154 BECOBDB AND REMINISCENCES OF QOODWOOD 



to another. Many cases had occurred in which slaves, 

 to whom the option had been made, refused even to 

 be transferred from an unhealthy place to a healthy 

 one. In point of fact, as it was, slaves were not com- 

 pelled to go from one estate to another, and surely 

 apprenticed negroes ought not to be put in a worse 

 position than the slaves." 



About this time his Grace had to proceed to France 

 on some important business connected with his 

 Aubigne property there, but his presence in the 

 House of Lords being considered by his colleagues of 

 paramount importance, an express was sent to him to 

 that effect to Paris, and he returned home immediately. 



Upon the next meeting of Parliament, Mr. Ward 

 brought forward a motion in which he proposed to 

 apply Church property to secular purposes, which 

 caused Mr. Stanley, Sir James Graham, and soon after- 

 wards the Duke of Eichmond and the Earl of Eipon, 

 to retire from the Cabinet, a result that afforded great 

 advantages to O'Connell and his party. The rupture 

 might have been avoided had the Cabinet been 

 formed, and carried on, upon a distinct understanding 

 to support the Protestant Church, instead of making 

 its establishment dependent on the comparative 

 strength or weakness of the Catholic Church. Such, 

 at any rate, was the general opinion at the time. 



When the Earl of Wicklow, in June, 1834, sub- 

 mitted a motion respecting the Church of Ireland, the 



