the Bill must be intended to give a legal sanction to something not now sanctioned by law.

Mr. Bethell did not think it was competent to the clergy in the Colonies to adopt anything like synodical action, which would interfere with the prerogative of the Crown. He suggested several objections to the Bill.

Sir W. P. Wood said the avowed object of the Bill was to enable the Church of England in the Colonies to regulate its own matters like any other denomination. If any of the clauses went beyond that object, they could be modified, but there was not the slightest tendency in the Bill to make the Church dominant in the Colonies. Some such measure should be introduced, in order that the Church of England in the Colonies should be left unfettered. Sir W. Wood guarded himself against being understood to assent to the AttorneyGeneral's opinion with respect to the application of the Act of Submission to the Colonies.

Mr. Horsman asked what was meant by leaving the Church unfettered? He agreed that perfect religious equality was the best principle that could be adopted in the Colonies; but his objection to this Bill was, that while it released the colonial church from restrictions and responsibilities imposed by the State, it left it the advantages derived from State connection, and gave it more than was enjoyed by the Church at home.

The amendment not being opposed by Mr. Gladstone, was agreed to, and the House passed to the other orders of the day.

A plan for reforming the Church Establishment at home in regard to the duties of ecclesiastical persons, and the management and

distribution of episcopal and capitular incomes, was submitted to Parliament this year by the Marquis of Blandford-whose exertions in this cause gained him much credit in the House of Commons. The noble Marquis moved, on the 29th of April, for leave to bring in a Bill, of which he explained the nature and objects.

His motives in introducing the measure were, first, to enable the Established Church to extend its ramifications through all the masses of the rapidly-increasing population; secondly, to assist in giving a practical remedy for abuses which had drawn down some degree of scorn and sarcastic reflection upon the Church. The main features of his plan were, that the incomes of the bishops should be fixed at precise sums named by him, which would save 30,000l. a year; and that 35 deaneries and 46 canonries be suppressed or merged in bishoprics, which would save 62,000l. these sums, with others to be obtained by other means, would amount to about 122,000l.; with which he would endow sixteen new bishoprics, and effect a large advance in augmenting the inadequate clerical stipends throughout the country. The Bill would also place the whole management of Church property in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Lord Blandford varied and strengthened his case in support of the Bill by details of the evils of the present sinecure offices of large numbers of the deaneries and chapters of the Established Church; and of the bad, and in many instances unfaithful, management of Church property, in past times, by prelates of the Church since dead.

Lord Robert Grosvenor second

ed the motion, which was supported with warm commendations by Mr. Cowper, Mr. Horsman, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Hume. Sir R. Inglis, however, received it with dissatisfaction and distrust. Mr. Walpole, on behalf of the Government, expressed their views respecting the measure. He said that, knowing the great pains which the noble Lord had taken upon this question, and knowing, moreover, that he entertained the most friendly feelings towards the Church, and was actuated solely by a desire to promote the spiritual instruction and improvement of the people, he should indeed be ungrateful to him if, on the part of the Government, he should submit that leave to bring in his Bill should not be granted. But these were not the only circumstances which induced him to give his assent to the introduction of the Bill; he thought that there was much weight in the arguments and observations which the noble Lord had offered to the House, and that the House and the country should have an opportunity of considering his large and comprehensive measure; but, at the same time, it was so large and comprehensive that he thought it much better to see its details before they ventured to give a decided opinion upon it. So far as he understood the objects of the Bill, they were, first, to increase the episcopate of the country by erecting new sees; and, secondly, to provide for the better management of episcopal and capitular revenues. Now, he concurred with the noble Lord in the desirableness of accomplishing those two objects, provided they could

be done with satisfaction to the Church and its members; but this was a question which could only be answered after they had had an opportunity of seeing the details by means of which he proposed to carry the measure out. He (Mr. Walpole) owned he entertained considerable doubt with regard to some portions of the measure which had been shadowed forth. He entertained some doubt, for instance, with regard to the suppression of deaneries and canonries to the extent proposed. At all events, it could not be determined without more information and discussion than had hitherto been given to the subject. But he admitted that, while it was desirable to increase the episcopate, the funds from which it was increased ought to come from the sources of the Church itself. At the same time he thought that, concurrently with that proposal, it would be advisable, supposing the funds to be sufficient, that they should provide more effectually for the parochial clergy at the same time that they increased their number. number. But he did not think it right to provoke discussion upon these topics until they had seen the details of the Bill.

The Bill was afterwards brought in, but the early termination of the session, and the pressure of other business not allowing time for a full consideration and discussion of so important a scheme, the Marquis of Blandford was under the necessity of withdrawing it for the present, expressing his determination to take a future opportunity of submitting a similar measure to Parliament.

tion.

A

DEBATE respecting the system of education pursued at Maynooth College, which originated in a motion for inquiry by Mr. Spooner, and was prolonged by several adjournments from week to week, occupied a good deal of the time of the House of Commons, but led to no practical result. The discussion commenced on the 11th of May, when Mr. Spooner opened his case in a long speech, which included extracts from the writings of various authorities of the Roman Catholic Church, from the text-books in use at Maynooth, and from Parliamentary speeches. The argument of the hon. Member was directed to prove, that the system pursued at Maynooth tended to create immorality, and was subversive of the principles of civil allegiance. The mass of his proofs to support these charges were taken from the text-books of the Roman Catholic teachers, and the commentaries on the canon-law by the Roman Catholic doctors Bailley, Reiffenstuel, and Thomas Aquinas. These extracts he cited, with a running commentary of his own. But he also supported his charges by materials chosen from the political events and situation of the present day. Quoting from the speeches delivered by Sir Robert Peel, to show that the policy of endowing Maynooth was a generous one, which it was hoped and expected would be repaid by the infusion of a better feeling into the institution, and by securing a more liberal order of

the priesthood, he asked how had that generous spirit been met? and by the answers which facts gave to the question, he assumed that Maynooth would be condemned. One of the latest and most marked indications of the spirit in which the generous policy of the grant had been met, was afforded in a declaration to the Roman Catholic electors of Ireland lately issued by the Catholic Defence Association, under the signature of its Secretary, Mr. Henry Wilberforce. Speaking of Lord Derby, Mr. Wilberforce writes-" He is disappointed. When he agreed to endow Maynooth, he expected that, in consideration of this endowment, the supreme head of the Catholic Church upon earth would abandon the measures which he thought necessary for the good of the Catholic Church! He really believed, it seems, that he could bring the holy Catholic Church to abandon her own principles and duties, and that not in Ireland only, but in other countries, for the sum of 26,000l. per annum to the College of St. Patrick, Maynooth."

In fine, Mr. Spooner said he knew that the Papal aggression opened the eyes of the people ; that from one end of the kingdom to the other there existed a desire to put a stop to the system. He had shown the House, that the rebellious, contumacious, disloyal conduct of the Irish Catholics, was completely in consonance with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. To those who denied

those allegations he said, it was their bounden duty to challenge investigation. The country would not be satisfied unless a full investigation were to take place before a Committee impartially chosen.

The Marquis of Blandford seconded the motion.

Mr. Walpole rose early in the debate to state the course which the Government proposed to take on the question. The question raised by the original motion depended on the further question, whether the grant to Maynooth had or had not answered the purpose for which it was given. The grant was first given in 1795, with the object, that as Roman Catholics had no seminaries or colleges of their own by law, and were forced to be educated abroad, where pernicious political doctrines were in vogue, thenceforth the Roman Catholics should be provided in Ireland with a well-educated and domestic priesthood. There was a pledge to maintain the grant for 20 years after the Union, but after the expiration of those years the grant was wholly voluntary. When Sir Robert Peel proposed the essential change of increasing it greatly and making it permanent, he stated his grounds. They were, first, to obtain a well-educated, loyal, and domestic priesthood; second, to provide for the instruction of the priesthood, which Roman Catholics were supposed to be too poor to give for themselves, in order that their priesthood might be bred up in a manner suitable to their holy calling and profession; and, third, "to break up by generosity a formidable confederacy against the British Government and connection." These were the objects for which this grant was made and perpe

tuated. 'Well, now," continued Mr. Walpole, "I ask you these questions-Has or has not, in any of these three instances, the grant answered the purposes for which it was given?" Rumour said that many of the students at Maynooth were of different orders, who were sent out abroad, and would not remain a domestic priesthood. He suspected that the character of the priesthood had changed of late years; and that, instead of forming a domestic influence and character, it had assumed an aggressive character, constituting a confederacy. "I do not say a formidable one, but still a confederacy against the British Crown and the British connection. I allude more particularly to what has taken place since Dr. Cullen came into Ireland, and was raised to the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church. Since you had Dr. Cullen over here, you have had an influence exercised which, as recent events, even those of the last year, distinctly showed, has changed the character of the edu cation of the priesthood, so that it has not been of that domestic character the promoters of the grant intended it to be."

Mr. Walpole next referred to the Queen's Colleges lately established in Ireland-to the denunciation of those colleges by some of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and to the prohibition issued by them to the laity against sending their children to those colleges. The Romish party had since then established colleges of their own, which they had a perfect right to do, but which showed plainly their design of separating the Roman Catholics from the Protestants and of keeping the former under foreign control. Upon the last point, that the grant was a