The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-28 00:00:00

You would make your constituents believe that the issue upon which the minority in the Lords and the majority in the Commons decided, was that all the outrages which you enumerate could not and did not justify our hostilities; whereas they only declared that the original dispute of the Arrow did not justify the violence of our measures—measures which had subsequently induced barbarous reprisals and en gaged us in a sanguinary war. That was the real issue and verdict before Parlia ment; but you have, both in your address and in your speech at the Mansion-house, attempted to mislead the publi?. as to this fact by mixing up the successive events and confusing the impressions of your audience. If the Blue book were within their reach they would find that Sir John Bowring did obtain or secure important compensation for the first offence, and might then have stayed his hand until he received orders from home ; but that the bloodshed and crimes that have followed are the consequence of other demands, which you yourself, in your wiser hours, had officially pronounced to be dangerous and unprofitable. You proceed to tell the voters of Tiverton that we are men " who have endeavoured to make the humiliation and degradation of our country the stepping-stone to power." What opinion, my lord, have you of the memory and credulity of your countrymen if you think they have forgotten that Lord John Russell has but lately retired from your owe Cabinet; and that Lord Derby, having resigned office on the first hostile division of the House of Commons in Itss2, has supported yourself and your colleagues with all the strength of the Conservative party during every phase of the Russian war? Such statements may, perhaps, be forgiven in an address, as electioneering claptrap ; but was it decent to use the table at the Mansion-house as a hustings? For I find that at the Lord Mayor's dinner on the 20th inst. you are reported by the Times to have spoken thus :—" If those who voted against us had risen to power, what ought they to have done as the logical and inevitable con sequence of their vote? They asserted that our nro• ceedings were unjustifiable They _rust have paid the rewards which had been given for the heads of our merchants, and the cost of the arsenic which had been used in poisoning our fellow subjects at Hong Kong." And this is the language of the Prime Minister of England at the banquet of the first magistrate of her capital, surrounded by foreign ambassadors and all the talent, rank, and wealth of his party. What they thought of this extraordinary insult to some 41,0 members of Parliament is easily guessed and known ; but what would the most ignorant of our countrymen have said of your logic had you addressed them thus on an analogous case of possible occur rence? " Two men quarrel, and proceed fr irri words to blows. One is killed. The survivor is tried; his counsel pleads justifiable homicide. The jury give a verdict of manslaughter. Pending the trial the relations of the deceased take up the tend, and poison those of the accused. The jury logically must pay for the poison." _ _ . Have I not, then, a right to call your lordship's speech in the City an electioneering claptrap? But was it the place and the audience tor such a tone ? The impatience of obscurity or the irritation of misfortune may sometimes excuse invective ; but you had on that occasion no such palliation. You are the popular Minister of the day. You may justly refer your countrymen to very long, and, I admit, very useful services to the State. They appear to be anxious to do you honour, and give you their confidence, and yet you choose this moment of pride and prosperity wantonly to accuse those who have, like myself, often supported you in maintain ing the honour of England and defending her best institutions, of sacrificing these to the basest per sonal motives. If the charge had not proceeded from so high a quarter I should have despised it. I declare it to be utterly unfounded as regards myself, and I believe it to be equally so as regards the gentlemen with whom I found myself in unusual accerdance upon the China vote. By its very nature it was un connected with any party creeds as to religion, finance, or polit;cs; and this is the simple and true explanation of the medley division that ensued. The country having been committed, my humble vote will support a war which has now become necessary to English interests and honour, but which at first might have been avoided without a sacrifice of either.—l have the honour to remain, your lordship's obedient servant, MAIMESDURY. London, March 27, 1857. ADMIRAL THE HON. SIR RICHARD SAUNDERS DUNDAS, X.C.8., who commanded the fleet in the last Baltic campaign, has been appointed a Lord of the Ad aniralty in succession to Admiral Richards, now a Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital. Admiral Dundas will take rank at the Board after Admiral Berkeley and before Admiral Eden. Vuttecbings in rartinincnt. HOUSE OF LORDS.-SATURDAY. THE PROROGATION. The house met at two o'clock for the purpose of witnessing the Royal assent, by commission, to several bills, and also of prorogation as a prelimi nary to an instant dissolution. There were only about a dozen peers present, among whom we noticed the Lard :Mancellor, Earl Granville, Lord Pan'nure, the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Harrowby, Lord Redesdale, the Marquis of Breadalbane, L)rd Broughton, Lord Overstone, Lord Belper, and Lord Wensleydale. Ferouk Khan, the Persian Ambassa dor, together with his suite, occupied seats in the episcopal benches in the rear of the Bishops of London and Carlisle. The commissioners —viz., the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the Earl of Harrowby, Lord Stanley of Alderley, and the Marquis of Breadalbane—were seated upon a woolsack immediately in front of the throne. In obedience to the summons delivered by Black Rod, the Speaker of the House of Commons, ac companied by Lord Palmerston, Sir G. Grey, Mr. Lowe, and several other hon. gentlemen, presented himself at the bar shortly after two o'clock. The Royal assent was then given to several bills, when the LORD CHANCELLOR read the following speech in the names of himself and the other com missioners : My Lords and Gentlemen, We are commanded by her Majesty to inform you that, in releasing you at this early period from your attendance in Parliament, it is her Majesty's intention immediately to dissolve the present Parliament, in order to ascertain in the most constitutional manner the sense of her people upon the present state of public affairs. Gentlemen of the Howe of Commune, We are commanded by her Majesty to thank you for the liberal provision which you have made for the exigencies of the public service during the period that will e!.ipse before the new Parliament, which her Majesty will direct i:nmediately to be called, shall have been able to give its deliberate attention to these matters. My Lords and Gentlemen, We are commanded by her Majesty to express the satisfaction which she feels atyour having been able during the present session materially to reduce the burdens of her people. Her Majesty commands us to assure you that it is her fervent prayer that the several constituencies of the United Kingdom, upon whom will devolve the exercise of those high functions which by the Const,tution belong to them, may be guided by an allwise Providence to the selection of representatives whose wisdom and patriotism may aid her Majesty in her constant endeavours to maintain the honour and dignity of her Crown and to promote the wel• fare and happiness of her people. The commission for the prorogation of Parliament having been read by the clerk at the table, The LORD CHANCELLOR formally prorogued Par liament until Thursday, the 30th of April next, a nd thus prematurely terminated the session of 1857. HOUSE OF COMMONS.—SATURDAY. NEW MEMBER. The OTONOGIME took the oaths and his seat for Tipperary. NAPLES. Lord PALmEnsros, in reply to Mr. T. Duncombe, said : No overtures, properly so called, have been received by the British and French Governments from the King of Naples since the discontinuance of diplomatic relations. An indirect intimation has, however, reached us that the Neapolitan Government was anxious to know whether, if the King of Naples were to carry into execution the con• vention made with the Argentine Confederation under which the political prisoners now retained in the prisons of Naples were to be banished to the Argentine Republic, that would be considered by the two Governments as a substantial beginning of that more moderate system of government which we wished to see established at Naples. Speaking only for the British Government, we do not think that clearing the prisons of Naples by sending the prisoners into banidnnent in South America, with the in- tention, no doubt, of replenishing those prisons by means of fresh arrests, would be such a change of system as could be considered by us as accomplishing the purposes fur which diplomatic relations were broken off. TREATY WITH MOROCCO. Lord PALMERSTON laid upon the table of the house the treaty recently concluded between this country and the Sultan of Morocco. MARCH 28, 1857. THE PRESS. ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH TO INDIA. Lord PALMERSTON and the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in reply to Mr. Bowyer, said that the Turkish authorities would protect the line of tele graph in the Turkish dominions, and that the Go vernment was in no respect answerable for the con struction of the telegraph or for its protection from Arabs. These were entirely the affairs of the com pany. 301 THE PROROGATION. The house had now disposed of all the busineas before it, and, after a pause of some minutes, Sir Augustus Clifford, Usher of the Black Rod, appeared at the table and summoned the Commons to attend in the House of Lords to be present at the Proroga• tion of Parliament. The SPEAKER, in obedience to this summons, left the chair and proceeded to the other house, followed by Lord Palmerston, Sir G. Grey, the Chancellor cf the Exchequer, and about sixty or seventy other members. Mr. Di4raeli and Mr. Henley remained seated upon the front Opposition bench, and Sir J. Graham, who came in after the Speaker had left the house, in his usual seat below the gangway. On the Speaker's return, the right hon. gentleman took his place at the clerks' table, and, the members having gathered round him, he, as usual, read to them the Speech which had just been delivered by the Royal Commissioners. Having done this, he received the congratulations anal adieux of those over whose de liberations he had that day for the last time pre sided; and thus the session was b. - ought to a close. The same afternoon, her M ►jesty the Queen held a Court of Privy Council at Buckingham Palace. The proclamations of disolution were signed, and an E.rtraordinary Gazette was at once published, pro claiming the dissolution of the Parliament of 1852, and the summoning of a new Parliament by April 30th. The writs were despatched the same evening. eitttin nttiligtittt. MEMBERS OF THE LATE PARLIAMENT Imo wnt CERTAINLY RESUME THEIR SEATS us THE HOUSE, AND WHO VOTED FOR MR. COBDEN'S MOTION. Adderley, C. B. Stafford North Alcock, T. East Surrey Arbuthnott, Gen. Hon. H. Kincardineshire Fermanagh County Archdall, E. Bailey, Sir Joseph Brecknockshire Bailey, C. Monmouth Baillie, H. J. Invernesshire Ball, E. Cambridgeshire Ball, J. Carlow - Baring, Hon. Francis Thetford Baring, Thomas Huntingdon Barrow, H. W. Noti ingham South Bective, Earl of Westmoreland Bernard, Captain Hon. W. S. Bandon Bignolil, Sir Samuel Norwich Blackburn, P. Stirlingshire Bolder°, H. G. Chippenhatu Booth, Sir B. G. B. Sligo county Bowyer, George Dundalk Bramston, T. W. Essex South Bruce, C. L. C. Bruce, H. A. Banbury, Captain W. B. Burrell, Sir C. Cecil, Lori Robert Elgin Merthyr Tytivill Carlow County Shoreham Stamford Child, Smith Cnristy, Samuel Clinton, Lord Robert Clive, Hon. Robert Coles, H. B. Conolly, T Corry, Rt. Hon. H. T. L. Dalkeith, Earl of Davies, A. S. Deedes, W. Disraeli, Right Hon. B. Dod, J. W. Duncombe, Rear-Admiral G. Dunlop, A. M. Pre, CI Staffordshire North Newcastle•on•Tyne Nottingham North Shropshire South Andover Donegal County Tyrone County Edinburghshire Carmarthenshire East Kent Ducks Shropshire North Yorkshire North Linlithgowshire Greenock 'locks Du ,aledon George East, Sir J. B. Egerton, Sir P. Elmley, Visconnt Farnham, E. B. .Suck:. Winchester Cheshire South Worcester West Leicester North Fellowes, E. Huntingdonshire Floyer, J. Dorsetshire Forester, Col. Rt. Hn. G. C. Wenlock Forster, Sir George Monaghan Fox, W. J. Oldham Franklyn, G. W. Poole Gallwey, Sir W. P. Thirsk _ _ Galway, Viscount East Retford Gilpin, Colonel R. Bedfordshire Goderich, Viscount West Riding Graham, Sir James Carlisle Greenall, G. Warrington Grosvenor, Lord Robert Middlesex Guernsey, Lord Warwickshire South Haildo, Lord Aberdeenshire Hamilton, Lord Claud Tvrone Connty Haniiurv, lion. C. S. B. Herefordshire Hardy, Gathorne Leominster Hayes, Sir E. Donegal County Heatheote, Sir W. Oxford University Henley, Right lion. J. W. Oxfordshire Henniker, Lord Suffolk East Herbert, Lieut.-Colonel Ludlow Herbert, Right Hon. Sidney Wilts South Hildyard, Robert C. Whitehavea Hill, Lord E. Downshire Hogg, Sir James Hon t n Holfor.l, R. S. Glouce-ter Eas Hothatn, Lord East Riding Jermyn, Earl Bury St. Edmund's Johnstone, Hope Dumfriesshire Jolliffe, Sir W. retersfield