The Press. — London, England, 1856-02-16 00:00:00

158 TERNS OF Per Annum .. ro& (STAMPED.) Half-Yearly .. Quarterly Et e Press: Payable in advance. Subscribers are requested to send their Orders through their News Agent; if direct to the Onice, accompanied by a remit tance. Advertisements also must have areference or remittance. Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALFRED IV$, 110, Strand, London. - 74 - I) g g+ LONDON, SATURDAY. FEB. 16, 1856. POSTSCRIPT. ARRIVAL OF COUNT ORLOFF AT BERLIN. A telegraphic despatch from Berlin on Thursday night, announces the arrival, on Thursday, of Count Orloff from St Petersburg. Count Orloff was to leave on Friday morning for Pans. THE CONFERENCES. A despatch from Paris states that the Conferences will not open before the 23rd inst. Aali Pacha was not expected to arrive before the 22nd. The Paris correspondent of the Globe, on Thurs day evening, states : It is reported, but on rather doubtful authority, that Prussia is after all to be present at the Congress. Count Buol and Count Cavour were expected at Paris hourly. The King of Denmark has appointed the Here ditary• Prince to be Viceroy of Norway. A despatch from Baron Manteuffele appears in the Prussian journals, accepting, oh the part of the Government, the propositions of Austria as sub. mitted to the German Diet, and expresses itself willing to take part in the Conferences at Paris if the other powers should invite it so to do. The do cument further says that a representative of the Con federation at the negotiations would be very desirable for the general interests of Germany. Letters of a recent date from Persia states that Post Mahommed is now close upon Herat. The Shah has mustered an army to meet the invader. A despatch from Berlin of the 13th states that in telligence has been received from Tiflis vii St. Peters-. burg, announcing the illness of General Sir W. F Williams. One hundred guns captured at Kars had been placed in the great square at Tiflis. Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons will leave town in the course of next week to resume the command of the Black Sea fleet. Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour has been ap pointed to the command-in-chief in the East Indies. He will proceed thither overland. Captain Hall, of the Exmouth, the gallant admiral's flag captain in the Baltic last year, is appointed to the Calcutta, chosen for Admiral Seymour's flag-ship. Lieutenant- General W. G. Moore, an old Penin sular and Waterloo officer, who has been forty-five years in the service, has been gazetted to the colo nelcy of a battalion cf the 60th Rifles. The Hon. and Rev. Montague Villiers will, it is stated, be the new Bishop of Carlisle, in the room of the late Dr. Percy. The return moved for by Mr. Disraeli of the pay ments made on account of the Turkish Loan up to the Pith inst. has been printed. The total sum paid out of the loan of 3,000,0001. is 1,891,9191. The first payment took plat on the 25th of August last, when 100,000 sovereigns were delivered to the War De partment for shipment ; four similar payments took place before the 15th of September, and on the 21st a bill drawn by the Ottoman Government, amount ing with interest to 283,000/., was paid. The sub sequent payments, made in insignificant sums, have occurred at long intervals. The Ordnanc - e Estimates amount to 1,346,023/. Mr. James Fergusson, F.R.A.S., has been elected to th office of general manager of the Crystal Palace. Sir Charles Barry has declined to accede to the terms of the Treasury, which offer three per cent. on the entire outlay, with one per cent. remuneration. The Lords of the Treasury state their decision to be final, and have ordered no more money to be paid on account until a settlemeut of the dispute is ar gored at. THE PRESS, HOUSE OF LORDS.-FRIDAY. BURIAL BOARDS. Lord BROUGHAM having presented a petition from Carlisle, complaining o: some delay in the conse cration of a new cemetery, The Bishop of EXETER explained at some length the relationships between the Church of England, the burial boards, and the public generally, estab lished by recent statutes on the subject. .. 11 6 0 .. 0 13 0 .. 0 6 6 MINISTER OF EDUCATION. Earl GRANVILLE moved the second reading of the bill for establishing a Minister of Instruction, under the title of the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education. Describing the duties and attributes of the proposed Minister, the noble earl stated that all the educational functions now exercised by the Board of Trade or the Fine Arts Committee would be brought within his control and respon sibility. A brief discussion ensued, in which the Earl of Derby, Lord Monteagle, Lord Ellenborough, Earl Grey, and the Marquis of Lansdowne took part. General appinbation was accorded to the contem• plated measure, and various suggestions offered respecting the mode in which the new department of education could be most efficiently organised. The bill was then read a second time. _ _ The House of Commons Offices Bill, and the Metropolitan Police Bill, also passed a second reading respectively. Their lordships adjourned at a quarter past seven o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS—Fan:ay. THE CRIMEAN REPORT. Mr. PALK gave notice of his intention to move, on some early day, for the appointment of a select com mittee to inquire into the truth, or otherwise, of cer tain allegations contained in the report of the Crimean Commissioners inculpatory of the conduct of officers holding high commands in the army. MR. CRAMPTON. On the motion for going into Committee of Supply, Mr. ROEBUCK, pursuant to notice, moved that an address should be presented to the Crhwn, praying for the production of all the correspondence that had lately passed between the Governments of England and the United States respecting the conduct of Mr. Crampton. The recent explanations given by Lord Palmerston respecting the apology offered to the States upon the enlistment question were, he declared, inconsistent with the fact that bad come within his own cognisance. These facts Mr. Roebuck proceeded to detail, deriving his authority, in great measure, from the reports of the trials that bad lately taken place in America, and as.erting as the result that Mr. Crampton bad endeavoured to evade the laws, and crimp the sub jects, of the United States. Whether in these trans actions the British envoy had followed or exceeded his instructions from the Home Governmi nt, the Washington Cabinet were, be contended, equally entitled to insist on his recal. Even when the alleged apology was made to the States, the attempts at evading their law were not discontinued. The object of his motion, as the hon. member declared, was on the one band to unmask the Government in what be suspected was a treacherous proceeding ; and, on the other, to afford Parliament an opportu nity of repudiating all complicity in the transaction. Mr. HADIIED seconded the motion. Lord PALMERSTON reiterated his previous state ment that the correspondence in question was still in too incomplete a condition to be expediently made public. By the last communication from the United States Government the recal of Mr. Cramp ton was again demanded, but the reply to that despatch could not be prepared until the Foreign Secretary had received an answer to the inquiries he had in stituted respecting various statements on which this demand was based. He deprecated discussion until all the papers were before the house ; and declared that the Government had neither instructed nor de sired Mr. Crampton to do anything that could pos sibly infringe the laws of the country to which he was accredited. In the course of the proceedings which furnished grounds for the late correspondence, Lord Palmerston asserted that several attempts had been made to entrap the British functionaries into illegal acts ; and lie attributed those attempts to a conspiracy got up among certain individuals in the States, who wished to bring the two countries into collision. Denying with much emphasis that the apology offered to the States was either insincere or insufficient, or that any evasion of the law had been practised, the noble lord commented upon the dan gerous return cf a discussion such as that Mr. Roe buck had challenged by his motion, and characterised the proceeding as being unfair and unpatriotic. Mr. DISRAEII felt that he could not support the motion, which he considered premature in the con tinued absence of complete and official information. He nevertheless contended that it came within the competence of every member of that house to criti cise any detail of administration, even including the foreign policy of the Government, which in their SATURDAY, opinion required explanation. Trusting that the promised papers would prose fully elucidatory, and the conduct of the Ministry found free from equivoca tion, Mr. DISRAELI recommended the withdrawal of the present motion, which at the same time he thought had been very justifiably brought before the house. Upon this suggestion Mr. ROEBUCK consented not to press his resolution, and the motion was with drawn by consent. SUPPLY. Mr. W. WILLIAms renewed his complaint, that the long expenditure incurred in collecting vanous branches of the revenue were very imperfectly ac counted for in the estimates as now presented to Parliament. 111 r. WiLsow gave some explanation on the subject, after which the house went into Committee of Supply, and passed several votes belonging to the Revenue Departments Estimate, amidst a miscellaneous dis cussion. CIVIL SERVICE EIIPERANNUATIONS. The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the act relating to superannuations in the civil service. The right lion. baronet entered into an historical detail of the arrangements which had existed at different periods within the last century for the purpose of providing a fund out of which the employes in the civil de partments of the public service might receive allow. ances when age or ill-health rendered them unfit for their duties. He then described the provisions of his own bill, which, he observed, was almost identical with the measure presented but not pressed in the last session. He denied that either Parliament or the Government had acted unjustly towards the civil servants of the Crown, who bad taken office with a full knowledge of the condition and amount of their prospective incomes. In his proposed measure, Sir G. C. Lewis observed, he did not intend to reduce the scale of deductions from salaries, but merely to apportion the retiring allowance upon a more liberal scale. The settlement of all details in the bill be proposed to leave to the decision of a select com mittee. _ _ _ After a few words from Mr. ETCH, Mr. DISRAEII remarked that the proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer amounted to a refer ence of the whole subject to a committee upstairs. The history of superannuations in the public service was simply one of spoliation : a fund had been pro mised and a tax enacted. He hoped that a suds. factory solution of the question would be now con trived ; but observed that the Government seemed very unprepared with practical plans for the accom plishment of their promised administrative reforms. Mr. T. BARING tit nied that any spoliation had been perpetrated by t he Superannuation Act of 1834. Mr. ROEBUCK referred to the injustice of granting allowances out of the Superannuation Fund to several classes of employes who never bad con tributed to it. _ . Sir S. NORTHCOTE commented upon another in justice committed towards the civil servants of the public by exacting compulsory deductions from their incomes, while the Treasury reserved the power cf regulating, or even refusing altogether, the allowance they received, on retiring from active employment. Sir J. GRAHAM believed that the only real griev ance of the public servants arose from the pressure of a double income tax, in addition to other deduc tions from small salaries. Mr. M. CHAMBERS having briefly spoken, leave was given to bring in the bill. CARLISLE CANONRIES. Mr. FERGUSON moved for leave to bring in a bill to appropriate the income of that one of the COMOD ries in Carlisle Cathedral which should next fall vacant for the augmentation of the income of certain incumbencies in that city. The motion was opposed by Mr. R. Phillimore and Mr. Liddell; Mr. Ingham and Mr. Laslett sup ported the bill. Mr. GLADSTONE, doubting much the expediency of fragmentary legislation, thought that the bill should be admitted to a first reading. After a few words from Mr. KENNAIRD, the oppos sition was withdrawn, and leave given to bring in the bill. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL for IRELAND obtained leave to bring in a bill to consolidate and amend the laws relating to bankruptcy and insolvency in Ireland The house adjourned at a quarter to twelve o'clock' The Earl of Clarendon leaves town this morning for Paris. His lordsnip will be attended at Paris by the Hon. Charles Spring Rice, Hon. Spencer Pon sonby ( private secretary), Mr. John Bidwell, Hon. J. C. Vivian, Mr. Villiers Lister, and the Hon. Julian Fane. Mr. Hayes, of the Midland Circuit, Mr. Pigott, of the Oxford Circuit, and Mr. Wells, of the Norfolk Circuit, werelsworn in on Tuesday as members of the degree of the Coif, before the Lord Chancellor, ink his private room at the House of Lords.