726 



Chronology. 



[JUNE, 



the Church of England," which was not even se- 

 conded ! * 



5. Bin for enclosing Hampstead Heath thrown 

 out of the House of Lords. 



T. The new road in St. James's Park, leading 

 from Storey's gate to the new entrance in James- 

 street, Westminster, opened to the public. 



8. Meeting held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, 

 concerning the propriety of petitioning Parliament 

 on the subject of the East India Company's charter, 

 when resolutions were entered into and a petition 

 agreed on against renewing their charter. 



10. Anniversary meeting of British and Foreign 

 School Society, held at Freemason's Hall, when it 

 appeared by the report that at Malta, Malacca, Den- 

 mark, Sweden, and other parts, the news was very 

 satisfactory ; Spain, Portugal, and South America 

 excepted, where political disquietudes retarded the 

 progress of the schools. 



12. Anniversary dinner of the Literary Fund 

 Society held at Freemasons' Tavern, when about 

 500/. in donations were added to their funds. 



13. Sons of the Clergy Anniversary held at St. 

 Paul's ; the total collections there and at the subse- 

 quent dinner at Merchant Taylor's Hall, 2397. 



18. Petition presented to the House of Commons 

 from Rochester, on the subject of an early aboli- 

 tion of the Tithes, f Same day a motion was made 

 relative to the Irish First Fruits ; 63 for a commit- 

 tee of inquiry 94 against it. Sir John Newport 

 said, in his exordium, as ground for inquiry, " the 

 Bishopric of Derry is valued at 2507. per annum, 

 while it is notorious that its real value is 20,0007. 

 per annum" ! ! ! 



* Though this motion has proved abortive, the 

 speech delivered by his lordship elicited many facts 

 which are likely to have more effect out of the 

 House than in it ! the abuses in the Ecclesias- 

 tical Law clergymen being law-agents, want of 

 churches in Ireland in 1263 benefices in Ireland, 

 only 880 had their incumbents resident advertise- 

 ments in the daily papers for buying livings for the 

 cure of souls many residents did no duty, and 

 others worse than no duty many followed secular 

 employments many became insolvents and bank- 

 rupts, and were in the gazette indeed, he said, he 

 knew an archdeacon that kept foxhounds and 

 twenty hunters and hunted regularly with them 

 too he knew another also whose means were not 

 so large, but who had still his sporting establish- 

 ment, and what was worse, upon Sundays, the 

 sporting parson and his friends assembled round 

 the Communion Table in the Church, and there 

 made their sporting arrangements !!!!!.' ! ! &c. &c. 

 &c. " From these various facts," his lordship said, 

 " he knew that there were many worthy Bishops 

 upon the Bench, who would give him their assist- 

 ance upon this occasion, and he hoped they would 

 not disappoint him ! ! !" However there was not one 

 noble lord to be found either spiritual or temporal 

 to second the motion. 



t Mr. Thome on presenting the petition said, 

 " the tithes alienated the people from the church 

 they were a greater enemy to the church than the 

 Jews the time had now arrived when it ought to 

 be considered what the great part if not the whole 

 of the security now given for the payment of the 

 Clergy ought not to be dispensed with the peti- 

 tioners stated this opinion, and added there was no 

 authority in Scripture, so far at least as they could 

 discover, for having enormously paid archbishops 

 and bishops, while the people at large were suffer- 

 ing all the miseries of poverty, privation and 

 want." Out of 11,000 clergy, not more than 6 000 

 did their duty in person ; all "sinecures of the church 

 ought to be abolished, as well as civil and military 

 sinecures." Mr. Baring said, "although I have 

 been wrong relative to the Bishop of London's reve- 

 nue, yet no contradiction has been given to what I 

 have said of the see of Winchester, and I believe 

 that that produced 00,0007. the first year of the 

 present Bishop's taking it" ! ! ! 



13. Sir James Mackintosh presented a petition 

 from Edinburgh to the House of Commons for 

 abolition of death in cases of forgery.* 



14. Motion made in the House of Commons 

 "for an account of all salaries, profits, pay, fees 

 and emoluments, whether civil or military, from 

 Jan. 5, 1829, to Jan. 5, 1830, enjoyed by each of the 

 members of the King's Privy Council, specifying 

 with each name the total amount received by each 

 individual, and distinguishing the various services 

 from which the same is derived." Negatived by 

 231 against 147. f 



17. On the second reading of the bill in the House 

 of Commons for emancipating the Jews, 165 votes 

 were for, and 228 against it $ 



18. Motion in the House of Commons for a Select 

 Committee to inquire into the distressed state of the 

 West India Colonies put off, on the pledge of the 

 Secretary of State, that government would investi- 

 gate the matter so as to be able to bring forward the 

 motion on the first week of the next Session of 

 Parliament. 



24. Message from His Majesty to the Houses of 

 Lords and Commons, stating that owing to the ill- 

 ness under which His Majesty labours, it is incon- 

 venient and painful for him to sign with his own 

 hand instruments requiring the sign manual; he 

 recommends Parliament to adopt measures for 

 giving effect to such documents during his indis- 

 position. 



* It was signed by about 700 persons of respecta- 

 bility, being all either bankers, merchants, magis- 

 trates , private gentlemen, or members of the Uni- 

 versities and learned professions. A great number 

 of petitions have also been presented to the House 

 from various towns on the same subject. 



t Sir James Graham, who made the motion, had 

 said (a few days preceding, May 10), " that the time 

 was now come when the House ought to fly at 

 higher game at those birds of prey which are 

 floating in the upper regions of the air" this even- 

 ing, May 14, he mentioned that there were 169 privy 

 councillors, exclusive of the Royal Family; of 

 these there were 113 in receipt of public monies 

 annually amounting to 650,1647.; ofthissum 86,1037. 

 were for actual sinecures ; 442,0007. for what was 

 termed active service, and 121,6507. for pensions--- 

 69 of these privy councillors were members, or 

 ministers, of that and the other house receiving 

 public money, of whom 47 were peers, who received 

 378,8407. a year, or 8,069?. each ; and 22 were mem- 

 bers of the House of Commons receiving 90,8497., 

 or 4,1307. a year each ! ! !" 



$ Mr. Brougham said he did not wish to put this 

 measure upon the footing of State necessity, nor of 

 sound policy : he put it on the other, but not lower 

 grounds ; for he put it, as a case of justice, to an 

 assembly of just men. He begged the house to con- 

 sider, seriously, that men were not excluded from 

 that house because they might be Quakers or Jews, 

 heathens, infidels, or blasphemers, but because 

 they happened to be devoid of that quintessence of 

 Heathenry Hypocrisy ! Let the Jew but come 

 here and pledge himself to the contents of that oath 

 by which he is excluded, and he will be at once re- 

 ceived with open arms by that Chorus of Christians 

 whom he had that night heard cheer, and roar, and 

 howl, forth their applause of the mostanti-christian 

 doctrines and feelings, that had ever been uttered 

 in a civilized country ! ! ! Did the gentlemen on 

 the other side ever hear of Mr. Gibbon's having sat 

 in that house how, at a time that he was notori- 

 ously an opponent of Christianity, he came up to 

 that table and took the entire array of oaths of 

 abjuration and against transubstantiation, &c. with 

 all the gravity of a Christian ? And yet he held, at 

 that very time, the office of a Lord of Trade, and 

 received its salary just as orthodoxly as the staunch- 

 est Churchmen ! He did not, to be sure, exercise 

 much authority in the house, for Gibbon's pagan- 

 ism was a little too evident, and a consciousness of 

 its having been so, hindered him from exercising 

 that influence which his talents and learning would 

 have entitled him to. He never spokehe had a 



