The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-09 00:00:00

JULY 9, 1853. courts. He would create comity districts, corresponding to the circuits of the county court judges. The undisputed will of any man should be proved in the circuit in which he dwelt at the time of his death, and thus he would get rid of the legal difficulty of bona nolabilin. He would establieh a system of rewstratiow every will should be re gistered in the county eourts, and transmitted to regisuar general in London. Each county court judge should app:iint a registrar out of the present ecclesiastical courts, whereby men of experience would be gained and compen sation be saved. file jurisdiction of the county courts should extend over real and personal property. Where a dispute arose it should, where the cause in dispute was un der :Ma, be tried in the locality where it occurred, and lie would give the county courts an equitable jurisdiction. He considered the tecimieal didieulties of testamentary questions to be overstated, and lie referred to the old his torical character of the county Courts in proof of the effi ciency they had possessed. He would give jurisdiction in higher cases, and also appeals, to the superior courts of co mmon law, which should retain their power over real property, to which jurisdiction should be added that of the ecclesiastical courts as regarded iwrsonalty. He would appoint 1411 (dicer. to be called the clerk of probates. to each of the superior courts. The metropolitan jurisdie• tion should be concentrated into one court. Compensation blond(' be given to those who were deprived of o niees, bin not to the praetitioners ; and proctors should be admitted ti practise us tittOrllC)ti iu all the superior courts." Dwelling upon the necessity of the saute sweeping reform of the law which had been adopted in other institutions, Mr. Collier urged the subject on the con sideration of the llovertnnent. The ►notion having been seeonded by Mr. :, Lord PALMMOCTON pa►d a high compliment to the hon. member for the grasp of the subject he had evinced, and the ability of the measure which he had devised. lie excused the Government for their de• lay in bringing in a bill themselves, on the plea of the utter hopelessness of carrying it, if intr►duced at a time when the house was engrossed with other ►natters. There was also a exuan►is.iou appointed (as he believed) by the late Government, for whose report it bad been judged better to wait, in the hope that it would throw some light on the subject. lie cordially agreed with the motion for leave to bring in theibill, trusting that the Ministry would be there by aided in contriving some measure early next ses si,on calculated to correct the evils which Mr. Collier ha►l pointed out. Leave was accordingly given to bring in the bill. SIMONY. The second reading of the Simony Law Amendment Bill was moved in Wednesday's sitting by Mr. Plitt.- Li melte. The evil the measure was intended to meet, he observed, was of the gravest character—the making a solemn trust, the cure of souls, matter of barter and commercial speculation. By he general eccle siastical law the sale of benefices was illegal, and, since the Reformation, it had been denounced in several statutes. By the 12th of Anne the clergy were prohibited from procuring for themselves, for money, the appointment to any ecclesiastical benefice. A previous act, of 31st Elizabeth, had, however, received an extraordinary construction. It had been determined by the !louse of Lords that although the sale of a presentation when the living is vacant would be invalid (for this would be gross simony), if the incumbent was in a dying state, the sale of the next presentation, though about to be vacant, would not be simonised. illustrating the unseemly practices which at. present prevailed in the matterof such sales, Mr. Phillimore read many advertisements wherein the various attractions of the livings offered for dis posal were set forth in lively colours, and puffed like any other article of transfer and sale. If spiritual offices could be sold, lie remarked, there was no reason why political or judicial appointments should not be so also. The prevalence of these simoniacal practices it was which gave scope to the scoffers, and rendered the Church of England obnoxious to the criticisms of the separatists. The operation of his bill, he added, was altogether prospective, forbidding the sale of any benefice upon, or in prospect of, its next avoidance. The lateness of the hour was alleged by Mr. Hot:- vzinz as his reason for moving the adjournment of the debate. _ _ Mr. G. Btirr wished to controvert, without delay, the fallacies imported into Mr. Phillimore's speech. It had heen assumed that it was simoniacal for a lay man to exercise over ecclesiastical benefices the ordinary rights of property. Yet these rights were conferred on him by the law and were of very long standing. Ever since the Reformation the law of England recognised the right of a layman to pur chase the next presentation to a living, and to sell, settle, or dispose of it st his pleasure afterwards. This bill, therefore, affected the rights of property, and Parliament might as well interfere with the title to all chattels real. Nor did it propose anything for the benefit of the public, for it gave the presentation, in the cases contemplated, to the Crown, in whose hands he doubted whether it would be empl►yed more for the advancement of the general welfare. He thought that, generally speaking, laymen had exercised their ecclesiastical patronage creditably, and the fitness of the presentee was always examined into by the bishop. THE PRESS. Mr. WILSON reiterated the appeal on behalf of the tiovernment for an adjournment, because there were some customs resolutions on the paper which they wished to get passed before six o'clock brought the hour of rising. Mr. BAN KES, however, with some remarks upon the unfairness of permitting serious changes to Lit made. or important bills introduced, at times when there was no possibility of discussing them, oceupied the house until the clock was on the stroke of the appointed hour, when the debate stood adjourned ex necessitate. SHORT-110(1R sVsTEN. Mr. COMIETT, on Tuesday, MOVeil t it l oave . to bring in a bill limiting the hours of factory latiiior for women. young persons, and children, and to pro. vide nu. a more perfect inspection of factories in the United Kingdom:— " His proposition was to restrict the hours of labour of all ik`NOIIR employed in factories, including a ,im el , ami d all plum; persiais and children, to ten hours a day for the first limo days in the week, and seven horns and a half min Saturdays. In order to ensure the working ill this irismia. fiat,. the hill prodded that the motive power in all factories should I . suspended frian half-past the ueluek in the evening on the first live din in the week until six the next marniig, and on Saturdays in a similar proportion." This arrangement he advocated as being merely a restoration of the Ten-hour Act of I.Bli in its on. ginal intention. and described the evasions which millowners practised too generally with regard Its that net, as also to the subsequent statute commonly called the Compromise Act. Among the object s Ile anticipated to his proposal, and which he 4.111 1 1- Nitwit beforehand, the most serious was that respect ing the restriction to the motive power; lint he con tended that by no other means could the measure be made ettect iii. The 'motion having, been selsonded by Mr. FirinEs, and opposed by Mr. W. A. Wii,sissos, Lord PALMERSTON reserved to himself the right of dealing with the bill as he thought proper hereafter, but consented to its passing the preliminary . stage. He had intended to bring in a bill himself' prohibiting the employment of children before ti SAIL and after 6 p.m. The circumstances under which children were sent outlon a drizzling 'wonting to go three or four miles to their place of work, and had find their way home again, in a (lark evening, per • haps with snow on the ground, were sufficient to ae. count for the extreme mortality nomog that class of factory labourers. It was a matter of delicacy to in terfere with those who, being of age, were free agents ; but he observed that the millowners were not promoting their own real interest by treating persons in their employ as mere machines, out of which the greatest possible amount of labour was to be got; and they had better remember that their workpeople were moral and intelligent agents, who ought to have a moderate degree of leisure, without which the desirable amount of good labour could not be obtained. He might be told that the mea sure he propo:ed would indirectly interfere with the employment of others than those for whom he wished to legislate, but the neeessity of protecting children VMS so important that he could not regard this as a sufficient objection. Lord J. MANNERS believed that the plan suggested by Lord Palmerston would not go far enough either to satisfy the just demands of the employed or pre. vent the evasions practised by the employers. Ton much compromise of the rights of the operatives bad been already permitted, and yet the millowners pro ceeded to evade the very acts which had been passed in their interests. Results had falsified the predie• tines once hazarded touching the evils to he appre hended from interfering with the hours of labour, and nothing now warranted them in shrinking from doing that full justice to the working people which they had not secured by the act of MO. lie warmly approved of the bill. Sir 0. OBEY adhered to the bills of 'l7 and which he had helped to construct, and now declared to have worked admirably. Very trifling instances of evasion were proved, not involving more than one in twenty of the ministers. Ile regretted that Lord Palmerston should have given even an apparent sanction to a bill comprising a principle so dangerous as that of interfering with the motive power so far as affected adult and male labour. Mr. I. Burr believed that evasions of the existing acts were very numerous—a belief which Mr. Fox shared, and added that the operatives took extreme interest in the subject, and were anxious to have better legislative protection than they now ienjoyed against overwork. Mr. W. PATTEN deprecated the attempt to set men against masters and masters against men. Mr. LABOUciIERE opposed the bill because it restricted the motive power and interfered with the rights of capital. Mr. lioimme supported it because it vindicated the rights of nature. Lord .1. Russrtr. remarked that they hail been discussing details to which the Ministers had no intention of committing' themselves, though they had consented to let the bill be brought in. 221 Mr. NEWDEGATT and Mr. J. BALL having thefly supported thy measure, leave was tgiven to bring iu the bill. THE INDIAN ARMY. The Earl of ELLEKBOROVOH, on Tuesday, laid a bill on the table of the Peers' House, consisting of a s ingle clause, by which the East India Company are entitled to increase by 7,500 men the Eumpeau fumes now in their service. The force employed by them at present, under the law, was 11,200 men ; but this bill, said the noble earl. would enable them to employ :20,000 men. lie thought it, must d es ir a bl e that their lordships sl Id at once pass the bill, so hat it might become law six or eight weeks s o o n e r than the Government bill, and that they might there by b e able to place at the disposal of the titneruineut two or dim, additional regiments. The bill was read a first time. Doe KY AHD APPOI NTME NTS. After a preliminary conversation touching the pro priety and fairness of introducing the subject at 111441.1 midnight in a Wi'eli•Sl house. Mr. KrATlhn ISSlNkn'il. on Tuesday, in mooing the resolution o f %hick his notice stood on the paper, to the following ettect •• That, referritn: to the report of the seleet vomit& low tot iloeliy ant iin.lllo.lions, and the rudrure. swots %slits+ II ha joasoted. Owl hoa.e i 9 of apish..' that. staring tilts e.ludul•arw• Itott th.. late Itoar.l of A.lnllrahl, the. patronage or tioekyani loNsistoshai4 awl the htdurucr sit the Adialrolti attn. uw.l aln l 1.%1 4 1 . 1 . i10.4i 61r volitseal purpow•a to sill I•Veut suss) ill a 111111111er iii ctslatl.ki to letteei lii4olo , lii 11M.11 I hat 1141)14Itlikrilt sit • the liuvrrn• Islets!, mot to impair the etheteney of the service... Occupying more than two hours in an elaborate detail of the suspicions that prevailed before the commission of hood* was a p pointed ; o f th e cir cumstances under which it was appointed ; of the evi dence given before it, and of the report thereon, the hon. member po reeeded to comment on his su bject at a length which M. last. exhausted the patience of the house. Atler appealing energetically against than interruptions be experienced by the frequent calls for a division, and eluding a call to order from Mr. Hooker, on account of panne expression's which seemed to transcend the courtesies, if not. the pri vileges, of delude, Mr. heating at length yielded to the manifest feeling of the house, and somewhat ab ruptly terminated his speech. 4ir .1. l'isistrros, remarking that the Cuomo pur sued by the hon. Member precluded all chance of fair discussion, moved the adjourinnent. of the de bate. Ile added some strictures upon the report of the commissioners, and declared himself prepared to vindicate at every point. the HAMMINtraIOII of the Ad miralty by the Duke of Northumberland. Mr. Donoom, also recognising the great energy, ability, and discretion evinced by his grace in admi nistering his important (Mee, supported the motion for aikantrmitent. Lord Sevanwa with a few remarks upon the two p seeebes last MAL, Mlillillea the rainless of all o w. imig the discussion to be aitiourne.l. On a division, however, the *Um:lament was ne gatived by 95 votes to 70. The debate was then renewed upon other motions invoking a postponement anti future renewal of the I iscussion in vinioug tbrniularie%. One motion for the at - bow - mm.la of the house, moved by Sir T. A i . t.Atm, showed on a division 172 negatives against. U affirma tive. Presently Mr. IlnumsoNo, in the character of a peaeetnaker, added fret4h fuel to the debate by pro. posing that both aides should agree to a reaolution thus conevistid : " Itrferrint• to the report of the meloet slockywol appointsenu+, it appvar.4 that 'twilit; every taleuitilstratiou tf the Board of Ada:trait) heforr—i hat patronage taw( inflames have been tined nud exereimell for isolitteal porposea, mid that the report of the I . ollllllit4 g i , 1111 the Clll4lllOll e • leetlna Matto. that there hi no 111%tatiee of silt ekethots at that place In which a lit• ye gat eitiolidate Wan not returned." This proposition, however, was not persisted in ; and Lord Intioxy MTITAHT afterwards entreating the Govennuent to give a " day " for renewing the debate, Lord l'at.mcitirroN cited the authority of Lord John Russell, whom indisposition had compelled to leave the house, for refusing the' request, on the ground that none could be spared. tie declared that a private 6' day" must be selected, and suggested that Mr. K. Ball should gise up next Tuesday for the purpose " It is all very well 14 the b u n. member for Cambridge shim to say bit nuiliim is of great importance. 1 do nut mit k rvo l o e its iniloiortallef . ; Lilt it. is not 8 matter that s,,es, and he rim take A.oifil• other Tue.dity—there will Is• 1100 hul Tisesdays—(rinurs Ittoghter)—spun which lie can 'piing it forward. I think next Tuesday would 1* a very fitting da) for the resumption of the &butes ( No, no.)" Mr. BALI. declined to adopt the suggestion, and further discussion followed, when a new division took place, on which the numbers were For the a d journment Against it Lord I'AI.MERST4oN proposed that the debate should be adjourned to the day then commenced. 111.. Insevw reiterated that, considering the hour Mr. Keating had brought on his motion, he ought to have yielded to the advice to postpone it. But, as he would consider any motion that the house should