The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-03 00:00:00

NEWFOUNDLAND BILL.

The Order of the Day for resuming the adjourned
debate on the Newfoundland Bill was then read.

Mr. PAKINGTON said he wished to state to the
House the reasons why he should give his unqualified
support to the measure introduced by her Majesty's
Government. The Honourable Member for Mont-
rose had stated on Saturday last that the Committee
which sat last year upon this subject was a one-
sided Committee. Now, he thought there never was
a Committee which was less liable to such a charge, for
it embraced distinguished Members on both sides of
the House—it embraced the Noble Lord the Secretary
for the Colonies, the Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary
of State for the Home Department, the Noble Lord
the Member for the City of London, the Hon. and
Learned Member for Cork, and the Right
Honourable Baronet the Member for Devonport.
It was no part of his intention, when he moved for
that Committee, to afford scope for acrimonious feelings
on the one hand, or recrimination on the other. lie
moved for that Committee for the sole purpose of de-
monstrating that the time had arrived when some
remedy was required for the grievances of the colony.
The proceedings of that Committee were cut short
by the sudden dissolution of the late parliament, and
the evidence taken before the Committee had never
been laid on the table of the House. He would now
turn the attention of the House to the statement made
by the Right lion. Gentleman relative to the conduct
pursued towards the Roman Catholics in the colony ;
and he regretted the language which the Right
Honourable Gentleman' made use of. He (Mr.
Parkingson) could confirm all that was said on
that occasion by the Noble Lord, relative to the conduct
pursued by the Roman Catholic priesthood who sought
to turn the liberal institutions of that colony into
means of securing power to them. He had in his
hand a petition signed by 1,000 inhabitants of New-
foundland, complaining, in strong language, of the
Roman Catholic priesthood, who coerced those
who were not of their own opinions. He
had also a petition from the Chamber of Com-
merce of Newfoundland, complaining in still stronger
language of the interference of the Romish priesthood.
If there wrs persection—and he did not deny that
there was—in the colony of Newfoundland, it was
practised by the Catholic priesthood themselves. He
now turned to the real question before the House.
The Right Hon. Gentleman the Dlember for Cork
said, that the constitution gieen in 1832, to New-
foundland, hod worked well, and had conferred many
blessings on the Colonists. But had not the legislature
of Newfoundland been charged with three ofthe gravest
crimes of which
.a legislature could be charged?
The Assembly had been charged with tyranny and op-
pression, with mismanagement of the public finances,
and with interfering and tampering with the adminis-
tration of justice. Those charges could be sustained
by the strongest evidence. In proof of the first
charge he would allude to the celebrated privilege
case, in which a private individual having had
a quarrel with a Member of the House of Assem-
bly, was arrested for breach of privilege, and having
been released by writ of Habeas Corpus, the Assembly
caused the Judge, and the Sheriff to be arrested,
dragged through the streets as criminals, and com-
mitted for breach of privilege, and the Governor was
obliged to prorogue the Assembly, in order to pro-
cure their release. With regard to the second charge,
he would state that the Assembly had dimi-
nished the stipends of those opposed to them,
and had increased the stipends of their supporters.
and in proof of the charge of tampering with the ad-
ministration ofjustice he would state that a messenger
of the House, who had been twice convicted of
assaults, had been continued in his office,
and that a doorkeeper of the House of
Assembly, who was the brother-in-law of a Ca-
tholic priest, having committed an assault on
a person named Leek, and Leek having applied to a
Magistrate the House appointed a Committee, sum-
moned beck and the Magistrate before them, and
suppressed all investigation. The Noble Lord the
Member for London had done right hi suspend-
ing such an assembly, in accordance with the
recommendation of the Governor of the Colony.
(LEFT, SPEAKING.)

AMUSING ANE-------CDOTE.---IVe have twice alluded to
the recent meeting of the Roman Catholic clergy at
Woolton, and haye stated that the Rev. Dr. Shepherd
had had the honour of dining with them. Among the
clergymen present was the Rev. Dr. Folding, Arch-
bishop of Sydney, New South Wales, who wore on his
finger a rich gold ring, in which was set a topaz. Dr.
Shepherd, observing the brilliant, remarked, that Sydney
alias 13 otany Bay, had had the reputation of being
in-
habited by a population not remarkable for their mo.