The Sun. — London, England, 1860-02-01 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMEN T. HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.) The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack st five o'clock. CHURCH-RATES. Viscount DUNGANNON presented petitions from Den bigh and Flint against the abolition of Church-rates without an equivalent. Lord CHELMSFORD presented petitions from Essex I against the abolition of Church-rates. The Bishop of OXFORD also pr esented similar petitions and also petitions from York and other places a gainst the bill affecting endowed schools. COURT OF CHANCERY. The LORD CHANCELLOR moved for a return of all persons in confinementin England and Wales for contempt of the Court of Chancer LAW y. AND EQUITY. The. LORD CHANCELLOR also intimated Common Law to that a bill was in preparation , enabling the Courts of take cognisance of questions of equity which might occur therein. THE INDIAN WAR MEDALS. Lord BERNERS gave notice that, on an early day, he should ask a question relative to the delay in issuing medals for the suppression of the Indian mutiny, and also with re spect to the prize mGLEB E oney captured at Delhi. HOUSES. Viscount DUNGANNON rose, pursuant to notice, to put a question to the Government as to whether it is in con templation to introduce this session, under the sanction of the episcopal bench, a bill to alter and amend the law rela tive to the dilapidation in glebe houses. Tho Archbishop of CANTERBURY said the question had never been lost sight of, and he hoped in a short time a bill would be introduced into their lordships' house to remedy the evil complained of. The Earl of CARNARVON expressed his gratifica tion at the announcement made by the most rev. primate. He thought it would be quite possible to unite all the laws, at present scattered through the statute book, into one good and effective bill. The LORD CHANCELLOR was extremely glad to hear the announcement from the episcopal bench. He was fully aware of the difficulty of dealing with the su b j ect, as in the course of his official duties ,he had frequently come in contact with the subject. The Bishop of OXFORD said many of the difficulties which had existed for a long time had been overcome, and he believed the bill, when before their lordships, would be found to fully answer all the expectations entertained. The unanimity that had grown up in the lower house of convo cation had in a great measure led to this desirable result. LAW OF REAL PROPERTY. Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition on this subject, ana proceeded to notice the evils that existed under the law with respect to the conveyance and transfer of land on account of the great expences, and to meet the evil he an • nounced that he had prepared a bill which he thought was calculated to grealy simplify and reform the law' for the transfer of real estates. The noble lord con cluded by introducing the bill. After a few words from Lord CRANWORTH and the LORD CHANCELLOR, the bill was read a first time. Their lordships then adjourned. - HOUSE OF COMMONS—(YESTERDAY.) The SPEAKER took the chair elf= o'clock. PRIVATE BUSINESS. The standing orders were declared to have been complied with in the case of several railway and other private bills. The following bills were read a second time :—Blackburn Gas ; Bradford, Wakefield, and Leeds Railway ; Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway ; Cheshire Midland Railway ; Disley and Hayfield Railway; Doncaster and Wakefield Railway ; Dorset Cen-. tral Railway (New Works, &o.) ; Droylsden Gas ; East Somerset Railway ; Great Southern of India Railway Company ; Great Western Railway ; Hedon Burgesses Lands and Corporation Tolls; Leeds, Bradford. and fax Junction, and _Bradford, Wakefield, and Leeds Rail way Companies Amalgamation; Leicester Gas; Liverpool Corporation Water ; Llandaff and Canton District Mar kets ; Llangollen and Corwen Railway ; London and North Western Railway and Saint Helens Canal and Rail way Companies; London and South Western Railway (New Line to Bristol and Exeter Railway at Exeter, &c.) ; London and South-Western Railway (New Line to Exeter and Crediton Railway, &c.) ; Manchester and Buxton Road; Midland Railway (Burton upon Trent Branches); Midland Railway (Rowley and Buxton Lines); Midland Railway (Station in St. Pancras, &c.); Midland Railway (Use of Railways in and near London) ; Mid-Wales Railway; North London Railway ; Oswestry and Newtown Railway (Additional Capital, &e.); St. Helens Canal and Railway (Powers over Railways, &c.); Silverdale and Newcastle Railway ; Worn and Bronygarth Roads ; West Middlesex Water; and York Improvement, &c. PETITIONS. Several petitions were presented against the unconditional abolition of church rates ; in favour of the introduction into any Reform Bill proposed by Government of provisions for securing universal suffrage, triennial Parliaments, and vote by ballot; from the shipowners of Swansea, for an in quiry into the grievances complained of by the shipping in , terest. GLOUCESTER AND WAKEFIELD. Mr. T. DUNCOMBE gave iotice that on the Bth of February he would move, that in future elections for mem bers of Parliament for the above boroughs should be by IRISH EDUCATION. In reply to Mr. HENNESIZY, Mr. CARDWELL said that no change would bo made ul ni. ,y.t.rt m of national education in Ireland without ac quainting the tivnar previously. LA NAZIONE ARMATA. Mr. STANSFELD asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it was true or not that, towards the end of December last, a public association, entitled "La Na.zione Armata," having for its object the voluntary arm ing and organisation of large numbers of the population of the 'kingdom of Sardinia, was proposed by two members of the Chambers, Signori Brofferio and Sineo, and the presi dency, with the consent of the King, accepted by Garibaldi; and whether, about the same time, a Royal Decree appoint ing General Garibaldi Inspector in Chief of the National Guard of the Kingdom had been determined upon, and was on the point of being signed by the King ; and, further, whether, under these circumstances, Sir James Hudson, her Majesty's Ambassador at Turin, under instructions from the Government at home, and in conjunction with the French Ainbassador, or otherwise, on the 2d day of January, or on any other occasion, protested to the King against such measures which his Majesty was supposed, of his own free will, to be about to adopt, statin g , in the name of her Majesty's Government, that the good oifices of Great Britain, in the present crisis of Italian affairs, would be withdrawn if such proposed measures were persisted in ? Lord J. RUSSELL, who was very inaudible in the re porters' gallery, was understood "to say that from a private letter he understood there was such an association as that alluded to, but that it was considered unconstitutional, not being under the control of the king of the country. Sir James Hudson had received no instructions from the Go vernment to make'any such E statement as that stated. OATH T AKN BY RE CRUIT S. Lord W. GRAHAM asked the Secretary of State for War whether he had taken into consideration the oath taken by recruits on attestation, with a view to an altera tion of the same ? Mr. S. HERBERT said that the subject was under consideration. MARTIN ESCALANTE. Sir A. AGNEW asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, if it was true that the British consul at Cadiz al lowed Martin Escalante, a British subject, to remain up wards of seven months in prison untried, and also delayed or declined to take him under his prdtection, although (at tho instigation of the Spanish judge) an application was made to the consul to do so. Lord J. RUSSELL said that the British ambassador at Madrid had communicated with the British consul at Cadiz on the subject, and it appeared that Escalanto had committed an offence against the Spanish law, but that slops had been taken to prevent his detention in prison longer• than was necessary. THE MILITIA. Col. DICKSON asked the Secretary of State for War whether it is intended to embody fresh regiments of militia in the place of those about to be disembodied ; and whether it is intended to introduce any measure to place the militia force on a more permanent and efficient footing ? Mr. S. HERBERT replied that it was not intended to embody fresh militia. THE TREATY WITH FRANCE. In reply to Mr. T. DUNCOMBE, Mr. M. GIBSON said that of course the treaty with France would be submitted to the consideration of the &use for its approval, but he declined going into anything relative to that treaty, which would be laid before the house sc) shortly by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. THE SHIPPING INTEREST. Mr. LINDSAY moved for a Select Committee to inquire into the operation of the burdens and restrictions especially affecting merchant shipping, and of the following statutes : the 9th and lbth of Victoria, cap. 93, an Act for Compensa ting the FaMilies of Persons Killed by Accidents ; the Mer chant Shipping Act (1854), the Merchant Shipping Act (1856), the Passenger Aet (1855), and the Chinese Passen ger Act (1855). A committee was appointed, he said, for a similar purpose, upon his motion, last year, but, owing to the sudden dissolution of Parliament, no result had fol lowed. The object of the committee ho was moving for was to inquire into the actual conditice , of the British ship ping interest, which he was sorry to say had for some time past suffered from great depression, and to examine gene rally the causes of that depression. For his own part, how ever, he felt that these causes were so apparent that only a very limited Inquiry would be necessary. In the years 1853-4-5 it was well known that the British shipping in terest was in,a state of great prosperity; the Crimean war creating a considerable extra demand for shipping, and cur tailing in a very small degree the ordinary wants of com merce. ShipownerS during those years made very large profits, and a great many more ships were built than the usual trade of the country required. Now, he would not have ventured to ask for this committee had the sole cause o c f the d epress i on _b een th e ov er-production of ships, be vamthat wo u ld have set a bad precedent to other interests titled t when depressed would have thought themselves en titled c' ulea aPpe T al to the house for an inquiry into their condi tion. ) There were, however, other causes which had t en d ed t trade, such as the considerable extent to depress the shipping have been abolished and restrictions which ought to of protection, and the British shipping was deprived other nations after tvee'sh.frat of reciprocity on the part of open our ports t o ad, with a wise liberality, thrown ships ß3 st from all quarters of the world, on the sane terms to those of our own country. Ten years ago the to e ye ports on the ships of France were admitted and yet to this day Franco footing as British ships; duties upon our ships.maintained high differen tialmPorted into France in Sugar Freneh bottoms was charged with of only £ 3 Bs. per oisfrhem:hiiiislt.ytrhe duty was £4 4s . 100. kilo Trammes. while in o ß n ri c t In the Gans way the duty Bs. p:,>r 100 kilogrammes, in British £ I 4E; c n h o r t i s i l :l l. o 7 ) :::: in French shi t ag Is. per 100 kilogrammes, cotton wool in. ..Fr,nirlt ships Ms. per 100 kileg i r B a l l B.; °n „ in French ships ls. 2d. p n etl i British ; ana l on tea British 4s. 9d. Few staple articles kilogrammes, and in' were admitted into the ports of Prance in British ve sse l s upon the same terms as]. u French vessels, and in some cases h ibi t ry duty. France did not it amounted almost to a gain by her illiberal policy, L 'Veause, for every French yes were three British vessels sel.which entered our ports th 6 're co ; but that was no answer which entered the ports of Fran teitish shipoweer, He did to the injustice inflicted on the 1 tial duties, but of the nof - complain merely of the differ levied a high tonnage duties, which were et %ge British inst ra _ t SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUMAT 1, 1E60.1 ,shipping entering the ports of France. British ships paid 2if. per ton, as against 18 centimes per ton which was all that was paid by French ships. However high the diffe rential duties of France migt be d ifferen tial us they were as nothing compared with the duties maintained by the Spanish Government. Coffee from Havannah, if imported m British ships, was charged 20 cents per 91b., and in Spanish ships only 9 cents per 91b. Sugar in British ships was charged 37 cents per box, and in Spanish 25 cents per box. It was the same with tobacco, and while the ton nage duty was 1 dole. per ton on British, it was half a dol lar per ton on Spanish ships. From the coasting trade of France, which might be of some importance,. our shipping was excluded, and 17 different nations still maintained more or less differential duties, or prohibited our ships altogether from entering their coasting trades. What course the h ous e would deem it advisable to adopt was not for him to say, but these were facts into which a committee ought to inquire. He wanted to know what the different Govern ments which had been in power since 1850 had done to obtain that reciprocity which the British shipowner had a right to expect. (Cheers from the Opposition.) He feared that the various Governments had not exerted themselves as they might to induce foreig,nnations to allow our ships to enter their ports on the same terms as their ships were allowed to enter our ports. (Cheers from the Opposition.) For many years treaties of reciprocity had existed between this coun try and the United States, and before 1850 their ships were admitted to our ports on exactly the same terms as our ships were admitted to their ports. But after the repeal of the navigation laws our ports in India and Australia were opened to ships of the United states, and in 1854 we threw open the whole of our coasting.. trade. The right hon. member for Oxford said that he felt not only sanguine but perfectly certain that after the Act of 1854 the United States would throw open their coasting trade to us. Six years had passed and the Americans still retained their coasting trade, and still excluded our ships. The voyage from New York to California was quite as long and quite as difficult as the voyage from London to Calcatta. In making it ships were obliged to pass the shores of various foreign nations, and therefore, it its strict technical meaning, it was not a coast ing voyage. But the Americans not only maintained that it was a coasting voyage, but that a ship, loading at New York with portions of cargo for Rio, Bahia, Valparaiso, and the remainder for California, was engaged in the coasting trade from which English ships were excluded. He could only touch upon the leading features of a subject so com prehensive as this, and, in the first place, he begged atten tion to that of lights. He knew that many hon. members held a strong opinion that, as the shipowners derived the benefit, they ought to maintain the lights. The question had often been discussed, and it was examined very filly by a committee in 1815, over which the late Mr. Hume presided, and of which the noble lord at the head of the Government was a member. That committee reported that these charges should be defrayed out of the consoli dated fund, and that the debt incurred by the Trinity House should be undertaken by the public. The noble lord now at the head of the Government voted in favour of that resolution. At that tine the shipping interest was a protected interest, though he had never been of opinion that it derived much benefit from that protection, but if it was right to recommend the removal of those bur dens then, surely it was much more so now that our ship ping was exposed to competition. Surely, if we invite other nations to trade freely with us we ought to warn them of the dangers which surrounded our shores, without taxing them for the knowledge. Other nations were far before us in this respect. The United States of America had never charged our shipping visiting their ports a single sixpence for light dues, while their shipping visiting our ports had paid no less than £234,000 light dues in the 10 years from 1840 to 1850. If we redressed this inequality, we should cer tainly have a better chance of obtaining reciprocity from the United States. Another subject for inquiry would be pass ing tolls and local dues. With regard to local dues, it. was fairly open to many persons to look upon them in the light of property, which could not be taken away without compen sation ; but, without going into that question, it was certain that in many cases no return had for many years been ren dered in return for these dues. The Manchester merchants had in one year paid no less than £105,000 to Liverpool without getting anything for it. The whole sum had been transferred to the borough fund and spent in improvements which, however desirable, ought to have been provided from - the borough rates. In the same way Newcasele extracted a large sum for which it gave no return to the parties from whom it was drawn. The great shipbuilding port of Sun derland was treated yet as a creek of Newcastle, and paid no less than £104,000 a year tribute to Newcastle, of.which not one fraction was returned to Sunderland. In former times there were certain corporate bodies which had the right of charging double sates on all foreig n ships entering into their ports. But in the reciprocity treaties negotiated from 1810 to 1820 there were always provisions that foreign ships should only pay the same rates as our own. Those corporations had consequently been obliged to reduce the dues on foreign ships to the same rates which are charged on British vessels ; and, on application to that house., they had been granted compensation, he presumed, in accord ance with the justice of the case. No less a sum, however, than £1,225,000 had been paid to them up to the end of the year 1858. He now came to consider the question of pass ing tolls. He had the honour of being chosen a member of the commission which was appointed to inquire respecting harbours of refuge for the kingdom ' • and that commission arrived unanimously at the opinion that if these harbours were to be made they ought to be constructed at the expense of the country, which was bound to provide an asylum, where not merely their own vessels but those of other na tions frequenting its shores could find shelter in the hour of need. But the harbours which they had in view were such as might receive ships of almost any size at all states of the tide, as well as during stormy weather. If the com. mittee were right in believing that it was the duty of the nation to maintain harbours froniwhich the shipping could derive benefit, it was surely high time that vessels should be relieved from the payment of duties to harbours from which they derived no benefit whatever. (Hear, hear.) For a long time they had been paying £12,000 a year as passing tolls to the harbour at Dover, which hon. members might know was dry at low water—(cries of "No I ")—and per haps not one out of every ten ships which paid the tax for its maintenance would be able to enter that harbour at any time of the tido. Ramsgate, to which £1,400 were annually paid; would perhaps be somewhat hotter, there being at low water a depth of seven feet, but it could only be used, even At high tides, by small vessels. Whitby might also be said to be dry at low water, yet towards its maintenance r see;ng Airs paid ne loos than -Cli,fflll Last off all case Bridlington, which was one or the places at T rish the commissioners had stopped in the course of their inquiry, and he must do the inhabitants the justice to say that they did not recommend their own locality as the best which could be selected for a great national harbour. It might have been thought that the steamer which had been placed at their disposal by the Admiralty, and which drew only eight feet of water, would have been able to enter the royal harbour of refuge at Bridlington, but they were obliged to moor full half a mile outside, and to land with the steamer's boats ; and when they got to the entrance of the harbour they found it impossible for even those small boats to enter, so that her Majesty's Royal Commissioners of Inquiry had been obliged to be carried on the backs of coastguard amen—(laughter)—into a harbour which had been for many years in the receipt of £2,808, and on the faith of these dues had contracted a debt amounting lo £28,000. Surely these were matters demanding inquiry, and which ought long since to have been amended. (Hear.) He would remind his hon. friend the President of the Board of Trade that he and these with whom he had acted since 1850 had pledged themselves to the house and to the country to re move those peculiar burdens and restrictions from the ship ping interest. In a discussion which took place on a bill proposed in 1856 for the abolition of local dues on shipping. Mr. Labouchere (now Lord Taunton) stated that Govern ment did not undertake to deal with the question until it had been duly examined, and proceeded thus " I will ask, likewise, is the subject a new one to this house P Why, the very grievances that we are now consi dering have year after year been pressed on the attention of the house and the Government; and when it fell to my lot several years ago to propose the repeal of the navigation laws, I was repeatedly taunted for not coupling that great change with a subsidiary measure like the present, doing justice to the shipping interest. And it is, in fact, in re demption—a tardy redemption. I admit—of the pledges then given by me and other Ministers on that subject, that the Government introduced the bill before the house." He now asked his right hon. friend to redeem those pledges so often and so solemnly given, and to remove from the shipping interest those restraints and impositions by which it was still fettered. He also found that the right hon. gentleman the member for Buckinghamshire, when Chan. cellor of the Exchequer in 1852, had declared that those tells " were a vexation and a burden to which the shipping of this country ought not, under present circumstances, to be subjected." He had no doubt that if the right hon. gentleman had remained in office, these tolls would have been removed. Another question hich had often been dis cussed by the house, and with regard to which it was de sirable that something should at length be done, was that of the Stade .Dues, which were not merely oppressive to shipping, but also stood very much in the way of the large transactions of this country with Germany. The house was not, perhaps, aware of the existence of a company called " The Russian Company,." which must, however, be very well known to his hon. friend the member for Hull. This body had now been established, ho believed, for 200 or 300 years, and of late it had levied a tax on the shipping fre quenting Cronstadt, of no less than £12,000 per annum. What benefit vessels derived from this large payment, or what connexion they had with the objects to which, accord ing to the blue-beok, this fund was applied, ho was wholly at a loss to understand. £791 had been expended on the British Chapel at St. Petersburg; £613 on the Russian Company's chapels in that Empire; £25 for an organ at procure overn pl ate r of fo tho r thec Company a ‘ Governor"—he ny;andforan presumed ; or X B5 the t o Governor entertainment at the Russian Embassy, £193 had been spent. (Hear, hear.) But there wa s mor e that. There was an item for an entertainment to the Grand Duke Alex ander of £595. Why the shipping , and the shipping alone, should bo called ran to entertain the Grand Duke Ale xander at the Russian Embassy, he felt utterly unable to discover. (Hear.) But if any o lion. member were familiar with the position and objects of the Russian Company he would per haps be able not only to explain this, but also why they wer e called called on to pay £260 for engraving and £2OO for framing and embellishing the portrait of the Emperor Nicholas .....(laughter)—and likewise why they were called on to give £lOO to the churchwardens at Moscow. Th e next point was with reference to the imposts on timber, and he did not see how, consistently with their political opinions, hon. gentlemen who sat on the Treasury benches could maintain this tax. On what prin ciple were manufactured ships admitted duty free into our ports, to compete with Briti sh vessels, and to realise profits from their cargoes, at the same time that taxes were laid on the raw material from which those ships were built, and which was capable of giving employthent to large masses of peole ? (Hear.) Yet a duty of 7s. 6d. for load and square limber, and 10s. for deal was demanded. It might be said by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that this duty, which amounted to £600,000 annually, could not be dispensed with, but his answer would be that it was not a question of money but Of justice, and if the people of this country were once convinced that a question was just, thereould always find the ways and means for acting on their conviction. If it were found impracticable to par t at once with the entire of the duty, it ought at least to be remitted on oak and pitch pines, which were the descriptions of foreign wood most larg ely in use in this country. Ho came now to the -liability of shipowners on account of freight and passen gers. By a clause in the Merchant Shipping Act the re sponsibility of the shipowner was limited to no less than £l5 per ton for the ship and freight. By over-legislation they had raised the - passage-money to a serious extent, so that a passage in a ferei;rl was preferred to one in a British ship. But while they had inflicted severe penal ties on their own shipowners they had not effected the object:th ship.m they had in view. The Passenger Act of 1819 laid the shipowner under imperative obligations, by fines fro 40s. to £5OO, and in some cases extending to the forfeiture of the HouseeShipowners could not be said to be in the en • - i d e e v n i n s. h o free trade while they had to sustain such bur relieved from reason to fear the 'r :flatters were well worthy of the consideration th C:mmons. If tho British shipowners were particular burdens they would have no was a fair inqui ry competitieri of the world. All they asked mr. noir _ e a lair field, and ne f a vour, 'er ALL, i n •, seconding , the motion, seise ho ------- - agreed with ,the hon. gentleman by whom it was made in the views -wilth respect to recifirecity to which he had given expression, as well as in those which related to the,neces sity which existed for the removal of the burdens on ship ping and the operation of Lord Campbell's Act. lie could not, however, concur with the hon. gentleman in the obser vations which had fallen lama him in reference to local dues, more peaticularly the local dues of Liverpool, which were now, in accordance with the provisions of a special act of Parliament, appropriated to the benefit of shipping, and not extended for the advantage of the town itself. There was also another important subject to which the hon. gen ' tlenaan had adverted—he meant the operation of our inter national maritime laws—in dealing with which he (Mr. Horsfall) was desirous of impressing the house with the conviction that it was a question most deeply affecting the shipping interest of this country. He was, of course, quite aware that there were political reasons why there was an objection to any interference with that law, but the mode in which it acted ought nevertheless, he thought, to be fully investigated by the proposed committee, so that such infor mation upon the point might be obtained as would be of use to Parliament in case legislation in regard to it should hereafter be determined upon. The question was one, he might add, which affected not the shipping interest only but the whole consuming population of the country—nay, more, the national defences—for, if the mercantile marine, which was the nursery of that reserve of 30,000 sea men by which our shores were to be defended, were to continue to suffer under the existing system, the efficiency of the force to which he alluded must be proportionately diminished. (Hear, hear.) He should not on that occa sion enter into a subject which had been so often and so fully discussed, but should, in conclusion, content himself with expressing a hope that the committee, if nominated, would present to the houss such a report as would enable Parliament to legislate effectively upon a question of great importance. (Hear, hear.) Mr. DIGBY SEYMOUR said that, while actuated by no spirit of hostility to the motion before the house, ho was afraid the terms were not such as to arm the committee with those powers which would place it in a position to set at rest complaints which were made from one end of the king dom to the other. As to the cause of those complaints he need say but very little, for in the debate upon the subject which had taken place in May last hon. members on both sides of the house, the representatives of great as well as small maritime constituencies, were unanimous in their opinion that a cloud heavier than that which the experience of any former year revealed then hung over British ship ping. In support of the justice of that view he might quote the authority of the hon. member for Sunderland himself, who, in a work which ho had recently , published, made mention of the adversity under which the shipping interest had laboured ever since the date of the Crimean war and declared the prediction that that adversity was only a mere passing cloud to have been completely falsified. He might add that in letters which had emanated - from the Shipowners' Society of Sunderland a short time ago, in an swer to an application which had been addressed to them, it was stated that the depression in the case of the shipping of that port had decidedly increased since Dec. last ; while from North Shields, Montrose, and Glasgow similar replies were returned. He should next call the attention of the house to certain figures whieh had been furnished by the Board of Trade, in compliance with a motion which had been made in the month of February last year. From these figures it appeared that the average increase in British ship ping during the five years from 1844 to 1848 inclusive was 72 per cent. over the corresponding period from 1834 to 1838, while the average increase of foreign shipping was 86 per cent. on its previous amount. He found also that the average increago of tonnage in British vessels for the five years ending in 1858 was 39 per cent. above the average for a similar period ending in 1848, while in the case of foreign ships it was 126 per cent. He perceived, moreover, that for the five years previous to the repeal of the navigation laws the average annual increase of British tonnage was 73 per cent., that of foreign being 88 per cent.; while, taking a similar period since the repeal of the navigation laws, the increase in British tonnage was, he found, only 40 per cent., that of foreign tonnage being 133. (Hear, hear.) He did not quote those figures with a view of saying anything hos tile to the repeal of the navigation laws, because he was one of those who believed that free trade was almost an unmixed blessing. He did not mean to prejudge the opinion of the committee by pronouncing whether the views of the ship ing interest were right or wrong ; he merely said that while they murmured and complained, something more would be found necessary than the remedy pointed out by the hon. member for Sunderland in order to silence those murmurs and apply the healing balm to those complaints. He quoted a passage from " Mitchell's Maritime Register," illustrative of the general condition of the shippinginterest, and show ing the great preponderance of French, Dutch, and other foreign ships over British tonnage in the Chinese ports in April last. British vessels in China were unable to hold their own against foreign competition ; American, French, and Spanish ships actually running away with their freights. The shipowners did not say, "Enforce recipro city, go back and avail yourselves of your orders in Council, but look at France , look at America ; look at the system of differential duties to which our ships were subject in foreign ports, all but excluding us from their trade, and nay whether something cannot be done to put us in a more fair position." He was happy to see, - so far as France was concerned, that the prospect was improving; the Emperor was disposed to hold out the hand of a reformer, guided by a judicious and intelligent mind. He hailed this as an inch eation that the time was not far distant when France would be encouraged to follow the example shown in this country, urged by the remonstrances which the debate of that even ing would enable the Foreign-office to address to her, when our shipping would participate in the benefits of prosperous commerce, and when the golden threads of friendly inter change would be woven into a band of amity. At present we had to compete with foreign ships, having deferential duties in their favour. America excluded us from her coast ing trade, covering a voyage of 5,000 miles to San Fran cisco. That could not be called, in any equitable sense of the term, a coasting voyage ; if so, what became of the voy age from New York to Aspinwall—was that to be held a coasting trade ? The shipowners said, in the spirit of free trade, " Let America meet us on fair and equal terms, we will throw open our Canadian coasting trade ; throw open yours." They did not clamour for something evanescent and `paltry when they sought admission to this vast field of pro fitahlo employment in the American coasting trade.. Their exclusion 'row ii LLial I . y tAultilb.,. plena foreign trade as well. He did not, therefore, ask toe much when he asked that the British shipowners might go before a select committee to tell their wrongs, and hear from that tribunal whether their giievances were such as Parliament only could help but no legislative remedy could heal. Here was the great mercantile interest of this country, with all the relations direct and indirect plingiag around it, supplicating that house to hear their complaints, and were they to turn a deaf ear to their supplications, or meet them with a prejudiced opinion that they should not be listened to because they were protectionists at heart? He trusted that so respectable body of gentlemen would at least have the satisfaction of knowing that a British House of Commons would not re fuse to listen to their complaints. They did not want a committee to, determine the question of lights. The incidence of lights on the shipping interest had been condemned in principle by the opinion of their most eminent statesmen, by votes of the house, and by the most enlightened foreign Ministers. Was it fair that these lights should fall on the merchant and not affect the Royal navy ? They had already had reports of committees unanimously declaring that the cost of the lights along the coast Rbould be borne by the public revenue. In France and Russia the State defrayed this charge. The hon. member for Sunderland himself had admitted that a select committee could throw no new light on the question of lights. (A laugh.) It had been shown that by proper economy this burden might be reduced from £300,000 to £150,000 a-year • and when that had been done this part of the subject might receive a more favourable at tention from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Then as to the passing tolls, successive Governments had admitted their injustice, and pledged themselves to deal with them in a liberal spirit. The right hon. member for Caine (Mr. Lcwe) some time ago introduced a bill proposing at once to cut the Gordian knot by exempting all ships from these tolls, except such as entered and used the harbours for the benefit of which they were levied. The delay of a reference to a select committee on that point also was therefore idle and unnecessary. So, again, with respect to the harbour and town dues raised at Liverpool, Hull, and Newcastle. The wisest course would be to submit the question of those dues, together with the mortgages or other charges upon them, to the award of a competent arbitrator. The subject of the timber duties was a matter for the consideration of a liberal minded Chancellor of the Exchequer who should allow the shipowner the benefit of a drawback, or of a substantial re duction of the impost on oak and pine. The working of the Merchant Shipping and Passenger Acts might, however, very fairly form the subject of inquiry, with a view to re move the grievances of the shipping interest. The Court of Admiralty required adaptation to the increasing wants of our commerce. It ought to have a concurrent jurisdiction with the common law courts in questions of general or par ticular average, charterparties, lading, &c. At present the Court of Admiralty, which might have the assistance of the registry of merchants to guide it on points of mercantile and maritime usage, was ousted of its jurisdiction if a special contract existed betwccen the parties. The recent investi gation into the conduct of the captain of the ship Paramatta, suggested another topic for consideration. The Board of " Trade now stood towards an important branch of our mer cantile marine in a position wholly opposed to the funda mental principles of the constitution. It combined judicial and executive functions, which were exercised free from all control, and often in an inconsistent and arbitrary manner. It would, therefore, be a fit matter for -inquiry whether the shipping interest did not desire a power of appeal from the tribunals constituted under the Board of Trade to the Court of Admiralty, aided by the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House. The hon. gentleman concluded by moving, as an amendment, to insert, after the words "inquire into," tho following words, "the causes of the present depressed con dition of British merchant shipping, and how far the same are capable of legislative remedy, and ;" and to add at the end the' following words :—" and to consider the expediency of giving to the High Court of Admiralty an appellative jurisdiction over naval courts and inquiries under par. VIII. of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and otherwise enlarging the powers of that Court in matters relating to merchant shipping." Mr. SOMES, in seconding the amendment, expressed his conviction that the motion of the hon. member for Sunder land would not be satisfactory to the great body of ship owners. Mr. CRAWFORD, who had given notice of his intention to move the appointment of a select committee "to inquire into the condition of the commercial marine, and the opera tions London e of ii o nn a t large h the at month h body e r es o o u f November tis of any legal ena c t men ts and peculiar bur lens affecting the same," explained th a t he had given that notice at the request y p e i taci expressed placing te cityhehis ft f ati shipowners nbeerrs ballot, lwas htbo m , of result of and t mo tion of his hon. friend the member for Sunderland first upon the paper, had relieved him from the taskwhich he had un ddrtaken, and had placed the direction of the committee, if it should be appointed, in the hands of that hon. gentleman. At the same time he confessed his preference for his own terms of reference, and suggested the introduction into the motion of his hon friend of words which should exclude the consideration of the operation of Lord Campbell's Acts on railways, whieh might otherwise seem to be included in the duties of the committee, and should expressly enable it to inquire into the condition of the commercial marine. (Hear, hear.) Were this latter provision omitted the committeere membering the lecture of the right lion. baronet opposite (Sir J. Pakington) en tho previous evening, might decline to enter upon such 1111 inquiry. He could not concur in the amendment which had been moved by the hon. member for Southampton, because it proposed to exclude from the con sideration of the committee matters which were of great im portance to the shipping interest. He, to a certain extent, concurred with the argument of his hon. friend the member for Sunderland as to what was due from America to this country, but ho was quite content that we, having opened our ports to all other nations, should leave them to follow our example when they pleased. In urging the house-to authorise the committee to go into the con. sideration of the reciprocity question he was ac- tuated by no desire to undo what was done in 1849. The hou. and learned gentlemen who moved the amendment had adverted, in terms which were not in the slightest degree warranted by the facts, to the vast field of profitable eater prise which would be °poled to us if we could get a footing in the American coasting trade. The real state of the case was that the dep!ession o: other trades had driven all the American ships into that one, and it had now becomeas un remunerative as eny other, being one proof among many that protoctlon was never beneficial to eny interest. (Hear, hear.) Not'with.standingthe earueat endeavour of the hon. and learned membar for Southampton to dissuade the house from inquiring into the questions of lights, local dues, pas sing tolls, timber duties, ind the stamps upon policies, it was, in his opinion, molt important that the committee should undertake that infestigation, in order that thacoun try might see clearly how these imposts operated upon the interest of shipping. The house would recollect that in the course of last session he described how the various acts re- feting to shipping bore upon the interests of that branch of industry. The Merchant Shipping Act passed in 1854 re pealed every previous act which many way affected shipping, and was, in fact, a codification of the law as it stood at that time. But it introduced various alterations and modifica tions. It consisted of nofewer than 518 clauses, every one of which was passed through committee in the course of one evening. He did not intend to point out the objection able parts of that act, but he wished to remind the house that it was understood at the time to be an act which might require further consideration. It was, to a certain extent, tentative. Six years hadnow passed away, and he thought the shipowners were justified in asking the house to re consitler the act of 1854 with the view of ascertaining what improvemenis might be made in it. (Hear, kear.) So with the Passenger Act. The act was introduced, not by the Board of Trade, but by the Under Secretary for the Colonies, and its effect had been to drive the passenger traffic out of the hands of British shipowners. Of 90,000 passengers who had embarked at Liverpool for the United States 75,000 went in American ships, and only 15,030 in British vessels. At the same time, while our shipowners had lost the traffic, the American shipowners had gained an additional sum per head for every passengerconveyed by them. Nor was that all. A vessel taken up for the conveyance of emigrants was subjected under the Passenger Act to the inspection of an emigration officer. If the emigration officers acted upon any fixed rule the shipowners would have nothing to com plain of, but unfortunately they were most capricious in their proceedings, and a vessel was often hewed and hacked in pieces to suit their peculiar views. Again, take the case of an English ship conveying passengers to Australia. She might,- for some reason or other, be obliged to put into a port on the Brazilian coast, and might there be found to be in an unseaworthy condition and unfit to continuo her voy age. The means of repair might not be at hand, the ship might be condemned, and in that case the captain would be obliged to pass on his passengers to their destination. He did not complain of that; but if the ship were an American ship the captain might snap his fingers at the authorities and leave his passengers to do the best they could for them selves. The Passenger Act, therefore, did not place Eng lish and American vessels upon the same footing. Eng lish shipowners might also complain of the liability to which they were exposed by that act. The house would recollect that, in the investigation which took place into the circumstances attending the loss of the Royal Char ter an attempt was made to fix upon the unhappy cay sain the charge of intoxication. No proof whatever was adduced that Captain Taylor had been a man of intemperate habits, and the charge completely broke down. But what was the object of that charge ? It was to fix upon the owners the responsibility of having entrusted the com mand of the ship to a man given to intemperance, and so to expose them to heavy claims und6r the 'provisions of the Passenger Act. (Hear, hear.) The hon. gentleman con cluded by expressing his intention to vote for the motion of the hon. member for Sunderland. Mr. DIGBY SEYMOUR stated that the hon. member for London had misunderstood him. He did not wish to exclude the committee from the consideration of the re strictions and burdens upon shipping. Mr. BENTINCK thought the question of a depression of one of the greatest interests of the country was an all important one, and yet the Ministerial and front Opposi tion benches were entirely deserted. With respect to the amendment proposed by his hon. and learned friend, the member for Southampton, he thought, when he said the depression arose from natural causes, he was cutting the ground from under his own feet. The hon. and learned gentleman stated, in the first instance, that it arose from natural causes, but he afterwards changed his tone, and proposed that those foreign countries that did not recipro cate should be excluded from the benefits given to others in coming to British ports. His hon. and learned friend called America " shabby" for the part she had acted, but he could not see why she deserved to be called so, because she took everything she could get, and gave away nothing. His hon. and learned friend called upon tho Government to demand reciprocity from those countries that refused to do so ; but of what advantage could that be ? Suppose they refused to do so, what would be the course to pursue ? If the old restrictions were resorted to an outcry would be raised that they were returning to the old system, but he believed the Government had no intention of doing so. He contended that while the timber duties were in existence, there could be no free trade, or as long as they were obliged to raise a revenue for the public service. The shipowners had drawn up an able address to the Crown, in which they put forward the grievances under which the shipping interest laboured ; and the answer from the Board of Trade was not, in his opinion, a reply to it. In his opinion, the framers of the act of 1849 knew well that foreign nations would not reciprocate, and thus a power was given to the Government of the-day to abrogate, in point of fact, the principal provisions of the law. Then, why was it-that the Government had not re course to that power ? The fact was, it resolved itself into a question of prejudice, because it was decreed that, if the demands of the British shipowners were complied with, it would be a step backwards from the doctrines of free trade. He believed that no such thing as free trade could exist in any country, unless where men lived in the woods and lived on roots. (A laugh.) He repeated the assertion, that no free trade could exist in any civilised country; and there were many hon. gentlemen who held the same opinions, though they declined expressing them in that house for political reasons. He thought they refused the prayer of th 2 greatest interest in the country, because they felt afraid they should be doing something that would injure what he called a phantom. Mr. CLAY agreed entirely with the objects of the hon. rn r bn ,-,fraciti.,l that, thA wAnciA recommended to be introduced into the motion by tho hon. member for the City of London should be adopted, so that the dill p!ng interest might be able to tell their own story in their own language. (Hear, hear.) Mr. INGHAM approved of the appointment of the com mittee, and expressed a hope that the amendment proposed would not be persisted in. He believed that the report of the committee would form the basis of legislation most use ful and satisfactory to the shipping interest. Lord LO VAIN E hoped that no objection would be offered to the appointment of the committee. Mr. DANBY SEYMOUR thought the Goveanment ought to bring in a bill at once to regulate the subject of passing tolls and light dues. These subjects had been al ready inquired into, and among other grievances under which the shipping interest found they suffered, might form the subject of consideration. Their case was fairly entitled to the favourable notice of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a few words from Mr. H. TAYLOR and Mr. A SMITH, who condemned the restrictions placed upon the shipping interest by the Board of Trade, Mr. LIDDELL thought that the great object ought to be not to narrow this important question. Some years ago Par liament made a great alteration in the laws affecting the shipping interest, and it was only natural that they should be anxious for an inquiry into the effects of that change, more especially as a great and important interest was af fected by them. The present Government could make such an inquiry without creating a shadow of suspicion. If the late Government had attempted to make such an inquiry, they would have been assailed by a cry that they meant to restore protection to the shipping interest. He was glad to see that the Speech from, the Throne congratulated them on their national prosperity. He could have wished that some notice bad been taken of the depression of the ship ping interest, which he was afraid was assuming some thing of a chronic character. With reference to the reciprocity clauses, he should like to be informed why these clauses were inserted in the Act of 1849, and whether the Government were prepared to expunge them. As they stood on the statute-book, these clauses were a de lusion and a snare, and had - deluded people to invest capital on the faith of them. With regard to the United States, he might remark that their so-called coasting trade excluded us from a great deal of the foreign carrying trade which they professed to leave open. He hopod, if the Government brought in a bill to deal with passing tolls, that they would not mix it up with the matters which had led to the loss of the former bill, but would deal with it as a simple question, in which case it would doubt less be carried. There were several important matters which the committee ought to inqui re into connected w i t h t h e ser vice of the countrEaud the hostile feelings said to have been engendered in the minds of the merchant seamen by'their legislation on this subject. He had no doubt that an inquiry would take place, and he hoped it would be a full and fair one. (Hear) Mr. CAVE thought that if the Government of this coun try would adopt a firm, he would not say hostile, attitude Sowards countries which did not act in a spirit of recipro city with us, they would soon be able to induce those Go vernments to act in a more equitable and liberal manner towards the shipping interest of this country. Sir C. NAPI ER said he was happy to say that apprentices were entering the service much more numerously new than when the apprentice laws were in existence. It was quite true that there was a difficulty in manning the navy, but the causes of that were very different from those mentioned by lion. members. He would not, however, enter into the sub ject at the present moment, because the matter would shortly come under the consideration of the house, and ho would then take an opportunity of pointing them out. Mr. M. GIBSON said that a variety of subjects had been introduced into the debate, and au opinion had been expressed on a great number of regulations and acts of Parliament, and also on measures adopted by foreign countries, which were considered to affect more or less the interests Of British shipping. He should find it pike impossible, from the course the debate had taken, to touch upon those variovs subjects; and more than that, he felt it would be particularly incon venient, as many of the acts of Parliament which had been referred to were precisely the subjects it was proposed to in quire into before this committee. Ho was aware that many of those acts of Parliament were of recent origin. They were passed with a desire to benefit the mercantile shipping of the country and that class of sailors, but he did not think that any one was of opinion that those acts of Parliament were . so perfect in all their parts that they might not be improved after inquiry. But the situation in which they were placed was rather a peculiar one. The question appeared to turn mainly on what should be the particular order of reference which should guide the committee of inquiry. Last year the late Government promised a committee of inquiry, and the hoi. member for Sunderland moved for the committee in these terms :—" That a select committee be appointed to in quire into the burdens amid restrictions especially affecting merchant shipping." That motion was not considered sufficiently wide by the hon. member for the City of Lon don, and therefore that hon. gentleman subsequently moved an amendment to it,.and in the end the motion as amended was agreed to. That amended motion was precisely what was now before the house, and was considered by the ship owners as sufficiently wide for all purposes. He thought, therefore, that as both sections, as it were, had agreed to the order of reference, and the House of Commons had mo that au ge at as sented to it, an d th e comm itt ee h av i ng once met, they might consider th e p resen t procee di ng as merely a Governmentcontinu that had a d they not m the ig ht smallest ev e nm amend desire e d it by inserti ng th e words n continu ance of what h a d a l rea d y commenced. He could assure the u house to lunitwouldthe in any d egree t hi s i nquiry. If it were net thought u "th e state of British shippitig." To that 145 should h ave nq objection, but be did not think it would be au bnprowraent on the order as agreed to. -His hon. friend the member for Sunderland had spoken of the treaty of reciprocity now existing between England and France as regarded deferential dues on merchant vessels,and he complaine7l that notwithstanding the reciprocity provided for by the treaty, British shipping entering French portswas not placed on the same footihg as French vessels entering British ports. Now it was remarkable that there was a coin . • plaint of the same kind by the French Government. On that point it was his duty to say that his hon. friend was not quite correct in his allusions to the act, as the act only regarded the direct and not the general trade between France and England . The French Government had often complained that whilst we were promising thisreciprocity we maintained a system of exemptions in England—freemen in certain towns, which Frenchmen could never become, not being liable to dues on entering. certain English ports. It was no new difficulty, for it had been the subject of correspondence between the two Governments for years. His' hon. friend the member for Truro had laid some strictures on the Board of Trade examinations. But he would observe that it was Parliament that made the regulations, and the Board of Trade only carried out the wishes and intentions of the Le gislature. He thought the hon. gentleman must have been misinformed in what he had stated respecting the case of a master in the navy, but if he were correct he should be in clined to say that a person so ignorant of navigation was not competent to command a merchant vessel. 'With respect to the amendment of his hon. friend the member for South- anipton, ho thought the house would think it hardly admis sible, He did not for a moment dispute that the shipping interest was in a very depressed condition, but he would ask the house whether it had any sufficient authority by figures upon which they could base a deliberate resolution, as they must necessarily come to in appointing a committee, that there existed at the present moment such a depression of the shipping interest as to demand inquiry. The fact might be so, but parliamentary documents did not show it. On the contrary, the figures which had been laid before Parliament rather fed him to a contrary conclusion. If they turned to the number and tonnage of steam and sailing vessels built and registered in the United Kingdom within the last few years they would find that in the year 1855 there was an in crease from a cause perfectly well known—the stimulus im parted to shipping by the Russian war in the building and registering of steam and sailing vessels, yet that in subse quent years there had been an annual augmentation far be yond what used to exist in former times. Thus during the three years complained of the tonnage built and regis tered in 1856 amounted to 244,758; in 1857 to 250,472, and in 1853 to 208,030. But if they took a test which was better than any other—namely, the number and tonnage of the shipping actually employed in the home and foreign trade—they would find that in 1855 it amounted to 3,990,000, in 1856 to 4,000,000, in 1857 to 4,211,000, and in 1858 to 4,325,000. If there were a growing and se rious depression in the shipping trade, he did not think there could be that increase. The old comparison of British ships and foreign ones entering and leaving British ports was somewhat delusive ; for in the return of the British shipping there was no account of British ships employed in other parts of thelworld. Again, while there had Been an increase sf British tonnage in those three years which had been complained of, in the United States there had been a decrease, and therefore the depression in the United States must be greater than it had been here. He believed indeed he was perfectly correct in saying that from some of the returns made out in America, France, and Holland, very similar results would be indicated. From the year 1855 to the present time 352,072 tons had been added to the Bri tish and foreign trade, or about 10 per cent, whereas in the same period the tonnage of the United States had been 66,961, or a decrease of rather more than 1 per cent. had taken :place. He could only further say the conclusion come to by those who could form a sound judgment on these facts, and the conclusion to which he (Mr. M. Gib son) had also come was this, that the depression complained of was a fluctuation common to all trades and employments, and that it would be quite impossible for Parliament to secure an undeviating course of prosperity to the ship ping or any other interest, or to assure them an uniform rate of profit. The only fair way was to take an ave rage of years, and if that were done the increase which they found ought to give them full confidence that the present depression would only be of temporary duration, and that we might look forward to a very near period for a considerable improvement in the English shipping interest. With regard to Lord Campbell's act, which had been referred to, it was undoubtedly true that there was something more in the act than the mere question as to how it bore on the shipping. interest. The object of that act was to provide a remedy for injuries inflicted either by railway companies, private carriages, or by any other means, and it extended,the old principle of the common law to cases where death ac tually ensued from the injury done. He thought it would be advisable that they should limit the inquiry into the operation of Lord Campbell's and other acts merely as they affected the interests of merchant shipping. He should therefore, with the permission of the house, move to insert merely the words, "as affecting merchant shipping." The amendment was then withdrawn, and the motion, as proposed to be amended by Mr. Gibson, was agreed to. BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS. Mr. MELLOR moved for leave to introduce a bill to amend the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act (1854), and to make further provision for the detection and punishment of bribing, treating, and undue influence at parliamentary and municipal elections. He felt encouraged to take this course by the unanimity of condemnation which charaeterised the recent debate on the motion respecting the issuing of writs for Gloucester and Wakefield, the Sentiment of the country with respect to bribery being unfavourable to the honesty of the house. There was a deep-seated feeling in the coun try that the house was not in earnest in the matter, and re fcrricg to the evidence taken before the Gloucester Com mission, they had the evidence of the right hon. gentleman the member for Wells (Sir W. Hayter) that the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act was a dead letter; and • of Mr. Price, the late member for Gloucester, that it was the homage which is paid by vice to virtue. As a necessary means, then, of suppressing bribery, his bill proposed that every confederate who gave the evidence essential for the conviction of any one engaged in bribery should be indem nified against all pains and penalties. By another provision of the bill, any one refusing to give evidence as to the acts of bribery in which he might have participated, conjointly with others, would not be allowed to shelter himself under the .plea that such evidence would tend to cri minate himself. A refusal of the kind would be hence forward deemed a contempt of court. The inquiry at Nor wich had been rendered abortive because a banker there, who was also a magistrate, refused to make a declaration -a,- ----,.zz, ..lakyula whether that gentleman still remained in the commission of the peace? Of course that last provision would not extend to requiring persons to give direct evidence against them selves. In the next, any one paying money for electioneer ing purposes, except through the election auditor, was to be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour. The present act declared all such payments illegal, but it was notorious that the act was a dead letter. The case of Gloucester was a notorious instance of how easily the law was evaded. According to the return of Sir R. Carden, his expenditure at the last elec tion was only £1,020 10s. Ild., while that of Mr. Price and Mr. Monck, by their return, was in each case £464 Ils. 6d. The commissioners, however, reported the expenditure to be —for Carden, £2,600, and the joint expenditure of Price and Monck, £2,300 ; and in all likelihood the real amount ex pended was greatly in excess of that. All payments, there fore, for election purposes would have to be made through agents duly appointed, who, in their turn, must make them through the election auditors. Of course, he could not ex pect that this provision would be a complete protection against bribery ; he hoped, however, it would tend to give vitality to the existing law. Ho proposed, also to check one of the most insidious means of corruption now resorted to, via., the employment of voters as messengers and runners, by making it a misdemeanour to employ any one upon the registry of voters in that capacity. The bill was likewise in tended to prevent corruption at municipal elections, as well as at elections of members of Parliament. For by the report of the Hull Commission it was shown that corruption at Parliamentary elections was much engendered by the cor ruption prevalent at municipal elections. The bill would apply, therefore, equally to both. He had added a clause, enabling a short form of indictment to be framed, which would allege generally the offence to be prosecuted, and which would allow of every means of proof. He hesitated to recommend the employment of a public prosecutor in cases of bribery. He was told that the prosecution of the British Bank directors had cost the country £20,000; and therefore be might well pause before proposing so ex pensive a remedy as a public prosecutor in all cases of bribery. At the same time he would place it upon the same footing as all other misdemeanours, and should allow the costs of a prosecution whenever the judge thought fit to give them. On the other hand, in order to guard against the prosecution of vexatious indictments, he proposed that in all cases where an informant proceeded without, in the first instance, going before a magistrate, he must give security to the extent of £2OO for the payment of the costs of the prosecution ; otherwise the proceedings should be stayed. (Hear, hear.) Mr. T. HANKEY seconded the motion. Sir F. KELLY expressed the gratification he felt that a gentleman on the opposite side of the house should have introduced a measure, the effect of which would be to check, if not altogether to suppress, the practice of bribery. At the same time it was matter of regret to him that it had not been announced, at least in any satisfactory form, that a bill for the suppression of bribery was not to accompany the great measure of reform promised by the Government. Having had larger experience of Parliament than his hon. and learned friend (Mr. Mellor) he might warn him that no bill had the least chance of being carried unless it received the warm acquiescence of the Ministry of the day. The Corrupt Practices Act of 1854 was a failure because the in tentions of the framers of the act were not carried into effect. It was their intention that all persons paying money for election purpoes, except through a public officer, should be declared guilty of a misdemeanour, and liable to severe punishment. But the bill was so mutilated in passing through the house that it almost entirely failed. With re spect to the present bill he could not entertain a hope that any mere addition to the severity of the punishment to be inflicted by the law for acts of bribery would have the slightest effect for their prevention. (Hear, hear.) It was the fear of punishment only that would deter from acts of bribery ; and if any such bill could be made effective, bribery would have been long since abolished, With respect to the bill before the house, he (Sir F. Kelly) would give it hie most earnest attention, but he did not antieipate that it would have the effect intended, or put a stop to bribery. Viscount PALMERSTON would not oppose the bill, but at the same time he world not pledge the. Government to any opinion as to the efficacy of its details. He was sure that every person on each side of the house considered its ob ject as ono highly deserving of attention, and the accom plishment of whi c h was mos t d es i ra bl e f or th e p ro per work ing of the constitution. He was afraid, however, that a feeling existed in m an y pl aces, among e l ec t o rs, too, not a low degree, whi c h l e d th em t o cons id er that being bribed of was not an offence of that moral dye which the house con sidered it ; and so far from saying that the House of Com mons was remiss on the subject of bribery, he believed that the feeling among them on the subject was greater than in the country at large. He s hould hope, however, that with be de.. the experience o f th e l as t e l ec tion a measureuch better than would vised to acc om pli s h th e p ur pose in view the Corrupt Practices Act. The subject had occupied the attention of . the Government, and if the hon. and learned member was present best week he woulhoardd ivehrinvoeticeofa billhis right hon, friend the H oni e Secretary s, on the subject. In the meanw ill.,,the g Government would be happy to consider any s uggestion from any quarte r o f th e house, and he hoped before the session closed to devise a measure to meet the inherent difficulty of the case, After a few words from Mr. STEUART, lesrve was gi ven to bring in the bill. ELECTION PETITIONS. Mr. MELLOR then moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the Election Petitions Act, 1848. His object was to put a stop to compromises, and to render election petitions not withdrawable without the permission of the house. Leave was given to bring in the bill. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS. On tbo muilon of Mr. SLANEY, leave was given to bring in a bill to enable a majority of two-thirds of the ratepayers of any parish or district, duly assembled, to rate their parish or district in aid of public improvements for general benefit within their district, a certain proportion being before raised by donations WAREHOUSING PLACES. M. HAPIE LA in committee, moved for kayo to bring in a bill for enabling the parish of Manchester and the boroughs of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and Bradford to be appointed warehousing places. Every town that he had named was anxious to have the privilege of the bonding system. Mr. BEECROFT seconded the motion, and expressed the desire of the inhabitants of Leeds to be placed upon the same footing in this respect as those of Chester, Carlisle, Preston, and other places. Mr. LAING, on the part of the Government, offered no opposition to the introduction of the bill, reserving the ex pression of any opinion upon it until a future stage. Leave was then given to bring it in, and the house resumed. ADULTERATION OF FOOD OR DRINK. Mr. SCHOLEFIELD obtained leave to brimg in a bill for preventing the adulteration of articles of fool or drink. ATTORNEYS AND SOLICITORS. Mr. J. LOCKE obtained leave to bring in a bill similar in its main provisions to ono introduced last session, for amending several of the laws relating to attorneys and soli citors practising in England and Wales. TRAMWAYS IN IRELAND. Colonel FRENCH, on behalf of Sir R. Ferguson, ob tained leave to bring in a bill to facilitate internal commu nication in Ireland by means of tramways. ST. MARY IN RYDAL MARRIAGES VALIDITY BILL. This bill went through committee, aid the other busi ness having been disposed of, the house adjourned shortly before eleven o'clock. FROM THE GAZETTE OF LAST NIGHT - WAR-OFFICE, PALL-MALL, JAN. 31. Royal Regiment of Horse Guards—Veterinary-Surgeon Matthew John Harpley, from the Royal Artillery, to be Veterinary-Surgeon, vice Byrne, who retires upon half pay. Royal Artillery—Acting Veterinary-Surgeon Edwin Thomas Cheesman to be Veterinary-Surgeon, vice Harp ley, appointed to the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards. Military Train—Lieutenant Thomas Fletcher to be Captain, without purchase; Ensign Robert Warner Stone to be Lieutenant, without purchase, vice Fletcher ; Ensign Andrew Munro to be Lieutenant, without purchase. 3d Regiment of Foot.—Assistant-Surgeon George Forbes Adams, from the Staff, to be Assistant-Surgeon, vice Dolan, appointed to the Staff. Bth Foot.—Captain Lewis John Fillis Jones, from the 88th Foot, to be Captain, vice Alexander Ross Bayly, who exchanges. 11th Foot.—Lieutenant Henry Joseph Webb to be Adju tant, vice Lieutenant Francis W. Osborne, who has re signed the Adjutancy only. 13th Foot.—Ensign Arthur Brooks to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Everett, promoted in the 25th Foot. 14th Foot.—Captain William Alexander Dobie from the Ist West India Regiment, to be Captain, vice Owen, who exchanges. 16th Foot—Gentleman Cadet Reginald Laurence Herbert Curteis, from the Royal Military College, to be Ensign, without purchase, vice de Medewe, who resigns. 20th Foot—Hugh Humphreys, Gent., to be Ensign, by purchase, vice Webster, promoted ; Assistant-Surgeon Thomas Ramsay, from the Staff, to be Assistant-Surgeon, vice Shortt, appointed to the Staff. 22d Foot—Captain John Sackville Swann, from the 54th Foot, to be Captain, vice Robin, who exchanges. 23d Foot--Ensign William Robert Murray has been per mitted to resign his commission. 25th Foot—Captain Seth Nuttall Fisher, from half-pay Unattached, to be Captain; Lieut. John Frederic Eve rett, from the 13th Foot, to be Captain, by purchase, vice Fisher, who retires. 30th Foot—Ensign William Glascott to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Tyner, who retires ; Ensign the Hon. Leopold William Henry Powys to be Lieutenant, by pur chase, vice Austin, who retires. 31st Foot—Captain William Wood Senhouse, from half pay Unattached, to be Captain, vice Law, who ex changes ; Lieut. John William Townsend Fyler, to be Captain, by purchase, vice Senhouse, who retires ; Ensign Alex. Gordon Selwyn Maynard to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Fyler. 34th Foot—Sergeant Daniel O'Neill to be Quartermaster, vice Rowan, appointed Paymaster. 38th Foot—Ensign George John Skinner, from the 100th Foot, to bo Ensign, vice Bailey, pro mo t e d. 43d Foot—Captain William Thomas Waldy, from the 46th Foot, to be Captain, vice Richardson, who exchanges. 46th Foot—Captain William Stewart Richardson, from the 43d Foot, to be Captain, vice Waldy, who exchanges. 54th Foot—Captain Thomas Smith Robin, from the 22d Foot, to be Captain, vice Swann, who exchanges. 75th Foot—Lieutenant Ernest Le Pelley to be Captain, without purchase, vice Brevet-Lieut. Colonel Mollan, C. 8., promoted. 77th Foot—Assistant-Surgeon Francis Edward M'Farland from the Staff, to be Assistant-Surgeon, vice Adams, whose appointment in the Gazette of the 30th ult. has been cancelled. 88th Foot—Captain Alexander Ross Bayly, from the Bth Foot, to be Captain, vice Jones, who exchanges. 90th Foot—Ensign Henry James Edgell to be Lieutenant, without pnreltase, vice Bingham, deceased ; Ensign Jas. Felix Haig to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Edgell, whose promotion by purchase on the 13th inst. has been !cancelled; Randall Ironside Ward, Gent., to be Ensign, 'by purchase, vice Edgell, promoted. 96th Foot—Ensign William Robert Erstridge Durrant to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Geddes, who retires. lit West India Regiment—Captain John Owens, from tho 14th Foot, to be Captain, vice Dobie, who exchanges. Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment—Ensign Sydenham Clitherow M'Gill, from the 73d Foot, to be Ensign. COMMISSARIAT DEPARTMENT. Deputy Assistant-Commissary-General HoraLe Neville Tharp has been permitted to resign his commission. HOSPITAL STAFF. Surgeon-Major Robert Templeton, M.D., who retires on half pay, to have the honorary rank of Deputy Inspector- General of Hospitals, in accordance with the Royal War rant of Ist October, 1858. Assistant-Surgeon Theophilus Dolan, from the 31st Foot, to be Assistant-Surgeon to the Forces, vice Stewart, ap pointed to the Royal Artillery. Assistant-Surgeon Francis John Shortt, from the 20th 4. 41..0 rya ce.ta, vina nich mond, appointed to the Royal Artillery. Benjamin Hinde, Gent., to be Assistant-Surgeon to the Forces. VETERINARY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, To be Acting Veterinary Surgeons—Griffith Evans, Gent. ; James J ose ph Meyrick, Gent. ; John Marshall Wilson, Gent. ; William Appleton, Gent. ; Robert Mar shall, Gent. ; Adam Elijah Clarke, Gent. ; and John An derson, Gent. BREVET. Brevet Colonel Henry Keane Bloomfield, half-pay 11th Foot, to have the temporary rank of Major-General while holding the command of a Brigade in Ireland. Brevet-Colonel Charles Franklyn, C. 8., from Inspecting Field Officer of a Recruiting District, to have the tempo rary rank of Major-General while holding the command of a Brigade at Gibraltar. Captain Seth Nuttall Fisher, 25th Foot, to be Major in the Army. Brevet-Major Seth Nuttall Fisher, 25th Foot, to be Lieu tenant-Colonel in the Army. The under-mentioned promotions to take place cense client :pea the death of Major-General Henry Edward Robinson on 14th January, 1860 : Major •General Sir Thomas Harto Franks, K.C.8., the I Senior Officer promoted to the rank of Major-General for distinguished service, to be placed upon the Fixed Esta blishment of General Officers, in accordance with the 6th clause of the Royal Warrant of Oct. 14, 1858. Captain and Lieut.-Colonel Charles Lennox Brownlow Maitland, of the Grenadier Guards, to be Colonel. Brevet-Major William Gorstin, half-pay 24th Dragoons, Staff Officer of Pensioners, to be Lieut.-Colonel. Captain Frederick William Haultain, Royal Artillery, to be Major. COMMISSION SIGNED BY THE QUEEN. 2d or Eastern Regiment of Norfolk Militia—William Hardement, Gent., to be Quartermaster. The above noti fication is in substitution for that which appeared in the "Gazette" of 9th December, 1859. COMMISSIONS BY LORDS LIEUTENANT. The Essex Rifles—Henry William Hartley, Gent., to be Ensign, vice Godfrey, superseded. 2d Company of Lincolnshire Artillery Volunteers—Adam Smith, Esq., to be Captain ; John Whitford, Gent., to be First Lieutenant ; Francis Long, Gent., to be Second Lieu tenant. Dorset Regiment of Militia—Henry Thomas Baylie, Gent., to be En s i gn , t o comp l e t e t h e Establishment. Royal Flintshire Militia—Ralph Richardson the younger, Gent., to be Ensign. • Glamorganshire Rifle Volunteers-16th .Co,mcplaenmye—nt Charles Williams David, Es tobeCaptain x . Waldron, G en t . , to be Lieutenant ; Jere mia h Stock dale, Gent., to be Ensign. 11th Company K en t Rifle Volunteers—MET bock, Esq., to be C a pt a i n; Edward °sre to o be Ensi g n ; Ed ndrteagus E L s u q b : to be Lieuten an t ; Wm. Darwin, Esq ., - irgeon. g ward Augustus Williams, Esq., to be Honorary Surgeon. 19th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers — James Maxwell, Es to be Captain ; G eo r g e Alexander Mackenzie, Esq., to % e Captain ; Ja mes M u ir Dowie, Esq., to be Captain ; William Donald Ryrie, Gent., to be Lieutenant ; Alex. Macdonald Glassford, Gent., to be Lieutenant ; John Campbell Fraser, Gent., to be Ensign. 21st Lancashire Rifl e Volunteers—Nathaniel E c k ers l ey, Esq., to be Captain; Egerton Leigh Wright, Eset,, to be Captain ; George William Gunning, Gent. (late Captain in the 2d Regiment of the Duke of Lancaster's Ow* Militia), to be Lieutenant ; Thomas Marshall, Gent., to b e Lieutenant ; Edward Scott, jun., Gent., to be Ensign ; Lever Robert Rowbottom, Gent., to be Ensign; Thomas Joshua Ileaton, Gent., to be Assistant-Surgeon. Ist Subdivision of Lancashire Rifle Volunteers —George Frederick Martin, Gent., to be Lieutenant ; William Clarke Deeley, Gent., to be Ensign. lst Company of the Banff Volunteer Artillery Corps__ William James Whyte, M.D., to be Captai n . Norfolk Artillery Regi men t of Militia—The Right Hon. Jacob Henry Delaval, Lord H as ti ngs, t o b e Honorary Colo- . ne c l ti v v ice of Jag o b riv , LicohrdßHiflasetinygosiudnetceeeasr rps deceased. D avy ' . Brett, Esq., late Major 16th Lancers, to be Major Comman dant; Charles Foster, Esq., to be Captain ; John Barwell, jun., Gent., to b e Li eu t enant; Alfred Master Gent., to be Ensign, vice Foster, res i gne d ; Beaumont Wilson Jolly, Gent., lstbds t u obl iv Ensi g n. unbridgeshire Rifle Vol t ers—Ed• ward Loomes, E sq ., t o b e Lieutenant; e a ß p i t fl a e in T Wm ue Harris n Bowyer, Esq., to be E ns i gn. son 1 , 3 t j h u n A . , b E e r s d g e . e , n t o s r e C Vo luntee rs—A lexander l a e c x d a o n n d a e l r d, Sj u m n p . : to bo Lieutenant; Alexander Francis Blaikie, Esq., to be En l s s i t c gn i . ty of Edinburgh Artillery Volunteers—John Boyd, jun., Lieutenan Esq., t to be C a pt a i n ; t>i John Macnab, Esq., to be First Lieutenant. ; Elgin, jun., Esq., to be Second NOTICE Or I .NTENDED DISTRIBUTION OF NAVAL . PRIZE Department of the Accountant-General of the Navy, Admiralty, Somerset-house, Jan. 27. Notice is hereby given to the officers, seamen and marines, and to all persons interested therein, that the distribution of the amount awarded for the destruction of pirates in the China Seas, by her Majesty's ship Comus, between the 24th and 27th August, 18 . 56, will commence on Mondaythe 6 th February, 1860, in the Prize Branch of the Depart. meat of the "Accountant-General of the Navy, Admiralty, Somerset -house." Agents and other persons holding prize orders , or other inst ruments, by virtue of which they may be legally entitled to claim the share of any salvor, are requested to present the same at this office. Any officer, seaman, marine, or other person, wht may desire to receive his share from the Collector of Customs or of Inland Revenue within the United King dom, is required to intimate, the same by letter to be addressed " On Fria, Business, to the Secretary of the Admiralty, London "—in wilich, letter his own place of re- ~-~._ sidence is to be precisely stated, as well as the place of the nearest Collector of Customs, or of Inland Revenue, front whom it would be convenient to receive such share d prize money. The following are the shares due to an individual in the several classes : Commander. £llB 06 ; Seventh class .. 719 11 Third class .... 37 62 I Eighth class 319 11 Fourth class.... 23 19 8 Ninth class.... 213 4 Fifth class .... 13 6 6 ; Tenth class 1 6 7 Sixth class 11 19 11 I BANKRUPTS. Charles Lambourn, barge builder, Chiswick, to surrender Feb. 11, at eleven, and March 8, at twelve, at the Court of Bankruptcy. John Clayton, grocer, Newport, Feb. 13 and March 13, at eleven, at the Bristol District Court. Thomas Crickett Jennings, spice dealer, Ipswich, Feb. 10, at two, and March 9, at one, at the Court of Bankruptcy. Edward Evans, draper, Wed nes b ury , St a ff or d s hi re , Feb. 13 and March 5, at eleven, at the Birmingham District Court. William Boswell, victualler, Birmingham Feb. IS and March 5, at eleven, at the Birmingham District Court. William James, tool manufacturer, Dudley, Feb. 16 and March 8, at eleven, at the Birmingham District Court. illiam Silvester Lynall, plumber, Digbeth, Birming ham, Feb. 10, and March 2, at eleven, at the Birmingham District Court. James Whilock, grocer, Birmingham, Feb. 15 and March 21, at eleven, at the Birmingham District Court. Adolph Worman, boot and shoe manufacturer, 126, Minories, City, Feb. 11, at half-past eleven, and March 8, at one, at the Court of Bankruptcy. i William Jones, dairyman, 3, New-road, Whitechapa, Feb. 10, at half-past twelve, and March 9, at half-past one, at the Court of Bankruptcy. Joseph Varley, yarn spinner, King's Mill, near Hud dersfield, Feb. 6 and March 5, at eleven, at the Leeds District Court. William John Thomas Smith, pin manufacturer, Bir mingham, 10th Feb. and March 2, at elevsn, at the Dis trict Court of Bankruptcy. George Noble Wilkinson and Hezekiah Orvis, ship brokers, both of Hartlepool, Feb. 9, at twelve, and March 9, at h tlf-past twelve, at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Dis trict Court. SCOTCH BANKRUPTS. Junes Webster, fanner, Unthank, Perthshire, deceased. Alexander M'Neill, advocate, Ediaburgh, deceased. Peter Tait, boot and shoe maker, Perth. James Riddich, tailor, Dumfries. Thomas Tubb, Edinburgh, late of Alderney Dairy, Brook xest, Groslenor-square, London. COURSE OF EXCHAl(Gl6.—Yasmasai. Amsterdam Ditto Rotterdam — 11 Ist 11 15 Antwerp Brussels — 25 10 25 17 Hamburgh Paris Ditto Marseilles — 25 30 25 65 Frankfort on Maine — 117 1171 Vienna Trieste Petersbnrgh — 34 35 Madrid Cadiz — 49 66 Leghorn — 30 1 3 / 4 30 371 Genoa - -25 37 3 / 4 26 421 Naples Palermo — 121} 122 Messina — 1211 1221. Lisbon Oporto Rio Janeiro — • • • • New York — • • • • Foreign Gold in Bars (Standard)....pez oz. £3 17 1 Mexican Dollars Silver in Bars (Standard) /1 0 6 21 South American Doublons COUNTRY MARIBTS. LIVERPOOL-JAN. 31. At our market to-day there was ndalteration to notice in wheat, the transactions being limited to retail, at this day week's prices. Indian corn was generally held at Is advance on the week. Oats less plentiful, and brought full rates. Barley and peas quite as dear. Egyptian beans 6d higher. Flour a fair inquiry, at late rates. LEEDS-JAN. 31. The transactions in wheat and barley are without musk change in value from last week, but confined to fine dr/ qualities. Oats remain unaltered. Beans were Arm at Ist, rates. Averages for the week : Wheat 3,486 qrs., at 458 2/41 Peas .. 50 „ 37s 40 Beans 199 „ 4ls 1 8ar1ey........ 3,886 „ 24s 8 d „ 3BB 1111 Oats 231 Rye l4 „ 36s LO Arrivals this week : Wheat ___ ..3,160 qrs. Barley Oats Rapeseed Beans Linseed — Flour BRISTOL—JAN. Sl. At the market to-day there was an average attendanot and wheat had only a retail inquiry, at the prices of bay week. NEWCASTLE-UNDER LYNE—J.ut. 31. A fair show of wheat at market, which meta sl°W di " mand ; but we make no a lt era ti on upon the full rats. of last week. Malting barley at late rates ; grinding LuvalL a alu w Oak.. I....ux...apLyPia - ,_se Scotland, and trade slow ; beans and peas met out litt le attention. NORWICH CATTLE-JAN. 28. Our market to •day exhibited a good show of store cattle, comprising a fresh drove of Scots, shorthorns, and A fair clearance was effected, although there was but a thin attendance. At the close about one• fourth of the stock re mained unsold. Scots, 4s to 4s 6d ; shorthorns, 3s 6d to 4s Od ; Irish, SO 3d to 3s 6d ; Devon; Os Od to Os (estimated weight when fat). Fat beasts a very poor show, at 8s Od to 8s 6d per stone• A firm sale. Sheep—There were good supplies of sheep in the pen& Fat sheep, 8s 6d to 9s Od per stone, and well sold. Pigs—A poor supply. Store pigs 25. to 30s; fat porlro 8s Od to 8s 6d per stone. FOREIGN MAIL PACKET LIST. in the following table E signifies that letters are despatched by evening mails from London, and M by morning malls. Nest DESTINATIONs. Despatch Port of Mall entails. Despatch. due. Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton Feb. 11, ElSo u th am p . F e b. II 8 E' Feb.• , Feb. 3 Feb. 17, E Liverpool.. Feb. 16 Canada, &c. (by Canadn. pckt )' Feb. 1, E Liverpool.. Feb. 1 Hope, Ascen nGdoSodt. Helena Ba y p h o l a t r m to k ; s v a ia nd M H ar a s v e a i n n a es via New CChina,apBorNe : atypiaenang, Southampton and Si n . g . a . -. h 6 Ditto, via Marseilles f Feb. 10 E ,; Feb. 11 Feb. 4, MSouthamp. Feb. 1 Honduras andy:lewrifiaelsd.osu.t.h... Feb. 17, M Southamp. Gibraltar, via India (Calcutta) and Ceylon, via Southampton .......... Feb. 4, 31 Southamp. Feb.l Ditto. via Marseilles ... . . Feb. 10,E Indi a D am i t P t o L,Bn v o iMarseilles . .. .. ......... Feb. 16 Lisbon, Brazils,Buenos A ......... and F. Islands ............ Feb. 9, 31 Southamp. Feb. 1 Feb. e 11, 3 31 24 Southamp. overdue Ditto, Lisbon, Vigo, and 0p0rt0.... Feb. 7, M Southamp. Feb. 1 I Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton .............. Feb. 4,31 Southamp. overate Ditto, via M arse i lles Mexico and Hav ana Southamp. Newfoundland United States and British N America ((by British packet) Feb. 3, E Liverpool.. Feb. II Ditto (by U. S. packet) W est Coast of Africa,Ma deira, and Teneriffe (Pest India, Calif orn i a, Vene zuela, Chili, Pe ru , Grey- Feb. 23 E Liverpool.. Feb. 10 Grey town, New Granada, deo. __ _. ___ VESSEL WRECKED OFF ARRAN.—As the steams Rose was proceeding up the Firth of Clyde on Friday, ofl her voyage from Londonderry, a portion of the hulk of 0 vessel was observed lying near to the entrance to Lamlash Lech. The captain of the Rose immediately caused hill ship to run close to the wreck, which he found to be that of a ♦essel apparently of American build. Her boats war , gone, and it is therefore reasonably supposed that the crew have safely reached the shore in them. The name of the stranded ship could net be made out.—North British .Dastil Mail. BIRTHS. BROWN.—On the 28th ult., at Crouch Oak, Addlesteno, the wife of Major George Brown, of the 88tb. Connaught Rangers, of a son. MACKINTOSII.-011 the 28th ult., at 28, Porehestor-terraest Bayswater, the wife of Alexander biaekintosh, Esq., of II son. M9NCKTON.—On the 28th ult., at Clifton, the lady of 11. ISlonekton, Esq., Bengal C.S., of a son. Russ.—On the 28th ult., at Twickenham, the wife of I'• 11. Ruse, Esq., of a son. MARRIAGES. FENTON—ECCLEBTON.—On the 31st ult., at Huyton Church, Lancashire, Ms. Charles David Fenton, of Knowsley-park, to Ellen, eld es t d aughter o f Mr. Arm. Holme Eccleston. JOINSTONE—GRIERSON.-011 the 26th ult., at St. Mary'. Church, Dumfries, David Baird, youngest eon of J. J. Hope Johnstone, Esq., M.P. for the county, to Margaret Elizabeth, only surviving daughter of Col. Grierson, of Bardennoch. DEATHS. BRISEINE.—On the 27th ult., at Brisbane, Ayrshire, Gen. Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, Bart., G.C.B , &0. , of Brisbane and Makorstoun, Colonel of the 34th nee,' aged 87. BANKES.—On the 2rth ult., at Kingston Lacy,Wimbornet Dorset, Edmund G. Bankes, Esq., aged 33. BANKS.—On the 28th ult., at Sheppey Court, Edward Banks, aged 2‘. CATHCART.—On the 23d ult., at Edinburgh, George Jas. Cathcart, Esq. CONNOR.—On the 13th ult., at Cork, at the advanced se of 10 years, Captain Brabazon Connor. FINE..—On the 25th ult., at Holloway, W.W. Fink, E 991.1 aged 72. TODD. —On. the 30th ult. at 26 Brook-street iiebor s Bentley Todd, M.D. , , , LONDON : Printed and Published by MURDO YOUN (I f of No. 112, Strand, Printer; at Ths Sun Office, No. 112, &rand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the count/ Middlesex, Wednesday, February 1, 1860. 114: T,