Lord Campbellsaid, he was about to lay on their Lordships' Table a bill, the object of which was to transfer to their Lordships' House all appeals from the Ecclesiastical Courts in Ireland. Heretofore—at least, since the union with Ireland—it had been the practice to take such appeals to a court of delegates, composed of a certain number of common-law judges; but this course would now be attended with some inconvenience, as several of the common-law judges in Ireland were Roman Catholics, and by an article of the Act of Union of the two countries, Roman Catholics could not sit as Judges in any matter connected with the Ecclesiastical Courts. The remedy for this inconvenience would be to transfer all such appeals to that House. He would now lay the bill on the Table, and would, on a future stage, go more fully into its merits.
§ Bill read a first time.