The Sun. — London, England, 1845-02-12 00:00:00

. venth hour, he should have introduced suggestions, and recommended measures, that would have been so much more in place at the period a hen railway speculations first c ommenced? He a gree d w i t h the Noble Lord that it would, indeed, be • xceedingly difficu't to find in. that Howe impartial individ ua l s - M em b ers uneonm CO d either directly or indirectly with these schemes. He stoold like to see the subject fairly investigated, and therefore he had on a former night asked the Noble Lord thethe Chancellor of the l)nchy of Lancaster, how far these gentle men-men of character they were-he granted • 3 were rm n o f i ntegr i ty -how far they were con nected 'with railways? These gentlemen must found their epini ons on party statements, themselves having no k , n ewledge o f t h e country through which the projected ' l nes were intended to pass. Be woutti a,k the Noble Lard who had s uggeste d improvements in the system, ... if he himself was totally free from prejudice-, or from a 1,-?,nnelinti with some o f t h ese pro j ected lines ? For ---nu w a s elf (Colonel Sib t h orp ) h e had never b een, ' would not be connect e d w ith an y ra il way ; and for this reason, that, if called upon by n 4 t, House t o s i t as a juror on some of these P r nlects, Lordship he might a t l east b e an i mpart i a l one. His 8 had, h e (C o l one l S ib thorp) bel i eved, corre- Nnded with a Mr. Had. on, and objected to some line 'eeetnraend, el by that gentleman, on the ground that it Would be near his Lordship's residence, Maack Hall, Itil wa d a t hatt therefore, on that account, the line, however well suited to the wants of the district in other respects, wa s inad in i asib!e. With these remarks he would con elude, but he hoped th a t th e N o bl e L or d wou ld exp l a i n pleased s yeas for delayin the suggestions he had been that night to ma e• le. 614 r. GIS BOBNE said, that the Bill of la s t ses ,i on h a d :/f e n consid era b ly modified in its passage through that us e , and at last it had been pas , ed by a sort of tacit ti;Ealprotoise between the opposing parties. He thought, rash! re, that the policy embraced by it ought nut ta - "IY to he interfered with, and theref are he could not p r ee to the opinions advanced by his Honourable Th ' : ll 7 , (l ,the Member for Greenock upon the subject. 1 4 vivid Lordte Alember for Sunderland had given te v r i . `" ascription of the difficulties which he said in- of erred with the decisions of the House on the matter thatt,Projeeted limes but he Mr. Gishorne) thought laeL lu a e Very facility With which the Noble Lord had most them, was a proof that they were not of the vet.; '; eie us ' character. The Noble Lord had spok. n Itoj r „' ee lingly of the expenses incurred by the pro ds o -.8 "some of' these schemes, before they could be th a - ,tght before Parliament, and alleged the hardship of the-',„.h-jection by the Board of Trade-but what was eja e tl ense to do ? How could they, in that House, de thev upon the merits of competing lines ? How were 1 1 , 1 4 ' say what railway communication should or T hat he given to such or such shoulda place, be or by Th er n.le that communicationmade ? at hey depend upon it that advantages b r a a" r espective lit es would be best tested b raa e - ceaunissien ' constituted as was the Board of ,„.ao e d ' , With respect to the powers vested in that h viet r s "3 7 the Act of Parliament of the 3:: and 4th 'ott - ' lL ' C ap. 9, he should, with the permission of' the bo a le e B 2 . r ead such part of the Act as related to those t rarl•a' and also those given by the subsequent Act of "op a l „ e n, t• The Act directed that no railway should abtiC' h e " for traffic without at least a month's previous P c4e r a " t ei ng given to the Board of Trade ; and it heem- Nia,; ( ' the Board to suspend, in certain cases, ltliop:gef such railway. The Board could also empower P . "'y o t i° rB to examine the railways and carriages, and a sent t the bye-laws of each company was directed . to ttlktth:°,thern for their approval. The Act also directed a .atti ar `Beard should have the power of ordering a re htae tee traffic. and the rates and charges on each line. rtit a i d t Td Powers of a somewhat similar character, were ', ll L e ttal ' n . r the Board b 3 the Act of Parliament he had tCad a `n the last session these powers were somewhat tili e s u• it being directed, in the first place, that all triaraa3esfar'hould be submitted to a Committee of the 'I II hu t r ade, who should report to Parlinment upon ager' whose report was not to be considered final. '''lliretlilasitherefore. nothing in the resolution to prevent it_altaiii e eetnes coining before the House, whether the • a t at ee ... a . r n 't 14 (I ._.a the Board of 'Trade reported favourably or ) ,tit, e la not find anything either in the Act of Pa.rlia 'ere i n °l ' Could he find that the Railway Committee Il° , l Its ll ? way authorised to publish in the Gazette killlM'stA,l"'. r agains ' t particular .. lines of railway. He el ls ttlat, - 1 7' mat the object originally designed by the api thatitsalatiottief the Committee was an investigation . and ne 'lla of facts.-(Hear, hear.) A committre . of ft ..i . p., 1 1 ,:itaih,:'," bad come to the conclusion that the decision jiittirejti-tiltiway Committee of' the Board of Trade should '"• ' e el' Ce the claims of private persons. Great tnitt: ci re ,sulted from the proceedings of the Sub thtla b e e ',. the public had been under the impression ke t '° + ara - 0 4 , e eess that the decisions of the Committee of to tf ,`cio k t Trade would be supported by the Govern alai-144e 5u . ) . °11 ., they considered them all but final and ke t Male It was true the Right Hon. Baronet oppo '4Bl4), blVelled the delusion on the first night of the had lin os great mischief had previously resulted. abi l ki s Which the Committee reported in favour of, ttie i s i t ti l ' shares greatly increased in price, , t he ; 3 mi g h t reported against, whatever their ,Ic e l isj a ' t ,'''' be, received a great discouragement from 'll ti llth ..8 of the Board of Trade. It resembled a gastit did-e to r t , rm r a There was quite as much' speculation, 7 k;tteli 1,,, - -in the-e respects, that the amount at stake qtir ° %ao 1 , -r ger, and that the event of the race could not bt4, l l .*tty e ntil it was over, whilst the decisions of the ,Itot,, n hea nrattittee became known before they were ~ ,- t il r to—„ricliear, hear.) He did not attribute any dis iktitleyea 4 Member of that Committee, far from it, S!he as i ii :utin to be men of integrity and honour ; I, e tise; - ",Possibl e for any man not to see that, in SNe tv aes f-"ae decisions of the Board of Trade, respect w,,N'y r t ttil waY, were predicted with a degree of eight %Ir a , at i . ' , lth a secret, it was very . hard , to pre herat le. 1)71iolable privacy which was in this case so Is llt t aea 'nttle men - lost their memorandum-books ; Aalstl „ Wer e a %ale % la th„. 'ommunicative to their . „ 4 4,,,uy ~,h - l r sleep In short, there .were several t;q4: e q u ho li - t " a ' n ell a secret , might be divulged in such a b ,tti , ro t ,, itt Y breach of honour or duty on the part Oth il a s aeli , ee • Unless there was any great advan. Oi t Chil e ton ar rangement as the present, it was not 0%1 411 air, subject a body of men to the odium and i L i t( i li t T e t tl to j o e ii n , !.tteli a situation entailed. It was very th er e 1, °An Le e s -In he public where such temptations tiip•sen_rtan presented themselves, and above XO O had h ad 44 heeh'tieh was to be gained by disclosure, that Sltitzbehlieee;ttofitlse dealing.' The grossest imputa e „ Ivn upon the Board of Trade, and he Z it4 hl t alati v e - "'at any good they could effect would l a .re,arer eat : . the distrust their decisions would in t:alls44s of i n e 4 gain, he did not believe it possible, with . V t "), th;,atal r r tnation which the Committee had at its ; 1 5 , 5 ,3 theyt— o pportunities they had for investiga ititvtheiati, th at tehould decide with a full knowledge of the titaat tl altbst „ e ,.Y could make their decisions respected t o . ' ti r)P t , tt . '", np r o - n "2O um Ine is and justice. How could tp l , a/140N.. Lac respective merits of 240 projected tAjeYti a .,' ,T u 1 1 , 4 every part of England, Ireland, and fo t ,„"h it i"Jild 4o 7. sure they had maps and ordnance 4 )17 1 0a wer e a _ r etnt and the testimony of witnesss, l i ,al,ll t en "as wiese things where the fullest local in 4,,sitniie4ribestiareiquisite? lie thought some less objec lek.,r4ett lao ra tn ight be devised than the present, and x t Nt„ titai t , a ; e :' . er i that the Committee of the Board C ta, r. et% n E , v ' e "eg to themselves a power which the Vaitt4t Wol,l,litentled they should assume. Ill t: t to q th e l lI EY said he considered that the kt - t N pr l'arli e _ Board of Trade had been appointed to ,kkt s Nr i ,9,?eedi n gle ht the merits of rival schemes, and `lita el itil:nlat e t ags woold be conducted in such a manner lta . ' 0 7 sB ist 'e confidence f the public and be of 1 4 t,l•si o a 'lee to t h e t , 1,, f tis h,,p, ellouse ( . l ßut when they published tf tta,, are th e `'re they were communicated to Parlia 04 4 ,7, e kooa, g r "ands upon which they arrived at them ' ' l li k j N v e l f 4i nt. "H tl ' he thought the public had just cause tit t 4 , the N. could not, however, approve of the a l t, ll e: l l. ,°, l e tio r e h n le Lord the Member for Sunderland. aa r Na v°4 the dad admitted the propriety of deciding t qLto tiki t ,th a i r e dlfferent schemes, and the impolicy of 7uy,..de e i oi ttlis heeeesideTation to another year ; but kl c al ed b ''ne, it the whole 250 projects were I‘' ' ‘th Y anY his ' • the Olfa l Yee by I one tribunal? In- opinion 4 , th e intaan. tynight be, which was to decide upon ktilk‘htlltiatn'eferenicelletiolla; ought to decide, not merely 'lta.,,ao t , ow „rival schemes, but which was the ‘ o !l'',' tv„. n ue pro,sl:l)Jest line, as it often happened, j i ~, , ,t lr the proj, e t t ' s .s . (1 at all ; it might ethbrace a por . - ito t : t ti n " th an .1 bUt the present tribunal did not go ; t l ! t , e °lll,l.k th e Gl-_'Le schemes proposed. Further, he ;tlkll th e Judge sent,of Such by any , mode of organisa , 3 idia oveetrsu, eh lud of projects, extend olltbla ki t Ovool d tithe Whole face of Great Britain and I tt k ee erit e tuaid. _ ft , task w hi ch no Government, how ifletkti It erg aois n a e t tl't could acc• mplish. He felt that 1 , 4il W eli/t i raetl y „,°./isnd machinery was imperfect, 14,1 ) ,,Ni d k'llirr o 'Vill(! be speedily supplied. ►t so t'j ltd . . 1 10 t ad _ ''''.' felt assured that the Board of alatail i_ Jade `2l 3 t any measure by which to inter vttift a sally _with the large mass of capital now l al "Ii hieli 'act Speculation• 001%ti!.tt Nla . , intefers in thus country, and the 0,41 itoitedi_r, , anee would be, that those specu -11,?, h i ßs il l coffly transfer their capital to similar 4Nti7lt, aidtespeet'letga.countries. The laws of this ottittft 41 a.. th to railroads were so exceedingly ~,:,a1.4111,ii.t0. ninadaatages. to the speculator who id lellA7th the forceg.ii lines so many, that any in -116 th n eap• ngllsh li n -,:h tia N , Itaiists to , ns that would not be en- Oale hsteir r esort ofula have the effect of in tttlriq 1 4 th - tea wi th ?reign countries.-(Hear.) 4t 1 a tty, ti e H en. m considerable Sunderland; to the d i Ceded Wi t inat i thiser°l39' for ; but he 4 , ae,,.. ti th at ii gene opinion that scheme would be ltl t ," tii engin Inconvenience. It should be recol le, "cl to n es ~ eer s wool ftnttil tltil t the axivat : to report A t ti b e rrop osed . , be employed to survey the upon what they con- Nal, gen t ° , l ay t h ei ages and disadvantwees of each eo the %%jell matter a 4. t . l llo 4 e th e r r,port b(.tbre Parliament who off their liand,, and fi ' nally. to I, 4 :Pa h ," tith e ~ was the be • plan ; that was one iiltairtste.j Who- h yr°l:ft ' s al of the Noble Lord was, that tirt 1 8 P . a l Cesol . m tni th e . arh atn Ned upon a certain line should ot i i , tr tin erita ra f a, . . (I k , ..e, atid .07 aearimittee, having first de :lnt be -headeee •„laat Committee were to call for tellt.l ite. firing of - Sti l t i i utvour of the lowest. What rj, , a ea aana s ', einrse be ? Wh • this -it years. kriiir tie d . ear tai -- poly to a certain co .). 3 Otiu„Nt t i s •°() x ., e _ b term of NOania Ps'ulnre'l3• upon jacOo ta iearr"tia" embarked • ,iltro tito wunie,ant that Ho se i n n the whole scheme i tq te klie h l , l trtio sr l in effect, it e u d,„. l l F °rni t " t() such a sp ..`l3 v v ,, Verg e o f „‘-- I •ltig tnat they had t Iva hap -re hein perrcetion.-(Hear, hem) i)4, th _ 410 "hl)..en, th at t ,g a. made every day ; and it het):lteci:tili a f : sh a , vii . n t line which in a few years k' be e , r t'aer u „ L° be infinitely more advanta tt 'l n be r . the. , 0 10v,.,, t ,en _be. approved of and !, , , a tt ° , , thi ll '-tf yeii;trltraet was ,del had been ac ithleltileabo4 that v ,.' Ta ta a ,_ ``,) hold good for 1 . Ikti I that re,„ 414 4. . t .,T l Itl i taui 'uuld . bring about a I pract t 4 t Vy -.' f• d y ,t,.--,...-...tef. ve th e G ore 0 • 4 o t ‘L'ls - ' r e he could , ttve ° at:rr, "11, b utt could ev6 r -It th„ ~, t4e adoption rnment in an ee no mode by 1 Y opp or - tOttest d- of one rule, t an fairest I unit y to ~.._ competition, ueW companies to corn- After a few words from Mr. J. RUSSELL, who was quite inaudible in the gallery, Mr. WAKLEY said the Right Honourable Baronet had made an excellent speech on the subject of railways, hut the great difficulty which he had adverted to on a former occasion, he had altogether passed over in utter silence. Now he wished to know what was to he done with the barristers?—(Laughter.) They would be vic timised if the railway Bills were to be disposed of by five or six Committees of that House. Now he wished to know if the Members of that House were to be left to the interminable addresses cf barristers ? (Laughter.) Barristers would make no submission ex cept to members of their own profession, and the ques tion which naturally a-ose was—what persons could be placed in authority. This the Right Hon. Baronet ad mitted, on a former occasion, was the great difficulty to be dealt with, but still he had not touched upon it in the speech he had just made. In addressing themselves to the law of a ease, barristers constantly expressed their regret that they were not addressing gentlemen who were learned in the law. Notwithstanding the sentlemen sitting in the Committee were makers of the law. Barristers constantly regretted that they were not learned in the law, and that they could not of conse quence comprehend the legal arguments which were applied to the question. Now in a paper of that morn ing—a paper of considerable influence—the Mo,n lag Chronicle—and the Morning Chronicle only ex pressed in a great measure what was the pub lic opinion upon this subject,—they would find a part of the question discussed. It was a part which must not be overlooked, because it was perfectly notorious that the time of Committees was monstrously occupied by the addresses of learned gentlemen. As he had stated moreover on a former night, these Com mittees were adjourned again and again for the purpose of allowing barristers of extensive practice, who hap pened to be engaged in another place, the opportunity of attending to address them. It was, he said, a noto rious practice ; and what did the public press say with regard to these tribunals, formed by that House, as ex pressed to-day in the Morning Chronicle? It was ne cessary that the House should have a correct view of the subject, and he would quote to them what was said. The Morning Chronicle says—" It may be that counsel do in these Railway Committees make gold out of iron with express train' haste ; peradventure also the fees are out of all proportion to the amount, intricacy, or dif ficulty, of the business done; but then it is not for doing the business eminent, eloquent, and able men are re tained, but for overmastering the Committee."—(Hear, hear.) Thus the House saw that the barristers controlled the Committee. and made them decide, not in accord.. ante with truth and justice, but in accordance with what was absolutely contrary to either truth or justice. Coun sel were employed, it was admitted, for the purpose of overmastering the Committee. Now, what was the re medy proposed ? It was this—" Elevate your Parlia mentary tribunal to the intellectual station of your Par liamentary bar, and the remedy forprolixity, diffuseness, the introduction of extraneous matter, and such shock ing bad law, that it can only be called Crowner's 'quest law,' was near at hand. On matters of fact, allow your Committee the juror's province, but in matters of law, aid them by a competent legal assessor, having judi cial responsibility, and, of course, assuming judicial power. In other words, they must provide, out of that House, gentlemen who had sufficient intellectuality and capacity of mind to contend with the hired barristers who plead on those occasions. This was a compliment to be sure. He did not say it was wholly untrue, but it was certainly not very complimentary. The remedy for " prolixity, diffuseness, the introduction of extraneous matter, and such shocking bad law, that can only be called Crowners"quest law,' was near at hand." " Crowners"quest law," indeed. He was surprised how it could be spoken disrespectfully of, because the lawyers, while in office, got the law into such ill repute—(Hear, hear)—that now another profes sion had taken the office, it was a matter of great difficulty for them to extricate it. Now the writer went on to say, "It is not from any vulgar greedi ness of gain as is grossly and ignorantly imputed that counsel now waste the time of Committees in frivolous speeches, but it is because they level themselves down, be it said, to the intelligence of a Parliamentary tri bunal. High in mere wordy, but low, very low, in judicial intelligence. Placing no reliance at all in the judicial discrimination of their judges." That was what was done by counsel. He believed -this was written by an able man—a man of great intellectual power, and a barrister himself. "Placing no reliance at all on the judicial discrimination of their judges, Parliamentary counsel do undoubtedly often address to Committees the most preposterous propositions in law, and finding such absurdities tolerated, contend for victory, and sometimes obtain it, often in the teeth of the law, of fact, and com mon justice." He very much feared that the proposal which had been made would not prove to be of a less obnoxious character. Public opinion was adverse to the occupation of that House with regard to railways. It was believed that there were men in that House who were p themso n, and they personally interested were n i n speculations, therefore decided that came before upon, not in accordance with the public good. Nothing could be more unfortunate for the character of the Legislature than that such an opinion should generally prevail, but the feeling certainly was prevalent, and he did not believe that any proposition which had been made to that House could have in the slightest degree the effect of mitigat ing this feeling. So long as this tribunal was main tained, so long would that House be doubted—so long would their decisions be impugned. In that House there was, no doubt, many who were personally interested in the speculations that were brought before them, but the Board of Trade was constituted of highly respectable men—men who, it was thought, were far removed from the slightest imputation. Nevertheless, allusions had been made to the decisions of that Board, and there were many who doubted those decisions which particularly related to railways. Now, as he had stated, it was thought the Board would not be open to imputations, but still insinuations had been thrown out against it, and he did not think it likely that the five or six Com mittees proposed by the Right Honourable Baronet would be more fortunate in escaping from doubt. Now, let him read an extract from a public newspaper called The Economist. It was published by a highly respect able and well-known person, and contained a statement of a very serious character. It was with reference to what had been going on in railway matters, and he could not help waiting to remark that these things ought to be known and duly considered before any Committee was appointed, and, in fact, before anything was done with reference to railways. The writer, in commenting upon Mr. Gladstone, the late President of the Beard of Trade, stated, " That there was no doubt, nor was there reason to believe, that any one connected with the Board of Trade was interested in railways ; but since the appointment of Sir James Graham's private secretary, a circumstance of a sus picious character had occurred. He (Mr. Wakley) did not know how it was the Rightllon.Baronet's name was in troduced, because he believed the Right Hon. Baronet did not exercise the remotest influence in the appoint ment of the gentleman to which allusion had been made. —(Hear, hear.) The writer went on to state, that shortly after the appointment of Mr. O'Brien, his brother was engaged by the South-Eastern Railway Company as manager. The standing orders required that railway companies intending to make application for an Act of Parliament in the next sessbn, should deposit their plans with theßoard of Trade before thelsth of November. After that day, however, it was well known that this order could not be complied with by the South-Eastern line, and, in consequence, it was impos sible for them to go through Parliament in the next session. This caused a considerable fall in their shares, but, notwithstanding, towards the end of December, Mr. O'Brien increased his stock of shares by several hundreds. To the surprise of every railway speculator, on the 17th the report of the Board of Trade on the further lines which they had had under their consideration, appeared ; and in this report was contained the name of the railway proposed by the South-Eastern Company, although it was considered to be entirely out of Court. The pro posed line was favourably reported, and on the following day a notice was posted on the Stock Exchange in the usual coarse of business, stating that if one hundred shares in the new line sold at S premium were not taken up, they would be bought in by Mr. Scott. These shares were worth 221. each, and it was conjectured that this was only a small portion of the quantity Mr. O'Brien had purchased. Now he asked the Right Hon. Baronet, or any other person, whether it was possible that such a statement as this could go forth to the public without producing the greatest possible injury upon the veracity of the Railway Board? If these statements were not put an end to, it would involve the country inconsiderable difficulty. It was next to impossible, ender the adverse circumstances in which they were placed, to hope to make any proposition which should receive the general concurrence of the House or the public. The whole subject was one of difficulty, for the interests involved in it extended to every part of the land. Placed in these difficulties as they were, he should for once propose placing a barrister in an official situa tion, for he believed it would be quite impossible to get through the business which would have to come before them, without placing some legal gentleman at their head. The Right Hon. Baronet was more a friend to the barristers than he was, and he trusted he would adopt his suggestion, and appoint some person of legal ex perience and ability to the office. It was mon strous that under the present system a railway company could not procure a Bill in that House ; and several hundred thousand pounds, fifty, sixty, or eighty thousand pounds, were ordinary sums paid for Bills, and he thought it was high time a reformation should be introduced in this portion of their proceedings. It was asked, in the paper he bad just quoted from, what he would think of a gen tleman making a speech about the inordinate gains of Sir Astley Cooper or Sir Benjamin Brodie? But there was no similarity between the two cases; because in the one instance there was not that extravagant public expenditure as in the other. Why counsel were en gaged, at one and the same time, in four or five Com mittees, and sometimes more. This rendered it fre quently necessary that one of them should be adjourned. and of course injured the public interest. But when gentlemen were paid to speak by the hsur or the day, he was not surprised they should use their influence to pro tract their inquiries. He said, then, it was necessary something should be done to remedy this, if they wished to restore the confidence of the public in their pro ceedings. Sir JAMES GRAHAM said—Nothing was farther from his intention than addressing the House on this ques tion, but as his name had been directly introduci-d in the discussion, he felt it necessary to trouble the House with one or two remarks. Allusion had once or twice been made to bim in the debates on railways, but he believed that was the first time his name had been directly men tioned. For upwards of thirty years he had had the honour of holding a seat in that House, and during the whole of that period he had taken an active part in the public and private business brought under consideration. But his principal object in rising to addreea the House pete for new lines.—(Hear, hear.) Indeed, so impressed was lie with the justice and fairness of this plan, that he felt convinced, when the subject came to be fully con sidered by the House, this would be the rule which they would decide was the best. He aas also in favour of the Committees on these Bills being limited, say to five; fur the fewer their number were, the better would they be enabled, without much difficulty, to arrive at a con scientious conclusion. Mr. BA NKES—Tbe Hon. Member had argued in fa vour of the principle of encouraging competition. Now, he (Mr. Banks) contended that that would not be a be neficial course to adopt, for it had had the effect of checking railway speculation in the county be repre sented. In that county several propositions for different lines of railways had been put forward by distinct and very powerful and we althy bodies; but there were twenty to one —or, indeed, he might say a much larger propor tion of the inhabitants of that county in favour of the South-Western Company's line.—(heer, hear.) That line was looked upon as one of the highest importance by the inhabitants of the county, be cause it proposed to pass through a part of the county having at present no other railroad, in which the existing roads were by no means good. The land through which it was intended it should pass was rich and fertile, and the inhabitants of the district had not by any means the necessary facili ies cf transit, either by land or water; while, on the other hand, the line proposed by the other company passed through a part of the county where the inhabitants were in the full enjoyment of all those advantages ; and, therefore, the inhabitants of the south-western district had not only to look forward to gaining all those advan tages, by gettirg this line of railroad, but also the addi tional one of a renewal of the traffic between London and Ex, ter; and furthermore, it was quite clear that this would be the line by which the public would prefer to travel, while without it the people of that part of the county would in fact be to some extent isolated. One other fact in favour of the South-Western line, in preference to that of the Great Western, was, that a distance of about 130 miles would be saved by it.— (Hear, hear.) He had heard it stated that the Board of Trade had decided in favour of the Great Western line, and that they had recommended a combination of the two companies. If that were the fact, the consequence would be that the county would get the worst coasting line ; whereas the South-Western line would have been an excellent coasting line, for it proposed to proceed by Exeter.—(Hear.) He did not state this as a fact that had come within his own knowledge ; but he had been told that such was the case. With regard to the Com mittee divulging any information upon the subject before their report was published, he should say he did not think any member of the Committee would do anything of the kind ; but it should be recollected that there were many hands through which those reports passed—such as printers and others ; and though he would not say that the latter were more capable of divulging that which should not be made public than those in higher station, et, as the decisions of the Committee had to pass through many hands, great injury was the result. In conclusion, he would only say that if the Great Western line should be adopted in preference to the South-Wes tern, they could do nothing more, and should accept it ; but he did hope the latter would. not be lost sight of. Sir B. PEEL did hope that the House would postpone coming to any decision upon the subject for the present. —(Hear, hear.) He had no doubt but that many of the decisions of the Board of Trade were open to be found fault with, and that good and sufficient grounds could be stated for doing so—(heer, hear)—but it was utterly impossible, he conceived, for the House yet to say definitively what course they should adopt in reference to this subject.—(Hear, hear.) Hav ing heard the statement of his Hon. Friend, he could only say that, if the Board of Trade could be shown to have come to an inconsiderate or impolitic decision, and if he could show that a better line for the county generally had been proposed than that said to have been approved of; he felt assured that that line would receive every con sideration and attention.—(Hear, hear.) It was not so much upon the decision that the Board of Trade should have arrived at on any particular line of railroad, that so much depended, as on the statement they should make of the grounds upon which they had arrived at such de cisions. —(Hear, hear.) In fact, the value of those deci sions would entirely depend upon those grounds ; and he felt eel.' ain that the board would show that they were not deserving of condemnation.—(Hear, hear.) But it should be remembered that that Board had not long been in office ; they were only appointed last session, and were the mere creation of himself and his colleagues. That Board had been censured because of their reports or decisions having got publicity at an improper time. He did think that a serious charge ; but, at the same time, he would say that he conceived it most conducive to public convenience that those reports should be de dared at as early a period as possible ; for, if they held over those deci-ions for two or three months, there would be then such an enormous accumulation of busi ness, that those reports would be much more likely to gain publicity than by the course the Board had hitherto adopted ; but he did think the Board had adopted a wise and judicious course in reserving to themselves, until the proper time had arrived, their reasons for the decisions they had come to ; while, had they kept the whole a secret for that time, it would have been much more likely to prove injurious. In two or three days, the House would have the report of the Board, and that would be accompanied by a general statement of the grounds that had led them to concur in those views with reference to certain lines ; and until then, he did hope the House would postpone giving •expression to its judgment.— (Hear, hear.) He did also hope that the House would not come to a resolution to abandon the general principle upon which the Board had been acting, until they had given it a fair trial, and were convinced by ex perience that it was bad.—(Hear, hear.) They had heard it stated that there . were 240 lines of railroad to be proposed. That was an enormous number ; yet he had little doubt, when they came to be looked into, they would be very considerably reduced ; but were they to come down to 100, still the amount of labour would be very great.—(Hear. hear.) His Noble Friend opposite had applied for the appointment of a Committee ; be fore that could be granted, some reports of the Board of Trade would be brought fora ard, and they would be found to form a material element in the discussions of that Committee.—(Hear.) The Committee, when it should be appointed, would find it desirable to adopt some principle by which they should be guided. —(Hear, hear.) If the Members of that Com mittee should be confined to a small limit. say five or seven, and if they gave constant and punctual attendance to the business before them, whether they should agree to, or dissent from the report of the Board of Trade, he had no doubt the labour of the Committee would have great influence with the House.—(Hear.) The Committee would find it necessary, perhaps, to have witnesses brought before them, to give evidence on local peculiarities, and he could not see why they could not apply the principle adopted by election Committees to that branch.—(Hear, hear.) But supposing that this Committee were appointed to consist of only five Mem bers, from which those possessed of local knowledge upon any particular line were to be excluded from giving evidence, and that the power of deciding upon a line was to be transferred to the Committee, the Noble Lord might despair of this House ever doing anything satisfactory on the subject.—(Hear.) He (Sir R. Peel) did not think that this House ought to transfer such a power to a Committee, or any other body.—(Hear.) In fact, if the Noble Lord's plan were adopted, he (Sir IL Peel) would look upon it as nothing more nor less than a total revolution of the law at present regulating rail road projects.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord bad ex pressed a fear that parties would be likely to invest their capital in foreign speculations ; that was a good reason why the decisions of the Board of Trade should be as prompt as possible.—(hear, hear.) The plan of the Noble Lord, he (Sir B. Peel) conceived, it would be im possible to adopt, for it would amount to this, that the Government should appoint new surveyors to survey all the lines proposed to be run in England, Scotland, and Ireland. That operation would occupy a long time, and what would be the effect of it ? Take, suppose, the line from Waterford to Kilkenny ; that had been going forward ; and would it not create the greatest surprise and confusion if that line was to be stopped until a Government surveyor could have surveyed the line ? (Hear, hear.) In like manner, were the works that had been going on for the last twelve or fourteen months, on some of the lines in this country, to be put a stop to, or suspended until the House had laid before it the GO veryment engineers' report, ,for the proposition was, in fact, tantamount to that ?—(Hear, hear.) He did not know what the effect would be upon the country, if the Government were to take up the management and direc tion of railroads ; but he very much doubted, if the Government did adopt such a course, the country would, ab iniCo, be the better for ft.—(hear.) How could the Government decide upon what was and what was not the best line ? Suppose a line to run between any two towns were proposed, how could the Government acquire local knowledge sufficient to guide them in coming to a judicious decision ?—(Hear, hear,) Would it not be much better to rely upon the knowledge of those who were on the spot, and who, therefore, could alone give this information ?—(Hear.) Ile conceived it would, and therefore he would say, it was from such only that such information should be derived.—(Hear, hear.) They did not want to interfere in these speculations. They gave speculators the preference, stipulating, how ever, that certain preliminaries should be carried out for the benefit of the public generally, but more particularly for the benefit of the poorer classes. By pursuing this course they did not di: turb the ordinary course of busi ness. But what would be the case if they followed the suggestion of the Noble Lord the Member for Sunder land ? Why the Government would be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the labour imposed upon them, and the result would be that not a single railway Bill weulsi be passed. With all respect for the suggestion of the Noble Lord, he thought it would be injudicious, therefore, for the Government to adopt it, and what he would propose was, that they should imme diately address themselves to the formation of a Select Committee to consider what would be the best mode of proceeding with respect to these railway Bills. It would be necessary, however, for them to wait till they could see the report of the Board of Trade, and hear the general principles which they had adopted in coming to their conclusions. The Board of Trade had not yet decided upon the merits of the three York lines, but he had no doubt when the report did appear the represen tatives of the two lines reported against would start up and make sp-eches, to show how much better their lines were to the one which had been adopted by the Board of Trade. There might also be surmises hazarded that the gentlemen connected with the successful line had some influence with the Government, but in his opinion these assertions should be received with extreme cau tion, or not listened to at all. In conclusion, he hoped the Hon. Member would agree with him, that in the meantime they should not interfere with the present practice of the House, but at once proceed to take into consideration, by means of a Select Committee, the bi st mode of eispo meg of these.Bills.—(Hear, hear.) Mr. BANKES explained that he represented no line. He merely stated his opinion as to which line he thought most benefit the county with which he was connected, T 14.1 SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY _EVENING, FEBRITAR-Y was to state, that never in the whole course of his Par liamentary career had he been connected directly or indirectly with any railway company whatsoever. In the course of the discussion which had taken place, reference had been made to two gentlemen with whom he had been acquainted. Both those gentlemen had held commissions in the army ; an d h av i ng ' a f terwards made their way in life had found it not inconsistent with their honour or character to form connexions with rail ways. One of those gentlemen had been induced to give up his connexion with a ra il way company, and to accept the office of his (Sir J. Graham's) private secretary. He (Sir J. Graham) had entertained the highest opinion of that gentleman's integrity and ability, and he was not disappointed. But he (Mr. O'Brien) went from him (Sir J. Graham) to his present office at the Board of Trade. He (Sir J. Graham) regretted his loss extremely, and had nothing to do with his appointment to that Board. li e was, however, appointed on the condition that any connexion which he had with railways should be dis si,lved, and that the shares which he possessed should be sold ; and in the month of October last, as he was in formed by Mr. O'Brien, that gentleman's shares were sold. But it was understood that those who held the scrip or first allotment of shares, must sign the deed, and it was in that way the name of Mr. O'Brien appeared now as connected with the company. B u t h e (Si r J ames Graham) ama ay assured by M r . O'B r i en, upon hi s honour, that the sal e o f t h e shares was actually effected in October. The gentl eman whose name was referred to i r tt h ) a was in the Economist newspaper, was not the same, but his brother. He also had served in the army, and was now connected with the South -Eastern Railway, and both these gentlemen had given him (Sir James Graham) the strongest assurances, upon their honour, that neither directly nor indir( ctly had any communication been made by either of them to the person alluded to, as having taken advantage of information obtained from the Board of Trade. No one could regret more than he did, that any such suspicion should arise as to the con duct of any person connected with a department of the Government ; and he trusted the House would not think that he acted improperly, if, on the first impulse, he had risen to state the facts a s t h ey were, as far, at least, as he was cognisant of them, or concerned with them.— (Hear, hear.) If there were any suspicions on the part of any Member of the House with respect to the purity of the conduct of either of those gentlemen, it was matter , of' inquiry.—(Hear.) Let that inquiry be instituted, and if they were not able to exculpate themselves to the satis faction of the House—although he had the highest opinion of their honour and fidelity, he would say, let them stand or fall.—(Hear.) Still he would say, that their character, that the character of men who had served with distinction and credit, ought not to be whis pered away, when a direct charge could be made against them, and if true, be easily substantiated.—(Hear.) Now, although he could not apply to the Honourable Gentleman opposite—(Mr. Wakley)—the compliment which that gentleman had paid to his Right Hon. Friend at the head of the Government ; namely, that he had made a practical and useful speech, he yet a gree d w i t h him in much th a t h e had said. But he could not agree with him in what he had said on the authority of the Morning Chronicle, that the intellect and information of the House of Commons was below the intellect and in formation of the Bar, and that its committees ought to be elevated to the standard of the profession with which those tribunals had to contend.---(Hear, hear.) With respect to the Committee of the Board of Trade, he would only remind the House that three of its members had served with credit, and with irreproachable honour in the army, and that the other two members, who were civilians, had always been spoken of in the highest terms by the other side of the House.—(Hear, hear.) But with respect to the Committees of the House, he would ask, have we arrived at the day when the repre sentatives of the people—acting before the public and in the face of day—were not competent to consider questions of this kind?—(Hear, hear.) He was of opinion that if these inquiries were conducted in such a manner as to bring public opinion to bear upon them, the difficulties would be overcome, and the duty would be performed with satisfaction to the public. As there were in the House so many Members of the legal pro fession, he was ashamed to say in their presence any thing in defence of the " long robe," to which this country owed so much. But he could not avoid saying that, without the aid of the gentlemen of the bar, they would not be able to conduct the private business of the Committees with satisfaction to the country.—(Hear, hear.) What would people say if they had not the freest choice of the lawyers to whom they should en trust the care of their interests, if they were to be bound by rules, and fettered in their selection of legal advisers?—(Hear, hear.) People thought themselves entitled to have the ablest men, and to be left to their own free judgment in the choice. It was the duty of the representatives of the people to sacri fice their own time and convenience, rather than pre vent the gentlemen who were selected to explain and defend private rights and interests from the fullest advocacy of those who entrusted their affairs to their advocacy.—(Hear, hear.) With respect to the speeches of counsel before the Committees, he must say that he thought they were limited as much as possible ; and, as far as he had observed, an intimation from the chairman was always sufficient to curtail a speech.—(Hear.) He entirely concurred in the observations of his Right Hon. Friend at the head of the Government. He thought that the discussion would do good, and he could not regret that it had taken place. He felt that he ought to apolo. gise to the House—(No, no)—but he could only say that, situated as he was, anything that affected his public character required the earliest and fullest explanation. Mr. WAKLEY said that he had not read the paper to which he referred ten minutes before he spoke ; and, as he found the name of the Right Hon. Baronet mentioned in it, he thought he should have acted unjustly if he had not called his atten tion to it. Mr. BROTHERTON sal4 that as his Hon. Friend the Member for Finsbury had complained of the length of speeches of counsel, he thought it only just to say that the length of Members' speeches might more reasonably be complained of.— ( A laugh.) He thought that every Member of the House who eas liable to be placed upon a Committee ought to do as he did, that was, never to have anything whatever to do with railway shares. Mr. DARBY said that the working of Railway Committees was very much improved, and he thought it no mere neces sary to have a lawyer as an assessor than to have a medical man.—(A laugh.) He admitted that in some particular in stances long speeches were made, but when private interests were involved it would be un w i se to allow parties to go away with the impression that they had not been able to lay their whole case before the Committee. Mr. WALLACE would be very brief in what he had to say. He had often served on Railway Committees, and he had noticed the manceuvres of agents and c.unsel to prevent a deci sion being come to, by talking on until it was announced that the Speaker was in the chair.—(A laugh.) But if ever he should be Chairman, he should adopt the practice that was fol lowed in the House of Lords, and appoint the adjournment at nine o'clock. He was exceedingly glad that this discu ss i on had taken place, as he believed it would call the attention of the public to the subject. He would now withdraw the motion. The motion was then, by leave, withdrawn. MEDICAL OFFICERS IN POOR-LAW UNIONS. Mr. WAKLEY rose to move for a re t urn con t a i n i ng a de scription of the diplomas, licences, or other letters testimonial, that are admitted and sanctioned by the Poor-law Commis sioners as legal qualifications which eutitle medical practi tioners to be appointed medical officers of poor-law unions in England and Wales. The Poor -law Amendment Act had ex cited the utmost confusion among medical men with reference to the persons qualified to hold the office of medical officer to a poor-law union. By that Act, power was given to the Poor law Commissioners of appointing and dismissing paid officers; and these, of course, included the medical officers. The Vedical Association of London had been constantly discussing the subject, and much anxiety was felt amongst that body. In 1842 the Poor-law Commissioners endeavoured to remedy the evil complained of, and a general order was issued. This order stated that any person holding a diploma from any of the medical institutions of thi s country was qua l i fied for the office of medical officer to a poor-law union, but the order made no mention of persons holding diplomas from institutions in Scotland and Ireland. All such persons were consequently excluded, and this had given great dissatisfaction in Scotland and Ireland. Applications had been made to the Poor-law Commissioners on the.subject, and in 1843 the question was submitted to Sir Frederick Pollock, the then Attorney-Gene ral, and Mr. Martin, who gave it as their opinion that any person holding a dipl oma f rom any me di ca l institution, either in Scotland or I re l an d, was e li g ibl e f or t h e office to which he had alluded. Now it was a curious circumstance that, not withstanding this opinion, the general order of 1 P 42 had never been altered. The object of his motion, therefore, was to pro cure from the P o or-l aw C omm i ss i oners a c l ear and distinct statement of the qualifications which were deemed to be neces sary to entitle any medical gentleman to hold the situation of medical officer to any poor-law union. Sir JAMES GRAHAM said it was not his intention to op pose the motion of the Hon. Gentleman. It was quite true that the right of parties holding diplomas in Scotland or Ire land to practice in poor-law unions-was a matter involving some doubt. The Poor-law Commissioner, were bound to execute their functions in conformity with the law. Now, although the opinion of the Chief Baron and Mr. Martin was that persons holding diplomas in Scotland . and Irel an d cou ld practice in this country in poor-law unions, yet it must be borne in mind that no person but a general practitioner could hold the office of medical officer to a poor-law union ; and as the Apothecaries' Act excluded persons holding diplomas i n Scotland and Ireland, th e P o or-law Commissioners, acting in conformity with that law, of course excluded them. N ow i t so happened that this was one of the principal things whi c h h e professed to remedy i n th e Bill for Medical Reform which he had laid on the table, and he therefore was glad that the Hon. Gentleman had alluded so prominently to this griev ance . A s he had said before, h e h a d no t th e least objection to the papers which the Hon. Gentleman had moved for. Sir J. GRAHAM said he could atsure the Hon. and Gallant Officer that he had expressed to the Poor-law Commissioners, before the close of the last session, his earnest desire that if pos sible the returns might be furnished before the House rose; but it was found impossible to complete them in time He was happy to inform him that they would, in three or four days, be presented to the House. He had no hesitation in declaring, what he had already stated, that to him it was matter of regret that in poor-law union workhouses such a description of labour as the crushing of bones should be used.—( Hear, hear.) He thought there were many circumstances which rendered it an offensive occupation.—( Hear, hear.) It was impossible to prevent a very disgusting smell ; and he repeated that it was matter of regret to himself that this particular species of labour should be adopted. At the same time he was bound to say that this was an illustration of local management. Not withstanding all the jealousy of the power of the Commis sioners—the kings, as they were called, in Somerset House— their authority was, it appeared very limited. It was not pre- scribed by law that bone crushing should be the occupation of the inmates of workhouses, much less was it the wish of the Secretary of State or the Poor-law Commissioners, either of whom would, if they had the power, put an end to this kind of occupation, but, he repeated, this was an illustration of the working of local management apart from central authority, local management and discretion unchecked, and unawed by any superior power. —( Hear, hear.) As the law now stood, boards of guardians had a right to employ the inmates of workhouses in this particular manner. The evil continued because there was no central control, and this was an illustra tion of the fact that the powers of the Poor-law Commissioners might in some cases be beneficially extended.--( Hear, hear. ) Lord EBRINGTON said, as one who was connected with a union workhouse where bones were crushed by paupers, he could not allow this subject to pass without saying a few words. If bones were not to be crushed by paupers, it was quite clear that they must be crushed by independent labour ers ; and he confessed it appeared to him a strange position to lay down, that work which was too offensive for the one class should be performed by the other.—(" Hear, hear," from Sir C. Lemon.) He rejoiced that there was no legal power of pre venting the continuance of the practice. He felt convinced that he had not been a party to ordering an unjust, unfair, or an unwholesome employment, and he hoped that the practice would continue in union workhouses as long as bones were crushed by independent labourers out of doors. Captain PECHELL said, that if the Noble Lord had been in Parlsament when a petition was presented to that House from an unfortunate pauper in a union workhouse, who was brought to death's door from the scandalous treatment which he had received in a house where men were sent to the bone mill as a punishment, he would not have assumed the position which he had done that night.—( Hear, hear.) He hoped that the Right Hon. Baronet would issue an order for the sup. pression of the practice. In the workhouse which he had in his eye, the guardians were, he believed, impressed with the notion that they were fully carrying out the views of the Poor-law Commissioners, and that this workhouse was, in fact, a patent poor-law Hostile for the whole country. It was necessary that the guardians should be made acquainted that they had mis taken the opinion both of the Secretary of State and of the Poor-law Commissioners. Mr. WAKLEY said he was really surprised to find such Noble interest engaged in support of this system. (Laughter.) This proved that it prevailed to to a fearful extent. He hail before thought that by some accident the atrocious practice which had fallen under the notice of the Gallant Captain ex isted somewhere ; but he had now heard a Noble Lord rise in that House and ask whether this labour was to fall upon the pauper or upon the independent labourer?—.( Hear, hear. ) Why the Commissioners had more to do than he had imagined. —(Hear, hear, from Mr. Roebuck and other Hon. Members. ) He was bound to :admit they had been the protectors of the members of this profession against the parsimony of the boards of guardians ; and he should be disposed to give them more authority.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) The Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State, after hearing what had fallen from the Noble Lord, (sight to ask for more authority within forty- e i g ht h ours . —(l ron i ca l cr i es of " Hear, hear, ' and laughter.) Were paupers to be employed in crushing bones in a state of decomposition ? Were they to be put to this poisonous, filthy, odious, and abominable occupation? and was that occupation to be defended by a Noble Lord ?—( Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord could not have spent any time in the workhouse, that was quite evident. It was most distress ing to hear the Noble Lord make such remarks; and if be sanctioned it in the union with which he was connected, he feared that a practice, or practices equally odious, prevailed generally throughout the country. He did maintain that it was necessary to refer to the Poor-law Commissioners for protec tion against practices of this nature. He had already stated that the Poor-law Commissioners had protected the members of his profession against the parsimony and illiberality of boards of guardians; and he would on a future occasion mention a union where a medical officer was dismissed by the guardians on the ground of his being too liberal in giving food to the poor ; though not a single instance of thedrind had been brought home to him, he was dismissed upon that ground. He was in formed the Poor-law Commissioners had no power to protect individuals against the guardians • but if any power h a d existed it would cert a i n ly have been a very proper case for its exercise. He did not hesitate, then, to ask the Right Hon. Baronet to apply, in the Bill he was about to introduce that night upon the law of settlement, for powers which wonld give to the Commissioners sufficient authority to put down the abominable practice of bone-grinding in union workhouses. Mr. ROEBUCK said he was not going to occupy the time of the House with any remarks on the immediate sub ject then before the House ; but he could not help con trasting the opinion just expressed by the Hon. Member for Finsbury, with the sentiments to which he had been accus tomed to give vent on former occasions, both in that House and out of doors.—( Hear.) It appeared that the Poor-law Commissioners were not now such persons he had formerly considered them to be—(Laughter)—as he called on the Right Hon. Paronet not to let forty-eight hours pass without increas ing their powers.—(Laughter.) Let the Honourable Member and others who had joined with him in that respect, look back to the language which they had used in reference to the Poor-law Commissioners. Let the House recollect how the Commissioners had been talked of as the three tyrants of Somerset-house, and how the term " pinch paupers" had been applied to them.—(Hear, hear.) Every term, in fact, which could express contempt and hatred had been used by the Hon. Members ; and be would ask the Hon. Gentleman, before he hastily expressed an opinion upon such a subject, to plate faith in those by whom the question had been more accurately, calmly, and dispassionately considered. He (Mr. Roebuck) spoke feelingly on this subject. He was one of those against which the finger of scorn had been pointed, on account of the support which he had given to the new Poor law Bill, and he now directed his finger is scorn against the Hon. Member opposite to whom he referred. There were per sons who cared not what opinion they expressed, so that it suited the particular matter in hand. When it suited them they could talk of the three tyrants in Somerset-house ; and, again, for the same reason they would talk of increasing their powers in forty-eight hours. That might be all very well, if one, who indulged in mere talk for a particular purpose, to for ward a particular object—( Hear, hear)—but it did not suit one whose mind was impressed with a sense of the great duties and responsibilities which rested upon his shoulders; one who was willing to meet not only the feelings of hostility which might be exhibited on the part of Hon. Members opposite, but even the hostilities of friends, when he thought that his duty re uirpd . it. His only object in rising on thi s occas i on was to ins ss upon his Ho n . Friend near him (M r . W a kl e y) an d upo ome ot h er Hon. Members opposite, the duty that lay upon m no t h ast il y to t e come to conclusions or to empl©y the arts of popular dema goguism, for the purpose of obtaining applause. He had seen that night a signal instance—honestly given, he would allow —by the Hon. Member for Finsbury, of - an acknowledgment of error, and he did hope that it would induce modesty in his conduct, and modesty in the conduct of other Hon. Members be-ides himself..—( Hear, and laughter.) Sir C. 1114kON said that as far as bit own experience went, he had no reason to believe that This occupation was particularly offensive or disagreeable to the paupers themselves, or in any way unwholesome. He was conviuced that it was no more disagreeable than the breaking of stones, or any other kind of labour. If this labour were abolished, he believed that it would be difficult to find them sufficient employment. Mr. WAKLEY said he did not know whether it was Par liamentary or not, that a Member, when he addressed that House, sllould have improper motives imputed to him. It had been stated by the Hon. and Learned Member fob Bath that he had made a statement for the purpose of obtaining applause. He utterly denied it. He was as incapable of doing so as the Hon. Member himself, or any other Member. He had never used any language with regard to the Poor-law Amendment Act out of that House which he had not used in it ; and all the expressions which he had ever used its relation to the powers of the Commissioners he was prepared to repeat. All he had stated was, that if this practice existed under the ope ration of the Poor-law Amendment Act, which his Hon. and Learned Friend supported, and which he (Mr: Wakley) opposed when it was brought into that House, he was prepa re d t o g i ve the Commissi oners powers to abate the nuisance. —( Hear.) Mr. HENLEY said he was certainly surprised at the for getfulness of the Hon. Member for Finsbury. -He ought to remember that the Poor-law Commissioners hid first taught, and even compelled, the guardians to adopt the system of which he complaints!. This species of employment had been intro duced as a check to any discontent on the part of the labourers. Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD protested against the ap peal which had been made to the Right Hon. Baronet to in crease the powers of the Poor-law Commissioners. He did not deny but there had been many abuses :connected with bone crushing and other matters, but there were other means of re medying the grievance without increasing the powers of the Commissioners, and to such a remedy as that he for one would be extremely willing to resort. POOR-LAWS—THE LAW OF SETTLEMENT. Sir J. GRAHAM said, that in rising to bring this important subject before the House, he feared he couldinot put the House in full possession of the Bill which he was about to introduce, if he did not go through the reasons which induced him to make the alterations which the Bill contained. The House would recollect that he introduced a Bill on this subject last session, and it was a melancholy fact, that no less than one-tenth of the whole population of England and Wales required relief out of the poor-rate in the course of last year ; that was to say, that no less than 1,500,000 persons required relief in the course of the year from this rate.—( Hear, hear.) He might state in various ways the amount which had been expended in the relief of the poor. He might state that since the termination of the war in IBls—notwithstanding all that had b,. en said about the neglect of the poor, of the neg lect of their duties by the rich towards the poor, notwith standing all the relief that had been dispersed by private charity and their numerous charitable institutions, no less a slim had been paid from the poor-rate in this country since the termination of the war, than 200,000,0001., amounting to one-fourth of the capital of the National Debt. There was, therefore, no doubt of the existence of great poverty and desti tution in the country, but in addition to this destitution and this poverty, the question arose, should the poor now receive relief in the place where they resided for years, where they had contracted habits and feelings of friendship, or whether those associations should be broken? The House would pardon him for thus introducing the subject, which was so intimately con nected with the feelings of so large a portion of the people of this country. It was a subject of the greatest importance, and one that required the greatest consideration, and it had diffi culties attending it, which rendered it a subject difficult to be dealt with. Yet he was satisfied, conscientiously satisfied, that important changes and modifications of the existing law of settlement, in reference both to the interests and feelings of the poor, was imperatively required. —( Hear, hear.) Ac tuated by that strong impression, he ventured to bring under the notice of the House the Bill of last session, and those gentlemen who were then present and attended to what he said, could re collect that on the occasion of his laying the Bill of last session on the table of the House, he stated that he hoped the Bill would undergo free and full discussion during the recess, and that he might receive the suggestions and the commentaries of those who considered the measure. He had, accordingly, re ceived from various quarters suggestions and commentaries , and it was now hi s d u ty t o l ay b e f ore th e H ou se the resu l t ( f the bet em;sideratik.tt angi intelligcmee which he could Wl)* to them. In the Hill o!,:cli be in , rodueett last sessien the re were Om- prominent ':011. It would 't . ..0 lie rzee ,, s , ssa t t s . , ) - 0 for e him to go through those differna points .gai n: ' them nn serous objectio., ha. , been urged. ihe two 1-.oi; t. I t ; which objections had been made related—the first to the set tlement by birth. which it was e intended shoul.i be not out t prospective but retrospective ; other referred to a five years industrial residence in one locality, which it was in tended should confer irremoveability on the person who re quired relief. Te -that part of the Bill which regulated the removal of Scotch and Irish Rupers, no serious objections had been urged. The objectiens taken to the two first Mr. WAKLEY said that ;MA had struck him most forci bly was, that no alteration had been made in the general order of the Commissioners of 1842. Sir JAMES GRAHAM said that his impression was that an alteration had been made. The whole of the papers, how ever, should be produced. The motion was then agreed to. POOR LAW. Captain PECHELL then rose to move for the return (or dered 25th July) of all union workhouses under the Poor-law Amendment Act, in which the pauper inmates thereof are, or have been, employed in grinding or crushing bones by means of mills, machinery, or otherwise ; together with the date of such erection of mills or other machinery, and the names of the chairman and vice-chairman of the board of guardians of every snch union at the period ; also, the cost of the said bones, in cluding all expenses of carriage and other incidental expenses, and the amount which the same have produced in their manu factured state, and whether the same have been sold by tender, or fixed price, or otherwise. He had moved for this return last session, and it had been faithfully promised by the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite. It had not, however, appeared. lie wished for this information in order that they might have the opportunity of instituting a comparison between the work houses under the Gilbert Union Act and those under the Poor-law Amendment Act. Although the Right Hon. Gen tleman had distinctly stated that he was averse to the use of machines for grinding bones in workhouses, let he (Captain Pechell) could assure the Right Hon. Baronet that as late as December last, at one of the Bastiles ot his neigh bourhood, it was the constant practice to grind bones, and an additional mill for that puapose had been lately erected. It w as impossible for the Poor-law Commissioners to permit such practices to continue. He hoped that the Right Hon. G en tl e . man would, on that occasion, as he did at the conclusion of the last session, express his dissatisfaction, when he ( Capt. Pechell) had assured hitn that he knew a union workhouse—he would not say in what part of the country—in which A. mill for grind ing_bwes still existed. The question having been put, 2, 1845. destroy all the care which the parish bad ever exhibited towa its destitute poor. He sincerely wished that the residents in a parish shou'd be entitled to a settlement ; end, if this law were passed, he should propose a clause by which those persons who resided in a parish should be received as casual poor, and not passed out of it. Mr. BRIGHT said that he quite agreed with the Hon. and Gallant Member that the remedy proposed was not commen surate with the extent of the evil, and he hoped that there wus an inclination manilested in the country to endeavour to arrive at a better solution of the question than that which was pre miaed them by the Right. Hon. Baronet He had considerable experience of the feeling existing in the manufacturing counties of England, and he could assure the Ho nourable and Gallant Member that the mode of removing paupers to distant unions was viewed with suspicion and dislike by a great majority cf the people, and that clause certainly would meet with the most strenuous opposition from all parts of the kingdom. It might not be known to the Hon. ansi Gallant Member that in many parts of the country the eroprietors were most anxious that not more labourers than the land could well support should reside upon it, and the number was in many eases exceedingly small, as the soil was bad, and then the landlords tried all sorts of manceuvres to prevail on the labourers to settle in the • neighbouring townships. He (Mr. Bright) lived in a township which paid for poor-rates in the proportion of •ome 9d. or Is. in the pound, ard sometime ago it became the duty of the relieving-etlicer of the county to send a labourer and his tamily back to the union of Frith, near Richmond in Yorkshire. So soon, however, as it was known there that there had been issued an order for his removal, the man received from the clerk to the board of guardians to which the union belonged, a letter inelosing a Post-office order for 205., and requesting him to pass from the township about to remove him, on the border, into the next one. He held the letter in his hand, addressed to Anthony Trapp (as we caught it)—and it said, " I send you this letter enclosing 20a., and wish you to remove into the next township." At a future period the man and his family were removed, at a gr. at expense to Yorkshire by railway, and the guardians of the union house there were then sit ting at the time of their arrival. The relieving officcer returned, but he had not retraced his steps above one or two miles, when he was overtaken by the pauper family on their way back to Rochdale, the guardians not having had the pau pers in thir possession, if he might say so, more than two hours thsn they began to bargain with them to go hack to Roch dale ; and they prevailed. Back they did come, and reside there fore some three days. He confessed that, with such a mass of pauperism in the country, it was most difficult to settle the law at all. It was most unjust, then, that means should be given to the landed proprietors to expel the labourers from the land, in order that they might settle in townships for a time, and so obtain settlements there. He should not object to sup port the labourers so thrown upon them ; but such were the fluctuations of trade, that they were frequently compelled to refer back to the parish to which they belonged, those who in prosperous times had been employed by them. The Right Hon. Baronet spoke of the mode in which he intended to fix the rate in support of these unions for the future. He ( Mr. Bright) thought that the fairest plan would be to rate the townships and parishes at that which they had paid for the seven years preceding the passing of this Act. The rate would press unduly upon some parts of the country, for there were parts of it where from generation to generation the popu lation had not in any way increased, while others that now bad no rate and no population, might in twenty years. or even in ten years, if they had large manufactories established, or coal mines opened, in crease, and so require for the sustentation of their paupers re,ll great changes in the mode of collecting the rates for that purpose. He was inclined, therefore, to think that that pert of the Right Hon. Baronet's Bill should be materially altered. He was not, however, disposed to find fault with the Bill. He admitted that from the gigantic nature of the evil, they ought to give any measure calculated to lessen it their most serious cons•deration. Mr. HENLEY must be permitted to say that a measure for the purpose of changing completely the old parochial sys tem ought to be received with very great caution. It was somewhat singular that for such a great evil the Right Hon. Baronet should have prepared such a very small remedy. What the poor man wanted was, the ability to bring his labour to the best market. He entered his protest against a measure which would break up the parochial system of England. Mr. BROTHERTON was of opinion that a fair rating within the union was the most acceptable mode of rating. He was very much disposed to think that this was a measure very much needed, and which would give general satisfaction. He would certainly offer no opposition to its passing into law. Colonel WOOD explained. Lord EBRINGTON wished to impress on the attention of the Right Hon. Baronet the fact, that in almost every union there were a large number of small holders who were not sub jected to rates, but who increased the burden of the rate payers. He approved of the measure generally, anti thought it would confer a great boon on the coun try. He was glad to hear the Right Hon. Baronet give commendation to a much-maligned class of men, political economists, and hoped that praise would be extended to the Poor- law Commissioners, and their Secretary, Mr. Chadwick, who had done so much to advance the cause of charity. He hoped the Right Hon. Baronet would direct his attention to the education of the poorer classes, and modify the limitations regarding the education of children, which were at present at tended with very bad results. Mr. BECKETT DENISON thought. the House shoal feel grateful to the Right Hon. Baronet for this measure. Nething could be more absurd than the present law of settle ment. A man might be removed to a parish which be never heard of, and in which he had no relations or friends. In many eases this was the true way of making them paupers fir life. He did not think the proposed measure went more than half-way, and this was the chi e f _ . heads—namely, the birth, settlement, and the irremove ability conferred by a five years' industrial residence were almost identical. First, it was stated, that considering so large a number of persons as one-tenth of the whole population required relief, those two regulations would give rise to a dislo cation of the whole system of the law which heretofore regu lated the right of settlement. It was stated that it would shake he indisputable rights of parties to be relieved under the law as it stood at present in their parishes, and would also produce a great deal of litigation as the necessary result. It was ob jected that in cases where the parish was in the hands of one, or of a few individuals, it would induce those persons to pull down cottages, and to have recourse to a system which was better known than in England by the terrible words the clearing of es tates, and to drive the population from their little hamlets and gardens. As he could not put those objections in a stronger light than they had bean urged in a memorial which he had re ceived from the union of Bedford, the House would permit him to read from their memorial. They stated with regard to the settlement by birth, that they were of opinion the owners of the principal parts of parishes would clear them of the population by purchasing or building cottages adjoining towns, and compel ling them to reside there. 'I he same objection the memorialists stated applied to irremoveability by five years' industrial resi dence. He was bound to state that the memorialists had clearly stated their objections, and that they were well worthy of serious consideration. It was his wish to meet those objections, and having given the subject all the reflection in his power, he was not prepared any longer to propose that a retro-active effect should be given to the laws of settlement. What he now proposed to enact was to take effect at the passing of the Act. He confessed that he saw great disadvantages in limiting the Act to a prospective operation only, but the late regulation, which required the place of birth to be mentioned, would hereafter afford increased facilities with regard to the settlement by birth. When on the former occasion he ad dressed the House on the subject, he stated that it was clear that in the aggregate the interests of the towns and of the country were identical, but in details such as they were now dealing with there was certainly a clashing between their in terests. It was quite clear that the birth settlement was in favour of the towns, at the expense of the rural districts, and for this very obvious reason, that the opportunities for labour which the towns afforded, attracted the redundant population of the country, but when destitution came upon them they were thrown back upon the country. But on the other hand, the irremoveability which a five years' industrial residence would confer, would be in favour of the country at the expense of the towns ; for the poor of the rural districts being attracted to the towns by the greater demand for labour there, would have acquired the right of relief by five years' residence. If, therefore, he was compelled to forego the immediate enact ment of birth settlement, and not to bestow on t ural districts anything which had been contemplated, he was bound also not to impose upon the towns the extra burtbens he had alluded to. On the whole he was disposed to forego those two portions of the measure he had introduced last session, namely, birth set tlement, and five years' industrial residence. He hoped the House would pardon him if he called its attention to the great advantages which the six other limitations he intended to in troduce would confer. Every woman during her marriage, who should be liable to be removed upon her husband's death to his parish, would not be subject to that removal. Every illegitimate child, under the age of 16, who would be liable to be removed to the parish where the father had a set tlement, would not be liable to such removal. Every child under 16, being a bastard, who would be liable to be removed to the parish where its mother had a set tlement, would not be liable to such removal; and no widow who at the time of her husband's death resided with him, should be liable to be removed from the parish where she was residing, until the expiration of one year after her hus band's death. So that the widow who, at the time of her hus band's death, was residing with him in the parish in which he was settled, would not be liable to be removed therefrom ; and no widow or her children, though born in Ireland or Scotland, could after her husband's death be removed from the parish where the husband resided till after the expiration of a certain period. So that, in fact, the greatest advantage was given by the measure to the Scotch and Irish paupers. He now came— having stated the alterations in the measure of last session that were proposed—he now came to what appeared to him a most important condition—so important, that if the House permitted him to introduce it, he should consider it necessary to ask the House to permit of some little delay between the in troduction of that Bill and the second reading. He had stated on a former occasion that no working man in this country reached the age of forty without experiencing the injustice of the law of settlement. What was the cause of this, and what was the result ? Why, labour did n o t c i rcu l a t e freely in Eng land. Now, he thought it would be of great advantage to the poor man, and no disadvantage to the rich one, if they were to proceed to reduce the restraints on the circulation of labour. He thought there could be no objection to the adop tion at once of the union settlement. If he could induce the House to substitute union for parochial settlements, that would reduce the injustice of the law of settlement as it at present ex isted. There was nothing new in parochial settlements, but there was in union settlements. By the late Act which was introduced, it was provided that the union should be considered part of the same parish. If the proposition he was about to make was of any value, it must be general. The House would perhaps allow him to read the mode in which he proposed to effect it. But, perhaps, before he did so, it would be better that he should sustain his proposition by various authorities, both in town and country, all of whom agreed with the proposition he was about to make. He would not advert to all the authorities he had upon the subject, but the House would perhaps pardon him if he mentioned four. In Norfolk the guardians of the Briden union had come to a resolution that all parochial settle ments were bad in principle, and tax e d th e p oor man most un justly; and that, in order to avoid the evil, parochial settle ments should be abolished, and all districts should be formed of the whole union. The overseers and leading officers of the Manchester union stated, that whatever course the Le gislature might take in reference to this important mat ter, they would strenuously urge upon them the mak ing of all the towns and unions as one. He would now read an extract from a report of Mr. Hall, the Assistant Poor-law Commissioner, charged with the superin tendence of the Metropolitan distrlet. He says—" Much diffi culty that is expected to follow the administration of the new Bill will be done away with, if settlements were made not pa rochial, but to relate to the union." He should trouble the House only with one more extract, and that was from the very able report drawn up by persons most conversant with this particular subject, whose experience and opinions were entitled to the utmost respect. That extract was a list of the unions the clerks of which had assembled to discuss this sub. ject. These unions were Altringham, Bolton, Bake well, Burley, Charlton-on-Medway, Congleton, Huddersfield, Kendal, Manchester, Macclesfield, Preston, Stockport, Stoke upon-Trent, West Derby (which included Liverpool), Bur storr, and some others; the opinions of the officers of all these unions were in favour of his proposal. Thus he had argu ment in support of his proposition; he had practical autho rity in favour of it, and unless he deceived himself, he thought the House could not, by any single measure, more consult the interests, and as he believed the feelings and happiness of the poor, than by receiving this proposition. He was con fident that no one measure would so much restrict the probability of frequent removal, and allow labour to circulate so freely as the measure he propounded. It only remained for him to state shortly the exact mode in which he proposed that the measure should be carried out. He proposed that, wherever a parish or township was included in a union, all existing and future settlements should be deemed to be, not settlements of that parish or township, but of the union in which they were included. In that union all removals should in future be conducted by the board of guardians, and net by the parish officers. That was a point on which he mainly relied as certain to produce the humane effects he antici pated. Instead of the narrow, bad, and selfish interests of parish officers, the local feelings, and, he was bound to say, the narrow prejudices of these officers, the question of removal would be submitted to the board of guar dians. All facts would be freely discussed by several persons, and those possessing the most confidence to decide on them, and without that pinching and harsh desire to cut down to the utmost the charge upon each small pariah. All appeals in the same manner would be conducted by the board of guardians on behalf of the union. He was sorry he had been obliged to trespass at such length on the attention of the House, and he had now only to state that all the checks and arrange ments incidental to the trial of orders of re. moval, provided by the Act of last session, should be left unchanged, though all the power of the parish officers in respect of removals would be transferred to the guardians, just as all discretion would be taken from the parish authorities and transferred to the Board. It might be said that in the midst of the vicissitudes of trade, the alterations of ser vice, gross injustice might be done to some districts in conse quence of those changes, unless some precautions were taken. But he proposed that the expenses should be shared by all the parishes of a union, in proportion to the average of their popu lation for the last seven years, ending at Lady-day, 1844. As regarded the equity of this arrangement up to the present time, he thought it amounted to demonstration that it could not be impugned. The only argument he anticipated was a retrosrective one, founded on the fluctuations of trade. But his proposition as it now stood would not, in point of fact, increase in the least the hardships arising from the operations of trade. It was quite true that the tide of manufacturing enterprise had left some districts and gone to others. That it had left the Wiltthire district and gone to the North, leaving the former much embarrassed and depressed. But they could not prospectively take precautions against these fluctuations of trade ; but up to this moment he maintained that in such an arrange, ent as he proposed, there was nothing to increase the hardships inciden al to these fluctuations. He should weary the House if he dwelt at greater length on this question, the more particular details of which would be discussed on future occa sions. But he still thought the Bill was one which he was justified in submitting to the consideration of the House. He certainly should not presume, if the House permitted him to in troduce the measure, to press the second reading till the House had had ample time to consider the propo sition, and he had himself an opportunity of collecting opinions upon it. But at the same time he felt a confidence that the merits of the measure would recommend it to all those whose humanity led them to promote the well-being of the poor —to all those whose justice impelled them equally and fairly to distribute that charge which was by right levied from the rich for the support of the poor—and to the humane and just of the community at large—he commended the measure, believing that if well and fully considered it would be found not unworthy of the attention of the House.—( Hear, hear.) He moved for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the law of settlement. Colonel WOOD took the earliest oppor unity of expressing his, regret at the purport of the latter part of the Right Honourable Baronet's statement. He would give the Right Hon. Baronet all credit for the atten tion he had given to this subject, and many points of his propo sition were worthy of the consideration of the House. No doubt the Right Hon. Baronet thought the measure was cal culated to benefit the poor, but if adopted, instead of being any benefit to the poor man, it would be the greatest injury ever inflicted upon him. The consequence would be, that all anxiety to employ the poor in their own parishes would cease. Labourers would be discharged, and without scruple thrown for support upon the union. Whenever a time of difficulty arose, vast numbers would be thrown on the union rate because it was not a local one. It had been stated that there had been no parochi a l r a t e u p t o th e time of 11.,b u t the fact was, that up to the time of Elizabeth, three years re sidence entitled a man to parochial relief, and by the 39th of Elizabeth persona could be sent back to the paris h es in which they had resided for one year. He regretted that the Right Hon. Baronet bad felt it his duty to give up that part of his Bill which gave a claim for relief on the parish where a man had resided for five years. He (Colonel Wood) gave notice that he should introduce a clause by which every poor man resident in a parish for one year should be en.. titled to relief as casual poor. The proposal of his Right Hon. Friend that birth alone should give a title to settlement would not at remove the complaints now made by the poor. in The family man now complained that he' might bring up a many years' labour, and he large in one parish, by thrown upon a parish in which he was a total stranger. But that would be precisely the case now, if ,the principle of birth alone wa. atinpted. A Poor man might be removed to a 'r 'H I • Is 01l as be the tor nercs. t: - s• ,L_ ' ) 2` ' objection which could be urged against it.—(Hear.) He was glad that the time had been reduced so much ; if the time had been still further reduced he would have been glad of it ; had it been reduced to three years he should have been still better pleased ; had it come down to two years, and one year, it would still be more satisfactory to him ; but he would have been completely satisfied If there were no limit to the period at all.--( Hear.) But under all the circumstances he would say he approved of the present measure, and would give it his most cordial support. Sir J. GRAHAM was glad to find that the House had so favourably viewed the measure ; but he should say he was somewhat surprised to hear the objections of his two Hon. Friends behind him. He did think it was not an unreasonable proposition that a modification should be made in the settlement period, and that where a poor person was found residing, there he should find relief if he were in want of it. The Hon. Baronet then called attention to the enactments of Charley 11. in reference to the poor-law provisions conferring a settlement claim, by which it appeared that destitute persons found wan dering about should be sent back to their native parishes, in which they were held to have had a settlement if they had lived there forty days. He next called attention to the Poor law Amendment Act, which, he said, had done away with parochial relief, and instituted union relief instead. With regard to the question of the establishment of schools in large towns, be could assure the Hon. Member opposite that the question had occupied his attention very closely last year. District schools had been established by way of experiment, and he was not yet prepared to say what the result would be. Mr. WAKLEY begged to say he did not assent to the pro visions of this measure, for he looked upon it as one that would operate in a very extraordinary manner upon the social condi tion of this country, for it would, for instance, perpetuate the power of the Poor-law Guardians.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") He understood the taunting cheer of the Hon. Member for Bath—( A laugh)—it was one of his peculiarities, and he (Mr. Wakley) understood it. But, nevertheless, he would still contend for it, that the powers of the guardians should not be increased. He could say that he knew of one union where neither the public, the rate-payers, nor the press were admit ted, while the guardians were discussing the admission of the paupers. Therefore he would say it was dangerous to give these guardians more power ; and he would conclude by again repeating that he was opposed to the measure. Leave — was then given to bring in the Bill. TURNPIKE ACTS. Lord EBRINGI ON apologised for having so often tres passed upon the attention of the House that evening ; but he begged to will attention to that present state of the law as affecting turnpikes, upon which he had several petitions to present, and amongst others, to that of the South Molton turnpike. He did not know whether the Government intended resuming their former measures, or whether they intended to introduce a ge neral Bill on this subject. The Right lion. Baronet when he . . first introduced the fieasure, stated that it was to be tried in South Wales as an experiment, and if it succeeded they might look tor its extension to England. Th e measure was not lav,,ur- ably spoken of by the creditors of the turnpike trusts, and he could not help thinking that some limitation ought to be given to it. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer would allow him to bring in a Bill on the subject he should be glad. The measure he contemplated introducing was to limit the exemption from tolls only to such a number of mails and horses as might be thought reasonable and necessary for the public service. Frequently the number of letters to be transmitted was exceedingly small, but nevertheless small though the number was, it served to exempt four horses and a coach from the payment of tolls. In cases of this description he should propose to limit the exemption to a cart and horse. Under these circumstances, he would leave the matter in the hands of the Government, merely requesting, that if they would not allow him to bring in the Bid himself, at least they would give the subj,et some consideration. He moved for leave to bring in a Hill to discontinue the exemption of mails from paying toll on turnpike-roads. Mr. MORRIS seconded the motion. He thought some of the burden ought to be taken off the farmers and placed on them who were more able to bear it. He doped the Noble Lord would succeed in his measure, and he regretted to hear him say that he did not expect the co-operation of the Government. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER could not give the Hon. Gentleman who last spoke the satisfaction of hearing that. the Government would co-operate with the Noble Lord. Whatever the inconvenience might be to the turnpike trusts and the parishes through which mail coaches passed, that was more than compensated by the advan tages which the district derived from the Post-office communication. The exemption of the mails from toll bad been established in 1785, and, if it were to be removed, many districts must be excluded from the advantage of receiving letters direct from the post-office. If the Bill were to pass into a law, the country would have imposed upon it a burden of more than .50,0001. a year for the advantage of particular districts. After a few words in reply from Lord EBRINGTON, tl C motion was negatived without a division. Mr. LOCKHART presented a petition for the Scottish Ce T n h tr e al B Ho a u i se lwa th Y e • n adjourned at a Quarter past TvrAve o'clock. FLANDERS MAIL. BRUSSELS, FEB. B.—The Chamber of Representatives con tinued to-day the debate on the Budget of the Minister of the Interior. The Minister of Public Works, on a question being put br M. Brfouckere, promised to acquaint the Chamber in a for days with the resolutions which the engineers shall have proposed to him respecting the tunnel of Cumpitch. M. de lirouckere desires that the tunnel may not be re • constructed. At the close of the sitting, the Minister of Public Works brought forward a modification of the law as to railroad.i— a modification which is rendered necessary by the convention concluded between the State and Richards and Co, cal the iron railway of L'Entre, Sombre, and Meuse. The King gave audience to-day successively to Lieut.- General Lellierer, and M. Solvyns, Secretary of Legation at Constantinople We learn from Ratisbon that the Rev. Dicpentsock has refused to accept the d;goity of Prime Bishop of Breslau, to which he had been elected by the chapter of that city. The two members of the chapter Ivha were :;ent, to him to inollet: flout ere were re power of makirq Colonel WO6 remov _ ne was aware. that thc,, tiotii on such reincivais, but he thought that if residence gave a man relict it would prevent mute ti •ere retr I):ZriArn't Af2CII):::NT.- lasgrrie A rgit. Ezcarr LIVES Los that ciaht hoys, —We 0 ,:ere tteG haritsbi.). wa nother eirciimstance whic h fully entitled oh th e 8 0 0 0 ,0 , reservoir for the supply of the labourer t o a settlement. Formerly, every man that paid I', to the Monklramt ere drowned on the oor-rates obtai ke d a.se ttl ement i n t h e par i sh in which he The water wn , `!5 f ee t of tile ice 14 i , rated, and he certainly thought that if they obliged the p 'or fl ir ic man to pay poor -rate s , th at s h ou ld at l east ent i tle him to a-set- tne cia:oielr'et ht ra w wi c ai t U rtl order' ' "cr • - :' te . roO;et;i l ie Lollies. 'Thep w tlement in the parish to ' which he p a id t h em . T o ma k e the wer e all found near each other. All who were on th e i ce at the tune it broke were drowned. poor belong to a union and no t t o a p ar i s h, wou ld entirely ~- Nos. , 2 , t8 louse, Lor d it, be i port" i elve 9 rvivig e re: o°l tinsel en in tieet s 5.011. thes e !erect caPi" .hesl Tre" ,ther I, in. set': tha t , v er- d by' 0b- olve r t he 1 the vaY cl °' he ■ I I