The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-10 00:00:00

THE MEMBER'S DIARY. HOUSE OF LORDS. MONDAY. Tu Indian revolt is scotched, though not killed, and Noble Lords are impatient to see due honour bestowed upon the heroes who have saved for England her empire in the East. The Duke of NEWCASTLE asked when the Indian medals would be ready for distribution ? Lord DERBY eaid that the dies were engraving, but he hoped to find the work finished and the medals struck by the time the nominal list of recipients, which Lord CANNING had been intrusted to supply, arrived at home. The medals, he added, would be awarded for general service in India during the war, with special clasps for the siege of Delhi, and the defence and relief of Lucknow. Lord CAMPBELL, wishing to know why Sir COLIN was not yet a Peer, the Premier informed him that the patent waited until that gallant officer had selected his title—a point, as Lord DERBY slily added, of the more importance, seeing that there was already one Lord Campbell in the House. What about Tenant-right ? asked the Marquis of CLANRICARDE afterwards, in the course of a rambling speech, wherein copious references were made to the attempts of sundry Govern ments and sundry Irish Brigadiers to settle the thorny question. He was assured by the Premier that nothing like a compulsory transfer of the landlords' property to their tenants was dreamt of, but during the recess earnest efforts would be made to frame a Bill removing some admitted blemishes and anomalies in the law. No sincere Tenant-righter will of course think any such measure worth having. To be fobbed off with justice, when contemplating plunder, is an outrage which no true Celt can patiently endure. When the House was required to pass the Jew Bill through committee, Lord REDKIDALE again urged his objection to the mode of pro cedure. In allowing the Commons to decide a great constitutional question by mere resolu tion, established, in his apprehension, a fatal precedent. When the Legislature, as a whole, pretermits its authority, and consigns to a single branch full jurisdiction over one important ques tion, how can a like privilege be refused in the case of others ? Lord REDESDALE is right. By dint of sheer pertinacity, the Commons have extorted permission to settle for themselves whether a Jew shall sit in Parliament. When, in some future session, they claim also to decide, by their own resolution, whether votes shall be taken by ballot, whether certain towns should return members, or the electoral franchise be given upon the most liberal principle of uni versal suffrage, how can the Peers refuse to follow their own precedent? Lord BROUGHAM, in attempting to reply, seemed anxious to prove that he has succeeded in learning a little law, as well as of everything else, but accomplished his end very indifferently. Lord LYNDHURST then took the Bill in hand, showing that the clause purporting to amend the Abjuration Oath must have been framed by some one who never read it; and very amusingly pointed out the dense jungle of verbiage through which students of the Bill were forced to cut their way to its meaning. In the end it was admitted that the measure was terribly cracked; but, instead of condemning it altogether, their Lordships agreed to have it broken up and recast, like Big Ben, in time for recommittal on Thursday. TUF.SDAY. The Ecclesiastical Commission Bill having been reported, Lord RAvENswouTu raised the often debated question touching the distribution of episcopal patronage. Ills special objection was to the arrangements under which many valuable benefices. heretofore in the gift of the Bishop of DURHAM, were to be transferred to the Eccle siastical Commissioners, with the view of their being utilized for the behoof of the new dioceses of Ripon and Manchester. Ills Lordship was carried away by his zeal so far as to assert roundly that Durham was " robbed " of preferments worth 16,0001. per annum. To stop the robbeiy, he moved a clause providing that the Commissioners should not appoint anywhere to any benefice, lIE PRtSS, JULY 10, 1858. without first obtaining the sanction in writing of the diocesan in whose see it lay. Lord CHI CHESTER, speaking in the name of the Eccle siastical Commissioners, argued that as new dioceses had been created, and the boundaries of nearly all the rest readjusted, so was it necessary that the patronage should be rearranged. Lord DERBY substantiated the argument by an appeal to facts. Durham diocese contained '242 bene fices, with a population of 700,000; Ripon con tained 373 benefices, and a population of 1,000,000; and Manchester 315 benefices, with 1,400,000 population. Thus much for the number of incumbents and parishioners, with regard to both of which Durham held the lowest place. But in point of value the proportions were reversed, taking into account the preferments in the gift of the diocesan. The Bishop of DURHAM held the patronage of livings to the aggregate value of 39,1401. a year, while those in the gift of the Bishop of RIPON were only worth 10,000/. ; and the Bishop of MANCHESTER, with a population nearly double that of Durham, enjoyed patron age to the value of only 9,0001. What Lord RAVENSWORTII called robbery, the Prime Minister considered only a fair adjustment. The House entertained the same opinion, which was enforced, upon a division, by 38 votes against the clause to 12 recorded in its favour. THURSDAY. The Jew Bill, as recast, was rung and de clared fit for hoisting—that operation, under the name of third reading, being fixed for Monday. Before leaving the Committee, his Grace of MARLBOROUGH attached to the measure a pre cautionary clause, prohibiting all non-Christians, who, under the new version of the oaths, might haply obtain some official appointment, from exercising, in consequence thereof, any eccle siastical patronage, or advising the Crown touch ing the disposal of preferments in the Church. By this restriction, Baron ROTHSCHILD, even if made Privy Councillor or Cabinet Minister, must not interfere in the selection of a new Archbishop of Canterbury. Will the day arrive when this restraint, in due course, is to be de nounced and repealed, as being the " last rag of intolerance" ? The " beginning of the end " of the Session was foreshadowed by the production of a large batch of bills, just sent up from the Commons, and which my Lords were respectfully requested to dispose of with the least possible delay. FRIDAY. As one outsider has settled (perhaps) the Jew question, Lord PORTMAN thinks it possible that another may settle the Church-rate question. He promised accordingly to introduce a scheme— or, as he modestly called it, the outline of a scheme—for that purpose, before the session ends. The India Government Bill, emancipated from its long detention in the Lower House, came up just before the House rose, and was read a first time. The second reading was fixed for Thursday, and—so confident: are Ministers of its success—the committee for Friday next. HOUSE OF COMMONS. MONDAY. Three adjourned debates, on the three best-de bated hills of the session, were resumed and finished. The Indian Government Bill was got through committee ; ditto the Sale and Transfer of Land (Ireland) Bill ; while the Scotch lJni versities having been " considered as amended" was ordered for third reading on the morrow. On the India Bill the Government, as usual, had it all their own way. Before the stage was passed, Mr. FAGAN, alluding to the various Oudian controversies, suggested that some tribunal should be constituted to examine and decide all claims urged by, or on, the Native Princes of India. As matters stood, such con troversies were determined either by fiat of the East India Board, which was unjust, or upon appeal to the British Parliament, which was in convenient, or worse. Lord STANLEY recog nized the expediency, and even necessity, of estab fishing tribunals for the purpose indicated, but successfully argued that their establishment could be contrived in some much better way than by patching a clause upon the India Government Bill. TUESDAY. A morning of hard work. Between twelve and lour got through, in committee, the Medical Practitioners Bill. At night the Opposition tried their last falls with the Ministry upon the Indian Government Bill. Two divisions on new clauses furnished very significant tests of the relative strength of parties. In one Lord PAL MERSTON stood alone, with none but his personal following about him, and mustered, including tellers, just 47 votes against a Ministerial 151. On a second trial, the ex-Premier obtained the co-operation of the Manchester school, headed by Mr. Baicnrr. The allied forces numbered 117, Lord STANLEY having 153. The latter division was taken upon an amendment providing that the salaries, appointments, &c., of the Council should be renewed at the end of five years. Mr. BniGirr liked the plan because it compelled Parliament to revise a system whose possible evils, he seemed to think, the Legislature might otherwise have unrectified. It is odd, that the party who hold for their chief political dogma that the House of Commons is the very " breath in the nostrils" of the Constitution should invariably act as if they believed that the said House would never do its duty unless pre viously forced and pledged to its performance. Lord &ix RUSSSELL obtained a more respectable array of votes in support of his proposition to extinguish the powers heretofore exercised by the Secret Committee, and henceforth intrusted to the Secretary of State. The very epithet of " secret" sufficed to determine a good many votes, Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S among the number. There were 150 members willing to follow the Noble Member for the City into the lobby ; Government, neverthelesss, in a fuller house, gathered 177 supporters to defeat a proposition which, without ever doing any visible good, might have sadly shackled the energies of the Indian Minister at moments of emergency. The solitary change in the measure not introduced by Lord STANLEY himself, was effected on the motion of Mr. GLADSTONE, who proposed a prohibitory clause, enacting that the Indian army should never be employed out of India except under express Parliamentary sanction. With Burman invasions and Persian wars in full remembrance, the House readily embraced the proposal, to which, of course, the Government lent their cordial concurrence. WEDNESDAY. There is a Court of Cassation in France ; then why not in England ? The House sanctioned, so far as to pass the second reading, Mr. M‘MAnow's Bill for establishing a Court of Cri minal Appeal. Judges and juries were fallible, and the prisoner whom they convicted ought, it was argued, to be allowed some means of having the evidence revised and the conviction quashed, if erroneous. This was conceded; and the case Mr. BARBER conies very apropos. THURSDAY. With a few " last words," chiefly benedictory and approving, the Indian Government Bill passed its last stage in the Commons. The Irish Police Bill, as explained b 7 Lord NAAS, was opposed by Mr. PATRICK 0 BLURS. After a pause, no member rising, the question was put, and the second reading carried. Sundry Irish representatives grumbled at this sudden stop to their loquacity, and found means to revive the debate, which they urged for several hours, spiced with divers personalities, and imbued with a gradually deepening tone of acrimony. At last the discussion seemed fast verging on a " row," when it was suspended for the time, at half an hour after midnight, by adjournment. FRIDAY. A morning sitting was ordered, in the hope of getting through a little Supply. In the prelimi nary: discussion Mr. Cox: discoursed upon the state of the Thames, with the object apparently of feeling the pulse of the House on the money question, whether London alone, or all England, should pay for cleansing the metropolitan river. Some debate ensued, which was speedily hushed when Mr. DISRAF.T.I announced that a Govern ment Bill on the subject would be introduced early next week. The House afterwards got into committee, but could not get through a single vote before the time arrived for leaving off. In the evening the usual volley of questions was fired off, upon the motion for adjournment until Monday. Various Ministerial replies were made, of course, but no game of any importance was either started or bagged. Supply was afterwards resumed, and two or three money votes actually got in.