The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-02-11 00:00:00

HOUSE OF .COMMONS.-FRIDAY

Lord JOHN Itussem., in a very full house, moved, pursuant
to notice, for leave to bring in a bill to prevent the assumption
of certain ecclesiastical titles in respect of places in the
United Kingdom.. The noble lord.said he felt the deep respon-
sibility of the task which he had undertaken, which responsi•
bility was not a little enhanced by the indications which had
been thrown out -in the debate of a former evening. He had
been accused by .the hon..and .learned member for Sheffield
with retrogression in his principles of civil and religious
liberty, but his retrogression was only like that of a man who
stepped back from a blow aimed at his head in order that he
might catch it on his arm. It ,was, in fact, a natural step in
self-defence. He then called the attention of the house to the
appointment last year of a clergyman to be an Irish arch-
bishop, and to the course pursued by that gentleman, who,
instead of placing himself in communication with the Govern-
ment, as had been done by Archbishop Murray and others,
had joined the Synod," which denounced the colleges estab-
lished by the Government in Ireland, and had done all in his
power to excite the tenantry of Ireland against the Protestant
proprietors of the soil. The noble lord then prodeeded to ex-
emplify the encroaching spirit of the Pope in foreign countries,
in -all of which, Catholic as well as Protestant, they found it
necessary to pass laws that no concordat or rescr.pt from the
Pope could be received, unless sanctioned by the civil authori-
ties of such state respectively. Considering all these things..
he felt the recent proceedings of the Pope, in changing vicars-'
apostolic in this-country into bishops and archbishops, was the

more important, more particularly as the alteration iook place
without the consent or knowledge.,of the Government. He
had certainly been p►ivately informed by an individual that

such.a project was in contemplation, and be at once replied
that he could not consent to any such arrangement, awl had
subsequently:remained Juider the impression that the matter
was-at an end. He believed that in-14A country in Europe, save
only England, could the Pope have dared to offer ;such an in-
sult to the Sovereign. He viewed. the assumption of these

titles as a gross usurpation of the prerontives ;of the Sove-
reign. It was true the authority, could be enforced, but
the assumption was enough to, justify., him in calling for the
interference of Parliament. The, noble lord having given a
short sketch of the efforts of our early Catholic 4m:est-fits to

.0 say t

September last, when the Papal measure was announced, the
law officers of the Crown had been consulted. They-were of
opinion that the assumption of the tit'es was not illegal, but
that the introduction of the letters apostolic was n indictable
oftenee. To this opinion was added another—namely, that the
act of Parliament had been so long in a state of deuetude that
a prosecution would be very likely to fail. Und*r these cir-
cumstances, the Government felt it would not do to institute a
prosecdtion' and accordingly decided upon 'applying to the
Legislature for a remedy. It was not his intentipd to propose
;he repeal of the existing law, but rather 'to introduce a mea-
sure id accordance with the spirit, of the Ronian Catholic
Relief 11111, which was so generally acceptable to;the Catholics,
although,it contained clauses absolutely prohibiting the as-
sumption of. hese title's. 'l'o this lie thought thgre could be
no objection. He should, however, introduce cl es into the
bill, by which all gifts and legacies to Catholic pr later under
such assumed titles should be null and void, and once revert
to the Crown, IRfact, he should propose that linnets done-by
them under their assumed titles should be mere nullities. The
bill would go the length of preventing the assumption of titles.
derived from any places whatsoever in the United Kingdom.
The noble lord concluded a speech of nearly two hours' dura-
tion amidst very general cheering.
Mr. ROEBUCK treated the bill as one or Pure tniscbief, for
the noble lord could scarcely hope to meet the evasions which
might be easily resorted to—such as Cardinal Wiseman calling•
himself Archbishop of Heliopolis having power In Westmin-
ster, He complained of the meagreness of Lord John RusselPS
statement in omitting the penalties for the infraction Of the
law, and every illusion as to What was to-be done ivith the Ro-
an 1 man Catholic bishops in Ireland. Indeed, he waS prepared to

contend that the whole conduct of the Goireinment was such
as to induce, the Catholics of England to assume that there
would be.no objection, on the part of the Goiierntnent, to the
steps which had been taken.by the Court of Rome to establish
a Catholic hierarchy in this country.

Mr. J. O'CONNELL said that the lord had done wisely
at.the eleventh hour in standing up in opposition to the bigotry
of England, and then proceeded to defend Dr. Cullen from the
attack made upon him by Lord John Russell.
Mr. H. DRUMMOND said that what they had to contend
against was a dominating priesthood, which never would be.
content until they had reduced the laity to slavery. He attri-
buted the recent aggression to the intrigues of the anti-English
Dr. Cullen, who had at one time been sent as a spy into Ireland
from Rome, and subsequently at Rome used every exertion to
excite an anti-English feeling at that Court with a view to
humble the Protestant spirit of England. Precautions 'ought
to be taken. against a set of scoundrels who were goinzabout.
the. country enticing children from their parents in order to
get them into nunneries and monasteries. He contended that
the Queen's supremacy was spiritual as well as temporal, and

this step on the part .of the ant of . Rome was, therefore, an
usurpation of that supremacy.

Mr. BRIGHT condemned the letter of Lord J.: Russell, -and
was at a loss to conceive, as the noble lord avowed that letter
to be directed against the Puseyites, why they had not a single
remedy attempted against their practices in the miserable
peddling measure which had that night been submitted to the
house. A long course of years of per. ecution failed to make
Ireland Protestant, and yet now, after such centuries of expe-
rience, the .noble_lord was adopting a course which could not
fail to identify Catholicism as patriotism, the results of which
feeling could not fail to be obvious to every one. The noble
lord had that night deprecated the interference of ecclesiastics
in temporal affairs, and yet he had in the other House of Par.
liament some two dozen bishops, who always sat on the benches
beside the C —t. H' -tied

,Jovernmen.. ,e was astonisi. . that,, with such a
church establishinent, which had its revenues amounting to
millions, and to which Parliament rave tar., :granna in sirtat_

tion, we should yet find that, in the year 1851, the whole coun-
try should be frightened lest its religion should be, altered by

no revenues MI all

and to

wuien every'possii4lesliscouragement was given. lln iact,,the.
Church of England could not last for a month wire it not for
the vast revenues it had at its disposal. The only object of the
bill of the noble lord appeared to be to bolster up the ascen-
dancy of the Established Church. '1 he noble lord 'called the
established a tolerant church, yet annually the meeting-house
which he attended was stripped of its furniture to pay the
salary of one of the ministers of that tolerant church. He
thought the bill quite inefficient for the alleged purpose, and
that it related to a matter upon which they should not legislate
at all.
Mr. DISRAELI said he would give his vote for the introduc.

of that remarkable agitation which had pervaded the whole
country, and which lad been fostered by the government itself.
He was sure that when the morning papers should be sent

disappointment. Was it for such a that the Lord Chan-
cellor of England trampled on a cardinals hat? .or was it for
this that all the corporations and counties of England had met?

Was it for this that the universities and all the le.arned societies
of England, and even the City of London itself,, had gone in
procession to her Majesty? And was it for this that tin elect
tric telegraph should have been employed to convey her Ma-
jesty's answer in order that a moment might not be lost to
restore confidence to the people? The bill to be introduced
enunciated no new principle, and was but a slight addition to

the law as it now stooa. ue, 4911. gentleman quoted from a
speech o ' Lord J. Russell delivered in 1845, in. which he stated
his belief that the restrictive clauses of tie Rnman Catholic
Relief Hill might be repealed, for he saw no reason why Catho-
lic prelates should not be allowed to take the titles of even Pro-
testant sees. . Was not this encouragement to the- Pope, and
how could the noble lord now pretend to describe the Papal
aggression as a blunder on the sudden? The course-now about
to betaken by.the government was unsatisfactory for the pre-
sent, and dangerous for the future, for they would have Whigs
governing,England by means of a perpettial Popish plot never
to he brought to a head. If the house should pass the bill it
would do nothing but gain a brief time to encounter. the same
difficulty hereafter;, but he viewed its introduction as the
severest censure possible on the conduct of the government for
the last three months. _

Mr: M. J. O'CoNNEtt was glad that Ireland was included-
in the bill, as it placed both countries on a level; and as the

law had long been inoperative in treiana ne was sure it would
be equally so in this country.
Sir R. INGLIS replied to the speech of Mr. Briglii, which he
viewed as a most elaborate bill of indictment against the

Church of England. With respect to the stripping of his place
of meeting of its furniture, it might easily have been prevented
by paying the sums whieh were • legally assessed upon it. He
thanked Lord J. Russell for his letter and for bis speech, and
only regretted that he could not thank him also for his bill.

dMr. kayNoLns moved the adjournment of the 'debate which
was carried.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

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