§ MR. REEDsaid, he would beg to ask the hon. Member for North Warwickshire, Whether he means to extend the proposed inquiry into the Monastic Institutions to Anglican as well as to Roman Catholic Institutions?
§ MR. NEWDEGATESir, the terms of the Order of the 29th March are before the House; but they do not, according to my understanding, contemplate an inquiry into any but Roman Catholic institutions, and for this reason—Last year I moved for a Select Committee to inquire into the defects of the Roman Catholic Charities Act of 1860, because the intention of that Act was not being complied with, as is shown by the Return of the Charity Commissioners. All the property of Roman Catholic conventual and monastic institutions is regulated by the Act of 1860; and the inquiry I propose is primarily into the 7 property and income held by these institutions. Protestant convents come within the scope of the Act of 1853, and any property they possess is already within the jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners, from which jurisdiction the cognizance of the property of Roman Catholic institutions—conventual, monastic, and otherwise—is excluded. My primary object is that the House should receive information which will enable it to remedy the defects of the Act of 1860.