The Bishop of Exeterpresented a Petition from the Minister, Churchwardens, and other inhabitants of a parish in the city of Carlow, against the appropriation of Church-property to any but Ecclesiastical purposes, and above all against its appropriation for the support and maintenance of Popery in that part of the Empire. He took that opportunity of mentioning that he had this day received a letter from a clergyman in Ireland of high character, of such high character that his Bishop, as that right reverend Prelate had informed him, had recently preferred him on that very account to a valuable living. He should read an extract from that letter, and should afterwards put the extract into the hands of the noble Lord. It referred especially to the appointment of one of the Gentlemen who had been appointed under the Commission for examining into the State of Public Instruction. The right reverend Prelate read the extract, as follows:—
The appointment of Mr.—to act as the Commissioner at—had a tendency to deter Protestants and encourage Roman Catholics. For this Gentleman (who resides about four miles from—) was a well-known Roman Catholic agitator, and about five years ago had been chaired through that town on a Sunday, after having delivered a most inflammatory speech in the Chapel against the Established Church, the Constabulary, the Schools, and in fact every person and thing in the neighbourhood not employed in the extension of Popery. The meeting was adjourned for three weeks or a month, when I attended with several persons who had been represented as Roman Catholics to contradict the statements that had been made respecting them. One, a man named—, who was stated by the priest, on oath, to have declared that he, his wife, and eight children, were all Roman Catholics, was anxious to go before a Magistrate to swear that he never made such a 977 declaration, and that his sons could not have been at Mass the Sunday previous. But no Commissioner came—his servant adjourned to a future day, when we again met, and were again disappointed, his man having come, after five o'clock in the evening, to say that his master could not attend; the people's patience was thus exhausted, and very few attended when the Commissioners came, and when, but for the accidental presence of the son of the rector, many persons, especially—and his family, before mentioned, would have been registered as Roman Catholics. One circumstance is worth attention—viz., that the Protestants who died or removed since 1831 were subtracted from the gross number, whilst the Roman Catholic population was not subtracted from.
§ Lord Duncannonwas not able, from recollection alone, to speak upon the matter at present.
The Bishop of Exeterhad merely mentioned the matter to give the noble Lord an opportunity of directing his attention to it.