The Maynooth Grant. 936 935 Adjournment of the House- {COMMONS} permit, and he (Mr. C. Anstey) thought manner. And as the hon. Gentleman (Mr. that he had used it so as to hang himself most effectually. Spooner) found many supporters of his opinion in the country, he (Mr. Roche) MR. GRATTAN said, his object in hoped he would bring the question before rising was to entreat that this discussion Parliament at an early day. It was immight not go on; and he now hoped that it portant to know the opinions of Her Mawould be allowed to close. The hon. Gen-jesty's Government on the subject; but tleman (Mr. Spooner) had given notice of his intention; he might be right or he might be wrong in doing so; but at all events, if they were to part, let them part in peace. He hoped that hon. Members would now be allowed to present petitions. The hon. Member (Mr. Spooner) must be a most courageous man to speak in the he had done; he reminded him (Mr. Grattan) of a great personage described by Milton, who from way "His horrid locks shook pestilence and war." MR. NEWDEGATE wished to state that the Government had nothing whatever to do with the notice of his hon. Friend (Mr. Spooner). His hon. Friend had never been offered office, and, therefore, the idea which seemed to be insinuated that there was some difference of opinion between the Government and him had no foundation whatever. He would bring the Motion forward entirely on his own responsibility. when he looked at the appointments, particularly the law appointments, there could be little doubt on the matter. The Attorney General and the Solicitor General for Ireland were steeped to the lips in opinions which he believed to be unfounded prejudices, and were determined to interfere with the religious liberty of Roman Catholics in that country. The Secretary of State for the Home Department, and the new Attorney General for England, were the most strenuous supporters of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill in its most stringent form, so that the Roman Catholic body of England had not much favour to expect from them. He had no objection to have this question discussed on its broad and general bearing. The hon. Gentleman complained that 30,000l. was given to support Maynooth by a Protestant State, whilst they were supporting in Ireland a Protestant Church which cost 800,000l. a year. MR. EWART said, that the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Spooner) might fix a day for his Motion, as there was a ballot that night for notices. If the hon. Gentleman put his name on the balloting paper, he would have a chance of an early opportunity to do what he so much desiderated. The hon. Gentleman was in a glowing state on this important question, and it was better that his ardour should not cool. Motion agreed to. MR. B. OSBORNE was quite ready to believe that on whatever side the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. Spooner) sat, there was no measure of intolerance and bigotry that he would not advocate. He gave him, therefore, the most perfect credit for sincerity. Without, however, adverting to the subject of Maynooth, he should like to know whether the Secretary for the Treasury (Mr. G. A. Hamilton), who he observed had just left the House, intended to persevere in the Motion he had put on the paper for a moThe House adjourned at half after Eight dification of the national system of educa-o'clock, till Friday, 12th March. tion in Ireland, so as to make it accord with the convictions of the members of the Irish Established Church? The House ought to know whether the hon. Member intended to act upon that notice, or whether, as was too often the case in that House, it was one of those notices which were given the EARL of DERBY is given on the folin opposition, and dropped when the Oppo-lowing page. The acceptance of office by those Members of it who were also Members of the House of Commons necessarily vacated their seats: they were all re-elected, with the exception of the CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND.] sition came into office? MR. ROCHE said, that if evil effects arose from discussing these questions in the House, the responsibility must rest with those who introduced them. Reli gious questions, above all others, should be dealt with in a straightforward and manly [A LIST OF THE MINISTRY formed by President of the Board of Trade IN THE CABINET. Right Hon. Earl of DERBY. Right Hon. Lord ST. LEONARDs. Right Hon. BENJAMIN DISRAELI. Right Hon. Earl of LONSDALE. Most Hon. Marquess of SALISBURY. Right Hon. SPENCER HORATIO Walpole. Right Hon. Earl of MALMESBURY. Right Hon. Sir JOHN SOMERSET PAKINGTON, Bart. Right Hon. JOHN CHARLES HERRIES Right Hon. Earl of HARDWICKE. Right Hon. Joseph Warner Henley. First Commissioner of Works and Public Right Hon. Lord JOHN JAMES ROBERT Manners. Commander in Chief Master General of the Ordnance NOT IN THE CABINET. Most Noble Duke of WELLINGTON. Paymaster of the Forces, and Vice-President Right Hon. Lord COLCHESTER. of the Board of Trade Secretary at War Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Joint Secretaries of the Treasury Secretary of the Admiralty { WILLIAM FORBES MACKENZIE, Esq., and GEORGE ALEX- STAFFORD AUGUSTUS O'BRIEN STAFFORD, Esq. Under Secretary for the Home Department - Sir WILLIAM HYLTON JOLLIFFE, Bart. HOUSE OF LORDS, Pursuant to the arrangement of the 27th February, no public business was brought forward. After transacting the judicial and private business on the paper, House adjourned to Thursday next. HOUSE OF LORDS, MINUTES.-The Right Hon. Sir Edward Burten- HOUSE OF LORDS, Thursday, March 11, 1852. Pursuant to the arrangement of the 27th February, no public business was brought forward. After transacting the judicial and private business on the paper, House adjourned till To-morrow. —mmmmm HOUSE OF LORDS, Friday, March 12, 1852. MINUTES.] Sat first.-The Marquess of Bath, -A DUTY ON CORN. THE LORD PRESIDENT acquainted the House, That Pursuant to the arrangement of the 27th February, no public business was brought forward. After transacting the judicial and private business on the paper, House adjourned till To-morrow. LORD BEAUMONT gave notice that, on Monday next, he should present a petition to their Lordships, complaining of the injury which the petitioners suffered in consequence of their uncertainty as to the intentions of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the importation of foreign corn; and, in presenting that petition, he should avail himself of the opportunity to ask the noble Earl at the head of the Administration, whether or not it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to recommend to Parliament auy alteration in the present policy with reference to the importation of foreign corn as soon as the opinion of the country could be taken, and another Parliament assembled? The EARL of ESSEX would venture to detain their Lordships a few moments, while he expressed his regret that indispo sition on the evening when the noble Earl at the head of Her Majesty's Government stated his views and intentions to the House prevented him from then saying how cordially he agreed with what fell from the noble Earl near him (the Earl of Aberdeen), when he declared in so frank and straightforward a manner how entirely unchanged were his opinions in regard to the commercial policy transmitted to us by that great and eminent man Sir Robert Peel. The noble Earl, on that occasion, expressed his belief, that few or none of those who then followed the standard of the right hon. Baronet had since changed their opinions on that subject. He (Lord Essex), for himself, at least, could truly aver that such was the case-that the opinions he had at that time deliberately adopted, he had not since seen reason to what had passed at a congregation of certain agitators-he used that term because they assumed it themselves-assembled for the purpose of endeavouring, by the influence of large numbers, and by the parade of pecuniary subscriptions, to enforce, if possible, the speedy termination of the existing Parliament. Now, it was evident that if this Parliament should terminate in April, it would be impossible for the future Parliament to reassemble for serious business till the close of June or the commencement of July, and, in that case, all those measures for the reform of the law to which he had referred, or, at least, the greater part of them, must be inevitably postponed to another Session. Such a result would be considered by the nation at large as a great misfortune. And, first, with regard to the private business before Parliament, it happened that it was much heavier this year than on any former occasion. Already 250 Bills of a private nature were before Parliament. Their Lordships were not to consider that those Bills merely related to private individuals. Some of them applied to local districts of considerable extent-others to local societies or associations, involving pecuniary interests to an enormous extent. He, therefore, left it to their Lordships to consider the great mischief and inconvenience which would accrue from postponing measures of this description to another Parliament, and the great delay and expense which would be occasioned in consequence. He passed, however, over this as a matter, comparatively speaking, of little He would request the attention of their Lordships to public measures of the deepest importance; and, first, as to that most important measure for the reform of the Court of Chancery on the footing recommended in the report of the repent of or to recall. On the contrary, with the noble Earl, he believed many benefits had arisen from the adoption of that policy many as regarded agriculture, many more as regarded the country at large. And, although he frankly admitted that those benefits had not been unaccompanied by much distress and anxiety, yet he believed that had arisen, not so much from those measures themselves, as from the not unnatural alarm and uncertainty dependent on such a great and extensive change; and also from other causes, which he would not then detain the House by dwelling upon. In regard to all general questions he would most gladly give his humble and most disinterested support to Her Majesty's Government, as he would to any Government be it Whig or Tory, whenever he felt he could do so with perfect and entire satisfaction to himself. When he could not do so, he should, as he had hitherto done, as freely withhold it. Most gladly would he give it to a Government in any measures they might bring forward for the relief of the agricultural interest, by removing from them or alleviating any of those burdens which might be proved to press unduly or exclusively on them. Most firmly, most constantly, would he oppose them, should they endeavour (which he prayed Heaven they might not) to reimpose any duties on corn, now or at any future time, be they great or small, whether under the name of revenue, or under that of protection. The time was, he believed, when a small fixed duty, had it been accepted, would have been beneficial to all parties, and scarcely injuri-importance. ous to any. That time he thought was irretrievably past, and any such attempt now, by keeping men's minds in a disturbed and unsettled state, could only tend to mischief, and to neutralise or indefinitely to postpone the full measure of those bene-recent Commission. Their Lordships were fits which he conscientiously believed had arisen, and would continue to arise, from the adoption of a liberal commercial policy and the abolition of the corn laws. LAW REFORM. LORD LYNDHURST said, he wished to call the attention of their Lordships to various important measures connected with the reform of the law, then pending in the other House of Parliament. He was induced to take this step partly by a report which had gone abroad of what had passed at a certain gathering which had occurred yesterday, and partly, also, by a report of aware that the public looked to that measure with eager and intense interest. Now, the Bill for carrying that measure into effect was at that moment in progress of preparation under the auspices of his noble and learned Friend on the wooksack, who was in every way so well qualified to insure success for it; and he (Lord Lyndhurst) was convinced that if no abridgment of the usual length of the Session took place, it would come into operation as law before the close of it. But if the Session should be curtailed, and if Parliament should be dissolved in April, then, from the multiplicity of details incident to such a mea sure, it would be impossible to procure its | Inventions. Their Lordships were doubtbeing passed now, and it would of neces- less aware that the present mode of desity be postponed to another year. He ciding on and of granting these patents could not conceive any greater disappointment of the public mind; it would naturally be considered as a great public misfortune. There was another measure of scarcely inferior importance at that moment in the House; he meant the Bill for the Amendment of Procedure in the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster. Their Lordships were no doubt aware that a considerable transfer of business from the Superior to the County Courts had recently taken place. They must also be aware, if they reflected on the subject, as he knew that they had done, that the establishment of sixty independent tribunals must give rise, and had given rise, to many conflicts of opinion, and to much uncertainty of decision. The object of the Bill to which he had just referred was to simplify the proceedings of the Superior Courts, and to render them less expensive, in order that they might serve as models and guides to the inferior courts. A perfect judicature had two objects in view; not only the administration of justice in the causes brought before it, but also the laying down of certain rules to regulate transactions between man and man, and to avoid the evils of expensive litigation. A third measure of great importance was a measure which had passed through the House of Commons in the last Sessionhe meant the Charitable Trusts Bill. Throughout the country, in every portion of it, there existed a number of small charities, involving property to an immense amount, but individually they were so small as not to be worth pursuing in any court of justice. It had been considered important to establish a cheap tribunal to remedy the abuses to which such small charities had been found liable. The Bill to which he referred was introduced on the report of a Commission appointed by the Crown, and was well calculated to rectify those abuses-a Bill called for by all classes of Her Majesty's subjects, and now in such a state as would enable it to become in a few months the law of the land. There was also another measure of importance to which he must advert, as involving the interests of a numerous class of persons-as, for instance, all parties connected with machinery, with civil engineering, and, indeed, with science in all its branches-he meant the Bill for improving the law regarding Patents for was open to various objections-it was ineffectual-it was attended with enormous expense-and it checked the very object for which it was established. For the purpose of remedying these evils, a Bill had been introduced into that House, but had been lost in the other House of Parliament last Session, owing to the lateness of the period at which it arrived there. His noble and learned Friend on the opposite benches (Lord Brougham) had introduced a corresponding Bill into their Lordships' House that Session, It had been read a first time already; but no other proceedings had yet been taken upon it. The Vice-President of the Board of Trade of the late Government (the Earl of Granville) had promised on a late occasion to lay another Bill for the same object on the table; but that promise had not yet been performed. It was of great importance to all the classes whom he had just mentioned that a measure of that kind should become the law of the land as soon as possible. From the very nature and character of the Bill it could not become so, if any interruption was given to the Session by a dissolution; whereas, if no such interruption took place, it would be very easy to make it law before their Lordships separated. Then there was the Registration Act. That Bill would take the usual course if a dissolution were not forced on by proceedings out of doors. There was also another most important measure, which he could not leave out of consideration at present-he meant the system for the military defence of the country. A most important consideration indeed this was. Every one admitted that the present state of our military defences was defective. The present system was not sufficient to protect us from insult or invasion; it was not sufficient to support the authority and influence of the country with foreign States. It was, therefore, necessary, for the honour and dignity of the country, that a remedy should be applied to its defects as speedily as possible. The late Government had indeed introduced a Bill to accomplish that object; but, somehow or other, that Bill had been the ostensible cause of its retirement from office. He conceived it to be impossible for any man who felt for the honour and dignity of the country to press for the dissolution of Parliament without having that |