He would say, that nothing was more degrading to the character of the House, in whose hands was vested such a mass of property, than that such a proceeding should take place; which, to use the slightest term, savoured of the grossest negligence..

HOUSE OF COMMON S.

Wednesday, May 18. PRIVATE COMMITTEES WELCH IRON AND MINING COMPANY BILL.] Mr. Littleton called the attention of the House to a subject which he deemed of considerable importance. On the 21st of April a complaint had been made to the House by the hon. member for Yorkshire, that a day had been appointed for the meeting of the committee on the above bill, and that, though all the parties interested in opposing the bill, with their counsel, had appeared, and incurred great expense, yet no committee took place. Another meeting had then been appointed for that day, and a like circumstance took place. The hon. member, after adverting to the inconvenience and expense which parties were thus put to, moved, "That the order for the committee on the said bill be discharged."

Lord Milton seconded the motion. The parties opposing the bill had been, he said, most inconveniently and expensively kept in town, and had received no notice of postponement in either instance. The Speaker said, he had paid great attention to the private business, in order, if possible, to remedy the inconvenience arising from the great pressure of it this session, and that it might be better regulated for the general benefit of the public. But, whatever might be the complaints of parties as to their agents, or as to their being delayed in town, yet if the gentlemen who constituted the committee absented themselves, and never attended, as had been the case on the present occasion, it was quite idle to think that any regula

Sir J. Wrottesley thanked the Speaker for the attention he had paid to this subject. He hoped that what had taken place with respect to this company, would put the House on its guard as to the character of such companies as these; and that persons who were the dupes of such companies would be a little more careful in making inquiries before they risked their property. He thought that something like recognizances, might be necessary to compel the attendance of persons introducing private bills of this kind.

Mr. Jones impressed upon the House the extreme inconvenience to which parties were exposed by such misconduct.

Mr. M. A. Taylor said, that unless some steps were taken to remedy the inconvenience arising from the quantity of private business, and the manner in which it was conducted, the public would have a right to complain of neglect. He had been on several committees, and lamented the expense that persons were put to, in order to protect their property against the many schemes which were brought forward. In one committee which he had attended, a gentleman, whose ancestors had held a property of 2,000l. for many years, had been put to the expense of 1,000l. in order to defend that property. It was incumbent on the House to endeavour to frame some regulations which should place the business on a footing different from that on which it now stood, and subject those persons to punishment who came, without any claims, to invade private property.

Mr. S. Wortley declared he had never seen so gross a case of neglect as the present. The company had not only no committee, but had not even given notice that they meant to adjourn.

Mr. Hume suggested, that the only likely mode of reforming the present evils would be, to allow the public papers to report the proceedings of private committees.

The order was then discharged.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTRIBUTION TO PROTESTANT CHURCH-PETITION FROM

TAGHADOE.] Mr. Brougham presented a petition from the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Taghadoe, praying that, as the proportion of the Roman Catholics to Protestants in that parish was three hundred to one, they might not be obliged to build a church for Mr. Grierson, a member of the Protestant establishment. A more humble or reasonable request never was made to this or any other public body. The petitioners stated, that there was a very good church in the neighbourhood, in which Mr. Grierson had a free pew; that whereas he required a sexton, sextoness, pewopener, clerk, and others, in all six people, to attend to the salvation of his spi- | rit; they prayed that he might open the pew himself, that he might dig his own grave, and perform the other duties in his own character. This was the request these individuals made; and a more fair and reasonable one never was made. As this was a petition from Roman Catholics, he could not help adverting to an event which had occurred since the House had last met; he meant the rejection of the Roman Catholic bill by the House of Lords. He deplored the rejection of the bill by a majority, which, if not altogether unexpected would prove a source of bitter disappointment to millions of subjects. He hoped that before the present session passed over some palliative might be administered for such a disappointment. While Ireland was Ireland it never could be set at rest, except by the two Houses together with the Crown, concurring to give to Ireland equal and impartial justice. The bill had had the aspirations of six millions of loyal subjects. How long a constant renewal of hope and a perennial disappointment could be endured, and how soon despair might take place, let the Lords determine; for the House of Commons had done its duty. Not only had the bill the aspirations of six millions of fellow-subjects, but it had the support of the greatest men, Burke, Romilly, Whitbread, and others; and greater than all, Fox and Grattan, who were the fathers of this measure. The wisest men of the present generation were the constant, zealous, friends of this measure. Great lawyers were in its favour, he meant not men on this side of the House-not men great in their own estimation, but great in the estimation of a higher authority-he meant great in the estimation of the lord high VOL. XIII.

chancellor of England; for if they were not great in that noble lord's estimation, what a pusillanimous course was his, who, to keep his own paltry place, permitted his colleagues, with whom he differed, to keep those great lawyers in the highest legal offices under the prince whom he served. He said, “ great lawyers"-the Attorney-general for Ireland was a great lawyer. Eloquent he was, and that the House knew; able he was, and that the lord chancellor knew and felt; and he, the lord chancellor, was either the meanest of men, or he, the lord chancellor, thought and knew that Mr. Plunkett was a great lawyer. That was the authority by which this bill was recommended. On that authority rested the case; and he prayed to God that measures might yet be taken to remedy the present evils.

Sir T. Lethbridge said, that if the observations of the learned gentleman had not been said by him to be parliamentary, he should have thought them quite out of order. If any portion of the community were disappointed by the vote of the other House, he hoped they would still be distinguished for that loyalty by which they had been hitherto characterized. He was sorry that his right hon. friend had not been in the House when the learned gentleman made his speech; a speech which seemed prepared for the occasion, and which was certainly exceedingly well got up. He was surprised that the learned gentleman should have had the bad taste to come down and question the decision of last night. The petition seemed to have been kept back for the

occasion.

Mr. Spring Rice rose for the purpose of setting the hon. baronet right with respect to the circumstances under which his learned friend had presented the petition. He could assure the hon. baronet that he was quite mistaken in supposing his learned friend had had it in his possession for a month or even for a day; as it had been handed to him only a few hours back, and five minutes after he had received it he had confided it to his learned friend. If, therefore, all the hon. baronet's inferences were drawn from similar premises, he could hardly think them deserving of much attention. He had, however, to thank the hon. baronet for one part of his speech; and it was that in which he had praised the people of Ireland. He believed the hon. baronet did not exaggerate when he so eulogised them. They 3 E

were as brave, patient, and loyal as any other people; but he was sorry to say, they had met a very bad reward for their patience and their loyalty. For his part, he would say now that the measure of Catholic emancipation had been defeated -now that the hopes of the people had been disappointed-he would, if he had not duties to perform in that country which he could not abandon, and if all his feelings and associations had not been bound up in its fate, willingly quit the country for ever, and never hear the name of Ireland mentioned again [hear, hear!]. If this was his feeling as a Protestant proprietor (and if, as he well knew, such were also the feelings of many other Protestant proprietors) what must be the deep affliction of the Catholic gentry and nobility, many of whom, perhaps, might not consider themselves bound by the same ties of duty, but might abandon the country to its fate, and to all the evils which would flow from the want of a resident gentry [hear, hear!]. With respect to the observations which had been made by the hon. baronet as to the impropriety of the observation made by his learned friend, with reference to the conduct of another House in rejecting this bill, he thought it was perfectly competent to members of that House to comment upon the conduct of the House of Lords. Their votes were upon record, and from these votes it appeared that they had twice rejected the Catholic bill, although passed by a majority of that House. Even if there had been any severity exercised by his learned friend in the remarks which he had that evening thrown out, they were, in his opinion, perfectly justified by the uncourteous language in which certain noble lords in the other House (in pursuance, he had no doubt, with what they imagined their duty) had chosen to speak of the conduct of the House of Commons.

Sir R. H. Inglis rose, to correct a mistake of his on a former night; not that his own experience led him into an error, when he stated that no place of worship was granted to the Protestants at Rome, but a right hon. friend had since informed him, that permission was granted within the last year. He disapproved of the allusion of the hon. and learned gentleman to a noble lord in another place, and he put it to him whether it was consistent with common sense or good feeling to make allusions to a noble lord in his absence.

Mr. Brougham said, that he quite agreed with his hon. friend, the member for Limerick, in the constitutional view he had taken of their right to allude to what occurred in another place. But even that House had been treated cavalierly and disrespectfully by the other House; at which he confessed that he felt much pain as one of its members. The hon. baronet charged him with an attack upon a noble lord in his absence, and he did it precisely because he was not in that House. Besides that noble lord was not only a member of the House of Peers, but he was the lord chancellor, and a minister of state; a minister, by the way, who was paid twentythousand pounds a-year for bearing with these attacks. Was not lord Liverpool, or any other member of the government to be attacked, because he was absent and could not be in that House, if his conduct deserved it? He would put it to the hon. baronet if, in his experience, he had ever committed a greater blunder than in saying that a noble lord ought not to be attacked because he was absent?

Mr. Peel said, it so happened that he did not hear a word of the speech of the learned gentleman, and he only inferred what it was from the allusions of the hon. baronet who last spoke, and the hon. member for Somersetshire. He was not sorry that he had not been present, because he should have been sorry to have been provoked to say any thing which could add to the disappointment which was likely to be produced by the vote of last night. But he must say, that if any of his colleagues with whom he was bound in friendship, as well as by the ties of office, were attacked in his presence, he should vindicate them from the charge. Ordered to lie on the table.

HOUSE OF COMMONS. Thursday, May 19. QUARANTINE LAWS BILL.] On the order of the day for bringing up the report on the above bill being read,

Sir I. Coffin said, he felt it his duty to make a few observations on the present occasion. He could, from his own personal observations, state, that the plague was contagious. When he was at Malta, the disease was brought to Valetta by a shoemaker through the medium of some leather. The man died, and so did the family with whom he resided. The disease was soon pronounced to be the

plague, and spread rapidly; and had it not been for the precautions adopted by sir Thomas Maitland and the other English officers on the spot, he did not doubt that all the inhabitants would have perished. A cordon sanitaire was drawn round Valetta, and every person who at tempted to pass it was shot. The disease was at length subdued, after five thousand of the inhabitants had been carried off. It was next conveyed to the island of Goza, in the clothes of some of the persons who died at Valetta, and six hundred people were destroyed in the island. Whatever might be the difference of opinion in England with respect to the doctrine of contagion, he could assure the House, that in those countries where the plague had most frequently appeared, there was but one opinion on the subject. From Goza the disease was conveyed to Corfu by means of a skein of cotton, which was carried thither by a young lady, who perished with all her family. At Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, it was the custom of the Franks, as Christians were there called, the moment the plague made its appearance, to shut themselves up in their houses, to receive their food on the roofs, and to eat only stale bread; for new bread had the faculty of conveying the disease. In consequence of taking these precautions there was scarcely an instance of a Frank falling a victim to the plague. A ship sailed every year from Alexandria to Algiers, laden with the clothes of those who had died of the plague; and thus the disease was continually renewed. We were in the habit of importing a great quantity of cotton from the Delta; and if the plague should prevail at that place, he had no doubt that it would be brought into this country. All articles coming from the Delta ought to be scrupulously examined. A writer, he perceived, had lately maintained, that the plague was not contagi

pressed a desire to be placed where the disease was raging most, His wish was complied with, and the consequence was, that he caught the plague, though it did not end in his death. It was really as tonishing that members of that House should contend that the disease was not contagious. If any proof were wanting to show the fallacy of that opinion, it might be found in what the gallant officer had stated with respect to the conduct of the Franks in the countries of the East. The instant the plague appeared, they closed their doors, subjected all their food to the process of fumigation, and shot their cats; for it was known that those animals could convey the disease. Hav. ing taken these precautionary measures, it never happened that they were affected by the disease. The Mahometans, on the other hand, who considered the plague to be a sacred disease-who were told by their religion, that if they perished by it, they would be received at once into the bosom of Mahomet, or what perhaps they would rather prefer, would be permitted to enjoy everlasting fruition in the arms of the houris, took no precautions against catching the disease, and were therefore carried off by thousands. He knew a respectable merchant connected with the Levant Company, who expected, by the operation of the bill, to put into his pocket about 4,000l, or 5,000l.; but, much to his credit, he had publicly stated that he should do so with regret, because he considered it as the price of blood. The dif. ficulties which we should experience in our export trade, in consequence of passing the bill, would more than counter. balance any advantage which might result from it to the import trade. In Marseilles and Leghorn, England was already considered an infected country; and our ships were not allowed to land their cargoes until they had waited a considerable time. This, no doubt, would be productive of great inconvenience to our merchants. He could not imagine what ob→ ject the right hon. gentleman could have in bringing in the bill, He had turned the matter over in his mind, and at length he had hit upon the object which the right hon. gentleman had in contemplation. He must intend to establish a joint-stock company for the purpose of extending the burying grounds. He entreated the House to consider the subject well. He trusted that honourable members would oppose the measure; and, like the ancient

prophet in the wilderness, "stand between the dead and the living, and stay the plague."

Mr. Bernal cautioned the House against hastily adopting any measure upon so serious and important a subject.

Mr. Charles Grant said, that the bill, properly looked at, was open to none of the objections which had been taken to it. The committee of foreign trade had sat last year on the subject of the Quarantine laws. Having received a variety of complaints as to the difficulty and impediment which those laws placed in the way of our commerce, the committee had applied themselves to consider, not whether the plague was or was not contagious, but whether, assuming it to be contagious, any part of the existing restrictions could be dispensed with without danger. He wished that hon. gentlemen had read the report of that committee before they made up their minds on the subject; for the committee had actually set out by assuming, that the plague was contagious, and had refused even to examine any evidence to the contrary effect. It was the opinion of sir Gilbert Blane, and of several other physicians, decided advocates for the theory of contagion, that, admitting the plague to be contagious, all the provisions of the present bill might be carried into effect with perfect safety. The effect of the bill had been entirely misunderstood by those who opposed it. It did nothing more than go on the principle of the plague being contagious; merely relaxing those parts of the former law which its most strenuous supporters thought consistent with safety. Indeed, he did not think that the House would be justified in proceeding one step further.

. Mr. Trant was decidedly of opinion, that precautions against the plague could not be disused without exposing the country to the consequences of a most frightful experiment. It had been said, that the plague never passed beyond certain boundaries; but he could contradict that, by stating, that the plague travelled into Arabia, which was near the Red Sea, and into Upper Egypt.

The report was then received.

SALMON FISHERY BILL.] Mr. Kennedy moved the second reading of this bill.

Mr. Abercromby requested his hon. friend to postpone this bill to the next session, as from the high interest which it excited, particularly in Ireland, it was not likely to give satisfaction if it appeared to be a measure which had not undergone the most mature consideration. In the interval before next session, gentlemen would have more opportunities of considering the evidence which had been taken before the committee.

Mr. Hutchinson concurred in recom mending the postponement, on account of the local interests in Ireland involved in the measure.

Mr. Kennedy said, he could not withstand the appeal made to him, although he had hoped to be able to carry the bill through this session. It had been already two years before the House.

Mr. C. Grant eulogized the exertions of the hon. member upon a subject which certainly required some legislation; but expressed his doubts whether he could could carry the bill through during the present session.

Mr. John Smith said, that, as far as this bill went, it had his entire concurrence. The fact was, that the Levant trade, which was very considerable, could not be carried on, unless the tiresome and vexatious regulations of the Quarantine laws were, in some degree, relaxed. After what had been said by the right hon. gentleman, he should not argue the question of contagion; but he could not sit down without saying that his conviction of the non-contagious nature of the plague was undiminished.

The bill was then committed, pro forma. The report was received, and ordered to be taken into further consideration on that day three months.

HOUSE OF COMMONS..

Friday, May 20.

LEITH DOCKS BILL.] Sir G. Clerk having moved the order of the day for the further consideration of the report of this bill,

Lord A. Hamilton said, that owing to the importance of this measure, as well on account of its principle as for the pe