The Press. — London, England, 1853-08-06 00:00:00

AUGUST 6, 1853. this principle he conceived no possibility of objection, since it merely tended to secure the incomes of those who were connected with the Church in a manner more befitting their spiritual character and duties than the mode in which the payment of those incomes was at present regulated. Sir B. HALL congratulated the Legislature upon the advance they were making towards Church reform, and, after citing some instances of alleged extreme abuses in relation to Church properties, endeavoured to extract from Lord J. Russell a recognition of the necessity of placing on a better footing the distribu tion of the enormous capitular and episcopal estates. Lord J. RUssE►.t., however, would only express his regret that the supporters of the bill should still press for a second reading. Detailing the changes which had been effected in the administration of Church revenues through the machinery of the Eccle siastical Commission, he remarked that the ques tion involved in the bill, so far as the members of the episcopal body were concerned, related, not to the a►nount of their incomes, but to the mode in which they were to receive it : " The original principle to which Parliament adhered was that laid down by Mr. Burke—that Parliament had no more right to inquire into the revenue of a bishop than they had to inquire into the income of a private proprietor. h o Tat principle had been entirely abandoned in the reports f the commissioners in 1t435 and in subsequent years ; and it had at length been admitted that, if those revenues could be distributed inure usefully for the Church, they should be applied in a new mode for Church purposes, with the condition, however, that the life interest of the existing holders was to be respected. But in applying that new principle the bishops had thought that it could not be desirable that they should appear as the mere recipients of salaries for state purposes. They had considered that episcopal revenues should still be connected with the land; that bishops should still have the power of managing the estates of their sees ; that whatever was the sum which Parliament might think pmper to affix to their offices, their actual receipts should be allowed to fluctuate according to the rents which they might receive ; and they wished par ticularly that bishops should not be induced to mismanage their property in any way." That the system organised by the commissioners in the first instance was susceptible of improvement might, he acknowledged, be possible; and the sub ject would fairly come for discussion before the Legislature hereafter. But he questioned whether the proposition embodied in the bill would tend to such improvement; and, at all events, was not then prepared to give any decided opinion on the matter. Mr. AOLIONBY liming briefly supported the bill, The Marquis of BLANoroan yielded to the Minis terial appeal and consented to withdraw the motion. The bill is consequently thrown over for the present session. MISSIONARY BISHOPS BILL This bill stood for second reading in the House of Commons on Monday, when Mr. A. KINNAIRD moved that it be read a second time that day three months. It had, he maid, been carried with unseemly haste through the House of Lords, and interested parties had had no time to con sider it.. Lord SEYMOUR also opposed the bill. Mr. R. PHIIJIMORE explained its objects, after which The bill was rejected without a division. COLONIAL CHURCH REGULATION A motion for advancing this bill on Monday next through the stage of a second reading was made on Tuesday by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, who wished the house to see and consider certain amendments to be proposed by the Solicitor-General. There was no intention of pressing the measure further this ses• sion. Mr. KINNAIRD opposed the motion, believing that the bill was too bad to be mended, and that no colony would accept it if it were offered. Too much religions disputation had already intruded itself into Parliament ; and, to shut out the possibility of more from this source, he moved that the bill be read a second time that day three months. After some remarks from Mr. HADFIELD and Sir R. INGLIS, The Souctroa-GENERAL pleaded on behalf of the motion that, if the amendments were laid upon the table, it would be found that the bill was reduced to one•tenth, and that they would accomplish two ob jects—first, that there should be preserved the most perfect religions equality among all denominations in the colonies ; and, secondly, that the colonies should be left to the free and uncontrolled manage ment of all their affairs, ecclesiastical and civil. Some considerable discussion ensued, in which Lord J. Ilussm.t. explained and Mr. It. PALMER de fended the bill. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE QUER also supported it, with some general remarks upon the condition of the Church in the colonies. Mr. ♦. SMITH, Mr. HENLEY, alid Mr. NI.7WDEGATE opposed the motion, and ultimately Mr. Kinnaird's amendment was agreed to, and the bill is consequently lost. THE PRESS. JUVENILE OFFENDERS. The second reading of this bill was moved on Monday by Mr. Adderley. who, however, admitted the impossibility of passing it this session. He wished, nevertheless, to have this opportunity of ex plaining and discussing its provisions, in order that they might be fully considered during the recess, and the opinion of the public pronounced upon them. The object of the bill, he went on to state, " was siinply the estalel ishnietet , or the permissive eSt ablish melt, by counties and burghs. of reformatory schools, to which young criminals might be sent, and in which a new treatment might be introduced to a certain extent, viz., that of industrial t►aining and of supplying parental care and home influence, instead of the rough and ordinary mode of treatment of such young criminals by short pc. rioebe of imprisonment in the common gaolsof the country. It was a great stigma to any country to allow the pre sent state of things with respect. to these children to OM. thine tOr a moment. The treatment judicially and penally of these children was a great aggravation of the 'tangent of the system, and different from that pursued in conti nental countries. The system was not only 1111.11114 but in efficient, for it tended to foster crime and increase the number of young criminals. lie did not mean to say that the plan he proposed was complete. It dealt only with one of the leading features of the system. A complete plan must include some modified system of imprisonment for juvenile offenders. The principle of the bill had be e n re. enguised at various periods, and hail been acted on in more than one instance.'• Mr. MONCKTON MILNKS having supported the motion, _ _ Mr. )taxes professed an insurmountable objection to every plan which tended to blend pauperism with crime. Mr. HENLEY considered the subject so important that it ought to have formed the subject of a Go vernment bill, instead of being left to a private mem ber. The present moment was, he remarked, pe culiarly favourable to legislation on the subject, owing to the ready demand for labour which they now ex perienced. V►scount PAINF ssTo N. in recognising the importance of the subject, recommended the house to consent to the second reading of the bill, in order that it might be considered and its details improved against next session : " The object. of the measure in dealing with crime and offence might be 'mid to be threefold. In some cases the object of punishment was example, in others a eotnbina tion of example and reformation, and in others it was purely reformation. With regard to cr . •s of great vio lence and atrocity, committed by full-grown persons, so- eiety required that the I 'intent should be exemplary and deterring. The greater number of crimes cotmuitted by adults were of a mixed character, in which the punish ment rep tired to be exemplary, for the purpose of deterring, but in which the hope of reformation was not to be aban doned. With regard to them the punishment must be twofold. lint he admitted, that with regard to children re formation must be considered as the principal if not the only object, and that the punishment for deterring was only secondary. The general principle recommend e d by the 1 . tnetuber opposite was deserving of the greatest consideration, and he thought it likely that it would he embodied in any measure which might be intrduetsl on the subject next session. The particular clauses and ma chinery of the bill required mature consideration. lie hoped that it might be combined with another measure ( the Juvenile Mendicancy Hill) which had come down from the other house, but which was nut in a shape to be passed at present." Mr. Ilt , mE opposed the bill, of which Sir .1. GRA HAM approved, as to its salient characteristics, and gave a modified promise to make it the basis of a Government bill on the subject in the ensuing ses sion, for which he requested support and co-operation from Mr. Adderley. The bill then passed the second reading, and was ordered to be committed that day three months. LANI►LOItI AND TENANT (IRELAND) HILL. On the motion for the third reading of this bill on Monday evening, Lord MAncti moved an amendment to the 10th clause, with the object of preventing landlords from distraining upon growing crops. The SoLicFrou-GENERAL for Ireland resisted this amendment. The division which followed WILY memorable, as being the first at which "strangers" were allowed to be present, pursuant to the resolutions agreed to by the house that same evening. The result was to reject the amendment by a majority of 94 to 70. A clause afterwards moved by the Irish Somerroft- GENERAL for preventing the summary ejection of a tenant until he had had opportunity to claim com pensation for improvements was carried upon a division, and the bill then passed. MERCHANT SHIPPING RILL The bill was read a third time in the House of Commons on Monday. On the question "that the bill do pass," Mr. HUTT moved the omission of three clauses relative to seamen volunteering into the navy, and moved the insertion of a clause enacting that no officer in her Majesty's service should knowingly per mit or encourage any seaman to leave the vessel in which he waa engaged, and that any seaman leaving 317 his ship and entering the Queen's service shall be liable to all the penalties of desertion. A long discussion ensued on this proposition, in the course of which Sir JAMES GRAHAM! pleaded pre scription for retaining the existing order of things. For a hundred years the law had recognised the right of the seaman to terminate his contract with a merchant captain by entering a Queen's ship. The Royal Navy, moreover, performed important services to the mercantile marine, and was justly entitled to mane reciprocity of good offices. Yet, un l ess th e former were allowed to recruit from the latter, it would be necessary for many of the Queen's vessels to abandon the stations at which they were placed. lie remarked, however, that very careful cheeks were provided, and he also showed from statistics that the numbers who had availed themselves of this right had by no means been such as to muse alarm. Mr WlLsos related a case iu which a merchant vessel was stripped of her best hands by a navy ship, and, being thus left unmanageable, was towed into port by that same ship, and 5,0001. salvage demanded for the service. Admiral lit itKELEY believed that the men who volunteered into navy vessels did 50 only to escape brutal tyranny from the captains. Complaints of ill-treatment were so numerous, and desertions on that account so frequent, that 14,000/. annually voted by Parliament was spent in bringing home seamen who had let% their ships under hard usage. Mr. Herr proposed to moditSr his clause, but on a division it was negatived, there being—For, 40; Against, 129. Captain ticoecu. moved the introduction of a clause providing that the crews of vessels shall he after the rate of one apprentice to the first hundred tons, and one seaman to every twenty-five tons; 0110 apprentice above seventeen years of age to be reckoned as one seaman on every hundred tons, and nine sea men to be counted for eight seamen and two boys on every two hundred tons beyond the first hundred tons. The clause was negatived by 154 to 7. Mr. HORSFALL moved a clause giving justices of the pear() jurisdiction in the cases of offences com mitted on shipboard by merehant seamen or appren tices within two miles of their jurisdiction. This clause was negatived without a division. Mr. holism moved a clause intended to prevent the coasting trade being thrown open to foreign ships, which was rejected on division by 104 to 35. Tho bill then passed. NAVAL COAST VOLUNTEERS RILL. This bill, which passed through committee on Monday, contains provisions for raising a body of 10,000 men for the defence of the British coasts, by means of a bounty, the amount to be M., as in the ease of the militia. Five years to be the limit, except in time of danger, when it may he extended to six. When called out, the payment will be the same as that of able seamen, with twopenee a day additional during the last year. The men are not to be liable to be taken more than fifty leagues from the English coast, except in time of danger, when a hundred leagues is to be the limit. JAMAICA. The motion for going into committee of aupply on Thursday afforded Lord J. Rossi:Ll. an opportu pity to give his promi►►ed explanations regarding the future government of the island of Jamaica : " Ile referred to the reverses which all the West India colonies had experienced fronts the extinction of slavery and other legielation, but remarked that !British Guiana and Trinidad had bruited to and benefited by the advice of the home Government. But the pro-sent cow of Ja maica VIM different. The representative system there had been perverted to purposes inoompatibk) with the welfare of the colony. The Assembly raised money, voted sup plies, and managed disbursement's—a system which had led to alternate lavish expenditure and unjust economy. By the Government plan it was not intended to suspend the representative constitut • , but to induce the Assembly and the Council to agree upon terms which should be a basis for future working. It was proposed, first, that there should be a permanent act for paying the salaries of judi cial and other officers which ought to be permanently provided for; secondly, that in the Assembly there should be no grant mails except on the propomition of Nome person representing the ('town ; mod, thirdly, that certain mem• hers of the Assembly should be responsible for proposals regarding the public money. If these terms were agreed to, it would be the endeavour of Government to place the finances .lauptiest on a better footing. There was a pub lic debt of 11110,11011/., bearing interest at six per cent. It was designed to give an Ituperial guarantee for this debt, and to create a kinking fillet, se that reduction's in taxation and in the interest might be effected ; and it was also meant to propose that the salaries of various official persons should be reduced, compensation being given to the pre sent holdens on their resigning. In this the Assembly would have to grant about tolkniel/. Sir Charles Grey had acted as governor for the full usual time, and with signal success, and would be succeeded by Sir Henry Barkly, whose would be reduced to 5,MJ01. Lord J. Russell concluded lat Tly expressing his belief that, if the present dis sensions in Jamaica could be healed, that colony would succeed as well ea the other Wail India colonies had done in rooovelai egteaske."