§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYasked, When the Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of the Established Church in Ireland would be presented to the House, as he understood a Chairman had been appointed only a few days ago. He wished to know what progress had been made by the Commissioners?
§ EARL STANHOPEsaid, that being a Member of the Commission, it might perhaps be most convenient that he should answer the Questions. The terms of the Commission were laid upon the table on the first day of the Session of Parliament, and they had been printed and circulated amongst their Lordships. He might add that no time had been lost by the Commissioners, who, at their first meeting, believing it would be desirable to collect all the information they could in Ireland, appointed a sub-Committee to proceed to that country, and that sub-Committee had already collected a large mass of information, which the Commissioners would proceed to consider at their next meetings.
§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYasked, Whether it was not true that the Commission was appointed during the last Session of Parliament, and whether the proceedings of the Commission had not been delayed?
§ EARL STANHOPEsaid, the noble Lord had been singularly misinformed in reference to that matter. The Commission might have been intended in the last Session of Parliament, but it was not actually appointed until the present Session, the exact date which it bore being the 30th of October last. It was only since that time therefore that the Commissioners could apply themselves to the duties intrusted to them. When the proceedings of the Commission should become known to their Lordships, it would be found that the noble Lord had spoken rather hastily, and that no imputation of delay—thus far at least—could attach to himself or to his Colleagues.