§ Bill read 3a (according to Order).
THE EARL OF LONGFORDwished to know, whether the Government could agree to add to the Commission another legal Member—for when the present Members differed in opinion the questions had to be decided by the voice of the layman present; and he, in fact, decided questions which the Judges were unable to determine. The matter was in the hands of the Government, and he could do no more than mention these facts, and express a hope that the appeals made to the Commissioners in future would be more successful than his present expectations led him to believe.
§ VISCOUNT MIDLETONsaid, he was sorry to be obliged to confirm what his noble Friend had stated. He wished to inform the Government that with regard to the Cathedral of Cork, the contractors had, before the passing of the late Act, agreed to complete the restoration for £5,500, and that £3,500 had been expended for work and labour done; and now those gentlemen were told that the Church Commissioners could not afford them that security for payment which they had previously had, but that they must look for payment elsewhere. Considering the way in which the College of Maynooth was dealt with, and the way in which the building debt had been wiped off, he thought that those who had contributed towards the restoration of the Cathedral of Cork, on the faith that it would be completed out of the funds pledged for its completion, had some right to suppose that if any supplementary Act was brought in affect- 1642 ing the Irish Church Act, some notice would be taken of the position in which they had been placed. He wished to impress on the Government the desirability of taking counsel with the Commissioners on the subject, to prevent a grievous act of injustice from being perpetrated.
§ Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.