The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

AUGUST 5, 1854. ereipTer were not analogous to those which devolved upon ' private secretary of any other head of a governmental department. Owing to the anomalous position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose duties were more outside than inside the Treasury, his private secretary had to perform duties which to a great degree were of an official and departmental character. (Hear, hear.) His private secretary had to conduct must important transac tions with the Board of Inland Revenue, the Customs, the Bank of England, and the Commissioners of the National Debt ; and, in fact, he had to discharge duties which in any other department of the Government would devolve upon the chief. He (the Chancellor of the Ex• chequer) did not scruple to tell the hon. member for Manchester that, in his judgment, although his friend Mr. Lawley had not had an oportunity of acquiring such dis tinction in that house as to make himself known, yet he had laboured more for the public, and had acquired inure experience in the transaction of public business during the present and last years, than most of the gentlemen who sat in that house would have acquired in five, or six, or even ten sessions in that house. (Cheers.)" Colonial governorships, Mr. Gladstone proceeded to remark, did not offer prizes sufficient to tempt men of known and distinguished talent. Ministers were generally obliged to appoint persons unknown to the public, but of whose qualifications they had obtained, as in the case of Mr. Lawley, a private assurance. Precedents could be cited for similar appointments. It was said that Mr. Lawley was unknown, but Sir W. Denison was unknown when he became a colonial governor. He VIM said to be young, but Lrd Elgin was young when he first went to Canada. He was charged with wanting experience, but Lord Harris was untried and inexperienced when he was appointed to govern Jamaica. Repeating on his own account that "until within the last twenty four lours" he had never repented having borne to-ti molly to Mr. Lawley's talents, and recommended him As an "eminently and admirably qualified man" for the appointment in question, the Chancellor of the Exchequer thanked the house for the indulgent tone in which the question had been discussed, and ex pressed his hope that an act of indiscretion would not close the career of a man who had been guilty of no corruption, but that an opportunity would be afforded him hereafter to retrieve the position he had forfeited. Mr. V. SMITH, addressing himself to the question of colonial appointments, suggested that a system of promotion should be established, and that func tionaries who had tried their hands successfully upon such colonies should be selected for the more im portant governorships. There was some attempt to prolong the discussion, but it was stopped by the Speaker as irregular, there being no motion before the house. The subject then dropped accordingly. BRIBERY BILL. On Thursday in the Peers the Duke of NEWCASTLE moved a resolution declaring that the Bribery Bill presented a case of urgency which justified the sus pension of the standing order of the house whereby the 25th of July was fixed as the latest date for taking the second reading of a new measure. This motion provoked considerable discussion, in which the details of the bill itself underwent much criticism. Ultimately their lordships divided on the motion. Contents, 41 ; non•contents, 33-8. The Earl of DERBY announced that he should consider this division as indicating the sense of the house respecting the bill, which he did not intend to oppose further. The bill was then read a second time, the Duke of Newcastle having previously inti mated that in committee he should propose an amendment limiting the duration of the measure to two years. • PUBLIC HEALTH ACT. • The second reading of the Public Health Act Amendment Bill was moved on Monday by Lord PALKERszos, who explained the nature and purposes of the power which the measure would consign or continued to the Board of Health. He entreated the house to grant a renewed lease of existence to that board under the modified conditions and for the limited term proposed by the bill. To the labouring class, he remarked, health was existence itself, and, as the requirements of society in modern times led men to live together in large masses, it became all the more necessary to adopt precautions for the pre servation of public health. The Home Secretary shortly described the formation in 1848 of the Board of Health, whose functions would expire at the close of the present session of Parliament, and, though not wishing to create alarm, enforced on the house the necessity of taking immediate steps as well for gene ral health as to meet and avert the approaches of that, formidable epidemic the Asiatic cholera. It did at present prevail in various parts of the country, and had in the course of last year committed great ravages in Newcastle, Glasgow, and other places, and there was too much reason to believe that it had recently made its appearance in the metropolis. Terrible, however, as this disease was, it was more so in idea than in reality, for there was no disease more easily arresied by medical treat ment, if resorted to in its earliest stages ; but there must be direction to govern that treatment, and under such direction the most efficacious step to be THE PRESS. taken would be a house-to-house visitation. As a department, Lord Palmerston proceeded to state the board would be hencefo►th placed under the control and responsibility of the Home Secretary; and as individuals all the present members had left their functions at his disposal, awaiting any expression of opinion, on the part of the house and the Govern ment, that their retirement from office was expedient. Believing that much prejudice had been excited against certain members of the board, he trusted that the Legislature would not, on such unworthy grounds, sacrifice the interests of individuals or the advantage of the public at large. Lord SEYMOUR. opposed the bill, and moved the usual amendment that it be read a second time that day three months. His opposition, he declared, was not °eta:Lined by any antagonism to the Government, but from a decided conviction that the Board of Health had not discharged their functions in such a manner as to justify their maintenance in office, while the changes indicated by the present bill pro mised no sufficient security for the better performance of their duties in future. The powers given to the board were great, and should only be entrusted to men who would act with great caution, great prudence, and great forbearance. He wa. prepared to say that the present board had not acted in accordance with these requirements. They had two powers entrusted to them—to advise as to the best sanitary measures to be adopted ; and to administer the existing law with justice and discretion. In neither of these had the present members given satisfaction. He then pro eeeded to enumerate cases in witich the advice of the Board of Health was most preposterous—such as ob taining the supply of water for two millions of people from the sands of the Surrey hills, and recommend ing a system of tubilar drainage. The noble lord condemned the constitution of the board, which would never be under proper control so long as one of its three members was to be an unpaid amateur, and that one a noble lord (the Earl of Shaftesbury) whose whole principle of proceeding was that of centralisation. The board, with a great anxiety to do everything and to interfere with everything and everybody, had actually done nothing, and its con tinuance would be most mischievous to the interests of the public. Lord Seymour afterwards entered upon some persona explanations, vindicating him own conduct from the censure pronounced by Lord Shaftesbury in the Upper House. The amendment was seconded by Sir B. Hall. Mr. M. MILNES supported the bill, and defended the Board of Health, the high character and talent of whose members he complained had not secured them from defamatory attacks. Mr. HENLEY was convinced that the board stood condemned both in the eyes of the country and of the Government. The bill, he contended, would effect no further change than that of transferring the con trol of the board from the Chief Commissioner of Works to the Secretary of State for the Home De partment, the practical result of which would be merely nominal. He recommended that a bill con tinuing the board for a short period, say six months, should be brought in, to afford an opportunity for reconsidering the subject, and reconstructing the Board of Health. Lord J. RUSSELL remarked that the bill only pro posed the continuance of the board for a year, and suggested that the whole subject should be inquired into by a committee in the next session of Parliament. This he thought the more eligible course, for by a continuance bill for six months no such opportunity would be given. The noble lord proceeded to defend the board, though he admitted, and he had twelve months since told Mr. Chadwick, that they had paid too little attention to the feelings of the people of this country in favour of self-government. The board, however, had accomplished a great deal ; and it was, therefore, expedient to pass the bill, and leave to next session the constitution of the board. Mr. HErwoon announced that Mr. Chadwick had been recommended by his medical advisers to dis continue the very arduous duties incumbent upon his office in the Board of Health. Mr. HUME confessed that his vote upon the pre sent hill would turn upon the question whether Mr. Chadwick remained or retired. The statement that this gentleman had been pro fessionally advised to retire was corroborated by Lord PALMERSTON. After some observations from Sir T. D. ACLAND, the house divided—For the second reading, 65 ; for the amendment, 74 : majority against the Govern ment, 9. The bill was consequently rejected. THE NEW BOARD OF HEALTH. The existing Boarl of Health having received its sentence of condemnation by the vote of Monday, a new bill providing for a reconstruction of this de partment was on the following evening introduced by Sir W. Motisworrn, under the title of " a bill to make better provision for the administration of the law relating to the public health." In giving an out line of this measure the Right Hon. Commissioner of Works said that " the bill was framed in strict conformity with the views 725 and wishes 'which were expressed by the house, it being the desire of the Government to act in conformity with those views and wishes. He understood those views were to the effect that there ought to be a public department to whom should be entrusted the administration of the Public Health Act, the Nuisances Removal Act, and the general charge of the health of the country. He understood it also to be the opinion of the house that the Board of Health, as at present constituted, consisting of four mem bers, two of whom were paid and two unpaid, was not good arrangement for the administration of the public hisilth. The house was likewise of opinion that there ought to be some person in the house who should be directly responsible to Parliament for the administration of the Public Health Act. It hail seemed to the Govern ment that the health of the country came fairly within the business of the Home Department : but he understood the opinion of the house was that there was not a closer analogy between the two departments of the Board of Health and the Home•ollice than there was between the Poor-law Board and the Home Department, and that the new department of health should be constituted in the same manner as the Poor-law Board By the bill which he asked leave to introduce, he proposed that the Board of Health should consist of a president, who should have a seat in that house, and two secretaries—that was, a secre tary and an under-secretary. The only other alteration which the bill would make with respect to the officers was that the superintending inspectors should be salaried officers of the Board of Health, and should not be em ployed, as at present, on jobs, the cousequenoes of which had been that they hail been able to take work on their own private aceount, a practice to winch great objection had been taken by the public. (Hear, hear.) These were the general provisions of the Public Health Act which he now asked leave to introduce. The measure would also include a clause to make compensation by a sum to be detehnined by the Treasury, but not exceeding I,ouo/, a year, to one of the members of the present board—namely, Mr. Chadwick. Although some obloquy had been cast upon that gentleman, he (Sir W. Molesworth ) believed that he was a man who for many years had been a valuable public servant, though he confessed that in his administration of the public, health Mr. Chadwick had not been so fortunate as in the other public services which he had rendered." Leave was given to bring in the bill. THE DRAINAGE OF LANDS BILL. The committal of this bill was opposed on Monday by Lord PORTMAN, who objected to the extraordinary powers over property which it would assign to the commissioners appointed to carry it out, and the not less extraordinary exemption from its operation in favour of persons who had the means of defending themselves. His lordship moved the customary negative to the motion for going into committee. Earl GRANV/LLE denied that the bill gave either extraordinary powers or extraordinary exemptions, and urged that it would prove a most useful measure. The bill was opposed by Lord REDESDALE, and, on division, thrown out by a majority of 23 to 13. THE NATIONAL GALLERY. A series of qnestions were asked on Tuesday by Mr. DANBY SEYMOUR touching the proposed arrange ments for the disposal of the national collection of pictures and the continuance of the house room now awarded to the Royal Academy in Trafalgar-square. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied : " 1. It was the intention of Government to ask Parlia ment to give them the means of building a new national gallery for the national collection of pictures. 2. With respect to the question whether the plans and designs would be left open to public competition, he had merely to observe that the Government had not as yet advanced so far in the consideration of the subject as to enable them to determine that point. 3. With reference to the inten tion of her Majesty's Government to take measures collect the whole of the ancient pictures belonging to the nation into the National Gallery in Trafalgar-square, it was not in his power to give a definite answer. 4. With re gard to the Royal Academy, he could only fay that they had not been called upon to vacate the premises now in their possession." CHARGES ON REAL ESTATE. The Real Estate Charges Bill standing for com mittal in the Lords on Monday, Lord Sr. LEONARD'S objected to the measure, as a hasty and ill-advised interference with the existing law of real property and the law of primogeniture. He moved that it be committed this day three months. Earl FORTESCUE replied to the objections, urging that the sole effect of the bill was to alleviate the hardships suffered by younger children from personal property being made available in certain cases for discharging encumbrances upon real estate. The LORD CHANCELLOR said that though the bill was not a Government measure he approved of its introduction. The first clause would be productive of unmixed good, inasmuch as it would make the dis positions of property, in cases where testators had not actually described how it should go, conformable to their real intentions. It had nothing whatever to do with the law of primogeniture. Their lordships divided, when the motion for going into committee was carried by 26 against 23. The bill then passed through committee with amend ments. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS IN IRELAND. Mr. LUCAS, on Monday, took the opportunity furnished by the motion for going into committal. of I I 11' I