e commissioners to apply donations and bequests
according to the intention of the donor or donors. The thirteenth clause
also obviated the existing difficulty under the statute of mortmain,
which made bequests chargeable upon land for a given class of persons,
or their successors. This clause would enable real or personal property,
without limitation as to its amount, to be held in perpetuity,
for building and maintaining chapels, for building and maintaining
residences for the Roman Catholic clergy, or for the use of the priests
for the time being, for the purpose of any particular charge. In
conclusion, Sir James Graham said that he could only anticipate one
objection to the bill on tire part of the Roman Catholics, and that
arose from the peculiarity of their ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He
believed they would object to the decision of any ecclesiastical matters
relating to their church by persons who were not in holy orders of the
church of Rome; but he would remind them that under the existing law,
such matters might be brought before the supreme judicial tribunal
of the country--the judge of that court, the lord-chancellor, being a
Protestant. According to the present bill, however, such matters
would be left to the decision of a board, composed of Protestants and
Catholics equal in number. The bill was loudly condemned by Messrs.
More, O'Ferral, Bellew, and Shiel; while, on the other hand, Lord
Arundel thanked government for the conciliatory spirit it displayed. Mr.
Hume said that the bill seemed to him to be framed in a spirit of peace,
and he wished all the Irish grievances were met in the same feeling. The
proposed tribunal was a fair and proper one, and he should be glad to
see as good a one for the administration of English charities: there
ought to be "justice to England." The second reading was carried by a
majority of seventy-one against five; and on the motion that the bill
should be committed, Mr. M. J. O'Connell gave notice that he should in
committee move amendments. The bill having been subsequently reported,
and being moved for a third reading, Mr. Dominick Browne expressed a
wish for its postponement. The Roman Catholic hierarchy, he said, was
entirely opposed to it; although he admitted that he believed it to be
proposed in a spirit of conciliation. He moved that the bill be read
that day three months; but the amendment found no one to second it; and
after a few observations from Mr. M. J. O'Connell