The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-05-29 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY COMMENTARY.

EsOLISII RONAN CaTnoncs.—This motion, of which
we yesterday gave notice,was last night brought forward
by Lord Nugent, of Buckingham origin. The Noble
Lord seems to have hit upon something which conciliates
good-will, and support at first sight a sort of Parliamen
tory axiom,. self-cvident in all its parts, or in the language
of the Courts, a motion of course. His end and object
in moving the Hononrable House was, to obtain for the
Roman Catholics resident in England the same qauinta»s
of privileges, or rather emancipation frnm boodsge,which
was granted to the Irish Catholics so long ago as 1t93.
Had the Roman Catholics of England not been (in a
political sense) a very insignificant body, we should have
heard of their disabilities long ago. It is no credit to
Lord Nogent, or any other Lord of the Commits; that
they have remained six and twenty yeariespossesred of
their indisputable, and, above all, undisputed rights : nor
" does it reflect any credit on the parties interested, that
they have so long refrained from forcing themselves on

public attention. As it is, h .wever, they have at length
found out an advocate fit to represent them. The prin-
cipal objects of the Bill to be brought in, are to give
these persons the power of voting at election, and of be-
ing enrolled in the dignified Commission of the Peace—
in other words, to be appointed Magistrates and Justices !
Upon. so reasonable a proposal it may be thought there
was, no ground for opposition. Accordingly Messrs Peel
and Wetherell, the great Anti-Catholic Leaders in the
Great Hon-e,signitied their assent, together frith a string
of others; whilst the two Bankeses (fsthor and son) far-
nished that op osition for which it must redound to the
_. I

ingennity of Parliament to have found a place. The

Peels and lirte:erells find no fault with the measure,
but it wai due to the simplicity of the senior
liankes to discover that the " entire exclosion of Ca-
tholics nal an integral part of the Constiteion."

This was the feeble opposition which this enfeebled
remnant of intolerance set up on the occasion, and our
.readers will not need our information to see that if this be
all, the English Roman Catholics bare little to fear, It
has, however, yet to make its way through the other
House, and to get entirely past the scowling regards of,
the Noble Lord on the woolsack—a sworn enemy to any
innovation on the integral party of the Constitution.
—The debate on the subject did not last over three
hours, and in other r..sp •cts possessed little novelty,—
an•l less iuterest. Some half dozen Honourable@ and
Right liononrables stool for some time on their legs to
notify that they bad no desire to oppose the motion.
• MALT.

On this ever prying topic for legislation, an interest-
ing discussion took place in the House last night. Mr.
Maherley, the Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer, endes-
voured to move the House to aeree with him, that it
would be better to transfer the present duty levied on bier
to Malt. The House, however, turned a deaf ear to Mr.
Maberley's eloquent entreaties, and absolutely refused to
be moved at al on the subject. They thought that having
so la:ely ma le a grand rumpus with the Minister to remit
pot of this very Malt duty, it would appear something
more thaa ludicrous, to turn round upon the same Minis-
ter, and oblige him t retrace his steps. Mr, bfaberley
was therefore wors'ted by a div'sion of 119 to 27.
PACKED JURIES.

Io the previous part of die evening a learned dividi-
sitioo took place on this notorious practice. The fact
that the bulwark of English freedom is thus daily in.
fru nged,sermed to be bandied about very facetiously from
both sides of the !louse ; but we hear of no Hon. Mem-

b-r offering to bring in a Bill; for the correction of this
evil. The abuse is admitted ; much virtuous indignation
is fulminated against the authors and abettors of such

foul mal-practices, and then--what then ?—why the
• matter is left couiplasently to sink into oblivion. Let
it not, however, be supposed that there is any lark of
legislative zeal, fur the fact is rather the other way.
And there is more ground for apprehending that legis-
lation is on the increase rather than otherwise.—
Besides the two motions which we have noticed,
Mr! Fysche Palmer bad a Bill to bring forward
last night. And accordingly he did bring it forward,
or rather produced 'his motiou for that purpose. But
Fysche, being told by the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer that his benevolent intention was superseded by the
existing regulations, readily consented to withdraw his
motion. This is a pretty good specimen of the way in
which Bills are brought in and brought oat 9f the Great
House. One Honourable Member seriously proposed
that as the Barns a 4 short one', it should remain, but
as this wise suggestion met with no encouragement, the
Bill was lost.

Some other Bills were introduced ; one by Mr. R.
Martin, to regulate some petty matter relative to writs
of Capiat in certain instances ; and another by Mr.
Wynne, to regulate the trade with India. Neither
of them appear to be of any importance to the public.
ADJOURNMENT.

As adjournment of the Home took place over this
day, on the ground of Its being ' Restoration Day',
that is to say, the Anniversary of the day which wit-
nessed the return of that Family which was afterwards
iestemialtutaljt expelled the Throne and Dominions of
Bags