REMOVAL OF DOUBTS AS TO PENALTIES ON ASSUMPTION OF ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. (Hansard, 5 August 1851)

§ LORD MONTEAGLE
rose to move the Second Reading of a Bill which he had introduced, for the purpose of removing doubts as to the penalties attaching to the assumption of Ecclesiastical Titles under the Act which had recently engaged so much of the attention of Parliament. The noble Lord said, the object of the Bill was exactly the same as that of the clause which he had proposed a few nights ago as an addition to the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill. That clause had been introduced in the spirit of peace, in order to prevent the mischievous consequences which he considered might arise under the Bill as it then stood. During the recent discussion only one feeling had been manifested on all sides, namely, that of extreme regret that any circumstances should have occurred to render legislation of such a description necessary; and it had also been admitted in the debate that if all that the Roman Catholics of England professed to seek by the recent act of the Pope had been asked for in what was called a reasonable manner, no objection could have been offered, and the Government might have acceded to the demand. But there were three points of view in which the Rescript of the Pope had been made the 1892 subject of animadversion, namely, first, because it claimed territorial authority by establishing prelates terming themselves bishops or archbishops of particular sees in this country. Nobody had denied the power of the Pope to send bishops to this country in a spiritual capacity, if they did not take territorial titles. The next objection was, that the Papal Rescript put forward a claim to authority as it were over the whole of the Queen's subjects, and not simply over the members of the Roman Catholic Church; and the third objection was, that the prerogative of the Sovereign had thereby been invaded. After what had transpired, he wished distinctly to state (and he particularly called the attention of the noble and learned Lord on the woolsack to this fact), that the clause which he had proposed for the removal of doubts as to the exercise of rights to which nobody had objected, had been twice printed in the Votes, and it remained on the notice paper from the 25th to the 29th ult., so that there was not one of their Lordships who was not in possession of its precise purport; and the House had therefore been fully forewarned that it would come under its consideration. The noble Lord went on to say that he thought the people of Ireland ought, at all events, not to be left in doubt and uncertainty respecting the operation of the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Act, and therefore he hoped their Lordships would give a second reading to this Bill.

§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE
said, he felt bound to oppose the Bill on the same grounds as those which he had stated on a former occasion, when he entreated their Lordships not to admit into the Bill, which had now become law, the clause proposed by the noble Lord. He moved, as an Amendment, that the Bill he read a second time that day three months.

The LORD CHANCELLOR
observed that the Bill, as framed, instead of removing doubts, tended to create a great deal of doubt and ambiguity.

§ The EARL of ST. GERMANS
inquired whether, in the opinion of the noble and learned Lord, an indictment would he against a Roman Catholic bishop for collating a priest to a benefice, which was strictly a matter of jurisdiction within his diocese?

The LORD CHANCELLOR
replied, that any act done by virtue of the spiritual office of bishop would not he an act of jurisdiction in the sense intended by the noble Earl; and the act referred to he conceived to he such a one as the bishop would discharge in his spiritual character.