§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, he rose to move an Address for Return from the Chief Constable, Superintendent, or Officer in command of the Police in each county, city, borough, town, or district of Great Britain, showing each Chapel or Place of Worship other than those of the Established Church; and further, each monastery, station, convent, or religious house, which has been used or inhabited during the year ending August 1863, within the district of such Officer, stating the county and parish in which such Chapel or House is situate, the denomination, sect, order, or religion of those by whom such Chapel or House has been used or inhabited, and the name by which such Chapel or House is known. He regretted to hear that the right hon. Baronet the Home Secretary had an objection to the production of the Return. He could not understand why that House should be kept totally uninformed of the number of dissenting chapels in the country and their denominations. According to the Roman Catholic Directory, there had been of late years a great increase in this country in the number and establishments of Jesuits and other religious orders of the Church of Rome. He wanted to know why the House and the country were to be kept in the dark upon the subject. He understood that 1199 the great objection to the Motion was that it should be furnished by the police. He should be glad to receive the information without the intervention of the police, if it were possible, but he knew no other organization competent to afford it. The Legislature and the Government of this country were the only ones in Europe that were left without the information he desired to obtain. He might possibly be charged with prejudice against the Jesuits, but history told him they formed the most powerful organization that had ever been known. The clauses of the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 relating to them were not, as many supposed, the result of Protestant prejudice, but rather the result of Roman Catholic experience. Roman Catholic States themselves had always manifested a well founded anxiety and jealousy in reference to the Jesuits unsurpassed by those of any Protestant Government.
MR. KERsaid, he rose to order. He submitted that the hon. Gentleman, in moving for a Return, had no right to enter upon such a statement as he was making.
§ MR. SPEAKERsaid the hon. Member was in order.
§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, he would not detain the House longer, and would merely add that he asked for the information with a view of testing the extent of religious accommodation, and to obtain information which would be supplementary to that intended by the Return moved for by the hon. Member for Peterborough, in accordance with the Relief Act of 1829; but he did not expect that any reliable and sufficient information would be furnished under that Return; the experience of the abortive nature of Returns under that Act proved that the information required must be supplied in a manner different from that suggested by the Act, if the House was to be correctly informed.
§ MR. WHALLEYsaid, he would second the Motion.
§
Motion made, and Question proposed,
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, that She will be graciously pleased to give directions that there be laid before this House, a Return from the Chief Constable, Superintendent, or Officer in command of the Police, in each county, city, borough, town, or district of Great Britain, showing each Chapel or Place of Worship, other than those of the Established Church; and further, each monastery, station, convent, or religious house, which has been used or inhabited during the year ending August 1863,
1200
within the district of such Officer, stating the county and parish in which such Chapel or House is situate, the denomination, sect, order, or religion of those by whom such Chapel or House has been used or inhabited, and the name by which such Chapel or House is known."—(Mr. Newdegate.)
§ MR. DILLWYNsaid, he did not think that the police could make the Return moved for; but if such a Return were to be made, he saw no reason why the Established Church should be exempted.
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, that if the police were to be employed in making inquiries into the different religious denominations within their respective districts, they must sacrifice their usefulness in the performance of their ordinary duties. The Registrar General, however, was already in possession of much of the information sought for, and it might be obtained through him. It would make a very bulky volume, and it might well be doubted whether it would be found worth the expense of printing.
§ MR. WHALLEYsaid, he thought it was the duty of the Government to assist independent Members who endeavoured to obtain information such as that asked for by his hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire. The Jesuits had never been more active than they were now. They had drawn us into the Crimean war. The secret organization in Poland was nothing but an organization of the Jesuit body. They made Poland the basis of their operations against Russia, and Ireland the basis of their operations against England.
§ MR. HENNESSYsaid, he should always be disposed to assist the hon. Member for Peterborough and the hon. Member for North Warwickshire to procure the information they asked for on these subjects, for their speeches showed that they wanted it. But what did the hon. Member for North Warwickshire want with a Return of all the railway stations in the kingdom? He should therefore have gladly supported the Motion on the same grounds, were it not that he could not see how the police were qualified to make the Returns.
§ MR. NEWDEGATE, in withdrawing his Motion, said it was a Return of the Jesuit stations, and not the railway stations, he wanted.
§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn.