The Sun. — London, England, 1846-08-21 00:00:00

,0111 0 ,110•1C1.1b.le COU:R.T Their Itor%l ;10 , Duchess of Caiuhridge !Ind the lie:editary Grai,d Duke and Duchess of :Keck -I,nburg Strelitz, at ten d e d b y B aron K nesc b ec k, h onoure d the performalice 01 the Italian Opera with their presence yesterday evening.ll..4ll.nurd:putAtion from the London Sewage Chemical Company, consisting of Dlcssrs. John Good !VJob Heath, W. Higgs, John Svvinstead, John R. L. alinsley, (the solicitor,) - and E'lwurd Hunt, (the secre ia, IT), had an interview with Viscount Morpeth yester- IA • 4 /, at the office of the Woods and Forests in White all• place tpl)l.upatelies were rec e i v ed y e ste r d a y a t the Colonial (),wee fro m t h e Governor of Jamaica, and also from the Governors of the other West India Colonies. PMessr s . L ucas, Messrs. Snoxell and Poulson and Mr. ro"on, (secret ar y), a d eputat i on o f t h e Q ua d rant Im wi7eme office nt Association, had an interview yesterday F La Viscount Morpeth at the of the Woods and crests L ANDING OF HER MAJESTY AT WEY.NIOUTH. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) WEYMOUTH, THURSDAY.—The wind still continuing to 13 -- I N't hard from the S.W., producing a very heavy sea in the Channel, her Majesty was unable to proceed this day on her t o Yage to the westwar d . Early in the day a large number of he inhabitants went over to the Nothe, in order to obtain a view of th:Esq3rol) 8. Striven yacht. Some guns (under the directi o n of were planted on the bill, under a large dis- Play of colours, which were to give a royal salute as soon as Majesty should leave the roadstead. At 12 A.m. the ' l ack Eagle came over in Weymouth roads, when it became loured that her Majesty would land here. Immediately after a large barge was towed alongside, and one of the car tiages taken ou t, w hi c h conf i rmed the report now universally believed. The mayor i mmediately convened the Corporation and principal inhabitants, in order to make the best arrange ruent that the shortness of the time would allow to do honour to our beloved Sovereign. There was but little time for deliberation, for Lord Paget announced that in about an hour her Majesty would land. The only things, therefore, that could be done were, to make an effort to preserve due Order and decorum on this auspicious occasion. Soon after t,he royal , acht, with the royal standard flying, steamed !'oily and majestically across the bay. The Fairy, which ead, been detained at the ea s t war d b y t h e weat h er, now came 41 te the roads. These splendid vessels with numbers of al e : bay, dressed in their best flags, were cruising about Ir"le: bay, presented a magnificent spectacle. The authorities i w arrived on the quay, and a carpet was laid from the ,ug's steps (the place wh ere hi s l ate M a j esty G eorge 111. ;74 to land) to the Bank H ouse , w h ere the royal carriages , e re waiting. The h ar b our was we ll f i lled with boats, crowd g. with a nx i ous spectators, who were desirous to see at te !° homage to the Monarch. ~ T he Coast Guard were in All ee tte, under the di rec ti on of Captain Kerr, Lieutenants keepi n ' ar eY, and Woodruffe, and were of great service in however the line open for he r M a j es ty t o p ass . N o thi ng , We feer,L c uuld exceed the order and decorum preserved, and With the "Gml,. red that her Maest mus have been gratified font t b' r etention. At length j the y royal t standard was lowered tit* 'Yacht and heisted on the barge, which, manned by e i stiz e !s tout Brit ons now rowe d t h e prec i ous f re i g ht, ctna tie,. g " the Queen,' Prince Albert, Lord Adolphus Fitz ward.ece, fortewith several other members of the royal suite, to the h arbour. The guns from the Nothe now pealed thact i ntervals. In a few minutes a lifting of hats and a th ad miration from the crowd (who now saw before Ilr,,l'ngiand's Queen and Prince) told their arrival. Her alo a 6"`Y, and Prince Albert walked up the steps and look r„ the quay to the carriage, which was in readiness, e at : . a g .the picture of health, and smiling with joyous cozoretion at the welcome she and her loved F en er i t received. As soon as they were seated, a eefi n a out from the assembled multitude spoke the their fi of their hearts, gentlemen buzzaing and waiving h er a. ate, the ladies their handkerchiefs. Her Majesty with th. i.tendants were driven to Abbotsbury Castle, the seat of fro e o l i o g h t lien. the Earl of llchester, who was unfortunatel Path- - h ale, being at sea in his yacht, the Peetrel. .The royal weri ,_o.owever, visited the gardens, through which i the3 ler tianducted by Mr. Nicholson, his Lordship's garen a e r r : rang ern J e aY was pleased with the taste displayed the other t' er ns of the g ar d ens , w hi c h re fl ect muc h cre d it on the er,: After vis i t i ng t h e swannery, and v i ew i ng the ag ain tuJurects of attraction, the illustrious visitors returned ceder e 3'llioutb and embarked in the same order and g ot nnskandar circum ' stances to their landing. was saluted With ward about a quarter past seven, and was L avin :;,,, ent Y - one guns from the Benita, Colonel Freestone, the ° been on shore five hours. We were pleased to see thetlren locking su well, and her cheerful smile assured us kale, he beirWa4 pleased with her reception. Prince Albert looked ed. '', l !eenied to feel the hearty welcome he receiv eorlo„,..ttoitants deeply regretted they were not aware of this sorri t yll time to have made suitable preparations, and were ato m " t t rite forbade th e i r ill um i na ting ; this was felt the kr.. 0 3 he royal yacht lay off in the Bay all the night. tiltedlB at the Royal Library, however, tastefully . i ll th e . Premises with ' the royal crown and V. R. A., anti PaPera -Jelling went on board and presented the Lond cn iraci onsi t hat day f or t h e use o f . her Majesty, which were a blue on the f rework received lanade, and es . In the evening from there the Nothe rocl3lr wtr a ets, eelotThrts, and cannons were pouring forth their sounds and b ith was co nc l u d e d by a large a r r ay o f bl azing Period:'''s , Which illuminated the hills for a considerable T hUrfta erated—ttY Morning at six o'clock, the wind having mo r,Y this t;-:e s quadron to sea again, and we doubt not that Queen "rue they are safely at Plymouth. God save the 'r and t p • not wo of e Prince ! bsou„tue ro shoral children were on board, but they were y "t 011 e. 'TINGBI)It INTELLIGENCE. TATTERSALL'S.—YEsTERDAY. No attendance. The ii Ttr X BRIDGE WELLS RACES.—Y ESTERDAY . ,-..04an0r Stakes of 3 cove. each, with 35 added ; the Zanier to be sold for 200 sovs. if demanded. Heats, one leile and a half. x r ',.. Greville , 8 Polka, 3 yrs, Est 121 b Planner 1 1 AT Pratt's Deodara, 4 yrs, 7st 11Ib 2 2 -r • Xrn's f by Samarcand, out of La Fille mal die I t .:l•dee, 4 yrs, 7st 121 b die --„ tale's African, aged, 9st 111 b o Both heats won by a length. Wakefield, the rider of the rb ai oar and filly was thrown, and very much injured. . 4lie town Plate of 3 sovs. each, with 30 added. The winner At t ° be sold for 80 sovs. Heats, one mile and a half. --nr. • , ~ . alt 8 Devil-among -the-Tailors, aged, Mr, .... (Hackett) 2 2 0 1 1 fi r ' ood's Maid of Auckland, aged, 9st 31b ö 1 0 2 2 fir, Xunn's Dalesman, 5 yre, 9st 2lb .....«.. 1 3 3 3 3 r. A st i , k r, 4ey g Sylph , 6 yrs, 9st 31b cleT6 Moore's Conservative, 4 yrs, Bst 91b t l i le ditst three heats well contested—the third ~ ending in a by b arelY ueat, a head. the fourth won only by a neck, and the fifth" Th RECER AC IVED ES. TH TII IS lIRSDAY . 6 COUntY YORK Cup, of 150 sovs, added to a . Sweepstakes of 10 r. a , sovs. each, for 3 yrs old, &c. Two miles. kr. e e n ° D. 4 3 7 's The Hero, 3 yrs, 7st 81b (A. Day) I ide.„__ ,e_seltine's 1 3rother to Millepede, 3 yrs, Est 111 b 2 _ •iite Ilrburgh's Red Robin, 4 yrs, Bst lib .. ... ••-• ... •.. yrs, 6St,Glo,.'l°Willg also ran :—Mr. L. Fox's Wrestler, 5 3 3 .. s l'hilir,-;Lord Zetland's Coheiress, 5 yrs, Bst 11b—Ni.r , „ Jaque '. eat 51Citre, Bst 31b—Mr. Cuthbert's Queen of T 3 ne, age_4, 9 11 rie n ,: u s r: 8. L. Fox's Waxholme, 3 yrs, 6st 111b—Mr. , Ys, - B"„",,ntor, 4 yrs, 9st lib—and Mr. WorlayrsExampl a , •,,`", tth. 'lb• Won by a neck; the third beaten by .ue e h tir r "tettlela Handicap of 10 sovs. each, with 60 added. oi. C ott One mile. (17 Subs.) 4r d Ri ll's Burlesque. 3 yrs, 6st 12Ib ...... (Tasker) , 1 ) Lord G.erfield's Lady Wildair, 4 yrs, 7st 7lb The f i;jentinek'S Cobl Black Rose, 5 yrt3, 6st 81 b. _ yrs,3 Bst io it ? 'awing also ran :—Mr. Meiklam s Godfrey,_ r 0 lanes e;stord Glarins's Satyr, 5 yrs, 6st 7 M . Meik kaid ' - '4: lltn ee, 3 yrs, Get—and Mr. Harland's ib T — he Cossack Ro e , i ',Yrs, sst 121 b. Won by half a length, Coal Black Th e p9,e,lag second place by a head. ` I "Y Stake s of 25 sovs. each. 10 ft, and 20 added. One Lord w mile and th ree - quar t ers . (4 S u b s .) The estm luster's Capric e walked over. m Fre e Handic a p of 10 sovs. each, and 50 added. One kr, C o ile and a half. (10 Subs.) ka. ,A,Peland's Arthur, 4 yrs, Est 31b ...... ..... (Sharpe) 1_ Ireland's yarbtlrgh's Red Robin, 4 yrs, 7st 10Ib ... ..... ... 2 :be following also ran : — Mr. Ramsay's Mid . Lothian, I,Yrs, 7st 41 b—Mr. L. Fox's Little John, 5 yrs, 7st—Mr. L. Thioirx'as,P6seatl.nisinger, 4 yrs, Est 71b—Mr. W. Scott's London, e Amateur Handicap of 10 sovs. each. Two miles. (15 Subs.) r, r • 13_ Baker's Porto Bello, 6 yrs, list 101b....(Osbald es t on ) 1 I,tr• J ohnson's Obscurity, 5 yrs, list 41b h u lt C. B o y nton ' s P oussin, 6 yrs , 12 s t 51b Ler Maje s ty' s Pl ate o f 100 G u i neas , f or mares. Th ree m il es . o rd G. Bentinck's Camera Obscure,_3_ Kr_s ...... ...walked over BETTING AT YORK. , THE Yoaxstunz STAKES.—Even on lago (6 to 5 taken freely)-4 to 1 agat Poynton (taken)-1,000 to 10 agst klendicant (taken). Sr. I.EGft.-4 - to 1 agst Sir Tatton Sykes-8 to 1 agst 14 rocardo (taken)-8 to 1 agst Traverser-10 to 1 agst Ingo *--15 to 1 agst Sting-15 to 1 agst Fancy Boy-25 to 1 agst P oynton-33 to 1 agst Mount Callan. High odds offered Against Pyrrhus the First. DEVON AND EXETER RACES.—THURSDAY. The Second Class of Home Stakes of 25 sovs., added to a S weepstakes of 10 sovs. each, 3 ft. Two miles and a dis. r (3 Subs.) ' a t t ,Pta ‘ in Crofton's Rosa, 4 yrs, 9st 131 b (Mr. Scoble) 1 wir. '• W aring's - Fortune Teller, aged, C ioldsworthy's Woodbury, 3 yrs, Est 131 b ...... 3 h e Won easy. Ladies' Purse of 2.5/., added to a Sweepstakes of 5 soya kr. Zell, 3 fr.. Gentlemen riders. Oue mile. (4 Subs.) bir k tpg's Flash of Li g ht n i ng , 3 y rs , 9 s t 111 b 1 1 klrPley's Brunette, aged, 12st .... 2 2 e it riott's The Baron, aed 9st 91b 3 clr P`aill Crofton's Strathsp g ey, , 5 yrs, lOst 81b 4 dr A good race. ei gn ,The City Me m b ers ' Pl a t e o f 501. Heats, one mil e . ~1r,..`"n Crofton's Zuleika, 3 yrs, Est 101 b . (Moon) 1 1 11 1 , iaeZ'S Flirt, 5 yrs, Bst 101 b 2 dr • Go ldaivorthy's Woodbury, 3 yrs, 7st Won eas. Won Fo rced Handicap of 2 soya. y each, and 25 added, was 86,0 three heats by Flirt, 6st 71b, beating Woodbury, -'4B P e n and The Baron, by a length. THE UNITED STATES. LIVERPOOL, TuURSDAY. th 4t a letter from our correspondent at Liverpool we lelearn kon the W arehousing Bill has passed the Senate, the divt- Ve.R 30 so. 0000000000000 .00 00000000000000000 .110.1 No ... .. . ............. Jor►tq INTR- ~ 20 ~ -10 ,DBtN e if I'TDED VISIT OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE 1.44, 1 ;1 or Pax:sm.—We understand that his Excellency . Chevalier 'ilheem"as received official intimation that her Royal thenes B ' te ther ? f Prussia, consort of Prince William of Prussia, eldest With the Ring, will visit this country at the close of this !float: 3 , l a n exp e j v iew of sojourning three weeks here. tier Royal ILghne rtere liA .•,e ,l to accompany her Majesty the Queen Dowager and his and oii'iighliess Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar. Queen Ade,aide, er Monlbers of the family, have been visiting their Serene a_sses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Saxe Welinar, at to th r e ' r ? also the Princess of Prussia ; and the illustrious . Princess th e KiNatell Dowager, en route to England, purpose to pay a visit .'" g eY ar. li g and Queen of the Netherlands, at the Hague, where 1 .0 en ib (APected to stay two days, and then proceed to Rotterdam th e ark for this country. The precise day for the embarkation of alst . It i Pt Party is not definitively settled, but either the 28th or .1.8 tienerally thought. will be selected. th - ounT VALACE.-114 1843. 176,334 per pons 11104btra.,Irs , 1 ce ; 159,760 i n 1644; sod 160,791 in 1845. These e returned by th e Onicao co: Wvotts and Fu 1 r etittuy eins n a .i PaPaz last NUM. THE SUN, LONDON, FR IDAV E'VrNING, AUGUST 21, 1846. own national limits in our free-trade a g itation. We neither 1 sought for aid abroad, nor stipulated for conditions with other countries; nay, I will candidly admit to you that any admixture of such foreign elements would have only compli cated and retarded our movement. Would to Heaven that every other people were left as we were left, free to carry out its ; own domestic reforms, without the intervention of extraneous influences. Having said this, you will not suppose, if I add a word or two upon the proceedings of our League, that I do it with the view to incite you to imitate us. The League was organised solely for the purpose of disseminating amongst the English people those truths which Adam Smith and your own Baptist Jay had promulgated halt a century before. We wished to make their principles, which had been confined to the knowledge of the learned few, familiar to the mass of our countrymen. Our object was to prepare public opinion for the removal of all those impediments, which, under the name of protective duties, prevented the fi ee exchange of our productions for those of all other countries. We wished, moreover, to teach the Government that its duty consisted in abstaining from all interference with trade. The doctrine of the League could not be better explained than in the words of your own great Turgot, written I believe before Adam Smith published the "Wealth of Nations." "Ce que l'Etat dolt A chacun de sea membres, c'est la destruction des obstacles, qui les generaient dans leur indust trie, ou qui lea troubleraicnt dans la jouissence des produits qui en seraient la recompense. Si ces obstacles subsistent, les bienfaits particuliers ne diminueront point la pauvrete generale, parce que la cause restare tout entiere." There, gentlemen, all that I have spoken or written in Eng land for the last seven years has been only an amplification of this maxim of your illustrious statesman. The League raised funds, established its own journal, printed hundreds of tons weigh of tracts, which were distributed taroughout the land, and sent forth its missionaries to lecture in every town. Copying, in our moral warfare, the tactics of your great general, we precipitated all our force upon ene division of the enemy. We attacked the corn-laws with a Lull expectation (which has been since realised) that if we carried that position, the rest of the monopolists would surrender at discretion. I shall not dwell upon the details of our struggle further than to give you one or two of the great arguments with which our opponents managed so long to maintain their ground. If you should find them to re semble those which you are accustomed to meet with in France, it will not surprise me, for as truth everywhere wears the same divine aspect, so error must always disguise itself in similar sophistries. Our opponents, the monopolists, pleaded that they were heavily taxed by the Government, and that, therefore, they required protection. Our reply was, that we, the free-traders, were as heavily taxed as they, and that that was one great reason why we could not afford to pay addi tional taxes for their protection, and after a seven years' trial before the tribunal of public opinion it has been decided that we were right. Then they urged how dreadful it would be to be dependent upon foreigners for food—that if it had only concerned articles of clothing, or wood, or iron, it might have been tolerated; but what madness to be at the mercy of foreigners for corn ! Well, the people took time to con sider this terrible plea, and at length decided that they would not subject themselves to famine during the time of peace for the fear of being starved in case of war. But the great argument of all is to come. Our opponents set them selves up as the representatives of native industry; they protested that they were the great employers of labour, the supporters of the revenue, and the main pillars of the State. We modestly ventured to suggest that an interest so powerful ought at least to be able to support itself, without putting its hands into other people's pockets. We were then assailed as traitors to England, who wished to ruin our native country to enrich foreigners; we were denounced as the friends of France, America, and Germany, nay one of the protectionist journals actually charged us with being in the pay of the Emperor of Russia. In vain did we try by argu ments and facts to put an end to this ever-repeated tale of native industry. Oh, the hundreds of dull speeches that I have been doomed to hear in the House of Commons in de fence of native industry? I shudder when I think of their length and weight, and wonder that I am alive to tell you of my sufferings. At last the judg ment of public opinion saved me by declaring that ail kinds of industry were equally native industry, and that no one portion of it was entitled to any privileges at the ex pense of the rest. There was one class of our opponents, the most able men in the ranks of the protectionists, who seeing the impossibility ,f defending any of these arguments sought refuge in an distraction "We agree with you," said they, " in principle we admit that you are tight in the abstract." To them we replied, that we were not fighting with a phantom, but with a pretty numerous body made up of flesh and blood, and which was making free with other men's property; we asked them if they were prepared to maintain that the eighth commandment was an abstraction. Oh, give me an opponent who will admit that I am right in the abstract ! We felt that we had nearly finished our struggle when our ablest adversaries were driven to admit the justice of our principles in the abstract. I must not omit to do honour to one class of our antagonists who had the prudence to resort to prophecies instead of appealing to the facts and experience of the past. They always argued in the future tense. They predicted for seven years without ceasing, that if the corn-laws were abolished the land of England would be thrown out of cultivation, and no rent would be paid to the proprietors. Well the corn-laws are abolished, and these very men have since been selling and letting their land higher than before. I am delighted for their own sakes that they have proved as false in prophecy as they were deficient in logic. The same men predicted that if we threw open our ports without stipulation with foreigners, that other countries would not follow our example; unluckily for these prophets the last mail from America brings the account of the passing of a new tariff in the United States almost as liberal as our own, and I am told his Holiness the Pope is pre paring to add his infallible testimony to the truth of free trade principles. But lam wearying you with these recitals. Suffice it to say, that our victory was achieved after more than seven years of discussion had elicited every argument in de fence of protection which the ingenuity and the sincere alarm of the protectionists could devise. If you ask me whether the question is settled for ever, I answer, Yes ; for in England we never recede one inch in the path of reform, ' when every step has been gained by the force of reason and argument. Besides, we have no man deserving the name of a statesman who would undertake a Government founded upon the protective principle. Ido not speak merely of Sir Robert Peel, who has immortalised his name by the part he took in the emancipation of our commerce, or ofLord J. Russell, who so nobly supported him, but I mean that there is not one member of the late or present Ministry who now advocates the principle of protect ion. One and all have modestly repudiated, on the part of Government, the right of interfering with the freedom of individual industry and enterprise. Gentle men, I should not be doing justice to my own feelings, or the views of those with whom I have had the honour to co operate in England if I sat down without saying that we look for far higher results from the universal application of our principles than those to which Ihave alluded. Doubtless it is good to extend commerce, to multiply the comforts of life, to stimulate industry, and increase the rewards of labour ; but, valuable as are these physical gains, free-trade is des tined to confer a far greater moral blessing upon humanity. You have joined this evening in drinking a toast to "peace" —a sentiment which will find a response in every English free-trader. True, we have now peace in Europe, but at what cost is it preserved ? Everywhere we see preparations for war. Peace is upon our lips, but war resounds from our arsenals. The world sighs for some better guarantee against that scourge of humanity than is to be found in enormous and costly armaments by land and sea; for ex perience has, unhappily, proved that the warlike passions of communities are more likely to be stimulated than sup pressed by the threatenings which surround them. To render peace something better than an armed truce, we must array on its side such a preponderance of ma terial interests as shall prevent the possibility of war. Here, then, is the mission of the free-traders! Do we believe that the daily and hourly interchange of mutual services which must follow from the triumph of our principles would afford the surest safeguard against national hosti lities? Do we believe that free trade, if adopted by all countries, would make the universal people the negotiators of peaceful relations with each other, and thus put an end fur ever to our present system, by which the balance of peace and war between two great nations trembles uron the finger of diplomacy? If we sincerely believe this, then it is our duty to strive to demolish those barriers which separate man from his brother man, and which pre vent them from interchanging the kind offices of humanity. Let nations meet face to face in the spirit in which we meet together this evening, forgetting that we are Frenchmen and Englishmen, and remembering only that we are men. This must be the object of every tree trader, each in his own legitimate sphere. Gentlemen, I heartily thank you for the patience with which you have listened to this imperfect expression of my sentiments, and, in conclusion, I drink with you to the " Union of all Nations." This toast was received with great enthusiasm, as were also several others in favour of free trade, and the ameliora- tion of the condition of the labouring classes, which were proposed by different gentlemen. RE FORD ABBEY. It is amongst the on dits that the Catholic body have a serious intention to compete for this splendid monas tery. Such an opportunity cannot by possibility ever occur again, and the trustees (it should be known) are required, by the will of the late Mr. Gwynne t _to place it in the market without a protecting price. To say no thing of it as an abbey of so much renown, the estate that appertains to, and surrounds it, cannot be estimated at less than 1,5001. a year; and the value of the monas tery, in pieces, would realise ten thousand pounds. Within this classic pile will be found congregated the finest • collection of tapestry throughout England; and there are some pictures of the Dutch and Flemish school that are incomparably fine. The library is extensive and select ; the furniture of the old school, and very la la. ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.—During the past week this establishment has been more than usual attrac tive, in consequence of the lectures of D rs . Ry an an d Bach hoffner—the former gentleman having chosen as his theme " the philosophy of steam as a motive power ;" and the latter savant the " history and varieties of electric telegraphs." We need not say much on the propriety and fitness of such subjects in:these steam times, but we cannot avoid reiteration of our opinion 9f the valuable services this institution and its professors are continually rendering to science in thus bring ing so forcibly, and yet so simply, before the world all that is new and really useful. Nor are the attractions of popular science confined merely to the lecture-rooms of the professors, every portion of the institution is fitted with novel applica tions of industry and mechanical genius to the furtherance of human comfort and happiness. By the by, we must not for get to congratulate the directors:fur the vast amount ofpublic patronage they daily incur, and we are bound to say they deserve it. The music is another department here whin deserves particular notice, and is highly creditable to its conductor, Dr. Wallis. NATIONAL GALLERY.—The visitors to the National Gallery, it is shown in a Parliamentary paper yesterday printed, numbered 456,105 in 1843 ; 681..845 in 1844 ; • and 696,245 in 1845. 1 he pictures purchased for that institution amounted to 114,8041. 165., for 27 of which 57,8041. 16s was paid. . THE WIDOW'S TALE.—At the petty sessions at Woodstock, on Tuesday last, before Mr. T. Thornhill, Lord Dillon, and the Rev. H. J. Passand, and S. G. Seagrave, on the complaint of the assistant overseer of Ensham, Elizabeth Banbridge, of that parish, widow, was summoned for a poor's rate amounting to 2s. 5d., said to be due to overseers of the said parish. She pleaded poverty, and said she was not able to pay. The officer said she did net be long to the parish, and they were determined to make all those pay who did not belong to the parish. This declaration drew forth tha following telling statement from the poor creature :—I have four small children ; the parish allows me eight loaves to keep them. I sell two of these loaves to help me to pay the rent. I sit up hours to keep myself. I have had no other pay since two weeks after Wt , itsuntide. I c..nnot earn more than about Is. 10d, per week at glove sewing. I work for Mr. Thompson, of Hensing ton. I should not have the work if I did not take goods for my pay. We are expected to take goods. it y husband has been dead six years, anti I never had more of the parish than Is. or six loaves a week. I belong to Nt,rthleigh, in the same union as Ens:taut. How can I pay out of eight loaves of bread ? I cannot live in the parish where I belong, or I would. I have tried times and times to get a place, and cannot. I have not one farthing in the world. My poor children were hanging round me when I left home this morning. They said they should not see me again. I pay 2s. per week rent. I have but one loaf now to last till Saturday. Lord Dillon paid the rate, and the clerk forgave his fees. For this the poor widow peared very thankful. •The officer said he had anotherdemand of Is. 7d. Lord Dillon advised her to go Into the_poorhoutite Ur. Seagra've remludid lie WA At woulsitlAYO to pay Mitre Meg!, THE ANDOVER UNION. REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE. The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the admi nistration of the poor-laws in the Andover Union, and into the management of the union workhouse, and into the con duct of the Poor-law Commissioners and their late Assis tant-Commissioner, Mr. Parker, with reference to the two investigations held at Andover, and into all the circum stances under which the Poor-law Commissioners called upon Mr. Parker to resign his Assistant-Commissionership ; and who were instructed to inquire into all the circum stances under which Mr. Day was called upon to resign his office of Assistant Poor-law Cemmissioner ; and who were empowered to report the minutes of evidence taken before them, together with their observations and opinion thereupon, to the House; have considered the matters to them referred, and have agreed to the following resolu tions : RELIEF. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee,- 1. That it appears to have been the practice of the An dover board of guardians to consider and determine upon cases as stated in the relieving officer's books, without pre viously inquiring whether the applicant or any person on his behalf be in waiting. 2. That when applicants having made application to the relieving officer have been admitted to the board, on its being made known that they are present, it has ordinarily been only on their objecting to the decision in the case; whereas justice and humanity alike require that every applicant for relief should have the oppo r t un i ty, if i n wa i t i ng, o f making a personal statement betbre his case be decided upon. 3. That the Andover board of guardians have adopted the practice of leaving it to the relieving officer to communicate their opinion to the applicant, a practice of which your Com mittee strongly disapprove, it being in their judgment no less just to the pauper, than expedient, with a view of pre venting mistake or fraud, that the decision in each case should be communicated to the applicant, if in attendance, by the presiding chairman, in the presence of the board. 4. That in this censure on the practice of the Andover guardians, the Committee would not be understood as fa vouring a practice which may o ft en l ea d t o ser i ous hardship, of requiring all applicants to attend at the board. 5. That the free admission to the presence of the board of applicants for relief was the more important in the Andover Union, in which it has been proved that the relieving officer's books have been very imperfectly kept; columns which should contain important particulars, e. g., the earnings of the applicant, and the present cause o f see ki ng r elief, being often left entirely blank. 6. That froni instances brought under their notice, the Committee believe that the board of guardians have, in several cases of applications for relief to them, left to the relieving officer a large discretionary power as to adminis tering or withholding it. While they admit that, under special circumstances, this may sometimes be necessary (though whether such special circumstances existed in the cases referred to, the defective state of the relieving officer's book affords no evidence), the Committee think it right to record their conviction of the impropriety and inexpediency, under ordinary cases, of thus delegating to the relieving officer the discretion which the law has vested in the board of guardians. _ 7. That in regard to the non-allowance of partial relief to the aged and partially disabled, a principle which appears to have been generally acted upon in the Andover Union, the Committee feel bound to express their apprehension, that, if rigidly carriei out, it may lead to various individual hard ships, without any equivalent amount of public advantage. It is just to add, that the boards of guardians have in this respect only followed out the recommendations of the Poor law Commissioners in their annual reports and other publi cations, tnough no order has been issued by the Poor-law Commissioners to that effect. 8. That on the application of an able-bodied man for re lief, on account of sickness in his family, and also in some instances where the applicant has been partially disabled, the Andover board have required, as a condition upon which such relief is made dependent, that he should perform a cer tain task of work at the workhouse, the amount of food to be allowed to him not being supplied until such task is com pleted ; and although, as stated by some witnesses to have been the case, this practice may have been only adopted as regards the able-bodied applicant, and where he is out of work, and under circumstances, therefore, which, were it not fur the sickness in his family, would render admission to the workhouse the only relief applicable in that union to the case, still your Committee think that the annexing this con dition to the relief otherwise deemed necessary, and espe cially where parties are brought long distances from their homes, to execute the task imposed, is (except under sus picion of fraud or gross imposition) an unduly severe mode of administering relief. WORKHOUSE. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee— 1. That on the investigation which took place in Septem ber, 1845 (as hereinafter stated), before Mr. Parker, many charges of gross immorality, and of fraudulent appropriation of the workhouse stores, were brought forward against Mr. M'Dougal, the then master of the workhouse, and were deposed to en oath by many witnesses; that that investiga tion was brought to a close (under the circumstances parti cularly detailed in the papers and evidence printed here with) by Mr. MeDougal's resignation of his office, no evi dence up to that time having been brought forward by him in his defence against the greater part of the charges so preferred. 2. That having reference as well to the necessarily great extent and variety of the subjects referred to them, as more especially to their obvious incompetency to complete that inquiry satisfactorily without the power of administering an oath, the Committee have thought themselves justified in forbearing to re-open the investigation referred to. 3. That the Committee at the same time think it right to state that several of the witnesses examined in proof of the charges of gross immorality on such previous investigation, have given evidence before them, as well upon points which did not come under inquiry in that investigation as upon some matters which were then deposed to, and that the evidence so given appears to your Committee entitled to credit. 4. That this Committee is of opinion that Mr. APDougal's conduct while master of the workhouse was marked by undue severity ; that he was, on several occasions, once even when reading prayers to the inmates, seen in a state of in toxicatio❑ ; that he was utterly deficient in many of the qualities which are of essential importance in the difficult position which he tilled. viz., fairness and impartiality, a due sense of truth, a well-regulated temper, and proper habits of self• control. _ 5. That the Committee cannet refrain from directing special attention to the case of Hannah Joyce; she appears to have been presumed by Mr. and Mrs. M'Dougal to have been guilty of child murder, not only without evidence, but against the verdict of the coroner's jury, and to have been treated by them, in consequence, with great cruelty. It has been further proved, that on the day of the inquest on the body of her child she wa s th reatene d b y M rs. M'D ouga l with being compelled to sleep in the dead-house, where that body was then lying; anti having been confined, apart from the other women, in the night-time, she was forced by Mr. M'Dougal to carry the body of her own child up the High street of Andover to the grave; moreover, on the occasion of her leaving the workhou se , some d ays a ft erwar d s , M rs . M'Dougal directed some of th e f ema l e i nma t es t o t a k e pans , plates, &c., and make as much noise as they could, on the ground of her presumed guilt. It also appears that this latter proceeding took place at the time when the guardians were assembled in the board room, and that some of the guardians, at least, were aware of what was going on ; but no inquiry appears to have been instituted by the board, nor any censure passed in consequence of the outrage which had been committed. 6. That as a farther proof of the ill-regulated state of the workhouse, your Committee refer to the fact that commitments took place to the gaol of Andover during - for offences against the rules and discipline of the work house, a state of things which they believe could 'not have existed had the workhouse been properly managed. That they cannot omit farther to state, that it has been proved that on numerous occasions indi7iduals were taken from the workhouse to the borough gaol of Andover, by the direc tions of Mr. M'Dougal, and were subsequently discharged therefrom without, on either occasion, being taken before a justice of the peace. 7. That without going further in this place into details, for which they refer to the evidence and papers printed here with, the Committee feel bound, upon the evidence given before them, to express their conviction of the utter unfit ness of Mr. M`Dougal and his wife for the situations of mas ter and matron, which they respectively held from December, 1836, to December, 1845, and they have therefore learned with much astonisrnent that his influence with the board has been far greater than that which should properly belong to his office, and the confidence reposed in him seems to have been unqualified. 8. 'That the Committee feel called upon further to express their opinion that no such misgovernment of the workhouse could have taken place, bad the visiting Committee acted re gularly and duly in the discharge of their important duties, as defined in the workhouse rules laid down by the Poor-law Commissioners (Article 56), and carefully recorded the re sults of their observations and inquiries for the weekly in formation of the Board. 9. That the Committee believe it to be one of the most im portant duties of the Visiting Committee to ascertain from inmates whether any ground exists for just complaint;" to inquire into such complaints when preferred, and so to discharge this part of their functions, that the inmates may eniertaini just confidence in the fairness of those under whose charge they are placed; but your Committee fear that in the Andover workhouse this important duty of the visiting guardians has not been satisfactorily per formed. 10. That the bad administration of the Andover work house, and the rigour with which the board of guardians, generally acting in accordance with the frequently published views of the Poor. law Commissioners, have carried out the law, have often been the means of inducing labourers to accept reduced wages in order to avoid the workhouse. 11. That the system, as pursued at the Andover board, of granting gratuities to the master for boys and girls placed out to service, without requiring any proper voucher for the accuracy of the master's statement, was very reprehensible. WORKHOUSE DIETARY. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee,-- 1. That in the month of February, 1836, several forms of dietary were sent down by the Poor-law Commissioners, of which one, mar ked No. 3, was selected b y th e b oar d o f guardians for adoption in the workhouse, and sanctioned by the Commissioners, and has been in use from that time until December, 1845. 2. That in their second annual report, published in 1837, the Poor-law Commissioners published six forms of dietary as actually in use in workhouses, but that No. 3, of such forms differs in several respects from form No. 3, as sanc tioned at Andover, and is is fact a superior dietary. 3. That your Committee have not received any evidence in answer to their inquiries which can enable them to ex plain satisfactorily this admitted discrepancy, and that in the absence of any such explanation they must infer that the improvement made in the form No. 3 , between its transmis sion to the Andover Union, and i ts publication in the second annual report, was owing to its being judged i nsu ffi c i en t b y Jaw Commissioners; their issin erisai they c annot in any case re frain that th e i mprove d die tary, from a printed in the second annual report, was never spe cially- communicated to the Andover board. 4. That from the evidence taken before the Committee, and from the circumstance that the board of guardians, on the recommendation of, and in concurrence with the Poor-law Commissioners, have lately thought it advisable to adopt a higher scale, the Committee believe, that from the forma tion of the union until the last autumn, the general dietary of o s\ h V f t a he ti i to t e lfa o s k f u Ae e ffl u a a C g t i i i the workhouse was, in quantity at least, too low, and more particularly that the allowance of bread was insufficient; 1845, the medical officers of the union, Mr. and they find that this dietary was often further diminished by the dishonesty of the master. It is right, however, to add that on the first inquiry held by Mr. Parker, on the August, 1845, Payne, gave evidence on oath in favour raw of potatoes and grain and refuse food which the workhouse dietary to maintain the inmates in health. But it has been proved before the Com mittee during the continuance of that some of the inmates of the workhouse were in the ‘ f D olv oi l i s. gal was master of the in which inmates of the eri n sedr e aa:.a crushing, eat the marrow re were set to break. h wtinh a ,usasdrit. workhouse,knb That dietary, ino e gu n sie t hi the honnhewls and patf n aslr oe,nb t yc o ehee swed t nbh h nlener h pbcousb o rvi g orwtiheic,hotfhboeyae.orushini at the An ; 006y.erTlyhautIlltAllgvhothL 0pu40914 la the yeah 1841, Arid Cite petition from another union complaining of its injurious effects was presented to Parliament in 1842, it appears that no order for the absolute discontinuance and abolition of the practice was issued by the Poor•law Commissioners until November, 1845. As, however, the practice of bone-crush ing in workhouses is discontinued in the Andover Union house, and prohibited by a general order of the Poor-law Commissioners, it does not appear necessary to remark further upon this point than to say, that by a very irregular and improper practice the produce of the labour of the paupers in bone-crushing at the workhouse is stated to have been disposed of among the guardians, by the chairman puting up the same at a sort of mock auction in the board room. 7. That it is the opinion of the Committee, that this em ployment —or in fact any labour which can justly be con sidered of a penal or disgusting character—should not be adopted by boards of guardians, as such a course must tend to prevent the really destitute poor from entering the union house, and is not consistent with a mild and considerate ad ministration of the law. 8. That from evidence given before your Committee, they believe that instances have occurred in which inmates of the workhouse have not received the extra allowance to which they were entitled ; and as regards the sick, inasmuch as it was not the practice of the medical officer of the work house to make any such orders for extra allowance in writing, or to record them in a book, as provided for by the work house regulations, there has thus been no satisfactory check upon such abuse. 9. That the Committee are of opinion, that if the medical officers of the Andover Union had held their appointments during good behaviour, instead of being exposed to removal at frequently recurring periodical elections, and had they been in a position of less dependence upon the guardians, they would have been in a position to execute the trust reposed in them with much greater advantage to the interests of the sick poor, and the abuses which have been exposed before the Committee would have been earlier disclosed and more efficiently checked, if not prevented; and your Committee would refer the House to the order of the Poor-law Commis sioners of March 12, 1842 (Article 20), in which, while it permits an annual appointment, the Commissioners have re cognised the principle of the appointment of medical officers, " until they may die or resign, or become legally disqualified to hold such office, or be removed therefrom by the Poor-law Commissioners." 10. That no remonstrance appears ever to have been made to the Poor-law Commissioners by the chairman, any member, or ()Seer of the board, or by any Assistant Poor law Commissioner, upon the subject of this omission, or in reference to any of the instances of irregularity and mis management which have been stated in evidence before the Committee. 11. That the evidence before your Committee leads to the belief that a general system of laxity has prevailed in regard to the accounts of the union ; that many important books have remained for long periods unchecked ; and that in this respect the board of guardians, and more especially the clerk of the union, have failed in the due performance of the duties which they respectively owed to the ratepayers and the poor of the district. 12. That your Committee cannot omit to mention, as one contributing cause of the irregularities prevalent in the union, the circumstance that the clerk has, from the commence ment, been permitted, with the knowledge of the Commis sioners, to act by deputy; a state of circumstances in which it is obvious that the personal respectability of the principal affords no security for the due and honest discharge of the duties of the office, and from which, in this case, a serious defalcation in respect to the funds of the union (subsequently, however, made good by the principal clerk out of his private funds, for the particulars of which your Committee refer to Paper No. 3 in the Appendix) appears to have taken place. GRAND DINNER TO MR, COBDEN IN PARIS. (For the Journal des Debuts of Wednesday.) This day the banquet offered to Mr. Cobden by the So ciete des Economistes took place. Besides the members of the society several members of the two Chambers, m. , rchants, and other mealiilities attended. The Duke (1'11:u-court, Peer of France, who is President of the Societe des Libres Echanges, presided at the dinner. Opposite to the President sat M. Horace Say, one of the vice-presidents of the Societe des Economistes. Mr. Cobden was on the right of the President. Among those present on the occasion we observed M. Anisson-Duperron, Peer of France, M. Ilencuard, Peer . of France, M. Mancini, Deputy, M. Gustave de Beaumont, Deputy, 11i. Cliegaray, Deputy, M. d'Eicthal, Deputy, M. Leon Faucher, Deputy, M. de la Grange, Deputy, M. de las Cazes, Deputy, M. Paulmier, Deputy, M. Louis Reybaud, Deputy, M. Sallandrouze, Deputy, M. Vernez, Deputy-Governor of the Bank of France, the Baron Billing, Minister of France in Denmark, M. Micheal Chevallier, professor of political economy in the College de France, M. Joseph Gamier, professor of political economy at the Athenee, M. Frederic Bastial, author of "Cobden and the League," M. Perrot, engineer, Messrs. Thayer and Perrier, Members of the Municipal Council of Paris, M. Ainatlie Pichot, M. Dussard, N:. Jules Buret, M. Charles Reybaud, M. Molinari, and several other writers who have directed their attention particularly to political economical subjects, M. Cassimir Chevreux, M. Potonie, M. Riglet, Messrs. Germain and Dumas, and several others representing the trade and commerce of Paris. The president and most of the vice-presidents of the Societe des Economistes were not present, several of them being absent from Paris, and others being unwell. M. Rossi is at Rome. M. Charles Dunoyer, in the Department of the Lot, M. Hippolyte Palsy is confined to his house by illness. This banquet is not alone an act of simple politeness to a man of rare talent, who has shown himself an indefatigable wrestler during the seven years that the labours of the English League against the corn-laws has lasted, and who, more than any one else, has contributed in effecting that revolution in public opinion in England in consequence of which we have seen Sir Robert Peel himself solemnly de claring in Parliament that in the matter of customs du tSes he has been hitherto fostering an error, and that the truth was in the doctrines taught by Adam Smith, the prince of economists. The Societe des Economistes deter mined on Wing the man whose sustained labours, in con cert with those of his eloquent friends, had achieved that striking homage to economical science. But the object of this numerous meeting, among whom were to be found so many enlightened men, was not alone to show the satis faction felt at the triumph of the science; it was more especially directed to the object of recommending to the country the ideas which, in consequence of the prodigious labours of the English League, have all of a sudden been so fortunate in England as to upset the whole edifice of prohi bition, and to triumph even over the interests of the landed aristocracy, which appeared to have the perpetual right of lsying down the law in everything in England. This manifestation in favour of commercial liberty assumes a real importance from the fact of its having been made after several local manifestations and several isolated professions of faith. These opinions gain ground. Are we to regret or are we to applaud this? Is this not liberalism of a good stamp? Is the liberty of commerce, applied gradually and at every moment to a proper extent, not advantageous to the public prosperity? Does it not accord perfectly with our other liberties, and is it not the veritable consequence of them? Ought it not to contribute to order, and is it not eminently favourable to the holy and noble cause of the peace of the world? When the founders of the English League commenced the great enterprise they found themselves surrounded with inveterate prejudices. Protection, which each person trans• lated into prohibition of the article which he himself manu factured, appeared to be the primary condition of prosperity and industry. It had become an axiom on the other side of the Straits as it is among ourselves, that it was necessay to be protected against the invasion of foreign products, that it was a calamity to buy in foreign countries what could be produced at home, no matter at what price, and that national labour oughtabsolutely to be guaranteed against the attacks of other nations. Consequently these persons wished to have duties which would exclude all foreign produce; and at the same time they had the pretension and desire to sell a great deal in foreign markets. The League has finished by making it clear that these opposite pretensions destroy each other; that if the people wish to sell a great deal to foreigners it is necessary to buy as much, for productions are only paid for by productions, and whether payment be made directly, or through au intermedium, is of little importance. In the natural state of things—in the absence of all pro ecting duties—each country would give to the general market those articles in the productions of which it excelled, and would draw from abroad those which foreign labour sould give at a lower price. The more different nations de part from liberty of commerce, and the more each of them sees closed the openings which it hopes to give to the pro ductions in which it succeeds best, the more also is it em barrassed by those hot-house industries which produce at a great expense what a free international interchange would have procured on excellent terms. With liberty com merce every nation provides itself easily and from wherever it pleases with such matters as it may require; pro duces whatever best suits it; produces as cheaply as pos sible, and sells wherever it can do so to most advan tage. With prohibition everything becomes complicated and false, everything becomes difficult, and everything be comes dear. People imagine themselves protected because they are sheltered from foreign competition, which, if looked at narrowly, would appear in most cases not very formidable, and they do not see the price at which the pre tended protection is bought. They do not calculate how heavily they are taxed by the protection accorded to other industries. In short the protective system rests upon deception and delusion. It is profitable only to a very small number of branches of human labour, which are directed by men more able or more powerful than the rest. In Eng land it was corn and other articles of food. In France agriculture, in place of exercising a monopoly, is of all branches of industry that upon which liberty weighs heaviest. It is other branches of industry, to which every one may point, that absorb entirely the whole profits of the system, of which, however, every one who has a field or a manufactory imagines in his simplicity lie is getting a good part. And besides, what an evil results, in a moral point of view, from a system which engenders a popula lation living by contraband, that is to say, by the viola lation of the laws, and which requires as a means of pre vention those examinations of the person to which the wife or daughter of any of us is exposed st the frontier—a mon strosity in which none of us would believe if he read it in an account of travels among a semi-civilized people. All the Governments of Europe are rivalling each other in zeal for the maintenance of peace. Is the peace real when the commerce which is destined to cement it is subjected to vex ations and fetters without number? All countries impose enormous sacrifices on themselves to improve their commu nications, and to cover Europe with a net of railways. Does any one believe that this is done for the mere pleasure of the idle travellers who carry their ennui from capital to capital? Certainly not. For such a purpose the undertaking of European railways would be an immense folly. The object of the railways is to favour intercourse, transactions, and exchange—to permit each to make the most he can of his soil, of his force, and of his intelligence, and to partici pate in the advantages enjoyed by his neighbours. Thus the force of things drives us towards a system of com mercial liberty more and more extended, and towards the more and more complete overthrow of the prohibitive system. Up to this day the foundation of all the codes of custom-house laws among European nations was prohibition. It was the effect of the prejudices and illusions of some, and of the violent or crafty domination of others. Henceforth liberty must be the avowed end of all commercial systems. The prejudices which are opposed to this shall be corrected among us and everywhere else, as they have been in Eng land. Neither cunning nor audacity can prevent this long. The tariff of England has undergone a complete revision with a view to liberty, and the consequence has been that at one blow six hundred articles have been ex empted from duty. Ours must submit to a similar ope ration. To attain this end we conceive that time will be required, and we shall not oppose that; but it is necessary to begin in spite of vain clamours. It is necessary, in the first place, to enlighten the public mind, and to make those pi ople think and calculate who are able to do so, and then the public voice will demand the revision of the tariff in a manner not to be refused. It is thus that they proceeded in England, and it is thus only that we will succeed; and we draw attention to the banquet given to Mr. Cobden, because the language used by all the speakers appeared to us to be calculated to make some impression on all moderate minds, and on all practical men. The toasts proposed were in gene ral warmly applauded. The speech of Mr. Cobden, which was very well spoken in French, was particularly inter rupted by numerous and animated marks of aporobation. All that he said about France was in very good taste. The summary refutation of the principal arguments used against the English League, and which are the same as are now re produced in France, was also very successful. It was consi dered as showing rare good sense, and in a very original form. We give the speech at length. The first toast was the Sing, Proposed by the CHAIRMAN, accompanied with the Jawing sentiment :—" May the establishment of freedom commerce add a new eclat to a reign which has been already signalised by so many ser vices rendered to the prosperity of industry and the peace of the world." health ll H o o f it A . cE SAY,Richard t c h o e b d v e i n c , e ; p a r n e d s d s e a n i d t then t prod her p e o o s c e cas t i o h n e to add one word to the toast? That name was in every mouth. It ga ve rise everywhere to thesentiments, the same sy m p at hi es , t h e same ideas. It was o them the picture of feudality crushed in England under the redoubt able blows of good sense. It is the emancipation of la bourers, who found in the liberty of exchange the com pletion of the right of property over the fruit of their labours. It is the peace of the world by the tie which the liberty of commerce will establish betiveen all nations. In Mr. Cobden we find personated that League which, after seven years of perseverance, talent, and courage, has concluded one of the greatest revolutions of modern times. The result has been obtained not only by the abolition of the iniquitous corn laws, but besioles them, and it is of importance to the whole world, by the inauguration of the great principle of the liberty of exchange. The means employed was open discussion throughout the country— discussion which has enlightened public opinion, destroyed prejudices, and done justice to the sophisms continually reproduced in favour of monopoly—dis cussions in which the Villierses, Wilsons, Brights, and Foxes have shown that the highest eloquence is that which sup ports truth, and pleads for the sacred cause of humanit y. Let us rejoice tosee amongst us the man who was the real soul of the League, by his noble character, his powerful language, his irresistible logic, which more than all oth ers h ave con tributed to success. To the health of Richard Cobden !—(Cheers.) Mr. COBDEN replied in French, but the following is a translation of his speech Gentlemen—lt is to me a source of great regret that there should be in this company more than one language, where I am sure there is but one heart. Under the most favourable circumstances it would be difficult to give utterance to my present emotions; how impossible, then, must it be to express my feelings in a language that is, unfortunately, not familiar to me. G. ntlemen, I beg you to believe that I am heartily grateful for the cordial manner in which you have responded to the much too flattering terms in which our excellent President has been pleased to intro duce my name to your notice. I will, with your permission, claim for others a large share of his commendation. lam but one humble individuul amongst many of far higher merit, who have laboured long for the triumph of a great and bene ficent principle. On behalf of my absent colleagues, let me thank you for your sy m p a th y . B ut h aving disavowed for my self any exclusive merit in the work which has been accom plished, I may be allowed without egotism to agree with this meeting in the views it entertains of the importance of our victory. Free trade is another clause added to the charter of human freedom. It is a new land mark erected in the pathway . of nations to illustrate the progress of civilization in the nineteenth century. We had already achieved the rights of conscience, the liberty of speech, and the invio lability of the press, and now we possess the freedom of in dustry. And I must avow that I could not consider myself the citizen of a perfectly free nation so long as that last badge of slavery remained in the form of monopolies which deprived In) countrymen of the right to enjoy the full re ward of their labour and ingenuity. Gentlemen, I speak as an Englishman. and of the rights of Englishmen. I have no title to appear before you in any other capacity. Ido not stand here as a propagand ist. You will do us the justice to acknowledge tbat lPe oufkaela Varalyesi Oddly walla pla PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS. :From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons-) THURSDAY, AUG. 20. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE AND CARLISLE BRANCH RAILWAY BILL. Order for consideration of Lords' amendments read; Motion made. and Question proposed, " That the said amendments be now read a second time :"—Amendment proposed, to leave out the word " now," and at the end of the Question to add the words " upon this day month :"—Question proposed, " That the word now' stand part of the Question :" Amendment, by leave, withdrawn:—Main Ques tion put, and agreed to :—Amendments, as far as Clause A, read a second time,;and agreed to :—Clause A, the next amendment, read a second time :—Motion made, and Question proposed, " That this House dolls disagree with the Lords in the samo amendment :" Debate arising ; Motion made, and Question put, " That the debate be now adjourned." The House divided : MINORITY—AYES, 17. ..kglionhy, 11. A. Henley, J. W. Waddington, IL S. Antrobus, Edmund Hurst, It. IL: Warburton, H. ' Cabbed, B. B. Oswald, James Wood, Colonel T. Collins, William Romillv John D'Eyncourt, C. T. Smith, j. A. TELLERS. Estcourt, T. D. Somerset, Lord G, Wakley, T. Fielden, John Sutton, Henry buncombe, T. MAJORITY-NOES, 35. Arundel, Earl of Dundas, Admiral Newdegatc, C. N. Baine, Walter Ebrington, Viscount Pechell, Captain Bentinck, Lord G. Escott, Bickham Plumridge, Captain Berkeley, H. F. Forman, T. S. Round, J. Bodkin, W. H. Gibson, Thomas M. Shell, It. L. Borthwiek, Peter Gore, Montague Mittel', 11. Brotherton, Joseph Greene, Thomas Turner, Edmund Brown, W. Hume, Joseph Williams, W. Christie, W. D. Kemble, Henry Wrightson, W. B. Dickinson, F. F. Layaid, Captain:, Disraeli, B. Manic, Fox Duncan, George Morris, David Duncannon, Lord Muntz, G. F. TELLERS. Howard, I'. 11. Forster, Mathew SMALL DEBTS BILL.—(IN THE COMMITTEE.) Ninth Clause (aprointmentj of: judge):—Amendment proposed, in page 4, line 39, after the word " pleader" to insert the words " or as an attorney-at-law :"—Question put, " That those . wOrds be there inserted." The Committee divided : MINORITY-AYES, 16. Bentinck, Lord G. Evans, Sir De Lacy Waddington, 11. s. Borthwiek, l'eter Gore, Montague Williams, W. Brocklehurst, J. Henley, J. W. Brown, W. Ilume, Joseph : TELLERS. Collett, John Nuntz, G F. Sibthorp, Colonel Dickinson, F. 11. Newdegate, N.' Wakley, Thomas Escott, Bickham Peellell, Captain: MAJORITY-NOES, 53. Arundel, Earl of Grey, Sir G. Pigot, David Berkeley, Captain Hawes, Benj. Plumridge, Captain Bernal, Ralph Malley, Charles Rich, Henry Bodkin, IV. 11. Ilobhouse, Sir J. Romilly, John Bridgeman, 11. Borman, Edward Russell, Lord 3, Brotherton, J. Howard, P. 11. Seymour, Lord Buller, Charles Jervis, Sir John Sheil, R. L. Byng, G. S. Labouchere, Henry Somers, J. P. Cabbell, B. B. Layard, Captain Somerville, Sir W. Craig, W. G. Macaulay, T. B. Stewart, P. M. Dundas, Admiral M'Donnell, J. M. Turner, Edmund Dundas, David 111 aule, Fox Warburton, lieu:) , Ebrington, Viscount Morpeth, Viscount Wood, Charles Estcourt, T. G. O'Connell, M. J. Wood, Colonel T. Etwall, Ralph O'Conor, Don Wortley, J. S. Ferguson, Sir R. Oswald, J. Wyse, Thomas Fleetwood, Sir P. Owen, Sir John TELLERS. Fox, C. R. Palmerston, Viscount Hill, Lord M. Gibson, T. M. Parker, John Tunicll, H. Another amendment proposed, In page 5, line 7, after the words " Provided always," to insert the words " That every barrister who shall be appointed a judge of the County Court under this Act, shall cease to practise as a barrister, conveyancer, or special pleader, or vacate the said office of judge :"—Question put, " That ,those words be there inserted." The Committee divided : MINORITY—AYES, 12. Bernal, Ralph Horsman, E. Wakley, Thomas Bridgeman, Hewitt Hume, Joseph Williams, W. Cabbell, B. B. Oswald, J. TELLERS. Collett, John Romilly, John Wood, Colonel T. Estcourt, T. G. Waddington, H. S. Warburton H. MAJORIXY-NOES, 57. Arundel, Earl of Gibson, T. M. Parker, John Bentinck, Lord G. Gore, Montague Pechell, Captain Berkeley, Captain Grey, Sir G. Pigot, David Bodkin, William H. Hawes, B. Plumridge, Captain Borthwick, P. Henley, J. W. Pryse, Pryse Brotherton, Joseph Hindley, C. Rich, Henry Brown, W. Hobhouse, Sir John Russell, Lord John Buller, Charles Howard, P. H. Seymour, Lord Byng G S. Jervis Sir John Shell, R. L. _ _ Craig, W. G. Labouchere, Henry Sibthorp, Colonel Dickinson, F. IL Layard, Captain Somers, J. P. Dundas, Admiral Macaulay, T. B. Stewart, P. M. Dundas, David 31`Donnell, J. M. Turner, E. Ebrington, Lord Maule, Fox Wood, Charles Escott, Bickham Morpeth, Viscount Wortley, J. S. Etwall, Ralph Munta, G. F. Wrightson, W. B. Evans, Sir De Lacy O'Connell, M. J. Wyse, Thomas Ferguson, Sir R. O'Conor, Don TELLESS. Fleetwood, Sir P. Owen, Sir J. Hill, Lord Marcus Fox, C. B. Palmerston, Vis. Tuttle'', Henry HOP INTELLIGENCE. (From the Maidstone Journal.) MAIDSTONE, AUGUST 17.—The most surprising im provement has taken Place within the last week—grounds that were so much blighted that they did not look as if they would grow one pocket per acre a fortnight ago may now produce six to eight cwt., and the good grounds promise to do as much this year as ever they did. There is fresh burr, and the hops are growing to a much larger size than usual—three grape hops measur ing a foot. Picking will be general the first week in September. FARLEIGH.—The hops continue to go on well. AYLESFORD, BoXLEY, Strawain.—The hops have very much improved, and we expect to - grow half a crop. MEREWORTH.—Our hops continue:to improve, and it is calculated that this neighbourhood.will average half a ton per acre. - • WROTRAN, PLAXTOL, 'WITHAM, SHIPBoIIRNE. the upper and lower part of Wrotham, the plantations are in an improving State. In, the middle, including Clajate's-cross, Crouce, Windfield, and. Plaxtol, they are very good indeed, and promise quite as much, and even more, than previous to the blight. Some little mould has been observed, but not of any consequence. In Ightham and Shipbourne the plantations are generally in au improving state. SEVENOAILS.—The hops on the sandstone ridge are generally looking as beautiful as the most sanguine planter could desire ; the improvement since our last report has been the most rapid we recollect ' • in the Weald portion of the parish, o w i ng t o t h e slackness of bine, few or any at all can be picked. From the appear ance of this and the adjoining parishes, we call it only a two-thirds crop. CHIDDINGSTONS.—Improving, but the bine slack, and not likely to recover the devastating ravages of the in sect • a very slight crop only can be expected. VESTERHAH, BRASTED, SUNDRIDGE, AND CHEVEN• ING.—The uplands, or great sandstone ridge, splendid, the north parts tolerable, but the " low gate " very few and far between ; still the plant is improved very consi derably, and there may be a slight top crop. SEAL AND THE UNDERRIVERS.—The Seal hops are looking well, the Underrivers are in places very pretty, but several places we have seen do not justify the high eulogitims passed upon them ; there is, as we before stated, a great slackness of bine at places ; and although the late warm weather and genial showers have done much, the plant was too far exhausted to recover a healthy tone. TICEUURST.—The hops are still improving in this and adjoining parishes. We have not had the hops grow so large for many years as they have this, and there is no doubt we shall grow in this parish as many per acre as we did last year. It has been remarked by some of our oldest farmers that they never knew the hops to grow faster than they have for the last three weeks. Hop picking will be general with us about the 24th instant. GOODHURST.—The hops here still bear the superio rity over the neighbouring parishes, and many of the farmers purpose commencing the picking on this day week. liops measuring 3i inches long are not uncom mon here. From the other districts our letters report no altera tion. For the most part the hops are going on as fa vourably as could have been expected after the vicissi tudes of the season. Lord Dundonald's villa in the Regent's-park was yes terday sold by Mr. George Robins for 4,600 guineas. Mr. Lambert Jones was the purchaser of this great bargain, for Mathew Uzielli, the great city merchant. THE PRICE or BREAD.—Yesterday, in the metro polis, there Was a general rise in the price of bread to the amount of one halfpenny on the quartem leaf; the highest price is now, con sequently, 9d., and the lowest 6d. The Edinyburgh Weekly Journal of Wednesday states. that " in Glasgow and Dundee, the hue 41b. loaf is retailed At ed. ; in Edinburgh, the bakers demand ror a mixed Pala DUTCH and FLANDERS MAIL, BRUSSELS, AUG. 17.—The Monitcur of to-day con tains a report addressed to the King by the Minister of the Interior, on the general regulation of the schools of primary instruction, a royal decree approving the regu lations, a letter to the Minister of the Interior by the Bishops of Belgium, who, at the desire of the Minister, and in concert wtth the delegates, regulate religious in struction, and a letter on the subject from the Bishops to the pastors of their dioceses. The Monitcur publishes the royal ordinance of the 14th of August, for closing the Legislative session of 1845-46. The Minister of the Interior has appointed a commis sion to examine a preliminary project of law, containing some modification in the code of criminal proceedings. The commission was installed on the 14th of this month in the Hotel of the Minister of Justice. The Journal of Liege, of the - 16th, says :—" Yes terday, at one o'clock in the afternoon, a lieutenant of the 11th regiment of the line, dressed in plain clothes, was found in a hop-garden, lying on the ground, with a dan gerous wound in his left side. He was immediately removed to a neighbouring house in a very precarious state. We can only at present conjecture the cause of this deplorable event. No weapon was found near the lieutenant, the wound had ceased to bleed, and, in the opinion of a physician, must have been made some hours before.—Brussels Paper, Aug. IS. THE HAGUE, AuG. 16.—His Majesty the King re turned to the Hague yesterday afternoon, from his journey to- Luxemburg. Her Royal Highness the Princess Albert of Prussia arrived here yesterday. TUE HAGUE, AUG. 17.—1 n all parts of the kingdom through which his Majesty has lately passed, the inha bitants have every where received his Majesty with the most cordial marks of veneration and affection, and the sympathy of the nation for its sovereign was never before manifested in so enthusiastic and spontaneous a manner. All the accounts which we daily receive afford us proof of this. The noble heart of the King must have been deeply affected by these manifestations of the love and respect of the country, which were perhaps greater than at any other period of his reign. We learn that her Majesty the Queen Dowager of Great Britain, will arrive here in a few days, and will reside in the Palaco in the Noordereinde. She will be accompanied by a Princess of Prussia, for whom apartments are prepared in the hotel of Bell Vue. A letter from Gibraltar informs us that the Dutch squadron, under the command of his Royal Highness Prince Henry, had arrived there on the 30th of July. THE HAGUE, AUG. 18.—Her Majesty the Queen has arrived here from Soetsdyk. The official journal, No. 40, publishes a resolution of the Minister of Finance of the 16th of August, calling l in the current pieces of one florin, 51 cents, for which other coin or notes will be given in exchange for them, up to the 6th day of September next, after which they will no longer be current ; they will neither be re ceived in payment in the public offices, nor will any person be bound to receive them in payment. The Queen Dowager of England is expected here about the 24th of this month. Baron Von Heckerin, our Ambassador, at the Court of Vienna, arrived here yesterday evening (the 17th.) 80,000 ounces of silver coin we re exported last week into Rotterdam from London. We have received from Cologne, some authentic parti culars of the deliberation of the deputies of the Zollverein assembled in their Congres at Berlin. The old dispute whether duties should be imposed to protect the national manufacturers, or for the purpose of revenue, has been renewed with the same vehemence as at Carisruhe. Only as some of the deputies have been succeeded by others, there has not heen quite so much heat in the discussions. Bavaria, which at first showed some hesi tation, has openly joined Wurtemburg and the Grand Duchy of Baden. Saxony will make no concession on cotton yarn. Prussia is inclined to fix the duty on twist at one dollar, and on thread by machinery at two dollars; but the southern states insist on a duty of four dollars on all kinds of thread. It is therefore probable that the conference will break up without coming to any resolution, and that all will remain on its present footing. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON-BA CHELOR OF MEDICINE.-FIRST EXAMINA TION. 1846. EXAMINATION FOR HONOURS. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. Habershorn, S. 0. (Exhibition and Gold Medal)—Guy's Hospital. Littleton, Thomas (Gold Medal)—University College. Hugo, Charles Sayer—University College. Eade, Peter—King's College. Savory, William Scovell—St. Bartholomew's Hospital. CTIRMISTRY. Habershon, S. 0. (Gold Medal)—Guy's Hospital. Cammack, T. A. (Gold Medal)—University College. Eade, Peter—King's College. Bholanoth, Bose—Medical College of Bengal, and Uni versity College. Hugo, Charles Sayer—University College. Littleton, Thomas—University College. Palmer, Edward—University College. Wilks, Samuel—Guy's Hospital. MATERIA MEDICA AND PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY. Habershon, S. 0. (Exhibition and Gold Medal)—G uy's Hospital. Burgon, Joseph (Gold Medal)—University College. Wilks, Samuel—Guy's Hospital. Bholanoth Bose—Med. College of Bengal and University College. Eade, Peter—King's College. Hugo, Charles Sayer—University College. Palmer, Edward—University College. Cammack, Thomas Armstrong—University College. Gopal Chunder Seal—Medical College of Bengal and University College. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—There were present at her Majesty's Theatre yesterday(Thursday) evening her Royal High- ness the Duchees of Cambridge, by their Serene.ll*-11- nesses the Grand Duke and Giaild Duchess of gecklenburqf Strelitz, and attended by the Baron linesebcck ; her Majesty the Queen Idowager's box was occupied by the Marquis and Marchioness of _ Clanricarde and party. There was also present his Royal Highness Prince George of Camoridge, the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Headfort, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Baroness Brunnow and 3ldlle. Olga de Lechner, the Prince Treubetskoi, the General de Berg and Madame do Berg, the Count and Countess de Jarnac, the Duke de Litta, his Excellency the General Count Bjornstjerna, the Earl of St. Vincent and the Hon. Mrs. Dyce Sombre, the Earl and Countess .. . _ _ ___........... of Beetive, the Countess of Blessington, the Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston, the Count de Courcy, Lurd Arthur Lennox, the Ladles _ _ . Duncannon, Lord and Lady Carrington, Lady Lawley, Lord Ward, Count D'Orsa y, Lord and Lady Shelburne, Lord and Lady Temple- More, the Count d'Astorg, M. de Berg, Hon. Mr. Willoughby, lion. General Upton, Hon. Miss Foley, Bon. Mrs. Sir John Bur goyne, Sr..c. THE LATE ACCIDENT ON THE EASTERN COUNTIES RADA - AL—ln a Parliamentary paper, obtained by Sir H. Inglis, an account was given of the late accident on the Eastern Counties Rail way, as rendered by the secretary (Mr. Roney) to the railway de partment of the Board of Trade. On the 18th of July the passengers injured were—Mrs. Payne, leg broken ; Mrs. Weddenhall, ditto ; Mrs. Bromley, contused; Mrs. Hulson, concussion of brain; Miss Thistlewood, arm broken ; Thomas Millwood, foot injured ; John Smith, ribs broken ; Hiram Morrish, foot injured ; Richard Murphy, contused leg; William Keeler, collar-bone broken ; James Stone, contused face ; Archer Ryland, leg injured ; William Cotton, shaken; John Francis, ditto ; William Thoroughwood, ribs broken; Stanton W. Preston, knees injured ; William Hind, concussion of brain ; Atkins, shaken ; Mr. Bromley, fractured leg; Mr. Scoones, leg in jured; Mr. F. Slipper, shaken; Miss Crippen, ditto; John Peirce, dislocated shoulder; Hon. George de Gray, head cut ; Miss Bur mester, shaken ; Rev. H. Wrightson, nose broken and cut eye ; Thomas Clifford, shaken ; 11. Olive, porter, Company's service, leg broken ; William Prentice, ditto; and James Skef tington, bruised. The following remarks appear on the re turn as made by the secretary :—" The circumstances were fully in vestigated on the 20th ult., before the magistrates at Ilford, and the engine-driver and stoker, on whom the blame rests, committed for trial at the Chelmsford sessions. The sufferers, with the exception of Porter Prentice, are I sported to be going on favourably on the whole. Aug. 12. Mr. Hind has since died; an inquest was held, and the jury returned a verdict of Manslaughter' against William Clare, the driver. Porter Prentice's leg has been amputated, and he is now reported to be going on favourably." In the column stating Vie nature of the accident, it is mentioned that " the one o'clock up-train from Ipswich was discharging its passengers at the Strat ford station, when a train, consisting of an engine and some empty trucks, ran into it."f The cause of the accident is described in the following terms :—"Disobedience of orders on the part of the engine driver' and stoker of the ' trucks' train in discharging signals." iiIGUwAx ROBBERY.—About seven o'clock on Satur day evening last, as a commercial traveller, named Bailey, represent ing-ihe firm of Messrs. Edgington and Co., tarpauling makers, Borough, was proceeding along the high road, near Berkiiampsteaad, in a four-wheeled chaise, four fellows, wearing short frock s be , hin an d having the appearance of navigators , su ddenl y emerged from l e o d y ed tlic mhi liors s e, and took therefrom his pocket - book and some t a w h o edc, othersand sediazredtingisfiri.ito Bailey, theley, rowa.hdfl in rifling his pockets, srt h o e gold and silver; but fortunately not to the a m ount that was pro or fourth stopped i b n ab t i h,, yaneatircllypapteadr,t3lo f the day. The fellows finally effected theirr. Bailey having made a remittance to London escape across the fields. THE LATE SIR CHARLES WETIIMIELL.—Wednesday evening, at three o'clock, Mr. Dudlow, one of the coroners for Kent, and a jury, composed of gentlemen residing at or near Aylesford, held an inquest on the body of the late Sir C. Wetherell, which lay at Preston Rectory. Several witnesses were examined, including Mr. Budge; the valet to the deceased, who was with him at the time of the accident, the driver of the vehicle, a female who was on the road, at the particulertime, the medical gentleman who was present when he bieathed his last. The evidence corroborated the state ments which have already been made public, and which proved that the fatal injuries sustained by Sir Charles were solely the result or accident. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medi cal testimony given, which was to the effect that Sir C. Wetherell died from the effects produced by a concussion of the brain, the re sult of the accident on the 10th inst. Mr. Beach, clerk to the de ceased, was in attendance. The remains were removed from l'reston Rectory yesterday afternoon, and arrived at Berkeley-square at nine o'clock- DEPARTURE OF EAST INDIA MAILS.—SOUTHAMPTON, AUGUST 20.—The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship Oriental, Captain Soy, left this port at three P.M. to Any with the East India and China Malls, a full cargo of bale goods, and above "ninety passengers. The Erin, new iron steam-ship belonging to the above company, arrived here from London this morning. She is destined to take out the mails and passengers for India as far as Malta, from whence the Erin will proceed to Constant!. nople, &c. WINDSOR, THURSDAY EvENING.—Much anxiAy has been suffered in the royal establishment at Frogmore to-day, in consequence of the reports in the morning papers of the rough weather experienced by her Majesty and her Royal Consort since they left the Isle of Wight, on Tuesday last, and that anxiety has been much inereased by the non-arrival at Frogmore House, by this day's post, of any letters from that part of the coast to which the royal yacht was said to have been driven for shelter. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent is in good health, but has been prevented taking out-door exercise by the almost continual bad weather since her Royal Highness's return from Osborne House to Frogmore. _ _ PRESENT TO THE MAYOR AND CORPORATION OF WINDSOR.—At a meeting of the town council of Windsor, which took place yesterday morning, a very scarce portrait of William Child, Mus. Doc., of Oxford University, from an original painting in the Music-hall of that city, was presented to.the corporation by Mr. Richard Clarke, gentleman, of her Majesty's Chapel Royal. From documents which accompanied the present it appears that Dr. Child. immediately after the Restoration—at which time he was organist of St. George's Chapel, Windsor—commenced an action against the deans and canons to recover his arrears of salary; and, Laving suc ceeded in his suit, ho paved the choir of St. George's with the blue and white marble, which remains to this day. Me also subscribed liberally towards the building of the Town-hall, which was erected from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. He died in 1666, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, at the age of 96. The portrait has been ordered to be placed in the Town-hall. DEATH FROM POISON.--UNFORTUNATE MISTAKE.— A respectable woman named Gough, residing at Old Windsor, who was employed as charwoman at the stables of her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, at Frogmore House, near. Windsor, met with her death on Wednesday, in consequence of having taken a large quantity of oxalic acid in mistake for Epsom salts. It appears tlsl she was engaged on Wednesday in cleaning the rooms of her Nerht Highness's grooms and stable-men, but, finding herself unwell. r:tie left, and returned to her house at Old Windsor, within half a nsas os Frogmore, about noon. She told her daughter, who resided with her. to dissolve some salts in water, which would I " f°a ",,., d ,t r a sn s t pa grthe the cupboard. lists was no sooner dm; than she the paper, draught, when it was unfortunately disOhvered nfoxinalie acid. She re. in stead of containing salts, enclosed a enett e tktf u - m aiug, wrtirt l manned fbr but a sort time in the moat 4 death put an Cad to her bufferk3gs, UNION BOOKS. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee,- 1. That the proper keeping and inspection of the various books which the Commissioners have directed to be kept in all unions, in order to give security both to the paupers and the ratepayers for the due administration of the law, appear to have been habitually neglected in the Andover Union ; the abstract of application and report book, which uught to be prepared for the chairman at every sitting of the board, and filled up by him, and signed by him, as each case is de cided upon, the relieving officers' books, the workhouse ad mission and discharge books, the provision check book, and the medical officer's books have been produced before this Committee, and have all of them afforded the clearest proofs of the negligent manner in which the business of the An dover Union has been conducted. 2. That the state of the union books and the abuses in the workhouse prove that the Assistant Commissioner has failed in the efficient performance of his duties of inspection at Andover, and that, as regards the books, which needed only a moment's glance on any one of his occasional attend ances at the board to show the discreditable manner in which they were kept, the Committee can find no sufficient excuse for his neglect, and can only account for it by the supposition of an unlimited confidence in the board of guar dians, which no circumstances whatever can justify in a con trolling officer. 3. That as regards the workhouse abuses which would require a longer time to detect, and which have entirely escaped,detection by the visiting guardians, the Committee feel bound to express their opinion that the great extent, of Mr. Parker's district, the large number of unions comprised in it, and the various heavy special calls made upon his time by the Poor-law Commissioners, have rendered it almost im possible for him to pay visits to each of the unions under his care numerous or long enough for effective inspection of the workhouses. 4. That the Committee have received evidence of Mr. Parker's zeal and laboriousness, which render it impossible for them to attribute this imperfect superintendence of the Andover Union to idleness or intentional neglect. 5. That Mr. Parker was not appointed Assistant-Commis sioner for the Andover Union until May, 1842 ; that he has had a much larger district to superintend than had either of his predecessors : the number of assistant-commissioners,which from 183— to 183— was 21, and from 183— to 1841, 17, having been reduced to 12 in 1841, and then further reduced to nine in January, 1842, while the number of unions have of course increased; and the Committee find that the Poor-law Commissioners, speaking of the number 12 in their seventh annual report (1841), say, that the number of assistant• com missioners ought not to be further reduced, and that even then" some of the districts, from their area and the number of their unions, almost exceed the powers of a single assist ant-commissioner." 6. That the Committee have been informed of a strong representation made by Mr. Parker to the Poor-law Com missioners, shortly after he joined the district including Andover, of the disgraceful state of the accounts and the workhouses in many of the unions in the district, and of special representations made by him as to the accounts in the West Fide and Wycombe unions, which seem to have received no attention whatever from the Poor-law Com missioners; and these are not the only circumstances dis closed in the evidence which have led the Committee to the conviction that the Poor-law Commissioners have not given that encouragement to their assistant-commissioners in the detection and removal of abuses which would have been the best security for the zealous services of their subordinate officers. MR. PARKER'S CASE. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee,- 1. That the Committee, in considering the circumstances of the inquiries which took place at Andover, feel called upon to express their opinion that the practice of entrusting public and special investigations of complaints arising under the Poor-law to the assistant-commissionerof the district in which such complaints have been made, is an objectionable one, which ought to be discontinued. 2. That the proposal made by the Poor-law Commissioners to suspend the investigation on the 9th of September, and to proceed against the master of the workhouse by indictment upon one set of charges, and by information before justices upon another, conditionally upon his suspension by the board of guardians, and upon the willingness of Mr. Westlake to adopt the suggested modes of prosecuting the charges, was ill-timed and inexpedient, for the following reasons :- Ist. Because at that time a considerable portion of the case had been gone through, and the effect of suspending the further progress of the inquiry, as proposed, until proceed ings by indictment could be taken, would have been to pro long the uncertainty and excitement already existing upon the subject. 2d. Because it made the mode of proceeding against the master, and consequently the time and manner in which he was to be heard in his defence, dependent upon an act of the board of guardians, over which he had no control. 3d. Because it sought to throw a large proportion of the expenses of prosecuting the inquiry upon Mr. Westlake,who appears to have done no more than his duty in bringing be fore the board of guardians and the Commissioners instances of misconduct in another officer of the union with which he had become acquainted, and into which any inquiry should have been instituted on public grounds, and at the public expense ; and, 4th. Because it implied that the fitness of the master for his office was the only subject of inquiry, whereas there were strong grounds for an investigation into the alleged mis management of the workhouse, and the abuses stated to have been practised within it, independently of any charges which could have been made the subject of indictment_ or in formation. 3. That one unfortunate consequence of having made the mode of prosecuting the inquiry dependent upon the condi tions above referred to, was, that on their failure, the inves tigation was necessarily renewed in its original shape, and the Commissioners were thus exposed to the charge of vacillation and want of firiimess in their policy. 4. That the overruling the adjournment for five days, allowed by Mr. Parker, was, under the circumstances of the case, unnecessary, an di therefore injudicious, inasmuch as it had the appearance of injustice towards Mr. APDougal, who bad claimed that time for preparing . his defence. 5. That the overruling by the Commissioners of the ad journment, and the previous suspension of the inquiry on the 9th of September, appear to have proceeded from a determi nation on the part of the Poor-law Commissioners to bring the inquiry if possible to a close, and so stop the public criti cism and excitement which it produced. 6. That in conducting the first inquiry—namely, that on the subject of bone-crushing, Mr. Parker discharged the duty confided to him with ability and promptitude, and that his conduct therein received the approbation of the Poor-law Commissioners. 7. That as respects the second investigation there is no thing in the objections stated by the Poor-law Commissioners before this Committee to Mr. Parker's mode of conducting it, which affords a justification of their conduct in calling upon him to resign. 8. That Mr. Parker's recommendation of Mr. Price as a temporary master of the workhouse, made in answer to a re quest addressed to him by the chairman and other guardians, did not deserve the condemnation bestowed upon it by the Poor-law Commissioners. 9. That while they think that Mr. Parker's insertion, in his letter to Mr. Dodson, on the October, of a paragraph implying a reflection on the Commissioners, was indiscreet and inconsistent with his position, still it should be also borne in mind that the difficult and annoying circumstances in which -he had been placed might reasonably palliate a temporary display of irritation. 10. That after a full consideration of the whole case, what ever opinion the Commissioners may have entertained with regard to Mr. Parker's mode of conducting the Andover in quiry, or his defective superintendence of the Andover Union, the time and the manner of Mr. Parker's removal from his office were such as to give him just cause of complaint, and were not consistent with a discreet exercise of that power of dismissing their subordinate officers which the law has en trusted to the Commissioners. MR. DAY'S CASE. 1. That the Committee, after considering the statement which has been made to them by Mr. Day, and the corre spondence on the subject of his resignation, which he has Produced, and the explanations with reference to that corre spondence which haye j been given by theroor-law Com missioners, are of opi ni on that the C ommiss i oners h ave alto gether failed to justify their removal of Mr. Day from his office of Assistant- Commissioner. 2. That while they readily admit that the nature of the re lation between the principal and assistant Poor-law Commis sioners, the heavy responsibility attaching to the former for the general administration of the law,' and the fact that they are necessarily committed to a considerable extent, by the acts and expressions of their s u b or di na t e o ffi cers , com bine to render it essential that they shall possess and exer cise, on fit occasions, the power of dismissal vested in them bx the Act of Parliament, the Committee think, at the same tae, that ova poyrvi :should utrt bo ozerobialvithoutwarn ing or statement of reasons to the officer to be dismissed; without minutes being kept of all letters written and received on the subject, and without official record of the grounds on which in each case the power of dismissal is excercised. 3. That further, while they are ready to believe that the conveying a call to resign in the form of a private rather than in that of an official letter, may in many cases result from a wish to avoid unnecessary annoyance or injury to the person about to be dismissed, the Committee are of opinion that it is, under ordinary circumstances, more just to all parties concerned, that such communication should be in official form, bearing with them the authority, and issued under the responsibility, of the board ; and they cannot ab stain, in touching upon this part of the subject, from point ing to the inconvenience and irregularity of conveying, as in the two cases now immediately under consideration, com munications of essentially public and official character in letters written by a single Commissioner, and in form and language purporting to be private. 4. That the Committee believe that in both cases the time of the compulsory resignation has been the means of cruel injustice—Mr. Parker having been called upon to resign be fore the excitement arising out of the Andover inquiry had subsided, and Mr. Day at the close of the inquiry into the South Wales disturbances in 1843, was to lead the public to ascribe blame to both, which the Commissioners acknow ledge to be unmerited, and to divert existing public dissatis faction from the Poor-law Commissioners by concentrating it on Mr. Parker and Mr. Day respectively. 5. That on a review of the conduct of the Commissioners with respect to the Andover inquiries, and towards Mr. Par ker and ➢ir. Day, the Committee are of opinion that their conduct has been irregular and arbitrary, not in accordance with the statute under which they exercise their functions, and such as to shake public confidenCe in their administra tion of the law. That the Committee have incidentally in the first instance, and subsequentlyfrom a feeling that accused parties ought in fairness to be allowed to answer charges made against them, received much evidence upon the mode of transacting busi ness which has been adopted by the Poor-law Commis sioners throughout the existence of the commission, and upon the insufficiency of the present number of Assistant- Commissioners for adequate inspection and control, and upon other important points connected with the administration of the Poor-law, to which they think it their duty to direct the special attention of the House; but upon which, as those subjects are not included in their order of reference, they consider themselves precluded from offering any opinions of their own. PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS. (From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.) THURSDAY, AUG. 20. Messengers from the Lords brought up the following Bills, to which their Lordships had agreed : Deodands Abolition (No. 2) Bill—Adverse Claims (Ireland) Bill— Copyhold Commission Bill—Stock in Trade Bill—Turnpike Acts Continuance Bill—Loan Societies Bill—highways Rates Bill—Cale donian, l'olloc and Govan, and Clydesdale Junction Railways Amal gamation Bill —Amendments to Forth and Clyde Navigation and Bowling Bay Improvement Bill—Commons Inclesure (No. 2) Bill, without amendment—Joint Stock Banks (Scotland and Ireland) Bill —Legal Quays (London) Bill, with amendments. niur , and [eta— ty 311 W ho that and irned the o at s tate their d the iu• e fol ndie, South e d At liter' t, op Jelled Vigo , ir, 91' ow' Ileany 1000 1 the cud* u e on d tio! no' H eim , [1 chi t/ e tin wan' her hiliPl, went', ha d It q ,eti : r. r . bour ex, ice); 000 ,ell .or-