The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS, jutY 4, 185' which, added to the 237,00 )1., produced the 2,000,0001. re quired; and Exchequer Bills for that amount were handed over to the commissioners. If instead of doing so they had bought stock with the cash balances in hand the Savings-sank Commissioners would have had 2,278,0001. stock instead of the 2,ooo,oool.2.lchequer Bills. Now, the interest on 2,273.0001. stock would have been 98,0001. a year, whereas the interest on the 2,00(1,0001. Exchequer Bills was 70,0001., showing a gain by the transaction of POOOl. a year. Nor was that all. The Government had the power without going to Parliament of funding Exche quer Bills purchased by the Savings-bank Commissioners— a power which greatly excited the hon. baronet's indigna tion, but which he (Sir G. Lewis), unlike some of his predecessors, had never yet exercised. But if those two million Exchequer Bills had been funded they would have been replaced by 2,332,0001. stock instead of 2,273,0001., showing thus a clear gain of 59,0001. on the capital. So that, whether they looked at the operation solely as it affected the savings•bank funds, or whether they regarded it as bearing upon the interests of the public by saving them from the necessity of throwing 2,003,0001. Exchequer Bills on the ma►ket at once, the house would see that it had been in every way a highly satisfactory one. Mr. GLYN and Mr. MALINS thought that some limitation should be placed upon the power of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to go into the Money Market with a fictitious transaction for the purpose of raising the price of particular securities. On going into supply, Mr. RICH brought. under notice the report of the commissioners on the Superannuation Act, recom mending an immediate increase of 70,0001. a year to the salaries of the civil servants, with a prospective increase of 30,0001. a year more. Against this recommendation Mr. Rich argued at considerable length. The employes in the public offices were, since the abolition of sinecures, mostly of a higher class than their predecessors, and they seemed to occupy their ample leisure in carrying on an agita tion against abatements of which they were fully aware when they entered the service. Many of them were connected with the daily, weekly, and monthly press, and these vehicles they endeavoured to make subservient to their selfish ends. He trusted the house would resist their unreasonable demands, and thus protect the public purse. The house then went into committee on the Civil Service EAimates, and after several votes, chiefly connected with Ireland, had been agreed to, the house resumed. ELECTION PETITIONS BILL. Mr. ADDERLEY moved the second reading of the Election Petitions Bill, which, he said, would present a check to the collusive presentation and withdrawal of election petitions. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER opposed the bill, which he moved be read a second time that day three months. Sir J. SHELLEY moved the adjournment, which was lost o►► a division by ?? to 55. Mr. WYLD mentioned, as an instance of the neces sity of the bill, that a petition which had neer' pre sented against his return had been that day with drawn, and that the person who signed it had admitted that he had done so for the purpose of advertising his name as a boot and shoe maker. The motion for adjournment was then negatived, and the motion for the sec..nd reading of the bill was carried without a division amidst laughter from the Opposition benches. The house adjourned at a quarter past two o'clock. HOUSE OF LORDS-TUESDAY. AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. Lord BROUGHAM adverted to reports which, he said, had attained considerable currency, that tho importation of free negroes from Africa was to be permitt-d or encouraged, under various pretexts, not, only into the Spanish and French, but also into the British colonies in the West Indies. This proceed. ins be considered to be little short of a disguised slave trade, and declared that the rumour had occasioned much disquietude to the friends of negro emancipation. The Earl of CLARENDON was unable to speak po sitively as to the intentions of foreign Governments, but did not believe that any purpose was entertained in any quarter for the revival or the traffic in slaves, either avowedly or surreptitiously. Lord Palmers ton he knew, had received a deputation on the subject of free negro labour in the West India colonies, but he was quite convinced that no plan involving the slightest approach to the old system of slavery would be countenanced for a single moment by the Prime Minister. THE SECOND READING of the Oxford University Bill, which prolongs the existence of the commission appointed to examine into the system of that univer sity for another year, was moved by the Earl of HARROWEY, and agreed to, after some discussion, in which the Earl of DERBY called the attention of the house to an ordinance recently proposed for Oriel, by which the original intentions of the founder, who desired that the pecuniary circumstances of appli cants were to be considered so that indigentes should profit by the advantages of the foundation, were set at nought by the University Commissioners, who in the new ordinance had decided that the circum stances of birth and parentage were not to be Laken into consideration. The Turnpike Trusts Arrangements Bill, and the Insurance of Lives (Abatement of Income Tax) Continuance Bill, were respectively read a second time. The County Cess (Ireland) Bill was read a third time and passed. Their lordships adjourned at half-past seven ..'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS—TUESDAY. At the morning sitting the adjourned discussion upon the Bankruptcy and Insolvency (Ireland) Bill was resumed in committee. The remaining clauses having been agreed to, the house adjourned until the evening. THE BALLOT. On resuming at six o'clock. Mr. H. BERKELEY, pursuant to notice, moved for leave to bring in a bill " to cause the votes of the parliamentary electors of Great Britain and Ireland to be taken by way of ballot." Lord Palmerston, he observed, had told the house to wait, for that be had a Reform Bill in prospect that was to swallow up all other Reform Bills; but he ( Mr. Berkeley) declined to wait without knowing what they were to wait for. He, therefore, asked whether it was the intention of her Majesty's Government to adopt the ballot as a part of their Retorm Bill next session. If the answer was in the affirmative, he had nothing to do but to sit down ; but if in the negative, he must submit his case to the house. There being no audible response to this inquiry (although the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose from his seat), Mr. Berkeley said he must take silence to express dissent, and presume that it was not their intention to entertain the vote by ballot; he should, there fore, pursue the course he had taken on former occasions, and reply to the objections offered to the ballot. He then reviewed the leading arguments employed by the opponents of secret voting and by the advocates of open voting ; and, drawing his illustrations from Belgium, Holland, and Sardinia, and from America and Australia, expatiated upon the advantages of that mode of voting in those countries where the ballot was in operation. Mr. Berkeley concluded by entreating the Government to give the people the ballot, which they would now receive as a boon, rather than wait until they should be compelled to surrender it to them as a right. Sir J. SHELLEY seconded the motion. The CxexcELLOR of the ExcaegUEß would con sider this question, he said, in a practical view— whether the mode of voting proposed was adapted to the wants and circumstances of this country. He adverted, first, to the ballot as practised on the con tinent of Europe, arguing that the different state of things existing here destroyed all analogy between the case of continental countries and England. He next examined the principles of this mode of voting in the United States of America, where the votes, it appeared, wert not secret, but by tickets; and all we could understand from the American practice was that if a voter chose to conceal his vote he might do so ' • but secrecy was not, as Mr. Berkeley seemed to assume, an essential part of the vote by ballot in America. In Massachusetts, where the ballot had bees practically open, a system of com pulsory secrecy was introduced, and continued in force two years, when the old system was reverted to, and there was now no S ate in the Union in which the votes wire compulsorily secret. In con sidering what would be the effect of acceding to this motion, the house must ask what was the system Mr. Berkeley recommended. Was the secrecy to be optional or compulsory ? The experience of the United States was against compulsory secrecy, and his (Sir G. Lewis's) conviction was that the attempt to introduce it into this country would be to row again-t as irresistible current, and that such an institution would be repugnant to the nature of the people. If a system of optional secrecy was ad.ipted, which some regarded as a panacea tor all the evils of our electoral system, it was his confident opinion that the great majority of the electors were ready and even desirous to avow their vote. In order to pro tect all voters, secrecy of voting must be made compulsory, winch was not done in the United States. In his opinion we must look to moral in• fluences, and not, to laws, for an amendment of the practices complained of. Mr. GREER supported the motion. _ _ Lord J. Bussei.t, observed that Mr. Berkeley rested his case upon three assumptions, all of which he believed to be erroneous ; first, that at this moment there prevailed so much intimidation that it was impossible that the opinions of those who were in trusted with the elective franchise could be fairly ascertained ; secondly, that the voter had an inde feasible right to give his vote without reference to any one but himself, and without being brought before any tribunal to answer for his vote; and thirdly, that there is a very general and prevailing - occupy the public attention at this moment, which appear to me to be fair and proper inquiries to he made by Parliament, and which I hope her Majesty's Government will not shrink from answering. No one can for a moment shut his eyes to the extreme peril in which at this moment our authority in India is placed ; hut, sir, little as my confidence has ever been in the Government of that country, I cannot say that I take those despairing or desperate views with respect to our frisition, or with regard to India, which in a moment of danger or calamity are too often prevalent. I beg to express my opinion—an opinion which I have before expressed in this house—that the tenure by which we hold India is not a frail one.- When I reflect that that country is inhabited by twenty five nations different in race, different in religion, different in language, I say it is no easy process by which such hete loweneous elements can be fused into combination. But as perhaps everything is possible, and every disaster prac ticable, if there is an inefficient or a negligent Government, the house will be performing its highest duty if at tLis, the earliest of p inanity after intelligence has arrived which has produced great alarm in the capital of her Majesty's kingdom, it invites her Majesty's Government frankly to express what, in their opinion, is the cause of this great calamity ; and, above all, what are the means which they intend to take—at once to take—in order to encounter the perils which have arisen, and to prevent the evil consequences which are to be apprehended. Mr. VERNON SMITH, in reply, said that in a short time 14,000 men would be on their way to India. He hoped that the house would not be led "to ex aggerate the crisis by the mag titude of the steps they were taking. '1 hose troops would be sent out solely as a measure of security." He hoped that the next mail would bring favourable intelligence. Delhi was capable of being easily surrounded ; so that if we could not overcome the mutineers by force, we could do so by famine : He had no doubt, however, that their reduction would be effected by force. General Anson had appeared before the place, and on the 27th of May he would have had an ample force. Unfortunately, the mail left on the 27th, and he (Mr. Smith) could not, therefore, appiise the house that Delhi had been razed to the ground, but he hoped that by the next mail they would learn that ample retribu- tion hal ueen exacted from the mutineers. In reply to Mr. Disraeli's questions, Mr. Vernon Smith said that various causes of this disaffection had been bruited about in society, but none of them had ever been pressed upon the Home Government, nor had any application ever been made by the local Governments for an increase in the European troops at their disposal. As to the withdrawal of military officers for the purposes of the civil service, that had been the habitual practice for a long series of years, and had never been disapproved of by successive Governments. "At the same time it should be recol lected that whenever a regiment was called into action, it was the rule that all the officers who were engaged in any branch of the civil service should immediately join their troops." With reference to the alleged interference with the religion of the native troops, Mr. Vernon Smith was not aware that the cartridge question, and "other causes," had even been brought so prominently before the Government as to justify a charge of neglect against the Govern ment for not having applied a remedy to them. Mr. Vernon Smith exculpated Lord Canning from the charge of vacillation, and said that neither on this occasion nor on any previous occasion had he ten derei his resignation, and had "behaved in this emergency with the vigour and judgment which he (Mr. V. Smith) always anticipated." With respect to the reported difference of opinion between General Anson and Lord Canning, Mr. V. Smith observed : sm quite aware that subject has been bruited about in private circles, but of my own knowledge I know nothing of it. I have always heard those gentlemen in private speak in the highest possible terms of each other, and I am not aware that there were such differences between them as might not be allowed between all men acting together in public life. In conclusion, Mr. Smith declined to go further into details, but declared his belief that no danger exists further than that any outbreak may happen periodi cally in India from fanaticism or other causes, to be put down as sureiy as the present outbreak will be." SAVINGS-BANICS. Sir H. Wilmot:max asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer for an explanation as to the purchase of 287,8001. Three per Cent. stock and 2,470,0001. Ex chequer Bills, and as to the sale of 2,384,030/. Three per Cent stock and 111,0001. Exchequer Bills, be longing to the trustees of savings banks, in the year ending the 20th of November, 1858. He wished to know what was the meaning of this gigantic stock jobbing transaction effected without the knowledge of that house. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the operation complained of was as follows: On the 20th of November, 1855, the balance in the hands of the Savings•bank Commissioners was 217,0001. 'That was not stock nor Exchequer Bills, but money in hand which it was incumbent on the commissioners to invest. In the course of last year it became necessary to borrow 2,000,001. on Exchequer Bills, and the Government had therefore to consider what would be the most advantageous step to take. They accordingly sold 103,0001. of the snip -bank stock, which produced a sum of 1,703,0001.,