Untitled

Lyttelton Times, Volume 1, Issue 2, 18 January 1851, Page 5

Freedom of Australia. —The intelligence of the organized movement of Dr. Lang, and of which j>ome accounts had been previously received, for lonies, has not been regarded so important as the Melbourne papers would seem to represent. The entire proceeding of Dr. Lang on the emigration question during his recent viiit to this country are familiar to our. Australian .merchants through the Parliamentary papers, published about six months back, and were such as would preclude the idea that he was likely to obtain, in any future objects that he might contemplate, any extensive support of his fellow-colonists. It appeared from these documents that his object in London was to obtain a bounty of 18/. a-head for all such emigrants as he might send to Moveton Bay with the view of promoting- the cultivation of cotton. His reason for doing this was that a similar one had been made in favour of certain emigrants who had been imported to promote the cultivation of the vine, and other peculiar products, and that it was pointed out to him there was not the slightest analogy between the two cases, and that as the emigrants he proposed to despatch were of the ordinary kind, whose passage is effected at HI., his request simply was, that Govern-_.r>ient-.woulu-put--'l'&-a head iuto-hts-own—pocket"for" every person he might induce to leave. Subsequently he tried to obtain grants of land, and although in eacU case, thu information was reiterated

to him that his propositions were inadmissable, he sent off the ship "Fortitude," with 270 emigrants, with assurance to them that they would on their arrival receive a free grant of land, equal to the amount they had paid for their passage money; while at the same time he wrote to Governor Fitzroy, intimating that he had obtained the cooperation of Government, and requested in consequence the various advantages he had been negociating here for, but which he was wholly unentitled to. On the arrival of the vessel at Moreton Bay, it was discovered that sickness had prevailed on board to a most fatal extent, and that the poor people were to be landed without any preparation whatever for their reception. Under the circumstances rations were served out to them from the Government stores to keep them from starving, and a lodging was afforded them in the emigration depot; but at the same time, Governor Fitzroy sent home an account of the transaction, in which he characterized it as a "gross fraud attempted to be practised on the Colonial Government." After these disappointments in his schemes, • Dr. Lang quitted England in "November last, leaving behind him a letter for publication in the newspapers, full of the wildest charges of the discourtesy he had received, coupled with incoherent and wholly unfounded statements of encouragement given to the emigration of Popish priests and papists in general, and terminating with a plain announcement that he was returning to avenge the mortifications he had received by agitating for an immediate severance from the mother country, and the election of a '• president of the United States of Australia.." In the face of those things, and the fact of his well-known want of mercantile precision, which seems in the present instance to .have ended in his being imprisoned for what the Melbourne papers termed " some matter of debt, it is considered probable by those acquainted with the state of feeling in the colonies, that eve» if a separation were desired, the leadership of Dr. Lang would, in many quarters be likely rather to retard than to advance it, an inference which is also warranted by the singular bitterness of his sectarian animosities. The most inte- ■ resting statements, however, in connection of this affair, and such as will throw most light on the sub'■■ject, we may receive from Sydney, where, from his .former position, his influence will be best tested.— Times, Sep. 5. Sittings of the House of Commons. — A -.return,, which was ordered to-be-made-on-the— motion of Mr. Brotherton, and which has just been printed, gives the number of days on which the House of Commons sat in the session of-"~ \ 1850, stating for each day, the day of the /month, and the day of the week, and the hour of meeting and the hour of adjournment, jiml tue total number of hours bccupie&vn "the ?it-~ ■ tings of the House, and the average time ; and also showing the number of hours on which the House sat each day, ami the number of hours after midnight; and the number of entries in each day's notes and proceedings, We have not room to give the details of each day's sitting, but the following is the summary :—

Average time per diem .. 8 hours, 33 mm. 35 sues. \ The longest sittings were:—On the 22nd of -July,-15-hours;-July.!3th y _l-4#_hour&;-.aiid-on~ the "25th of that month and the Ist of August, when the House sat 14/^ hours each day. Acts of Parliament.—A return has just been issued, which was prepared on the motion of Mr. Brotherton, of the total number of acts -passed-in- -each -session-si nep^ie-yeaiJ-SOOj-d-is-.— tinguishing the number of public, private, and local and personal acts. It shows that the total number of Acts of Parliament which have passed since 1800 is 14,362; of these 5,392 were public acts. The number of local, personal, and private acts which have passed between 1800 and 1813-14 was 2,393,. In that year the private acts were placed under a separate headiusr. The number of local and personal acts which have passed since 1814-15 was 4.870, and of private nets, 2,393. The greatest uuiKhgr of__ acts which passed in one year was in IS4(>, when not less than 562 were carried; o'i these 117 ; were public, and 402 local and personal (chiiflv -railroads).—lt- is; then, ■sing"a!al-"Xlrat7generany " speaking, a greater number of public acts were passed each year previous to 1819 than, since * that time. '

No. of days of sitting. Number of hours of sitting. No. of hours aft. midnight. No. of entries in Months. votes. Jan. and Feb. Majrch . . . April May . . . June . . . July . . . Auguat. . . 21 18 17 18 20 23 12 H. SI. 156 0 140^ 0 140 22 149 57 181 50 236* 0 99 20 H. 8* 13 X 11* 17* 23^ 25* 1399 1079 1204 1430 1168 1544 726 Total . J 129 1104 14 108^ 8571