[BILL 222.] COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 28 July 1870)

§ MR. NEWDEGATE

said, there were several important considerations connected with the measure which appeared not to have been at all entertained, even if at all perceived and all understood on the occasion of the second reading, when he was unable to be present in the House. The declared purpose of the Judge Advocate who introduced a similar Bill in 1867, was to secure endowments in order to the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, and the present Bill, though less candid, had an object precisely similar, for it proposed to enable any person having a limited or only a trustee's interest in landed property to charge it by way of mortgage, or to alienate it altogether to the extent of 10 acres for each glebe, which would then be held virtually in mortmain. The Bill, if passed, would, taken in connection with the Ecclesiastical Titles Repeal Bill, enable the 1146 Roman Catholic Bishops to hold these glebes in mortmain, and he found that the Bill contained no provision to secure the protection of the Bequests Act. For these reasons, and because at that late hour it would be idle to attempt an analysis of the various powers and provisions of the statutes for the improvement of landed property, which by this Bill would apply to the incumbrance and to the alienation of that property, he should move the adjournment of the debate.