§ EARL FITZWILLIAMsaid: My Lords, I am desirous of asking my noble Friend who holds the office of Lord Privy Seal, whether there is any truth in the allegation which has been very industriously propagated in relation to that transaction which now goes, in the cant phrase of the day, under the denomination of "the Papal aggression." A report has been industriously sent about that my noble Friend, by some act of his, either of commission or of omission, has made himself a party to the proceedings of the Supreme Pon- 156 tiff on this subject. My Lords, I am desirous of knowing whether there is any truth in this allegation—whether anything ever took place between my noble Friend and his Holiness the Pope, which can give a colour to the allegations made on this subject? I am sure it is most desirable that the public mind should be disabused on this subject, if it has been misled; and on the other hand, if my noble Friend has incautiously given any countenance or encouragement to what has been done, then, however much I may be disposed to trust that he may long retain the office which he now holds, I must take leave to state that I think my noble Friend has acted with a want of caution which I should not have expected from a man of his experience.
The EARL of MINTOsaid: My Lords, I have no difficulty in assuring my noble Friend that I have shown no want of that caution for which he is good enough to give me credit. I will answer my noble Friend's question in one word. There is no truth whatever in the report, or in any part of the report, to which my noble Friend adverts. No communication whatever upon the subject of this aggression was ever made or even hinted to me; and I really am entirely at a loss to guess on what grounds or authority the report on this subject, which I certainly heard with considerable surprise, has arisen. My Lords, during the period of my residence in Rome, in the course of very frequent communications with the Pope and the Cardinal Secretary of State, no allusion was at any time made to any design of organising a Roman Catholic hierarchy in this country, or of any measure such as that of which we have lately heard so much. I neither received any communication upon it from these illustrious individuals, nor did it ever form the subject of any conversation, public or private, of any other individual during my stay. And I assure your Lordships that no one of your Lordships could have been more completely surprised at the arrival of the Papal document in this country than I was. My Lords, I trust that this assurance will be satisfactory to your Lordships.