[From the Home News, February 16.]

Taranaki Herald, Volume VI, Issue 303, 22 May 1858, Page 3

[From the Home News, February 16.]

Parliament met after the recess on the 4th of February. Seldom has public expectation been excited to a greater height than on this occasion. It was supposed that ministers would inaugurate the new session with a speech or a message from the throne, or, at least, with some general announcement of their policy. Several questions of importance awaited the fiat of Government ; and great as is the magnitude of the Jndian difficulty, and anxious as was the popular feeling on the subject of reform, there can be no doubt that at the moment of the opening of Parliament, the recent in»ults put upon this country by the army 4$ France, and the demand said to have Jpeen made tvpon us for an alteration of our laws respecting the right of asylum, were paramount throughout the country over all other considerations. The eagernemess to learn what Government intended to do, and whether there was any groixnd for the rumour that Lord Palmerston proposed to bring in a bill in conformity with the requisitions of France, admitted of no delay. India and reform could wait a few days, but business was urgent. The impatient curiosity of the public, however, was doomed to be disappointed. Ministers met the Parliament with much the same independence of external events as if they had adjourned only the day before. There was no sign in either House, on the part of Government, from which a stranger could draw a supposition that there was anything unusual going forward. This very naturally produced spirited remonstrances in both Houses. Lord Derby protested againt the silence of Ministers, and in a speech of considerable power, animated by sound English feeling, ran rapidly over the principal topics that pressed for consideration, and dwelt with special energy on the attempted assassination of Louis Napoleon, and its reaction on this country. In this part of his speech, the House responded enthusiastically to his defence of the " sacred right of asylum," which it is the glory of England to maintain, and which constitutes an integral element of her constitution. If any doubts could be entertained as to the opinion of House of Lords on this subject, they must have been disjjellcd by the cheers which followed the following passage, delivered with emphasis :—": —" My Lords,-1 say without hesitation, that not for the security of the Sovereign of France, or of all the Sovereigns of Europe, twenty times over, would I consent to violate in the slightest degree that sacred right of asylum to foreigners by which our history has always been characterised."' A still moie explicit manifestation of public feeling on the French question was made in the House of Commons, where Mr Roebuck, in open and unniistakeable language, denounced any attempt to accommodate our criminal code to the wishes of Louis Napoleon. He flung back the ac\_Continued in Supplement.]

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cusations brought against England by "the brother of the Emperor, M. de Morny," and the ' ambassador, M. de Persigny ; he reminded the Emperor that he had himself enjoyed the hospitality of England, that himself hatched conspiracies on our shores against the throne of France, and that, with " a tame eagle," he made a descent on the French coast, and shot a man who opposed his landing ; he charged upon the Emperor directly the responsibility of the publication of the offensive addresses in the Moniteur and he declared that " on this occasion if we change the Alien Law we violate the first principles of our constitution, we degrade ourselves 1 before the world, and we are not the English people that our forefathers were before us." Happily, there was no attempt made to change the Alien Law. Lord Palmerston's bill, which was carried, after a debate of two nights, by a majority of 200, leaves the law in principle exactly where it stood before. It simply raises conspiracy from misdemeanour to felony. It will be claimed, of course, as a concession to France ; but it really is none ; and since Ministers thought it worth while to bring forward such a measure, it is better that a large majority should show that we have not suffered any small or jealous feelings to influence our decision. In advance of the great discussion on the new Indian bill, the petition of the East India Company was brought forward in the Commons on the 9th February, by Mr T. Baring, and in the Lords, on the 11th by Earl Grey. The Company to use an old proverb, have not suffered the grass to grow under their feet; rtor have they limited their resistance to the allegations and arguments of the petition. Within the week they issued a Leadenhall-street Blue Book, containing a memorandum of the improvements they had introduced into India during, the last thirty years ; an armoury from whence their advocates in Parliament may draw a variety of weapons. The great measure " for the better government of India" was brought forward by Lord Palmerston, on the 12th of Feb., in a speech of great power, closeness of argument and lucidity of detail. A notion had got, abroad some days previously, that Government had corsiderably modified their plan, in deference to the change which public opinion was said^ in some quarters, to have undergone in favour of the East India Company ; but all expectations of kind were scattered by the first half-dozen sentences of Lord Palmerston's address. The intention of the Government, from the beginning, was to abolish the East India Company, and with it the " double government," and to transfer to the Crown the entire control of Indian affairs. This intention is fully and clearly embodied in the bill, which abolishes both the Company and the Board of Control, and establishes in their place a Minister for India, with a Council of eight gentlemen possessing Indian experience, who shall be appointed by the Crown, whose term of office shall last for two years, who shall have £1,000 a-year each, and to whom shall be confided the whole amount of patronage hitherto exercised by the Court of Directors, that which has been exercised by the Board of Control i being transferred to the new minister. The debate will occupy several nights ; but no doubt is now entertained in any quarter that, whatever modifications may be adopted in committee, the principle of the bill will be affirmed by a considerable majority.