The Bishop of Limerick said, their lordships must be aware, that he had not taken upon himself to impute any illegality or criminality to those landlords who opposed the arrangement intended by the act of parliament. As to the lawfulness of the opposition, he had nothing to say against it, however questionable its prudence might be. However, he certainly had not meant to say any thing to hurt the feelings of the landed proprietors of Ireland. nor had he, in fact, any local knowledge | discretion, and for making them or not, whatever to entitle him to offer himself to they were accountable solely to themtheir lordships' notice on the present selves. To make individuals in the situaoccasion. But he was induced to rise, in tion he had described liable to absolute consequence of what had fallen from the compulsion, would be most unjust; it right rev. prelate in the course of his would be a breach of all the rights of observations. He did this out of no dis- property, and a violation of principle, respect to that right rev. prelate, for which their lordships' House, as the chief he had the highest respect both for his guardian of property, never could sanction. situation, and for his personal character, There were, he hoped, many instances of which intitled him, he had reason to willingness on the part of proprietors to believe, to respect in his own country; but, make sacrifices without any necessity for he felt it his duty to advert to some of the the exercise of compulsion. He had said right rev. prelate's observations. In this much, because it was most desirable the course of his remarks he had alluded that the arrangement contemplated by the to the influence exercised by the land- bill should be fairly carried into effect; owners to prevent a composition for tithes; but he deprecated any thing like partiality, and the right rev. prelate had stated or the appearance of injustice. this, as if it were a blameable use of this influence, and intended to cast the burthens from their own shoulders on those of others. Now, their lordships would remember what had passed on this subject last year. He had then shown, that disputes of this kind would arise, when that just influence to which the parties were ⚫ entitled was exercised. If it were supposed, that this act was intended to prevent persons from exercising that just influence which the law and the constitution gave them-and God forbid that he should defend any unlawful influence then it would be one of the most monstrous laws ever passed by a legislative assembly. He would ask their lordships whether they were not aware what the object of the act Was it not to divide the burthen equally? He was one who had felt it his duty to point out the intended compulsory measure, as one of the greatest interferences with the right of property ever attempted. To call on persons who held property tithe-free under the authority of an act of parliament (an authority equal to that on which the claim of the church was founded), to part with their property, was, in his opinion, most unreasonable; and so he had at the time stated it to be. The answer given was, that the compulsion, as applied to those persons exclusively, would be unjust; and therefore the means of making effectual resistance was to be given them by a number of votes. On this ground, then, he was warranted in saying, that these persons only exercised a right of voting to which they were legally entitled. Calls might be made on them for sacrifices, and he himself might be disposed to advise such sacrifices; but they were to be made only at their own was? Lord King said, that after hearing both sides, he could readily believe both what the noble lord had said, and what the right reverend prelate had stated of Dr. Woodward. But, if this conduct had been practised by a person who, according to the right reverend prelate's description, was the beau ideal of an Irish parson, what might not be done by the ordinary run of Irish parsons? What had been that night stated in the petition, was well worthy of their lordships' notice. The pulpits had resounded with recommendations to compound; the vestries had exhorted the parishes to compound with the Clergy; and the Clergy had threatened the parishioners, "if you do not compound, we will deliver you into the hands of the lawyers, and the lawyers shall give you up to the tormentors." There was in Ireland, then, a new species of tormentor, brought forward to work on the imaginations of the people. He should like to see as a great curiosity, or as a specimen of natural history worthy of being preserved, this new Gorgon, modern Chimera, "the cruel Delaney, who was thus employed by the most excellent of the whole of those divines who formed the most admirable of all Churches, the Church of Ireland. this The Earl of Limerick said, he was president of a most respectable meeting of Irish noblemen and gentlemen, with whom the proposition for the Tithe Composition bill had originated. He had then thought it would be a good measure, and never meant to encourage a mischievous violation of the right of property. If the landowner was not to be free to consent to the composition, and if land, now tithe free, was to be forcibly compelled to pay tithes, there was an end to all justice. Such a proceeding would be tantamount to a dissolution of the Union. The Earl of Harrowby would not follow | House. He had some other petitions now the observations of the noble lord, but which he abstained from presenting, bewould merely say, that if the Irish tithe cause a noble lord was absent who wished proctor was to be brought to the bar, and to take part in the discussion they would exhibited there, he hoped he would be occasion. It was a general complaint in accompanied by the stewards of the land- these petitions; that the rectors opposed lords. As to what had fallen from the the building of churches. He had one noble marquis, he must observe, that in petition, which stated, that the rector had completely exculpating the landlords who strongly opposed the building a church in assembled at the vestry, from the charge the parish, although there was none, of acting illegally, he had, in the same because it would diminish his income and breath, exculpated the clergyman for give him some duty to perform. proposing to his parishioners the terms he was willing to accept. Whether the terms were unreasonable or not, he was entitled to propose them. The legislature had given to him that right, as well as to the Tandlords the right of objection. He had always hoped that both parties would concur in carrying the act into effect, for the sake of the peace and tranquillity of the country; but, what he particularly regretted was, that both here and elsewhere, the names and characters of individuals should be made free with, and often when they had nothing to do with the point in discussion. Whether Dr. Woodward asked too little or too much for his tithes, was not a question for their lordships' decision. The House had no concern with it whatever. He called on the House to consider in what a situation they were placed, both as legislators and as gentlemen, in thus judging of individuals in their absence. From his heart he deprecated fall such proceedings. He could conceive nothing more cruel or dangerous than thus to signalize individuals. The proctor who had that night been called "the cruel Delaney" would to-morrow go forth in that character to every part of the united kingdom, and being thus stigmatized, might find his life endangered by the opprobium here cast on him. With what feelings could they, as men and as gentlemen, encourage accusations made in this public manner, without the possibility of a public defence? He acquitted the noble earl of any intention to inflict injury on an individual; but he entreated the House to put a stop to so cruel a practice. Lord Kingston admitted that it was wrong to bring forward the names of individuals. It was not he who had christened the tithe proctor, "the cruel Delaney" but the rector himself. The man was too well known in the country where he lived, to receive any injury from any thing which might be said of him in that Earl Grosvenor expressed his conviction, that the bill could produce no other effect than that of agitating the country, and alluded to the compulsory clause as being peculiarly oppressive and objectionable. It was impossible, he maintained, that the tithe proctor could act in a fair and unprejudiced manner. The very constitution of the bishops' court, forbad it. They had all an interest on the side of the Church; and though he would not now detain their lordships with a description of the manner in which offices were filled in that court, he would remind them, that the judge himself was a clergyman appointed by the bishop, and that all the inferior officers were links of the same chain of dependence. Lord Clifden concurred fully in opinion with the noble earl, as to the constitution of those courts, and the partial character of the tithe proctors. It was a notorious fact, that they always concealed what the value of the tithe was, until the crop was taken off the ground; and then, if the wretched peasant resisted their estimate, he was summoned before the bishops' court, where the churchman and tithe owner was himself both judge and jury. It was a gross imposture to talk of such a proceeding as a measure of justice. The situation of Ireland was particularly grievous in this respect, ground down as she was by the demands of the clergy. There were two church establishments lying heavy on the people of Ireland; and the whole of this tithe system, with all its injustice, was kept up for the support of the Protestant church, though not more than half a million out of a population of seven millions three hundred thousand in that country were Protestants. He would ask the reverend bench of bishops, whether they could defend this-whether they could match it, by any example drawn from the history of the world? Ireland was in a situation similar to that of Scotland before the Revolution. In that country there had been assassinations too. Archbishop Sharp was assassinated; and the people fought up to their knees in blood, in resistance to the church which was imposed upon them. But king William settled the question in Scotland, and that country had since continued in a state of tranquillity and peace. The great misfortune of Ireland was, that she had two churches to maintain. This was a subject to which he had often alluded, and which he thought it his duty continually, he repeated it, to ring in their lordships ears. Ordered to lie on the table. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Thursday, March 25. SOUTH AMERICAN STATES]. Sir J. Mackintosh, in rising to dispose of a notice of a motion which he had caused to be placed on the order-book respecting the States of South America, hoped that the House would allow him to premise a very few sentences. Since he had given notice of his motion, he had heard two important declarations made by the ministers of the Crown. It would be unparliamentary to mention the occasion upon which those declarations were made, the places in which they were made, or the parties from whom they proceeded; and he must therefore be excused for not being more explicit on those points. According, however, to the best of his recollection and understanding, the second of those declarations did expressly state (he did not affect to give the precise words) that any considerable armament from the ports of Spain, during the occupation of that country by the French army, against the South American States would be regarded as not being a Spanish expedition, and consequently as coming within the principle laid down in the closing despatch of VOL. X. the right hon. secretary for foreign affairs to sir Charles Stuart last year. He had no difficulty in stating, that after having well considered that declaration, it had made a great impression on his mind; it had supplied what he had considered an omission; and had explained what had appeared to him to be ambiguous in the papers which had been laid before the House. That declaration had so much narrowed the ground on which any immediate and practical measure could rest, as to render it, in his opinion, very unadvisable at the present moment, to persevere in a motion, which might be understood in Europe, and in America, to imply that the intentions of the British government were mistrusted. Another circumstance had also influenced him, with regard to the determination to which he had come. He had heard, from a quarter which he considered as trustworthy, but which, being of a private nature, did not carry with it the weight of the official character which was attached to the declarations to which he had just alluded, that a great power of the continent had declined to be a party to the threatened congress on the subject of the South American States. He could not say that he had been influenced by the ambiguous language which the ministers of France had thought fit to put into the mouth of their monarch in his late speech; nor, indeed, if the language of that document had been much more explicit, would he have placed the least reliance upon it, when he recollected the striking contrast which existed between the public professions and the secret policy of the French government in the year 1822 and 1823. On account of the circumstances he had mentioned, all of which had occurred since he had given his notice of motion, he now begged leave to withdraw it. He might have postponed it to a future day; but he considered it the fairer and more manly course to withdraw it altogether; still, however, holding ministers responsible for every moment of unnecessary delay in acknowledging the independence of the South American States, and reserving to himself the right of bringing the question forward, if he should see cause hereafter. Mr. Canning hoped he might be allowed to say a few words upon the present occasion, though such a proceeding might not be strictly regular. His hon. and learned friend was, of course, at liberty to make, or to postpone, or to withdraw 4 U his motion, as should appear to himself most convenient. If his hon. and learned friend had pressed his motion, he would have extorted from him (Mr. C.) some remarks; and in withdrawing it his hon. and learned friend had afforded him some temptation for entering into discussion. But, he thought he should best consult his duty by abstaining from making any remarks on what his hon. and learned friend had stated. He only wished the House to bear this in mind, that he neither affirmed nor denied the declarations which his hon. friend had stated to have been made elsewhere. ASSESSED TAXES-REPEAL OF THE.] Lord Clifton having presented a petition from Canterbury for the repeal of the Assessed Taxes, Mr. Maberly said, that the notice on the subject of these taxes, so generally exclaimed against throughout the country, which he had given for the 29th of April, had been received by the gentlemen on the Treasury bench with a laugh; but he nevertheless begged to be permitted to say a few words on it. The chancellor of the Exchequer had shewn his opinion of the equality of taxation. No sooner had the tax on windows been taken off, than the right hon. gentleman had direct ed the board of taxes to send their surveyors to report on the real value of houses, which would be equivalent to an increase in the amount of 25 per cent on the House tax. The right hon. gentleman seemed to have been particularly unhappy in his financial propositions for the present year. He seemed to have cast about, how best to throw away the public money. As for the 900,000l. expended in churches, palaces, and so forth, the right hon. gentleman had said, that these sources of expenditure would not occur again. But, should he not, before he entered upon that expenditure, and before he gave away 2,700,000l. in a most improvident bargain with the Bank, have turned his attention to the prayer of such petitioners as the present? Before gentlemen turned a deaf ear to these petitions, or laughed at the proposition for granting the prayer of them, they should consider what the people had suffered in consequence of those taxes. He hoped he should be able to shew, that public credit might be well supported without them; and he had no doubt it would, ere long, be acknowledged to be absurd to go on buying up three per cents at 95, that had been issued at 50 and 60, and that the whole surplus revenue ought to be applied to the reduction of taxation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, he felt himself compelled to say a few words, though certainly not with a view of entering into discussion of any of the various topics which the hon. member had somewhat unseasonably introduced. Of the charge of unmannerly treatment which the hon. gentleman thought proper to bring against him, he was totally unconscious. If there had been any smile on his side of the House, he was unconscious of having participated in it. The smile, if there had been one, was probably excited by the circumstance of the hon. member having selected for his motion a day on which there would be no House; namely, his majesty's birth-day. If the hon. member meant to charge him with having, on this or on any other occasion, shewn any thing like indifference or disrespect in the discussion of any subject connected with the wants or the wishes of the people, it was a charge to which he could not plead guilty. On the contrary, he believed that on every occasion, as well as on that on which the hon. member for Westminster had brought forward his motion, the tone which he had adopted was directly the reverse of that which the hon. member imputed to him. There was not the slightest foundation, in fact, for the charge. As to the notice which the hon. member had taken of the circular letters sent to surveyors from the Taxoffice in consequence of instructions transmitted from the Treasury, he had distinctly stated, that the object of the instructions for re-surveying houses was, to afford an opportunity, if the amount of revenue should be raised by a just and equal assessment, to propose a proportional reduction of the tax. His object was, not to screw more money out of the pockets of the people, but, if possible, to` save the money of those who were compelled to pay more than they ought to contribute to the revenue, in consequence of an unequal assessment. In this respect, therefore, as well as in that to which he had just adverted, the hon. member had brought a charge against him for which there was not the slightest foundation. Mr. Maberly said, that he did not mean to charge the right hon. gentleman with any disrespectful levity. If, however, the right hon. gentleman meant to say that the conduct of his colleagues was as decorous as his own, he could not assent to such an observation, for be would again assert, that the right hon. gentleman's colleagues on the Treasury bench did laugh on the occasion referred to. Mr. Hume strongly urged the necessity of a repeal of the assessed taxes, as well as a reduction of the duties on silk and wool. the executive part of the subject, and he was particularly anxious to have the clause altered, which, for one offence, affixed a maximum penalty of 5., but no minimum sum. This, he thought, ought not to be left to the discretion of magistrates. There was an appeal to the sessions, if the penalty exceeded 40s.: but, to evade that appeal, there prevailed a practice of fining only 39s. One evil of these acts was, their inordinate length; and the consolidation which he proposed would, by short If the hon. member below him (Mr. F. Lewis) meant to pursue the subject, he would not himself press the matter any further. If not, he would move, "That leave be given to bring in a bill to consolidate and amend the several acts relating to the Turnpike Roads; passed in the 3rd and 4th years of Geo. 4th." Sir T. Lethbridge hoped the chancellor of the Exchequer would take into his serious consideration the propriety of re-ening, obviate that serious inconvenience. lieving the country from that most burthensome assessment, the window tax. If the right hon. gentleman was determined not to relieve the country by repealing the window tax this session, he begged leave to suggest to him a mode of relieving the country without taking off the tax. What he would suggest to the right hon. gentleman was, that he would allow all windows which had been stopped up, in consequence of this tax, to be opened, This would create a large demand for glass; and would thus give employment to a number of useful and idustrious individuals who were now out of employ, without any way interfering with the financial arrangements of the chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. N. Calvert thought those taxes most objectionable which affected the price of labour, such as the taxes on malt, coals, and candles. If these taxes added 2s. a week to the expenses of the poor man, they made the price of labour dearer in that proportion. Sir Joseph Yorke said, that if his hon. friend would pledge his word of honour, that he thought a reduction of duty upon the articles he had named would reduce their price to the poorer classes one halfpenny, he would go hand in hand with him in proposing their repeal. Ordered to lie on the table. TURNPIKE ROADS BILL.] Mr. Cripps rose, in pursuance of the notice he had given, to move for leave to bring in a bill to amend and consolidate the Turnpike Acts. The House would recollect, that a highway and turnpike act of enormous length, the latter containing 150 clauses, were enacted in the year 1822. So complicated were the clauses, that it was essentially necessary they should be explained, to enable magistrates properly to comprehend the meaning of the law. There was at present, the greatest difficulty upon Mr. F. Lewis said, he had no wish to take the subject out of the hands of the hon. member, but he should be extremely happy to give him any information which he might be able to communicate. The acts which he (Mr. F. L.) had undertaken to carry through the House, at the express desire of the committee which sat on this subject, contained no less than one hundred and fifty clauses. If they were imperfect, it was not from any want of attention which had been given to the subject; they had occupied his (Mr. F. Lewis's) time and attention during three sessions. He thought the hon. member would fail in his object, if he attempted to combine the Highway acts with the Turnpike road acts. He agreed with the hon. member that it was desirable to consolidate acts for the purpose of shortening them; but the highway acts were themselves extremely long and complica ted, and the hon. member would find the difficulty of legislating on this subject greatly increased; by attempting to combine them with the turnpike road acts; Under all the circumstances, he advised the hon. member to withraw his motion. Sir M. W. Ridley said, that considerable improvements had been already made in the turnpike laws. One very material alteration was that of consolidating all the laws on the subject into two acts; and it would have been a still further improvement if they had been all comprised in the act of last session. A considerable portion of practical information had been already obtained, in consequence of the inquiries which had been set on foot; and |