The Press. — London, England, 1858-02-27 00:00:00

20 6 TO CORRESPONDENTS. Whatever Is Intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publics• tion, but as a guarantee of his good faith. VD :1P VtiEifi+ LONDON,SATURDAY.FEBRUARY 27,1858. POSTSCRIPT. The Queen has been graciously pleased to com mand that Colonel James Hope Grant, K.C.8., of the Ath Lancers, be promoted to the rank of major. general in the army, in consequence of his eminent services in command of the cavalry division at the siege of Delhi ; and in that of a division at the relief of Lucknow, under General Sir Colin Campbell, G.C.8.; also, in the subsequent operations at Cewn pore, when the rebel army sustained a total defeat. The Gazette of last night contains the appoint• ments of Loftus C. Otway, Esq., C. 8., to he her Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary to the Mexican Republic ; John Savile Lumley, Esq., to be Secretary to her Majesty's Legation at Madrid ; Montagu Yeats Brown, Esq., to be her Majesty's Consul at Genoa ; James Annesley, Esq., to be her Majesty's Consul at Riga; Richard Levinge Swift, Esq., to be her Majesty's Consul at Oporto ; Captain the Hon. Edward Alfred John I larris,R.N., to be her Majesty's Consul-General for the Austrian Coasts of the Adriatic Sea; and Colonel John Lintorn Arabin Sim mons, to he her Majesty's Consul• General at Warsaw LXST NIGHT'S PARLIANIF,NT. Much excitement was exhibited in both houses consequent upon the accession of a new Ministry• Noble lords and hon. members had, of course, changed places, respectively occupying positions corresponding to those they bad previously tenanted, but on opposite sides of the house. The Treasury bench in the Commons, with the exception of Mr. Whiteside and Mr. Fitzgerald, was necessarily almost deserted, the members of Administration having vacated their seats on accepting office under the Crown. Sir J. Graham, Mr. S. Herbert, Mr. Glad stone, Mr. Drummond, Sir De Lacy Evans, and Sir C. Napier sat in their usual places on the Ministerial side of the house, below the gangway. Mr. Spooner took a seat immediately behind the Ministerial bench. Mr. Hayter, Mr. Lowe, Mr. J. Fitzgerald, Mr. Wilson, Sir B. Hall, and some other members of the late Government, occupied seats on the front Opposition benches. Mr. Cardwell and Sir F. Baring occupied corresponding seats on the Opposition side of the house to those they did on the Ministerial side before the resignation of the late Ministers. Many of the members on entering the house were unable to realise the change, and could with difficulty recog nise their friends. The late Attorney-General, on entering the house, walked up to the Ministerial benches, where he appeared treatly surprised to find Mr. Whiteside sitting at his ease. The hon. and learned gentlemen shook bands, and it was only on the late Attorney-General calling to his assistance his eye-glass that he discovered his mistake, and walked across to the Opposition side of the house amidst roars of laughter, in which many of his late colleagues heartily joined. The attendance of mem. hers on the Opposition side of the house was far more numerous than those on the Ministerial side. Lord Palmerston arrived at twenty minutes past four o'clock. He entered the house from behind the Speaker's chair. He took his seat in the front Opposition bench, immediately opposite his usual seat on the Ministerial side of the house. HOUSE OF LORDS. The woolsack was cccnpied by Lord Redesdale, in the absence of Lord Woodstock, the new Lord Chancellor. LAW OF LIBEL. The seoond reading of the Law of Libel Bill, which stood for Monday, was postponed after some conver sation, in which Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Brougham, and Lord Campbell took part. MINISTERIAL POLICY. The Marquis of SALISBURY, who spoke from the Treasury bench, intimated that the First Lord of the Treasury intended lon Monday next to make a state milt respecting the policy of the new Administra tion. Lord GR4NVII.LE expressed his willingness to con cur in any arrangement that might suit the conve nience of the Government. Their lordships adjourned at twenty minutes past Ave o'clock. THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 27, 1858- HOUSE OF COMMONS. NEW WRITS. On the motion of Sir W. JOLLIFFE the following new writs were ordered :—For Buckinghamshire, in the room of Mr. Disraeli, who has accepted the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer ; for King's Lynn, in the room of Lord Stanley ; for the Univer sity of Cambridge, in the room of Mr. Walpole—who have been appointed Secretaries of State; for Droit wich, in the room of Sir J. Pakington, who has accepted the office of First Lord of the Admiralty ; for Huntingdon, in the room of General Peel, appointed Secretary for War; for the county of Oxford, in the room of Mr. Henley, appointed Presi dent of the Board of Trade ; for the North Division of the county of Wilts, in the room of Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, appointed President of the Poor-law Board ; for the Northern Division of Stafford, in the room of Mr. Adderley, appointed Vice-President of the Com mittee of Education ; for Stamford, in the room of Sir F. Thesiger, appointed Lord Chancellor ; for the Eastern Division of Suffolk, in the room of Sir Fitzroy Kelly, appointed Attorney-General ; for Bel fast, in the room of Mr. Cairns, appointed Solicitor- General ; for the Northern Division of Leicester shire, in the room of Lord J. Manners, appointed First Commissioner of Works ; for the Southern Division of Salop, in the room of Viscount Newport, appointed Vice-Chamberlain of her Majesty's House hold ; for the county of Dublin, in the room of Cap tain T. E. Taylor, appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury; for Bridgenorth, in the room of Mr. Whitmore, appointed one of the Lords of the Trea sury; for Cockermouth, in the room of Lord Naas, appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland ; for the county of Tyrone, in the room of Lord C. Hamilton, appointed Treasurer of her Majesty's Household ; and for Wenlock, in the room of Colonel Forester, appointed Comptroller of her Majesty's Household. TRANSPORT OF TROOPS TO INDIA. THE Hon. G. Lumsden, senior member of the ' Council at Bombay, was examined as a witness at Sir De Lacy Evans' Transport of Troops Committee on Tuesday last, and gave the following important evidence in favour of the ease with which troops could have been despatched to India by the overland route. He stated that he bad been several times up the Red Sea. The health of the passengers had not suffered during the voyages. He was always the better for the voyage. He met with no difficulty is the transit through Egypt; the Desert was healthy. If arrangements were made beforehand, men would not suffer by stopping at Cairo. A large number of camels could he procured on a few days' notice. At Suez some twenty or thirty mercantile craft might be got for the transport of troops. He did not think the monsoon was felt on the R^d Sea. There was no se►ious impediment to the passage of that sea. With proper precautions there would not be any inconvenience in sending troops by the Red Sea. The railway extended about fifty miles above Bombay in a working condition. He thought the heat of the Persian Gulf was more distressing than that of the Red Sea. The wind was fair from Aden to Bombay durinct the monsoon, and he had come in a steamer from Bombay in the very teeth of the monsoon. The coasting craft, which might perhaps be available to the number or thirty, would have carried, the smallest, fifty men each, and with proper care they would not have Buffeted on the way. Troops landed at Bombay could have easily marched on Central India. He himself, as a member of council, had advocated the employment of means for bringing out troops overland, and thought there were no obstacles of a serious nature in the way. ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE. 'Sir W. JOLLIFFE, in moving that the house on rising should adjourn to Monday, briefly explained the course which the Ministers proposed to adopt. Is was, he said, the desire of the noble earl at the head of her Majesty's Government that the house should assemble again on Monday for the despatch of business, and at the same time move such writs as might be necessary for those offices that had not yet been filled up. It would then be his duty to ask the house to adjourn from Monday till Friday week, the 12th of March, tho earliest period they could naturally hope her Majesty's Ministers would be again in their places in that house. SIR R. LETRELL. Sir R. BETHELL claimed attention to a subject which, as he declared, nearly concerned the decen cies and privileges of debate. He proceeded at considerable length to comment upon the speeches delivered " elsewhere " by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord St. Leonards, Lord Cranworth, and Lord Wensleydale, in which his own opinion respecting the law of aliens had been so strongly controverted. He complaine 1 of the language employed by those noble and learned lords on that occasion, contending that they had infringed the privileges of Parliament by criticising anything that had been said in that house, and defended the view he had taken upon the legal question. Mr. S. WARREN justified the course pursued in the other branch of Legislature, expressing his entire concurrence on the legal opinion there enunciated respecting the point at issue. Mr. WHITESIDE also coincided in this view. The subject dropped, and the motion for adjourn ment to Monday was agreed to. THE INDIAN LOAN BILL. On the motion that the Indian Loan Bill should be considered as amended in committee, a miscel laneous discussion took place, in the course of which Mr. CARDWELL and other members deprecated hasty procedure with a measure which had not yet been fully debated. Mr. R. MANGLES, on the other hand, entreated the house not to delay a bill which had become a matter of pressing necessity, in order to supply the East India Company with funds to carry on the war. After some explanation from Sir G. C. LEWIS and Mr. V. SMITH, the debate was adjourned until Monday. The house adjourned at six o'clock. THE TRIAL OF THE BRITISH BANK DIRECTORS has continued throughout the week. The case for the Crown closed on Wednesday, when Sir Fitzroy Kelly delivered a brilliant speech in defence of Mr. Stapleton. Sergeant Shee followed in defence of Alderman Kennedy. Mr. Edwin James addressed the court on behalf of Mr. Esdaile, Mr. Slade on behalf of Mr. Owen, Mr. Huddlestone for Mr. H. Brown, Mr. Lawrance for Macleod, and Mr. Seymour for Cameron. THE PROSECUTION OF FATHER CONWAY came to a close on Saturday last, when the jury were dis charged, being unable to arrive at a verdict. THE trial of the Rev, Luke Ryan is postponed till after Trinity term. A FIGHT IN CONGRESS. A COMIC scene occurred in Congress during a long sitting on the sth and fith of February. The house had met to consider the President's Mes sage, and the Lecompton Constitution. The favourers of • the policy recommended by the President found themselves in a minority. All the strategy of party was immediately put in operation. They hail the house called ; they moved adjourn. ments, and insisted on taking down the names of the "Yeas " and " Nays." Nothing could move the phalani of the opposition. Night came ; midnight and a new day, and these fierce party tactics were continued with unfailing vigour. It should be re ►narked that there were on the Administration side of the house some twenty Democrats who followed the star of Smator Douglas, and who, while they sat on that side, always voted with the other. This did not improve the temper of the " Southern chivalry." One of the renegade Democrats was Mr. Hickman, of Pennsylvania. Now the leader of the Republican Opposition was also a Pennsylvanian, Mr. Grow. About four in the morning he crossed the house to speak with his ally, Hickman. Something occurred during his stay which caused him to raise an objec tion to some manoeuvre of the Democrats. There upon Mr. Keitt, "the South Carolina gentleman," who formerly assisted the felon Brooks, called out with an oath that Mr. Grow should speak on his own side, and asked what business he had there at all. Grow replied that it was a free ball. The word free of course grated harshly upon the slave-driver. He was a bigger man than Grow, and as Grow was returning to his seat Keitt met him and asked him what he mean, and called him a " damned Republican puppy." Mr. Grow said, "No nigger-driver shall come up from his plantation to crack his lash about my ears." " We'll see about that," said Keitt, and seized him by the throat. Grow shook him off, and friends interfering the row ended for the moment. But not for long. The hot blood of Keitt was up. The words •• free hall " still rung in his ears. He again rushed at Grow and seized him once more. Grow had kept his temper; and apparently knew what he was about, for in an instant a well-d►rected blow from his right hand knocked down the South. ern chivalry. Then ensued a regular melee. Demo crat and Republican brawn and muscle in the hail of argument and deliberation struggled and fought ; Barksdale, of Mississippi, and Reuben Davis, of the same State, and M'Queen, of South Carolina, en countered the Northern IVashburnes, and that terrible Potter, of Wisconsin, w•ho " bounded into the excited group, dealing blows right and left," and one Washburne, clutshing the " her " of Barksdale, with dread intent to put the head under it in °ban chery, found the said " liar " in his hand, and Barksdale wigless but free. What the Speaker and the Sergeant-at-Arms hail vainly attempted to do quell the row, was done by the Washburne in ques tion ; for the house, combatants and all, roared w►th laughter at the sight of the un.haired Democrat from Mississippi ; nor was that laughter diminished when, on Washburne restoring to Barksdale his scalp, that respectable party put it on " weong side foremost,"