The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-18 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
ROUSE OF LORDS, Feb. 1;.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the
Woolsack at Five o'Clock.
The Marquis of CONYNGIIAM presented a
petition from Donegal on, the subject of Presbyterian
marriages.
The Earl of MINTO presented a petition from
Roxburgh, praying for a revision of the Provision-
laws.

On the motion of the Duke of RICHMOND,
Several Noble Lords were appointed a Select
Committee to consider of certain matters relative to
theiibrary.:
Lord BROUGHAM presented petitions from the
Dissenters of Bromsgrove, from Lauder, and Forfar,
praying for a total repeal of the Corn-laws. Also
a petition from Antrim relative to Dissenter's
marrages.
POOR-LAW CHAPLAINS (IRELAND).
Earl CLANCARTY said he rose, in pursuance
of a notice he had given on Monday last, for laying
on the table of the House the returns connected with
the appointment of chaplains to the poor-houses in
Ireland, • that information should be laid before
• their Lordships, which might enable them to judge
of the soundness of the principle which the Poor-
law CoMmissionors had adopted in those appoint-
ments, Whether they were of a reliOotts character,
or whether, as appeared to him (Earl Clancarty),
they were directly inconsistent with Protestant reli-
gion in Ireland. It would be unnecessary for him to
trespass at any length upon their Lordship's at-
tention, and he trVsted he should receive some
indulgence, as he seldom' addressed that House,, and did
so now on the impulse ofd uty only,lie feared the returns,
for which he moved, would show on the face of
them that there had been a disregard of the
Established Church in Ireland, and an undue
leaning to the Church of Rome, as well as
trifling with the interests of the rate-payers in Ire-
land. He did not wish to impute anything to the
B:;or-law Commissioners, he was well aware of the
.difficulties with which they had to contend; of Mr.
Nichols especially, who was perhaps most implicated
in the question to which he (Earl Clancarty) was about
to advert, he was far from being insensible of the ser-
vices which that gentleman had rendered to Ireland,
as the author of the Irish Poor-law, and as the Com-
missioner who had called it into operation, he de-
served very great credit ; and much as the adminis-
tration was called before the attention of that House,
in the early part of that year, he (Earl Clancarty)
was aware that Mr. Nichols had evinced much zeal
and labour, and, with the exception of the case to
which he now referred, sound judgment, in the man-
ner in which he had laboured to promote the success-
ful application of the law. Hitherto the law had been
most beneficial in its operations, but he (Earl
Clancarty) could not on that account acquiesce
in the use, or, rather, abuse, which he had
thought fit to make of powers vested in him for
the appointment of chaplains. There was nothing in
the Act to warrant him to grant to Roman Catholic
chaplains salaries more than double the amount of
those he had allowed to Protestant chaplains. They had,
by so doing, caused an unnecessary expense, and had put
a slight on the Established Church, which was aggra-
vated, by not having been contemplated till after the
communication with the Roman Catholic Bishops, in
which the Protestants were not consulted. Still less
did he (Earl Clancarty) agree that preponderancy of
numbers was to form a claim for the clergy of
any denomination for partaking of any endowment
granted by the State, which was as much as to say
that numbers, and not the truth, should form the
basis of the national religion. He was free to admit
that the circumstances of Ireland, with so large a
Roman Catholic and Presbyterian population, required
in the enactment of the Poor-law--on the principle of
administering relief only in workhouses,and preventing
them from going to their own places of wor-
ship—that the performance of- divine service
in those workhouses should be in accordance
• with the various tenets of the inmates. The
provisions under which the Commissioners acted,
authorised the appointment of one chaplain of each
persuasion, giving the preference to clergymen of the
parish duly qualified. The duties to be performed
were equal, the salaries then ought to be equal,
but the Poor-law Commissioners, thought other-
wise=-" Duo aliter visum." The Commissioners
thought that the Catholic chaplains ought to
be paid more than those of the Established
Church, as having more duties to perform in
the way of visiting and instructing, so they
consulted the Catholic Bishops on the subject.
The Catholic Bishops were thus associated with
The Commissioners in a manner which he
could not approve of.—(Hear.) He did not think
that the Legislature, in passing the law, had
any intentions of the kind, or that they wished to
vest such a power in the Commissioners. If the law
'ere to have such an effect, it was evident,
from the speeches delivered in both Houses,
that Members were perfectly unconscious of it.
The correspondence which had passed between him
and Mr. Nichols upon the subject had been laid, by
express desire, before the Government; and the answer
of the Government was that they did not deem it ne-
cessary to interfere with the discretion excercised by
the Commissioners.. He would not trouble their
Lordships further, but conclude by reading the
motion which he intended to submit to the House :
—l, The number of chaplains that have been ap-
pointed under the provisions of the Bth section of the
Irish Poor-law, with the dates of their several
appointments, their names, their religious denomina-
tions, their salaries, and the names of the Poor-law
Unions, for which they are severally appointed ; also,
2d, copy of any minute or resolution of the Poor-
law Commissioners declaratory of the principle
upon which they determined the amounts
of the salaries of the chaplains so appointed, with the
date of the same ; and should the amount vary, as be-
tween the chaplains of different denominations, then
a statement of the basis of calculation for determining
the amounts of the several salaries ; also, 3d,
copies of all correspondence, or minutes of conver-
sations had with any Bishops of the Esta-
blished Church, relative to the salaries to
he paid to the Protestant chaplains : also 4th,
copies of all correspondence or minutes of conver-
sation had with Roman Catholic Bishops, rela-
tive to the salaries to be paid to the Roman Catholic
chaplains also, sth, copies of all remonstrances
anade in writing, or otherwise, to the PoOr-law Com-
missioners, against the irregularity of the salaries to be
given to the chaplains of different religious denomi-
nations : and also, 6th, copies of all correspondence•
between the Poor-law Commissioners and her Ma-
jesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department,
or with the Chief Secretary for Ireland, upon the
actice adopted by the Poor-law Commissioners in
rei la ing the salaries of chaplains appointed or to
be appointed under the provisions of the Irish Poor
Belief Act.
he Duke of WELLINGTON said that in the fen
words which he intended to address to their Lord-
shiFs on the motion of the Noble Earl, he should en-
deavour to avoid as much as possible adverting to the
Many important topics which the Noble Earl had in-
troduced to their Lordships. He (the Duke of Wel-
, lington) could not help calling the motion of the
Noble Earl a fishing motion.—(A laugh.) The Noble
Earl ought to have given notice of his intention to
move for leave to lay upon the table of the House :
Bill to alter the Irish Poor-law Act. The whole of
his speech was against a particular clause in the Irish
Poor-law Act, and therefore he ought to have given
notice of his intention to move for a repeal ofthat clause
in the Act. ITe (the Duke of Wellington) confessed he
found great difficulty in discussing this subject with-
out adverting to some of those important topics in-
troduced by the Noble Earl. He (the Duke of Wel-
lington) hitd been most anxious that the case should
be left in the hands of the Government ; and
the Noble Earl had been requested to do so, .in
order that some inquiry might have been entered into
on the part of the Government. Instead of that
the Noble Earl thought proper to come forward, as it
appeared to him (the Duke of Wellington), for a re-
yeal of the Poor-law Act. He had shown no ground:
whatever for his motion. The first part of the motion
was for a return of the number of chaplains; am,
the rest of the motion was for correspondence
mid even ',conversations respecting them.-4lear.;
With respect to all these matters, no ground what-
ever had been laid before their Lordships for this mo-
tion, excepting the conversation the Noble Lord
had had himself in connection with the subject.
Let them look at the case as it stood ; in the English
Poor-law Act, which,was the model of this Bill, there
was a clause enabling the Poor-law guardian:.
. to appoint a clergyman of .the Church of England
to he the chaplain of the workhouse. The Legislature
had this Act fully before them, when the Irish Poor-
law Act was passed, and with that clause before them
they inserted in the Irish Bill another, empowering
the Irish Poor-law Commissioners to apppoint, no;
a clergyman of the Church of England, but three
clergymen, one of the Established Church, one
of the Dissenting persuasion, and the third of
the Roman Catholic persuasion, with the power also
of fixing their salaries as they thought proper, by
the 49th section of the Act. And not only
this, but the Legislature had before them, at
the same time, the Irish Gaol Act, under
working gh
is th
he a md
be
which the Grand Jury had the power of appointing
three chaplains to the g.sol, end
_of givi
had
certain salaries stated in the la w.en passed many years,andits
been well understood long before the Irish Poor-law
Bill was passed. But this, too, was not all, with re-
spect to the provisions of the Irish Gaol Act, for, be-
sides their spiritual duties, the chaplaiss were required
to perform certain other duties in the interior of the
gaol, such as the inspection of the provisions, and
Geeing whether they were fit for the coisuinption the
prisoners, and other duties specified hv-the clause ofth e
Act. They would next come to consider the di.scretion
which th"atilialature, having those two laws befire

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