our Lordships' recollection, that in
two recent Acts of parliament, in which we conferred notable advantages
on the Dissenters from the Church of England, we endeavoured as far as
we might by oaths, to secure the property of the church. If any
principle, indeed, can secure property to any portion of his Majesty's
subjects, the property of the church ought to be safe. It is a principle
of the constitution that tithes, above all other property, should be
secured to the owner.

_February 27th, 1832._

* * * * *

_The Grey Government charged with encouraging Political Reform._

My Lords, I never have made, and I never will make, a charge which I am
not ready to repeat, and able to substantiate, and I will forthwith
prove that which the noble Earl calls upon me to explain. In doing this
I beg leave to remind your Lordships, that some months ago I suggested
to the noble Earl, (Grey) that an Act of Parliament, which had been
passed for the purpose of suppressing illegal associations in Ireland,
was about to expire, and I asked him, if he intended to propose a
renewal of that act. The noble Earl replied that he did; but my Lords,
you will recollect that parliament was dissolved without any further
notice of the act, and of course it expired. The result of this was,
that the noble Earl stated in the House, when it met again, that the
noble Marquis at the head of the Irish Administration felt that he could
carry on the government of that country without any additional powers;
and the consequences of the noble Earl having declined to apply to the
legislature for any authority beyond the existing laws were, that
agitation began again, and that meeting after meeting has been held,
from that time to the present moment. This is not all, my Lords; the
great agitator, the prime mover of the whole machinery, escaped the
execution of the sentence of the law in consequence of the expiration of
the Act of Parliament to which I have referred. Well my Lords, what has
since taken place. This very person, the great agitator, whom the
government had prosecuted to conviction, was considered to be a person
worthy of the honours which the crown could bestow, and he received the
highest favour which any gentleman of the Bar ever received from the
hands of the noble Earl and his government; he received a patent of
precedence, which placed him next the Attorney General, and above a
gentleman who was once Attorney Gen