The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-02 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—(CAST NIGHT.)' •
The Ea,•t of BI.ESiNTON took the oaths and big

a Wit.
Iu ConsupietiCe of the absence of tie LARD CHAN-
rilL.Lott, Earl MANSFIELD was appointed to receive
Peers' proxies for to-morrow.
Lord CLIFDEN said that he had a petition to
peeFeor, and as it was of a localise nature, lie would
take the liberty of saying a few words reiniecting its
contents. The petition whiciv he a hen held in his
hand was a petition against that clause of the Bill
for the removal of the disabilities affecting our Ro-
man Catholic fellow-subjects, which gave to the Go-
vernment power over the Jesuits and the other mo-
nastic institutions in Great B itain. It was signed
by one of the Lest and roost honest men in his Ma-
jeaty's dominions, than whom he believed there was
not, either in the House or out of the House, a man
who more ardently wished for the peace of Ireland,
the security of this kingdom, and the general pros-
perity of the empire,—he meant Dr. James Doyle,
R. C. Bishop of Kildare and Leighlitt. He was
sorry that Rich a clause was inserted in the Bill, for
it disfigured a Bill which, in his humble opinion, was
one of the most useful and beneficial Bills which
ever came before the two Houses of Parliament. As
he understood the clause, the great object of it
was to exclude the Jesuits from this country.
That the Jesuits of old were in possession of
vast power, all of their Lordships knew well:
they were the confessors of sovereigns, who were
the weakest mortals that ever walked upon
the earth—he meant the monarchs of the Austrian
family, and also those of Spaitt. He believed that
they were the confessors of Philip 11., of Philip 111.,
of 'Philip V., and of Charles IV. of Spain, who was
little better than a drivelling idiot. The Jesuits,
who were men of great talent and ability, were the
confessors of these men. They educated men of
high degree ; they were the tutors of those who held
high situations in the army and in the state, and
thus they gained a degree of power over individuals,
which enabled them afterwards to wield a still greater
power over the Monarch. At the same time that
they lived in this manner with the great, they did
trot neglect the lower orders, but wherever they
found a clever man amongst them, they rescued him
from his obscurity, and made him a brother of their
order. The Jesuits were also the aonfessors of that
weak but courageous man Louis XIII., and they
were also the confessors of his son and successor,
Louis XIV., whose character had been displayed by
St. Simon in its real colours. They were severely
attacked by the other orders of the church of Rome,
in con=equence of the power which they thus
obtained; but what,- he would ask, was the reason
that they had ever had the means of acquiring such
power? The ignorance of the different ages in which
they lived. In that day there was no public press to
expose their designs. The public press was the enemy
of the society of the Jesuits. They had been protected
and encouraged in France by Charles X., but notwith-
standing such protection, the power of the press
had beaten them down. Supposing the Jesuits were
ever to gain a footing in the country, could they ever
hope to N% i thstand the attacks of the Times, or of
any other paper conducted with equal ability and
success ? It was impossible that they could. There
were at present only two establishments of Jesuits
in the United Kingdom,—the one was at —, in
Ireland, the other at Stonyhurst, in Lancashire.—
He understood that all round the neighbourhood of
those places the Jesuits were universally respected
as good instructors of youth, and as charitable and
humane members of society. He had no doubt
that the Noble Duke at the head of the Govern.
ment, and those gentlemen who were now joined
with him in the administration of affairs, would use
with great temper and moderation the great power
against these men, which was given them by this
clause of the Bill. He trusted that other Govern-
talents would act in the satne manner; but if they
slid not, he thost!,ht that the severity of the clause
would defeat its own object. The first thing which
any government must do to carry this clause into
execution, must be to catch the offender, then it
must prove him to be a Jesuit,- and lastly it must
prove him to be doing something wrong; or else
the press, which had been so long the enemy of the
Jesuits, would raise in their defence such a clamour
and clatter around the ears of Ministers, that they
could not long support in a free country. As he
was convinced that this clause could never in the
pee-gent imp; oved state of society be made produc-
tive of ill effects, he should no think of op-
posing it. • The Jesuits had been in existence as a
body for upwards of 3')O years, and had gained
most of their power within the first 40 years after
ttitle incorporation. Europe was then in a state
of half barbarism, and in such a state, beyond
all others, knowledge moat always command power.
Consider what the condition of this country was
even during the reign of ti.e two first Georges.—
It only began to improve just before the end of the
American sear, In old magazines, we read of re-
peated instances of gentlemen amusing themselves
by pinking holes in the bodies of persons they oc-
crosionally met in the streets. If any Lord or Gen-
tleman were to betake himself to such amusement
new, Sir Richard Birnie and his myrmidons would
teeesently teach him a lesson how to do bodily harm,
and would leave him, in all probability, to the tender
atare of the finisher of the law.—( laugh.)—But,
;bad as men were then, they were far worse in the
irttes of the crusades, when they appeared to have
t seen as stupid and as ferocious as the beasts of the
field. The consequence was, that the Popes, the
Bonifaces, and the Innocents then acquired great
power; and no wonder, for they either had them-
selves, or were able to employ, all the knowledge of
their. age. The power of the Popes was afterward:
arausferred in a great degree to the Jesuits; and the
same ignorance on the part of the Monarch, which
made the Monarchs of the early ages the slaves of
the Papal power, made Louis XIV. the slave of the
Jesuits. The power, too, was exercised irr both
eases in a most extraordinary manner. The Popes
induced the crusaders to leave their wives and
slaughters to the cure of those who were prudent
solough to stay at home ; and the Jesuits compelled
XIV. to marry an old woman who had passed
,through many hands, but who after all was quite
good .ehough-for him. He repeated that, in the pre-
sent itatellectuat improvement of the world, no coun-
try had any asaisent to fear the Jesuits—the press
sopa more than a match for them ; it had already
neaten them down in France, and if a necessity
sahotaiel ever arise for such a measure, it would beat
;them down with equal facility in England. He then
npon the table the petition, which was from the
titular Bishop of Kildare and the clergy of hie
diocese, against a clause in the Roman Catholic
Atelief
The Duke of LEINSTER said that as reference
tad been made to the establishment of the Jesuits
in Ireland, he would intrude upon their Lordships
to observe that they were merely employed there in
the education of youth; that their schools were
open to all persons who chose to visit them; that
they were examined by the fellows of Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin ; and that they invited any person, who
pleased, to inspect the system of education.
Petitions in favour of the Catholic claims were
presented by the Duke of LEINSTER, from the Pro-
testant inhabitants of St. Audeon, Dublin, and from
la places in the county of Kildare t—by Lord
DI:NALLY, from Balligibbon, and two parishes in
Tipperary ;—by the Earl of Wtotanow, front the
parish of.Basmubridge;—by the Marquis orsLiGo,
from the Roman Catholics of the county of Mayo,
and from the friends of civil and religious liberty at
K.ilvine and Crosboyne;—by Lord KING, from the
I )issenters of Ipswich;—auai by Lord:LoßioN, from
the inhabitants of Barnsley, in Yorkshire.
,Lsrd KING said that he had a petition to pre-
:seat to their Lordships from the inhAitants of
North America. It was the petition of • the King's
Roman Catholic subjects in Nova *coda, in favour
of Catholic emancipation. They stated that they
participated in the feelings of the Roman Catholic
Inhabitants of the mother country, and they prayed