§ Sir G. Sinclairsaid, that as there was then no business before the House, and as the noble Secretary for Ireland was in his place, he thought this was a fitting opportunity to ask what were the intentions of his Majesty's Government with respect to the introduction of an Irish Tithe Bill? whether such a measure might be looked for before Easter? and whether it would be then carried through the House as rapidly as the Municipal Corporation Bill, which stood for discussion that evening? The tithe question was merely glanced at in a cursory way in his Majesty's Speech; but it was one which, by a large proportion of the religious and intelligent classes of Scotland as well as elsewhere, was deemed of paramount importance, involving, as the appropriation clause was considered to do, the very principle of an ecclesiastical establishment. He therefore hoped that no time would be lost in allaying the public anxiety on this subject, especially as it was the very question upon which his Majesty's Ministers had recovered possession of their places on the Treasury bench; and that the Bill would not be timidly, and at long intervals, carried through this House at so late a period of the Session, that, if rejected in another place, no Member who took an interest in the condition of the Irish clergy could find time to bring forward a less objectionable measure in its place.
§ Viscount Morpethwas not aware whether it was the intention of his Majesty's Government to bring forward the Irish 206 tithe question before Easter. It was plain that all Bills could not be advanced with equal rapidity, and some must of necessity have precedence of others.
§ Subject dropped.