Lords Sitting of 5 March 1838

MINUTES.
Bills. Read a first time:—Protection of Slaves; Glebe Houses.—Read a second time:—Conservancy of the Thames.
Petitions presented. By Lord BEXLEY, from inhabitants of Blackheath, in favour of the Protestant Church.—By the Duke of RICHMOND, from the Archdeacon and Clergy of Chichester, against the union of the Bishopric of Sodor and Man with that of Carlisle.—By Lord FITZGERALD, from Lisburn, by Lord BROUGHAM, from Exeter, and from the same city, signed only by Females, and from Wesleyan Methodists of Devon, from Oldham, and from a number of other places, by Lord REDESDALE, from Stowmarket, and other places, and by the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, from Great Cheveley, Devizes, and other places, against Negro Apprenticeship.

CATHOLIC MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
The Earl of Fingall, seeing a right rev. Prelate in his place, was anxious to correct an error, into which, the right rev. Prelate had, no doubt, unintentionally fallen. The right rev. Prelate was represented to have raid, a few evenings since, after adverting to a statement which he (the Earl of Fingall) had made,
386
in the other House of Parliament, with reference to the Roman Catholic oath, and of which the right rev. Prelate had spoken in terms much more complimentary than he deserved; that he (the Earl of Fingall) had lost his election for the county of Meath, in consequence of the opinion which he had expressed on that subject. That, however, was not the case. The sole cause of his having lost his election on that occasion, was the great excitement which prevailed in the country with reference to the repeal of the Union. And he had not the slightest doubt, if he had agreed to support that question in the other House of Parliament that he should have been returned. He attached very great importance to that question, and he never could give his assent to the repeal. He thought that it was a duty which he owed to himself and to the constituency alluded to, to take the earliest opportunity to lay the fact before the House, and to correct the statement that had gone forth.
The Bishop of Exeterwas happy to hear the explanation of the noble Earl. It would, however, be in their Lordships' recollection, that when he made the representation adverted to, he said that it did not rest on the best authority. He was glad to learn that the rejection of the noble Lord was not on account of the declaration which he had made in the other House, and which was so honourable to him as a Roman Catholic subject.
Subject dropped.