POSTSCRIPT.
SATITRDAY.
The formidable stage of " Committee" on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill,
that cost the Conant:1,s so many troubled sittings, the Lords glided over in a single sitting, last night. Before going into Committee, Lord MOIST- EAGLE put a siting of questions to the Lord Chancellor, with the apparent object of eliciting an admission, that as the appointment of Roman Catho- lic Bishops in Ireland was ilia tared to be void and null, all clerical acts performed under them must be equally void and null. The LORD CHAN- CELLOR was inure dexterously evasive than clear in reply : the bill, he said, creates no new law, but only declares the existing law ; the Papal instrument being null and void, all emanating from it must be so; but "much would depend on time and circumstance." Unsatisfied with this explanation, Lord MONTEAGLE went cal to show, that, offended at what had been done by the •• Archbishop of Westminster," they were going to revenge themselves on the "Archbishop of Dublin," and to lay Ireland under an interdict [which would invalidate marriages and introduce emlless social contusion]; and therefore he moved an in- struction to the Committee to exempt Ireland from the operation of the bill. The LORD CHANCELLOR made a second explanation, aver- ring that the bill would not. interti:re with the spiritual jurisdiction of Bishops. The instruction was supported by Lord CAMOYS. Vis- count CANNING, the Earl of ST. GERMANS, and the Earl of Wiewww, I condemned the operation of the bill in Ireland ; but could not support the instruction, because it drew a distinction between the supremacy of the Crown in two parts of the United Kingdom. The bill was supported by Lord CRANWOICIII, ho said explicitly that it would not endanger the validity uf marriages; by the fish' p of OSSORY, who maintained that "the Established Church in Ireland is the only successor and representa- tive of the ancient Church " ; by the Marquis of CLANRICARDE; and very briefly by Lord LANSDOWNE. On a division, the instruction was negatived by 82 to 17.
More opposition arose on specific parts of the bill, and in Committee on the clauses ; the leading opponents being the Earl of Aberdeen and the Earl of Elleuborough, 6upportvil by other Peers. The inconsistency of its provisions, their alternative intelerance or impotency, were exposed for the hundredth time. Lord ABERDEEN pointed out, that the word "otherwise" prohibited the app,,intment of any bishops, and yet they exempted the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH showed, that in the second clause, the im- portant wore! " shall " was omitted, and the words "such bull" were inserted, no bull having previously been mentioned! The Duke of ARGYLL strongly objected to the provision which enables any informer to sue for the penalty, and he moved to omit it. The LORD CHANCELLOR ascribed the insertioa of that clause [by the Opposition in the Commons] to the absence of the Irish Members. That was no reason, said the Duke of naveasme, why the Peers should neglect their duty. But in fact, he added, Ministers were afraid to let a word of the bill be altered, lest the other House should have an opportunity of revising it. The amendment was negatived by 61 to '26. The first clause had been carried by 77 to 26; and the remaining clauses and preamble were adopted by a majority impatient to pass the bill through the Committee.
Between noon yesterday and half-past one this morning, the House of Commons got through a good deal of business, but none of it was very interesting in the discussion.
Mr. REYNOLDS moved the adjournment till Monday, [instead of sitting today,] on the ground that Irish measures-the improvement of towns,
ministers' money, relief for the distressed districts, even returns for whieh he had moved to establish a bill of indictment against the Poor-law Com- missioners-were delayed and slighted. Lord Joute RUSSELL made the House laugh by oppwing the motion "for the sake of the Irish business." It was not pressed.
Several bills were forwarded a stage. Among them was the Patent- laws Amendment Bill ; which the ATfORNEY-GENERAL explained. On frrst applying, an inventor will be empowered to lodge a provisional speeifica- fion, and he will then receive patent protection for six, or in certain cases for nine months ; which would supersede the necessity for the present secrecy. A board of examiners will be appointed, consisting of scientific persons, to decide on the confirmation of patents or the objections alleged, with an appeal to the Law-officers of the Crown. Patents and inventors will be classified and registered ; a plan enabling reinventors to ewer- tam prior discovery and avoid less. Patents will be refused to inven- tions already practised in foreign countries; though some compensation might be devised in Committee fur the introducer. After desultory cri- ticism, far from unanimous, the bill was read a second time.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved the second reading of a bill to lend 130,000/. out of the ConsolidaWd Fund for the purchase of the Brompton and Nunhead Cemeteries by the Board of Health. Much severe censure was cast on Government and the Board for this miserable instalment of the reformation promised by the Metropolitan Interments Bill. The motion, however, was carried by 50 to 26.
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