive years after such an establishment should have
taken place, the Protestant Church in that country
would cease to exist.
Mr. BATESON defended the Irish Church.

Mr. F. BARING supported the Government proposi-
tion with which he thought the Irish Catholics would
be satisfied.

Mr. BERNAL supported Mr. WARD'S motion.
Captain GLADSTONE opposed the amendment of the
Hon. Member for Sheffield.

Lord HowicK not only supported Mr. WARD'S pro-
position, but was disposed to go much further. He
hoped the day was not far distant when the two
churches would be placed upo❑ an equal footing.

Mr. G. A. HAMILTON considered that the funds of the
Irish Church had been overstated, and the conduct of
her clergy misrepresented. He was opposed both to the
motion and to the amendment.

Mr. EDWARD ELLICE supported the motion of Mr,
WARD.

Mr. RocHE also supported the motion, although he re.
gretted that it had been brought forward at the presen
time.

Lord PAL3IERSTON would prefer paying the endow-
ment c,f Maynooth out of the surplus revenues of the
Established Church, to defraying it out of the Consoli-
dated Fund. He would vote in favour of Mr. WARD'S
motion.

Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT denied that the Government
had proposed the additional grant to Maynooth through
fear.

Sir H. W. BARRON opposed the motion, on the grcund
of its interfering with the measure of the Government,
and, as a Roman Catholic, he considered he should be
ungrateful if he adopted any course calculated- to QM-
barrass them.

After a few words from Mr. lIINDLEY, the House

divided, when there appeared—For Mr. WARD'S motion,
143 ; against it, 322 ; majority against Mr. WARD'S
motion, 174.
A short discussion then arose as to the time when the
Bill should be committed. It was ultimately decided
that it should be taken in Committee to-morrow (this day.)
The House then adjourned at One o'clock.

The division on Mr. WARD'S motion has placed some
Members in a singular position. Sir ROBERT INGLIS
lost a considerable portion of his supporters, or in words
which the Tories delight to use when speaking of Mr.
O'CoNNELL's influence over his colleagues, part of his
tail. Mr. HINDLEY, the most conspicuous for religious
principle in discussing this question, deserted his Tory
leader and voted with Mr.WARD. Others, more consistent,
did not vote at all. Among these were, Mr. T. DUNCOMBE,
Mr. WARLEY, Mr. ELLICE, jUD., Mr. Fox MAULE, &c.
Their conduct was prudent ; but what is to be said of
Mr. HINDLEY? He votes for a measure, the object of
which is to take a certain sum from funds ap-
plicable to ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland, and
appropriate it for the maintenance of Popery. Had
Mr. WARD'S party been strong enough, the grant to
Maynooth would have remaitsed the same, and the only
difference would have been, that 26,0001. would have been
taken from the Irish Protestant Church in place of the
Consolidated Fund. The religious scruple, therefore,
is thrown overboard, and to this point must all
the objectors of the same class come at last.
To resist the measure on religious grounds is a prin-
ciple which is utterly untenable, and must lead to inex-
tricable confusion ; it would raise a rebellion in Canada,
it might shake the foundations of our empire in India,
and would render our colonies even more hostile to the
Protestant Church than the Roman Catholics of Ireland
sßmo e
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might be a rebellion in the sister island, they must op-
pose every grant to Popery, and Hindocism, and every
religion except the true one, though the
desperate re-
solution, if effectual, would destroy the British em-
pire. It is evident the affairs of the world cannot
be carried on with such principles ; and all rational
men
therefore, adapt themselves to circumstances, and
sub-
,
mit even to plans at variance with their religious views,
for the sake of peace and security. The argument that
no money should be voted to an Established Church of
any description is, we fear, in aristocratic England,
equally untenable. But that principle, too, has been
often entirely forgotten when the Catholic religion, and
more especially the Catholic religion in Ireland, was

not mixed up with the question. A grant of 10,0001. a
year is paid out of the Consolidated Fund to make
up small livings in Scotland to 1501. a year,
though there are ample teinds for that purpose
belonging to the Established Church. The landlords
robbed the Church of a part of the tithes, and some of
the descendants of these very landlords, on religions
principles, voted with Sir ROBERT INGLIS against a
paltry grant to a Church which had been robbed of its
entire inheritance. The union of robbery and religion
exhibits strange phenomena. The Church of England,
too, the wealthiest Church in the world, has
received large subsidies from the State—enough to
provide for the religious instruction of the whole Irish
people—yet that fact is lost sight of, and the wrath of
the voluntaries is reserved for the unfortunate
Irish. Their day of relief, however, is at
hand. Neither Sir ROBERT PEEL nor Sir
JAMES GRAHAM could urge any reason for
refusing them an act of justice, and they are still sup-
ported by that consistent party which suffered so much
for Ireland, and finally carried Catholic Emancipation
Lord Howicis last night spoke out as he has always
done, like a statesman and a man of honour. " I have,"
said he, " always regarded the Church of Ireland in the
same light as my Right Hon. Friend the Member for
Edinburgh. I have always regarded the maintenance
of the Irish Church on its present footing as contrary
to every principle of justice and policy. I believe, in
my conscience, the maintenance of that Church has
been the great obstacle to the spread of the Protestant
religion. I am so persuaded of the truth of the
great principles of that religion, that I firmly be-
lieve, if they were given fair play, if they were not
weighed down by the injustice of the system to
which they are united, they must in three centu-
ries have taken root and flourished in the soil
of Ireland as they have done in other countries."
Lord PALMERSTON, though belonging to another school
of politics, was no less explicit. "It is impossible," said
his Lordship, '° that the present state of things in Ire-
land, as regards the religious establishments of the two
sections into which the country is divided, can be per-
manent. You have there a population of about eight mil-
lions, very nearly seven millions of whom are of a religion
different from the eighth:million—you have a large Church
Establishment, which is appropriated to the instruc
tion of only one half of the Protestant minority—by
an annual grant you have contributed to the reli-
gious instruction of the remaining portion of the Pro-
testant minority. Can you then, for a moment, con-
template as Permanent a system under which six and
a half or seven millions of the poorest of the people
of Ireland receive religious instructions from a
priesthood dependent upon eleemosynary contribu-
tions ; who go from house to house, from farm to farm,
and from cabin to cabin, collecting the wretched pittance
for their precarious subsistance ?—(Cheers.) What-
ever may be the feelings of a large portion of the Ilcuse,
and whatever the feelings of a large portion, I admit, of
the people of this country, I maintain that a provision
for the Roman Catholic priesthood is a measure which
Government and the House, at no distant period, veil( be
compelled, from a sense of justice, to entertain."

The accounts from Madrid are to the 17th inst. On that
day the Chamber of Deputies adopted the war budget.
Senor Montmo had proposed an amendment for the purpose
of placing the provincial regiments, or national militia, in
their former position, and thereby making a saving of
20,000,000 reals, but lie withdrew it at the request of the
Minister of War, who said every possible reduction consistent
with public safety had been made in the army. The follow-
ing piece of gossip appears in one of the Opposition papers

"TOLEDO, Aran. 15.—Yesterday evening the son of the cele-
brated English Minister, Sir Robert Peel, who Is an attache to the
British Embassy at Madrid, arrived hither. At the moment that
the said foreigner's carriage passed the post of the Alcantara gate,
the carabineers on duty approached in order to examine it.
Without any other ceremony, Sir Robert Peel's son presented to
the carabineers a pair of double-barrelled pistols. In return for
this delicate attention the carabineers rushed to their arms,
being anxious to repay the young foreigner in the same coin,
and to make him understand that, in such matters, Spaniards
are net a sluggish people. This amicable interview might have
been attended with very unpleasant consequences, had it not been
put a stop to by tho interposition of the civil employ Es. The poli.
heal chief, being informed of what was passing, sent for the
Englishman, when the latter said, with the candour which charac-
terises the English, that he did not understand the Spanish lan.
guage, and that he had presented his pistols to the carabineers for
the sole purpose of ascertaining whether a duty must be paid on
them. The political chief being convinced by this satisfactory
reply, suffered the ycung foreigner to depart. Oh if he had been
a Spaniard."

The Three per Cents. were done at 35i at 60 days; the
Five per Cents. at 25 9-16 at 60 days; the Coupons at 28i
at 60 days; and the Debt without interest at at 60 days.

The French Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday adopted,
with a slight alteration, the first clause of the Bill for re-•
ducing the Five-per-Cent Stock, which is as follows :—the
Minister of Finance is authorised to effect the reimbursement
of the Five per Cents. at the rate of 100 f. for each sf. of
rente, or the conversion into Four-and• a-half per Cent. de-
clared not convertible for seven years. Silence on the part
of the stockholders was to be interpreted as acceptance of the
offer thus made. Stockholders were to be allowed twenty
days, for France, to make their demand for reimbursement, a
month for Europe or Algeria, and a year for other countries,
dating from the day on which the ordinance should be issued
fixing the conditions of the present Bill.
The alteration was a guarantee of ten in place of seven
years against the reduction of that stock when converted into
the Four -and-a-Half per Cents. The second clause was
under discussion at the hour of post. The report of the
Committee on supplementary and extraordinary credits for
the year 1844.45 has been completed, and was to be laid
before the Chamber on Wednesday. The revenue, it states,
was expected to yield in that year a surplus of 24,947,836 f.,
but had yielded nearly twice as much-42,000,000f. ;
yet, owing to extraordinary credits upon the treasury, there
had been a deficit of 24,123,500 f. The Committee are
strongly opposed to such a ruinous system, and state that
" such a result is calculated to make the Chamber most seri-
ously reflect. If, in a year in which general prosperity has
yielded a surplus revenue of 42,000,000 f. more than the
budget had reckoned, we close the same year with a deficit
of more than 24,000,000 f., what would the situation of our
finances be if unfortunate circumstances were to diminish or
stop up several sources of our revenue at the same time that
they aggravated the charges that weigh on our coun-
try ? If, from the interior of France, we turn our eyes
to the great powers of Europe, we find that they are
restoring an equilibrium between their receipts and their
expenses; that they are reducing their debts, and effecting
savings, as if, in anticipation of events that may compel
them to bring into play their whole strength, they were re-
serving resources for the future, and providing for all con-
tingencies. Thus it is that at the moment we are about to
close the financial year of 1813 with a defalcation of
39,826,728 francs, England is closing that year with a sur-
plus of receipts of 36,118,706 francs."
Among other items in this financial document are 44,000 f.
as compensation to the owners of two British ships which
had been expelled unjustly by the French authorities from
the Bay of Portendick, and prevented from taking a cargo (,f
gum which was ready for loading. Notes had been ex-
changed on the subject between the Cabinets of London and
Paris, and Commissioners appointed, without coming to any-
decision, when the question was refi rre,i to the arbitration of
the King of PRUSSIA, who awarded this sum, including
interest. The demands of the British Government were
stated at 1,903,608 f. There is also a sum of 55,000 f.
as compensation to British agents who were compelled to quit
Morocco when the French fleet bombarded the coast. These
grants are expected to excite some angry speeches from the
Opposition.