The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

678 Per Annum .. Half Yearly.. Quarterly .. to OF SUBSCRIPTION .. £1 6 0 .. 0 13 0 .. 0 6 6 etc Vireos: (STAMPED) PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. Subscribers are requested to send their orders through News ♦gents; if direct to the Office, accompanied by a remittance. ♦dvertisements also must have a reference or remittance. Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALFiaD 1,11, 110, Strand, London. TO CORRESPONDENTS. It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receiNe. Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter, and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite hide. pendent of the merits of the communication. We cannot undertake to return communications of which we do not avail ourselves. Communications should always be legibly written, and on one side of the paper only. If long it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. Whatever is intended for insertion mustbe authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publics. tion, but as a guarantee of his good faith. Advertisements sent from the country must be accompanied by a remittance or a reference for payment in town. Viz l' rtgg+ LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1837. POSTSCRIPT. ITALY. A despatch from Marseilles, July 8, states : The news from Naples is to the sth. A supplement of the official journal announces that the insurgent band of Saphle was attacked at Pedals by the civic guards, the gen. domerie, and the 7th Regiment of Chassenrs. One hundred insurgents were killed, thirty wounded, and as many taken prisoners. Almost all the insurgents who had fled were In custody. Calabria was tranquil. A letter from Genoa of the 51b, in the Opinione of Turin, says : Small deposits of gunpowder are found daily by the police, especially in the Sestiere Pre. Arrests still con• tinue. Miss White is kept under arrest at her own residence. A house was yesterday searched, in which the police found a copy of the instructions given to the con• spirators. They are of so atrocious a nature that one is seized with horror at the idea of what would have been the fate of Genoa had the insurrection succeeded. The Monitore Toacano of the 4th states that since the proclamation of the state of siege at Leghorn, public tranquillity has not been again disturbed in that city. The Opinione of Turin states that the present session of the Piedmontese Chambers will close next week. A letter from Rome in the Cologne Gazette states that the endeavours of Count de Rayneval, as of several French prelates, to reconcile the Courts of Rome and Turin, have proved unsuccessful. The great impediment is the exiled Archbishop Franxoni, who represents as it were the principle of the Church of Rome; but it is said that he is willing to resign his see in the event of the Sardinian Government consenting to modify its interpretation of tin treaties concluded with the Holy See. A St. Petersburg letter in the Silesian Gazette gives some intelligence of the Russian preparations for the conquest of Circassia : Since the commencement of the year, there reigns great activity in the Black Sea flotilla, which is composed of small screw and paddle steamers . Immense supplies of all kinds have been transported from Odessa, Nicolaief, and Sebastopol, to the ports of the Circassian coast, where they have been despatched into the interior in view of the approaching campaign against the Circassians. The Dibats contains the following Information re specting the future Queen of Portugal We are enabled to announce that this Princess belongs to the Catholic branch of the royal house of Prussia. If we are well informed, King Pedro V. of Portugal is to marry the eldest daughter and second child of Prince Charles Anthony of Holienzollern•Sigroaringen who abdi cated the 7th December, 1t49, in favour of die King of Prussia, and who received at the time, by royal decree, the title of Highness, and the prerogatives of a younger prince of the royal house. It is said that Prince Albert, the Con sort of Queen Victoria, was the means of preparing this marriage, the intelligence of which has created so much fatlifectiou ita Portugal. E PRESS, JULY 11, 1857. LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE. HOUSE OF LORDS. OATHS BILL. Earl Gakw'vrux moved the second reading of this bill. Briefly remarking upon the obsolete character and absurdity of the existing parliamentary oaths, for which the bill substituted a modernised formula, the noble lord passed on to notice the collateral con sequences that would ensue if the measure became law in the admission of Jews to seats in the Legisla ture. On this topic be repeated many of the argu ments so often adduced in both houses to vindicate a step which, as he urged, removed the last relic of religious persecution, and admitted a meretricious class of the community to their full rights of citizen ship, whereof they had been hitherto debarred by the accidental operation of a few words introduced into the Oath of Abjuration. Lord Granville after wards replied at some length, and by anticipation, to the various objections which he expected to hear urged against the measure. Public opinion on the subject was, he said, strongly shown in the enormous majority of votes recorded in its favour by the mem bers of a newly-elected House of Commons. The Earl of DERBY moved, as an amendment, that the bill should be read a second time that day six months. He dwelt upon the distinctive nationality of the Jews. Though they lived among other nations, they were not of them, and through ages of dispersion had retained the belief that one day they should be reunited under one polity. They were aliens in blood, in religion, and in language. Touching the claims to citizensbipi Lord Derby pointed out the difference between rights and privi leges, contending that, although it might be presumption to deny the former, there was none in withholding the latter. The privilege of helping to make laws had always been conferred only upon special individuals, selected under a variety of qualifications which the Legislature was perfectly entitled to prescribe according to any principle that might be deemed expedient. Tracing the course of legislation in England with relation to the Jews, the noble lord remarked that for two hundred and fifty years the race were wholly proscribed. Afterwards they obtained from the Protector Cromwel permis sion to reside and trade in this country, and at later periods were admitted to other rights and privileges But, throughout the whole series of enactments' exclusion from all legislative power had been pre-' served as a constitutional principle which was never to be departed from. Adverting to the recent attempts at removing Jewish disabilities, be reminded their lordships that they bad invariably and con sistently resisted every proposition to that effect. In the present bill two elements had been incorporated— one admitting Jews to Parliament, the other reform ing the parliamentary oaths. With the latter object he quite concurred, and would have accepted the measure if it had retained the formula giving to the oath its Christian character. As it was, he called upon the house to sustain its former decisions. There had been occasions when the apprehensions of disturbance had induced many of the peers to waive their objections to certain bills. Such, however, was not now the case, and he urged the house to decide the question as before, upon the great princi ples it involved. Lord LYNDHURST supported the bill. He showed from history the steady progress that had been effected in removing proscriptions and adopting the principle of toleration. The present measure was, be thought, an expedient and consistent step in the same direction. Replying to the objection that the Legislature would be un-Christianised, he contended that, by the same argument, the nation was un-Chris tianised already, since Jews were admitted to so many positions of dignity and influence. In Canada and other British colonies Jews sat as members of the local Legislature without disparaging the Chris tian character of the State. The Earl of WINOHILSEA opposed the bill. The Duke of SOMERSET supported it, as did the Duke of Nonvouc. Religious disqualifications had been abolished as regarded the exercise of the electoral franchise, and he could not consistently vote to maintain them with respect to the sitting in Parliament. Lord Dutiomixos having spoken against the bill, and after some remarks from Lord CAMOYS, Lord S. de DECIES, and Lord St. VINCENT, The Bishop of LoNnow announced his acceptance of the measure. It constituted an act of justice to the Jews, and did not in his opinion endanger either the Protestantism or the Christianity of the Legis lature. The Archbishop of CANTERBURY, on the other hand, supported the amendment. The Earl Of SHAFTESBURY objected to the existing parliamentary oath so strongly, that he intended to vote for the second reading. In committee he should vote to restore the words ; " on the true faith of a Christiso:' Lord BROUGHAM combated the objections to the bill in a speech of considerable length and energy. The Bishop of OXFORD replied to Lord Brougham and the Earl of Shaftesbury. He then enforced with much emphasis the principle that none but pro fessing Christians could fittingly and honestly make laws for a Christian people. The Duke of ARO - YLL justified the Government with respect to the form in which the measttre had been laid before Parliament. After a few words from the Earl of GALLOWAY, Their lordships divided on the motion for the second reading Costenti—. Present Proxies —139 Non-contents—. - - - Present lO9 Proxies O4 —173 Majority against the Government... 34 Their lordships then adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. TROOPS TO INDIA. Captain VIVIAN inquired whether the new regil merits which had been placed under orders for India, were to proceed in steamers or sailing-vessels. Mr. V. SMITH stated that ten thousand men, for whose embarkation preparations had been made, would be despatched according to the original inten tions by sailing-vessels. Of the four thousand addi. tional troops asked for by the East India Company since the receipt of the last serious intelligence, two thousand were to be sent in steamers and the remainder in sailing-vessels. The men would be embarked between the 21st and 20th inst., and it was hoped that at this favourable period of the year the voyage would be completed in the shortest possible time, viz., seventy days. Sit C. NAPIER believed that the late Indian news had caught the Government entirely unprepared. FREE NEGROES. Mr. TURNER inquired whether any communica tions bad taken place between the English and French Governments respecting the exports of free negroes from the west coast of Africa to the French colonies in the West Indies, and whether he was aware in what manner the negroes are to be ob tained. Under the denomination of free immigrants these imported negroes, be contended, would prac tically be reduced to a state of slavery. Lord PALYERSTON said that many communica tions had passed on the subject.. Contracts had been entered into by the French fur the importation of 1,200 negroes into Martinique. Her Majesty's Ministers, apprehending a renewal of the slave trade in this quarter, had made representations to the French Administration, and received from them the most positive assurances that every care would be taken to prevent the fulfilment of the contract becoming in any way conducive to a traffic in slaves. Here the matter now rested ; but extreme vigilance would be exercised, and the progress of the transaction carefully watched. TESTAMENTARY JURISDICTION. The house went into committee on the (Probates and Letters of Administration Bill, resuming at the 40th clause. This clause bad been amended on the previous debate by removing tile limit assigned to the juris diction of the District Courts of Probate over per sonal estate. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL now proposed as a compromise to introduce the limit of 3,0001. (instead of 1,1500/. as originally proposed), with the restriction that the District Courts should not grant administration for property consisting of railway shares or Government stock. In support of this restriction Sir R. Bethell enlarged upon the oppor tunities for fraud which, as he insisted, would be otherwise afforded. Mr. WESTHEAD, who bad brought forward and carried the previous amendment, refused to accept this compromise. After a prolonged discussion, finding the house decidedly adverse to the proposed limit, the ATTORNEY-GENERAL offered to omit the clause alto gether, with the view of bringing up a new one on the third reading. This proposal was, however, also resisted; and ultimately Lord PALstErisrow inter fered and consented to accept the clause as amended. The point so long contested was according surren dered by the Government, and the clause adopted without any limiting proviso. The discussion of other clauses in the bill occupied a considerable time, followed by renewed debates upon some additional clauses and the schedule of the measure. The bill was not finally disposed of until a late hour, when the house resumed, and shortly aftereatds adjourned,