The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-02 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY

Lord STANLEY stated that several of the noblemen and
gentlemen connected with the British-American Emigration
Association had subscribed sums for the relief of the un-
fortunate emigrants who had been sent out to Prince Ed-
ward's Island, but who had fortunately for themselves been
driven back by stress of weather. He also expressed a hope
that the example would be followed by the remainder of those
gentlemen.
In reply to a question from Mr. LEFROY,

Lord-EmoT said that government was by no means in-
different to the agitation in Ireland for the repeal of the
union, which could not be persevered in without danger to
the public peace.
Sir G. GREY then resumed the adjourned debate on the
second reading of the Ecclesiastical Courts' Bill, which he
had resolved to support, because the chief object of the bill
was to carry into effect many of the recommendations of the
ecclesiastical commissioners. He hoped, however, that his
proposition of referring the bill to a select committee would
be adopted, that its technicalities might be carefully consi-
dered, and some objectionable provisions removed. There
was at present a divided testamentary jurisdiction in matters
relating to real and personal estate leading to great inconve-
nience and expense by causing parties to go into two courts
in order to prove the validity of one and the same instrument.
This should be altered, as should also be the exclusive mo-
nopoly of Doctor's-commons. All these matters could be
much better considered by a select committee than they could
possibly be in the committee on the bill.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, said that the defects and in-
convenience of the ecclesiastical courts had been long the
subjects of complaint. The ecclesiastical commissioners re-
commended that all the courts of peculiars should be thrown
into three provincial jurisdictions ; but this bill proposed to
give all the business to one central and supreme court,
which, in his opinion, was an improvement on the recom-
mendation of the ecclesiastical commissioners. One strong
argument in favour of the bill was the importance of having
during a war a body of civilians well acquainted with inter-
national law.

Lord R. GROSVENOR said he was a strenuous supporter
of level reform, but to this bill he had objections, amongst
which was the perpetuation of the monopoly of the Doctors'-
commons practitioners. The defects he perceived in the bill
would, he thought, defeat the benefit which it was intended
to confer.

Dr. ELPHINSTONE thought 'something ought to be done
to remedy the evil of the conflicting decisions of the various
ecclesiastical courts, but by fixing the minimum of jurisdic-
tion at £3OO, the bill in effect made good law for the rich and
bad law for the poor. There were many objections to the
bill,buthe thought they might be remedied in committee.

Mr. ESCOTT regretted being obliged to oppose the bill, but
the objections he had heard urged against it had confirmed
his'opinion that it would prove unsatisfactory and insufficient.
The Secretary for the Home Department had said he would
blush for the house if personal interests led them to reject
the bill ; but he would rather blush fur the insufficiency of
his own arguments to support it.
_ _

Mr. G. H. VERNON: as chancellor of the province and
judge of tha Prerogative Court of York, was aware of the
many evils of the present state of the ecclesiastical I,:w, and
of tl-e conflicting decisions of the inferior courts, which called
for a remedy, which he firmly believed the present measure
would provide; and be thus most beneficial to the country.

Mr. T. DUNCOMBE, in an amusing speech, contended for
the total abolition of the ecclesiastical courts, and said that
in his opinion the whole business of those courts should be
transferred to the courts at Westminster Hall. He was op-
posed to the bill, though not upon the same grounds as those
put forward by Sir R. Inglis. He was inclined to think with
Colonel Sibthorp that it was a " Doctors'-commons job,"
though the expression was one not likely to be used on his
(Mr, Duncombe's) side of the house. (This assertion of the
hon. gentleman in support of the extreme modesty of his
side of the house produced rears of laughter.) He was of
opinion that the bill was an attempt to bolster up a rotten
system, and he should therefore oppose it.
Sir R. PEEL said he had rarely seen a bill opposed, as this
was, by gentlemen of such discordant opinions, and it be-
came therefore necessary to classify the objections and prove
to the house in replying to them that-this bill effected a ma-
terial improvement in the present state of the law by re-
moving many of those evils which had been long felt and
complained of. . Many of those evils had existed more than
300 years, and had been denounced by Lord Stowell and
other great authorities, and had so existed because those who
felt the evils would not be content with moderate reform,
however useful it might be in getting rid of the most serious
portions of the evil. Was this always to go on ? Or on the
other hand would it not be better to go into committee on
the bill, and endeavour to render it as effective as possible
instead 14 opposing the principle on the second reading? He
was quite aware that there was much weight in an observa-
tion of Mr. Escott's that if the Government went on with
this bill there was a powerful body, who would remember
them in the day of trial. He knew that any executive Go-
vernment attempting the reform of legal abuses raised against
them for a time a powerful body interested in the main-
tenance of those abuses, even though they took every care
that in applying the remedy the interests of the individual
should not suffer. They were not, however, to be deterred
by such considerations, and he therefore trusted—indeed he
could not . for one moment credit that the house would
strangle in its birth this attempt to apply a remedy at all
risks to a very serious evil. The bill attempted to carry out
reforms recommended by the highest ecclesiastical and judi-
cial authorities, and if the House of Commons should reject
it let no hon. member hereafter taunt. Ministers with not
doing anything in the shape of improVement. The Govern-
ment had brought it forward, so help him God ! from no im-
proper or interested motive whatever; and he never could
believe that the House of Commons would defeat a measure
of reform in a system of law which all admitted to be full of
serious evils. _ _

Mr. HUME supported the bill, although he did not think
the bill went far enough. Fourteen years ago the house
abolished the power of these courts in Seotland, and since
then every thing went on satisfactorily, by transferring the
jurisdiction to the courts of law. He could not, therefore,
understand why the same course should not be pursued In
England.

Sir 11. W. BARRON supported the bill, for although it
did not remedy all the abuses in the ecclesiastical law, yet it
did remedy those which might be considered the most im-
portant.
Mr. ROEBUCK would vote for the second reading of the
bill, though he wished it to be understood that, though he
agreed in all that portion of the bill which went to pull down,
be eatirely.disagree4.l4l.lllthaa9ktion, which went to build
up, and unless that portion was struck out or materially al-
tered in committee, he should feel it to be his duty to oppose
the bill altogether.
The gallery was then cleared, and on a division the second
reading of the bill was carried by a majority of 186 to 184.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
house adjourned.

COLONEL CIIATTERTON.—The magnificent piece of plate
voted by the conservative electors and citizens of Cork to
Colonel Chatterton of the 4th Dragoon Guards, has been
presented, with an address containing the signatures of the
subscribers, amounting to three hundred. The gallant officer
has returned a suitable answer, in which he says :—" Be
assured, that wherever my military duties may require my
services, I shall always bear with me a warm attachment to
my native city, and a most grateful recollection of the friend-
ship I have experienced from my fellow-citizens; nor can I
ever be unmindful of the steady and cordial support I have
received from you upon several trying occasions, when we
struggled together to maintain those sound constitutional
you so justly observe, the rights and
subjects of these realms are so entirely and
liberties principles,
allw h
theere whereby, a s
so happily secured."

THE DUCHESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND.—At a meeting
at Alnwick, on the 21st instant, the following anecdote was
related illustrative of her grace's benevolence :—Mary Atkin-
son was the daughter of humble parents. dwelling in a wild
part of the country near Alnwick. The father, who was a
hind, attended the March hiring of that town on a day of
sma
extremely fierce storm and snow-drift, and anxious to reach
day,b he persevered in plodding
supposed, in order to coin_
thuoumn (i.etaht
ee same e evening,
results
o a
the
his way towards his place of residence, amid the fury of the
storm. He reached within half a mile of his own house and
perished in the drift. Meanwhile his wife, restless and
alarmed, ventured forth to anticipate his coming. Disap-
pointment led her on to within a few yards of where her hus-
band lay dead, but not so near as to render it pro able she
had ever learned his fate, and there she too perish Od in the
snow. Mary Atkinson and a brother, we believe, were thus
left orphans, and totally destitute. The sad tale reached the
ears of the humane Duchess of Northumberland. She proved
more than a mother to the poor forlorn girl, sent her to board,
educated her, and obtained her a situation In Edinburgh, in
a respectable family. Mary Atkinson was now about 20
years of age, when the symptoms of that most insidious dis-
ease —consumption—bezan to manifest themselves. She fell
very ill. No sooner did the ductless hear of her condition
than she requested that, if at all possible, she might be re-
moved to Alnwick, which was done. It is needless to say
that every attention was ministered to the sufferer that could
be supposed capable of mitigating her distress. But in vain.
She died about 12 monts ago, and sleeps in Aluwick church-
yard, with an affecting tribute to her memory from the
Duchess of Northumberland gracing her humble grave.