ENGLISH NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 45, 15 November 1851, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS.

pAKtiAMENTAiiy.—We quote from the Guardian of July 9, the following clever summary of Parliamentary news :—

" The Commons gave their final assent on the 4th July, to the new Bill engrafted by ' Sir F. Thesiger on that of Lord John Russell, j to which its original title is now somewhat less j than appropriate, and the measure thus metamorphosed has been sent up to the House of Lords, where it was read a first time on Monday- The whole campaign has been a series of misunderstandings and mistakes, and the curious and unhappy manoeuvring of the Irish brigade made the last stage of it admirably of a piece with the rest. They stood aloof while the feeble efforts of the Government to strike out the amendments were twice summarily defeated; and when the question was put, "that the "bill do pass," upon which, in compliance with a suggestion of Mr. Gladstone's, the general debate was to be taken, they were consulting authorities in the library or jammed in the pas- ; sage. Serjeant Murphy, who was on the spot, ' had a fit of deafness, and did not hear. The | bill, therefore, passed sub silentio by a majority of more than five to one. Some grave and sensible observations were contributed, by way of i finale, by Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney Herbert. " We are tired and disgusted with a discussion lengthy beyond precedent, and discreditable to the sincerity of some who have shared in it, the legal knowledge of others, and the sense and j judgment of many more. Our readers may, per- j haps, be scarcely alive to the importance of the change introduced into the bill within the last stage of its progress. That change amounts, in fact to a destruction of its identity and the substitution of a new measure in its place. As it stands, it is" not the Bill which Lord John Russell introduced or his subordinates argued for; it is a Bill, the main provisions of which have been condemned from the Treasury Bench as unnecessary, impolitic, and improper. Yet it is carried. Urceus exit. A turn of the wheel bas transformed the classic flask into an unshapely jug. To many of our readers, perhaps, it will appear matter of rejoicing that what may have been lost in symmetry has been gained in strength. For ourselves, it is needless to say that we have watched its progress from first to last with unmixed disapproval and regret. The illusoriness which seems to have been its greatest recommendation in the eyes of its promoters ■was its best excuse in ours. And what is the practical upshot, now that it has received a wider sweep and a sharper edge? Why, that, for a penal Act which those could not have enforced who would, we have got one which those will not enforce who can. We have made a retrogade step in a wrong direction, and the vexatious law we are about to place on the Statute-book, useless as a weapon against Rome, will be a precedent hostile to that religious liberty which is the surest hope of the Church of England. : '; The Chancery Appeal Bill has been settled in committee, apparently with more despatch than care; and Mr. Bell,intent on proving that a corrupt constituency may accidentally return a useful member, has brought in a bill with the landable object of providing that the lads who mix our physic shall know a little of medicine as well as the doctors who prescribe it. But objections being suggested, Mr. Bell, with the modesty of a young and imbefriended member, withdraws it till next year. "The Smithfield Market Bill, after having got through the Commons, has met with an un-looked-ibv obstacle on the threshold of the Lords. " Private Bills" cannot regularly be introduced without six months' notice to those whose interests are affected by them ; and the new Chairman of Committees, Lord Redesdale, holds that this measure, for the removal of what is either a great public benefit or a great public nuisance, ought to enter Parliament in that modest character, and subject to the jealous restrictions with which Private Bills are beset. Possibly he is right; at any rate, the question is a doubtful one, and there is no reason to dispute the fair exercise of his judicial discretion. Bat it was certainly a mistake to resist the reasonable demand which this decision was sure to provoke—that the Standing Orders should in this case be dispensed with. The question is. essentially one of public concern, and, us the design of the Government to transplant the market could not have been more notorious if it

had been proclaimed with beat of drum at every street-corner from Hoiuidsditch to Temple-bar, the private parties interested have no real ground of complaint. Influenced by these reasons, the House has overruled his recommendation, and the Bill has surmounted a barrier which would have been fatal to its progress for this session. " The entertainment promised by Mr. Salomons to the lovers of a Parliamentary scene, is postponed until the rejection of the Jew Bill in the House of Lords. The candidate pledged himself to carry the fortress of exclusion by storm, the member takes advice from his friends, and thinks it better to wait. This is not quite fair upon the electors of Greenwich. "Attention has been'drawn to the singular and melancholy result of the Census returns for Ireland. Whilst, in the natural course of things, population would have increased at the rate of six per cent, these returns shew a positive diinuflition of twenty. In Connaught the number of souls is less by one-fourth than it was ten years ago/ A sad example of the pregnant eloquence of figures. How much of bodily and mental suffering must have attended the causes, be they what they may, which have thus blighted and thinned the crop of human life! "How many of the missing two millions have been devoured by famine—how many have been the prey of disease—how many have been poured into the cess-pools of pauperism in our own great town, or scattered homeless along the shores of the New World ? The best hope for the past is that more have been removed by emigration than by death. What hope have we for the future ? t: The quarterly Revenue Tables for the'lTnited Kingdom exhibit nearly the same features which-we have remarked* once or twice before. A decline in the direct assessments on income and expenditure contracts, as before, with abundant and still increasing returns from the taxes on consumption." On July 2, Sir B. Hall gave notice that he should ask the noble Lord (Russell) whether certain Bishops had not received considerably more than the net incomes assigned to their respective Sees, and whether the Government intended to pass any legal measure for obviating the hardships and inconvenience of the uncertainty of episcopal incomes. He should also ask whether the Bishops had paid the surplus thus received to the common fund, or whether they had retained it for their own uses ? Lord John Russell complained that the presumption would be drawn by the public from this notice that certain Bishops had been assigned certain sums by way of net income, and had appropriated more* than those sums, whereas the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had repudiated the idea of salaries to the Bishops as derogatory to their office. Mr. Horsman, amidst great confusion in the House, rose to second the motion of Sir B. Hall, who stated that six Bishops had received £28,267 more than the net income assigned to their Sees. It has been stated in the House of Commons, that the Bishop of Gloucester has so ordered his renewals of leases, that in proportion as his family will (benefit after his decease so will the Church lose. The Committee on the Law of Mortmain haying occasion for the evidence of Cardinal Wiseman on certain points, requested his attendance before them, but that dignitary, shrinking from the unpleasant task, sent his solicitor to appear in his stead. Some questions relative to the amount of property vested in the Cardinal for tb.e purposes of his Church havinobeen evaded by the professional gentleman, who refused to answer them as involving a breach of confidence on his part, orders were given to summon his Eminence officially and peremptorily, but he, not liking the interference of the too inquisitive Committee, discovered that he had a Chapel co consecrate in Jersey and some other equally pressing reason for extending his journey to Belgium, thus baffling the vigilance of the Serjeant-at-Arms. On the 15th July, Loud Naas moved a resolution, pledging the house to resolve itself into a committee on a future day to consider the present state of the milling interest in Ireland He drew a gloomy picture of the losses sustained by the decay of the once nourishing manufacture of corn into meal and flour in that country which before 1845 exported 500,000 qrs. of wheaten flour, whereas during the present year it had imported of wheat and flour 800,000 qrs.. making a difference of 1,300,000 qrs., the value of which was not less than 2,600,000/. He read

details furnished by Irish millers of the number of mills standing idle and of the diminution of capital embarked in this trade, and he attributed these'losses, which had been entirely unforeseen, he said, by the authors of the measure of 1846, to the enormous importations of French flour. He pointed out the advantages enjoyed by the French millers in their protection against the competition of foreign flour, and in the privilege of grinding corn in bond, which would give additional impulse to the increasing exportation sof meal from France. So far from the poor being benefited by this influx of French flour into Ireland, Lord Naas read statements which purported to show that the price of that quality of meal consumed by the poor was, under-., the present system, greatly enhanced. He denied that the French and Belgian millers were superior to ours, their machinery was English. Their power of competing with English and Irish millers was derived from the cheapness of labour, their protective laws, and the zeal of their Governments to foster native production. By this motion he meant to ask the House whether it was prepared to continue a system productive of such evil results to Ireland, and which was, in reality, a system of protection to the foreigner. Mr. Labouchere said, the effect of the motion was not to restore protection to Irish millers, but to revive the corn laws. The case of the Irish millers could not be separated from that of English millers, and if protection were given to millers, farmers were equally entitled to it. If, however, the House was of opinion that it should not retrace its steps and restore protection as a principle, it would delude this class by assenting to the motion. He admitted the existence of distress in the milling interest, but there was not the slightest ground for attributing this distress to the alteration of the corn laws; the millers had had more to do since their repeal than before. The importations of breadstuffs had greatly increased, but they consisted mainly of grain, and Mr. Labouchere read figured statements, showing that the millers of the United Kingdom in general, and those of Ireland in particular, had had more grain to grind since the repeal of the corn laws than before. He believed that a great alteration in the circumstances of the milling trade had been going on before the alteration of the corn laws ; but he was convinced that the British and Irish millers, as a class, would in the long run, like other classes, successfully compete with the whole world. Referring to the great improvement which had taken place among the poorer classes in Ireland, and which was traced directly to the increased means of obtaining provisions cheap, he intreated the House to pause before it sacrificed, upon a partial case, what ought to be the main object of legislation—the general well-being of the people.

Mr. J. Stuart supported the motion, dwelling- upon the sufferings of the milling class. Mr. Roche characterized it as a claim for restriction upon the importation of foreign flour, while foreign corn was to remain exempt from dvity, which would benefit the miller^ at the expense of the agricultural interest. Mr. J. Wilson, in reply to Mr. Newdegate (who made an assault upon the general theory of free trade, and instanced the condition of the Irish millers as a sample of its effects,) explained the regulations to which the French millers were subjected in grinding foreign wheat, and contended that L if they could import corn from Odessa, grind it in their own ports, re-export it to Ireland, and undersell our millers, who could bring corn direct from the same place, there must be some inferiority in the latter, and he pointed out certain improvements in the foreign grinding machinery. Improved mills were, however, extending in this country, which'A'A not look as if our millers were afraid of foreign' competition ; and so far from their labouring under any disadvantages as compared with millers abroad, they enjoyed advantages which the foreign millers would never have. The motion was negatived by a majority of 35. / Lord John Russkxl stated on the 16th hisf intention not to press forward any measure .connected with the supply of water to the metropolis. In the Law of Evidence Amendment Bill, the Attorney-General agreed to a provision that tlie evidence of a wife should be admissible in all but criminal cases, On the 15th July, in the House of Lords, the Eabl of Dkuby rose to move " That the papers hud before the house during the

present and last session respecting the representative institutions granted to the Cape be referred to a select committee." He was actuated by no feeling of hostility to the present Government in bringing forward this motion, but solely by a desire to offer himself as a medium through which Parliament might soothe the disaffection which existed at the Cape, and restore peace and harmony to that colony. The strongest grounds for adopting the course which he proposed would be found in a statement of the past and present condition of the Cape colony, which he should proceed to lay before their Lordships. That colony, which came into ; our possession by conquest, was at first ruled by the Governor alone, then by the Governor assisted by an " Executive Council," which body afterwards became a " Legislative Council," into which was infused the first germ of popular institutions. In the year 1842, when he was Colonial Secretary, a petition was presented to him, praying the mother country to confer representative institutions on the colony, to which request he had thought it to be his duty to decline to accede, not because he undervalued the benefit of colonial representative institutions in general, but because he thought the form of those institutions suggested by the petitioners undesirable, and also because he foresaw many obstacles to their successful introduction. The noble Lord then proceeded to give a sketch of the expectations which had been raised in the minds of the colonists by the promise of representative institutions held out to them by the present Government; shewing how those expectations had been disappointed by the Constitution sent out from this country, and how the majority of the inhabitants at the Cape were now engaged in an angry war with the Colonial Secretary. For his own part, since so large a measure of the representative system had been solemnly promised, he was of opinion that the engagement entered into with the colony should be rigidly adhered to, and he hoped that the labours of the select committee for which he was now about to move, and to which, he trusted the House would consent, would by its recommendations afford the colony an opportunity of shewing that it was really ripe for free institutions, and at the same time bring about a solution of the difficulties now unfortunately existing between the mother country and its colony. Earl Gkey was surprised that Lord Derbt, after having occupied the attention of the House for so long a time, should have disposed of the reasons in favour of the motion in a few sentences. Entertaining, as he did, a very strong opinion against the expediency of acceding to the motion, that opinion was rather strengthened than otherwise by the noble Lord's speech, which seemed solely aimed at obtaining a party triumph. Iv some portions of the elaborate statement which the House had just heard he entirely agreed, but from others he was compelled to dissent; for instance, from that part in which Lord Derby said that in his despatch in answer to the first petition from the Cape for representative institutions he had not meant to refuse such institutions to that colony. Be that as it might, the. present Government had found that the old system of governing by the Legislative Council was Avorking badly, and that a strong desire for a representative system existed in the minds of the inhabitants. Both Sir Henry Pottinger and Sir Harry Smith, who had been desired to report on the matter, had come to the conclusion that the change was desirable and might be made with safety. A Constitution had, therefore, been drawn up with the greatest care, with a view of avoiding the peculiar difficulties to which the introduction of the new system at the Cape was exposed. That Constitution, through the factidfus opposition of some of the colonists, had not given satisfaction at the Cape, and the Government was at present engaged in attempting to bring the differences which had arisen between the mother country and the colony to .an amicable conclusion, but he thought that if the House acceded to this vote of censure —for f^ich it really was—on the Government, it would iiiford a dangerous precedent to other colonies, where those involved in disputes with the Home '• Government, would seek the support of the Opposition at home in a way which would be most ■ detrimental to the interest of the country. In conclusion the noble Lord repeated his assertion, that the motion was only brought forward for the purpose of securing a party triumph, and ■ sat down after calling on the House to refuse its consent to the motion. The Lord Chancellor earnestly entreated

their lordships not to agree to a measure which appeared calculated to weaken in the colony the power of the mother country. The Duke op Argyll maintained that there should be at that advanced period of the session no parliamentary interference, as there was not time to bring the matter to any satisfactory conclusion. The Duke of Newcastle was strongly impressed, with the conviction that the difficulties presented by this case should be solved, not by the Parliament, but by the Executive Government; he altogether deprecated the idea thrown out by Lord Grey, that there was anything in the motion, even if carried, calculated to create a party triumph.

The House divided :—Contents 68, non-con-tents 74 ; majority in favour of ministers 6.

The Exhibition.—This still continues an object of the greatest interest—the majority of the visitors, however, being from the country. The building is daily inundated with admiring crowds, who seem to divide their time pretty fairly between the sight-seeing and the refreshment courts. The place is one vast refectory during the day, every remote nook and corner, as well as the ample space of the open courts, being filled with hungry travellers. The sale of bread and cold meat is allowed and practised, a bountiful supply being obtainable for sevenpence. Although the Committee, in the exercise of a sound discretion, have excluded malt and vinous liquids from the place; stone jars and bottles are stowed away, and carried about all day, to ensure a " drop of beer" at mealtime. The more temperate and economical resort to the fountains, which are generally surrounded by hundreds. The numbers of bottles of ginger beer and similar drinks opened during the day, in the central department alone, average between seven and eight thousand bottles. If we add to this the large quantity consumed in the eastern and western refreshment rooms, we may form some idea of the activity and energy displayed in this department of the Exhibition. Out of doors the great business of life goes on with equal briskness. Cantoniers andvivandiers perambulate in front of the different entrances with little casks slung across their shoulders containing sherbet or lemonade at a halfpenny a glass. Down Knightsbridge, on either side, the shops have been in almost every case transformed into eating houses and coffee houses, and the stripes and stars, the double-headed eagle, the union jack, and the tri-colour float in friendly rivalry side by side without, as well as within, the Exhibition. Woe betide the unfortunate wight who ventures through this region on foot. He is beset by waiters and touters in one continuous line, announcing a list of tempting dishes at some ridiculously low sum, but which the result proves to be the'full value of the entertainment. However, travellers must eat, and from the princely Symposium of Gore House, down to the tavern just set up under the nose of Apsley House, all are fully tenanted ; and our only surprise is, that with such an enormous additional consumption, beef and mutton are not half-a-crown a pound. Mr. Hobbs, the American locksmith, intends in the course of a day or two. to invite the attendance of a number of persons connected with the Exhibition —among whom is Mr. Commissioner Mayne—when he will undertake to pick and open any locks that may be submitted to him. The issue of the challenge is looked forward to with considerable interest by all persons engaged in the lock trade. The process of examining the interior structure of locks, and the mode of operating upon them, are of extreme simplicity, and there is scarcely any person who, after having witnessed the mode adopted, would doubt his own ability to pick almost any lock that might be laid before him. Among the more interesting incidents of the day on Monday, was the arrival of Mr. Gladstone, M.P., accompanied by 50 of the poor male parishioners of the parish in which he resides ; the same number of female parishioners having, a few days ago, received a similar kindness from Mrs. Gladstone. Four hundred boys belonging to the upper school at Greenwich also arrived during the day, their expenses having been paid by the Lords of the Admiralty. We understand that public entertainments in connection with the Exhibition are in contemplation in Norwich, Nottingham, and others of our large manufacturing towns. Mr. Paxton will be honoured with a public entertainment at Derby on the 4th of next month, and a fete

upon a magnificent scale, to which all the foreign exhibitors, &c, will be invited, is in contemplation by the Botanical Society.

It is in contemplation, in order to admit of the Exhibition being closed at that time, to give increased facilities to visitors by lighting up the building in the evening. To persons occupied during the clay, this arrangement will be a great boon, and it will enable many thousands to visit the Exhibition who would otherwise be completely prevented from so doing.

The removal of the glass from the eastern and western extremities of the building and the sides of the transept has had the effect of reducing the temperature considerably, the highest point attained during the first two days of the week being 77 degrees, notwithstanding the large numbers who literally blocked up the avenues.

It is observed that wherever the police interfere actively with the circulation, an immediate congestion is the consequence, while, when the people are left to themselves, they get on as comfortably as could be expected in such a crowd. The only man who seems to understand the marshalling of the eager sight-seekers is a little foreigner who stands at the entrance of the Milan sculpture room, and who, with a graceful wave of his hand, moves the most obese visitors about with wonderful celerity.

Among the various benefits likely to result from the Exhibition, the establishment of " public waiting rooms "in the metropolitan thoroughfares occupies a very important place. The want of such conveniences has long been felt, but the difficulties to be encountered in securing them appeared almost insurmountable. Various attempts have been unsuccessfully made by the Commissioners of Sewers and other bodies. At last the Executive Committee and the Society of Arts took the matter up, and it was determined that the disposition of the public to support these conveniences should be fairly tested in the Crystal Palace. During the month of May 2281. was taken for the retiring rooms; and in the last ten days of the month, 161. 10s. Q l/£d. for the washing-rooms. The project of a winter garden is rapidly gaining ground in public opinion. The Mavylebone petition has already received'; 30,000 signatures, and similar demonstrations are progressing in other districts. But as an opposition is a thing essential to the English constitution, a party, small but active, is strenuously setting itself against the general feeling of the public. From being composed chiefly of the inhabitants of the houses on the opposite side of the road, who feel annoyed that regiments of omnibuses should daily pass " between the wind and their nobility," it is called in the gossip of the Crystal Palace, the "Prince's Gate party," and its members are straining every nerve to get signatures to hostile petitions, but hitherto with very indifferent success. The fact is, that the public are determined to preserve the Crystal Palace, and it is only their conviction that it will not come down that prevents the most active demonstrations. A correspondent says, apro23os of the ultimate destination of the building:—" Whatever may be the sum left at the disposal of the Royal Commissioners, it is a fact not to be disputed, that somewhere about £70,000 out of it was contributed for the express purpose of enabling them to meet the expense of an ' Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations ;' and I contend that they have no more power than the trustees of any public charity to alienate one shilling of that money from the purposes for which it was contributed. It is not enough to say that the desired end has been attained, and that a surplus siill remains. If so, let the money be returned to those who subscribed it, and a fresh list opened for those may be pleased to contribute to a winter garden, or any other scheme." The " Sir Robert Peel," screw steam ship, with the mails for the Cape, &c, under charge of Commander Wainwright, H.N., sailed from Plymouth on the loth July. The splendid museum collected by the late Earl of Derby has, in accordance with his instructions, been presented by the present Earl to the town of Liverpool. The annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society was held on the 16th July, the Pavilion being erected this year in the Home Park. A very valuable gold mine has, according to news received at Malta, been discovered at a point equi-distant, or nearly so, between Tunis and Algiers. The French and the Bey of

Tunis both claim it, and serious disturbances seem likely to result. . On the evening- of the 9th of July, Her Majesty honoured the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of the City of London with a visit, which, in official phraseology, will probably be styled " semi-state," but which, omitting, some of the more antiquated and formal points of ceremonial, was to all intents and purposes, a state visit to the Guildhall to celebrate the opening of the Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations in Hyde Park. The entertainment may be described as an evening party, a ball, and a supper, and was a judicious and \ve[l-considered departure from the lumbering: and rigid City banquets in which the exuberant appetite of the City of London usually developes itself; more especially when the sex of the Sovereign, whose presence was to confer tlie prestige and the iclat of royalty upon the novel and interesting pageant of the night, and the large number of invitations issued, are taken into consideration. The dignity of Baronet was of course conferred upon the Lord Mayor.