The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-19 00:00:00

JULY 19, 1856. legislation which has failed by reference to opinions of gentlemen of the long robe, I think that the utmost frank ness ought to exist as to the sources of this official con solation. (Laughter.) The bill was then withdrawn. HOUSE OF LORDS—TUIBDAT. THE COMMANDER-IN CHIEF OF THE ARMY. Lord PANMURE, in reply to the Duke of Somerset, said that with regard to the office of Commander-in- Chief no alteration had taken place in the shape of giving that officer any Board to assist him in the performance of his duties. With respect made present appointment, no difference had bee in the relations which existed between the Secretary for War and the late Commander in-Chief. In the relations which existed between the Secretary of State for War and the Commander-in Chief, be con sidered that entire responsibility for all acts of the C o mmander-in -Chief rested with the Government of the day. The Commander-in-Chief made no ap pointments in the superior departments without con sulting and obtaining the concurrence of the Secre tary for War, and in the administration of the minor patronage of the army that officer acted on his own responsibility, subject only to the ?.ontrol of the Secretary for War. BISHOPS OF LONDON AND DURHAM'S RETIREMENT BILL. The LORD CHANCELLOR moved the second reading of this bill, permitting the Bishops of London and Durham to retire from the discharge of their official duties, and granting them retiring pensions, founded on the relative amounts of the net incomes of their bishoprics, of 6,0001. and 4,500/. a year severally. Lord REDESDALE opposed the measure, as excep tional and illegal, dangerous and inexpedient. The Statute Law forbade any arrangements for the resig nation of benefices. The whole question should be dealt with by a general measure. He moved that the bill be read that day three months. Lord DERBY declared his intention of voting for the amendment, on the ground that the Government were legislating on an exceptional case for the pur pose of violating the great fundamental principle of the law of the land. The Archbishop of CANTERBURY supported the bill. The Duke of NEWCASTLE and the Bishop of OXFORD opposed the bill, on the ground that sufficient time had not been allowed for the mature consideration of so important a subject. Their lordships then divided, !when the numbers were, for the second reading, 47; against it, 35 ; majority, 12. The bill was then read a second time. METROPOLITAN LOCAL MANAGEMENT ACTS (No. 2) BILL. The house then resolved into committee on this bill. On the first clause, The Earl of MALNERBURY moved, as an amend• ment, the omission of certain words, which he described as depriving property of the weight it hitherto possessed, in the event of votes being re corded. I.3rd STANLEY of ALDERLEY objected to the amend ment. The committee divided, when the amendment was carried by a majority of 21 to 18. The remaining clauses of the bill were agreed to and the house resumed. HOUSE OF COMMONS—TUESDAY. NEW WRITS. Sir W. JOLIIFFE moved that a new writ be issued for the election of a member to serve in Parliament for the county of Dorset, in the room of the Right Hon. George Bankes, deceased.—Ordered. Mr. HATTER moved that a new writ be issued for the election of a member to serve in Parliament for the borough of Frome, Somersetshire, in the room of Viscount Dungarvan, who had been called up to the House of Peers. COAST GUARD SERVICE BILL. Sir CHARLES WOOD, in moving the second reading of this bill, explained that it was designed to create, after the French system—(which he examined in detail, and which enables France to raise 60,000 men at once. for her navy, to be increased, if required, to 90,000)—an efficient body of 10,000 reserve seamen, who in cases of emergency could be at once drawn and put on board ship. Sir Charles Wood, in the course of his speech, alluded to the present efficient state of the French navy, and the excellence of its naval administration : It is quite true that at the present moment the French are making the most successful efforts to increase their navy. They are building ships as fast as we are. There is one ship at Cherbourg as large as the Duke of Wellington. Cliey have far better means of putting men on board their ships than we have. Their system is as follows :—they have a book of inscription in which the names of all sea faring men are entered. They are called out for service in the navy. From 20,000 to 25,e00 men serve for about three years; and they are taught all that a seaman has to learn. The actual time they are kept in the navy differs, bat it is generally frAn between five and six years when they are discharged, but are still liable at any time to be THE PRESS. called upon to serve, and be put on board ship again. They are therefore men who have gone through all the naval tactics, and who have learnt all that is to be taught in the navy, so that when they come back to the service they are perfectly well•trained men. Sir Charles Wood then briefly explained the details of the bill. At present the whole number of our reserve seamen amount only to 3,000 men. These he proposed to increase to 10,000, and to take for the future into the Coast Guard service only tried seamen, and to MBB3 together, under certain regulations for training and exercise, all volunteers, pensioners, and Coast Guard men, into one body of reserve. With respect to the Coast Guard service, he proposed to transfer it from the Customs to the Admiralty, and to make it generally much more efficient than it is at present, by stationing ships of war in every principal port on the British coasts, and attaching to each ship, for preventive duties, a certain number of gun boats, the divisions of men at each port from time to time being exercised at gun-batteries and other drill. _ _ _ Sir JIMES Gamliaa cordially approved of the measure. He said : My right hon. friend has pointed out the opposite course on the other side of the Channel, which has been in opera tion for nearly a century. As a system nothing can be more perfect. It had its origin from M. Colbert, in a country where great vicissitudes have occurred, where there has been monarchy, republicanism, revolution, and usurpation; but throughout the whole of that period, not withstanding all the vacillations of Government, that great system of naval conservation has never been cast aside, and amid all changes it still remains perfectly unimpaired I don't believe that human skill can devise a better system than the French system of naval administration. The whole naval population of that country, which has a coast on the English Channel, the Atlantic, and the Mediter• ranean, is under the command of the Government, and in the shortest time and with the utmost certainty may be made available for war. Ido not wish to push this topic further, but still when we know what are the means of the first naval power next to ourselves it becomes an act of common prudence without the least delay to do all we can in favour of the voluntary system. That is the object of this measure. Sir F. BARING cordially concurred in the measure, and especially agreed with the transference of the Coast Guard from the Customs to the Admiralty. The bill was then read a second time. THE BRIGADE OF GUARDS. Mr. PEEL, in answer to Sir J. Fergusson, said that the number of companies in each battalion of the Guards had been increased to ten during the war, and as it was not the intention of the Goveniment to make any reduction in that number, of course any vacancies which occurred in the number of captains would be filled up. THE CRIMEAN REPORT. Mr. PEEL, in reply to Mr. Palk, said the report would be printed and laid on the table as soon as possible. REINFORCEMENTS FOR THE CAPE. Mr. LABOUCHERE, in reply to Lord W. Graham, whether it was true that three regiments had been sent to the Cape, and whether that was merely a measure of precaution, or was caused by any imme• diate prospect of an outbreak there? said, in the last despatches received from the colony the governor expressed his confident hope that no attack from the natives would take place, but, under the circum stances, the Government had thought fit to order reinforcements to be sent there. ADJOURNMENT OVER WEDNESDAY. On the motion of Lord PALMERSTON that the house at its rising do adjourn until Thursday, Mr. DISRAELI, not opposing the motion, entered his protest against this novel practice of the Minis ter of the day giving a holiday to the house, and entertaining the members at the public expense. The precedent he considered to be one which the house should have an opportunity of showing that it did not approve. Mr. W. WILLIAMS wished to know from what fund the expense was to be defrayed. Lord PALMERSTON agreed with Mr. Disraeli that it would be very unfitting on slight occasions to pro pose that the house should postpone business to pleasure ; but the review at Aldershott was a special occasion. The expense, which would be small, would be paid out of the sum voted for civil contin• genlies. Mr. HENLEY and Sir IL Wir.LounHav thought the members who went to the review ought to pay their own expenses. The subject then dropped. MR. JAMES SADLEIR AND THE IRISH ATTORNEY- GENERAL. Mr. J. D. FrrzoERALD, pursuant to notice, entered upon his statement in reply to the charges made against him by the Irish Master of the Rolls. Mr. Fitzgerald, having stated at great length every minute detail connected with the Tipperary Bank frauds, observed that up to the 28th of May James Sadleir had been acquitted of participation in his brother's frauds. Nobody had asked for his prose cution at that date, nor even when certain strong 681 expressions were employed by the Master of [the Rolls, on the 3rd of June. Then, however, be (Mr. Fitzgerald) took immediate steps to set the law in motion against Sadleir, and followed them up as ex peditiously as the case permitted. In the opinion of counsel taken by the Crown Solicitor on the 23rd of June, the case was not one for publio prosecutiou ; hut he (Mr. Fitzgerald) did not agree in this opinion, and did not hesitate to over rule it, and to direct a prosecution 14 the Crown against Sadleir. A warrant accordingly issued for his apprehension, to secure which a reward was offered, but in vain, for he stated, not as an impu tation upon the Master of the Rolls, but as a fact, that Sadleir had been frightened away by the irregular" observations of that learnel judge on the 3rd June, in proof of which he would read an ex tract from a letter received from a gentleman con nected with the affair:— James Sadleir had not the slightest idea that he was In danger until he read on the 4th of June the remarks made by the Ideates of the Rolls on the drd. He came in to his solicitor that mot ning with the paper in his pocket from Bray, where he was residing, and he said, " I must now stand my ground or cut." I said on Friday that the inference which I drew was, not that James Sadleir had fled, but that if he had it was in consequence of the language of the Master of the Rolls, because I think there never was language used more calcu lated to alarm a criminal—( Hear, hear)—and to show h;n2 what he must do. On my own responsibility I undertake to say that the statement made in the passage I have quoted can he proved. I have got a clue, not from the witness, and I undertake to say that before a committee of this house a gentleman shall be produced who must prove this. James Sadleir was induced to remain in Ireland four days alter the 4th of June, and for what purpose ? He remained at Kingstown up to the Bth of June, and his last act before he loft was to swear an affidavit for the official manager and for the creditors in answer to the affidavits of the English shareholders charging him with fraud, and having sworn that affidavit be stepped on board the steamer, and I am not able to tell what has since become of him. Mr. NAPIER was bound to say, after having heard the statement of Mr. Fitzgerald, that he had no charge to make against him. He justified the share he had taken in the matter, and claimed for the Master of the Rolls the merit of having discovered the full extent of this gigantic fraud, excusing any excess of zeal on the part of the learned judge by his acting upon misinformation. The motion for adjournment was then agreed to. WINE DUTIES. Mr. OLIVEIRA called attention to the high duty charged upon foreign and colonial wines, and moved, with a view to promote increased commercial rela tions with France, Spain, Portugal, and other wine growing countries, that the house will resolve itself into a committee to take into consideration a reduc tion of the same. The CHANCELLPR of the EXCHEQUER said unless the reduction of the duty on wines were carried to so low a point as to disturb the proportion between it and the duties upon other fermented beverages, it would be ineffectual in stimulating consumption to the reouired extent. To impose an ad valorem duty upon wine would be to open a door to fraud, which could not be prevented by any contrivance for deter mining the quality of wines. Mr. OLIVEIRA then withdrew his motion. GENERAL BEATSON. Colonel DUNNE moved an address for copy of the correspondence between the Minister at War and General Beatson, as to certain charges preferred against that officer. Mr. F. PEEL said the inquiry might be considered as still pending ; he could not, therefore, consent to the motion. The motion was negatived. CONSOLIDATED FUND.—SLAVE TRADE. On the order for the third reading of the Consoli• dated Fund (Appropriation) Bill, Sir G. PECHELL called alention to the continued traffic in slaves on the coast of Cuba. Lord PALMERSTON said although the slave trade at the Brazils might be considered as extinct, he was sonT to say, with regard to Cuba, that the Spanish Government, though always profuse in promises and liberal in orders, were not successful in having those orders executed. An efficient watch would, how ever, be established on the Cuba coast. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER proposed to move, as an addition to clause 30, the following pro • viso : Provided also, that there shall he laid before the House of Commons, with the nal) , and army estimates for esch year, a statement showing all cases in which the naval and military departments shall have obtained the sanction of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury to any alte ration in the sums appropriated to the respective votes aforesaid, during the year ended on the 31st day of Decem ber of the preceding year; together with copies of the re presentations made to the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury by the said departments. The proviso was agreed to, and the bill then passed. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER obtained leave to bring in a bill to abolish the office of Cursi tor Baron of the Exchequer.