§ MR. VINCENT SCULLYsaid, he rose to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Does Her Majesty's Government contemplate to introduce a Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill for Ireland similar to their English measure? He would also beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether his attention has been directed to the judgment delivered last Michaelmas Term by the Irish Court of Common Pleas in the case of Darcys, Minors, or to proceedings in the case of Thelwall against Yelverton, now pending in that Court, and does the Chief Secretary intend, either by a separate Bill, or by an Amendment of his Bill for the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Ireland to propose any repeal or alteration of those enactments which render void a marriage celebrated by a Catholic priest, and render it felony in the officiating clergyman?
§ MR. CARDWELLsaid, that by an Act which passed that House about four years ago, the Courts of Bankruptcy and Insolvency in Ireland were united, and so far, therefore, as the tribunal was concerned, there was no alteration required in the law of Ireland on that subject. With regard to the alterations in the law of bankruptcy and insolvency in England, which were being made by Parliament under the auspices of his hon. and learned friend the Attorney General, when these alterations should have received the sanction of Parliament, it would then be necessary for them to consider whether they ought to he extended to Ireland. With respect to the other Question, his attention had been called to the cases referred to by his hon. Friend (Mr. Scully). There could be no 936 doubt that great inconvenience arose from the state of the law with regard to mixed marriages in Ireland. He (Mr. Cardwell) was no advocate for any state of the law which should place the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church under any disability on that subject to which other clergymen were not subjected; but his hon. Friend would remember that, when the Act of 1844 was passed which regulated marriages in Ireland, celebrated by the clergy of the Protestant Church and by Nonconformist ministers, the Roman Catholic clergy, in deference to their own feelings, were by the Legislature exempted from the operation of that Act. That Act exposed to the penalty of felony Protestant clergymen who celebrated marriages in contravention of the statute. The Roman Catholic clergy, being exempted from it, were left by the statute under this penalty —they were subject to the same penalty if they celebrated marriages with Protestants. His hon. Friend would see from this statement that to alter the law would only have the effect of opening wider questions than the one to which he had particularly pointed his attention. At the same time, with the view of facilitating the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, he had been most anxious to separate that subject, which had its own difficulty, from another subject of much greater difficulty, namely, the law of marriage; and he trusted to be able to carry a Bill on the subject of registration of births, marriages, and deaths, so far as not to touch upon the law of marriage in the case referred to, or in any other case.