§ SIR CHARLES LANYONsaid, he would beg to ask the right hon. Member for South Lancashire, Whether, when he presented a Petition on the 27th instant from the Presbytery of Antrim, in favour of his Resolutions, and against the further grant of the Regium Donum, he was aware that the said Presbytery is altogether unconnected with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and that the said Presbytery is altogether an Unitarian body and does not represent the feeling of the Presbyterians of the General Assembly of Ireland?
MR. GLADSTONESir, I confess—I am stating my own opinion—it appears to me that a Question of this kind is well fitted for the hon. Gentleman if he pleases to produce it in a speech, but wholly unfitted to be directed to me. I may have been aware of these things. ["Oh, oh!"] I shall only say that I do not think it would be convenient for me to set the example of saying whether I was aware of that or not. It is enough for me to say that I believe I described that body with perfect accuracy as the non-subscribing Presbytery of Antrim, recipients of the Regium Donum. And I own I should have thought that the very words I used, "the non-subscribing Presbytery of Antrim," would have conveyed to the mind of the hon. Member, and to the minds of other hon. Members, that that Presbytery did not belong to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which is, I believe, a subscribing Church.
§ SIR THOMAS BATESONI beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman, If he is aware that the petition was signed only by the Moderator and the Clerk of the Presbytery; that those gentlemen did not appear on the face of the document to have had any authority to represent the Presbytery; and that the petition did not purport to have emanated from the general body?
MR. GLADSTONEI own that I am quite at a loss to say anything of the courtesy of the hon. Gentleman in putting to me this Question without giving me notice. I am quite at a loss to comprehend its meaning. The Presbytery of Antrim, 1582 I apprehend, is a body known to the law, and I can conceive nothing more regular than that the Presbytery should petition by means of a petition signed by the Moderator and Clerk of the Presbytery.