THIRD READING. (Hansard, 13 May 1872)

§ MR. NEWDEGATE

Sir, in the absence of my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Greene), I rise to move the Amendment of which he has given Notice, that this Bill be re-committed. I believe some notice was taken on a former occasion of the point to which I wish to call the attention of the House; but from all I can gather of what then took place, I do not think that point was so fairly submitted to the House as it ought to have been. This Bill proposes to alter the substance of the 3rd clause of the Irish Church Act. In that 3rd clause the Commissioners are appointed, who are to administer all the affairs of the Irish Church as disestablished—that is, disestablished in so far as regards its connection with the State—and also disendowed; some portions of its property being thrown into a common fund, which was to be administered by the Commissioners under this section of the Irish Church Act. The powers of those Commissioners are most extensive. They have power to deal with the whole of the property remaining to the Irish Church, and their proceedings are not subject to be cheeked by any Court whatever. It is expressly stated that their proceedings shall not be removed by certiorari into any other Court; that their decisions shall have the power of acts of the Court of Chancery; and that those decisions shall be absolutely final. These are far more extensive powers than Parliament is wont to confer. The Commissioners were Viscount Monck, Mr. Justice Lawson, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, and my lamented Friend the late Mr. George Alexander Hamilton. Many of us remember him. He was one of the Representatives of the University of Dublin, and a better man than he was I do not know. He was afterwards appointed Secretary to the Treasury, and successive Prime Ministers have testified to his excellence and efficiency as a public officer. When the right hon. Gentleman the present Prime Minister proposed Mr. Hamilton as one of the Commissioners, it was quite evident that he nominated him in addition to Mr. Justice Lawson and Lord Monck, as a person in whom the members of the Irish Church might place implicit confidence. He distinctly stated in this House, that Mr. Hamilton had written 699 to him, to the effect that his consenting to serve on the Commission was not to be taken to imply his acquiescence in the policy of Her Majesty's Government in disestablishing the Irish Church; and in those words, the right hon. Gentleman the Prime Minister conveyed to this side of the House, who were opposd to it, an assurance that in Mr. Hamilton, there would be one Commissioner, who, if feeling was to have anything to do with the proceedings of the Commission, would he absolutely with the Irish Church. I come now to the Bill before the House. That Bill, instead of allowing the vacancy created in the Commission by the lamented death of Mr. Hamilton to be filled up according to the course prescribed in the Irish Church Act of 1870, proposes to vary the proceedings in relation to the constitution of the Commission; and here I would add, that, although we were aware in 1870 that each of the Commissioners was a member of the Irish Church, as it is still termed in the Act, when the Bill reached the House of Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury moved the insertion of words, specifying that the persons, who were to be, or who should succeed the Commissioners, appointed under the 3rd clause of the Act, should each be thus qualified—as being a member either of the said Church or of the said United Church—that is, either of the Irish Church or of the United Church of England and Ireland as it existed at that time. That Amendment was accepted without opposition by the House of Lords, and also without question in this House. Well, I do not understand the reasons for it, but it happens that in the present measure that principle is to be departed from. The words proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and accepted by Parliament, are to be set aside by this Bill. The Bill proposes that the third Commissionership—that vacated by the death of Mr. Hamilton, should be filled by one of the Irish Judges in certain events—that is, in cases in which there is an appeal from the decision of one of the Commissioners—for the Commissioners are empowered to act singly, but with an appeal from a single Commissioner to the full Bench of Commissioners in contested cases. Therefore, the person who is to be successor to the late Mr. George Alexander Hamilton is to come in and take part as 700 a Commissioner, and share in all the powers of the Commission, the decisions of which are to be final in such contested cases. Now, a single Commissioner may transact the business, which is not contested, in which no serious objection is raised; but by this Bill it is not necessary that the third person, who is to be one of the Judges, and who is to be called on to assist in deciding contested business as the third Commissioner—it is not rendered necessary by this Bill, as it was in the original Act, that he should be a member of the Irish Church. So a Roman Catholic, if the Bill remain unaltered, could dispose of the property of the Protestant Church. I can scarcely think it is the intention of the House to allow this qualification to be dispensed with. I have shown that it will be in the most critical business of this Commission, in cases in which it will be dealing absolutely with the various interests created under the Irish Church Act of 1870, that this third Commissioner will be called in; and I hold that for that very reason, the third Commissioner should have the same qualification as is required of the other two Commissioners, and as was required of all three by the unanimous consent of Parliament in 1870. I have no means of carrying out that intention, except by moving that the Bill be re-committed; and I trust the House will accept the statement I have made as evincing the strong feeling which was entertained of the great importance of the late Mr. Hamilton's qualifications and services when he was appointed to the Commission, a feeling entertained by many others as well as myself. I have now to move that the Bill be re-committed.