The Press. — London, England, 1857-06-20 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS. It is impossible to soknowlelge the mass of letters we receive. Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter, and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite inde pendent of the merits of the communication. _ We cannot undertake to return not avail ourselves. Communications should always bo legibly written, and on one aide of the paper only. If lung it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. Whatever is intended fur insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publica tion, but us a guarantee of his good faith. Advertisements seta front the country must be accompanied by a remittance or a reference for payment In town. of which we do rbt :)-;) rig,* LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1857. POSTSCRIPT. The Spanish Government has named the Duke de Rivas Ambassador at the Court of the Tuileries. The Emperor has despatched one of his orderly officers, C0'.0,-.91 Faye, of the Engineers, to Chalons, in order tc hasten the preparations for the camp. It is said that it will open on the 25th of August, and break up ou the sth of October. A despach from Weimar says the Court leaves the Chateau d'Estershourg for Wilhelmsthel, near Eisenach, where the Emperor of Russia is expected during his visit to Germany. The city of Eisenach will this year receive the members of the Society called "Gustavus Adolphus," and the Protestants regard the meeting with great interest, as many active measures are to be suggested. Advices from St. Petersburg state that the cholera is gaining ground as the weather becomes warmer. The average number of deaths there at present is seventy per day. The Royal Commissioners have presented their report on the site of the National Gallery. The report has not yet been made actually public, but as its general tenor is notorious, there can be no harm in anticipating by a few days the conclusions of a document which are everybody's secret. The Com missioners recommend that the National Gallery shall be left whera it is. THE MEMBERS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL SOCIETY met on Monday evening at the Corn-exchange, Maidstone, to celehtate their fourth anniversary. Mr. George Wickham presided, and after the usual loyal toasts, the health of the sitting members, Viscount Ingestre, and the Conservative members of the House of Commons was drunk. Mr. Lewis, in responding, said that he was in favour of a Reform Bill, but be wanted to have a fair one. He did not want one by which 41. or 51. householders would be entitled to vote, and which would take the franchise away from the freemen. That was not justice. Of late days some persons who arrogated to themselves the title of " Liberals," while professing to extend the franchise, would attack that species of the fran chise which was the most ancient, the most honour able, and the most satisfactory. " Success to the Constitutional Society," "The Conservative Land Society," and several other toasts having been drunk, the meeting separated. NETLEY HOSPITAL, in consequen'e of the debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the nth inst., respecting its site and the alleged unhealthiness of its position, has become quite an object of interest to the good people of Southampton. The local Medical Society have held a preliminary meting, to adopt measures for counteracting the mischievous tendency of such a statement, " so much at variance with the salubrity of the neighbourhood, the nature of the sail upon which the hospital is to be erected, and the health of the inhabitants," and have for warded the following resolution to the mayor : The Medical Society of Southampton having been re• quested by the mayor to make a report on the salubrity of Southampton and its neighbourhood, with special reference to the site of Netley Hospital, agree unanimously that the public statements in reference to its unhealthiness are entirely opposed to their experience, and that ague and other forms of malarious disease are unknown in the dis- Wet, excepting when imported. They affirm further, on the authority of Mr. Cooper, the officer of health, borne out by their own observations, that the mortality of South ampton and its neighbourhood is below the average of other towns of equal population and extent. A general meeting of the medical profession of the town and neighbourhood was held at the Audit-house yesterday evening, at the request of the mayor, to take into consideration the statements respecting the site of Netley Hospital, and a meeting of the town council is called . for Monday next t o rece i ve t h e report of the methcal,,profeesion, THE PRESS. LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE. HOUSE OF LORDS. EPISCOPAL RESIGNATION S. Lord REDES DALE called attention to the circum stances attending the resignation of the late Bishop of Norwich, and urged the necessity of defining by some legal enactment the conditions under which a prelate might resign his see, and the status he should hold afterwards, especially as regarded the privilege of sitting as a peer of Parliament. The Lonu CHANCELLOR explained the bearings of the present law on the question , which, he said, fully enabled any bishop to resign his see, and after resignation left him without any title to sit in the house of peers, since he did not hold his seat of personal liglit, but as exercising the episcopal office over a certain dioce:e. The late Bishop of Norwich had in resigning made no stipulation fur a retiring pension, but the Lord Chancellor intimated that a general bill on the subject of episcopal resignations had been prepared by the Government, and would have been introduced but for the interruption to public business caused . by the dissolution of Par liament. _ _ Some further discussion ensued, in which many noble lords took part, after which the subject dropped. The Smoke Nuisance (Scotland) Amendment Bill was passed through committee. The Transportation and Penal Servitude Bill was read a third time and passed. Their lordships adjourned at half-past seven o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS. TIII: PUBLIC OFFICES. Replying to Lord ELcno, Sir B. HALL stated that the report of the judges appointed to select the prize designs for the new public offices would, he believed, be promulgated before the close of the current month. The designs to which prizes might be allotted would be after wards exhibited in Westminster-hall. CUBAN SLAVE TRADE. In answer to a question from Sir G. PECHELL, Sir C. WOOD stated that the squadron of British cruisers stationed off the coast of Cuba was to be reinforced with the view of more effectually sup pressing the slave trade. ELECTIGN. General THOMPSON presented a petition complain ing that one Peter Johnson had attempted to bribe a witness named Abraham Rothwill, whose testimony was required before the committee on the Rochdale election petition, by offering him 501. to leave the country. The question being one of privilege was immedi ately taken into consideration. The petitioner and Rothwill were called to the bar, and having confirmed the allegations in the petition, Peter Johnson and a man of the name of Lord were ordered to attend forthwith. THE BOMBARDMENT OF GREYTOWN. Lord CLAIJD HAMILTON inquired whether the Government had taken any steps to obtain compen sation for the British subjects residing at Greytown whose property was destroyed when that town was bombarded in 1851. He asked also that copies of any communication which had been interchanged with the United States on the subject might be laid on the table of the house. Lhrd PALMERSTON characterised the act in ques tion as one of cruel violence, which reflected little credit either on the Government who ordered the bombardment or the naval officer who executed the mandate. By the law of nations, however, the British subjects who lost their property in the affair could claim no reparation. Every power had the right to seek satisfaction, at its discretion, by actual hostilities, and was not responsible for the injuries inflicted on the foreign residents of any place that might be attacked. Illustrating this argument, the noble lord observed that the subjects of a neutral power who might have been residing in Sebastopol at the time of its capture could claim no com pensation from the besiegers for any damage they might suffer. _ Lord LOVAINE suspected that redress would have been demanded for the Greytown outrage if the offending power had been less formidable. Mr. BENTiNcic remarked that the English Govern ment seemed always paralysed in the case of con troversy with the United States. The cause he attributed to the fact that the manufacturers were dependent upon America for supplies of raw mate rial, while the Government in their turn were afraid of the manufacturers. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL stated that the law officers of the Crown had arrived, after much deliberation, and with considerable regret, at the conclusion that there could be no claim of redress established in behalf of the British sufferers from the bombardment of Greytown. The French Government, whose subjects were equally injured, had formed the same interpretation of inter patio* law. SATURDAY, Mr. DISRAELI considered the explanation of the Government most unsatisfactory. Greytown was under the protection of England, and not under that of France. But it was not true that France had made no claim for redress upon the United States. Such a claim, had, in fact, been made, and was still pressed. The case of Sebastopol was not in point that being a fortified town, while Greytown was de. fenceless ; and the practice of all civilised nations was opposed to the cruel course pursued by the ccmmanders of the United States' vessels. Citing some passages from a petition presented by the Biitish sufferers, he expressed his belief that their claim was well four ded, and that they had been treated very unworthily by the Foreign Secretary. Lord JOHN RUSSELL believed that the claim for redress, under the circumstances, could not be sub stantiated. He adverted, however, to the amounts of damages inflicted upon the residence of the English Vice-Consul, and thought that explanation ought to have been demanded for this outrage on the British flag. _ _ The subject then dropped. SUPPLY. The house having gone into committee of supply, the remainder of the sitting was devoted to the dis. cussion of various items in the schedule of Miscel laneous Civil Services. The house adjourned at one o'clock. 3 rtiant. AN EPISODE in the new Irish Secretary's re election last week has come to light, and as an illustration of what electors expect, and members in an official position anticipate, it is valuable. Just before winding up his address, Mr. Herbert deli cately observed : There is one more question to which I wish to ask your atttention. It is rather a delicate one, but I trust to the good humour, kindness, and good sense of my country men to listen to me for a few moments on the subject. I allude to the subject of patronage. You all know, probably—at all events, you all believe—that, in con sequence of the appointment I have received, I have a considerable amount of what may be called, in familiar language, " the loaves and fishes " under my distribi,tion. CON. LAMB (an elector) : Signs by, you'll be troubled with a great deal of applications. (Laughter.) Colonel HERBERT : You are quite right. That's what I was coining to. (Laughter.) Cox. LAMB: 'Tie the most troublesome situation a man can hold, God help you. (Laughter.) And half of them that would cut your throat are bowing and scraping about you now. (Laughter from the gallery.) You want a couple of dozen clerks to read and answer your letters. I hope you will be after making out an easy berth, you know, for me, now in my old days. ( Laughter.) Colonel HERBERT : So much do I consider myself in debted to the electors of the country, not only for the honour of electing me, but for the kindness with which they have always viewed any efloita of mine, and the for- bearance they have exercised towards me, that I really speak the honest truth when I tell you that, if I consulted my own feelings, every man in Kerry who wanted a berth should have the very best place I could give him, with the least possible to do and the largest possible salary. (Laughter. ) Cox. LAMB: That would just suit my knuckle to a nicety. (Laughter.) Colonel HERBERT : But I am placed in a public and responsible position, in which it is my duty, as far as I am able, to consult the public interests. I must just ask you to consider that if I am guilty of perpetrating a job I dis grace myself, and reflect disgrace on you—( Hear, hear) — because if a man has been without opposition for ten years your representative, it reflects on your choice if it can be fairly said of him, when lie comes into an official position, that he has been guilty of a job. Do not for a moment suppose that lam such a fool as to think I am going to inaugurate a period of perfect purity, and do not imagine that political and personal considerations will not have their weight. But 1 must remind you that the tendency of public opinion has been of late—most properly in my mind—to put down, as far as it is possible, anything like jobs or unfair patronage. Within the last few years a system has been adopted in Dublin of holding up for competition some of the best offices to be given away by the Secretary. Do not suppose for a moment that I can attempt to put aside that system. Still, do not suppose that it will not be my wish, whenever I can legitimately, to serve any one of my fellow•countrymen ; but I entreat of you to remember that I have now the honour to be not only your representative, but that the whole of Ireland has other cl►ims upon me. (Hear, hear.) Dn. NEWMAN has resigned the Rectorship of tho Catholic University. MR. W. H. Russ Eu. made his debut in Dublin on Tuesday evening, and met with a most brilliant reception at the Theatre Royal. Mn. JOHN LOcKE, M.P., the City Pleader, and Mr. R. Lush, both of the Home Circuit, are about to be called within the bar on receiving the rank of Queen's Counsel. The Queen has appointed the Rev. C. Phipps Eyre to be rector of Marylebone. ME. JOHN BRIGHT has arrived in London in improved health.