ty Disposal Bill— {COMMONS} collegiate institutions of the What he (Mr. Walpole) was s, that if they proceeded in ey would get neither uniform runiform qualification. The Physicians in Dublin, London, gh should be put upon a good hat they would be respected country, and would be responat uniformity of qualification constitute the test to which ld be subjected before they to practise in different parts y. e resumed; Bill reported, as DISPOSAL BILL-ADJOURNED TE-(THIRD NIGHT). ad, for resuming Adjourned Question [24th May]," That Ow read a second time." gain proposed. umed. Adjourned Debate. 112 the House, that he should state the reasons which had induced him to give up a measure which he had ventured to introduce. He could only say that he gave up that measure from necessity-from the impossibility of being enabled to carry it during the present Session, and not from any belief on his part that the question relating to the disposition of property, as embodied in the Bill, was not one with which Parliament and the country could legitimately deal. What the Bill proposed to effect had already been done in France and in other Roman Catholic countries, and he could not, therefore, justly be held liable to the charge of intolerance because he had endeavoured to place the law of England upon the same footing as that which in those countries prevailed. He had brought forward the Bill in conjunction with a proposition which had been made by an hon. and learned Gentleman opposite (Mr. T. Chambers), but he thought it right to state that he had never had the honour of exchanging a word with that Gentleman until after his Motion had been made. In abandoning the Bill, he should take occasion to protest against the doctrine which was maintained by some hon. Members in that House-that subjects such as that with which the Bill proposed to deal were subjects into which individual Members of Parliament, or even Parliament itself, must not venture to inquire. No institution in this country could escape the ordeal of submitting to investigation if the Legislature should think it expedient that that investigation should take place; and, he should add, that facts fully justified a resort to inquiry, in order that it might be ascertained whether monastic and conventual establishments were institutions in conformity with, or antagonistic to, the interests of England. The reason why he had not pressed his Bill of late was because he had entertained a hope that a case which was pending in the other House of Parliament would have relieved the House from the necessity of deciding upon the principle of his Bill, by rendering it clear whether the law with relation to the civil death of individuals was still the law of England. The case to which he referred had, however, been compromised by the payment of a sum of money, and no judicial opinion upon its merits would, of course, be pronounced. The law relating to monastic institutions was in a most unsatisfactory state, and he was, indeed, but a short-sighted politician UIRE said, he had been in the House when the adjourndiscussion upon the measure n place. He should not, howimself of his privilege for the stating at any length the which his opposition to that based, inasmuch as he underwas the intention of the hon. Member for Enniskillen (Mr. to withdraw it. He might, permitted to say, that the whose principle was in direct to the feelings and wishes of Roman Catholic in Ireland, eclaration signed by nearly cons it had been characterised oak for sectarian bigotry, and to the Roman Catholic comwas exceedingly glad that of the Session, and the dishe hon. and learned Gentlea stop to any further progress TESIDE said, he wished to dulgence of the House while reasons why it was that he the determination to withdraw r their notice. It would not, becoming in him to call into le which had been framed by - Commons in its wisdom, and e minority were enabled to voice of the majority of its He was of opinion, however, due, as well to himself as to alpole FAKER said, that the GATE said, that he vere to consent to p to it, the feeling tion with it throu such as would give til the question re al soventual establish red, and those instit within the purview But to return te on Member for ShThat hon. Gent accuse those who sat dee's) side of the E pirit of intolerance red, who had hear The hon. Gentleman ha ghts before with re Donum, could fail at the charge of intole with a very bad grac who was not aware that the question of deed. A more bigoted speech than that placing it upon a sound footing was that of the hon. Member on that occasion-one which was uppermost in the minds of the breathing a more intolerant spirit with repeople of England, and was a question ference to members of the Presbyterian rewhich required, and which should receive, ligion-he had never heard. He believed, a speedy solution. In conclusion, he would and he hoped the country would perceive, beg to move for leave to withdraw his Bill. that no course could be adopted more calMR. HADFIELD said, he was glad the culated to be fatal to the interests of Prohon. and learned Gentleman had consented testantism, or to the maintenance of relito withdraw a measure which could only gious freedom, than that which the hon. give rise to religious squabbles, and serve Member for Sheffield, and those other hon. to display the intolerant spirit by which Members who were equally indiscriminate hon. Members on the other side of the and unjust in their attacks upon their House were actuated. [Cries of "Order!"] brother Protestants, upon the ground that MR. NEWDEGATE rose to order, on they received State endowments, had purthe ground that the hon. Member had al- sued. Those hon. Members were perready spoken on the Bill, and was pro-petually assailing the Established Church ceeding to address the House, but was interrupted by MR. F. SCULLY, who said, he begged to submit to the right hon. Gentleman in the Chair that the hon. Member for North Warwickshire having been himself already heard on the Bill, was not in order in now speaking upon it. MR. SPEAKER said, that the hon. Member for Sheffield was out of order, because he had previously spoken on the Bill, but he was not aware that the hon. Member for North Warwickshire had spoken on the question. MR. NEWDEGATE said, that he must regard the objection which hon. Members opposite appeared to entertain to his being heard in the light of a compliment. He could assure those hon. Gentlemen, however, that he should not be deterred by their opposition from giving expression to his sentiments with reference to the subject under their consideration; and that even though he were to consent to be silent with respect to it, the feeling which existed in connection with it throughout the country was such as would give Parliament no rest until the question relating to monastic and conventual establishments was fairly solved, and those institutions were brought within the purview of the law of England. But to return for a moment to the hon. Member for Sheffield (Mr. Hadfield). That hon. Gentleman had ventured to accuse those who sat upon his (Mr. Newdegate's) side of the House of manifesting a spirit of intolerance, but no person, he believed, who had heard the speech which the hon. Gentleman had delivered a few nights before with respect to the Regium Donum, could fail to be of opinion that the charge of intolerance came from him with a very bad grace in in this country, which was the great bulwark of Protestant freedom, and they thus rendered themselves nothing more nor less than agents in the hands of those who were the advocates of the supremacy of the Church of Rome. With respect to the Bill under their notice, he wished to make a very few observations. He for one felt deeply indebted to his hon. and learned Friend the Member for Enniskillen (Mr. Whiteside) for having brought his great legal ability to bear upon the question with which that Bill proposed to deal. Under the operation of the law as it at present stood in reference to that question, convents were permitted to exist; but, at the same time, the conditions upon which their existence was based-so far as those conditions related to the possession or disposition of property upon the part of their inmates-were by the law totally ignored. The law presumed that a nun was a free agent, quite as unfettered as any unmarried woman at large throughout the country. Now, the hon. and learned Member for Enniskillen had upon a former occasion explained to the House in the fullest manner that the vows which were taken by a nun extended to the question of the disposal, not only of such property as she might possess at the time of her entrance into the convent, but also of all property which might subsequently accrue to her either by gift, by will, or inheritance; that this was a state of things which rendered the position of a nun wholly different from that of any other member of the community, and which made it perfectly clear that the law proceeded upon a false assumption in dealing with the nun as a free agent in the disposal of her property. Now, the Bill of his hon. and learned Friend proposed to deal with the subject as it stood, and to Motion, by leave, withdrawn. the superioress and the other the fact, for the Bill had been allowed to JURORS AND JURIES (IRELAND) BILL. SIR JOHN YOUNG said, he hoped that of wr impede the progress at the time the s an which he poss General for Ireland ad not speak as app ad told him that in hi essed of a freehold in 20. to 50%. ought on a jury; and he ad proposed that a ma Xote the Poor Law at tent to act as a ju hether civil or cri present were select criminal cases were those who served in had deemed it to be adv Mation should in bot Te same. Such were so provements which th to effect. It was extr at some alteration in the juries in Ireland e de, and he must e et feel that confidence the right hon. Barone eld induce him to ent MR. WHITESIDE said, that the course ENT SCULLY said, he never arty to originate any religious lculated to wound the feelings ers of that House; and, were rong expressions, they would ted against one or two indiwere perpetually treating the abers with insulting language. he hon. and learned Member en had simply withdrawn the observing that he was yieldous opposition. That was not vdegate wine expectation that Kasters would deal im tirely with that su He feared that the contemplated measur would be, like so many of its predecessors an abortion. For his own part he coul only say that he had done his duty, and i would rest with Her Majesty's Governmen to cast aside the Bill upon their own re sponsibility. MR. KEOGH said, his right hon. Frien near him had informed the House that i was the intention of the Government to in troduce a Bill next Session for the purpose of amending the law relating to the quali deavour to impede the progress of a Bill which aimed at the reform of a system which he knew to be radically defective. He could account for the course which the right hon. Baronet deemed it advisable to take only upon the supposition that the Government, having made no attempt themselves to remedy the evils of that system, were determined to obstruct the efforts of those who sought to amend the existing law. If the Attorney General had informed him before he introduced his Bill that it was the intention of the Govern-fications of jurors in Ireland. To that inti ment to deal with the question of the constitution of juries in Ireland he certainly should not have ventured to meddle with the subject. No such announcement, however, had been made upon the part of Her Majesty's Ministers, nor did he believe that they had at the time the slightest intention of taking the matter into consideration with a view to immediate legislation. Under those circumstances he had endeavoured to frame a measure, against whose provisions he had heard no valid objection urged, but which the right hon. Baronet now asked him to withdraw. In that measure he proposed to make the qualification for a juror dependent-not upon the choice of the sub-sheriff or the sub-sheriff's clerk-but upon the intelligence of the individual himself, and the amount of property which he possessed. The Attorney General for Ireland of whom he should not speak as approving of the Bill-had told him that in his opinion a man possessed of a freehold to the value of from 20l. to 50l. ought to be eligible to serve on a jury; and he (Mr. Whiteside) had proposed that a man who was rated under the Poor Law at 30l. should be competent to act as a juryman in all cases, whether civil or criminal. Those who at present were selected to act as jurors in criminal cases were of a class inferior to those who served in civil cases, and he had deemed it to be advisable that the qualification should in both instances be the same. Such were some of the principal improvements which the Bill was intended to effect. It was extremely desirable that some alteration in the mode of empannelling juries in Ireland should speedily be made, and he must confess that he did not feel that confidence in the promise which the right hon. Baronet had made which would induce him to entertain any very sanguine expectation that Her Majesty's Ministers would deal immediately and effectively with that subject. mation upon the part of his right hon. Friend the hon. and learned Gentleman opposite had replied in a tone whichwhen he considered the quarter from which it came he felt to be in accor dance with the hon. and learned Gentleman's ordinary mode of proceeding. The hon. and learned Gentleman had referred to the Report of the Committee upon crime and outrage in Ireland, and had called the attention of the House to a Resolution which had been adopted by that Committee. The hon. and learned Gentleman had gone further, and had stated that he had framed his Bill in accordance with the terms of that Resolution. Now he (Mr. Keogh), too, had had the honour of sitting upon the Committee in question, and he felt himself compelled to state that the provisions of the hon. and learned Gentleman's Bill were drawn up in direct contradiction to the Resolution of that Committee. That Resolution was to the effect that the names of the jurors should be taken from the rate list as kept under the operation of the Poor Law, and not, as the Bill of the hon. and learned Gentleman proposed, from the list of Parliamentary voters. The hon. and learned Gentleman was well aware that there existed the greatest distinction between the two lists, and that the number upon the Parliamentary voters' list bore only the proportion of one to seven to the number upon the list of rated occupiers. The hon. and learned Gentleman must be also aware that, under the operation of his Bill, any man might disqualify himself from serving upon a jury by not paying his rates within a particular day, and thus disqualifying himself from being placed upon the list of Parliamentary voters. He was perfectly ready to admit that the law required amendment, but he felt persuaded that the Bill of the hon. and learned Gentleman was not one by which that object could be effected. Such was the opinion hief Justice of Ireland, Baron | published, but they were in progress, and TESIDE said, he had not at lead the House to suppose rney General for Ireland apBill. MR. MAGUIRE said, he must express his decided disapproval of the Bill. It would reduce to a most unreasonable and inconvenient extent the number of persons liable to be placed on the jury lists in Ireland. MR. VINCENT SCULLY said, that considering there was not sufficient time to discuss the measure in the present Session, he should move an Amendment to postpone the second reading to that day three months. The whole machinery of drawing juries in Ireland required remodelling, in order to assimilate it to the system that prevailed in this country. Amendment proposed, to leave out from the word "That" to the end of the Question, in order to add the words "this House will, upon this day three months, resolve itself into the said Committee,' instead thereof. GH said, he wished to call of the House to a communihe had received from his 1 upon the subject. In that n his learned friend stated, inion cases would frequently ch there was no clause whatill to provide. He also added s at the moment at which he se pending in the Court of th, which it was supposed the of the Bill would meet, but say that that section was a ur legislation, and could only l litigation. On referring to found that a similar provision nuously opposed by the Duke 1. But the members of the ion in Ireland were not the opposed to the passing of the heir consideration. He had mmunication from the secrehamber of Commerce in Dubg a Resolution which had by that body, and which was that, if the Bill were to pass would be productive of great venience. It had also been y the Corporation of the city d by the sheriffs of the counm and Kilkenny. When the ned Gentleman introduced his Keogh) had stated that in his easure could with safety be the subject with which it pro1 until the necessary returns tained from the Poor Law se returns had not yet been gh MR. M MAHON said, he wished that a measure should be introduced upon the subject, which would extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. thats hon. and learne the bad so honourably and MR. NAPIER said, he thought his hon. and learned Friend the Member for Enniskillen (Mr. Whiteside) was rather hardly dealt with in the matter. On the occasion of the second reading of the Bill, the hon. and learned Gentlemen the Attorney General for England and the Solicitor General for Ireland had expressed their approval of its object and of its main provisions, and yet the Government turned round upon his hon. and learned Friend in the course of the progress of the measure, for the purpose of preventing him from proceeding with it. It appeared; o him (Mr. e second read Pedeman had jus |