The Sun. — London, England, 1863-05-30 00:00:00

IMXERIAL PARLIAMENI 11017 SE OF COMMONS—Last Evening. The SPEAXER took the chair at the usual hour. SECOND READINGS, The following bills were read a second time :—Metropo. Mari. Railway—Ringwood, Christchurch, and Bourne ma'ath Railway—Uxbridge and Rickmansworth Railway —*Watford and Rickmansworth Railway. THIRD READINGS. The London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway (New Line at Croydon, &c.) and the Mayo County Grand Jury Cess ?dills were read a third time. PETITIONS. Mr. CRAWFORD, several, in favour of the independence of Poland; Mr. Cox, several, to the same effect; Mr. HAD FIELD and Lord J. MANNEne in favour of the closing of pub'ic-houses on the Sabbath, and Mr. ROEBUCK against the. bill. Recognition of the Confederate States. Mr. ROEBUCK gave notice that on an early day he should submit a resolution to the house that an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that she would be pleased to enter upon negotiations with the great Powers of Europe for the purpose of inviting the recogni tion of the Southern States of America. (Cheers.) Lord R. MONTAGU gave notice that, in the event of the motion being brought forward, he should propose an amendment to it. (Laughter.) TUB BALLOT. Mr. BERKELEY gave notice of his intention, on the 16th of June, to submit a notice on the ballot. THE CASE OF JESSIE MACLACHLAN. Mr. STIRLING gave notice that on the 6th of June he should call the attention of the house to the papers recently printed 'and circulated among hon. members con taining the evidence privately collected in this case, and which led to the saving of the woman's life. CIVIL SERVICE—OPEN COMPETITION. Mr. HENNESSY gave notice that on an early day he props se that an address be presented to the Crown, praying that appointments in the civil service might be submitted to open competition. INDIA—THE CLIVE FUND. Mr. M. MILNES gave notice that on Monday he should ask the Secretary of State for India the course that was proposed to be adopted in consequence of the decision arrived at with respect to the " Clive - fund," and whether the officers who had received no 'pay in consequence of the dissensions between the India and the War Office would be reimbursed. DISTRMT POST-OFFICES. Sir DE L. EVANS asked the Secretary to the Tree- Bury, what the Postmaster-General intended to do with the mine residences attached to the district post-offices situate at High Holborn, Vere-street, Buckingham-gate. Camden town, Lambeth, Borough, Islington, Bethnal-green, and Commercial-road, which had been unoccupied for periods varying from one to five years ? Mr. F. PEEL replied that the buildings were occupied by the principal Post-office officers of the district. When the Post-office arrangements had been completed, these buildings would be permanently occupied. THE CASE OF JOHN LILLEY, bra DRAGOONS Mr. FORTESCUE, who had a question on the paper on this vubject, intimated that he proposed bringing on the motion on Monday on going into committee of supply. CAPTAIN RODERICK DEW. Colonel SYKES asked the Secretary to the Admiralty, whether it was the intention of the Admiralty to submit the conduct of Captain Roderick Dew, of her Majesty's ship Encounter, to the judgment of a court martial, for carrying on military operations in China beyond the 30 miles radius from a treaty port at the siege of Shon-hing, 60 miles from Ningpo, in which the life of Lieut. Tinling, of her Majesty's ship Encounter, was sacrificed, in disobe dience of the instructions conveyed in Earl Russell's despatch to Mr. Bruce, dated 26th August, 1862. Lord C. PAGET replied that no official information had yet been received at the Admiralty, which was probably to be accounted for by the admiral of the station being at the extreme end of it, on the coast of Japan. He had, however, received a letter from Captain Dew, stating that he merely accompanied the expedition as an amateur. THE EGYPTIAN ROUTE TO INDIA. Mr. TORRENS asked the Secretary of State for India, whether her Majesty's Government had taken into con sideration the advantages that might result, politically and financially, from using the route through Egypt for our troops going to and returning from India : whether any correspondence on the subject has passed between the Secretary of State and any of the chief authorities at either of the Presidencies in India on the subject; and, if so, if there would be any ob jection to laying the correspondence upon the table ? Sir C. WOOD said the attention of the Government had been directed to the matter, and some correspondence was going on between the naval and military departments on the subject, which was of a twofold nature—financial and sani tary. It was right, however, to state that a committee had lah • call6aLea. Wu FL upLlety of atlviAl..6 the proposed route, and reported against it. CHICORY AND COFFEE. Mr. CRAWFORD (for Mr. Moffatt) asked the Chan cellor of the Exchequer whether the restrictions which at present existed in regard to the sale of chicory and coffee mixed, were not now to be removed in consequence of the equalisation of duty upon those articles ? The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied that orders had been issued removing the restrictions which had heretofore existed. The officers of the Excise would not therefore, interfere in any way with the sale of the ar ticles, separate or combined. THE CHINESE MILITIA. Mr. LIDDELL asked the Under Secretary of State for War whether British officers tempot arily employed in com manding or drilling Chinese militia, were still borne on the strength of their respective regiments ; whether, while so employed, they received her Majesty's half-pay; and whe ther their promotion went on in the ordinary course ? The Marquis of HARTINGTON replied that the officers were, strictly speaking, only lent, but were nevertheless available for any duty that their own service might require of them. They received regimental fall pay, and their pro motions went on in the ordinary way, but they were not permitted to go beyond the 30 mile radius. TURKEY. On the motion for going into committee of supply, Mr. GREGORY rose to call the attention of the house to the condition of Turkey and its dependencies; and to move for papers. Having referred to the importance of the qruestion, and the inability long to shirk it with propriety o he proceeded to say that the fear of Russia had been safety,t mainspring of our policy in the East. He was not prepared to say that apprehension had been exaggerated, or that the old spirit of Russia had di e d o ut , b ut he con tended that the Russia o f 1863 was d ifferent from the Russia of 1853. The Crimean war T h e 7du dup would its mate : r ial strength and destroyed its prestige, and hear little more of it, if once it were made k nown to th e co untries in the East that England was not indifferent to their fate, and that she was anxious to see them emerge from the prostration of centur i es a nd take their place in the family of nations. He was at a less to know how we could justify the continuance of our policy towards the East, which was not only illogical and inconvenient, but also inexpedient. In all the other quarters of the world England supported nationalities; but when it was attempted to redress a grievance in the East, then we entrenched ourselves behind the stipulations of the treaty of Paris, which was in favour of the Turk, although it was notorious that the lurk had violated, and was violating, every one of them. All he advocated was that, when the sick man died—as die ho should before long— there might be found some free, self-governing community ready to take his place. At that moment hardly a post arrived from the East that did not bring amounts of mutinies, of threatened massacres and insurrections. l'h"eee were premonitions of far more terrible things to C . v. 61 "lid) therefore, what he wanted was , that timely ..recautiota Aram,. _should be taken to render the break-up of the reoutt o .,.,:rire as innocuous as possible. Similar pre where - ,:._)"".4oras had been long remarked in Italy. was now v"ulel Y similar state of thi ns existed to what came, l et Turkey . . I • decr e pi t i 2_''!an. ra e t f And when the day of reckoning „ d use:"itutieb be a f ound fighting on the side of old, th ‘a7 g e4 avt.ti Iher than at we e i n fevotm ea ... the on, On the side of a young Christian civilieatie"Wometelx try except Austria the right h onour L et. Mee. ; he tarbariem rather than of E me h ecom were tread le gentle man tlie believed that if would be found t e ki nft 4° . hi. r a the Ch aaeoltor of th e quite sufficient to eb A ; t hat 614 °t °face, he gained by escaping t7era—ti," much gaping. It was say that they were now a ir, e m , gre4 P oft L T T tu° ,,„., h ad Any honourable member w h` a e} ? l ten ted t o Htstory of Servia would see w l - w . ---ae m t° read t44 ll,' country under the Turks. It was ha of bloodshed; the people were depr eese d an ne d of b ula seacreen t a there was no security for life or property. i nltalised, and country was in precisely the same condition a:th a e w a r i d ' the dependencies of the Porte now surrounding Servia, -trie How ever, there were now happiness and contentment * -c'w. country, and the work of improvement was go i ng on. in the were more roads than in the whole of Turkey, all of which , had been formed since its formation into a separate king_ dom. 'I he clergy, unlike the clergy in the Ottoman empire, were respected ; the popular Assembly was elected by uni versal suffrage, and it exercised a sufficient control over the public purse, while its deliberations were conducted one with g reat prudence and moderation. Well, seeing all would have supposed th at the policy of England would be to promote the advancement of Servia. She adopted, how ever, a different policy. Two years ago, when an insurrec tion broke out in the Herzegovine, brought about by the horrible tyranny of Turkey, information was conveyed on the part of oar Government t o the Italian sympathisers of the movement, that, although they might conduct whatever operations they choose in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, if they attempted to cross over to the other side of the Adriatic into Turkey, English vessels would mee t them Inif - way. That insurrection was suppressed ; and his hon. friend the for Turkey which enabled her to do so. Six friend would no doubt tell them that these people were miserable rebels, and that they were unworthy of comae ration; but on the other side of the Adriatic, e here the wrongs of Rely were in the balance, his hon. freer d was the vociferous asserter of the divine right of it eurrection. (Ironical cries of "Hear, hear.") The ho 1. 1, ember then referred to the bombardment of the l'Oev t e Belgrade in the month of June last by the Turki3 t garrison in occupation of the citadel, speaking in strong terms of that of the conduct of the Turks upon occasion. In the papers that had been laid be fore Parliament there had been an attempt made to whitewash the Turks, and an endeavour to give a false im pression in this country of what they had really done. The protest of the consuls, headed by Mr. Consul Longworth, in connection wfth the barbarious outrage of the Turks, had been withheld. (Hear.) Had the noble earl at the head of foreign affairs seen that document, or known of its exist ence, he never would have written his memorable letter of expostulation to the Prince of Servia, because if he had the noble earl must have seen that compensation was offered. The hon. gentleman next contrasted the course pursued by Earl Clarendon in despatch-writing when he was Foreign Minister with that of the noble earl at present at the head of foreign affairs, and observed that, whilst the style of the former was not so offensive as that of the noble earl (Rus sell), the honour of England did not suffer from it. After the outrage had been committed on the Servians, and they had been bombarded within an inch of their lives, diplo macy stepped in to try what could be done ; and the hon. gentleman urged that if the proposition of France had been accepted, it would have produced an amicable settlement. He charged the Government with having prepared and con cocted the consuls' reports for the purpose of misleading public opinion in this country. None of the administrative and financial reforms that were promised in 1861 had been given, and the state of Turkey was as bad now as then; and the hon. gentleman quoted at considerable length from the despatches of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe and Sir Henry Bulwer, and the replies of Earl Russell, in confirmation of his assertion. The house would remember that in the year 1860, Prince Gortschakoff had issued a diplomatic circular complaining of the horrible maladministration of the Turkish empire, and particularly of the cruelties inflicted upon the Christian population. When that circular had been issued, it became necessary, of course, for this country to con tradict those Russian calumnies and aspersions, and ac cordingly Sir Henry Bulwer addressed a circular to all the English consuls in the Turkish empire, containing certain queries, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there was any truth in the circular of Prince Gortschakoff. But Sir H. Bulwer did not content himself with sending the circu• lar to the various consuls. On the contrary, he took up his pen and prepared a document which was nothing more nor less than a brief for Turkey. In this document it was set forth that foreign agents were getting up discontent among the population in order that intelligence of it might reach the ears of the Governments of Europe ; that conspi racies against Turkey were rife among the Russian people ; and that her Majesty's Government, foreseeing the conse quences that might arise from these sinister influences, were desirous of showing the groundlessness of the charges against Turkey. He (Mr. Gregory) could imagine the faces of those unfortunate consuls when Sir H. Bulwer's brief had reached them. (A laugh.) But he was bound to say that, with one notable example, the consuls had shown themselves to be men of trustworthiness and honour. (Hear,) In their replies they had drawn a picture of mis government, insecurity, violence, oppression, misery, and despair. Throughout their answers it was plain that they were under the influence of the instructions sent them by Sir H. Bulwer ; for while they alleged misgovernment, in justice, and oppression against the Turkish Government, i they strove to make out some palliating causes. The hon. gentleman then read numerous extracts from the different consuls in the Turkish provinces, and said there was some thing extraordinary in the unanimity with which they all testified to the misgovernment of Turkey, the hatred which the Mussulman bore to the Christian, and the total failure of the Porte to carry into effect any of the reforms which had been promised in the Imperial firman. The hon. gentleman then proceeded to argue that there was very little hope of improvement from the effects of edu cation, because the Turks would not submit to be edu cated ; neither was there much prospect afforded by their general tendency to progress, which was very tardy. In fact, there were very few Turks engaged in any extensive businesses, and the bulk of the large trade of the country was carried on by foreigners. It was true that the Turks had got rid of their ancient bays, but they had got instead a bureaucracy, which was much worse. He could only convey an idea of the Government of Turkey by supposing that the Government of Great Britain had selected the worst of the keepers of night-houses in the Haymarket, and appointed them governors of our various colonial dependen cies. Every kind of vice was practised under their super vision, and of so bad a character were some of the vices of the Turk that, on consideration, he felt he had done an in justice to the Haymarket night-house keepers in supposing they would tolerate such infamous wickedness. The hon. gentleman concluded by reading a long extract, speaking in very strong terms of censure upon the whole policy of the Turkish Government and its officere, and which extract he stated was taken from a book of which the author signed himself '. A. 11. L.yard." (114,0u t bear.) Mr. B. COCHRANE proceeded to censure the report upon Turkish finance prepared by Lord Hobart and Mr. Forster, and contended that at the present state of extrava gant expenditure on the part of the Turkish Government it was useless to hope for any improvement. The civil list was now £9,000,000 a year. The item for the royal kitchen was £24,000 a month; 36 wives were put down at £70,000 a month; and 1,780 other ladies at £lB,OOO a month. There was also £7,000 a month charged for a peculiar class of gen tlemen who were engaged to attend upon the ladies of the harem, and LBO,OOO a month for other ladies connected with the establishment of the seraglio. The Under-Secre tary of State laughed at that account of the Sultan's extra vagance ; there was, however, one authority which the hon. gentleman would not dispute, and that was the authority of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. Well, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe stated that subsequently to the death of the late Sultan's mother the discipline of the harem had become so relaxed that the civil list became indebted to the extent of £3,000,000 sterling. He admitted that the wealth of the country was very great, but the powers of extortion of the pashas were much greater. It had been asserted by the Under-Secretary on a former occasion that there were only 2,000,000 of Greeks. Now, the fact was there were 3,000,000 of Greeks in European Turkey alone, and if adding to that number the Greeks in Greece proper, in the lonian Islands, and elsewhere, the total number of Greeks would be brought up to 6,000,000. The fact was, Turkey at that moment had no real existence. It was a country sup ported by the will of three foreign Powers, who were fight ing amongst themselves for pie-eminence in her councils. The pledges entered into by the Turkish Government had never been fulfilled ; but if they had been it would have been better for the Turkish empire itself, as well as for the Christian population. He did not mean to assert that the Turkish Government ought to be broken up, but simply that England should demand that the pledges given in favour of the Christian population should be carried out. After the language which had been addressed by Earl Rus sell to Sir H. Bulwer in August, 1860, the Under-Secretary of State must not feel surprised that such a demand was pressed upon the Government. He did not desire to see Turkey weakened if her affairs were administered upon pro per principles, but he did desire to see her Majesty's Go vernment abstaining from all interference in her affairs. He would also impress upon the Greeks the necessity of ab staining from a policy of aggrandisement. At the same no one could foresee what destiny was reserved for the people. If it was true, as had been prophesied by the hon. member for Halifax (Mr. Stansteld), that Turkey was infallibly des tined to decay, the country would be best fitted to fill her Place which showed the greatest amount of civilisation and the greatest development of moral influence. (Hear.) Mr. G. DUFF then rose to continue the discussion, but was interrupted by an hon. member suggesting to the Speaker that there wore not 40 members present (at the mo ment there were only 10 in the house). However, after the usual three minutes' delay, which allowed for an influx of members from the dining-room, the library, and the different approaches, the Speaker having gone through the process o counting, was able to announce that there were 40 members present, and so the discussion was resumed; but, as all the hon. members who had come in to help to keep a house im mediately left on their object being accomplished, and as their example was followed by somehh benches h th ea os w e a w a h a o til w l e le r s e s pre sent all through, the aspect of thee vio e ua c ly to the attempted en couraging to a speaker than count. p proceeded u ire d to t o contendw withdraw t a h w a t fr t o h m e Turks e. Duffvery properly then Turkey had not fulfilled her p the Servian fortresses, which was re a g ll thai ati de manded.thlaetSioenravitanowsardsthe conferences that, as Turkey had worked . the Servians, and therefore England mighatuohmavuechinrasiis.atcehdiaatf in be Servi recluir a e b d y t t o h g e o n f o ur n ifhuelrfitlhniaenntthoef threaratsitaispeuloamtipoetallse,dshheemr,ianghdt t"vacuate the fortresses of Servia. It would be said that byf doing so the p res ti ge o f T ur key would be diminished ; hat he ~..1 , 0 hail that, was . not so certain, for he was one of those lore the lu..... S,O r wing to the prestidigitation of the noble at th at mo Z en u! for Tiverton, the prestige of Turkey was ( Hear, h ear.) ;Ut ta r deal higher than it ought to be. t os e ill e g that En he Vans were entirely mistaken in sup dnonbtenedrawyhblethethre t e h abiuue i tt o l t i i ° fl r :Er; policy of the noble leotaa ty 0_ till, Cabinet autbhti it t y ewt a s s hare d certainlyverm uch n as the Eastern question 0 settlement of e. Tiverton. W to a greatestgenerati generation. political Political lI the ad Mr. L &YARD said r til': znetaber for e could on get politiei in er P:o w b ae le::s ean t w r h . a f tu n i n e d co: : i : a l:f a i lvio Y izif t bo w h m awe II! known little bitterest -in tell, with any deg ree o f' e i r h fi a P s ' n ° men lio ln j t a h a e tl T y u a rk x i c s i h ted em th p e ir e . deepest re l ir t That w ee a suent l i rte of neral, although it seemed tog:eel': that house. (There was not more verY giving that answer he rae . sent.) The statements that had been than m 15 e braembe" pre. hers required an answer, and in sorry to have to say hard things of the ServiawnerGheo was ment, but not of the Servian people. The hon. me v m era ber , (Mr. Duff) was in error when ho said that the noble lord at the head of the Government was an enemy of the Servian people, and ho could assure him that the noble lord and every other member of the Cabinet were friends of the Ser vian people. Ho wished his hon, friend the member for Galway would visit the country and study the people, and then give the house his opinions, because they would then be entitled to greater weight than now. It was a question that required great study, and in going to Seivia he would advise him to go there without prejudice in favour of any party, and with his mind a perfect blank on the subject, bearing in mind the words of the inspired writer, that " all Christians to power so to be their enemy. Hon. members should remem b er th a t Nlahomedan populatio n i n I n di a , an d England ruled over a long as every Chri s ti an was i nc it e d should, therefore, becautious Turkey was on e w hi c h i nvo l ve d the very existence be lief that the question of of their race in th a t emp i re. (H ear, hear.) He had been twitted with supp or ti ng t h e I ta li ans in their struggle for liberty, how they encourage d the and opposing th e Ch r i s ti an population of Turkey l e in inappropriate likea than the co m p ar i a , n . h The two peoples effort. (H ear , h ear. ) B u t nothing could be a mor d nothing in comm on , an d , t h erefore, the same rule could not be applied t o th em, Th e Turks were the landowners in Turkey ; th e y were one-third of the population, if not more; and th ey, i n fact, held the same position which the S axons di d in Eng of the invasion. Th e T ur k s, t h e con land at the period itpiray s remained M a h ome d an ; while the quering race, had Greeks, the subject race, had alway s rema i ned Christian; and it was that which constituted the wh o l e source o f t h e differences in Turkey. If it were n o t f or the differences in religion, the Easternquestion would soon b e settled. But the very surest way to throw the Ch r i s ti an population back would be to adopt the policy recommend e d b y hi s hon.friend. No one had more energetically denounced th e s h ortcomings of the Turkish Government than himself; but he must say nothing could be more unfair than t o k eep perpetually de nouncing it, and to withhold from it a ll words of encourage ment. He made the fullest allo wance for the unexampled difficulties in which the Turkish G overnment was placed. He ventured to say never before h a d a government such difficulties to contend against. Th ere were two policies which might be followed with respect to Turkey. The one was a policy directed to the undermining of the authority of the Porte by everyday rendering government more difficult in the country ; the other was a policy which tended to strengthen the Porte by inculcating the necessity of in) prov - ing the condition of all ranks of the Turkish population. That was the policy which had been pursued by her Ma jesty's Government, and he ventured to say that not a single instruction had ever emanated from an English Minister at variance with that policy. He regretted very much that the noble lord at the head of the Government was not in his place that evening. The noble lord had been the most con sistent, the most eloquent supporter of the policy which ho had humbly shadowed forth. He believed that, if hereafter any part of the noble lord's foreign policy deserved the approbation of mankind, it would be his policy with respect to Turkey. (Cheers, and cries of Hear, hear.) These opinions of his were not hastily formed ; he had advocated them ever since he had the hon our of a seat in that house, and they had been formed long before. Ho willingly admitted that the Christians in Tur key had much to complain of, but at the same time their condition had been greatly improved. In the Government of the Porte there were some very able men, while the Sultan most earnestly desired the improvement of the con dition of his people; and, though he might be young and inexperienced, still h e was a Prince of great ability and energy. He fully believed that the time had come when the Christians in the East would have their condition im proved, provided only they hearkened to good advice, and did not permit themselves to be ensnared by evil counsel sore. (Hear, hear.) Mr. MAGUIRE ventured to assert that, so far from Par liament having spoken too strongly on the subject of the abuses prevailing under the Turkish rule, it had not spoken strongly enough. He, therefore, thanked the hon. member for Galway for that able speech, in which he sho wed up the monstrous abuses still prevailing in Turkey, despite the in terposition of the English Government. The Under-Sec retary of State had asked what would happen if the Turks were driven out of European Turkey; and he declared that in such an event the Greeks and the Catholics would anni hilate each other. But in independent Turkey, where the religious feeling was much stronger than in oppressed Turkey, as well as in independent Greece, the Greek and Catholic and, ther pop ore ul if theato lived upon the b est possible terms ; ef, should have rest of Turkey were liberated, he no fear for the result. Any pro gress that Turkey had made was not owing to the efforts of her own Government, but to the energy of the Greek population. He quoted from Lord bart's recent despatch to show that Turkey was in as p bad a state now as she was more than 20 years ago, The internal faculties for the transport of mechandise had not been im proved, and it was only now that she wanted another loan loan that her former promises were renewed, with no better guarantees for their being performed. Her income tax was an abominable system of robbery, the collection of it being made so as to save the rich man and fleece the poor man. The Christian population of Turkey was oppressed in a manner that ought not to be after the amount of English money and blood that had been expended in the defence of that wretched and effete Government, which ought to be swept back into Asiatic barbarism. No doubt Turkey was sick and languishing, and the blow would soon arrive that would annihilate her or send her back to her native bar barism. The Turk was not changed; he was the same as ever, and it was the duty of this Government to compel the Turkish Government to fulfil their promises. He denied that the present head of that country was a financial re former; and the hon, gentleman said that the Christians were oppressed in every part of Turkey where there were no ambassador or consuls. i M. &. 8R172.101J12, i... prof .pooch, spoke or the rottcn and effete state of Turkey, and he urged a reversal of the policy of this Government towards Turkey, so as to give greater protection to the Christian population. He con demned that portion of Earl Russell's despatch to Mr. Lumley at St. Petersburg with regard to the bombard ment of the Christians in Belgrade by the Turks, that the Christians, and not the Turks, had forfeited all claims to sympathy from the Christian countries of Eur o p e . The of he hel Government of this country, while ext en di ng t h e hp to the provinces of Southern Italy, did not appear desirous of lending any help to the struggling Christians of the East. (Hear, hear. ) The House h a d already h eard of the extraordinary double report of Mr. Consul Skein; he took the f irst report o f th a t gent l eman, on the 4th August, to be the t rue transcript of his feelings; while the he re garded his second report of the 20th August to be echo of the instructions sent to him by Sir H. Bul veer. (Hear.) It seemed to him that the beautiful picture of an Axcada which was drawn by the Under Secretary for Fo reign Affairs was a delusion --one of those mirages of the desert which, instead of proving real, turned out to be ficti tious. He trusted that in the future policy of this country the cross would be thought more of than the crescent. Lord H. SCOTT read several passages from the report on the state of Turkey, to prove the cruel wrongs which were inflicted on the Christian population ; and contended that the hon. gentleman the Under Secretary had failed to shake the evidence which had been adduced by the hon. member for Galway t o prove th e i ncapacity of the Turkish Govern- They m n had hoard lately of the prisons of Naples ; but on the testimony of Mr. Consul Abbott, at the Dardanelles, the prisons of Turkey were many degrees worse. The lan guage of M r. Abb ott was, t h at the prisons of Turkey were in the last degree revolting to humanity, and that the heart must be cold whose sympathies were not awakened on be holding the int er i or o f those d ungeons. His own experience we nt to c on fi rm this tes ti mony. What could be thought of ad ministration of justice in a country where the mur derer and the relations of the murdered man were all chained t ogether and d ragge d d own t ogether for many miles to. the give evide nce? Th en w ith rega r d t o slavery, so h a t e f u l in eyes of th e people of t hi s country, he had himself a seen ste amers on th e Nile with slav es on b oar d, an d this traffic Wa s actually carr i e d o n und er th e authority of the Turkish to throw G overnment. H e did no t ment i on these things d ifficulties i n th e way o f h er Majesty ' s Government , but to induce them to urge upon Turkey the performance of her solem promises, (Hear, hear.) Mr. COBDEN said the hon, member for Southwark had ad asked wh at th i s di scuss i on wou ld l ea d to. He hoped o "'sequence of it might be to prevent the necessity of had more discussions of the kind in that ho use . Thi s d e b ate "ad arisen, as had been properly stated, in consequence of certain transactions which had occurred in Servia, The Foreign Office of this country had taken, a certain course in consequence of those events which had the effect of bring ing to th; —8 count certain Servian gentlemen, senators of that count Country rY.--reen of eminence, he supposed, at home— who were appealing to members of Parliament. and forward. warding paruphleta to them, requesting them to make an ape peal to that on se —a ° against the course taken by the For e i gn Office. That was the origin of the discussion. He regretted it, because they were im ing the debating society for the whole world. (Rear, hear.) The first convention of France had brought odium upon themselves by assuming to be the orators of the human race, and they seemed to be getting into the same position. hat was it that was brought be. fore them for jud ent ? I t seemed that a Turkish pasha, having had comma. " ofthe fortress of Belgrade, took it into his head to bombard th e e t That was an outrage repu diated by everybody ; it was not tolerated even in war, and it had been eery goy' by the Duke of Wellington that it was not justified by strategicfraca s movements. But, in consequence sat a , the pasha bo e the fortress o f Belgrad e wo .bo The event well had been followed mber by a meeting of the representatives of the Great Powers at Con stantinople, and w i th the exception of England and Austriathey were willin g th at the fortress of Belgrade should be razed. The honourable member for Southwark was there fore not quite accu rate when h e spoke of Turkey being a asked to give up the fortress. What was demanded was that it should be razed and to this all the Powers had agreed ' exce pt Austria and England. When Servia , k gained her independence, it was on condition that lur -ey should have seven fortresses there ; two had been abandoned but five remained) Whiehwere still occupied by Turkey, one of which was that of Belgrade. What use was it to Turkey? ef Thurks had no territory there, nor within 200 miles it. BTlgrade was a most important site for commerce, having,it one front to the Danube and another towards the Saave h * a stood in the fork of those two rivers ; but what securityd ? merchants against being bombarded by some future pasha The Turks, instead of razing the fortress, were going to tend it; th ey were clearing away houses, and a largo part of the bank o f the Danube was to be sacrificed for the esake of fortification s . In whose interest could this be ? for tainly not for th e T urks, who were incurring. great expense occupying the f ortresses. The result of the arrangement bad been that no Turk was allowed to live in Servia except in the fortresses. Th e noble lord at the head of the Govern ment was, he thought,but the only first-class statesman in Europe who believ e d in the advancement of the Turks; the fact could not b e got over that the evidence of Chris tians against 314°1)2%1w:is was not received in courts of Jaw. wen axe liars." The Servian Government were fortunate in obtaining the services of the hon. member for Galway as their advocate, and means had been taken by the Servians for giving publicity to their case which the Turks did not possess, or did not care to trouble themselves about. The history of Servia as given by the hon. member required cor- rection, from his having been greatly deceived in respect of the facts he had stated to the house. The hon. gentleman (Mr. Layard) then gave a hasty sketch of the political history of Servia from the beginning of the present cen tury up to the present time, in the course of which he said that the Turks had in every instance supported the liber ties of the Servian people against the oppression and tyranny of the Servian Government, and a greater proof of that could not be given than in their remaining faithful to the Turks during the Crimean war. Coming down to the time of Michael, he said that that prince claimed wider his hereditary right. That was resisted by the Porte in support of the right of election, but he gave way, as it was the wish of the people to have Michael. The result of that had been that Michael had increased the number of guards from the malcontents of the Turkish provinces, murderers and rob bers, and the Servian question shortly after again became ripe. In 1861 Michael convoked a General Assembly, in which he proposed that the title should be hereditary in stead of elective, the establishment of an organised body of 50,000 militia with a reserve of 70,000 men, and that he should open relations as an independent Prince with foreign States—proposals that were in direct opposition to the en gagements with the Porte and treaty obligations. lie de prived the popular Assembly of their liberty, and reduced its numbers, He claimed to elect the president and vice-pre sident, whose nomination was befors in the hands of the Assembly. He also took the power of naming the council during pleasure, and of suspending the functions of the National Assembly when he thought proper. He took away the responsibility of Ministers, and in other matters violated the rights of the people. The English Government protested against those proceedings,and warned him that he had vio lated treaty obligations with the Porte and engagements with foreign Powers, by depriving the Servian people of their liberties. They had suddenly heard of twelve new Russian agents having been appointed in Bulgaria. They had heard of Servian agents crossing the frontier, and that the Prince was going to cross. In May, 1860, twelve Turks had been murdered, and nothing had been said about it. Three years ago an attack upon the fortress cf Belgrade was apprehended; but Mr. Longworth, the con sul at Belgrade, had written to the Foreign Office at the time stating that the intrigues of the Servians were driving the Turks to such extremities that an outbreak of some kind was inevitable. At the time there was nothing to com plain of against the Turks. He did not mean to say there were not many open questions they might have settled, and nobody was more desirous that such questions should be settled than Sir H. Bulwer. The hon. member for Gal way had spoken of Mr. Longworth in a manner which he regretted. He (Mr. Layard) had known him for many years, and he believed that no man living knew more of the Turks. Mr. Longworth was also a man of great literary Capacity, and had written an important work on Circassia. But neither Mr. Longworth nor anybody else attempted to justify the bombardment of Belgrade. It was an infamous act—(hear) —and wholly unjustifiable. The Government of this country did not approve of the act, and, what was more, the Turkish Government did not approve of it. On the contrary, the moment they heard of it, they at once rebuked the offender and degraded him. But the whole thing had been brought about and precipitated by the in trigues of the Servians themselves. (Cries of " No, no," and "Hear, hear.") The Turks had a right, by treaties, to the fortress of Belgrade. But hon. members might say the fortress was •f no use to the Turks. (Hear.) Well, the same thing might be said of Gibraltar, it was of no use to England, but still, this country would not lightly part with the fortress. In like manner, the Turks were attacked to the old and renowned fortress of Belgrade. The Turks had refused to give it up, and this country was not in a position to say to the Turks that they should give it up. They had heard of the stands of arms which had been sent to Servia, he had good reason to believe from two Russian arsenals; and they had seen how, after much manoeuvring on the part of the Russians, that when they were driven into a corner the Prince of Servia said they were arms, and that he had a right to them. Bat it seemed that hon. members, when speaking of the Turkish questions, became lost to all sense of justice, and as if men who be lieved in Mehemet or Confucius might be treated in any way—(" Oh, oh")—and when he protested against it he was told that he was a Turk. (Loud laughter.) But there was insurrection in Poland ; and might it not be asked whether some of the arms and ammunition intended for Servia had not found their way elsewhere--as if to illustrate the danger of playing with fire ? The Greeks, like the Servians, had also been indulging in ambitious drawee, and they had heard of the Greek cross floating from the dome of St. Sophia, But her Majesty's Government had advised them to give np thomo ars.a ua , ana apply thormaolop. to the work of educating their people, of improving and develop ing their internal resources, of consolidating their liberties and institutions; bat the Greeks heeded not the advice, and what was the result ? They had seen the result in the late revolution and the almost unanimous election of an English Prince for their King, which was a confession that the advice of the English Government was founded on wisdom. The Government of her Majesty now tendered the same advice to the Servians. They advised them to educate their people and improve their resources, instead of dreaming of acquiring Bosnia and other places. The Servians could not contend alone with the Turks. If Servia became independent of Turkey, she must be indi rectly dependent upon some other Power. If the Turks and Servians were left alone to fight it out, the Turks would destroy them off the face of the earth. Let them see what Prince Michael had done. In a little princi pality containing a million of people he had appointed seven Ministers of State, and he was going to organise an army. Within a few days there had been intelligence that the Prince had proclaimed martial law in six of the Servian dis tricts, and it was not unlikely the whole would be placed under that regime. The hon. gentleman proceeded at some length to condemn the system of government pursued by the authorities, which, ho said, was placed in the hands of a number of men who were thought to have acquired the necessary capacity for governing by having travelled in Europe and learned some bad French and worse morals. With regard to the statements of the hon. member for Gal way as to the present condition of Turkey they might have been true 25 years ago, but now they were about as appli • cable as the history of the Jews in England in the loth century. (No, no.) He spoke from his own knowledge, having travelled in Turkey as much as most men. With regard to the condition of the Christians in Turkey a very great improvement had taken place,and though there might be individual instances of persecution, there was no syste matic persecution by order of the Government. Upon the point as to the difficulty of Christians obtaining justice in Turkish law courts, he could only remind the house that the difference in the religion of the two parties was very great, and that what happened in Turkey was nothing m ore than was seen every day in Italy and Spain. In Naples last year he knew a case where a Protestant lady was re fused a passport to see her dying husband, and was obliged to declare falsely that she was unmarried before she could obtain it. In Spain a Protestant could not obtain Christian burial, and in the Protestant countries of Sweden and Nor. way a Roman Catholic would be treated much in the same manner. The hon. gentleman then quoted the reports of Mr. Consul Blunt, of Smyrna, at some length in support of his views, and declared, fr,m his own personal experi ence of camp life in Turkey, that the provinces of the country were as safe for travellers as any districts in Europe with which he was acquainted. He then proceeded to consider the progress of its material interests; and pointed, as an evidence of that progress, to the efforts which were made during the past year for the cultivation of cotton in the country. He maintained that its example contrasted favourably with the conduct of our own Indian Government in the matter, and that more had been done in Turkey last year for its cultivation than in all ether parts of the world. (Hear.) Take, again, its finances. What greater proof of honesty or stability could be given than the manner in which the Turkish Government had exposed all their affairs to the scrutiny of Lord Hobart, Mr. Fester, and the French commissioner, who were sent out by the Governments of England and France for that purpose ? A loan was recom mended; was that loan applied to the purposes for which it was raised ? It was said that it was not, but that, on the contrary, the Turks had applied it to defraying the expense of making war on the Christians. To that accusation he gave a most distinct and emphatic denial. The report of Lord Hobart went minutely into its distribution, and showed that every farthing was applied to the purposes for which the loan had been raised. Nine millions sterling of paper money were withdrawn by its means; and as the commerce of the country was chiefly, but not exclusively, in the hands of the Christians, they were the parties who were chiefly benefitted by this proceeding. Then came the question 01 its trade and revenue. Well, both had increased and were increasing. In the reign of Sultan Mahmoud its revenue was £3,000,000 ; in 1853 it was £7,000,000; but in 1863 s it u r had a dt say 0 . C a l sa s e , O dw oo aB , ts o a o bo o l73 . in. f It nd would aetxiot no b : e t ia a on b nd .. It was based on a more just increase in ros erity and showed a proportionate incare popopula tion.froav is ai sinking a H kni e nh q ga u df i u t e a In d ,o abne admitteddenhemtbahedl made e i fv t o s erd i d , t debt asbuptc such ibeen)was diminution t increased, e b.elasticity ameanss t ic but i ty o tbi f em l de ' on theurbk i l es revenuedh . re B so ti u t r o e sf e u s p , tph t o h es a ec t t , ohii with en Tt rTurks very ke as r s y were littlet now:lun care,e existed,otnutawoefohutohlrd: \ e f"t l 9, what better Government wore hon. members pre zheacrhederihrtoistiansubiseteitetu:weni:in its place ? Would the condition of ma ns and - Poland. a y s o b: an be s t w te e r r i h f ehawnoduleddovpeorintto ttahecirrulcaessioaf resolved I t „ i ee : r f '.l l _ear.) The question, therefore, simply BUjrna n POril, in ti; " t his: first, extermination of the Mus but it was absurd to4uaex the Mahem e d an. ° t a ted each other as much as they did then mutual extermination by the went wished to hold th e lt_ te r.) Her Majesty's Govern piaci—ace fairly between all parties, he the Turks would admit the THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 30, 1363 He had had the honour to make Mr. Consul Longworth's acquaintance some years ago, but that gentleman, he was sure, would not deny that a man was murdered some time back, and the prisoner acquitted because there were only Christian witnesses against him. The hon. gentleman then quoted Dr. Sandwith in support of his view with regard to the distinctions still made between Mussulmans and Chris tians, showing that the latter could not wear white turbans or yellow shoes, and frequently lost their lives through the prohibition against their wearing arms. Who, he asked, could speak so badly of the Turks as did our own representatives there ? Sir Henry Bulwer, writing on the 24th of April, 1860, thus expressed himself : " Wherever the Turk is sufficiently predominant to be im plicitly obeyed, laziness, corruption, extravagance, and penury mark his rule. (Hear, and laughter.) Wherever he is too feeble to exert more than a doubtful and nomi nal authority, the system of government is that of the Arab robber or the lawless Highland chieftain." (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Did his hon, friend agree to that ? Mr. LAYARD nodded his head in assent. (Great laughter.) Mr. COBDEN— That being so, why should we be sur prised that the Christian population of Turkey complained, and desired change? (Hear, hear.) Let, then, that prin ciple of non-intervention be also applied in its case; let France and England, neither of whom desired any portion of its territory, come to an understanding on the subject, and then things would right themselves ; for, in such an event, were there to be a revolution—and he believed there would--it would be of an internal character ; it would not involve the neighbouring great Powers, and would as little affect the lest of the world as if it took place in the centre of Abyssinia. (Hear, hear.) England was doing every thing to bolster up Turkey, and in March of last year the hon. member for Southwark, a few weeks before the loan came out, said that the floating debt of Turkey was very small. Her debt now was 55 millions, and she was paying four and a half millions interest for it annually. At the time the hon. member made that statement, Lord Hobart said the debt in 1859 was 41 millions. Earl Russell did wrong in signing a note that was appended to the circular soliciting subscriptions,and it had a great effect in obtaining them. Turkey had never paid any interest on her debt from her own resources, having borrowed the money with which to do it. There was great exaggeration about what Lord Hobart and Mr. Foster did in Turkey. Their account of the state of that country was unsatisfactory, and had it been published earlier it would have retarded their subscrip tions to the loan. From the moment they ceased to lend money to Turkey she must cease to pay interest on her debt, because her income was butll,ooo,ooo,and the interest on her debt was 4i m illi ons . Th e p o p u l a ti o n of Turkey was ra pidly decreasing. The Turkish population in Smyrna had, within 30 years, decreased from 80,000 to 40,000, and the Greek population had increased from 20,000 to 75,000. One cause of the diminution of the Turkish population was her drain for soldiers, but the great cause was in the vices of her system. The Turks had done nothing but conquer and ren der those regions desolate; whilst the other parts of the Mussulman race had shown slight signs of progress. He wanted an English policy pursued, founded on our English interests and instincts, carried out in Turkey. There had been four centuries of misrule, and it was time it should be amended. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the re mark of the hon. member was not more pointed than true, that they were taking upon themselves more and more every day the discussion of the condition of the human race ; but in doing so they must be guided by the temper and discre tion of those who brought the subject forward. The Crimean war constituted, no doubt, a reason why the House of Com mons should not be barred from the discussion of Turkish affairs ; but it was impossible not to feel that the state of mind given expression to that evening exhibited a reaction from that which very naturally prevailed during the Crimean war. Far be it from him to check the sympathy which had been manifested towards the Christian population of Turkey; but, at the same time they were bound to hold the scale of justice, and not to suffer even those legitimate sympathies to divert them from that judicial temper with which they ought to address themselves to the consideration of the question. To one part of the speech of his hon. friend (Mr. Cobden) he had listened with particular satisfaction, namely, when he spoke of the immense advantages which attached to the cordial co-operation between France and England in the conduct of an Eastern policy. He believed that their whole hope of an attainment of a satisfactory result must depend in a principal degree upon a thorough good understanding between the two leading powers of the world. But, at the same time, in the application of that principle practical difficulties would arise, and his hon. friend had referred to a most important case, that of the Syrian massacres, in which such difficulty arose. In opposition, too, to the statements of his hon. friend, he must assert that it was no part of the policy of his noble friend at the head of the Government or of the Foreign Office that the people of England should be kept in the dark with respect to Turkish finance. At the same time he was willing to admit the state of things in Turkey was not such that, critically, a financial eye could view with entire satisfaction. His hon. friend had used strong language, to the effect th a t t h e people of this country had been influenced by dis graceful panics with respect to the designs of the litiasiansa I Au fax as that question was con cerned, it was not necessary to go back to the causes of the Crimean war; but he was bound to say that, while they would consult as far as poosible for the safety of the Christian population of Turkey, the ancient policy with regard to that country wa3 not to be repudiated. He would be a bold man who would say that the appearance of the Turk in the Western world was favourable to the happiness of mankind ; but however that might be, it was of no use to draw highly coloured pictures unless they were prepared to adopt some other steps. If it was the wish of his hon. friend that all the world might run in and pull down everything in the Ottoman Empire, he could understand the argument. But they had now to deal with the existence of that empire such as it was, and, if they were not prepared to encourage a crusade against it, he thought it was a matter of doubtful prudence to rip up the history of former times and reopen old sores. It was their duty, as men bound to make the best of things as they found them, to take steps for upholding the rights and liberties of the Christian population of Turkey, and not to shut their eyes either at the rights of the Mus sulman population, who, upon the testimony of the noble lord, appeared to come in for their share of ill-usage. He thought it was their duty to avoid all rash and unneces• sary predictions as to the future relative positions of the Christian and Mussulman population of Turkey, and that it would bo for the interest of Europe and of England, which formed an important constituent of Europe, to let the future tell its own tale, and, instead of setting one race against another, to adopt the best means in their power for securing the rights and liberties of all classes of the Turkish popu lation. (Cheers.) Mr. D. GRIFFITH regretted the absence of the noble lord at the head of the Government, who had a kind of pre scriptive title to treat of foreign affairs; but at the same time he was bound to confess that he very highly appre ciated the tone and manner of the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was clear they wore supporting a policy opposed to the interests of Servia and of Europe, withaut producing any advantage whatever to the Porte, Mr. GREGORY said he would not weaken the influence of the discussion by pressing for a division, and therefore he would withdraw his motion. Motion withdrawn. DRAINAGE OF LAND (IRELAND). The Lords' amendments to this bill were considered and agreed to. The house adjourned at five minutes to one o'clock. METROPOLITAN BOARD OP WORKS, The ordinary weekly meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works was held yesterday, at their offices, Spring-gar dens; Mr. John Thwaites in the chair. The cash statement showed that the balances in the hands of the treasurer were—On current accounts, £65,212 18s. Id.; on deposit accounts, £39,970 ; and on Government securities, 78,110 lls. 3d. PRESERVATION OP LUDGATE-RILL. A deputation was received from the committee for the preservation of Ludgate-hill, and presented a memorial re specting the proposed viaduct across Ludgate-hill. Mr. HOLLINGSHEAD, the secretary to the committee. said the object of the memorial was to obtain the assistance of theirtsurvoyor to strengthen their hands in getting the railway carried under, instead of over, Ludgate-hill. They had got the opinion of several eminent engineers to the effect that it would be much better to carry the railway across Ludgate-hill by a tunnel than by a viaduct, as they would have the platform in Farringdon-street on the ground floor instead of on stilts. They, therefore, desired the influence of the board, to let their surveyor give his opinion upon the two plans, and, in the event of his report being favourable, for the board to take action upon it. Deputy HARRISON moved that the memorial be referred to the Thames embankment committee for consideration and report. Mr. H. L. TAYLOR seconded the motion, and said no body could view the proposed plan for the viaduct without feeling great anxiety on the subject. Mr. WILKINSON reminded the board that the railway company had already got their bill to make the viaduct across Ludgate hill, and they had only to purchase the land by August next in order to complete it. Nothing could stop them but the interference of Parliament, and he doubted whether Parliament would rescind its own Act. Ho therefore suggested that the embankment committee should consider the memorial as a matter of emergency, and report immediately upon it, and that then the board might address the company, for the purpose of effecting an arrange ment. After some further discussion, the motion was agreed to. DISTRICT SURVEYOR FOR HAMMERSMITII. Mr. Thomas C. Knightly was elected district surveyor for Hammersmith, from a list of 23 candidates. THAMES EMBANKMENT. The report of the Thames Embankment Committee was brought up, recommending that clauses be inserted in the bill for the southern embankment ; for enabling the board to give, as collateral security for moneys to be borrowed for carrying out the works, the general rates of the board in addition to the coal and wine duties, and submitted a scheme for effecting that object. After considerable discussion, the report was adopted by a majority of 18 to 10. The routine business having been disposed of, the board adjourned, Shocking Accident on the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway. Yesterday evening, at a quarter-past six o'clock, an accident, attended with loss of life in several in stances, and severe injuries to upwards of 20 pas sengers, occurred on the loop line of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, near the Streatham-common station, Up to a late hour last night the utmost excitement prevailed in reference to the catastrophe, and crowds of persons were making inquiries at the Victoria-station, Pimlico. It appears that an express passenger train left Brighton at 5 o'clock, conveying in addition to the ordinary passengers, two companies of Grenadier Guards, who were returning to headquarters from a course of rifle practice at Eastbourne. The train proceeded as usual as far as the Streatham-common station, shortly after leaving which, from some cause at present unexplained, the engine and 16 carriages ran off the metals for a considerable dis tance, and came to a stop in consequence of the boiler of the engine exploding. The shock was terrific, the middle carriages of the train being doubled up, and several completely smashed. A telegram was immediately forwarded to the Vic toria station, and Mr. Francis, superintendent, Messrs. Heald and Brown, inspectors, with a party of men, proceeded by speecial train to the scene of the accident, when it was ascertained that two soldiers and a lady named Silver, who was ac companied by her husband, had lost their lives, and several of the passengers had broken arms and legs, and were otherwise dreadfully in jured. The guard's van next the engine was smashed to pieces, but the guard, Walker, and underguard, Farley, escaped without injury. The engine-driver and the head fireman were so injured that their recovery is doubtful. Drs. Chart and Brown were soon on the spot, and attended to numerous sufferers, and several of the military and others who had sustained severe injuries were removed to London. The wounded soldiers were conveyed to the Grenadier Guards Hospital, Rocbestor-row, and were immediately attended by the surgeon, major, and other officers, and on inquiry at that establishment at midnight we ascertained that another soldier was dying, and that others of the sufferers were about to submit to amputation. The traffic on the line will not be impeded by the accident, as the trains will run via Norwood Junction. The carriage of the deceased Mrs. Silver was waiting at the Victoria station to convey that lady and her husband to their residence when the telegram relative to the accident arrived. ANOTHER ACCOUNT . A most horrible accident occurred last evening to the 5 o'clock express from Brighton. The fi T ft h ee e n train was a very long one, numbering so me car riages, and at one time had two engines. At Hay ward's Heath carriages containing two companies of the Grenadier Guards, returning from rifle prac tice at Eastbourne, were coupled on. As the train, which was running to Victoria station, neared Lon don, the pace became terrific—the alarmed pas sengers remarked on the swaying of the carriages, which were absolutely pitching from side to side. The train had left the rails. Then came suddenly a crashing shcck, accompanied by a loud explosion. There was silence for a moment before there arose the agonising shrieks and cries of women, children, and men in fear and torture. The train was a vast wreck, in which hundreds of wounded were impri soned, or beneath which they were crushed. The engine had burst, throwing the stoker and driver into an adjoining field, masses of scalds and wounds. The force of the explosion was so great that the top of the boiler was actually thrown two fields off. Carriages were capsized—some a mere agglomera tion of splinters. Of others, the bottoms had fallen out, letting the unhappy travellers through to be torn and broken beneath the wheels. The least hurt scrambled out to the rescue of the others, and help soon arrived from Streatham. Surgeons, clergy men, and people came with assistance of every kind. Tools, lint, brandy, all were forthcoming in a short space of time. The scene was frightful. Here a lady dead, there a woman with her jaw torn off; here children dead or dying, there soldiers strewn about in death or pain as if on a battle-field ; and all this the work of a few moments on a pleasant sum mer's afternoon among the green fields of Streatham. Those who were able to move were all covered with blood—either their own or that of others. Few escaped without wounds of some nature. Those who could set to work to extricate those who lay entangled in the daris. Some carriages had rto be broken to pieces before the sufferers—many in pain and screamingt—could be extricated. From others doors were wrenched off to be converted into litters. Any description of the ruin is almost impossible ; rails, axles, wheel tires, and muekets were lying about in every direction, twisted into the moat fan tastic shapes like so many pieces of wire. The dead were conveyed to Streatham. The telegraph was instantly set to work, and assistance soon arrived from Victoria station. The accident happened about half-past six, and at about eight the wounded were conveyed to London. The lady who was killed was a Mrs. Silver, a daughter of Sir James Clark. She was travelling with her husband, and was far advanced in the family way. Besides the ordinary passengers there were two companies of the Grenadier Guards, under the com mand of Colonel Burnaby, who, with Col. Keppel, Capt. Norton, and Mr. Trotter, and another gentle man, were together in a first-class carriage. The escape of these officers was most wonderful. On starting from Eastbourne there was a proposition (so usual) to get into the centre compartment of the car riage. One of the party, however, happened to have already got into the end compartment, and so the rest followed. Had they ridden in the centre not one would have escaped, for that compartment was completely doubled up, and driven together. Another singular circumstance is that in the overturn the wheel of the next carriage cut clean like a knife into the of& core' compartment, but most fortunately it cut through the sixth seat, the only one vacant. It has fared, however, terribly with the men. The two companies—Lieut.-Cul. Burnaby's and Col. Keppel's —averaged about 50 men each. They came from Eastbourne in the highest spirits, for they had beaten the other companies of their regiment in shooting. The men were much pleased, and were singing nearly all the way till the accident hap pened, and then in a moment occurred as great a loss as in a battle. Of Col. Burnaby's company two were killed, 20 dangerously or severely wounded, and 13 slightly wounded. Few of the rest escaped without contusions or hurt. One man, without de finable injury, turned perfectly blue. The severe wounds are of the usual bad character—legs badly broken, ribs driven into lungs, and such like hor rors. Of Col. Keppel's company seven were severely wounded and five slightly, so that altogether out of 100 of her Majesty's Guards actually 65 are placed hors de combat. The loss of Colonel Burnaby's company much exceeds that which it experienced at Inkerman. The officers, escaping as we have narrated above, were able to devote all their energies to the help of their men ; and what with the readiness of soldiers, and the habit of discipline, much relief was exper i enced in a compa ratively short time. At the Victoria station the regimental surgeons Were in attendance, with many officers of the Guards who had heard of the tele gram. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Lloyd were among the pas sengers who escaped. On the telegram being received at the Victoria (Pimlico) station, Mr. Francis (superintendent), Messrs. Heald and Brown (inspeCtors), with a party of men, proceeded by special train to the scene of the accident, when it was ascertained that two sol diers and a lady had lost their lives, and about 20 of the passengers had broken arms and legs, and were otherwise dreadfully wounded. The guard's van, next the engine, was smashed to pieces; but the guard (Walker) and under-guard (Farley) escaped without injury. Tne engine -driver and the head fireman were se injured that their recovery is doubtful. Drs. Chart and Brown were soon on the spot, and attended to the numerous sufferers ; and several of the military and others who had sustained severe injuries were removed to London. The wounded soldiers were conveyed to the Grenadier Guards' Hospital, Rochester-row, Westminster, and were immediately attended by the surgeon-major and other officers. Oa inquiry at that establish ment at midnight we ascertained that another sol dier was dying, and that others of the sufferers were about to submit to amputation. The traffic on the line will not be impeded by the accident, as the trains will run via Nor wood junction. LAW INTELLIGENCE,--May 29. COURT OF BANKRUPTCY. (Before Mr. Commissioner Goulburn.) IN RE JOHN GEORGE SHIPLEY—" THE SPORTING LIFE." This was an application by two of three assignees for the removal of Mr. W. M'Murray, the third assignee of the estate of the:bankrupt Shipley, who was former:y part pro prietor of the Sporting Life newspaper. The petitioning assignees were Mr. Jonathan Carlow, of 6, Queen-street, Grosvenor-square, coach plater, and Dr. Duncan, of Great Marlborough.street. The petition states that under the bankruptcy of Mr. Shipley, Messrs. M'Murray, Duncan, and Barlow were chosen assignees. Prior to the bankruptcy the bankrupt was the owner of certain valuable leasehold premises situate at 148, Fleet-street, where ho carried on the business of a publisher and newspaper proprietor. In January, 1860, the bankrupt was owner and publisher of the Sporting _Lift and Eclipse newspapers, and he continued to publish the Sporting Life until the time of his bank ruptcy. On the 22d September, 1860, being only three weeks prior to the bankrupt's petition, the bankrupt as signed one moiety of the premises in Fleet-street, and also one moiety of the Sporting .Life and Eclipse, to Mr. M'Murray, and by a deed dated October 4, 1860, Thomas Wrigley, an alleged prior mortgagee, assigned to Mr. M'Murray one moiety of the Sporting Life, the considera tion for the first mortgagee being a sum of £3,500, a debt alleged to be due from the bankrupt to Mr. M'Murray. The petition proceeds to state that on the 16th February, 1861, Mr. M' Murray agreed to sell to Mr. Hutton one moiety of the Sporting Lzfe and premises for £1,500, and received the same on account ; also that Mr. M'Murray had agreed to take £B,OOO from Mr. Beeton for the newspapers and pro mises. Proceedings in Chancery had been instituted by Mr. Beeton against Mr. M'Murray for specific performance of his contract. The assignees then state that the facts above detailed had only recently came to their knowledge, and that they were ignorant of them when Mr. M'Murray was appointed one of the assignees ; and they prayed therefore for the removal of Mr. M'Murray from his office. The petition having been opened by Mr. Re_d on behalf of the petitioners, Mr. Commissioner Goulburn said, under the circumstances, and without imputing anything to Mr. M'Murray, would it not be well for him to withdraw lie was in a position antagonistic to the other assignees.—Mr. Linklater, for Mr. M'Murray, said, that if there were a shadow of pretence for the application he would of course withdraw; but the present motion was made two years after Mr. M'Murray's appointment, and without the least ground to support it. But he (Mr. Linklator), on Mr. M'Murray's behalf, would willingly enter into an under taking that Mr. M'Murray should not in any way interpose in reference to any proceeding which might be taken by his co-assignees. —Mr. Commissioner Goulburn : Yes, but how could I enforce such an undertaking?—Mr. Linklater cited two old authorities for the purpose of showing that the Court had received suchan undertaking from an assignee. —Mr. Commissioner Goulburn inquired if the petitioners would be satisfied with such an undertaking. I Mr. Reed said certainly not. His clients wanted to get rid of Mr. M'Murray, and they wished to do so in the manner pointed out by the statute.—Mr. Linklater : That only shows the animus by which the parties are actuated.—Mr. Reed dis claimed any feeling on the part of his clients, whose only desire was to recover back the money which had been re ceived by Mr. M'Murray.—After some further discussion, his Honour said that he would look through the authori ties and decide the preliminary point whether an effectual stop could not be put to the present proceedings by accept ing the undertaking of Mr. M'Murray not to interfere with his ce-assignees in the performance of what they considered to be their duty. The further hearing was accordingly adjourned. COUNTRY MARKETS. LIVERPOOL-MAY 29. At this day's market there was a small attendance, with a limited demand for wheat, and former rates were realised. Oats were rather easier to purchase. Barley and peas dull. Oatmeal was fully as dear, but the businoss was limited. Egyptian beans e;d lower on the week. A firm business in flour, but a poor choice of samples. Indian corn lees active, but quotations were unchanged. WAKEFIELD-MAY 29. A short supply of wheat at market to-day, and for fresh sorts there was a good consumptive demand at last week's rates. Barley steady. Other articles at the quotations of last Friday. STAMFORDMAY 29. White wheat, 49s to 51s ; red, 44s to 48s per 36 stone. Barley, malting, 368 to 40s ; grinding, 32s to 31s per qr. Oats, 22s to 263 per 24 stone. Beans, old, 41s to —5 per qr. ; new, 38s to —s. CORK—MAY 28. The following were the quotations this morning :—Red wheat, —s Od to Os 03; white, lOs 9d to —s Od ; barley, 63 Od to Os Od ; oats, 83 6d to Os Od. ; black do., 7s 3d to 7s Bd. EXETER—MAY 29. Wheat, white 6s 3d to6s 4d I Barley. 3s 6d to 4s 3d Ditto red .6s Od to Os 3d Oats .........2s 9d to 3s Od Flour, tine, 35s to 368 ; seconds,l34s to —s per sack. CATTLE. Fat beef, p se., 10s0d to 11s6d Ewes, per lb .... std to Rd Pork carcases, 7s Od to 8s Od 1 Wethers, d 0.....„ 7d to —d, Lamb, p 1b.......—d to d F a t ca l ves , d 0 ...61d t o 7d. Rough fat, 31d per lb. BRISTOL SUGAR-TIDY 29. The market continues very quiet, but prices are fairly supported. The business of the week has been confined to about 300 bhds of West India on the spot, at prices varying from 308 to 34s per cwt. Refiners' produce sells more freely, but at very low prices. Rum is in fair demand, at is 61 to Is 7d proof for Demerara, and 2s 8d to 3s 8d for Jamaica. &RKET. the close of the market. Walls End. Haswell ... . . l6 6 Tunstall ...... l4 6 Heugh Hall l5 3 0 South Kelloe. 15 Russel's Hetton 15 3 South Hetton 16 6 Wharncliffe .. 14 6 Stewart's 16 0 Framwellgate 14 9 .et, 70 ; • sold, 38. COAL 111 Prices of Coal per Ton at s. d. Byass's Bebside West Hartley ...15 3 North Pelton s 12 9 Wylam 16 0 Carway and Duffryn Malting .. 19 6 Edon Main ..14 9 Hastings Hartley ....15 3 Tanfield Moor 13 6 liumbert's West Hart ley 15 0 Ships at mark Foreign Mail Packet List. th d. MAILS DUE. AuYralia and Mauritius, via Southampton ..June 1 1 . 2 via Marseilles June &nil and Cape Verde, by British packet. Juno 4. Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. H e l e na June ..... ' China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southaropton.Juee 2. via Marseilles June 2. Falkland Islands June 4. Gibraltar, via Southampt on 7 .. .. June 2. India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Jun e 2. India (Bombay), via Southamp v t i o a n . June 10. .. .... .. June 5. via Marseilles ........... .- June 4. . Portugal.... .• .. June 2. Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton.. • • Newfoundland ............... . ! Marseilles .. .. June 12. 5. 10. Oporto and Vigo .. .......... U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. packet.... June 4. 1.:.r.5.e.i.11.e5. ........... .. .....T j U un ne e by U.S. packet.... by Canadian packet. Juno 5. W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe ... June 10 • Bahamas, via New York .. June 4. Mexico All parts of West Indies, including Chili, Peru, 1 June 13. California. and British Columbia. Full benefit of reduced duty obtained by pur chasing Horniman's pure Tea; very choice at 3s. 4d. and 4s. "High Standard" at 4s. 4d. (formerly 4s. Bd.), is the strongest and most delicious imported. Agents in every town supply it in packets. Births. BAINBRIDGE.— On the 29th inst., at 17, Talbot-square, Hyde Tark, the wife of T. Y. C. Bainbridge, Esq., of a son. CLEMENT.—On the 28th inst., at Lorn-road, the wife of Thos. Clement, Esq., of a son. GREENS.—On the 29th inst., at Lee, Kent, the wife of W. Greene, Esq., of a daughter. Marriages. MEEKING—TOWER. — On the 27th inst., at Iver, Bucks, Charles Meeking, Esq., only son of Charles Meeking, Esq., of Riching's-park, lver, to Adelaide Caroline. 4th daughter of Christopher Tower, Esq., and Lady Sophia Tower, of liuntsmoor-park, Iver. THOMAS—GODFREY.—On the 29th inst., at Kentish-town, the Rev. Robert Jermain Thomas, BA , to Caroline, the only daughter of John Godfrey, Esq., of Tensor, near Oundle. Deaths. ---- BAYLEY.—On the 25th inst., William Kennedy Bayle.Y9 Esq., late of Lincoln's-inn, aged 59. Bl o t o f c E x. p ) s v o E m i, La.n—d Nev Ont l h e Bath 25th inst e , Thomas ,t.e()u rt aged ßre 7L c kwell, E s • GRIFFIN.---011 the 28th inst., at Northumberland- street, Strand, G. E. Griffin, Esq aged 83. HAMILTON.—On the 28th inst„ at Beech-grove, Mauch line, Dugald Stewart Hamilton, Esq., aged 75. RAYMOND.—At his residence,Vale-place, Ramsgate, Com mander James Grant Raymond, R.N., aged 67. TEMPLE.—On the 10th inst.. at Constanz, S w it zer land, the Dowager Lady Temple, relict of the late Sir Grenv ille Temple Temple, Bart. WOODS.—On the 25th inst., suddenly, Samuel Alexander Woods. Esq., of The Grange, Westleton, Suffolk, aged 59. London : Printed and Published by WILLIAM ANDREWS, of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at TuE Sox Office, No. 112, Strand, in the Precinct of the Bavoy, in the COunty of litiddlesex.—Saturday, Mar 30, 1803, I