§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERmoved—
That the Orders of the Day subsequent to the Committee of Supply be postponed until after the Notice of Motion for the introduction of the Banking and Joint Stock Companies Bill.
§ MR. NEWDEGATEasked whether the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer would inform the House when it was the intention of the Government to take the second reading of the Indictable Offences Bill?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERreplied, that he was unable at the present moment to say when the Bill would be taken.
§ MR. O'DONNELLsaid, in making some observations on the Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposition, he did not mean to imply that he considered the proposed Bill might not be wanted; but he wished to point out, in the first place, that the effect of postponing all the Orders of the Day after Supply would be to postpone the Report of the Supply taken on Friday last. Those Votes were, to a large extent, taken by surprise. A largo number of Votes relating to important Departments were then passed with hardly any Notice being given to the House. It was expected that the Clare Election Report would occupy a considerable time, and he believed that the subject was postponed only at a very early hour on Friday or late on Thursday. Under those circumstances, he thought there ought to be some guarantee that the Report of Supply should be taken at a time when these Vote's could be more fully considered. Again, a large number of important Bills were already on the Paper, very few of which had made any progress, and he was not surprised at the desire expressed by the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. Newdegate) to know whether the Indictable Offences Bill would be proceeded with. It was only a short time ago that the leading journal stated that the Government had very small chance of carrying the Bills already on the Paper; but apart from that he, as an Irish Member, could not but feel that if the Govern- 706 ment had any spare time on their hands, and were prepared to add to the number of Bills already before Parliament, it would be only just of them to re-consider their position with regard to University education in Ireland, and take the earliest opportunity of introducing a Bill to deal with the question. He would not occupy the time of the House by many observations on the subject; but when the Government proposed to introduce a Bill to facilitate financial business in this Kingdom, they might remember that by the policy of starving the intellect of Ireland, a policy which they were deliberately imposing, they were barring the progress of Ireland in every respect. The youth of Ireland could not compete with the youth of other nations, and the men of Ireland could not compote with the men of other nations in the marts of the world or in the common field of enterprize, in consequence of the steady suppression of Irish education, and the steady discouragement of Irish intellect, which formed part of the policy of the British Government with respect to Ireland. He ventured to remind the House that only a couple of days ago, on the Motion of the hon. Member for County Roscommon (the O'Conor Don), there were distributed to Members of this House copies of a Petition from their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in Canada, praying that some facilities should be given for Catholic education in Ireland as had been already granted to the Catholic people of Canada. In what respect, he would ask, had their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects of Ireland fallen behind their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects of Canada? Could it be that proximity to the great Republic of America had obtained for the Catholics of Canada that justice and consideration for their rightful demands which had been denied to the defenceless Catholics of Ireland? He had no desire to delay the Business of the House, no desire to introduce irrelevant matter into the discussion; but he ventured to introduce this question on the present Motion. Every year that passed by with this steady suppression of the intellectual advancement of Ireland was mi much intellectual and material loss to Ireland, and it was a cruel and shameful thing that the Catholic people of Ireland I should be deprived of their rights while 707 infidels, the Mahommedans of India, and our Catholic fellow-subjects in Canada were endowed with the full enjoyment of the rights denied to Catholics at home. He opposed the Motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in order to have an opportunity of making this protest against the conduct of the Government. He knew that his protest would be in vain; but he trusted that all Liberals who were worthy of Liberal principles, and Conservatives who did not wish to deny to Ireland the advantage of those principles which they maintained in England, would be moved by a generous impulse to give to the Catholics of Ireland those rights which had been granted to Her Majesty's subjects in other parts of the world.