The Express. — London, England, 1851-05-14 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS.—TCESDAT, MAT 13. The Lotto CMANCILLOS 410011 R his wet at fivil O'ClOCk. PETITIONS PESENT ED. PAPAL AoOltismox.—By then st WINCRILSEA, tronaNewcastle-under-Lyon,is rthampton, Rendered, Somersetahire an/ other places; the Duke of fI a tTYLL, from Ediaburgli, signed by 43,000 persons; Lord LANESBOROUGH. and Use kiarquis of LANS DOWNE, horn plasma Dot hoard ; against papal ag gression. MARRIAGES (INDIA) BILL. Lord BROUOIITON moved the soroad readies of this bill. Legislation an this subject bad bola reoleameeded by Sir C. Robison, Sir Samuel Domilli.oed moo by Lord Campbell sad the proses% Lea Dbeesalloo ".. . l l eeendielea bed boa gpsbeted ei Isiah. kW the subject ? soositias of the isle ■ lambi et Loam, the late Lord Advocate of dortiimak De. Larliostoo, sad others; and they proposed diet the aterdasolaw of India should be made soniemslie ea the starrier law of Eng land. Them mese LOIS Mammon in India who were capable of selessnising nseedeges ; pi a whom 789 were Ranee setbehea. There won ales layman who were in the babel of performing the z =7, but the validity of such morrlesea had boos Even as late as 1819 an eteeeryt woo mods et Ilapoomo Court of Bombay to our* as sodas for weeded orrevosordise, the ground that 1M nsZ wen ; bat the comet held the lateens.' Mho .In • similar case, however, the Supreme Court of had bold the marriage to be bad. There were only mix ministers of the Scotch free church in India, but every marriage performed by them was liable to be questioned. To obviate all these evils, and assimilate the law of India to that of England, the present bill had been introduced. The Earl of ELLENI3OROUGII did not object to the principle of the bill, but he thought some of its details were not adapted to the state of society in India. The bill wee then read a second time. STEAM COAL VOlt THE NAVY. The Earl of ELLENBOROI:011 called the attention of the government to certain experiments which had been made by Sir H. De La Beebe and Dr. Lyon Mayfair, with • view to test the quality of various descriptions of coal, to be used on hoard steam-scuds. Ile recommended similar experiments being tried on Indian coal, and that those gentlemen should Nur:Ally report :ix to the liability of the ditErent kinds of coal to spontaneous combustion. Ex periments should also be made at sea, and under the boilers, because the atmosphere at sea might have some effect on the generation of steam. The Earl of MINTO (who was very indistinctly heard) was understood to is that the subject had engaged the maims attention of the Admiralty, end that the sugges tions of the noble earl would receive due consideration. Various experiments had been tried, chiefly with a view to test the relative power of various kinds of coal for the pur poses of steam navigation. Their lordships mourned at ten minutes before six o'clock. HOUSE OP COMMONS.—Tursruy, Ne• 13. Then- being only 21 members prtacnt at four o'clock, the haw adjourned. Elie enirefsis. TO CORRESPONDENTS: •arssad Ulnas sr" Tb Eassyss." sosuSalas • as saw lissaiaa's Weals," Is published every Ni.m, sal !lids, WOK. t• time tor pot. Illonuommantotaild ON "TM Rsorms," Leedom Toole mom moo be al Um. 446" 1.1, Nomonommet, M Two *Mock as Mo My of mbioadm. 111011 WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE Two MI —lderstag. M. S , M. Afters*" IL Ma. Tammany —Wanly. IL liel Aft/T11•011. Sks. lia. LONDO.V, B7?D.VESDAT, MAY 14. Lase night the more voracious devriurers of news at the clubs were rather mystified by the late edition of the Seen. Turning to the place in that journal where the commencement of the evening's proceed ings in parliament are wont to be recorded, they read with surprise that "the Flying Dutchman won by a neck." )lad a tyrannical government compelled the newspapens to substitute allegorical intimations of what was said in purliament, a. used to he done in the early . days of looNsiee, for the Isneiftde reports of our time ? Was Culeuel Siumoite, with Ids motion its advertising vans and street organs, typified by the ing Dutchman who had won by a neck ? —or was it Mr. Ilexe, with his bill fur Parliamen tary Itaorm ? Further examination of the broad ahmt "bowed that there hail been " no house" at the Common's, owing to the non-appearance of mem bers at 1 o'clock, and that the news of the York races hull usurped the place usually devoted to the more tardy movements of the legislature. Various were the speculation's as to the cause which had prevented a house from being made. Some were of opinion that "the Times had dime it all." Our contemporary had demon strated in the morning, with great vigour of lan guage, if not of logic, that Mr. Hums and Mr. O'Costsot were political hromios. Perhaps hon ourable members, looking through the spectacles of the Moult, had seen two O'Costoots in the house, and hail discreetly resolvsal to abstain from legislating at a time when they saw double. Others, less chari table, looked at the enormous list of motions for the evening on the paper, and concluded that the house, in • tit of laziness, had recoiled from such a Hercu lean enterprise as to go through it. The quantity of work cut out for one evening was certainly appal ling. There were no has than twenty-six notices of motions of the most varied and contradictory kind. Mr. EwaKt had one motion to reduce the number of members composing select committees to seven ; and Mr. Pero another to increase the number of me.rn hers on the select committee on the Kaffir tribes to eighteen. In solar as the principal motion of the evening —Mr. Hewes bill to amend the national represen tion —is euncerned, it is probable that little has been lost by the adjournment beyond an opportunity of witnessing some painful exhibitions of tergiversation and equivocation on the part of professing reformers. Want of harmony and concert among members pro fessing the same opinions—the utter disruption and infinitesimal subdivision of all parties in the legis- lature, have reached their height. Every man is for his own hand, " like the bandy-legged smith in " The Fair Maid of Perth." On the occasion of the last division on the income-tax, tho very small party of sturdy independent liberals dividod and went to buffets. Mr. COBDEN took up the gauntlet thrown down by Mr. Hum Last night, Mr. 'filouvs Drurostme (of all men in the world) WWI prepared to give Mr. Hr*E's motion for reform the go-by, by moving that the discussion should be postponed till next session, and even then confined to the question of extended suffrage, bsgrkiny the other points included in Mr. Hreiev bill. It is nut worth while to conjecture what moved the honour able member for Finsbury to take upon him so invidious a task as resisting a motion for parlia mentary reform, when there was Mr. Insuaint ready to assail it with hostile arguments, and Lord JouN Ites.4ri.i. to smother it amid professions of devoted affection. It is enough that Str. Thoitos lltiscounE has contributed another fact to prove that there arc at this moment almost as many parties in the House of Commons as members. Shall we condole with Lord JOHN Rrssr.m, be cause the discumion has not taken place, or shall we congratulate him ? On the one hand, he has possibly escaped being compelled to be a little more explicit as to the scope and nature of the reform he intends to propound next session. His scheme is still as much enveloped in obscurity as "the great Asian mystery" itself; and mune speotanis pro magma:flea On the other hand, hoonity have wished for an op portunity to repel the insidious averment made yes terday by the Tone*, that ''extinguishing half a dozen boroughs is, perhaps, as much as we are to expect from the aunistenal measure of next sew pion." The confession of faith on the subject of parlia mentary reform issued yesterday by the Times, is even as comical a manifesto se could well emanate from • journal which little more than • week ago was psectaiming the necessity of extensive changes in our electoral system, and complimenting Lord Joins Russeti. for having mastered courage to attempt to snake them. On the score of household our. contemporary roundly d ec l ares t h at i t I . ll = be imply • • nuisance sad • bu r d en t o t h e unfortunate householder." Men don't want to have votes: " the suffrage is positively despised:" and " in ths present am. a things to oMw men votes is to east pearls before swine." The reilisteibution of the electoral districts, triennial parliaments, and vet s by ballot, are cried down by • the nnses in language quite as elegant and emphsd c as that we have been quoting. And t 6 parlia mentary reformer that was some ten days ago, 'winds isilrinydeelaring that the grea t mer i t of E arl GUT ' S Act consisted in its leaving "an identity be tween the parliaments of 1831 and 1832 ; " and urging r an insuperable objection to any parliamentary reform that we can only have " a new pathologist on the set 7 serious condition of throwing way the old, one." The Times might extend thiii orgy/went even to. dissolutions. Parliaments, it might say, ought never t) be dissolved ; fur we can only obtain " a new par liament on the very serious condition of throwing away the old one." The Times enjoys the reputation of being a trust worthy political weathercock. If we may judge by the way it points at present, parliamentary reform is as surely wmdbound as a fleet in the chops of the Channel with strong gales from the eastward. IT is now upwards of two years since the present government advised the QUEEN to issue three royal commissions of somewhat cognate characters, and having objects of a similar tendency. The first was a commission to inquire into the best means of in creasing the value of church property; the second, to inquire into the best means of subdividing large parishes ; and the third, to go carefully through the reports of the old parliamentary commission on pub lic charities, and to see what could be done for the improvement of those foundations which had not already been engulfed in that bottomless pit—the Court of Chancery: all three very useful and proper objects of investigation, and of legislation too. Let us, then, see what have been their results. The first commission has made two reports, in which are several important suggestions and proposi tions for settling the vexed question of church lease holds, the sum and substance of which are, that a right of perpetual renewal of ordinary lands shall be secured to the tenants on payment to the eccle siastical freeholders of something like 371 per cent. of the actual value of the estate leased, with higher terms in cases of building land and mines. And in reference to these reports a bill has lately been in troduced into the House of Lords by Lord CARLISLE, professing in its preamble to carry . out their recom mendations, but, in reality, imposing much higher terms of perpetual renewal. For, in round figures, and amid 4 a labyrinth of words and clauses arranged in perplexing disorder, it substitutes SO per cent., or half the actual value of the land, for the 371 per cent. proposed by the Church Leasehold Commis sioners. _ _ This measure has, of course, caused much interest, both in and out of the church; and it is contended by many persons in the establishment that 50 per cent. is too small a proportion to derive from the rental of church lands; whilst, by the lessees out of the church, it is argued that to demand so much is really to con fiscate a certain amount of their property ; and that the legislature ought not to exceed the recommenda tions of the report made under Royal authority, for its information and guidance. The question so in controversy is, no doubt, a diffi cult one. On the one hand, the church could run out these leases, generally of only 21 years' dura tion; for the tenants have no legal right of re newal. But, if the church were to proceed to that extremity, it would probably lose rather than gain income ; for the tenants, not being liable to impeachment for waste, would of course, in the meantime, exhaust and ruin the land, and return it at last worthless, for the next half century at least, to the church, without a tree, a hedge, a bush, a blade of K 11111.9, or a shed on it. The case is, then, clearly one for a fair and equit able compromise. The ecclesiastical freeholders of this property are, under the influence of modern legislation, which is making them stipendiaries of the Ecclesiastical Commission, fast ceasing to be under that pecuniary necessity and compulsion to renew, for the sake of the fines, every seven years, which they were formerly subject to, and wherein hitherto lay the security of the leaseholders for re newal. So that, unless the latter can get the right of perpetual renewal secured to them soon by legis lation, the price they will have to pay for it at a later date must increase in value, as the longer they wait, the more the church will want. And though no pastrami:meta of the ultimatesettlement of the question can destroy the moral right they have to retain a large interest in the lands they have so long enjoyed and over which they possess almost the power of de struction, still, the sooner terms arc come to, the better for all parties. Whether Lord CARLISLE'S bill contains such terms as the church and its tenants ought to accept as a settlement, is a question we will not at present ven ture to express any decided opinion on. For, in all probability, the measure has been prepared rather to bring about an arrangement than to be carried through parliament this session. And, if so, we can only urge the subject on the leaseholders attention and determination—for it is not a question that will bear indefinite postponement, at least to their ad vantage. The second commission referred to has also, our readers know, made a report; the main recom mendation of which—a great auction of the Low) CHANCELLOR'S 700 livings—was so preposterously absurd that everyone laughed at what had neverthe less the sanction of a leash of bishops. But, in addi tion to this report, there has been great talk of a bill prepared by this commission, which was to do wonders in the way of parochial subdivision. As yet, however, it has been all talk and no wool. For, though we have had two or three bills, apparently coming from Lord AsniEr and his associates, they have grown "small by degrees and beautifully less '• ' until the bill of 1851, also in Lord CARLISLE'S hands in the Lords, comes out a miserable shred of a mea sure, to haunt like a ghost the slumbers of Mr. Envoscars's good intentions; which have been marred, defeated, and ruined, no doubt, by as vilely composed a commission as ever indicated whig complicity with episcopal craft. Such a bill, though now under consideration, is not worth a moment's thought ; its only possible use is to give Lord CARLISLE, the appearance of doing something in the Lords ; so there we leave it. Of the third commission, composed almost entirely of lawyers—that, we mean, relating to charities—all that the public knows of it is that it has recom mended the institution of half-a-dozen Chancery suits about some small, peddling wretched charities, the abuse of which, under a wholesome state of law, it ought not to take half an hour to correct and put right ; and these suits are, we suppose, dragging their slow and costly length along, with a score of others of more formidable pretensions and more ex pensive habits, all prosecuted in the name of the ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Now, far be it from us to deny that considerable properties have been rescued from long-confirmed alums and applied to the best of all causes, education, by means of suits of that sort; for we know what has been accomplished at Birmingham, at Wimborne, and a host of other places; and we look forwurd to what may be achieved at St. Cross, when Sir ALEXANDER C.OOYBURN, or some of his successors, shall at last have brought Lord Gen,- FORD to boor for his waste of that noble foundation. lint that knowledge's not inconsistent with the opinion that all that has been accomplished has been done at a very scandalous cost; and it is, therefore, with very great satisfaction that we observe some impor tant returns are about to be moved for, to show the number of Arroaxxv-Gxxxn.u.'s charities gaits in progress; the results of those which have terminated; , the expense of both classes; and the general cost of the machinery so snugly pat in motion on this subject. It is now ten years since the last return was made to parliament on this important subject, and from it we learn that tho ATTOILVIT-GENEILAL and his lawyers had no fewer than 203 charity suits of one sort and another pending in the Court of Chancery in Hilary Term, 1841, and that in two years their coats had reached the enormous sum of 12,121 L 12s. Bd., reduced on taxation to 11,7941. 4s. td. And if liti gation and colts have during the last ten years gone on at that rate, it is high time parliament should know something further on the subject, and what have been the practical results of these costly proceedings. No doubt these suits have, at enormous expense to the charities they affect and at great profit to the lawyers who are employed, produced some benefit. But in another point of view they have done much harm ; for, with the Court of Chancery to resort to, and with that court blocked up with them, a real and thorough reformation and re-adaptation of the old charitable foundations of England to the wants and necessities of modern times have been prevented. And though two years ago a commission was ap pointed to devise some - better machinery, so be lawyered was it, that its only result has been to incrtues the number of Chancery suits previously at work ! Such are as yet the only coasequenoes of these three royal commissions; and they won't mare the royal documents involved in their issue from the TgE 11XPRES8 4 , WEDNE§DAy ,ETgIUNG, MAY 14, 1851. re him time to of Wesel SIITIORP, u soon street Taps sod organs shall to maid eras of his. Tam is get it ties a word more awl that the Meetly° " ' r and it is tars se meth abased as when its noun is " death;" sp& es when both together form the ver dict of a eareser's jury: If 50 se 10 poor misers are suffocated in an ill ventilated =lee, and the rates of the pariah burdened with the maintenance of their widows and families, that, accordiusgto the usual course of these verdicts, is a case of " aorl&mtai death," fen which every one con nected with the management may be blamed, but no one can be punished. If the boiler of a penny steamer on the Thames, when used in an unfit state, bare, and blow one half its passengers into the other world, leaving the other half in the river, that again is only " accidental death." And so with the terrible slaughter in the Sutton tunnel; same am unhappy persons are crushed to death by a calks ee as clearly and obviously the result of negligence. mismanagement, and selfish economy, as effect tea be produced by cause, and their massacre h also returned as so accidental as to be ass from all criminal taint. The circumstances, occurrences, and acts of commission and of omission that jammed 1,300 passengers up together in a dark damp tunnel a mile and a half low, though morally censurable, are legally innocent. Such is the result of the inquest held at Frodsham. And a most unsatisfactory result it is. For, if inch management as has led to, or rather has prodeeed this fatal collision, be not amenable, in some Asp or other, in the persons of directors, secretary, es locomotive superintendent, to the criminal justice of the country, the danger to life and limb in railway travelling—always considerable from the mechanical agency employed, its speed, and from casualties that are unavoidable—is inordinately increased by the state of the law, which, while it involves innocent shareholders in large pecuniary responsibilities, gives perfect personal immunity to officers who maid death or injury on their customers and heavy lam on their employers. Accidents will occur on the best managed lines; accidents terrible in their consequences, yet un avoidable by human forethought, and attention, in their causes. But it is as demonstrable as one of Euct.in's mathematical propositions, that the collision in the Sutton funnel would never have occurred had the commonest pru dence been exercised in fixing to the first train a proper engine, in starting the three trains at reason able and definite intervals, in providing the guards and trains with the ordinary lights, and, above all, in keeping at the mouth of the tunnel on the fatal day the policemen who were stationed there on all other occasions. None of these precautions were taken ; and all having been omitted, to say that the law of England affixes no criminal responsibility on these whose duty it was to take every precaution to carry their customers safely, is a libel on that law, which we decline to believe it obnoxious to. For this, we repeat, was not an accident in the ordinary sense of that word; as the smallest attention I to the facia show. An engine of 15 tons weight 'I started with a train containing some 500 or 600 pas sengers, and was followed by two other trains nearly equally heavy, at intervals of ten minutes. Now, the ordinary passenger engines of well-conducted lines, carrying not a third of that number, average in weight about 24 tons; and it is by the weight of an engine that the momentum of the train to a great extent is maintained. So that here, on a groat occa sion, the first of these enormous trains was despatched with an engine nine tons less in weight than ' the engines attached elsewhere to ordinary trains. Yesterday a special train, on the Great Northern Railway, left London with 250 passengers, to wit ness the interesting race between the Flying Dutch man and Voltigeur at York, and on inquiry we learn that to it were prefixed two engines, each 20 tons in weight ; so that, against 600 people on the Chester Cup day, drawn by a 15 tons engine, two engines of 40 tons were employed to take 250 passengers to York ; and in this contrast is to be seen the differ ence between good and bad, safe and unsafe manage ment. It therefore, in vain to attempt to transfer the blame of the first stoppage in the tunnel from an in- I sufficient engine to a shower of rain or sleet which wetted the rails; for, had a properly weighted engine been used, it would have grasped the rails despite the wet, and have carried the train over the incline of the tunnel. The primary cause of the collision lay in sending off such a train with such an engine. The locomotive superintendent thought the Druid, the first engine, weighed 20 tons when it started, and has continued under this mistake, until Captain LAFFAN, the government inspector,brought his belief to the teat of a weighing machine. A terrible mis take this for the unfortunate sufferers ! For not even the management of this line would have dared to start 600 passengers at the tail of an engine only 13 tons in weight, had it accurately known that fact. And what a management it must have been that de spatched such a crowd with an engine the weight of which it had thus exaggerated ! Its knowledge of its own concerns and details seems to have been as " accidental" as, luckily for it, the verdict of the jury is. i'Ve will not reproduce the remarks already made as to the fatal rapidity with which the trains were started, the fatal absence of side, tail, and guard lights and lamps, and the still more fatal withdrawal of the policemen at the tunnel's mouth on the awful day of the collision and slaughter. but it is impossible to omit noticing the general insufficiency of every department of the company, as shown by the evidence. First, you have offices crowded together in one person ; the secretary . is also general manager; and the locomotive superin tendent is also engineer of a district ; a combination quite fatal to that complete attention and devotion to each department and that consequent responsibility, on which good, safe, and cheap management depends. Then you have (necessarily and unavoidably so) minutes of boards and committees ill kept • orders and directions verbally and imperfectly issued; re sponsibility ill defined; and confusion predominating when order is safety and economy first law. Next, 4; to be seen the same unwise parsimony in the rolling stock, as in the executive service; an insuf ficient supply of engines, a short stock of car riages; a hurry-skurry canvass, on an annual emergency, of other companies for the loan of carriages to supply their own deficiency ; and a supply obtained of carriages th e b o d ies of which touching the wheels made them act as a break to the train. And lastly, you find police men removed from the point of danger, of death, and injure, to other parts of the line, and 1,500 persons cruslied togetherin a tunnel with only three attendants. And what is the moral of all this? what its rationale ? what its lesson ? That government should have power over railway management? Nothing of the sort. Our lives, our limbs, our property, would only be more unsafe in such hands. What it teaches is the necessity of having persons of superior character, attainments, mental training, and habits of life, not merely on railway boards, but in railway service generally. Directors of that class will also have officers of that order; and rice versa. The first cost of this policy is, no doubt, high ; but in it there is real and true economy. For, not all the cheese parings and parsimony this line, for instance, can ever make, will pay for half the expense this fatal collision in Sutton tunnel will ultimately inflict on it ; to say nothing of the low of character and of custom it will also involve. LIBERATION OF HOSSUTIL—A public meeting was held last night at the institution, at St. John's-street, Tot tenham-court-road, for the purpose of impreesing upon the government of this country toe propriety el iatertbrieg on behalf of the heroic Kossuth end be brave associates in captivity. The chair was taken by Mr. Thornton Hunt, who briefly explained the object of the meeting to be, by outward preurre, to induce Lord Palmerston to interfere foe the liberation of the brave Kossuth. A letter was read from Sir B. liall, expressing hie concurrence in the object of the meeting, and his readiness to impress upon her Ma tti go e go v ern m enteetht propriet y ;oie liberation °f of a te a t nsw:di the other patriotic men who ase under restraint. Mr. Ituffey said it appeared to him that the destinies of Europe were at that time swayed by one man, sad that was Nicholas the Autocrat of Russia; each would not, however, have been the semi if England had :dose its duty at the time of the late struggle for liberty, nor would they have been asking as • favour of government that which should have been does as a duty.i The heroic liomuth had surifieed all for the liberty of his beloved country, and failing in his efforts be was held in captivity. He believed that the time was not far distant when they would not allow such events to occur to the friends of freedom. Mr. Wood, Mr. Reztt4s 4 Mr. Finks, and Mr. Julian llareey,subsequently addressed the assembly, and • memorial to government in support of the object of the meeting was adopted. FRANCE. PARIS, TVISDAT EVINING. The greatest diversityof views prevails in the parlia mentary . majority on the subject of revision. Among the legitimists alone there are four opinions, namely, absolute non-revision, total revision without de ekring the sense in which this is to be made, mo narchy or republic, and adjournment of the question for six months. Emile do Girardin prophecies that the candidate of the party of order for the presidency will be Ge neral Caviugnse. He says, "Wo hear on all sides that this candidature makes rapid progress, and is received with marked favour by the monied men, the manufacturers, and the high and middle com mercial classes." At the close of the Assembly's sitting yesterday the president read a letter of Admiral Romani- Desfosse's resigning his seat as representative of Finisterre. The committee on the Municipal Bill adopted yesterday, on the proposition of M. de Vatirnesnil, that the renewal of the councils of prefecture should be made by the government according to the double list, ono containing the actual councillors ,and the other drawn up by the councils-general according to certain conditions of candidature. The Bulletin de Paris and Monikur de Soir of, this evening will contain a notice that the disavowal of M. Veron, as expressing the opinion of the Elyske, which appeared in those papers, and to which so much importance has been attached, has no official authority. The bulletin de Paris says that the revision of the constitution, and the abrogation of the law of May, will be demanded simultaneously. M. de Broglie is expected to bring forward the motion of the Rue des Pyramides for revision on the sth of June. The electoral union has adjourned until next Mon day its decision relative to the application of its oranization to the purposes of agitation for revision. The Assembly, in its sitting of to-day, proceeded to ballot for the remaining vice-presidents and secre taries. The first ballot, for the vice-presidents, gave the following results: Number of votes, 475; Darn, 262; Lacross, 233 ; Benoist d'Azy, 191 ; Vitet, 165 ; the rest were in order as follows: Beugnot, Grevy, Baune, Charms, Schrelcher, Lamorici. , re, Leon de Malleville, Mathieu de la 'home. M. Darn, having obtained the absolute majority, was proclaimed vice president. Berard was the fourth secretary ap pointed.yesterday. The ballot for the t wo remain i ng secretaries gave the following result : Voters, 593 ; Yvan having obtained 318 votes was proclaimed secretary. M. F....squiros demanded to interpellate the ministers relative to the treatment of the convicts at Belle Isle. The interpellations were fixed for Tuesday next. The house then resumed the debate on the Western Railway. M. Versigny moved an amend ment to Art. 39 of the coldir des eloaryes relative to the right of the state to buy up the railway after fifteen years of possession by the com pany. The amendment proposed that, by means of a law, the state should be empowered to buy up the railway at any epoch, the price of purchase being fixed by a special commission of nine members, three of whom should be appointed by the Minister of Finance, three by the company, and three by the council of state. The amendment was opposed by M. Gustave de Beaumont, and rejected. The rest of the bill was adopted without modification. The en semble of the bill was then passed by 439 votes against 208. M. Emile de Girardin demanded to interpellatc the Minister of the Interior on the subject of a tele graphic despatch, sent upon the 9th inst. to the pre fect of the Landes, respecting the elections of the Landes, fixed for the Ilth. In comformity with the motion of M. Es' tancelin, the house agreed to adjourn the interpellations until the verification of the powers of the elected representative. The President resumed his receptions last night. There was a numerous attendance. To-day there was a considerable decline in the funds. The Fi‘es closed at 89.60, with a fall of 70c.; the Threes fell 43c., and closed at 35.53. SPAIN. MADRID, MAT B. . _ The Clamor Public° has been seized for publishing the new concordat. This document, considered as one of the must reactionary achievements of the government of Narvaez, by which it was negotiated, has made an immense sensation. I proceed to give yen its substance :—Art. 1. excludes all other forms of religion but the Roman catholic, Art. 2 gives the clergy absolute authority over education. Art. 3 enables the church to prevent the publication, intro duction, and cirulation of all books deemed objectionable by the clergy. Art. 5 settles a new division and circumscription of dioceses. The present metropolitan sees are maintained, and Valladolid is raised to metropolitan rank. New suf fragan dioceses are erected in Cuidad-Real, Madrid, and Vittoria. Several of the smaller dioceses are made to merge in one another. Art. 6 fixes the distribution of the dependencies of the metropolitan sees. Art. 7 delegates the demarcation to the Pope and government jointly. Art. 9 affects the four military orders, of which the new Bishop of Cuidad-Real is to be prior. The territories of the orders are annexed to their corresponding dioceses. It is said that the text of this article has, however, been modified. Art.' 10 suppresses the exemptions of enclaves. Art. 11 supresees all privileged jurisdiction, including that of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, and annexes the territories belong ing thereto to the respective dioceses, with the exception of that of the procapellan of the crown, the cartreuse, that of the four military orders, that of the regular prelates, that of the apostolic nuncio in the Italian church of the capital, and that of the commissioners-general of the crunda. Art. 12 suppresses the collectonhip of aids of deceased bishops, and unites the commission for the administration' of vacant property and collection of arrears to the commis sionership of the crusade. The text of this article is said to have been modified, and the commissionership of the crusade to have been abolished. The tribunal of the Escu nide is abolished. Art. 13 concerns the composition of chapters, all the members of which are to have an equal voice and vote. Art. 14 empowers the bishops to convoke at will the chapters, at which they are to preside, to give the casting vote, and in the appointment of persons to have 3,4, or 5 votes, according as the chapter consists of 16, 20, or more than 20 members. Art. 15 conforms the mode of consulting the chapters to the canon law and the Council of Trent; and abolishes all the particular privileges and immunities of chapters existing in different provinces of Spain, with prejudice to the bishop's authority. Art. 17 fixes the number of prebends in the metropolitan and suf fragan churches. Art. 18 reserves to the Pope, in exchange for the 52 benefices conceded to his holiness by the concordat of 1753, the dignity of head chorister in all the episcopal churches. The deans aro appointed by the crown ; the canons, after competition, by the bishops and chap ters ; the other dignities alternately by the crown and the bishops ; the beneficed chaplains by the crown and by the prelates end chapters alternately. The stalls, canaries, and benefices vacated by promotion, excepting those reserved to the Pope, shall be in all cases filled by the crown ; also the dignities of the new sees, ex cepting those reserved to the Pope. Art. 19 renders the residence ofdignitaries obligatory. Art. 20 provides that, in cede gamete, the chapter shall, according to the provisions of the Council of Trent, appoint a single vicarious capitular, in whose person shall be vested the whole power of the chapter without reserve, or power of revocation after ap pointment. Art. 21 reduces, with few exceptions, the colegiatas to parishes churches. Art. 28 provides for the ap pointment of curates by the crown on lists presented of the bishops. Art. 28 provides for the establishment of at least one seminary in each diocese for the education of the clergy. Art. 29 restores religious communities, subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary. Art. 30 restores nunneries. Art. 31 tires the salary of the Archbishop of Toledo at 150,000 realm, and that of inferior prelates in proportion. Art. 34 fixes at from 90,000 to 140,000 reels the expenses of worship in the metropolitan catherals, and the cost of or are in proportion. Art. 35 provides that the property of nun neries shall be converted into 3 per cents., sad distributed to convents according to their needs. Art. 37 devotes to the do tation of worship and of the clergy (1), the proceeds of the pro perty restored to the clergy by the law of '45 ; (2), the proceed.s of the crusade (3), the proceeds of the encomindea and maestrassos of the four military orders, vacant and which shall fall meant (4), • church-rate upon property to com plete the dotation, to be paid on kind or mosey, in the collection of which the clergy are to be assisted by the public authorities. All ecclesiastical property not com prised in the law of 1845, and not sold, shall be restored to the church, including the property remaining of can. nasteries, and converted into inalienable bonds of the Three per Cent. Debt. Art. 39 declares that all the above property shall be administered by the church, excepting the proceeds of the crusade. Art. 40 also guarantees to the church the right of acquiring property by all means which were allowed to the church in Spain before the recent dis turbances, and the new acquisitions and foundations shall be respected solemnly, and enjoy all the rights of the old. And no suppression or union of such foundations shall be made without the intervention of his holiness, saving the faculties competent to the bishops by the Council of Trent ; Art 41 leaves old purchasers of ecclesiastical property in quiet possession. The remaining articles, 42, 43, and 44, are merely formal, and repeal what in other conventions is contrary to the present concordat. PORTUGAL. A summary of the following appeared in yester day's E.rpregs: A letter from Lisbon, of the 3rd, rs'a Madrid, says —" In the morning a certain agitation prevailed in the capital, but up to the departure of the mail no movement had broken out." The Duke of Terceira arrived in Lisbon on the Ist, hut the news of the spread of the revolt in favour of Saldanha had in the meanwhile rendered a Terceira cabinet impossible, and the official Dtario do Ooberno published on the neat day decrees accepting the Duke's resignation. A cabinet was then composed by Baron de Luz as follows :—General Saldanha, President of the Council and Minister of War; Baron de Luz, Minister of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior; M. Francos. Minister ad interim of Wnr, Marine, and Colonies; M. Francini, Minister of Finance and Justice. It is not known whether Marshal Saldanha will accept' this list. The marshal is on friendly terms with the persons named by Baron de Luz ; but as of late they have held office under, or supported in the Cortes, the policy of the Count de Thomar, it is probable that the marshal will object to them. The opposition journals speak in very clear terms of the probability and even necessity of the abdication of the Queen in favour of her eldest son aged 14. By law, he only attains his majority at 18, but as the Queen herself ascended the throne at 14, it is not considered that his youth would be an objection. There is no news from Oporto. It is feared by many persons that Marshal Saldanha may throw himself entirely into the hands of the Sep tembrists. In fact, since the above was written it is known that an aide-dc-camp of Saldanha has ar rived to-day in Lisbon with a letter from the marshal submitting to the Queen's approbation the following list:—Saldanha, President of the Council, without portfolio; Passoz, Interior; Francini, Finances; Fer mi), Justice ; Ferreira, War; Lavradio, Foreign Affairs ; Viscount de Sa, Marine. This is nearly a Septembrist cabinet ; and Count Lavradio and the Viscount do Sa are at the head of the party of pro gross. It is feared, however, that the revolution will not stop here. The language of the Potriota and Rerolucion, and the proclamations which circulate at Lisbon, are of a nature to make excesses feared on the part of the de mocrats, while the discipline of the army is shaken. The dismissal of the Marquis of Fronteira from the military command of Lisbon and of the National Guard, and that of the Duke of Terceira from the command of the first military division, and from the post of major-domo of the royal household, which was conferred upon him when taken from Saldanha, are, I believe, already . known to you. The crisis re sembles that of Spain in 1840, Saldanha playing the part of Espartero, and Oporto of Barcelona. ROME, APRIL 30. His Holiness, I repeat, was seized with alarm at the sudden apparition of his petitioner, and, with his majordomo and other attendant prelates about him, took to his heels in a manner most unsuitable to papal dignity, the whole party running off as fast as their long garments would permit, and leaving the astonished suppliant, probably sonic government employ, , unjustly deprived of the means of subsist ence, kneeling in the dust with the rejected petition still in his outstretched hand. His astonishment, however, soon gave way to a different sentiment, for the Pope's escort, consisting of the usual detachment of noble guards, rushed furiously at him, knocked him down, and abused him for having ventured to intrude his private woes upon the leisure and re creation of his paternal sovereign . What had the poor man to do ? Ile did all that remained to do— ho got up and rubbed his knees, picked up his hat, and pocketed his petition, returning home to his expectant family to bless, no doubt, the clemency of the Pontiff. Meanwhile big Holiness related the whole occurrence to Cardinal Simonetti, whose car riage hove in sight soon after, and who reverently alighted from it as soon as be saw the Pope on foot. During the conversation the two footmen of Ws Eminence were on their knees behind the cardinal. The Herald has lately been amusing itself with collecting the real or pretended instances of protest ants being converted to Romanism, as published in the journals of this city. The following account not being given in the Osserrnfore Romano asa quotation, is I presume, derived from private correspondence, and refers to a recent conversion in Liverpool. A young lady, beautiful in her person and cultivated in her mind, frequented with others of her faith the sermons of Anglican pastors, who, during the past Lent, poured out with petulant alacrity their historic and dogmatic notions against catholic., got up as every one knows by the ignorance and fanaticism of the lying retOrming monks of the sixteenth century. She, zealous and tender of the An glican creed, believed entirely in the words of her pastors, until the decision of the famous Gorham case shook her faith. In consequence of her doubts, she consulted the wisdom of her pastor, who affirmed that baptism was cer tainly a divine institution, indispensable to the salvation of souls. Not satisfied with this, she applied to a bigwig of the reformed church, who informed her that baptism was a mere form, in nowise necessary for eternal salvation. Such enormous contradictions led her to believe that the true church of Jesus Christ could not possess mutable doctrines on so capital a point, and that those could nut be true minis ters of the gospel who were so much at variance with each other. The agitation on the catholic question, and the preaching" and meetings against those who professed that religion, then greatly scandalised the young lady, who inquired of herself if true re li g i on could be in accordance with constant slander and excitement of the basest passions against persons of • different creed. Desirous of hearing with her own ears the doctrines of these persons, painted by the protestants in such black colours, she repaired with two friends to the chapel of St. Anthony, where the Itev.Mr. Gillet preached, and moved her much, as she narrates, by the charity and unction which flowed front his lips, astonishing her not less by his copious quotations from holy writ and the fathers, Whereas she bad been taught that cutholics kept the Bible concealed. She presented her written scruples to Mr. Gillet, whose confutation' were so conclusive, that she read some controversial work of his also. Feminine curitHity alone urged her at first, but the divine grace, through the works and words of the pious priest, wrought a wonderful change in her; so that, soon after, she requested and ob tained to be admitted into the b osom o f the catholic fold. To the greater praise of the young convert, be it ojiserved that, in spite of her moderate fortune, she had sufficient strength of mind to resist most advantageous offers from those whose object it was to turn her from her holy purpose. , One of her friends will soon follow her steps. Let the Herald add this story to its list with this comment—that the inferenoe that the Bible is allowed to be freely read by Roman esthetics cannot justly be drawn from Mr. Gillet's sermons, and any one who has resid e d i n R ome w ill b e able to state whether he ever found such a book in the houses of the inhabitants. The students of the French academy have just opened their annual exhibition, which, as usual, dis plays great talent in drawing, composition, and ex pression, accompanied by that peculiar style of colouring which forms so distateful a characteristic of the modern French school. GERMANY. We have dates from Berlin, by telegraph, as late as the 13th inst. The King and Queen of Prussia are certainly to leave Berlin on the lath for Warsaw. Tho conferences which are to be held in that city seem likely to be important. Not only M. Manteuffel will be there on the 19th, but M. de Itochow, the Prussian plenipo- tentiary in the Diet, will join them. The latter gentleman is to leave Frankfort on the 17th. He M. Berlin for the Diet, in company with M. Bis, mark-Sehonhausen, on the evening of the 115th. Major Boddien, the King's aid-de-camp, has started for Paris, on a political mission. It is again said that the Minister of Finance has lent in his resignation. The new N HAMBURG, MAT 10. orwegian Four per Cent. loan, negotiated jointly by Solomon Heine and by Hambro and Son, amounting to 3,600,000 marks banoo, is a series of the old one negotiated by the same hous m a few years ago. The latter rose to 101 l ; but the former, brought in the market yesterday, could not be realised at more than 99, which, COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL Yesterday a Court of the Common Council of the City of London, was specially held, in the Council Cham ber, at the Guildhall, in consequence of a requisition to con sider a motion, by Mr. Thomas Dakin:—"lhat this court should petition the House of Commons, praying the house to pass a bill to incorporate the Great Central Gas Con sumers' Company, so as to insure to the citizens of London a permanent supply of cheap and pure gas." The !tight lion. thy Lunn MAYvit took the chair at one o'clock precisely, at which period a large number of mem bers were present. Throughout the whole of the proceed ings, which lasted upwards of three hours, the strangers' gallery was crowded, the most intense interest appearing to prevail during the entire sitting. Mr. DAKIN, after a very long speech, in which he de tailed the history of the Gas Consumers Company, moved that the court should petition the House ut cummuns in favour of the bill. Mr. ItICHA RD TAYLOR seconded the motion. Mr. ANDERTON moved the previous question, and a long discussion ensued, in which Messrs. H. L. Taylor, Lou, Harrison, Alderman Lawrence, and Sir Chapman Marshall took part. On a division there appeared— For the motion For the previous question Majority A petition in accordance with the terms or the motion was then read and agreed to after some little opposition. The ltemembrancer hay - received instructions to make tying the necessary arty, .ents for the presentational the assia. the court was adjourned shortly after four o'closk. CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. THIS DAT. OLD COURT. Basnaa Ma. Etaaaa ALDMON. MANSLAIR/lITELL IN A LUNATIC ASYLUM. Samuel llall was placed at the bar to receive the judg ment of the court. It will be remembered that the prisoner, who was one of the keepers in a lunatic asylum, was convicted at a recent session of causing the death of one of the p►tients by vio lence. Baron Alderson said, in passing sentence, that the pri soner had been convicted of the manslaughter of one of the patients in a lunatic asylum, one of the principal witnesses against him being an unfortunate inmate of the establish ment, and a point of law had been reserved for the consi deration of the Court of Appeal, whether a person is such a situation was a competent witness. That point had re ceived full consideration, and the judges were clearly of opinion that this person had been properly ex amined as a witness, and that the only question was whether the statement made by the witness was of such • character as would justify the jury in coming to the con clusion that ho was giving a correct account of the transac tion, and in the present instance the jury had come to that conclusion, and he believed that the learned judge who tried the ease entirely concurred with them in that opinion. lie was now, therefore, to receive the judgment of the court for a very serious offence—that of having, while engaged as a keeper anal having the charge of lunatics, caused the death of one of them by improper and unnecessary violence. Instead of resorting to violence he ought to have been restrained by a consideration of the melancholy position of these unhappy persons from adopting any such proceedings, and although it was possible he might have received some provocation from the wretched man who had met his death at his hands, it was not any excuse f or hi s con d uct, an d instead of being angry at what he did, he ought to have recollected his unhappy state, and that he was not aware what he was doing, and therefore his pro ceeding ought not to have occasioned any more resentment in the breast of a christian and humane man than if it had been the act of a child. The learned judge then sentenced the prisoner to be kept to hard labour for twelve months from the date of his con viction. THE GREAT EXHIBITION.—Tho amount taken at the doors of the Exhibition building yesterday was 2,2001., the largest snm that has yet been received in one day. • The sale of season tickets also rose so high that th e funds of the commission had during the day an accession alto gether of at least 3,0001. TEMPERANCE DamoNsTaAnote.—The sixth of s series of temperance demonstrations was held on Monday night in Exeter Hall. There were upwards of two thou sand persons present. On the platform were the Hon. H. Greeley, member of the United States Congret.s; Roy. H. H. Garnett (a clt rgyman of colour), Geneva, state of New York, and many well-known advocates of temperance. Mr. John Cassell occupied the chair. During the course of the evening the meeting was addressed alternately by Europeans and Americans. i • Trndc. compared with other securities, is a very good price. Fine.- rate bills, wbkh were discounted at the beginning of the year at less than 2 per cent., cannot he done at 3 per cent. now, owing to those Swedish and Norwegian loans. Such is the competition between the steam cruel, on the Hull line that last Saturday eleven lasts of wheat were taken by a screw steamer as ballast, meaning that no freight was paid for it at all, to the great mortification of the shareholders. I just learn, from a very good sourer, that our garrison will be increased within a week by 10,000 men (Austrians.) gbe Court. Tho Queen's Fancy Ball—the costume, the full dress of the Court of King Cherie; IL, from tho Restora tion in 18 8 0 to l6B4—ia appointed to take place on Friday. the 13th of June. _ _ . Her Majesty, with the Princes; Royal, accompanied by the Princess of Prussia and the Princess Louisa, took a drive yesterday afternoon in an open carriage and four. Col. the Hon. Charles Grey and Lieut.-Col. the Hon. Robert Boyle attended on horseback. The l'rincc Albert and the Prince of Prussia rode out on hoptektek at the same time, attended by Lieut.-Colonel Francis Hugh Seymour. The Duchess of Kent visited the Queen yesterday at Buckingham Palace. The Duke and Duchess de Nemours visited her Majesty yesterday, and also paid visits to the l'rinee and Princess of Prussia at Buckingham Palace, and to the Duchess of Kent at her residence, Clarence-house, St. James's. . . Prince Frederick William of l'rumia visited Dulwich College yesterday, and also inspected the General Fast Office. The Duke of Cambridge and his Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar visited the Prince and Princess of l'russia yesterday. The Prince and Princess of Prussia, with the Prince Frederick William, and the Princess Louisa, visited the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations yesterday morn ing. Their Royal Highnesses were attended by the Countess A. do Macke, the Countess °ricolla, and Count Dolts. The Prince of Wales, attended by Mr. Birch, took a drive yesterday in an open carriage. Prince Alfred, the Princess Alice, and the younger mem bers of the Royal Family, took their usual pony and walk ing exercise yesterday, in the garden of Buckingham Palace. _ Her Majesty and the Prince Albert, accompanied by their Royal highnesses the Prince and Princess of Prussia, and Prince Frederick William of Prussia, honoured the Royal Italian Opera House with their presence last evening.—Tho royal suites consisted of the Countess A. de Macke, the Countess Oriolla, Hon. Eleanor Stanley, lion. Beatrice Bng, the Marquis of Ormonde, Count I'ukler, Colonel the lion. C. Grey, Lieut.-Colonel F. H. Seymour, Count Gott; and Lieutenant von Heinz.—lier Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, attended by Lady Fanny Howard, Sir George Couper, and Lord James Murray, honoured Her Majesty's Theatre with her presence yesterday evening. lhe Marquis of Ormond° has relieved Lord Watcrpark in his dutit s as Lord in Waiting to the Queen.—Lieutenant Colonel the lion. Robert Boyle has relieved Colonel Berkeley Drummond in his duties as Groom in Waiting to her Majesty. A deputation of Jews had an interview with Lord John Russell, yesterday, at his official residence in Downing street, on the subject of Sunday trading. Mr. Brown, M.P., Mr. W. Jones, and Mr. Chas. Cotes worth, had an interview with Earl Grey, yesterday, at the Colonial•o®ce. The Earl of Gosford had an interview with Sir George Grey, yesterday, at the llomc-office. The Cambridge University commission met, yesterday, at the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in Downing-street—l'resent : The Bishop of Chester, the Dean of Ely, the Rev. Professor Sedgwick, and the Rev. W. 11. Batson (secretary). Mr. Hodges, M.P., had an interview with Lord John Russell, yesterday. Major 'Legg had also en interview with his lordship. A deputation from the Bristol and Exeter Railway Com pany, consisting of Mr. J. B. Badharn (secretary), Mr. C. Parkes, and Mr. Edward Clark, h a d an interview with the of Railways yesterdAy at the BcrArti of - Loral Ashley bad an interview yesterday with Sir George Grry, at the Ilome-othee. Lord Belhaven had also an in terview with the right loin. baronet. The Postmaster-General had an interview with the Chan cellor of the Exchequer ye:Y. rday at his official residence in Downing-street. Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-office from the Governor of the Canadas and the Governors of the other Kurth American Colonies. (Prim bolt Night's Casette.) FORT:MN-OFFICE, M. y 12.—The Queen has been pleased to approse of Mr. William Vimonte de (Jimmie m Consul for the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey far the Fro* Hanseatic City of Harnburgh. OFFICE OF ORDNANCE, MAY 14.—Ordnance Medical Department: George Pain, gent., to lie aasistant surgeon, vice Young, deceased. COMMISSION SIGNED BY nip. LORD LIEUTENANT OP THE COUNTY PALATINE OF CIINATE/L—Wilbraham Egerton, Jun., Gent., to he lieutenant in the Earl of Ches ter's regiment of yeomanry cavalry. COMMISSION SIGNED BY THE LORD LIEUTENANT OP WARWICESHINIL—PhiIip Tranter, Gent., to be MM. goon in the Warwickshire re g i men t o f militia. 1 4 1