IRISH AFFAIRS.
The subject which gave rise to the most animated discussions in parliament this session was the ministerial policy towards Ireland; especially their conduct in reference to the trial of Mr. O’Connell and his associates. On the 13th of February, the Marquis of Normanby moved in the house of lords, a resolution condemnatory of the government administration of Irish affairs. After a very long and angry discussion, the debate was adjourned, and on the next evening was continued by Earl Fitzwilliam and Lord Monteagle on one side, and the Earls of Haddington and Ripon on the other. On a division, the motion was negatived by a majority of one hundred and seventy-five against seventy-eight.
In the house of commons, on the 13th, Lord John Russell, in a speech of three hours’ continuance, opened a discussion on the subject of Irish policy, which was protracted for nine evenings. The motion which he made on this occasion nominally aimed at the appointment of a committee of the whole house to consider the state of Ireland. The debate which ensued presented much sameness and repetition. On a division, Lord John Russell’s motion was negatived by a majority of three hundred and thirty-four against two hundred and twenty-five.
It had been announced in the speech from the throne that government would, in the present session, take up the question of the registration of voters in Ireland. In fulfilment of this announcement, Lord Eliot, early in April, introduced a bill into the house of commons for that purpose; leave was given to bring in the bill; but it was evidently so distasteful to the Irish members and their supporters, that, on the 1st of July, Sir Robert Peel announced that it was abandoned by government.
On the 9th of May Mr. Hume moved:—“That an humble address be presented to her majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to consider whether it would not be for the advantage of Ireland, and for the interest of the United Kingdom, to abolish the office of lord-lieutenant of Ireland.” Mr. Hume contended that this office was one of the principal causes of repeal agitation, and that by abolishing it peace would be restored to the country. His motion was seconded by Captain Bernai, and opposed by Lords John Russell and Eliot, Sir Robert Peel, and Captain Layard. Ultimately, Mr. Hume withdrew his motion. On the 11th of July Mr. Ward brought on his annual motion about the Irish church. On a division it was rejected by a majority of two hundred and seventy-four against one hundred and seventy-nine.
A measure of great importance to the Roman Catholic community in Ireland was introduced by government, and passed during this session; namely, a bill which had for its object the making of a provision for the better security and regulation of moneys settled upon charitable and religious trusts. This bill was first introduced in the house of lords, where it passed with very little opposition. Sir James Graham moved its second reading in the commons on the 29th of July. In making this motion, he explained the law as it then stood relative to the management and supervision of charitable bequests and donations in Ireland. The existing system was regulated by a statute passed at the beginning of the present century, by which a board was constituted for the government and administration of charitable trusts. This board consisted almost exclusively of Protestants; whereas nearly three-fourths of the bequests placed under its jurisdiction were Roman Catholic endowments. By the bill now proposed, it would be enacted that the master of the rolls, the chief baron of the exchequer, and the judges of the Prerogative Court, should be ex officio members of the board; and that in the presence of them, or any of them, one or the other should preside, according to his rank—first, the master of the rolls; in his absence, the chief baron of the exchequer; or, in the absence of the other two, the judge of the prerogative court. The bill next provided that the crown should appoint ten commissioners, five of whom should be Protestants, and five Roman Catholics. By the sixth section it was further provided, with respect to matters concerning the doctrine, discipline, or constitution of the church of Rome—that if a question arose as to the status or condition of any person who had a right, or claimed to have a right, under any of the deeds of bequest brought under the consideration of the commissioners, such question should be referred, if the claimant were a Roman Catholic, to the Roman Catholic commissioners only; and it was provided that they should grant a certificate of their decision, which certificate should be received as evidence. One of the principal objections to the existing law was removed by the tenth clause, which limited the power of the commissioners to apply donations and bequests according to the intention of the donor or donors. The thirteenth clause also obviated the existing difficulty under the statute of mortmain, which made bequests chargeable upon land for a given class of persons, or their successors. This clause would enable real or personal property, without limitation as to its amount, to be held in perpetuity, for building and maintaining chapels, for building and maintaining residences for the Roman Catholic clergy, or for the use of the priests for the time being, for the purpose of any particular charge. In conclusion, Sir James Graham said that he could only anticipate one objection to the bill on tire part of the Roman Catholics, and that arose from the peculiarity of their ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He believed they would object to the decision of any ecclesiastical matters relating to their church by persons who were not in holy orders of the church of Rome; but he would remind them that under the existing law, such matters might be brought before the supreme judicial tribunal of the country—the judge of that court, the lord-chancellor, being a Protestant. According to the present bill, however, such matters would be left to the decision of a board, composed of Protestants and Catholics equal in number. The bill was loudly condemned by Messrs. More, O’Ferral, Bellew, and Shiel; while, on the other hand, Lord Arundel thanked government for the conciliatory spirit it displayed. Mr. Hume said that the bill seemed to him to be framed in a spirit of peace, and he wished all the Irish grievances were met in the same feeling. The proposed tribunal was a fair and proper one, and he should be glad to see as good a one for the administration of English charities: there ought to be “justice to England.” The second reading was carried by a majority of seventy-one against five; and on the motion that the bill should be committed, Mr. M. J. O’Connell gave notice that he should in committee move amendments. The bill having been subsequently reported, and being moved for a third reading, Mr. Dominick Browne expressed a wish for its postponement. The Roman Catholic hierarchy, he said, was entirely opposed to it; although he admitted that he believed it to be proposed in a spirit of conciliation. He moved that the bill be read that day three months; but the amendment found no one to second it; and after a few observations from Mr. M. J. O’Connell, who now expressed himself in favour of it, the bill passed.
During this session Lord Beaumont, a Roman Catholic peer, brought in a bill for the abolition of a number of penal acts, for the most part obsolete, though still retained in the Irish statute-book. The lord-chancellor urged Lord Beaumont to abstain from pressing his bill, as government were about to revise the whole of the penal laws; but finding his lordship resolved to press the matter, he took the bill into his own hands. The measure having been amended by the lord-chancellor, was brought before the house of lords on the 30th of July. In explaining the various enactments which it was intended to repeal, Lord Lyndhurst said that the first was a statute of Elizabeth’s reign, directing a particular form of prayer to be used, under a penalty of three months’ imprisonment for a first offence, six months for a second, and for life for a third. The second act intended to be repealed punished the denial of the sovereign’s supremacy in ecclesiastical and religious matters: first, with forfeiture of goods and chattels; second, with the penalties of a premunire; and for a third offence, with the penalties of high-treason. Another act made reconcilement to the see of Rome high-treason; and imposed a fine of two hundred marks on every priest performing, and one hundred marks on every person hearing the ceremony. By another, a Jesuit remaining in England a certain number of days was made liable to be prosecuted for high-treason; and persons residing abroad for the purpose of being educated, who should not return within six months after proclamation to that effect, were also rendered liable to the penalties of high-treason. Other statutes imposed penalties on any Roman Catholic who should be found more than three miles distant from his abode; on parents who sent their children abroad to be educated; and for not going to church. Another act declared any one newly converted to the Roman Catholic faith, and his children, if educated in that faith, incapable of holding any place of trust or profit. A statute of William and Mary enacted that no Roman Catholic should come within ten miles of the metropolis, and forbade them to have any weapons of defence in their houses. By the same bill it was also provided that if they possessed a horse worth more than five pounds, it was liable to be forfeited and seized. The bill would also repeal the act of the 31st George III., which act was an extraordinary jumble of legislation: they had an act of Elizabeth which required a party to take a certain oath, and if he refused he was guilty of high-treason; but by the subsequent act they provided that if he took another oath, and a much milder one, he was free: yet if a man professing the Roman Catholic religion did not take either of the oaths, he would be guilty of high-treason, and liable to all the penalties which attached to that crime. The only “non-content” to this measure in the house of lords was the Bishop of London: and he only opposed it because government had taken it up at the eleventh hour, and without consulting the hierarchy. The second reading was moved in the house of commons on the 5th of August by Sir Robert Peel, who took occasion to explain that it did not do away with any security which had been taken for the established church by the act passed in 1829 for the relief of Roman Catholics; the acts to be repealed were mere dead letters, encumbering and discrediting the statute-book. Mr. Hawes requested to know whether, if obsolete statutes of a similar nature were to be found on the statute-book, applicable to the same or other denominations of Christians, government would be prepared to frame a measure for repealing them. Sir Robert Peel replied that he would not make any pledge upon the subject; but if there were any statutes which compelled a conscientious dissenter from the church of England, upon a heavy penalty, to attend divine service in that church, he could see no objection to its being erased from the statute-book. The bill then passed, and received the royal assent.