Lords Sitting of 14 April 1836

MINUTES.
Petitions presented. By H. R. H. the Duke of CUMBERLAND, from the Corporation of Dublin, against the Municipal Corporations' Bill.—By the Bishop of LONDON, from Bury St. Edmund's, against the Punishment of Death for any Crime but Murder.—By the Earl of BEAUCHAMP, from the Magistrates of Worcester, against the Prisoner's Counsel Bill.—By the Duke of LEINSTER, from the Inhabitants of Dublin, in favour of the Municipal Corporations' Bill.—By Lord LYNDHURST, from the Solicitors of Nottingham, for an Alteration of the Ecclesiastical Courts' Consolidation Bill.—By Viscount DUNCANNON, from Coventry, that no Alteration be made in the Municipal Corporations' Act Amendment Bill.—By the Earl of HARROWBY, from Debtors in Liverpool Gaol, for the Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt.

WAR IN SPAIN.
The Marquess of Londonderrysaid, he had several petitions to present relative to the Irish Municipal Corporations Bill, but before he laid them on the table, he wished to put a question to the noble Viscount opposite. He conceived that the state of the war in Spain had now assumed an entirely new character, and therefore he begged leave to ask whether a letter which had, appeared in the newspapers signed by Lord John Hay, and dated from Santander, March 24, was written in consequence of instructions given by his Majesty's Government, and if so, whether there was any objection to laying the letter and instructions before their Lordships.
Viscount Melbournesaid, he believed the letter was in the possession of the Admiralty, and he had no objection to its being laid before the House.
The Earl of Mintosaid, the letter alluded to by the noble Marquess was not an official letter. Instructions had certainly

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been sent out, and he believed that no objection would be made to their production.
The Marquess of Londonderrysaid, as it appeared that there was no objection to the production of those instructions, he should move for them to-morrow. He wished next to learn whether any answer had been received to Lord Palmerston's letter of the 10th of March, addressed to the Spanish Government, with respect to the liberation of twenty-seven unfortunate Carlist prisoners, to whose melancholy situation he had heretofore referred? He understood that the Spanish Government had sent them to Porto Rico, and he should be glad to know whether the noble Viscount had received any information respecting those unfortunate men.
Viscount Melbourneanswered, that despatches relative to this subject had been received, and would shortly be laid before the House.

MUNICIPAL REFORM (IRELAND).
The Marquess of Londonderrysaid, that in presenting to their Lordships the petition which he held in his hand, he felt it necessary to trouble the House with a very few words. The petitioners had, he conceived, strong claims on their Lordships' sense of justice; and, in his opinion, their representations deserved some consideration from his Majesty's Ministers. The petition came from the Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of Londonderry, and was against the Irish Municipal Corporations Bill. The privileges which the Citizens of Londonderry had long and deservedly enjoyed, the petitioners complained would be fatally affected by the Irish Municipal Corporations Bill. He regretted to say, that the mode and manner in which Bills relating to Ireland were got up, evinced a spirit, an animus, on the part of his Majesty's Government, to keep down and mortify that class of persons who were most anxious to uphold the Protestant religion in Ireland. This feeling was further manifested by the coldness with which the Government appeared to view the flagrant outrage lately committed in Dublin, where the statue of King William was destroyed. When he saw this species of feeling pervading all the acts of the Government, he could not avoid examining their proceedings with a jealous and scrutinizing eye.
Viscount Melbournebegged leave to deny that any such feeling as that described by the noble Marquess existed in the minds of
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his Majesty's Government. There was not the smallest foundation for any such assertion. With respect to the circumstance particularly alluded to by the noble Marquess, he should only say, that the Government of Ireland had taken the most strong and effectual measures in their power to discover the authors of the outrage. As to the Irish Corporations Bill, when it came regularly before their Lordships, he should be ready to defend it against the noble Marquess, the most strenuous defender of the Corporation of Londonderry, and, he supposed, of all the rest of the Irish Corporations.
The Marquess of Londonderry,in answer to what had fallen from the noble Viscount would ask, whether his Majesty's Government had offered any great reward for bringing to justice the perpetrators of the disgraceful outrage to which he had alluded? [Viscount Melbourne: Yes.] He knew that a reward of 100 l. was offered; but he would ask whether that was a sufficient reward, in a case where such great villainy had been perpetrated? It appeared to him as if the Government of Ireland, so far from acting promptly on the occasion, were only anxious to take the least possible notice of the outrage. As to the course which he should pursue when the Irish Corporations Bill came before their Lordships, it would be a very plain and straightforward one. He trusted that the Bill which was calculated to inflict irreparable injury on Ireland, throwing the whole power of the Government into the hands of the Catholic priests, and their political agitators, would never reach a second reading; but he, for one, would certainly oppose it in every stage.
Petition laid on the table.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS' ACT AMENDMENT BILL.
The Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor moved that the House resolve itself into a Committee on the above Bill.
Lord Lyndhurstsaid, that from the character of the objections which were urged against this measure, it would be much better considered in a Committee above stairs than it could possibly be in a Committee of the whole House. He should, therefore, move "that the Bill be referred to a Committee above stairs." As the Municipal Corporation Bill had become part of the law of the land, that measure ought to be rendered as complete as possible, but in taking steps for that purpose they ought studiously to avoid

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anything like oppression in dealing with the rights of individuals.
Viscount Melbournewould not object to the proposition of the noble and learned Lord.
Motion agreed to, and a Select Committee appointed.