The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

1114.6 , 11 r• 630 questration, the rector would remain abroad to keep out of the way of his creditors, leaving no provision for the due service of his church, and with no power in his diocesan to do more than appoint a curate with a maximum income of 1001. per annum. This evil, as the Archbishop of CANTERBURY stated, had long been known to the right reverend bench, and efforts made to devise some amendment of the law which should be at once safe and sufficient. These attempts, it was hoped, might ripen into an Act during the next session of Parliament. THURSDAY. The Prime Minister came back., happily con valescent and courteously hopeful that public business had not suffered from his compulsory absence. His first care was to settle the long pending Oaths question, and he undertook the task with an evident perception that it was very delicate, and rather disagreeable. Of the two Bills which stood for second reading on the sub ject, Lord DERBY confessed that he preferred— or rather least disliked—that introduced by the Earl of LUCAS. This measure simply provides, that when any Member of either House comes to the table to be sworn, and professes inability to take the usual oaths from conscientious scru ples, the House may modify the formula in such manner as it may deem expedient in order to obviate the difficulty. Lord LYNDHURST natu rally preferred his own Bill, but would not em broil the question by forcing it upon the House. The debate was accordingly taken on Lord LUCAS'S proposition. Some hours were there after spent in discussing the Bill, but as the issue was foreknown, the speeches on either side, though numerous, were short. Arguments were very slightly urged—since what is the use of pleading a cause whereon the verdict is already recorded I)—but a few honest and consistent opinions were expressed, and protests recorded against the measure, which, in a manner however disguised, in a degree however mitigated, still effectually destroys the Christian character of the Imperial Legislature. But in simple truth the position now surrendered had already been undermined. TONI DUNCOMBE had run a sap in one fatal direction by discovering that Baron ROTHSCHILD, without taking any oaths at all, might sit and vote on a Select Committee, and by a parity of reasoning on a Committee of the whole House. Some astute lawyers of the party, it was rumoured about the lobbies, had de tected some wonderful virtues in the con junction accidentally introduced in the ex isting Act. Elected members—so ran their hypothesis were forbidden, under penal ties, to sit and vote," unless they had previously taken the oaths. But, in spite of this inhibition, they might at their pleasure, and with perfect impunity, either sit without voting or vote with out sitting. The Peers avoided future dispu tation by abandoning a fort which had become already honeycombed. A considerable majority obeyed the Premier's reluctant signal, and ac cepted the principle of a bill which declares that if the House of Commons—some at least of whose members are Christian—wish to admit a Jew into their assembly, the question shall be left to their own decision. FRIDAY. Church-rates were discussed for eight hours. Constant iteration has worn all the arguments on the subject threadbare. As a motive for repeal ing the rate, its opponents assert that the subject agitates the country, and have laboured most industriously to manufacture an agitation in order to justify their assertion. Their success has proved but indifferent. Their Lordships recog nized the importance of the subject by the length of their debate; and, finally, settled the question for the present year by voting 187 to 36 against the scheme for robbing the Church. v.. 411, THE PRESS. JULY 3, 1858 completing the indispensable business, and would forego everything else. Having extorted this promise from the Minister, the House imme diately afterwards set to work in a manner which rendered its redemption impossible. Supply was the appointed business for the night. On such a motion, according to the recognized privileges of Parliament, the Government is altogether powerless. Independent members have it all their own way, and the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER can but endeavour to possess his soul in patience, answer questions, explain obscu rities, account for stray items of expenditure, and wait until the hurricane of queries, amend ments, objections, and resolutions, shall have blown over, with the hope that time may after all be left for the transaction of a little real business. This did not happen to-night. At six the House seemed impatient for prorogation ; but from that hour until hall-past one the general tone of the discussion implied that honourable members were quite satisfied with their situation —that no one wished to escape from the neigh bourhood of the Thames, and that the time had not come—even on the 28th of June—when practical work ought to supersede mere talk. The motion for going into Committee of Supply was prefaced by eleven distinct amendments, em bracing a wide range of topics—since nothing comes amiss to such an opportunity and pointing to conclusions of very various character, though destitute of any practical importance. The topics were wide and various. Public debts ; the complicated relationship between the War Mi nister and the Commander-in-Chief ; the purifi cation of the Thames ; the dishonest management of the storekeeper's department at Weedon, and divers other matters, were perforce allowed to monopolize the legislative attention until an ad vanced hour. After many questions had been brought forward, discussed, and either withdrawn or negatived without a division, her Majesty's Ministers at one o'clock recognized the impossi bility of getting through any real work, and accordingly assented to the amendment moved by Colonel BOLDERO for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Weedon defalcations. The sub ject, no doubt, required investigation ; but the night was not the less effectually wasted, so far as regarded the transaction of public business. The House at one moment show an impressible anxiety to get away from the polluted neighbour hood of the Thames. In the next, however, they persist in utilizing to its utmost extent their constitutional prerogative of arresting all business by interminable talk. This prerogative was exercised with such effect that a long and late sitting passed away without leaving even a wreck of substantial work behind. The debate was often dreary, and always desultory, and at the i end there was nothing done. TUESDAY. The private members had forcibly seized on Monday night. Tuesday fell to them of pre scriptive right—but for the last time this ses sion. Mr. DISRAELI, urging the " despatch of business," succeeded in passing a resolution that Government Bills were to have precedence on every night of sitting until the prorogation. This evening Mr. CAIRD, as a practical agricul turist, complained that too much money had been expended in draining and improving Ilainault Forest, now disafforested, by the managers of the Crown property. Mr. HAMILTON showed that an outlay of 42,000/. had pro duced an improved rental of 3,0001. per annum, thus returning a permanent seven per cent.—not on the whole a bad investment. The rest of the sitting was given up to Ire land. One motion, censuring the appointment of Mr. CECIL MoonE as Sessional Crown Pro secutor for Tyrone, was anticipated with some interest as likely to produce a spirited duel between the late and the present Attorney- General for Ireland. The nomination was challenged on the ground that Mr. MOORF: had been the Deputy Grand Secretary of an Orange Lodge. Mr. FurztiEitar.o made a long speech, told a great many stories about old shindies supposed to have arisen from Orange proces sions, and quoted at remorseless length out of the Report presented in 1836. But the " case " out of which he blew so big a bubble collapsed into a drop of dirty water at a touch from Mr. WurrEsiDE. The terrible pictures of I Orangery presented by the Member for Ennis were, as he proved, mere copies from the • caricatures of 1828. Respecting the individual appointed, Mr. WIIITESIDE proved, first, that Mr. MoonE was a gentleman of known ability and character ; secondly, that he had some time since ceased to belong to the Orange lodge ; thirdly, that a large number of residents in his locality, including many Roman Catholic gentry and several Ronian Catholic priests, had signed a memorial approving his appointment as Sessional Crown Prosecutor (income 1401. per annum !) ; and lastly, that while Mr. Frrz- GERALD himself remained in office, this identical Mr. MOORE had officiated in this very post as deputy for his predecessor when un able to fulfil his duties from ill health. Never was breakdown more complete. Mr. FITZGERALD'S friends, as soon as the Attorney-General for Ireland concluded his truly " crushing" reply, hurried up to take him off the field without further punishment. Lord PALNIERSTON hoped that the case would be allowed to end in a non suit ; and Lord Join: RUSSELL, who never fails to have some grand constitutional maxim at hand for service in every emergency, talked about the deplorable consequences that would, or could, or might ensue, if the House, by directly negativing the pending motion, gave encouragement to " secret societies." But the outrageous attempt to stigmatize the Administration—founded upon a falsehood, and urged in the mere spirit of fac tion—could not be suffered to escape unre buked. The House insisted on stamping the resolution with the opprobrium of a formal rejec tion. Mr. FITZGERALD has gained much money by his dexterous advocacy of hopeless suits in the Four Courts. It is to be hoped that his friends will succeed in teaching him the necessity of exercising a little more discretion—of depending a little more upon the truth of facts and the validity of arguments—when accepting the next brief for his party in the House of Commons. HOUSE OF COMMONS. MONDAY. ---- - Precept and practice are strangely dissociated in the House of Commons. When the members first met to-day they coinplained, as usual, of the state of the Thames, and asked Government how long they were to be left on duty in such close vicinity to the odoriferous river Mr. DisnAkm assured them that he would use his best industry to release them at the earliest possible moment. There were a few important bills which must be passed, and some large items of Supply that must be granted, but he would lose no time in WEDNESDAY. Two Bills of " independent" origin were car ried through a stage of progress in the day sitting. One was designed to legalize the mar riage with a deceased wife's sister ; the other removed the present immunity from arrest for debt now enjoyed by Members of Parliament. In the fuller attendance and more formal discus sion of an evening sitting, neither measure would have had the slightest chance of acceptance. Nor as it was could there have been any doubt of the result, if the slightest apprehension existed that either Bill could really become law this ses sion. In the actual position of business in Par liament and of the summer solstice, matters might safely be left to take their chance. Thus it happened that both measures were advanced, one into committee and the other through second reading, by considerable majorities. But, as Mr. Toot's philosophy teaches us to believe, " it's not " of the slightest consequence." THURSDAY. Fair progress was made with the India Go vernment The constitution of the Council was discussed during nearly the entire evening, and in the end left in a tolerable state of con solidation. Questions whether the members should be nominated in the Act—whether they should hold office for a term of years or during good behaviour—whether they should be allowed to sit in Parliament—and other matters of organi zation, were discussed at ample length, and sub mitted to the test of divisions. In every instance the Ministerial arrangement was finally preferred, and by very large majorities. "Bill No. 3" is now recognized as the winning horse, whose rivals either pay forfeit, or, if compelled on a point of honour to come to the post, scarcely even take the trouble to make a race of it. Atter the Chairman had been ordered to report progress with the Bill punctually at midnight, much business was transacted. Several Bills were advanced a stage, several more introduced, and some withdrawn. Among the last-mentioned category was the City of London Corporation Reform Bill, an inheritance from the Palmerston Ministry, but which since their collapse had flitted about the House in a desolate and orphaned condition, to which an end wa? , humanely put to-night by the sentence transfer ring it to the other bank' of the Legislative Styx. FRIDAY. At the early and late sitting further pro gress was made with the India Government Bill. By persevering effort the measure was suc cessfully carried through, up to its last clause. A very good day's work