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and his myrmidons , but were no match for a prefet and his praetorians . In Poland , Warsaw is allowed the luxury of a daily paper . Sweden emancipate ? her Jews . Bagdad is in the hands of the Bedouin * . . The discussion of the debt in thr Cortes tit Madrid is taken up and adjourned , and then again resumed and postponed , till it seems likely to last
to eternity . Among the many disasters and misdeeds of the week , the most signal arc , the two explosions at Paisley and Stockport , and the two cases of illtreating children at Dublin and Kingsland . In Dublin , a woman who had charge of an illegitimate child has starved it to indulge a hideous rapacity . At Kingsland , the victim is a lad whose treatment reminds one of that of Jane Wilbred , though
by no means so horrible . The two explosions suggest the necessity of greater attention to the causes of disasters which involve such desperate loss of life : at Stockport , a new boiler exploded , reminding us of the fact how little the immediate cause of boiler explosions is understood ; at Paisley , a notoriously dangerous mine exploded with repeated claps , burying numbers within , and we are reminded how much awaits to be done to perfect mining ventilation .
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Lord John Russell ' s excuse for postponing the budget indefinitely , on . the plea that Mr . Baillie ' s Ceylon motion must previously be disposed of , was rather unceremoniously put aside by the member for Inverness-shire . In reply to Lord John , on Monday evening , Mr . Baillie said he did not wish to obstruct public business , and , therefore , he would remove the notice from the books , reserving to himself the right of bringing it forward when the business of the country was in such a state that he could do so without incurring blame : —
" I can understand the difficulties of the noble lord's position—I can understand also that the noble lord must be anxious to escape from them , and , perhaps aniicipadn £ d « feat , he does not wish the trouble of preparing and bringing forward public measures which , as a Minister of the Crown , it is his duty to bring forward . But the noble lord is mistaken if he thinks that I will allow myself to be made the instrument of enabling him to escape from the duties which the position he has assumed and the great public exigencies of the country imperatively call upon him to perform . ( Cheers . )
Lord John Russell was not at all satisfied with the course taken by Mr . Baillie . When a member of that House brought a charge involving an accusation of wanton cruelty against a late governor of a colony , and of unqualified approbation by the Secretary for the Colonies , they had a right to complain of that motion—which was clearly a vote of censure on one department of the Government—was put off indefinitely : — " I did not complain of the honourable gentleman having named an early day , because it is naturally to be supposed that he was anxious to bring on his motion upon the day named by him . He had framed his own
motion and named his own day , and I had no reason to suppose that he would not propose to bring forward his motion upon that day . But what I said was , and what I tee \ justified in having said was , that any Government with such an accusation hanging over their heads—a vote of censure upon which no opinion has been pronouncedought not to begin any great measure not already introduced into the House , until the House has Riven an affirmative or negative to tliat motion . ( Hear , hear , and cheers . ) I am exceedingly sorry to say , because it may comprehend not only the honourable gentleman , with regard to whose opinion I have nothing to say , but other honourable Members who intend to give their support to
this motion , with regard to late transactions it was said , and very justly said , of all the parties in this country who may be expected to deaire , or to assume the administration of affairs , their conduct was perfectly fuir and honourable to each other . { Cheers . ) And engaged as th «* y were in hostility , no feeling of personal dissatisfaction , Hiill 1 < "hs of personal animosity , was exhibited . ( Cheers . ) Now , sir , I rejoice in that being the opinion of the public , at that being the feeling of those who were enunued in those transactions ; but I must say if , in the
conduct of a great party , we are to have a charge of wanton cruelty iigaiiibt t \ noble lord , a peer of the realm , lately the governor of a province , but now in thin country , and of cognizance an « l approval of that wanton cruelty by the Secretary of State for the Colonies , indefinitely postponed—((/ rent cheering)—that they will never tell uh when they will bring that ^ question before thn Jloutte and put it to an issiU !—( renewed cheera )—then , 1 say , that opinion of correct , fuir , and honourable conduct , on the part , at least , of the supported of such a motion , must be greatly » haken . ( Cheers . )"
Mr . DiHHAia . T thoug ht the House ought to have more information before it wus called upon to pronounce an opinion . Important documents , submitted to the Ceylon committee , had not been luid before the members . The report of the Cey lon commission had been laid before the House , but the evidence on which that report was founded hud been instantly sent back to Ceylon , under the pretence that it wua
required there , which was not the case . The copy of the evidence sent to this country was not the original one , but merely an authenticated copy . Under these circumstances the First Minister gets up , and in a tone of virtuous indignation appeal * to the House against what he calls the unfair conduct of a great party : — " Sir , if the Minister had been in the position in trfcieh he would wish to be , we should not have heard these expressions ; he himself would have been the last man to have wished the House of Commons to arrive at the conclusion of a great judicial question of so much importance , in the absence of these important documents . "
Sir George Grey pointed out the discrepancy between Mr . Baillie ' s reason for postponement , and the one given by Mr . Disraeli . The former wished them to believe that he had postponed the motion lest it should interrupt public business ; the latter told them that it was because Mr . Baillie was not prepared . Mr . Roebuck found fault with everybody , with Lord John for not bringing forward his budget in spite of the Ceylon question ; with Mr . Baillie for postponing his motion to make way for the budget ; and especially with Mr . Disraeli for try ing to get up a defence of the postponement by " an afterthought , a quibble , a mere pretence . ( Cheers . ) The honourif
able member for Bucks actually fabricates —I may use the term without offending the rules of the House —he actually makes a reason which the honourable Member for Inverness -shire never thought of . ( Hear , hear . ) The whole thing is really a party fight . " This was not the way in which go serious a charge should be disposed of . " Common justice—( cheers , ) —ordinary good faith—( cheers , )— plain , honest , good faith , and fair play require that there should be no shrinking from that charge . " ( Hear , hear , and loud cheers . ) Sir Benjamin Haxl followed in the same track , and asked why the charge was not made in the House of Lords , where Lord Grey and Lord Torrinffton could meet their accusers face to face .
Nothing having been said on Monday as to when the Budget would be brought forward , Mr . Disraeii put the question to Ministers on Tuesday . Sir G . Grey said the first open night after the debate on the Papal Aggression Bill would be devoted to the Army estimates , but he could not at present say on what night the financial statement would be made . Lord Torrington , emboldened by the success of Lord John on the postponement grievance , on Monday evening , made his appearance in the House of
Lords on Tuesday , to give notice of his intention to bring the Ceylon question before the House of Lords on that day fortnight . A motion had been made in the other House , and then withdrawn for party purposes . That motion involved a charge of murder against him , and , therefore , he was anxious that it should be investigated without delay . He had no mysteries—nothing to conceal—and , therefore , he should state openly and honestly all that had taken place while the Government of Ceylon was under his direction .
The adjourned debate on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was very dull . The discussion was opened on Monday evening by Mr . Moore , who attacked Sir Robert Peel for what he had said regarding Switzerland . The honourable baronet ' s denunciations of Popery he was not surprised to hear . The low Jacobins of the Continent were said to be the Gamaliels , at whose feet he loved to sit , and the expressions he had used were worthy of his tutelage ; for he recognised in them the philosophy of Mazziniand the apostasy of Gavnzzi . A petition signed by 40 , 000 Englishmen had been presented to the Queen , assuring her Majesty of their loyal devotion , and
those who presented it were Englishmen , although Papists . Yet the honourable baronet thought it right to insinuate that the » e , his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects , were Jesuitical traitors . The manner in which the honourable baronet had discharged his duties in Switzerland was Btill recollected by thoue who heard the debate on that question . But when the honourable gentleman spoke of the orders of neutrality which he had received from the Foreign Secretary , and the rigid manner in which he had followed them , he might have supposed that his Nemesis hud joined in the loud laugh of deri-Bion with which the House had greeted the unmasking of » Jesuit on that occasion . After going through the whole question involved in the bill , he wound up by showing that the claim of the Church
of Home to jurisdiction over every baptized Christian wus not more urrogunt than that of other churches . But did not every church claiming to be the true church do the Mime thing . ( "No , no /") Every bishop of the Established Church of England , every bishop in Scotland , and every bishop in what he might term the garrison Church of Ireland , claimed jurisdiction over the whole population of the country ; yet the Catholic body were indifferent to this claim over their souls if tho biuhopH of the Established Church would only keep their hands out of their pockets . In 384 (> , Lord John Russell undertook to run a muck against the apparently obsolete and uhok'H 8 ntatutcH Jiguinst tho Roman Catholics , because ho considered them absurd ; and now , in 1861 , " for a consideration , " ho whb willing to insert into those
obsolete puerilities fresh grafts of fanaticism , of which they had already seen the blossoms , but of which they had yet to gather the fatal fruits . ( Hear , hear . ) Mr . Wigram was at great pains to prove that Roifaan Catholicism is a positive evil wherever it exists , from which it necessaril y follows that it ought to be put down in the most way possible . Mr . E . B . Roche insisted on exempting Ireland from the list of countries in which Roman Catholicism has been socially pernicious , and quoted Montesquieu to prove that religion can never be put down by legislation . Mr . H . D . Seymour opposed the bill , though at the hazard of his seat . He looked upon it as a gross violation of religious
liberty . Mr . Goulburn declared his intention to vote for the bill , but he could not say that he approved of the proceedings of Government . He would have preferred more moderation at the beginning , and more firmness and consistency at the end . Mr . H . Barron warned the Ministry that a hundred years would not see the end of this difficulty . This mad course would not produce insurrection in Ireland , but it would drive out of the country every man with ten pounds in his pocket . Mr . Calvert , the new member for Aylesbury , supported the bill , small though it was . It might be necessary to have recourse to further legislation ; but he should not be sorry to
have given a locus pcenitentice — an opportunity to the Pope to withdraw his brief . Mr . Charteris suspected that the present measure had arisen out of the same sp irit of intolerance which had attributed potato disease and the Irish famine to their having whitewashed the walls and mended the windows of Maynooth College . (" Hear , " and laughter . ) The Solicitor-General restated the arguments on both sides , and promised not only to give battle , but to defeat those of his antagonists . He put the Roman Catholic case thus : —That the establishment of a
hierarchy was essential to their religion—that , therefore , they were entitled to have it—that they could obtain it only from the Roman Pontiff—that , therefore , they were justified in having recourse to the Pope to obtain it—and that the Pope was entitled to grant it , and to do all that was necessary for the purpose of establishing it . These premises were made , he said , to support an egregious fallacy . But there was also the argument of pro-Papal Protestants ; which he put thus : —That the Legislature had conceded to the Roman Catholics the free and unfettered exercise of their religion—that the establishment of a hierarchy was essential to the free and unfettered exercise of their religion ; and that ,
therefore , we were bound to permit the establishment of their hierarchy . Both involved the fallacy that , because a thing was desirable , the means used to obtain it were justifiable . Conceding the desirableness of the object , he contended—precisely on the grounds stated by previous speaker * — that the course pursued was illegal ; that the fact of Roman Catholic bishops having ex ojjbcio control over certain funds , gave them a temporal character ; and that they could not , according to the law of Europe and invariable usage , be appointed without the consent of the Sovereign . From what had taken place at Thurles , he augured great danger from permitting synodical action . The very words were ominous , and the more so from the circumstances of the times . There
was a schism in the Established Church of this country . ( Hear , hear . ) Multitudes , deluded by mediaeval tendencies , and by a fondness for the picturesque in religion ( a laugh ) , were passing over to that which , if not the Roman Catholic religion , was something uncommonly like it . It was thought the time had come when a great blow might be struck— -when the contest might be renewed for the prerogatives , power , advantages , and emoluments of the Church ; and it was , therefore , incumbent upon the House to be watchful and wary . He would not consent to post pone repres - sive action until the danger became imminent , and the evil intolerable . ( Cheers . ) Mr . Cahdwei . t . taunted the Government with the dishonour or traitorous
inaction , if there had been a palpable , -violation of the prerogative and of international law . He admitted that it was necessary to restrict , for reasons of civil convenience , the action of ecclesiastical communities —just uh we refused to the Established Church tho powers of a convocation ; and he thought the R oman Catholics might have consulted the fet-lings and wishes of this country—that they had , indeed , been guilty of a tmbstuntiul aggression . - They had made their missionary church into a normal church , and had thereby invaded the peace and tranquillity of the nation . ( Cheers . ) But the Ministerial measure provided nothing like a remedy for this . In political nifiiirs , of all wars the worst was a litilo war , and of all little wnrs tho worst was a little civil war about religious matters . He should decidedly refuse his consent to the second reading of the bill .
Tho adjourned debate win resumed on Tuesday by Mr . Ui . kwitt , who quoted Lord Hydenham ' s op inion of Lord John Rusfeell , as " the most noble-min < kd mun he over knew , " but was forced to admit that " the liberulism of tho noble lord wu » fjwt ( ailing into the t » our und yellow leaf . " If the noble lord wu » do-HirouH of returning to primitive Christianity , he would readily go along with him , but ho would bo « o party
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PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK
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262 ffltie a , earner * Saturdav
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Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1851, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1875/page/2/
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