Lord F. L. Gower said, there existed some objections in his mind to the proposed measure, to which, however, he should give his best consideration, without at pre-sessors as the property of the aristocracy sent pledging himself either to oppose or support it.

bishops a great deal of trouble, and of putting an end to that species of gambling, which now existed, in obtaining leases under the present system.

Leave was given to bring in the bill.

MISCELLANEOUS ESTIMATES.] The resolutions of the Committee of Supply, to which the Miscellaneous Estimates were referred, being reported,

Mr. Hume said, he must protest against estimates to the extent of 2,638,0007. being thus voted, as he considered it to be a sum far beyond what the country ought to pay in time of peace. He recommended a reduction of different taxes; and he especially called for a reduction of the assessed taxes.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that government were earnestly employed in seeking to give every possible relief to the burthens of the country.

Mr. Maberly protested against the amount of the estimates, and complained that the Finance Committee had not been reappointed.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer pledged himself that a proper responsibility should attach to the future expenditure for public works.

mate was owing to the same causes as in the case of Windsor Castle.

Mr. Maberly said, that when Mr. Canning proposed this expenditure, he had told that right hon. gentleman that there was no use in bringing an estimate, as the expense would be double. Mr. Canning had replied, that the House might rely on the government, if not on the estimate. Now, he saw that they could not rely on the government any more than on the estimate. He thought it most dangerous for the House to meddle with public buildings, as there was no check put on the expenditure.

On the resolution, that 24,000l. be granted for defraying the expenses of the Penitentiary at Milbank,

Mr. Hume begged to ask the right hon. Secretary, whether he was prepared to say that this establishment, which was supported at an enormous expense to the public, succeeded in its object. The right hon. gentleman's predecessor had expressed a doubt on the subject.

Mr. Secretary Peel replied, that if he were asked his advice as to the propriety of building a Penitentiary at the same expense which this establishment had cost the country, he would possibly answer in Mr. Maberly said, that such a proper the negative; but if, again, he were asked, control would produce a great saving to now that we had incurred the expense, the country. whether we should continue it, he should, Mr. Hume complained of the lavish ex-considering such an establishment necespenditure in the works at Windsor Castle sary for the due administration of crimiand Buckingham Palace, in which he in-nal justice, be inclined to answer in the sisted that the successive pledges of mi-affirmative. There could be no doubt but nisters had not been fulfilled.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that with every desire to form an accurate estimate of the expense, it was not in the power of any man to say what it would be exactly. When the castle came to be examined, it was in so ruinous a condition, that the expenditure far exceeded the calculation which had been first made. It would not be right to finish one side of the castle, and leave the other incomplete. The present estimate completed the great body of the building, and included part of the expense of raising the round tower, but to complete it and the other restorations a further sum would be necessary. He was not prepared to say exactly how much; the commissioners not having made their report. With respect to Buckingham-house, the excess of the expenditure for public works over the esti

that there was a class of criminals, who, though guilty of offences which subjected them to the punishment of transportation, were persons not inured to crime; and, in reclaiming such persons, this establishment had been found to be highly beneficial. By far the greater part of those who had been confined in this prison were reclaimed from their former vicious habits, and the committee, in discharging them, had expressed their high satisfaction of their improved conduct. He was much inclined to think that, as a building, it could not be applied to any better purpose. The management of the prison was under a committee appointed by act of parliament, and was not at all under the direction of the Secretary of State; nor was it an establishment from which he derived any patronage.

The resolution was agreed to.

HOUSE OF LORDS.
Friday, April 3.

PETI

ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS TONS FOR AND AGAINST.] The Earl of Eldon, on presenting a petition from a parish in Worcestershire, against further Concession to the Catholics, said, he had received a letter from an individual who had been alluded to in that House, who stated, that he was determined to pursue the course which he thought right, and was not to be intimidated by threats, or deterred by calumnies. He thought it his duty to state thus much, on behalf of that reverend gentleman.

ceived that this letter would not at all agree with the statement which had been made on the former night by the noble lord. The noble lord had likewise stated, that the rev. divine had appeared in three different capacities as a petitioner before their lordships. He would not pretend to say whether the rev. divine would have been right or wrong in so appearing; but the charge against him, as he understood it, was, that the rev. divine had first signed his name to the petition which came from the county of Worcester; that he had next signed his name to the petition which came from the clergy of the archdeaconry of Worcester; and that he had last of all signed his name to the petition which came from the parish of which he was the incumbent. Now, he had examined the petition from the county of Worcester, and he could not find in it the name of the rev. divine. He had nothing further to say, except to remind their lordships that all the information which the noble lord had given them upon this subject came from anonymous correspondents. He wished the noble lord would state to the House the name of his informant. Dr. Forrester wished above all things, to know the name of his accusers; and it did appear to him, that the noble lord was bound, in common fairness, to state from whom he received his information. If the noble lord could find the name of Dr. Forrester in the county petition, which he would now put into his hands, he should be obliged to him to point it out.

Earl Beauchamp said, that upon the presentation of this petition, he would intrude for a few minutes on the attention of their lordships, to make the statement which he intended to have made last night, but for the objection which had been urged against him on a point of form. A noble lord, when a petition from a part of Worcestershire was formerly presented to the House, had taken the opportunity of charging the rev. gentleman who was vicar of this parish, with circulating in his parish a hand-bill of the most offensive and inflammatory description against further concession to the Roman Catholics. He conceived it to be his duty, in consequence of what the noble lord had then said, to make some inquiry into the transaction; and with the permission of their lordships, he would read a letter, which he had received from the rev. gentleman, whose conduct had been so cruelly im- Lord Lyttelton said, the noble earl, pugned. After alluding to what the rev. whether he had exercised a sound discregentleman understood to have been said, tion or not, had imposed upon him the respecting him, he proceeded as follows: necessity of making good a statement "I will thank your lordship to give the which he had offered to the House on a most unqualified contradiction to the as- former occasion, upon authority which he sertion that I either circulated or caused conceived to be perfectly satisfactory. to be circulated any hand-bill on this sub- With regard to the charge which he had ject in my parish. I never heard of any in- made against Dr. Forrester, the noble earl flammatory hand-bill, and I never had any had considerably overstated what that hand-bill at all in my possession. I am charge was-at least so far as regarded therefore at a loss to know what is meant the hand-bill. That hand-bill, he was by such an imputation as has been made informed, upon authority which he could against me."-In another part of the let- not dispute, had been distributed most ter, the rev. gentleman said, "I again industriously through the whole of the authorize your lordship to contradict the parish, and had been left at every house assertion, that I circulated or caused to in it. In one of the letters--for there be circulated, either directly or indirectly, were more than one which he had received either publicly or privately, any hand-bill-the writer, speaking of that hand-bill, whatever on the subject, or that I ever said, "Such are the means resorted to by had in my possession any such hand-bill a Christian magistrate, who thinks them as has been imputed to me." He con- consistent with his profession as a minister

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of peace." What he had asserted on the imputations to which it might expose him. former occasion was, that the hand-bill in As to the fact that the placard had fallen question had been so industriously cir- under the cognizance of the reverend divine, culated, through certain agents in the he must say that it did not appear to be parish, that it was quite certain that it contradicted, even by the letter of the rev. could not have been so circulated without divine himself. All that the reverend the cognizance of the vicar; and that if divine said, was, that he never had it in such were the case, and the vicar did not his possession. These inflammatory planotice it, he was responsible for its con- cards were publicly circulated in the rev. tents. He was also authorized to state gentleman's parish, they were read at the upon the same authority as before, that at meeting over which he presided, and the meeting where the petition was agreed neither in one case nor the other had the to, part of the offensive hand-bill was read, rev. gentleman discountenanced them. If and this observation was made upon it:- he had been right in that which he had "Would you wish to see such scenes as stated at first, and he believed that he these repeated? See what you have to was, the rev. divine had no reason to expect, if you make any concession to complain of what he had stated. Be that these claims." Now, at that meeting the as it might, he should not feel himself rev. vicar was in the chair, and yet he justified in giving up the name of his inhad made no observation upon such a formants. How far it might be the inclistatement. He did not affirm, that the nation of the parties who had given him reverend divine was capable of composing the information to allow their names to be such a hand-bill, which contained many communicated either to the House or to the opprobrious imputations against the Roman rev. doctor, was a point which he could Catholics, and many daring incentives to not immediately declare. He should de civil war. He had said, that a reverend precate such a communication, because clergyman and magistrate had either dis- it would give an addition of ill-blood to tributed personally, or had caused to be that which this theological contest had distributed, an inflammatory hand-bill. already excited in that part of the country, Now, when a noble lord received a state- as many persons of character were impliment informing him that inflammatory placated in his statement. With regard to cards had been circulated, for the purpose what he had said, as to the threefold chaof getting up petitions, it was not im-racter in which the rev. gentleman had material to show that such placards had appeared. He had been informed by what been issued, under the authority and with he conceived to be undeniable authority, the cognizance of those who were the pro- that the signature of Dr. Forrester was moters of those petitions. It ought to be attached to the petition from the county recollected, that four magistrates, residing of Worcester, but, whether it was or not, in the district, had refused their sanction it was notorious to every man in the county, to the meeting at which this petition had that Dr. Forrester was most anxious in been got up, in consequence of the inflam- promoting the county petition. The matory placards which were abroad. To noble earl, in presenting that petition, had whom the placards were traceable it did said, that it was signed by two prebendaries not appear; but he contended, that it was of Worcester. If the noble earl would the duty of the clergyman who called the state who those prebendaries were, he meeting, to see what hand-bills had been should know whether he was wrong in circulated in the neighbourhood a short the assertion which he had made respecttime previously. When he affirmed, that ing Dr. Forrester. If that reverend divine those who ought to have seen to that point had not signed the petition from the clergy did not look to it,-when he affirmed that of the archdeaconry of Worcester, he was those persons were keen and vehement sure it was quite accidental: for he had opposers of the Roman Catholic claims, seen the signature of Dr. Forrester attachwhen he affirmed, moreover, that their ed to the requisition for that meeting, conduct had been brought specifically which was sent to the archdeacon. That under his notice, and that many indi-point, therefore, was completely disposed viduals had called upon him to bring it of; and if, on the other he had not been under the notice of their lordships, he felt quite so correct, he would say at once that he had no other course than to state that he was sorry for it. After the the facts to the House, regardless of the extraordinary manner in which he had