The Press. — London, England, 1858-06-19 00:00:00

58g THE MEMBER'S DIARY. HOUSE OF LORDS. MONDAY. THE absence of the Premier from indisposition naturally stops all business not either formal or indispensable. Some pending debates, on Church rates, the Parliamentary Oaths, and other measures, were accordingly postponed, and the House engaged in mere miscellaneous discussion on subjects instead of Bills. One question, started by the Duke of BUCCLEUCH to-night, relating to the Militia, provoked a long debate, in which many suggestions were offered, and some just complaints urged, touching the disci pline, treatment, pay, barrack accommodation, aic., of the men. During the discussion the House were gratified by learning from Lord HARDINGE and the Duke of CAMBRIDGE that a Royal Commission was shortly to be issued to inquire into the whole subject of the Militia organization, with the view of finding the means of making that force most efficient in itself and most useful as a feeder to the Line. Their lordships are proverbially long-suffering and courteous, tolerating almost any extent of boredom rather than commit a breach of good manners. But there are limits to human endurance, and Lord KINGSTON passed the line. The noble author of " Mexican Antiquities" had placed and kept on the motion-paper a series of resolutions embracing a wide range of topics, all of personal character, and, among other things, insinuating divers scandalous charges against Rajah BROOKE. In fact, until Lord LYNDHURST a few evenings since compelled his Lordship to bring out a new edition of his queries, the "votes and proceedings" of the Peers were made the vehicle for circulating libels which can be only paralleled by supposing that some pam phleteer or journalist had put into print a set of questions addressed to John Smith or Frederick Robinson, asking whether they had forged their uncle's will,cut purses on the highway,or permeated society cum privilegio under a ticket of leave. In their original form Lord KINGSTON'S resolu tions were a scandal. Even when revised and amended they continued to be a nuisance; and so to-night, while the Noble Lord was still on his legs, fumbling with papers, rubbing up his ideas, and speaking, or trying to speak, the oppor tunity afforded by one of his dreary pauses was adroitly seized by Lord REDESDALE, who moved that "the House do now adjourn." "Sic me servavit Apollo." Thus was Lord KINGSTON snuffed out. TUESDAY. After a few, very few, last words, the Property Qualification Bill was read a third time and paned. By dexterous management, or inevit able necessity, it matters not which, the house of Commons had made the property qualifies ,Wl for their members a sham. They had now limit up a Bill which imported that the qualifica tion, being a sham, ought to be abolished. As the matter related exclusively to the domestic arrangements of the Commons, the Peers could make no objection. Besides, the whole princi ple of qualification had been practically surren dered more than twenty years ago, when the qualifying income, which had once been strictly limited to a revenue from land, was extended to incomes accruing from moneys invested in stocks, ',hares, and commercial enterprises of all sorts. By this change the property qualification be came anything you like, and the present Bill is designed simply, like the manumission of the • Lara serfs, " to make that nothing which was • • still a name." THURSDAY. The slave trade, as surreptitiously carried on in Cuba, was discussed, apropos of a petition from a parish in Jamaica, presented by the Bishop of OXFORD. Dr. WILBERFORCE himself, Lord ' BROUGHAM, Lord GREY, and other Peers who possessed a long-standing title or hereditary right to speak on the question, concurred in maintain ing that Spain had not only violated her solemn - treaty- engagements for the suppression of the slave trade, but had rendered herself liable to the charge of having swindled England out of half a million on false pretences in the affair. Yet the question was evidently uppermost in the mind of " • every speaker, What could be done with a Go vernment that could not be induced to keep its faith, except at the cost of a war ?—a luxury which Europe really could not afford just now. TIIE Plt E s,s, 'wig, 19, Lord MALMESBURY said the only pleasant'igii that transpired in the debate—namely, that Mr. DALLAS (who, by the way, was present in the gallery during the evening) had promised to re commend his Government to take means for preventing the desecration of the American flag by a set of slave-trading ruffians. i!” II Ott FRIDAY. r The Marquis of LANSDOWNE has not made up his mind as to the expediency of proceeding by way of Resolution to frame a new system of Government for India. Learning, nevertheless, from the " ordinary sources of information" that a series of resolutions relating to that paramount question had been adopted " elsewhere," he inquired whether their Lordships might not have the advantage of discussing them, instead of wait ing for the Bill. The Premier being still unfor tunately absent, Lord MALMESBURY promised to reply on Monday. A long discussion respecting the best means of facilitating and cheapening private bills in Par liament afterwards ensued, and a Select Com mittee was appointed to inquire, consider, and suggest upon the subject. Some law-amendment bills having been read a third time and passed, their Lordships brought their week's work to a close. HOUSE OF COMMONS. MONDAY. A night of suggestions. Topic—lndian Go vernment. Special question—Shall the Council for India be nominative, elective, or both ? Every one had his plan and his propositions for the regulation and infusion of each separate " element." Lord STANLEY, after describing the various combinations into which election and nomination could be thrown, and the results likely to accrue from each, proposed the Minis terial resolution, simply declaring that the Council should be partly elective and partly nominative. Lord JOHN RUSSELL wished to make the whole Council Crown nominees, as also to enlarge their official incomes and render them eligible to sit in Parliament. He moved a formal amendment to carry out his nomination scheme. Lord PALmEasToN, of course, opposed the elective principle, which had not appeared in his own Bill. Sir J. GRAHAM proposed that the first Council should be composed of members se lected from the present Court of Directors, with a proviso for the future that when vacancies oc curred the Councillors should themselves elect a new colleague. Many other members contri buted each their suggestion, or segment of a suggestion, to the heap. Ultimately, Lord JOHN'S amendment was negatived by a majority of 65 (250-185). A dilatory motion for ad journing the debate was immediately afterwards negatived by a still larger preponderance of votes, and Resolution 5, the last of the debatable resolutions, was carried without further trouble and in the precise shape proposed by the Ministry. TUESDAY. What Mr. DISRAELI aptly called the magic power of a morning sitting was tried upon the Transfer of Land (ireland) Bill, with the effect of landing in safety three or four clauses of the measure through the foaming breakers of eloquence which roll upon the House whenever an Irish Bill is under debate. The evening was given up to Scotland. Mr. BAXTER believes that North Britain produces an amount of special political work which re quires the appointment of a special Under-Secre tary of State, and brought forward a resolution to that effect. Mr. W. WILLiAms phunply ne gatived the scheme, on the ground that it would cost 1,5001. a year, if not more. Less insensible members treated the question on broader prin ciples, and the Finance Minister himself acknow ledged that, if it could really be shown that there was work to be done, he should not begrudge a handsome salary for any functionary who would do it. But it appeared that ninety-nine hun dredths of the Scotch business was of legal cha racter, and the Scotch had already a special and most able legal representative on the Treasury bench in the person of the Lord Advocate. Was there not, moreover—Lord DuNcAN reminded the House—a " Scotch Lord" of the Treasury? Mr. EDWARD Eu.rcE remarked that the Under- Secretary for Scotland, if once appointed, would prove to be nothin g more t h an a "f ancy man, " cutting out work for his own occupation ; and as work in this sense meant taxes, he predicted that tric very ilinctionary whose appointment was now asked for as a right or solicited as a favour would be unanimously voted a nuisance. There were but 47 members who could be persuaded to follow Mr. 13AvrEit into the lobby against 174 on the other side. So Scotland must pine for the present, Under-Secretary -less. WEDNESDAY. Scattered again. Our north -country repre sentatives are running some risk of forfeiting their excellent character for settling all disputes out of doors. The question related to the local impost called the " Edinburgh and Annuity Tax," which Mr. BLACK wanted to abolish. The usual arguments were urged against the main tenance of a tate levied for the support of certain clergymen from persons who did not in all cases belong to their communion. The reply that the tax had existed from the days of the Stuarts—. that it was really paid by landlords who had bought or inherited the property with the liability already attached—and that its abolition would simply rob one class of individuals in order to give the money to another class to whom it did not belong—was apparently too obvious to be noticed, since it never was answered, by the advocates of Mr. BLACK'S proposition. Ulti mately, on a division, the motion was rejected by 130 against 129. The majority was small, but sufficient for the purpose. In any event the Bill could not have passed ; but it is gratifying to know that the House has got rid of it for the present session. ii,___ THURSDAY. Twenty-six Bills appeared on the paper of business, and fair progress was made with about half of them. Early sittings are like district courts of probate,—they exercise no "con tentious jurisdiction " to speak of: The Indian Government Resolutions have advanced beyond the disputative point, and were accord ingly fixed for further discussion at twelve. After some hours debating, however, it was dis covered that the topics started were so completely matters of detail, that it was sheer waste of time to discuss them or the Resolutions. Lord STANLEY accordingly withdrew the rest of the series, pro mising to bring in the Bill immediately. This promise was expeditiously redeemed, the Bill (No. 3) being brought up and read a first time when the House sat again in the evening. Appropriately enough, the Public Health Bill was discussed at night under circumstances which very forcibly impressed its importance upon the perceptions of Hon. Members. The torrid sun had drawn from the neighbouring Thames during the day various exhalations, whose effluvia permeated the House, driving my Lords and Gentlemen from their splendid lounge on the river terrace, and obliging the occupants of the library to elect whether they would be poisoned by keeping the windows open, or stifled if they were shut. Of course the Bill passed through the pending stage with more attention and a sincerer determination to "do something" than the house have . yet manifested on the subject. FRIDAY. The motion for adjourning over to Monday gave independent members the usual opportu nity for starting miscellaneous subjects, which was so diligently improved, that a round dozen of separate " motions " on all sorts of topics were entered on the paper, and discussed from half past four until close upon half-past eight. The consequent replies actually exhausted the whole panel of the Treasury Bench, no member being able to speak more than once. Among other questions, Mr.' Bmowr urged some questions relative to the steam squadron, and our relation ship as affected thereby with the United States. In replying, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs gave another proof of his power of lucid exposition. The Government statements on the subject enjoyed the singular distinction of ob tainin concurrent approval from Mr. ROEBUC K, Lord JORN RUSSELL, and Lord PALMERSTON. Mr. WILSON had promised a long essay on the National Debt, when the Funded Debt Bill came on for second reading. When the moment, how ever, came, the Finance Minister " that wishes to be " was non est, and the Bill passed the stage without a word of remark from anybody. Afterwards the House in Committee resumed the debate on the clauses of the Sale and Trans fer of Land (Ireland) Bill, and got through a good many of them. II