The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

750- TERNS OF SUBSCRIPTION ebt VrE55O: (STAMPED) Per Annum .. Half Yearly.. Quarterly .. .. .. PAYABLE IN ♦DVANCE. • Al 6 0 .. 0 13 0 ▪0 6 6 Subscribers are requested to send their orders through News ♦ggents; If direct to the Office, accompanied by a remittance advertittenenta also must have a reference or remittance Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALFRED Iva, 110 Strand, London. - ii tt l' rtoo4 LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1857. POSTSCRIPT. P,►ais, Friday. The Moniteur announces that France has obtained an authorisation from Baden to construct a perma nent bridge over the Rhine, between Strasburg and Kehl. It is announced that the Imperial Court goes into five days' mourning for the Prince of Canino. The Paris correspondent of yesterday's Morning Post (second edition) states : The news which has reached Paris from India appears to correspond with that you have published in London in its main features. The French Government is not in possession of any details beyond those brought by the telegraph as to the state of India, but previous despatches speak, I am informed, of a greater amount of discontent in the Indian army generally than appear in the English acoounte. Reports from Russian sources go still further, and declare we cannot depend on the loyalty of the troops in any part of our Indian empire. I fear we shall find more truth in these assertions than you seem to believe in England, tailless, indeed, the intrigues of our enemies have failed, and we hear not what has actually occurred, but that which they hoped and expected would take place. On the 21st of June the French consul at Calcutta called together all the French inhabitants and cap ta'ns of French vessels, and desired them to furnish and equip armed men, to watch over the safety of the European community. The French families were taken on board the vessels, and all Europeans are armed. LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE. HOUSE OF LORDS. The Earl of in moving for some papers, criticised the military operations in Bengal consequent upon the mutiny of the sepoys, and censured the Government for the neglect they had evinced in not providing the means of land transport. Owing to this deficiency, he contended, Sir A. Barnard had been left without reinforcements, and disabled from attacking Delhi for many weeks after that operation might have been accomplished, and the revolt crushed in that quarter. This delay, the noble lord remarked, occurred at a very critical period, since the approach of the rainy season would render the position occupied by the English force altogether untenable. Earl GRANVILLE replied, and referred to documents showing, as he submitted, that the Governor-General had omitted nothing in his power to accelerate the military operation. He proceeded to remark with some pungency upon the impropriety of civilian oriticism touching military affairs. The Earl of MALMESBURY supported and enforced the censure of Lord Ellenborough on the Indian Government. The Duke of ARGYLL rene wed the Ministerial Inculpations, and the subject dropped. Various bills were forwarded a stage, and their lordships adjourned at ten minutes to seven o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS. IRISH REVISING At the early sitting of the house, the motion for going into committee on the Revising Barristers (Ireland) Bill was opposed by Mr. NAPIER, who remarked upon the injustice it would icflict upon the existing revising barristers in Ireland. He moved as an amendment that the bill should be committed that day month. The ATTORNET.GEXERAI for IRELAND defended the measure, which he said bad become necessary be. gauss the existing sot had proved totally inoperative. coaVidtPble 011PR4;CIR PP*? Mbia way E- PR s ICP .IJOUST 1, 1 members participated. Finally, the house divided. For the motion, 90; against., 57-83. The house went into committee on the bill, and passed several clauses. SLIGO ELECTION. Sir J. Y. Emma reported from the Sligo Election Committee, that Mr. P. Somets was unduly elected, and that Mr. J. A. Wynne was duly elected, and ought to have been returned member for the borough. _ _ In the evening sitting, Lord J. RUSSELL gave notice that on Monday next he should move for a select committee to in. quire into the effect of the Act 5 d; 6 Will. IV. chap 62, with the view of ascertaining how far that sta tute was applicable to the oaths taken by members of Parliament. He should propose a committee of twenty-five members, and inquired whether the Go vernment would allow his mot►on to take precedence of other business on that evening. Lord PALMERSTON consented to postpone all the Ministerial motions until the motion of the noble lord was disposed of. Sir J. PAramyrox asked Lord Palmerston whether be would lay on the table a report made by the late Sir C. Napier to the Duke of Wellington respecting the organisation of the Indian army. This report, as he was assured, differed from the document moved for by Mr. Disraeli, from which extracts had been already promised. Two reports had been pre pared by Sir C. Napier, and the one he wished to obtain was dated iu 1850, and contained an elaborate statement respecting the system of the Indian army. Lord PAIXERSTON was not aware that more than one report was in existence. He would have inquiry made, and if the paper of 1850 could be found, he apprehended there would be no difficulty in pro ducing the whole or parts of it. Mr. WHITESIDE called attention to a petition from same Hindoo inhabitants of Bengal, Berar, and Orissa for themselves and the other Hindoo inhabi tants of the said provinces. The petitioners corn plained of certain invasions of their religious rights and privileges. Some discussion followed, in which Mr. V. SMITH, Sir C. Woon, and other member 4 took part. The subject then dropped. DIVORCE. The adjourned debate on the Divorce and Matri monial Causes Bill (second reading) was re sumed by Mi. GLADSTONE, who condemned the precipitancy with which so important and novel a measure was urged through the Legislature. He attributed this haste to the desire of doing something so as to avoid the disgrace of a blank session. He insisted that the bill involved a new and dangerous principle, and pointed out the broad distinction between the special acts which allowed certain parties to be divorced by way of privilege, and a statute by which divorce was adopted as a recognised element of the legal system. Parliament, be contended, were not competent to deal with the question. The marriage bond pos. sessed a threefold character. It was at one and the same time a civil contract, a solemn vow, and a religious obligation. It was only as regarded the first of these three charaoters that the house was entitled to legislate. Erm Acts of Parliament would not absolve men from their vows, or release them from obligations which the Church bad witnessed and sanctioned. The right hon. member then proceeded to analyse the arguments of the Attorney• General, controverting in detail the various constructions of scriptural texts which had been advanced in support of the bill. He afterwards adverted to historical testimony, showing that in all ages and countries marriage had been held indissoluble by the Christian Church. The bill, be maintained, would outrage the religious feelings of the country, and tend in its con sequences to produce the most serious social evils. Mr. WALPOLE described the practical operation of the bill. It admitted no new principle or lighter cause of divorce than was at present recognised, but simply substituted one good tribunal for three bad ones. The objections urged against the measure seemed to him self-contradictory, and he did not apprehend any corruption of public morality from its enactment. He wished, however, to introduce a clause relieving the clergy from any compulsion to marry divorced persons against the conscientious scruples which many of them were known to enter tain. The ATTORNEY -GENERAL having replied,addressing his rejoinder chiefly to the speech of Mr Gladstone, The house divided, For the second reading Against The bill was then read a second time. The remaining business having been disposed of, Op) bones Adjourned at half-past one 0'p19911, 1hk.,.. SECOND EDITION. SATURDAY AFTERNOON. LATEST INTELLIGENCE THE MUTINY IN INDIA, THE Indian despatches atj length give us some details upon the actual state of India. Delhi was not captured up to the leth. The rebellion is universal throughout Bengal, the country is becoming filled with banditti, and the movement has commenced to show itself among the native princes. The arrest of the King of Oude is confirmed, and the complicity of the old King of Delhi and of the Nawa of Moorshedabad, with others of less note, is certain. The forces of the Rajah of Gwalior are in open revolt, and, though the Rajah has protected the Euro peans, he prefers remaining with his troops in the present emergency. In the Nizam's do minions the contingent had mutinied at Aurungabad, and a revolt is believed to have occurred at Hyderabad, while the conduct of &Ladle, the Mahratta chief, was watched with no little apprehension. The most serious mutiny of the many which have occurred is that of the Sikhs and Irregulars at Benares, and of the Bhurtpore levies and Malwa con tingent. This is a subject for grave reflec tion, for these troops were in no way affected by the cartridge question. Happily no out break has yet occurred at Bombay or Madras, but a sense of uneasiness in both Presidencies was predominant, and emissaries from the rebels were known to be tampering with the troops. " The empire," remarks the Bombay Times in summing up its terrible list of muti nies and massacres, "is passing through a most terrible crisis in its history, and we are looking with much anxiety for reinforcements of European troops." It is worthy of noto to remark the change which appears to have come over the Minis terial organs, which have hitherto ridiculed the notion that the native princes were leagued against us, or that the rebellion was anything but a " mere military mutiny." With the Post, on Monday last, the mutiny was " without mental or moral organisation ; " on Wednesday it was " simply a mutiny, not a revolt; " on Thursday it was only a "rabble rout " in Delhi, who had " not much artillery nor munitions." They have only, we learn to-day, 150 guns and vast stores ofpowderand shot; but on Saturday it is "a complete conspiracy; " and "it becomes perfectly clear that the greased cartridges have little or nothing to do with the movement. They may have been used as a paltry excuse ; but the real secret of the rebel lion is in the intrigues of the King of Oude and some of his neighbours." The Times, too, on Tuesday looks "in vain for the influence of dethroned kings and rajahs." It is a " mere affair of soldiery," and nothing " can be found to justify the hypo thesis of Mr. Disraeli." To-day—" As for the behaviour of the native princes and the various bodies of irregulars, it is not always so good or so satisfactory as it might be, but not worse than was expected ;" and "as yet no leader has appeared, and we have only to hope and pray that none such may be found among the native chiefs." This fear does not, at all events, show much eonfidence in the native chiefs, although " the influence of dethroned kings and rajahs " is looked for " in vain." But to return to those actual details which testify in so remarkable a manner to the sa gacity of Mr. Disraeli and the blindness of his opponents : General Barnard arrived before Delhi on the morning of the Ath of June, and in his despatch gives the following account of his first engagement with the mutineers ; _ _ Delhi Cantonments, June 8. Six,—The foreee under my command marched from Aliipor at 9ne dip, Ilionruge 414 4 Ql/ Fe a# 4 744 atoms°