isposal by the act of
last session, entitled the Irish church temporalities act." After a
few words from Messrs. O'Connell and Hume, and some other members,
Mr. Stanley attacked the measure and the proceedings of his former
colleagues in a vehement harangue. He opposed the resolution, he said,
because it was both impolitic and dishonest; because it was at variance
with the great principle, which for the last three or four years it had
been the object of government to abolish, namely, the final extinction
of tithes in Ireland by means of redemption; and because it seemed to
him to be the commencement of a new system of plunder, and that too by a
system of plunder not characterised by the straightforward course which
bold offenders followed, but marked with that timidity, that want of
dexterity, which led to the failure of the unpractised shoplifter. He
believed that government was committing great injustice, and would yet
fail in its aim; that the country was against this injustice, and that
Ireland after it had been perpetrated would not be more tranquil; and
therefore he would take the sense of the committee on the resolution
now proposed. Lord Althorp replied to Mr. Stanley, and vindicated the
resolution from the charge of spoliation. He did not see, he said, how
it could be spoliation to take property not from a corporation, but from
a mass of different corporations, and apply it to other purposes, if,
in doing this, he was giving security to the church. Mr. Hume said he
believed in his conscience that ministers were afraid of their late
colleague, and intimated his intention of acting with him. He moved an
amendment the effect of which would be to re-enact the 147th clause of
the act of last session, by substituting for the original resolution the
following:--"That the surplus monies to the credit of the ecclesiastical
commissioners in the perpetuity purchase-fund, to be kept by the said
ecclesiastical commissioners pursuant to an act of last session of
parliament, should be applicable to such purposes, for the adjustment
and settlement of tithes in Ireland, as by an act of parliament of this
session should be provided." This amendment gave rise to a lengthy
and sharp debate, but it was thrown out by a large majority, and the
ministerial resolution was then carried by two hundred and thirty-five
votes against one hundred and seventy-one. At this stage, however, the
progress of the bill was arrested for a time by circu