The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-12 00:00:00

..-1- 750 These he thought were no insignificant results from live months' warfare. As to the conditions of an ac ceptable peace, he still declined to define them, but repeated that no peace would be considered just, honoura ale, or lasting, which did not secure the in • tegrity and independence of the Turkish empire, and make it a part of the general system of European polity Without this, I repeat, no peace can be just or honour. able, or lasting. In order to arrive at this object we desire the co-operation of other Oovernments ; but we are not de pendent upon them. France and England will not relax in their efforts. They rely upon their own resourses, upon the justice of the cause in which they are engaged, upon the support that they receive from their own people ; and although we are ready to negotiate for peace we are determined never to do so until we have evidence of a bond fide intention on the part of Russia to accept those condi tions which we feel are just, and which the whole of Europe are interested in obtaining. (Hear. )" Lord CLANRICARDE offered a few remarks in reply, and the subject dropped. RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT SECURITIES BILL. The third reading of this bill was moved iu the House of Commons on Monday, when Sir F. KELLY proposed the insertion of a fresh clause in the place of clause 1, and the addition of a proviso by which the original import of the bill was almost entirely changed, and exceptions enacted from its penal con sequences in favour of all commercial firms who had a house of business abroad, and among whose part ners one or more subjects of a foreign power might be numbered. Also, the possession of Russian se curities was to be declared legal, provided they had been acquired by inheritance, or as payment for a bona fide debt. Sir F. Kelly traced the operation of his suggested provisions, and contended that they offered a considerable improvement upon the original mea sure. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL declared that the pro• posed additions were contradictory, and opposed to the general spirit of the measure. The exceptions, be argued, opened so wide a door for evasion that they would render the whole bill utterly ineffectual. Mr. Hume recommended the postponement of all legislation on the subject until next session. Lord DUDLEY STUART had heard nothing to con vince him that the bill was not a good one. It was not designed, he said, against respectable persons, but against those whose unprincipled cupidity would induce them, if permitted, to lend money to the ene mies of their country. Mr. WILKINSON objected both to the new clause and the old, disapproving of the whole principle of the bill. Lord J. RUSSELL remarked that in principle the bill did but carry out the existing code of law by which it was made high treason to lend money to an alien enemy. Comparing the effect of the clause proposed by Sir F. Kelly with the original provisions of the measure, he pronounced an opinion in favour of the latter. Both clause and proviso were negatived without a division, and the bill was read a third time. A di vision was then taken on the question "that the bill do pass." There appeared—For, 51 ; Against, 13- 38. The bill then passed. THE APPOINTMENT OF MR. O'FLAHERTY. The motion for taking a money bill—the Consoli dated Fund (Appropriation) Bill—into consideration furnished an opportunity on Tuesday to Mr. LUCAS for calling attention to circumstances connected with the appointment of persons entrusted with the col lection of the revenue, with especial reference to the office of the Special Commissioner of Income Tax in Ireland. The public prints had stated, he said, that an officer appointed by the Chancellor of the Exche quer not twelve months ago had absconded, or left he country, having committed forgeries to the extent 0 : 14,0001. or 10,0001., and he charged Mr. Gladstone (subject to explanation) that, apart from the defal cation, he had appointed a person grossly unfit for the functions committed to him. The office of spe cial commissioner was one of great trust, and the person appointed should be above all possible temp tation ; whereas it was notorious that Mr. Edmund O'Flaherty was weighed down with embarrassments, and any person who appointed him to even the inte rior office of commissioner for general purposes woull have violated his duty. Moreover, he bad not, Mr. Lucas asserted, any qualification whatever for the office, except that of being a political partisan, and of having rendered services to the Government. He wished to know, he said, whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer justified the appointment, and whe ther Mr. O'Flaherty was now a commissioner. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER stated that Mr. O'Flaherty had ceased to hold office many months ago; not, however, on account of any reported faults or unfitness, but simply because the office itself was abolished. In February last the Board of Inland Revenue had stated that the levy of the income tax in Ireland was so easy that it would be perfectly practicable to dispense with the special staff; the Treasury acted upon this suggestion, the appoint- THE PRESS. ments of the special commissioners ceased, and Mr. O'Flaherty became a private individual. Mr. Glad stone admitted that he had since heard rumours of misconduct on the part of Mr. O'Flaherty, but consi dered it no part of his duty to inquire into their truth. With regard to his fitness for the office, he (Mr. Gladstone) had taken pains to obtain the most com petent persons ; and had consulted the Secretary for Ireland, who recommended Mr. O'Flaherty, whom he had believed to be a respectable person, and knew nothing of his partisanship. He was a brother of a member of the house who was spoken of in terms of warm esteem by persons on whose judgment he placed the firmest reliance. Mr. O'Flaherty was not a pub lic accountant, not a farthing of the public money having passed through his hands. Mr. Dissksu reminded the house that this same Mr. O'Flaherty was the person whose testi mony had been quoted with so much parade to cor roborate a charge formerly made against Lord Naas, with reference to Mr. Keogh : "An extraordinary effect was certainly produced by a very positive statement that, whatever might have been the in tentions of his noble friend—whatever might have been the hon. and learned Solicitor-General's interpretation of them—his noble friend had admitted to a third person, who was described as a gentleman of the highest character, honour, and veracity, that he had made a formal offer of office to the hon. and leaned Solicitor-General. He knew privately how completely astonished was his noble friend at that charge. But still the statement was made so positively—it was one that it was so impossible to en , counter—that it produced a great effect upon the house —(Hear, hear)—and there was a general impression that his noble friend had spoken to the Solicitor-General iu a manner totally different from that which he wished to convey to the house. He had not the slightest wish to say that which was harsh of an absent man ; sunless, if possible, to say it of any one he did not know. He wished to take the most charitable view that he could under the circum stances; but he must be allowed to remind the house, in justice to his noble friend, that the individual upon whose testimony this shadowy charge bad seemed fur a moment to receive some substance was this same Mr. O'Flaherty. ( Hear.) He did not want unnecessarily to attack Mr. O'Flaherty, but he did not think there was any hon. gen. tleinan who, under the present circumstances, would rise and vouch for the high honour, veracity, and character of that individual, and upon his assertion attempt to substan tiate a charge against his noble friend the member for Coleraine. (Hear.) He did not wish to press upon the consideration of the house in any way at the present mo ment whether the Government had been reckless or im prudent in the distribution of their patronage ; these were subjects upon which the house and the counwy would form their own opinion; he had no desire in any way at this moment to guide it. He never thought that party interests were much advanced by these personal attacks. (Hear, hear.) He thought it was the duty of members of Parlia ment to bring before the notice of Parliament the conduct of the Government if they thought they had made unwor thy appointments; but it was always a most disagreeable duty. It was not for that reason he had risen ; but he had risen to vindicate the conduct and character of an absent friend, and to remind the house of what had oc- curred." Colonel DUNNE remarked that the Secretary for Ireland must have been aware of the antecedents of Mr. O'Flaherty, who had long been conspicuous in politics in Ireland. He added that the noble lord the member for Coleraine, upon the occasion to which the right hon. gentleman had referred, had in his hand damning proof that Mr. O'Flaherty was a person not worthy to be believed, but he had too much delicacy to bring it forward. The subject then dropped. BRIBERY BILL. This bill was read a third time in the Peers on Monday evening. The question way then put that the bill should pass, but the Marquis of CLANRICARDE interposed, by moving an amendment of which he had given notice for inserting the word " not" in clause 23 (the tra velling expenses clause). By this addition, the pay ment of such expenses to, or on account of, the vo ters at elections would be declared " not" legal. Lord REDESDALE opposed the amendment, on the ground that it would lead to a great disfranchisement of voters. The Duke of NEWCASTLE was favourable to the ob ject implied by the amendment, but did not think it would be expedient to adopt it at the present mo ment, mainly on account of the temporary nature of the bill. Disapproving, however, of the clause as it stood, he proposed to move that it be omitted alto gether. After a debate, in which Lord Campbell, the Earl of Stradbroke, Lord Wynford, and Lord Brougham engaged, The amendment was negatived; and their lord ships divided on the question that the clause stand part of the bill. The numbers were— For the clause Against it? Majority against The clause, which had been framed and introduced in the other house by Lord J. Russell himself, was consequently struck out, and the bill passed. The Lords' amendments to the bill were considered in the Commons on the following day (Tuesday), SATURDAY, - - when Lord J. RUSSELL moved that they should be agreed to. Referring to the question of travel ling expenses, and to the circumstance that the clause relating thereto had been struck out in the Upper House, the noble lord remarked that Parlia ment must hereafter define in what degree the pay ment of such expenses ought to be legalised. Lord HOTHADI was surprised to find that Lord J. Russell wished them to adopt a change which re moved a clause he had himself proposed. Calling upon the House of Commons not to concur in this process of self-stultification, he moved that the further consideration of the measure be proceeded with that day month. Lord J. RUSSELL deprecated a course which would defeat the bill, and nullify the result of their pro tracted labour on the subject of bribery. The debate was prolonged for some time by speeches from Mr. Hildyard, Mr. Hume, Sir J. Pakington, Mr. I. Butt, and other members. On a division there appeared—For agreeing with the Lords' amendments, 78; against, 21-57. Lord HOTHAU renewed his opposition to the bill as amended, and moved the adjournment of the house, but the motion was negatived on division by 81 votes against 16-68. Motions for adjourning the house or the debate were renewed alternately and pressed to divisions, on, which they were negatived by considerable majorities. Finally, the further opposition to the measure was withdrawn, upon the understanding that the dura tion of the measure should be further restricted to a single year. Lord J. RUSSELL having signified his assent to that compromise, the Lords' amendments to the bill were accepted. PUBLIC OFFICES. Lord REDESDALE on Tuesday moved for some returns relating to the various houses and buildings hired for official purposes, including Crown pro perty : " His object in making this motion was to call attention to the condition of, and the accommodation afforded by, the public offices, which ware inferior to those of any other country. It was most desirable that all the public offices should be collected in the neighbourhood of Whitehall and Downing-street, and for that purpose he recommended the purchase of the laud between Downing-street and George' street, which was now covered with interior buildings. If this land were purchased, a suitable site would be obtained for the public offices ; and, if such dikes were erected with their front in continuance of the line of that of Whitehall, a great and necessary improvement would be effected in the width and character of Parliament-street, which would make that street a suitable one to form the great approach to the Houses of Parliament." The Duke of NEWCASTLE promised to produce the returns, which, he admitted, would establish beyond all question the exceedingly great inconveniences of the mode under which the public offices were at present conducted " " He was not, he believed, far wrong whenhe stated that, independently of the o ffi ces held by the country in fee simple, there were now being paid annual rents for some thing more than tifty-six different offices. Of these fifty six, only seven were held of the Crown, and rent was paid for the whole of the remainder to private individuals. He believed that 20,0001. a year was paid for rents by the offiee of Woods and Forests alone. But there was nut only an enormous sum paid for rents ; a most extravagant system was adopted in consequence of the dispersed and inconve nient character of the buildings rented. These building& had been most of them private houses, and therefore they were only suited for private families, and as a matter of COUYse almost one half the space was thrown away wastefully.. But this was not all. There must be office-keepers and messengers to each. Messengers were kept running about, and undoubtedly, besides the rent, a considerable sum *as annually expended in this way. And for what? Why, that the public business might be inconvenienced, and carried on with much less satisfaction to those who had the conduct of it, and with much less advantage to the public, than if a considerable sum were at once expended in the erection of new buildings, the interest on the capital of which lie believed would be less than the amount annually paid for rent. To give some idea of the inconvenience sustained under the present state of things, he would men tion that, apart from the central office held by the Board of' Trade which the President occupied, there were ten or eleven other offices elsewhere, in which the business of de partments of the board was carried on. The same obser vation applied to the War department. He did not speak only of the great offices of the Horse Guards and the Ordnance, but of a slumber of small offices, such as the re cruiting-office, the medical inspector's office, the medical examination of recruits office, and others, all of which, being held in different buildings, were practically bey% ar, ouil that supervision and control , by the Secretary at 1 which the head of every department ought to base the means of exercising. The question, ore, theref of not merely one of pounds, shilling s, and pence, ias one economy and efficiency ; and for these reasons he believed it would be for the advantage for the public service that a considerable expenditure should be incurred for this pur pose. The attention of the Government had been directed to the subject, but under existing circumstances he could give no pledge upon it. We wee at this moment e n g a g ed in very expensive operations, and it must be matter for consideration how far it would be r ight or desirable to choose such a time for calling upon Parliament for such to expenditure."