The Sun. — London, England, 1848-06-28 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS, June 27. The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on tbe Wool sack shortly after Five o'clock. The Earl of EGLINTON presented petitions from Greenock and other places against the repeal of the navigation-laws. THE WEST INDIAN DISPATCHES—LORD G. BENTINCK'S CHARGES. Earl GREY moved for the production of certain correspondence which had taken place between the Governors of various West Indian Colonies and the Culonial.office, and he would take that op portunity of alluding to certain charges which bad been made against the authorities of the Colonial-office in another place. It had been stated ;that he (the Colonial Secretary), in conjunc tion with his Hon. Friend Mr. Hawes, the Under- Secretary for the Colonies, had conspired to deceive a Committee to which the other House of Parliament had referred the consideration of the important subject of the present state of our West Indian colonies. It had been stated that they had deliberately conspired to keep back papers relating to the working of the Act of 1846, with the intention of deceiving the Com mittee. It had been stated that while they had carefully presented to the Committee all docu ments calculated to support their own view of the question, they had deliberately withheld every paper that militated against those views. That was a charge so serious, an imputation so utterly dis graceful, that if it could be maintained not only would he (Earl Grey) be unworthy to hold the situation which be held under her Majesty's Go vernment, but it would be the duty of their Lordships and of the other House of Parliament to take some formal proceedings, and to mark their sense of his gross misconduct, and of his abuse of the confidence of the Crown.—(Hear, hear.) To what did that charge amount ? It was that he had wilfully endeavoured to deceive a Committee of the ot.' , er House of Parliament by garbling papers. To Ids extreme astonishment he had been told that the person who made this charge had at tempted to draw a distinction between a personal imputation and an imputation against a Minister of the Crown in his political capacity, and had said that he made this merely as a political imputation. He was sure their Lordships would agree with him that in such a case no such distinction could be allowed.—(Cheers.) He was surprised that one who himself looked forward to bolding office under the Crown should have attempted to draw such a distinction.—(Loud cheers.) If he (Earl Grey) had been guilty of the offence which had been imputed to him, he had been guilty of an offence far more serious than that of an unfortunate man who, under the pressure, perhaps, of severe distress, had been guilty of some mere pecuniary fraud.—(Cheers.) For a Minister of the Crown who could so conduct himself , was guilty of conduct infinitely more disgraceful than that of a person convicted of mere pecuniary fraud at the bar of the Old Bailey.—(Cheers.) Therefore he hoped that it was not true that any gentleman hoping to hold office under the Crown could have suggested such a distinction.—(Cheers.) Such a charge as this having been made, he hoped their Lordships would agree with him, that it had become his imperative duty not to lose a moment in bringing the matter under the considera tion of their Lordships, and in refuting such a charge as he trusted he should refute it, in such a manner as to defy all co ntradiction.—(Hear, hear.) Thi s charge, as he understood it, was founded upon three dispatches. The first was a dispatch from Sir Charles Grey, the Governor of Jamaica, dated 21st Feb. last. It was alleged that he had wilfully kept back the dispatch from the Committee. With respect to the dispatch of Sir Charles Grey, he admitted that it was one which he thought ought to have been laid before the Committee, one which he intended to be so laid, and which up to a recent period he expected bad been so laid. The ordinary course which had been adopted for years at the Colonial-office was this. Without such an arrange ment it was utterly impossible that the immense mass of business which came before the Colonial-office could be disposed of. When a mail arrived the dispatches were taken to the particular departmenteef the office to which it belonged, where the dispatch was opened and registered, and if there was any former correspondence on the matter, it was placed with it, and forwarded to the permanent Under-Se cretary of State for the Colonies, or the Assistant Under-Secretary, by whom they were transmitted to the Parliamentary Uader -Secretary, and after they had been inspected by the Secretary of State, they were sent to the Prime Minister him self, with any remarks which he might deem ne cessary. The Secretary of State gave his usually simple approval. The post bringing the dispatch in question arrived 27th of March, which was opened by the gentleman appointed for that purpose, Mr. Cox, and was addressed by him to Mr. Taylor, the chief of the department, with this minute, " This is the report for which the Committee have asked." At that time no perfect copy of that report had been received, for without the evidence it was a comparatively useless docu ment. It was suggested that it should be laid be fore the Committee the same day, and it went to Mr. Hawes, who agreed to it. Then followed the minute which he (Lord Grey) framed with respect to it, the first sentence of which, with which alone he would trouble the House, contained these words :—" 'this may be laid before the Committee, but it requires to be answered with some care." This minute was dated March 30, showing how little time he allowed to elapse before he directed his attention to the subject. Having made this minute, he never doubted but that it was laid before the Corn rnittee—(Hear)---for it was, their Lordships must be aware, physically impossible for a Secretary of State to look at the manner in which the orders he gave were executed. Multitudes of returns were con tinually called for, and it was impossible that the chief of the department could inspect every paper called for ; he was not therefore in the habit of reading the papers that were called for by the Committee, but he gave direc tions that all called fur by it should be supplied. He implicitly trusted to the carrying out of his orders by the gentlemen engaged in the department, and he believed he had reason to place that confidence in them. But in this instance a mistake had been committed. As the mail was on the point of starting, and as there was no tine to send a reply in writing, he sent a verbal one, and directed that one of the copies should be at once sent to the Committee, stating that be should send the remainder as soon as possible. He received the dispatch on the 28th of March, and having looked through and examined it, he gave directions for the reply. There was hot much delay, for he wrote one on the 30th. The report having been already sent to the Committee it di d not seem to him to he a very unpardonable mistake that the dispatch had not been sent with the report conjectural Un doubtedly that was in some degree ex planation of the mistake, but at the same ti me i t was an explanation which was, entirely correct, and he .must say, that not only himself hut the gentlemen of the department to which he belonged were not liable for the unjust censure which had been cast upon them, more especially, as the number of dis patches called for by the House of Commons and the Committee on that subject, amounted to no less than 308—(Hear, hear) —and the number of papers on ,other subjects to no less than 295; making altoge ther 1,630 folio pages of printed matter.—(llear, hear.) He must say, therefore, in common justice and in common fairness to the department, that the mistake was not a very unnatural one. —(Hear, hear.) But this he would say still, at all events, and he did pledge his honour that it was purely a mistake, and that he and Mr. Hawes both firmly believed, and were under the impression that the dis patch had been laid before the Committee. Their 'Lordships could not have the slightest ground for be lieving that these minutes were concocted since. Mr. Cox, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Eliot, Mr. Hawes, and him self had been charged with deceiving the House of Commons by a deliberate act of forgery. Upon that charge he would say no more than this—that he could hardly say who deserved most to be despised, that man, who not really entertaining that suspi • cion, yetwas bold enough to express it, or that man who was so lost to all generous feeling as to he capable of conceving it. The dispatch of Governor Light which "as received on the 24th of April was said not to have been laid before the Committee, although a short extract, from it was com mun i ca t e d to the House. N, whe had no hesitation in saying, that it w as by his directi on th a t that dispatch was kept back, and that the extract in question . bad been taken from it by his direction. He did not think it necessary to communicate that dispatch to the Committee for reasousTerfe h a d ly simple and plain. Before the 24th the Com mittee a layclosed its inquiry, and it had been resolved not t o dispatches het' , which should s ubseque ntly b e rec eived, unle— t: , ,-... , ,a!ained matters of peculi im por tance ; but 41 , t,, ep: ci a b ac kac that dispatch, all h e cou ld say wa.s, thee lc na y indirect and general bearing on the then Under inquiry b y the Committee . It was said he had suppressed it becaus e it contained a passage stating that the cultivators in the island could not compete with slave-grown sugar , under th e circumstances in which they were placed; but that fact was well known , and no object could be gained by sup __ pressin it. It happened that the dispatch instead o f 1 41 t e sW i s ra his views, :entertained the strongest evi rof them. He must observe to their t had he had any dishonest motive in , ese papers he would have naturally i*cecee lgeteeneValeee e l the papers themselves should not be id2*fprt House of Commons. It would have easier for him t o h ave d one th a t th an "-' hoe 1 eld them from the Committee, but he had no sinister motive whatever to induce him to pursue that course, and therefore all the papers that related to the West Indies were freely laid before the House of Commons. He was told that since this charge had been originally made against him further charges of the same kind had been brought forward, namely, of withholding papers and of making dis honest quotations from a memorial of certain planters in the West Indies. With respect to that dishonest quotation, it was said that he quoted a passage from this memorial from Jamaica which was in favour of , his argument, without quoting the other parts of it. Undoubtedly he did, and he wanted to know who of their Lordships ever thought of quoting from papers that which was unfavourable to their arguments.— (Hear, hear.) The manner, however, in which he used the passage was this—that where there was a paragraph in a memorial complaining of the exist ing state of things that admitted facts which, accord ing to his views, went strongly to support his argu ment, he made use of it. ;With regard to the suppres sion of the dispatches, it was unnecessary for him to go into particular details as to each case, and he would content himself by stating that every order for papers sent from the House of Commons was observed with the utmost promptitude and with the most perfect scrupulous good faith ; and he defied any man who searched the archives of the Colonial-office to find any single important line written upon the subject, bearing upon either view of the question, which either had not been presented at once without being called for, or which had been presented to the House of Commons through the medium of addresses to the Crown.—(Hear, hear.) He assured their Lordships that he gave directions to the various gentle men engaged in the Colonial department that the fullest and fairest information should be furnished to the Committee and the House of Com mons.—(Hear, hear.) Such 'was the statement he had to offer to their Lordships in reference to this charge ; but before he concluded he wished to make a few remarks personal to himself. When he first read the charge he was greatly excited with feelings of anger and indignation, but a little calm reflection dispelled that anger, and he soon felt that as the charge could in no way injure him, he had no real cause of anger. For many years, both in this and the other House of Parliament, he had taken an active part in public affairs, and during that period he defied any one to say that he had ever laid himself open to a charge of this nature. Indeed, until recently he felt that during thatinpteergriodity, whichheha shoulddear haveneda characterpro tectedfr hon h o im ur and from such a charge as this, an d h e h a d yet o too much c onfidence in the justice and generosity of his countrymen for a moment to think that they would believe that he could ever tarnish the unsullied honour of that name which he was proud to inherit, and which he had received from one who was even more distinguished than himself for strict integrity of pur pose and the unswerving honesty which characterised He felt his conduct and pr ocee di ng as a public man.—(Cheers.) o mpas h s e ion ha i d ns s t h ea o d wn of a an d g es e i r re fo t r o h h is ec a o s m sa e ila o n n t e , who,althoughlte of the governors of this country,. had displayed an ignorance an d an i nability, and such a total misun derstanding of what was necessary in a Minister, as to make his attempts rather a matter of pity than of anger. He thought the House ought to mark their sense of disapprobation of such personal attacks against public men as had been made by the Noble Lord against him and those con nected with the office of which he had the honour of being at the head.—(Hear, hear.) Such a charge showed that one anxious to take a leading part in the affairs of this country was so ignorant of the manner in which those affairs ought to be carried on, as to bring down a matter of great public policy to the miserable ground of party personality. Although he was not angry for himself, he had a right to say that this system of personal attack on the motives of public servants was one that ought to be reprobated by their Lordships and the other House of Parliament; and this he might say was not the only instance in which it had occurred. Two gentlemen of unsullied character had been accused on grounds as trivial as those upon which this charge was founded—one of whom, Mr. Porter, had been charged with having deliberately furnished accounts in such a shape as to have deceived Parliament; and. the other with having fenced with a question before a Com mittee for the purpose, he supposed, of deceiving them. Such a system was full of evil and danger ; hitherto in this country it had been our boast, and he thought our just one, that although party politics might run high, as in all free countries they would do, still those conflicts had been carried on in an honourable and manly spirit, by fair argument and discussion; and above all, they had been free from accusations of personal motives.—(Hear, hear.) It had been as little usual that charges of per sonal dishonour and fraud and deceit should be preferred by one public man against another, as that such prac tices should be committed. Above all, he thought it was almost due that a deliberate charge of violation of a public duty, of fraud, and falsification of documents, should not be brought against a Minister of the Crown unless it were intended to be the foundation of some solemn inquiry. His Noble Friend opposite had held the office of Colonial Secretary for some years; and it had been his (Earl Grey's) misfortune to think it a duty to join with those who had entered into strong oppo tion to the poiicy of his Noble Friend ; but it never once occurred to him, in that opposition, to charge his Noble Friend with suppressing documents or acting un fairly ; and yet he would say, if a perverse ingenuity had collated passages from speeches in " Hansard," with extracts from volumes and blue books and dispatches of hislNohle Friend, there would be no difficulty in making .iut such charges. When there was a desire to make such charges, and a readiness to believe them, there was no great difficulty in finding the materials for them. And again, his Noble Friend himself had been in oppo sition as well as in office, and then it had not been his habit to be particularly sparing in his criticisms on political subjects, but he would do him the justice to say, that he never heard from him one accusation of the kind. He would do him the justice of saying he had always abstained from using the " poisoned arms of personal dishonour." He would just mention a fact which, only a few minutes before the House assembled, he had learnt. Their Lordships might be aware in the other house of Parliament it was reported that, in a discussion which took place on this very subject, a great impression was I produced by its being asserted that his Noble Friend, the Noble Duke on the bench behind, was the chairman of the Jocky Club, which voted a testimonial to Lord George Ben tinck for his zeal and perseverance in de tecting certain frauds in connexion with that club. It was curious enough that it so turned out that this which had been stated as a fact so opportunely, and made so great an impression at the time, turned out to be no fact at all. The records of this transaction had been care fully examined, and it been found that not only the Noble Duke was not in the chair, but that he was not present on the occasion adverted to, and that he did not attend the meeting of the stewards of the Jockey Club o n that subject until the fund had become devoted to one of a charitable kind. Now that was the undeniable fact; and how easy it would be for him to say that it was impossible for the principal actors to be ignorant of this, and that they took the chance of the ignorance of their audience.—(Hear, hear.) How easy it would be for him to insinuate that this was a falsehood;' but he dis dained to do so. He believed that in the excitement of the moment those who made the assertion thought it to oe true; but how much care ought they to use in charging falsehood upon others? He believed it was impossible, with the tone of feeling which existed in this country, that any Minister of the Crown should be guilty of such conduct as had been imputed to him. Every gentleman in his own department would refuse to assist or bear him out in any such iniquitous proceeding. But if these accusations were to be bandied about from one to another, if such things were to be talked of as pos sible to be done, then would they be believed, and one of toile greatest guards of the purity of the administration maintain the con d uct of public men was of the deepest affairs of importan ce . How much of the moral strength of our institutions,th ethis country would be destroyed. To mach of the power of government in this country, dependediow nn on the general belief of the people of this country and honourably conducted that the public business was fairly different the t opinioncalamities W an a d s oo onthe IHe thought we had had an awful warning htlie r side of the Channel of the _ce anybtlhedreshedwhich had man that t e d e n ff o s u e u e b e t t s d thatedesfinaced February in Fran, all the fearful events affln which had startled and alarmed the whole of Europe, were in a great measure to be attributed to the impres sion—whether justly or unjustly entertained he did not say—which certain u nfortunat oevents and disclosur es h a d produced on the public mind of Fr ance, that there was some thing corrupt in the management of the p u bli c affairs, and in those who conducted them? Public con fidence in public men had been destroyed in thatbcyoutnhteriyr before the revolution—(Hear) —and he woul d ask their Lordships if it was not practically reprobated Lordships, and condemned by the public, to introduce into debates of political subjects these attacks on the characters of public men?—(Hear, hear.) Such a system could not go on long; if it did, the characters of public men generally, on both sides of the House, would be lowered and degraded. He hoped he had executed his task in the manner in which he most earnestly de sired to do, and had succeeded in avoiding the use of those expressions or uttering any of those personalities which he had condemned. The Noble Earl concluded by moving for the papers, and sat down amidst loud cheers. Lord STANLEY said that although he could not wonder that the Noble Earl should wish to take the earliest opportunity of vindicating himself, he regretted that he should have felt the necessity of making some of the statements that he had made, because the debate so introduced was irregular; and in the next place, in vindicating the character of his Noble and Hon. Friend elsewhere, it placed him (Lord Stanley) in the position of being the accuser of the Noble Earl and the de partment to which he belonged. He believed the Noble Earl to be a man of the highest honour and in tegrity, but at the same time the Noble Lord who had been attacked by the Noble Earl was also a man of unsullied honour.—(Hear.) He did not see why the Noble Earl should have alluded to France, and he re gretted that he had done so; but he was still more sorry that he had alluded to the pursuits of the Noble Lord whom he had attacked. He was glad, however, to bear testimony to the high honour of his Noble Friend, and to say that nothing base or sordid was analogous to t►ta pursuits of his Noble Friend.—(Hear.) The Noble Duke who had been alluded to was engaged in the same pursuits, and had borne testimony to the conduct of his Noble Friend, who, by great personal exertion and expense, bad exposed and destroyed a disgraceful ,:~~ THE SUN, LONDON, system of fraud. Those who were engaged in similar pursuits voted a testimonial, amounting to between three and four thousand pounds, to his Noble Friend, and the Noble Duke now cited as a witness was one of the first subscribers. His Noble Friend, however, with his usual generosity, re fused to receive one farthing of the amount, but sug gested that it should be applied to snaking a provision for the widows and children of those who in a humbler capacity had lost their lives in administering to the pleasures of the turf.—(Hear, hear.) To turn, however, from the Jockey Club—(A laugh)—he had yet to learn why any public man, if he thought a public document had been suppressed, should not state so, and give the grounds of his belief.—(Hear, hear.) It was the ri g h t and duty of a public man to expose any supp osed p ubl ic delinquency without being charged with having been guilty of mean personalities.—(Hear, hear.) He would follow the Noble Earl through his statement. He thought their Lordships would agree with him that there was some ground for suspicion. The charge was that syste matically, during the last year, the Colonial-office had been in the practice of supressing documents, and per verting documents in their po , session, thereby leading the House to inferences which the documents themselves would not warrant. There were two periods last year upon which it was important that Parliament should be in possession of the most accurate information. Those two periods were when the subject of the West Indies was discussed in Parliament, and also when the Com mittee on the subject was sitting ; and it was at those periods that the charge was made that important docu ments were not given which ought to have been given. The first was a dispatch received from Sir C. Grey on the 27th of March. The Committee was then on the point of closing their evidence. On that day the main question between the Government and West w w a it s h co th n e nee a t p e a d th w y ith of legislationthtehe planters ?of A t h t i s t c h o a u t n t p r y e r , o o d r Indians was discussed, namely, w h e th er t h e di stress Sir C. Grey sent a report, prepared by the Assembly of Jamaica, as to the causes of distress, and evidence to support it, and it was accompanied by a dispatch of Sir C. Grey, in which he stated the condition of the colony, and the measures which he thought necessary to remove the distress. The Committee closed their evi dence on the sth of April; and on that day the Under Secretary was examined before the Committee. It had been made the subject of observation that no dispatch had been received on the subject from the Governor of Jamaica; and not only this document was not then laid before the Committee, but that important document was never laid before them—ho meant the dispatch of Sir C. Grey—although the Committee sat till the 29th of May— although they continued their sittings until that time.— (Hear, hear.) And if the question before them was whether a duty of 20s. on foreign and 10'. on British sugar should be imposed; and that question was lost in the Committee by a single vote—(hear, hear)—what effect in that nicely-balanced Committee would have been produced, he might ask, if it had been known that the recommendation of the governor precisely agreed with that proposition?—(hear, hear.) He did not believe that document was purposely withheld; he had no doubt it was intended to be communicated to the Committee both by the Noble Earl and the Under-Se cretary; and knowing the course of business in the Co. lonial-office. he had no doubt whatever that such was the case.—(Hear, bear,) On the sth of April the Hon. Gentleman the Under-Secretary for the Colonies was called before the Committee, and gave the following evidence. He is asked—" There is no account of the state of the island, and in the other cases?" The answer is, " That is generally comprised in the annual report called the blue book. The fact is, that we have not re ceived it." " Does not the governor write dispatches to the Colonial-office on the subject of the state of the island, besides that one particular paper, in the course of the year ?" " Yes, certainly; but I am not aware of any dispatches from him of any importance which have been withheld from this Committee."—(Hear, hear," from the Ministerial benches.) He went on to say, in reply to other questions—" We have received from other colonies very considerable details as to the state of those colonies, and as to the prospects of agriculture ; but from Jamaica I can find nothing of the kind. Until very re cently I think there has been no such general dispatch received. That dispatch is now printing for this Com mittee. I ought to add, that the governor has been in the island a very short time." Now, considering the character of that dispatch, he could not understaud that the Hon. Gentleman, instead of answering vaguely that a " dispatch was received," did not say at once, " within a few days an important document has been received which will furnish the fullest information to the Committee on the subject."—(Hear, hear.) Ho could not understand how the Hon. Gentleman, five or six days after the dis patch had been received. could have led the Committee to believe that it was not of au important character, and would not tend to facilitate the investigation of the Com mittee.—(Hear, hear.) But there was another part of the case which tended to throw great suspicion on the whole of these transactions. Meetings of the Committee were held on the sth, 9th, 14th, 22d, and 29th of May, six or seven weeks after the receipt of the dispatch. On the Bth of May a motion was made in the House of Com mons for an Address to the Crown for the production of the latest dispatches from the West Indies. Now, unless the business of the Colonial-office was conducted in a more lax manner than when he was connected with that department, it was morally impossible, not that the Noble Earl himself but that his subordinates in office, when they were collecting .the further dispatches to be submitted to Parliament, should not have perceived that this important dispatch, which was intended to be sent, had not been communicated; and he conceived it equally impossible that on the discovery of such an omission instant steps were not taken to repair the error, and to furnish the document to the Committee before they came to a decision, and not after.—(Hear.) Though he gave entire credit, after the speech of the Noble Earl to the statement that they had not withheld this docu ment designedly from the Committee, its having been withheld formed a reasonable ground of suspicion ; and the fact that it was not communicated during the long interval in which the blunder must have been discovered afforded a strong presumption that the Government were unwilling to have the document placed in the hands of the Committee before they came to a decision.—(Hear. hear.) And it added to that suspicion when they found that the same thing occurred with regard to documents from other colonies. There was a dispatch from the Governor of Demerara, which inclosed several docu ments relative to the distress of the colony, and declar ing that it was impossible for the planters to compete with slave labour. But one, and only one, of those do cuments was sent to the Committee, and that a statement of a stipendiary magistrate charging the planters with gross apathy and negligence.—(Hear, hear.) It was strange that this should have been the only document sent to the Committee, and at a time, too, when they were about coming to a decision, and when it might have some influence on that decision. He believed that the Hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary expressed his regret that the dispatch was not communicated, and that in his opinion it ought to be communicated. But the Noble Earl took upon himself the entire responsibility of not communicating, and said that he was right in with holding it. He would now go to a third dispatch of the 4th of September, and another of the 18tb, from Lord Harris, the governor of Trinidad. At the commence ment of the session the Hon. Member for Montrose moved for the production of papers connected with the West Indies, and particularly with regard to Trinidad ; and it was singular that till the discussion on his Noble Friend's motion had begun and been nearly brought to a close those dispatches, which would have been material in the discussion, had not been placed in the hands of Members. This might have been a case of inadvertence or pardonable omission; but when he read the language of Lord Harris he thought the House would be of opinion that those dispatches ought to hare been laid before the Committee. The dispatch of the 18th of September was received the '22d of Oc tober, 1847, and Lord Harris says in it—" The distress is excessive, it is increasing daily; there is an unprece dented stagnation of business; the present crop will be abandoned from the want of the means to pay fox the necessary labour; the chief cause of this is that the prices received for sugar this year will not repay the cost of production." He then expresses his conviction that the colony would relapse into a state of barbarism if more than ordinary relief was not afforded.—(Hear, hear.) Another dispatch was received in September from Sir C. Grey, the Governor of Jamaica, in which he says—" I think it my duty to mention that the low prices of sugar in London, without any corresponding reduction of the duties, threaten with ruin many plantations." This document and the document from Trinidad were in the hands of Government in October, and yet it was not laid before Parliament till the 28th of March. With this dispatch from Jamaica in the possession of the Govern. went, he was surprised at the conduct of an honourable, high-minded, and sincere man—one who would be the last in the world to disguise, conceal, or palliate any fact whatever—ho alluded to the Right lion. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade—with regard to a question put to him by Mr. Goulburn, respecting the receipt of dispatches from Jamaica. That Bight Hon. Gentleman said that no dispatch had been received giving any general account of the state of Jamaica, but if any such document should be received it would be communicated by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Here, therefore, was another point which afforded ground wretch u who for strong suspicion with regard to the motives of Go vernment in putting by these documents. The Noble . Earl opp os i te wou ld f org i ve hi m if h e use d a h ome ly simile i n ill ustrat i on o f t h e pos i t i on o f t h e C o l on i a l- o ffice. _lle . Noble Ea r l sa id th a t if h e w er e guilty of the charge s m against washi m ever h e placed would a b te the b more a r oft criminal he 0 than any He hop e d, therefore, that the Noble Lord would not con sider it offensive if Bailey. illustration.be went to the same locality for his Suppose the Noble Earl, or himself, or any of their Lordships, had been charged with passing coun terfeit money —a s it was sLossible that any of them might pass a bad half-crown . _ nohumanr aany ofb eing their w L o o u r l d d s suspect Lordships, s the Noble Earl, or hims e lf, wilfully committing such an act; b ut i f i t turnedp 'ouot that, after having passed. one bad half-crown, the same individual proceeded to pass half a dozen other bad half crowns, and that a dozen more were found in his pocket, that would very much alter the appearance of the whole transaction, and that which at first had but the appear ance of guilt, would be a conclusive proof of the guilty knowledge.—(Hear an d lau g hter.) Wha t he had hereto. fore said applied only to t he Colonial-offic e — what he was now about to say had a personal application to the Noble Earl. Oa the 7th Feb. he (Lord Stanley) felt it to be his duty to call the attention of the House to the state of the West Indies, and he stated that the persons whose peti tion he was then presenting attributed their distress to British legislation, and particularly to the Act of 1846. In reply to his statement the Noble Earl said that even admitting the distress to be true, it was not to be attri buted to the Act of 1846, but to other causes, amongst which he particularly specified the wasteful and extra vagant management of the plantations and the preva lence of absenteeism. The Noble Lord adverted to a document which he then held in his band, which he justly styled "an able and admirable dispatch " from WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 28, 1848 Mr. Higginson, the Governor of Antigua, that dispatch • was not communicated to the Committee for two months afterwards. But on the occasion to which he was ad verting, while the Noble Lord quoted as much of that dispatch as made fur the view of the question which he wished to impress on their Lordships, he omitted to state that it contained this important passage :—" It must be conceded that, for obvious reasons, free-grown sugar can never yield so remunerative a return as that grown by slaves."—(Hear, hear.) He admitted that it would be sometimes inconvenient and mischievous to lay the whole of a dispatch before Parliament. But the Noble Earl extended that doctrine, and claimed on the part of Government that they should only lay before Parliament so much of any dispatch as met their own views, and should exclude from every dispatch whatever ran counter to those views. —(Hear, hear.) The prac tice of the Noble Earl would seem to confirm the strong charge made by his Noble Friend in the House of Com• mons, that they adopted the principle of suppressing and perverting the information which they had in their possession, and which bad not been laid before Parliament.—(Hear, hear.) When our dispatches were asked for, they ought to be exhibited in such a way as to give a fair, complete, and impartial statement of the case to he considered (Hear, hear) and to enable Parliament to judge of its substantial merits.—(gear, hear.) But what were they to say of the Minister who held in his hand a docu ment from which he quoted whatever supported his own particular views?—(" Hear, hear," from Earl Grey.) .le (Lord Stanley) was nut now speaking of the dispatch of Governor Higginson, but of a memorial which excited great attention on the part of the Noble Earl, and from which ho read extracts to the House. He was going to show that the extract read by the Noble Earl was not a fair extract, and that, as the Noble Earl read it, it in volved an inference diametrically opposite to the whole tenor of the memorial itself, and that the next sentence, which the Noble Earl did not read, would annihilate the inference to which he sought to lead their lord ships.—(Hear, hear.)—lt was in reference to this memorial he presumed that the Noble Earl made the following remarks on the 7th of February:—" In a few years he hoped to see the business of planting carried on solely by residents, and he conceived that there were not anywhere such favourable opportunities for the investment of capital as in the West Indies, He felt assured that men of science going Out there, not disregarding local experience but applying the great principles of science to the production of wealth, could scarcely fail to obtain pre-eminent success. It was his firm conviction that five or six men of capital and science emigrating thither with a resolution to assist each other, and establishing a central manutactory—such a party, conducting such an enterprise, could not fail of perfect success. He could not avoid expressing his strong con viction that a great property was still in store for those who engaged in such a course; and he should conclude with a confident appeal to the House and the country to say whether or not he had succeeded in proving that the present state of the West Indies was not to be imputed to the advice of the present Government." The Noble Lord expressed that opinion, and he led their Lordships co entertain this opinion; and he induced the country and the capitalists of the country to entertain it, whilst he at the very time held in his hand the document which would have led their Lordships and the country to form a different opinion, but which be did not communicate to them. The memorial which the Noble Earl held in his hand stated that they (the memorialists) had invested 142,0001. capital in the production of sugar; but that the price of sugar at the present time was such, that upon an annual expenditure of 60,3001. the gross returns were 60,8001., being 5001. on an outlay of 60,3001., independent of the interest of the capital and of the 142,0001. which they had laid out since the Act of emancipation. They went on to say that they were resident proprietors; that they adopted the improved mode of cultivation; but that they could not cultivate their estates for another year.—(Sear, hear.) They concluded by saying —" We heg of you to consider our desperate position as an excuse for troubling you."—(Hear, hear.) And yet the Noble Earl, with that document in his hand from which he read a portion, whilst he withheld the rest for two ;months, would lead their Lordships to conclude from the part he read that the experiment of resident planters was immensely successful, and warranted a sanguine hope that Jamaica would be cultivated in a successful and pro fitable manner, when the memorialists themselv es t o ld them that they could not cultivate for another year. (Cheers.) He followed the Noble Earl through the whole of his statement, and he would leave it with con tidence to their Lordships to judge whether the Noble Earl was justified in that high tone of indignation in which he thought it necessary to indulge.—(Hear, hear.) Lie did not ask them to say there was a wilful suppres sion of the truth, or a perversion of documents for pur poses far opposed to those fur which they were intended; but he said that he had demonstrated to their Lord ships, or to any candid and impartial man, that in the circumstances as he had stated them, and as they ap peared before the public, it was not surprising that his Noble Friend (Lord George Bentinck), who devoted himself heart and soul to the cause of the West Indians —who presided over the Committee with exemplary as • siduity— should be anxious to arrive at the truth ; and when he found a portion of the documents which con mined important matter had been withheld from that Committee over which he presided, intentionally or unintentionally, that he should have expressed himself in strong and warm language, though in language perhaps too strong with respect to a case which could not km made out by complete and conclusive facts.— (Hear, hear.) It was not surprising that, as chairman of a Committee to which an important inquiry was dele gated, he should have said circumstances of grave sus picion Atttuched to the manner in which the Colonial office hWcl been carried on for some time—(Hear, hear) —and because he made those charges and statements it was not fair to say that he was unduly descending to ,nean and petty formalities, as stated by the Noble Earl. he took a course in which fair argument ought to be inet by fair argument. He was justified in making the statements he had made ; and neither the Noble Lord aor the Government aught to be offended at the plain. aess of the statements so made—(lronical cheers from the Ministerial benches)—and the Noble Earl might con sider himself well out of the matter if he can satisfy your Lordships and the country that he is altogether free from the charge of naving conveyed by partial statements made to your Lordships —an inference on an important question the very opposite of that which was intended to be conveyed by the document from which he was speaking.—(Cheers and counter cheers.) Lord BROUGHAM deeply lamented that anything should have arisen to make it necessary for the Noble Earl opposite to depart from the ordinary course of pro ceeding, in order to lay this subject before their Lord ships, because it was one that gave occasion to heats both in that House and elsewhere. He was not sur prised, however, that the Noble Earl should be anxious to take the earliest opportunity of clearing himself from the charge. But could he blame his Noble Friend (Lord G. Bentinek) for calling on the Colonial-office to defend itself from the charges which he thought himself justified in making ? Far from it. It was his privilege to do so—it was consistent with his right to do so—and it was nis duty to do so. Whatever was offensive in the charge his Noble Friend had retracted; he had in a great degree apologised for it, retaining, however, the opinion that there had been errors and blunders, and that the circum stances justified suspicion. In one or two circum stances he could not agree with the statement of th e Noble Lord who ha just spoken. He could not agree with him that the examination of his honourable Friend( Mr. Hawes) justified suspicion. With regard to the dispatch, his lion. Friend might differ from the Noble Lord with respect to the gloss to be put upon it, as to its importance or otherwise—but that his Hon. Friend could have meant to deceive was impos sible, because he believed that the dispatch was there before the Committee.—(Hear, hear.) A. remark of the ii 11133 kind applied to the keeping back one portion of Governor Light's dispatch, for when the part omitted came to be read it made, in his opinion, for the case of the Noble Earl opposite.—(Hear, hear.) With regard to the memorial, again, it seems not to have occurred to the Noble Lord that the part left out might have made a different impression on the Noble Earl opposite than that which it appeared to have made on the Noble Lord. He hoped that this would be the last debate of this kind that he should be obliged to listen to in that House. He thought that greater care, more caution, more attention to a previous examination of the facts, should be ob served in charging public men with breaches of their public duties.—(Hear, hear.) If he were to give his candid and sincere opinion as to what would best show that what had been done elsewhere had been done not from personal views, not from malicious motives, or un worthy feelings of any kind, but from public principle— from a strong sense of public duty, and that high and honourable feeling which he believed and knew apper tained to the conduct and formed part of the character of Lord G. Bentinck—he would offer this advice, that this matter be at an end ; that the charge having been made from a sense of public duty, and having been partly rebutted and partly explained—and what wa' most offensive in that charge having been retracted— orrdise opposite totethey should hear no more of it, e ither is that House , where it gave rise to one diso rder ly discussion, or in another House, where it might an other equally disorderly. ilhe had fully, clearly, and satisfactor i ly defended his own ag N ai o n bl e giveL course, and that of his subordi nates i n office, without making any charge against ot hers. Nothing which he had said required any ans wer fro m Lord George Bentinck, or any one else; and , t herefore, he hoped that here, and now, there would be an end of this unfortu nate matter. One observation he must make. Consi dering all the enormous mass of business which weighed on and almost overpowered the Colonial-office, and of the immense number of dispatches which were received, at the rate of 10,000 or 11,000 a year, about 300 a week— he was convinced of the difficulty which must attend the getting through such a mass of business, relating to colo nies at the extremities of the globe, some of them under laws the very opposite to those which prevailed at home. Ho was also convinced of the necessity of some further assistance in disposing of this immense amount of busi ness. Here an error had arisen b etween the Colo nial . office and the Committee of the Ho use of Commons ; h ow many such errors must necessarily arise between the Colonial-office and those distant p , ssessions of ours in the course of his multifarious business, and how pressing was the necessity for the adoption of the alteration which he had suggested Should such be the result of the lon g discussion which had now taken plac e, t h e time of the House would not have been occupied altogether in vain. —(Hear, hear.) The Noble and Learned Lord concluded by again imploring that the debate might be allowed to t erm i na t e . Earl GREY, who was at first very imperfectly heard, thanked the Noble and Learned Lord for the sentiment he had expressed, and said that he concurred in very much that had fallen from him. Like him he greatly lamented the necessity of discussions like the present, but did not see how, in this case, it could have been avoided. All must admit that there was a great differ ence between a simple expression and the mode in which that expression was used; and it was the peculiar eha- racteristic of the Noble Lord by whom this charge had ben made in the other House that he never entered on the discussion of any great public measure without im puting vile and disgraceful motives to those to whom he was opposed.—(Hear, hear) That Noble Lord seemed to imagine that he (Earl Grey) had the desire, in some inexplicable way, to depress and damage the West India colonies, by any means, fair or foul. Would it not have been perfectly possible to discuss the question whether or not protection against foreign sugar was really a benefit to the colonies and the mother country without entering into this further dis cit;sion—whether he, as Secretary of State, and those who were associated with him in office, were endeavour ing to support a policy which they knew would be ruinous to the West India colonies, and inconsistent with all fairness to the colonists?—(Hear, hear.) He pro tested against this system of always viewing with suspi cion the motives of others.—(Hear, hear.) He must own he had heard with deep regret, and with an altera tion of the opinion he had hitherto entertained of the tairnesa of the Noble Lord opposite (Lord Stanley), which he feared he could never entertain again —(Loud cheers)—he had heard with deep regret that Noble Lord take up the view of his political ally on this sub ject, and speak with all that ingenuity which belonged to him, with all the ability and energy which invariably characterised all he said in that House, and with all the practised art of the rhost able advocate, for the purpose of attaching to him (Earl Grey) what he could not call less than an intentional prevarication.—(Hear.) Thai the Noble Lord should have taken such pains to bring home to him that charge was to him most deeply painful. —(Hear.) The Noble Lord had also adopted what he (Earl Grey) most utterly repudiated—the distinction between the personal and official conduct of a man hold ing a high situation.—(Hear, hear.) He might say these were charges against a Minister, but they were els° charges against a man.—(Cheers.) He firmly be lieved, from the little experience he had had of public life, that any one who would shrink from so acting would also shrink from making such accusations.— (Hear, hear.) He was surprised that the Noble Lord (Stanley) should have adopted so ungenerous and so utterly imperfect a view of what was reported to have fallen from his Noble Friend Lord John Russell on the occasion referred to. He utterly denied that his Noble Friend had made any such charge or representation with regard to the pursuits of the turf.—(Hear, hear.) It would indeed have been strange for the Noble Lord, with one of his nearest and dearest relations connected with that branch of national amusement, to have thrown any ungenerous censure on those noblemen and gentlemen who were so engaged. The Noble Lord had done no such thing.—(Cheers.) Every one knew that the pur suit of racing when adopted from the love of the amuse ! tnent, and from fondness for the noble animals by which that sport was carried on, was an amusement perfectly , innocent, and one that contributed to some very impor tant national interests. But was it not notorious that there were on the turf, not only those who pursued the amusement in an honourable and manly way as a sport, but others who made it a sort of calling—a profession the Noble Lord (J. Russell) had called it—in the vilest Tirit of gambling and in the love of gain—men who con sidered that fair which in any other walk of life would be utterly disgraceful—who talked coolly of what was very much like picking pockets, betting against horses which they knew could not possibly start—and who were in the habit of " paying for information," which meant bribing the servants of trainer's and others to obtain the secrets of their masters' stables?—(Cheers.) All his Noble Friend had said or intended to say was, that the Noble Lord (G. Bentinck) having been necessa rily brought into contact with persons like these, having 'levoted a great deal of his time, ingenuity, perseverance, and ability, in detecting the frauds committed by such persons, had contracted a habit of looking with suspi cion at the conduct of men who did not deserve it, and of regarding them in the same light as those whose practices and conduct he had been in the habit of investigating and exposing—that he had contracted habits like those of the police, who, being continually on the track of crime, imagined it where it did not exist.—((;heers and laughter.) That was a perfectly fair, legitimate, and just argument. But if his Noble Friend had been be euiled by the heat of argument into going somewhat be yond the strict line of discretion, he was not only en titled to the warmest gratitude from himself (Earl Grey), he was also entitled to the admiration of their Lordships, for when he himself was attacked, he stood Almost alone for the unexampled patience, temper, and forbearance with which he invariably met the most diffi cult attacks, and no man ever saw him betrayed into unnecessary heat—(Hear, hear)—if he ever was be trayed into indiscretion, it was the indignation of a ge terous mind at an attack directed against an absent friend.—(Cheers.) He was surprised that the Noble Lord (Stanley), whom he used to think capable of high and generous feelings, should not have taken his view of the conduct of Lord J. Russell, but should have represented what he had said in the most invidious light, and have striven to swell the cry most unjustly raised against him. Such a coarse was wholly unworthy of the Noble Lord. After what had fallen from the Noble Lord, he (Lord Grey) felt he must be content to throw himself on their Lordships' indulgence; for he confessed he did not feel himself equal, as an advocate, to grapple with the Noble Lord in regard to the inferences which he had ingeniously drawn from scattered passages in a variety of papers, and from a skilful comparison of dates. He had not the memory to follow the Noble Lord through those details. Naturally the question was one not a little agitating to his feelings; and he did not feel him self capable of unravelling that ingenious web of so phistry which the Noble Lord had woven, as he could do had he the time necessary for the task. For skilful as the Noble Lord was in that art of " dressing up a case 'or Parliament," he never showed that skill in a more 'minent degree than he had done in driving home the poisoned arrow discharged by another.—(Cheers.) He would notice two or three points on which the Noble Lord had dealt. First, with regard to the Trinidad papers; they were moved for in November, but not being ready before the House adjourned they were presented on the very first day after the recess. He had before lira the votes of the House of Commons, which showed !hat that was the case. Lord STANLEY—What I stated was, that those papers were not laid before Parliament until the debate to which they referred had commenced, and were not printed for the use of Members till near its conclusion. Earl GREY repeated that on the very day that Par liament re-assembled, being the earliest practicable day, they were laid o❑ the table of the House, and though he could not speak positively from memory he believed they had been delivered printed to Members within a day or two.—(Cheers.) The next point was the use he had made of a dispatch of Governor Higginson. He had used the dispatch to support the view he took, a view which nothing had occurred to shake. He con sidered the statements of governors of colonies of ex treme value when relating to matters of fact, but when relating to opinions, of very little value.—(Hear, hear.) He considered that the Government in this country, caking a much more enlarged view of causes and ef fects, and not biassed by the spectacle of great distress immediately around them, were capable of draw ing sounder conclusions from the facts stated than those actually on the spot. That dispatch gad been communicated to the Committee of the other House, he believed, among the very first papers that the Committee had called for after the recess. With regard to Jamaica, the Noble Lord laid very great stress on the keeping back of a dispatch received ore the 22r1 of October from Sir Charles Grey. ['hat dispatch stated only what was perfectly notorious, the existence of great distress in the island, and the opinion of the governor that a change in the duties was neoessary.—(Hear, hear, from Lord Stanley.) About that there could be no secret ; for Sir C. Grey had expressed the same opinion in opening the colonial legislature, and his speech had appeared in almost every newspaper in England and in the colony ; so that it would have been quite childish to think of concealing that.—(Hear, hear.) The last point to which he would allude was the Jamaica memorial. He had quoted that document merely to prove certain facts which he thought material ; and if the report of his speech which the Noble Lord had quoted were correct, it showed tbat the memorial was one which had been presented to him by the planters of Jamaica, com plaining of great distress ; and whatever might have been the value of the document in his eyes, his argument was that the complaining parties had admitted facts .vhich, iu his mind, led to a conclusion with regard to the future different from the one at which they had themselves arrived. The facts stated demonstratively led to this conclusion—that in a part of the island of Jamaica a very considerable change in society had taken place, and that there was springing up a class of resident planters, lessees of the estates, who were carrying on the cultivation. That fact only he had quoted; he had not gone into their particulars about the distress, because the whole tenor of his argument was that there un doubtedly existed heavy and grievous distress; but he had endavoured to show that there were causes in ope ration which would lead to an improvement. He was perfectly aware that the memorialists said they could not carry on their cultivation another year; he adopted their testimony as to facts, but he did not adept their opinions. He no more took for grunted all they said about the possibility of cultivating sugar in Ja maica than he had taken for granted what had been said by the Noble Lord opposite and the farmers of this country as to the possibility of carrying on the cultiva tion of wheat in England.—(Cheers and laughter.) In that case, his own interest as a proprietor of the soil being strongly involved, be had taken the liberty of forming his own judgment as to the cultivation of land in this country ; and he had done the same with regard to Jamaica.—(Hear, hear.) If the whole memorial were read, it more strongly supported the argument he had addressed to the House, than did the particular passage he had quoted. Be that as it might, the inten tion of taking any unfair advantage was absolutely ne gatived by the tact of the memorial, with the other papers, being included in those laid before the Com mittee at a very early stage of its proceedings.—(Hear, hear.) He would not enter further into these topics; and had it not been that what had fallen from him had been distorted, he should not have entered into them at all, but should have acquiesced in the advice given by the Noble Lord (Brougham) opposite. Lord STANLEY said that with regard to the effect which his statement had produced on the feelings of the Noble Earl (Grey) towards himself, much as he might regret it, he must submit to it as a consequence of per forming what he believed to be a duty. The debate had not been of his seeking; he had not desired the raising of this or any other question; and the " ingenious tissue," which the Noble Earl said he had woven, had not been volunteered by himself, but had arisen from following strictly the line taken by the Noble Earl, and by referring to all those cases to which the Noble Earl referred—not to show that the Noble Earl had been guilty of any suppression, but to show that, looking at particular documents not brought before the public, and looking at the particular time at which they ought to have been brought forward, there was fair and reason , able ground for parties to believe that some improper interference had taken place, and had systematically t ;ken place, in the Colonial-office with regard to these documents. The distinction between official and personal responsihily was this : the charge made was that these documents had been withheld, or suppressed .` in the Colonial-office;" there was, therefore, no accu sation against the Noble Earl, because it could not be known that it had taken place in consequence of the Noble Earl's interference, He had admitted that the Noble Earl's defence was conclusive, and had acquitted him of any intentional withholding of the documents. But he had felt it a duty to an absent friend, whom he valued as highly as the Noble Earl did his friends, to show that this was a case which justified suspicion on the part of Parliament, and justified the expression of that suspicion on the part of the public. On one topic, and one only, he thought the Noble Earl had fallen into a grave error, that of conveying an erroneous inference from the memorial of the Jamaica planters. It was not the mere opinion of the colonists which the Noble Earl had withheld, but the facts as to what had already taken place. On the 7th of February, the Nob!" Earl, speak ing in that House, traced the distress of the planters to certain causes. The Earl of MINTO here interposed a remark which was not heard in the gallery. Lord STANLEY repeated he did not complain of the Noble Earl suppressing opinions, but he complained of his givinz a portion of the facts and suppressing others, which appeared in the same dispatch, and which were entirely contradictory of the inference he had attempted to draw. He did not complain that the Noble Earl, in quoting the declaration of the planters, that they had embarked 142,0001. in the colony, and that, consequently, a great change in society was going on, had not stated, at the same time, that other fact, wherein the parties de clared that that investment of 142,000/. had been a total and entire failure, and that they had lost all they had embarked. The Noble Lord then read the portion of the memorial referred to, and said that the planters showed that they only received an annual return above their expenditure of 518/. towards defraying the in terest at 6 per cent, of the money they had borrowed, The Noble Earl had suppressed all this, and of that he complained. That was the only part of the case in which he thought the Noble Lord had misled the House; for this document was not laid before the Committee until the 28th of March, nearly two months after the Noble Lord's statement. Earl GREY—lnstead of being only laid before the Committee on the 28th of March, the memorial was re ported by the Committee on the 14th of March, and I believe it was laid before them in February. Lord STANLEY admitted that he had been mistaken as to the date.—(Cheers.) The Marquis of LANSDOWNE, who was most im perfectly heard, was understood to say that he could not allow the House to separate without calling attention to the fact, that though the Noble Lord opposite (Stanley) had admitted he had fallen into an inaccuracy, the whole of his last speech had been directed to proving an inac curacy on the part of the Noble Earl (Grey), and in so doing he had entirely quitted the subject before the House. No one who had heard the statement of the Noble Earl (Grey) could fail to be convinced that be stood corn• pletely absolved from anything like the charge which had been brought against him.—(Cheers.) The duty of examining and canvassing the conduct of all public officers was one that ought to be exercised unrestrictedly; and it was only because imputations had been made, not against the Noble Earl's discharge of his public duties, but because statements had been made which it had been found necessary to retract here:and elsewhere, that the Noble Earl bad found it necessary so long to occupy the attention of the House.—(Hear, hear.) He trusted that one result of this debate, already perhaps too long protracted, would be to show how important it was that motives of an improper kind should not be im puted on light and trivial grouads—(Cheers)—and that the conduct of public men should not needlessly be made the object of Parliamentary discussion and debate. Lord REDESDALE expressed his belief that nothing personal had been meant towards the Noble Earl oppo site. Perhaps the charge of neglect had been too strongly made against the Colonial-office; but as for anything personal, that had been distinctly disclaimed by the Noble Lord who made the charge. Earl GREY (with much warmth)—No, no. Lord REDESDALE said he referred to what had taken place here, not in the other House. As to the other memorial from Jamaica, he thought the defence of the Noble Earl was a very imperfect one. The Noble Lord (Stanley) had stated nothing but facts and fair inferences from the papers, of which the Noble Earl had no right to complain. It was a strange position for a Colonial Minister to assume, that he would only take the facts reported to him, but would pay no attention to the opinions expressed. Earl GREY—None at all. Lord REDESDALE—That was tantamount to say ing that the House should only have the opinions of the Noble Earl, and not those of the persons who were spe cially sent out to collect and form opinions from actual observation. Earl GREY—I hope that when the Noble Lord next professes to quote what I have said he will state some thing Wale like what I did say.—(Cheers.) The motion was then agreed to, and their Lordships adjourned at Half-past Eight o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS, June 27. There being only 32 Members present at Four o'clock, the House was adjourned until tomorrow (this day). The following Members were present at the adjourn ment:— Barnard, E.• G. Jackson, William Bellew, R. M. Lacy, Charles Boyle, R. E. Kershaw, Alderman Bowring, Dr. Maitland, Thomas Brotherton, Joseph Molesworth, Sir W. Brown, William Parker, John Cobden, Richard ' Pechell, Captain Dundas, Admiral Rutherford, A. Drumlanrig, Viscount Russell, F. C. Duncan, George Spooner, Richard Ewart, William Salwey, Colonel Hughes, W. B. Thoinpson,'Colonel Hodges, T. L. Tufnell, Henry Henry, Alexander Thornely, Thomas Inglis, Sir R. Wilson, Matthew LAW IN TELLIGENCE. COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, June 27. (Before Mr. Justice WIGHTmAN and a Special Jury of the county of Middlesex.) THE QUEEN V. HARDEY. The defendant appeared, in discharge of his bail, upon an indictment for alleged perjury arising out of certain voluminous affidavits made in the Court of Chancery, in a suit relating to matters of account. After the jury had been sworn, Sir FREDERICK TIIESIGER, Q.C., (with whom was Mr. liurlstone,) stated that it was not his intention, on the part of the prosecution, to offer any evidence, and, therefore, the jury must return a verdict for the de fendant. Mr, Cockburn, Q.C. (with whom was Mr. Prender gast and Mr. D. D. Keane), appeared for the defendant, but was not called upon by the Court. Under the direction of the Learned Judge, the jury immediately returned a verdict of Not Guilty. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. MANSION-HOUSE. A master baker was brought before the Lord Mayor, charged with having attempted to commit suicide. A policeman stated, that two watermen had informed him that the defendant had been rescued by them out of the Thames, into which he had flung himself from Lon don-bridge, when in a state of intoxication. The de fendant was taken to a public-house in the neighbour hood and stripped, and thence conveyed to Guy's Hos pital, where he received the necessary attention and soon recovered. Upon his person were found in a bag 141. 10s. in gold, 1/. 4s. 2d. in silver, and some halfpence, with which he had intended to go to make a purchase of flour in Mark-lane. Musard, a Horslydown waterman," said, that he and another waterman heard a splash in the river, and soon after observed the defendant floating through the second arch of the bridge. They picked him up and carried him to the Swan public-house, and they believed the act was the consequence of intoxication. The surgeon by whom he had been examined i❑ Guy's Hospital said the man was drunk at the time. The LORD MAYOR (to the defendant, who appeared to be in a state of complete astonishment)—Well, sir, what account can you give of this attempt upon your own life ? The defendant—l really cannot give any account of it at all. I have no reason on earth for at tempting to destroy myself, and I must have been mad drunk to do what it appears I have done. I have as good and comfortable a home as any man can have, and I am a man of most sober and industrious habits, but if I take any strong drink I am quite a madman. The LORD MAYOR—Knowing that drink produced such dreadful effects upon you, how did it happen that you exposed . ' yourself to the temptation ? Defen dant—l don'Anow. I intended to see a party in Mark lane, from whom I meant to purchase flour, and unfor tunately I drank some ale in a tavern in which I was waiting with another master baker. The LORD MAYOR—Are you a married man ? De fendant—l have been married exactly nine weeks. The LORD MAYOR—Have you had any quarrel with your wife or her famil? D .fendant—Nut the least. No man can be happier in domestic circumstances than I am. I never knew, nor had the most distant idea, that I had jumped over the bridge until I recovered my senses. lam quite unconscious of having made any at tempt of the kind. The complainant's wife said, there never had been the slightest misunderstanding between her husband and herself, and he had never been before, since his mar riage, at all in liquor; on the contrary, he was a most sober and hardworking man. The LORD MAYOR—You must procure two sureties to answer for your good behaviour fqr six months. If you have any regard for your life, or for your wife, I would advise you never to drink twain. The defendant said, he never again should yield to any persuasion to touch strong liquor, and he felt most grateful to those who had saved his life, and would wil lingly and liberally reward them. Bail was immediately procured by the defendant, who could scarcely be prevailed upon to believe that he had been nearly drowned. MARLBOROUGH-STREET. James B7onleyFoord, formerly in the East India Company's service, and a person of very respectable con nexions, was brought up for re-examination, charged with having defrauded a number of tradesmen by means of false and fraudulent representations. - 11; - palicity given to the proceedings against the pri soner on Saturday last had the effect of completely crowding the court with tradesmen, who had been either victimized or nearly so by the prisoner. The charge against the prisoner, found to be complete, was the one for obtaining 51. from Mr. Lane, the pro prietor of the hotel called Lane's Hotel, St. Alban's- place, by means of a 151. cheque, drawn on Messrs. Gsrdner and Urquhart, 11, St. Helen's-place. The cheque was of course dishonoured, as the prisoner was not known to the firm. The prisoner changed his line of defence yesterday. He said:the cheque was a good one ; the only mistake he had made was in referring it to Messrs. Gardner and Co. instead of Messrs. Arbuthnot and Co. Mr. HARDWICK asked if there were other charges ready ? A chorus of voices was immediately heard. One called out, "I want to charge him about a sixty-guinea piano;" another, " And I about a 301. mare;" a third, " And I about a saddle and bridle ;" a fourth, " And I about try ing to do me out of 851. Mr. HARDWIGK decided on remanding the prisoner again until Saturday, in order to get additional evidence in support of other charges. SOUTHWARK. Ellen Merritt, a repulsive-looking middle-aged female, was placed at the dock before Mr. Cottirigham, charged with wilfully murdering Thomas Winter, a man with whom she formerly cohabited. William Winter, a son of the deceased, said that on Wednesday evening, the 24th ult., be went home with his father to the lodgings of the prisoner in Loman-street, Southwark. As soon as they got inside the room, wit ness asked the prisoner for his supper. She refused to give him any, and because he grumbled at her conduct she took up a pinion of a beer-engine and struck him on the head. The deceased immediately interfered, and remonstrated with her for striking him with such a wea pon, when they had some words together. Witness's head bled so much that he fell down, and was a short time after taken out of the room. A few minutes after wards he heard a loud smash in his father's room, and fall. He instantly went up stairs, and when they gained an entrance they found the candle was not lighted, and perceived his father lying on the floor with his face and head covered with blood. No other person was in the room but his father and the prisoner ; and the latter jumped out of bed and put the light out, as soon as he left the room. Thomas Pilkingten, the landlord of the house in which the prisoner and deceased resided, said that he always considered them married. They frequently had words, but on the night in question the prisoner was more violent than usual. While sitting in his room, he heard last witness call out murder, which caused him to pro ceed up stairs, when he found the boy bleeding from a wound on the head. He took the lad down to dress the wound, and while doing so he heard a crash and a heavy fall on the floor. He instantly ran up stairs, but the door was locked, and the candle put out, which induced him to call in the police. Sergeant Parnell, No. 5 M, said that on the night in question he was called into the house occupied by the latter witness. He told him to go up stairs, as he was afraid murder had been committed in the prisoner's room. Witness went up stairs and knocked at the door, but no person answered for several minutes. At last a female came to the door, and ex claimed, "I can't find the key." He then burst open the door, and with the assistance of a candle, which last witness carried, he perceived deceased lyir.g °ti the floor in a pool of blood, near the bed. The prisoner was in bed, and in answer to his questions, s h e said, " that the deceased had thrown the c on t en t s of a cham ber utensil over her, and she in her pa ss i o n wrested it from him and threw it away. The c an dl e we nt out, and she could not say where it went." Wit ness procured assistance and took the deceased and his son to the hos pital, where their wounds were dressed, and so little was thought of those inflicted on the head of deceased that he refused to give any charge against the prisoner. A tew days afterwards he heard that the deceased bad been admitted into Guy's Ho s pit a l, w h ere h e expired. An inquest was held upon the body, when tha prisoner explained to the jury as witness had stated, in conse qnence of which a verdict of " Accidental Death" was returned. Mr. COTTINGHAM—After hearing such evidence as I have heard to•day I am much surprised at such a termination of the inquest. Were all the witnesses ex amined? Sergeant Parnell—Yes, your Worship; all but the lad, who appeared to have been kept out of the way. Mr. James Stocker, house surgeon at Guy's Hospital, said that on the night of the 24th ultimo, the deceased was brought into the hospital, suffering from lacerated wounds on the scalp. His head was dressed, and he was put to bed, but nothing serious transpired until the Friday, when erysipelas took place. He became deli rious, and although everything was done for him, he expired on the Sunday following. Mr. COTTINGHAM—Was erysipelas caused by the wounds in the head? Witness—Yes it was. The wounds were very bad, and his state of health was not very good. Mr. COTTINGHAM—What was the nature of the wounds? Witness—There were several lacerated cuts. There was no fracture of the skull, but the scalp was much torn. Erysipelas was the cause of death, and had there been no wounds there would have been no ery sipelas. Mr. COTTINGHAM—Then the wounds inflicted on his head were the cause of death. Was he aware that he was near his death? Witness—The deceased was in such a state that he was not able to understand anything prior to his death. We never tell such persons when they are at the approach of death. Mr. COTTINOHAM—Did he make any communication to any person respecting the affair while in the hospital? Witness—lle did not to any of the assistants, but he might to the nurses. In answer to the charge, the prisoner said that the deceased had been out of work twenty-three weeks, and she sold a table to purchase tools for him, to enable him to follow his occupation as a plumber. He obtained some work at a public-house. When the boy came home he was saucy, arid, in the heat of passion. she took up something acd struck him. Deceased then interfered, when they had some words, and, alter she was in bed, he threw the contents of a utensil over her. She became so exasperated at his conduct, that she snatched the utensil from his grasp, and threw it away, not knowing that it struck deceased. Sergeant Parnell informed the magistrate that she WAS perfectly dry when he took her out of bed. The wet was near the deceased, and none over the bed. Mr. COTTINGHAM told the prisoner that there could be no doubt her violence had caused the death of the un- fortunate man. The evidence of the surgeon, the police constable, and other witnesses, and her own statement, cuntirm,d his opinion. He should, therefore, feel bound to send her before another tribunal, when a jury would have an opportunity of ascertaining whether she was guilty or not. The magistrate then ordered her to be committed to Newgate for trial, for the wilful murder of Thomas Winter. The depositions were then taken by Mr. Chapple, the second clerk, and the witnesses bound over to prosecute• RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS• LIVERPOOL, JUNE 27. STOCK EXCI4ANOR.—We have again to speak cheeringly' , of the state of the market, London an d N ort h-W es tern and Midland Railwny Stocks, in particular, are in good request' Prices in general ~re showing an upward tendency. The sales are—Birkenhea.i. Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction (late C. and B.), 2i/. 10s. Shares, 13%—Lancashire. and Yorkshire (late Maneie.,ter and Birmin g h am ), 15% (W. -- London and North-Western, 119% c.—Ditto, New Quarters, p.—London, Brighton, and South Coast, New 51. Shares , p.—Midland Stock, 99—Ditto, New Halves, 7% c-- ; Noah Staffordshire, 3 dis.—S out h-E astern and Dover . No. Thirds, 3 dis.—York, Newcastle, and Berwick (G. N. E. Fur chase), 7 1' 4 p. MANCHESTER, JUNE 27. STOCK EXCHANGE..—The sales are—East Lancashire , Quarters, 4 1 ,4—Lancashire and Yorkshire (West Riding Union), 3% dis.—Leeds and Thirsk, 22 dis.--London and North-Western, New Quarters, t,1 2 p.—Ditto, M. and B. Quar ters (A and B), 1% p.—Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln shire (Sheffield and Lincolnshire), 10 dis.—North Stafford shire, 2% dis.—South-Eastern and Dover, No. 4, Thirds, 2 15-16 die. BIRMINGHAM, JUNE 27. STOCK EXCHANGE. —The sales are—London and North- Western, New Quarte rs , 11 s . 3d. p.— North British, Thirds. 2k dis.—York, Newcastle, and Berwick Extensions, No. 1, p.—North Staffordshire, 61s. 3d. dis.—South Stafford shire, 3 1 h dis. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, JUNE 27. STOCK EXCHANGE.—The only sale was—North British, Quarters, 4/. 16s. - - [ADVERTISEMENT.]—DIARRHCEA OR BOWEL C ol" PLAINTS CURED BY HOLLOWAY'S PILLS.—At this sea" sou of the year disordered Bowels are most preVa le l: caused, in many instances, by eating too freely of yeg,: t tables or fruit. Let those suffering from this comPlt; try Holloway's Pills, which are of so streng thenig of nature, that they quickly restore the impaired toti e , ; the stomach, and permanently renovate the dig to a s t ;„, ed organs. Bile and diseased liver may be infallibly our by their use, therefore residents in the East and WV° Indies cannot have recourse to a more effectual remel; As a family medicine it is unequalled, and it i n "' a safely used by both sexes at any Druggists, and at Professor Holloway's Establishmen 244, Strand, London. age... —Sold. by at BIRTHS. On the 19th inst., at Bury House, Edmonton, th e wif e of H. Nash, Esq., of a son. On the 23d inst., at Alpha-place, St. John's-wood, the WY of E. M. Moultrie, of the Middle Temple, Esq., of a son. On the 25th inst., at Knight's-hill, Dulwich, Mrs. Zachal Brooke, of a son. On the 25th inst., at Holmes-terrace, Kentish-tow*, I‘lll. George Winter, of a daughter. On the 25th inst., Mrs. Ames, of Ch e lsea, of a daugh ter ',.. On the 26th inst., the w if e o f E. B a il ey , Esq., of New Pa r '' road, Clapham-park, of a daughter. On the 26th inst., in Ch es t er - s t ree t, the wife of the ftei'• E. A. Illingworth, of a son. MA R RI ED. On the 24th inst., at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, by the RI R. Lee, G. S. D. Harris, second son of John Harris, Blac„ Hall, Sevenoaks, Kent, to Jane Haseldine, second daughte' of Mr. J. Haseldine, late of Mile-end. On the 24th inst., at St. Giles's, Cambervrell, Marshall, jun., of Lyndhurst-grove, Peckham , to ' D Elizabeth, only daughter of the late Mr. Ball , o f South grove, Peckhain. DIED. On the 24th inst., at Park-street, after a few days' ilif leee ' the Viscount Lake. On the 22d inst., at Alfred-cottages, North-end, Fu Lieut. G. H. Thomas, R.N., aged 28. On the 24th inst., aged 6 4 , Mr. J. Castle,' of Holborn-hill/3% At his residence in Lowndes-street, on the 24th inst" E. Thornton, Esq., eldest son of the late E. Thornton, Dm' of Whittinton Hall, Lancashire. k, a fter On the 4th inst., at 20, Rutland-gate, Hyde-par i,„ a few hour's illness, Laura Catharine aged 19 months , on daughter of A. Manners, Esq. arks On the 25th inst., at St. Andrew's - place , Regent's-P the Rev. J. H. Forsyth, aged 32. $ 4 London: Printed and Published by MURDO YOUN 14 ' No. 112, Strand, Printer, at The Sun Office, lido. IV Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the coal Middlesex, Wednesday, June 28, 1848.